Enslaved People, Land, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Where we lived: north of Wilson, near the railroad.

Thanks to Marion “Monk” Moore and Joan Howell Waddell, I’ve been able to identify the approximate locations of several of the white farmer-landowners listed near Willis and Cherry Battle Barnes in the 1870 census. If the family remained in the general area in which they had been enslaved, Hugh B. Johnston’s speculation is correct.

Toisnot Reservoir, a dammed stretch of Toisnot Swamp, today lies on the northern edge of the city of Wilson. Joshua Barnes, Alpheus Branch, Ceborn Farmer, Isaac Farmer and Jesse Farmer’s farms all lay north of the swamp and south of present-day Elm City in a corridor now defined by London Church Road, the CSX Railroad (then the Wilmington & Weldon) and US Highway 301. The Barneses lived somewhere in this area. In the photo above, the diagonal running top to bottom is the railroad, London Church Road bows to the left, and numbers mark the approximate locations of farms and modern landmarks: (1) Isaac Farmer land; (2) Seborn Farmer land; (3) Alpheus Branch land; (4) Joshua Barnes land; (5) Toisnot Reservoir; and (6) the Bridgestone-Firestone tire plant.

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In a letter dated 11 January 2007, Waddell included a map of Wilson County with the above properties marked. Many thanks to her and Monk Moore.

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Update, 23 June 2015: Joshua Barnes’ house is not only still standing, it’s been continuously occupied since the 1840s and was on the market just a few years ago. It’s located at 3415 London Church Road.

North Carolina, Oral History, Paternal Kin

The link.

As a daughter often is, in the early 20th century Sarah H. Jacobs Silver was the linchpin of Lewis and Mag Henderson’s family. Death and migration had forced in wedges. Sarah set her broad back against them. She was in Wilson with her sister Loudie’s son and grandchildren; her brother Lucian was in Dudley; and brother Caswell in New York. Sister Ann Elizabeth Henderson Simmons died leaving children, but Carrie Henderson Boseman left none behind. Sarah maintained links between them and across generations, made sure her aged parents were cared for, and, later, when Lucian was failing, saw to it that he and his sickly wife ate:

Mama Sarah’d fix dinner and send it down to Dudley on the train. The man that run the whatchacallit, engine? Up there, where stokes the fire or whatever is on the train. He would take it. She would tell what day she was gon send it. And so somebody’d be up there to the train station to get it. And the train, ‘cause a lot of time the train didn’t stop. But anyway, the man, the conductor, he would pull the thing, whatever, for the train to stop long enough for him to drop off this package. And that’s the way Mama sent food down there to Uncle Lucian and A’nt Susie.

Though her mother was dead, and her grandmother, and her great-grandmother, and though she lived a long day’s journey away from her birthplace – because of Sarah my grandmother knew her family. Visited Uncle Lucian, A’nt Nancy, A’nt Ella, Cousin Henry and his wife Nora, and Cousin Dolly in Wayne County. Uncle Caswell in New York. Cousin Min in Philadelphia, and Min’s brother Daniel in Baltimore. Lived for a while with A’nt Mollie in Greensboro. Worked in tobacco with Cousin Elias and his children David John and Estelle. She didn’t always know exactly how she was kin to all these Hendersons, and over the years the bonds faded, but she knew they were her people. With her stories as blueprints, I was able to rebuild.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

Found.

On 7 Aug 1897, “Michiel” Taylor witnessed the marriage of Jordan Taylor Jr. and Eliza Taylor in Wilson NC. Was one or the other Taylor related to Mike?

After I typed this today, I did quick searches on Jordan and Eliza – and thereby put the lie to “The Disappearing Taylors.”

There. Eliza Taylor Taylor’s death certificate. She died 25 May 1934 in Rose Hill, Duplin County. She was described as 47 years old (in fact, she was at least 10 years older), married to Jordan Taylor, and born in Wilson County to Green Taylor and Kenzie Taylor, both of Wilson County. Kenzie Taylor, Mike Taylor’s older sister, as Eliza’s mother does not give pause, but Green Taylor as her father? Green was Kenzie’s father. Was this a simple mistake (I’ve seen similar ones before) or a frank acknowledgment of incest (which seems improbable)?

