CHATHAM COUNTY, NC - WILLS - Jehu Lambert, 23 Dec 1846
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Probated February Sessions 1847
Pg. 199, Vol. C., Chatham County, NC Wills
North Carolina
Chatham Co.
"I Jehu Lambert of the county and State aforesaid being of sound mind
and memory but considering the uncertainty of my earthly existence do
make & declare this my last will & testament in manner & form following
that is to say=
First - That my Executors hereinafter named shall proved for my body
decent burial suitable to the wishes of my relatives and friends and pay
all funeral expenses together with my just debts however and to
whomsoever owing out of the money that may first come into their hands
as a part of parcel of my Estate.
2nd - I give and devise to my beloved wife Martha, the tract of land
whereon I now live.
3rd - My will is that my Executors pay over to each and every one of my
children and my granddaughter Athanasia Foushee the child of my daughter
Rachael the sum of ten dollars each & that they pay my daughter
Elizabeth ten dollars extra for her attentions to me during my sickness.
4th - My will is that the residue of my property remain in the hands of
my beloved wife Martha at her disposal. And lastly I do hereby
constitute and appoint my two sons John (Jehu?)  Lambert and Robert
Lambert my lawful executors to all intents and purposes in witness
whereof I the said Jehu Lambert do hereunto set my hand and seal this
23rd day of December A.D. 1846

Signed sealed published and declared by the said Jehu Lambert to be his
last will & testament in the presence of us who at his request & in his
presence do subscribe our names as witness thereto.
Jno. R. Marsh
Joseph J. Hackney
Chatham County February Sessions 1847
This certifies that the foregoing last will & testament of Jehu Lambert
dec'd was proved in open court by the oath of Jno. R. Marsh, a
subscribing witness thereto & ordered to be recorded whereupon Robert
Lambert one of the Executors therein named appeared in open court & was
duly qualified.
Test: N. A. Stedman, C. C. C.

 An unusual DNA match has led to a roundabout and twisted branches search.

Attached to the family tree of this nontypical match was the following document, the April 1st, 1875 marriage certificate from Anson County, NC, for the marriage of Pinkney Ramsey, 21, and Martha A. Howell, 17.

Pinkney was the son of Harbard and Ann Ramsey and Martha was the daughter of Ann Howell. There was only a mark in the place of the father's name for Martha Howell, whether an "I" or just a check mark, I can't decipher. The wedding took place in Ansonville at the home of  "L. S." or "L. G." someone, the handwriting has faded to far to reconcile. The name of one witness is clear as 'George', his surname indetectable.

On June 26, 1875, 17 year old Martha A. Howell, daughter of Ann Howell, father not given, married Pinkney Ramsey, son of Harbard and Ann Ramsey, all of Anson County, North Carolina. This we know. The copy of this document had been copied by this dna match from a name I recognized, someone I met online early in my research who has become a dear friend. I recognized the names in the document and guessed this must be the family line our shared dna traveled through, because I do indeed have Ramsey ancestry.

Pinkney is in my family tree as James Pinkney Ramsey, born around 1852 in the Burnsville Community of Anson County. I've managed to successfully trace him from childhood to death, despite the fact that he had a habit of avoiding, skipping or hiding from the records. The Pinkney Ramsey who married Martha Howell, daughter of Ann Howell was my 1st cousin 4 times removed, according to the relationship calculator at ancestry.com. The problem was, he was not the only James Pinkney Ramsey in this part of the state during the waning years of the 19th century. There was another.

While my James Pinkney Ramsey was the son of Harbard/Herbert Ramsey and wife Annis Ledbetter Ramsey and was raised in Anson County, the other Pink had different parents, was 20 or 30 years older and was raised in Rockingham County. Despite all of that, they did have a number of things in common that caused a great deal of confusion and have many folks today confusing them, mixing them up or even merging them into one person. Yes! Even 30 years apart in age, it appears they have been merged. I have found one Pinkney's chldren listed in the other Pinkney's family tree, in many, many profiles and trees. So here is what they had in common:

1. Their name - obviously.

2. They both married a girl name Martha. Different last names, but yes, both named Martha.

3. They both ended up living in a place called Rockingham at some point.

4. Both had children who relocated to busier, more industrialized cities during the rapidly changing 20th Century.

So let's explore. First, the life of James Pinkney my 1st Cousin....4 times removed. One problem in the whole confusion matter is that Harborn Ramsey does not appear in the 1850 census. That would have been most helpful. I can't even be 100 percent sure if Harborn was the son or grandson of my ancestor, Stark Ramsey, the only certain partriarch of the Anson County Ramsey's. I believe his father was a man named John, as Starkey recieved a land grant that connected the property of  John Ramsey, and John was obviously significantly older than Stark, and that he may have brothers, other Ramsey's that show in the earliest of records, who migrated away. With a name like 'John' however, I've found it impossible to verify where John came from before arriving in Anson County. There's no will, and there were other John Ramsey's in multiple places before he shows up in Anson County, and I can find nothing so far with a mention of Stark or Starkey associated with any of these Johns, or even a mention of 'John of Anson' to let me know which John he may have been. 

Some people even have Harborn pegged as the son of the couple who were the parents of the other James Pinkney Ramsey. That's inconcievable. First, the numbers don't match up. Someone born about 1820 is not going to be the father of someone born in 1825. Secondly, I have not found one real DNA from someone descended from that Pink or from his parents. By real, I mean people who have their wagon hooked to that tree and it's correct, not folks who have my Pink merged with that Pink, but who are really descended from my Pink or from Harborn, although their tree is a mess. 

Harborn first shows up in the 1860 census of  Burnsville, Anson County. Burnsville was the home nest of my branch of the Ramsey family.  In the above excerpt of the census, we see Harbard aka Hubert, with his wife, Annis, and their three children, James (James Pinkney), Elizabeth (called Betty), and Annis Jr. They are in household number 55 and the Robin Broadaway family is in number 56, James Broadway in 57 and Wilson P. Turner, son of George Turner, in 58. If you peel back a page to look at the neighbors immediately preceding that of H. K. Ramsey's household (yes, we know those were his initials) we see these folks:

In Household 54, we see the Stokes McIntyre family, and in Household 53, the family of James and Biddy (Obedience) Ledbetter Ramsey. They are followed by Ben Hudson, Richard Poplin, William Carpenter, James Curlee and Sam Honeycutt. I am very familiar with many of these names. Keep James and Biddy in mind.

If we venture just one more page backwards, we see the family of Nelly Ledbetter, 63, next to Allen Ledbetter, 25, followed up by Curlees, Hinsons and Hills. This is significant. This gives us an idea of the neighborhood that Harborn Herbert and Annis was living in during the summer of 1860. Now, let's jump back a decade. While Harborn Herbert can't be found (at least I haven't found him yet) in 1850, his future wife can be found. 

Annis, who would within the year become Annis Ramsey, was Annis Ledbetter. She's living with her mother, Nelly Wall Ledbetter and siblings Rowena and Allen. Recall in 1860, Allen is in his own household with Nelly and Rowena listed in a separate house under his. The neighbor listed above them is James and Biddy Ramsey. Uncoincidentally, Biddy was also a Ledbetter. Nelly Wall Ledbetter was the widow of a William J. Ledbetter and these were among their children. 

One page over, we see Ben Hudson and Nancy Nash, just in separate households at this stage of the game. There's the Carpenters, too.

One page back, there are the Curlees, Turners, Hills and Broadways and smack in the middle is old Grandparents Stark and Lisha Ramsey, with their son, John and wife, Tempy, with widowed daughter in law, Polly, above them, with her children, some in the home and others, scattered, working for neighbors.  Polly was the widow of Holden Ramsey, who passed away in 1847. As a note, I share dna with/ am definately related to, descendants of John, James and Holden Ramsey. Stark Ramsey had a large family of sons.

The next bit of information we get about Harbard/ Herbert/ H. K. Ramsey that may give us a bit of insight on the early years of James Pinkney Ramsey comes from his Civil War records.

