Union County, Illinois Meeting of the Baptists and Dunkards

On May the 9th, 1854 in the courts of Stanly County, North Carolina, Jennings Crowell, Esquire, reported to court with $5.00 he had recieved in the case of State vs 'Crecia' Keith for refusing to swear her 'ilegetamate' child. While this was not part of the after war baby boom, I came across it while researching the bond of her sister, Edna Keith in 1870, which was.

Christina Keith, the oldest daughter of James and Penelope Sell Keith, who lived in "Gladstone" had her own story. Her father was related to Sion Keith Sr. of Montgomery County in some manner, probably a brother. He shows up first in Stanly County, being taxed in 1842 for 58 acres of property on Ryals Creek. 

James appears in the 1850 census with Chrissy, her name mangled by transcriptionist, showing up as his oldest daughter.

And in 1854, Chrissy finds herself pregnant and unmarried and is brought to court to be charged with Bastardy. Young women could skip the fines and confinement of this charge if they named the father of the child, and he would be brought to court and fined for money that would take care of the child in its first years,so it would not become a financial burdon on the county. Then at about 7, the child, if it lived, would be brought to court to be bound out to an intact family, to be raised and taught a trade. That was the 19th century form of child support. 

Chrissy refused to name the father of the child, therefore, she and her father, James D. Keith, were 'held and firmly bound to the State in the amount of Five Hundred dollars."  From what I have learned  about James Keith, he was not a wealthy man, neither was he a pauper, he supported his large family, but $500 was a lot of money in those days. 

So, why did Chrissy not name the father? Well, he may have been a married man who didn't want his reputation soiled, and paid the girl, and her father or family, to keep quiet. This may have been the case in Chrissy's trial. I've seen cases where the mother probably didn't know the father's name, having operated or worked at a 'Disorderly House' and having been so charged, but this does not seem to be the case in this instance. 

Three years after this case, Chrissy Ann Keith (forgiving the transcription errors) married David Caspar, in Stanly County, on July 11, 1857.

David Caspar was an older man, who lived just across the county line in Rowan, not that far from whether the Keiths lived on Ryals Creek. He had married an Elizabeth Bame in February of 1844 in Rowan County and the couple had 5 children: Sophia, Simeon, Julia Ann, John and Margaret. Elizabeth must have died between 1850 and 1854 and David found himself in need of a helpmate to raise his children and there was Chrissy, in need of a husband. 

In 1860, we find the couple in Gold Hill, with Davids older children in the home and Chrissy adding Henry 3 and Mary L., an infant, to the mix.

Letitia, the child I believe was the result of the 1854 bastardy bond, was living with mother and sisters. Two year old Susan was also most likely a grandchild, but by which daughter, I've not yet determined.

By 1870, David has moved his growing family to Dongola in Union County, Illinois. Illinois was actually a common destination for folks from this part of North Carolina and ancestry.com has proven that.

Central North Carolina, Southeast Missouri & Southern Illinois Settlers

Living with David and Chrissie are two of Davids adult children by Elizabeth Brame, John and Margaret. John was labeled idiotic. Chrissie has had four more children, Peter, Eva C., William and Jacob. Peter and Eva C. were born in North Carolina and the younger two, Illinois, so their move was between 1862 and 1864, the Civil War era. Notice there is no Henry or Mary L. Child mortality was terribly high.

Dongola is an unassuming little village established in the 1850's as a stop along the railway. Yet to boast a thousand inhabitants, it's located in the southern tip of Illinois. One would wonder why David would choose to settle there. However, a look at the 1865 State census of Union County showed  no less than 9 families headed by men named Caspar, and this was before David and Chrissy arrived. There were 2 Jacobs, 2 Henry's, 2 Adams, Peter, Moses, and Levi, names reflected in the sons of David Caspar and relatives, no doubt. In fact, I found in the noted biographies of Union County, that the Caspars most definately came from Rowan County, as did several other noted early families of Johnson, the parent county of Union, and Union itself. A few of these were Barnhardts, Stokes, Lingles, Browns and Whitakers. With the Mississppi River as its western boundary and the spur of the Ozarks along the north and west, I can see the alure to early settlers, farmers and those in search of that good bottom land.

Bluff via Illinois tourism

One biography I found very interestesting was that of a Moses Caspar. David had a brother named Moses, although this was not the same one, there could be a relative connection. And it all began with a Peter, so the trip was most likely made to join family.

The below excerpt comes from "100 Years of Progress: The Centennial History of Anna, Illinois".

 The original Casper family to settle in Union County
was that of Peter Casper [Sr.] who came to the county in 1818, driving his team and wagon from Rowan County, North
Carolina.  Some of the land which he held was originally
granted to him by the government.  To this he added a
considerable acreage lying north of Anna and Jonesboro. 
A part of this tract was what is now the site of the Anna
State Hospital.  The land was heavily wooded with mag-
nificent timber.  Peter Casper was married to Esther Fullen-
wider on September 17, 1803, and to this union nine children
were born.
   Peter Casper donated the land for a Community cemetery and a site for a school and church now known as the Casper Church and Cemetery.  He was one of the pioneer Horticulturists of the County and was one of the first to ship strawberries to the Chicago market from this area.  His interests in his vocation was deep and left a heritage of interests in this vocation which endures to the present time.  In fact the fourth generation of Casper fruit growers are still engaged in this profession and are recognized as leaders in the field of quality production of apples, peaches, and nuts.  Two of the original tracts of Casper land are still in fruit production and operated by the fourth generation of Caspers.  These farms are Conrad R. Casper and son farm, originally the Oscar H. Casper farm.  Orchard Home, now operated by Wallace L. Casper, along with Donald W. Casper who lives on an adjoining farm.  This farm is known as the L.L.Casper and sons, and until recently was owned and operated by Wallace L. and Manley W. who passed away in 1953.  Ralph Casper is also engaged in Horticulture in the eastern part of the county.
   Peter Casper was known as a hunter and lover of the woods and streams.  This devotion to the rod and gun has persisted to the present.  The Casper family has always been known for its interest and participation in public affairs.  The family has been influential in the development of the Union County Farm Bureau, and The Illinois Horticultural Society.  The name "Casper" is a symbol of quality in the production of fruits.

And from

DONGOLA PRECINCT BIOGRAPHIES

Union County Illinois Genealogy Trails

MOSES CASPER, farmer, P. O. Wetaug, Ill., is a son of Peter and Catharine (Frick) Casper, and was born January 5, 1833 in Rowan County, N. C.  His father was a farmer, born also in North Carolina, January 12, 1797, and died February 25, 1855.  The mother was born February 3, 1804 and died March 26, 1864.  The parents' family consisted of ten children, only two of whom are living--Eve Caroline, born June 26, 1841, the wife of Nathaniel Earnhart, of this county, and our subject.  The latter received his early eduation in the old time schools of his native county, and he afterward attended a little in Union County, his parents removing here in the fall of 1853.  He started in life as a farm hand, assisting his father till the latter's death.  He afterward purchased the home place from the other heirs, and now has 175 acres, which is given to general farming.  For a few years past he has run a distillery on the place, which turns out applejack of an enviable quality.  September 27, 1863 our subject was united in marriage to Anna Hoffner, born December 24, 1845, a daughter of Levi and Mary Hoffner.  Seven children have blessed the happy union all of whom are living--Malinda, born September 22, 1864, wife of J. H. Beaver; Eleanora, March 6, 1867; Matilda, November 10, 1869; Huldah, March 6, 1872; Silas, December 27, 1874; Laura, November 21, 1877; and Flora, August 3, 1880.  Mr. and Mrs. Casper are members of the German Reformed Church.  In politics he votes the Democratic ticket.  -- Source:  Perrin's 1883 History of Union County

David Caspar died sometime between 1870 and 1880. His grave has been lost to time. In all liklihood, he was buried at the Caspar Church Cemetery in Anna, Union County, Illinois with others of his family. It's not for certain, just a possibility.

Caspar Church in Anna, Union County, Ill. by The Bearded Genealogist

Sometime between 1870 and 1880, probably following Davids death, Chrissy relocated to Pulaski County, Illinois and took up with another North Carolinian, a man named Green Britt. In the 1880 census, she is living in his home employed as a housekeeper, with her 3 children Peter, 19, Eva Catherine 17 and William 13. Also of note are their neighbors, Henry and Margaret Gaines, also from North Carolina. As they are an African American couple, I wonder if they were from Montgomery County, NC where a large Gaines family originated from around Zion.

Pulaski County was not a big move for the family. As you can see in the map below, it was just south of Union and Johnson. 

