STORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY KENTUCKY, by Robert Peter, ed. by William H. 
Perrin, O. L. Baskin Co., Chicago, 1882.  Reprinted by Southern 
Historical Press, Easley, SC, 1979.
page 771		
WILLIAM PETTIT, farmer, P. O. Lexington, is of a hardy pioneer family, 
the early records of which are mingled with tales of suffering and 
sacrifice, of warfare and blood.
His grandfather, Nathaniel Pettit, a native of Virginia, came to Fayette 
County when it was yet the outpost of slowly advancing civilization; when 
the ax was associated with the scalping-knife, and the settler's hoe with 
his trusty rifle; when every cultivated clearing was menaced by the 
sanguinary savages and every log cabin was a fort; when each night saw 
preparations to receive a hostile attack, and each succeeding morning was 
more likely to invite the white man to meet a merciless foe than to engage 
in peaceful labor.
Such an experience made heroes and heroines of boys and girls, and the 
descendants of those who bravely passed through the privations and perils 
of pioneer life on the Indian frontier may well be proud to trace in 
themselves and their children the characteristics of their indomitable 
ancestry.
Old Nathaniel Pettit located about five and a half miles from Lexington, 
on what is now the Nicholasville pike, the only roads then being the 
trails made by wild animals through the forest.
Here the hardy pioneer lived up to the time of his death, when the care of 
the family devolved on the youngest son, Harry, who, with hereditary 
resolution, took up  the task so sacredly imposed upon him and continued 
to live within a mile of his birthplace till 1874, when he, too, paid the 
debt of nature, and went to his eternal reward.
His widow, who had been Miss Juliet G. Atchison, is yet living at the 
advanced age of eighty years.
Of seven children born to them, five reached maturity, and the three who 
still survive are all residents of the county.
One of these, William (our subject), born in 1834, has in youth and manhood 
been inured to farm labor.
When thirty years old, he married Jennie, daughter of David T. and Ann 
(Chiles) Carr.
Her paternal grandfather, son of Walter Carr, one of the early Virginian 
settlers of Kentucky, is mentioned in the general history of Fayette Co.
He died about the year 1868.
Mr. and Mrs. Pettit have two sons: David and Harry.
Pettit Atchison Chiles Carr
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VA 

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