On February 1, 1862, John F. Ramsey and Harborn K. R. Ramsey, both rode or traveled from Stanly County, NC to the town of Salisbury, NC to volunteer for service in the Confederate army. Both enrolled in the 42nd Infantry, Company C, under Col. G. C. Gibbs for 3 years or the War. Both young men were approximately the same age and both stated that they were from Stanly County. Remember that in 1860, Harborn and his young family were living in Burnsville, in Anson County, near his wife's family. Harborn was 24 years old, meaning he would have been about 22 in 1860 and 12 in 1850, not old enough to have been off on his own anywhere.

John F Ramsey, who signed up at the same time, at the same place, in the same unit as Harborn, is the 14 year old 'Franklin' shown in the home of Samuel and Rebecca Helms Ramsey in the above portion of the 1850 census of Stanly County, NC. Samuel was a son of Stark Ramsey and decided to settle on the north side of the small Rocky River in the general area of what we would consider Oakboro today. Samuel and Rebecca are my 4th Great Grandparents. These were not all of Samuel and Rebecca's children, but the list included most of their sons. 

Backing up a decade, to 1840, where only heads of households were listed, we see Samuel and his family still in Anson County. Oakboro, in Stanly County and Burnsville in Anson County are only 10 miles from each other,  a 12 minute drive today, but still not a great distance in 1850.

As you can see in 1840, it appears that Samuel and Rebecca had 4 daughters and 5 sons listed in their home. All of the children listed in 1850 were born before 1840. Harborn, who is not listed, could have been missed in the 1850 by the census taker, but easily fits in the listing for 1840. There is also one daughter unknown in the 1840 listing, and could have easily been married like Obedience and Rowena were, by 1850, Jane being the only daughter in the home in 1850.

Samuel was the only Ramsey living in Stanly County during the Civil War era. Both John and Harborn gave Stanly as their home county. It's my belief they were brothers, and that Harborn was Samuel's son and Starks grandson. DNA evidence seems to support this theory, but proof is another matter altogether.

The known children of Samuel and Rebecca Ramsey, excluding Harborn, were:

1) William Riley Ramsey who married Elizabeth Helms.

2) Obedience Ramsey who married William Hill, son of Julius Hill of Burnsville. She later married James Whittington after William's death. William and Obedience Ramsey Hill were my 3rd Great Grandparents.

3) Rowena Ramsey who married James Whittington. Yes, James married his widowed sister-in-law after his wife's death.

4) Jane Louisa Ramsey who married George Smith.

5) James Thomas Ramsey who was married three times, 1st to Elizabeth Reap, 2nd to Amelia Louise Ludwig and last to Wincy Ellen Smith. His is a case I need to look into closer.

6) John Franklin Ramsey who married Joyce Ann "Joicy" Redwine.

7) Gilliam O. Ramsey.

All of the above sons of Samuel Ramsey served in the Civil War. There were two Willliam R. Ramsey's, related, and the separation of the two requires a post of its own. One survived the War, one did not. Which was which? James Thomas and John Franklin both returned from the War. Gilliam O. did not.

In March of 1862, was absent due to sickness and had returned home to Stanly County, NC.

Harborn was present in April of 1864.

Harborn is listed in a Roll of Honor and said to be a 24 year old from Stanly County.

This report shows Harborn to have been admitted to the Camp Windor Hospital in Richmond, Virginia and that his initial were recorded as both H. K and H. R. and that he was the same person. Besides having been recorded as sick at Camp Winder, there was also an instance of him suffering from Debilitis and being admitted to the hospital in Charlotte, NC on May 15, 1864. He was returned to duty on July 17, 1864. Altogether, the Civil War records show that Harborn Ramsey was alive and accounted for until at least mid December, 1864. After that, there is no more record of Harborn. He did not return home. Did he pass away of illness unrecorded? Was he captured by the enemy and his death not reported? Did he perhaps assume a new identity and head West as many young men did at this time? The answers are unknown.

What is known is that he left a widow, Annis and three young children, Pinkney,  Betty and Annis II. Not one of the four of them is found in the 1870 census. They were not the only Ramsey family members that were missed. In all likelihood, they were still living together in a family unit, Annis Ledbetter Ramsey and her three children, and still in the Burnsville area of Anson County. This assumption because of the following events:

On  December 4, 1874, 1874, William R. VonCannon, age 25, and Elizabeth Ramsey, 20, were married by Rev. John Lyles at his home in Lilesville Township. Then, as we've already seen, on April 21, 1875, Pinkney Ramsey, son of Harbard and Annis Ramsey, married Martha Howell, daughter of Ann Howell, in Ansonville Township, Anson County.

Bettie 

Just a little excursion here to briefly look at the life of Bettie Ramsey. Elizabeth, most often referred to as Bettie, lived a long life for those days, passing away in 1938, at the age of 82. She and William Voncannon raised 10 children together. Her husband, William, grew up in Randolph County, NC. He is also always shown as 'William', except for once as a small chldren. William also lived into his 80's, so they had a long marriage.

The couple is shown in the 1880 census as living in Wadesboro, in Anson County, with the oldest three of their 10 children. After that, they are shown as living in Grant Township, southeast of the County Seat of Ashboro. The elderly couple was living in High Point in nearby Guilford County when they passed away and were returned to Randolph County for burial at Flag Springs United Methodist Church, in the general vicinity of the North Carolina Zoo. William was the son of Riley Von Cannon and wife, Lydia Corneliouson Von Cannon. He had  siblings Ananias, John, Sarah Jane, Thomas, Joel and Ranson. The names of his parents and siblings are echoed in the names of his children.

By US Census, Ruhrfisch - taken from US Census website [1] and modified by User:Ruhrfisch, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2379952

Their oldest child, Lydia Vandelia VonCannon, was supposed born on October 12, 1874, two months before the marriage. I suppose this could be true, but as age was very fluid in these old records, it is also quite possible that she was actually a year or more younger. 

In the 1880 census, she is shown as only two years older than her brother, Monroe, who was born in 1877, so 1875 was most likely her year of birth and children often appeared a year after their parents marriage in those days. Vandelia was followed by Madison Monroe, Thomas H., Alice Martha, Ananias, Sally Ella, Althace Annis, Daniel Maye, Atlas Charless and Addie Elizabeth wrapping up in 1894. Bettie had a death certificate and named her parents as H. K. and Annis 'Lineberry' Ramsey. Several members of Annis's Ledbetter family were called 'Lineberry' at some point and descendants often designate the surname as Ledbetter / Lineberry in family trees. It was actually Ledbetter leading all the way back to Virginia.

Now back to Pink. He, too, shows up again in 1880. He and Martha have started their family in the town of Ansonville in northern Anson County, not far from Burnsville. Ansonville was known as a college town in those days, and very Southern Antebelllum. A beautiful place in its day, I am told. Pink and Martha have a 4 year old son, Stephen, and a two years old daughter, Mary. They are living near Betsy May. May was a prominent Anson County surname. As Pink's sister Betty named a son Daniel Maye, from the surname (masculine), not the month (feminine), I wonder if there was somewhere a Maye connection to the family.

Youngest sister, Annis Jr or 'Anna', also reappears in 1880. She is 18 years old and still living in the area of Burnsville. She is working as a servant of the David Carpenter family. Anna or Annis Jr. never married. She was a member of what they described at that time as the 'defective class'. She is listed as being 'deaf and dumb'. She could neither hear nor speak, but she could, at this stage in her life, work as a farmhand.

Sometime during the 20 year jump from 1880 to 1900, Pink has moved his family to neighboring Richmond County, where they would remain. This is one fact that lead to the confusion with the other James Pinkney Ramsey. 

As the above handwritten excerpt is difficult to read, Ive included the transcribe verion which incorrectly has Pink as "Pugh". His wife, Martha Howell Ramsey has passed away. As the youngest child, Maggie, is 5 years old, this probably dates Martha's demise to between 1895 and 1900. Although she managed to hide during the 1870 and 1880 census, Pink's mother, Annis, has reappeared to help rear the children. This document also tells us that Pink is renting  a place in Beaverdam community. Richmond saw an influx of residents during this year due to being a textile center. Farmers who were barely scraping by sometimes chose to move into a town with a Cotton Mill, especially if they had young adult or teenaged children  they could put to work in the factories. Mill Villages sprang up in these areas and with them, businesses that catered to the needs of these mill workers who walked to work for the most part. Pink was no exception.

