FAMILIES OF STEELE Continued:
By Johnnie Louise Pruitt Rexrode
Copyright 2000-2002

The picture that was here previously had mistakenly been identified as Elenor(Steele)Pruitt. My apologies to the family of Nannie Belle(Day) Young. Nannie Belle was the daughter of William Lewis Day and Molly Brewster. Carol Sweeney very graciously provided us with the correct information.

The Decendents of Shadrack and Christina Deskins Steele continue through their daughter Eleanore Nellie Steele who married my Gr gr grandfather James Harvey Pruitt:

James Harvey Pruitt was born 05 September 1830 and died 18 May 1909, according to his tombstone, which also reads, "Gone But not Forgotten". He was the son of Reuben and Nancy Vandike Pruitt. He married Eleanore Nellie Steele 21 September 1854. She was the daughter of Shadrack and Christina Deskins Steele of Bearwallow Ridge in Tazewell County Virginia, (at the time they lived there). She was born on June 26, 1834 and died on June 22, 1904. Her tombstone reads, "She was the Sunshine of our Home". She and her husband James Harvey Pruitt lived on Bearwallow Ridge in a cedar log cabin built on the land she had inherited from her father Shadrack Steele in his will, as spoken of by Dodie Elizabeth Smith Browing author of the Families of Steele web site.

They are both buried in the Steele Family Cemetery atop the dividing ridge near the old homeplace of Shadrack and Christina Deskins Steele. In the same cemetery that contains the now unmarked graves of Shadrack and Christina Deskins Steele. On a recent visit to the Steele Family Cemetery on Bearwallow Mountain, I was able to locate what I am sure was the base parts of Shade and Christina Steele's headstone markers. They are in the center of the old cemetery and they are elongated rectangular shaped stones. It is known that the original field stone markers were broken off and removed, but the bases of the old stones survived and can now be seen protruding slightly above the ground. I am very thankful the bases of their grave stones are now visible as a testiment to the story of our Steele ancestors. The broken graves stone markers of Shadrack and Christina Deskins Steele are now surrounded by the graves markers of their decendents who have passed on after them.

James Harvey Pruitt served in the 16 TH. Va. Cav. for the CSA., during the Civil War. He was a Blacksmith and followered his company in a wagon loaded with the tools of his trade. He kept their horses shod and the wagon wheels repaired. In 1909 his oldest son Joseph Pruitt is listed on a Confederate Pension lists as having received a pension for the service of his father James Harvey Pruitt. There is also an Iron Civil War marker on the gravesite of James Harvey Pruitt that was obtained from the DAR and placed there by his decendents in the 1950's. James Harvey Pruitt and Eleanore Nellie Steele Pruitt were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters. These children married and had families of their own; they helped to populate the Bearwallow Ridge area of Tazewell and Buchanan Counties. Their Sons and Grandsons became Coal Miners and Farmers. I am very proud to say that I am a decendent of James Harvey Pruitt and Eleanore "Nellie" Steele Pruitt.

1. Joseph Pruitt their oldest son, (my great grandfather), b. 1855,  
     d. 1942, m. Louise Smith, May 30, 1875.   
     b. 1857, d. About 1898
     They are both buried at the Steele Family Cemetery side by   
     side, in (now) unmarked graves.


2.  Shadrack Pruitt, b. May 18, 1861, d. August 15, 
    1941.

3.  Rebecca Pruitt, b. Abt. 1866 d. ?.  
    m.  ? Hampton. She was known  to all as Great Aunt Beckie

4.  James H. Pruitt, b. Abt. 1867, d. Abt. 1950. 
    m. Louise Hess.

5. Malcolm Pruitt, b. Abt. 1869, d. Abt. 1949 

6. Nancy Elizabeth Pruitt, b. Abt. 1870, d. ?.
    m. William R. Boyd. She was known as Great Aunt El.
  
    
7. Margaret Pruitt, b. 1872, d. Abt. 1952. 
     She married and lived in Buchanan County Virginia. She was
     known to us as Great Aunt Margie.

My great grandfather, Joseph Pruitt, s/o "Nellie" (Steele) and "Harve" Pruitt,
was born in 1855 on Bearwallow Ridge in Buchanan County Virginia. He 
married Louise Smith in 1873 and they lived at the old Pruitt family 
homeplace on the dividing ridge. Louise Smith was the daughter of John
Smith. She was born on Smith Ridge in 1857 and died of pneumonia in the
early spring of 1898. 


