Robert M. Ward, the son of James and Hannah (Simpson) Ward, was born in Dyer county in 1841, and is one of seven children, three of whom are living: John C., Margaret and our subject. The father was born in 1806, and engaged in farming. While a resident of Carroll County, he married, and in 1826 he moved to Dyer County, purchasing land in the Eighth District, where he remained until his death in 1870. Mrs. Ward was born in 1808, and died about 1868. Our subject remained at home until twenty-six years of age, and attended the schools in the neighborhood. When the war commenced he enlisted in Company A, Twelfth Tennessee Infantry. He was at Shiloh, and was captured at Jonesboro, Ga., in 1862, and taken to Camp Douglas, Illinois, and held as a prisoner until the final surrender. He then returned home after an absence of four years of hardship and suffering. October 26, 1867, he married Miss Rachel A., daughter of Harvey and Parthena O'Neal, and by the marriage had nine children, seven of whom are living: Charley D., Robert A., Luther B., William Ernest, Effie E., Eurah Lee and Allie Belle. He then located on his present farm, which consists of 121 acres of superior land, and has a pleasant home and substantial improvements on it, and is five miles southeast of Newbern. Mr. and Mrs. Ward are both substantial members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and are held in great esteem by all who know them. Mrs. Ward was born in Crockett County in 1851.