North Carolina death certificates: COLVERT.

North Carolina did not require death certificates until 1914. The following abstracts record the deaths of several generations of Colverts.

Lew Colvert. Died 27 Mar 1915, Statesville, of cerebral paralysis. Resided near Center Street, Statesville. Black. Aged about 40. Married. “Laborer for city driving team mules.” Born in Iredell County NC to unknown father and Rebecca Colvert of Iredell County NC. Buried colored cemetery; J.W. Nicholson & Co., undertaker. Informant, L.W. Colvert.

A Runaway and a Driver Hurt

Wednesday afternoon Mr. Isidore Wallace’s team was being driven from the depot with a load of roots and herbs. Just as the wagon turned into Front street from Center a sack of herbs fell off the wagon and struck one of the horses. This frightened them and they ran away, colliding with an electric lightpole on the sidewalk. The colored driver, Lou Colvert, was thrown off and a wheel passed over his head, inflicting a severe but not serious injury. One of the horses broke loose from the wagon and the other ran on to the stables. The wagon was slightly damaged.

— Statesville Semi-Weekly Landmark, 11 Oct 1895.

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Becky Colvert. Died 26 May 1915, Statesville, of general paresis. Widow. Born 1839. Resided Harrison Street. Born to Jerry Gray and Lettie Gray, both of Iredell County. Buried Zion Hill cemetery; J.W. Nicholson, undertaker. Informant, John Colvert.

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Selma Eugenia Colvert. Died 7 Oct 1916 of exhaustion from severe burns. Single. Born 25 Aug 1889 to John Colvert of Iredell County and Adaline Hampton of Wilkes County. Informant, John Colvert.

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John Colvert. Died 6 Oct 1921, Statesville, of endarteritis. Black. Married to Adline Colvert. Age 71. Worked as laborer/teamster driving team. Born Iredell County to Walker Colvert and Elvira Gray, both of Iredell County. Married to Adline Colvert. Teamster laborer, driving team. Buried “colored cemetery,” 9 Oct. Informant, Adline Colvert.

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Frances Josephine Bradshaw. Died 6 November 1925, Statesville, of colitis. Colored. Minor. Born 12 May 1924, Statesville, to Will Bradshaw of Rowan County and Golar Colvert of Iredell County. Informant, Will Bradshaw.

Me: Now, who was it that you were telling me that — was it William Bradshaw’s sister? What was it about, something about — there was a baby that couldn’t eat certain things.

My grandmother: Oh, yes. His sister…. Oh, she was the prettiest thing I ever saw in my life. Like a doll. Oh, she was a beautiful child. And had this curly black hair just like Papa’s. She was such a pretty little girl.

Me: And who fed her something that she wasn’t supposed to have?

My grandmother: You see, Golar, Mat and Walker’s mother was different from our mother.

Me: Right.

My grandmother: And they would always go out in the country to visit these people. You know. And Golar took her children and went out, you know. To visit. And she, I don’t know what was wrong with the child that she couldn’t eat any, certain things she couldn’t eat. And string beans was one of them. And when she gave her some string beans, and it just … just killed her. And, ahhh, that child suffered. My God, that child suffered. I can remember that evening. I can remember so well seeing that child. She just suffered. [Pants heavily.] It was, I mean, that’s just the way she was breathing and everything. So one morning after she had been sick, her daddy came over there, he said, “You all better come over to the house if you want to see the baby, ‘cause she is dying.” I said, “You are crazy.”

My mother: What’d she have, Mama?

My grandmother: I don’t know what she had. Don’t know what she had. But they say whatever it was – it just tore her intestines. … And little William. William, he just grieved over that, he just grieved for that child. William. We were just so sorry for that child. And then on top of that, then his mother died. It was just awful.

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Laura Colbert. Died 21 April 1926, Statesville, of mitral insufficiency. Widow of Louis Colbert. Age 66. Cook. Father, Noahie Sharpe of Iredell County. Mother, unknown. Informant, Adgie Colbert.

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Lon Walker Colvert. Died 23 Oct 1930, Statesville, of encephalitis and catarrh pneumonia in Statesville NC. Clinical test done by C.R. Nicholson, MD. Born 10 Jun 1875 to John Colvert and Harriet Nicholson. Buried 24 Oct 1930 at Union Grove.

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Adeline Hampton Colvert. Died 4 March 1940, Statesville, of uremia. Resided 623 Harrison Street. Negro. Widow of John Walker Colvert. Born 12 July 1864, Wilkesboro NC to Horace Hampton and Myra [last name unknown], both of Wilkes County. Buried Greenwood cemetery. Informant, Lillie Colvert.

