PIKE
SOME OF COLLIN'S EARLIEST
PIONEERS RESIDE NEAR PIKE
Daily Courier Gazette, November 17, 1927
Many Have Contributed to
Success of County in Many Ways
Living in and around
Pike are some of Collin county's oldest and earliest settlers, who have largely
contributed to the well being of the county in many ways.
Among these we
mention C. W. Lee and wife, Mrs. T. W. Norman, wife of the late T. W. Norman,
Charles McGowan and James Fullar and wife.
C. W. lee is 83
years old. Mrs. T. W. Norman is 82, and has a family including several girls and
one son, T. C. Norman if McKinney and a daughter in Houston. One daughter lives
in Oklahoma and two daughters are living in Pike, the younger of which is the
wife of Rev. W. T. Newsome, who is now pastor of the Pike Baptist church. Mrs.
Norman has lived at Pike for 63 years. James Fullar has lived near Pike for 61
years, and has a fine farm of 75 acres, and is enjoying good health.
It should be said of
Mrs. T. W. Norman that she is the widow of the late Thomas W. Norman, many years
justice of the peace of his home district. He was honored and loved by all who
knew him. He was the embodiment of honor, a deacon in the Baptist church, and in
his day took stock in and was on the right side of every question which
concerned the well-being of his fellow man. perhaps as well-known a Mason as was
in his section of the county. All of the above mentioned people are honored and
will be missed when they are gone.
Mr. and Mrs. W. C.
Lee are now in their 83rd year and own 160 acres of fine land which is in the
extreme corner of Northeast Collin county. Twelve children have blessed their
union, ten girls and two boys. All are living except three, most of them living
in Collin county.
Charles McGowan is
now in his eighties and has lived at Pike or near there for 48 years and owns
160 acres of good land. he has five living children and one dead. His first wife
died in 1888, and his last wife died in 1927. Mr. McGowan was an honorable,
upright and peaceful citizen, all of these years.
James Fullar and
wife own a little farm of 74 acres and are about the ages of the above mentioned
and lived in that vicinity 62 years and have several children. They belong to
the Baptist church and serve to enrich their neighborhood in many ways.
There are many
others possession excellent qualities of industry and character in that section
including Mr. Calhoon, Thomas Fry, Aubrey McMurray, J. E. Huckabee, Oscar
McGuffey, Mr. Cameron, Mr. Key and others who maintain the religious and moral
fiber which goes to make a good community.
THE HISTORY OF LEONARD, TEXAS
1880 - 1980
by The Leonard Centennial
Commission
The Boorman family
homestead was about one and one half miles northeast of the present location of
Pike. They operated a flour mill in the 1880's, later established a gin, grist
mill and blacksmith shop. Benton Teague bought the Boorman property in the
1880's and moved there, operating the gin, blacksmith shop and a general
merchandise store several years. Mr. Teague also secured a post office there. It
was named Knox and was discontinued about 1900.
The Wiley Manning
Masonic Lodge No. 702 was organized at Pike on December 11, 1890. The first
officers were G. M. Howell, W. M.; J. W. Hardy, S. D.; B. F. Miller, J. D.; H.
J. Bradley, S. W.; Y. T. Manning, J. W.; E. E. McGowan, Treasurer; W. T. Norman,
Secretary; T. C. Fry, Tiler. The charter members included the above named and Z.
T. Williams, R. H. Williams, A. A. Edwards, V. B. Newman, W. M. Roach, A. J.
Byars, J. M. Beasley and J. M. Jeffcoats.
Not long after the
organization of the Masonic Lodge, more room was needed for the school - the
first school having been built about 1887. An agreement was reached between
trustees of the school and the officials of the Masonic Lodge to build a large
two story frame building with three class rooms, an assembly hall and stage
downstairs, a large classroom on the second floor and a large room to be used as
the meeting place for the lodge. C. L. McGowan and A. H. Sharp were school
trustees. This building was destroyed by fire in 1898, while E. B. Cloninger was
principal of the school.