Green Brett was an interesting character. Born in Chatham County, NC, he there married a Mary Martin and had 3 children: JuliaAnn, William A. and Daniel J. They are found in Morgan County, Tennessee in 1850. They then move to McCraken County, Kentucky and Mary Martin Britt died. After that, Green moves to Arkansas, where his son Daniel marries and his grandson, William Rueben Britt is born. By 1865, they have relocated again to Pulaski County, Illinois and show up in the state census there. Green is there, single, in 1870, with his 10 year old grandson, Rueben. In 1872, he marries Lucinda Hennington or Pennigton. She disappears, but he's still there in 1880, with Christina Keith Caspar and her younger children in his home. Green Britt marries an Elizabeth Parker in 1882 in Pulaski and then moeves to Mississippi by 1885, where he shows up in the state census and some grland grants. He dies sometime in the late 1880's in Texas and his buried at the Smith Bend - Coon Creek Cemetery in Bosque County, Texas, where his name was spelled with an atrocious southern accent.

photo added to Find-a-Grave by Kelly Robson

I almost want to do a post on this guy, he was such a tumbling tumbleweed, but instead, decided to crush his very interesting life into one paragraph. His grandson William Rueben Britt went on to be a Saloon Keeper in Pulaski County, Illinois and their family story is so classically American Old West.

There found is a mini-biography of his father, Daniel Britt, and gives more detail to the life of Green. The name Britt is just as often seen as Brett in old records.

We often do not connect the old west to our east coast ancesters, but it was the children and siblings of our steadfastly rooted forefathers who were the pioneers of the old west.

The story of Christina "Chrissy" or "Crecia" Keith Caspar ends in Pulaski County, Illinois around 1886, but that of her children go on. I don't know the extent of her relationship with Green Britt, but he did remarry in 1882, so I assume it was platonic.

The oldest daughter of David Caspar and his first wife, Elizabeth Brame, Sophia Caspar (1836-1883), married Phillilp Ivey Hall in 1866 and settled in Stanly County, NC. She died on Novermber 20, 1883 and is buried in Misenheimer.

Simeon Caspar (1838-1862) Davids oldest son, enlisted for duty in Guilford County for the Confederate Army and died at Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia on July 21, 1862.

Julia Ann Caspar (1842-1933) married John Wagoner and settled in that area of Misenheimer that crosses over into Cabarrus County. She is died in Trinity, in Randolph County, but was also buried at her home church of Matton's Grove, in Misenheimer, Stanly County, with her sister, Sophia.

John Caspar, (1844- after 1880) was simple-minded, and had moved to Illinois with his father and Chrissy. He is last seen working as a farm laborer in Union County in 1880.

Margaret Caspar (1847-?) removed to Illinois with her parents. Some family trees have her returning to Rowan County, NC where she married a Waller and died in 1902, but I can't be sure this is the same Margaret Caspar, as there was another David Caspar in Rowan.

Henry (1857) and Mary (1859), Crissy's first two children with Davis Caspar apperently died as children, as they only show up in the 1860 census. They may have died in Gold Hill.

Simon Peter Caspar (1860-1927) was born in Gold Hill, NC and died in Pulaski County, Illinois. He married twice, to Clementine and Arvilla Mack and fathered 5 children, 2 by Clementine and 3 by Arvilla.

Eva or Evaline Catherine Caspar (1862 - aft 1900) married a Joseph Young and died in Illinois between 1900 and 1910.

Jacob Caspar (1866 - before 1880) must have died as a child. He only appears in the 1870 census. He was the first one born in Illinois.

William David Caspar (1870-1896) was the youngest child of David and Chrissy. He married a Lizzie Byers and moved to Kansas.

But the most interesting of Chrissy's children to me was her firstborn, Mary Letiicia Keith aka Caspar.

Leticia (also spelled Luticia) was living in the home of her grandmother, Penelope Sells Keith, in 1860 and 1870. She was the child Crissy had to have been pregnant with in that Bastardy bond, where Chrissy refused to name the father of her child. She was born in 1856 and two years later, Chrissy married Davis Casapr. He could have been the father.

I don't know if Chrissy was the mother of Sarah Camilla Keith, age 12 in this census. It could have been her sister, Rhoda, who died before 1870. Edna, or Edney, was the mother of 4 year old Roma, shown above.

Sometime after the death of her grandmother Penelope or of David Caspar, or both, Leticia joins her mother in Illinois,  where she marries an Owen Hix. Shortly thereafter, she moves to Kansas. After the death of her husband, Letitia Keith Hix returns to Anna, Union County, Illinois to live among family, and there she died at the grand old age of  96.

By Stefan Duncan

Family trees grow, as one researches, deeper and deeper into the roots. It's easy to forget, that at the same time one is digging deeper, life goes on in the branches above, especially as we entered the later decades of life. A new branch is joining our family tree, and as I add this new individual in, as they are joining our family, I always do a little research to see who they are genetically and where their own family journey derived. 

This youngster has very little knowledge of their family tree, their family having been broken. The relationship to the father is pretty close, but to the mother, an estrangement had occured and led to an adolescense spent with the family of a friend, a family considered family now, but that social link won't pass down into any children born.

The father's fathers branch, unbeknownst to them, is a long-rooted Stanly County group of families and that line had already been well-researched, up to this particular individual. The mother's line was from out of state, and was a very, very interesting line. DNA test takers much disappointed in their homogenous results would kill for this kids background. Yet, it's the fathers mothers line that has me stuck and I am putting this out there just in case someone knows something that help move the log off of the track. 

This maternal grandmothers family were late arrivals to Stanly County from counties near around, and married the grandfather with the deep Stanly County roots.

The path is blocked by a woman named Mamie Bell Paul. It's not so much Mamie herself, but who came before. 

Mamie Bell Paul was born on September 7, 1901, in Anson County and died on August 6, 1982 in Stanly County. She married Rufus Floyd Harper on July 7, 1920, in Stanly County and they had 5 children together. Pretty standard, and not so long ago. Yet, her family tree is lost in the woods, and shouldn't be, I mean, its not like trying to find those shadowy figures beyond the America Revolution. This was the 20th century, the age of documentation.

This is what I have been able to find out about Mamie's origins. 

She first shows up in the 1920 census as an18 year old boarder in the home of Lee and Emma Hall. That same year, she married Rufus Floyd Harper, and everything seems normal after that. She can't be found in the 1910 census, or in any record of birth. In fact, only her obituary geve any hint on where she came from.

It lists her children, of course, but it also states that she has a sister, Mrs. katherine Rorie, and two half-brothers, Clegg Hall and Albert Hall. So who were they? Could they be found?

They could. Katherine Elizabeth Paul was born on Nov 1, 1899.. On October 28, 1916, just a few days before her 17th birthday, she married Claude Clark Wilhoit in Stanly County, NC. They had at least 9 children: Martha Annie Bell, Furman Ashley, John Clark, Paul Junior, Virgie Lucille, Tommy Ray, Eunice Barbara, Reggie Garrett, and Roy Preston Wilhoit. 

Claude died on October 24, 1944. Katherine was widowed at about 45 years old. In 1951, she married Sam Jones Fesperman, a late marriage for both, and he died just 3 years later in 1954. Her third husband was Onslow Wilson Rorie, who had also been married several times and had moved around quite a bit. They divorced in 1969. Katherine was 70 and didn't marry again. She would pass away in Albemarle, Stanly County, NC in 1994, at the ripe old age of 95.

There was one fact about Katherine that Mamie didn't have, she was born before the 1900 census, and was counted there.

Katherine was 7 months old when the young family was enumerated in Morven, in the southernmost part of Anson County, NC. Her father was Benjamin or "Ben" Paul and her mother was Eliza Gathings. They were renting a house and Ben was working as a farm laborer.

These facts were corroborated by Katherine's Social Securtiy application. But for every mystery solved, the door opens for more.

Knowing now that Mamie and Katherine's father's name was Benjamin, or Ben for short, I was able to find a marriage certificate for him. On May 4, 1896, Henry T. Spencer applied for a license for the marriage of Benjamin Paul, 21 of Richmond County, son of ______ Paul and ______ Paul, father dead, but mother living and a resident of Richmond County and Eliza Shephard 20, of Anson County, daughter of ______ Shephard and _______ Shephard, both dead. 

Anson Justice of the Peace, W. H. Clark united them in marriage of May 5, 1896 at the residence of the bride's father in Lilesville. Bride's father? Didn't they just say her parents were dead? 

B. F. Lovin, Annie E. Lovin and Arnold Pedue were witnesses.

But I thought she was a Gathings???? Was this a different Eliza.? Could any of these other folks mentioned help any?

