USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. III > Part 76
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Pylant, Thomas W., president of the incorporated firm of Pylant Brothers & Company, of Purvis, Lamar county, is to be noted as one of the able and pro- gressive business men of this section. He is a native of Pike county, Ala., where he was born May 24, 1868, being a son of George M. and Caroline (Cochran) Pylant, the former of whom was likewise born in Pike county, Ala., while the latter was born in Georgia. The latter is deceased and the former resides in Wayne county. Our subject is indebted to the public schools of Alabama and Mississippi for the educational advantages which he en- joyed in his youth and which formed an adequate foundation on which to base his active and successful business career. At the age of twenty-two years he became a salesman in a mercantile estab- lishment at Waynesboro, Miss., where he gained valuable experience as bearing upon the labors and accomplishment which were to be his in his independent business operations. Mr. Pylant dates his residence in Purvis from the year 1894, when he here located and became identified with the turpentine manufacturing industry, while he also was employed for a considerable period of time as a traveling salesman. In 1896 he laid the foundation for the large and prosperous business enterprise with which he is at present iden- tified and which owes its upbuilding largely to his discriminating and energetic efforts. He opened a general merchandise store, conducting the same in an individual way until 1898, when he ad- mitted to partnership his brother, George I., under the firm name of T. W. Pylant & Company, and the firm became one of the best known in this county, its trade increasing materially in volume from year to year and finally rendering expedient the incorporation of the busi- ness, which was accomplished March 1, 1905, when the title of Py- lant Brothers & Company was adopted. The concern is incorpo- rated with a capital stock of $30,000, and the official corps is as fol- lows: Thomas W. Pylant, president; George I. Pylant, secretary and treasurer, and Thomas E. Salter, vice-president. The concern occupies commodious and attractive quarters and each department in the store has its full complement of select and well assorted goods, so that the facilities are of the best in the matter of meeting the de- mands of a discriminating patronage. The president of the com- pany is a member of the Baptist church, as is also his wife, and in a fraternal way we find him identified with the local organizations
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of the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. He is a reliable and straightforward business man and public-spirited citizen, commanding the esteem of the people of his community. On Feb. 6, 1895, Thomas W. Pylant was united in marriage to Miss Katy Purvis, daughter of Oliver S. and Jane (Baxter) Purvis, of Purvis, which town was named in honor of this prominent family. Mr. and Mrs. Pylant have five children, whose names are here en- tered in order of birth: George Derrick, Yubah Jane, Thomas Earl, Lake Ruble, and Lavelle Rodney.
Patton, William Hinkle, an honored citi- zen and prominent business man of Shu- buta, Clarke county, was born near Ja- cinto, in old Tishomingo county, Miss., on Sept. 7, 1847, being a son of James J. and Sarah (Hinkle) Patton. James J. Patton was born in Tennessee, on Aug. 23, 1822, and early came to Mississippi, where he was a planter at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. He then went forth to battle for the cause of the Confed- eracy, enlisting in Company E, of the Thirty-seventh Mississippi infantry, and was chosen orderly sergeant of his com- pany. Through exposure in service in the drilling camp at Columbus, Miss., he contracted typhoid pneumonia, from the effects of which he died, at his home in Clarke county, in 1862. The mother, who was a daughter of Jacob Hinkle, was born in the northern part of the State in 1826. When she was but three years of age her parents removed to Upshur county, Texas, where they made their home for six years. For three years immediately following, the Hinkles were residents of De Soto parish, La., whence they came to Shubuta. The mother's demise occurred in Shubuta in 1870. The subject of this memoir was the first born of the five children of his parents, the others being Mary J., now Mrs. Martin of Shubuta; James L. in business in Shubuta; Margaret D., who died in Mobile at the age of sixteen; and Luella R., who died at the age of six. William H. was but fourteen years of age at the time of his father's death, and upon his youthful shoulders was thus placed a burden of responsibility in assisting in the care of his brother and three sisters and in superintending the gathering of the crops. While he thus learned the lessons of responsibility and self-reliance, he was denied the advantages of a liberal education, but made the best use of the opportunities which were afforded and to a large degree overcame the handicap entailed by circumstances. Not being ro- bust in health he retired from the farm and secured a position in the drug store of Dr. David M. Dunlap, of Shubuta, who was also postmaster. In 1863 he learned the art of telegraphy as then used, the messages being recorded on paper tape, with but little reading by sound as at the present time, and during the closing year of the war he had charge of the telegraph office in Shubuta. He retained
