My Genealogy Hound

C. H. Ferrell, nursery-man and associate editor of the Weekly Messenger of Humboldt, Tenn., was born December 25, 1837, one of five children of Dent and Charity (Shaw) Ferrell, who were born in North Carolina, and of Scotch-Irish extraction. The father was a farmer and was married in his native State early in the twenties. He removed to West Tennessee in a one-horse cart about 1825, and located in Dyer County, where he, in time, owned about 1,800 acres of land and some twenty-five negroes. He was six feet and six inches in height and weighed 200 pounds, with no surplus flesh, and was a man of great physical endurance. He died in 1849, his wife having died nine days sooner. He was a Democrat and a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. At the age of twelve years, our subject was left an orphan and began doing for himself. At the age of twenty, he farmed and kept house for himself, and in 1859 he began operating a steam saw and grist-mill. In 1861 he enlisted in the Newbern “Blues” Twelfth Regiment, Tennessee Confederate Infantry. He was at Belmont and Shiloh, and was wounded and captured at the latter engagement. He was confined at Alton, Ill., for several months and was exchanged by accident in answering to another’s name, the comrade being sick at the time. He rejoined his regiment, which had been changed from infantry to cavalry, and served until the close, participating in many fierce encounters. He resumed farming and milling, and was also engaged in the mercantile business for some time. In 1874 he began keeping a nursery in this county, and he, in company with G. D. Ferrell and T. C. Ferrell, is doing a large business, and employs sixty salesmen. In July, 1885, the Weekly Messenger was established. Mr. Ferrell is a Democrat and was married April 7, 1864, to Lavinia K. Scales, of Gibson County, and they are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mr. Ferrell, in 1884, introduced the Holstein cattle into West Tennessee, and now has a small herd.