Eliza was either the 8 year-old Lizzie or the 5 year-old Louisa listed in Green Taylor’s household in 1880 Wilson township, Wilson County. Her mother Kinsey was there, too.

In 1900, in Wilson township: Jordan Taylor (born March 1876), wife Eliza (August 1874) and son Greemond (June 1897) shared a household with Sallie Taylor (July 1872) and her son Rufus Taylor (Sept 1895). (This is surely Mike and Mckenzie Taylor’s sister.) Next door: Jordan’s father Jordan Taylor (May 1850) and his wife of 5 years, Matilda (January 1860).

In 1910, in Wilson township: odd jobs laborer Jordan Taylor Jr., 31, wife Eliza, 30, laundress, and son Greeman, 12, with Mary Parker, 69, widow, whose relationship to Jordan was described as “proctor.”

Jordan Taylor registered for the World War I draft on 12 September 1917. He reported his address as RFD#6, Wilson, and his birthday as 15 December 1875. He worked as a ditcher for Sid Clark, his nearest relative was Eliza Taylor, and he signed his card with an X.

In 1920, at 304 Stantonsburg Street in Wilson, Jordan Taylor, 48, wife Eliza, 37, son Greeman, 22, and son Dave, 13. (Where did Dave come from?) Jordan worked as a warehouse tobacco worker, Eliza as a tobacco factory worker, and Greeman as a street boot black.

On 24 March 1922, Greeman Taylor of Stantonsburg Street, Wilson, died of consumption. He was born 2 June 1898 in Wilson to Jordan and Eliza Taylor. He was single.

I have not found the family in the 1930 census.

Jordan Taylor, widower, died 29 April 1957 near Dunn in Johnston County. His informant Ethel Sander reported his birthday as 15 March 1874, and his parents as Jordan Taylor and Frances Smith. He was buried in Wilson.

Land, North Carolina, Oral History, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Where we lived: 303 Elba Street.

The windows were broken and the front door gaped wide open, and I stood in the middle of Elba Street, uncomprehending. An aged neighbor paused on her porch, and I marched over: “Good morning. ’Scuse me. How long has next door been empty?” “Andrews & Andrews …,” she began, and – wait, she think I want to RENT? – I up my decibels, “No, how long has it been empty?” She shrugged, “A good while. They might gon demolish it.” … Demolish?

This was my grandmother’s house. Sort of. Her great-aunt and -uncle — Sarah and Jesse Jacobs — had bought it nearly new in 1908, and my grandmother arrived as an infant three years later when her mother died. She grew up on Elba Street, and her children were – literally – born there, and there they remained until 1938, when Mama Sarah died, and several truths were revealed. One, in 1923, Papa and Mama Sarah had sold the house to his children. Second, contrary to promise and belief, my grandmother never been formally adopted. Papa’s daughters ruthlessly drove this last point home by ordering her and her children out. My father was a small boy, but remembers moving – his hat blew off as he rode away in the back of a truck. Despite the eviction, my grandmother was not done with Elba. One of Papa’s sons sold her his share in exchange for a train ticket back to New York, and the sisters were forced to pay her from the house’s sale.

This place has been gone from my family for 75 years, and yet, for me, it’s Mother Dear’s house. The stories I recorded cemented its place in my imagination – the mantel clock that struck as she rallied from pneumonia, the chiggers that had to be scalded from the walls, the little stable for Papa’s horse, the hoodoo’d peach tree….

“I’ve always wanted to see inside,” I tell the neighbor. “I’m going in.” A glance up and down to check for unwanted notice, a halloo at the threshold, and I stepped through into a small center hall, which surprised me. To either side, multi-function front rooms and, behind, a third room, a bath, and a kitchen under a shed roof, all strewn with the detritus of squatters. Of these last three rooms, only the kitchen was there in my grandmother’s day, and the only obviously original features were the mantels in the front rooms and the heart-pine floors under worn linoleum.

