Dr. J. N. Wardlaw, clerk and master of chancery court of Lauderdale County,
and the son of Joseph and Mary A. (Niswanger) Wardlaw, was born June 2, 1820,
in Laurens County, S.C. His parents were both born in that county, the father
in 1793, and the mother in 1797. After marriage, in 1827, they came to
Lauderdale County, and here spent the remainder of their days. Their family
consisted of eleven children, seven of whom are living. Both parents were
Methodists, and while in South Carolina, the father held the position of
magistrate. He was a farmer and in politics an old-time Democrat. He died
in 1862 and his wife in 1877. Our subject’s paternal ancestors were of Scotch
descent and his maternal of German. He was reared on the farm, received a
fair English education and at the age of seventeen entered a dry goods store
as salesman where he continued three years. In 1840 he began the study of
medicine under Dr. D. M. Henning. After reading a year he took a course of
lectures at the Louisville Medical College. In 1844 he married T. J. Davie, a
native of Alabama, born October 24, 1824, and the daughter of Dr. Edward
Davie, of Haywood County, Tenn. To our subject and wife were born eight
children. In 1851 the Doctor bought one-fourth interest in the steamer Naomi.
In 1853 he sold out and moved to Ripley to engage in farming, and three years
late he went into the mercantile business. In 1860 he opened a cotton house
at Memphis, but during the war suspended business. In 1868 he again engaged
in the mercantile business. Shortly after the war he was appointed clerk of
the circuit court. In 1870 he was appointed clerk and master of chancery
court and still holds that office. Politically, he was a Whig before the war,
opposed the secession, but during the war he took sides with his State. He
furnished two brave boys for the war, and the elder, Edward D., was killed at
Brice’s Cross Roads. For fifty-seven years the Doctor has been a resident of
Lauderdale County, and is numbered among its early settlers and worthy
citizens.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN