Sparta Tennessee

Biography of J.J. Smith

J.J. Smith, of the firm Smith Bros., the well-known proprietors of a general store of Smithville, established their house in the fall of 1877. He is the sons of William S. and Catherine J. (Tippitt) Smith. The father was of English-Irish descent, born in Wilson County, Tenn., in 1823. His father, John Y. Smith, was a native of Virginia, and located in Wilson County when a small boy. He died in 1865. William S. married in 1842, and settled in the Eleventh District, where he became the possessor of 175 acres of land. He was a farmer and stock raiser. … Read more

Biography of D.W. Dinges

D. W. Dinges, a notary public, and a leading business man of Alexandria, was born in 1836, in Warren County, Va., the youngest of five children of Wm. M. and Clara P. E. (Lincoln) Dinges, both natives of Virginia. The father was born about 1810, of Scotch- Dutch decent, a son of Mortica Dinges. He was a blacksmith, and spent his entire life in his native State, where he died in 1837. His wife was born about 1814, and is living in White County. She moved to Tennessee soon after her husband’s death. She has been three times married; is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Hon. Paine Page Prim

HON. PAINE PAGE PRIM. – Always to be remembered along with such men as Thornton, Strong, Kelly, Lancaster and Boice, among the judiciary lights of our state, is Judge Prim. He is a Tennesseean by birth, and graduated from the law school at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, and began his first legal practice at Sparta in White county of the same state. Like many ambitious young men of the East, he looked to the West as his best field, and came to Missouri in 1851, but arriving at Independence, joined an emigrant train and came on to Oregon. arriving in … Read more