My Genealogy Hound

John P. Smith, citizen and farmer of Fayette County, was born in Maury County, Tenn., August 29, 1837, and is the son of John and Rebecca (Buizwell) Smith, natives of North Carolina. The father was born in 1803 and the mother in the same year. The father died in Fayette County in 1857 and the mother in 1863. The parents in early life moved from North Carolina to Maury County, Tenn., and lived there over twenty years. In 1856 the father went to Texas, but not being pleased with the country immediately returned and settled in Fayette County, ten miles southwest of Somerville where he died. He was always a farmer and a sound Democrat and with his wife, who was a very devout woman, was an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Our subject was the sixth of ten children; after finishing his education he commenced farming quite young. His parents moved to Fayette County when he was eighteen. In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army and enlisted in Company B, Thirteenth Tennessee Regiment of Infantry in Cheatham’s division, and was at the battles of Belmont, Ky., Shiloh, Richmond and Perryville, Ky., Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and in the battles that occurred between Dalton and Atlanta, and at Franklin and Nashville. At Corinth, Miss., he received a furlough in January, 1865, and did not again enter the service but resumed farming. March 29, 1865, he married Miss Mary B. Alexander, born in Fayette County November 15, 1840. Two sons and three daughters have been born to them; one daughter died. Their names and ages are as follows: Willie T., born January 8, 1866; Zula W., born January 20, 1867; Hattie M., born March 23, 1869; Ada J., June 4, 1873; Arthur A., March 13, 1878. Mr. Smith is a Democrat and with his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He is a man of good judgment and fine integrity.