My Genealogy Hound

Lewis E. Purssell, a prominent merchant of Auvergne, Jackson County, is a native of Arkansas, born in Woodruff County, February 20, 1861. His parents were William O. and Lucy (Coyle) Purssell, natives, respectively, of South Carolina and Alabama, the former of whom came to Arkansas with his father, J. H. Purssell, who was one of the earliest settlers of Woodruff County, where he opened several large farms. William O. Purssell married Miss Lucy Coyle, in Prairie County, Ark., in 1854; they afterward moved to Woodruff County, where they lived until 1868, when they moved to Izard County, where Mr. Purssell died in 1872. He was a Master Mason and an Odd Fellow, and in the early part of the war enlisted, and served until its close as brevet-captain; at the time of his death he owned 900 acres of land in Woodruff and Izard Counties, about 160 acres being under cultivation; he had been very successful as a farmer and stock raiser. His widow remained on the farm in Izard County until December, 1875, when she returned to the old homestead in Prairie County, which was her home with our subject until 1879. She died December 19, 1882, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The maternal grandparents of Lewis E. came to Arkansas from Mississippi in 1853, living one year in Woodruff County, and then locating in Prairie County, where they entered land and built a home. Mr. Coyle was a natural and successful farmer, and during his life cleared about 500 acres of land, being able to do a good day’s work at the age of seventy years. His death occurred in December, 1885, and his excellent wife, who survives him, still lives on the old homestead; she is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which her husband also belonged. Lewis E. Purssell was reared to the pursuit of farming, receiving a good education at the common schools of Woodruff and Jackson Counties, the Philadelphia Academy in Izard County, and the Male College at Searcy, White County. At the age of eighteen he left home, and was engaged as clerk for Gates Bros. & Co., at Des Arc, Prairie County, where he remained six months, when he entered the employment of Plunkett & Erwin of the same place, in which capacity he worked two years; in 1882 he opened a drug and grocery store at Hickory Plain, Prairie County, which he conducted until January, 1880, when, on account of his maternal grandfather’s death, he sold out and assumed the management of his grandmother’s farm. In the latter part of the same year he moved to Auvergne, Jackson County, purchased a stock of groceries of M. J. Malone, to which he added a general stock of dry-goods, clothing, etc., and now has one of the best general stores in the country. Mr. Purssell also owns a farm of 160 acres in Prairie County, sixty acres of which are under cultivation. Our subject was the fourth in a family of nine, and is one of the two surviving, the others dying in infancy, except Ada, who married J. W. Williamson, a farmer and stock trader of Izard County; she died in 1884, leaving one child, Ethel, aged five years. Alice Corrinne Purssell is the wife of James B. Gardner, a practicing physician and farmer near Hickory Plain, Prairie County; they have four children: Elmer, Earl, Oscar and Bessie. Mr. Purssell is unmarried; he is one of the leading men of the town of Auvergne, and is actively interested in its welfare, lending his hearty and liberal aid to the support of schools, churches and all worthy public enterprises. He takes no active part in politics, but his sympathies are with the Democratic party.