My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. WILLIAM W. JAMES, farmer of the Fifth District, was born in 1828, in Lincoln County, Tenn., and was one of eleven children born to Thomas and Martha (Duke) James. The father was born in Norfolk, Va., in 1790, and was of English lineage. His education was fair, and when about twenty years of age, he, in company with an elder brother, immigrated to Lincoln County, but soon went to Alabama, and engaged in the War of 1812, under Gen. Coffee. They were in the battle of New Orleans, and at the close of the war immigrated to Lincoln County and located near Mulberry, where he purchased a farm. In 1825 he was married, and at the time of his death, which occurred in 1866, he owned several good farms. The mother died about 1874. Our subject received his education in the neighboring schools, and the age of nineteen entered as clerk in a mercantile establishment at Fayetteville. In 1849, he, in company with about thirty-five others, started to cross the plains for the El Dorado. He engaged in mining while there, and at the end of two years returned home and engaged in the mercantile business at Mulberry Village, where he continued until 1861. In 1859 he wedded Susan V. Freeman, and to them were born eight children, five of whom are living: Thomas D., Sarah A,, William W., Alice P., and John M. In 1861 Mr. James was made captain of Company A, Forty-first Tennessee Infantry, and was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson. He was exchanged at Vicksburg, and soon after was discharged on account of poor health. In 1869 he purchased 300 acres of land at Mulberry, where he now resides. In politics he is a life-long Democrat, casting his first vote for Franklin Pierce. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the I. O. O. F., and he and Mrs. James are among the most substantial members of the Missionary Baptist Church.