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Peyton Colony Heritage Foundation’s Annual Juneteenth Celebration is this Saturday, June 21, 2008. This daylong celebration will kick off at 10:00 a.m. with the opening ceremonies, followed by a re-enactment of the signing of the charter by freed slave and founder of the community, Peyton Roberts at 11:00 a.m. Tours of the old Peyton Colony Schoolhouse and Mt. Horeb Baptist Church will begin around noon, followed by lunch from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. The Little River Band, Gene and LaVada Triesch, and others will be playing Gospel music from noon, until our voices get hoarse or our fingers start hurting from pickin’ so much!

Peyton, formerly known as Peyton Colony and Board House, are near Boardhouse Creek just west of the junction of Farm Roads 165 and 2325, seven miles east of Blanco in southeastern Blanco County. The settlement was called Freedman’s Colony by white inhabitants of the area, when it was founded around 1865 by Peyton Roberts, an ex-slave from Lockhart, who had acquired public land there by preemption. Other freedmen followed suit, and though preemption technically ended in 1876, land patents in the area continued to be issued as late as 1880. In 1872 or 1874, the first church in the area was built on land donated by Jim Upshear, who had come with his wife to Peyton by wagon train from Virginia. A post office operated in Peyton from 1898 to 1909. Another post office operated from 1918 to 1930, but it was officially named Board House because it was located in A.V. Walker’s Board House, the first in the community. Though Board House has not appeared on Texas maps since then, Peyton still existed in the 1990’s and housed the descendants of many of the original settlers. In 2000, the population was thirty.

Come join us for fun and history this Saturday, June 21, 2008 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm.