The following is the section in the Pelot Family Genealogy on Eugene B. Pelot on pages 101-102. We are indebted to Ellen Narayan who provided the additional information on the line of Harriet Caroline Pelot [#296]. Ellen can be reached at enarayan@earthlink.net.
· Last Updated 17 September 2001 ·
226. EUGENE B.5 PELOT (Joseph Sealy4, James3, John Francis2, Jonas1) teacher, was born in Georgia, evidently in Savannah, about 1818, and was living in Montgomery County, Alabama in 1870.[1] He married on 16 December 1839 SARAH M. SHELMAN, born in Georgia about 1819.[2] They were living with their son Stephen C. Pelot in Putnam County, Georgia in 1880.[3]
He entered
the grocery business with his brother, Joseph Alma, in 1837 but the venture seems to
have been short lived. At a Fourth of
July celebration in 1839 in Savannah he gave a toast to the Republican Blues,
"an association rightly endowed with palmatic zeal."[4] He accompanied his brother to Alabama
shortly thereafter (his son Stephen, aged 3 in 1850, was born in Alabama[5])
and became a teacher there. The value
of Eugene Pelot's teaching was related in Memories of the Mount:[6]
It was also becoming possible - for the children of the planter
families, at least - to obtain a formal education. In 1840, Eugene B. Pelot, a native of Savannah, Georgia, opened a
classical school at Mt. Meigs which he operated until the outbreak of the Civil
War. School-master Pelot also promoted a love of music and literature among
both young and old. He married a popular Mt. Meigs girl, Sara Shellman (sic Shelman),
and the Pelots did much to enliven the local scene. Aside from their other
endeavors, the Pelots, in time had six daughters.[7]
E. B. Pelot was well-liked and was elected Colonel of a militia unit organized
at Mt. Meigs - a sure sign of esteem among the men of the community.
However much the folks at Mt. Meigs may have liked Pelot, they
never knew quite what to make of him, for he was forever pulling their legs. In
1850, Tom Taylor, in a letter to Robert Tyler,
recounted an after dinner discussion at Chantilly between James Cooper (a visiting railroad engineer), Albert McDonald (a local physician) and schoolmaster Pelot: Pelot and Dr. McDonald
[were] at my house, and I wish you could have been here. Pelot gave us some of
his ideas about astronomy, which are entirely unknown in the scientific world.
Among other notions he believes that the Sun travels, goes to the Tropic of
Cancer in the summer and to the Tropic of Capricorn in the winter! And that the
reason why the moon is not always full is because the shadow of the earth is
upon it all the time except when it is full - and that it must be so because
that is how he taught it in school! ... No matter how much everybody around Mt.
Meigs liked the schoolmaster, they had to wonder what sort of ideas he was
putting into the heads of their children.
This
census schedule shows him in Montgomery County, presumably in Mount Meigs where
his brother lived. The 1860 census
gives the value of his real estate as $3,000 and of his personal property as
$3,340.[8]
It is interesting to note that the 1870 Census lists a Dora Pelot living in the adjacent dwelling with her 3 year old son Henry. Dora Pelot was born circa 1846 in Virginia.[9] She is identified in the enumeration as black and as a cook. Please see Appendix II for a discussion of other Pelots in America.
Children:
|
293+ |
i.
Joseph
J., b. 19 Dec. 1842 in Georgia, m.
Frances O. ____. |
|
294+ |
ii.
William
Evans, b. 23 October 1844 in Georgia,
m. Mary Vincent. |
|
295+ |
iii.
Stephen
C., b. Nov. 1847 in Alabama, m.
Rebecca E. Vincent. |
|
296 |
iv.
Harriet
(Hattie) Caroline, b. c.1852/3 in Montgomery
County, Mt. Meigs, Alabama and died in 1880. She married William Howell Hearn circa 1825 in Eatonton, Georgia at the home of her brother. After
her death, William Howell Hearn went on to marry two more times. He died in
1941. They had one child together (Surname Hearn): 1.
Hettie
Ophelia, b. 16 November 1874 in
Eatonton, Georgia. She died in Eatonton, Georgia on 16 July 1901. She married
Lawrence Howell McCalla on 30 January 1895. He was born on 13 November 1864 and died on
9 October 1915 in Starr, South Carolina. Lawrence Howell McCalla was a
physician. Child (surname McCalla): a.
