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Clayton / Peery Ancestors

Edgar Pomeroy Clayton (standing left) was a son of John M. Clayton and his wife, Manerva Carolyn Mann. Pom, as he was known, was born October 1, 1871 near Mooreville, Mississippi. He is pictured here with his parents (seated); his younger brother, Washington Lafayette (standing center); his sister, Littie Lavernia (standing right); and his niece, Annie Caroline Griffin. Pom, like his father and his father's father, was a farmer. Due to the demands of the family farm he was forced to quit school after the eighth grade but he resumed his education as a young man; became a school teacher and became one of the leading educators of the times. He was superintendent of education for Lee county from 1908 to 1914 and served as head of the poultry department at Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University) from 1914 to 1927. The Clayton family line can be traced back to John Clayton who died in Isle of Wight county, Virginia in 1758 and was probably born in Gloucester county, Virginia about 1694. The Mann family came from Georgia and South Carolina.

Edgar Pomeroy Clayton married Katherine Emma Bolding May 29, 1899 at Saltillo, Mississippi. Kate was born October 15, 1871 in Saltillo, Mississippi, daughter of James R. and Susan Bolding. James was one of the Bolding family of Franklin county, Alabama whose ancestry probably can be traced back to John Rolfe and Pocahontas.

John Rufus Peery, my mother's grandfather, lived in Stewart, Mississippi. Situated in the panhandle of the county and easily accessible to Webster and Choctaw counties, criminals found Stewart a convenient refuge and killings which resulted from drunken brawls were so frequent that the saying, "In Stewart blood runs like water," was very nearly true. Just when conditions were at their worst, John Rufus Peery was elected sheriff and from newspaper accounts did an excellent job. The Peery family came to Mississippi via Tennessee and are descendants of James Peery, a revolutionary soldier.

Mary Jane Kent and her sister Margaret Laura (pictured here with three of thier daughters) married brothers, James Monroe and John Franklin Hester. James, John, and thier younger brother, Joseph, all served in the 31st Mississippi regiment during the Civil War. Joseph was only fourteen years old when he enlisted. Both the Kent family and the Hester family came to Mississippi prior to the Civil War and both families originated in colonial Virginia.
 

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