Pink, 48, is listed as a Mill Hand. William Stephen Ramsey, 24, has been promoted to a Night Boss. Twenty year old Mary Ella is spooling while her brothers, Adam 14, and Hugh, only  9, are dolphing. Only Reina, 7 and Maggie, 5, are not employed in the textile mills, while 70 year old Annis, their grandmother, must have been keeping house and watching the girls. Most of the neighbors had Mill related occupations and child labor was alive and well. It was more common to see older children and teens working than their mothers, a fact I have personally found disturbing.

Annis Ledbetter Ramsey.

While Annis managed to escape the census takers until 1900, the local newspapers give us small glimpse into what her life was like around the turn of the century.

The Messenger and Intelligencer Wadesboro, North Carolina • Thu, Jan 12, 1893Page 4

In 1893, the newspaper in Anson County reported that Annis and her daughter, evidentally referring to her deaf and mute daughter of the same name, Annis, was receiving $4.50 a month support from the County funds. She was a pauper, too old or physically unable to support herself, and therefore living off the County.

Woman with Her Hand over her Mouth by Edgar Degas

Annis was a popular name among the Ramsey family of Burnsville Township, Anson County, North Carolina, that also spread into the surrounding counties of Stanly, Union, Richmond and even Cabarrus. For this reason, it was a arduous task to track down one particularly elusive and inconspicuous Annis. 

For instance, there was Annis, born about 1841, daughter of Holden Ramsey and wife, Mary "Polly" Broadway Ramsey. Next was Annis Ramsey (1848 - 1915), daughter of  Robert Ramsey and wife, Margaret Mullis Ramsey, who married James Ingram Williams. Then there was Annis Ledbetter, daughter of  William Johnson Ledbetter and Nelly Wall Ledbetter, who married Harbard/ Harbart Ramsey , and her daughter, Annis J. Ramsey Jr. born about 1859. 

The Annis Ramsey born in 1841, 1848 and 1859 were all cousins. The name was so common amongst the descendants of partriarch Stark Ramsey that one wonders if there could have been a matriarch named Annis somewhere up the family line. While Stark Ramsey's last wife was named 'Lisha', his oldest sons were not likely to have been the sons of Lisha, as she was only 8 or 10 years older than they were, suggesting Stark had an earlier marriage with an older wife, more his own age. Annis Jr, daughter of Harborn was also probably a great granddaughter and of course, her mother was also Annis. Harborn died in the Civil War, and his paperwork stated he was born in Stanly County, not Anson. Samuel Ramsey was the son of Stark Ramsey to cross the county line into Stanly, so Harborn was probably his son. Still, I wonder if there was a grandmother Annis in the family tree.

There were actually several other women named Annis around Burnsville, Anson County and across the county line into the nearby communities of New Salem and Olive Branch, though it seemed central to this area. While one can be found here and there, it seems to have been a trend in this area. There was an older Annis Thomas and an Annis Broadaway, and others, I am sure. Did they have a common origin? 

The one Annis I want to focus on was the one born in 1859. She was the one born to Harbard Ramsey, also seen as Hubert, or any random spelling of Harbard, even Hubbard. Her mother was also an Annis, having been born as Annis Ledbetter, a name they also inferred as 'Lineberry'. Does that make sense? Not really, but it stood where it stood.  She is seen above, in this clip from the 1850 census of Burnsville Township, the Ramsey family hub and center.  Here, she is called "Annis Jr.". This particular family was really good at  escaping detection in records, but I was able to track them down anyway. 

Harbard/ Harborn/Hubert,  was probably named for his Uncle who was saddled with the same confusion and moved to Mississippi via Georgia, Hubbard Ramsey (1812 -1882) who married Priscilla *Allen. (*Her maiden is speculated, and has not been proven.). To make things simple, I will just refer to him henceforth as Harborn.

On May 15, 1862, Harbard enlisted in the Co. C 42nd Infantry of the Confederate Army. He never returned, leaving wife Annis Ledbetter Ramsey, a widow with three children. Not one of them could be found in the 1870 census, which was not an unusual occurence. I believe that recently after the War, things and folks in the South were still in a bit of shambles. 1870 seems a bit unorganized and hastily done. It was the first in which the freedpeoples were enumerated in their own households, which increased the counted population exponentially. However, things point to the survivors of Harborn Ramsey, whatever may have befallen him, were probably still in the community, either in Burnsville in Anson County near the Ledbetters, or near their grandparents, the Samuel and Rebecca family in Stanly County.

Older sister, Elizabeth Ramsey, aka 'Betty', married William Riley Voncannon in December of 1874 in Ansonville.

Older brother James Pinkney Ramsey married Martha A. Howell in April of 1875 in Burnsville. 

William and Bettie Ramsey Voncannon in their later years.

Annis Jr. never married, and in the 1880 census, the probable reason is revealed.

With her siblings married and beginning their own families in 1880, young Annis is working as a farmhand for David and Martha Carpenter, a childless couple in their thirties. It is revealed by the census taker that Anna is 'deaf and dumb', she can work, but not able to hear nor speak. 

The Messenger and Intelligencer

Annis and her mother of the same name will escape records for a number of years, but the local papers would reveal that as a widow and her handicapped daughter, they were living off a public stipend. $6.00 was not much, even in 1890.

The Messenger and Intelligencer

They appeared in the list of Paupers for Anson County for a number of years.

The Messenger and Intelligencer

They recieved $4.50 in 1892 through 1894, and would eventually move to Richmond County, where Annis's brother, James Pinkney Ramsey lived. 

Annis Sr. is found living in the home of Pink and his family in 1900, but not Annis Jr. The above list of those recieving support in 1899 in Richmond County, just a year prior, lists only one Annis Ramsey. Was it mother or daughter who only recieved $3.00 that year?

Annis Sr. is last seen in any record in 1905, and it is unknown when she passed away. But did Annis Jr. go to school eventually and learn to become a nurse? I can't find another Annis, or Annie, as they were sometimes called, that could have been the above Annie 

Paul Evans

What occurred between the years the deaf-mute Annis was working as a farm hand, and the next stage of her life, we do not know, we only know that she was alive. Then there were the reports in the newspaper of "Annis Ramsey and her daughter"recieving support from the county. There were six of these, total, between 1890 and 1899, the first five in Anson County and the last in Richmond. As the other sister, Betty, lived in RAndolph County, it appaers they lived on their own for a term, and then moved to Richomond to be near the only son, James Pinkney Ramsey.

Rockingham Post-Dispatch

And then there was one. The July 11, 1918 editon of the Rockingham Post-Dispatch of Richmond County reported the conditions of the County Home, an institution that had been established to house the sick and destitute.A church group called 'The Kings Daughters' had visited them recently and regularly, provided entertainment at times, 'served them with cke and ice cream and  and entertained them with music from a victrola". A brief historty of the home was given in the article. It had been established in 1851, when the Court of Pleas and Quarters ordered that the Board of Wardons were to purchase a tract of land within five miles of Rockingham, but not closer than one and a half miles, (the upper crust of Rockingham would not want to have to view the place from their lovely abodes, of course), for the purpose of erecting buildings for the aged and infirm of the couny. Soon, 132 acres two miles east of the city was purchased and the County Home erected. In 1870, three acres ofthe property was sold the the Great Falls Manufacturing Company to use for a resevoir, to store water against a drought.

In the beginning, the Superintendant was paid a certain amout of money for each resident. Afterwards, the staff of the Home were paid salaries and the expenses of the residents, of inmates, as they were called, was covered by the county. In 1916, the old farm and buildings were determined to be inadequate, and a new Couny Home was constructed on 30 acres, about a mile from the original, in 1917. The building was segregated by gender and race. There were two dining rooms, one for white residents on the west, and another for non-white residents on the east, with the kitchen in the middle. The upper story was for housing of the superintendents family. The west wing of the building housed white residents, with women in the front and men in the back. The east wing housed the non-white residents in the same manner. The buildings had modern heat and plumbing at a time when many farm families still had no indoor plumbing. There was a barn and a farm on the property that helped supply the food. In 1918, the home had 23 residents. One of them was Annis 'Annie' Ramsey, aged 58. This was daughter, not mother.

