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Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Lauderdale County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  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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Attwood Pierson, residing at Double Bridges, Tenn., and a prominent farmer of Lauderdale County, was born within two miles of his present home September 16, 1856. His father, John F. Pierson, was born at Derby, Conn., and in his ninth year, imbued with the love of travel and Western adventure, went to the State of Ohio and remained there until his eighteenth year, when he went to an Eastern seaboard and spent two years in shipbuilding. He then attended a law school at Lexington, Ky., where he graduated with high honors, and located at Vicksburg, Miss., to practice law. He remained there several years, and passed through one of the fearful scourges of yellow fever peculiar to the place, and this caused him to leave there and to change his plans, so he moved to Hale’s Point, in Lauderdale County, where he established himself as shipping merchant and dealer in general merchandise. He became one of the large land owners of Lauderdale County, and was a man of extensive reading and sound judgment, and was acknowledged by all to be an upright, conscientious, honorable gentleman. Mr. Pierson, Sr., married Miss E. Lee, who was descended from the oldest and most prominent families of Virginia, her father being a relative of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and her mother of Franklin Pierce. Eight children were born to this marriage, five of them now living. Our subject, Attwood Pierson, inherited Scotch and Irish blood. His father died at Ripley, Tenn., September 8, 1878, and his mother at the same place September 11, 1881. Mr. Pierson was well educated, and has made farming his chief business. He was married in the house where he now lives February 18, 1880, to Miss Mattie L. Jones, a daughter of Decatur P. Jones, and has had three children: Egbert L., Kate F. and Neal Dow. Mrs. Pierson was born at the present homestead June 3, 1859. Mr. Pierson is neutral in politics. He owns a farm of 360 acres, and raises grain and stock. It is a splendid stock farm, well watered, and located at Double Bridges, in the northern part of Lauderdale County. Mr. Pierson is a man of great force of character, and strictly honest in every transaction.

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This family biography is one of 116 biographies included in the book,  The History of Lauderdale County, Tennessee published in 1886 by Goodspeed.  The History of Lauderdale County was included within The History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Lauderdale, Tipton, Haywood, and Crockett Counties, Tennessee

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

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