G. S. Deakins, farmer, of the Thirteenth District of Coffee County, Tennessee, was born in Marion County (now Sequatchie) Tennessee, in 1832, and is the son of William and Sarah (Richards) Deakins, natives of Tennessee. The father died in 1848 and the mother in 1836. Both were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Reared on the farm with a common school education, he also attended Burritt College at Spencer, Tennessee, and later, Emory and Henry College of Virginia. Having entered the law school of Lebanon (Tennessee) University in 1860, the civil war caused him to enter the confederate service, in Company H, Thirty fifth Regiment of Infantry. After the war and a resident in his native county for some time, he went to Jasper, Tennessee, where he was appointed clerk and master of the Chancery Court, holding this until his resignation four years later. In 1884 he removed to Tullahoma, and after a year’s residence there began farming.
In 1860 he was married to Mary, daughter of Judge Frazier of Nashville. She died in 1863. In 1874 he married Mary A., daughter of F. A. Lochmiller, a native of Tennessee. They have two children: Vernie S., born February 8, 1875, and Fredrick T., born March 26, 1886. Both our subject and wife are members of the Old School Presbyterian Church.