Goldsboro Messenger, 19 November 1885.
Phillip R. Coley, son of Winnie Coley, was the half-brother of Napoleon Hagans‘ son William M. Coley and Adam T. Artis‘ children Cain Artis and Caroline Coley Artis. Richard Artis was Adam T. Artis’ brother, and Simon Exum was his brother-in-law, husband of Delilah Williams Exum. Peter Coley may have been Phillip Coley’s father.
Wilmington Messenger, 3 April 1889.
John W. Aldridge was born in northern Sampson County and grew up near Dudley in southern Wayne County. In the late 1870s, he and his brother George taught at a school near Fremont, in northern Wayne County, where John met and married his wife Louvicey Artis in 1879. I had always assumed that the couple immediately returned to Dudley to raise their family and establish a farm and later a general store. However, this announcement clearly shows that John Aldridge was a firmly entrenched resident of the Fremont district as late as 1889. (In hindsight, this would explain why the Aldridges do not appear in Congregational Church records in the 1880s and 1890s.) When did the family return to Dudley? John and his brothers George and Matthew purchased land together in the 1870s. I’ve never looked at these deeds in detail, but clearly need to do so. Are there other traces of John Aldridge’s tenure in north Wayne?
Fourteen years into their marriage, Adam and Frances Seaberry Artis purchased three tracts of land totaling about 109 acres from her half-brother, Napoleon Hagans. All three are on or near Watery Branch, an east-flowing tributary of Contentnea Creek. The first two documents are a mortgage deed and deed of sale for two tracts on the creek. The third is a deed of sale for an additional nine acres nearby. Notably, this last is land upon which Adam had lived in prior years, as it contained the graves of his first wife, Lucinda Jones Artis, and a child.
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North Carolina, Wayne County } This indenture made this the 25th day of July AD 1874, between Adam T. Artis and wife Frances of the first part, and Napoleon Hagans of the second part, and all of the County and State above written, Witnesseth that the said parties of the first part for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar in hand paid by the said party of the second part, have bargained and sold and by these presents do convey unto the said party of the second part, and his heirs two tracts or parcels situated in the County of Wayne, and bounded as follows: viz: the first tract begins at a pine on the New Road in Willie Moorings line and runs with his line North 136 poles to a stake on the main run of Watery Branch, then up and with the various courses of the branch to the mouth of a small branch, then up the various courses of said branch to a stake, then E 20 poles to said new road, then with the same to the beginning, containing Eighty eight acres, more or less: the other tract begins at a stake in Cullen West’s line, and runs South 28 ¼ poles to a stake in said line Charity Bailey’s corner, then with his line West 67 ¼ poles to a stake Wm Bailey’s corner, then with his line West, 67 ¼ poles to the beginning, containing twelve and one fourths acres more or less _
And the said parties of the first part do for themselves and their heirs forever warrant and defend title to the above land, to the said party of the second part his heirs and assigns
The condition of the above deed is such whereas the above named Adam T. Artis is indebted to the said Napoleon Hagins in the amount of Fifteen hundred dollars, purchase money for the land herein conveyed, and for which said sum the said Artis has given promissory notes for $375.00 each, and payable in the manner following viz: the first note will be due on the 1st day of January AD 1876: at the same day and date the interest on the whole amount of the purchase money ($1500.00) from Jany 1st 1875 to that date will be paid annually on the first day of January. The amount of principal paid thereon to be deducted; the second note will be due on January 1st 1877, the third on January 1st 1878; and the fourth on Jany 1st 1879, and all are subject to the conditions set forth as to the first note above mentioned.
Now if the said Artis shall pay the interest as above set forth as they come due according to their tenor, then this deed to be void otherwise to be of full force and effect.
And upon the failure of said Artis to pay said noted and interest as above set forth as they severally fall due, then it shall be in the power of said Hagins to sell the land herein described after twenty days advertisement at the Court House door in Goldsboro and four other places in Wayne County, and after deducting the whole amount due him & the expenses of sale shall pay the balance if any to the said Artis or his legal representatives.
In testimony whereof the said parties of the first part have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and date first above written.
Witness: /s/ W.T. Faircloth Adam X Artis, Frances X Artis
[Wife’s consent omitted.]
Deed Book 37, page 72, Wayne County Register of Deeds office.