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George Randolph Colvert. Died 31 Jan 1959, Statesville NC. Resided 423 Harrison Street. Laborer. Never married. Born 9 April 1917 to [illegible] Summers (name blacked out) and Lillie Mae Colvert. Buried Belmont cemetery. Informant, Lillie Mae Colvert.

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Ida Mae Stockton. Died 23 August 1967, Statesville, of cerebral hemorrhage. Resided 403 Harrison. Widow of Eugene Stockton. Born 27 June 1891, Iredell County, to John W. Colvert and Adline Hampton. Buried Belmont cemetery. Informant, Lillie M. Ramseur.

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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.

Maternal Kin, North Carolina

The Lost Ones, no. 1.

Lena Tomlin and siblings. Harriet Nicholson reported to the census taker in 1910 that only three of her nine children were living. Those three were Lon W. Colvert, H. Golar Tomlin and Bertha Hart. The six deceased children were most likely all Tomlins (though it is possible that Harriet gave birth to another Colvert child in 1874.) Census records reveal the name of one, Milas Tomlin, who was born circa 1877. Newspaper articles from 1896 disclose a daughter, Lena Tomlin. And that’s it. My grandmother’s sister Launie Mae told me that several of Harriet and Abner Tomlin’s children drowned. It is good an explanation as any.
Lovenia Colvert and Elvira Colvert Morgan. Walker Colvert and Rebecca Parks’ cohabitation registration listed three children – John, Elvira and Lovenia. I have never found another reference to Lovenia Colvert. (Was she a relative who went west?) Her sister Elvira, however, left a slight record. Though she does not appear in her parents’ household in the 1870 census, in 1874, when she was about 14, Elvira married Richard Morgan, son of Richard Madison and Hilda Morgan. In the 1880 census, Richard and Viree Morgan are listed in Eagle Mills, Iredell County, sharing a household with 20 year-old Squire Gray. By 1900, the Morgans (and Squire Gray, separately) were living in Asheville at 281 S. Main Street. Richard worked as a saloon servant, and Elvira reported that she’d had no children. This is the last record I have found for her.

Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Oral History

She would always bring him something.

My grandmother: My grandmother used to always bring him something down, she’d come down sometimes Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.

My aunt: Grandma Allen?

My grandmother: No, no, no, no, no. My daddy.

Me: Harriet.

My grandmother: She would always bring him something. In the springtime, when there’d be strawberries and rhubarb, she used to make strawberry pie with rhubarb in ’em. And she would make three or four and stack ’em like that. And cut all the way down. And she would always bring that to Papa.

Margaret C. Allen on this family’s stack pie legacy.

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Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, Newspaper Articles, North Carolina, Photographs

Death of a colored man.

“Death of Colored Man.”

John Colvert, aged 70 years, a respected colored man, died Thursday night at his home on Green Street. Funeral arrangements have not been made as he has relatives in the west who will attend.

Statesville Landmark, 10 Oct 1921.

This, of course, is John Walker Colvert, son of Walker Colvert. But who in the world were the “relatives in the west”??? His mysterious sisters and their progeny? And what was “the west”? Ohio? Missouri? California?

John Colvert was buried in Green Street cemetery, a square, three-acre concavity surprisingly devoid of markers in the heart of black Statesville. His and his wife Addie’s tombstones stand at the edge of South Elm Street, near that of his daughter Selma, and they are the only Colvert grave markers I have been able to locate.

Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Religion

Church home, no. 5: A.R. Presbyterian, Statesville NC.

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian church is a blending of two groups that began in Scotland in the early 1700s. The Associate Presbyterians and the Reformed Presbyterians migrated to America as a result of religious and political upheaval in Britain. The two churches merged in 1782 to form what is now known as the ARP church.

After the Civil war, Associate Reformed Presbyterians from Amity (now New Amity), New Perth and New Sterling Churches moved to Statesville. On August 7, 1869, a meeting was held in Stockton hall to organize the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Statesville. About 15 people were present at this first meeting, and Reverend W. B. Pressly was chosen as pastor as well as Elders R.R. White, A.M. Walker, George White and John Patterson.

After meeting in the Iredell County Courthouse for a short period, the early church shared the Presbyterian sanctuary for about six years. In 1875, Colonel S.A. Sharpe and other interested friends donated labor and materials to build the first church.

Reverend W. B. Pressly served as pastor until his death November 25, 1883. After several ministers had supplied the pulpit for brief periods, Reverend D. G. Caldwell served as pastor from 1885 to 1891. In 1892, Reverend J. H. Pressly, then a student at Erskine Seminary, accepted the call to this pastorate and served this church for 54 years.

