Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs, Religion

Family cemeteries, no. 7: Turner Swamp Primitive Baptist Church.

Rev. Jonah Williams once led the flock at Turner Swamp, and its cemetery is full of kin.

There’s Richard Artis (whose father Richard was Jonah’s — and my great-great-great-grandfather Adam Artis‘ — brother) and his wife, Penny Coley Artis …

… Richard’s brother John Henry Artis (1896-1963) and sister Emma Artis Reid (1877-1964) …

… and several of Richard and Penny’s children, including Alfonza Artis (1908-1948), C. Columbus Artis (1910-1985), Louis D. Artis (1916-1983), Jonah Artis (1918-1966) and Jesse L. Artis (1919-1960) …

… and Magnolia Artis Reid (1871-1939), daughter of Richard and Jonah’s sister Loumiza Artis Artis (wife of Thomas Artis, no kin);

… and descendants of Adam, Richard, Jonah and Loumiza’s sister Zilpha Artis Wilson, wife of John Wilson, including her daughter Elizabeth Wilson Reid‘s children Milton C. Reid (1890-1961) and Iantha Reid Braswell (1893-1955) …

… Nora Artis Reid (1894-1965), who was married to her cousin Milton Reid and was the daughter of Adam Artis’ son Noah Artis, and …

… even Wade Ashley Locus (1897-1945), a distant Seaberry relative of Adam’s wife Frances Seaberry Artis.

Photos taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2013.

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

Where we lived: Adam Artis’ Eureka.

Adam Artis bought and sold hundreds of acres in northeast Wayne County in the last half of the 19th century. Almost 160 years after he filed his first deed, his descendants remain on pockets of his land strung along Highway 222. More enduringly, their family cemeteries cluster east of Eureka toward Stantonsburg — at the heart of his erstwhile empire.

#1 marks the location of Adam Artis’ grave. His many wives and children notwithstanding, until the mid-1980s, his was the only readily identifiable grave in the plot.

#2 is the self-proclaimed “Historic John I. Exum” cemetery. Adam’s kin intermarried considerably with Exums, including his granddaughter Cora Artis, who married John Ed Exum, and his sister Delilah Williams, who married Simon Exum. Delilah and Simon, however, are buried at #3, along with several of their descendants.

Red Hill Road debouches into 222 across from #3. Not a half-mile back up the road, at least two and possibly four of Adam’s sons rest. Noah and June Scott Artis are buried in #4 with several of June’s offspring, as well as their brother Robert‘s wife and their brother Henry J.B.‘s wife and children.

About a half-mile, as the crow flies, south of #3 is #5, which contains the graves of Adam’s son William M. Artis and his descendants, as well a daughter of Adam’s brother Jesse Artis.

The road snaking northwest out of Eureka becomes Turner Swamp Road past the city limits. Just off the edge of this map, perhaps a mile up the road, stands Turner Swamp Baptist Church, once led by Jonah Williams, brother of Adam Artis, Jesse Artis and Delilah Williams Exum. A sizeable cemetery lies behind the church, and it contains the graves of Magnolia Artis Reid, daughter of Loumiza Artis Artis, who was another Artis sibling, as well as descendants of Zilpha Artis Reid and Richard Artis, yet more siblings. Turner Swamp itself appears as a dark green curve bracketing the upper left corner of the photo. It is likely that the original location of the church was north along the banks of the waterway, at the site where the overgrown graves of Jonah Williams and his family lie.

Back in the other direction, east on 222 toward Stantonsburg, lies Watery Branch Road. (The branch itself is the dark green sword piercing more than halfway into the frame from the right.) Perhaps a quarter-mile, if that far, down the road on the right lies the Diggs cemetery, another small family graveyard. Celia Artis, born about 1800, the wealthiest free woman of color in Wayne County, was the Diggs’ matriarch. She and Adam Artis’ kinship, if any, was unknown even to them. Two of Celia’s great-granddaughters married a son and a grandson of Adam Artis. Leslie Artis, his wife Minnie Diggs Artis, and some of their descendants are buried here.

Newspaper Articles, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

Tax delinquents.