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the position for six months after the telegraph line had been taken into the possession of the Federal authorities. His name appears in the history of military telegraphy during the Civil war, written by William R. Plum, LL. B. At the close of the war the Adams Express Company established service in the South, and Mr. Patton was its agent in Shubuta. In connection with this he also carried a small stock of goods for about one year. At the end of that period his store was destroyed by fire, entailing a total loss, as there was no insurance indemnity. After six years of service with the Adams Ex- press Company he resigned because of the failing health of his wife. He thereafter was employed as salesman and bookkeeper in a local mer- cantile establishment, and in 1870 he married Miss Drusilla Heslep, a daughter of Rev. Thomas B. Heslep, of Shubuta. He later formed a partnership with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Heslep & Patton, and engaged in the mercantile business. Mr. Heslep died two years later. For a time the firm was carried on under Mr. Pat- ton's own name, then for a year was known as Patton & Banner, and more recently has been known as W. H. Patton & Company. It has gradually expanded its scope and now is one of the largest and most popular general merchandise establishments in Clarke county. Upright and honorable in his methods he has ever com- manded unqualified confidence and esteem, and on this fact is based the noteworthy success which has attended his efforts. He is stock- holder and director in the Shubuta Oil and Manufacturing Company and also in the Bank of Shubuta. In addition to his general mer- cantile business Mr. Patton gives special attention to the furniture and undertaking departments of his prosperous enterprise. He is the owner of two hearses for use in his undertaking business, one of which, built by the Memphis Coffin Company, is as finely appointed and finished as any in the State. In 1891 he was graduated in the Clarke School of Embalming, in New Orleans, and in 1901 he took a post-graduate course in the Echels School of Embalming in the same city. He was president of the Mississippi funeral directors' associ- ation in 1890 and is now second vice-president in a new organiza- tion of Mississippi funeral directors. He is the local agent for several fire insurance companies and is the owner of an orange grove in Marion county, Fla., near Micanopy. A few years ago it was killed by frost, but in the season just prior to its being wiped out bore 1,600 boxes of oranges and was valued at $10,000. In politics he was formerly a member of the Prohibition party, and is still known as one of the leading temperance workers in the State, ever striving to advance the cause and principles of which he is an advocate. In State elections he votes the Democratic ticket, but has never exer- cised his right of suffrage in behalf of any man who is not openly opposed to the liquor traffic. He has never offered himself for any public office except those of alderman and mayor, in the latter of which he is now serving a second term, although he has many times been solicited to become a candidate for the State legislature. No citizen has done more than Mr. Patton to advance the cause of Pro- hibition in Mississippi and he is one of the vice-presidents of the
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National Temperance Society and Publication House, whose head- quarters are in New York City. Through his zeal and liberality Rev. L. E. Hall, then pastor of the Baptist church in Shubuta, was sent to represent Mississippi in the Centennial Temperance confer- ence at Philadelphia in September, 1885, and the Prohibitionists of the State in the Women's Christian Temperance Union conven- tion at Winona. He has lent his aid and personal support to the latter organization without reservation and often in the face of much hostility, having twice personally assisted in the campaign for local option in Clarke county and once in Wayne county, coming out victorious each time. Because of his activity in a temperance crusade in 1883, which resulted in the closing of a saloon in Shubuta, he was waylaid by three of the persons directly affected and was very nearly killed. Mr. Patton has always shown a deep concern in all that has tended to further the civic and industrial well-being of the community, his administration of the duties of alderman and mayor having been liberal and progressive. He has served a number of years as a trustee of Shubuta academy, as county school commissioner and as a member of the board of trustees of Mississippi college at Clinton. He is senior deacon in the Baptist church of Shubuta and has long been one of its most zealous members, active in all departments of church work. Since 1901 he has been moder- ator of the Chickasaw