Holden Rushing, commission merchant and farmer at Point Mason was born in 1825 in Benton County, Tenn., son of Robert and Lively (Webb) Rushing. The father was a native of North Carolina, of Welsh origin and in 1824 left his native State, immigrating to Benton County, W. Tenn. He located on Rushing Creek, it being named after brother Able and his cousins, Willis and Dennis Rushing, who had settled here as early as 1818. Robert was one of the pioneer settlers and was quite successful as a tiller of the soil, owning upward of 800 acres. He died in 1854, aged about sixty-four. His wife, Lively Webb, was a native of South Carolina; she died in 1866 about seventy-six years of age.

Our subject received his education in the country schools and at Camden. He remained with his parents till thirty-one years of age. In 1855 he located at Point Mason and engaged in his present business. In April of the same year he married Elizabeth Lashley, a native of Benton County, Tenn., born March, 1835, and the daughter of Anderson and Eliza Lashley. To our subject and wife were born six children: Robert, Horace, Eliza (Mrs. Goodlin), Lillie, Lucy and Lizzie. Mr. Rushing has lived at Point Mason for the past thirty-six years, where he has been actively engaged in merchandising and superintending his large farm. In 1870 he erected a two-story brick store-room at a cost of $3,000. Mr. Rushing is the possessor of upward of 5,500 acres and is the largest land holder in Benton County. In politics he has been a life-long Democrat, casting his first vote for Lewis Cass in 1848. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Camden Lodge, and also a member of Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mrs. Rushing is a member of Presbyterian Church.

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