A Quick Look at Lindsey

Some peoples lives brushed across the face of time like a loose lash, just waiting to fall. Thus was the brief life of Lindsey Frank Yow. 

Most people accept records at face value and never really, really look at them. Just because a child is in the home of a pair of adults in the early years of the census, when relationships were not given, or even after they were, and named as a child, they were not always a child of the couple, who may have actually been guardians. This happened in the case of my paternal grandfather, whose mother died shortly after his birth, and who was raised by his mother's sister. He even went by her last name at times, as she and her husband were his guardians, but when he joined the army and later got married, he used his real surname and real parents. To someone who didn't know, he may have looked like a child of his aunt and uncle who disappeared. To those looking at his records after he became an adult, it would look like he had just dropped from the sky. Yet, he was there in plain sight the whole time.

Such is the case of Lindsey Frank Yow, sort of. Everyone had gotten him wrong, yet he told us who he was the whole time.

Lindsey Frank first shows up in the 1870 census of  Stanly County as a 14 year old, in Tyson Township, in the home of Dennis and Mary Yow. I recently did a post on DennisYow and his affair with Jane Williams, after they were convicted of Fornication and Adultery in 1849. 

The Affair of Dennis and Jane

Dennis was a married man and a good 25 years older than Jane Williams. He is shown in the home with his dedicated wife, Mary in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1800 census. Dennis had been married to Mary Schoffner Yow for a very long time, since around 1825. 

Every family tree has Lindsey Frank Yow as their youngest child, since he is living in their home. You can't blame them, because following, in the 1880 census, we find an 84 year old Dennis living with a 24 year old Lindsey, and the relationship given is 'son'. Mary Schoffner Yow has already passed on and the young man was definately taking care of the elder. Cut and dried, right? No.

Just take a look at the math.. Dennis shows up in the 1830 and 1840 censuses in West Pee Dee, Montgomery County, the half that became Stanly. In 1850, his children are all listed in his home and his year of birth is given as 1798, which was most likely pretty accurate. 

His wife Mary is not far behind him. She was born between 1800 and 1802. Dennis and Mary actually had 7 children. Two of their daugthers had already married by 1850.

Year           Child                              Mary's age if we keep her at 1802

1826     John W. Yow                              24

1829     Malinda Catherine                       27

1830     Lucynthia                                    28

1832     Jincy Lucia                                  30

1838     Mary Polly                                  36 

1839     Dorothy Dulcie Dolly                   37

1840     William A.                                   38 

If you scroll back to the 1870 census, you see the 16 year age difference between Willaim A. and Lindsey F.

Mary Schoffner Yow was 54 years old when Lindsey Frank Yow was born. Menopause baby? Possible, I suppose, but not likely. 

Another odd thing about Lindsey was although he was born in 1856, he isn't in the home in the 1860 census, the only one I have not featured. He was alive, so where was he? I don't know, but maybe they hid him. Why would they hide him, well, keep reading and the answer may become clear. 

The next step in Lindsey Frank Yow's life was a wedding. It's not ver yeasy to read, but on December 13, 1833, L. F. Yow, aged 27, son of Unknown and Mary Yow, married Ellen Huneycutt, age  16, daughter of Nicie Hunycutt and Unknown. That Unknown was certainly a popular guy. So it appears that both bride and groom were 'Children of the Dust', which happened quite often, two of them marrying each other, as they were in the same social class.

The wedding took place at the home of J. W. Honeycutt, Justice of the Peace. He may have been related to the bride. Witnesses were C. D. Lowder, P. L. Honeycutt and Lina McIntyre.

In the 1880 census, Ellen is just 8, and she has a little sister, Rebecca. How young was this girl actually?

The marriage obviously was not a happy, as the next time we see Frank, in the 1900 census, he's working as a Day Laborer in China Grove in Rowan County, and he is divorced.

He returned to Cabarrus County, after that and sought a living in mining, as the Concord newspapers espoused that he was pretty good at it. 

He escaped the 1910 census, probably from being single and fluid. I find no sign that he ever remarried, however, the informant on his death certificate, J. L. Towell, stated that he was married. I looked to find out who J. L. Towell of Cabarrus County was, and in the 1920 censu, discovered he had been apppointed Superintendant of the County Home, which tells me that Frank was probably sick, and unable to work and had probably been admitted to the County Home. 

Frank died on  June 21, 1917, in Cabarrus County at 60 years old. Again, he names his mother, Polly Yow and father 'U" for unknown. Polly is a nickname for Mary. He was buriedat Mt. Olive Church, near Mount Pleasant. 

So who was Polly Yow? Well, for one, she wasn't Mary Schoffner Yow, wife of Dennis Yow. Let's go back to that 1870 cencus real quick.

See the mangled anem of the 30 year old woman in the home of Dennis Yow, Manoog ? Looking at the actual document, its 'Mary Yow', not "Mannog Tow". These transcribers (head shaking)....at any rate, this was Mary "Polly" Yow, daughter of Dennis and Mary Yow, Sr., and the mother of Lindsey Frank Yow.  She shows up as 18 in the home of her paretns in 1850, 23 in 1860 and 30 in 1870, notice how she keeps getting younger?

