. . . The Pruntys are of Irish stock. They came to America in Colonial times and settled in Virginia where John Prunty, the progenitor of the Ritchie county family, was born.
John Prunty was the founder of Pruntytown, in Taylor county, he having broken the primitive wilderness there at a very early day, and left this little "dot" on the map of West Virginia, which serves as fitting memorial to a prominent career.
Mr. Prunty served the people of his section in the Legislature at Richmond for Twenty consecutive years, and was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by the small majority of but two or three votes. During his last candidacy, he told his opponent that he purposed to hang his hat on that one peg (which he had already used for twenty) for Twenty-one years; and when he was defeated, he went back to Richmond, and served as Seargant-at-Arms in the Legislature, thus occupying the same "hat-peg" for the twenty-one years as he had avowed.
The maiden name of his wife has been lost somewhere in the hazy past, but he was the father of six sons and one daughter, Roanna, who married George Arnold, an old land surveyor of Lewis, Braxton, and Gilmer counties, who patented the large tract of land now owned by Lewis Bennett, and also the tract that Mr. Bennett sold to the "Standard Oil Company."145
. . . Jacob Prunty, the Beeson pioneer, was one of the Sons, David was another, and Samuel, who married Ellen Taylor, sister of Mrs Isaiah Wells, was still another. The last one mentioned was the father of Samuel Prunty, Of Sumner, Missouri.
Mr. Prunty was a typical pioneer of the "Rough and Ready" order, and was a man of marked ability. He, several times, represented the people of this section in the Legislature, at Richmond, when the "Little Mountain State" was a part of the "Old Dominion," and many pleasing anecdotes are told of these journeys to the Capitol, made upon the back of a "superannuated" gray horse.
He survived until 1860, when he was laid in the White Oak churchyard. Mrs. Prunty died at the home of her son, Wilson Prunty, above Goff's in 1865, and owing to a flood-tide in the streams, she was buried on the homestead, where she died.
These pioneers were the parents of eight children, all of whom have passed on except the youngest daughter, Fannie, who is now Mrs. Bushrod Lawson, of Fairmont.
The others were as follows: Felix, Wilson, Jacob, and Elmore Prunty, Mrs. Kathrine (Stephen) Clayton, of White Oak; Mrs. Emily (Alexander) Lowther, of Parkersburg; and Mrs. Rachel Maley, Rock Camp. . . .145

200September 4th, 1850
PRUNTY, Jacob wheelwright born in Virginia Age 65 Years
" Mary " 54 "
" Elmon " 19 "
" Catharine " 16 "
" Anna " 12 "