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Below is a family biography included in The History of Dyer County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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William L. Wilkerson is by profession a teacher, but is also clerk of the county court of Dyer, and resides in the Seventh District. He was born in Humphreys County, April 6, 1864, and is one of a family of five living children: Mrs. Alice M. Young, Meredith D., Wm. L., Clarence and Herbert. His father, Dr. J. B. Wilkerson, is of Irish extraction, and was born in Wilson County, July 4, 1834. His grandfather, Meredith Wilkerson, was a native of Appomattox County, Va., born in 1783, and moved to Wilson County, in 1807, settling about twelve miles from the Hermitage, where he died in 1856. When our subject’s father was twenty-two years of age, he commenced the study of medicine with his brother, T. J. Wilkerson, near Lebanon, Tenn.; he then entered the medical department of the University of Nashville, and during the vacation of 1858 went to Oxford, Miss., to practice; in the autumn of the same year, he returned to college and graduated, and married in May, 1859, Mrs. Martha A. Taylor, of Williamson County. He then moved to Humphreys County, then to Gardner’s Station, then to Crockett County, near Bell’s Depot, and then near Eaton, Gibson County, where he combined the practice of medicine and farming. In 1881 he moved to Dyer County, and bought a farm five miles east of Dyersburg, and has since resided there, practicing medicine. In 1870 he was candidate for the election, as a delegate to the constitutional convention, to revise the State constitution, being defeated by only 130 votes, in a district composed of several counties, his opponent being Judge Wm. F. Daughterty. Mrs. Wilkerson was born in Arkansas, in 1834; her grandfather was a native of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson are both members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Our subject, Wm. L. Wilkerson, was educated at home, and when he was eighteen years old commenced teaching, and has made an enviable reputation, although so young, as an educator of Dyer County. His popularity was emphasized by his election, by a large majority, to the office of county court clerk, in August, 1886. He is in politics a Democrat.
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This family biography is one of 128 biographies included in The History of Dyer County, Tennessee published in 1887 by Goodspeed. The History of Dyer County was included within The History of Gibson, Obion, Dyer, Weakley & Lake Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Gibson, Obion, Dyer, Weakley, and Lake Counties of Tennessee
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