Menu
- Home
- Search▼
- List▼
- Add▼
- My Relate▼
- Admin▼
ViewsWatchersBrowse |
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. Abt 1818
(edit)
m.
(edit)
m. Abt 1839
Facts and Events
James was drafted to serve in the War of 1812 under Private in Capt. David Williams Co., Tenn Jan 28-Jun 4, 1814. He was wounded while on a scouting party. He later filed for a pension in 1851 (“age 58”), 1855 (“aged 63”) and 1871 (“aged 83”). The pension was granted for $8/mo under Act of 1871. A later application states he never aided Confederates [although his son was in the Confederate Army]. [10] James was sued for trespass by Jonathan Pryor in 1816 in White County, TN. Appointed overseer of the road from Sparta (in White Co) in 1822. [11] His mother Jane sold him 40 acres in Bear Creek, Overton Co, for $1 in 1828, and he appears there starting in the 1820 census.[2] The History of Putnam County says "James Peek from Virginia" arrived at an "early date", apparently meaning before 1830. He settled in Spring Valley, in an area eventually known as "Little Putnam." This area later became a notorious moonshine area, and the site of "Peek's Fight," when a bunch of moonshiners fought off law enforcement while holed up in Benjamin Loftis' house. [12] An account of the fight accredited to Capt. S. D. Mather, a Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court, who was a member of the raiding party says that the government agents came upon James Peek's house and asked for lodging. Peek refused on the grounds that he could not accommodate do many men and horses. They left, only to come upon men who told them that Peek's was the best chance in the area for lodging. Upon returning to Peek's, they were attacked by several dozen men, and they holed up in the unfinished front house on Peek's property. Mr. Peek, son-in-law, daughter, and other members of the family stayed in the "old house in the rear." Peek was reputedly "102 years of age, having been born three months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence." Mr. Peek's son, James, was at the house at the time of the fight, and helped the government agents.[13] The statements of the Putnam County history notwithstanding, he was evidently formally a resident of Overton County until 1869, based on census records, and then the State Assembly passed a law in February 1869 (Chapter XXXVI) “Be it further enacted that the County line between the counties of Overton and Putnam be so changed as to include the tract of land and residents of James Peak, in the county of Putnam.”[14] In 1838, James was charged with couterfeiting silver dollars in the Overton Circuit Court. He appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court (Peek v. State, 21 Tenn. 78), which overturned it in 1840. The charge was based on James' attempt to buy some land for $1200, where he turned over "new and shiny" silver dollars that turned out to be the wrong weight. However, the judge also let in testimony from "Loftis" (no first name, probably related to James' future son-in-law) that James had paid him in money he thought was counterfeit. Such evidence is inadmissible as proof of the crime charged. The judgment was also reversed because of problems with the indictment in specifically stating the charge. For both these reasons, the case has been cited over 40 times by Tennessee courts as early evidence of basic rules. In 1835 and 1845, James was embroiled in a lawsuit concerning slaves originally belonging to his father-in-law Walter Alley. (The court records from the 1845 case are instrumental in identifying his first wife and children, see below.) He was accused in the suits of misappropriating the slaves and other property of his wife's first husband Aaron Rawlings. The court records contain his deposition, as well as a couple dozen depositions taken of other men regarding whether or not Peek was trustworthy. Several of those indicating he could not be trusted mention the counterfeiting case, above. [edit] WomenJames married Elizabeth Alley in the winter of 1817 or 1818. Elizabeth had been married twice before, once at a very young age to Aaron Rawlings, with whom she had one daughter before he died after 2 years, and second to a David McKinsey with whom she had three more daughters before he disappeared. The names of her children, and her six daughters and one son with James Peek, are found in a lawsuit the children filed in 1845:
Elizabeth was deceased by the time of the suit, and James was married to a sister of J.P. Noah Lane (Cerena, see below). James is also reportedly father of Sarah (b. 1818) and Pashie Maxwell by Mary (Polly) Maxwell. Mary shows up in Overton County census records between 1830 and 1860, indicating she was born about 1800 in Virginia. [15] In 1839, he had his first son James with Cerena Lane. Though the 15-20 year old in the 1840 census could be either Cerena or one of his daughters, there is no baby boy listed. It's possible he was not yet married to the barely-16 Cerena (note the chronology below which has him marrying Cerena after James Greenwood was born in 1839). By 1850, however, everyone appears correctly in the census. Also around 1839, he began a relationship with Susannah Greenwood. In 1848, James and Susannah were charged with lewdness for "unlawfullly, openly, publicly and notoriously dwell live use and cohabit together in lewd acts of fornication and adultery" in 1848. The first jury hung, but a second jury convicted them in 1849. Susannah got a fine of 10 cents, James a fine of 50 dollars and 4 months in jail. The case was appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which offered further details of the affair: It is in proof that the woman is living on Peak's land, near to whom he has a mill and still-house, and about three miles from his residence. She has had six children, the oldest of which is nine or ten years old, and Peak has frequently admitted that this child was his. After this child was born, Peak (who had lost his first wife), married, and this woman sued him for breach of a marriage contract. He compromised with her, and gave her the place she lived on; Peak continued to be much at his mill and still-house, and was often at the house of this woman, and she continued to have children, the youngest of whom was not more than six months old at the trial of this cause. These children have all a strong resemblance of each other, and several witnesses say no other man has resorted to her house except the defendant Peak. It is also in proof, that Peak keeps whisky to sell at her house, and that she sells it for him. He has wood hauled for her; furnishing her with pork, and she gets meal from his mill. His negro woman lives with, and cooks for this woman; and when she is confined, his negro, riding his horse, goes for the midwife, and the next morning Peak himself goes into the house where the sick woman and midwife were; and his negroes were employed fixing the chimney of the woman's house. We think all these facts could hardly concur, and yet Peak have nothing to do in the production of these children; especially as no other man resorted to the house of the woman, on whom the slightest suspicion rests of being father to any of the children. (Peak v. State, 29 Tenn. 99, 1849) Apparently, James and Cerena reconciled to some degree, as they had several children after the trial, but the above-mentiond suit may explain the six-year gap between 1844-1850. Apparently the court case didn't deter James and Susannah, as the census records show Susannah living next door to James in the 1860 and 1870 census. Two of her children are born after she is listed alone in the 1850 census. In 1870, her son Potter is actually in James' household. One descendent claims the Peek children did not know what was going on, despite the lewdness charges. There may also have been yet another liaison - the death certificate for Marge Sliger, d. 7 Jan 1924, age 69 (b. 1854) lists Jim Peek as her father, no mother. As of early 2019, AncestryDNA matches show connections between descendants of Susannah's children Robert Greenwood, James Greenwood; Patience Maxwell b. 1825; Elizabeth’s daughters Elizabeth and Mary, and Cerena’s children James, John, and Harriett. Despite his apparently questionable lifestyle, and that several of his children couldn't read in their teens, he was quite prosperous. The Supreme Court called him a "rich man," making his crime more notorious and refusing to call his punishment excessively severe. In 1870, he had $2000 in real estate and $500 in personal, and most of his neighbors had none. In 1830, when he was a fairly young man, he had 12 slaves in his household. Image Gallery
 References
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