During the pastorate of Dr. Pressly, First ARP Church made several significant steps. The church built a manse in 1897. In 1900, a new sanctuary was built, replacing the first structure and in 1902 the session approved the establishment of a second church in south Statesville. Out of this decision came the organization and building of Pressly Memorial Church in 1907. — Excerpt from http://firstarpchurch.us/about-us/

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Lon W. Colvert and Carrie McNeely were married in 1906 at A.R. Presbyterian Church. Rev. J.H. Pressly officiated, and he and his wife signed the marriage license as witnesses. My grandmother said that Carrie’s father Henry McNeely was a “big” Presbyterian — it was the denomination of his Scotch-Irish forebears — though Carrie joined the Episcopal church. I’ve contacted First ARP for information about their early membership rolls and will post the results.

Births Deaths Marriages, Education, Maternal Kin, Oral History, Photographs, Virginia

Remembering Margaret Colvert Allen on her birthday.

Oh, yeah, I always liked that picture. That was on Hampton’s administration steps. That was a brand-new coat, child. And it was real soft. It was light – I don’t know what you would call it. Light tan or something. Anyway. But it had a summer fur collar on it. … Who sent it to me? Golar or Walker or some of those people sent it to me…

My grandmother would have been 105 today. When she passed away in February 2011, she was Hampton’s oldest living graduate. Her funeral service was held on a clear, cold day in the campus chapel, fitting in its reserved beauty.

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Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Photographs

August 1.

On the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the marriage of Lon W. Colvert and Caroline M.M.F.V. McNeely, my great-grandparents.

[Sidenote: Grandma Carrie very definitely was not white.]

Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Oral History

Grandma Becky.

I was stunned to learn that my grandmother had known her great-grandmother. “I didn’t know you knew her.” “Yes, indeed.”

She was a little, brown-skinned woman, had beautiful hair. She was short. Even shorter than I am. Tiny. And she used to keep us when Papa and Mama would go away, maybe for the day or overnight. She’d always come down and keep us. And, boy, we’d have a ball, ‘cause she’d let us do anything. Our mother used to have a closet full of canned goods, you know. Blackberries and dewberries and apples and all kinds of stuff. And, honey, Grandma Becky would let us go in there and eat up a whole jar of peaches. She just let us do anything. We were crazy about her.

Rebecca Parks Colvert was born about 1839, probably in Iredell County NC. Her death certificate reports her parents as Jerry and Lettie Gray — probably the Jerry and Lett listed in the 1827 inventory of John A. Colvert’s estate. Becky was about 14 when she married Walker Colvert, and the couple probably lived apart until Emancipation. The 1860 slave schedule of Iredell lists ten slaves belonging to Walker’s owner W.I. Colvert, but none appear to be Becky or her children. (Was she owned by a Parks, one of John A. Colvert’s kin?) She reared Walker’s son John, and her own children Elvira and Lovina and Lewis, and then Walker’s grandson Lon. After her husband’s death in 1905, she left their farm north of town in Union Grove township and moved into Statesville.

Becky Colvert died 26 May 1915 at the Harrison Street home of her stepson John W. Colvert. She was about 76 years old.

Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Oral History, Religion

Church home, no. 2: Holy Cross Mission, Statesville NC.

Me: Where did y’all go to church?

Margaret Colvert Allen: We were Episcopalians.

Me: What was — was the church in Statesville? What was it called?

MCA: Holy Cross Mission.

Me: It was a black church?

MCA: Mm-hmm.

Me: Oh, okay. And y’all participated —

MCA: Everybody but Papa.

My mother: What was Papa?

MCA: He was a late bloomer. [Laughs.] He didn’t join the church ’til he was about … oh, near 50, something like that. No, it wasn’t that late. About 40, I guess. Like all people who join church late like that, they are fanatics when they finally do, and that’s the way he was. But in the meantime, you see, we had been going with Mama to church. Went to Sunday school, we went to eleven o’clock service, then we went back again at four. And, when he joined church, he joined another church his mother belonged to. Which was an AME Zion church. And we had to go to that church, too.

Me: Plus the Episcopal church???

MCA: We had to go to his church at night. It was all right, ’cause we didn’t mind. That was an outlet.

“Trinity Episcopal Church was organized as The Chapel of the Cross in 1858. The congregation built a church on Walnut Street in 1875 to serve its 25 members and took the name Trinity Church. The Walnut Street church stands today and is the Quaker Meeting House. Holy Cross Church, Statesville’s African-American Episcopal congregation, was formed in 1887. The Holy Cross congregation held services on Washington Avenue in a building which is no longer standing. After nearly 100 years the congregations of these churches merged. Ground was broken on the plot of land on North Center Street at Henkel Road on June 18, 1967, beginning construction of the church building that is home to our parish today. The Blessing of Trinity Episcopal Church was held September 28, 1968.” — From “Parish History,” http://www.trinityepiscopalstatesville.org/church.html#history

Scuffalong: Genealogy.

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