Serenbe Stories

7 Generations of Peeks: How Chatt Hills Neighbors Make Community

April 13, 2020 Serenbe / Peek Family Season 2 Episode 12
Serenbe Stories
7 Generations of Peeks: How Chatt Hills Neighbors Make Community
Show Notes Transcript

Ned and Janice Peek were the first people Steve Nygren met when he moved to Chattahoochee Hills, and their table was the first he went to when he needed help protecting their shared rural paradise. Rodney Peek, their son, was on the first City Council after Chattahoochee Hills was incorporated, and his children are the 7th generation in their family to be born and raised in Chattahoochee Hills. The Peeks and Steve look back at a time when the Nygrens were the "city folk" moving next door, and tell stories about life in the country.

Monica Olsen (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, Building a Biophilic Movement, was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it. Every other week Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living, social. and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations. More often than not, nature has the answers. You can find Biophilic Solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us today so you don't miss an episode.

Monica Olsen (41s):
All right, now let's get back to Serenbe Stories. Serenbe is a place where people live, work, learn, and play in celebration of life's beauty. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other and to nature. This is Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 23s):
Today is a very special podcast episode. As we're talking with a generational family here in Chattahoochee Hills called the Peeks. They've lived here for six or maybe seven generations and Chattahoochee Hills is the city that Serenbe sits within. Ned and Janice Peek along with their son, Rodney, join us today. And they were the first people that Steve met when he moved to Chattahoochee Hills, when he needed help protecting their shared rural paradise, their table was the very first one that he sat down at to get them to work together, to convince local government to change zoning in support of historic land conservation in our city. But first, Serenbe Stories is brought to you by The Inn at Serenbe.

Monica Olsen (2m 1s):
The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside of bucolic Serenbe where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool, hot tub, or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn, swings, and in-ground trampolines. Connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on The Inn grounds or within the community of Serenbe. Book your stay today at serenbeinn.com.

Monica Olsen (2m 28s):
Well, I want to welcome everybody back to Serenbe Stories today and want to say hello and good afternoon to everybody. We have a big crowd in the podcast studio today. We've got Steve Nygren as usual.

Steve Nygren (2m 40s):
Hi Monica.

Monica Olsen (2m 41s):
And then we have the Peeks.

Monica Olsen (2m 42s):
We have Ned and Janice Peek and their son, Rodney, who are, I want to say six plus generations of Chattahoochee Hills, even before it was Chattahoochee Hills. And we are thrilled to have you guys in the studio today.

Janice Peek (2m 54s):
Thank you.

Steve Nygren (2m 55s):
Really fun. And it's going to look fun to reminiscing because you're really the first people I met when we moved down here, back in the old days. And, and of course, I want to talk about your kitchen table is the first place I came to to talk about this whole crazy idea. So a lot of fun things to talk about and reminisce about today.

Monica Olsen (3m 13s):
And one of the first questions I always ask everybody is what was your first time that you met Steve or, you know, because there was no Serenbe at that point, right? This would have been in the nineties. When did you first meet him as your new neighbor and maybe what did you think?

Rodney Peek (3m 29s):
I met Steve years ago in the early nineties when he first moved down because I would need his permission to go to the waterfall. So I would take a tractor with a trailer full of children for picnics and run around and play in the creek. And that's when I first met Steve and we kind of just, you know, we were on the same wavelength, kinda just hit it off.

Steve Nygren (3m 50s):
So this is a, the waterfall, this is in the Southern part of the property. And it's a water field that most people who have grown up here knew about, you know, even though it was on what was then the Barnes family, and then it became our, our land. And so, so Rodney was nice enough to always call and ask permission.

Rodney Peek (4m 9s):
And on the way over today, we were just reminiscing. I asked my parents the first time they'd been back to the waterfall, their first memory of the waterfall. And my dad was telling me a story. And I never heard this before, that his dad was back there working the land. You know, it was even when I was a boy, there were fields on either side of the creeks and the tractor was broken down and he remembers this little boy going back to the waterfalls and then all my life, we would walk back there together and have picnics at the big waterfall. And back then to a little boy that that was a huge journey. And I don't know the first time that Mom, you went

Ned Peek (4m 47s):
I guess it's after we moved in the house, that first time we all walked back.