Baptist association, with which he has been identified since its organization in 1875, and has also served as chair- man of the executive committee. . In 1885 he was vice-president of the Mississippi Baptist State Convention and for thirty years has been superintendent of the Shubuta Baptist Sabbath school. He has also served as vice-president of the State Sunday school convention, district organizer, president of the County Sunday school convention and was chosen as a delegate to the National Sunday school convention. Fraternally Mr. Patton is a Royal Arch Mason and is one of the charter members of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, which he represented in the grand lodge of the State in 1894, 1905 and again in 1907. He has also been special deputy to organize lodges of the last named order. He is also identified with the Woodmen of the World and the first time he served in the head camp, composed of delegates from three States, he was made head banker. In this organization also he is a special deputy for the organization of camps. In the Blue Lodge of the Free and Ac- cepted Masons of Shubuta he is now the incumbent of the office of junior warden. Mr. Patton held membership in the Knights of Honor until the price of insurance in that organization became so high that he felt it unnecessary to continue in it. He carries $5,000 in the Knights of Pythias, $1,000 in the Woodmen of the World and considerable old line insurance. Probably in no order is he more prominent than in the Independent Order of Good Templars, of which he has been State treasurer and a delegate to the grand lodge. At one time he was the proprietor of four turpentine stills, but he has since disposed of those interests and turned the money to better advantage. Mr. Patton has been thrice married. His
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first wife, of whom mention is made above, was an artist of no mean ability and several of her portraits are cherished mementos. She died in 1872, leaving a son, Thomas H. In 1873 Mr. Patton was united in marriage to Miss Kate Heslep, a sister of his first wife, who died in 1883 at Micanopy, Fla., whither she had gone for the benefit of her health. She is survived by three children, namely, Earl N., a merchant at Hattiesburg, Miss .; Annie P., who is the wife of Claude B. Wallace, of San Antonio, Tex .; and William J., of Shu- buta. On Dec. 26, 1883, occurred Mr. Patton's marriage to Mrs. Regina C. Joiner, nee Spann, of West Point, Miss., and she entered into life eternal on Nov. 13, 1901, no children having been born of her second marriage. Thomas H. Patton, the son of the first union, departed this life in 1901 and since that time his widow and her daughter, Mary Drusilla Patton, have been making their home with the subject of this memoir.
Parker, Samuel T., of Quitman, was one of the representative young men of Clarke county, which he was serving in the re- sponsible office of sheriff at the time of his death which occurred Feb. 28, 1906. He is a native of this county, having been born Sept. 28, 1873, a son of Hartwell T. Parker who was born in Jasper county, Miss. Hartwell T. Parker was a son of Samuel Parker, who was born and reared in Virginia, whence he came to Mississippi when a young man, becoming one of the early settlers of Jasper county. Though well advanced in years at the outbreak of the Civil war he made significant mani- festations of his loyalty to the Confederacy, becoming a member of Company K, Thirteenth Mississippi infantry, with which he was in active service, being captured in the engagement at New Hope church and having been held a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Ill., for a number of months. Of this same company and regiment Hartwell T. Parker also was a member, having left school to go forth with his father in defense of the cause of the Confederate States and having remained in service during essentially the entire course of the war. After the great struggle had ended he located in Clarke county where he became a successful planter and a prominent and honored citizen of his community. Samuel T. Parker availed himself of the ad- vantages of the public schools of his native county, and in 1895 he was graduated in an excellent commercial college in Lexington, Ky. In the same year he became deputy sheriff of Clarke county, under the regime of Sheriff James B. Evans, serving four years, after which he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits until the autumn of 1903, when he was elected sheriff, for a term of four years. His previous experience and his discrimination and good judgment have conspired to make him one of the best incumbents the office has ever had in the county, and his administration met with unqualified
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popular approval. The sheriff was a stanch adherent of the Demo- cratic party and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. On Dec. 28, 1904, Mr. Parker was united in marriage to Miss Annie Cook, who survives him. She is a daughter of John Cook, of St. Louis, Mo., where she was born and reared. She has a wide circle of friends in the town of Quitman and the county at large.
