Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/795

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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his return to peaceful pursuits. His politi- cal party was the Democratic, and through interest and activity in public affairs and political matters he became the occupant of influential and leading position. He was a communicant of the Union Station Metho- dist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Jesse Gill Crouch married, at Glou- cester Court House, Virginia, May i, 1879, Ida May Kerns, born in Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, May 28, 1858, who there resided until 1859, when she came to Gloucester county, \'irginia, with her parents, Maris Vernon Kerns, and his wife, Jane (Lefevre) Kerns, both natives of Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, the latter born May 12, 1819, died March 3, 1901. Maris Vernon Kerns was a millwright during his active life, and be- came a band musician in the Confederate army, was taken prisoner by the Union troops, and for one year and a half was con- fined in the Federal prison at Point Look- out, Maryland. He contracted a severe ill- ness during his incarceration, and although he partially recovered, was a sufferer there- from until his death, November 17, 1884, caused by aggravated complaints seated in his old infirmity. He was the father of six children, five of whoin are living at this time (1914). one a resident of the home place in Gloucester county. Children of Jesse Gill and Ida May (Kerns) Crouch: Maris W., a civil engineer in the employ of the United States government, located at Washington, District of Columbia ; Dr. Jesse H.. a graduate of the Richmond Med- ical College, class of igo8, now a medical practitioner of this city, after two years interne duty in Richmond hospitals ; Craw- ford C, a student in Richmond College ; Georgia Virginia, died in 1900, aged seven- teen years.

Mrs. Crouch descends paternally from John Yost Kern, of Friesbach, Germany, who came to America in 1771, settling in Pennsylvania. He married in Germany Eve Riarie Weiss, who bore him six sons and three daughters. John Yost Kern died ill 1813, and tradition says that he and his wife are buried in the old grave yard at Christ's Church, in Snyder county, Pennsyl- vania, near Pieavertown. A branch of the family settled in Virginia, others went west and are found as both Kern and Kerns. Maternally Mrs. Crouch descends from Isaac Lefevre, born March 26, 1669, in

France, who was the only member of his family to escape death in the period follow- ing the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He lived in Germany several years, there married, in 1704, Catherine Le Fiere, and with his wife's family came to Pennsylvania in 1705. He settled in the Pequea Valley, Lancaster county, and there obtained a grant for two thousand acres of land. He had six children.

Alice A. (Jones) Pyle. Richmond. Vir- ginia, in common with every other city of any considerable size in this country, has felt the influence of its organized w'oman- hood in the championship projects for the promotion of the civic welfare and for the improvement of the morals of the city. Richmond also has that which is less com- mon, but by no means rare, a business es- tablishment of reputation and stability whose active head is a woman, the steam dyeing, scouring, and carpet cleaning works owned by Mrs. A. J. Pyle, located at No. 315 and 317 Fifth street. Mrs. Pyle suc- ceeded to the ownership of this business upon the death of her husband in 1882, the concern then one of three years' standing, and has since managed it, directing its ac- tivities into channels that offered profitable fields and which offered abundant oppoi - tunities for the execution of original ideas. The prosperity and strength of the business of which she is the head can be traced to no other source than to her, and is the re- sult of wise planning, intelligent application, and tireless energy, in all of which she ex- cels.

Hanover county, Virginia, is the old home of the line of Jones of which Mrs. Pyle is a member, and there her grandfather, William Russell Jones, was born, lived and died. William Russell Jones was a farmer and land owner, and in his agricultural pursuits accumulated a large fortune. He and his wife, Huldah (Terrell) Jones, also a native of Virginia, were the parents of six chil- dren, all deceased.

Charles Edmund Jones, son of William Russell and Huldah (Terrell) Jones, was Lorn in Hanover county, Virginia, and died in 1869. In mature years he became a mer- chant in Centerville. Louisa county, \'ir- ginia, and during the war between the states enlisted in the Confederate army, was taken prisoner, eluded his captors, and re-