By Estelle Hall
 

Memphis Daily Appeal, 16 June, 1869
Palmer, Gen. J. B. Last commander of Browne's old Brigade ( the 3rd, 13th, 33rd, 43rd TN, CSA) was married in Pulaski on Friday to Mrs. Margaret Mason.
 

Goodspeed's indicates the following items in their biography.  He was raised by his maternal grandparents after the death of his mother in 1830*.
(Maternal grandparents Joseph B. Johns and Elizabeth).   His father relocated to Illinois where he practiced medicine until his death.  Attended Union
University and taught school for one year after graduation.  He then "read law" and studied with Hardy M. Burton, an attorney in Murfreesboro.  He was
admitted to the bar in March of 1848 and then opened his own office.  He served in the Tennessee General Assembly for the 1849-50 and 1851-52
sessions.  In 1854 he married Ophelia M. Burrus.  They had only one child, Horace E. Palmer, before her death in 1856.
 

After the war he returned to Murfreesboro and the practice of law.  His second marriage was to Mrs. Margaret J. Ballentine Mason of Pulaski, TN in
1869.  They had no children.  In 1879 he was joined by his son in the firm of Palmer and Palmer.  He was a member of the Masonic Lodge and the Methodist
Church.
 

*From the Division of the land of Joseph B. Johns (Deed Book 2, pg. 96) it mentions Joseph B. Palmer, grandson with guardian Varner Cowan. Caroline
Mildred Smith (granddaughter) with Samuel Smith as her guardian.  I am trying to place this relationship with Caroline as perhaps daughter of Mildred Ann
Johns Palmer and Samuel Smith.)  Ernest K. Johns has a Smith genealogy that states Caroline had a 1/2 brother.  Caroline was born April 7, 1833 and
Mildred Smith died April 7, 1833.