Capt Leon Caraway 1874-1939

Leonidas A. Caraway (Carraway) was born April 5, 1874 in Benton County Tennessee to William "Buck" Caraway and Catherine (Kate) Morris.  We don't know if he was merely a friend or if he's family but this picture of Leon was found among the papers of Charles Harrell Moran.  Leon would've been a contemporary of the Moran children.  He attended Vanderbilt and received a law degree, as did James Henderson Moran III. Leon married Ina Belle McCollough and they had two children, Leon (b. 1910) and Baxter (b. 1913).

Capt Leon Carraway (sic)
Co. - I
Return to Harrell Moran
Dresden, Tenn.

Leon was a Captain in the First Regiment Tennessee Volunteers during the Spanish-American War.  When he returned home from the War he was the postmaster at Big Sandy.  In 1929 the Tennessee State Legislature created the Nathan Bedford Forrest Park Commission, Leon was one of the original board members.

During World War I Leon went to Paris Tennessee and organized Battery D.  However due to his age and various health problems he had to step down from service.  Captain Caraway was in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Mountain Home Tennessee when he died on October 31, 1939.  He was buried in Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

For more information about the Caraway family and Benton County Tennessee be sure and read Benton County by the Benton County Genealogical Society.

**Updated October 17, 2013
If you're interested in more pictures of Capt. Caraway and other of his compatriots in Company I be sure and visit Spanish American War Soldiers, Company I, Pictures from the Past. Some of the photo's are identified and some are still a mystery.

**Updated January 8 2023

The photograph was taken by John Howard Dubbs.  Dubbs was known to be working in Tennessee from about 1892-1895.