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Giles County, Tennessee
Smith Biographies
PRESTON SMITH was born in Giles County, on Dec. 25, 1823. He was educated in the country schools and Jackson College, Columbia. He studied law and practiced here for several years, then went to Waynesboro and then to Memphis. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was made colonel of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee. He took part in the battle of Shiloh, in which he was severely wounded. He also took part in the Kentucky campaign. After the victory at Richmond, Ky., he was commissioned a brigadier-general. He was mortally wounded in the battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863.
(Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 2, John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1923)
PROF. WILLIAM J. SMITH, merchant, is a son of Lawrence and Mary J. (Overstreet) Smith, who were born in North Carolina and Tennessee in 1807 and 1818, respectively. The father immigrated to Tennessee about 1815, and settled in Maury County, and there died in 1879. William J., our subject, was born in Giles County, July 28, 1837, and after fitting himself for college at Pisgah, Tenn., completed his education in Lebanon University, at Lebanon, Tenn., and entered North Carolina University in 1862. In the late civil war he served in Company B, Forty-eighth Tennessee Infantry, and was captured at Port Hudson, but was soon paroled. After the battle of Missionary Ridge, he was in Gen. J. K. Johnston's army and later in Hood's army. He was captured at the second battle of Nashville and taken to Camp Douglas, and there held until the close of the war. For fifteen years subsequent to the war he taught school in Alabama, and was pronounced a competent and successful educator. Since 1881 he has resided in Lynnville, Tenn., and he and his brother, C. A. Smith, are associated in the merchandise business, the style of the firm being Smith Bros. Our subject is also engaged in farming; and in 1873 was married to S. E. Scruggs, at Portland, Ala. Prof. Smith is a Mason and is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. (Goodspeed's History of Giles County, 1886)
NATHAN A. SMITH'S birth occurred in Giles County, Tenn., March 24, 1857, and he there received his education in the common schools. He has always followed the fortunes of a farmer's life, and in 1874 located on 143 acres of valuable and well-improved land. In 1878 he was united in marriage to Loretta K. Shields, of Giles County, and five children are the result of their union: Susie, Jimmie, Owen B., John A. and one infant daughter. Mr. Smith is of Irish extraction, and in politics is a Democrat, and he and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. His wife is a daughter of James and Eliza Shields, and he is a son of Nathan and Frances Smith, who were born in Virginia and Tennessee, respectively, and were married about the year 1835. Eleven children were born to them, named Elizabeth, Thomas G., David J. Susan A., Owen S., William C., Nathan A., Fannie, Sallie J., Charles V. and one infant, deceased. The father died in 1864 but the mother is still living. (Goodspeed's History of Giles County, 1886)
THURMAN SMITH is well known in the financial circles of Pulaski as cashier and director of the Union Bank. A native of Giles county, his birth occurred on the 30th of October, 1883, a son of R. C. and Mary (Lloyd) Smith, likewise natives of this county. The paternal grandparents were R. M. and Sarah Smith of Tennessee, while the maternal grandparents were G. W. and Mary (Thurman) Lloyd. R. C. Smith was born in 1858 and has engaged in farming all of his life, achieving substantial success in that connection. His wife was born in 1861. Both are representative and highly esteemed citizens of the community in which they reside.
The public schools of Giles county afforded Thurman Smith his early education and subsequently
he attended the Abernathy Preparatory School at Pulaski. Upon the completion of his education
he returned to the home farm, whereon he resided until he was twenty-one years of age, when
he came to Pulaski and accepted a position as clerk and bookkeeper in a dry goods store. He was
active in those capacities for some time and then became bookkeeper for the Union Bank & Trust
Company, now the Union Bank. He discharged the many duties devolving upon him in that
position with great efficiency and on the 15th of March, 1920, he was elected cashier of the
institution. He is now serving in that important office and has made many friends for the bank. He
is also a director in the bank. The success he has achieved in a business way is well merited, for it
is the result of his own labors. Aside from the bank he has extensive farming interests and is
identified with an insurance company here.
On the 17th of February, 1910, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Wilburn
Dunnavant, a daughter of R. L. and Dolly Dunnavant, natives of this state and prominent
residents of Elkton, Tennessee. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith three children have been born: Jennie
Marie, whose birth occurred in 1910; Dorothy, born in 1913; and Robert C., born in 1915.
Politically Mr. Smith is a democrat and although he is not actively interested in party affairs his aid
can always be counted upon in the furtherance of any movement for the upbuilding of the
community. His religious faith is that of the Methodist church, in which he is a steward.
(Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 3, John Trotwood Moore and Austin P. Foster, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1923)
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