Andrew/Andy Primus

Location: Montgomery Hall, Augusta County, Virginia

Andrew “Andy” Primus was appraised in 1847, $425.00. He was sold in early 1851 to John Lewis Peyton, $235.00. John Lewis Peyton lived in his law office in Staunton, Virginia prior to his marriage in 1855, and later at his farm, “Shirley,” near Staunton. Peyton also inherited his father’s lower farm in Alleghany County, Virginia. During and after the Civil War, Peyton lived in England and Guernsey, the Channel Islands. In 1876 he returned to Virginia and purchased a former part of “Spring Farm,” much of which is now Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton, where he built “Steephill.” Peyton lived briefly in Ohio but returned to “Steephill” until his death there in 1896.

Henry Rideout and Bob were also sold to John Lewis Peyton in 1851. Tom Cole, Ben Cole, Maria and her daughter, Hannah, were sold to John Lewis Peyton in 1847. Sarah Moore and her daughter, Harrietta, were sold to John Lewis Peyton in 1856. John Cobb Washington, Peyton’s father-in law, gave enslaved African-Americans to John Lewis Peyton at the time of Peyton’s marriage to Washington’s daughter, Eliza Clark “Bettie” Washington. One of these enslaved men, George, 22, died of pneumonia in Augusta County, Virginia in 1856. John Cobb Washington lived at “Vernon” in Lenoir County, North Carolina.

Andrew Primus was hired out for unknown periods of time during the years 1847-1850 to Dewitt C. Harry.