Gladys B. Ray, the Lee-Peacock Feud & Quantrill's Gueril

Last edited by on Wed 18 Jul 2007, 11:40 am; edited 4 times in total

Gladys Bright Ray was a native, North-Texas girl who became a schoolteacher in her hometown of Whitewright (Grayson County). Between girlhood and her many years of guiding young minds in the classroom, Ms. Ray also was absorbing an incredible amount of the Red River Country's past .... and, its present. She watched as the Red was being dammed for the construction of a great reservoir, and wondered what Lake Texoma might become and how it would change the dynamics of the region. She pondered the ups and downs which the course of rural education had taken. She probed the life and the rumors surrounding the mysterious Tom Bean, christened Sofia Porter as the 'Confederate Lady Paul Revere,' and raised Andy Thomas to the status of preeminent frontiersman.

Gladys Ray also was a courageous researcher: she boldly stepped out and interviewed the the surviving witnesses of the troubles which beset the 'Four Corners' area (the intersecting boarders of Grayson, Fannin, Collin and Hunt Counties) during Reconstruction and grafted the separated memories and accounts together through her typewriter's keys. The whole of the Lee-Peacock Feud was offered to the readers in her book, 'Murder At the Corners,' which was published by the venerable Naylor Company of San Antonio in 1957.

Gladys Ray was adept at presenting local history in the old-time, storytelling fashion as well through the documented narrative. Often she mixed the two, capturing the colloquial speech and mannerisms of her subjects as she shaped the oral past into a coherent form. Was this method a transgression of the historian's creed, an asset, or both? That, the reader must decide.

Prior to outlining the Lee-Peacock Feud and painting a realistic portrait of its players, Ms. Ray had published a collection of vignettes relating to the past of Northeast Texas. This was titled, 'Legends of the Red River Valley,' and extended to the reading public in 1941 .... also bearing the mark of 'Naylor.'

Long out of print, both of these volumes have been reissued by the Whitewright Public Library. Instructions for procuring them may be found here:

http://www.whitewright.lib.tx.us/books_for_sale.htm

I believe that Gladys Bright Ray's lovely old home still stands in Whitewright. The books that she wrote, bearing the rustic pseudonyms of 'G. B. Ray' and 'Bright Ray,' capture a history that yet was living in her day, and bring to light the changes which slowly closed the door on frontier society.

Holly

Holly I have heard of this feud and you know I know where Tom Bean is. We will definitely get this book ! I've been to the Whitewright library before.

Guest

There are a number of accounts of the Lee-Peacock Feud. Including a recent one by a Peacock descendant that makes Bob Lee a pure villain and Lewis Peacock an admirable, forward-looking individual, much put upon by the black-hats. I suppose, from the author's perspective (which seems to be not only that of a Peacock descendant but a modern liberal who applies current social perspectives to a past time that certainly didn't share them), he can be deemed justified.

Myself, I sort of like the announcement of Lewis Peacock's death "We've killed the bird, Parson. You can dress him"...

I rate Lewis Peacock and his partisans as bad people, though they did (opportunist illegitimi that they were) choose the winning side.

Clyde,

It has been a number of years since I've read Gladys Ray's retelling of the Lee-Peacock Feud, but I recall her account as being pretty objective. She had the chance to speak with several of the surviving witnesses and participants, and of course, she was writing of events which had taken place in her own home territory.

I especially love the way she brought the roles of faith and family into her presentation.

I am an admirer of Parson Martin Gentry. He was the eye of the storm through those tumultuous years.

Have seen some discussion of the Feud on the Internet, and even a descendent of one of the players (can't remember which side) speaking on t. v. Perhaps this is the gentleman who wrote the account which you spoke of.

I do lean your way concerning Mr. Peacock, Clyde.

Holly

Guest

I guess I'm affected by my own time-line to a degree. Peacock and the rest of the Yankee-lovers make me feel that they were the 1860-75 iteration of the anti-war types who spit on returning servicemen from my war. That is not a thing that is apt to make me love them - or feel that Bob Lee's partisans did a bad thing in killing Lewis Peacock.

Clyde ...

I believe that we all stand in our own time while regarding the past. Time and place can't help but to rub off on us.

Bob Lee was a returning warrior and patriot, was he not? In contrast, my distant impression of some of those who envied and opposed him around old 'Lick Skillet' is of their being scalawags .... resentful in their states of ease.

Holly

Trailblazer Joined : 29 May 2007 Posts : 88

Well, depends on who you listen to, I think. Bob Lee's partisans would say patriot and warrior returning home after doing his best to obtain freedom for himself and his state. Lewis Peacock's would say less flattering things about him.

Objectively, at this remove, I'm not sure Lee was completely admirable (who is?), but I remain of the opinion that Peacock was indeed a scalawag who used his position as being favored by the occupation authorities to persecute neighbors and attempt to enrich himself at their expense. His fate doesn't much bother me.

Some of these families are still alive & well. Some are intermarried I think.

Mari

Trailblazer Joined : 29 May 2007 Posts : 88

Time has a way of smoothing things down some. The descendants of Devil Anse Hatfield and Ran McCoy are now mostly friendly, with some connection by marriage.

As far as that goes - back during the height of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, one of Anse Hatfield's boys was common-lawing with one of Ran McCoy's daughters. There are some who think that didn't do anything to help put the fire out...

I recall having seen illustrated in one of Terry Gilbert Jordan's books the location of several thickets which marked the prairies of North Texas in former times, though I do not believe that these were labled with names.

Might anyone know where the general locations of the thickets which played prominently in the Lee-Peacock Feud might have been? Those which I remember (I think!) were the Wildcat and Jernigan Thickets.

Will look for a copy I made of Prof. Jordan's illustration, but would appreciate further information which someone might have.

Thanks,

Holly
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Also, where might Dixon's Mound be?

My guess is that all of these features would have been (or are) located in Fannin County (?).

There may have been other thickets which were important during the time of the Feud as well.
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Pastor Joe W. Chumbley's 'Kentucky Town and Its Baptist Church' contains a detailed accounting of what it once meant to the families of this area of Grayson County to hear the shouted (or sometimes whispered ) warning: "Quantrill's coming!" or "Quantrill's around!"

Also, his book features a photograph, taken ca. 1975, of William Quantrill's old campgrounds near the Batsell Cemetery. A spring -- dry at the time of publication --once flowed from the woods into Camp Branch (so-called in remembrance of Quantrill's presence; later Chapel Branch, for the Batsell Methodist Church which was built at the site but which no longer stands).

While much of this area -- formally Quantill's camp -- had been wooded, trees remained then only along the creek banks .... having been cleared in previous years for pasture and crop-land.

Holly
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

A 'surviving' Bill Quantrill joins Billy the Kid, John Wilkes Booth and a host of others in that stubborn status:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txtarran/citizens/quantrill.htm
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

There's this road that stretches through Pilot Grove, extending northward from the FM highway that travels eastward from Van Alstyne. It's late to speak of it, but if you follow this road, you will see the most beautiful horizon extending from this high point, toward the east. Looking out in that direction, to the left, is a turn-of-the century house with a large, open porch. Anything that ever could have happened in Pilot Grove was sanctified from strains given through this house, reaching .... as they did ... toward the view beyond.
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

What house is that Holly ? Is it down the curve from the Baptist church ?