H. T. Spencer was Henry Thomas Spencer, born 1861 in Anson County to John Casey Spencer and wife, Sarah Rebecca Tomlinson. Henry married an Anna Diggs and there appeared to be no familial connection between him and the Paul couple.

Henry Thomas Spencer

I looked for any of the three names: Paul, Sheppard/Shepherd or Gathings living near Henry Thomas Paul in 1900, the census closest to the wedding date. There were none close, he lived in a sea of Spencers with a dash of Walls. Half of the Spencers were labeled white, and the other half black, so it appears Mr. Spencer had descended from a large slave-holding family in the years before his birth.

So then, I looked for any of those 3 names in Lilesville in general. There were no Pauls in Anson, except one family besides Ben and Eliza, and that was the family of a George Washington Paul who lived in Wadesboro, son of a John and Lucy Paul. There were several Gathings in Lilesville, but no Sheppards, although a family or two of Sheppards lived in Burnsville. We know her father was living, or had lived, in Lilesville, so the next step was to go back to 1880 and see is there were any Eliza's born in 1875 or 1876 in Lilesville. I came up empty handed with Mr. Spencer, they were not relatives or neighbors, that I could tell. Perhaps Ben or Eliza's father had been an employee. 

The witnesses were a little different. Arnold Perdue was from Chesterfield County, South Carolina and had migrated up into bordering Richmond County, NC, where he would pass away in 1926. Benjamin Franklin Lovin was born in Georgia. At the time of his marriage to Ann Lowe in Beaverdam, Richmond County, NC, he was claiming residence in Anson County, NC. Anson and Richmond Counties border each other and both meet South Carolina on their southern bordrs. Chesterfield County, South Carolina lies just below Anson and Morven is near the boreder. These witnesses appear to have been friends of Ben Paul who travoeld up to Lilesville for the wedding. There does not semm to be any family connections. 

Arnold Perdue

There were two more hints left in the short obituary of Mamie Paul. She had two half-brothers, Clegg and Albert Hall, and with these two, the door opened to answer the question of who Mamie's mother was, but not her father.

The two brothers were William Clegg Hall, born April 28, 1919 and Albert Coyt Hall, born February 25, 1924. They were the sons of  Samuel Eldridge Hall and his Elizabeth Ann "Liza" Gathings, and as a great coincidence would have it, Samuel E. Hall was already in my family tree. He was the son of  Thomas Hawkins Hall and Sarah "Sallie" Morton. Sallie was the sister of my 3rd Great Grandmother, Wincy Elizabeth Morton Turner and daughter of Rev. Samuel Parsons Morton and Vashita Calloway Morton, my 4th Great Grandparents. 

Since Clegg and Albert were Mamie's half-brothers, that meant Eliza was her mother. Eliza married Samuel E. Hall in December of 1917. She was 38 years old. The wedding was held at her house in Albemarle, Stanly County, NC and the witnesses included her daughters, Katherine Wilhoit, who married already, and Mamie Paul.

Had Benjamin Paul died? There's no record of it, and I eventually uncovered that he had not, at least not yet.

Eliza was Sam's third wife. He had married first to Narcissa  Morgan, by whom he had 6 children and died in 1916. He quickly married Daisy Chandler Reeves, the same year, by whom he had one son, Lamar, born June 24, 1917. Daisy died July 1, a week after her son was born. Sam was a widower with small children and a newborn when he married Eliza that December. 

We find them in the 1920 census, with Elza having given birth to William Clegg. This is the year we found Mamie living with Lee Hall, an older son of Sam.

We find them in 1930, with Eliza having given birth to her last child, Albert at age 43. 

In 1940, Eliza is a widow with her two young sons living with her in  Albemarle on West Oakwood St..    Samuel E. Hall had passed away in April of 1932.

Eliza would live another 36 years, passing away on April 12, 1968. She was 93. She had survived with help from her sons and worked in the cotton mills.

Eliza Gathings Paul Hall

Buried at Fairview Cemetery, her death certificate tells us who her parents were. Her daughter Katherine, as the informant, gave her father as Furman Gathings and her mother as Becky Paskel.

With that we found Eliza's origins and able to take this new branch back another generation or two. Two questions still remained. Who was Ben Paul and what happened to him and why was she listed as a Shepperd on her marriage license to Ben Paul?

Eliza's father, Sherwood Furman Gathings, nicknamed "Peter", was a Civil War Veteran who lived until 1921, so he certainly was alive in 1897 when Eliza married Ben Paul at her father's house. 

Eliza's mother, Rebecca, shows up married to Sherwood in the 1870 and 1880 census records. Her maiden name is unknown. Eliza's marriage license lists her as "Becky Paskal", but the surname must be misread, as it's not traceable and there were no families of that spelling in the area at the time. Also unusual is the fact that Eliza should be in the 1880 census, but she is not. Perhaps she was actually born in 1880 after the census. Ages were bouyant in those days, especially for women. She was, however, old enough to have born a daughter in 1898.

While Rebecca's orgins remain a mystery, Sherwoods do not, he was the son of Charles and Mary Bailey Gathings. The reason Eliza's wedding made it sound as if he wasn't home when she married Ben Haire, is because perhaps he wasn't.

The City Directory of Raleigh, NC shows that Sherwood was an inmate, or resident, of the Old Soldiers Home in 1899.

Just a year later, however, he had returned to Anson County and was living with his brother and sister. in Lilesville. But old 'Peter' wasn't done. In 1903, at 65, he married a Lizzie Shepherd, aged 50.

His father was given correctly as Charles Gathings, but her parents were unknown. A C.T. Jones had applied for the license and the wedding was held at the home of  Jim Watts in Morven. Then it hit me, the person applying for the license probably gave the information, maybe because the bride and groom were illiterate. It was he who didn't know who their parents were. But there's that name again, Shepherd.

But Lizzie's parents and origins were known. She was the daughter of Noah and Beadie Simpson Shepherd (or Shepperd or Shepard) and had grown up in Cordova, Richmond County, NC. She died in 1914 at age 59 of Dropsy. She and Peter were living with his son, William Benjamin Gathings in 1910 and his family.

The fact that Lizzie, who married Eliza's father in 1903, does not explain why Eliza was called a Shepherd in 1898. Nor has the shroud over the beginnings and endings of Benjamin Paul been lifted.

18 Oct 1917 Stanly County

There was one last thing, however. In scanning old newspaers, I found that in 1917, the year Eliza remarried to Sam Hall, she had filed for divorce from Ben Paul. It doesn't appear that Ben had died, but that he had abandoned her and the girls.

2 Feb 1905

In 1905, still in Anson County, she was given a special allowance as a Pauper. It seems he may have abandoned her shortly after Mamie was born. 

I haven't found Eliza, or Mamie in 1910, not yet, however I did find her olderst daughter, Catherine (or Katherine Elizabeth) who married a Wilhoit.

She was in the children's home in Thomasville. Mamie is not listed, but as the children seem mostly to be over the age of 10, Mamie may have been too young. She may have been places in another home or with a family somewhere.

So Eliza was not a widow, she was divorced and as soon as that happened, she married Sam Hall. It strikes me that Samuel Hall was probably named for his grandfather, and my 4th great Grandfather, Rev. Samuel Parsons Morton, who I am actively researching and whose parents are also unknown at the moment.

At the same time, the name of Eliza's father, Sherwood Furman Gathings, was passed down to the son of his Granddaughter, Katherine Elizabeth Paul Wilhoit, Furman Wilhoit, who married into my family by marrying  my Daddy's first cousin, Pauline. As my daddy (the one who raised me), was an only child, he was close to some of his first cousins, Pauline being one of them, and I knew Furman very well. Now, a descendant of Benjmain Paul and Eliza Gathings Paul is marrying into my family again. I'd like to know who Ben is. 

THE SEARCH CONTINUES

For weeks now, I've been searching for the origins, and the consumation, of the life of one Benjamin Paul, who is an ancestor of a new member of our family tree. He was born either in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, or Richmond County, North Carolina between 1872 and 1875, and that's as close as I can narrow it down. 

On May 5, 1896, he married Elizabeth Ann "Liza" Gathings, in Anson County, North Carolia and she divorced him in 1917, in Stanly County, North Carolina. On the marriage license, Ben's parents are listed only by surnames, "Paul" and said to be from Richmond County, NC, as was he, and it also stated that his father was deceased, but his mother was living. His age was given as 21 and hers as 20. Liza's surname was mistakenly given as "Sheppard". She was not a Shepppard and had never married one either. After she divorced Ben Paul, she quickly married a widower, Samuel E. Hall and her later records clearly detail that she was the daughter of Sherwood Furman Gathings, nicknamed "Peter", and his wife, Rebecca, whose maiden name is still unclear, but probably either Harris or Haire, depending on who you ask. 

