On the occasion of Halloween 2021, I offer you a short tale of historical fiction. I hope you will take time to read it, and I ask that you offer an opinion as to whom “murdered Ned Peene”. Please text me your guess. Enjoy!
Ned Beauregard Peene was born with a silver spoon in his mouth in 1830, the second son to Thomas and Abigail Peene of Providence, Kentucky. By age 10, Ned was aware of his place in the family of seven, and he began to explore how he could position himself within the sprawling 1000 acre Peene tobacco farm. From his second story bedroom in the manor house, he observed the workforce consisting mostly of “negroes” - men and women, hard working slaves. During his childhood, his mother coddled Ned and he discovered that he could use her defense as a safety net when he broke family rules. His father favored his older brother, Charles, and Ned throughout his teenage years, began to resent and rebel against them. Ned had no interest in growing or selling tobacco but instead found his niche at the Peene horse stables. There he was befriended by Stayton Clay, the nephew of Henry Clay, and a member of the Kentucky Jockey Club. Stayton taught Ned how to take care of horses and how to ride. It was not long before Ned was entering and winning county horse races, and he soon made his way to Lexington and Louisville. By age fifteen, Ned was curious about carnal life and he became a frequent visitor to the Providence taverns and to a local brothel that was located on the outskirts of town. Soon young Ned was the gossip of the Methodist church, and the womenfolk of Providence eyed him with a combination of caution and desire. By age seventeen, Ned was bringing disgrace to the family name due to his drinking, carousing, and gambling habits, and Abigail convinced Thomas to purchase property from his cousin William Peene of West Jefferson, Ohio. They deeded 500 acres to Ned and by age twenty, he left Providence for Ohio where he built a new house approximately five miles northwest of Mount Sterling, Ohio. He named his property Beauregard Farm.
Ned, always one to take advantage of his privilege, listened to the advice of his Uncle William and started a lumber business and constructed a sawmill in nearby London, Ohio. His property was primarily wooded and he developed a plan to clear it of old growth forest consisting of hundreds of oak, hickory, poplar, and walnut trees. He hired his cousin, Nathaniel Peene, an abolitionist, to oversee the sawmill and labor force. Having been raised in a family of slaveholders, Ned accepted the institution without moral indignation (he certainly was not an abolitionist), but he had observed the hard work of slaves back home, and he, therefore, accepted Nathaniel’s insistence that all workers receive equal pay. To recruit workers, Nathaniel traveled to the border towns of Marietta and Portsmouth to post signs to attract potential workers. Within a year, he had a strong workforce consisting primarily of families of color. Ned’s personal attention went toward building his horse stables that included Percherons as workhorses; thoroughbreds for racing, and a great black Quarter horse stallion Ned named Zeus.
In 1852, Ned married Charlotte Beale, the youngest daughter of Stephen and Mary Beale. Stephen had moved his family to Mount Sterling from Virginia in 1834 and established himself as the first shoemaker in Mount Sterling. Being an energetic businessman, he became a financier, bought 1,000 acres and soon became quite wealthy. Free wheeling Ned had no love for Charlotte but he arranged to marry her to solidify his wealth, create a standing within the community, and to have someone to oversee the domestic tasks of his household. Ned rarely slept in the manor house preferring instead to sleep in a personal room he had built within the stables. To the chagrin of his parents back in Kentucky and the Beales, Ned and Charlotte were childless.
Within ten years, Ned became a prosperous man, due more to luck than to hard work, but he took advantage of the rewards of his lumber business and the success of his horses; but in 1860, Fate took Ned down a path to destruction. In late spring of that year, Ned travelled to Walnut Hill Farm in Newton Pike, KY to acquire a mare for his thoroughbred herd. There he met Obadiah Lee, an African-American horse trainer of great repute. For over a week, Ned watched “Obey” train horses, but his eyes were also watching Obadiah’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Ruby, whose way with horses outmatched even her father. Ned became infatuated with Ruby and he devised a scheme that would guarantee his chances to be near her. Ned offered Obadiah a financial deal to bring Obey to Ohio to train his horses. Obey accepted the invitation for two primary reasons: 1) he was aware of the growing sentiments against Blacks due to mixed sentiments about slavery in Kentucky; and 2) the financial offer was too large to refuse. Obey was a great asset to Walnut Hill Farm and the deal greatly angered the owners. They vowed to ostracize Ned from racing. Obey and Ruby packed their belongings and returned with Ned to Mount Sterling.
