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Below is a family biography included in The History of Giles County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HON. Z. W. EWING, lawyer, a native of Marshall County, Tenn., is a son of L. A. and R. A. (Leeper) Ewing, and of old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. His father was born near Athens, Ga., in 1809, and his mother in Bedford County, Tenn., in the same year. The father was a merchant and farmer and for many years was one of the leading magistrates of Marshall County. He died in 1853. The mother of our subject died in 1877, in Marshall County. Mr. Ewing was the seventh of eight children. During his youth his summers were spent on the farm at labor and in the winter season he attended the country schools. In 1859 he was a student at the Lewisburg Male Academy, and in 1860 went to Maryville College, in East Tennessee, where he remained until the breaking out of the war. He then joined Capt. R. H. McCrory’s company, afterward Company H, Seventeenth Tennessee Infantry, Confederate States Army, and was promoted to lieutenant by commission, but served in the capacity of captain and major for two years. He was captured at Petersburg, Va., in 1864, and was confined under retaliation in the prisons of Fort Delaware, Fort Pulaski, Hilton Head and Sullivan’s Island, upon the southern coast. He was released in 1865, and came home and resumed his studies. In 1866 he entered the University of Virginia, and there remained until the summer of 1868. In the fall of that year he taught school at Richmond, Tenn. In 1870 he went to Europe and spent a year in travel and the study of the German language. In 1871 he came to Pulaski and began the study of law in the office of Judge Thomas M. Jones. In the same year he wedded Harriet P. Jones, of Pulaski. They have one child—Marietta. December, 1871, he was licensed to practice law, and in May, 1877, he was appointed by Gov. Porter, as one of the three railway assessors for the State. In 1878 he was elected to the State Senate from the counties of Giles, Lawrence, Lewis and Wayne, and was chairman of and member of important committees. In 1879 he was appointed State visitor of the University of Tennessee, and delivered the annual address before that institution. September, 1879, he was appointed special attorney for the State and is now engaged in the practice of his profession. He has been a life-long Democrat, and has occupied many positions of public trust and has presided over one of the State conventions of his party. He is one of Giles County’s most prominent men. Mrs. Ewing is a member of the Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 95 biographies included in The History of Giles County, Tennessee published in 1886.  The History of Giles County was included within The History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin & Moore Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin , Moore Counties of Tennessee

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