The first school
held in the community dates back to the Reconstruction Days following the Civil
War when Miss Dora Pierce taught in the Pilgrim Baptist Church in its first
location. Miss Pierce, whose brother, Dr. Pierce of the Pilot Grove Community,
was killed in the Lee-Peacock war, married Jim Hancock and resided in Trenton
many years. Early day teachers in the Pike school included Professor Huff, S. J.
Creswell, J. B. Darden, Mr. Reeves, Elijah Duke, E. B. Cloninger, G. W. West,
Will Foster, Miss Rosa Bass, Miss Lenora Waldrip, Miss Nora Ray, Miss Mollie
Creswell, Miss Octavia McGowan, Miss Dollie Manning and others, all of whom were
members of the faculties prior to 1904.
C. L. McGowan
arrived in the community with his family on November 20, 1878 in a covered wagon
from Kentucky. He secured, in 1888, the first post office which he operated in
his home. Will R. Robertson, brother-in-law of Mr. McGowan carried the mail to
and from Leonard, Fannin County, on horseback.
W. L. (Fate) Fagg, a
Methodist preacher established a store in Pike in 1887, later being joined by
his brother, W. P. (Wash) Fagg of Graybill. About this time George Edwards built
a store in which he operated the first barber shop in the community. Mr. McGowan
resigned as postmaster and Mr. Edwards was appointed to take his place. T he
post office was moved to the Edwards store. Mr. Edwards served as postmaster
until about 1895 when he sold his property to Albert Creswell, who secured
appointment as postmaster. Mr. Creswell's younger brother, A. I. Creswell served
for a time as postmaster. The post office was discontinued about 1932.
Cotton gins played a
very important part in community life during the period of the 1880's and
1890's. W. B. Cole was said to have established the first cotton gin at his home
site southwest of Pike. Fagg Brothers also established a gin in the western edge
of the village. W. L. (Fate) Fagg was manager. Mr. Fagg sold the gin to L. W.
Rousey who in turn sold to J. W.Tibb and Mr. W. H. Redman, who operated it in
partnership until 1906 when some years later, the gin was sold to an outside
firm who dismantled it.
A Mr. Tucker built
and operated a gin across the road from the Fagg store south of the cemetery.
The last gin operated at Pike was located on the site of the original Fagg gin,
built by S. L. Fowler of Fort Worth and operated by himself and his daughter,
Mrs. Traylor, the plant burned to the ground in 1947.
In 1898 the
businessmen of the village decided to move their stores and shops to a new
location north of the cemetery. By 1900 the town had the following business
firms: Fagg's store, later to be A. D. Hope store; J. T. Gibson, General
Merchandise; Sharp's store; Smith Drug Store (in IOOF Building); Goodman's
store; Creswell's Cold Drinks, Barber Shop and Post Office; Huckabee's Woodwork
and Blacksmith Shop and Grist Mill; Pike Gin; Cambron's blacksmith shop. Other
institutions included a four teacher school, two churches, Baptist and
Methodist; Masonic Lodge, IOOF Lodge and WOW Lodge. The census listed a
population of 172 persons. Two resident physicians, Dr. W. J. McGowan and Dr.
Viser practiced their profession there about that time. Dr. J. C. A. Guest came
in 1901 and remained two years. Dr. E. E. McGowan who began his practice there
prior to 1884 was probabl the first resident physician.
Blacksmiths who
operated shops in Pike included Bryant Evans. Pierce Hildreth, John and Jeff
Buckabee, Noyse White. Tom Woodard, J. F. Byrd, F. N. Cambron, Tom Williams, Mr.
Sanders, Mr. Shelton and Tom Estes. John Edwards, no relation to George Edwards
was a barber and Albert Creswell was also a barber. The first telephone in Pike
was installed in the Creswell store in 1899 or 1900. The first windmill erected
in the community was installed by C. C. Wheelis in the 1900's. Mr. Wheelis later
installed a windmill on top of his large barn, using the power to saw wood,
shell corn, grind feed and to perform other chores.
