A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 78

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208

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"I cannot close this paper without nrging that every person in the pecan belt, which is practically commensurate with the cotton growing region should grow at least a few pecan trees. The unfortunate dwel- lers in the most crowded parts of our eities may not have room. But there are few homes, even in our cities and large towns, where there is not enough space to accommodate one or more trees. One tree, when well established, will furnish nuts sufficient to last the average family for a year. And a farmer, though he may have only a few acres of land, is neglecting a most profitable money crop when he fails to set ont a few pecan trees around his garden and yard. These trees will furnish a shade in summer, nuts in the winter, and will add beanty and stateli- ness and comfort all the time. There are few New England homes that have not their apple and other fruit trees; and the day should not be far distant when the same can be said of pecan trees growing about the homes in our Southland. As shade trees they are beautiful ; and there are none that yield more in pleasure and profit than do pecans.

"Twenty-three years ago I read this advice from a veteran pecan grower, who still abides with us: Young man, set a pecan grove, and when yon are old it will support von.' I believed then that the advice was sound; I now know it is so. And so I will pass the word along : Young man, plant a pecan grove. It will help to make your days hap- pier and your pockets heavier. It will lighten your burdens while hore ; and when you are gone, your children and children's children will rise up and call yon blessed."

Mr. Wight has prospered and built up a splendid enterprise as a farmer and nnt grower. lle is now owner of eight hundred aeres of

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land, of which one hundred and fifty are planted in pecans. As a sue- cessful fruit and nut grower, he has a prominent place among Georgia horticulturists. Ile is a member of the Georgia Horticultural Society, and is now its treasurer. Ile is prominent in the National Nut Growers' Association, has served two years as president of the Association in 1908 and 1910, and is now its secretary.

On July 25, 1888. Mr. Wight married Miss Alice Slater. She was born in Bullock county, Georgia, June 20, 1864, daughter of John G. and Susan ( Cone) Slater. Mr. and Mrs. Wight's seven children are George Ward, John Slater. Robert Pratt, Laleah Adams, Warren Cand- ler, Edward Allen and John Byron, Jr. Mr. Wight has a beautiful home in Cairo, built in modern colonial style. Mr. Wight is a member of Cairo Lodge No. 299, A. F. & A. M., of which he is now worshipful master; and is also a Royal Arch Mason.

For more than eighty years the Wight family has been represented in southern Georgia. The first generation was among the earliest pioneers in the settlement and development of Decatur county. In the second generation were worthy men and women who bore with equal fidelity their responsibilities to the world, and several representatives of the name were soldiers in the Confederate army during the great struggle between the states.

The original American ancestor was Thomas Wight. He was born on the Isle of Wight, came to America as early as 1635,, remained for a short time at Watertown, in Massachusetts. and in 1637 became a resi- dent and free holder in Dedham, Massachusetts. He moved to Medfield about 1650, spending the rest of his days on a farm in that town. One of his descendants. William Ward Wight, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has compiled a very interesting history of the Wight family. Its pages state that Thomas Wight and his four sons and a son-in-law contributed to the fund for the ereetion of the first brick college on the campus in Cambridge, which is now Harvard University. Thomas Wight's contri- bution was four bushels of Indian corn, which was good legal tender in those days.

The more immediate ancestry of the Georgia family begins with Rev. Henry Wight, D. D., who was a student in Harvard University, when the Revolutionary war broke out, and left his studies for a time to serve in the patriot army. He subsequently was graduated from Harvard, and became a minister of the Congregational church, and served as pastor of the church in Bristol. Rhode Island, for fifty years.

Ilis son, Henry Wight, transferred the family history to Georgia. Born at Bristol, Rhode Island, November 5, 1791, in early life he fol- lowed the sea and was later conimander of vessels in the coastwise trade. Leaving the sea, he engaged in the mercantile business, and in 1829 came Sonth and located in Georgia. A boat brought him as far as Savannah. From there he used teams to convey his goods and family across the state to Decatur county. Decatur county at that time lay in the almost unbroken wilderness of Georgia. There were no regular roads except the trails ent out among the trees by the pioneers. The woods teemed with wild game of all kinds; and in the hills and valleys the Indians still lingered. loath to quit this country which had so long been their hunting ground. Mr. Wight bonght a large tract of timberland; and in the first elearing built the log house which was the original home of the Wight family in Georgia. Henry Wight. in keeping with the traditions of New England where he was born and reared, was a man of superior edneation ; and after coming to South Georgia, taught school. Ile later opened a store at Sofkee. His stock of goods was drawn over- land in earts from St. Marks, Florida, wagons being then almost un-

