My Genealogy Hound

Claiborne Sullivan Pinnell, familiarly known as Uncle “Claib” Pinnell, has been a resident of Northeast Arkansas for about fifty-one years, or over half a century. He was born in what was then called the “New Purchase” of Kentucky, October 27, 1817. His father was Peter Pinnell, who removed to Franklin County, Mo., when the son was an infant, and afterward settled in Greene County, Ark., at Crowley’s Ridge, where he remained until his death, in 1842, or thereabouts. His wife was Miss Annie Sullivan, of Kentucky, whose parents, Claiborne Sullivan and wife, nee Harvey, were South Carolinians. This couple were the parents of nine children, C. S. Pinnell being the only one living, so far as known, although his oldest brother, Louis, was living in the Choctaw Nation, I. T., two or three years ago, at the age of eighty-two years. The mother died in Lawrence County, on the Cache River, after the close of the war. Claiborne S. Pinnell was reared on a farm, and as his father always lived in a very new country, where schools were not to be found for love nor money, and teachers were few and far between, his education, as a consequence, was very limited. When nine years of age he met with a painful accident, which has rendered him a cripple all his life; a colt ran away with him one day, and, stepping into a hole, threw him off, breaking his right arm and shoulder, which has prevented him from doing any hard labor ever since. Notwithstanding this fact, he has been an active man all his life; following the plow, farming and raising stock. He came to Lawrence County about thirty years ago, and bought 160 acres on Village Creek, one and one-half miles north of Walnut Ridge, and has made this his home ever since, besides owning another farm in this county, the two aggregating 240 acres. He has hunted “bar” all over the State, and about twelve or fourteen years ago he killed the largest panther that had ever been seen in that neighborhood, measuring eleven feet from both tips. Mr. Pinnell has made a lengthy trip to Oregon, and another to Texas, but looks upon Lawrence County as the dearest spot on earth. He was married to Miss Minerva C. Rhea, a sister of M. B. Rhea, and has had nine children. Four of them grew to maturity, but all are now deceased, including the mother. His second wife was Mrs. Amanda E. (Grayles) Moore, and has had no children by this lady, although his wife has a daughter by her former husband. Mr. Pinnell is a member of the Ravenden Springs Methodist Episcopal Church, as are his wife and step-daughter, Mettie Isabelle. Grandfather Claiborne Sullivan married his second wife in his ninety-eighth year, living two or three years afterward, showing the remarkable vitality existing in the family. He was a noted Baptist preacher in his time. Mr. Pinnell was an ardent hunter in his younger days, and has made considerable money in killing wild game and selling the hides and furs. He tanned the hide of the “painter” he killed some years ago, and made a pair of shoes out of it, which were quite a curiosity, on account of the associations connected with them.