Nicholas Gotten, a native of Spangdahlen, Germany, immigrated to America at the age of 22, worked in the North before coming to Tennessee, and established himself as a blacksmith in Union Depot (Bartlett) in 1860. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate Army in Co. C, Third Tenn. Cav., of Forrest's regiment, fought at Shiloh and Corinth, served bravely at Bolivar though severely wounded, and was captured, exchanged, and served to the end of the war. He returned to Bartlett, became a respected miller and ginner, invented an improved cotton feeder patented Nov. 29, 1881, married Julia Coleman in 1869, and lived in a residence built in 1871 on Court St., Bartlett, Tennessee, now the Bartlett Museum.