The Protestant
Methodist Church was organized in 1892. Among the charter members were Rev. W.
L. Fagg and family, W. P. Fagg and family, John and J. E. Huckabee and families;
the Jeffcoats, Childress, Belew, Riddle, Cooper, Nance, Stewart, Steel and
Caston families. An attractive house of worship was built in 1898 under the
direction of the Huckabee Brothers who were carpenters. The church disbanded and
the church property was no longer in use in 1954. Pastors who served the church
included Rev. W. L. Fagg, J. W. Lawlis, J. M. Bauman, R. L. Henry, J. I.
Parnell, F. F. Alexander, S. N. Black, Scott, Anderson, Lively and Roy Davis.
Not many people are
living today who remember that Pike once had a large hotel. It was a two-story
box-style house characterized especially by a large lobby or living room. Mr.
and Mrs. G. H. Howell operated the hotel. This building was torn down to make
way for the Jeff Huckabee home, once of the show places of the turn of the
century. Dr. and Mrs. Dave Hope who lived south of the Howell Hotel built an
addition to their house and for some years operated a hotel. The Howells
operated a general merchandise store as well as the hotel.
Earl Fry, member of
one of the oldest and most highly respected families was wounded in action in
Europe. He died November 10, 1918, (one day before the Armistice was signed
ending World War I). His body was returned to his home community about two years
later and was buried in Pike Cemetery. Captain Lee S. Eads, born at Pike and son
of Dr. Lee J. Eads, an early Pike physician, died in France September 1918.
Leon Wallace was one
of the first of Pike's casualties from World War II. He died in a Japanese
Prison Camp. Paul Manning, Jr., a cousin of Earl Fry casualty of World War I,
gave his life in Italy. Dyle Clinton died from wounds received in battle and
Marvin Curtis went to his death in a plane crash thus adding Gold Stars to the
community's Service Flag.
A casualty of the
Korean War and the first Collin County boy to lose his life in that conflict was
a son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray McClain of Princeton. The McClains are former
residents of Pike. Sgt. Robert L. Proud, Jr. of Electra, Texas and Hardy, Ark.
lost his life in a plane crash in Korea, He was a great grandson of Mr. and Mrs.
C. C. Wheelis. His mother, the former Bessie Lou Cooper was born at Pike.
Mrs. A. H. McMurry p
63-65.
THE LEE-PEACOCK FEUD
In the southwestern
part of Fannin County, in the northwestern part of Hunt, in the southeastern
part of Grayson and the northeastern part of Collin counties there was an area
covered by thickets of various names. These thickets were known as Mustang
Thicket, Black Jack Thicket, Wildcat Thicket, Jernigan Thicket and some times as
the Big Thicket. As late as 1877 there was a dense thicket about seven miles
long and a maximum width of four miles south of the present town of Leonard,
into which few people had penetrated and through which only one man had ever
gone. During the Civil War these thickets were the rendezvous of army deserters,
slackers, and fugitives.
In the northern part
of one of these thickets whose southern boundary was the Fannin-Hunt county line
Daniel W. Lee patented a track of land and there built his home and reared his
family.
At the beginning of
the Civil War his son, Bob Lee, joined the Confederate Army and served in
Tennessee and Louisiana. Bob Lee was "tall, dark, and handsome. He generally
wore a black suit, a black felt hat with the brim turned up and a black plume in
it. He held the rank of captain in the Confederate Army. At the end of the war,
Captain Bob Lee returned home with better clothes and a better horse and saddle
than most Confederate soldiers and some gold coins.
The Union League, an
organization led by the Freedmen's Bureau, carpetbaggers and scalawags, with
Federal support, had its North Texas headquarters at Pilot Grove, about seven
miles from the home of the Lee families. The leader of the Union League was
Lewis Peacock, whose home was south of Pilot Grove on the Fannin-Grayson County
line. He had arrived in Texas in 1856.
