My Genealogy Hound

JAMES W. COLLINS is of Irish-Scotch descent and is a son of Elisha and Betsey (McGregor) Collins, who were born in North Carolina and Virginia in 1807. They came to Tennessee when young and here were married. Of their ten children seven are living. The father was a farmer and Democrat and died in 1872. The mother is yet living at the age of seventy-nine. February 15, 1832, is the date of our subject’s birth which occurred in Marshall County. Being the eldest son he was obliged to assist his father on the farm, consequently his educational advantages were limited. At the age of twenty-one he began farming for himself and in 1861 volunteered in Company I, Second Mississippi Infantry. He was captured at Maryville, Tenn., but succeeded in making his escape. After the war he resumed farming and, in 1866, was united in marriage to Nancy McKnight, daughter of Ezekiel M. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have no children. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and in politics Mr. Collins is a Democrat. He owns a farm of 185 acres, the fruits of his own labor.