My Genealogy Hound

Col. J. N. Wyatt, a prominent citizen, merchant and farmer, living at Newbern, was born in Dyer County, March 23,1828, and is, perhaps, the oldest man living who was born in the county. His parents, Joseph and Martha M. (Walton) Wyatt, had eleven children; five still survive. His father was born in North Carolina, February 1, 1796. As his parents died when he was quite small he came to Tennessee with Leven Cater, who was a pioneer settler of the State. Mr. Wyatt, Sr., was a farmer by occupation, and died in 1880. Our subject’s mother was born in Virginia, in 1801, and is still living. Col. Wyatt received most of his education at Bethel College; the school has since been moved to McKenzie. In 1854 he married Miss Martha A., daughter of Hamilton and Martha Parks. She was born in Sumner County, in 1835, and died in 1861. From 1847 to 1852 Col. Wyatt was in Mexico and California, and during this time crossed the plains from Kansas City to Mexico, and back to Independence, Mo., then to California. During the time he was in the mercantile business, both in Mexico and Sacramento, Cal.; then returned to Tennessee, and attended college. In 1861 he enlisted in Company C., Twelfth Tennessee Infantry, and served one year as captain; was then promoted to the rank of major, and at the end of a year was again promoted to lieutenant-colonel; then to colonel, which rank he held until the war closed, making a brilliant record as a soldier of the Confederate Army. At the close of the war, in 1865, he brought the first stock of goods to Newbern, and in connection with merchandising has been farming most of the time, owning two fine farms, one a half mile east of Newbern, of 150 acres, and the other three miles east, consisting of 236 acres. In 1865 he married Miss P. V. Parks, a half-sister of his first wife. She was born in 1843. They have five children: J. H., I. W., W. P., E. R. and Hardee. He is a Democrat, and as he was in the Mexican war, was allowed, when nineteen years old, to cast his first vote for President for Lewis Cass, of Michigan. Has taken all of the degrees in Masonry. Col. and Mr. Wyatt are Cumberland Presbyterians.