Ben Paul and Liza show up in one census as man and wife, the 1900 census, living in Morven in the southernmost part of Anson County.

The young couple is shown here with their infant daugther, Catherine, (or Katherine), Elizabeth, just 7 months old. They would go on to have another daughter, Mamie, a few years later, and Mamie would carry their genes on into future generations, including my future grandchildren, one to arrive this summer.

And that is all I have had to go on about Benjamin Paul. I do not know who his parents were and I don't know what happened to him after the divorce. From the looks of things he had abandoned his wife and children.

For weeks, I've been researching the families I believe he could have sprung from and looking at the possibilities and searching for hints. Today, I quite accidentally came across a fact that didn't give me any answers to the above questions, but added a layer to the family tree. 

Ben and Eliza did not only have two daughter, they also had a son. 

Charlie Carl Paul had slipped through the cracks for me, then I found his death certificate. He lists his parents as Ben Paul and Eliza Gathings. He was born June 22, 1904 in Anson County. He died on May 12, 1978 in Albemarle, in Stanly County. He was buried at Silver Springs Baptist Church near Norwood, NC. Stanly Funeral home handled the service, with William J. Aldridge, Jr. signing for the funeral home. The informant was his son, Carl A. Paul of Albemarle. Charlie was a retired minister and was 73 years old. 

Charlie married Myrtle Cranford, who had been born in Montgomery County, North Carolina. She was the daughter of  Charlie Brookshire Cranford, Sr. and Mollie Rodena Moore Cranford. Together they had three children, though not without tragedy. 

1) Carl Alexander Paul (1924-1985)

2) Albert Lee Paul (1927-2017), seen in one census as "Billy".

3) Carol Dean (1934-1936), their only daughter, Caroldean, had died at the age of 21 months old, of anemia from severe colitis, and was buried at Rehobeth Church in Aquadale.

From the burials, we can assume the Rev. Paul lived primarily around the Aquadale area. 

Silver Springs Baptist Church

There are a few scant trees with Charlie in them, and no one names his parents, much less beyond, and they all start with the 1930 census as if he fell from the sky. He didn't. 

In 1930, before the birth of Caroldean,  Charlie and Myrtle were living with their two boys on Fairview Street in Albmarle, part of the Wiscassett Mill Hill. He had apparently not began his career as a minister yet, and instead was working as a "Comber" in the Cotton Mill. These mills inticed alot of young families to pull into town from farms and counties near and wide, looking to make an easy living and enjoy inside plumbing, close amenities and electric lights. 

1940 found the family in the same place, on the same street, doing the same thing. 

Their daughter had been born and passed away, their sons were growing up. But this search isn't about Charlie, it's about finding the why's and whereabouts of this father Ben Paul. Could Charlie's earlier life give us any answers?

The first step was finding Charlie before 1930, while he was still a boy, and I did. At the age of 15, Charlie was living with James Jacob Mauldin and his wife Lina Neal Lowder Mauldin, and being Mauldins, my Maternal Grandmother's maiden name, of course, they were already in my family tree. And so was Charlie, but as Charlie Paul Mauldin. Paul, being a common given name, I had assumed this adopted son was a transciption error as Charlie Paul Mauldin.  J. J Mauldin, as he was known, died in 1922, just two years after this census and his wife Lina remarried Lee Allen Rummage. This is probably how the association with Rehobeth and Silvier Springs began as Lee's family and the Aldridges were all from this area. 

Charlie is listed as an adopted child, but probably an unofficial adoption as the didn't change his name. This is bothersome as his mother, Eliza, was alive and remarried and was busy having more children. Did Sam not like or want his stepchildren?  Wiscassett Street, where they were living, was on the Efird Mill Hill, not far from the Wiscassett Hill, that Charlie would raise his boys on, but J. J. Mauldin was did not work in the Cotton Mill.

J. J. was a merchant and ran a retail store. He and Lina were a childless couple. The Roberts couple who boarded with them did work in the mill, however. He probably ran a village store, like the ones that were common when I was small, that carried a variety of  products, sold on credit and even delivered in old pickup trucks. 

Rosebriar Restaurant in Albemarle, NC.

Rosebriar Restaurant was once known as "Holt and Troutman", one of these neighborhood markets. I was very familiar with this one as my daddy cut meat there on Saturdays and worked at the Department of Transportation during the week. I recall the sawdust on the floor, the glass cases and the big butcher block. My favorite area was the spinning toy rack and I collected the little farm animals than came in packs of 20 or so.

I wondered how far away from Charlie his mother, Eliza lived. 

Eliza and her second husband, Sam, were living in North Albemarle Township, and Sam was working in a Hosiery Mill. She was taking care of his many children by his two deceased  wives,  Narcissa and Daisy,  and had already given birth to the first of the two sons she would have by him, William Clegg Hall. 

North Albemarle Township in those days was the area between Albemarle and Badin. Even including Badin, but south of New London. It probably encapsulated an area that is now inside of the city limits of Albemarle, as Sam worked in a Hosiery Mill, and those would have been located in Albemarle, to my knowledge, perhaps Lillian Mill, in the center of town.

Stanly County Museum copy, Lillian Mills

So, Eliza lived not that far from Charlie, 5 miles at most, and likely much less, but that doesn't explain why the kindly childless grocer couple took him in. Then my mind asks, where were his older sisters in comparison, as far as location, knowing Kate had married and Mamie was a boarder.

Turned out, Mamie, boarding with the Lee Halls , a member of her stepfamily, was on Watts Street, a street just two streets over from where Charlie lived after he married, on the Wiscassett Mill Hill, with Graham Street in between, they parallelled. Kate, now married to first husband Claude Wilhoit, was all the way in Aberdeen in Moore County, two counties away, with Montgomery in between.

But could I find Charlie in 1910? I had not found his parents or Mamie. I thought I had found Catherine, and perhaps I had. In these early census records, some had been counted twice.

He was not living with the Mauldins yet, because I had found them. It was then that I took a clue from the 1920 census, where it had Charlie being born in South Carolina. Why had they thought he was born in South Carolina? Then again, Morven in Anson County, where his parents lived just 4 years prior to his birth, is very close to the South Carolina line. If he was not in Stanly, where he would eventually live, or Anson, where his parents were in 1900, or in Richmond, where his parents were originally from, could he be found in South Carolina?

Put in the parameters and there he was. There was a lot wrong in the record, so that is why I had dismissed it when I had came across it before. First, they were not all born in South Carolina. Second, I had failed to look at the actual record. The transcriber had labeled them as "M" for race instead of "W". Mamie was mislabled "Mary", but I had seen that in other records that Mamie was in. And, at the time, I didn't know there was a Charlie.

Chesterfield County, South Carolina

What is right about this record is that Chesterfield is only 10.13 miles from Morven. "Lizza" Paul is the same age as Liza Paul," Cate" Paul is the right age to be Katherine Paul, "Mary" Paul is the right age to be Mamie Paul and Charlie Paul was the same age as the Charlie Paul I was looking for, and put all that together, along with various times that both Mamie and Kate were said to have been born in South Carolina, and I can be pretty confident that this was the right Paul family, despite the fact that someone mistook a W for an M.

Charlie's two sisters and his two half-brothers are mentioned in his obituary. He had not been in theirs because he predeceased them. Charlie, the youngest, died in 1978, Mamie, the middle child, died in the middle, in 1982 and the eldest, Katherine, died last, in 1994.

Still no record as to Ben Paul's origins or what had happened to him, or where he had gone. 

I ordered a copy of the divorce reocrd from the NC archives, but it told me nothing. They just sent me the docket listing and not the actual case or conclusion. All I know is that Eliza had made it to Stanly County, where she had family, and filed for divorce in 1917, whereafter she immediately remarried to Sam  Hall. Still, there are traces, crumbs, coincidences that are too convincing and numerous to be coincidences.

When researching 18th and 19th century families, situations that would seem very odd to us today pop up, and sometimes replicate themselves to point we begin to understand that they were not an uncommon practice in years past. Like cousin marriages, while we would frown down on it today, decades ago, it was pretty common. And marriages among friends and neighbors were more the rule than the exception. Families seemed to swim in pools. While researching one family, you will probably keep coming across other surnames repeatedly, that were in close association with the family you are researching. Pay attention to those, they can be pretty important and may end up being your ancestors too.

I've been researching the Paul family of primarily Richmond County, as one of its descendants has joined into mine. Ben Paul, born in Richmond County around 1875, has become a mystery. He married Eliza Ann Gathings, on May 5th 1896, and had two daughters, Katherine Elizabeth Paul, in 1898 and Mamie Bell Paul, in 1901 and son Charlie Carl Paul in 1904.

