After all of my research on Laura Simpson and Bob Krider, I wondered exactly where the three acres were, that the newspapers had reported was owned by Krider, but was occupied by Laura and her illicit business called the Blind Tiger.
I knew from newspaper articles that it was located between Rocky River Springs and Cottonville. That gives us a good idea of the general vicinity, but doesn't nail it down too precisely, so I decided to give things a closer look. The likelihood of the original building still standing is pretty slim, since it was the turn of the century that we are talking about, but perhaps there exists some marker or border that can give us a more specific locale.
The newspapers said Bob Krider owned the property, and he was from another county, Rowan, so I went in search of a deed. I didn't find a single deed where he had bought the property, but I did find the one where he sold it, five years after the death of Laura, and just a year before his own demise. Fortunately, this deed also told of when he bought not one, but two parcels, that encompassed the three acres, and who he bought it from.
My guess is that in this excerpt from the 1910 census of Tyson, that the listing for Mamie Simpson and her children, and Bud Simpson and his young family, show them living on this exact three acre location. Laura was in jail at this time. Only one week later, Bud will be enumerated in Rowan County, living with Bob Krider and his family, and his wife, Pearl and their son John, living with her parents, whose property connected that of the Kriders in Providence Township, close to the old Trading Ford area. Ten years earlier, Mamie and Bud were both living with the Kriders in Rowan County, and neither had become parents yet.
Notice in the list, the family names are Wright, then Biles, then the Simpsons, then an Elijah Crump, then Jack Lilly, and lastly, Hampton Aldridge, who happens to be my Second Great Grandmother's older brother, and I know pretty much exactly where he lived.
I wonder how Krider met Laura in the first place, but it appears he may have bought the property just for her. The clipping below stated that the place was near Cottonville, and was not cultivated.
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The deed itself gives us more names to look into. Bob Krider bought the property in two sections, over the course of 10 years, the first parcel in 1899, of one and a third acres and the second part in 1909, of about 2 acres. It's a mystery as to why the two original deeds are not to be found. They may have not ever been filed with the Register of Deeds office.
for $300 located in Tyson Township, Stanly County, NC. Book 67 Page 87.
The above portion of the old C. M. Miller, of Salisbury, NC, map is supposedly dated between 1904 and 1910. Notice Rehobeth Church in the top left corner. Above that is a collection of Simpsons, and a triangle of roads. Just off screen, on the top left to the northeast was the town of Rocky River Springs, which was a resort, and is shown on the map as a grid of roads, a town.
Near the bottom right corner of this excerpt of the map is a cluster of churches, schools and houses, with the letters, C, O, T, T, running off the page to the right. This was the location of the town of Cottonville. We know from the newspaper articles, that Laura's Place was located between Rocky River Springs and Cottonville. We know from the deed that it was on the South and East side of the Winfield Road. Above, we see a 'Mrs. Simpson ' and the black square chosen to designate a home was on the southwest side of the road between Rocky River Springs and Cottonville. Could this have been Laura? The neighbors are an A. F. Deese and below that, a David Deese, to the south and to the north, a P. A. Howard and a J. T. Thompson above that, with an M. F. Biles off to the side.
So I am now posed with several questions to answer. Who were John W. and Hattie Howard who sold the property to Bob Krider in 1909, and how were they connected to P. A. Howard, if indeed they were and who was J. T. Thompson and was this Thompson related to the A. A. and D. M. Thompson family who sold a piece of property to Bob Krider in 1899? Was M. F. Biles related to the Biles family listed in the 1910 census living near Mamie and Bud Simpson ?
And of the triangle of roads in the top right corner, which was Winfield Road, which once went all the way to Albemarle and crossed over into Anson, heading down through Burnsville, but now has been greatly reduced, on both sides of the river.
And who were July Colson and the two Dukes mentioned? No Dukes are shown closeby in this section of the map between Rocky River Springs and Cottonville. There were Dukes to the east of Cottonville, going toward Cedar Grove Church, which still stands, on the way towards Norwood and Porter, near the Hudson Hive on Ugly Creek, along with a bunch of Lees, Mortons, Blalocks and Thompsons.
