John Wesley Flowers was born October 14, 1873, on the Bear Creek Pike, East of Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee, about three miles from the home place where he was living at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly in the field near his house on September 9, 1927.

He was converted early in life at Union Grove Church, near which he lived and served as member and minister all his life. He was always active, leading in Sunday School, singing and prayer meeting. He joined Presbytery in 1907 and was ordained in 1908. He was pastor of a number of churches, among which were Smyrna, Mount Lebanon, Pleasant Garden, Greenfield, Mt. Pleasant, Beech Grove, Belew Springs, Pleasant Hill, Ash Hill, Concord, Mt. Joy, Ebenezer, Bethel and others. His salary was always small and he worked hard on his farm for the support of his family and to be the better able to serve the cause of his beloved Saviour and his fellow-man. He missed but two meetings of Richland Presbytery after his ordination and then because of sickness. He always kept up the good old custom of family prayers, loved his home and his family, his church and friends, and ever in his daily walk and conversation sought to honor God.

Brother Flowers was a son of James Henry and Harriet Jane (Bryant) Flowers, both residents of the neighborhood where our subject lived and died. The mother died April 11, 1911; the father September 15, 1923. He was married to Martha T. Walker of Lawrence County, on September 6, 1896 and to this union there were born two sons and one daughter. The sons, William James and Charles Wesley Flowers, were both living at Decatur, Alabama, at the time of their father's death. The daughter Alice Jane, married William Lee McCanless on December 25, 1927.
[Source: Minutes of Richland Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, April 3, 1929, page 9]