Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Family cemeteries, no. 6: another Artis brother.

Just south of Eureka, I crunch slowly up a gravel driveway toward a large, modern house. Three dirty-blond boys, alike enough to be brothers, stop their play in the garage to stare. I halt and ask permission to cross a small field to a cemetery marooned on a little island in its midst. They nod assent and return to their pastime, hip-hop blaring behind them. A lounging Rottweiler pays me no attention; a beagle mix wags greetings and accepts a head pat. I traverse perhaps 75 feet of damp soil to reach the hammock that holds the remains of William M. Artis and his family.

William and Etta Diggs Artis and children Doris, Tom and Elmer, mid-1930s.

William, son of Adam T. Artis and Frances Seaberry Artis, was in his 30s when he married Etta Diggs (1888-1988), daughter of Margaret Diggs and an unknown white man. Margaret Diggs was the daughter of Frances Artis, born free around 1842, and William Diggs. Frances Artis’ parents were Celia Artis, a wealthy free colored woman, and, reportedly, James Yelverton, a white man. Celia Artis was not related, at least in an immediate way, to William’s father, Adam.

It’s hard to tell below, but the William Artis graveyard is completely encircled by plowed land.

It’s in tolerable condition. Weedy, but it’s clear that it is periodically mowed.

Up close, one finds William and Etta,

and several of their ten children, including:

Others buried here include Frances Artis Edmundson‘s husband John H. Edmundson; Beulah Artis Best‘s husbands Leslie E. Exum and George Best; Leslie Exum’s mother, Ada Artis Exum Rowe, who, as the daughter of Jesse Artis and Lucinda Hobbs, was William Artis’ first cousin; and William and Etta’s daughter Margaret Artis Thompson (1910-1981) and her husband, J. Leslie Thompson.

This house stands in front the graveyard, facing the road. Was it William Artis’?

Beulah and Margaret Artis on either side of their cousin, Helen Carter, probably 1930s. Helen’s mother, Beulah Aldridge Carter, was their first cousin.

Copies of old photos courtesy of the late Dorothy Carter Blackman; others taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2013.

Births Deaths Marriages, Free People of Color, North Carolina, Oral History, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Family cemeteries, no. 5: Artis brothers.

I found this small cemetery down a little lane just off Red Hill Road, outside Eureka in Wayne County. A cleared section with several vaults abuts an appalling jungle of viney catbrier, completely impenetrable, in which several large headstones loom. Beyond the thicket is the neatly fenced graveyard of the Bectons, related to a set of Artises by marriage.

The graves of Noah Artis and Patience Mozingo Artis. Noah was one of Adam T. Artis‘ oldest sons, born in 1856 to his first legal wife, Lucinda Jones Artis. Patience was the daughter of Wiley and Agnes Allen Mozingo.

The grave of Amanda Aldridge Artis, who married Adam T. Artis in 1880. She was the daughter of Robert and Mary Eliza Balkcum Aldridge and died days after the birth of daughter Amanda Alberta Artis. Daughter Josephine Artis Sherrod told me that she, 12 years old at the time, found her mother’s lifeless body in bed.

June Scott Artis, son of Adam and Amanda Aldridge Artis, and half-brother of Noah Artis. His wife Ethel Becton Artis is buried beside him.

The grave of Christana Simmons Artis, wife of Adam and Amanda’s son Robert E. Artis, who presumably is also buried here.

Other family in this cemetery: Mary W. Artis, 1 Jan 1917-5 Oct 1994, wife of Edgar J. Artis; Edgar Joel Artis, 1914-1988, son of June and Ethel Becton Artis; James Brody Artis, 20 Nov 1912-10 Mar 1963, son of June and Ethel Becton Artis; Ethel Becton Artis, 3 Oct 1892-14 Oct 1994, daughter of William and Phoebe Taylor Becton; Dorena Artis Watson, 2 Sep 1925-30 Jul 1968, daughter of Henry J.B. and Laurina House Artis; Laurina Artis, 24 Feb 1895-29 Jul 1961, “wife of J.B.Artis,” daughter of Julius and Hattie Locus House; Roosevelt Artis, 11 Dec 1916-15 Sep 1918, “son of H.J.B. & Laurina Artis.” (Given the number of his children here, it also seems likely that Henry J.B. Artis lies in this cemetery.)

Photographs by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2013.

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

Family cemeteries, no. 4: the Exums.

Solomon Williams and Vicey Artis‘ youngest daughter, Delilah Williams, married Simon Exum around 1870. The couple settled on a farm near both of their families and reared seven children: Ora Exum Artis (1871-1933), Patrick Exum (1873-??), Mollie (1875-??), Alice Exum Finlayson (1877-1961), Alice Exum (1879-??), Loumiza Exum (1879), William Exum (1881-??), and Simon Exum Jr. (1884-1963).

Last summer, I drove up and down Highway 222 searching unsuccessfully for this family’s graveyard, which should have been just up the road from both Delilah’s brother Adam Artis’ grave and the larger Exum cemetery containing the remains of Simon’s parents, John and Sophronia Exum. Later, using GPS coordinates, I found it in the backyard, more or less, of a house whose occupants erected a six-foot fence to block the view. I returned yesterday and, across a plowed-under field, immediately spotted several stones, including:

Delilah Williams Exum (1851-1939), and

Simon Exum (1842-1915).

