Benjamin Harrison Pellom
John (Pap) Simpson Pellom
Copyright November, 2010 Benny H. Pellom. All rights reserved.
Website by PellomEnterprises.com
     ABOVE PHOTO:  I can only identify two of the people:  In the foreground are my grandfather, John Simpson Pellom (right) and my uncle  Benjamin Harrison Pellom (left). My grandfather couldn't read or write even though he was the son of a lawyer. He was born out of wedlock, and left to be raised by his young mother, Nancy Carter. His lawyer-father was a man named John Simpson Fain, a two-term Georgia State Representative and Confederate Officer from Union County, GA. My uncle Benjamin (I was named for him) went on to be a watch-maker/jeweler for a great part of his life. Most of his descendants are in California. I wish I could identify the others;  I feel that surely some of them are my kinsmen. Note: My grandfather John Simpson Pellom, was born 1848, and went by "Carter" as a last name, after his mother, until about 1890 when he changed his last name to Pellom, after his step-father Jacob (Jake) Pellom. Jake was said to have been raised in South Carolina.
    John (Pap) Simpson Pellom, born 1848: So far as I know he was an only-child, kept by his mother Nancy Carter, until he was about five years old. At that time Jacob (Jake) Pellom came into the picture as his step-father. Judging by the amount of home, shop and farm equipment shown on a Census Report, Jake Pellom was fairly well off. One story related to me was that he had a habit of keeping his gold and silver on his person. Doing that turned out to be a mistake, as he was robbed by Civil War guerrillas (deserters and outlaws) who roamed the mountains to prey on the people there, and to stay away from the Confederate authorities. Anyway, one day Jake and John (my grandfather) were walking on one of the many mountain trails when they were held up by the guerrillas. They took Jake's gold, silver and watch; they even took the coat off the boy, John (my grandfather).
    John (Pap) Simpson Pellom first married Mary Thomas. From looking at a photo of the two, they both looked like they were in their late teens. Their marriage produced four boys that I know of, and they each used the surname "Carter" after their grandmother Nancy Carter.  Their names were: Robert (Bob) Carter; Jacob (Jake) Carter; James (Jim) Carter; and John Carter who died at about twenty-five. Bob and Jake (my half-uncles) were implicated in the murder of a man by the name of William O. Keener, who lived in the mountains nearby. As a result of that, Bob and Jake fled westward to escape trial, and ended up living in Gypsum, Colorado. Both lived into their eighties. Bob has descendants living there to this day. I was told that Jake had at least one child left living in Tennessee. James lived out nost of his life in Vero Beach, Florida, where he has descendants there to this day. There is more to come regarding this murder,which also involved a great-uncle on my grandmother (Green) Pellom's side, and a nephew of this same grandmother.

Left: John (Pap) Simpson Pellom. Likely taken in Eton, GA. His second wife, Martha (Green) Pellom was a midwife, and used the buggy to get around to take care of expectant mothers. Pap died in 1935 at eighty-seven, and was buried in the Sumac Church Cemetery, Cisco, GA. His second wife, Martha, and my father, Conard, and mother, Audie (Stout) Pellom, are buried there near to each other.

Click HERE to see more information about Jake and Bob Carter (John Simpson Pellom's first two sons) who fled westward, ending up in Gypsum, Colorado).
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CLICK HERE for information about Pap's father John Simpson Fain - his time in Georgia Legislature and a silhouette of him made in 1855.