My Genealogy Hound

Dr. John W. Franklin, physician and farmer of the Fourth District, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Rawlings) Franklin, and was born in Sumner County in 1819, being the ninth child in a family of seven sons and three daughters. The father was of Irish ancestry, born in Sumner County in 1776. The grandfather, James Franklin, was a native of West Virginia; he went to Eastern Kentucky when a young man, where he had an elder brother, and finally moved to what is now Sumner County, where he erected a station, Camp Fort, and made his future home. Our subject’s father had no educational advantages, but was a man of clear judgment and general information. He was married in 1795. In early life he followed flatboating to Natchez and other southern points. He was one of Sumner County’s largest land owners and planters and a wealthy citizen, and was sheriff of the county at an early day. He died in 1832. The mother was a native of Sumner County, being about four years younger than her husband. She died in 1866, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Dr. John W. Franklin was raised at home until about fourteen years old, when he was sent to Hallowell’s Quaker School, at Alexandria, Va., where he remained four years; then returned home and began the study of medicine under Dr. John J. Franklin, and eighteen months later entered the Transylvania Medical University, at Lexington, Ky., where he graduated in 1841. February 10, 1842, he was married to Miss Florida, youngest daughter of Rev. Dr. Silas M. and Maria W. Noel, of Frankfort, Ky. Two sons and one daughter were born to them: Adele, wife of George L. Van Bibber, of Bel Air, Md.; John A. (deceased), and Dr. Edward N., of Gallatin. Mrs. Franklin was born at Frankfort, Ky., in 1826, and died in January, 1848. May 3, 1849, he married Miss Sarah F., daughter of Thomas A. and Lucy Baber, who was born in Sumner County February 17, 1831. Her parents were both natives of Virginia; her father was born in 1796, her mother in 1804. Six sons and three daughters were the result of this union; one daughter died. The children were Lucien B., of Nashville; Ernest; Thomas B., freight cashier of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at Wilmington, Del.; Blanche; James W., of Maryland; Robert L.; Benjamin H. and Mabel. Dr. Franklin commenced the practice of medicine in 1842 at Memphis, Tenn., where he remained until 1845, when he moved to Gallatin, Tenn., and has since lived in Sumner County, with the exception of one year, 1847-48, which he spent in New Orleans. In 1852 he bought the farm where he now resides, four miles west of Gallatin on the Nashville pike, and has continued the practice of medicine in connection with farming. He has been very successful as a physician and has had an extensive and lucrative practice, and is one of the leading physicians of the county. Dr. Franklin owns 162 acres of very productive land with a commodious brick residence and other substantial improvements. Early in 1861 he was appointed surgeon of the Seventh Tennessee Regiment, but was compelled to return home the same year on account of ill health, and was soon after placed in the brigade staff and entered the Virginia campaign. Politically he has always been a Democrat and cast his first vote for Martin Van Buren in 1840. Dr. Franklin is a Mason, and one of the two oldest members of the I. O. O. F. of Sumner County, and is a member of the State Medical Association and of the American Public Health Association. Dr. and Mrs. Franklin are active members of the Old School Presbyterian Church. He is a man of culture and an able physician, and is exceedingly popular in his town and county.