He was the son of William Purifoy and Mary Brothers Peurifoy. His father was originally from Craven County, NC. He was one of three brothers who moved to Georgia. Brother Arrington and he remained in Georgia while a brother, John, moved on to Alabama.
The two Georgia brother changed the name from Purifoy to Peurifoy. They were both active in the Methodist Movement in the 1820's. Tillman and two brothers, Archibald and McCarrol both became Circuit Ridering preachers.

Tillman Dixon Peurifoy was a Circuit Riding Preacher in the Methodist Church during the 1830's. A famous account is record from a letter he sent to the Bishop of the South Carolina Conference. At that time the North Florida area east of what would become Tallahassee was a mission of the South Carolina Conference.
Here in his own words are an account of the misfortune which fell to his wife and children"
From "The Keystone", Harrisburg, Wednesday, July 4, 1838.

Murder of a Missionary Family.--The Southern Christian Advocate publishes the following letter giving a moving description of a massacre by the Florida Indians. The writer is Superintendent of the Alachua Mission on the Tallahassee District:

"Dear Brother Capers--I am ruined! While engaged in my labors in the Alachua mission I received a letter bearing awful tidings. It informed me that the Indians had murdered my family! I set out for home, hoping that it might not prove as bad as the letter stated; but O my God, it is, if not even worse! My precious children Lorick Pierce and Elizabeth, were killed and burned up in the house. My dear wife was shot, stabbed and stamped, seemingly to death, in the yard. But after the wretches went to pack up their plunder, she revived and crawled off from the scene of death to suffer a thousand deaths during the dreadful night which she spent alone by the side of a pond bleeding at four bullet holes and more than half a dozen stabs--three deep gashes to the bone on her head and three stabs through the ribs, besides a number of similar cuts and bruises. She is yet living--and O help me to pray that she may still live. My negroes lay dead all about the yard and woods, and my every thing else burned to ashes. Pray for me.

My family was on a short visit to my father-in-law, for the purpose of having some supplies sent up from our plantation to our temporary residence in the mission, and during this brief period the awful catastrophe took place."

T. D. PEURIFOY.

Brother Capers was also the Superintendent of the South Carolina area. Tillman and his wife would later name one of their other children after him

(A mistake in the internet copy mistakenly places a comma between Lorick and Pierce. Actually his son was named Loric, or Lovic Pierce. Rev. Loric Pierce was a famous superintendent of the Methodist Movement in the 1820's. There were not three children, but two at this time, Loric (or Lovic) and his sister Elizabeth. Both died in the attack, as well as family slaves.)
Later, after the survival of his wife, they went on to have many children.