My Genealogy Hound

HON. S. S. PRESTON, an old citizen and farmer of the Twentieth District, was born November 22, 1827, in Bedford County, Va., and is the son of John and Martha (Early) Preston. The father was born about 1793, in Bedford County, Va., and was a farmer by occupation. At the time of his marriage he was living in the Old Dominion, but in 1835 he immigrated to Wilson County, Tenn., where he died in 1853. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was the father of ten children, six of whom are living. The mother was born in 1799, in Bedford County, Va., and died in 1850 in Wilson County. Our subject was educated in his native county and in Wilson County. At the age of twenty-one he left home and went to Huntsville, Ala., and hired as a clerk in a dry goods store, where he remained for nearly three years. January 12, 1853, he married Ann M. Keyes, a native of Alabama, born June, 1835, and the daughter of James H. Keyes, of Mississippi. To our subject and wife were born seven children: James H., John F., Laura (wife of William T. Watson, of Texas), S. S., Jr., Ella, Alice and Mattie. During the late war our subject enlisted in Company G. Forty-fifth Tennessee Regiment, and was made captain of his company. He took an active part in the battles of Shiloh, but soon after, on account of ill health, was discharged and returned home. Mr. Preston owns 260 acres, and is one of Wilson County’s much respected citizens. January, 1872, he was elected as chairman of the county court, and in November of the same year he was elected to the lower house of the State Legislature. In October, 1882, he was again elected chairman of the county court, which position he held for three successive years. During the years 1884-85 he was a resident of Lebanon, where he lived for the purpose of educating his children.