He was skilled as a horseman, and an educator and master of all animals through kindness and patience. As a marksman, an oarsman, and an all-around advocate of true manly sports he represented the ideal type.
Kelion Franklin Peddicord died August 28, 1905.
CHAPTER V
SOME LETTERS RECEIVED BY MRS. LOGAN
The following letters written to Mrs. India P. Logan after Captain Peddicord’s death have been selected from among a number received, and are given here to show the regard felt for him by his friends. Few men, either in public or private life, have left a more honored name than Captain Peddicord, and it gives sincere pleasure to his relatives to quote such utterances.
Mr. F. W. Smith, of Palmyra, writes:
“I hardly know how to begin to speak of the many good qualities of my friend Capt. K. F. Peddicord. He was so pre-eminent in all that goes to make a good man, that mere words or particular reference would fail to describe him and to enumerate all his good traits would require more time and space than is given me.
“Perhaps the most prominent trait of his character was the inflexible fidelity to trust. For a period of nearly a quarter of a century I was intimately associated with him, and for nearly twenty years a daily companion. I was thus given numerous opportunities to observe his integrity.
“I never knew him to prove unequal to any demand put upon him. He did not study to be true; it was just naturally his nature to carry out to the letter a faithful discharge of every duty.
“Along with this peculiar feature of his character must be added a gentle and kind disposition. He loved the brute kind more than most people love their blood kin. Nothing, absolutely nothing, aroused his indignation so quickly as to see a dog or horse abused. I have seen him take a poor crippled dog in his arms and carry it to a place of safety and tenderly soothe it as a mother would a child.
“Children were beloved most dearly, and though years separated from youth, he never failed to sympathize with all the misfortunes of the school children or to engage in their games and sports, and to so ingratiate himself with them as to cause them to accept him as one of their number.