City: Memphis
FALLS, James N., business man; born Fayette Co., Tenn., Feb. 1, 1841; of German descent; son of Gilbreath and Frances (McNees) FALLS; educated in the city schools of Memphis, Tenn.; in 1861 he enlisted with the Bluff City Grays, an independent company, which afterward became Co. “B” 154th senior regiment of Tenn.; two years later the company was mounted and transferred to Forrest’s brimade with which he remained until the end of the war; he was in battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Chickamauga, Murfreesboro, Nashville and Franklin, and several minor engagements; wounded at Shiloh and captured at Murfreesboro, escaping two months later from Jeffersonville; at close of war he was paroled at Gainesville, Ala., and rode his horse back to Memphis; in early life he was identified with the firm of Falls & Cash; when the Merchants Cotton Press and Storage Company was formed he was elected president, and is also president of the Dixie Cotton Oil Co., of Little Rock, Ark.; he was one of the pioneers of the cotton seed oil industry, having built a mill at Friar’s Point, Miss., in 1873, and later the Valley Oil Mill, Memphis, Tenn., of which he was president a number of years; in 1892 he organized the Falls Grocery Co., and in 1900 he virtually retired from business, retaining his interests in the companies with which he is connected; married Clara DUNN, Nov. 1871; member of Country Club; member of Presbyterian church; director in First National Bank, Memphis, Tenn.
