Col. J. G. Weems, farmer, was born July 4, 1829, in Greene County, where he has since resided. He was first engaged for seven years in the firm of Bailey & Weems, merchants and stock dealers, but since 1857 he has been farming. His father gave him $1,500, and he now owns about 500 acres of land where he resides, besides 267 acres elsewhere. May 15, 1856, he married Mary J., a daughter of William M. Williams, a native of Greene County. Their children were Laura E., George M., Eliza M. (deceased), Thomas B., Joel A., Charles P., John G. (deceased), Mary E., William M., James R. and Robert T. Both are Methodists, and he is a leader among Prohibitionists. Politically he was a Democrat until 1884, at which time he took up the cause of the Prohibitionists. He served four years as a justice, and then resigned. He is a Master Mason. He is the second of eight children of George and Matilda (Keele) Weems, natives of Greene and Jefferson (now Hamblen) Counties, respectively, the former deceased in July, 1839, aged forty-four, and the latter in December, 1863, aged about fifty-nine. John Weems, of North Carolina, was the next ancestor, and of Irish stock. Our subject was a colonel of State militia.
