My Genealogy Hound

John W. Puryear. Three brothers, of French nativity, emigrated to this country from the land of their birth at an early day. They were the founders of the Puryear family, of which John W. Puryear, of Carlisle, is a representative. John W. was born in Virginia, near Petersburg, in 1860, and was the son of William and Sarah (Bridgport) Puryear, natives of Virginia, as was also the grandfather of our subject, who was also named William. When John W. was an infant his parents moved from Virginia to Western Tennessee and settled eighteen miles from Memphis, on a farm, where they remained from 1860 to 1877, when they moved to Arkansas and settled in Lonoke City. The following year they moved to the farm on which John W. Puryear now lives. Mr. Puryear died in October, 1888, at the age of sixty-four. His wife is still living, in her fifty-fourth year, and is the mother of twelve children, seven of whom are still living: Richard E., Bettie (wife of James Ross), Anna E. (now Mrs. Clark), William T., Rosa J. (wife of James Hicks, sheriff of this county), John W. (the subject of this sketch) and Hewett. John W. attained his majority in Tennessee, and after coming to Arkansas went to school at Lonoke, and there took a two years’ course in the State University at Fayetteville. After coming home from the University, he taught school for two years, and then settled on a farm near the home place, on which he lived until the death of his father, when he moved to the place on which he now resides, Mr. Puryear was married to Miss Sarah Arnold, of Arkansas, and daughter of Alexander and Rebecca Arnold, old settlers of this State, but now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Puryear are the parents of two children: Alexander W. and Rosa Lee. They are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Puryear is among the leading Democrats of the county and is a very promising young man, with plenty of push and energy in him.