BURNSIDE
April 27, 1904

Purlina E. Pyle was born near Hopkinsville, KY, June 29, 1827, and came with
her parents to Illinois in 1843. Died at the home of her daughter in Kansas
City, April 22, 1904. She was married to John W. Cherry in 1843 and moved to
Hancock Co., in 1847.  To this union twelve children were born, five of whom
survive her. E. C. Cherry, of Milan, Mo., W. P. and M. G. Cherry and Mrs. Earl
C. Barber, of Kansas City, Mo., and E. A. Cherry, of Adrian, Mo., all of whom
accompanied the remains to Burnside where they arrived Sunday morning. Short
services were held by Rev. Porter after which the remains were conveyed to the
McKay cemetery and interred by the side of her husband who died in 1891, and
her other children who had died in former years when they lived in this
township and Carthage. John. W. Cherry, it will be remembered, was prominent
in getting subscription to stock in the T. P. & W. R. R. and other enterprises
in the county, and his former acquaintances will bear me out when I say he was
an all-around enterprising and good man and while discussing his merits, we
will not neglect to truthfully say that Mrs. Cherry was a Christian lady in
every sense and meaning of the word. When the T. P. & W. R. R. was surveyed
from Carthage through Pilot Grove township Mr. Cherry owned a quarter of land
through which the road was surveyed, he laid a town site on it, had it platted
and named it Hopkinsville. The work on the road was stopped for four years and
when it resumed the management had concluded to change the road from Elvaston,
running straight and intersecting the old grade a mile north of where he had
platted the town, thus leaving his site and Carthage far to the south. Mr. and
Mrs. Cherry became members of the Baptist church under the preaching of a Rev.
Mr. Thompson, who became a noted minister of that faith, in the winter of 1852
and in a school house that stood on the land and on what is called the Sweeney
house on section 5 in Carthage township, and during that or the next year, the
first Baptist church was organized in Carthage and Mr. and Mrs. Cherry became
charter members, which faith they held to during the balance of their lives
and lived up to the teachings as near as it is in mankind to do.