J. C. FISHER’S ancestors were from
North Carolina. His father, George W. Fisher, wan born in August,
1812, and was brought to Tennessee by his parents when only four years
old. George W. Fisher married Elizabeth Helm who was born in North
Carolina, in 1814, and died in Tennessee in 1846. Our subject was
born in Marshall County, Tenn., January 16, 1838, and is the third of seven
children and of Irish descent. At the age of twenty years he began
clerking for W. S. Hurst, at Hurst’s Cross Roads, Murray County, continuing
two years. When the war broke out he joined the Confederate Army,
Company D, Fourth Tennessee Calvary, but after serving faithfully for some
time was compelled to abandon the service to some extent. For about
two years after the war he farmed and stock traded and then engaged in
the merchandise business in Verona and followed that business four years
with good results, the style of the firm being Fisher & Robinson.
In 1871 he sold his interest and moved to Fayetteville where he was a partner
of W. S. Hurst in the merchandise business two years. The firm then
divided their stock, and for three years longer MR. Fisher followed that
occupation in that place and in 1877 moved to Shelbyville. Since
185 he has been exclusively engaged in farming. May 1, 1873, he wedded
Mattie Bell (Daughter of G. W. and E. Bell), who has borne him six children:
Oscar B., Stella (deceased), Elbert H., James D., Hugh C. and George B.
Mr. Fisher has accumulated his property by his own exertions and is perhaps
the most thoroughly self-made man in this section of the county.
The greater part of his education has been acquired through self exertion.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sough, and his wife of
the Christian Church. Politically his is a Democrat.
B. F. FOSTER, ESQ., was born January
10, 1829, in Rutherford County, and was the son of James and Celia (Gentry)
Foster. The father was born April 22, 1800, and was a very successful
farmer for his day. The mother was born in 1803 in Georgia.
Our subject received a practical education in the district schools,
and at the age of nineteen engaged in the saw-mill business. This
he continued for about two years and then began teaching school.
At the end of fifteen months he gave this up and engaged in farming.
In 1870 he was elected magistrate, and served in this capacity for twelve
years. January, 1877, he was elected chairman of the county court
and held this position for about six years. Prior to this,
in a851, he wedded Nancy A. McBride, of this county, and the fruits
of this union were three children: James J., Charles R.. and the
eldest, Harriet M., who died in infancy. The mother of these children
died June 11, 1862. Mr. Foster was married to Frances Hoover, nee
Rankin, August 27, 1871. This union resulted in the birth of one
child, Lela G. Mrs. Foster was the mother of two children by her
former husband: they were named Thomas R. and H. C. Hoover. Mr. and
Mrs. Foster are members in good standing in the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, she is also a member of the Masonic Fraternity and also a Chapter
member of the same. He represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge in
Nashville five years in succession. He is a Democrat in Politics.
H. R. FREEMAN was born in Bedford
County, Tenn., December 25, 1835. From twenty-one years of age until
1961 he farmed for himself, and at the latter date enlisted in Company
F, Seventeenth Tennessee Infantry, and fought in many of the most noted
battles. He was commissary sergeant during the latter part of the
war. After his return he farmed until 1874, and then began merchandising
in Unionville. He has been very successful. October 13, 1867,
he wedded Salome Duggan, who died november 28, 1878. March 9, 1882,
he married Emma Barker. They have one child, Enid Freeman.
Mr. Freeman is a Democrat and Prohibitionist. His parents, Hartwell
and Nancy (Harris) Freeman, were born in North Carolina in 1797 and 1801,
respectively. The father was a well-to-do farmer, and died in 1871.
The mother is yet living and is eighty-five years of age.
JOHN G. FROST is a son of John E.
frost, a minister of the Primitive Baptist Church, who was born April 7,
1835, in Alabama. His mother was Alsie D. Hicks, daughter of D. D. and
Malinda Hicks. John G. Frost was born in Bedford County, October
13, 1859, and was the eighth of nine children. He assisted his father
on the farm until twenty-one years of age, and then began tilling the soil
on his own responsibility. In 1882 he went to Missouri,
where he farmed one year, but the same year traveled over the State of
Kansas and the Indian Territory. Since that time he has been engaged
in the farming interests in Tennessee. November 30, 1882, he was
married to Mattie J. Coleman, daughter of N. A. Coleman. She was
born January 12, 1861. They became the parents of three children,
two of home died in infancy. Joshua Wright is the child living.
Mr. Frost has been a church member since the fall of 1878. He belongs
to the Democratic party, and is worth $2,500.