Ben and Eliza show up in the 1900 census, in Morven, Anson County, with their first daughter as an infant. Ben is nowhere to be found in 1910. Eliza files for divorce from him in 1917, and the divorce is granted and she remarries Samuel Eldridge Hall, a relative of mine, on Christmas Eve of that year. There is no record of Benjamin Paul prior to that or after that. Just this one census, his marriage license and the divorce proceedings.

There are also mentions of Ben Paul in the future records of his children, Catherine, Mamie and Charlie. So we know he lived, married, became a father, divorced, and at some point, somewhere, died. Being born in 1875, you can be sure of that, but where? And when? And most importantly, who was HIS parents.

Among the few family trees that exist with Benjamin Paul in them, there is only one suggesting a possible set of parents, but with no evidence, no census record, no Will;  nothing. I decided to look into the possibility at least.

The suggested parents were Pleasant Paul and Aggie Ford.

In looking at the Paul family as a whole, the surname Ford was one that kept popping up. 

Pleasant Paul married Agness "Aggie" Ford.

Stephen Paul married Betsy Ford.

John W. Paul married Sallie Ford

And it wasn't just the Pauls that kept close contact with the Fords, it was also the Shepherds.

Stephen Tebe Shepherd married Martha Jane Ford.

John Thomas Shepherd married Annie Eliza Ford.

Thomas Ford had married Martha Shepherd.

And his father (also Aggie's father), Jacob Ford had married Hannah Shepherd, so we're probably looking at cousin marriages there.

Jacob Ford first shows up in the 1840 census records of Black Jack District, Richmond County. He's listed right next to Richard Shepherd and Sandy Shepherd, who comes into play in my research several times. Maston or Mastion and Thomas Shepherd also live nearby. Recall, Jacob married Hannah Shepherd. She was believed to have been the daughter of Thomas Shepherd, as listed on her death certificate. Suffice to say, these Shepherds that lived near Jacob and Hannah were more than likely her relatives.

Researchers who have looked more distinctly into Jacob Ford, and have cemented their research with DNA evidence, say he was the son of George R. Ford of Prince George's Parrish in South Carolina and his wife, Hannah Hawley Spencer. George died in 1824 on a Black River Plantation near Georgetown.

His widow, Hannah remarried and relocated up river to Chesterfield County, South Carolina where she remarried Capt. Peter Robeson. Hannah was the daughter of Col. Calvin Spencer and Rebecca Powe Spencer. The Spencers, Powes and Robesons all had connections to early Anson County families, of which Richmond County once was a part of. Some of them had remained in Anson while others had removed to South Carolina. With the middle name of  "Hawley", it's not hard to imagine that Hannah was in some way related to the influential Hawley's of South Carolina, as well. 

Tombstone of Hannah Hawley Spencer Ford Robeson

Peter Robeson, Hannah's second husband, by which she had one daughter, had previously been married to her sister Mary, who had passed away as well. Peter was a descendant of Andrew Robeson of Scotland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and these families were so well documented, that I find it totally bizarre that they nearly disappear into oblivian in nearly modern times. Hannah died in Chesterfield, SC in 1843, so her oldest son, Jacob, had already settled in North Carolina by then.

So in 1840, besides being surrounded by Shepherd/Shepperd/Sheppards, Jacob was a young married man in his 20's, and Hannah was still a teen. They had a son under 5, probably just an infant or toddler. It' s the 1850 and 1860 census where things start getting strange.

Below, I've listed a side by side comparison to the people named in the 1850 and 1860 census records in the household of Jacob and Hannah Ford. There was only one family of Fords and with the exception of Jacob and Hannanh, these records do not match.

1850                                                          1860      

Jacob 47                                Jacob 50           In his 20's in 1840, jumped 2 decades, then 3 years

Hannah 41                             Hannah 41         Jumped 2 decades, then not at all.

William 17                              Annie 15  

Mary 15                                 Thomas 13

Henry 13                                Rebecca 11

John 11                                  Elizabeth 9

Jane 9                                    Martha J 7

James  7                                Chuny 5

L:ewis 5                                 Agnes 2  

Dixon 2                                  Sallie 1

In addition to the children in the 1860 census, there are three more attributed to Jacob and Hannah who should have been in the 1850 census record with their parents, but don't appear until 1860 as young adults.

There was Obedience "Beady" who married Noah Sheppard, who had married by 1850 and lived in BlackJack, near the Fords.

There was Solomon Ford, missing in 1850, who married an older woman named Martha Northam in 1859, and here they are in the 1860 Census.

Then there was George Ford, who was 20 and working as an Overseer for Hannah Covington, right next door to  Jacob Ford.  And lastly, Ann Eliza Ford, born about 1845, who was still in the home in 1860, yet not listed in 1850, but should have been, and who married John Thomas Sheppard Sr., son of Alexander "Sandy" Sheppard and Mary McCaskill Sheppard.

And lastly, Thomas Ford, who would have been about 2 or so, should have been in the 1850 census as well. He would have been born the same year as the 'Dison' or ' Dixon' that shows up listed under Jacob and Hannah Ford. I would really like to hear any other theories on why these mystery children were listed for Jacob and Hannah and their actual children who had already been born by then were not.

The odd thing is, there are further reocrds of the lives of the children and young adults who were the offspring of Jacob and Hannah Ford in 1860, however, there are no more records of any of the children in their home in 1850. None. I can imagine it possible to have had a family of 8 children in 1850 that were wiped out by a plague and started a whole new batch of children that appear in the 1860 census. YET, all the ones over the age of 10 were born before 1850, and should have appeared in the 1850 census as their parents. This is not possible. It appears that either the census taker in 1850 got all of the childrens names wrong, or he listed the wrong children with the wrong parents. I don't know who William, Mary, Henry, John, Jane, James, Lewis and Dixon were, but I don't believe they were Fords.

There was one other thing of note about the 1860 census of Black Jack District for the Ford family. William Paul, who had several offspring marry into the Ford family, was living on the property and working as an overseer for Jacob Ford.

For further tracking, we are going to forget the 1850 children, as they are not trackable under those names, and move forward with those individuals who left records and therefore did exist. As we saw by 1860, Obedience and Solomon had already married, Beadie to Noah Shepherd and Solomon to Martha Northam.

1861

Everyone knows what happened in 1861 that would change not only the face of the landscape, but the fate of its families.

Three sons of Jacob Ford enlisted for service in the Civil War:

Solomon, aged 27, who was thereafter disabled.

Thomas, aged 20, who seems to have returned unscathed.

And George, 22, who never made it home.

Despite the sorrow that descended upon the Ford family , like in every other family in the region, and the nation,  life went on., florwers emerged from the ashes and good things happened, depsite all of the death.

In 1870, only the three daughters who would marry three Paul brothers were left in the home.

Thomas Ford had married in 1867 to Martha Sheppard, daughter of Noah and Beadie Sheppard. Yet, Beadie Ford Sheppard was said to be the daughter of Jacb Ford? Did Thomas marry his neice? In 1867, I suppose that was possible, but I believe it was more likely that Beadie was not the daughter of Jaocb Ford, like everyone seems to have her as being.

Rebecca Ford is missing. She would eventually marry Arnold Perdue, after she was past her child-bearing years. I believe she was probably married to someone else during the 1860's and 1870's and was either divorced or widowed, as she is back in her parents home in 1880. Or, she could have just been missed. The most interesting thing to me about her eventual husband, Arnoold Perdue, is that he was a witness to the marriage of Ben Paul and Eliza Gathings.

Simon Ford had been on his own and George died in the war, that left two other younger sisters, shown on the 1860 census as Martha J Ford, aged 7 and Chuny Ford, aged 5.

Martha Jane Ford is alos missing from the 1870 census, but two years later , she would marry Stephen Tebe Sheppard, son of Alexander and Mary McCaskill Sheppard. That is a couple whose name also comes up a lot in researching the entwined families of Sheppard, Paul and Ford. Had Jacob Ford hired his older single daughters out and perhaps they were listed under a different surname because of that?

These three families, Ford, Paul and Alexander Sheppard/ Shepherd, are not mentioned in land records, until the later and younger gernerations. They were of a labor class, except for Jacob, who seems to have owned his land without record. Perhaps they burned.

