Washington L. Alexander, a farmer of Lake County, Tennessee, is the son of Samuel B. and Mary (Slone) Alexander. His parents were both born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the father in 1794 and the mother in 1797. They married and lived in that state until 1826, when they moved to Missouri, from there to middle Tennessee and then to Mississippi, but soon returned to Tennessee, locating near Trenton, Gibson County. They had ten children, and were members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Alexander was a Whig before the war, and a republican afterward, and for many years was a magistrate. Mrs. Alexander died in 1867, and he then married Mrs. Martha Hassell; they had no children and he died in 1876.
Our subject, W. L. Alexander, was born December 6, 1832, on the field where the battle of Shiloh was fought. He received a good education and taught school for ten years. After having clerked in a store for awhile he was then in the commission business for three years. In 1866 he married Jennie Wall, and they had five sons and three daughters. She died in 1884, and the same year he married Mrs. Virginia Mooney, who had three children by a former marriage. They have one child. His first wife was a Cumberland Presbyterian, his second a Missionary Baptist.
Mr. Alexander has resided in Lake County for eight years and has been a magistrate during that time. In politics he is a democrat. Since his marriage he has been farming very successfully, owning 400 acres of good land. He has thoroughly identified himself with the interests of Lake County, and has become one of her most useful citizens.