Shortly after this census was taken, Polly got married, leaving her son with her parents. Dennis and Mary Schoffner Yow were the grandparents of Lindsey Frank Yow, not his parents, but they raised him. Mary "Gow", daughter of Denniw and Mrs. "Gow" married John Carpenter,  son of Thomas and Betsy Carpenter. They were married in Albemarle at the office of the Justice of the Peace, W.G.Green. 

John grew up in Tyson Township, the son of Thomas Jackson and Elizabeth 'Betsy' Broadway Carpenter. 

A section of the 1880 census of Tyson township, Stanly County.

In the 1880 census, they are living right next door to Mary's father, Dennis, who has Lindsey living with him. Mary was quite a bit older than John, and near the end of her childbearing years, so they only had one child together, a son, named William J. Carpenter.

The neighbors were mostly Mabry's, Mauldins and Kimreys, which places them in an area south of Albemarle and North of Aquadale, the northern part of Tyson Township.

John and Mary would relocate to Coddle Creek in Iredell County by 1900, where John was farming. They still just had the one son, William J., now a teenager. This was the year Lindsey Frank Yow would be found working in China Grove, in nearby Rowan County, and listed as Divorced, however, I've not yet found Ellen still alive.

William J. is not the only child in the home, there is an 8 year old Della Yow, listed as a boarder, but who is she?

After  a considerable amout of digging, I can only come to one conclusion, she was their Granddaughter. Ellen may have been deceased, and 'Dalla Yough" , who was actully Della Yow, was born about 2 years after the wedding of Ellen and Frank. Polly had let her parents raise Frank, and now she and John were raising Della.

Coddle Creek is on the southernmost end of Iredell County, a very elongated county. Apparently, it did not work out well there for the family, as by 1910, Jon and William had moved to Mt. Ulla in Rowan County.

Mary Yow Carpenter died sometime between 190 adn 1910. I don't know where she was buried or even what county they were in at the time. It was most likely either Iredell or Rowan. John is now a widowed father, living with his son. William has married, to Laura Mary Alice Rogers and has had three children already. 

There's also another person missing. Della Yow has passed away ,too, very young. She is buried at Amity Evangelical Lutheran Church in southern Iredell County. This beautiful little church is located southwest of the town of CLeveland, but it's just north of Mount Ulla, which is in Rowan County, but it no longer has a post office. 

John Carpenter died sometime before 1920, probably closer to 1910, as he does not have a Death Certificate, which picked up during that decade, nor do we know where he was buried. Prboably, like Polly,somewhere around Mt. Ulla, and without a stone,or with a stone that  weathered away.

William J. Carpenter, Lindsey Franks half brother, moved to Cabarrus County by 1920, like alot of farm families, to work either for the railroad or in the Cotton mIlls.. He died there in 1927, at the age of 54, of Chronic Nephritis, just like his half-brother did. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Concord. His wife, Laura, survived until 1951. Together they had 8 children: Ona Mae 1905, James Lee, 1906, Floyd Glenn, 1907, Molly J. 1914, Martin Elbert, 1915, Ralph Eugene, 1918, Ruby Virginia, 1920, William Robert 1924.

So, the line of Mary Polly Yow Carpenter lived on, but that of her son, Lindsey, did not. One mystery remains, however, the identityof the father of Lindsey Frank Yow. Or does it? Frank might not have known who his father was, but I do.

We first find Henry Adkins Easley in the 1850 census of Stanly County, as a 14 year old in the home of his parents, Miller and Francis Easley. They are living in Center  Township, which borders Tyson, where the Yows were living in that decade. 

Name:	Henry Easly
Gender:	Male
Age:	14
Birth Year:	abt 1836
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Centre, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Attended School:	Yes
Line Number:	7
Dwelling Number:	72
Family Number:	73
Household Members Age Miller W Easly 42 Frances Easly 39 William Easly 19 John Easly 16 Henry Easly 14 Mary Easly 12 James Easly 8 Sarah Easly 5 Delpha Easly 3 Warham Easly 0

Six years later, he would be in court and about to be a father. These situations were always on a case by case situation. Some fathers embraced their children and gave them their names, others didn't, but the parenthood of the child was wiley known in the community and the child may have been known by both surnames, mothers and fathers, their entire lives.  Most fathers were like Henry, however, and seemed to just take care of their immediate financial obligation, ignore the woman and the child, and go on with their lives. Some children were never told who their fathers were, or they knew, but were told to never mention it in public. Soeme children created nonexistent fathers just to be socially acceptible, which frustrates descendants trying to trace family trees, and now with DNA evidence, confounds people trying to figure out how they are related .

Two years after his court appearance, Henry Easley would marry Elizabeth J. Smith of Cabarrus County, daughter of Louis H. and Doracs T. Sawyer Smith.

The couple was found in Albemarle in 1860 and 1870, had moved down to Tyson, where he had inherited land in 1880, buut by 1900, the had moved to Cabarrus County, where they are found in 1900 and 1910. Shortly after the 1900 census, Henry Atkins Easley passed away, in Decmeber of 1910, and is buried at Rocky Ridge, near the old Jackson Training School, where many members of my family are buried. 

With his wife, Elizabeth, Henry had 8 children, who would be Lindsey Frank Yow's half-siblings. 

They were; Mary Francis, James Lewis, Delpha Adeline, John, who must have died as a child, William Henry, Jacob Filmore, Thomas Boggan and Tabitha.