My Genealogy Hound

Dr. John Duncan Estes, a practicing physician and surgeon, of Elmwood, was born in 1841, in Wilson County, Tenn. He is the only surviving one of three children, born to Duncan N. and Fanny (Lawrence) Estes. The father was born in North Carolina about 1814, and came to Tennessee when a mere boy, locating in Wilson County, where he engaged in blacksmithing and farming. After his marriage with a native of the county (subject’s mother), who was born in 1814, Mr. Estes and family moved to Texas. A few years later he went to Tennessee, where he remained until the late War, when he moved to Illinois and from there to Kentucky where he died in 1864. He was a soldier in the Mexican war, and a stanch Union man during the late civil war. The mother died in 1846, in her native county. From five years of age our subject made his home with his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Lawrence, on a farm in Wilson County, where he was educated. At the outbreak of the war, in 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company F, Twenty-fourth Tennessee Regiment, at Murfreesboro. He was discharged at Tripoli, Miss. He returned home, and one month later became one of Forrest’s command, remaining as such until April, 1865. He took part in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Bardstown, and was in numerous skirmishes. After the restoration of peace he attended the Three Forks Institute, in his native county. After two years’ schooling he began farming on his grandmother’s place and a smaller one adjoining his own; at the expiration of two years he embarked in the grocery business, and afterward general merchandise, at Commerce. The following six years he was thus engaged, and at the same time devoted every spare moment to the reading of medicine. In 1873 he attended a course of medical lectures at the Vanderbilt University, of Nashville. The next year he began to practice at Linnwood, Wilson County, and also at Commerce early in 1875. In November of the same year he located at Elmwood, where he has since had an extensive practice. His farm of forty-five acres is valuable and well cultivated. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Saulsbury Lodge, No. 100, and a Democrat; his first presidential vote was cast for Horatio Seymour in 1868. In 1869 Dr. Estes married Mary, daughter of James and Nancy (Odom) Floyd. Mrs. Estes was born in Wilson County in 1850. Eight children have been born to this union: Howard W., Turner O., May Pearl, Herschel B. and Fanny Cora. Those deceased are John Clark, James Duncan and William Briggs. Mrs. Estes is a member of the Christian Church.