Sullivan County Tennessee. Goodspeed Publishing Company, History of Tennessee<BR> 1887. TNGenNet Inc, TNGenWeb Project.

          Joseph R. Anderson. The grandfather of this gentleman, John Anderson, was born in Virginia, May 6, 1750, and was a pioneer of southwest Virginia. He located with his family at the block-house at the head of Carter’s Valley, and while fighting the Indians his family were driven from this place three times, after which they lived in the forts until safety was assured. He was a devout Presbyterian, and died in October 1817 Rebecca (Maxwell) Hall was his wife, and Isaac, the father, was their youngest child born at the block-house May 3, 1789. The father was a colonel of Virginia militia, and five years sheriff, and a magistrate for twenty years. He was a Presbyterian and died February 7, 1872, in Scott County, Va. May 16, 1816, Margaret, a daughter of Joseph Rhea, became his wife. She was born August 7, 1791, in this county, and died April 24, 1873 Our subject, the eldest of twelve children, was born at the old block-house, October 25, 1819, and was reared on the old homestead until his fourteenth year. He received a rudimentary education, and at that age became a clerk for his uncle at Blountville, at the same time mastering grammar, geology, astronomy and rhetoric. He received for the first three years $50, $75 and $100 respectively. After eight years’ service he began merchandising for himself and was so successful that in two years and a half he repaid the $700 borrowed of his uncle. He then became a partner with his uncle (in 1844), and’, in 1852 bought 100 acres of land in Sapling Grove and erected a store and dwelling in Kings Meadow. In September, 1853 be located on the present site of Bristol, termini of the Virginia & Tennessee and Tennessee & Georgia Railroads, as a merchant and real estate dealer, selling his land for town lots. In 1870 his brother, son and nephew became partners in merchandise. In 1870, after obtaining State charter for the Bank of Bristol, he became the president and cashier until 1874, when it became the First National Bank, with a capital of $50,000; the capital is now doubled. He has been president ever since. June 5, 1845, he married Melinda W., the daughter of Rev. James King. She was born June 27, 1821. Their children were James K., Sarah A., John C., Isaac S., Margaret M. and Joseph K., Sarah and Joseph being deceased. Isaac S. is a minister of the Presbyterian Church. Our subject is a remarkably hale man, and spends nine hours each day at his desk, and directs the general management of his business. He is an elder of the Presbyterian Church. The Anderson family are one of the most prominent in this county. Our subject is an ardent temperance worker, having taken the pledge in 1834. In 1842 he joined the Sons of Temperance, and has filled every position from W. P, up to G. W. P. of the State, which position he now holds.
          Eli Anderson, farmer, was born in Sullivan County February 2, 1829, the son of William and Elizabeth (Warren) Anderson, the former, born in this county in 1802, and his wife in 1807, the daughter of Michael Warren. The parents were both Presbyterians, and the mother, now eighty years of age, lives with our subject. Eli attended country schools, and, excepting a few years in the gold mines of California, he has been a farmer, who has acquired by his own ability, three fine estates in this county. In 1856 he married Edna, a daughter of Robert Hughes. The mother died in 1872 leaving three daughters, and in 1877, Lydia, a daughter of Alfred Carr, of Washington County, became his wife. They have two sons. Our subject is an esteemed member of the Presbyterian Church.
