Peter P. PYEATT, son of James PYEATT
and Catherine FINLEY, was born April 1803 in Warren Co., KY. He died 10
March 1884
in Polk
County, Missouri.
He married 1) Lavinia “Vina” COX and 2) Susan C. LINK. I’m guessing
that Lavinia died in the early years of the Civil War. She was listed
with Peter in the 1860 census in Cane Hill, Washington Co., Arkansas.
But Peter had married Susan C. LINK and had two children with her, Peter
P., Jr. in 1864, and Lena Rebecca, in 1866. Both of these children
were born in Illinois,
so I’m guessing that he married Susan in Illinois
sometime prior to Peter, Jr’s birth.
Nancy Maxwell suspects that Peter’s middle name was Paulus, since Peter, Jr. was more commonly called Paulus. In every record I’ve ever found, however, his name always appears as Peter, Peter P. or P.P. That may have been an attempt to distinguish this Peter from his older cousin, Peter who was called “Little Peter”. “Little Peter” was born in 1793 in Guilford Co., North Carolina and was the son of Capt. Jacob PYEATT and his wife, Margaret FINLEY (Catherine’s sister). James & Jacob were two sons of John PYEATT and Jane BLAIR.
The first photo is of the entrance to the cemetery at Mitchell’s Campground, which is near Bolivar, Missouri. The cemetery isn’t very big and there is a small chapel on the grounds. Bolivar is the county seat for Polk County. As near as I could tell, it looks like Peter’s land in PolkCounty was someplace near the cemetery. When I was in the CountyRecorder’s office we had difficulty determining exactly where it was on the county map.
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Of the three pictures of the headstone. The first is a photo that I took in September 1996. At that time, the stone was broken and was lying on the ground. The third picture was sent to me by another researcher (which helped because I knew what I was looking for). The headstone was carved from some soft stone (limestone? Sandstone?), so it hasn’t weathered well. It was still possible to read it, but the letters don’t show up well in a photograph. That’s why I traced Peter’s name in the 4th photo. The headstone does have dates, but I figured the most important thing to trace was his name.
His wife Susan, their daughter Lena “Lini” Rebecca PYEATT GRIFFIN, and her baby. They are also buried in this same cemetery, as is Peter Jr.’s wife Sarah A. “Orlena” SCROGGINS.
Sharolynn Pyeatt
Orem, UT84097