William Pearle, of Virginia, settled in Lincoln County, Kentucky, among the first settlers of that State. During a portion of the Indian troubles he took refuge with his family in the fort at Crab Orchard. His son, Henry, married Polly Owsley, sister of Governor Owsley, of Kentucky, by whom he had twelve children, seven of whom lived to be grown. The names of the latter were Samuel, William S. F., Patience, Joel, Henry, Nudigit O., and Catharine. Samuel married Sally Dugan, and settled in Warren County, Missouri, in 1830. Joel married Rebecca Wyatt, and settled in Montgomery County. Henry married his cousin, Sally A. Pearle, and settled in Montgomery County in 1833. He was a school teacher and farmer, and concluded once that he could preach as well as anybody. So he gave out an appointment at the school house, and when the time arrived, a large congregation was in attendance to hear him. . He gave out the hymn, sang, and led in prayer as well as any one, but when he arose to preach his subject flew from his brain,”as he graphically expressed it, and he could not preach at all. He apologized by saving, “We thought we could preach, but we can’t preach,” and took his seat. Another incident of an entirely different character, but equally embarrassing, happened to him soon after he came to Montgomery County. Four or five of his horses strayed away, and he spent several months in hunting them, during which time he rode four or five hundred miles, and at last found his horses within five miles of home, where they had been all the time, grazing on the prairie. Patience Pearle married William S. Wyatt, of Warren County, and settled in Montgomery County in 1836. The rest of the Pearle children settled in Montgomery County at a later date.
