My Genealogy Hound

J. W. Godwin, of Godwin Bros., general merchants, was born in Grainger County, December 27, 1839, the son of Jacob and Caroline (Easley) Godwin. The father was born in Fincastle, Va., and in early life came with his parents to Grainger County. He afterward became a farmer and hotel keeper at Bean’s Station and Rutledge, and served in several official capacities, and his death occurred in 1850. The mother also of Grainger County, was the daughter of W. Easley, Sr., and died in 1856, a member of the Presbyterian Church. Her father was a Baptist. Our subject was reared on the farm and educated at Madison Academy, at Rutledge, and when sixteen went to live with his uncle, Warham Easley, Jr., and entered that gentleman’s store at Rutledge, but July 4, 1861, he enlisted in Company D, Twenty-sixth Confederate Tennessee Infantry, and in February, 1862, was taken prisoner at the capitulation of Fort Donelson, and carried to Camp Douglas. He was exchanged September 23, 1862, at Vicksburg, and when the regiment was reorganized at Knoxville, he was elected lieutenant, but would not serve and was soon transferred to Company F, First Tennessee Cavalry, of which he was orderly sergeant. Thirteen months after he was captured at Henderson’s Mill, East Tennessee, and taken to Camp Chase, Ohio, thence to Rock Island, where, after seventeen months, he was sent to Richmond and paroled in March, 1865, and given a thirty days’ furlough. He was at Roanoke, Va., when peace was declared, and then engaged in merchandising at Rutledge, and a year and a half later became a partner with his uncle, and later with his brother. In 1870 he moved to Mossy Creek, and began their present business. In September, 1866, he married Ida, a daughter of Octavius Yoe, and born in 1849, in Grainger County. Seven of their eight children are living. He and his wife are Presbyterians.