"Old Joe" Bourbon Whiskey

"Old Joe" has the distinction of being America's first known brand of bourbon whiskey. It was crafted by JOSEPH PEYTON (1787-1859) and manufactured from about 1818 to 1840, by the Old Joe Distilling Company, which is now closed and in ruins. It is supposed that JOSEPH PEYTON built the distillery shortly after arriving in Kentucky by way of canoe in 1818. Originally going by the name “Old Joe,” PEYTON’s products were hugely successful. After the distillery was sold to Gratz Hawkins, it was renamed Old Prentice. The distillery ended up changing ownership frequently, once purchased by the Ripley Brothers. Finally, in 1888, it was bought by Paul Jones who registered it under its current name. In 1917, the still was closed, and then reopened in 1933, as the Old Prentice Distillery. Today, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, sits the Spanish Mission style distillery, Four Roses, also known as "Old Joe's." This distillery is possibly one of the loveliest in the United States; currently it is also one of the most beloved, being named "2011 American Distiller of the Year" by Whisky Magazine.

 JOSEPH PEYTON, SR.  -- "son of BENJAMIN and ELLEN PEYTON was born about 1787 and died in Anderson County, Kentucky on March 11, 1859. His marriage bond to ELIZABETH MCMICHAEL, daughter of JAMES MCMICHAEL was filed in Franklin County, Kentucky, November 6, 1811. A deed located in Anderson County, Kentucky Deed BK E, pp. 233-234, dated July 14, 1842 would indicate JOSEPH and ELIZABETH MCMICHAEL PEYTON agreed to separate due to unhappy differences. Forty acres and personal property deeded to BENJAMIN PEYTON in trust as her full part of alimony. On October 19, 1848, Deed BK G, p. 127 mentions land devised to ELIZABETH PEYTON, SR. AND her children, by her father JAMES MCMICHAEL, deceased to BENJAMIN PEYTON. ELIZABETH PEYTON, age 63, born Virginia appears on the 1850 census for Anderson County, Kentucky, page 205. It is believed ELIZABETH died sometime prior to the 1860 census in Anderson County, Kentucky." ( "Genealogies of Franklin County Families" )

JOSEPH "Old Joe" PEYTON appears with his parents, wife and son, on page 100 of PEYTONs Along the Aquia Genealogy, where his descent from the PEYTONs of early Colonial Virginia and England is documented.

PEYTONs of Indiana

My research suggests that many or most of the PEYTONS who settled nineteenth century Indiana were descendants of Philip PEYTON who appears on pages 92, 93, 94 and 95 of PEYTONs Along the Aquia. See my blog post Nelson PEYTON of Kentucky and Indiana for more information. Augusta PEYTON of Harrison County, Indiana seems a proven son of Philip PEYTON according to Revolutionary War records. The John PEYTON who settled at Clark County, Indiana in the early 1800s, I consider to be a "presumed" son of the same Philip PEYTON mentioned above. John's children settled in Clark County. Perhaps someone has been able to document John PEYTON's lineage.

Philip PEYTON and his descent from the PEYTONs of early Colonial Virginia is documented on page 92 of PEYTONs Along the Aquia Genealogy.

Henry Lindsey Peyton

Henry Lindsey Peyton (I first wrote the following post for "Blog Some Genealogy" on 28 July 2007.)

AKA Henry PAYTON
Henry PAYTON served as a private in the Revolution with the Amherst County Riflemen. The “Cabell County Annals and Families” by George Selden Wallace of 1935, credited the service of Henry PAYTON as “first as a substitute at $20.00 a month, was on garrison duty at Point Pleasant, was at Guilford Court House and at Yorktown, later at Winchester guarding prisoners, a privater in the Virginia Militia.”

Henry PAYTON made application for a pension on 28 October 1833, when he was seventy-three years of age and a resident of Cabell County, Virginia. His pension was approved, but then, as often happened with these honorable patriots, for some reason his statement of service was declared fraudulent, resulting in his name being removed from the Revolutionary Pension Rolls.

I have encountered this same sequence of events with one of my own ancestors who was impressed as a teenager to carry a message from southeastern Virginia to Fort Pittsburg and who afterwards enlisted in the Continental Army, yet was never able to document his service to the government’s satisfaction. Another of my ancestors did qualify for his pension, but his exact-named cousin in the adjoining county was declared a “fraud” because the government considered it was already paying him a pension. I have sympathized with them at having given such invaluable service to their new nation, and then be declared dishonest and frauds as old soldiers in their waning years.

During his lifetime, Henry PAYTON petitioned several times to restore his good name, and finally on 16 February 1839, an act of the U.S. Congress reinstated his pension and made it retroactive to 1831. To add further insult to the soldier’s memory, the death date of 1836, on his grave marker that was placed by a Revolutionary War lineage society, was wrong. Henry PAYTON was alive in 1839, and still writing letters to Washington as late as 1842.

