Mary Whitley

My first encounter with a mysterious woman named Mary Whitley was when I was studying the story and tragic beginnings in life of Drucilla Beasley. Drucilla Beasley had been born in the Olive Branch community of Union County, North Carolina near the Anson and Union County border. Her mother was a young woman named Martha Beasley, known as "Patsy".

Patsy was the daughter of John Beasley and lived alone with her infant daughter in a cabin on the corner of her father's property. Pasty had been disgraced by the birth of her child out of wedlock. The baby's father was one Thomas Nash, son of Walker and Edna Nash. It's recorded that he was a blonde, good looking young man. Tom apparently frequented the home of Patsy Beasley, but would not marry her. About a year afer the birth of their daughter, Drusilla, His attention had been captured by a different lass, a girl named Mary, maiden name unknown. Mary had refused his attentions based on his ongoing sexual relations with his "baby momma", Patsy Beasley. Tom had confessed to Mary that he would get rid of that obstacle. And he did, quite savagely, Tom Nash had murdered Patsy Beasley.

He had found Patsy, as the story goes, washing clothes at a spring. From the scene later discovered by neighbors, they assumed she had decided to do the laundry while the baby napped, as she was found crawling around the cabin unharmed. Patsy had been shot and stomped and her head bashed in with a large stone. It was a particularly grievous crime. One can imagine him shooting her first, and as his aim was bad and had merely wounded her, he either beat her first and then attacked her with the stone while she was down, or he knocked her unconscious with the stone and then proceded to stomp on her lifeless body.

He was soon found out and jailed, having given his guilt away at Jerusalem Church and having had admitted his plot to rid himself of the obstacle, Patsy, to win Mary's heart, to Mary. It took 3 or 4 years of delays and appeals and bouncing the trial from county to county because so many were tainted against Tom Nash, his right to a fair trial was hindered.

In 1964, in the Rowan County newspaper, The Salisbury Post, a staff reporter named Heath Thomas gave an account of the story of Patsy Beasley's murder for the Sunday, April 12 edition of the newspaper. This rendition has been attached to the profile of Tom and Patsy on ancestry.com by user billieranson from an account by Dee Austin Creech quoting the 1964 article. Below is the mention of Mary Whitley, as given in this account. She went on after the romantic leanings of murderer Tom Nash, to marry someone else, an unknown Mr. Whitley, and was expecting her first child.

So, who was Mary Whitley? While over the years in Anson County and most espcially, in neighboring Stanly County, there were a few Mary Whitley's, only one would have been the right age for this Mary, and she had been pregnant in 1847. The others were either far to young or far too old, or were not yet born at all.

Name:	Mary Whittey
Gender:	Female
Age:	31
Birth Year:	abt 1819
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Lanesboro, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Cannot Read, Write:	Y
Line Number:	32
Dwelling Number:	1101
Family Number:	1101
Household Members:	Name Age Mary Whittey 31 Sarah Whittey 7 Rosa Whittey 5 James Whittey 3

Mary first appears in the 1850 census, alone with her 3 children,  Sarah, Rosa and James, in Lanesboro in Anson County. She is sandwiched between the family of Joseph J Williams and that of his older son. One might think she may have been a daughter of his, but she isn't. He does have a widowed daughter named Mary living with him and she had married an Allen.

I looked into land records involving Joseph Williams to see if there is any mention of a neighbor named Whitley, and there is not.

The only Whitley mentioned in the 1840 census of Anson County, the one before Mary would have gotten married is a Henry Whitley and he clearly already had a family. In 1830, there is Henry and Allen Whitley. I found this information on Allen and Henry Whitley.

Allen Whitley was born in 1806 in North Carolina. A birthdate of October 10 is given for him. On November 25, 1820, at the age of 19, he purchased land in Anson County from Thomas Trull. Four years later, at the age of 23, he married Mary Ann Price, age 15, and daughter of Abraham and Ester Price. In 1830, the couple is shown next door to her parents. On November 18, 1835. Allen Whitley sells the property to Daniel Sneed. The deed is witnessed by Henry Whitley and David Webb. It is believed that Henry and Daniel were brothers, or some other way related.





Allen moves to Roswell, Cobb County, Georgia. Henry is found in Cherokee County, Georgia in 1850 and then later moves to Fayette County, Alabama where he remains until his death in 1881. He has a large family with a wife named Nancy, who was his contemporary, so he was not the husband of Mary Whitley, although a relative of his could have been. As Henry was born in 1793, he may have even had a son who was old enough to have married Mary.

This set of Whitley's originated in Nash County, in fact ,there seems to have been a very close connection between the Whitley's and the Nashes of Nash County and those of Anson County.  In fact, in the Allen Whitley deed was noted that the property adjoined that of Richard Nash.

And then there was Exodus. Exodus Whitley, through grants and census records, clearly lived in Montgomery County, North Carolina. A petition drawn up by the citizens of Montgomery County in 1811 asking to be annexed into Cabarrus County, due to the dangers of having to cross the Pee Dee River in order to go to Court and take care of business, asked that the annexed section include those on the West Side of the River, which eventually became Stanly County, down to Exodux Whitley's ford on the Rocky River.

This meant that Exodus Whitley lived on the (now) Stanly County side of the Pee Dee River, along the Rocky River just across the Anson County border, near the edge of the county.

He had two deeds, however, recorded in Anson County. In the first one, he made a purchase of a tract on Cedar Branch from Daniel Hinson. It's noted that Exodus Whitley was from Montgomery County and Daniel HInson from Anson. Dated March 29, 1809, the property bordered John Robbins property and went to the Gurley's corner stake. I had already researched the Gurleys and may be related to John Robbins, so I am familiar with  the general location of this property. It consisted of 150 acres and also bordered the Phillips property. Steven Whitley and Benjamin Grey were witnesses.

The second deed, in Book Y Page 472 is even more interesting. On October 28th, 1833, 24 years after he bought the property on Cedar Branch, Exodus Whitley sold it to Walker Nash. Exodus was still described as being from Montgomery County and Walker Nash from Anson. It was the same property in the same dimensions, still bordering the lines of John Robbins, Phillips and Gurley's corner. It was signed by Exodus Whitley and witnessed by Isham Whitley and Wyatt Nance.

What makes this interesting is the association of persons. Walker Nash was the father of Tom Nash who murdered Patsy Beasley and at whose trial Mary Whitley was called to testify. Wyatt Nance was the father of Robert Nance who would marry Mary Whitley's daughter, Sarah. It would make perfect sense that Mary Whitley was somehow related to this group of  Whitley's, due to the fact of the spot she landed and is shown is for 4 census records, being the only Whitley around, nearly. Addison Whitley shows up in Union County, later and supposedly the son of George Whitley. From what I've seen online, George and Exodus were brothers, but I've not done a great deal of research on it myself, so I couldn't swear by it.