          Nathan D. Bachman, county clerk and farmer, was born at Kingsport, December 26, 1844, the son of Enoch K. and Cornelia E. (Powell) Bachman, the former born in this county in 1813, the son of Nathan, a Pennsylvanian, who with his father was among the first pioneers of this county. The father was a prominent farmer and merchant at Kingsport and also served as magistrate, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He died in July, 1881. The mother was born in Fairfax County, Va., in 1818, and was the daughter of William Powell, who died when his daughter was a child, leaving her with an uncle near Kingsport. She died July 25, 1877, a devoted Christian. Our subject, the second of eight children, attended school at Blountville, and then after a time became clerk at Bristol. He enlisted April 1, 1861, in Company K, Third Confederate Tennessee Infantry, the first company raised in this county. Our subject was then sixteen years old. He served until the surrender, but in 1862 was transferred to the Sixty-third Regiment, Company E, in which he became sergeant-major. After assisting his father, he began about 1868 for himself, and in February of that year married Nannie J., a daughter of Dr. Jonathan Davis, and born in Blountville in 1848. They have four boys and four girls. After an unsuccessful candidacy for county clerk in 1882, he was successful in 1886, over the same opponent of the former election and with a handsome majority. It should be stated that the great-grandfather, Nathan , came from Pennsylvania, and was one of the first three who brought wagons across the mountains. He owned part of the site of Philadelphia. His son, Jonathan, was kidnapped by the Indians and retained for some time. The Bachman family are, and have been, for the most part, engaged in the pursuit of agriculture, and with a fair degree of success. Of this family four brothers are Presbyterian ministers, and have made high reputations as such.
          F. M. and P. J. Boy, farmers, are the sons of Andrew and Mary (Hobaugh) Boy. Andrew was born in this county February 15, 1796, the son of Jacob Boy. He was a farmer who was progressive in all he did. He was a Confederate during the war, but accepted the results without a murmur. He was a man whose character left a strong impression on his family. He was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and died in 1870, aged seventy-four. The mother was born in this county December 1, 1799, the daughter of Phillip Hobaugh. She was also a devoted Methodist, and reared four sons and four daughters; she died at the age of forty-four years, and was mourned by all who knew her. F. M. was born December 27, 1825, and after attending country schools began his career as a farmer. June 20, 1858, he married Mary A., a daughter of Reuben Hicks, and born in this county March 5, 1834. Their children are Nancy E., William J., Robert A. and Mary J. He is a Methodist, while his wife belongs to the Missionary Baptist Church. P. J., the younger of our subjects, was born November 30, 1843, and has led a life with advantages like those of his brother. He was a soldier of Company F, Sixty-third Tennessee Confederate Infantry, serving in the hardest of the war. January 17, 1867, he married Mary E., a daughter of John Akard. She was born in this county December 10, 1845. Their children are Mary M., John A. M., James C., William, Sarah A., Martha C. and Frances M. He is a Methodist and his wife of the Lutheran persuasion.
          Rev. Abel J. Brown, D. D., a minister of the Lutheran Church, was born near Lincolnton, N. C., March 27, 1817. He is the son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Killian) Brown, and the first son and second child of a family of ten children. His paternal grand- father was an Englishman, who came to this country when a boy, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His maternal grandfather was of German extraction, a native of Pennsylvania, but in early life came to North Carolina, where he lived the balance of his days and died. Dr. Brown’s parents and ancestors generally, so far as is known, belonged to the laboring classes, and were distinguished for their industry, their frugality and thrift, their moral integrity and religious worth. His mother was a woman of strong mind, of deep religious conviction, and eminently pious, and his father was a man of superior native intellect, and of great firmness and decision of character. He was a farmer and mechanic, and carefully trained up his children to manual labor, as well as in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” He was man of considerable prominence in the community in which he lived. For long years he filled the office of magistrate, and was often solicited to run for higher offices, but always persistently declined. Dr. Brown’s primary education was received in a good country school; his academic