Grandpa Named Peoga
W. E. Tryon, Local Legend
~ by Jeff Tryon
I
suppose every family has its family legends— stories of previous generations whose identity, motives, and actions have been obscured by the passage of time; a snatch of story with one foot in legend and one in recollection, that may or may not square with the known facts, but probably reflects some essential truth thought worth preserving.
In my family, one of those stories is about how my grandfather, W. E. Tryon, was the one who named the extreme northeastern Brown County village of Peoga.
W. E.— known as“ Ed” or“ Eddie”— grew up in the environs of Spearsville, Peoga, and— between them— Gold Point Road, although he was actually born outside of Brown County, in Findley, Illinois.
As the story goes in my family, the small hamlet was applying for a post office but, as commonly happened in those days on the
“ western frontier,” had to pick a new name because their original choice had already been used.
A few years ago, while going through some of my father’ s personal effects, I came across a folded, yellowed newspaper clipping from the now-defunct Indianapolis News. A clipped column titled“ Ringside In Hoosierland” by Wayne Guthrie sported the headline,“ Author of Peoga Finally Is Found.”
“ Eureka!,” Guthrie wrote,“ I seem to have found part of the answers to the questions that have puzzled me and readers about the peaceful little rural community of Peoga in the northeastern part of Brown County.”
Guthrie then reveals his source, which turns out to be Robert Tryon, my uncle Bob, and quotes his take on the Peoga story.
“ Many years ago, my father, who died in 1938, told me he was the one who suggested the name of Peoga,” Guthrie quotes uncle Bob,“ He said folks had gathered in an old barn to select a name for the town. They were considering naming it‘ Pogo’.“
An extended civic debate ensued wherein many suggestions were made, arguments and objections expressed, and intractable stubbornness wore on
32 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2014