Two Little Girls

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.