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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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John B. Luster, editor of the Carthage Mirror, and attorney at law, was born in Sumner (now Trousdale) County, in 1837. He is one of the three surviving children of William and Virginia (Bressie) Luster. The father was of English descent, born in 1806 in Buckingham County, Va.; came to Tennessee when a young man and located at Hartsville, where he remained until after the late war, when he moved to Alabama, where he died in 1886. He was a trader during the greatest portion of his business career. The mother was a Tennessean of Scotch-English origin. She was born in 1810, and died in 1853 at Hartsville. Our subject received a good common-school education. He worked on the farm until his seventeenth year, when he went to Nashville, and obtained a situation as clerk in a wholesale grocery house. Two years later he began the study of law, completing his course at the law school in Lebanon, Tenn. He was licensed to practice in the State in 1859; soon afterward he went to New Orleans, where he studied civil law and received his license in 1860. In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army and became quarter master of a battalion organized by Col. J. G. Bennett, also second command organized by the same officer, in 1862, which became attached to Morgan’s forces. He was engaged in battles of Shiloh and Farmington as aid to Gen. Ruggles. He was also in the battle of Hartsville, and numerous skirmishes. After the close of the war he located at Carthage, where he gave his attention to his profession in partnership with his father-in-law, James B. Moores. May 24, 1883, he established the Carthage Mirror which he has since so ably edited. He is a stanch Democrat; cast his first presidential vote for John C. Breckinridge. He is a member of the Masonic order, Carthage Lodge, No. 14. In 1861 he married Miss Moores, who was born in 1843, in Carthage. To this union have been born Berry, who is a resident of Texas; Percy J., who, though only nineteen years of age, is a licensed minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is now filling an appointment in Williamson County, Tenn. Moores is sixteen years of age; he is assistant editor and foreman of the Carthage Mirror. Mrs. Luster is an esteemed and consistent member of the Methodist 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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