studies, preparatory to entering college, were prosecuted principally in the Male Academy at Lincolnton, N. C., and his collegiate course was taken in Emory and Henry College, Va., from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B., and which afterward conferred upon him the degree of A. M., not merely “in course,” but because of his higher attainments in literature. After graduation, the subject of this sketch engaged for a time in the business of teaching. He first took charge of Jefferson Male Academy, Blountville, Tenn., which he held for five or six years, when he accepted a professorship in Greeneville College. At the end of two years he resigned his position in this institution, and took charge of the academic department of Jefferson Male Academy, which in the meantime had been rebuilt and enlarged, and had the sphere of its operations and usefulness greatly enlarged and otherwise improved. He held this position till the outbreak of our late civil war, since which he has devoted but little attention to the business of teaching. During the time of which we have spoken, he was offered a professorship in one college and the presidency of another, both of which he declined. He is regarded as an accomplished scholar, and one of the best and most successful educators in the country. Quite a number of young men, who in after life made their mark in the learned professions and in other departments of activity and usefulness, were educated by him. In 1836 Dr. Brown was ordained to the work of the ministry in the Lutheran Church, and devoted his time and studies for six years exclusively to this work. His work during this time was principally in North Carolina, though he did a good deal of preaching in other States, and particularly in South Carolina. While engaged in teaching, be preached regularly in the places of his location, and in other places contiguous thereto. His services were, however, for the most part, rendered gratuitously. In 1858 he took regular charge of Immanuel and Buehler’s Churches, in Sullivan County, Tenn., which he has ever since retained. As a writer, Mr. Brown has quite a reputation, not confined to his own immediate section of the church and country, but extending throughout the whole extent of the church in the United States. He has contributed largely to the religious periodicals of the church and literary magazines, and in addition to this, he has published quite a number of sermons in separate form. In consideration of his literary and theological attainments, Roanoke College, in 1873, conferred upon him the degree of D. D. Dr. Brown has been twice married; first to Miss Julia N., the daughter of Jacob and Sophia (Speece) Teeter, of Virginia, who lived but little over one year after her marriage, and died without issue; and afterward, in 1848, he married Miss Emily L., a sister of his deceased wife. Both these ladies were the nieces of Dr. C. Speece, a distinguished Presbyterian minister in the Valley of Virginia. Their grandmothers on both sides were Turneys, and of the same family of which Judge Turney, of the supreme court of Tennessee, is a distinguished representative. Dr. Brown’s family consists of four children, two sons and two daughters, all thoroughly educated. One of his sons, Charles Augustus, is a lawyer; the other, Joseph Addison, is a physician. M. M. Butler, M. D., was born in this county in 1838, the son of William F. and Elizabeth (Gaines) Butler. The former was born in North Carolina in 1800, the son of Zacharia T., a Scotchman, who came to North Carolina, and then to Tennessee, about 1820, and settled in this county. The father was a farmer, and also ran a tannery, and operated a merchant and custom mill. He died in 1873. The mother, born in this county in 1798, was the daughter of Ambrose Gaines, a native of North Carolina, and a pioneer of this county. The mother died in 1876. Both parents were Methodists. The father first married Jane, a daughter of Col. Anderson, by whom he had two children: Rachel and Margaret. By his second marriage he had two children: William Gaines and Mathew M. Our subject, the younger, was reared on the farm, and educated at Emory and Henry College. He began the study of medicine in 1&558. His preceptor was Dr. F. H. Gaines, then of Bristol, now of Kentucky. He took his first course in 1858--59 at Nashville University, and graduated in 1860 from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He began practice in Bristol in 1860. In 1861 he espoused the Confederate cause and was assigned to hospital duty, as surgeon-in-charge at Monterey, Va. After the evacuation of that part of northern Virginia, he was assigned to duty with the Thirty-seventh Virginia Regiment, with which he remained the balance of the war. Shortly after the war he removed to Boone County, Ky., where he remained and practiced his profession for a period of eight years. At the death of