Lawrence
Howell Jr., b. 21 August 1896 in Eatonton,
Georgia and died 21 February 1971 in Greenville, South Carolina. He married
Mildred Costner on 7 April 1922. She was born in Ridgeway, South Carolina on 24
February 1900 and died in Greenville, South Carolina on 31 October 1993.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Lawrence Howell McCalla Jr. was a
physician, as were his two sons Larry and Samuel. Children (surname McCalla): (1)
Larry
Hearn, b. 29 September 1923 in
Greenville, South Carolina. He married Rachel Quarles in 1950. She was born
on 10 March 1925. Children (surname McCalla): (a)
Steven
Lorick, b. 15 November 1950. (b) William Lawrence, b. September 1952, d. 21 August
1971 in a drowning accident (c)
Allen, b. October 1955, married
Susanne _____ in 1982. She was born in 1959. (2)
Mary
Lorick, b. 27 December 1926 in
Greenville, South Carolina. She married Nelson Carter Poe III. Child (surname Poe): (a)
Mildred, b. 27 March 1949, m. in 1974
Samuel Ray Hilemon. He was born on 19 April 1943. (b)
Ellen
Taylor, b. 27 March 1949.[10]
In 1974, she married Shankar Narayan. He was born on 10 November
1950 in Palghat, India. (c)
Susan
Lorick, b. 21 April 1952, m. in 1987
Willett Pang. He was born on 1955 in Oahu
Hawaii. (d)
Wilkins
Carter, b. 27 June 1957, m. Kyongcha Uh. She was born on 29 August 1956
in Korea. (e)
Mary
McCalla, b. 3 October 1959, m. in 1982
John Scott Sanders. He was b. on 20 February 1958
in Beaufort, South Carolina. (3)
Samuel
Wayne, b. 31 December 1934 in
Greenville, South Carolina. He m. (1) Jane Droome, b. 1943 and (2) Dorothy Dobson, b. 1943. |
|
297 |
v.
Sarah
Eugenia, b. c.1856 in Alabama. She m.
Joseph R. Walker on 1 June 1871.[11] |
|
298 |
vi.
Frederick
A., b. Sept. 1858 in Alabama, aged
42 (and not b. 1862) on 1900 census schedule.[12] The 1860 census schedule carries him as
aged 3.[13] In 1900,
he was living unmarried in Eatonton, Putnam Co., Georgia with his brother
William. |
The line
of Eugene B. Pelot is continued in Part VIII.
Index:
Cooper
James, 1
Costner
Mildred, 1
Dobson
Dorothy, 1
Droome
Jane, 1
Hearn
Hettie Ophelia (b.
1874), 1
William Howell, 1
Hilemon
Samuel Ray, 1
McCalla
Allen, 1
Larry Hearn, 1
Samuel Wayne, 1
Steven Lorick, 1
Susanne (_____), 1
William Howell, 1
William Howell Jr., 1
William Lawrence, 1
McCalla, Mary Lorick, 1
McDonald
Albert, 1
Narayan
Ellen Taylor (Poe), 1
Shankar, 1
Pang
Willett, 1
Pelot
Dora (b. 1846.ca), 1
Eugene B. (b.
1818.ca), 1
Frances O. (____) (b.
1845.ca), 1
Frederick A. (b.
1858), 2
Harriet Caroline (b.
1852.ca), 1
Hattie (Harriet)
Caroline (b. 1852.ca), 1
Henry (b. 1867.ca), 1
Joseph Alma (b.
1814), 1
Joseph J. (b. 1842),
1
Mary (Vincent) (b.
1848), 1
Rebecca E. (Vincent)
(b. 1847), 1
Sarah Eugenia (b.
1856.ca), 2
Sarah M. (Shelman)
(b. 1819.ca), 1
Stephen C. (b. 1847),
1
William Evans (b.
1844), 1
Poe
Ellen Taylor, 1
Mary McCalla, 1
Mildred, 1
Nelson Carter III, 1
Susan Lorick, 1
Wilkins Carter, 1
Quarles
Rachel, 1
Sanders
John Scott, 1
Shelman
Sarah M. (b.
1819.ca), 1
Taylor
Tom, 1
Uh
Kyongcha, 1
Vincent
Mary (b. 1848), 1
Rebecca E. (b. 1847),
1
Walker
Joseph R. (b. 1856?),
2
[1] Ninth Census … 1870: Alabama, Montgomery County, roll 34, p. 346 reverse.
[2] Alabama Records, Vol. 196, Montgomery County Marriages, Volume A-18, 1817-1910 compiled by Kathleen Paul Jones and Pauline Jones Gandrud, October 1960.
[3] Tenth Census … 1880: Georgia, Putnam County, roll 162, p. 575, reverse.
[4] Savannah Georgian, 6 July 1839, p. 2, col. 3.
[5] Seventh Census … 1850: Alabama, Montgomery County, roll 12, p. 80.
[6] John B. Scott Jr., Memories of the Mount, The Story of Mt. Meigs, Alabama, The Black Belt Press, Montgomery, Alabama, 1993, p. 62-63.
[7] This is likely in error. We know of 6 children, but only 2 recorded daughters.
[8] Eighth Census … 1860: Alabama, Montgomery County, roll 19, p. 291 reverse.
[9] Ninth Census … 1870: Alabama, Montgomery County, Reel M593-34, p. 346, line 38.
[10] We are indebted to Ellen Poe Narayan for the information on Harriet Caroline Pelot’s descendants.
[11] Montgomery County Marriage License Index, Book OCM, 1817-1918, 1973, p. 208.
[12] Twelfth Census … 1900: Georgia, Putnam County, roll 217.
[13] Eighth Census … 1860: Alabama, Montgomery County, roll 19, p. 291 reverse.