The Children of Zilphia Cochran: Steve and Calvin

Steve appears to have been a tenant farmer on the property of D. R. Dunlap. Like Freeman Howell, David Richard Dunlap lived in Ansonville, Anson County in 1870 and had moved to Tyson Township in Stanly County by 1880. David, however, returned to Ansonville and lived there for the remainder of his like with his wife, Eugenia. His mother was a Crump, there may have been some connection between her family and Doc Crump, the father of Steven, as far a Doc's origins.

As for Doc, he had his wife, Elenor aka 'Ellen', set up household in the Big Lick community of Stanly County. Again, as in the case with her daughter, Dilsie, whose father was Harry Randle, husband of Celia Easley, Zilphia had had a child with a married man.

Steven Crump remarried in 1883 to Isabelle Spruell. The Spruell family was a family of mystery.

The marriage certificate of Steve and Isabelle gives her parents as Henry and Charlotte Spruell. It can be assumed that Cornelia, Steve's first wife, had died, before he married Isabell in 1883.

Spruell is not a local family name. It is unknown from whence they came, but they were in Tyson by 1880, and there is Isabell at 14, their oldest child. 

Twenty years later, they are still in Stanly County, NC, but there is no sign of Isabell.

I did find a Henry Spruell who was a musician in the Civil War. I can't be sure if it's the same Henry Spruell, but it's quite interesting. Several of Henry and Charlotte's children married locally. Wincy married Will Gain in Montgomery County in 1902, James married Lucy Christian in Stanly in 1902, Joe married Annie Jones in 1905 and Francis Sms in 1909, both in Stanly; Emma married John Snuggs in 1903 in Stanly. Bessie, the youngest, was the last to marry, in 1919, to James J. Jones and her address given was in Badin, in Stanly County, however, I can't locate her, or any of the family in 1910 or 1920, with any certainty. They simply disappear. 

I wonder if Sidney's wife Sarah, who shows up in both the 1870 and 1880 cenesu with his, is also Sarah Crump, mother of Daniel, as Daniel is somehow an heir of Sidney Threadgill. She was not his first wife, as Simon, his oldest son, gives his mother in his documents as Nancy Mauney., and we will get back to that in a minute. 

It is interesting to note the neighbors listed in the 1880 census with Sindeney, Sarah and Mary Ella.  Heading the page is Dennis Davis, age 81 and his wife Mary, 40 and their children. I know Dennis to have been a slave of my ancestor, Job Davis and to be buried in the old family cememtery. Next up is Hampton Aldridge, aka Caleb Hampton or C. H. Aldridge, brother of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Francis Julina Aldrdige Davis. Then comes Sidney, a couple of families of black Crumps, followed by the whiite families of William and John Aldridge, John being Julina's younger brother. 

This puts Sidney in the vicinity of present day Aldridge Road, and on what was known as the "Floyd tract, as C. H. Aldridge's mother-in-law-law, Sarah Floyd, lived with them. 

Calvin Cochran must have died shortly after the 1900 census. He wasn't mentioned in the division of the estate of Sidney Threadgill, although the spouses of the other female heirs were. Ella is found by 1910, living in the town of Albemarle, with ther two sons, Levander aka "Lee",  and Earnest. She was living on Furniture Factory Street, which is no longer a street name in Albemarle. A look at the 1908 and 1922 Sanborn maps that mentioned a Furniture Factory located Northeast of the Courthouse, just beyond the town boundaries. Lee, 22. worked for the Railroad, Earnest, only 13, worked as Farm labor. Ella was working as a servant to a private family. Most of their neighbors were white and worked either at the Furniture Facotory or in  a Knitting Mill, probably Lillian Knitting Mill.

The next year, 1911, Ella, now 40, married Daniel Lee. In 1920, she put several properties up for sale in conjunction with her youngest son, Earnest and his wife Lillilan. Not mentioned was oldest son, Lee. Lee must have died young, prior to 1920, perhaps in a railroad incident. No more is known. 

Earnest had married his cousin, Lillian Threadgill, in 1917. Lilly was the daughter of Calvin Coley Threadgill, who was Ella's first cousin, and his wife Hannah. That made Earnest and Lilly second cousins. 

The tracts of land for sale were said to be located on Smith Street, in 

Albemarle, so perhaps that is where Furniture Facotry Road had been originally. 

The 1920 census shows Ella and Daniel living on PeeDee and Yadkin Avenue in Albemarle with two of his children from another marriage, Gaines and Dashia. Daniel and Gaines are working as laborers in a Cotton Mill while both Ella and her stepdaughter, Dashia, jus 15, seem to be working for Privae famileis, probably as miads. The census calls it 'Work Women'.

Ernest Cochran and his wife, Lillian, show up in the City Directories of Winston-Salem, NC for awhile, with Earnest working first for RJR Tobacco and later as a bricklayer. They then moved to High Point and later,to Greensboro.

Dan and Ella remained in Albemarle until their death, but by 1930, they had moved to an area the census called 'South Albemarle', that was probably the area of town tha came to be known as Kingivlle, named after Dr. O. D. King. All of thier neighbors were now black, whereas before, most of thier neighbors had been white. Dan was still working in the mill and Ella was working as an Ironer at a Laundry. 

Mary Ella Threadgill Cochran died on  June 28, 1939 at the age of 63. She was buried at Cottonville. Her second husband, Daniel Lee, preceded her in death, having passed later in 1930, after the cencus.

Earnest Cochran, the last survivng member of the family, died January 2, 1943, at age 45. His tombstone called him Reverend.  He is buried in Jamestown, Guilford County, NC.