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Below is a family biography included in The History of Gibson 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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John C. Carlton is one of sixteen children born to the marriage of Crawford Carlton and Martha Harris. He is a Tennessean, born in 1837, and up to the age of twenty he resided with his father on a farm. At that time he began to battle his own way in the world. At the age of twenty-two he was united in marriage to Sarah J. Ashley, daughter of Halford and Levina (Hale) Ashley. She was born in Tennessee in 1838, and is the mother of five sons and three daughters—two sons and one daughter of whom are dead. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service in the Forty-seventh Tennessee Regiment, under Col. Hill, and remained with the same about fifteen months; then joined Gen. Forest’s cavalry, and remained with him until the close of the war. He arrived home in April, 1865, after participating in some of the hardest fought battles of the war. Since his return he has farmed and worked at the carpenter’s trade at intervals, and in 1870 located on his present farm, consisting of seventy-five acres of fairly improved land. He was elected justice of the peace in 1877, and is making a good and efficient officer. He and wife are members of the Christian Church, and he is a Democrat, a Mason, and belongs to the I. O. O. F. His parents were born in Tennessee, and the father was a farmer by occupation, and held the office of magistrate for many years previous to the war. He was a resident of Gibson County at the time of his death, which occurred in 1864, being in his fifty-third year.

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This family biography is one of 242 biographies included in The History of Gibson County, Tennessee published in 1887.  The History of Gibson 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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