Thomas H. Roddy

      Thomas H. Roddy, M. D., a well known practicing physician of Ooltewah, and clerk and master of the chancery court of James County, is a native of Tennessee , and was born in Meigs County , December 28, 1830. He is the son of John and Elizabeth (Lane) Roddy. The father was of English descent, was born in Jefferson County, Tenn., about 1795, and died in Hamilton County, Tenn., in 1844. His father, James Roddy, was quite a prominent citizen of Jefferson County , and was a member of the constitutional Convention of Tennessee, in 1836. The mother of our subject was a native of Georgia, and was born in that State about 1800. She died in Hamilton County, Tenn., in 1863. The parents were married in Jefferson County, Tenn. The father was engaged in agricultural pursuits during life, and made the business a success. He was an old line Whig. Our subject is the youngest of eight children. He secured a good academical education in his youth, by his own effort, in his native county. At the age of fourteen his father died, and for the next ten years he gave his time and attention to the support of his widowed mother. In 1848 he commenced the study of medicine, by reading under Dr. John L. Yarnell, and for the four or five years, while clerking in Dr. Yarnell's store, he gave all of his spare time to the study of medicine, and in the fall of 1856 went to the medical department of the University of Nashville, where he duly received his diploma as doctor of medicine in the spring of 1858. After his graduation lie located at Harrison , Hamilton County , commenced to practice, and continued at that place until 1865, at which time he came to Ooltewah, where he has since been engaged in practice. At the organization of James County, or soon thereafter, he was appointed, by Hon. D. M. Key, clerk and master of James County, and six years afterward he was reappointed by Chancelor William M. Bradford to the same office, and now holds the same. Our subject is a self-made man. He now owns a farm in James County of 320 acres of good land, under a high state of cultivation, one improved lot and five unimproved lots in Ooltewah, and a half interest in sixty-five acres of iron ore land on White Oak Mountain. He has been married three times: First to Miss Zerelda Yarnell, who was a daughter of his old preceptor in medicine. This marriage occurred in April, 1851; this lady died in March 1854. Second to Mrs. E. D. Watkins, whose maiden name was Martin, in 1871; died in August, 1874. Third to Miss Sidnah C. McDonald, December, 1876; this lady is still living, and presides over his hospitable home. One son was the result of the first marriage; two daughters of the second, and four by the last marriage. One daughter, Pearl , by the second marriage, died in August, 1874. Our subject before the war was an old line Whig, and is now a Democrat. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. His first wife was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church; his second wife of the Missionary Baptist Church , and his present wife of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

“Goodspeed’s History of East Tennessee,” James County , 1887.