It was not long
until the news of Bob Lee's return was known everywhere in the Red River Valley.
The Confederate veterans were happy about it, for now they felt they had a
leader. To Peacock, Captain Bob Lee, the cavalryman, with his good clothes, his
plumed hat and gold coins, was too big for the "Corners" and would have to go.
Peacock and other
members of the Union League conceived the idea of extorting money from Bob Lee.
They came to his house one night and arrested him and started to Sherman with
him, but stopped in Choctaw Creek bottoms. They took Lee's watch and $200 in
gold and he and his father, Daniel W. Lee, were to sign a note for $2,000. Bob
Lee was released. The Lees refused to pay the note. Suit was brought in Bonham
and the Lees won the case.
The robbery in
Choctaw Creek bottoms started the Lee-Peacock War. During the latter part of
1867, all of 1868, and until June, 1869, the war raged. All told something like
50 men would be killed. By the summer of 1868 the war had gotten so hot that the
Union League called for help from the Federal Government. On August 27, 1868,
General J. J. Reynolds issued a notice of a reward of $1,000 cash to be paid for
the delivery of Bob Lee to the Post Commander at Austin, or Marshall, Texas.
Bob Lee did what
many others had already done: he built a hide-out in the brush. In late
February, 1867, Bob Lee was in Pilot Grove. In a local store he ran across Jim
Maddox, a Union man suspected of being in the party that had kidnapped Lee. Bob
Lee offered Maddox a gun so they could fight. Maddox declined Lee's offer. Later
in the day Lee was standing on the street and Maddox slipped up behind him and
shot him the the back of the head. Lee was knocked unconscious. He was taken to
Dr. William H. Pierce, who treated him in his home until he was able to go home.
On February 24, 1867, Dr. Pierce was called to his door and shot to death by
Hugh Hudson, a known Peacock man.
Hugh Hudson,
according to a theory by Dr. W. C. Holmes, who had taken over Dr. Pierce's
practice, was killed at Saltillo, a teamster's stop on the road to Jefferson.
Dr. Holmes was called on to identify a man said to be Hudson. The description
met that of Hudson.
One day early in the
spring of 1868 Elijah Clark, a Peacock man, called on Hester Anne Dixon to
invite her to go with him to a dance. She refused him. In his frustration and
disappointment, he ran out of the house without his gun which he had left on a
table. He met Hester Anne's brother, 16-year-old Billy Dixon, a Lee man. Elijah
grabbed Billy's gun and shot at him. Billy ran in the house, grabbed Elijah's
gun and ran out of the house and shot Elijah off his horse, dead.
In less than a
month, Billy Dixon met death on the Jefferson Road. He was on the way to
Jefferson with a load of cotton when about 20 miles from home the wagon broke
down. His cousin, Charlie Dixon, was with him. They were repairing the wagon
when suddenly a dozen men appeared and surrounded them. They told Billy to march
ten paces with hands up. Five paces, six, seven; a single bullet split the air
and Billy slumped in his tracks.
The Lee crowd was
not inactive during this time. At one point two of Peacock's men forced the Lee
women to feed them. The men were only able to get a few hundred yards into the
brush before their saddles were emptied by shot gun blasts.
In mid-May, at the
Nance farm there was a meeting in which three men were killed. Peacock and some
of his men were holding a meeting at the Nance farm. Messengers had reported the
meeting to Bob Lee, in Wildcat Thicket. Lee and a possee of his men made a raid
on the horse lot, where the meeting was being held. In the fight that ensued
three Peacock men, Dow Nance, John Baldock and Dan Sanders, were killed. There
were no Lee casualties.
The $1,000 reward
for Bob Lee, dead or alive, was attracting bounty hunters to "The Corners."
Three Kansas "Red Legs," dressed as citizens, laid plans to capture or kill Bob
Lee for the reward. It was in the early spring of 1869. The Lees had reason to
suspect the three "Red Legs" were ready to make their move and were ready for
them.
