McPherson Family Database

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Rhuie V. McPherson, the subject of this article, is Peggy Nutt's paternal grandmother. Rhuie was born 27 December 1893 in Labette county, Kansas. Rhuie's parents were George Washington McPherson and Malissa E. Veal.

Rhuie’s mother, Malissa, died in 1898 when Rhuie was only four years old. About 1899 George McPherson and his five living children left Kansas and relocated to Hagerstown, Wayne county, Indiana. In 1907 George married in Wayne county and lived there with his new wife, Anna, until his death at Five Points, Indiana in October 1936.

George's parents were James and Harrietta M. (Smith) McPherson. They married in June 1852 in Wayne county, Indiana. They both died, and are buried, in Labette county, Kansas. George's grandparents were David and Elizabeth (Cole) McPherson, both were born in North Carolina. It is thought that David McPherson may have died during the late 1830s, but where he died is not yet known. His widowed wife Elizabeth never remarried and died at Wayne county, Indiana.

In 1914, at the age of 20, Rhuie returned to Kansas to live with her older brothers. In December 1916 she married Leon Landrith and one year later gave birth to a son, Ira Clayton Landrith.

Rhuie died 30 November 1918 in Labette county of pneumonia at the young age of twenty-four. She died during the influenza epidemic. Her only child, Clayton, was 11 months old. Rhuie’s brother Gerald McPherson took Clayton and raised him to adulthood.

Gerald and his wife Orpha (Nash) McPherson owned a farm 2-1/2 miles west of the town Chetopa in Labette county. In 1926, when Gerald was age forty, they leased the farm and he found employment in Kansas City, Missouri. Here he worked in the Corn Products Refining Company for 25 years. About 1951, after his retirement, he and Orpha returned to their farm where they once again took up farming. They farmed until Gerald’s advanced years (late 70s) caused them to sell the farm and move into Chetopa where he lived out his final years.

If anyone has additional information on this branch of the McPherson family, I would be delighted for you to contact me and help fill in any information gaps.