While Ned was away, Nathaniel was making strong connections to abolitionists in Pennsylvania and New York, and as the impending war loomed large, he began shipping lumber out of London toward the Union war machine in the East. Word spread through the workforce that their labor was helping the Union cause and their work was infused with a sense of pride and determination.
Upon his return to Beauregard Farm, Ned began spending time with Ruby Lee and advancing his romantic interest in her, but Ruby was astute for her age, for she knew how to handle wild stallions much more spirited than Ned. But just like the wild horses she tamed, she developed an appreciation for each one, including Ned, and before long Ruby had Ned bridled and saddled. By July 1861, Ruby gave birth to Ned’s bastard son and they named him Gabriel Lee. Although Ned and Ruby’s relationship was somewhat discreet, the workers of Beauregard Farm knew what was going on. Charlotte had years before already turned a blind eye to Ned’s philandering and she “kept her chin up” around the family and the citizens of Mount Sterling.
During his trip to Walnut Hill Farm in 1860, Ned had spent a couple of nights in Lexington where he had gotten into a tavern brawl with a pro-slavery rebel named John Hunt Morgan who later became the leader of “Morgan’s Raiders”. Although Ned received the worst end of the brawl, Ned declared that he would get revenge on Morgan.
On the night of July 12, 1863, Ohio Governor, David Todd issued a proclamation, calling out the Ohio militia to protect the southern counties from Morgan’s Raiders, and on the morning of July 14, Nathaniel and Ned mounted their steads and led a small group of men from Madison County southeast to Deer Creek and then south following the Scioto River to Piketon. Nathaniel strongly believed in the Union cause, while Ned had a personal vendetta against Morgan. The men encountered Morgan’s Raiders at Piketon, but being grossly outnumbered, Nathaniel commanded the men to spread themselves out at the place where they expected Morgan’s Raiders to cross the Scioto, wait until most were in the river, and then fire upon the Confederates. At the first musket blast, the men were to continue to fire on a five second rotation. The plan was only partly successful due to poor marksmanship and the ability of Morgan’s Raiders to forge ahead quickly across the river. The skirmish was brief and Nathaniel’s troops did not pursue Morgan. As the raiders were riding east, Ned rode Zeus to the riverbank, reared him up on his back legs, laughed raucously, and shouted profanities at Morgan and his riders. Nathaniel later reported to Union officials a suspected loss of Confederate life at twelve. There was no loss of life from the Madison County militia. The cousins returned to Mount Sterling and were soon proclaimed war heroes. Nathaniel modestly returned to his duties as foreman of the Beauregard workforce, while Ned paraded around the area on Zeus with great pomp.
Although the Civil War was not over, Ned was eager to establish his stables as a premiere thoroughbred-breeding farm. Through Nathaniel’s New York connections, Ned heard about August Belmont, (banker, financier, and horse racer) and in the late summer of 1864, Ned traveled to New York with the intent to visit Belmont’s stables. After spending several days at the stables, Ned requested audience with August and he made arrangements to purchase a stallion from Belmont’s herd. Ned returned to Beauregard Farm with a horse named Pegasus. Pegasus gave stud to a mare named Ruby’s Own and in early 1865 a colt was born that Ned named Gabriel’s Wings. When the young colt was ready, Obey and Ruby began training Gabriel’s Wings and Ned was jubilant about his horse’s speed. He wrote to Belmont boasting of his colt’s speed, and in early 1867 Ned received an invitation from August Belmont to bring Gabriel’s Wings to New York for a planned race he was promoting. So in early June, Ned, Obey, Ruby, and six-year-old Gabriel traveled to Jerome Park for the first running of the Belmont Stakes. Ned was overly confident about Gabriel’s Wings abilities, while Obey was more reserved. Ruby knew that Gabriel’s Wings would give his all. Ned bet $2000. for Gabriel’s Wings to win, but the race was won by a filly named Ruthless (one of only three fillies to ever win Belmont Stakes). Ned was more than disappointed, he was angry and openly accused Gilbert Patrick, the jockey aboard Ruthless, of whipping Gabriel’s Wings in the face during the race. Ned’s outburst greatly insulted Francis Morris, the owner of Ruthless, and Morris vowed to keep Ned Peene from horse racing.
