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Below is a family biography included in The History of Sumner County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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David Chenault, a substantial farmer and citizen of the First District of Sumner County, was born in Madison County, Ky., in 1833, and was the third child of a family of nine sons and five daughters, all living but one daughter, and all of the sons living in Sumner County but one. They are prosperous farmers and all owning adjoining farms, there being over 2,500 acres in one body, of the most fertile land in Sumner County. The father was of French descent, born in Madison County, Ky., in 1800, and a son of David Chenault, a native of Virginia, born about 1768, and died in 1852. He moved to Madison County, Ky., when ten years old, with his father, William Chenault, who was a native of France. He spent the rest of his life in Madison County, and was a man of wealth and prominence, and was a Baptist minister for over forty years. David Chenault, our subject’s father, was married in 1827, and came to Sumner County in 1836, and purchased the farm on which stood the old Greenfield Fort, and he became one of the most successful farmers and extensive land owners in Sumner County. He was a man of fine character, industrious and charitable. He died in 1883. The mother was also a native of Madison County, and still lives at the old homestead in her seventy-sixth year, a faithful member of the Christian Church. The Chenaults are one of the most highly respected families in Sumner County. Our subject received a good common-school and business education. February, 1856, he was married to Miss Martha Elizabeth, daughter of Horace and Mary (Brown) Head. Four sons and two daughters, out of the nine children born to this marriage, are living: Walker, Elizabeth (wife of Daniel C. Amos, near Bowling Green, Ky.), Lutie, Joe, David Horace and Frank. At the time of his marriage he was located in District No. 11, where he remained until 1858, when he settled below Gallatin, and in 1860 located on the farm where he now resides, and which he has since increased to 620 acres of land, well cultivated, and with a handsome brick residence on it. He is a man of fine judgment and kind heart, and a valuable citizen. He was formerly a Whig, and cast his first presidential vote for Fillmore in 1856, but since the war has been a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Chenault and three of the children are members of the Christian Church. Mrs. Chenault was born at Hickman, Ky., July 29, 1837; her father was a native of Orange County, Va., and her mother of Sumner County.

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This family biography is one of 115 biographies included in The History of Sumner County, Tennessee published in 1887.  The History of Sumner County was included within The History of Sumner, Smith, Macon & Trousdale Counties of Tennessee. View the complete description here: History of Sumner, Smith, Macon and Trousdale Counties of Tennessee

View additional Sumner County, Tennessee family biographies here: Sumner County, Tennessee

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