revelle

REV. LEVI W. REVELLE

Rev. Levi W. Revelle, farmer, of Castor Township, is a native of Cape Girardeau County, Mo. (now Bollinger County), born the 15^th day of March, 1830, and is the son of John L. and Suannah (Row) Revelle. The former was born in Lincoln County, N. C., in 1802, and was of French origin. His father, Ethelred Revelle, was likewise a native of North Carolina, and in 1812 immigrated to Southeast Missouri and settled five miles from Marble Hill, where he passed his life. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was one of the first settlers of what is now Bollinger County. John L. Revelle was ten years old when he came to Missouri. He here grew to manhood, was married and settled near where his father first located, and here he, too, passed his last days, dying December 22, 1856. He was the owner of 320 acres of land, and was one of the solid, substantial farmers of Bollinger County. He was justice of the peace for a few years. His wife was born in Lincoln County, N. C., in 1808, and was of German descent. She died in 1887. She came with her father John Row, to Missouri, when only four years of age. Mr. Row was a drummer in the Revolutionary War. Of the seven children (five sons and two daughters) born to Mr. and Mrs. Revelle, Levi W. was the third son. He was born and grew to manhood on the farm. At the age of nineteen he engaged in the profession of teaching school, and has followed this occupation continuously up to the present, with the exception of about four years spent in California. He has taught in Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Madison Counties, and has met with marked success. In 1852 he went to California by overland, it taking him five months to complete the journey. He remained in this State until 1855, and while there engaged in clerking at $100. per month. At the latter date he returned to his native State, and one year later was married to Miss Elizabeth DeSha, a native of Madison County, Mo., born in 1835. To their marriage were born two children: Napoleon B. Revelle (died when two years old), and Josephine (wife of Filmore M. Hudson). Mr. Revelle purchased the farm where he now lives in 1856, and here he has since resided. He owned at one time 420 acres of land, but at present he is the possessor of 240 acres. About 1862 he commenced preaching the Missionary Baptist doctrine, and in 1865 was licensed to preach. In 1868 he was ordained into the regular ministry. His ministerial labors have been in the same counties as that of his teaching. He has had charge of from three to four churches, but for the past year he has done but little work, having no regular appointment. He organized Beulah and Union Churches in Madison County, and Friendship and Pleasant Hill Churches in Bollinger County. He is a Democrat in his political views, casting his first presidential vote for Franklin Pierce in 1852. He is a member of the I.O.O.F., of Fredericktown Lodge No.172, and of the Farmers' Alliance, Lodge No. 116.