My Genealogy Hound

Abner J. Fletcher is a Gibson County Tennessean, born in 1828, son of William and L. (Jones) Fletcher. William Fletcher is of English descent, born in Maryland. He removed to North Carolina, and there married Miss Jones, who was born in that State. They came to Tennessee in 1822, and the father farmed, and supported a family of twelve children. He died in 1844, and his wife in 1853, being sixty-four and sixty-seven years of age respectively. After his father’s death Abner J. lived with his widowed mother until 1852. In 1850 he married Mary O., daughter of John and Mary O. Wilkes. She was born in Tennessee, in 1831, and became the mother of seven children, four of whom are dead. In 1868 Mr. Fletcher took for his second wife Martha J. Johnson, daughter of Albert S. and Nancy M. Johnson. She is a Tennessean, born in 1851, and has borne her husband one child. Mr. Fletcher located near Rutherford in 1852, and seven years later located in the town, and he and Charles Griffey engaged in the saddlery business. A year later Mr. Fletcher purchased the entire stock, and has since added furniture, groceries and hardware. In 1870 his residence and its entire contents, amounting to about $1,800, was destroyed by fire, without insurance. He has been a deacon in the Baptist Church for thirty-seven years, and became a Knights Templar Mason in 1861, also a member of the K. of H. for a number of years. He is also a member of the Golden Rule, the Ministers’ Life Association, of Lafayette, Ind., the Central Benefit Association, of Union City, and the I. O. O. F. Our subject is a descendant of Rev. John Fletcher, co-laborer of John Wesley and Whitefield in the cause of Methodism, and is a strong Prohibitionist and a deserving and honorable citizen.