DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best by the story. Pilot Grove, Grayson County — and friend, this little place has lived more lives than most towns twice its size. It got its start in the early 1850s, sitting right on the Bonham-McKinney Stage Line, which meant travelers, commerce, noise, and the kind of characters that follow all three.
Back then, folks called it Lick Skillet. Now the marker doesn't explain that name, and honestly, maybe it doesn't need to. Then in 1858, it was renamed — this time for J.
P. Dumas' Ranch — and it's been Pilot Grove ever since. So far, so good.
A growing little community on a stage line, working out its identity. But then came 1865, and with it something the marker calls the Lee-Peacock feud, and friend, that is the kind of thing a town does not soon forget. On one side: ex-Confederate Captain Bob Lee, described as having his gold — so picture a man with resources, with loyalists, and with whatever a man carries home from a war he lost.
On the other side: Lewis Peacock, a Union supporter. The war was barely cold. Now here is where the story takes its darkest turn, and I want you to sit with this.
Bob Lee was killed in 1865 — the very year the feud began. But that did not end it. His followers carried the fight forward, year after grinding year, all the way to 1871.
Six years of this. Until Lewis Peacock was shot. The marker does not soften that.
Neither will I. Pilot Grove started as a stop on a stage line with a name nobody wrote home about. It got a new name, found its footing, and then found itself at the center of something that outlasted the man who started it.
That's the thing about a feud — it doesn't always need its founder to keep going.
What the marker says
Founded in early 1850s. On Bonham-McKinney Stage Line. Called Lick Skillet; renamed, 1858, for J. P. Dumas' Ranch. Site of Lee-Peacock feud, 1865-1871, between ex-Confederate Capt. Bob Lee with his gold and Union supporter Lewis Peacock. Although Lee was killed in 1865, his followers carried on the fight until Peacock was shot.