JOHN TILDEN PIGOTT
John Tilden Pigott was born Nov 22, 1874, in Gloucester, Carteret County, NC. He was the seventh child of J. Ralph Pigott and Emeline Stewart.
John was a mischievous little boy. He loved to pull pranks on his siblings and unsuspecting adults. When John was young, there was a tree-lined path between the Pigott house and the Nelson house. Sister Maggie of an evening would like to go visiting at the Nelson home. John and his brothers would hide in the tree limbs and make ghostly sounds as Maggie passed under. Poor Maggie was so frightened she would nearly pass out.
Visitors to Gloucester often arrived on small boats back in the late 1800s. These boats would have to anchor a good distance from shore as it was quite shallow close in. John and his buddy, John Nelson, would wade out to the boat and for a sum of money offer to carry the visiting gentleman in to shore. After a bargain was struck, the two Johns would form a seat by locking their arms together. About halfway to shore the boys would look at each other and nod. The unfortunate visitor, dressed in his Sunday best, would all of a sudden find himself sitting in the water with the boys hightailing it for shore!
John's mischievousness carried over into his later years. He was constantly teasing his granddaughter Lola. He would back his car up to the edge of the bank overlooking the then yacht basin (before the days of fancy "marinas"!) and pretend he was going to keep on going. Lola would be frantic. She fell for this trick time after time.
He also loved to teach little Lola curse words (and he knew a ton, being an ex-Navy man!). This caused them both to get into trouble! One day Lola was prancing around outside the house spouting off the latest words she had learned. Grandmother happened to be close enough to the window to hear as Lola marched by. That was the end of the cursing for that day. John received a sever tongue lashing for his part in the episode.
John enlisted in the cutter service in 1894. Eventually he was stationed at Port Royal, SC. While here he met and fell in love with Lillian Anna Baer. They were married on Jan 23, 1900, and made a home for themselves on St. Helena Island. In due course the couple began a family: Lester Anthony (1901), John Elwood (1904), Carl (1907), and Calvin Aubry (1910). There was a little girl, but she only lived about an hour. Carl died from diphtheria in 1910. Calvin died in an automobile accident in 1962. Lester died from kidney failure in 1992. At this time Elwood is still living.
Lillian's family moved to Maryland around 1905/6 and since John was away at sea a lot, the family moved to John's former home in Gloucester, NC, where they stayed until February 1915, when they moved to what was then known as Navy Yard, SC (later named Charleston Heights).
John was stationed in Rhode Island for a while.
He served in Panama. In 1911/1914, John went to China and Japan.
Later he was stationed in South Carolina where he helped in moving the Navy Yard from Port Royal to Charleston.
John had a black labrador retriever named Boots that idolized him. But Boots was also protective of Lola. One day Lola and Boots were sitting in the little red flyer wagon. John had left his work gloves in the wagon. He came to get them and Boots thought he was coming to tease Lola. Boots wouldn't let him near the wagon. And, naturally, Lola wouldn't give him the gloves. Lillian had to be called to fetch the gloves.
John had a cat he called "Percolator" because it purred all the time. John would pick the cat up by the tail and carry him short distances. The cat would be "percolating" the whole time. He had another cat that had six toes on all paws.
While living at Parris Island, he once went "striking" at night and caught over 300 speckled trout. He sold most of them to the Marine Barracks on the island for $27.00. Told by son, John Elwood Pigott.
Sometime in the 1930s, he shot and killed a deer in the area west of the Ashley River, somewhere near Ashley Hall.
The mounted deer head is in the possession of granddaughter Lola, along with the Parker shotgun he used.
Granddaughter Patsy has the sword he was presented with upon obtaining the temporary rank of Warrant Officer in 1918.
Always picking up and saving nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc. When he died his garage was loaded from ground to
ceiling with such things. His sons Lester and Elwood spent many days sorting through this stuff. Do you think they
threw it away? Nope, they divided it amongst all three sons and added to their own collections!
During WWII he and Lillian operated a trailer park on the lot next to their home on Seventh Street.
John built the "big gray house" where he and Lillian lived for many years on the corner of Seventh (later Orvid) St. and Carolina Ave., the "little gray house" which was rented out for many years. John and Lillian later moved into the "little gray house" around the beginning of WWII. across Carolina Ave. He also built the "red house" which they rented out. John also owned the opposite corner lot on Seventh St. and Carolina Ave. where the trailer lot was. This latter lot was sold to son Elwood for $1.00.
John and Lillian loved to spend the weekends on their yacht. They usually took grandsons John Howard and Carl along with them (granddaughter Lola also tagged along when Lillian decided she was old enough to mind instructions). They would anchor in a creek behind Kiawah Island. (John called this "Penny's" Creek because he met a man named Penny down there and he thought this man was THE J. C Penny! There is a different creek really named Penny Creek.) The next morning they would load up the seine and buckets and walk across to the ocean beachfront of the island. Walk is a mild word. The first part of the trek was through deep mud and marsh grass, as this area would be covered by water at high tide. A few tennis shoes are buried deep in this mud, having been sucked right off the feet of those careless enough not to tie them tightly before beginning the march across the marsh. John later built a "punt" which was used to haul the gear across this area. This made it somewhat easier to get across, particularly on the way back in the evening when the nets were wet and everyone was tired, not to mention the added burden of all the fish that had been caught! John kept a scrub brush in the rowboat that was used to get from the big boat to the bank. Everyone had to scrub every speck of mud from his/her shoes before getting back into the rowboat for the return trip to the big boat. The claim was that one little speck of mud would soon spread to cover the entire boat and everything in it!