Janice Peek (4m 50s):
I remember one year, this has been a years ago and it was snowing really hard. We had a really deep snow for here, probably several inches and our next door neighbor, Freddie and Sue, we call them and say, let's go for a walk out in the snow. And so we walked all the way back to the big waterfall, which you know is about a mile and in the snow. And that was way before it was trees. It was pasture on each side. So it was quite different, but that was a great memory I have of going back to the waterfall.

Steve Nygren (5m 22s):
You know, y'all bring up a great point that this was all farmland from the mid 18 hundreds. And when you look at all the trees today, you can't imagine that. And yet I remember some pictures of you sitting on a big wagon with watermelons that you used to take to the city and tell us about what it was like when you were a child in this whole area and it was mostly farm areas.

Ned Peek (5m 47s):
It was all farming. And most of it  was with mules. Which we had a tract to plow up we had to get it ready to plant . But then you worked it with mules. And we raise 20 or 25 acres of watermelons every year. And we'd take them to west end to the farmer's market by the truck load.

Steve Nygren (6m 9s):
Now how did your family first come to this area?

Ned Peek (6m 13s):
I really don't know. But they've been here, see, on all, my great-grandparents have been here for over a hundred years, 150 years. And the house I grew up in my great granddaddy built that house in 1854. And my grandmother and her family grew up in that house. And then my family grew up in that house, 10 kids.

Steve Nygren (6m 45s):
And those 10 kids all stayed pretty close to this area.

Ned Peek (6m 50s):
They sure did.

Steve Nygren (6m 52s):
I remember when we first moved here, there was a Peek in every, every direction, you know,

Ned Meet (6m 57s):
They said we was like kudzu, just come with everything.

Steve Nygren (7m 1s):
In fact, Rodney, you have what, how many first cousins that live right here?

Rodney Peek (7m 5s):
Oh my goodness. It's, I'm not sure the actual number, but it's probably in the twenties or thirties because there's so many, you don't get to know them all. They have your last name and you see, you share some common experiences with a lot and you're close. And some that are so much older or younger, you know, them, you just don't really know them, but go, some of my earliest memories were going to his dad's house right down the dirt road, off Rico road. And you know, the floors were crooked and they would have had the date, the house was built was nailed in the door. So we'd always look at that and trace it with our fingers and all of his brothers and sisters, except for one, the youngest were all born in the house.

Monica Olsen (7m 44s):
Wow. It's incredible.

Rodney Peek (7m 45s):
And listening to the stories. Yeah. It's, I love it.

Steve Nygren (7m 49s):
This area is a very different time. So you've seen from the time we went from the, the mules to the tractors from the time of what model T's or that was, I guess, what was the earliest cars in your day?

Ned Peek (7m 59s):
In my day? Was it Ford is up? See, I was four years old in 1940, and I remember when there was no cars, no late, no newer than a 41, because the war started and the public didn't get cars again until '46.

Monica Olsen (8m 22s):
Wow. That's incredible. Right? Because they took away, they put it all towards building.

Ned Peek (8m 27s):
It was scarce. There's a hard to find a good car back then.

Steve Nygren (8m 30s):
And then is it after the war that this area started turning back into, into trees that people did not return to agriculture as you'd known it before the war?

Ned Peek (8m 40s):
You grow up on a farm you've had enough. Yeah. It was all farm land between here and Palmetto. Everybody farm all this wooded place well, real rough woods you didn't have farm land, but it was smooth. It was cleared and it was farmed.

Monica Olsen (9m 3s):
And what type of things did they farm besides watermelon?

Ned Peek (9m 6s):
Mostly, most people planted cotton. Raised cotton. But my family did not. We raised produce. Beans, butter beans, peas, watermelons, corn and we'd take that to the market.

Steve Nygren (9m 25s):
And then how'd you bring Janice down here into the country.

Ned Peek (9m 27s):
She saw me and run after me for a long time. And when I stopped she caught me. No, my sister went to school with her and we got to know each other.

