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Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Haywood County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Capt. Alexander Duckworth, clerk and master of the chancery court of Brownsville, Tenn., and native of Haywood County, was born March 16, 1832, son of William W. and Mary M. (Alexander) Duckworth, natives respectively of South and North Carolina. Robert W. Duckworth, the Captain’s grandfather, came with his family to Tennessee from North Carolina early in the twenties, and settled near Knoxville. He settled in Madison County, and in, or before, 1830, located in Haywood County, where he died. Here William W. was married and settled. He raised a family of nine children—three sons and one daughter now living: William L., Thomas N., Martha A. (widow of C. F. Smith) and Alexander who is the eldest. The father died April 8, 1859, followed by the mother’s death the following day. Capt. Duckworth’s boyhood days were spent in his native county, where he secured a good academical education chiefly by his own exertions. He prepared himself for teaching, and followed that profession until 1859, then began managing his father’s farm. Here he resided until 1862, then joined the Confederate Army, serving as lieutenant and afterward as captain of Company L., Seventh Regiment Tennessee Cavalry, and was seriously wounded in the right arm in a cavalry skirmish at Collierville, Tenn., and has never fully recovered. Capt. Duckworth served with distinction until the close of the war, then returned home and resumed farming and teaching, and resumed the study of law which he had begun in 1858. In 1867 he came to Brownsville and engaged in the study, and later the practice of law. November 14, 1870, he was appointed clerk and master of the chancery court, of Haywood County by Chancellor James Fentress and held the position continuously under the various chancellors to the present time. He has always been an unswerving Democrat in politics and has taken an active part in the local campaigns of the county. He is a Royal Arch Mason and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1846.

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This family biography is one of 82 biographies included in the book,  The History of Haywood County, Tennessee published in 1886 by Goodspeed.  The History of Haywood County was included within The History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties, Tennessee

View additional Haywood County, Tennessee family biographies here: Haywood County, Tennessee

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