Chuny or Chaney only appears in the 1860 census. Some of the children of Stephen Tebe Sheppard, "Coon" and "Van" Sheppard, list their mother as Chaney Ford. Descendants have seemed to have merged Martha Jane and Chaney into one person, but in every census she is in, and the 1870 census is the only one missing, Martha Jane is Martha J or just Martha, or "Mossie" in one. In 1860, they are listed in  as two different girls, with two different names and ages. In 1870, they would have been 15 and 17. Could Stpehen Tebe Sheppard have married Chaney and then Martha, with Chaney dying young? I will have to look into this more deeply. 

The 1880 census is the last for Jacob, he is 78 and Rebecca is back in the fold, helping with her aging parents.

Rebecca Ford married Arnold Perdue in 1899 at 53 and died on January 28, 1928, aged 82.

Anne Eliza Ford, who married John Thomas Sheppard in 1870, is also missing in the 1870 census.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Ford married Stephen Paul in March of 1874. She died in 1921 at 70.

Agnes "Aggie" Paul married Pleasant Paul in 1879. She died young, before1895, when he remarried to Jenny Sheppard, but they had at least 2 children together.

Sarah "Sallie" Ford married John W. Paul on Christmas Day in 1879. She died in 1936 at the age of 76.

I intend to look closer at these three couples to see if any of them might have been the parents of Ben Paul.

Hannah Ford outlived Jacob by many decades, below she is shown living with her daughter, Rebecca Ford. She is shown with Rebecca in both the 1900 and 1910 census.

Hannah was buried at Zion Methodist Church. She passed away on  November 11, 1914,. Her date of birth was given as March 14, 1814. She was 100 years old. It's pretty certain that Jacob was born there too, his stone collapsed or gone to ruin, if any at all.

On both the 1900 and 1910 census, Hannah was adament that she had been the mother of 11 children, with 8 living. With both census records the same, that's pretty definitive. So who were the 8 living in 1900 & 1910 and what of the 11?

Eight:

1) Solomon

2) Analiza

3) Thomas

4) Rebecca

5) Elizabeth

6) Martha Jane

7) Sallie

8) ? (unless Beadie)

Eleven: Add

9) George

10) Agnes

11) Chaney

The 1860 census lists 8 children with Solomon married and George working nearby. That's 10, if Beadie counts, Eleven. Without Beadie, an infant could have easily been born and died between census records. 

Now to look closer at the children of Jacob and Hannah.

The concept of a parallel universe has inspired many a Sci-Fi movie or TV show. I am currently binge-watching "Fringe", which incorporates this idea in its premise. This does not suggest I believe they exist, but neither does it discredit the idea that it might. While looking at the Ford family of Richmond County, North Carolina, I began to wonder if this family had been caught up in a parallel universe, they were so - unclear.

It seems people kept mixing up Solomon and Thomas Ford, and still do, apparently. Both were sons of  Jacob Ford and wife, Hannah Sheppard Ford. I believe I am still missing one Ford child in the fold, one living still in 1910, according to Hannah, who lived to be 100, but they had more daughters than sons, that I know. I have identified three sons, Solomon, Thomas and George, the latter having died during service in the Civil War.

No little amount of confusion was brought about by the 1850 census, wherein Jacob and Hannah were listed with 8 children who were not theirs, or either, who all promptly died, while children who were theres', and should have been listed as living in their parents home, were not, and were not anywhere to be found for that matter. I tend to think the enumerator had made just one whole big mistake and gave someone else's children to them, while he was under a tree unwrapping his 2 pm snack, having promptly forgotten the names of the correct children.

The first authentic census, beyond the 1840 census, which shows Jacob's household as a young couple with one small boy in the home, which would mesh well with being Solomon, as he was born in 1838 or 1839, was the 1860. Here, Thomas, the youngest brother, is a 13 year old still living at home, while older brothers, Solomon and George, are out on their own. George, who died during service in the Civil War, is just next door, working as an Overseer for a Mrs. Covington, while Simon has already married and is living in his own home. 

That leads to another source of confusion between the brothers, both had wives named Martha. Solomon had married Martha Northam in October of 1859, a lady older than himself. Thomas would later marry Martha Shepherd, who was younger than he, in 1867, meaning there was a noticable age gap between the two Martha's and that would come into play later.

Solomon Ford

Richmond County Courthouse

Carrie Mae Ford Ford

Loula Ford Sheppard

8) Lillie Ford (1888- 1956) Married William Franklin Starnes. One son.

A Photo of the Richmond County Confederatre Vets about 1910 including the Ford brothers. Courtesy of Toni Alvarez

Sir Tristram

Tristram was a Knight of Arthurian legend. The name Tristram also had a brief career as a trendy name in mid-ninteenth century Richmond and Southern Anson Counties, North Carolina. So how does that fact feed into my research of the Jacob and Hannah Sheppard Ford family?

The elderly Hannah Ford, who lived to be 100 years old and passed away in 1914 in Richmond County, NC, was steadfast in the fact that in 1900 and 1910, that she had 8 living children, and had been the mother of 11 children altogether. A mother would know her children. I could put names to the three deceased children. Her son, George Ford, had passed away in the Civil War, her daughter Agnes or "Aggie" Ford had married Pleasant Paul and had a couple of kids, passing away before he remarried. Lastly, her daughter Chaney also had passed from records prior to 1900. Yet, as for the living, there was that one Number Eight missing.

I found Trstram thanks to his nephew, John Monroe Ford, son of Solomon and Martha Ford, Jacob and Hannah's oldest son.

Hannah Sheppard Ford

Hannah Sheppard Ford had apparently been weak in body, but strong in mind at the turn of the century. Born in 1814 to Thomas Sheppard of Anson and Richmond Counties, this lady had seen a lot and a lot of change, in her days. While researching her family, I had discovered that due to errors caused in different decades by different census takers, descendants had her family tree all discomboluated. One error was that in the 1900 census, the census taker had misnamed her son, Thomas and had given him the name of his brother Solomon. As in the huge jump between 1880 and 1900, where there was no census due to the burning of the 1890, Thomas had added several children to his family. Solomon was a good bit older than Thomas and both had married women named Martha. Solomon's Martha was much older than he and Thomas's Martha was of nearer his own age. The two Martha's had been a confusing issue as well. Because of those two facts, many of Thomas's children had been attributed to Solomon instead of Thomas.

Solomon was in the 1900 census too, the real Solomon, but as his Martha had died in the interim, he had remarried, and was living happily with his second wife, Eliza. To top that off, Solomon's youngest son had married one of Thomas's daughters, and had been at his uncles house when the census taker came by. He was counted there, but on a different day, when the census taker came by his father's house, this son, Robert, was also counted there as well. 

I wondered if Robert may have been the source of the whole 1900 mix up. Had he been there to visit his cousin Carrie, whom he obviously had eyes for, and maybe Thomas had been in the fields? The census taker asked him what his father's name was, and the 19 year old Robert answered "Solomon"? It could have happened that way. 

It was the 1880 census that gave us the name of the 8th Ford, however. Solomon, who was the father of 4 sons, had one named John Monroe Ford, his eldest, and in 1880, John Monroe Ford, like his youngest brother Robert in 1900, was visiting, or staying with, an uncle.

Tristram (or Tristan) Ford was living in Harleeville, in Marion County, South Carolina in 1880, and there, when researching Solomon's children, I found his nephew, John Monroe Ford. 

All of Jacob and Hannah Ford's real children had been missed in the 1850 census, but Tristram had missed more than most. In fact, Tristram doesn't show up in records, at least in his real name, until the Civil War. Like his brothers Solomon, George and Thomas, Tristram also served. He was in the same company as George, but unlike George, although wounded, he had survived. 

And certainly enough, Tristram was from Richmond County, North Carolina. I had the right John M. Ford and had found Hannah's missing living child. Tristram had enlisted at only 18, and had a lengthy and eventful career in the War. He had enlisted on the last day of 1861 in Company E, 38th Infantry. Two years later, he had been imprisoned in Falling Waters, Maryland, two years after that, in 1865, he was imprisoned in Appomattox River, Virginia. Prison life was as deadly as battle. For the young man to have survived these four years of hell, he was made of some tough material. Having seen more of the world than which he had been accustomed to in Richmond County may have attributed to his move to South Carolina. 

Falling Waters Battlefied, Maryland

Now having a more complete roster of the children of Jacob and Hannah who were living and should have been listed in their home in 1850, I want to compare them to the names and ages of the children who were listed in the Ford household instead.

Those who WERE listed                             Those who SHOULD have been listed

William 17                                                             Solomon 11

Mary 15                                                                George 10

Henry 13                                                                Tristram 7

John 11                                                                   Analiza 5

James 7                                                                   Rebecca 4

Lewis 5                                                                   Thomas 2 

Dison 2

No correlation at all. Although both lists include an 11, 7, 5 and 2 year old, the genders and the children in between don't match in any way. Where had the census taker gotten these random children? And if the children in the 1860 census had all been born since 1850, one might say that a tragic illness could have taken out all of the older children, but No. Here were 6 children born before 1850, who should have been named in the household. 