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known as vehicles of transportation. Henry Wight was a resident of Sofkee, until his death in February, 1885, when in his ninety-fourth year. Ile had married in Bristol, Rhode Island, Miss Abby Wardwell. Her father, Capt. Samuel Wardwell, was a large ship owner, and eighteen of his vessels were destroyed by French privateers in 1798 and 1799, when there was a quasi state of war between France and the United States. In reparation for this loss payment was demanded from the French government, and the claim was still pending when the Louisiana purchase was made. At that time, in addition to the sum paid for the western territory, the United States assumed responsibility for the set- tlement of all claims against France. But in this case, an entire cen- tury passed before settlement was made, a remarkable illustration of gov- ernment delay. In 1899 the heirs of Captain Wardwell were awarded payment for the loss of one ship destroyed a century before, and Mr. J. B. Wight, as one of such heirs, got a two hundred and fortieth part of the total sum. his share amounting to $8.33. Abby ( Wardwell) Wight died in October, 1871, and her children were named: William Henry, Abby Wardwell, Samuel Bowen, John, Byron Diman, and George Alden.

George Alden Wight, father of John Byron, established a store at Sofkee, when nineteen years of age. In 1863 he enlisted in the Georgia Volunteers, and was in service with his company and regiment in Georgia and Florida until the close of the war. In 1871 he began business at Cairo, being one of the earliest merchants in the town. When he located there, business was conducted in two small stores kept in log cabins. Mr. Wight himself erected a good frame building and put in a stock of general merchandise. Wight & Powell was the first business title, and subsequently G. A. Wight & Sons. He continued as a merchant at Cairo until his death occurred on August 21, 1894. In the meantime having bought the property of White Springs, Florida, he erected a hotel which was operated by a lessee. George Alden Wight was married November 11, 1858, to Julia Florence Herring, who was born in Decatur county, Georgia. July 7, 1845, a daughter of Hanson and Amy C. (Anders) Herring. Her death occurred September 7. 1860. For his second wife he married Margaret Louisa Powell, a daughter of Kedar and Amanda Melvina Powell. John Byron Wight was the only child of the first marriage, and of the second union there were children named Henry, Kedar Powell, William Saumel, Carrie Bell. Thomas. Walter Lee, Alice Pearl, George Alden, and Margaret Angusta. All these ten chil- dren of George .A. Wight have grown to maturity. Most of them are still living in Cairo where they are prominent factors in the social and business life of their section. The parents were both members of the Methodist church, and the father belonged to the Masonie fraternity.

JAMES WHITLEY, ordinary of Irwin county, and a resident of Oeilla, is a native born Georgian, born in this state in Angust, 1875. le is the son of John II, and Martha V. S. ( Henderson) Whitley. The father was a native of Irwin county and the mother of Worth county.

John HI. Whitley was a farmer, and his son, James, of this review, passed his early days upon the farm; in fact, he continued in his resi- dence there until his election to the office of ordinary of the county. which he now fills. He received his education in the public schools of Irwin county, in common with other members of his family. He was the eldest of a family of six children, all of whom are living but one. They are Ella T .. the wife of James Roval: Della, married to F. E. Ewing; Thomas T., Jr .; Lula, who makes her home with James, and Lillian, who is a student at Forsythe. All are residents of Irwin county.

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On July 29, 1897, Mr. Whitley was married to Mattie Royal, a daugh- ter of William and Mary (Sehinholsten) Royal, of Irwin county. Four children have been born to them, named as follows: John William. born in 1899: LeRoy, born in 1903; Russell, born in 1905, and Troy E .. born in 1909. Mrs. Whitley passed away on August 1, 1910, leaving her husband and little family of four to mourn her loss.

Mr. Whitley is a Mason of the blue lodge degree, and the family are members of the Primitive Baptist church.

DUNCAN D. PEACOCK. One of the most prosperous small towns of south Georgia is Pavo in Thomas county. It is on the Georgia Northern Railroad and is seventeen miles from the county sites of the three adjoining counties of Thomas. Brooks and Colquitt, viz .. Thomasville, Quitman and Moultrie, and is surrounded by some of the most pro- ductive farm lands in south Georgia, with turpentine and sawmill tim- ber enough to keep these enterprises alive for many years to come. Pavo has a naval stores factory. variety works. manufactory of yellow pine. guano factory. two live banking institutions, two drug stores, one dentist, four physicians, two hospitals, and one of the most skilled sur- geons in the south. It also has a large cotton ginnery with capacity of turning out one hundred bales of cotton, ginning both the long and short staple, per day, and a large cotton warehouse that would do eredit to a town twice its size. The originator of the eommereial enterprise and one of the chief factors in its growth and development has been Dnnean D. Peacock, who was the first merchant of the place.

