Rev. N. C. Pettit was born in Pendleton County, Ky., five miles east of Falmouth, October 30, 1826. His father, Absalom Pettit, was born in the same county in 1802, was a farmer and tanner, and for twenty years was a magistrate. In 1825 he married Elizabeth Hart, who bore him ten children, of whom eight survive. Amos Pettit, grandfather of our subject, was a native of Loudoun County, Va., and came to Kentucky in 1800, settling in Pendleton County on the Licking River. Although too young to become a soldier, he nevertheless took part in the Revolutionary War. He married a Miss Glenn, of Virginia, who bore him a large family of children. He died, a member of the Christian Church, at the age of ninety. N. C. Pettit received his rudimentary education in the common schools of Pendleton County and subsequently attended Georgetown College from 1847 to 1853, but never graduated. After a ministerial course of study under the auspices of the Baptist Church, he was ordained a preacher in 1853 and has since labored actively and earnestly in Pendleton, Campbell, Kenton and Grant Counties at preaching and teaching. From 1857 to 1875 he had charge of Walnut Hill Academy, seven miles from Newport, Ky., and from 1875 to 1880 taught in Rising Sun, Ind. April 25, 1854, he married Miss Elizabeth Morin, daughter of Rev. William and Juliet Smalley Morin, both natives of Kentucky, and to this union have been born seven children, of whom five are living: Howard Malcolm, Sallie A., William E., H. S. and Paul B. The deceased were named Judson and Pearl. On Mr. Pettit's return to Kentucky from Indiana, he taught at the Pendleton Academy, Falmouth, for three years, and for two years a select school at Fiskburg. He is now preaching to the congregations of Hickory, Grove, Kenton County; Concord, Gallatin County, and Short Creek and Gum Lick, Pendleton County. Mr. Pettit has also served as commissioner of schools for Campbell County four years. He is a Freemason and a Prohibitionist.

Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle & Kniffin, 7th edition, 1887.