J. A. Lancaster, a blacksmith at Newbern, was the son of Gabriel and Martha (Cotham) Lancaster, and was born in Hickman County, Tenn., in 1839, and was one of eleven children, ten of them now living. His grandfather, Benjamin Lancaster, was a native of North Carolina, and moved to Hickman County. His father was born in North Carolina in 1813. When twenty years old, he married Martha Cotham; he was then living in Hickman County, where he owned a farm. Soon after his marriage he became an ordained minister of the Primitive Baptist Church, and until his death was a zealous worker in the Master's cause. Mrs. Lancaster died in 1860, and the same year he married Mrs. Sarah Whitwell, and they had three children. He died in 1866, and was a man of decided ability. Our subject was educated in the country and raised on a farm. In 1857 he married Miss Nancy Raney; they had eight children, seven of them still living - James L., Martha J. (wife of O.F. Meadows), William H. L., John H., Riley F., Samuel D. and Leonard L. He was then farming in Perry County, but moved to Dyer County, two miles north of Newbern. In 1884 he moved to Newbern and commenced blacksmithing, at the end of the year forming a partnership with J. F. Arnet, the firm being Lancaster & Co. Mrs. Lancaster died in 1883, and October of same year he married Miss Dora, daughter of Robert Harris. Ernest H. is the only child of this marriage. Mrs. Lancaster was born in Crockett Co. in 1860. Mr. Lancaster was in the Confederate Army in Company F, Fifty-third Tennessee Infantry, and was at Fort Donelson and Port Hudson. He held the office of magistrate for eight years in Humphreys County. He is a Democrat and a prominent Mason, being Master of his lodge, and was formerly a member of the Christian Church, to which his wife also belongs. They have a pleasant home in Newbern.