It is hard to place the correct birth year of James Madison Best. Some researchers have his birth date as 28 May 1830. I have his birth date as 29 July 1830.

This would make him the last child of John Best and his first wife Esther McGaughy. In his military pension application one spot has the date as 1830. It also states in this 1904 document that he is over 73 years old, making his birth day year 1830or 1831. In his military payroll records he is listed as 28 years old in 1862, making his birth year 1834. If he was born in 1831 or later he would be the first issue of John Best's second wife Elizabeth Anderson.

"Huckleberry Jim" was married the first time to Susannah Ridge on 19 May 1856, in Blount County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Abraham Ridge and Elizabeth Phoebe Johnson. The had eleven children. He was called "Huckleberry Jim" to distinguish him from a younger first cousin by the same name. He made Huckleberry wine for the Allegheny Spring Hotel, so in the area he was known as "Huckleberry Jim."

Unlike most of the Best Clan, this James Madison Best fought in the Confederate Army. He enlisted at Maryville, Tennessee on 12 Feb 1862, in Company "B" of the 31st Regiment (Later called the 39th) of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. On paper he served seventeen months but he was absent without leave for a total of six months. Apparently he went home when he was not paid and to check on his family. James was captured at surrender of Vicksberg, Mississippi to General Grant, on 4 July 1863. James signed a parole to never take up arms against the U.S. Government. He went home to his wife and family in Blount County, Tennessee.

In 1904 "Huckleberry Jim" states that he was making his living by selling eggs, butter, chickens and land for his support. He states that he has 28 acres of mountain land, one horse and one cow. He was denied a veterans pension. His wife Susannah, died in 1907. She was buried in Four Mile Creek Cemetery.

"Huckleberry Jim" married a second time to Mary Goforth Jones on 13 May 1907, in Blount county. She was the daughter of John A Goforth and Jane R Bryant. One son was born to this union on 30 July 1909. "Huckleberry Jim" died on 7 August 1919, at Allegheny Springs, Tennessee. He was buried at Four Mile Creek Cemetery.