James A. BILLINGS, farmer and merchant of the Third District, is a son of David ans Susan Ann (MCCOY) BILLINGS. He was born in Lincoln County in 1830, and is the sixth child of a family of fifteen children-seven sons eight daughters; four sons and three daughters living. The father was of German ancestery, born in North Carolina in 1794. He was raised in his native state, and married when about twenty-five years old, and moved to Lincoln County in 1825, farming there until 1837; when he moved to Tipton County and located near what is now the Twelfth District, where he died in 1851, being one of the early settlers. The mother was born in North Carolina in 1892 and died in 1858. Our subject was raised and educated in Tipton County. November, 1855, he married NANCY E., daughter of John and Sallie ROE. They had sixteen children-four sons and four daughters living: LUCY ANN (wife of M. A. PHILLIPS), MARGARET, ELIZABETH JENNIE, MARY MATILDA, JAMES HENRY, SPRUCE, HOLMES CUMMINGS, and PINK. Mr. BILLINGS spent a year after his marriage in the Twelfth District, then moved to his present farm, owning about 400 acres of land different tracts; 124 acres in the home tract is well cultivated and is nine miles west of Covington, near Walnut Grove Church. In 1874, he purchased a stock of goods and since then has been engaged in mercantile business in connection with his farming. He is a good business man, and was elected magistrate in 1876, holding the office for six years. He is a firm Democrat. Mrs. BILLINGS was born in Lincoln County in 1838, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.