When the town of Pavo was incorporated he was instrumental in having a prohibition clause inserted in the charter so that no intoxicants can ever be sold there. not even eider. IIe is one of the eharter mem- bers of the Bank of Pavo and of the Planters Bank, and has served the town as councilman. He was postmaster for nineteen eonseeutive years until the spring of 1911. at which time the office was advaneed to third class, becoming a presidential office, and although he seenred the endorsement of ninety per cent of the entire patrons of the office, inelud- ing the business, professional and banking interests of the town, the referee of the powers in control appointed his successor, against the wishes of the patrons, because he had incurred the displeasure of that offieial, in that he had failed to comply with his request to furnish him with the names of the patrons of the office, while to have done so would have been in direct violation of the postal laws and regulations. The first name of this place was MeDonald, having been named in honor of Col. James McDonald, one of the pioneer settlers who represented his distriet as a member of Congress.

The present name, Pavo, is the Latinized form of Mr. Peaeoek's name. Dimean D. Peacock is a native of Thomas county, where he was born February 24. 1859, and represents an old family resident from colonial times in North Carolina and Georgia. His great-grandparents were Simon and Zilpha ( Pittman) Peacock, who were, according to the best information at hand. lifelong residents of North Carolina. and their children were named as follows: Stephen. Seth, Patience, Polly, Noah. Demeris. Robert. Raiford. Zilpha and Simon.

Robert Peacock. the grandfather. was born on a farm near the present site of Goldsboro. in Wayne county. North Carolina, in 1791, lived in that vicinity until after his marriage and then became an early settler of Macon county. Georgia, where he bought land and made his home a few years. From there he migrated into south Georgia and settled in that part of Lowndes, now Brooks county. This was in the era of early settlement. He bought a traet of hammock land, heavily

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D.D. Peacock

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timbered with hard wood. His home was on the Coffee road, the main thoroughfare between Thomasville and Savannah, and at the place of his settlement has since grown up the little village of Okapileo. The grandfather resided there until his death in 1860. The maiden name of his first wife, the grandmother of Duncan D., was Wealthy Howell. She was born in Wayne county in North Carolina, and at her death in middle life left eight children, namely : Benajoh. Howell. Jane, Robert, Delamar, Edna, Byron and Morris. For his second wife the grand- father married America Howell and they reared ten children. named Sarah, Patience, John, Tyler, Virginia, Letitia, Laura, Margaret, Jasper and Enlalia.

Delamar C. Peacock. the father, who was born in Maeon county, Georgia, in 1824. spent his active earcer in farming. He bought land east of Thomasville, where with the aid of slave labor he engaged in the tilling of the soil. and resided there until his death, at the age of forty-eight. IIe married Mary Ann MeKinnon, a native Georgian and of a pioneer family of this section of the state. Her father was Malcom McKinnon, a native of Robeson county, North Carolina. Her grand- father, John MeKinnon, was also probably a native of North Carolina and came to south Georgia and located in what is now Thomas county, along with the first pioneers who blazed the paths of civilization in this vicinity. He improved a farm five miles east of Thomasville, and his remains now rest on that original homestead. John McKinnon mar- ried Mary McIntosh, a native of Scotland, who came to America with her parents at the age of six years. She reared a large family of chil- dren. Mary (Mckinnon) Peacock, the mother, died at the age of fifty- fonr. and her children were as follows: Malcom Robert. Rebecca. Josephene M .. Moselle. Duncan D., Daniel Clayton, Wesley and Wealthy (twins) and John Ilowell. This family have gained particular dis- tinction in the field of education.

Malcolm R. Peacock was for many years a teacher prominent in the public schools of Georgia, having spent the major part of his life in the schoolroom. Later he became one of the leading merchants of Thomas- ville, with a branch store in what was then McDonald (now Pavo), Georgia, and one in Boston, Georgia. In his old age lie retired to his farm near Pavo, where he could enjoy a more quiet life aside from the heavy responsibilities and cares of the ever-hustling business mer- eantile life. He married Miss Lelia Culpepper, a daughter of William H. Culpepper, a native of Thomas county, who was a leading farmer in Georgia for many years, but who later moved to Florida where he pur- chased an orange grove. The children of Malcolm are: Emmitt, Wallace, Wesley and Howell (twins) and Mabelle.