Other kin buried in this cemetery: grandson John Brogdus Artis (1903-1979), son of Ora Exum Artis; Emma E. Exum (1884-1978), wife of son Simon Exum Jr.; Estelle Exum (1910-1988), daughter of son Simon Jr.; Simon Exum Jr. (1884-1963); and daughter Alice Finlayson (1875-1961).

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P.S. After posting this, I found this obituary in the 10 July 2009 edition of the Goldsboro News-Argus:

WASHINGTON D.C. — Simon Devon Exum, 59, formerly of Wayne County, died Tuesday at Washington Center Hospital.

His life will be celebrated Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. James Christian Church in Fremont, with minister James Earl Bunch officiating. His mortal remains will be laid to rest in the historic John C. Exum I Cemetery in Eureka.

Warm memories are cherished by his siblings, Larry Exum and Timothy Exum of Upper Marlboro, Md., Ray Exum and Brenda Mills of Goldsboro, Diane Exum of Chicago, Carol Packer of Eureka, Sherla Exum of Fremont and Gloria Exum of Wilson.

He will lie in state Saturday from 10:15 a.m. until the funeral hour at the church.

The family will receive friends at the home place, 3073 NC 222 East in Stantonsburg, where they will also assemble in preparation for the funeral procession.

John C. Exum was Simon Exum Sr.’s father. John and “Fraunie” Exum’s gravestones note that they were born free, but I’ve found no evidence of either pre-Civil War. 3073 NC 222 East is directly across the street from the house in front of the Simon Exum cemetery (which is probably now closed to burials,) and Simon Devon Exum was a son of M.R. Cornell Exum, son of Simon Exum Jr. 3073 caught my attention as I pulled my car off the road; it has recently been reduced to a pile of rubble.

Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Photographs

Family cemeteries, no. 3: Boyden Quarters.

I doubled back through Iredell County on I-77 and exited on US-70. I crossed into Rowan County on backroads, cresting rolling hills on my search for the lands on which my McNeelys and Millers lived and worked. I came out just east of Mount Ulla, the hamlet that gave its name to the entire district. Finding nothing much to see, I headed toward Bear Poplar and Salisbury on NC-801, also known as Sherrills Ford Road. From the corner of my eye, I spied a cluster of church signs pointing up a side road. “Thyatira Presbyterian” I recognized from histories of early Scots-Irish in Rowan County. And “Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Boyden Quarters” — Boyden Quarters!!! That’s the area that many of my Miller-McConnaughey kin lived in in the early 20th century. I’d thought they were AME Zions, but decided to have a look anyway. And there they were:

Mary Emma McNeely Leazer, daughter of Joseph Archy McNeely and Ella Alexander McNeely. This stone faces into, and has been overgrown by, a cedar.

Right next to it is a double stone for Mary McNeely Leazer and her husband George H. Leazer.

Addie Brown Sifford was the daughter of William C. and Mary Caroline Miller Brown. Her grandmother was Grace Adeline Miller Miller.

Sarah Ellis Sifford was the daughter of Callie McNeely Ellis and granddaughter of Joseph Archy McNeely.

James W. McConnaughey was the son of James R. McConnaughey and Mary Leazer McConnaughey (sister of George H. Leazer, above) and grandson of John B. McConnaughey.

Births Deaths Marriages, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Family cemeteries, no. 2: Artis & Bunch.

The small “Artis & Bunch” cemetery is located on Highway 222 East in Wayne County between Stantonsburg and Eureka NC on land still owned and occupied by Adam’s descendants. There are several graves, including those of Adam T. Artis (9 July 1831-11 February 1919) and his granddaughters Odessa Artis Baker and Esther Artis Bunch. (Apparently, none of Adam’s wives are buried with him.)

——

Photographs taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, 2010.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Photographs

Family cemeteries, no. 1: Matthew Aldridge family.

A low brick wall, crumbling on its back edge, outlines the plot in Elmwood cemetery that holds the remains of Matthew W. Aldridge and his family. Elmwood, Goldsboro’s African-American cemetery, is easily overlooked by cars whizzing down US 117 Bypass South. A tree-shrouded branch divides a newer section from an older one behind, and it is in the latter that the Aldridge graves can be found.

Matthew W. Aldridge is here, and perhaps his wife, Fannie Kennedy Aldridge, though no stone for her is apparent. His marker is at the bottom right corner of the photo above.

Few other graves in the enclosure are marked, though one memorializes one of the eight of Matthew and Fannie Aldridge’s children that died in childhood. Only three daughters — Daisy Aldridge Williams, Fannie Aldridge Randolph, and Mamie Aldridge Abrams Rochelle — reached adulthood. Daisy, her husband Clarence and daughter Daszelle Williams are buried elsewhere in Elmwood.

Photos taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2013.

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

Edward & Susan Henderson Wynn.

Edward James Wynn (1838-1922) was the son of Gray Winn and Sarah “Sallie” Greenfield Winn. His wife, Susan Henderson Wynn (1854-1907), was the daughter of James H. Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson. They are buried in a small family cemetery near Dudley in southern Wayne County.

Scuffalong: Genealogy.

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