Steve Nygren (9m 42s):
That's great and now of course you, you, you have the two children who are what now? Six generation is that right Rodney? You're six, six, and your kids are

Rodney Peek (9m 49s):
Are the seventh. The older I get, the more it is an honor to be their son. The older I get, the more I see the wisdom that they've tried to teach me. And they gave us this, me and my sister, Donna, they gave us a special gift this summer. 60 year wedding anniversary. So they've been married 60 years and that's such a gift. And the older I get, the more I appreciate that.

Monica Olsen (10m 17s):
Congratulations, that's really exciting.

Steve Nygren (10m 20s):
You don't look like that's possible. And now it's fun because Jill, who's your granddaughter, who would be the seventh generation. She ran Serenbe camp with Kara. And so for years, all through high school and college, Jill was here helping Kara run camp. And now she has the first of the next generation, which is the eighth generation, so. We're sure we're going to get Jill and the family back here at some point, you know,

Janice Peek (10m 49s):
<inaudible> She also went to medical school and now she's a doctor. She's loving every minute of it.

Steve Nygren (10m 58s):
That's great.

Monica Olsen (10m 59s):
So impressive. So let's get back to that kitchen table. So when Steve moved in, he was just your neighbor, right? He, you said, pretty quickly you went from city to country.

Rodney Peek (11m 11s):
He did. He was a country boy. We'd see him out there working and he had the tractor. And once you have a tractor out here, you're part of the group.

Monica Olsen (11m 18s):
Okay. That's good.

Steve Nygren (11m 20s):
And my tractor was always getting broke down because I would run into things. I, you know, I was trying to use it as a lawn mower to take down these big trees and cut paths.

Monica Olsen (11m 29s):
And so after all that time, and you realized you were going to do something with the land, or these were the first folks you came and talked to?

Steve Nygren (11m 39s):
I've talked before about the fact that we, we left the city because we thought it was a great time place to raise the children. And had had really stepped away from the city. And then we had several things happen that we were afraid development was coming this way. And so my first visit was to the Peek kitchen table. And we sat there around your table and talked about what could happen. What if we could bring everybody together and do something different? And it was just sort of some broad concepts because I'd already called some preservation groups and there was no preservation money to buy land at this scale, especially they weren't thinking about this as being threatened land.

Steve Nygren (12m 23s):
Although we could see it coming in the future.

Monica Olsen (12m 25s):
What do you guys remember of that time?

Janice Peek (12m 29s):
This was the first time I really got to talk to Steve and really get to know him on a one-to-one basis. We had met before, but when he came and sat down with us and we felt really honored that he chose us to come and talk to us. And we felt like that that was, you know, really special of him to do that because he could have done it without even talking to us, but he wanted to know how we felt about it. And we love the country and we loved where we were. We loved the ruralness. And so anything that could be done to protect that and keep it like it was, we were all for, because we had seen what had happened up the road too. And it was scary. And we didn't know how to do anything, but he had the vision of what to do and that was exciting to us.

Ned Peek (13m 15s):
Yeah. I was so proud that he did come and show it to us, which he was going to do it, but at least he let us know what he was going to do. And we really appreciated, we sure did.

Steve Nygren (13m 28s):
Then as we, as we moved forward with these ideas and it, it, we got our grants to move a public process forward, we realized that we had to communicate and bring the entire community together. And so we had seven groups what were called team leaders and the Peek family was one of those team leaders that helped bring these concepts and had this discussion in neighborhood coffees before we went to a full public meeting.

Rodney Peek (13m 57s):
So my early memories were Dad and myself and Steve and Garnie, and we may be in Cedar Grove, some different churches around, and we would really the community we would ask for their input, like, what is your plan? What are your plans with the land? Do you want to pass it to your generations or to the highest bidder? And we would kind of just listen. And I remember my dad, he doesn't really say much at those public meetings, but when he does, it just makes so much sense. And this lady was complaining about the change coming and, you know, she really didn't grasp it. And my dad just stepped and he goes, look, things are going to change. You know, I wish I was 21 again, but things change.

