The following is and excerpt from the book Wayland Valley by Anna Cash Woodfin 1969:

John Knight Pruett a native of Wayland for forty nine years quite by accident. He was born in Midway, Alabama, January 18, 1849. He was reared on a plantation and attended Cumberland University Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee, completing a course of Regal Studies in Law and receiving a degree of Bachelor of Laws on 27th day of January, 1870.
After completing this course, he decided to take a job with a surveyor's crew to relax from his studies and also to make enough money to set up a law office.
One of his first jobs was helping survey the Kiowa Trail through western Oklahoma. Then he drifted south to Fort Worth, Texas, to join in surveying right of way for the Texas Pacific Railroad.
The crew advanced to far West Texas just out of Big Spring in mid-summer. After working in the hot West Texas sun all day with a severe headache, he unrolled his bed to retire for the night and as he lay there, he could not seem to shut out the moonlight and he discovered that he could not close his right eye.
When morning came his face was drawn to one side and he realized that he had had a light stroke. He saddled his horse and headed east to return to his home in Alabama. He kept feeling worse and it became more difficult to go on. He thought he was going to die but wanted to reach home if he could. He decided to make camp until he could travel again. He made his camp on a spot four miles south of Wayland.
He finally dug a half dugout with a lean-to of logs to stay in until he could ride on. When he felt better, he decided to file for a homestead there and buy more land.
Needless to say, Mr Pruett never got back to his home in Alabama but continued to live on his farm south of Wayland. He died July 3, 1929, at the age of 80 years.