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State of N. Carolina, Wayne County } This indenture made this the 25th day of July in the year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Seventy four, between Napoleon Hagins and wife Absey Hagins of the first part and Adam T. Artis of the second part, all of the County and State aforesaid Witnesseth: that we said Hagins and wife parties of the first part for and in consideration of the sum of Fifteen hundred Dollars to us in hand paid by said Adam T. Artis the receipt and payment whereof we said parties of the first part do by these presents hereby acknowledge ourselves fully satisfied content and paid before the ensealing signing and delivery of the same have bargained sold delivered given up conveyed unto said Artis his heirs and assigns two certain pieces or parcels of land lying in said County of Wayne on the South side of Watery Branch, the first tract adjoining the lands of Wiley Moring Charity Bailey and others, bounded as follows: Beginning at a pine on the New Road in Willie Moring’s line and runs with said line N. 136 poles to a stake on the main run of Watery Branch, then up the various courses of the run as it meanders to the mouth of a small branch, then up the run of said small branch its various courses to a stake, then East 20 poles to said New Road, then with the same to the beginning, containing Eighty eight acres, more or less:
Also one other tract purchased from Wm. Bailey and wife Celia, adjoining the lands of Charity Bailey Wm. Bailey Cullen West and others bounded as follows: Beginning at a stake in Cullen West’s line and runs South 28 ¼ poles to a stake in said line Charity Bailey’s corner, then with her line West 69 ½ poles to a stake in said West’s other line, then with said line N 28 ¼ to a stake, Wm Bailey’s corner then with his line W 69 ½ poles to the beginning, containing 12 ¼ acres more or less _
And we said Hagans and wife Absey parties of the first part do by these presents bind ourselves our heirs executors admrs & assigns forever free claims or encumbrances whatsoever
In testimony whereof we the said Hagins and wife have hereunto set our hands and affixed our seals, the day and date first mentioned.
Witness: /s/ W.T. Faircloth Napoleon X Hagans, Absey X Hagans
[Wife’s consent omitted.]
Deed Book 37, page 74, Wayne County Register of Deeds office.
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North Carolina, Wayne County }
This Deed made this thirty first day of October 1874 by Adam Artis and his wife Frances of Wayne County, and State of North Carolina to Napoleon Hagans of Wayne County, and State of North Carolina, Witnesseth that said Adam Artis in consideration of Two hundred & seventy five /100 Dollars, to them paid by said Napoleon Hagans, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, have bargained and sold and by these presents do bargain, sell and convey to said Napoleon Hagans and his heirs a tract of land in Wayne County, State of N.C. , adjoining the lands Bryant Yelverton & Jesse Mincey, and others, bounded as follows: viz: — Beginning at a stake on road in Yelverton’s line and runs S. 59 E. 51 ½ poles to a light stake in Yelverton’s line then N. 61 poles to another stake on said road then S. 54 W. with said road to the beginning containing 9 ¼ acres more or less.
Reserving a graveyard on said land, now paled in in which the said Adam Artis’ first wife & one child were buried.
To have and to Hold the aforesaid tract of land and all privileges and appurtenances thereto belonging to the said Napoleon Hagans and his heirs and assigns to them only
And the said parties of the first part do for themselves and their heirs forever warrant and defend title to the above land, to the said party of the second part his heirs and assigns to their only use and behalf
And this the said Adam Artis & wife Frances, covenant that they are seized of said premises in fee and have right to convey the same in fee simple, that the same are free from all incumbrances, and that they will warrant and defend the said title to the same, against the claims of all persons whatsoever
In testimony whereof, the said Adam Artis & wife Frances have known to set their hands and seals, the day and year above written Adam X Artis, Frances X Artis
[Wife’s consent omitted.]
Deed Book 37, page 220, Wayne County Register of Deeds office.
I’ve talked all around Apsilla (or, perhaps, Apsaline) “Appie” Ward Hagans here and here and here. So here she is:
Appie and her twin Mittie Roena Ward were born 19 April 1849 near Stantonsburg, Wilson County, to David G.W. Ward and Sarah Ward, an enslaved woman. They likely spent their early years in and around this house. How and when Appie met her husband, Napoleon Hagans, who lived in northeast Wayne County perhaps 7 miles from the Ward plantation, is unknown. I have not located their marriage license. Appie and Napoleon had two sons, Henry Edward Hagans (1868-1926) and William Scarlett Hagans (1869-1946).
Appie left little trace in official records, appearing in two census enumerations and on a couple of deeds with her husband. She died 12 April 1895 and is buried near their home in northern Wayne County.
Photo courtesy of William E. Hagans.
As tax-paying landowners, many African-American men in Wayne County, North Carolina, in the 1870s were called alongside white men to fulfill their civic duties. Here are two entries from Superior Court Minute Book 2:
Napoleon Hagans of Nahunta township was appointed a judge of elections.
My great-great-great-grandfather Lewis Henderson drew jury duty for the first week of the next term of the superior court.
