Joab L. McCollum

       Joab L. McCollum, agent for the North Carolina & St. Louis Railroad at Chattanooga, is a native of Dade County, Ga., born May 10, 1842; son of Joab and Sarah (Wood) McCollum, natives respectively of South Carolina and Georgia. Our subject was reared and educated in his native State. Upon the breaking out of the war he enlisted in Gen. John B. Gordon's (now governor) original company, known then as the "Raccoon Roughs," and served throughout the war, being promoted through the various grades to major. He was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, Va., also at Chancellorsville, Spottylsvania and Petersburg, some of these were very severe wounds in the head and limbs. April 19, 1866, he married Miss Bettie A. Holmes, a native of Whitesburg, Ala., and they have two sons and five daughters living. Soon after the war Mr. McCollum began railroading on the Alabama & Chattanooga Road, in this city, served in various capacities as agent, acting treasurer, book­keeper, master of transportation and superintendent of the road from 1868 to 1871. In the latter year he entered the employ of the North Carolina & St. Louis Railroad, as conductor. During the latter part of 1873 he entered the service of the S. & L. & S. E. Railroad as assistant superintendent, and served this road about one year, with headquarters at Nashville. He re-entered the employ of the North Carolina & St. Louis Railroad in the latter part of 1874 as train master at Chattanooga, and the following year was made agent at Chattanooga. Mr. McCollum is a Democrat, a Mason, a member of the K. T., A. O. U. W., K. of G. R., and of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887