My Genealogy Hound

Thomas F. Witherspoon, cashier of the Farmers’ & Traders’ Bank at Gallatin, was born in 1825, in Lexington, Ky., a son of Dr. John R. and Sophia (Graham) Witherspoon. The father was of Scotch origin, born in 1774 in Williamsburg District, S. C. He was a second cousin of John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. John R. graduated in the literary department of Princeton College, in 1794; soon afterward attended the Transylvania University at Lexington, Ky., and graduated as an M. D. He married near Lexington, where he resided and practiced until 1826, when he moved to Green (now Hale) County, Ala., where he died in 1852. During his residence in Alabama he was a planter. His wife was born in 1792 in Lincoln County, N. C., and died in 1866. She was a sister to William A. Graham, who was a United States senator, governor of North Carolina for two terms. Secretary of the Navy during President Fillmore’s administration, and was candidate in 1852 for Vice-president on the ticket with Gen. Winfield Scott. Our subject was educated at Mobile, Ala., but owing to ill health did not graduate. In 1851 he married Miss Catherine, daughter of the noted divine, Rev. L. D. Hatch. Mrs. Witherspoon was born in Newbern, N. C., in 1828. Their union resulted in the birth of five children; Walter, a merchant of Gallatin; Fannie; Thomas A., a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, now holds a position in the Patent Office at Washington, D. C.; Robert S:, a salesman in Nashville, and Martha. In 1854 our subject went to Mobile and engaged in the commission business. During the war he was in the commissary department and after the restoration of peace located at Greensboro, Ala. In 1867 he returned to Mobile, and the following year, with his family, went to California, where for five years he was engaged as a planter. In 1873 he moved to Gallatin, and was immediately employed as assistant cashier in the Sumner Deposit Bank, which position he retained until 1884, when the Farmers’ & Traders Bank was organized, and our subject became cashier. He is a Democrat, and a member of the K. of H., a man of honor and integrity, highly esteemed by all. Mrs. Witherspoon and three children are members of the Presbyterian Church.