Rodney Peek (14m 39s):
It's going to happen. You can have a voice at the table or you can not. And I just remember us going to several of those meetings and all the hard work and setting up the chairs. And it meant a lot. You know, the vision, Steve did have the vision and it took kind of just educating people. You hear their concerns, you kind of make it organize and make sense and this is the vision. We were all really wanted the same thing. And then we came together

Steve Nygren (15m 8s):
And after all those neighborhood coffees, then we were ready for our first public meeting. Remember that? And we did the postcard and it showed the, a pasture with cattle grazing and then a picture of this scraped area by Palmetto, that they were just starting to put stack houses. And we said, who do you want as your neighbor? And we sent that out and remember the crowds? I mean, you could not fill the community room at the, at the Rico center. And it was, that was the beginning that we knew we had awakened a community. And this area really was not thought of as even one area. It was individual sections, right? It was Rico and Goodes

Rodney Peek (15m 48s):
Right. Every, every little community had their own identity based on, back when he was young, you didn't travel far with a horse in a wagon. You usually stayed around the square mile where you grew up and the Goodes community, the Rico community, over at Friendship and Cochran Mill, Rivertown road area, everyone had their own little identity and their own little group.

Steve Nygren (16m 10s):
And we had all the rural churches. And everyone's sort of gathered around the church. And that was sort of the community that, that you knew.

Janice Peek (16m 19s):
And this was when we were trying to become a city, right? So that was a painful, it was hard for them to understand that this was going to be a good thing when we became our own city.

Steve Nygren (16m 32s):
So the timeline, this is that first visit to the Peeks kitchen table was in 2000. And then we organized the coffees in 2000, 2001 and the public meetings in 2002. And then we passed the revolutionary land use change. And I remember, I think we all drove down to Fulton county together that day. We had a

Ned Peek (16m 57s):
We did.

Rodney Peek (16m 58s):
We went down there with, you know, lots of our, uncle Billy went and me and dad and lots of the neighbors, and we all had those matching shirts. And we sat together in that Fulton county commissions. And we were trying to get the zoning overlay passed. It was exciting. We took a picture of remember the picture. We have a picture somewhere of the whole community in the Fulton county.

Steve Nygren (17m 19s):
That's right. I think we were on the steps of the Fulton county or out on their steps. So we had really brought an excitement and we had, so we had so much support from the community. 80% of the landowners. We had really educated our county commissioners and Steve Kovar tells the story that, who was the planning director for Fulton county. And this was such a big thing leading up to this, that he, everyone said, you have to be there, Steve, because this could be, you know, who, who knows what questions are you have to guide this through. So he left a meeting that he was up at an up in Connecticut or somewhere out of state. And he came back early. He says, I walked in, they introduced it.

Steve Nygren (17m 59s):
They said, is there any discussion? They said, no. Passed. And he said, I was there for five minutes. I traveled all this way.

Steve Nygren (18m 6s):
He said I've never seen anything passed so quickly, but that was because there was a community that had come together and had voiced a common voice or expressed a common voice. And so of course our commissioners were going to follow what, whatever everyone. So that was exciting times. And then that was 2002. We broke ground on Serenbe in 2003. And then we had so inspired the community, that there was an effort to become our own city. So I think Janice, what you were referring to is that whole effort then that built up to be a city and might want to share some of that. And Rodney was very involved in and became one of our first council members.

Rodney Peek (18m 46s):
Right, and you know, we have a special community and a special city. Our landowners self tax themselves at $2 an acre to fund some of our zoning overlays and petitioning for the city. And then I remember it as, and I was elected to city councilman. So for the first time in my life, really growing up you never saw political signs because it really didn't matter. You had no economic power or political block. But when we became a city, a lot of the older people, a lot of the people that lived here, they would have a candidate, a sign from each candidate because they knew everyone and they didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Rodney Peek (19m 26s):
So there might be four people competing for the same office. They all have a sign in the same family's yard. Every vote counted. And soon after, this is simply remember from being a city Councilman, there was a downturn the economy, things were not looking well for several different factors. So we had public meeting, you know, here's the options. We could allow a strip mall on the Parkway or some development that's really not fit. We could, you know, maybe merge with another city or we can increase our tax rates, maybe double our tax rate. And of all the public hearings. It was overwhelming. We passed a 98% tax increase to applause.

Rodney Peek (20m 10s):
People wanted that. And then when then within a month, another community group collected enough money to buy the parks in Fulton county. It was just, what a special community that was. But we come in a city, you would ask someone, you know, what do you think about us becoming a city? Well in their mind, their city is, you know, the main street, growing up here your main street was always Palmetto. The pharmacy was there. The post office was there and people thought, oh, a city in their mind, well, this we're going to make this like Palmetto or a Fairburn or a Newnan. I don't want that. So it was, again, it was this what we mean, we're in control of our own destiny here.

