My Genealogy Hound

HON. JAMES HAMILTON, president of the Bank of Lebanon, and one of Wilson Counties prominent farmers, was born August 14, 1814, in Loudoun County, Va., and is one of six children born to William and Margaret (Hugley) Hamilton. The father was of Irish descent, born in Virginia, and was a farmer by occupation. In 1815 he came to Wilson County, Tenn., and located in the Twenty-fourth District, He was quite successful as a farmer, owning 1,000 acres at one time. His death occurred in 1840 or 1841. The mother was of English descent and was also a native of Virginia. She died about 1870 at the advanced age of eighty years. Our subject was educated in the country schools and later in the Cumberland University at Nashville. At the age of twenty-two he began teaching, which he continued for several years. May 20, 1841, he married Jane McFarland, daughter of James and Dicy McFarland. Mrs. Hamilton was born August, 1824, in Wilson County. They have five children: Nannie, wife of Dr. W. G. Miller; Emma, wife of John L. Jones; James W., a farmer; John M., a druggist, and Robert Hatton, a lawyer. In 1856 he bought 1,200 acres in the Third District, where he now resides. In 1881 he succeeded Dr. Owen as president of the Second National Bank of Lebanon, where he remained until 1884, when the Bank of Lebanon was organized, and he was elected as its president. About 1881 he was elected president of the Humbold Carriage & Wagon Factory. Mr. Hamilton has dealt largely in buying and selling land, and at one time was running 1,800 acres, and is a man of marked business capacity and a successful financier. In politics he is a Democrat, and in 1843 he was elected to the Legislature and in 1847 he was elected to the Senate in the State Legislature, and again in 1872. During the war he was appointed colonel of the State militia in Wilson County, and thus he is known as Col. Hamilton.