Stanislaus
County
Biographies
RICHARD BENJAMIN PURVIS
Missouri, which during recent years
has come to the front as one of the great states of the Union, has, during the
formative period of its history and later, supplied many valuable citizens to
California. Richard Benjamin Purvis, the
sheriff of Stanislaus County, is one of the most prominent citizens of
Modesto. He was born in Callaway County,
Missouri, September 15, 1844, and is descended from Scotch-English ancestors,
who settled early in Virginia. His
parents, Nicholas and Elizabeth (Sterns) Purvis, were born and married in
Virginia, and in 1841 went with their six children to Missouri and were among
the early settlers in Callaway County, where they made a large farm and became
successful agriculturists and lived out their days, Mr. Purvis dying at about
the age of fifty years, while Mrs. Purvis lived to the advanced age of
eighty-four years, dying in 1883. Their
deaths were deeply regretted by all who had known them as active members of the
Baptist Church and people of the highest and most admirable character. Three children were added to their family
after they removed to Missouri, increasing the total number to nine, of whom
six are now living, including the subject of this sketch, who is the only
member of his family in California.
When Mr. Purvis came to California
he was only nineteen years old. He
farmed for a year in Napa County and in 1864 went to Idaho and mined near Idaho
City in 1865 and 1866, but with only moderate success. Returning to Napa County, he remained there
until 1870, when he came to Stanislaus County, where his enterprise as a famer
was richly rewarded. As he prospered he
bought more and more land from time to time until he owned an aggregate of
eight hundred and nine acres, which he brought to a high state of cultivation
and improvement, building on it a good residence and adequate farm buildings,
and on which he lived until 1884, when the Democracy of Stanislaus County
nominated him for the office of sheriff, for which his upright and resolute
character peculiarly fitted him and for which he had had some training, when,
as a boy, he had seen dangerous service in the Confederate cause under General
Sterling Price. Two years of frontier
warfare, in which he had many times risked his life, always coming out
unscathed, gave him confidence to pit himself against the criminal and lawless
element of Stanislaus County. He was
elected and filled the office with so much ability and success that he has been
six times re-elected to succeed himself.
His work in ridding the county of bad men and in establishing and
maintaining law and order was most effective, and very much that would be
interesting might be written about his experiences in an official capacity.
Mr. Purvis has been a valued member
of the Masonic fraternity since 1873, when he was received as an Entered
Apprentice, passed the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to the sublime degree
of Master Mason. Later he took the
degrees of capitular Masonry and was exalted to the august degree of Royal Arch
Mason, and in 1890 he took the degrees of chivalric Masonry and was
constituted, created and dubbed a Knight Templar. He is also an Odd Fellow and a Knight of
Pythias; and not only is he popular in all the orders mentioned but is also
esteemed as one of Stanislaus county’s most useful and prominent citizens, for
his public spirit has impelled him at all times to aid to the extent of his
ability every movement promising to benefit his fellow men.
He was happily married in 1876 to
Miss Jennie Philips, a native of the state of New York, an influential member
of t he Christian Church and a woman of much education and refinement, and
their home at Modesto is noted for its hearty and genial hospitality.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 670-671. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2011
Gerald Iaquinta.