John Levi Field was born at Coddle Creek, in Cabarrus County, NC, the seventh of eight children born to Ernest Marion Field (1866-1902) and Mary Rhetta Bell (1862-1947). His paternal grandparents were John Andrew Field (1846-1883) and Mary Adeline Wilkinson (1846-1906). His maternal grandparents were Levi Bell (1812-1893) and Mary Jane Van Pelt (1831-1905). He spent his childhood at Coddle Creek and in Greenville, South Carolina. On both sides of his family, he came of distinguished lineages that reach back in the history of the country to early colonial times.

One of his 3rd great grandfathers, Judge Robert Lindsay (c.1735-1801), was a member of NC's first independent legislature in 1777 and 1778, and it was in his home that Guilford County, NC was founded in 1771. Another 3rd great grandfather was Col. William Field (bef.1727-1805), was a leader of the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance in 1771, and member of the NC House of Commons from 1771 to 1774. Other 3rd great grandfathers, Daniel Sherwood III (1749-1838), Hezekiah DeWeese (1760-1839), and a second great grandfather, Simon Van Pelt, Jr. (1738-1799), were soldiers of the Revolution. The Sherwood line cane be traced back to Hugh Sherwood (1630-1710) of Talbot County, Maryland, and to Lewis Stockett (c.1530-1579), an officer in the household of Queen Elizabeth Ist. The Bells, Carrigans were Scots Presbyterians who settled in NC in the 1750s. The DeWeese and Van Pelt families were Dutch settlers of New York in the 1660s. Other family lines were McGee, Ridge, Briggs, Elswick, Linthicum, Williams, Wells, White, Sprigg, Nuthall, Francis, Irvin/Irwin and Wilkinson.

John Field attended Coddle Creek Academy and Columbia University, and became an engineer with the NC highway department. He married Eunice Virginia Stearns (1906-1983, a daughter of Dulin Benson Stearns and Mary Jane Beachum) on 13 Oct. 1929. They began their married life at St. Louis, Missouri, where he had accepted a position with the Missouri highway department. They later lived in Georgia and eastern NC, where he was associated with various state highway departments. He was transferred to Marion, NC in 1941, and when he was due to be transferred again, decided to remain. He started his own engineering and land surveying company in Marion, which he continued until his death.

Johnny Field owned a cabin on Buck Creek where he built a lake for the enjoyment of his family and friends, and a farm at "Tatertown." He was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Marion, the Marion Lake Club, the Kiwanis Club, and was a founding member of the Marion Moose Lodge. He and Eunice Stearns had one daughter, and one grandson, born shortly after his death... the writer of this tribute.

While I never had the honor to know my grandfather, one thing I do know, and have been told by everyone who did know him. He was a Christian gentleman, who loved people. In return, they loved him. At the time of his death, many people stepped forth, telling of kindnesses he had done to them, kindnesses done quietly, with no recognition wanted or expected. He was a generous soul, with a wonderful sense of humor, and his memory will live on long after him.  

[Tribute written by his grandson John Field Pankow]
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My grandfather’s [John Levi Field] family moved to Greenville, SC in the 1910s.4262