My Genealogy Hound

J. H. Cocke, a merchant at Lambert, was born in January, 1845, in Fayette County, being one of two sons born to Thomas E. and Mary J. (Jones) Cocke, the brother residing at Somerville. The father was born in Virginia and the mother in Alabama; they married in Fayette County and he practiced law at La Grange, where the mother died in October, 1845, and in the fall of same year he married Laura J. Winston, who was also a native of Alabama. They had two sons and nine daughters, eight daughters living. The father resided at La Grange until 1848, then moved to Somerville, and retired from the practice of law, and died in 1883. He was chairman of the county court from 1865 until his death. J. H. Cocke remained at home until 1864, then went into the Confederate Army, in the Fourteenth Tennessee Cavalry under Forrest, and served until the war closed, when he accepted a clerkship at Memphis, then returned to Somerville and farmed until 1883, when he commenced merchandising at Lambert, his stock of goods being valued at $2,500. May, 1870, he married Mary G. Cocke, of Fayette County, and has had four sons and four daughters, three sons and two daughters living. Mr. Cocke is a Democrat. In 1876 he was elected justice of the peace and still holds the office. He is regarded as a man of strict integrity and good business capacity.