Juneteenth Celebration:
On Saturday, June 22, residence and guests of Blanco County gathered at Peyton Colony schoolhouse grounds to celebrate.
Juneteenth, Emancipation Day in Texas. On June 19, 1865 Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order #3 to the people of Galveston:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Large celebrations were held on June 19 beginning in 1866 and continued regularly into the early 20th century. It was like the Fourth of July and the celebrations contained similar events. In the early days, the celebration included a prayer service, speakers with inspirational messages, reading of the emancipation proclamation, stories from former slaves, food, red soda water, games, rodeos and dances.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, many former slaves set out to make a better life for themselves and their families while adjusting to their new freedom which meant finding work, housing and putting food on the table.
Many people set out to find their families, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons that may have been sold to other slave owners.
In nearby Caldwell County it is told that a helpful master who agreed to outfit his former bondsmen with the bare necessities of the farming life in return for their labor with the crops of 1865. After the former master’s cotton had been picked, men and boys headed west to locate free “government land” in distant Blanco County, led by Peyton Roberts.
The men, somewhat doubtful about their new land, chose parcels for their families anyway and helped each other build dirt-floored, one-room log huts. The men returned to their old Caldwell County plantation for the winter. In early spring, the old master presented each family head with wagon, mule, plow, cow, hog, chickens, and dog, just as he had promised.
Roberts and the other freedmen headed west with wives and children to permanently live in Blanco County.
A lime kiln was built by Peyton Roberts and his neighbors to provide high-quality materials with which to make mortar for buildings in Blanco County. Buildings made from these materials are still standing today.
Life in the community largely revolved around Mt. Horeb Baptist Church, which organized in 1874 under the Rev. Jack Burch. Members built a log cabin which served as a church and community school on land donated by Jim Upshaw (Upshear).
Juneteenth has been celebrated in Peyton Colony since the very beginning and continues today with BBQ, live music and auctions and raffles that help maintain the historic buildings.
“I have been celebrating Juneteenth at Peyton Colony since I can remember,” Lawrence Coffee, local resident and former student of the school, said. “I may have missed a few years in my rodeo days, but I pretty much have always been here on Juneteenth.”
Peyton Colony plays host to “Homecoming Day” in October when direct descendants of the original colonist, alumnus of the schools and attendees of the Mt. Horeb Church come together to celebrate their local history and heritage.
