Biography of Wiley Pevehouse, Greene Co, AR

***********************************************************
Submitted by: Michael Brown
        Date: 5 Sep 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************************

Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas

page 166

Wiley Pevehouse. In giving a sketch of this gentleman it is but fair to say
that he is one of the prominent farmers of Greene County, Ark., and that he is a man
of sound judgment and unimpeachable honesty. He was born on Crowley's Ridge, in
Greene County, on the 2d of July, 1828, being the second child born there, his
brother William, whose birth occurred April 7, 1826, having been first. He was the
fourth child of Abraham and Polly (Crowley) Pevehouse, who came to Arkansas at an
early day. [For a history of the Crowley family see sketch of Hon. B. H. Crowley.]
After spending a year on Black River they came to Crowley's Ridge, and made the first
settlement in Northeast Arkansas. The paternal grandparents were of Virginia stock,
and moved from that State to South Carolina, and thence to Kentucky, of which section
they were pioneers, about 1822 coming to Arkansas. The parents of our subject died
about 1835, and from that time up to manhood he made his home with his grandfather,
Benjamin Crowley. The latter was a very extensive farmer and stock raiser, and Mr.
Pevehouse drove stock all the way to St. Louis, and later to Memphis and Helena.
During his childhood he depended on his own resources for a livelihood and hunted and
sold his furs and hides, and later farmed in a small way. When about twenty years of
age he entered land, subsequently buying small tracts from time to time, and in the
spring of 1861 sold out and went to Seott County, where he remained about eighteen
months, then returning to the Cache bottoms. When some twenty-five years of age he
was married to Miss Margaret Capps, a native of Arkansas, whose family were early
settlers in this section. She died in 1858, leaving two children: Sarah, who married
a Mr. Harris, and died soon after, and Cynthia Ann, wife of Dr. McKinzie, now living
at Crowley. Mr. Pevehouse took for his second wife Miss Frances Bowman, whom he
married in 1860. Her death occurred on the 13th of October, 1870. She and Mr.
Pevehouse were the parents of the following children: William, who is married and
resides in Lawrence County; Lucy Jane, the wife of George Gramling; John P., who died
on the 31st of March, 1888, at the age of twenty-two years; and Mary Elizabeth.
February 16, 1873, Mr. Pevehouse married Mrs. Sarah Ann (Cooper) Allen, a native of
Mississippi, who was reared in Tennessee, and came to Arkansas with her first
husband, settling in Lawrence County. In 1876 he purchased his present property of
160 acres, of which about five acres were cleared, and now has ninety-five acres in a
tillable condition and well improved with good buildings, orchard, etc. His principal
crops are corn and [p.166] cotton, and he gives much attention to stock raising of a
good grade, and also to the culture of bees. He is public spirited, and has held the
offices of deputy sheriff and county clerk. In 1864 he enlisted in the Confederate
army, and was with Price on his raid through Missouri, but being in poor health was
left at Boonville, where he received good attention, and was soon after paroled and
returned home. The close of the war left him destitute, and since that time he has
made his present property.