Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 766-767 [Graves]

     GABRIEL J. PURYEAR is still one of the active and enterprising
farmers of Graves county, Kentucky, notwithstanding the sixty-five
milestones which he has passed on his life's journey.  He has had a
useful and worthy career, and is honored in his community not only
for his present capable performance of the duties of citizenship but
also for the part he has taken in the past as a patriotic citizen
and a diligent worker in his private life.  He was a Confederate
soldier in his youth, but continually since that great conflict has
followed the prusuit of farming, with such success that he is now in
the front rank of agriculturists in Graves county.
     Mr. Puryear, like so many of the inhabitants of Kentucky, was
born in North Carolinia, Person county, on Christmas day, 1837, the
son of Harmon and Nancy (Ford) Puryear, who were natives of the Old
North state, and the former is now living at the age of ninety-two,
and the latter died when fifty-two years old.  Mr. Puryear was
brought to Chrisitan county, Kentucky, in 1839 to Trigg county, and
in 1851 to Graves county, which has been his permanent residence
nearly all the rest of his life.  He lived there engaged in the work
of farming till he was twenty-seven years old, and in 1864 enlisted
in the Confederate army, in Company E. Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry, and
was with the command for thirteen months, or until the close of the
war.  He participated in several hard battles before the great
internecine struggle was brought to a close, and as part of the
command of General Forrest was in the battles at Guntown and
Harrisburg, Mississippi, Athens, Alabama, and Sulphur Springs and
Pulaski, Tennessee.  For two years immediately following the war he
lived in Christian county, Kentucky, and then entered upon his
career of farming in Graves county.  He now owns a farm of two
hundred and seventy acres near Mayfield, and gives his personal
attention to its working.  He is robust and in good health, and will
be able to carry on the responsibilities of life for some years yet. 
He is a Democrat in politics, but has never sought political favors.
     In 1859 Mr. Puryear married Miss Fannie Pryor, who was the
daughter of Jerry Pryor, son of Jonathan Pryor, one of the first
settlers of Graves county, Kentucky.  James H. Puryear, who is the
oldest of the children born of this union, is a farmer and stock-raiser
of Graves county; Lenna is the wife of James B. Martin, a
farmer of Graves county; Cora is the wife of John Covington, a
wealthy farmer of Graves county; Richard E. married Miss Hattie
Rickmon and is a farmer in Graves county; John, who studied at the
Louisville Medical College, is a practicing physician at Wingo;
Samuel is a farmer in Parker county, Texas; Hattie L. is the wife of
Jacob Anderson, cashier for the Southern Railroad at Greenville,
Mississippi.  Mr. and Mrs. Puryear, both in the evening of their
lives, enjoy fully the respect and esteem of the community, and
their activity in the past has made them entirely worthy of the
confidence of all.

Puryear Ford Forrest Pryor Martin Covington Rickman Anderson
=
Person-NC Christian-KY Trigg-KY Parker-TX MS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/graves/puryear.gj.txt