My Genealogy Hound

William R. Sexton is one of six children of John J. and Elizabeth A. (Yeager) Sexton, and of English and German descent. He was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., November 6, 1843, and attended the common schools in boyhood. He learned the tanner’s trade and followed that occupation many years. He served in the Confederate Army in the Thirty-second Regiment Tennessee Infantry, and was captured at the fall of Fort Donelson, and kept a prisoner at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Ind., for seven months, when he was exchanged at Vicksburg, and was afterward at Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Moulton, Athens and Johnsonville, and was severely wounded on the march to Nashville, which disabled him from further service. January 1, 1865, he was united in marriage to Mary E. Sparkman, daughter of James G. and Delany M. Sparkman, and to them were born the following family: Alice J., born April 15, 1868; Edward H., born July 27, 1870, and Lewis A., born March 25, 1874. Mrs. Sexton was born in Williamson County, Tenn., June 11, 1844, and she and her husband and daughter are members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Mr. Sexton is a Mason and a Democrat, and is the owner of 225 acres of fertile land. His father was born in Tennessee, in 1820, and was a farmer by occupation. He moved to Arkansas in 1851, but soon returned to Tennessee, thence to Alabama, and in 1861 returned to Tennessee, where he resided until his death, October 23, 1868. His wife was born in Lincoln County, in 1824, and is still living on the old homestead. She and her husband were active and useful members of the Primitive Baptist Church.