My Genealogy Hound

JAMES O. OSLIN, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was born in Rutherford County, Tenn., September 22, 1835, a son of Lucas and Mary A. (Arnold) Oslin, who were both born in Virginia, and came to Tennessee in 1825 and settled in Rutherford County. In January, 1850, they removed to Murfreesboro, at which place his father died in 1851, and his mother in 1864. After the death of his father his mother remained a widow the balance of her life. They both died members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. James spent his early days on a farm and secured a limited education. He learned the brick-mason and plasterer’s trade, and followed that occupation until the war between the States, when he, in April, 1861, enlisted as private in Company A, Second Tennessee Infantry, and served until the battle of Chickamauga, where he lost his left leg. He was in the first battle of Manassas, Shiloh, Richmond, Ky., Perryville, Ky., and Stone River. He never missed a battle or skirmish that his regiment engaged in until after he had lost his leg, as above stated. After he was wounded he remained with kind friends and relatives in Alabama and Georgia until the close of the war. He returned home in July, 1865, and engaged as clerk in a mercantile store, and after a year or more he accepted the position of deputy register of Rutherford County, continuing until January, 1870, when he was elected recorder of the city of Murfreesboro, serving but three months, when he resigned and became a candidate for the office of county court clerk, and was elected in August, 1870, under the new State constitution, and served by re-election until 1878. In March, 1879, he engaged in the sale and livery stable business, and while he remained as one of the proprietors of the “City Stables” he did the leading business of the city, and has been fairly prosperous. Mr. Oslin is an own cousin of the gunner, James Oslin, of Vicksburg, Miss., who threw the grape-shot referred to in the history of the Mexican war at the battle of Buena Vista, where Gen. Taylor told Capt. Bragg to “give ‘em a little more grape, Capt. Bragg, a little more grape.” Mr. Oslin in a stanch Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He belongs to the I. O. O. F., K. of H. and A. O. U. W. fraternities. He is the owner of the Stone River Stock Farm, near the city, and gives nearly his entire time and attention to breeding Holstein, Friesian cattle, some of which are second to none in America.