Samuel Pannill's Obituary

The following is a copy of the obituary of Samuel Pannill of Green Hill, Campbell County. It was taken from a microfilmed copy of the Daily Lynchburg Virginian dated October 3, 1861.

DIED

On the 23th [sic] of September, 1861, at Green Hill, his residence, in the county of Campbell, at the advanced and patriarchal age of 91 years, SAMUEL PANNELL, one of the most eminent and highly esteemed citizens of his native state. He was born in Orange county, Va, on the 27th January, 1770. He was 13 years old at the close of the Revolutionary War. He retained a vivid recollection of many of the memorable scenes of that glorious struggle, and possessed a personal knowledge of many of its most prominent actors. In early life he visited Kentucky, whose wilds were yet unredeemed from their primitive character, where he remained more than two years; was intimate in the family of his relative, Col. Richard Taylor, father of the late President Taylor. In the year 1795, he married Judith, the daughter and only child of John Boughton, esq., of Campbell county, Va. Subsequently he purchased and removed to Green Hill, where he resided until his death, that place being his home for 65 years. Mr. P. possessed, in an eminent degree, all those attributes of character which constitute a man, "just and tenacious of the truth." Although he never sought public or political office, yet he was elected by the General Assembly of his native state a member of the Board of Public Works, to which position he was continuously reelected until that body was finally abolished by the Legislature. He was also for many years President of the Roanoke Navigation Company, the duties of which office he discharged with efficient energy, until the infirmities of age admonished him to resign. Mr. P. was remarkable for his fine intellectual powers, and an extraordinary energy of character. No man ever commanded more the respect and confidence of an extensive circle of friends and acquaintances than he did, through a protracted life of untarnished rectiture [sic]. He retained his mental faculties and full vigor until the last. His last illness was only of 14 hours duration. The death of the hoary-haired and revered patriarch was calm and peaceful, breathing his last as quietly as an infant rocked to sleep on its mother's bosom. His demise will be deeply deplored by his numerous descendants to the fourth generation.