The Richmond Couny Home for the Aged and Infirm in 1918 from the above article. Annis would have lived in the front facing building on the left.

The Anglo-Saxon Rockingham, North Carolina • Thu, Jun 15, 1899Page 3

In the above report of county expenses, we see Annis Ramsey listed as recieving support of $3.00 in the top left column and Annie Ramsey as recieving support in the bottom right column. Annis must have applied to the mother and Annie to the daughter, as I have seen her as Annie and Annis.

There's no surprise that Annis Ramsey Jr. shows up in the County Home in 1920. This has become her life. Whatever the good citizens of Richmond County decided their elderly and handicapped community should have, is what Annis was subject to. This is where she spent the remainder of her life.

By 1930, Annis was truly elderly and ailing, in addition to being a deaf-mute. The Key family was now running the home, and Annis, 70, would not have much more time to suffer.

Annis J Ramsey Jr. died on August 23, 1930 of mitral regurgitation. Mr. Key, County Home Superintendant, was the informant and knew little to nothing about her. He guessed her age as 69, with a birth year of 1861, followed by a Quesiton Mark. As she appeared as an infant in the 1860 census, her age was more likley 70 or 71. She was buried at the County Home Cemetery, although there is no marker or memorial. I have added a Memorial on Find-A-Grave to this distant cousin of mine, using the information on her Death Certificate that she is buried there.

The cemetery is now abandoned, and is said to be located on County Home road near a Radio Station tower. The County Home Road runs beside a modern hospital. A man whose father was the Superintendant during the 1920's, and who was born there, a Mr. McLean, recalled walking to the cemetery as a child. There is currently no clear access, as if everyone was forgotten.

There were no tears for Annis as she seems to have passed into obscurity. Rest in Peace and may there be no more silence for Annis as a Child of God , she's been made whole.

In February of 1890, kindly storekeeper, Lindsey F. Austin of the Burnsville Community took in old "Aunt Polly" Ramsey. Was he a relative? Furthermore, who exactly was Aunt Polly?

L. F. Austin

For Polly to have been Lindsey's actual Aunt, she would have been a sibling of one of his parents. Did either Jonathan or Elizabeth have a sister named Mary? As a matter of fact, they did. Jonathan had a sister Mary "Polly" Austin, but this Polly was born in 1812 and married Thomas Jefferson Griffin and died in 1853, being buried in the Griffin Cemetery in Wingate, Union County, NC. 

Clement Ramsey and his wife, Polly, were both born in the early 1820's. They were a childless couple and Mary's maiden name is unknown, as no marriage certificate remains, and there were no children to reveal their mother's maiden name in their records. There is a possibility that she may have been born a Lee, from indirect interpretations in some existing church records. The above census record shows "Clem" and Mary as farmers in Diamnd Hill Township. 

The above Anson County map, circa 1900, shows the location of Diamond Hill in the upperwestern quadrant of the County. 

This matching map of Union County shows New Salem Township in the Upper Eastern Quadrant of Union County, so you can see the two areas were close. 

Name	Clem Ramsay
Age in 1870	56
Birth Date	abt 1814
Birthplace	North Carolina
Dwelling Number	24
Home in 1870	Burnsville, Anson, North Carolina
Race	White
Gender	Male
Post Office	Wadesboro
Occupation	Farm Laborer
Cannot Read	Yes
Cannot Write	Yes
Male Citizen Over 21	Yes
Inferred Spouse	Polly Ramsay

Household members

Name	Age
Clem Ramsay	56
Polly Ramsay	51

In 1870, Clem and Polly are in Burnsville, working as farm labor and still childless. 

Name	Clemual Ramsay
Age	61
Birth Date	Abt 1819
Birthplace	North Carolina
Home in 1880	Big Lick, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Dwelling Number	245
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Self (Head)
Marital Status	Married
Spouse's Name	Mary Ramsay
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Occupation	Farm Laborer
Cannot Read	Yes
Cannot Write	Yes
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Clemual Ramsay	61
Mary Ramsay	60

And lastly, in 1880, they have relocated to the Big Lick Community of Stanly County, still just across the border from Burnsville, still working as farm labor, and both now over 60. Here, Clem is seen as 'Clemuel'. 

Why do I refer to him as Clement? Because he joined the Rocky River Baptist Church in 1843 and was baptised under the name "Clement Ramsey". 

The Ramsey's were Baptists and this was their church. Rocky River was named for the substant creek it was built near that provided for the people who lived near it. I have many family ties to this church. 

In the above section from "The History of Rocky River Baptist Church", by E. M. Brooks and John Culpepper, 1928, we see mention of James Broadway, an ancestor, Stark Ramsey, Clements father and another direct ancestor and "Mason" W. Winfield, a cousin several tiimes removed (actually Milton W. Winfield, son of Edward Winfeild who married Mary Ann Pickler). 

American Battlefield Trust

There existed, in the (fuzzy) years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a man named Needham Lambert. The name Needham, in itself, was not a cognomen of fate in Johnston County, North Carolina. While very prominent within the families of the Bryants and Whitleys, reading early records from Franklin, Johnston and Butte, one can easily witness a variety of men with the given name  of Needham and a range of surnames. 

Needham Lambert didn't leave a wealth of information about himself, but he served in the War of 1812.

Now, while the troops in the War of 1812 ranged in age from 15 to 70, most of the men were indeed young men in their early 20's. There's no record of what year Needham was born . He never appeared in a census record, there's no real gage to even narrow that number done with. However, it seems he died a young man, due to a number of other factors.

Needham Lambert served as Pvt in the War of 1812. James Lewis listed his taxes for 1 poll. Above, he is number 17, next to Jacob Avera. He seems to have had a close relationship with the Avera, or Avery family, and also with members of the Sanders family, but the relationship I am most interested in is that with John Lambert, also a resident of Johnston County, NC, and my 5th Great Grandfather. 

John appears in the 1800 and 1810 census as a young man with a growing family in Johnston County, North Carolina.. In 1800, the two names prior to his are Ethelred and Edwin Smith. The three names after his are John Jones and Matthew Jones and Matthew Jones, Sr. He is also listed near Drury Honeycutt. A Drury Honeycutt would migrate to Stanly County and live in the area where the Lambert family would take root. Same one? I'm not certain, but it's possible. 

In 1810, he's sandwiched in between Willis Hayes, William Carrell and Needham Bryan. Also nearby are William and Brittain Honeycutt. John will end up with a grandson named Needham Bryant Lambert, via his son, William. That is one reason why the name Needham Lambert is so interesting, although the Bryant family, and Needham Bryant in particular, were prestigious in the early days of Johnston County.

Only John Lambert appeared in the 1800 and 1810 census of Johnston County, North Carolina. Needham did not. In court records, John was frequently shown as an insolvent, meaning he was unable to pay his debts. As a minister of the Gospel, he relied on the Lord to provide and lived frugally and sparingly. 

In the Tax records for Johnston County, John shows up with 1 poll, himself, and in Etherled Smith's district, in 1802 - 1808. He's next to William Honeycutt in 1802 and Dr. William Jones in 1805.  I mention this because in 1809, John Lambert suddenly shows up with 110 acres of land. This was new. He was at this time in William Jones's Diestrict, near William and Brittain Honeycutt and John and Asa Austin. Two years later, the property of John Lambert has been reduced to half. 

Needham Lambert, on the other hand, first shows up in 1806, also in Ethelred Smith's District, with 110 acres and no poll. In 1812, he is listed as just 1 poll, but the unusual note is that it records "James Lewis for Needham Lambert".

Needham Lambert doesn't show up in the Tax Listings after 1812, and neither does John Lambert. The next Lambert to grace the Tax records of Johnston County is William in 1820, as 1 poll. William was the oldest known son of John Lambert, and stayed behind when the rest of the family loaded up to relocated to settle in the Mission area of what is now Stanly County near its border with Cabarrus County, NC 

William was born about 1797. He shows in in the taxables first in 1820, at the age of 23. He shows up in his first census in 1830, at age 33, when the rest of his family has migrated westward to the Piedmont and he has assumed the small farm in Johnston County.