Ned, Obey, Ruby, and Gabriel returned to Beauregard Farm with Gabriel’s Wings in tow, and Ned was determined to prove that Gabriel’s Wings was the fastest horse in the country. While at Belmont, he met Colonel Ezekiel Clay, son of Brutus Clay, who was interested in establishing a thoroughbred farm in Paris, Kentucky. Ned wrote to “Zeke” asking for a meeting, and Clay returned post from “Runnymede” inviting Ned to meet him in Cincinnati on May 15, 1868. So on the morning of May 13, 1868, Ned mounted Zeus for a trip to Cincinnati, but Ned never arrived and Clay was aggravated that he had been stood up.
On the early morning of May 15th, Obey and Ruby had just begun their morning chores at Beauregard Stables when Obey glanced up to see Zeus standing by his stall. The great stallion was still saddled, but Ned was nowhere to be seen. Obey rushed to find Nathaniel and Ruby tended to Zeus.
Nathaniel dispatched a posse to search for Ned, but for three arduous days nothing turned up. Then on the fourth day, a Saturday, one of the workers, walking to his favorite fishing hole on Bradford Creek, discovered Ned’s decapitated body hanging from his ankles on the branch of a large sycamore tree. Ned’s body indicated that his head had been severed with a very sharp knife, probably a sword, but Ned’s head was never found.
Nathaniel had the body wrapped in burlap and temporarily placed in Ned’s private room in the stables. Charlotte requested that Nathaniel arrange for the body to be buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in West Jefferson as soon as possible, and on May 21, 1868 the body was buried there without ceremony. Charlotte dressed in the customary mourning attire and temporarily stayed with her parents, the Beales, in Mount Sterling. Obey, Ruby, and Gabriel held a wake with their African American community. News of Ned’s murder was dispatched to Providence, Kentucky.
Shortly thereafter, Nathaniel began receiving reports of night sightings of a headless specter at various locations on the Beauregard Farm often occurring during a full moon. Several working families began departing Beauregard Farm searching for other employment. Nathaniel was forced to increase wages.
Charlotte told Nathaniel to shut down the thoroughbred operation, sell all the horses, and fire Obey and Ruby. Nathaniel bought Gabriel’s Wings and gave him to Ruby and arranged employment for Obey, Ruby, and Gabriel, at Belmont Farms. They took Gabriel’s Wings to New York and the young Gabriel learned the skills of an accomplished jockey from Ed Brown, the first African American jockey to win the Belmont Stakes.
In 1870, Charlotte married Dr. John Holton, Jr. and the couple soon moved to Portsmouth, Ohio where Dr. Holton set up a medical practice. Charlotte sold Beauregard Farm to George Kious.
One hundred and fifty years later, in 2020, a property owner of a parcel of land that once belonged to George Kious was digging a grave for one of his goats that had died. During the excavation, the owner came across a mummified object. Being a rational person, the owner didn’t think much of it, hung the object in his barn, and forgot about it.
If you are a resident of Junk Road, or have a reason to pass through Range township tonight, perhaps you should be vigilant in case you see a headless specter roaming around on this HALLOWEEN.
Who murdered Ned Peene?
CPW
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