his father he returned to his native State and county, and after spending a year upon his farm, began his present career at Bristol. He is a fellow of several medical societies, was president of the Medical Academy of Bristol, and is a member of the city council. In 1869 he married Mary T. Dulaney, who. was born in this county in 1842, the daughter of Dr. William Dulaney, of Blountville, Tenn. Their children are Lorena E., James B., Carrie E., Charles St. John and Joseph Owen. The latter died in 1879. J. S. Carmack, farmer, was born in Washington County, Va., August 8, 1830, the son of Cornelius and Martha (Susong) Carmack, the former born at the above place in January, 1800, the son of William, a Pennsylvanian. The next ancestor, John, came from England to Pennsylvania, and was the ancestor of all of this name west of the Potomac. Several of his sons served in the Revolution. He entered 600 acres of land, most of which is still owned by the family, and which was on disputed territory between Virginia and Tennessee, so that the Legislatures of those commonwealths had to compromise on the question of taxes. He settled his children on large tracts of land in Hawking County, and returned to Washington County, Va., where he died. William died in the same county, leaving ten children, of whom Cornelius was a second. The mother was born in Virginia in 1805, the daughter of Jacob and Margaret (Baggs) Susong, he a magistrate of his county, and deceased June 17,1877. The grandfather was a major on Gen. Washington’s staff, and was a native of France, born of a German mother. Martha died July 2, 1887. Both parents were Presbyterians. Our subject, the fourth of ten children, was educated in Washington, County, Va., and at Paperville. In 1861 he joined Company C, Forty-eighth Virginia Confederate Infantry and became second lieutenant, and a few months later became commander of two companies, until his health failed him in1861. In1862 he was commissioned captain in the quartermaster’s department, but in September his health failed him, and he returned home. He made another attempt to enter service, but was rejected on account of his health. In February, 1863, he was relieved from field duty, and in March was placed on post duty in Tennessee and Georgia. Since the war he has been a farmer, and now owns 1,000 acres of land in this and Washington (Va.) Counties. In December, 1871, he married Jane, the daughter of Philip and Mary Bushong, and born June 23,1863. Their children were Martha E., Robert P. and an infant deceased. Our subject and wife are Presbyterians. William H. Cloud, farmer, was born near Bellefonte, Ala., October 28, 1826, the son of Benjamin and Nancy (Netherland) Cloud, the former born in 1788, in Sullivan County, the son of Jeremiah Cloud, a North Carolinian and pioneer of East Tennessee. The father was a farmer familiar with the early Indian troubles, and died in 1854. The mother was born in Virginia in 1797, the daughter of Richard Netherland; she had eight sons and four daughters. Our subject, the sixth son, received the usual country advantages, and spent fifteen years in California at mining. Since then he has been at his present home, farming with good results his fine estate of 365 acres in the Twelfth District. L. H. Copenhaver, farmer, was born in Marion, Va., May 25, 1842, the son of Chrisley and Elizabeth (Groseclose) Copenhaver, the former born in Virginia in 1793, the son of Frederick, a Pennsylvanian, who came to Virginia as a pioneer of Smyth County, and a prominent citizen. He married Mary Phillippi, a native of Pennsylvania, and of six sons, the father of our subject was the third. Another son, Henry, was in the war of 1812. The father was a prominent farmer, and the mother, born in 1811, the daughter of Adam Groseclose, was a native of Wythe (now Smyth) County, Va. Both parents were devoted members of the Lutheran Church. The father died in 1873, and the mother the year before. Our subject, the sixth of eight children, six brothers, all of whom were in the Confederate Army, was educated in the country schools. In 1861 he joined Company K, Sixty-third Virginia, Infantry, and served through the war, and was paroled at High Point, N. C., in 1865. He now holds, as a much prized relic, a Mexican dollar which he received a few days prior to the surrender of Johnston’s Army; this sum being paid to each infantry soldier in said command. After farming one season he entered Emory and Henry College, and graduated in 1870. For eleven years he had charge of the Kingsport High Schools, and then, on account of ill health, became a farmer, and now has a fine estate of 385 acres. He is a broad-minded man, and is a Conservative-Democrat. In 1877 he married Ellen, the daughter of Joseph and Susan (Cassell) Groseclose, natives of Virginia. She was born in 1854 near Kingsport. They have two boys and two girls. He and his wife are Lutherans.