Rodney Peek (20m 50s):
You, it's not a city. You're not just going to have this magical investment of a main street. We don't really want that. We're trying to preserve this. So you get back to the roots, what everyone has in common. They want to make this special, it's preserved, it's mostly green space unless, how do we, how do we make that fit and work? So that's what becoming a city became an education process and people saw it. And I think my parents big play in this, they had so much credibility and so much recognition. And well, if, if and Ned's one of few words, if he understands it and he gets it, there's something to this. So let's listen to what's, what's going on.

Steve Nygren (21m 33s):
The Peek family has been an anchor in this community for several decades. In fact, when the Greystone was formed, which is your, your rural electric system, wasn't your dad, the first director representing Serenbe?

Ned Peek (21m 48s):
He wasn't the first but he was, he went there in about 1950 and stayed for 30 years. And then my brother went and stayed about 25 years before he died.

Steve Nygren (22m 2s):
All representing this area. So the Peek name has always meant a lot in this area.

Ned Peek (22m 7s):
Well, there's so many of us

Rodney Peek (22m 13s):
And Steve don't underestimate, you know, we were just talking. And so I'll let, what do you think about Steve dad?

Ned Peek (22m 23s):
Well he's, he's my kind of man, because he's honest and he put things out beforehand and let us know what's going on. And that's his right. And what you do is your right. If, I've heard a lot of people complain about what you did back here. I said that land been back there on my lap, and it's been for sale some. You could have bought it if you don't like what's there.

Rodney Peek (22m 50s):
And helping the community.

Ned Peek (22m 53s):
Well, I'll tell you one thing that happened that really got next to me. Rodney got a special need little girl. And they had a race for Riley every year at Georgia Baptist children's home, which is a children's home.

Ned Peek (23m 11s):
And so they had to race there for several, and all at once, they told Rodney, said we can't let you have it anymore. Unless you split the money with us. And Rodney said, no, we can't do that, he said. And he come home and he said, I think I'm gone ask Steve about having it back there. I said that'll be good. He come ask Steve and told him the situation and said, could I have this back there? Steve said, yes, you can. What can we do to help you?

Ned Peek (23m 50s):
And so that says a lot, that meant a lot to me.

Rodney Peek (23m 55s):
And that says a lot about the community support. And people will often say, you know, what's it like having neighbors, people that aren't really informed about what Serenbe is. And to me, you know, you grow up somewhere, all of my neighbors up until 2019 have been there all of my life. They've known me all of my life. And you know, when you're sick, they bring you dinners and Serenbe neighbors do the same thing. I remember when mom was sick and when I've been not well, your neighbors, it's cohesive. There's some unity there. And they're great neighbors that come over and you do things for one another.

Rodney Peek (24m 32s):
And when Steve, you know, that's supporting the community, that's supporting us. That that meant so much to all of us.

Steve Nygren (24m 41s):
And so now, here, here we are. I know it's been amazing that you can walk through the woods. Literally, you're, you're you're right next to it. You never have to cross the street and you, you come to the Blue Eyed Daisy or theater, and you're, you're, you're great supporters. And I needed often talked to you never imagined this could happen. And in fact, I remember when really we were talking more about what could happen. And I think I was talking with Janice and, and Ned. And you tell the story about how you and your sister thought that they were kind of getting

Rodney Peek (25m 12s):
Oh my goodness. There's so much to share on that end. But my sister was like, Rodney, I think mom and dad are losing it. They think there's going to be restaurants and stores behind their house. Cause look, we live in the woods, right? We know it there's been nothing. Any development would take place closer to the interstate or closer to the, to Atlanta. And we used to have a little get together at my house every fall. And I would have the tractor and have a hay ride. And we would, there's a little waterfall behind my parent's house and there's the waterfall back in the field. And we would go there. Well, this was in the early 2000s and there was a big plywood sign. The trails that used to be the hunting trails are now kind of cleared because you know, they were going to put the Blue Eyed Daisy in.

