Wilburn Hiles, one of the substantial farmers of the Fifth District of Coffee County, Tennessee, was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, July 30, 1826. He is the son of Joseph Hiles, a native of North Carolina, who was born in 1796, and immigrated to Tennessee in early days.
Our subject, brought up on the farm, attended the common schools. He was engaged in merchandising at Flat Creek, Bedford County, when he entered the service of the Confederacy, and was detailed to raise stock and grain for the Southern Army. Later he became a member of Norman’s battalion, and at the battle of Chickamauga was wounded in the right leg, disabling him. He joined his parents, then refugees in Georgia and after the war engaged in merchandising at Somerville, Tennessee; later he returned to Bedford County, then to Coffee County, and engaged in farming.
He was married, in 1866, to Minerva Bobo, born in Bedford County in 1843. To them have been born the following nine children: Joseph E., born in 1868; W. Evan, in 1870; Mary E., in 1872; James W., in 1874 (died in 1885); Frank K., in 1876; Walter S. in 1878; Lena M., in 1880; Daisy D., in 1882, and Gracie T., in 1884. The mother is a member of the Primitive Baptist Church.