J. D. Wooton, M. D., a leading physician of Manchester, was born in Warren County, Tennessee, April 5, 1840. He is the son of Jonathan and Nancy (Hampton) Wooton, the former born in 1792, in North Carolina, and died in Warren County, in 1877; the latter born in 1802, in Kentucky, and died in February 1886. The elder Wooton was a farmer, a soldier of the Revolution, and a consistent member of the Christian Church, while in political faith he was a Whig. His wife, a near relative of General Wade Hampton, was a member of the Baptist Church.
Our subject, the youngest of six children, received, besides his early education, a course at Burritt College. He soon after sold goods for his brother-in-law, Dr. A. B. Davis, at what is now Viola. In 1859 he entered the medical department of the University of Nashville, and graduated before he reached his majority. He soon enlisted as second lieutenant in Company D, Thirty-fifth Tennessee Regiment Infantry, and Confederate Army. He served as assistant surgeon, and acted as chief surgeon at various times. He acquired considerable reputation for skill in his long service, surrendering with Johnston at Greensboro, N. C. A hip-joint amputation of the leg of a comrade might be mentioned as an example of his skill and the confidence of his fellows. He located at Viola, and for fifteen years was one of the leading physicians of the county. Since 1880 he has been equally successful in Manchester, engaging also in merchandising with a stock of $10,000, the care of his two plantations of 1,500 and 450 acres in Coffee and Warren Counties, the latter of which feeds a stock of about 100 young mules. He owns a half interest in the Duck River Paper Mills, the largest south of the Ohio River, and the only ones in Tennessee that make wood pulp. He is a self-made man.
July 20, 1865, he married Fannie Hickerson, a cultured lady, daughter of Judge W. P. Hickerson. They have two children: Wade H., aged seventeen, and Lillie, aged twenty. Mr. Wooton is a believer in the Christian religion, though not a member of any church, while in political faith he is democratic. Mrs. Wooton is a member of the Christian Church.