Needham, year of birth unknown, shows up first in the 1806 List of Taxables, Aaron Smith's District. It actually appears as:

"Thomas Page       300 acres      1 poll     same for    John Page    400 acres   No poll

                                                                                Henry Chapman    0 acres  1 poll

                                                                                Needham Lambert 110 acres No poll."

I'm not certain of what significance this is, especially the "Same for", as neither John Page, Henry Chapman or Needham Lambert were in the exact same position as Thomas Page. Page is another family name that the Lamberts intermarried with after their arrival to the Stanly/Cabarrus area, so this is something to look into. Also, the fact that Needham has no poll in 1806 leads me to believe he is less than age 21 that years, despite being a land owner. 

Both of the next two tax listings for Needham, 1811 and 1812, in Captain H. Bryan's District are reported as 

"James Lewis for Needham Lambert" and Needham is taxed at one poll, meaning he is now over 21. No land in noted and he doesnt' appear to be present. Who is James Lewis and why is he reporting for Needham? I might have an answer for the latter part of that query. The War of 1812, which Needham served in. He was off to War. Did he even return?

North Carolina - The War of 1812

Detached from the Johnston Regiment of NC Militia

Lambert, Needham

Avera, Jacob

Bridges, Braswell 

The next time the name of Needham Lambert appears in the records of Johnston County, NC, involve his estate records. Needham was now deceased. There seemed to be quite the disagreement over whom would be responisible for the settlement of his estate. 

In a book title. "ABSTRACTS OF JOHNSTON COUNTY RECORD OF ESTATES, RECORD OF ESTATES VOL. VII NC ARCHIVES 17.56.501.7 we first find "Inv. of Est. of Needham Lambert, December 17 1812. Will Sasser Admr. " 

1812 was the last year Needham Lambert was taxed (as reported by James Lewis), and recall, he was also a soldier in the War of 1812.

"State of North Carolina 

Johnston County 

      At a County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions begun and held for the County afore said, at the Court House in Smithfield, on the Twenty third day of November, being the fourth Monday in the Month, in Thirty Seventh Year of American Independence, And in the  Year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred  and Twelve....Administration on the Estate of Needham Lambert Decd. is granted to William Sasser who came into court and entered into bond in the Sum of Two hundred pounds with Samuel G. Smith and John Sanders Jr. his Securities and Qualified agreeably to Law. Ordered that letters issue, and that said Admr. have Leave to sell agreeably to Loaw, the perishable Estate of the Deced. 

"Returned by William Sasser Administrator of the Estate of Needham Lambert Decd. an Inventory of the Estate of said Decd. which was ordered to be recorded. 

Returned by William Sasser """"""" Needham Lambert Decd. and account of sales of the Estate of said deceased amounting to the Sum of  ~L 84.19 &1/2. which was ordered to be recorded. "

22 May, 1815 "Ordered that John Sanders Jr. Ellick Sanders and Thomas Rice be appointed a Committee to settle and adjust the accounts of the Estate of Needham Lambert, decd. with the Admr. thereof and Report to Court next. "

There was no real reason to believe there may have been any relationship between any of these men and Needham Lambert, as if one was to continue reading through this session of court of beyond, their names popped up quite frequently, as in being appointed to other committees, and in the same paragraph, "EllickSanders to Robert H. Helme, which was duly proven by the Oath of William Sasser." It appears they were among the prominent citizens of the area. In 1810, when John Lambert is listed in Alfred Whitley's list of insolvents, meaning he could not keep up with his debts, including perhaps, his poll tax, he is listed with one poll. The very next sentence is one where the afore mentioned Ellick Sanders and William Sasser were appointed on another Committee to settle and adjust the accounts of one. Phereby Davis. It just appears to be something they did on a regular basis. 

Old Smithfield Courthouse, Johnston County, NC

'Administration Pendentilite is granted to James Durham on the Estate of Needham Lambert, decd. who came into Court and entered into Bond in the Sum of $100 with John Williams and Bryan Smith is Securities & Qfd. 

Ordered that Robert H. Helms, John Farmer, and David Turner be appointed a comittee to settle and adjust the accounts of the Estate of Needham Lambert, decd. Between John Sanders adm. of the Estate of William Sasser decd. who was Admr. of said Lambert and James Durham present administrator and report to next Court. 

Pendente lite, which I believe the above statement meant, was appointed in a Probate Court to manage an estate and probate a Will during the pendency of a dispute or until someone permanent could be appointed. It appears that William Sasser, the Administrator of Needham's estate, had himself passed away, so things were left in the air for awhile. A few years in actualality. 

Wednesday morning, August 26, 1818, "Ordered that Robert H. Helme, David Turner and John Farmer be appointed a Committee to settle and adjust the accounts of the Estate of Needham Lambert, decd. Between John Sanders, Jr. Admr. of William Sasser, decd. who was admr. of said Lambert decd. and James Durham the present administrator and report to next court.

There were other statements within the Courts of 1812 to 1818, repeating the sames names, although perhaps in a different order, but repetitive and giving no additional information, so I will forego the redundancy of those. 

One of the most telling and interesting reports within these Court records for me, was the Sales of the Estate of Needham Lambert, with William Sasser, Admr., dated December 17, 1812. There is no doubt that Needham Lambert passed away in 1812.

Buyers in other Estate Sales I've read or been privy to, wherein I was much more familiar with the names and how they related to the deceased, were shown to be primarily family members, friends and neighbors, people who were actually connected to the deceased in some way, who had known them. Below is the list of Buyers from the Estate of Needham Lambert.

James Lewis    Thomas Jones    Daniel Dees    Kedar Farmer    'Nicy' Lambert     John 'Sambert'

John Avera    Jacob Avera    David Avera    Jonathan Britt    Reddin Britt    Hardy Bryan

Braswell Bridgers    John Farmer    William Rivers    John Allen    William Sasser    Henry Barnes

Green Parker    Samuel Wilder    Samuel Frost.

Some of the names, like Farmer and William Sasser, are those included in the Estate Settlement itself as bondsmen or Administrators. The Avera or Avery family, is mentioned in beaucoups of records, and were also among the neighbors of my Lambert family in the census records. or taxed in the same District as either John or Needham Lambert. James Lewis listed a poll tax 'for Needham Lambert'in 1812. I wondered the relationship between James Lewis and Needham. Time for a closer look. 

Wondering about the transcription of the records in the book, I ordered the actual documents from the State Archives, and waited. 

I have recieved the first of 4 documents, (if they are to be found) that I am waiting on from the NC Archives. The only thing new that I discovered from them was that "Sambert" was indeed incorrectly transcribed, and should have been "Lambert". 

Needham was married to a lady named Nicey or Nancy. I believe, after recieving his estate papers from NC Archives, that her name was Nancy and Nicey was a transcription error found in a book of records for Johnston County. A Nancy Lambert appears in the 1820 census for Johnston County. Nancy heads a household of 3 females. There is one lady over 45, another between 26 and 44 and a little girl under 10. Was this Needham Lambert's widow, her mother, and possibly a daughter? There's no way to know at this point. 

I found no more of Needham, Nancy (or Nicey) Lambert. They lived and breathed, that I know. They lived and breathed at the same time and the same place, bearing the same surname as my ancestor, Rev. John Lambert. That is why I am curious as to who they were. Was there a connection? 

By 1830, John Lambert Jr. and Frederick "Fred" Lambert, were settled and enumerated in the Western part of Montgomery County, the part which would in a little over a decade be renamed "Stanly". Older brother, William, who had remained back east, had married his first wife, Louisa Young, in Wake County in 1819, was living near his in-laws. Rebecca, the oldest daughter, was married to Pleasant Almond and living next door to her brother, John Jr. Rev. John, the itenerant minister, was not enumerated until he was an septugenarian in 1850, yet the ancient records of Baptist Churches like Meadow Creek and Bear Creek inform us that he was there in the early years of the 1820's and acting as an 'Elder', or minister, and attending Primitive Baptist Conferences. 

My next step, while waiting on more records, is to look into the persons named in the scant records of Needhams existence. A few of those who made purchases of his estate served with him in the militia, Kedar Farmer, Braswell Bridges, Jacob Avera. James Lewis, who reported his taxes for him in his absence, is shown in the 1810 census and also served in the War of 1812, according to a pension requested by his wife, Sarah. 