WILLIAM A. FROST, editor and proprietor
of the Shelbyville Gazette, was born September 30, 1855, in Troy, Obion
Co., Tenn., being the eldest of five children of William D. and Martha
L. (Brown) Frost. The father is a physician and resides at Flat Creek
in this county. The mother died September 24, 1874. The subject
of this sketch was reared on a farm in Moore county, Tenn., and in Mississippi.
He remained with his parents to the age of nineteen, when he entered Mulberry
Institute, Lincoln County, Tenn., in which he took a two years’ course.
He then was appointed deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of Moore County.
After one year as deputy he was appointed clerk of the same court and held
the office three years. In December, 1878, he bought the Lynchburg
Sentinel, and published that paper till December 4, 1884, at which time
he was burned out. In 1880, June 30, he was appointed clerk and master
of the Chancery Court of Moore County, and served four years. January
1, 1884, he took charge of his present enterprise. He has refitted
the office with an entirely new outfit and make his the leading paper of
the country, and he is regarded as the most successful county newspaper
man in the State. He was elected alderman of the Second Ward of Shelbyville
in October, 1885, and is chairman of the finance committee. He is
justly regarded as a prominent and enterprising citizen. He was married,
May 4, 1880, to Miss Katie Whitaker, of Lincoln County. This unions
has been blessed in the birth of one son, William W. Politically
Mr. Frost is a firm Democrat.
WILLIAM D. FROST, M. D., was born
in Madison County, Ala., August 12, 1830 and is one of sic children born
to Ebenezer and Nancy (Wright) Frost. The father was born in north
Carolina, and in 1827 immigrated to Alabama where he remained until 1835,
and then removed to Bedford County, Tenn. He was one of the successful
farmers of the county. In 1837 he was employed by the Government
to aid in removing the Indians in the territory to which they were assigned,
and during one of these trips he died. He reared a family of which
the county is proud. All of them are prominent citizens
of the county. The subject of this sketch passed his boyhood on the farm,
and received a fair education in the county schools. In 1850 he began
the study of medicine, and in the same year entered the Ohio Medical
School of Cincinnati, where he remained one term. He then went to
Obion County, Tenn., and began the practice of his profession, remaining
there eight years, after which he went to Mississippi, where he remained
nine years. He then came back to Tennessee, and has since that time
been a faithful practitioner of Bedford County. In 1854 he wedded
Miss Martha L. Brown of Obion County, Tenn., a member of the Missionary
Baptist Church, who died in 1874. Mr. Frost was a soldier in the
late war; was in the Thirtieth Mississippi Regiment, and was severely wounded
at the battle of Chickamauga, which rendered him unfit for general service.
After this he acted as assistant surgeon of the regiment until the close
of the war. Mr. frost has a family of four children: William A.,
who is editor of the Shelbyville Gazette, Walter C. who is editing a paper
at Murfreesboro, and Clarinda E. and John W.
ALFRED D. FUGITT, farmer, was born
in Rutherford County, Tenn., November 8, 1813, son of Townsend and Jane
(Campbell) Fugitt, and of Irish-French descent. The father of our
subject was born in North Carolina in 1780, and the mother was born about
1784. They were married in North Carolina about 1799, and to them
were born eight children. The father emigrated from North Carolina to Kentucky
in 1804, and owned the land where Danville, Ky., now stands, but concluding
the land was too poor for successful farming, moved to Tennessee in 1806.
He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died November, 1 878, at the advanced
age of ninety-eight, the mother died in 1837. Our subject received
a fair education and followed farming and merchandising ever since.
He was married, January 10, 1837, to Miss Jane M. Norvell; of this alliance
there were born ten children - three sons: Glodolphus C., John N. and Alfred
T., and seven daughters: Sallie E., Mattie J., Maggie N., Cassie M., Mollie
B., Ada J. and Annie N. Mr. Fugitt was formerly an old-line Whig,
and while he entertains no particular love for the name of Democracy he
votes that ticket. He has 600 acres of good land, which he devotes
almost exclusively to stock raising. Mrs. Fugitt, wife of our subject,
was born in Bedford County, Tenn., September 5, 1814. Her father
John Norvell, emigrated form North Carolina about 1806, and was among the
pioneers of the State. Our subject had two sons in the late war,
Glodophus C., who was a captain in the Second Tennessee Regiment under
Col. Bate, was killed at Shiloh. The second son was a member of the
same regiment and was killed in Lincoln County, Tenn., in 1863. While
our subject was too old to partake of active service in the army, he display
his liberality and State pride in contributing the amount of $1,000 a month
to Capt. Fugitt’s company. The grandfather of our subject, Benjamin
Fugitt, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and served seven years.