Biography - Joseph Petty
Joseph B. Petty, one of the successful business men of Tuscola, engaged in merchandising and identified with several other enterprises of the city, was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, August 24, 1855, and is a son of Nathan and Ann Mariah (Wood) Petty, the former born in Chatham county, North Carolina, and the latter in Mercer county, Kentucky. Mr. Petty was engaged in farming for several years in Champaign county, and from 1884 to 1891 he resided in Iantha, Missouri, where he was engaged in blacksmithing and hardward merchandising. In the latter year he returned to Illinois and settled in Tuscola, where he has since worked at his trade, and in 1898 opened up a general store in connection with his other business.
In 1881 he was united in marriage to Miss Priscilla Mars, of Champaign county. They had five boys: Earle Shirley, Byron Talmage, Clara Marrs, Virgil Ira and William Nathan. He owns his own home and store buildings, is a hard working man, and is one of the honorable and representative citizens of Tuscola. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and of the Court of Honor. Mrs. Petty, a lady of good intelligence and fine business tact, is a daughter of William and Mary Jane (Sutherland) Marrs, the former a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and the later of Ohio. At the age of four years William Marrs, with his father, John Marrs, moved to Shelby county, Ohio, where William was raised. He moved to Macon county, Illinois, in 1859, and there engaged in agricultural pursuits. Priscilla Marrs taught school seven years in Champaign county, Illinois, then became Mrs. Petty. She has the agency and is field manager for the Viavi Company for Douglas county, and has also the agency and field management for the Magnetic Shield Company, of Chicago, in her county. Viavi is a purely vegetable compound, the outgrowth of a physician's prescription. To his years of experimenting was addeded an incredible amount of patience and money, and Viavi in its present form is the result. It is virtually predigested food and is used with most perfect safety by the most delicate, young and old. This remedy is world famed, and is successfully used by every nation. The motto of the Viava worker is "The higher physical life of woman," and thus preserve the health of the race. Mrs. Petty has, in her six years' agency, done a business of over $4,600. She is thoroughly capable, and with the time that she has given to her special work she has been remarkably successful.
Extracted by Linda Lang from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, pages 270-271.