Superior Court Minute Book 2, Wayne County Register of Deeds Office, Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Years ago — 10? 15? — I ordered copies of two Confederate field maps from the fine folks at Wilson County Genealogical Society. (The originals are held at North Carolina State Archives.) The maps feature not only geographic markers, such as creeks and towns, but the names of landowners throughout the region. I remember intently scanning the area around modern-day Eureka, hunting for signs of my Artises and finding none. (Celia Artis is on one of the maps, but she’s not “mine.”) Disappointed, I folded them away in a box.
A couple of days ago, I stumbled across the maps while reorganizing some files. I let my eyes drift a little further afield and
SILAS BRYANT! JOHN LANE! DR. WARD!
jumped off the page.
Just like that, the locations of the farms on which Vicey Artis‘ children, including Adam, were apprenticed; Sylvania Artis‘ children were apprenticed; and Mittie Ward and Apsilla Ward Hagans were enslaved (by their father.) Not only that — with a little extrapolation from the 1860 census, I can determine approximately where my people were living during the War.
Here’s the first map (with my annotations in unfortunate grayscale, click to enlarge):
The left edge of the map is defined by the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. (2) Nahunta, bottom left and now the town of Fremont, is exactly halfway between Wilson, seat of Wilson County, and Goldsboro, seat of Wayne County. Follow the road east out of Nahunta on what is now NC 222, and you’ll see (3) Martinsville, now Eureka. Angle southeast from Eureka on what is now Faro Road, then veer right at the fork onto what is now Lindell Road. (See “B. Mooring”? Frances Seaberry and her family are listed near his household in the 1860 census.) After crossing a north-south road, pre-Lindell takes a sharp turn north. Drag your finger straight across from the bend and you’ll touch two squared names — Silas Bryant and John Lane.
Here is Bryant’s household in the 1850 census of Greene County:
And on the next page:
As reflected on the map, Silas Bryant and John Lane lived in close proximity, and, on their land, sisters Sylvania and Vicey Artis, who owned no property. My great-great-great-grandfather Adam Artis and his sisters Charity and Jane are listed in Bryant’s household, which suggests that they served him as involuntary apprentices under North Carolina’s laws governing the labor of the children of unmarried free women of color. (Both Sylvania and Vicey were married, of course, but to enslaved men — relationships that were not recognized under the law.) The 1860 census suggests that John Lane also had apprentices, Sylvania’s younger children. Lane may also have owned their father, Guy, who adopted the surname Lane after emancipation.
[And remember this?: “On 20 Aug 1853, in Greene County NC, Silas Bryant sold Daniel Artis for $325 120 acres adjacent to the mouth of a lane at the dividing line between said Bryant and John Lane, the Bull Branch, and the mouth of Sellers Branch.” I think Daniel was Vicey and Sylvania’s brother.]
Where is this now? Just inside the Greene County line, dotted at left, Highway 58 crosses over Speights Bridge Road. The second road on the left is the same one shown on the field map and is still called Lane Road. (9) marks the approximate location of Silas Bryant’s home and (10), John Lane’s.
Due north of Lane and Bryant, across Contentnea Creek is another boxed name, Dr. Ward. This was David George Washington Ward, physician, wealthy planter, and owner of twin daughters, Mittie and Appie, whose mother was an enslaved woman named Sarah. (More about the Wards elsewhere.)
Just inside the Greene County line, a few miles southeast of Stantonsburg in Wilson County, (11) marks the approximate location of Dr. Ward’s house today. [Update: Actually, it’s the approximate location of Dr. Ward’s name on the map. His house was, and is, in Wilson County close to Stantonsburg.]
Back on pre-NC 222, about a third of the way between Martinsville/Eureka and Stantonsburg, a road leads off to the east toward Watery Branch Church. (It still does — and is called Watery Branch Road.) Barely legible is the name of one of the few free people of color marked on the map: Celia Artis. Though not related by blood, at least in any immediate way, Adam Artis and his family are listed next to her in the 1860 census, and their descendants intermarried. (And share a cemetery that lies next to the road about where the C is in Celia.) Here, then, is the approximate location of Adam Artis’ earliest farmland. He later accumulated property all along the highway.
Other landmarks on the field map: (4) Toisnot Swamp (marked Creek here), a tributary of the Contentnea that flows down from Wilson County; (5) Contentnea Creek itself; (6) Black Creek, another Wilson County tributary; (7) Aycock Swamp, another tributary, upon whose banks Adam Artis’ brother-in-law and Appie Ward’s husband Napoleon Hagans built his house; and (8) Turner Swamp.
At first glance, the document raises eyebrows. Brothers Walter and William Artis, successful farmers in their own right, were sharecroppers for William S. Hagans, their first cousin?
