My Genealogy Hound

JAMES P. EDWARDS, farmer of the Fifth District, and a son of James A. and Susan (Goodwin) Edwards, was born in Rutherford County August 4, 1839. The father was born in Rutherford County December 1, 1801, and is of Dutch-Welsh descent. He had the advantages of a district school education, and possessing an intellect above the average mind received an education accordingly. He is of noted ancestry, his great-grandfather once being Duke of Wales, and his mother a near relative of the elder Adams, also closely connected with the Buchanans, the early settlers of Nashville. He was married in 1825, and became the father of six children, four of whom are living. The mother of our subject was born in 1805 and died in 1867. The father died about 1875. Our subject received his education in the common schools, and later spent several years in the school at Tullahoma. During the war he enlisted under Capt. Meade, in Alabama, but did not enter the service on account of sickness. He was confined at home for several months, and upon his recovery entered the army as an enrolling officer, and continued in that capacity till the army retreated from Tennessee. He then went back with Gen. Forrest to take care of a sick brother, with whom he remained until his death near the close of the war. He was captured at Tullahoma and charged with bushwhacking, but acquitted himself nobly, and was released at the end eleven days. He then returned to Lincoln County, and commenced farming in cotton. December 1, 1870, he wedded Bettie Warren, and by this union became the father of ten children, nine of whom are living: Emma, Henry W., James A. and William Owen (twins), Edgar A., Bessie Polk, George W., Sue May and Anna Lynne. In 1882 Mr. Edwards purchased 60 acres, where he now resides. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Edwards is a graduate of the Mary Sharp College at Winchester, Tenn.