My Genealogy Hound

REV. THOMAS H. PETTIT, Ballard County, was born June 1, 1828, in Greene County, Tenn. He is a son of Joel and Mary (Black) Pettit, both born in the same county and State. The father died in John son County, Ill., in 1874, aged seventy years. Our subject was reared on his father’s farm, received a good common school education, and at the age of nineteen engaged in teaching school; this he followed for several years, after which he engaged in farming and preaching, and for the past twenty years his time has been devoted exclusively to the ministry connected with the Missionary Baptist Church. Since the age of sixteen, Mr. Pettit has been a resident of the Purchase District, except two years passed in Stewart County, and has held a pastorate in all the counties in the Purchase. In 1884 he was pastor of four churches, viz.: at Arlington, Corinth, Oak Grove, Weakley County, Tenn., and Mount Olive, in Obion County, Tenn. He is now serving Arlington Church two Sabbaths each month, and Corinth and Oak Grove, in Weakley County, Tenn., the other two. He was married September 14, 1851, to Adaline Belisle, of Stewart County, Tenn. These parents have had eight children, of whom five are living—two sons and three daughters. At the age of eighteen, Mr. Pettit was baptized into the fellowship of the Olive Baptist Church, in Marshall County, by the Rev. Ephraim Owings, of Wadesborough, Ky.