Goldsboro Headlight, 27 December 1894.

Throughout December, local newspapers published lists of delinquent taxpayers. The list above was compiled by the tax collector for Brogden township, Wayne County.

Kinfolk in arrears included George W. Aldridge (son of Robert and Eliza Balkcum Aldridge); possibly James W. Artis (if this one is the son of Daniel and Eliza Faircloth Artis); Richard Boseman (husband of Lillie Mae Aldridge Boseman); Joshua L. Brewington (husband of Amelia Aldridge Brewington); Alexander Henderson (son of James and Louisa Armwood Henderson); Solomon Jacobs (brother-in-law of Sarah Henderson Jacobs); Abraham Martin (son of Waitman G. and Eliza Lewis Martin); Sidney Smith (brother-in-law of J. Buckner Martin); Hillary B. Simmons (husband of Ann Elizabeth Henderson Simmons); and Bryant Simmons (brother-in-law of John H. Henderson, or possibly father-in-law).

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.

Newspaper Articles, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Rights

Jurors for March Term.

Napoleon Hagans and other “colored” men remained on Wayne County’s voter rolls through Reconstruction and beyond. As a result, at least until the 1890s, they were called to serve as jurors alongside their white male neighbors.

Goldsboro Headlight, 5 February 1890.

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).

——

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, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

A final account.

Lula Mae Aldridge died 16 November 1919 in a state hospital after a battle with mental illness. She was 37 years old. Lula had a few hundred dollars, probably inherited from her father, John W. Aldridge, and her brother John J. Aldridge was appointed administrator of her estate.

Lula was the oldest of John and Vicey Artis Aldridge‘s daughters, and the second to die that month. (Amanda Aldridge Newsome has succumbed to influenza ten days earlier.) Her family spared no expense for her funeral — $140.00 paid to undertaker L.T. Lightner and $80 to Goldsboro Marble & Granite Works for her marker.

Lula’s gravestone, Henderson-Aldridge Cemetery, Dudley NC

This, despite the considerable debt against her estate, primarily in the form of a $277 judgment against her by William Mozingo. (What in the world?!? I’ll have to look this up.) Lula’s brothers John and James Thomas Aldridge and her mother Vicey contributed $337.95 (about $4600 today) to settle her affairs, and the estate closed in 1923.

Births Deaths Marriages, Paternal Kin

Misinformation Monday, no. 2.

The second in a series of posts revealing the fallability of records, even “official” ones.

——

The “true facts”: Richard Artis Sr. was born about 1850 in Wayne or Greene County to Vicey Artis and Solomon Williams.

Here’s his death certificate:

First of all, poor penmanship — a “bad hand,” as my grandmother would have said — will do you in. Based on that misshapen “S,” Ancestry.com has indexed this document as the death record of Richard Artis Jr. In fact, Junior was the informant, and his “J” is unambiguous. This is Richard Senior’s death cert.

Second, Richard’s father was certainly named Solomon, but not Artis, as unhelpfully pencilled in.

Third, Richard’s mother’s name is illegible, which is just as well, as it surely does not say “Vicey Artis.”

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

The house and the lot on which they now live.

Buck Martin never married. At the end of his life, he and his bachelor brother Alfred lived together in the “home place,” perhaps the house they had grown up in, which Buck owned. Just down the road lived another unmarried brother, Dortch, and their widowed sister, Virginia “Jenny” Martin Herring.

A few months before his death, Buck drew up a will that insured that Alfred would keep a roof over his head and that, more importantly, his younger children and their mother, Sarah Barfield, would not be dispossessed of the house and acre of land upon which they lived. By its terms, the will provided that the Barfields could remain on the property for the duration of their lifetimes and those of their survivors, after which it would revert to his brothers or their heirs. In fact, they did not stay quite so long. Sarah Barfield died in 1942, and the property reverted to Buck’s brother Ira’s children. Lillie Barfield Holmes bought the house from them, but it later burned down.

[Sidenote: Buck Martin died 18 June 1928 of sarcoma of the right thigh. His brother Ira died of heart failure exactly ten days later.]

Scuffalong: Genealogy.

Tag Archives: Wayne County