My Genealogy Hound

W. T. Ricketts was born in Wayne County, Tenn., in 1841, son of Samuel S. and Mary (Roper) Ricketts, who were born in North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. The father became a wealthy merchant of Clifton, and was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was a Whig, and died in 1863. His wife died twelve years earlier. The father’s second wife was Mary J. Walker. Our subject was married, in 1866, to Nancy L. Montague, daughter of John and Nancy Montague. She was born in Tennessee in 1846, and is the mother of eight children: Delia M., John S., Milton (who died October 15, 1873), Frank, Joseph, Mary, Tennessee R. and Nancy. Mrs. Ricketts died July 21, 1882, and November 13, of that year, he married Melissa Montague, sister of his first wife. She was born about 1842, and is the mother of one child, James T. At the age of ten years our subject moved to Clifton with his father, where he remained until 1879, when he purchased and moved on his present farm of 275 acres of land on Buffalo River. He gives his principal attention to raising corn and peanuts, and is extensively known in the county. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and in May, 1861, enlisted in the Confederate Army, in the First Tennessee Regiment, but was discharged on account of disability. He re­enlisted in the Ninth Tennessee Regiment, and was captured in Wayne County in July, 1863, and was retained until the close of the war. He has been magistrate of the Clifton District for several years, also post master of Flat Wood. He is a Democrat.