My Genealogy Hound

Edmon P. Latham was born in Beaufort County, N. C., February 8, 1808, where he married Sabina Daniel in 1830, and moved the following year the rugged trip over the mountains to West Tennessee, and located on the North Fork of the Obion River in Weakley County, nine miles north of Dresden on the Dresden & Mayfield road. Here, with his indomitable energy and under embarrassments that few would have overcome, he erected an extension to the successful mills, the first established in the county, and operated them with great success until the date of his death on the 8th of November, 1862. He was also a most successful farmer, having one of the finest farms in that section of the county. By great industry and business capacity, he accumulated a handsome estate. In 1857 he lost his faithful wife, no less noted in the field of her action than he. They were the parents of four children: Thomas J., James F., John D. and Fannie B., all of whom are now dead except the eldest two, Thomas and James. Thomas J. is at present living in Memphis, Tenn., where he is highly esteemed, and has accumulated a handsome fortune, being the owner of large real estate, besides a large interest in the water works, of which he is president, and is said to have the finest mansion in the city. James F. is engaged in orange culture in Florida. Few men are more highly esteemed than the subject of this sketch. He was an old line Whig in politics, though living in a county overwhelmingly Democratic. He was, without his solicitation, elected sheriff, and to the mortification of all, refused to be a candidate for re-election. His memory is still retained by his old neighbors and all who knew him as the charitable friend of the poor and needy. No worthy applicant ever left his mill without bread. Though a quarter of a century has closed since he passed away, his old neighborhood and a new post-office, recently established, bear his honored name.