Patterson, R. H., the able and popular cashier of the Merchants and Farmers bank of New Albany, is one of the pro- gressive citizens of this place, where he has various capitalistic and industrial interests of important nature. Mr. Patterson was born on the paternal plantation, near New Albany, and is a son of William J. and Catherine (Foster) Patterson, both of whom died in this county. The father came to this section of Mississippi from South Carolina and became one of the suc- cessful planters and honored citizens of what is now Union county. Both he and his wife died when the subject of this sketch was a child. R. H. Patterson received a common school education in his youth and he has advanced to a position of priority as a business man through the application of his own abilities and energies. For fifteen years he was engaged in the general merchan- dise business in Tippah, Benton county, and in 1903 he cast in his lot with the city of New Albany, whose industrial advancement and material upbuilding has been remarkable since that time. Its population was doubled within two years and the zeal and enter- prise of its leading business men are conserving a continued and normal growth. Mr. Patterson was one of the promoters and incor- porators of the Merchants and Farmers bank, which was organized March 23, 1903, and which now has a capital of $35,000. It has received a representative support from the start and is one of the substantial and prosperous banking institutions of the State. Mr. Patterson has been cashier of the bank from the time of its organi- zation, and to his well directed efforts its success is largely due. He is also treasurer of the New Albany Oil Mill Company and the New Albany Clothing Manufacturing Company, as well as the New Albany Compress Company, and is vice-president of the New Albany Fur- niture Company. All of these industries have been established since 1903 and all are now in flourishing condition. Mr. Patterson is a loyal adherent of the Democratic party and is in active affiliation with the Masonic fraternity, Knights of Pythias and Woodmen of the World. He married Miss Emma A. McAllister, daughter of Benjamin C. S. and Elizabeth (Cole) McAllister, honored pioneer settlers of New Albany where Mr. McAllister was one of the first merchants.
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Payne, William Eugene, conducts a large and prosperous business in Collins, Covington county, where his attractively appointed department store is the center of a large and representative trade, de- rived from the wide radius of country normally tributary to this new and enter- prising little city. Mr. Payne was born in Pike county, Miss., Aug. 19, 1863, being thus ushered into the world at a time when the South was in the throes of the great conflict which finally trailed the loyally defended flag of the Confed- eracy in the dust of defeat. He is a son of Dr. Nelson R. and Margaret (Smith) Payne, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Pike county, the father having been for many years engaged in the practice of his noble profession and having been one of the honored and influential citizens of his county. William E. Payne was accorded the advan- tages of the public schools of Mississippi and also received excellent private instruction, being reared to maturity in Pike county. In initiating his independent career he secured a position in the mer- cantile establishment of Lampton Brothers, in Tylertown, that county, being employed as salesman and bookkeeper and remaining in the employ of the concern for a number of years. In 1901, shortly after the founding of the town, on the line of the newly completed rail- road, he came to Collins and opened a general store, on Main street, thus gaining title to being one of the pioneer merchants of the city. His thorough knowledge of the business and his punctilious care in meeting the demands of trade enabled him to secure an excellent supporting patronage, and his original quarters soon proved inade- quate to accommodate his rapidly expanding business. In 1904 he erected his present building, which is unmistakably the finest of the sort in the town and which is thoroughly metropolitan in its appointments and in the character of stock handled in the various departments. The store room is 60x100 feet in dimensions, and with balcony and basement gives an available floor space of 12,000 feet. In political matters, while not. active as a worker, Mr. Payne is a stanch Democrat and is never neglectful of the duties of citizen- ship, while in local affairs he takes a loyal interest and lends his aid and influence in support of those measures and enterprises which make for the well being of the community. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South. On Aug. 26, 1886, Mr. Payne was united in marriage to Miss Dora Sandifer, daughter of James M. and Arkansas (Rushing) Sandifer, of Tylertown, Miss., and they have one son, Percy Eugene.
