Figure of the Week

Simeon C. Peyton was the son of Thomas Peyton (1790-1864) and Sarah Maddox (1794-1877) of Stafford County, Virginia. He married Roxanna T. Chinn (1836-1898). He was known locally as Sim Peyton and was involved in a number of business ventures, including cutting timber. Sim spent his winters in Fredericksburg where he operated a wood and coal yard as well as a livery and was “prepared to accommodate [the public] at all hours with hacks, buggies or saddle horses, at the shortest notice and on reasonable terms.” He also kept a wood yard at or near Belle Plains. One of the local newspapers carried a notice of a fire that destroyed some of his wood: “Heavy loss of Cord Wood – We regret to learn that Mr. Simeon Peyton, of Stafford County, had from eight hundred to a thousand cords of wood destroyed by fire, on Friday last. The wood was cut on Belle Plain farm, in the vicinity of Potomac creek, ready to be forwarded to Washington city market. An old colored man was burning corn-stalks in the vicinity, when the fire was communicated to the cord wood. Mr. Peyton had an insurance of $1000 on the wood, which is better than nothing, but his loss is still heavy.” Simeon’s house at Locust Grove survives and is still occupied as a dwelling. Sim Peyton held a variety of positions in Stafford County. In 1850, he was an overseer of the road “from the corner of William Warren’s land to the Lower Ferry on the Rappahannock River.” He was a Commissioner of Roads for Falmouth Township in 1875 and served on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors from 1875 to 1881.