Peelle
William
1786 – 1859
Stories
William’s younger brother John, who also moved to Indiana, apparently was quite the story teller. Below is his story as told at an Old Settler’s Meeting and as recalled in the History of Wayne County, Indiana.
I have so often told you the same old story, that you know it by heart. You know I was born in the year 1791, near Beard’s hatter shop in old North Carolina. You remember the plow made of a forked stick, the cotton rope traces, my tanning leather, or pretending to, and making my wife’s shoes out of it, which hurt her feet to this day. You know, for I have told you the before, that after I came to theis State, I often got up from the table hungry, and signed, with tears in my eyes, for my mother’s milk-house in North Carolina. But we soon raised plenty of corn and squashes and pumpkins, on which we fared sumptuously. We used to hand round a basket of turnips to company in the place of apples. I remember once at a neighbor’s house, I did not scrape the turnip as close as the good lady of the house thought I ought to; so she scraped it over again and ate it herself. I believe I have seen as hard times as the next man. I made two farms from the green. One day, going to Moffitt’s on a borrowed horse, he fell down fourteen times, but he got the bag off only once. Let me say a word about my nephew, Judge Peelle. I believe he is present. Well, whether he is or not, he was as bad a child as I ever knew. He cried nearly all the way from North Carolina, for which I often wanted to trash him. Yet after all, the judge is quite a man now. Mr. Peelle exhibited a shilling once owned by John Wesley, and a mat to the one he paid to the squire who married him. Being about to leave the stand without alluding to his pantaloons, some one reminded him of his forgetfulness. Turning to the audience and laying his hand on his pantaloons, he said: “These are the identical “overhauls” for which I swapped another pair at a log-rolling shortly after I came to this country. We went into a log meeting-house close by to make the exchange.
Source: The History of Wayne County, Indiana by Andrew W. Young (1872)
William Peelle, son of Isaac “Passco” Peele and Tabitha Dunigan, was born in North Carolina in 1786. It seems to be with his generation that our Peelle branch changed the spelling of the last name. Other branches kept Peele while yet others changed over the years to Peel or Peal.
Marriage
In 1809, William Peelle married Sarah “Sally” Cox, who was also a descendant of Robert Peele. See the Cox family and Judith Peele for details of Sally’s lineage.
When their kids were young, the family moved from North Carolina to Wayne County, Indiana, arriving there December 25, 1820. This is where the family flourished and grew for many years. Although their are claims of additional children, William and Sally are known to be the parents of:
- Passco♥
- John Cox Peelle’s son Stanton Judkins Peelle followed in his uncle’s footsteps. Stanton was an attorney, served in the Civil War, was selected to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention, was a representative in the Indiana legislature, was a law professor, and served as Chief Justice U.S. Court of Claims in Washington D.C..
- William Adams Peelle was an attorney, served as Secretary of State for Indiana, was Judge of Common Pleas Court, representative to the Legislature, and served as president of Equitable Fire Insurance. William A. Peelle apparently was a man of political standing as he sent a letter to the Honorable A. Lincoln of Springfield, Illinois to recommend Caleb B. Smith for Lincoln’s cabinet. Smith went on to serve as Lincoln’s Secretary of Interior.
Neither Passco or his children became involved in law although his son William Johnson Peelle showed interest in the topic and was known to observe court proceedings and participated in the inquest into the death of multiple people.
.