REVEL E. PINKERTON was born in Greene county, Ill., March 22, 1846, and is a son of Wiley E. and Sally (Allen) Pinkerton, his father a native of Tennessee, his mother of Illinois. His father came to Greene county, A. D., 1823, and located near Berdan, where he purchased a tract of land on to which he moved and there resided until his death, Jan. 17, A. D., 1849. His mother is yet living and resides near Roodhouse with her daughter, Melissa. Revel was reared to the duties of farm life until he was 17 years of age, when in 1863 he enlisted in Company A, 61st Ill. Inf., and served until the close of the war. He then returned home and attended school one year in the country and one term at Manchester, at the end of which time he begun to learn the carpenter's trade, partly under O. H. McGarvey, then going to Morgan county, Mo., where he finished under James Cowan. From there he removed to Washington county, Ark., where he was married and there remained eight yeas, working at carpentering and wagon making. In 1878 he returned to Berdan and bought a house and two lots where he has since made his home. He was married Dec. 11, 1870, to Nancy J. Atkisson, daughter of William Atkisson. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton are the parents of six children, four of whom are living - Sarah L., William W., Mary A. and Ernest H. Those deceased are, Ethel J., who died July 5, 1883; and Revel E., who died July 31, 1883. Mr. Pinkerton is a member of the Christian church and his wife of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a member of Carrollton lodge, No. 342, I.O.O.F., and is a man of intelligence, industry and enterprise. Mr. Pinkerton's forefathers were of Irish origin, and being Protestants were banished from the north of Ireland, coming to America at the close of the Orangemen troubles.