The legal profession of Franklin county numbers among its representative members Jesse Baldwin Templeton of Winchester. He was born in Coffee county on the 3d of July, 1878, a son of Dr. John W. and Susan Thaddeus (Jones) Templeton. The maternal grandparents were Will and Eunice Jones, natives of Mississippi, while the paternal grandparents were Obadiah and Rebecca Templeton, natives of Tennessee. Dr. John W. Templeton was born in 1838. He is now living retired in Winchester. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war Dr. Templeton enlisted in the Confederate army at Tullahoma and was appointed a captain under General Forrest's command. He had charge of the hospital at Corinth, Mississippi, and was active in the battle of Chickamauga. He served on the staff of Brigadier General Johnson until the close of the war and was discharged at the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. He then returned to his native state and engaged in the practice of his profession, meeting with well deserved success. Jesse Baldwin Templeton had four brothers and one sister: Watson G., who is division superintendent of the N. C. & St. Louis Railroad at Nashville; Jones T., who is vice president of the Buck Stove & Range Company of St. Louis; Harvey M., who is a well known attorney of Winchester; Barter W., who was born in 1880 and died in 1911; and Addie J., born in 1870, and whose demise occurred in 1908.
The public schools of Coffee county afforded Jesse Baldwin Templeton his education until he was eleven years of age, when he removed with his parents to Wartrace and was graduated from the high school there. In early life he formed a penchant for the legal profession and subsequently read law in the office of H. M. Templeton at [p.91] Winchester. In 1907 he was admitted to the bar and has since practiced here. He has won a prominent position among the foremost attorneys of the Franklin county bar and holding to the highest of professional ethics, has won the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen, including his professional brethren. He is legal representative for four banks in this county. Aside from his profession Mr. Templeton has extensive farm interests.
In Nashville, on the 14th of November, 1900, occurred the marriage of Jesse Baldwin Templeton to Miss Jessie Gant, a daughter of W. W. and Tennie (Williams) Gant, natives of this state. To their union one child has been born: Dorothy Tennessee, whose birth occurred in 1911.
In his political views Mr. Templeton is a stanch democrat and although he has never sought nor desired public preferment, he is ever cognizant of the duties and obligations of citizenship and is never too busy to give his aid in the furtherance of any movement for the development and improvement of the town, county and state. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason and he is likewise affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. Socially he is a member of the Civitan Club and along strictly professional lines is identified with the American and Tennessee State Bar associations. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. During the World war Mr. Templeton gave generously of his time and money in the furtherance of the government's interests. He was not only active in the promotion of all drives but served on the local exemption board.
Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 2 -- transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
