John (John R.) Peele

Best known for the 1907 memoir From North Carolina to Southern California Without a Ticket, he wrote about leaving home as a boy and making his way west by freight train, odd jobs, and determination. The book is remembered as a lively firsthand account of hobo travel in the United States at the start of the twentieth century.

Reliable biographical details about his later life are hard to confirm from the sources I found, so the memoir itself remains the clearest window into him. What comes through strongly is a young writer with a sharp eye for adventure, hardship, and the strangers who helped or threatened him along the way.