Soon this house will go the way of so much of abandoned east Wilson, which has never recovered from the ravages of the crack epidemic that scoured the neighborhood early and hard. There was nothing much left at 303 Elba to speak to me, but I’m glad I peeked in. It will give shape to my listening to my grandmother’s words, and that’s a gift.

Maternal Kin, North Carolina

Kinfolk?, no. 1.

In the 1880 census, Richard and Viree Morgan (John W. Colvert‘s sister) are listed in Eagle Mills, Iredell County, sharing a household with 20 year-old Squire Gray. Later that year, Squire married Rachel Way. Their marriage record lists Squire’s parents as E. Gray and R. Gray.

By 1900, Squire Gray, 39, his wife Rachel, 30, and daughters Hatty, 23, and Nelly Gray, 13, shared a household in Biltmore Precinct No. 1, Asheville, with Robert Jones, 50, his wife Caroline, age unknown, their grandchildren Robert, 10, Carrie, 7, and Valley Richardson, 8, and daughter Anne Richardson, 33. Both Squire and Robert worked as teamsters, and Rachel Gray as a cook.

In 1910, Square [sic] Gray, 61, Rachel, 59, Hattie, 18, and Nelly, 16, lived in the household of Dock and Lou Southern on Kenilworth Park in Asheville.

In 1920, Squire Gray, 70, wife Ratchel, 61, daughters Nellie, 40, and Ratchel, 35, and granddaughter Hattie, 1 ½, lived in Asheville on Kenilworth Park. [The names of Hattie and her daughter Rachel had been transposed.]

Squire Gray died 21 June 1921 in South Asheville. His death certificate noted that he was 61 years old, was married to Rachel Gray, and worked as a common laborer. He had been born in Rowan County to Orange Gray and Rachel Colbert. Squire was buried in South Asheville Cemetery.

Squire’s relationship, if any, to either Richard or Elvira Morgan was not noted in the 1880 census, but he may have been Viree’s cousin, a relative of her father Walker Colvert’s first wife, Elvira Gray. (In fact, it is possible that Elvira Gray was Elvira Colvert’s birth mother.) Or, he may have been a relative of Walker himself, if Rachel Colbert were actually a Colvert.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

North Carolina death certificates: HENDERSON.

North Carolina did not require death certificates until 1914. The following abstracts relate to the first two generations of Hendersons whose deaths were recorded by law.

Spouse and children of Lewis Henderson (1836-1912), son of James Henderson and (Sallie?) Skipp:

Marguriet Henderson. Died 17 July 1915, Brogden, Wayne County of unknown causes. Black. Age 82. Born Sampson County to an unknown father and Margaret Bowkin. Informant, Lucian Henderson.

Lution Hinderson. Died 22 June 1934, Brogden, Wayne County, of cerebral hemorrhage. Colored. Married to Susan Hinderson. Age 75 years, 3 months. Farmer. Born Wayne County to Louis Hinderson of Wayne County and Maggie Hill of Sampson County. Informant, Jonnie Carter, Dudley. Buried in Dudley.

Sarah Jacobs Silver. Died 8 Jan 1938, Selma, Johnston County NC, of probable heart disease (“dead when seen.”) Age about 55 years old [actually, 62.] Born Wayne County NC to Lewis Henderson and Margaret Carter, both of Wayne County. Informant, Hattie Jacobs, 303 Elba Street, Wilson NC. C.E. Artis, undertaker. Buried in Wayne County NC on 12 Jan 1938.

Spouse and children of James Henry Henderson (1838-1920), son of James Henderson and (Sallie?) Skipp:

Amelia Brazzell. Died 26 Mar 1914, Goldsboro NC, uremic convulsions (contributing: operation for ryosalprism[?]). Age 37. Married. Born Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson (born Greene County) and Francis Henderson (born Greene County). Informant, E.L. Henderson, Goldsboro NC. Buried 27 Mar 1914, Jason NC.

James Henderson. Died 21 Jun 1920, Faison, Duplin County NC, 12:15 a.m., acute gastro-enteric colitis. Wife, Laura Henderson. Carpenter. Age 80. Born Onslow County NC to James Henderson and Sallie Henderson, both of NC. Buried 22 Jun 1920.

