Pylant Geneology

"Mississippi", Vol. III, Biography, gen. ref. 976.2R

PYLANT, THOMAS W., president of the incorporated firm of Pylant Brothers & Company, of Purvis, Lamar county, is to be noted as one of the able and progressive business men of this section. He is a native of Pike county, Ala., where he was born May 24, 1868, being a son of George M. and Caroline (Cochran) Pylant, the former of whom was likewise born in Pike county, Ala., while the latter was born in Georgia. The latter is deceased and the former resides in Wayne county. Our subject is indebted to the public schools of Alabama and Mississippi for the educational advantages which he enjoyed in his youth and which formed an adequate foundation on which to base his active and successful business career. At the age of twenty-two years he became a salesman in a mercantile establishment at Waynesboro, Miss., where he gained valuable experience as bearing upon the labors and accomplishment which were to be his in his independent business operations. Mr. Pylant dates his residence in Purvis from the year 1894, when he here located and became identified with the turpentine manufacturing industry, while he also was employed for a considerable period of time as a traveling salesman. In 1896 he laid the foundation for the large and prosperous business enterprise with which he is at present identified and which owes its upbuilding largely to his discriminating and energetic efforts. He opened a general merchandise store, conducting the same in an individual way until 1898, when he admitted to partnership his brother, George I., under the firm name of T. W. Pylant & Company, and the firm became one of the best known in this county, its trade increasing materially in volume from year to year and finally rendering expedient the incorporation of the business, which was accomplished March 1, 1905, when the title of Pylant Brothers & Company was adopted. The concern is incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000, and the official corps is as follows: Thomas W. Pylant, president; George I. Pylant, secretary and treasurer, and Thomas E. Salter, vice-president. The concern occupies commodious and attractive quarters and each department in the store has its full complement of select and well assorted goods, so that the facilities are of the best in the matter of meeting the demands of a discriminating patronage. The president of the company is a member of the Baptist church, as is also his wife, and in a fraternal way we find him identified with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. He is a reliable and straightforward business man and public-spirited citizen, commanding the esteem of the people and his community. On Feb. 6, 1895, Thomas W. Pylant was united in marriage to Miss Katy Purvis, daughter of Oliver S. and Jane (Baxter) Purvis, of Purvis, which town was named in honor of this prominent family. Mr. and Mrs. Pylant have five children, whose names are here entered in order of birth: George Derrick, Yubah Jane, Thomas Earl, Lake Ruble, and Lavelle Rodney.