Rodney Peek (25m 53s):
And I told the adults on the hayride, you know, there's going to be a little community back here. And I remember getting looks like, what is Rodney talking about? Because they just could not grasp that. And then like the next year where they started the town halls, there's a three-story structures. They were, you could just see their eyes like, oh my gosh, what he said is this is really happening. What's going on here? It was very interesting. That was so exciting. And the Blue Eyed Daisy, one of their first events was an event for Race for Riley supporting the Joseph Sam school back in 2005, it was just packed out. It was some of those memories,

Rodney Peek (26m 35s):
And also going back to when we first met, so my neighbor, Charlie Cardowski, had two daughters. They've been there all my life. And he had a little airstrip that we would go on airplane rides. This is before Google earth. So that was a real treat to get up there with a camera and take a picture of your house and so exciting. Well, as he was nearing retirement, he wanted to be able to fly to a lake in Alabama with a different airplane and land on the water. So he cleared the land for a different airstrip. First airstrip was 1100 feet. This was going to be about 2,500 feet. And that's what alarmed Steve.

Rodney Peek (27m 13s):
I remember thinking, talking to him, what is going on over there, Rodney? What is going on? So that was kind of like the trigger.

Steve Nygren (27m 21s):
That was. That, that's what we call the, the bulldozer moment. The morning that I found the bulldozer clearing those trees. Didn't know what it was.

Rodney Peek (27m 27s):
Yes. And I've, I work at air traffic control. So it's in the city. There's a lot of people that have, are transient that moved in. And so we'll talk about coming down to my house to do something fun. And they all know I live in the country. Cause a lot of times we go into town, well, y'all come to my house, we'll go to a play and grab a bite to eat. And you can just see, they look at me, wait a minute. What do you mean you live out in the country? Are we going to Peachtree city or Newnan or what? I'm like, it's really hard to describe to someone that has not been here, but it's so fun. They'll pull up to my house. We'll walk through the woods, literally just a few steps. And you're at the Blue Eyed Daisy you're at the main street or you go to the stage and there's the plays right there in the field.

Rodney Peek (28m 9s):
I love, I love doing that. It is so fun.

Steve Nygren (28m 12s):
Well, one of the greatest rewards is when I see all the families that still remain on this land, because if you look at all the other areas, Cobb, Alpharetta, all the counties that are now part of Metro Atlanta, families such as you, such as yours have been pushed off the land in one way or another. Where I grew up in Colorado is the fifth generation, the fields that I played on are no longer there, because of that development pressure. And so that's one of the great things. Our, our, our country roads still look country roads.

Steve Nygren (28m 52s):
And hopefully with the land use plan, you'll still look country roads 50 years from now. Or we have these little villages.

Janice Peek (28m 59s):
That's one of the best parts is knowing that it's going to stay like that because it is so beautiful out here. I love riding around on these little back roads and seeing all the cows and the pastures and everything. It's just beautiful and so wonderful to me out of that it'll be that way for my future grandchildren great-grandchildren and on down the road.

Steve Nygren (29m 21s):
And although we're saving 70% of the land and the trees, every tree that comes down hurts, Janice's heart.

Rodney Peek (29m 30s):
That's so true.

Ned Peek (29m 31s):
She talks about you for cutting trees.

Steve Nygren (29m 34s):
Oh I know it, I know it. That's the only why I have my

Ned Peek (29m 36s):
So it's a wonder that you're not her enemy.

Janice Peek (29m 41s):
No I do love trees. And I do, it hurts me when I say a big, beautiful tree, like a big beautiful white oak or red oak get cut down. I have to admit it. It does. It hurts me. But I do know that Steve has a vision. He has a plan. And even though some do get cut down, there's a lot that's going to be left. And that's, that's what helps me to get through it.

Steve Nygren (30m 2s):
Janice, how, tell us about how you learned so much about trees and your love affair with trees.