Lewis Henderson. Died 20 June 1932, cerebral tumor (non-malignant), Mount Olive, Wayne County NC. Colored. Married to Hattie Henderson. Age 46 “as near as known.” Born in NC to Jim Henderson and Francis Henderson, both of Wayne County. Buried 20 Jun 1932, Saint Luke. Informant, Hattie Henderson.

Ira Henderson. Died 22 Oct 1946, E. Hillsboro, Mount Olive NC, of bronchopneumonia (due to broncho asthma.) Colored. Married to Johnie Henderson. Carpenter. Born 3 Aug 1881, Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson and Francis Henderson, both of Wayne County NC. Informant, Mrs. Johnnie Henderson, Box 243, E. Hillsboro St., Mount Olive. Buried 25 Oct 1946, Mount Olive NC.

Elias Henderson. Died 14 Nov 1953, Wayne Memorial Hospital, Goldsboro NC, of uremia. Resided Miller’s Chapel section, Goldsboro NC. Negro. Married. Born 24 May 1888, Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson and Laura (last name unknown). Farmer. Informant, Jazelle Henderson, Goldsboro NC. Buried 17 Nov 1953, Lane’s, Wayne County NC.

Georgetta Elliott. Died 8 Sep 1972, LaGrange, Lenoir County NC, coronary occlusion. Negro. Widowed. Born 12 Aug 1894 to Jim Henry Henderson and Frances Sauls. Informant, Mackie B. Williams, 406 Forbes Street, LaGrange NC. Buried 10 Sep 1972, LaGrange cemetery, LaGrange NC.

Spouse and children of Alexander Henderson (1860-1916), son of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

Alexr Henderson. Died 13 June 1916, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of phthis pulmonalis. Colored. Married. Age 56. Born Wayne County to Stephen Henderson and unknown mother. Buried Elmwood cemetery. Informant, Mary Henderson.

Mary J. Henderson. Died 7 September 1926, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of strangulated umbilical hernia. Widow. Age 60. Born Simpson [sic] County to unknown parents. Buried Elmwood cemetery by James Guess. Informant, Will Henderson.

Theodore Henderson. Died 15 November 1936, Goldsboro, Wayne County, “from knife wounds.” Married to Bettie Henderson. Age 45. Common laborer. Born Duplin County to Elix Henderson and Mary Odom, both of Wayne County. Buried Elmwood cemetery by James Guess. Informant, Willie Henderson.

Will Henderson. Died 6 Dec 1959, 712 N. John Street, Goldsboro NC, of cerebral apoplexy. Negro. Married. Minister. Born 1 Dec 1878, to Alaxander Henderson and Mary Odom. Married to Susie B. Henderson. Informant, Margaret Brown, 826 N. Center, Goldsboro NC. Buried 9 Dec 1959, Lightner cemetery, Wayne County NC.

Spouse and children of John Henry Henderson (1861-1924), son of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

John Henderson. Died 8 August 1924, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of pulmonary tuberculosis. Colored. Married. Age 63. Farmer. Born Sampson County to James Henderson of Onslow County and [blank] Armwood of Sampson County. Buried Dudley NC. Informant, Sarrah Henderson.

Sarah Henderson. Died 12 June 1930, Dudley, Wayne County, “cause not known — sudden supposed to be acute indigestion.” Widowed. Colored. Age 62. Daughter of Bryant and Bettie Simmons. Buried in Dudley by James Guess. Informant, Henry Henderson.

Henry Henderson. Died 19 Oct 1942, en route to hospital in Goldsboro NC, “found dead in car, supposed heart attack.” Born 23 May 1901, Dudley NC, to John Henderson and Sarah Simmons. Laborer. Informant, Lenora Henderson. Buried Congregational Church cemetery, Wayne County NC.