          William T. Delaney. The grandfather of our subject, William, came from Virginia, and settled near Bristol, one of the first white men of the region. The fort built on his farm was used for a long time for safety, and afterward became the first schoolhouse in the valley. Nancy Rhodes became his wife in Virginia, and they were engaged in farming with their negroes all their lives. They were Baptists, and he died, very wealthy. John R., the father, was born in 1799, in Holston Valley, and was a man of strong intellect and well informed. He was sheriff for several years, and in the Indian war as brigadier-general, and also in the same office in the militia. He was a magistrate and chairman of the county court for years. In 1829, Margaret, the daughter of Thomas McDowell, a native of Ireland, became his wife. She was born in Virginia in 1808. Her father came from Virginia, and settled in Washington County, near the Tennessee line, but finally moved to near St. Louis, where he died in 1881, and the mother in 1863. Both were Presbyterians. Our subject, the fourth of twelve children, was born January 12, 1835, and educated at Greeneville College. In 1859 he began medicine under Dr. J. A. Murphy. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 1861, and soon joined Company B, Fourth Confederate Tennessee Cavalry, and afterward became assistant surgeon, and finally surgeon. He served throughout the war, and surrendered in 1865 in North Carolina. He practiced in the Holston Valley for two years, and then began his present successful career at Bristol. In 1866 he married Mary E., a daughter of Capt. William Cowan, deceased. She was born near Bristol in 1844, and died in 1882, leaving five children. In 1885 he married Nancy B., the daughter of Mahlon Susong. They have but one child. He and his wife are Presbyterians.
          Dr. J. A. Dickey was born in Grayson County, Va., September 13, 1849, the son of Maj. S. M. and J. (Phipps) Dickey. He was reared on a farm and educated at Emory and Henry College. He then attended Washington University, Medical College, at Baltimore, and in 1869 began practice in Grayson County. He became county treasurer in 1873, and resigned in 1875, when he bought a drug stock, and moved to Bristol, where he opened a store, in which business he hits since continued. In 1877 he was elected alderman and the following. term mayor of Bristol, over very popular opponents, and held the latter office seven years. His financial ability on this board has been highly advantageous to the city. He is one of the most popular and efficient professional men of his city, a man of strong character. In 1868 be married Laura V. Dillard. Their children are Eugene C., Minnie J. and Edith C. The mother died in 1884, and in 1886 Mrs. Kate W. Dillard became his wife.
          Nathaniel T. Dulaney, M. D., was born in Blountville March 12,1834, the son of Dr. W. R. and Mary (Taylor) Dulaney, the former born on the homestead April 2, 1800, the son of Dr. Elkanah R. Dulaney, who was born in Culpeper County, Va., in 1771, and came to this county in 1799, where he was chief physician of the county for many years. He was a prominqnt magistrate and representative of the county for eight or ten years, and in 1812 was a presidential elector. He lived near Blountville, and died July 10, 1840. The father was educated in Washington County, and after reading medicine under his father, graduated frain the medical department of Transylvania University, at Lexington, in1839. He died May 24,1860, after a successful life. The mother was born in Carter County in 1807, the daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Taylor, great-grandfather of the present governor. One sister married Gen. Tipton, and another Gen. A. E. Jackson. She died January 9, 1883. Our subject, the fifth of twelve children, was educated at Jefferson Academy, Blountville, and after three months as clerk in a store in Virginia, and some time spent in reading medicine with his father, he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville in 1853, and in March, 1856, graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He then practiced in this county until 1862, when he became examiner of Confederate conscripts, and in 1863 became surgeon of the Sixty-second North Carolina Infantry. After a few months he returned to this county, and practiced until the winter of 1872-73, which he spent at Jefferson Medical College and in the hospitals of Philadelphia, taking a special course, under Dr. Stranbridge, on the subject of ”the eye.“ The next winter he attended Bellevue College, taking the eye as a specialty under Dr. Knapp. He has since made a specialty of this subject in Tennessee and Virginia. In 1880 he became a representative of his county, and among others was chairman of the sanitary committee. Ill health in his family compelled him to decline the re-election, but in 1884 he was again elected and served also on the finance, railway and charitable institution committees. He was again elected in 1886. September 23, 1857, he married Pauline, a daughter of Dr. J. S. Davis, who was born in 1840. Eight of their twelve children are living. Our subject is a Methodist, and his wife and three daughters are Presbyterians. He is a Mason, a Democrat, and advocates the Prohibition amendment to the constitution, now pending in Tennessee.