Janice Peek (30m 9s):
I got my love affair of trees from my daddy. My daddy had a great love of the woods and, and the country and farming and everything. He was raised that way. His granddaddy, my daddy's granddaddy gave him that love. He had a, he was like a Daniel Boone. He could go out in the woods and find all the herbs and plants that helped you, you know, back then they had to use that for medicine. And so he knew a lot about all of that and he taught it to my daddy. And then my dad had passed it on to me and that's where I get it. And I do love it. I do love beautiful, you know, the nature and streams and, and the trees and flowers and everything out in nature. I love it

Steve Nygren (30m 53s):
And Janice is the one who taught me so much about the trees and, and, and to love the white Oaks. And so you'll, you'll notice on our main street, it's all white Oaks that are there and that's because of the Janice Peek.

Janice Peek (31m 3s):
They're the best.

Rodney Peek (31m 5s):
And right through the trees, right through the trees through the window here, is the old white oak tree that my dad said he remembers going by when he was young. And it's probably how old do you think that tree?

Ned Peek (31m 17s):
I'd say at least 150 years old.

Rodney Peek (31m 20s):
That beautiful white Oak tree, right by the little waterfall behind their house. So beautiful.

Ned Peek (31m 27s):
But now there are quite a few families that's been in this area in Chattahoochee Hills. Like our family has been.

Monica Olsen (31m 36s):
Yeah, tell us more.

Ned Peek (31m 37s):
Old families that's been here forever.

Monica Olsen (31m 39s):
Who are some of them?

Ned Peek (31m 42s):
The Robertson's and Robertson's and Milears.

Monica Olsen (31m 51s):
How about the Hearns?

Ned Peek (31m 53s):
Yeah, Hearns been here.

Rodney Peek (31m 56s):
Thompsons.

Steve Nygren (31m 56s):
Hattaways.

Rodney Peek (31m 58s):
Thompsons.

Ned Peek (31m 59s):
Thompsons. Etsons. Well some of them aren't still around, but they were

Steve Nygren (32m 5s):
The fabulous thing is you can call those names and they're still here. And now some of the younger generations, younger than Rodney, are coming back to raise their kids in the area, which is, is really exciting.

Rodney Peek (32m 19s):
It's very exciting. You know, and as I talk to people that moved back or that move here, they're coming here for a lot of reasons that I took for granted. And there's a new appreciation. Looking back at, growing up in the country here, and you know your neighbors, and you feel comfortable just walking into their house really at any time in the, some of my neighbors is still a no-knock policy. Anytime, Oh, this is Rodney. He's coming in to visit us. I love that. You know, the no traffic, the scenic overlooks I'm in the scenic vistas on the roads around here. Just this past summer one of the stars from one of the plays, Marcus Smith, I believe from LA wanted a tour.

Rodney Peek (33m 4s):
So we loaded up in the Jeep and went for a three hour tour and he kept commenting how pretty it is. There's no traffic. We stopped dead still in the middle of the road, just to look at the cows. He's like, you know where I live, you just can't stop in the road and things like that, that I've taken for granted. And I love it. I love it. I want, you know, if my children choose to live here, I hope it's a great place so they can raise their family so you can continue.

Steve Nygren (33m 30s):
And the amazing thing is this is all within metropolitan Atlanta that we have this incredible space. That's a right in an urban center, but it's very country.

Rodney Peek (33m 44s):
So rare.

Ned Peek (33m 44s):
25 minutes from the airport. But now we walked back in the woods back before anything was here cause we been in our house 52 years where we live. And when the kids was just small, we'd all horse walk right through here where this is.

Monica Olsen (34m 8s):
And did you know the previous owners of the house? Tell me a little bit about who lived there before.

Ned Peek (34m 13s):
Shell family.

Monica Olsen (34m 15s)
Oh, for Shell road?

Ned Peek (34m 17s):
Yep. They had 21 kids,

Monica Olsen (34m 22s):
21 children, one family?

Steve Nygren (34m 24s):
And that's where the main entrance to Serenbe is off of Atlanta Newnan road. And you can still see the chimney to the old house.

Ned Peek (34m 32s):
The house has not been torn down many years. Very few, but they was 22 kids. Some of the grandkids is still around from that family that there was around.

Rodney Peek (34m 44s):
Tell the story, that is a great story of that family. Of how the kids and the wife, the story of the Shell place. Right?

Ned Peek (34m 57s):
I don't know if that story's true or not, but I heard it.

Monica Olsen (35m 0s):
I want to hear it now. It doesn't matter if it's true.

Steve Nygren (35m 6s):
If you keep saying it enough it becomes a history.