Daniel Clayton is a graduate of the University of Georgia and also of Harvard, Massachusetts. He came from Harvard to Atlanta and established his school, "Peacock's School for Boys." in 1898. He now has a handsome three-story building in the finest residenee part of the city, the school numbering one hundred and and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty boys from the age of twelve to eighteen. the annual receipts from which are eight or ten thousand dollars. Professor Clay- ton has a summer residence in Pavo, where he spends a part of the summer and winter. hunting during the winter and fishing during the summer and looking after his varied interests, inehiding his large cot- ton ginnery and cotton warehouse, etc.

Wesley Peacock. next to the youngest of the family of nine, was . born near Thomasville, Georgia, on December 24, 1865. At the age of fourteen he entered the South Georgia College in Thomasville, where after an attendance of four years, he was graduated in 1884 with first Vol. 11-34

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honor of his class and with a commission as first lieutenant in the mili- tary department. At the age of eighteen he taught school, the follow- ing year in Okapileo and in Stockton, Georgia, and was thus prepared to enter the University of Georgia in October, 1886, having received the appointment as a beneficiary of the Charles McDonald Brown scholar- ship fund by courtesy of ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, which enabled him to graduate in the university in 1887 with second honor in his class. Mr. Peacock values a personal letter and a photo- graph from Governor Brown. received while teaching school in Texas two years after graduation, in recognition of his having been the first beneficiary of the Brown fund to repay the obligation.

While attending the University he became a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and Phi Kappa Literary Society and in his junior year he enjoyed the unusual distinction of having won three speakers' places at commencement, one on oratory, another on original essay and a third on scholarship.

Immediately upon graduation Mr. Peacock went to Texas to join his older brother. D. C. Peacock, also a graduate of the University of Georgia, who had preceded him to Texas by two years. and in Jasper he was engaged for four years with his brother in conducting the South East Texas Male and Female College. after which he superintended the public schools of Uvalde, Texas, for three years.

On December 28, 1893, he married Miss Selina Egg, and in 1894 he established the Peacock School for Boys in San Antonio, Texas, which grew into the Peacock Military College, an institution enjoying the dis- tinction of having been the first school in Texas or any gulf state to be classed A by the war department.

One son, Wesley Peacock, Jr., survived the death of his wife on November 28, 1898. On July 4, 1903, he married Miss Edith Wing in Chicago.

In 1911, after persuading congress to name Corpus Christi, Texas. as a site of a marine school under government patronage, Professor Peacock established and maintained in that city the Peacock Naval School in connection with the Peacock Military School of San Antonio, obtaining from the navy department navy cutters and other naval equipment.

Wealthy ( Wessie). the twin sister of Professor Wesley, was edu- cated at Young's Female College, Thomasville, Georgia, and died shortly afterwards with typhoid fever, at the age of eighteen, in the bloom of life. She was a devoted Christian and member of the Methodist church. She contracted the fever while in the performance of her Christian duties in attending the bedside of a sick neighbor, and was interred in Laurel Ilill cemetery, Thomasville. Georgia. Thus her life was sac- rificed in the service of her Master, but not in vain.

John Howell Peacock was also a graduate of the University of Georgia. He was head master for three years in Peacock's Military College at San Antonio, Texas, after holding chair of mathematics in San Antonio's Female College. He is now head master of Peacock's School for Boys, Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Howell married Miss Meda Perkins. of Alice, Texas, who was a graduate of San Antonio's Female College. The names of their two children are: John Howell, Jr .. and Evelyn Lonise.