I find no more on James. He must have died before 1820. Were they friends, neighbors, brother-in-laws? 

More research into these associates, not the prominent men who served in the same capacity to settle the many estates of the young men who seem to perish around the same time as Needham Lambert, perhaps from the service in the militia during the War years, but those like James Lewis, who seem to have known him well. 

I leave with these ideas concerning Needham Lambert;

I believe he died a young man, less than 21 in 1806, but 21 by 1811. I believe he may have died in the War of 1812. I know he died in 1812. He was married to a girl named Nicey or Nancy. He may or may not have had a daughter. He never appeared in a census, and should have been in one in 1810, at least, in Johnston County, so he was living in someone else's household. He was somehow, in some way, connected to my ancestor, Rev. John Lambert and lived in the same county during the same period. 

Rest in Peace Needham Lambert. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. 

Victorian Era photo of two sisters

Abner Boggan and his family had some interesting ties to that of my 3rd Great Grandparents, John and Susan Webster Faulkner. First of all, they were neighbors, connecting properties, witnessing of deeds, listed next to each other in the census. Secondly, Abner and Martha Boggan had raised the oldest son of Susan Webster, James Coleman Webster, (who would later change his name to Faulkner), born before her marriage to widower, John Faulkner. I beleive Susan may even have been bound to the Boggan family herself, as she was also an illegitimate child, born to Nancy Webster (who would move west and marry Enoch Parrot or Perrett) and Eramus Preslar, son of Elias Preslar, who died young.

This was the reason I was looking further and more deeply into the Abner Boggan family, when I discovered the following newspaper article.

1901-02-28 Wadesboro, North Carolina

Attorney M. C. Jefferey of Lockhart, Texas, was making a concerted effort to find the heirs of his deceased client, E. C. Townsend. E. C. Townsend was typical of many warworn Confederate Soldiers, who found their way westward, disillusioned and bearing mental and physical wounds of the atrocities witnessed and experienced during the war. He had obviously married one of the daughters of John "Johnny" Boggan, by whom he had a daughter. The daughter had married a man named Gaston Kelly, and together they had given E. C. Townsend two granddaughters. Mr. Townsend, despite abandoning his family, had obviously kept up with them through some means, as he knew who his daughter had married, he knew she had passed away, and he knew of the existance of the two girls.

So who were these people? I needed to know.

Elijah C. Townsend is first found as a boy, living in the Sandy Point community of Anson County, NC. From what I can surmise, this area is now considered the Lilesville community. He was living with an elderly couple, John Taylor Smith and his wife, Mary Jane Belieu Smith. Also in the home was their daughter, Caty (Catherine) Smith Caraway and her daughter, Eliza, Joel and Sarah Smith Newton, another daughter and her husband, John H. Hatcher, 30, a hired overseer, and a 12 year old girl, Mary McRae. I don't know the relationship, if any, of the two children, Elijah and Mary, to the Smiths. There is no occupation given. Elijah, factually, was younger than 14 in this census. He may have been an orphan bound out to the Smith family and was probably a descendant of either the David or Solomon Townsend families, most who had moved away or over to Richmond County. 

A decade later, he is a farm laborer, an employee of the William and Thetis Winfree family, and was enumerated at his accurate age of 21.

The girl that Elijah C. Townsend would marry was Elizabeth Boggan. There is no marraige license to be found, but with research I found the correct daughter of "Johnny" Boggan and we know they were married from the records of the child and from the newspaper article. Shown above is Elizabeth, at age 8, in 1850, in the home of her parents, John and Rosannna Webb Boggan.

John Boggan was the son of Abner and Martha "Patsy" Shelton Boggan. Despite having only one known sibling, Martha Boggan Horne, John went on to have a very large family himself, with wife Rosanna Webb. They are all shown above, save the last, Albert M. Boggan, who would arrive a year after this listing.

John Boggan Sr., despite his age, was also a soldier in the Civil War, and survived. On August 19, 1862, he was "Rec'd at Raleigh as a substitute for Conscript". He was sent to Petersburg, Virginia, where he enlisted. I would like to know who he was a substitute for. John spent most of his military career sick and in hospitals. It was noted in October of 1862 that he was sick at camp near Drewery's Bluff. He was sick again in December of that same first year. In February of 1863, he was left at Kinston by orders of a Surgeon Brewer. Finally, he would be dismissed for disability on February 19, 1864 by none other than General Robert E. Lee, himself. Despite his visitation of every hospital in the Conferate circus, John appears on a Roll of Honor from Anson County, NC. aged 52. 

His son, John Boggan Jr. had also enlisted at age 19 and served as a Lieutenant. 

Elijah C. Townsend, like many hormone-driven and sated young men of his time, seemed athirst and lusty for War. 

He enlisted on February 24, 1862 in Wadesboro, at age 24, as a Private in the Confederate Infantry, Company H, 43rd Regiment. He was captured as a Prisoner of War at Gettysburg, and survived all of the atrocities of both. Elijah was paroled on February 18, 1865, at Point Lookout, Maryland.

We know he returned to Anson County, North Carolina, because his daughter, Henrietta Rose Townsend, was born in 1866 or 1867. We don't know if he married Elizabeth Boggan before or after the War.

Elizabeth Boggan Townsend died young. She may have even died in childbirth or shortly after, as we know E. C. Townsend left Anson County in 1867. She was absolutely deceased by 1870. Having lost his bride, E. C. may have been overcome with grief or saudade. He transfered from the rebel army to the army of viators, those anguished and aimless soldiers, from both sides of the Mason -Dixon line, who headed west, to paths less traveled. Some went with families in two, others left families behind, adding to the large numbers of 'widows' and 'orphans' back home. The eastern states were left in shatters, with a handful of broken men, old men and young boys, mixed with a large number of women, unmarried, widowed and abandoned and a generation of children without fathers. Did the peripatetic have post traumatic stress disorder? Very likely. Some may have need a change of scenery, others, greener pastures, others still escaping from an unseen evil pursueing them.

Elijah Townsned had not put down roots by 1870. He was not found in the census, or any land records. The first record I have found for him is his marriage record to his second wife, Catherine McKellar New, on February 26, 1878, in Caldwell County Texas.

Catherine was a widow, from Alabama. She had married a man named William Robert New, who was a widower, and became a well-remembered step-mother to his four children, Joseph, Sarah Frances, Mary Elisa and Harriett. Together, they had one child, Kinnion "Kenny" New. Elijah and Catherine had no children together.

Catherine is shown below in 1870, during her marriage to William R. New.

Then here are Elijah and Catherine living in Lockhart, Caldwell County, Texas in 1880, with her son, Kinnion, and her niece, Kate.

Back in North Carolina, Henrietta Rose Townsend is shown as a 4 -year old living in the home of her grandparents, John and Rosanna Boggan, in 

Rosaana Webb Boggan, whom Henrietta Rose was probably named for, passed away in 1879. John Boggan, Jr. remarried later that year to Martha Covington Coble.

He was 61, and his bride was 45. She must have not wanted to take on the raising of any children. Below is John and Martha in 1880, living in Gulledges Township in Anson County.

Henrietta Rose Townsend was educated in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, a county just south of Anson, as Anson sits on the North Carolina/ South Carolina border. She is found in 1880, living in Cheraw.

It appears like Rose, who was probably 14, not 16, was livng alone, but she was not. A page over on the census, it shows that she was living with the Fulton and Ellen Livingston family. 

This was her youngest Aunt, Ellen Boggan Livingston. As you can see, both records have "Dwelling Number 173". Rose may have been helping Ellen with her two little boys, Edward and Alexander.

Henrietta Rose Townsend would return to Anson County to be married on September 29, 1885, to William Gaston Kelly. She was 18 and he was 26. The wedding took place at the home of  Jesse Ussery. This was the home of her oldest Aunt, Eliza Boggan Ussery, who had married Jesse in 1873.As a note, some family trees have merged Elizabeth Boggan Kelly and Eliza Boggan Ussery into one person. They were two distinct sisters, impossible to have been one and the same.

  The Kellys were a family who lived in numbers around the neighborhoood of John Boggn, Sr., including the family of William Gaston Kelly.

