My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin M. Flippin, one of the early settlers of West Tennessee, is a son of John and Nancy (Neel) Flippin. Both parents were born in East Tennessee; they ran down the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of Forked Deer River, and up that to Key Corner, arriving in 1822, when the surrounding country was a mass of cane and pea-vines, full of wild animals and game. They cleared a place and built a cabin, and in this wilderness raised their family of nine children; five boys and three girls lived to be grown. Both parents were pious Methodists. In 1837 the mother died, and three years later the father; and braver hearts, more devoted parents, never faced the hardships of Western wilds. The Flippin family is of Irish extraction. Our subject was the fifth son, and was born January 1, 1819, in Knox County, Tenn., and his early education was obtained from nature, as most of his time was spent in hunting game. When only eighteen years old, he went on the river and followed keel-boating, flat-boating, etc. In 1838 he married Eliza J. Caldwell, who was born January 16, 1825. They had nine children; four boys and two girls lived to be grown, and all of the boys served their country in the late war. Bird S. died a prisoner at Rock Island, Ill., and the other three escaped with a wound. Both parents are Cumberland Presbyterians; in politics Mr. Flippin was a Whig, but since that party ceased he has been a Democrat. For three years he was postmaster at Flippin, the office having been named in honor of him. He has given his time to farming and trading in land and stock; he has won distinction as a veterinary surgeon in Lauderdale and adjoining counties, and as a business man has been quite successful, though the war nearly ruined him. Mrs. Flippin died, in 1883, and he has remained a widower, being now sixty-seven years of age.