          A. W. Edwards, the subject of this sketch, was born in Washington County, Tenn., March 15, 1855. He is the son of Samuel E. and Mary (Kitzmiller) Edwards, and the grandson of Rev. Joshua Edwards, a noted Baptist minister in the early settlement of the county. His father was born on Indian Creek, in Sullivan County, Tenn., September 20, 1803, and was a deacon in the Baptist Church for a number of years. The mother was a daughter of David Kitzmiller, and was born in Washington County, Tenn. Our subject is the fifth child, and received a liberal education, at Boone’s Creek Seminary. He was married in 1872 to Mary, a daughter of William Dungan, of Carter County, Tenn., since deceased. The results of their marriage are two daughters and one son. Our subject is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. His wife was a member of the Methodist Church South. Beginning life without any means, he is now the owner of acres of land, near Bluff City, in Sullivan County, Tenn.
          Dr. J. J. Ensor was born near Johnson City, Tenn., May 28, 1829, the son of Thomas P. and Hannah (Jobe) Ensor, the former born near Baltimore, and a soldier of 1812, under Gen. Jackson. He was a pioneer of both Washington and Carter Counties, and died in Bristol, at the age of eighty-nine years. The mother, born near Johnson City also, was the daughter of Daniel Jobe, a pioneer and extensive land holder near Johnson City. She died in 1859. Our subject, the youngest of four children, was educated at Washington College, and began the study of medicine in 1846 under Dr. A. Jobe, of Elizabethton. He began practice in 1848, at Jonesboro, and the following year removed to Blountville. Since 1870 he has had a large practice at Bristol. During the war he was brigade surgeon of the First Confederate Tennessee Brigade. February 12, 1852, he married Amanda, the daughter of William and Jane (Rutledge) Anderson, and born in this county in 1831. Her grandfather was the famous Gen. George Rutledge, of King’s Mountain. Their children are Hannah E. (now Mrs. M. Thomas), George M. and William T.
          Thomas Fain was born in Sullivan County, July 31, 1809, the son of John R. and Eleanor (Crawford) Fain, the former a native of Washington County, and the latter of Sullivan County. Both are mentioned in the sketch of Samuel N. Fain. Our subject, one of three sons and five daughters, was reared with country advantages, and educated in the common schools. January 8, 1835, he married Rachel, a daughter of John Anderson. Their children are John, Ellen R., Nancy, William H., Hugh, Samuel A., Hannah A., Isabella R., Thomas G. and Amelia E. Our subject is a self-made man, and has been remarkably successful as a farmer and merchant. He is now one of the oldest and most esteemed citizens of this county.
          Hon. John Fain, lawyer, was born in this county, December 20,1835, the son of Thomas and Rachel (Anderson) Fain, the former born near Blountville, July 31, 1809, the son of John R., of this county, who was a son of John, a Virginian, who died at the hands of the Indians, on Lookout Mountain. The father, a farmer and merchant, lives at Arcadia, in this county. The mother, born in February, 1814, was the daughter of John Anderson, a native of Augusta County, Va., the son of William, also a Virginian. John became a pioneer, near Blountville, and was a magistrate and surveyor for several years. He filled the former office forty years. The mother died July 10, 1884. Our subject, the eldest of ten children, was educated at Washington College, and at Rotherwood Seminary, in Hawkins County. From 1858 he spent several years in Texas, engaged in farming and teaching; in 1862 joined Martin’s Confederate Texas Rangers and in 1863 became lieutenant of Company F. He was always a Union man. He surrendered at Richmond, Tex., in 1865. After teaching until 1868, he came to this county, and resumed his law studies, so as to be admitted in 1870, since which time he has been in successful practice. From 1878 to 1886 he was attorney-general of the First District. Since then he has been one of the leading lawyers of Blountville. In 1886 he was elected to represent the First District in the Legislature, as a Republican, and is now a member of that body. In 1857 he married Carrie V., a daughter of William Bickley, deceased. She was born in 1842, in Scott County, Va. They have twelve children, ten of whom are living.