So, first things first, who was A. A. Thompson and wife, D. M. Thompson, who sold the lot in 1899?
A quick search for an A. A. Thompson in Tyson Township, Stanly County, NC around the turn of the century returned just one likely candidate who fit the bill perfectly, and that was Adolphus Addison Thompson and his wife, Dora M. Deese Thompson. A. A., who also went by 'Dolph'or 'Dolphus', was born in 1874, and would have been a young man of around 26 upon the sale of the property in 1899. His wife Dora aka 'Dollie', was born a Deese, and the deed had also mention that the second portion of property, which also adjoined this first acre and a half Krider had bought, adjoined 'A. D. Deese's old original line'. As Dollie was the daughter of one Atlas Durgin Deese, it appears the property was that of Dollie's, recieved or inherited from her father.
The next names I looked for was Neal Duke and C. B. Duke, who turns out to be the same individual, Cornelius "Neal" B. Duke. He does not appear on this map, and I think that is because he didn't live in this exact area, but not far away. Like in the case of A. A. Thompson, it appears C. B. Duke came into this piece of land from his wife's inheritance. Duke was married to Flora Biles. She was the daughter of John Wesley Biles and had married George Genes before C. B. Duke. Her brother, M. F. (Millard Filmore) Biles, is shown on the map, as well as John Biles, which could be her brother John, or father, John.
In Stanly County Deeds, Book 39, Page 307, I found a transaction between L. A. Biles (Lafayette), another brother, and Flora Duke. This tract was adjoining those of F. A. Duke, A. P (or A. F.) Deese, and M. F. Biles and was located at the forks of Davis and Cottonville Roads, and ran with the Cottonville Road and A. Deese's line.
By gazing at the section of the map below, I can only gather that the Cottonville Road is the one that ran straight out of Rocky River Springs into Cottonville. So the trick is now to determine which road was the Winfield Road and which one was the Davis Road.
| Name: | Jule Colson | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age: | 27 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | abt 1873 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | ||||||||||||||||||
| Home in 1900: | Center, Stanly, North Carolina | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sheet Number: | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: | 251 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Family Number: | 258 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Race: | Black | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gender: | Male | ||||||||||||||||||
| Relation to Head of House: | Head | ||||||||||||||||||
| Marital Status: | Married | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse's Name: | Francis Colson | ||||||||||||||||||
| Marriage Year: | 1894 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Years Married: | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Father's Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mother's Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | ||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation: | Cotton Mill Fireman | ||||||||||||||||||
| Months Not Employed: | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Can Read: | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
| Can Write: | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
| Can Speak English: | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
| House Owned or Rented: | Rent | ||||||||||||||||||
| Farm or House: | H | ||||||||||||||||||
| Neighbors: | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Name: | John Howard[John Harward] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age: | 21 | |||||||||
| Birth Date: | Jul 1878 | |||||||||
| Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | |||||||||
| Home in 1900: | Tyson, Stanly, North Carolina | |||||||||
| Sheet Number: | 6 | |||||||||
| Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: | 101 | |||||||||
| Family Number: | 103 | |||||||||
| Race: | White | |||||||||
| Gender: | Male | |||||||||
| Relation to Head of House: | Head | |||||||||
| Marital Status: | Married | |||||||||
| Spouse's Name: | Hattie Howard | |||||||||
| Marriage Year: | 1900 | |||||||||
| Years Married: | 0 | |||||||||
| Father's Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | |||||||||
| Mother's Birthplace: | North Carolina, USA | |||||||||
| Occupation: | Farmer | |||||||||
| Months Not Employed: | 0 | |||||||||
| Can Read: | Yes | |||||||||
| Can Write: | Yes | |||||||||
| Can Speak English: | Yes | |||||||||
| House Owned or Rented: | Own | |||||||||
| Home Free or Mortgaged: | F | |||||||||
| Farm or House: | F | |||||||||
| Neighbors: | ||||||||||
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