Oliver H. Pegues

Duane's take

The official marker's got the story, and I'm just the one bringin' it to you on the road tonight. So settle in, because this one starts a long way from Texas. We're talkin' France, generations back, a Huguenot family who made their way to America in 1736.

That's the bloodline that eventually produced one Oliver H. Pegues, born November 27, 1847. By 1850, young Oliver was on the move again, this time with his parents, heading west from Mississippi into Texas.

The Pegues family had a habit of not standing still. Come 1871, Oliver landed in Longview, and Longview, well, it was just getting started itself. The town was new enough that somebody had to be first at everything.

And Oliver H. Pegues stepped right up. On January 27, 1871, he became Longview's very first postmaster.

That's not a small thing. Every letter, every piece of news coming into that young town passed through his hands. But Pegues wasn't a man to stop at one title.

He went on to serve as Gregg County Treasurer, and he held that post from 1875 all the way to 1900. Twenty-five years of keeping the county's books straight. He was a merchant.

He was a banker. He was an early leader of the First Baptist Church. The man had a hand in just about every pillar a community stands on.

His personal life carried its own weight too. He was married first to Henrie Dyer, who passed in 1887. He later married Emma Overton, born in 1856 and gone in 1929.

Between those two marriages, Oliver H. Pegues had eight children. He lived until March 30, 1937.

The descendant of Huguenot wanderers had put down roots deep enough to last. Some families run from history. The Pegues family just kept making it.

What the marker says

(November 27, 1847 - March 30, 1937) Descendant of a Huguenot family who migrated to america in 1736, Oliver H. Pegues came to Texas with his parents from his native Mississippi in 1850. He moved to Longview in 1871 and became the town's first postmaster, Jan. 27, 1871. Pegues served as Gregg County Treasurer, 1875-1900. A merchant and banker, he was an early leader of the First Baptist Church. He was married first to Henrie Dyer (d. 1887) and later to Emma Overton (1856-1929), and had 8 children.