PEMBLE, Robert J., Amite County, MS., then ??? Parish, Louisiana

Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by Mike Miller, Nov. 1998.




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Robert J. Pemble, superintendent of schools, president of the police jury and

secretary of the school board, is a native of Amite county, Miss., born July

31, 1833.  He is a son of David Pemble, a native of South Carolina, who moved

to Mississippi about 1825 on horseback, and located in Amite county, where he

taught school.  He took an active interest in politics, and was soon after

elected to the legislature and served several terms, being speaker of the

house one or two terms.  He was candidate for governor of Mississippi, and

missed being elected by only one vote, owing to his own carelessness.  He

followed farming in Amite county and lived to be seventy-eight years of age,

dying in Texas in 1869, where he had gone to live with a daughter.  He was a

believer in state's rights, was a great admirer of Calhoun, and voted for

Henry Clay and Harrison, although he was what was known as a Jeffersonian

democrat.  He took an active part in politics all the time he lived in

Mississippi, both county and state.  He was more successful politically than

in his farming interests.  He was generous to a fault, free-hearted and a good

giver.  He was married to Emily Gerald, of South Carolina, who reached

Mississippi in 1811, when she was a child.  She died when our subject was but

a year old, leaving three children:  Thomas W. died during the war in Major

Scott's battalion, leaving a wife and five children, three of whom are now

deceased;  Emily E. is the wife of William P. Johnson, and lives in Polk

county, Tex., and is the mother of eight children;  our subject was the

youngest child and was reared in Mississippi.  He was educated at the common

schools and at the Western Military institute, of Kentucky, at Drennon

Springs.  He attended the last-named institution but a short time, as all the

education he received was wholly through his own efforts, teaching and

attending school at odd times when he had the means to do so.  He was

successfully engaged in teaching school in Mississippi, Louisiana and also in

Texas, but taught mostly in Mississippi near where he passed his boyhood days. 

Soon after the late war he came to this parish, and has made his home here

ever since with the exception of three years, when he acted as principal of

the high school at Liberty, Miss., and three years as principal of Bethany

institute, of the same county.  Since then he has lived in Louisiana, taking

an active part in politics and all school affairs.  In 1889 he was appointed

superintendent of schools of this parish, but had been made president of the

police jury the year before.  During the late war he served nearly three years

in the confederate cause.  During the latter part of his service he was

captain of Company C, of the Seventh Mississippi infantry.  He had entered the

army as junior second lieutenant and was obliged to resign on account of

physical disabilities.  He was in the battle of Shiloh, Murfreesboro and

Chickamauga and in many minor engagements.  He was paroled at home.  He was

married to Miss Elizabeth O. James, a native of Amite county, Miss., who came

to Louisiana when a child, and was reared in this parish.  She is the mother

of three children:  Robert E.;  Mary L., the wife of S. C. Fields, and  Alice

G., the wife of L. C. Fields, all living on places adjoining the home place. 

Mr. Pemble has been engaged in planting for some time during the last few

years.  He, his wife and children are members of the Presbyterian church.  Mr.

Pemble is also connected with the Masonic order.  He is highly regarded by all

who know him as a genial, whole-souled man.



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Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 303-304. 

Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.



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