Copyright Notice: This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

by Holt McPherson, 1994

12 Apr. 1864–10 Mar. 1934

Engraved portrait of Dred Peacock. From Samuel A. Ashe's <i>Biographical History of North Carolina,</i>, Vol. 7, page 362-363, published 1908 by C. L. Van Noppen Publisher, Greensboro, North Carolina. From the collections of the Government & Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.
Engraved portrait of Dred Peacock. From Samuel A. Ashe's Biographical History of North Carolina,, Vol. 7, page 362-363, published 1908 by C. L. Van Noppen Publisher, Greensboro, North Carolina. From the collections of the Government & Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.
Photographic portrait of Ella Carr Peacock, from Samuel Bryant Turrentine's <i>A Romance of Education</i>, p. [156], published 1946 by The Piedmont Press, Greensboro, N.C. Presented by HathiTrust.
Photographic portrait of Ella Carr Peacock, from Samuel Bryant Turrentine's A Romance of Education, p. [156], published 1946 by The Piedmont Press, Greensboro, N.C. Presented by HathiTrust.
Dred Peacock, college president and attorney, was born in Stantonsburg of English and Scottish ancestry, the son of Dr. C. C. and Eva Heath Peacock. An outstanding student at old Trinity College and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received the A.B. degree in 1887, the A.M. in 1888, and the Litt.D. in 1889. In 1887 he married Ella Carr of Trinity, where the school was located, near High Point.

Peacock accepted a position at Greensboro College as professor of Latin and then served the school as president from 1894 to 1902, when he retired. Afterwards he became involved in furniture manufacturing and insurance at High Point. His love of learning prompted him to read law and he passed the North Carolina bar examination in 1912. A successful attorney, Peacock represented numerous prominent clients including McClellan Stores Corporation, of which he was an organizer and a director. He took a lively interest in educational and religious matters and, as a Democrat, in state and local government.

Peacock's avocation was the study of the French Revolution. A natural scholar, he gathered one of the finest libraries on that period—it remained intact at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. Everett Marsh, in High Point. At the time of his death, Peacock was a member of the boards of trustees of Duke University and Greensboro College as well as chairman of the Guilford County Board of Education.

References:

Samuel A. Ashe, ed., Biographical History of North Carolina, vol. 7 (1908 [portrait]).

North Carolina Bar Association, Proceedings 36 (1934).

Prominent People of North Carolina (1906).

Trinity Alumni Register 2 (1916).

Who Was Who in America, vol. 1 (1943).

Additional Resources:

Guide to the Dred and Ella Carr Peacock Scrapbooks, 1849-1903.  Rubenstein Library, Duke University Libraries. http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uapeacock/ (accessed May 14, 2014).

Turrentine, S. Bryant.  A romance of education: a narrative including recollections and other facts connected with Greensboro college. Greensboro, N. C: The Piedmont press. 1946. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3107190 (accessed May 14, 2014).

Image Credits:

Ashe, Samuel A. (Samuel A'Court). Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present. Greensboro, N.C., C.L. Van Noppen. 1908. 362-363. (accessed May 14, 2014).

Turrentine, S. Bryant.  A romance of education: a narrative including recollections and other facts connected with Greensboro college. Greensboro, N. C: The Piedmont press. 1946. 157. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3107190?urlappend=%3Bseq=157 (accessed May 14, 2014).

Citation

Mcpherson, H. Holt. "Peacock, Dred." NCpedia. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on December 22nd, 2024. https://ncpedia.org/biography/peacock-dred.