John C. Banks

       
      John C. Banks is a native of Olney, IL, born September 29, 1852, and the Son of John and Martha (Pulliam) Banks, both natives of Indiana. At the close of the late war our subject removed with his parents to Cynthiana, Ky., where he was reared and educated. He assisted his father in the stove and tin business until 1870 when he left home and went to Vincennes, Ind., there worked at his trade (tinner) for Smith & Sons until January, 1872. He married Miss Laura Snyder, and by this union became the father of one son named Charles H. In 1881 he removed to Chattanooga, Tenn., and was in the employ of Gibson, Lee & Co. until 1884, when he engaged in business for himself at 304 West Ninth Street. Upon the completion of the Adams Block he secured a large and commodious store room at 120 East Eighth Street, where he carries one of the largest and best selected stocks of stoves, crockery and house furnishing goods in the city, doing a wholesale and retail business (with one man on the road), and employing about twenty tinners. Mr. Banks is a Democrat, a member of the I. O. O. F. and K. of P., and of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887