Sons and daughters of Joseph and  Louise (Smith) Pruitt

The children of Joseph and Louise (Smith) Pruitt:
1. Fannie E. Pruitt, b. Jan. 7, 1874 Bearwallow Ridge, Buchanan  
    County Virginia. d. Oct. 19, 1913.
 
2. William Harvey Pruitt, b. May 22, 1882, d.  Aug. 30, 1913,
   m. Louise Cole, b.  Aug 2, 1902, d. Jan. 5, 1956. 
   They are buried at the Steele Family Cemetery on Bearwallow
   Ridge in Buchanan County Va.

3. James A. Pruitt, b. ?, d. ?.

4. Joseph R. Pruitt, b. May 29, 1889, d. May 1967, m. Nancy Shrilda  
    Grizzle.

5. John O. Pruitt, (my Grandfather), b. April 16, 1893, d. March 7, 1981,
   m. Corlie Mae Cole, daughter of Floyd and Mae 
   Cole of Bearwallow Ridge in Buchanan County Va. Corlie Mae 
   Cole Pruitt, b. Dec. 13, 1893, d. Dec. 29, 1934. 

6. Lilly R. Pruitt, b. Abt. 1879, d. Abt. 1959,
     m. John Cordle (1) and W. S. Lester(2)Nov. 4, 1915.

7. Nancy Jane Pruitt, b. 1878, d. Nov. 1954, m. W. R. Boyd.

8. Bertha M. Pruitt, b. Nov. 26, 1878, d. Aug. 1966.



The funeral of Louise (Smith) Pruitt

John Oscar Pruitt (number 5, above) was born April 16, 1893 in Buchanan County Virginia and died
March 7, 1981 in Richlands, Virginia. He married Corlie Mae Cole(1), and Julie Atkins(2).
Corlie Mae Cole was born on Dec. 13, 1893 in Buchanan County and died Dec. 29, 1934.
She was the daughter of Floyd and Mae Cole of Bearwallow Ridge in Buchanan County
Virginia.
She is buried at the Steele Family Cemetery on Bearwallow Ridge in Buchanan County
Virginia in an unmarked grave. She and John Oscar Pruitt were the parents of the thirteen
children listed below.

1. Rhoda Mae Pruitt, b. June 3, 1916, d. Oct. 23, 1918.

2. Stella Louise Pruitt, b. July 23, 1917, 
    (Living Individual).

3. Ollie Clementine Pruitt, b. July 23, 1918, d. Aug. 15, 1974,
    m. Homer Phillips.

4. John Oliver Pruitt, (my Father), b. Mar. 22, 1920, d. July 31, 1976,
    m. Mary Alice Meadows Nov. 12, 1943.

5. Joseph Stewart Pruitt, b. Nov. 26, 1921, d. Nov. 18, 1985,
    m. Bishop ?.

6. Edward Harley Pruitt, b. April 12, 1923, d. Dec. 10, 1923
    Buried at the Steele Family Cemetery Bearwallow Ridge
    in Buchanan County Virginia in a (now) unmarked grave.

7. James Arvin Pruitt, b. Sep. 13, 1924, d. June 16, 1995,
     buried at the Day Family Cemetery, Peapatch, Va.

8. William Henry Pruitt, b. May 6, 1926, d. Oct. 6, 2980.
     m. Eilean Hess.

9. Delcie Hazel Pruitt, b. March 18, 1928, d. Sep. 23, 1995,
     m. Butch Lane

10. Nellie Rachel Pruitt, b. Sep. 12, 1929, d. May 12, 1996
      m. Amando Pacheco.

11. Margie Jane Pruitt, b. Feb. 22, 1931, d. Feb. 22, 1931,
       Buried at the Elswick Family Cemetery on Bearwallow
       Ridge in a (now) unmarked grave.

12. Sherman Oscar Pruitt, b. Aug. 18, 1932, d. Oct. 26, 1980,
      m. Carrie ?.

13. Charles Thomas Pruitt, b. Oct. 17, 1934, d. Oct. 19, 1934.
       Buried at the Steele Family Cemetery Bearwallow Ridge 
       in Buchanan County Virginia in a (now) unmarked grave.