John Grant Pegg was born around 1869 in Virginia. He began his career in about 1890 as a Pullman porter, working out of Chicago. It was there that he met Mary Charlotte Page of Kansas, a seamstress. After their marriage they moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1898. Pegg became involved in Omaha politics as a Republican committeeman who became known informally as the “councilman for the Black community.” In 1910 Pegg became the first African American appointed Inspector of Weights & Measures for the City of Omaha. His work in the black community led him to be known as a “race man” dedicated to improving the African American section of Omaha’s population. Pegg, for example, was a Shriner and a member of the local Masonic Lodge.
The Kincaid Homestead Act of 1904 opened up thousands of acres of northern Nebraska for homesteaders. In 1911, John Pegg sponsored a number of black settlers who went by wagon out to Cherry County, Nebraska to homestead. Among them were his brother Charlie Pegg and his nephew James. They homesteaded land in John Pegg’s name in Cherry County although John Pegg never lived on the homestead. His brother and nephew operated a cattle ranch that supplied beef to the South Omaha packing plants. John Grant Pegg died in 1916 in Omaha.
