Peter Jeffries
Peter Jeffries, born c. 1836 in Roanoke County, Virginia, was the son of Richard Jeffries and Betsy Foster. Peter Jeffries worked as a bootmaker and shoemaker in Roanoke County, Virginia and Charleston, Kanawha County West Virginia after the Civil War. Peter Jeffries married Lucy Campbell, born Roanoke County c. 1842. They registered their marriage with the Freedmen’s Bureau in Roanoke County, Virginia. Peter was likely sold along with many other enslaved men, women, and children when William Madison Peyton sold “Elmwood” (now Elmwood Park in Roanoke, Virginia) in 1858.
The known children of Peter Jeffries and Lucy Campbell were:
- Ella, born c. 1858, died c.1866/1867
- Sally, born c. 1860, died before 1880
- Maria Blanche (went by nickname Lucy and her first name, Maria, in childhood, later using Blanche, her middle name), born c. 1862, was a teacher in Charleston, West Virginia. She was one of the founders of the Charleston Woman’s Improvement League. Blanche Jeffries married U. Grant Tyler, a graduate of Howard University and practicing lawyer in Baltimore, Maryland. Tyler fought successfully for the right for African-American teachers to teach African-American children. They lived on Barclay Street in Baltimore next to her sisters.
- Alice, born c. 1865, was a teacher in Charleston, West Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland
- Lavinia, born c. 1882, , was a teacher in Charleston, West Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland
Peter Jeffries died in 1891 and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, West Virginia. His widow, Lucy, later moved to Baltimore with her daughters.
For more information about the parents of Peter Jeffries, please see Betsy Foster. For more information about his sister and her family, please see Maria Jeffries.
William Madison Peyton lived in Staunton, Virginia, in Bath County, Virginia, in Roanoke County, Virginia at “Elmwood,” now Elmwood Park, in Roanoke, Virginia, in New York, at “Alta Vista” in Albemarle County, Virginia, and also owned property in what is now West Virginia.