Pearl
(McKnight) Kerfoot
(1891- ? )
Pearl
(McKnight) Kerfoot was born in January 1891 in Fayette County, PA, the
daughter of John Henry and Frances (Wood)
McKnight.
Pearl married John Davis Kerfoot (1891- ? ), seen at left. He was the son of Jefferson D. and Jennie (Grindle) Kerfoot of Uniontown, Fayette County. They had at least one daughter, Frances Collier.
The Kerfoots resided on Nutt Avenue in Uniontown.
At one time, Pearl was a teacher at a public school in the Uniontown area.
John was inducted into the US Army in May 1918, during World War I. He was a member of the 60th Infantry, 5th Division. After training at Fort Lee, Petersburg, VA, he was shipped overseas. While in action in France, he was wounded in the horrific fighting in the Argonne Forest. The extent of his injuries is unknown, but he was discharged and returned stateside in January 1919. Later that summer, in June, he was still undergoing treatment at an Army hospital. He is pictured and profiled in the book, Uniontown's Part in the World War.
Wasteland of fighting in the Argonne Forest, on the left American lines
Upon recovering and then returning to Uniontown after the war, John founded Kerfoot Brothers, a transportation company.
In 1932, John was elected as Uniontown City Treasurer
and reelected in 1936. In a biographical profile in Walkinshaw's 1939 book, Annals
of Southwestern Pennsylvania, John was said to have "steadily and
faithfully served the people of this community..., and he is regarded as a
public official of unquestioned ability and integrity."
The fates of Pearl and John are not known.
The Kerfoots' "daughter Frances married Thomas S. Collier," said the 1948 book Kerfoot, Kearfott and Allied Families in America, by Robert R. Kearfott (privately published).
Copyright © 2004-2005 Mark A. Miner. Argonne Forest photograph courtesy of the of the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress.