Tribble residence in Bloomfield, Missouri

Kentucky-born Thomas Ewing Tribble was 5 years old when the Civil War broke out. At the time he was living with his parents, Nelson and Henrietta, along with his brothers, including John William, and sisters in Simpson County, Kentucky.

There are no details on his education, but according to the 1870 census for Simpson County, when he was 13, he was working on the family farm. It appears he had some formal education, because he later earned a medical degree from the University of Tennessee, after which he practiced medicine as an ear, nose and throat doctor in Grain Valley, Bloomfield and Kansas City, Missouri, for a few years.

According to one newspaper account, he was on the first train that arriving in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as part of the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. He remained in that city until at least 1893, when he married Pearl Duncan. During his short residency in Oklahoma, he served as president of the Logan County Health Board. The newly married couple soon moved back to Bloomfield to join his brother, John William, who was also a doctor.

Thomas and Pearl established Tribble Drug Co. in 1897, when he also opened his medical practice. The drug store served the community for the next 41 years, until Pearl's death in 1938. The couple had four children together: Thomas Edison, Gladys (who died when she was 15 months old), Bess and Noble. Unfortunately, the doctor contracted tuberculosis of the lungs and bowels and died Feb. 9, 1911. His obituary in the Bloomfield Vindicator noted "he was a man of exemplary habits, a high sense of personal honor and in all the walks of life and upright, useful and Christian gentleman whose death will certainly be mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances."

After Thomas died, Pearl remained in their home in Bloomfield. Devastation struck the town a year after her husband's death. A fire, that began at the Bloomfield Mercantile Co., swept through several downtown businesses, destroying 14 of them, including Tribble Drug Store. Included in the damage was the Tribble residence, that was at the time, the "finest in Bloomfield" according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The fire left $225,000 in damages and 100 residents unemployed. Also destroyed in the fire were hardware, harness, grocery, jewelry, undertaker, confectionery, blacksmith businesses and a poultry warehouse. The Tribble business and residence were rebuilt, but it is unclear if it was on their original sites.

Regardless, Pearl maintained her active leadership roles in a variety of organizations, including the Bloomfield Christian Church, Thursday Club, Women's Christian Temperance Union and National American Woman's Suffrage Association. Her house served as the headquarters for the American Red Cross, where 1,000 soldiers were fed meals inside during World War I.

Pearl died on Oct. 29, 1938, of influenza and is buried in Bloomfield Cemetery.