DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you ever find yourself rolling through Cherokee County, just outside Jacksonville, Texas, keep your eyes open for a house that carries a little legend in every board and beam. This is the story of John Wesley Love, and the man had a title.
Not a military title, not a political title. They called him the Peach King. That's right.
The Peach King of Jacksonville, earned by way of large peach orchards and, one imagines, a considerable amount of patience and dirt under the fingernails. He was born near Jacksonville in 1858, so this was his country, through and through. Now, John Wesley Love did not live a small life.
He and his wife, Texanna, born a Pickens, built something worth talking about. Twelve children. Count them.
Twelve. And when you're running a household of that particular magnitude, you don't just get by with whatever shelter happens to be handy. No, in 1902 and 1903, the Loves had a home built to fit their family.
A Victorian-style house, turn of the century, with a two-tiered wraparound porch stretching around it like open arms. The millwork ornamentation on that porch was finished by hand. Someone stood there, tool in hand, making it right, making it beautiful, not just making it done.
That kind of care shows. It still shows. The Love home stands today as what the marker itself calls a stately reminder of Jacksonville's rich heritage and traditions.
The Peach King planted roots in this county, and some of them, in wood and millwork and memory, are still standing.
What the marker says
Known as "The Peach King" for his large peach orchards, John Wesley Love was born near Jacksonville in 1858. He and his wife, Texanna (Pickens), had this home built in 1902-03 to accommodate their family of twelve children. The turn-of-the-century Victorian-style house features a two-tiered, wraparound porch with hand-finished millwork ornamentation. The Love home is a stately reminder of Jacksonville's rich heritage and traditions.