{{short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | birth_date = March 21, 1842 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1927|07|17|1842|03|21}} | death_place = | office1 = 29th Secretary of State of Alabama | governor1 = Charles Henderson | term_start1 = 1915 | term_end1 = 1919 | predecessor1 = Cyrus B. Brown | successor1 = William Peyton Cobb | office2 = 20th Alabama State Treasurer | governor2 = Emmet O'Neal | term_start2 = 1911 | term_end2 = 1915 | predecessor2 = Walter D. Seed Sr. | successor2 = William Lancaster | office3 = State Auditor of Alabama | governor3 = Thomas G. Jones<br>William C. Oates | term_start3 = 1892 | term_end3 = 1896 | predecessor3 = Cyrus D. Hogue | successor3 = Walter S. White | party = Democratic }}
'''John Purifoy''' (March 21, 1842 – July 17, 1927) was a politician from Alabama. He served as secretary of state of Alabama from 1915 to 1919, Alabama state treasurer 1911 to 1915 and state auditor of Alabama from 1892 to 1896.
He was born on March 21, 1842. He went to Tennessee University where he left in April 1861 to join the Confederate Army. Following the end of the Civil War, he was a schoolteacher for several years and engaged in farming. Purifoy was elected Probate Judge of Wilcox County, Alabama in 1880 and, ten years later, was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives.
In 1915, during his time as secretary of state of Alabama, the Alabama House of Representatives considered impeaching Purifoy over allegations that he paid an opponent in his 1914 election to withdraw from the Democratic Party primary election. The House, however, rejected impeachment.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lyman |first1=Brian |title=Possible Bentley impeachment leads to look at trial rules |url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/southunionstreet/2017/02/21/possible-bentley-impeachment-leads-look-trial-rules/98222816/ |website=Montgomery Advertiser |access-date=20 January 2023}}</ref>
His son James L. Purifoy died in 1939.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://img.newspapers.com/clip/60637110/obituary-james-l-purifoy-1939-the/|title=OBITUARY - James L Purifoy - 1939 -The Prattvile Progress (Alabama)|newspaper=The Prattville Progress|date=7 September 1939|page=3}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Additional sources== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080517110147/http://www.archives.alabama.gov/conoff/purifoy.html alabama.gov]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purifoy, John}} Category:1842 births Category:1927 deaths Category:Alabama Democrats Category:Secretaries of state of Alabama Category:State treasurers of Alabama Category:State auditors of Alabama Category:20th-century Alabama politicians
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