Spouse and children of Nancy Henderson Smith Diggs (1865-1944), daughter of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

Willie Smith. Died 29 Jul 1912, nephritis, Goldsboro NC. Born 9 Aug 1900, Goldsboro NC, to I.R. Smith and Nancy Henderson, both born in Mount Olive NC. Informant, C[?].M. Smith, 100 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Buried 3 Jul 1912, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC.

Isham Smith. Died 12 May 1914, 10:20 p.m., State Hospital, Fork township, Wayne County NC, of cerebral hemorrhage. Age 56. Undertaker. Educational attainments: “Read & write.” Parents unknown. Married. Buried in Goldsboro, NC. Informant, W.W. Faison, M.D., Goldsboro NC.

Ernest Smith. Died 5 Oct 1918, 7:00 p.m., Goldsboro NC, of lobar pneumonia (influenza). Colored. Married. Barber. Born 11 July 1888 to Isham Smith and Nancy Henerson [sic]. Informant, Nancy Smith, 100 Smith Street. Buried 8 Oct 1918, Elwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess, undertaker.

Nancy Smith. Died 11 Dec 1944, 4:30 a.m., fracture of pelvis (“fell off bed”), 309 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Born 7 Feb 1890, Mount Olive NC to Jim and Eliza Henderson. Widowed. Informant, Mrs. E. Hall, 309 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Buried 17 Dec 1944, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess [her son-in-law.]

Annie Guess. Died 8 Aug 1953, Goldsboro NC, of coronary insufficiency and aortic insufficiency. Colored. Married. Born 11 Sep 1890, Goldsboro NC, to Issam Smith and Nancy Henderson. Informant, James Guess Sr., Goldsboro NC. Buried 11 Aug 1953, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess, undertaker.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

Battle? Barnes?

Rachel Taylor was born about 1863 in Wilson County, most likely between the town of Wilson and what is now Elm City. Records consistently name her mother as Cherry Battle, or Barnes, but a single entry renders her father’s identity is more ambiguous.

In 1866, Willis Barnes and Cherry Battle legalized their relationship by registering their cohabitation in Wilson County. They informed the registrar that they had been married six years. In the first post-Civil War census of 1870, Rachel Barnes is the oldest child, at 6, in their household. Three younger children follow: West, Jesse and Ned.

However, in the 1880 census, the family appears as: Willis Barnes, wife Cherey, stepdaughter Rachel Battle, children Wesley, Jesse, Ned, Eddie, and Mary Barnes, niece Ellen Battle, and son Willey Barnes. “Stepdaughter”? Rachel appears to have been born after her parents’ marriage in 1860, and this is the only reference I have found that assigns her the surname “Battle.” She married in 1882 as “Rachel Barnes” and is listed as Rachel Barnes on several records related to her children. When she died in 1925, a month after suffering a stroke, her son named Willis Barnes as her father. Was the 1880 censustaker merely mistaken? Misinformed?

DNA, Free People of Color, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

DNAnigma, no. 7: Locus, Eatmon, et al.

Martin John Locus (1843-1926) and Delphia Taylor Locus (1850-1923). Martin was the son of Martin Locus and Eliza Brantley Locus of southeastern Nash and later western Wilson County. Delphia was the daughter of Dempsey Taylor and Eliza Pace Taylor of northern Nash County.

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I knew Locuses (and Lucases, their later variant) growing up. There were a few who actually lived in Wilson, but most were from the western part of the county and Nash County. There is no tradition of Locus ancestry in my family history, and nothing I’ve documented suggests it. However, DNA testing has revealed too many matches with descendants of the Locuses (and related families, like Brantley and Eatman) to ignore. So far:

R.B.W. is my father’s estimated 2nd-4th cousin. They match on chromosomes 5, 18, 20, 21 and 22, and she lists Blackwell, Eatman, Hawkins and Lucas among her surnames.
M.F. is my father’s estimated 3rd to 5th cousin. She lists Locus/Lucas, Eatman, Brantley and Howard among her surnames.
E.F. is author of Free in a Slave Society:The Locus/Lucas Family of Virginia and North Carolina, Tri-Racial, Black-Identified, over 250 Years of History, a compendium of research notes, charts and photographs chronicling one of the largest free colored families in the antebellum United States. He notes that the Locus/Lucases intermarried with several free colored families, including Deans, Wiggins, Pulley, Taylor, Wells, Blackwell, Colston, Richardson, Brantley, Howard, High, Williams, Hagans, Evans, Tayborne, Eatman, Vaughn, Strickland, Jones, Pridgen and Allen. E.F. matches my father on a tiny stretch of chromosome 19 (which I did not inherit); 23andme estimates that they are 3rd to distant cousins.
T.W.is my estimated 4th-6th cousin per Ancestry DNA. Her father was born in Wilson County and is descended from Locus/Lucases and Evanses (another free family of color).
T.J. is an adoptee whose birth mother is believed to be a Jones and Locus. She is an estimated 3rd to distant cousin to my father.

What’s the link? I know it’s on my father’s side. Common sense tells me that the most likely connections are:

Leasy Hagans. Leasy Hagans appears in a Nash County census and may have originally lived north and west of where she settled in Wayne. It is not clear whether Hagans is her maiden or married name. Nor is the father of her children known. Was she, or he, a Locus? An Eatman? A Brantley?
Tony Eatman. Willis Barnes‘ death certificate lists his parents as Tony Eatman and Annie Eatmon. Tony was born free about 1795 and is listed as a farmer in the household of white Theophilus Eatman in the 1850 census of Nash County. (He also is listed as the groom’s father on the marriage license of Jack Williamson and Hester Williamson in 1868.) One potential problem with Tony as my Locus link, though, was explained here. If Willis Barnes were Rachel Taylor’s stepfather, I am not descended from Tony Eatman at all.
Green or Fereby Taylor. Delphia Taylor Locus was the daughter of Eliza Pace and Dempsey Taylor, a free man of color born circa 1820 in northern Nash County. His relationship to another Dempsey Taylor in the area is assumed, but has not been proven. One white Dempsey (there were several) was the son of Reuben Taylor and the brother of Kinchen Taylor, Green and Fereby’s owner. There is no tradition of white ancestry among the Taylors, but their Y-DNA haplogroup appears to be J2b1, which is European. Was Green — or Fereby, for that matter — descended from Kinchen Taylor or one of his relatives?

Photo courtesy of Europe Ahmad Farmer.

Births Deaths Marriages, Free People of Color, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

Chears and bee gums.

Per the “Account of the Sale of the property of Matthew Aldridg Deceased sold by Joseph Hollowell Adm. on a credit of six months, Nov 20^th 1868,” his widow, Catherine Boseman (or Simmons) Aldridge, purchased five “chears”, cart wheels and an axle, two tables (one small), two beds and furniture, “one cubbard & contents,” a clock, a gun, “3 Bee Gumes & work bench,” a tub dipper, kitchen furniture, a blind mare and two beehives. Green Simmons, George Simmons and David Winn purchased tools, and “Robbert Aldridg,” who likely was Matthew Aldridge’s brother, bought the fourth and fifth beehive choices. A note on William Carter for a $27.50 debt, due 1 January 1869, was described as doubtful. The Application for Letters of Administration in the file notes that Aldridge’s heirs were John Henry Aldridge, Wm. Aldridge, Frances Aldridge, Della Aldridge, Mary Ann Aldridge, Joanna Aldridge, and James Thomas Aldridge.

William Aldridge was one of the founders of the First Congregational Church of Dudley, and Frances Aldridge Wynn and Mary Ann Aldridge Baker’s descendants were prominent members of the church for several generations. John H. Aldridge had a daughter, Nina Frances Faison Hardy, who played an important role in my grandmother’s young life. More about Aunt Nina later.

Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Oral History, Photographs

Emma McNeely Houser.

Aunt Emma was so pretty. And I never heard her raise her voice. Not ever. And she was she was so sedate and so pretty. We’d go to her house, and we’d eat, and everybody would get up and start – “Oh, goodness! Leave the dishes alone,” she’d say, and we’d all go in the living room and sit down, and then she finally would let us get up and go clean up the kitchen.

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Scuffalong: Genealogy.

Author Archives: Lisa Y. Henderson