Family:James Peek and Elizabeth Alley (1)

Cornelius Maxwell v. Walter Alley

In 1845, this couple's children sued their grandfather and their half-sister regarding ownership of a slave originally owned by their grandfather and (possibly) gifted to Elizabeth after her first marriage. The title of the proceedings identifies their children, as of 1845: "William Puckett and Jane his wife Alfred Johnson and Celia his wife Cornelius Maxwell and Nancy his wife Elizabeth Peak, Polly Peak and George Peak infant children of James Peak."

Additional documents in the suit indicate that James and Elizabeth married in "winter" 1818 or 1817, that Elizabeth was living during a related proceeding in 1835, and that she was deceased by 1845. Much of the dispute relates to whether James and Elizabeth appropriated the slave at issue, as well as other property of her first husband Aaron Rawlings.

Family Stories

A descendant from James Peek Sr. and his first wife Pauline tells a story that may be about Cerena or some other member of the family. This woman's grandmother was Victoria Gentry, the daughter of Polly (Peek) Gentry, born in about 1867. The memory is of her grandmother Victoria telling a story about *her* grandmother, Polly (Pauline). They had a house near Waterloo, near the Peek mill, during "the war." The house had a double wall with a space in it so the children could hide. One day during "the war," soldier(s) came around, and they hid all the children, including her grandmother, in the wall. The soldier(s) proceeded to loot the house. Pauline had a fine horse that she did not want them to take. When they persisted, she pulled out a butcher knife and slit the soldier's throat. A variant of this story is that she actually slit the horse's throat, which may be a more plausible version given the penalties for kiling a soldier.

The problem is that 1) the grandmother telling the story must have been talking about the Civil War, during which she was not alive, and 2) Pauline disappeared from the scene before 1840. Cerena, on the other hand, died in 1862, and it's possible that the story was told only about "my grandmother" by a woman unaware of her grandfather's multiple wives.

There is a variant of the story that involves a young woman coming upon a group of Union soldiers who demand her horse. She is able to delay them until later with the promise that she will deliver the horse. Instead, she very publicly shoots the horse. Variations have also attributed the story to a member of the Roberts, Bartlett or Mayberry family.

1.   Cornelius Maxwell et al. v. Walter Alley
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