My Genealogy Hound

J. M. WATKINS, proprietor of the Watkins Hotel, at Lebanon, Tenn., was born April 3, 1841, and is one of eight children of Moses and Jane (Scoby) Watkins. The father was born in 1812 in Virginia, and was a farmer through life. He came to Tennessee with his parents when about six years of age, and resided on different farms up to 1876, when he moved to Lebanon, where he died in the fall of 1884. The mother was born in Smith County, Tenn., and since the death of her husband has lived with her daughter Mary (Mrs. D. W. King). Our subject attended the schools of his native county, and in 1862 enlisted in Company B, Forty-fourth Regiment Tennessee Infantry, and took an active part in the battle of Shiloh. He returned home in 1864, and after farming two years became clerk in the Sweeney House, in Nashville. December 22, 1868, he married Dora Cartwright, daughter of Wilson T. and Elizabeth Cartwright. Mrs. Watkins was born in 1852 in Nashville. She and her husband have three children: Archie Wilson, Emma Bell (deceased) and Lena May. In 1877 Mr. Watkins came to Lebanon, and he and W. M. Organ purchased a livery and feed stable, which they managed for eighteen months, and for the following year Mr. Watkins conducted the business on his own responsibility. In 1879 he and Mr. D. C. Williams became partners, continuing one year. In 1881-82 Mr. Watkins kept a grocery and restaurant, and in 1883 established himself in the hotel business, and is an obliging and courteous landlord. In politics he is a Democrat, and he and wife are members of the Missionary Baptist Church.