Duncan D. Peacock also began his career as teacher when eighteen years old and continued four years. In 1879 he located at what was then MeDonald, in Thomas county, where for two years he was in charge of the school. He was later appointed postmaster, and about the same time established the first general store in the village. There being

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several postoffices in the state similar to the name McDonald. viz., MeDonald's Mill. Coffee county, MeDonough, Henry county. MeDaniel, Pickens connty, resulting in much confusion of mail and freight, the patrons urged a change of name, and at the suggestion of the postoffice department several lists of names were sent to Washington, D. C., all the patrons who would do so having a part in the selection of the names listed. all of which were considered nnavailable for the same reason that MeDonakt was unfit. In the last list Mr. Peacock added the name Pavo, which is the Latin for Peacock, and the postoffice authorities chose this as the designation for the postoffice, hence it was adopted for the entire village. After he had been in business for a few years Mr. Peacock was stricken with nervous prostration and rheumatism, which kept him in bed for one year and in a wheel chair for several years, then on crutches. Always a devout Christian, while suffering this affliction Mr. Peacock covenanted with God, that should he be restored to his former health he would thereafter direct his energies for the benefit of the Lord's work in the world. When fully restored and con- fronted with the problem how best to fulfill his promise, he resolved that he would consecrate his entire life as well as his business and honor Him in all of the same, in buying and selling, and all his transactions with his fellow-man, and that he would henceforth have a higher incentive in the prosecution of his business than the mere money rela- tions accruing therefrom. God honored his consecration, his faith and trust in Him, making it an epoch in his Christian experience, which has ever since been predominant in his business. Having adopted as his motto, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ve do, do all to the glory of God," and all his "merchandise shall be holiness to the Lord," he therefore eliminated many articles formerly carried in stock which had been a source of profit, but which he could not now sell "to the glory of God." and which he thought the world would be better off without. His business cards and letter heads were made to read, "D. D. Peacock, Dealer in general merchandise of all kinds- EXCEPT tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, playing cards. pistols and cart- ridges." One morning after this, after he had made a fire in the heater in his store, he noticed his little son Clayton, who was only seven years old, with his arm full of books which he had taken from the shelving, cramming them in the stove. Asked what he was doing, the little fellow answered, "Papa, didn't you tell Mam- ma last night that these books are not good books. and that God did not want you to sell any more of them?" His father said: "Yes, son. and Papa will help you burn them all up; go and bring the others." So some seventy-five or one hundred novels which were being sold for the profit there was in them, without a thought of giving value received, were sacrificed, yes, "to the glory of God." A little later he purchased an entire stock of goods, a bankrupt stock, including quite a lot of playing cards, and a number of barrels of cider: he refused to take the cider, and reshipped it to the wholesale grocer, the merchant from whom he had bought the stock of goods protesting all the while that he had tried to get them to take the cider back and they had refused: but they were returned just the same and accepted. when they learned why it was refused by Mr. Peacock. The playing cards were destroyed.

Mr. Peacock is a Prohibitionist in the full sense of the word. He has never taken a drink of lignor nor a chew of tobacco. nor smoked a cigar or cigarette in his life. He has never visited any place that he could not consistently take his mother. sister, or wife, or danghter with him, and does not claim any credit for it, but gives the credit to his pious Christian mother and her training in his early life.

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His unique trade deviee obtained a wide note through the coun- try, and he was known far and wide as "The Except Merchant." This new name given to him by the commercial traveling salesmen. he later adopted, and had his return envelopes printed, "If not called for in five days. return to The Except Merchant." He frequently received letters addressed to "The Except Merchant." Pavo, Georgia. In April. 1912. he remitted his subscription to The Ram's Horn, Chicago Illinois, an independent weekly, which has since become The Home Hcrald. This paper wrote an editorial, commenting and com- plimenting him for having the moral courage of his convietions in placing on the mast pole of his business cards and letter heads the line of eliminations included under the word "Except." which "indicated strength of Christian character worthy of note." This brought a num- ber of letters from business men all over the country asking for copies of his letter heads: some desiring to emulate the example. One firm, a wholesale and retail house, as well as manufacturer, in the state of Maryland, wrote that they had never thought of printing their let- ter heads to show that they drew the line on tobacco, but that they would do so in future. Among other humorous comments he received a letter from a Savannah liquor house, stating they had not noticed wines as being "excepted" in his business and wanted to get him to handle their wines. Another house in New York sent him samples of playing eards. It was his custom in making remittances in liquida- tion of his indebtedness to write some scriptural references or quota- tions aeross the ends of the ehecks, such as John 3:16. Matthew 7:12. Heb. 10:14. 15. On one occasion the check was returned by the bank. with the inseription on the baek, "Irregular." "Returned." Mr. Pea- eoek wrote another cheek and mailed it to them with a new scriptural reference as follows: "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin." This time the bank kept the check, having eoneluded they "wanted the money" whether they were "weighed in the balanee and found wanting" or not.

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A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume II, Part 78

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936 Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1208

Author: Harden, William, 1844-1936
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1208