| A B C D E F G H K L M P R S T W Y |
John D. Peal
| John D. Peal was born in Pitt County, N.C., November 10, 1851. His parents, Caraven and Hannah (Woullard) Peal, wee both natives of North Carolina. The Peals are of English origin and were early settlers of the Old North State. Dennis Peal, the grandfather of our subject, has resided there most of his life. He is a farmer, and is now quite aged. The maternal grandfather, John Woullard, died in North Carolina in his ninety-fourth year. Craven Peal taught school in his youth. He owned a fine farm and pine orchard, from which he manufactured tar and turpentine, which he sipped to Washington, N.C. on a flatboat, sometimes using a steamer. In 1861 he volunteered in the State service, and taking sick, died at Winders Hospital, at Richmond. He was the father of nine children, seven of whom are living: Marina, Martha, James E., Church, Mary, Margaret and John D. His widow married again, and still resides in North Carolina. John was reared to farm life and received but a limited education, as the facilities for a good education were poor, the schools being entirely suspended during the war. At the age of sixteen years, he left home and worked for himself in his own State three years, attending school but twenty-four days in that time. However, he saved a few dollars, with which he, in company with his cousin, Stephen Peal, went to Tennessee. Landing at Friendship, they remained three weeks and went to Humboldt. John D. remained there two years engaged on a farm and as clerk in a store. In January 1873, he came to Blodgett, Mo., and engaged in the mercantile business with Stephen, who had arrived about one year previous. The firm known as S. Peal & Co. continued for two years, when John D. returned to Humbolt, Tenn. and was engaged in the mercantile business until 1887, and in the meantime served two years as agent for the Iron Mountain Railroad. He now owns 520 acres of land near Blodgett, 230 acres under cultivation, but he makes his home in the village. In 1875 he was united in marriage with Amelia Crafton, a native of Humboldt, Tenn. To them have been born four children, three living: Lessie, Pearl and Elmer. Mrs. Peal, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Peal is a Mason, and an enthusiastic member of the I.O.O.F. |
Thomas J. Pool
| Thomas J. Pool was born in Mississippi, in 1844. His parents, Langdon C. and Mary E. Pool, were natives of South Carolina, who, after their marriage, removed to Mississippi. From there they removed to Hardin County, Tenn., when the subject of this sketch was about eighteen months old. There the father purchased a saw and grist-mill, which he operated bout four years, and removed to Obion County, Tenn. In 1852 they came to Scott County, Mo., where the father died on January 18, 1861, on the same place that is now Thomas J. Pool's home. The mother was born in 1820, and is still living with her children and grandchildren. They reared a large family, of whom John W. (who lives near Thomas J.), James W. (of Arkansas), Thomas J., Nancy E. (of Kentucky), Willis B. (in Scott County), Emma E. (of Arkansas) and Elijah M. (of Stoddard County) are living. Those dead are George W., Caroline and Martha J. After the death of his father, Thomas J. took charge of the former's business and supported the family. James W. and George W. served in the Southern army, and Thomas J. in Capt. Campbell's Company of the Fiftieth Regiment of Missouri Infantry. The last named was out about eleven months, having been discharged in July, 1865. His marriage with Catherine Jones was celebrated on January 24, 1864. She was born in Randolph County, Ark., in 1827 and is one of fourteen children born to Benjamin and Polly (Russell) Jones. When a small child, Catherine's parents died, and she was reared by her brother, Green R. Jones. Mr. and Mrs. Pool, are the parents of two children: Willie G. (who died in infancy) and Cirena J. (who married Andy Calbert, and died on August 31, 1885, aged eighteen years). Mr. Pool and wife are consistent members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Their daughter was also a member of the same church. Mr. Pool is a Mason. |
John D. Porterfiled
| John D. Porterfield, M.D., a prominent physician and farmer of Commerce, Mo., was born in Venango County, Penn. In 1843. His grandparents, William L. and Nancy (Lowrie) Porterfield, were natives of Ireland and Scotland, respectively. The Lowrie family came to America from Scotland as Presbyterian missionaries. William and Nancy Porterfield had eight children, viz: Robert L. (the father of our subject), Matthew (a physician, now deceased), Pliney (now living on the old homestead in Pennsylvania), Walter (a physician), Mary (deceased), Amelia (deceased), Lucy (deceased) and Catherine (wife of Kennedy Thompson, postmaster of Portsmouth, Ohio). William Porterfield died at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife at the age of seventy-one years. Robert L. Porterfield was born in Pennsylvania, where he received a good literary education and graduated as a physician and surgeon. He married Anna M. Donaldson, a native of Pennsylvania, and a descendant of the child's family, who came to America as Presbyterian missionaries. Robert L. Porterfield engaged extensively in farming, also owned land in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and accumulated considerable property. In 1853 he removed with his family to Illinois, and located near Danville, where he purchased a large tract of land and engaged in stock farming. He was also a leading physician of the county, and practiced his profession until his death, in 1881, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife died in 1876, aged sixty-one years. To them were born six children, one of whom died in infancy. The others are Isabella (Mrs. John P. DeVol, of Marietta, Ohio), William (who enlisted in the Seventy-seventh Ohio Regiment, and was killed at the battle of Shiloh), Nancy J. (Mrs. William Armstrong of Ohio), John D. and Virgil R. (a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, who located at Commerce and died in 1881). When young, John D. assisted on his father's farm and attended school, graduating from the Marietta High School when he was twenty years of age. He had previously begun studying medicine under Dr. George Hildreth, one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio. In the winter of 1862-63 he took his first course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and in the fall of 1864 came to Cape Girardeau, Mo. Soon after he removed to Commerce, but later to Thebes, Ill. In 1865 he returned to Commerce, where he has since resided. In 1884 he graduated from the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, and is a member of the Southeast Missouri Medical Association. He was first married in 1866, to Sarah A. Hall, who was born and reared in Ohio. She died in 1873, having borne two children: Ida and Daisy, both also deceased. In January, 1874, he married Fannie V. Cullum, a native of Mobile, Ala., born in 1851. She is a daughter of George W. Cullum, and Davidella (Connover) Cullum, natives of Alabama and Kentucky. George Cullum was an extensive sugar and cotton grower, and died in Frankfort, Ky., in 1868. His wife died with yellow fever in New Orleans, in 1856. They had three children who grew to maturity: Fannie V., Ada W. (Mrs. C.W. Davis now deceased) and Cecile G. (Mrs. W.S. Patton, of Ohio). Mrs. Porterfield was educated at a Catholic school near Mobile, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the W.C.T.U. The Doctor is a member of the A.F. & A.M. and of the A.O.U.W. Their children are Elmo P., John D., Beulah and William Lowrie. |