By Tom Perry
In 1854, James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, sporting a new beard, was riding with the Regiment of Mounted Rifles in far western Texas, near present day El Paso and Fort Davis, today a national park. Laughingly described as “the only man he ever saw that a beard improved,” he wrote that the whiskers had “so much altered my physique that you could not recognize me.” He commented, as he often did, about his Birthplace in Patrick County: “Love still retains some deathless chains to bind the heart to home.” About this time, Stuart encountered his “countryman,” who might have been Ira Pulaski Pedigo, riding with some Texas Rangers.
History has known them as Peregoy, Perigoy, Pedigoy, Pedigee, Perigords, but J. E. B. Stuart knew them as his neighbors, the Pedigo Family. The story of Pedigo begins in France, where Joseph Peregoy was born in 1665. These French Huguenots arrived in North America in 1685 and lived in Maryland for five years. Joseph married Sarah Manford in 1688. Their son, Henry Peregoy, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1690. Henry married Amey Greene in 1716, but her death in 1744 and Henry’s remarriage to Providence Corbin led the Peregoy or Pedigo family to live in Ararat.
Having suffered the “oppressions of a tyrannical stepmother,” two brothers, sons of Henry, ran away from their home. The brothers felt that the “menial service” and with “no opportunity of education” was too much for them to bear, and used the “high maintenance” ways of their stepmother to their advantage.
The brothers made their way to the York River Valley, where they stayed until they matured. They went west across the piedmont of Virginia to the Smith River. Robert settled on the north bank and Edward on the south bank near present day Mulberry Creek in Martinsville.
Edward Pedigo married Hannah Elkins in 1760 in Halifax County, Virginia, and produced fourteen children. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, on December 10, 1730, Edward enlisted in the Patriot cause of the American Revolution on February 13, 1778. He found himself in Captain Charles Fleming’s Company of the 70th Virginia Foot. He served at Valley Forge with Washington and at Morristown along with D’Estaining’s fleet in Savannah. Edward’s life ended in Barren County, Kentucky, on April 26, 1834.
Robert Pedigo’s (1728-1822) descendants stayed in the area. Edward’s son Abel (1770-1849) married Susannah Ray Ross, the daughter of Daniel and Betty Garth Ross, in 1792. Abel and Susannah lived in Patrick County. Among their seven children born in the Elamsville area, Patrick was Lewis R. Pedigo (October 7, 1794 to December 31, 1877), who married Sarah Harbour.
Lewis and Sarah Pedigo moved to “The Hollow” and began raising their family near where Clark’s Creek emptied into the Ararat River, on adjoining property to the Laurel Hill Farm. Their children were Judge Henry Clay “HC” Pedigo 1820–1881, Albert Gallatin Pedigo 1821–1910, John Harden Pedigo 1823–1920, Carolina Matilda Pedigo 1827–1915, Susan Joyce Pedigo 1829–1912, Dr David Floyd Pedigo 1834–1920, Louisa Elizabeth Pedigo 1836–1865, Abram Lincoln Pedigo 1838–1908, McRobert Pedigo 1842–1865, Joseph Reed Pedigo 1842–1921, and Mary Bethenia Pedigo 1844–1913.
The story passed down to me was that among their children was Ira Pulaski Pedigo, who encountered his neighbor, J. E. B. Stuart, in Texas in 1854, but I have not been able to find anything about him. Tradition says he went to Texas with his oldest brother, Henry Clay Pedigo, a lawyer and judge in Hardin County, Texas. Ira spent many years in Texas, but eventually returned to Henry County, Virginia.
Butting up next door to the 75 acres owned by the J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust is the Pedigo Cemetery, where nearly every stone tells a story. The simple graves tell a story of a family whose descendants remain within sight of the national landmark made famous by a young man named “Jeb.”
Tom Perry can be reached at freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com, and the Stuart Birthplace website is www.jebstuart.org.