Jacob and Hannah had a train of daughters born during the 1850's: Betsy, Martha Jane, Agnes, Chaney and Sally and Beadie was married in 1849, and with her husband in 1850, so there's your 11. The verdict isn't completely in on Beadie yet, however, there was only ONE Ford family in Richmond County at this time.

Before the 1880 census, I can't find Tristram in Richmond County, NC, but this Agricultural Schedule for 1870 in Marion County, South Carolina, where we know he lived for awhile, may have captured him. 1870 was the year he probably married Adaline.

Adaline E. Stanton was the daughter of James W. Stanton and wife, Annie McDaniel Stanton. She was the oldest of three children and had grown up in  Marion County, South Carolina.  Below is the family unit in 1860.

Her mother passed away before 1870, and neither Adeline or her husband Tristram can be found in the 1870 census, but her father is found in Red Bluff, Marlboro County, South Carolina, which is just below the NC/ SC state line.

Tristram and Adeline seem to have led a very quiet life, and had no biological children. They adopted a little girl named Mary Margaret aka "Mollie", born in 1883. She could have very well been a biological neice. The 1900 census has the family living in Harleesville and states they were married in 1870, for a period of 30 years. Adeline was the mother of 0 children with 0 living, so was probably barren. Tristram was shown with the nickname "Trussie", which was the name of one of his sister, Martha Jane's children, who was obviously named for the older Tristram. 

It had been reported in the Rockingham, Richmond County, NC newspaper that Tritram had been up for a visit in 1891.

They were still in Harleeville in 1910, and now Adeline's elderly aunt, Charlotte, was living with them. She was the sister of Adeline's mother, Anne. The street they lived on had no name, but was given as the "road leading to Little Rock Road". 

Their daughter Mollie had married Stephen Franklin "Frank" Smith before 1900. The couple had 4 children : 1901 Ford S. Smith, 1906 Maitland Keller Ford, 1915 Ava Lois Smith,  and 1917, Laurie Frank Smith.

1920 was the last census for Tristram and Adeline. They were still in Harleesville and waiting out their last years alone. 

Tristram Ford, the missing child of Jacob and Hannah Sheppard Ford, passed away in 1921 at the age of  78. His wife, Adeline followed him in 1927. They are buried at the Carolina's Presbyterian Church in Dillon County, South Carolina.

Tristram and Adeline's only child, Mollie, was widowed in 1919. She never remarried. She lived for awhile in Monroe, in Union County, North Carolina and then moved to Charlotte in Mecklenburg, NC. She lastly lived in Myrtle Beach, in Horry County, North Carolina. There, she passed away in 1966.

Shepherding is a profession nearly as old as humanity itself. It's not hard to imagine someone with the surname of Shepherd having descended from an ancestor of this profession. Many surnames, developed centuries ago to distinguish between one John and another, as one name perpetuated itself to the point that one was not enough, dervived from occupations. This way, one could identify Thomas the Taylor separate from Thomas the Butcher.

In 1840, Jacob Ford showed up for the first time in a  Richmond County, North Carolina census record and found himself on a page with many Shepherds. Archibald McNair had begun the page in Black Jack District with a James Davis, then Wilson Meachum, and then Thomas Shepherd, whose daughter, Hannah, Jacob had married. A few more names down you will see Mastin Shepherd, an Ingram, a Bolton, a Watkins and a Bostick before finding Sandy Shepherd and Richard Shepherd, with Jacob Ford just after. Richard and Sandy were brothers, and Richard would migrate on to Mississippi and Sandy, short for Alexander, would remain in Richmond County. 

It was no surprise then, that a few of the Ford children would marry a few of the Shepherds. Due to South in the Mouth or perhaps phonetic spelling, the name of Shepherd in the early years was seen spelled 'Sheppard' more commonly than Shepherd, although it would revert back to its correct spelling at times. 

This post is to take a close look at two of the daughters of Jacob Ford who married Sheppard men. I've already shown that two of his sons, Solomon and Thomas, would take wives from the Sheppard clan. 

The Ford Brothers

Thomas Ford would marry Martha Sheppard in 1867, she being the oldest daughter of  Noah Richard Sheppard, oldest son of the aforementioned Richard who moved to Ole Miss. Thomas's older brother Solomon would take a widowed daughter of Sandy Sheppard, Eliza, as his wife, when his own first spouse, Martha (Covington?) Northam Ford had passed away, Martha a possible widow herself when she married him. 

Analiza Ford Sheppard

The first Ford daughter to marry a Sheppard was Analiza, or Ann Eliza, depending on what document you are looking at. Annie looks rather unfriendly in the above photo from her latter years, but that doesn't mean she carried a loathsome personality. We know she was born around 1845 in Richmond County and married John Thomas Sheppard, son of Alexander "Sandy" and Mary McCaskill Sheppard, in her early twenties. Richmond is a burned county, so many of its records, land, marriage and others, no longer exist.

She shows up in the home of her parents at 15 in the 1860 census. Her sister, Martha Jane, who would also marry a Sheppard, is aged 7 here. Also note that Chaney, misspelled 'Chuny' here, is 5 years old and a separate child altogether from Martha Jane.

John was in his parents home in 1870 and Ann Eliza does not. She may have simply been missed, or she could have been hired out and was working for a neighbor. That happened quite a bit in poorer families. Another possibility is that she was married to someone else at the time. She was about 25, so could have been a young widow when marrying John Sheppard.

Another coincidence is that Martha Jane Ford is not in the 1870 census, either. Martha married Stephen Tebe Sheppard, the youngest son of Sandy and Mary McCaskill Sheppard, shown as 17, above. There must be a story about the whereabouts of  Ann Eliza and Martha Jane at this time.

Stephen and Martha Jane were married in 1872, according to the 1900 census and John and Analiza were married in 1870. No wedding document can be found for either one. Again, in a burned county, this can happen.

Ten years later, in 1880, both couples are married and living next to each other. As this excerpt, when enlarged is difficult to read, I will reiterate it below.

Black Jack District, Richmond County, North Carolina

112  John Sheppard 31 Marrried Farmer

       Eliza 31 Married Keeping House

       Julia  6   Daughter

       Puss 4    Daughter

       John 3    Son

113  Stephen Sheppard   27   Farmer

       Martha  26   Wife   Keeping House

       Jane   9   Daughter

      Calvin  6   Son

      Stephen   4  Son

      Willie   3     Son

       Trass  2      Son

There seems to be some confusion in family trees about some of the children, for example, who Calvin belonged to. Here, he is clearly in Stephen and Martha's home. Also, Trass, the youngest son of Stephen and Martha, was actually named Tristram, like his uncle I featured in my last post, The Eighth Ford, Tristram.

http://www.jobschildren.com/2022/03/the-eighth-ford-tristram.html 

Black Jack Township, where the Sheppard-Ford siblings lived, was on the western border of Richmond County. The Pee Dee River separated it from Anson County and the county seat and largest town, Rockingham, was too its south. The twenty years between the 1800 census and the 1900 census was a big jump in time, but not a great deal of change for the Sheppards. They remained renters, never owning their own farms, and living a rather hard scrabble life. During this time, the wo sets of siblings with their double-cousined children would move from living side by side. John and Anneliza would relocate to the mysterious Grassy Island secition, closer to the river and would attend the Old Bethel Methodist Church there. Annie would report that she had given birth to 6 children, yet only half of them had lived. The deceased three were unknown as the three who were mentioned in the 1880 census lived, Julia, Florence aka "Puss" in 1880 and John Jr. Some list Puss as a separate child, but Florence was born before 1880 in the same year as "Puss", so it was simply a nickname and one and the same.

A younger Annie Eliza

Speaking of nicknames, Martha Jane and Chaney were two separate girls as children, the former born in 1853 and the latter in 1855. Martha Jane was always seen as Martha or Martha J. in every census. However, several of her 7 children called their mother "Chaney" in their records. As it appears the original Chaney died quite young, before 1880, Martha Jane must have acquired the name as her nickname.

This is the John and Anneliza Sheppard family in 1900. They had been married for 30 years and were renting a farm and trying to survive. Julia had married and was out on her own, but the younger two children, Florence and John Jr. were still at home. Eddie and William were their grandsons and in reality, their surnames were not Sheppard. 

