My Genealogy Hound

Robert Collier, a well known and enterprising farmer of the Tenth District, was born in Shelby County, Ky., in 1831. He is one of six children of Thomas and Susan (Parker) Collier. The father was of Irish descent, born in Virginia in 1800, and emigrated west with his parents when a small child. He remained with them until his majority. Previous to the days of railroads he was engaged in hauling goods by wagons. In 1847 he moved to Sumner County and purchased a farm of 100 acres, eleven miles northeast of Gallatin. He settled there, tilled the soil in connection with his wagoning until his death in 1850. His wife was of Irish descent, born in 1803, ten miles northeast of Gallatin. She died in 1872, at subject’s home, seven miles north of Gallatin. The subject of this sketch was principally educated at the Rural Academy, Sumner County. In 1856 he married Margaret A., daughter of George W. and Rebecca (Peyton) Parker, and granddaughter of John Peyton, one of the first surveyors of Tennessee. The marriage took place at the Parker farm, where Mrs. Sue M. Butler now resides. To this union thirteen children were born, of whom are living John P., Daisy, Patty M., David H., Susan, Elizabeth, Leon Hix and Maud. Those deceased are Lulu, Thomas Nathaniel, Claud and Parker. At time of marriage our subject purchased a farm of 175 acres near the homestead. Fourteen years later he bought the place upon which he now resides. In the fall of 1861 he entered the Confederate service, enlisting in the Forty-fourth Tennessee Regiment. In March, 1862, he went home on a furlough, and while at home became very sick with typhoid fever, on account of which he did not return to the army. He was a successful stock trader, shipping thousands of mules to New Orleans, and large numbers of cattle to Louisville, Buffalo and New York. He is one of the most progressive and prosperous agriculturalists of the county. He is a stanch Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Pierce. Two of his daughters, Daisy and Patty, are members of the Old School Presbyterian Church.