As of today, even though a number of descendants of three different children of Henry PAYTON had joined the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) under his Revolutionary War Service, his line has been closed, as the statement of fraud has been “rediscovered” in his pension record. Once again as genealogists, we see how difficult it is to correct errors of many years ago that were put in “official” writings. It will now be necessary for a descendant of patriot Henry PAYTON to join the DAR under his lineage and include a copy of H.R. Bill 1150 as proof of his service, or for a descendant who is already a DAR member to make a supplemental application proving his Revolutionary War service. Hopefully, someone will be able to once again, reinstate the good “Patriot” name of Henry PAYTON (Henry Lindsey PEYTON) of Amherst and Cabell Counties, Virginia.

When I first published the First Edition of “PEYTONS Along the Aquia Genealogy” in 2004, I included on page 140, a photocopy of H.R. 1150 of the United States Congress, dated February 16, 1839, “For the relief of Henry PEYTON.” Page 141 onward contains some of the descendants of Henry PAYTON – one of the ‘PEYTONs Along the Aquia’ descendants.

A comment was made on May 17, 2008, at "Blog Some Genealogy" by Barbara Van Houte: "Thank you for this information about Henry Peyton. He wrote a letter that is in the RW file of William Davis of Amherst County, VA, who married Benedicta Milstead in 1787 in Amherst. William and Benedictia and family moved to Greenbrier & Fayette Counties of WV. Benedicta was the daughter of Joseph and Rebecca Milstead."

See Henry Lindsey Peyton of Cabell County

Catherine PAYTON and Alander PAYTON of Overwharton Parish

In 1740, there are two PEYTON (PAYTON) women, born circa 1722, whose marriages were documented in the Overwharton Parish Register of Stafford County, Virginia. The first was CATHERINE PAYTON who married WILLIAM SCROGGING on 18 February 1740. The second woman was ALANDER PAYTON who married JAMES HEFFERNON on 20 May 1740. I have found no records which reveal the parentage of these two PAYTON women, but preponderance of evidence can be employed to claim them as granddaughters of either VALENTINE PEYTON or PHILIP PEYTON who appear on pages 28 through 32 of PEYTONs Along the Aquia.

Because the two women married within a few months of each other is a good indication that they may have been sisters. The possible parentage of CATHERINE PAYTON is mentioned on pages 45, 46. Although we cannot document their parents, it can be presumed that their PEYTON ancestors were HENRY and Ellen PEYTON, pages 19 through 22, who immigrated from England to Aquia Creek, Virginia in the early seventeenth century, and whose British lineage is well established.

Stafford County Order Book 1749-1755

Most of the battles of the War Between the States were fought on the terrain of Virginia, resulting in great losses to courthouse records. This further compounded the losses already suffered during the American Revolution. Many Virginia records were stolen by Yankee soldiers and shipped North to their homes for safekeeping.

It is indeed a joyous occasion when these stolen records are discovered extant and returned to Virginia. An eighteenth century court order book from Stafford County was recently found in New Jersey. It had been taken by Captain William Augustus Treadwell of the 4th New York Infantry, and his misdeed was documented in his own handwriting inside the front cover of said volume. He wrote that it had been prepared in October 1791, being a transcription of court records covering 1749 to 1755. The Order Book is currently undergoing conservation, and when that is completed, it will be available at both the Stafford County Courthouse and the Library of Virginia.

The above information is from the "Mount Vernon Genealogical Society Newsletter," November 2012, written by Sharon B. Hodges, page 13.

Lost Ledger Returns Home from Fredericksburg.com

William PEYTON of 1658

Virginia Patent Book 4 ("Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800," 1934)

The "Wm. PEYNTON" mentioned in the grant, seems to be the William PEYTON on pages 12, 13 of PEYTONs Along the Aquia. The creek mentioned, Chopawamsic Creek, is in Prince William County, Virginia and is where settled the HARRISON family who married into the PEYTON family of Prince William County. See the maps on pages xiv, xv of the aforementioned book for Chopawamsic Creek.

John PEYTON of Winchester, Virginia

JOHN PEYTON of Winchester, Virginia appears on pages 60, 210, of PEYTONs Along the Aquia, along with his wife SUSANNAH RUTHERFORD, his children and his lineage back to the earliest PEYTONS of Aquia, Virginia. His birth date should be given as 1757, as that agrees with other records that he left.

He also appears on page 502 of Reverend Horace Edwin Hayden's "PEYTON, of England and Virginia", as born "14 April 1763," and on page 530, as "JOHN PEYTON, Jr." (son of Henry, Valentine, Henry, Henry, Henry) "of Frederick county, Va., born cir. 1757;" with his wife, eight children and nine grandchildren.