Julia had married Alexander Sandy Liles, son of  Malcom C. Liles and Bettie Galloway Liles. The first three of their five children had been born and Julia indicated she had had an unknown child who had died. Sandy and Julia would go on to have two more chidlren, George in 1903 and Annie Liles Jacobs Collins in 1908. She died at the age of 38 of an unknown cause and was buried at the ancient Bethel Methodoist Church in the Pee Dee Hills area. The Church was founded in 1775 and deeded in 1795.

Sandy Liles would go on to marry again , to Ebbie Eliza Chavis, who would give him 6 more children. Julia had been his second wife. He married first to Isbell Evie Eudy, who died less than two years later, leaving no living children.

The other set of married siblings, Tebe and Chaney, were still in Black Jack, but closer to Ellerbe. The younger four of their 7 children lived with them and Turner, only 17, was married to Tempy 18 and still at home.

Nearby was Hannah Sheppard Ford, Anneliza and Chaney's mother, living with her daughter Rebecca and Rebecca's husband, Arnold Purdue. Several houses down was Tebe and Chaney's oldest son Calvin, living beside Stephen Paul, as he had married the Paul's daughter, Sallie.This must have been the old Ford property of Jacob that they were living on. 

The area where they lived began to be called by the name of Cognac. A Post Office was established there in 1900 and remained well into the 1950's. It was northeast of Hamlet and Rockingham and southeast of Ellerbe.According to Wikipedia, the community garnered it's name after the liquor Cognac, as this was a 'wine-growing' district. Newspapers of the times would report that it was also a moonshining district. The above map shows Cognac near the Scotland County line.

1910 was the last census record we find the older Sheppard/Ford matchup in. Here, they are in their 60's and finally are no longer renters. They own their own farm. Only son, Jr. is helping them on at as well as Grandson Edd, whose last name was Bittles, not Nettles. 

John Sheppard courtesy of Hilda Jacobs

Anne Eliza Sheppard died on April 5, 1914. She was 69 years old. Her husband, John, who was 5 years her junior outlived her by 5 years. He died on April 7, 1919, nearly 5 years to the day of Anne Eliza's death. He, too, was 69. Both are buried at the old Bethel Church in the Grassy Islands area of Richmond County. 

Sometime after the death of Anneliza, John Sr., along with his son, Jr. moved to Scotland County. John Jr.'s  World War I draft registration states that Jr. was 40 years old and worked as farm labor for a Currie out of Clio, South Carolina. His address was RFD 2, Laurinburg, Scotland County, NC. He was of medium height and weight, with blue eyes and dark hair. His nearest relative was John Sr. of the same address.

They were living in Scotland County when John Sr. passed away. His remains were taken back to the Pee Dee Hills of Richmond to be buried with beside his wife at Old Bethel.

The children of John Thomas Sheppard and Anneliza (Ann Eliza) Ford Sheppard were:

Julia Anna Sheppard (1872 -1910) Married Alexander Sandy Liles. 5 children.

Florence "Puss" Sheppard (1876-1951) Florence led a long and complicated life. She had a number of relationships and a number of childen. Folks had even merged her with a totally different and significant Florence. She needs her own post.

John Thomas Sheppard, Jr. (1878-1936) was the only son of John and Anneliza. He remained at home with his parents until both had passed away. Afterwards, he remained in  Laurel Hill in neighboring Scotland County, where he is found in 1920, working as a farm laborer and had an older woman named Alice Brant living with him. Jr. was 42 at this time. His sister Florence was also living nearby, probably on the same farm, with an African American family by the name of Graham, also living on the property.

John Thomas "Bud" Sheppard Jr. courtesy of  T. Bittle

He would eventually marry, at the age of 48, to a woman named Larcenia Graves Parham. She had been born in South Carolina in 1873 and was the daughter of Tobias and Jenny Graves. 'Larceny', as she was called, married first to a William S. Parham and became the mothe of 4 children: Bessie, Walter Odell, Willie F. and Henry A. 

Junior took his bride back to Black Jack District in Richmond County, where he was most comfortable. There, he is found in 1930, working as fisherman and his youngest two stepsons, Will and Henry, lived with them. John's marital bliss and return home did not last long. He died in 1936 of angina at the age of 58. He was buried at Old Bethel along with his parents. The person reporting on his death certificate was his niece, Bessie, daughter of Florence. John Sheppard Jr. never had children of his own. His widow, Larcenia, lived another 6 years, passing on in 1942 in Richmond County. Her sons took her back to Laurel HIll, in Scotland County, for burial.

Find a Grave, shared by Terri

That left only the younger pair of Sheppard/ Ford siblings, Tebe and Chaney. When we last saw them, they were still living in Black Jack on the old Jacob Ford property, near Chaney's mother, Hannah and her sister Rebecca Ford Perdue.

After Hannah's death, it appears the property may have been divided. We find them living on Walls Ferry Road near Rockingham, the largest town in Richmond County. They are no longer in Black Jack.

They are renting a farm and their son, Tristram Coon Shepherd is living with them, as is their daughter, Sallie, who never married. Shtephen Tebe Sheppard and Martha Jane Sheppard had a robust pack of children. All 7 of their kids were adults now, and all still living. Now is a good time to look at the Sheppard 7 who have flown the nest.

Calvin Sheppard was born on January 19, 1870. He appears in the family home in 1880 and is married by 1900. He was the firstborn and lived a rather quiet life. His parents were 17 when he was born, but he waited unitl he, himself was 29 to marry. On June 1st, 1899, he married his first cousin, Sallie Paul, who was only 19. Sallie was the daughter of Stephen Paul and Elizabeth "Betsy" Ford. Betsy and Calvin's mother Martha Jane were sisters. The Sheppards, Fords and Pauls were intrinsically entangled. While two Ford daugthers had married Sheppard brothers, Three Ford daughters had married three Paul brothers.

In 1900, the couple were shown livng right next door to her parents, while his and his grandmother were also close by, being on the same page. Sallie must have been heavily pregnant because she gave birth to their first child, a little girl named Rena on August 30th of that year. Little Rena probably fell ill to one of the many ailments that plagued little ones in those days, as she only lived to be 10 months old. She was buried at Zion , the family church.

The 1910 census had them living on Henson road, near Rockingha, with a 2 year old son, Lonnie and in 1920, Lonnie had been joined by a little sister, Connie. These are the only two children they would have that lived to grow up. In 1930, they were renting a farm on the Clay Road north of Rockingham and only Connie remained at home. 

By 1940, 68 year old Calvin was working as a highway laborer and they were living with their son, Lonnie and his young family. Calvin died just 4 years later , at the age of 73, of cancer and was buried at Eastside Cemetery in Rockingham.

Sallie had a long widowhood,. She is shown in the 1957 City Directory living on Greene Street in Richmond County.

Just one year later, she's in  Newark, New Jersey, as reported by the Charlotte Observer, and died there in February of 1958, at the age of 86.

Annie Jane Sheppard

The second child of  Tebe and Chaney was Annie Jane "Jenny" Sheppard. Born November 15, 1872, she shows up as 9 year old Jane in the 1880 census in her parents home. On December 29, 1895, 23 year old Annie Jane married 42 year old Pleasant Paul. Yes, there is that "Paul" name again, and it gets more complicated. Pleasant Paul's first wife was Agnes "Aggie" Ford, the sister of  Jenny's mother, Martha Jane Ford Sheppard. Yes, she married her Uncle by marriage, and this was by far, not the most incestous leaning relationship in this gourp of families.Remember  one of the Ford boys married his neice.

1910 Census Black Jack District

Pleasant had had two children by Aggie, Robert Lee and Annie. He and Jenny had just one daughter, Lela Clifton "Lee" Paul, in 1901. In the 1900 census, Pleasant and Jenny were seen in a home with his son, Robert and Robert's then wife, Nannie. Nannie will play a roll in a future post. Pleasants daughter, Annie, is shown as a servant in the house next door, working for a Zach Ellerbe. Ten years later, Pleasant and Jenny are living next to her tparents, Stephen and Martha Sheppard and their daughter, Lela, is 8. Also in their home is an 18 year old named William Paul and the relationship given is a brother of Pleasant. I haven's quite figured that one out yet, but I will. They have been married for 13 years and had only the one child. Next to them is Jenny's brother, William F. "Willie" Sheppard with one of his three wives., Heeln Covington Sheppard.

Pleasant V. Paul died November 22, 1913. He was buried at the family church, Zion. Little morethan 2 weeks later, before Pleasnt ahd settled well into the grave, Jennie had married Jesse Abraham Hopkins, from nearby Scotland County, N.C., also seen as Abrahma Jesse, or A J Hopkins. A J was a younger man, and Jenny was 42, so they had no children, besids Lela Paul, aka "Lee", Jenny's daughter.