Melville V. Cherry is the fifth of a family of ten children, of Lemuel Cherry and Delilah Dodd. The family is of English origin and was first represented in the United States by two brothers one of whom settled in Virginia and the other in North Carolina, in the colonial period. Lemuel Cherry was the son of the latter was born in North Carolina and in childhood was brought by his parents to Steward County, Tenn. There he attained his manhood removing thence to Montgomery County, Tenn. near Clarksville where he married Delilah Dodd, and where Melville V. was born in 1845. In that county the mother died about 1851, the father surviving until 1869, when he too died. In 1861 Melville V. entered the Confederate Army, as a member of Company G. Forty-ninth Tennessee Infantry. He served till the close of the war and the restoration of peace; participated in many of the chief battles and was five times wounded. After the war he went to the city of Clarlsville, Tenn. and was engaged as a salesman for a few years removing to Paducah, Ky. in 1872, where he established a grocery business since which time he has been thus actively employed. He is now located at No. 102 Broadway. Mr. Cherry was married at Paducah, in 1873 to Miss Emma Rieke, who was born in Germany in 1845. Their only child is Melville R. Cherry, who was born August 10, 1874, Both Mr. and Mrs. Cherry are honored members of the Presbyterian Church.