The marriage certificate declared Rose as the daughter of Elijah Townsend and Elizabeth Townsend, both deceased, but Elijah was very much alive. Rose must not have known this fact. Elijah, however, had kept up with his daughter from miles away. How had he done that?

There were few Townsends anywhere near Elijah Townsend when he was a child in 1850, but there were a couple of interesting ones.

James is found at age 9, living in the home of James Melton Covington and his wife, Eliza Maske Covington.

William H and Benjamin F Townsend (recorded  without the 'd'.), were living inthe home of Elijah C. Covington and his second wife, Hannah. Jame M.Covington, whom James Townsend was living with, was also a son of Elijah C. Townsend.

In 1860,  James and Willliam are now living in a home headed by Benjamin Covington, with Risden Covington, his wife, Lavina and their two small children also living there.

Benjamin and Risden Covington were sons of Elijah C. Covington, seen in the above 1850 census living in the same household, Risden written as 'Wrisden'. It is my intent to look closer at the Covington family at a later date, but I did discover that Elijah C. Covington passed away in 1859. He had first married Margaret Bailey, who was the mother of most of his chiildren, then later, after Margaret's death, to Hannah Hooker, who gave his two more sons,  Lemuel and Gaston. 

How were these Covingtons connected to the Townsend boys? The most logical scenario, by examing the ages of the individuals involved, was to look and see if Elijah C. Covington had a daughter who married a Townsned. He did.

In Covington family records, the oldest child of Elijah C. (some record the C. as Caswell) Covington and his wife, Margaret Bailey Covington was a daughter named Elizabeth. I don't know where the dates come from (a Family Bible perhaps), but the dates for the brief life of Elizabeth Covington Townsend was given as a birth date of April 28, 1815 and a date of death of April 13 1845, two weeks shy of her 30th birthday. 

Of the years of birth of the four (counting Elijah C.) orphaned Townsend boys living with or near the Elijah C Covington family in 1850 and 1860, we see Elijah C. Townsend with a range of 1836 to 1839. I believe the military records to be the most accurate, and they have Elijah C. Townsend being 24 in 1862, or a birth year of 1838. 

All four of the Townsends mentioned served in the Civil War, as did several of the brothers of Elizabeth Covington Townsend. Both groups suffered great losses. 

James S. Townsend has a birthdate range of 1839 to 1841. He was 21 when he enlisted in May of 1861. 

William H. Townsend has a steady birth year of 1841.

Benjamin F. Townsend has a steady birth year of 1845. He was 16 years old when he enlisted in March of 1863.

Benjamin, like Elijah, was missing from the household of Benjamin and Risden Covington in 1860. 

The youngster was living in the Daniel and Margaret Gatewood household. But who were they? None other than members of the same Covington family, with Margaret being a daughter of Elijah C. Covington, and therefore, a sister of Elizabeth.

It's easy to step back and see a pattern. These boys must have been the sons of Elizabeth Covington Townsend. Even, Elijah C., who seems to have been named for Elijah C. Covington, his most likely grandfather. But who was her husband?

The Covington family records give her husband only as ' A. Townsend'. Was the letter a determiner, a word, an indefinate article, as in ' a rock' or 'a bird'? Or, was it an initial, short for Andrew, Adam, or Archibald?

I feel it could have meant 'Anonymous' Townsend. There are no marriage license left in existence. Too many burned counties. Born in 1815, Elizabeth may have married around 1835. With sons being born between 1838 and 1845, her young family should have shown up in the 1840 census.

There is one candidate. With most of the earlier Townsends that occupied Anson having moved west or to Richmond County or even Montgomery County, there were two in 1840, and they lived side by side. An S. C. Townsend headed a household of a man and woman in their 20's, with two little boys under 5. Could this have been Elijah C. and James S. Townsend? There was also a free person of color, a young woman, living with them, and a little girl who was enslaved. An unusual grouping.

Next to them was listed Matilda Townsend. She headed a household of 4, a woman in her 60's, probably Matilda, and three young women in their 20's. 

After the examination of a number of Wills and Deeds, I've deleted a theory that the husband of Elizabeth Covington Townsend was most likely Sherwood or Sherod Townsend, son of David Townsend Sr. and wife, Tabitha Thomas Townsend. The following excerpts from a deed found in Anson County Deeds, Book 13 Page 554 caught my attention. 

"Elijah Covington to Susan and Belinda Townsend"

This Indenture made this day of August AD 1851 Between Elijah Covington of the first part and Susan and Belinda Townsend of the other part all of the county of Anson & State of North Carolina. Witnesseth that whereas by virtue of a deed of trust to me executed by Sherwood recorded December 4th 1843 conveying his undivided interest in the Lands of David Townsend decd lying and being in the County aforesaid, and being thereby authorized to sell the said Sherwood Townsend interest in the Lands of the said undivided interest of the said Sherwood Townsend.,.....to be put up for Public sale...on the 21st day of January AD 184? at which time and place...Balinda and Susan became the last and highest bidder of the sum of ninety dollars....

Signed Elijah Covington

Witnessed by JM Hutchinson and Dwight Hays.

So Elijah C. Covington, father of Elizabeth Townsend, had been given a Deed of Trust by Sherwood Townsend, son of David Townsend, to control his interest in his father's lands. Elijah had thereafter sold the interest to Sherwoods single sisters, Susannah 'Susan' Townsend and Melinda 'Balinda' Townsend. 

Was it a coincidence that Elijah Covington was chosen by Sherwood? I think not. I believe it most probable that Elijah C. Covington was the father-in-law of Sherwood Townsend. 

Another mystery presents its marvelous head in the fact that while it's clearly stated in this deed, and others, that David Townsend is deceased, it is not noted that Sherwood was. Could he have left his children with their mothers family and followed others of his family West? That's another post for another day. 

And here we see the Townsend sisters in 1850 Sandy Point, Anson County, living on their land. Notice that 68 year old Rebecca Wilson, listed just above the Townsend sisters in 1850, is listed just above S.  C. Townsend in 1840.

Malinda/Belinda, the youngest, now of property, will marry, to a Benjamin Williams and become a mother. Susan will move to Richmond County near her brother Solomon. I still have not determined who Matilda was, unless that was the middle name of Tabitha Thomas Townsend, David's widow.

The War

We've already seen that Elijah C. Townsend survived the Civil War and moved to Texas. What happened to the younger Townsends, his probable brothers?

James S. Townsend enlisted in Company A 23rd Infantry. He suffered imprisonment twice, was wounded in Chancellorsville, VA on May 1, 1863 and died on disease as a POW on March 21, 1865 at Elmira, New York. He is buried at Woodlawn Natuional Cemetery.

Find-A-Grave

Young Benjamin F. Townsend enlisted in NC Company H, 43rd Infantry on March 14, 1863. He was wounded at Cold Harbor and died at the hospital in Florence on August, 1864.

William Hampton Townsend enlisted on August 24, 1863 in Wadesboro in Company A, 4th Regiment of the NC Calvary.

He was noted as being 'on the deadline ', meaning a line or fence within a prison encampment in which a prisoner would be shot if they crossed. It is unknown if he was a captive or guard. Probably Guard as another insert shows he enlisted again from April 1 to September 30, 1864 at Petersburg, VA, in the same unit, Co. A 4th Infantry NC Calvary, for 3 years.

He was then admitted to the Confederate States Hospital on December 23, 1864. Under 'Remarks' is the date Jany 8, 1865. Was he discharged on this date or did he die on this date? That, I have not determined. Someone places him in Ohio and Kansas later, however, it could be a man of the same name and age. He wasn't the only William H Townsend around that time. 

So,  Elijah C. Townsend appears to have been the oldest son of Sherwood Townsend, son of David and Tabitha Thomas Townsend and Elizabeth Covington, daughter of Elijah C. Covington and wife, Margaret Bailey Covington. Of course, this theory of mine needs more investigation to be proven as fact. He was the  father of one Henrietta Rose Townsend, by his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Boggan, daughter of John Boggan Sr. and Rosanna Webb Boggan. 

Elizabeth Boggan Townsend died between 1867 and 1870.

Henrietta Rose Townsend married William Gaston Kelly, son of Lattimote M Kelly and wife, Nancy, on September 29, 1885. They had two daughters, Elizabeth, born in 1886, and Nora, born in 1890. Elizabeth died about 1896.

