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Below is a family biography included in The History of Lawrence 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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Henry B. Sowell, attorney at law, of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., was born in Hickman County, Tenn., July 24, 1854, and is a son of Hon. Joseph M. and Mary A. (Blakely) Sowell, natives respectively of North Carolina and Maury County, Tenn., the father being reared, however, after his third year, in Maury County, where he resided until his marriage. After a short residence in Hickman County, he removed to Lawrence County in 1854, where he has since resided. He has twice represented the county in the State Legislature. Our subject was reared in Lawrence County, and educated in its schools. He completed an academical course of learning, at Columbia, in 1876, and in 1877 began reading law here with Judge John T. Allen, with whom he remained as a pupil until 1878. He was then admitted to the Lawrence County bar, and entered actively into the practice of his profession, which he has continued with very flattering success to the present time. In 1885 he formed his present partnership with J. B. Parker, and has contributed largely to the established success of this well known legal firm. Mr. Sowell is, and always has been, a stanch and uncompromising Democrat in politics. He held the office of circuit court clerk of this county by appointment part of 1884. He has also held the office of magistrate for the last four years. Perhaps no man in the county is better acquainted with the books and affairs in the various county offices, as he has held irregularly the position of deputy in nearly all the offices. He is recognized in the county as an active party leader, an enterprising citizen, and an able member of the Lawrence County bar. He is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and one of the county’s best citizens.

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This family biography is one of 79 biographies included in The History of Lawrence County, Tennessee published in 1886.  The History of Lawrence County was included within The History of Lawrence, Wayne, Perry, Hickman & Lewis Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Lawrence, Wayne, Perry, Hickman and Lewis Counties of Tennessee

View additional Lawrence County, Tennessee family biographies here: Lawrence County, Tennessee

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