Joseph Buckner Killebrew
Joseph Buckner Killebrew (1831–1906) was an American planter and geologist. Biography Early life Joseph Buckner Killebrew was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee on May 29, 1831. When he was four years old, his mother died, and he was raised by a succession of relatives. He attended college and was deeply interested in education, agriculture, and geology. In 1851, he entered Franklin College in middle Tennessee, but soon exhausted his funds. He accepted a position teaching mathematics at the Clarksville school of John D. Tyler. In 1853, a family friend offered to finance his college education at the institution of his choice. He chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated second in his class in June 1857. He was a member of the Philanthropic Society while at UNC. He married Mary Catherine Wimberly on December 3, 1857, and they had six children. Career As a young man, he took charge of the family farm. He was opposed to the secession attitudes of his fellow southerners, and he searched for ways to improve the situation of his slaves as well as his farm. During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he knew that if slaves were able