For many years the Puryear family was one of the most civically-active families in Hartselle. 

Like other families, they had originally chosen to settle here. Their offspring were likely to move onto other communities as opportunities presented themselves.  

The late John Puryear, who was a first cousin of one of Hartselle’s most outstanding women, Annie Ruth Waldsmith, stayed in Tuscaloosa following his military service and law school studies.  

He also operated a business, The Corner, which was popular with UA students as a place to hang out as well as to cash checks in the years before ATMs.  

Some of the Puryears had lived in Courtland. This was true of the Mastersons and Gilchrists as well. The Puryears were also prominent in Limestone County.

• Oct. 19, 1856—William Miller Puryear, the father of Hartselle wagon-maker Will Puryear (1884-1974), was born in Bibb County, Georgia.  From there he came to this community and was an active member of Bethel Baptist Church, in whose adjacent cemetery he was laid to rest following his death due to tuberculosis in Hartselle Oct. 19, 1889, at age 56.
• Sept. 7, 1880—Her many friends in Courtland, where she had lived for many years, are morning the death of Mrs. W. S. Puryear, who passed away at home today. She contributed a great deal to the social and cultural life of Courtland.
• Feb. 23, 1903—Mrs. Martha Johnston, aged 80 years, mother of Mrs. Puryear, wife of Limestone Sheriff Puryear, sustained a very serious accident, resulting in a broken hip, while visiting a prisoner in the county jail Sunday.  She had gone into the jail to visit a young man, and not knowing there was a step off, she fell, and the right hip was broken just below the socket. She is in a very serious condition, and at her extreme age it is hardly possible that she will recover.
• Sept. 2, 1922—The state highway commission has representatives here to inform local authorities they feel a change must be made in the Beeline highway route going south from downtown Hartselle. Instead of following the winding Barkley street course, what is needed is a straight route – that is, due south out of the business district, beginning at Will Puryear’s wagon shop and rejoining the present highway just north of MCHS.
• Jan. 8, 1927—Limestone County will have the state’s youngest sheriff when J. E. Clem, 24, is sworn in Jan. 24.  Clem served for four years as special deputy under his grandfather, E. F. Puryear, who was sheriff of Limestone  County for two and one-half terms. 
• Jan. 5, 1933—Imploring the legislature for aid to keep the schools from closing, the Morgan County Teachers Organization in a meeting here in Hartselle today offered to take a 25 percent cut in members’ salaries for the second semester of the 1932-33 term and urged similar reductions for all other state employees. A committee was selected by the teachers to work with county and state officials to keep the schools open and to pay teachers a minimal wage by which they could support themselves and their families.  The committee’s members are Boyd Puryear, Ross B. Ford, F. E. Burleson, E. G. Hamilton and H. S. Sherrod.
• Feb. 10, 1938—Mrs. Will M. Puryear is being congratulated on winning first prize in the recent “Fugitive Heiress” contest conducted by the Birmingham Post.
• May 2, 1941—”Red John” Puryear, Hartselle native, has been selected for membership in ODK, a national service organization, at the University of Alabama.

July 11, 2007—“Red John” Puryear, age 88, passed away peacefully and unexpectedly at his home on Greensboro Road in Tuscaloosa after lunch today. “Red John,” as he was known, was born in Hartselle, the oldest child of Esther and Will Puryear.  He served as Tuscaloosa County probate judge for ten years. He was a superb basket maker who demonstrated his craft regularly at the annual Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport.