George W. Boddie
Tennessee and Tennesseans
The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities
By
Will T. Hale & Dixon Merritt
Volume V
1913
GEORGE W. BODDIE. Notably successful as a lawyer and a former clerk and master of the chancery court of Sumner County, George W. Boddie has been a member of the Gallatin bar for a quarter century. His own career has been chiefly passed in Sumner county, of which he is a native, and his family is one that has been identified with the state for a century or more.
He was born in Sumner County, January 14, 1852. a son of Charles E. and Evalina (Douglas) Boddie. His paternal grandparents were Elijah and Maria (Elliott) Boddie. The former, a native of Nash county. North Carolina, crossed the mountains into Tennessee early in the last century, and spent most of his life in Sumner county. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and fought with General Jackson at New Orleans.
Charles E. Boddie. the father, was born in Sumner County in 1818, and his death occurred in 1896. His active years were spent in farming, and his homestead was located six miles from Gallatin. His first wife, Evalina Douglas, was a daughter of James Douglas, who gives special distinction to this family history as having been the first male white child born in Sumner County, where he spent all the rest of his life. Evalina Boddie died in 1856, the mother of seven children, of whom three are still living, including George W., who was the second in the family. Charles E. Boddie married for his second wife Susan A. Maney, and they had six children, of whom four are living. The father was a member of the Methodist church, South, was an Odd Fellow, and a Democrat in politics.
George W. Boddie spent his early life on the farm, and was graduated in law from the Cumberland University in 1875. In 1887 he located at Gallatin, and during the subsequent twenty-five years has enjoyed a liberal share in the legal business of the local courts and office practice. From 1894 to 1906 he was clerk and master in the chancery court. Politically he is a Democrat. Mr. Boddie has been prominent in Odd- fellowship, having passed the chairs of his local lodge, and has served as delegate to the state Grand lodge. His church is the Methodist South.
He was married February 25, 1875, to Miss Alice Davis of Wilson County, Tennessee. Six years later she passed away, in 1881. Of her three children one is living, Mina. In 1885 Mr. Boddie married Miss Willie Davis, daughter of W. C. Davis, a Wilson County farmer. Five children have blessed this union, and the four living are: James B., of Columbia; and Rufus P., Sarah and Portia, all at home.