Thomas H. Faulkner, manufacturer, was born near McMinnville, Tenn., April 19, 1842, the son of Asa and Anis Faulkner. The father, born July 16, 1802, in Edgefield District, South Carolina, of German descent, came to Hickory Creek, Tenn., in 1808, and was apprenticed to Mr. Biddleman, a machinist. With little education he learned the manufacture of wool cards. His first venture was a mill on Hickory Creek in 1830. In 1846 two others joined him in building the cotton factory, two and one-half miles from McMinnville, called the Central Factory. In 1861, with S. B. Spurlock, he erected on Barren Fork, near McMinnville, a cotton factory named in honor of his wife, and which had a capacity of 2,500 yards of cotton goods daily. In 1863 this factory was used by the Confederates, who took possession of the products, and gave Gen. Rosecrans excuse for destroying it April 21, 1863. They were rebuilt in 1866 with a capacity of 24,000 yards daily, and is still in operation. February 19, 1827, he married Anne Wolfe, born in Scott County, Va., about 1804, and who died March 25, 1851. She was a member of the Baptist Church. Our subject, the tenth of fourteen children, left home in 1861, and enlisted in Company A, Sixteenth Tennessee Confederate Army, under Col. Savage, and after seventeen months on account of ill health received a furlough and returned home, remaining there until his marriage, October 10, 1866, to Mary, the daughter of Judge Robert and Martha C. Cantrell, and, born in Smithville, Tenn., November 26, 1847. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and was educated at the Baptist Female College, and Minerva College, Nashville, and finally graduated from Corina Institute, Lebanon, then under Dr. Kelley’s control. Their eight children are Robert A., born May 23, 1871 and deceased September 7, 1878; Carrie L., born February 5, 1875, and deceased March 30, 1877; Mattie L.; Charles H.; Kate C.; Thomas H.; William P. and Maryetta.

Our subject began life for himself by manufacturing wool cards, his present business, but in connection with this he and his brother Clay became partners in manufacturing woolen goods two and a half miles from McMinnville, and in 1877 they also formed a partnership in a wool factory two miles from McMinnville with Robert Cantrell. In 1879 he dissolved partnership with his brother, and the firm is now Cantrell & Faulkner. Seventy-five thousand dollars in the capital invested in this factory, with a capacity of 1,000 yards of woolen goods daily, and a force of sixty-two men. Our subject never finished his education on account of the war. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also of the K. & L of H.