Marion County FlArchives Biographies.....Pyles, Samuel Robert 1852 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 3, 2008, 6:12 pm Author: B. F. Johnson Samuel Robert Pyles Samuel Robert Pyles of Ocala, Florida, was born about eight miles south of that town on March 26, 1852. His parents were James W. Pyles, a farmer and soldier in the Florida Indian War of 1835, and his mother was Francis Hannah Barnes. His parents came to Marion county early in the '30's from Georgia. They were of Scotch-Irish ancestry and for several generations the family had been resident in North and South Carolina and Georgia. Two uncles of Mr. Pyles figured very prominently in the Civil War, General Samuel R. Pyles and Lieutenant-Col. Louis G. Pyles, the former dying during the war from injuries sustained, and the latter dying several years after from wounds sustained during the war, an arm having been shot off which caused his death. Both well known Indian fighters in the old Seminole days, of Florida, their mother and the grandmother of Samuel R. Pyles, was murdered and scalped by the Seminole Indians, in Hernando county, near Brooksville, Fla., about the year 1840. Mr. Pyles is one of a family of seven children, the eldest was a brother, Thomas W. Pyles, who enlisted in the service during the Civil War at the age of sixteen years in 1862, served in the 2d Florida Infantry, most of the time in Virginia and in the most heated part of the conflict and was present when Gen. R. E. Lee surrendered in 1865, was never wounded but slightly and died of malaria in 1885. Mr. Pyles and one sister, Mrs. M. J. Pooser, are the survivors. Mr. Pyles grew up in Marion county, attended such schools as were available, finishing up his limited education in what was known then as the East Florida Seminary, at that time in Ocala, but subsequently moved to Gainesville, Fla. In the same place, however, is now conducted the Ocala High School, where his children are being educated. In 1868 when he was about sixteen years old he began to clerk for Mrs. F. A. House and others, and followed this life for several years. In 1872 he entered a copartnership mercantile business with Mrs. F. A. House and also took an interest in the receiving and forwarding business at the famous Silver Springs, head waters and only shipping point for freight and passengers in and out of the county, and from his close application to his duties a very extensive business was the result. In 1874 the F. R. & N. Ry., now the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, reached Ocala and Mr. Pyles saw the transportation business by water would no longer pay and he sold out and went back to his first love, the farm. He bought a large and fine farm where he now lives. In 1876 he, in a small way, in addition to his farm engaged in orange culture and in 1879 he bought a large wild sour orange grove on the famous Withlacoochee river which was rapidly hewn down and converted into a sweet orange grove, in 1885 he had to build and put on this river a line of steam boats in order to transport his fruit to railroad for shipment to the markets, he was reckoned then to have had the finest fruit as well as the finest orange property (not the largest) in the State, the freeze of 1894-1895, however, froze his orange interest out, but in 1891 and 1892 he had invested his surplus in phosphate lands of Florida and figured quite prominently in that line. Mr. Pyles, has, however, had various experiences aside from the orange industry, the phosphate industry, the steamboating business and the farm, he was largely engaged in the mercantile and saw mill business. Mr. Pyles served as County Treasurer for Marion county and as County Commissioner figured prominently in the building of the present magnificent Court House and laying out the beautiful grounds in Ocala, as also in the building of some steel bridges over the navigable streams throughout the county, and an earnest advocate of hard and improved road building throughout the county. Mr. Pyles has been twice married, his first wife was Mary Davis Barnes, of Marion county, she was a daughter of Thomas and Mary Barnes; his second wife was Mrs. Annie V. Sautell, of Corydon, Ind., whose maiden name was Annie V. Hursh. Out of five children born of the first marriage three survive, Jessie, Mary and Maggie. From the second marriage three children were born, Clifford, Catherine and Mildred. Mr. Pyles now resides on his farm five miles south of Ocala and is giving his time more especially to the farm, and the raising of fine horses, cattle and hogs. He is very much interested in reading the agricultural and stock journals and thinks the current literature of the day is of positive value to our farmers. He is much esteemed by those who chance to know him. He is a consistent member of the Methodist Church from boyhood, and politically a stanch Democrat. Mr. Pyles having a fine farm and a beautiful country home on one of the mosl lovely pike roads of this county, is a successful farmer and stockman and a student of conditions, believes that the true prosperity and happiness of the people of Florida and of the Nation will be further promoted by a better system of farming and that no more important question can engage the attention of our people than the development of that better system for the farm and that which pertains to the farm life and business. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/marion/photos/bios/pyles34gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/marion/bios/pyles34gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb