To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 4/18/09 • Approved: 11/27/19 • Last Updated: 11/30/19 • R180230-G180230-S3
Jesse Monroe
October 1, 1905 - December 10, 1910
Jeffery Frank
November 2, 1907 - December 10, 1910
Katie Ethel
March 9, 1909 - December 10, 1910
*Obituary (as written)
Benton County Democrat
December 15, 1910
PEREGOY, Margaret - Gravette, Ark., Dec. 13.- Three children, all girls, were burned to death when fire destroyed the home of J.E. Peregoy, six miles west of here, early this morning. They were Margaret, 12 years old; Mary, 10 years old and Jeanette, 18 months old. The mother, who made a desperate attemp to save her children from the flames, was seriously burned and will probably die. The parents had eaten an early breakfast and Peregoy went to work in the timber two miles from the house. Leaving a brisk fire in the fireplace Mrs. Peregoy started for a garden patch several hundred yards away. The children were asleep when she left, the two older girls on a bed and the infant in a baby buggy. It is supposed one of the older girls awoke, felt chilly and started to add fuel to the fire, catching her light cotton nightdress afire. Screaming, she tryed to smother the flames in the bed clothing but only set fire to them. Mrs. Peregoy heard the children screaming and ran to the house, only to see smoke issuing from the window nearest the children's bed. Before she reached the house the entire corner of the building was in flames and her entrance through the door was blocked by a wall of fire. She broke a window on the other side of the house, climbed through, cutting her side severely on the broken glass, only to find the corner where she had left the children sleeping a roaring mass of flames. Her clothing caught fire and she was barely able to excape throught the window. Peregoy, who was clearing timber, paused in his work, when he saw a cloud of smoke rising from the hill where his home stood, realized that the house was on fire and ran the two miles. He found his wife unconscious lying half submerged in the water of a pond and a pile of smouldering ruins showed where the house had been. The bodies of the girls were cremated, the bones alone being found in the debris. At noon three older children, who had been at school, returned home to find strangers searching the ruins for the bones of their sisters.
Contributed on 4/18/09 by wfields55
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 180230