Pilot Grove

Pilot Grove sat at the center of the Lee-Peacock feud. A TXGenWeb account puts the North Texas headquarters of Lewis Peacock's Union League here, seven miles from the Lee homes. Capt. Bob Lee, a Confederate veteran, was shot in the back of the head here in February 1867; the doctor who treated him, William Pierce, was killed on February 24. The plaque says Lee died in 1865, but that account dates his death to May 24, 1869, when U.S. soldiers fired on him near his home. Peacock was shot in his own yard in about 1871.

What the plaque says

Pilot Grove 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. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 22 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 22 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 28 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• Pilot Grove Baptist Church — steps away
• James P. Dumas — 2.9 mi
• Old Town of Cannon — 3.4 mi
• Cannon Cemetery — 4.6 mi