Rev. J. S. Hamilton was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1871. He was raised as an orphan boy from the age of eleven years, and he attended the public schools of his native County, under very discouraging circumstances. He professed religion at the age of fifteen and joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church under the pastorate of Rev. Lewis Burks. He served in the capacity of deacon for one year and as an elder two years. In 1893, he left Fayetteville, Tennessee for Belton, Texas, where he remained three years without seeing a Cumberland Presbyterian. However, he continually paid his church dues to the church left behind.

Leaving Belton, he went to Crawford, Texas. Being within twelve miles of a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, he at once applied for membership. The church was in the Brazos River Presbytery, which licensed him to preach.

In 1897, he married Miss Lettie A. Clark, and moved to Hillsboro, Texas where he was the first Cumberland Presbyterian to preach in that city. He has built a church there and became its pastor, and the church property is deeded to Trustees of the Woman's Board of Missions at Fayetteville, Tennessee.

[Source: Built by the Hands: An Historical Account of Love, Faith and Determination in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America 1869-2002. Written by Nancy J. Fuqua. Huntsville, Alabama: Executive Committee of the General Assembly, 2002, page 476]