Asa Faulkner

Asa Faulkner was born on July 16, 1802, in Edgefield County, South Carolina.[1] His father was Dr. Archibald Faulkner and his mother, Rebecca Burkhalter.[1] His father was of English descent, a fourth-generation Marylander. His mother was of German Quaker descent.[1] His parents settled in Warren County, Tennessee when he was 6.[1]

Faulkner began his career by working for a woollen mill from 1812 to 1830, when he built his own.[1] He also acquired a cotton gin and built a dam, and became wealthy by the 1840s.[1] Faulkner sold "Faulkner Jeans."[1] He was "the nestor of all of Warren County's manufacturing interests, and spent all his long life in founding, nourishing and sustaining them."[2]

Faulkner joined the Whig Party.[1] During the American Civil War, he supported the Union Army.[1] He served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1865 to 1866, and as a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1869 to 1871.[1]

Faulkner first married Annis Wolfe; he later remarried twice, to Sally Reynolds, and Martha Ann Martin.[1] He had 19 children, and resided at Falconhurst in McMinnville.[1]

Faulkner died on July 29, 1886, in McMinnville, Tennessee.[2] His funeral was conducted by Presbyterian minister George Tucker Stainback.[2]