Monica Olsen (35m 8s):
Is this family?

Rodney Peek (35m 9s):
We have it on tape. It was from someone else.

Ned Peek (35m 9s):
It was out great grandfather that built the house that we live in, that we grew up in. And he was married and had 12 kids and his wife died. And so he needed, needed a new wife. And he, there was a family that lived back all behind new hope church. The man had three daughters. They say that he went over there and talked to the man and said, I need a wife. Would it be all right for me to marry one of your daughters? And he asked him which one? And he's holding. He called his daughter out, said, come out.

Ned Peek (35m 50s):
And said, Mr. Phillips here wants to marry you. And they did get married and had three more kids. And one on one was my grandmother. They say that's true. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised back then because so many people in their community married each. Cause you didn't ever get far from home.

Monica Olsen (36m 11s):
And did anybody know or hear stories about the, the ruins that are here on the Serenbe property of the family? Was that a dairy?

Steve Nygren (36m 21s):
You're talking about the ruins and the old stone house. 

Ned Peek (36m 26s):
I remember when the house was there, but it was an old, old house then. And they say they burned it down on account of taxes. So they wouldn't have paid tax on it.

Steve Nygren (36m 37s):
That's right and you can still see, if you really know where to look, you can see the, the, the threshold and where the stone for the fireplace fell. But if you walk in the spring, you see all the daffodils from the yard and you can really sort of squint your eyes and imagine all the buildings there around the house, the daffodils have survived through the years. Yeah, that house was, I believe from the early 18 hundreds, 1830s. And then in 1930, when Coweta issued a tax on any building with glazed windows and your tax was based on the size of your window. And of course at this point, that house was a hundred years old and I'm not sure how they were using it.

Steve Nygren (37m 17s):
And the, the landowner at the time said, it's not worth that. We'll just burn it down. And that's how we lost that house.

Monica Olsen (37m 23s):
Wow. Incredible story.

Steve Nygren (37m 27s):
Great stories. At some point, we're going to have to have a museum of the Chatt Hills area and the families. And, and I I'm often intrigued because when we did the archeological dig, they, they found the signs of, of all the Creek Indians down at the waterfall. And of course you, we know, you know, Mr. Robinson has that two-page deed from when his granddad sold or bought the 600 acres here in 18, what, 1860. And there was a note that there are Creek Indians or their Indians at the waterfall. We presume they were Creek because that's what was here. And now the, the, the rock that we walked to, you know, the, the, the big we call it, the Indian rock, the University of Georgia said that comes from the Mississippian period of 1500 years ago.

Steve Nygren (38m 18s):
But probably it could have predated that because the mound that you see that's directly west of that was from the Mississippians and they built that mound and UGA's pretty sure that that's true, but we don't know how late. And then we had the one-piece tested that was found in the archeological dig, and that's 9,000 years old. It was probably an agrarian piece. So just imagine the agrarian history of this whole area it would be fun to record it all.

Rodney Peek (38m 46s):
It would.

Janice Peek (38m 48s):
And we would never know any of that if it wasn't for you Steve.

Steve Nygren (38m 51s):
Well we love caring, you know, the land informs us, but also the people that were on the land. And that's why I hope we can record all this and have it so that generations from now will understand the generations that we can look back to, but what we're doing here today, and the part you had in helping us bring an overlay and to stand up a city, because those things are easy to forget, and it'll be fun to have those records. And that's what this podcast is part about is, is recording those stories. So we really appreciate y'all coming in today to chat about it.

Monica Olsen (39m 27s):
Yeah. Great to have you all. Wonderful hearing the stories.

Rodney Peek (39m 31s):
We enjoyed it.

Monica Olsen (39m 32s):
Yeah. And hopefully we can do some more history recordings.

Steve Nygren (39m 36s):
Yeah. Thank you. It's fun to reminisce. And now it's going to be fun for all of us to look to the future too. Thank y'all.

Janice Peek (39m 42s):
Bye Steve.

Monica Olsen (39m 44s):
Thank you.

Monica Olsen (39m 49s):
Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and make sure to email your questions for Steve Nygren to stories@serenbe.com. You may even get to hear them on the podcast. More details about episodes and guests are available on our website, serenbestories.com.