1810-1900
Master Carpenter
Peter Lee was born ca. 1810 in the state of Virginia. Although there is no documentation available to indicate who his parents were, his mother may have been Lucy Lee born in Virginia in 1798. In 1832, Peter Lee came to Marengo County, Alabama from Virginia, with Henry A. Tayloe who came to purchase plantation land for his brothers.
Peter Lee first appears on the 1850 Federal Census for Marengo County Alabama and residing in the home of William Lee, with a boarder named Sam Price age 52. In 1853-54 Peter Lee emerged as a Master Carpenter along with Joe Glasgow, and together with the enslaved, built St. Andrews’s Episcopal Church in Prairieville, Marengo County, Alabama. All the carving interior and exterior, Peter Lee did by hand.
The exquisite wood figures in the railing are find specimens of his work. Oral history has it that the use of tobacco juice was brewed and used on the inside walls. The large iron hinges on the front door were made in a plantation blacksmith shop. According to the papers of the Faunsdale Plantation, Peter Lee and Joe Glasgow also built the slave cabins at Faunsdale Plantation ca 1843.
In 1870 Peter Lee was residing in Hale County, Alabama in Beat 8. (NOTE: The Boundary changes on January 1, 1867, divided parts of Marengo County into Hale County). This is why Peter Lee was residing in Hale County and not Marengo County as in previous years. However, Peter Lee can be found on the 1867 Voters Registration for Marengo County, Alabama. Peter Lee was residing with his first wife Winnie Lee and his possible mother Lucy Lee, aged 92, born in Virginia.
Children:
The only known child for Peter Lee was Delia Lee, mother unknown. According to the church register, she was born in 1859 and Baptized at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at Macon Station, Marengo County, Alabama. The minister was Rev. Francis Hanson, her parent was Peter Lee, and her sponsors/godparent were Darby and Margaret Willis. Delia Lee was a servant of Mrs. Alice Goode Vaughn. On the 1870 Federal Census for Hale County Alabama, Beat #5, Delia Lee was residing with Darby and Margaret Willis, and had taken the surname of Willis. Delia Lee Willis married Jesse Sheldon on January 26, 1878, in Hale County, Alabama, this was the second marriage for both.
Jesse Sheldon and Delia had the following children:
- Shirley J. Sheldon born Dec 14, 1883, Hale County, Alabama, died February 23, 1963;
- Jesse Sheldon, Jr., born 1893, Willie Sheldon born 1894;
- Eddie Sheldon born 1895.
In 1910, Delia and her family were resided in Greenwood, Leflore County, Mississippi. A search did not reveal any other children of Delia Lee Willis Sheldon.
Peter Lee, The Final Years:
Peter Lee marries a second time to Louisa Conway on September 24, 1893. There were no children born to this marriage. Peter Lee dies before 1900 as Louisa Conway Lee is a widow in 1910. Peter Lee is buried in the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Allenville, (Freetown), Hale County, Alabama.