When daylight came
the scene appeared serene. In the kitchen of Bob Lee's home Dorinda Pierce and
Melinda Lee were chatting about the day ahead at the Lee School where Dorinda
taught. Suddenly the serenity was shattered by the sound of shots. They rushed
down the road leading to Pilot Grove and found three dead men who were
strangers. The bodies of the three "Red Legs" laid all day where they had
fallen. Peacock's men were afraid to come and get the bodies for burial. Later
the two women buried them.
Lewis Peacock
planned retaliation and revenge. He asked for, and obtained, more troops. The
troops, under Captain Charles Campbell, had orders to settle the feuding in
Northeast Texas by capturing the leader of the Southern sympathizers.
Lee's loyalty ring
was broken by a neighbor and erstwhile friend, Henry Boren. The Lees and Borens
had come to Texas together and the families had been friendly, yet Henry was to
betray the secret trails to Lee's hide-out in Wildcat Thicket.
On the morning of
May 24, 1869, Bob Lee, dressed in his black suit, boots and black hat with
plume, and with all his side arms, announced that he was riding to a neighbor's
home not more than three miles away. If his secret plan was to ride south to
Mexico, he had waited too long.
His journey was
short. Less than half a mile from his home and before he reached the outside, he
was caught by the flash of Federal musket fire from the guns of Captain
Campbell's 6th Infantry. Between eight and fifteen shots were fired and Bob Lee
slid from his saddle with out a word.
As an aftermath to
Lee's death, Bill Boren, a nephew of Henry's, rode up to his uncle's house the
next morning, called to his uncle to come out. Henry came out and was instantly
killed by his nephew, who silently turned and rode away. "Death to a Traitor"
was evidently the opinion of some of the Borens.
After the death of
Bob Lee in June 1869, his followers scattered to other parts of the state and
the Peacock gang broke up, but a few of them stayed together. Peacock was the
ring leader of the force.
Dick Johnson, a Bob
Lee lieutenant, had gone out to West Texas to keep out of trouble. Peacock and
his gang had killed his three half-brothers, Simp Dixon, Bob Dixon and Charlie
Dixon. Charlie was killed at Black Jack Grove, now called Cumby. Charlie and his
father had started to the lumber mills near Winnsboro for lumber; Peacock and
his gang followed them to Black Jack Grove and shot Charlie to death. Dr. Dixon
brought the body of his son home in an ox wagon and buried him. Dr. Dixon soon
died and left three daughters. The Peacock gang sent them word that they were
going to burn them out of house and home and they would not have a rail left on
their farm. The girls wrote to Dick Johnson out in West Texas to come home and
protect them. He came in a hurry and the news soon reached Pilot Grove that Dick
Johnson was back home.
When Peacock heard
the news he was in the drug store of Dr. Kuyrkendall in Pilot Grove. He
remarked, "Some morning when Dick gets up and comes to the door to get wood to
make a fire, I will be laying for him and will get him." The remark was carried
to Dick Johnson without delay and this remark cost Peacock his life.
Joe Parker was
another of the Lee crowd who was still in the country, and he and Dick Johnson
were both anxious to have the honor of slaying Peacock. About the first of July,
1871, one of them climbed a lone elm tree on the prairie in sight of Peacock's
home and hid himself in the thick foliage; one writer claims that this watchman
was Dick Johnson, while others claim it was Joe Parker. It is unimportant as to
which of these was on watch in the elm tree. The two were working in unison and
with the same object. Peacock was seen to approach his home and Johnson and
Parker that night made preparations to kill him the next morning. They put
Peacock's threat into action and waited until early next morning when Peacock
came to the door to get wood to make a fire. He was slain in his own yard.
Dick Johnson was
never arrested, and he and his wife moved to Missouri, where they lived for many
year. He was seen in Fannin County in 1920 and was last heard of in Red River
County, Texas.
W. W. Sherrell p 16
Pike Baptist Church
Pike Cemetery
Communities Index
- Recommended
citation:
-
"Pike
- Collin County Communities," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy
Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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