Once on the beachfront, John would find a likely spot and everyone would pitch in to "haul seine". Several hauls would be made and they usually wound up with a hundred or more fish (mostly mullet) by day's end. Lillian would pack sandwiches and lunch would be had on the beach. Sometimes, it would be decided to stay after dark and go floundering in a promising looking pond on the beach. This floundering was done while wading along in shallow water with gigs and kerosene lanterns. One would have to watch the bottom very carefully to try to spot a flounder that was "bedded down". If you were lucky you would just be able to make out his outline in the sand. You would then try to quickly jab the spear through the flounder's head. You would then have to wait until the fish and the silt settled down so you could see again. One didn't want to try to pick up a flapping stingray by mistake - the two look almost identical when bedded down!
Usually the second night, John would move the boat down to Bass Creek, where they might do some rod and reel fishing. On shore there was a humongous (or so it seemed at the time) sand hill that the kids enjoyed sliding down. One would also get full of sand spurs on the way down.
Upon returning home, John would salt down the fish in huge wooden barrels that sat on his front porch (this was before the days of freezers and salting was the only way to keep the fish from spoiling). He always had extra and would supply all the extended family and friends with fish. He almost always had enough to make sure the old Jenkins Orphanage (for "colored" children) next to the Francis Marion Hotel on Calhoun Street got some. Sometimes he would have such an excess he would sell them to the old Carroll's Fish Market at the foot of Market Street.
Granddaughter Patsy accompanied the group on one of these trips. While John was scouting the ponds for a good one to flounder in, Patsy was wading along with him. She wandered a little ways away from him and stepped into a hole and was quickly out of sight. All that could be seen of her was her straw hat floating on the surface. Lillian saw what had happened and screamed. John got his fishing pole for the boys to hang onto one end while he stretched out as far as he could to get Patsy. He just managed to get her and in time to keep her from suffering any ill effects other than being scared out of her wits.
During World War II, everyone going out in private boats was required to get identification from the Coast Guard and be fingerprinted - there was a real threat of German U-boats offloading saboteurs along the coast. Since Bird Key and other small islands along the coast near Kiawah were often used for bombing practice, boaters were required to get clearance from the Coast Guard before venturing into those areas. John forgot, or otherwise neglected, to get such clearance on one occasion. The party soon found themselves in the midst of bombs being dropped all around them. Needless to say, they were reported. Soon a Coast Guard vessel appeared and escorted them out of the area. John received a severe tongue lashing for his carelessness.
Before John bought his last yacht, the "We Two", he had an old bally-ho of a "yacht". The writer remembers one Sunday trip out into Charleston Harbor when the boat started leaking. Everyone pitched to, found a can, and started bailing. It was a slow leak and we made it safely back to the Yacht Basin. On a another occasion, this boat almost sank in the Stono River when they were returning from a fishing trip to Kiawah. John ran it aground and sent the boys back in the rowboat for help.
April 9, 1945 dawned just like any other day. After breakfast, usually a bowl of Rice Krispies and Kix topped with banana slices, John went out into the yard to "work". After a light lunch, he said he was going to stay indoors and take it easy for a little while. Lillian went off with daughter-in-law Pat to look at a washing machine that had been advertised in the newspaper. When they got back in the middle of the afternoon, Pat dropped Lillian off and went on home. Lillian was unable to get into the house (back then keys were rather large and cumbersome, so not everyone carried the house key around with them). She could not find John anywhere, so assuming he had gone off somewhere, she got grandson John Howard, who was working at his father's shop next door, to climb through the bedroom window and let her in the back door. Lillian went on inside and didn't think anymore of it. Seeing the bathroom door closed, she assumed John was in there. When he didn't come out after a while, she called to him but got no answer. She pushed the bathroom door open to find him lying on the floor. She called John Howard back and he ran to a neighbor's and phoned his mother. It was obvious John was dead so the funeral parlor and coroner were called.
John had taken medicine for heart problems for a number of years and he died of a massive heart attack.
A viewing was held for John at Stuhr's Funeral Parlor on Calhoun St. the next day. Arrangements were made to transport his body to Gloucester, North Carolina, for burial. The next day his body was shipped, via train, to Adair's Funeral Home in Beaufort. The family drove up. There were several carloads. The body in it's casket was placed in the parlor of brother Joe's house for friends and relatives to call.
His sons Lester, in the Merchant Marines, and Calvin, in the Navy, were overseas. Attempts were made via the Red Cross to get them home for the funeral, but that was not to be.
John was buried in the old Pigott Family Cemetery down by the waterfront. Lillian had wanted to have a military funeral, but since the war was still going on and Gloucester was such a remote place at that time, the Navy did not feel they could spare any men to participate. They did supply a flag for his casket. A Masonic funeral service was held. He was buried beside his infant son Carl who had died in 1910.
The cemetery and the dirt road down to it were so overgrown with bushes and young trees, it took several of the young men a good day or more to clear the road enough for the hearse and cars to get through and to make room in the cemetery for the grave and all the attendees.
Ca 1950, Lillian had John and Carl moved out to the Straits Methodist Churchyard for re-burial. She was concerned that no one was caring for the old cemetery and was afraid water was going to eventually wash the graves away.
Chronology of John's Life
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