          W. P. Hamilton, Proprietor of the Hamilton House, of Bristol, the most popular one between Knoxville and Lynchburg, Va., was born near Blountville July 12. 1838. The great-grandfather, William, was a native of the North of Ireland, and for many years was a surgeon on the sea. He afterward went to Scotland, where he married Catharine Graham, and then came to what is now Fauquier County, Va. Their children were John, James, Robert, Catharine, Jane, Margaret and Ellen. They first settled in Kentucky, the next in Tennessee, the next, the grandfather settled in Hawkins County, Tenn., where he married Sarah B., a daughter of Jarret Brandon, whose wife, Margaret, was a sister of John Bell’s father who came from the North of Ireland. The grandfather reared thirteen children-seven sons and six daughters; one of these, William, married Matilda Hicks, and they reared six sons and four daughters. John B., the second son, and the father of our subject was born in Hawkins County, February 16, 1798, and in 1827 came to this county and settled near Blountville. He served as sheriff for six years, beginning with 1840, and in 1846 and 1847 represented this county in the Legislature. He was a stock dealer and a farmer. May 12, 1822, he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Stephen Hicks who was of German origin. She was born near Blountville, February 12, 1790, and deceased February 14, 1856. The father died on October 23, 1862. He was a Presbyterian, while the mother belonged to the Baptist Church. Their children were Stephen J., Robert P., George B., Jacob, John S., Martha E., Mary E. and our subject. He was educated at Fall Branch Seminary, and Jefferson Academy, at Blountville. When eighteen years old he left the farm, and December 11, 1856, went to Blountville, where he became a clerk for John Powell. In January, 1859, he became clerk for James & Seneker at Bristol, and in January, 1861, he entered the store of R. T. Lancaster. In June, following, he joined Company G, Nineteenth Confederate Tennessee Infantry, and afterward was transferred to Capt. Jacob Hamilton’s company of the Twenty-ninth Tennessee, and became second lieutenant, afterward first lieutenant. His health compelled him to return home, and in March, 1863, he resigned his command. In December, 1864, he was captured in East Tennessee, and placed in the hospital at Knoxville, where he remained until February, 1865. In 1866 he left Bristol, and went to Christian County, Ky., but after four years farming returned to Bristol, and was variously engaged until 1876, when he opened his present hotel. In 1882 he bought the brick propefty on the Virginia side of Bristol, and continued his hotel until 1883, when he leased the Nickels House. Three years later he came to his present building, where he is doing a large business in the only first-class hotel in Bristol. December 24, 1861- he married Kate P., the daughter of Rev. E. W. and Ann R. Roach, the former a Baptisi minister, of Virginia. She was born in Charlotte County, Va., December 20, 1839. Her mother was a daughter of Col. Isham Harvey. Our subject’s children were Emma L., now Mrs. W. J. Thomas, Elijah B., deceased in infancy; William.W., in business with his father, and Charmie B. H. C. Hicks was born in this county April 15, 1824, the son of James G. Hicks, Sr., and Mary (Ketron) Hicks; the former a son of John Hicks, of English descent, and a pioneer of this county, was a Virginian by birth. He came to this county in 1795, was a farmer, and a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also his wife, who was also a Virginian by birth, of German descent. The father died in 1869, aged eighty-two years; the mother died in 1874, aged eighty-nine years. Our subject, one of live sons, learned blacksmithing and farming, and attended country schools. He began with no capital, and after a life in his trade and farming he is now one of the most prosperous men of his county. On May 5, 1845, he married Sarah E., daughter of Maj. John Johnson. He was a fife-major in the war of 1812-15, serving two terms in said war; was a pioneer of this county. Our subject H. C. Hicks, is the father of twelve children, three sons and nine daughters, the first two born-twin boys, died at the age of eleven months, and were buried in one and the same grave; one daughter died when young. Of the living eight daughters, seven are married; one daughter and the only son, the youngest, are unmarried. Our subject owns a farm of 400 acres, and is in good circumstances.