My Genealogy Hound

JAMES C. WOOTEN, vice-president of the Columbia Banking Company, was born in Fayetteville, N. C., June 18, 1832, and is a son of Shedrick O. and Elizabeth (Blake) Wooten. The father came from North Carolina to Maury County, Tenn., in 1833. He was originally a hatter by trade, but followed milling and farming in this county. He died in 1851. James C.’s rudimentary education was limited, but he afterward attended the Jackson College during 1852-53. He then began clerking for S. F. Mayes, and soon became a partner in the firm of Mayes, Wooten & Co., but at the breaking out of the war he abandoned the business and enlisted as a private in Capt. Gordon’s company, of the Forty-eighth Tennessee Infantry. He was afterward appointed to the quartermaster’s department in the Confederate Army, ranking as captain. After his return home he was made agent for the Nashville & Decatur Railroad and held the position three years, after which he engaged in the wholesale grocery and cotton business, with T. W. Keesee & Co., remaining one year. He was married in 1869 and then removed to Leighton, Ala., and was engaged there for fifteen years in buying and selling cotton to Memphis and to Eastern spinners, but returned in 1885, and has since been identified with the Columbia Banking Company in the capacity of vice-president, and is one of the leading stockholders. He still retains a large interest in Leighton, Ala, owning and managing several large cotton plantations there, as well as other property. He married Hattie A. Abernathy, of Alabama, in 1869, and by her is the father of three children: John T., William B. and Emma. Mr. Wooten is a Democrat, a Mason and a member of the K. of P. He is essentially a self-made man and has a handsome competency, which he has acquired by his own exertions. He spent one year traveling in Europe, visiting most of the large cities in England and on the Continent, and has of late years traveled over all the Western Territories, having visited, at various times, all the States of the Union. He owns a handsome residence in Columbia, which he now occupies.