A second document sheds some light:
Three days before he signed the cropper agreement, William M. Artis and his brother’s wife Hannah Forte Artis signed an agreement for the purchase of the same 68 acres. (Why Hannah and not Walter??? He was very much alive.) The land was more explicitly described as: (1) a tract on Turner Swamp, known as the Jonah Reid place, that Hagans inherited from his father Napoleon Hagans; (2) a tract, known as the Daniel Reid place, that William Hagans purchased from J.D. Reid and was once part of the lands of Washington Reid, deceased; and (3) a lot of “mud land” on Spring Branch for marl (a lime-rich mud used to condition or de-acidify soil.) The purchase price? A seemingly extravagant $5000 — $300 due at signing, $700 in a year’s time, and the remaining $4000 in two notes payable at 6% interest in 1918 and 1919. (Five thousand dollars in 1916 adjusts to about $106,000 today. That’s considerable change.) It appears then that, per the cropper agreement, during the first year of the purchase agreement the Artis brothers agreed to pay $300 worth of any crops they produced on the land to Hagans. (In addition to the $300 paid him in January?)
Napoleon Hagans built his house on a tract of land straddling Aycock Swamp, the next tributary over from Turner Swamp. (Both flow into Contentnea Creek.) Washington Reid’s mother Rhoda Reid was a well-t0-do free woman of color who owned considerable farmland in extreme northwestern Wayne County, perhaps the land that William Hagans eventually bought. The entire course of Turner Swamp runs only a few miles, the last stretch beyond Wayne’s borders into Wilson County. I am beginning to consider this area ground zero for the Reids. (Future project: a dig in the deeds.)
A little hard to see, but the arrows point out the course of Turner Swamp. The green curve just below the lowest arrow marks the rise of the waterway, and the top arrow points out its approximate mouth just below Woodbridge Road in Wilson County. (And “swamp” it is. The soil of eastern North Carolina is flat and sandy or clay-ey, and the little branches off major creeks don’t so much flow as they do stand, with the barest perceptible current. Getting to their banks often requires boots — and a stout stick to beat back the cane and catbrier.)
Napoleon Road is a bent elbow of a dirt lane running north west of Eureka in Wayne County. At its southern end, it debouches into Reidtown Road, so named for the free colored Reid family who lived in the area as early as the 1830s. Napoleon Road is no longer than a mile or so, and there is one house on it. Napoleon Hagans built that house.
Rural roads did not have formal names until the county implemented its 911 system perhaps 20 years ago. It is a testament to Napoleon Hagans’ stature that, nearly one hundred years after his death and three-quarters of a century after his descendants left the state, the majority landowner along what had been his road chose to memorialize him permanently.
My grandmother met none of Mama Sarah‘s sisters, but she know of them. Loudie, of course, her own grandmother. And Ann Elizabeth, mother of Minnie and Daniel and Dollie Simmons. And Carrie. Who was a little more elusive because she had no children that my grandmother knew of. She was only a name Sarah mentioned.
I managed to find a few references to her. The earliest is in the Records of the Congregational Church of Christ in Dudley, vol. II, in which Carrie Henderson appears in membership rolls for 1886 with sisters Suddie, Lutie and Sarah Henderson. (“Suddie,” or Mary Susan Henderson, was not one of the great-aunts my grandmother knew.) Next to Carrie’s name are these notations: “Bowsman” and “absent.”
“Bowsman” was “Boseman,” actually, the surname of the man Carrie married a year later. Wayne County NC marriage records show that, on 25 June 1887, George Boseman, 24, “col’d,” and Carrie Henderson, 18, col’d, applied for a marriage license. A.T. Dove, M.G. performed their ceremony on 29 June 1887, in Brogden, before Dortch Winn, Jno. Winn, and Frank Parker. (They apparently were not wed in Carrie’s church, as Dove was not pastor there.) The marriage was childless, and probably ended with George’s death.
On 21 Dec 1899, Carrie Boseman, 28, married Arch Grantham, 48, colored, in Brogden township. R.B. Johns, M.G. (of the Congregational Church) officiated and W.D. Grantham and Georgiana Winn witnessed. The family appears in the 1900 census of Grantham township, Wayne County: farmer Arch Grantham, wife Carrie (29), and (his) children [illegible], Emma, Annie, Barfield A., and Lula A. Carrie reported 0 of 0 children living.
This is where things stood until a couple of years ago, when I ran across B.B., a descendant of Archie Barfield Grantham (1851-1915) and his first wife, Mary Adeline Raynor (1855-1897). In 1906, Arch married his third wife, B.B. told me — so Carrie, still childless, died within five years or so of their wedding. It was nice to be able to round out the thread of her life in that way, but there was more. For many years, a portrait hung on his grandparents’ wall, a hand-tinted, charcoal-enhanced photograph of Archie … and Carrie.
Scuffalong: Genealogy. 