P. M. Puryear, Educator

Portious Moore Puryear was born in Oxford, Granville County, North Carolina, November 26, 1839. He moved with his family to Walker County, Georgia, in the early part of 1860. He soon enlisted in the 23rd Georgia regiment Confederate Army and served until it surrendered. He was under Stonewall Jackson and in the battle when that officer received the wound that caused his death. He later joined General Robert E. Lee's regiment and was with him at the surrender of Appomattox.

He was a graduate of Princeton University. In 1867 he married Miss Margaret Gunn and came to the Kittrell community of Rutherford County, Tennessee.

In 1870 he became principal of Science Hill Academy and taught there for seventeen years. It was the only school in that part of Rutherford County. Students came from other communities and boarded to go to school there. Professor Puryear, being a highly educated man, developed a very broad curriculum. He taught Greek, Latin, higher mathematics and science. He had two or three assistants who taught the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

He became a magistrate from the 19th Civil District in 1876. He took an active interest in the proceedings of the Quarterly Court and seldom missed a meeting.

He belonged to Haynes Chapel Methodist Church which he helped build in 1884 and was a faithful worker there and "a public spirited and liberal, earnest supporter of all propositions for the good of the public" until his death on November 30, 1891.

Kittrell | Rutherford County | Tennessee

Source: Rutherford County Historical Society, Publication No. 2, winter, 1973.
(Sources: Interviews with Miss Bertha Puryear; Family records; Copy of Resolutions passed by the Rutherford County