The Girls

Gaston Kelly remarried on November 25, 1897 to Lucinda Minerva Bunnell, daughter of Thomas and Sallie Smith Bunnell. She had been married  before,  to Thomas J. Hicks, on November 3, 1886, with whom she had a number of children, four daughters, to be exact.

In the 1900 census, the combination family is shown living in Rockingham, Richmond County, NC, with William G. Kelly's mother, Nancy. With them is his two daughters with Rose, Betty and Nora, her four daughters with Tom Hicks, Annie, Willie, Mary, and Esther, and the start of their own together, sons Robert Leslie and Dewey Daniel. There will be one more, Sarah Lola, in 1905. 

The 20th Century

At the turn of the century, the two little girls, daughters of Rose Townsend Kelly, are living in Rockingham, Richmond County, NC, with their father and stepmother, working in a Cotton Mill as Spinners, aged only 13 and 10. So was their stepsister, Annie Hicks. 

Roberdel Cotton Mill

Nora Lee Kelly will go on to marry a man named Dink Tysinger of Davidson County, North Carolina. He was the son of John Alexander Tysinger and Mariah Floyd Tysinger. Dink was born on November 22, 1883. The wedding took place on October 11, 1909 in Troy, Montgomery County, NC, where both claimed to live at the time. Dink said his parents were from Davidson County, father living, mother deceased. Likewise, Nora gave her parents as being from Montgomery County, NC, with W. G. Kelly living and Rosa Kelly, deceased. Witnesses to the event were Bob V. (Robert Vance) Howell, brother -in-law, O.B. (Oliver Basil) Deaton and Ralph Mason.

In 1910, a 23 year old Dink and 19 year old Nora are living in the town of Biscoe, in Montgomery County, NC. Dink was a blacksmith who worked at a Gold Mine. Nora was a housewife. Most of their neighbors are also employed with the Gold Mine. 

Elizabeth F. Kelly will marry attorney Robert "Bob" Vance Howell on November 15, 1915. son of Yancy B. and Cornelia Hasseltine Howell. The wedding took place at the home of J. B. Owens in Ellerbe, Mineral Springs, Richmond County. Witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Hurley and Mrs. J. B. Owens. 

Both of Bob's parents were living in Montgomery County, Elizabeth's father was living, in Montgomery County, and her mother was deceased. Both parties gave their own place of residence as Montgomery.

As for Gaston Kelly, he and Minerva were raising their family on a farm in Biscoe, in 1910,near Nora. Mary and Esther were not Kelly's, being Minerva's two youngest daughters with Tom Hicks. The sons, Leslie and Dewey, and daughter, Lola, were theirs together. 

Divorce documents posted to ancestry.com by cgordon.

The marriage was not a happy one. Before long, Lucinda Minerva Kelly had filed for divorce from William G. Kelly, accusing him of adultery with a woman named Sicily Bailey. 

The divorce was granted during the April term of Court, 1915.

The Courier of. Asheboro  reported that W. G. Kelly married the woman with whom he was having an affair, within 6 days of the divorce.

On April 17, 1915, William Gaston Kelly, 55, married Mrs. Sisily E. Greene, 40, both of Candor, Montgomery County, NC. Both of his parents, Lattimore and Nancy, and both of her parents, John and Ritta Almonds, were living. Witnesses were Dural Greene, Dewey Kelly and Leslie Kelly, sons of Gaston. 

There may have been a reason for the quick wedding and divorce. Her name was Pearline.

Pearline Nmn Kelly, was born on September 27, 1911, well before her parents marriage to each other and during their marriages to other people. The affair had been going on for some time. It may have come to light that she was not the child of Mr. Bailey, her mother's husband at the time of her birth. 

Sisily

Sisily Elizabeth Almonds was born abt 1874 to John and Loretta Hicks Lammonds. If there was any relation between Sisily and Thomas J. Hicks, the former husband of Lucinda Minerva Bunnell Kelly, whom Gaston divorced, I do not know it.

Sisily married Newest Greene on April 1, 1888. Her age was given as 18, and his as 22, but other  records point towards a much younger age for her of 14 or 15.

Newett was the son of  Newt or Newett Sr. and Terry B. Hicks Greene. Another Hicks, and her mother was a Green. A very interwoven clan of Montgomery County Greens and Hicks.

 Between 1891 and 1903, the Greenes had a family of 5 children, Alice, Lula, Nathan Dewey, Monnie and Barney Roosevelt Greene. 

On March 9, 1909, in Mecklenburg County, NC, Sisily would marry her second husband, James Daniel Bailey, son of John and Sarah Bailey. They would have one son, Victor Lilly Bailey, that same year, on September 4, 1909. 

In 1920, Gaston and Sicily are found in the Bensalem Community of Moore County, living on the Query farm, with 8 year old Pearline and 10 year old Victor.

Their Endings.

Sisily is seen living with her son, David Green, in 1930 as a widow. It appears as if William Gaston Kelly passed away between 1920 and 1930, most likely in either Moore or Montgomery Counties. Exactly when or where, I can't say. 

Sisily Elizabeth Lammonds Greene Bailey Kelly died on  March 18, 1937     at the age of 63. 

She was buried by her children at the Lammonds Family cemetery in Montgomery County, with her first husband, Newett Greene. His year of death reads 1901, but I believe it should be 1909, due to the date of birth of their last child and her remarriage to James Bailey. 

Lucinda Minerva Bunnell Hicks Kelly also remarried after the divorce, not once, but twice. First, in 1920 to Benjamin Lewis. Outliving him, she then married Beatty Dunn in 1930. Minerva lived a long life, passing on March 12, 1957 at the age of 87. She was buried in Candor, alongside her first husband, Thomas Hicks. She had been born at the close of the Civil War, saw both World Wars and lived to watch Television. 

Oldest of the two little girls, Elizabeth, had one child, daughter Iris Luciell Howell was born in 1917. Elizabeth lived a short life. She passed away on January 17, 1919 at the hospital in Columbia, SC. 

Elizabeth was buried at Southside Cemetery in Troy, NC. 

Despite also having the flu with her mother, little Iris grew up, married a Miller and lived until 1998. 

Nora Kelly also had a daughter, whom she named 'Ilar', probably Ila sans southern twang. Ila was born in 1911.  The young Tysinger family had moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Little Ila passed away on March 7, 1918 in Richmond, Henrico, Virginia. She was only 7 years old and died of acute appendicitis. Her death certificate noted that she was born in Montgomery County, NC.

Ila's remains were returned to Davidson County, NC, where her father's family resided.

 She was interred at Holloway Baptist Church in South Mont, Davidson County, NC. The Tysingers would have no more children. By 1920, Dink and Nora were living in a boarding house in Norfolk, Virginia. 

Dink was still working as a Blacksmith. Nora was working as a clerk at a Tobacco Shop. They would remain on the move.

By 1930, the couple had moved again to, West Virginia. Dink was again using his blacksmithing skills, but now in railroad construction, which was a booming industry at the time. They lived in the town of Gilbert in Mingo County, in a rented house. Nora was a homemaker and reported her age at first marriage as 14. 

Dinks WWI Registration papers described him as of a medium build and height with brown hair and blue eyes. I imagine him to have been burly by forty. 

Dink Tysinger did not live a long life. He passed away in April of 1938, and was buried in Southmont, at Holloway Baptist Church with his daughter. He was 54. 

Nora Lee Kelly Tysinger was widowed at 42 years old. She is not buried with her husband and daughter.

In October of 1939, Nora applied for a Social Security Number. She gives her exact birthday of February 8, 1896, her birthplace as Candor, Montgomery County, NC and her name as Nora Lee Tysinger. Her parents are given as William G. Kelly and her mother as Rosy Townsend. Despite this being in October of 1939, Nora is not found as Nora Tysinger in 1940. In fact, I don't know her fate, as this is the last I know of her. She wasn't old, even for her day. If she had passed away anytime soon, or in North Carolina, she should have a death certificate, or would be buried with her husband and child. The most logical explanation I can think of is that Nora remarried, changed her name, lived a long life and passed away at a respectful old age, far away from her origins.