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Peeples, Dr. Pinckney W., physician, statesman and financier, was born in November, 1835, in Guilford county, N. C., where his ancestors for several generations were closely identified with the develop- ment of the natural resources of the coun- try and the progress of its people. David Peeples, the great-grandfather, was one of the pioneers of Guilford county, and the number of land-grants there recorded show him to have been one of the largest owners of real estate in the county, his holdings being in the vicinity of Jacob's creek and the Haw river. His son, Capt. Lewis Peeples, who was born on Dec. 22, 1760, grew to manhood in Guilford county, inherited a great deal of property from his father, and lived in ease and luxury. He married Jane Hicks, and until his death, Dec. 29, 1828, their home was the center of social life in the county, being widely noted for its hospitality. Martha, daughter of Capt. Lewis and Jane Peeples, married Col. Walter McConnell, and another daughter, Isabella, became the wife of Calvin Hicks McAdoo. Through these marriages the family became closely connected with the McConnells and McAdoos, two of the oldest and most distinguished families of central North Carolina. Capt. Lewis Peeples left a son, Col. Allen Peeples, who was for many years a man of prominence and influence in Guilford county, representing it in the State legislature from 1830 to 1833, inclusive, and was otherwise actively associated with the public affairs of his county and State. He married Betsy Braziel and the subject of this sketch was a son of this union. Another son, Capt. P. A. Peeples, commanded a company in the Confederate service in the Civil war until he was mortally wounded at the battle of Gaines' Mills, June 27, 1862. Dr. Pinckney W. Peeples passed his boyhood on his father's plantation, receiving his early education from the teaching of his father, who was a man of fine attainments. Upon reaching a suitable age the son entered the University of Vir- ginia and graduated in the literary department of that celebrated institution with high honors. Hc then took up the study of medi- cine and received his degree from the Jefferson medical college, of Philadelphia, Pa., one of the best known medical schools in the coun- try, coming forth well equipped for the onerous duties of his pro- fession. It was during his life as a student that he developed in a marked degree those qualities of perseverance and self-reliance that in later life distinguished his career. Shortly after leaving college he began the practice of his profession in Carroll county, Miss., to which State his father had removed in 1842, and notwithstanding his youth he soon achieved a reputation as a skillful and successful physician. When the Civil war broke out he had a large and lucra- tive practice, but with intense loyalty to the South he enlisted in the Confederate service, being assigned to the medical department,
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where he acquitted himself with signal credit and success, always discharging his duties with aptness and fidelity, whether called to administer to the wounded on the field amid the hail of bullets and shells or in the plague-ridden hospitals. After the war he returned to his plantation on Duck Hill and devoted himself to bringing order out of chaos, into which the planting and agricultural interests of the South had been plunged by the ravages of the war. Here his energy and optimism were of inestimable value, for he not only wrung success for himself from the confusion around him, but his example served an incentive to others to overcome the obstacles with which they were confronted. In the darkest hour of the reconstruction era he never lost faith in the possibilities of the South, and confidently predicted her ultimate triumph. Although he never returned to the active practice of his profession, when the yellow fever visited Grenada in 1878 and carried away more than 400 of its then small population; when many fled in terror from the dread malady and it seemed as if all who remained behind were destined to fall victims to its deadly touch, he remained to treat and nurse his relatives and friends. With that calm, cool judgment that he always exhibited in periods of adversity or intense excitement, he set patiently to work and by his professional skill and intelligent nursing nearly all those who came under his immediate care escaped the hand of the destroyer. He was finally stricken with the fever, but recovered after a long and dangerous illness. About this time he became the possessor of a hotel in Grenada, and with his usual business sagacity saw that the only certain way to make the property a paying invest- ment was to assume personal control. His engagement in this line of activity was therefore purely accidental, but his business soon grew to such proportions that he decided to enlarge it and remain in it permanently. From being the proprietor of the Chamberlain House at Grenada, he became the lessee and manager of the Stone- wall House at Grand Junction; the Oak Hall at Water Valley; and the Edwards House at Jackson. Few hotel men in Mississippi were more widely known, and none was more popular with the traveling public. In 1881 Dr. Peeples became a resident of Jackson, where he soon became active in local as well as State politics. In Febru- ary, 1885, a meeting was called to organize a board of trade, and in this meeting Dr. Peeples was one of the leading spirits. Upon the organization of the board he was elected its first president, bringing to the office his high business qualifications that had been thoroughly tested in his private affairs, an untiring zeal, and an enthusiasm that led others to emulate his example. The result was that the voice of the board soon became a potent factor with common carriers, and the municipal and State governments. Among the enterprises encouraged by the board, and the benefits secured wholly or in part by its influence, may be mentioned the waterworks, the electric lighting plant, a double daily mail line on the Illinois Central rail- road, and last but not least the public school building, which is one of the finest in the entire South. Dr. Peeples was a member of the citizen's committee that secured the passage of the act by the State
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