BLUFORD W. ROSE was born in Pope County, in 1846. He is a son of Joel and Elizabeth (Bradford) Rose, the former of Georgia and the latter of Tennessee. They were married in Pope County in 1824, he at the age of twenty and she at the age of twenty-four years. Joel Rose was a son of Thomas Rose and his wife, who was a Miss Bronner. The grandparents of our subject had twelve children, eight of whom were sons, and Joel was the eldest of the family. The father of this large family kept a wood-yard for steamboats on the Ohio River at Rock Quarry, Pope County, at the mouth of Grand Pier Creek. Here his wife died at a ripe old age, and he too passed away some four years later, at about the age of eighty years. Of the family left by them, John D. lives in Jackson County, Ill., and has been a merchant all his life; Eratio, the next younger of the family, was a Baptist preacher and is probably living in Texas.
The father of our subject died in Jackson County, Ill., at the age of sixty years. He had been a consumptive for many years, and in the advanced stage of that disease he was taken to Arkansas with their first two children, where he so far recovered his health as to be able to return to Illinois in 1832. He was a boot and shoe maker by trade, and followed his trade when able to work. Subsequently, he lived a few years in Missouri and Arkansas, and again returned to Illinois, three years before his death. He and his wife had six sons and one daughter, the latter dying in infancy, and one son dying while very young. They also buried Thomas, a man of family, who died in Missouri about 1858. Elbert left home in 1862 and has never been heard from since. The others are Basil B., a farmer of Scott County, Ark., now in his sixties; and William, a farmer and partner of the subject of this sketch, with whom he is engaged in merchandising at Cedar Bluff.
B. W. Rose was reared to farm life, and in boyhood attended school about one month altogether. His education has been obtained since then by reading, observation and practical experience. He was converted when about twenty-nine years of age to the faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and has been exhorting and preaching ever since. He has been engaged most of the time very successfully in revival work, though he has had pastorates all these years. He was married October 9, 1867, to Sarah Turner, of Hardin County. They have lost two sons and one daughter, all of whom died in infancy. There are three sons and three daughters living, viz: Charles I., a Methodist preacher in the regular work in Missouri, who has a wife and one daughter; Nora A., wife of Samuel Stalion; Aurilla M., wife of .Samuel Morse, who has one son and one daughter; Willis, aged seventeen years and at home; Joel, sixteen years old; and Lollie M., who is four. Mr. Rose is a Master Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the third degree. Politically, he is non-partisan, with Republican tendencies. His brother B. B., of Arkansas, was a soldier in the Confederate service until he made his escape, when he joined the Union army, and he is now a radical Republican in Arkansas. Mr. Rose is not only an honorable and influential citizen, but a whole-souled, kind-hearted gentleman, who by his untiring zeal and industry has won for himself a well-deserved reputation, being a successful business man.
Extracted 05 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, published in 1893, pages 326-329.
| Saline | Gallatin | Union KY |
| Pope |
 |
|
| Livingston KY Crittenden KY | ||
