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Below is a family biography included in The History of Smith County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  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 Petty, merchant, liveryman, undertaker and hotel proprietor, was born in 1841, four miles south of Chestnut Mound, and is one of ten children (five dead) of Stephen and Sarah (Carr) Petty. The father, Irish in origin, was born in 1811 in Smith County, and the mother, of the same descent, was born in 1815 in Putnam County. The father, a farmer and prominent justice of the peace, died in the fall of 1885. The mother died in 1865 at the place where our subject was born and reared. Leaving home at the age of twenty-eight years, he became a clerk for S. H. Smith of Laurel Hill, Tenn., in general merchandise, and sixteen months later they went into partnership at Chestnut Mound. After 1874 Mr. Petty managed the business himself until he added trading in tobacco in 1877, when he added livery and feed stables and hotel-keeping. The undertaker’s department he added in 1883. Besides these, he rented out two farms of twenty-five and 250 acres. In 1874 he married Harriett, daughter of A. M. and Elizebeth (Farmer) Betty, born in 1840. Their three children are Stephen A., Martha E. and Isaac S. Mr. Petty’s first salary was $12.50 per month, and now, besides his four branches of business, owns 275 acres (100 acres from his father). He is a Democrat, a demitted member of the F. & A. M. fraternity, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 62 biographies included in The History of Smith County, Tennessee published in 1887.  The History of Smith County was included within The History of Sumner, Smith, Macon & Trousdale Counties of Tennessee. View the complete description here: History of Sumner, Smith, Macon and Trousdale Counties of Tennessee

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

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