CAPT. JOHN W. BECKETT was born in Marshall County, September 2, 1836. and is the son of Samuel and Rebecca (Swan) Beckett. The father of our subject was born March, 1809, in North Carolina. He came to Tennessee and settled near Lewisburg, and engaged in farming, in which he was very successful. He was elected justice of the peace, which office he held for several years. He was also postmaster for some time. He was a member of the I. O. O. F. and a Democrat in politics. He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Our subject received a good practical education in the country schools, and at the age of twenty-one began business for himself. In 1871 he wedded Mrs. Jane W. Bryant, whose former name was Gresham. Mrs. Bryant had by her first husband four children: Sebastian C., born in 1855 and died in 1862: Ralph G., born 1857; Sallie A., born in 1860 and died in 1865, and Arch S., born in 1862. In 1861 Mr. Beckett enlisted in Company C, Ninth Tennessee Regiment, and was elected orderly sergeant at the organization, and at the reorganization was elected first lieutenant and afterward promoted to captain.

Source: History of Tennessee: From the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall Counties. Nashville, Tenn: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.