My Genealogy Hound

William W. Purmort was born in Essex County, N. Y., in 1831, the son of Nathaniel and Permelia (Harwood) Purmort, natives of New York and Vermont. The father was reared and married in New York, and came to Missouri in 1860. His death occurred here at William’s residence in April, 1885, in his eighty-sixth year. The mother had died twenty years before. They had six daughters and one son, but the following are now living: Sarah W. (the wife of L. B. Newell), Mariah (the wife A. B. Knight), and our subject. William’s father was an iron manufacturer, and William was brought up in that business, in connection with which they ran a general store. He came to Missouri in 1857, and located in this county the following year. During the war he enlisted in Company C, of Col. Moore’s regiment, and served one year as private, and afterward as a non-commissioned officer. He became county clerk in 1862, and filled that office efficiently for four years. He then engaged in various mercantile pursuits, until 1878, when he was re-elected county clerk. He established his present hardware and agricultural implement business in 1882, and with the aid of his son, Wallace O., has conducted it successfully ever since. His first wife, Ermina De Kalb (now deceased), left the following children: William N. and Wallace O. By his present wife, Emeline C. Clark, he has three children: Mary H., James C. and Nat H. Mr. Purmort is a Democrat, and is identified with the A. O. U. W. fraternity. He and his wife hold to the faith of the Baptist Church.