Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Maniza

 


In the February Session of Court, in the year 1861, two people were brought to court on the charges of Fornication and Adultery. The jury consisted of Daniel Kimra, Hudson Biles, William Eudy, Jr., Wiley Lyerly, William Eudy, Sr., Nash Russell, John M. Lowder, W. H. Mabry, Arnold Parker, Alexander McSwain, Robert M. Hall and S. M. Tomlinson. They found the defendants, George Cagle and Maniza Honeycutt, guilty as charged, and both were fined, and the fines were paid, $20 for George Cagle, an enormous amount in those days, and $5.00 for Maniza, which was also probably paid by George. 

I've now wondered and opined on the life and legacy of George Washington Cagle for several posts now. I can't wrap it up without looking at the life of his other mistress, Maniza Ann Honeycutt, and in doing so, her own family. 

Maniza, blessed with one of those beautiful, old-fashioned names, that set her apart from the plethora of banal Mary's, Elizabeth's and Jane's. 'Muh-NEYE-zuh', for those wondering how to pronounce it. Of course she was a Huneycutt, and the Huneycutt's had arrived from Eastern North Carolina, or wherever else they derived from with a collection of uncommon names to spice up the prosaic landscape. Seen as both "Hu" and "Ho" in those days, before the bifurcation of the family lines, the name is of English origin, meaning literally, "Honey Cottage", and first appeared in Somerset, and could be the origins of the genetic link to "Somerset and Devon", in the genetic breakdown of family genetics. Maniza deserved a unique, flowery name, as she was anything but mundane.

Born on March 9, 1839, in Anson County, just south of the Rocky River, she is first seen with her family in the 1850 census of Union County but would spend most of her productive years in the Big Lick Community of Stanly County



Maniza was the daughter of George Washington Huneycutt (1809-1880) and his wife, Tabitha Tomlinson (1810-1890). Her father was a Miller, as was her future partner in crime, George Washington Cagle. Her father shows up in West Pee Dee, Montgomery County, in the 1830 and 1840 census. He's near George Cagle and Edward Almond, which suggests he lived in the Big Lick area of what is now Stanly County, and a large number of other Honeycutt's. Some speculate that he was the son of Drury Honeycutt, but as they an early and populous clan with few clear records at that stage of the game, I will not speculate. My own Honeycutt heritage begins with the ubiquitous Christian name of "John", so I have never speculated on his origins, as I can't get beyond him. 

In 1860, Maniza Ann was just a little girl, "Manicy A.", aged 10. She was the third child in the dropdown list, preceded by John W. and Frances M. ages 14 and 12, respectively, and followed by Lindsey, 8, Sarah C., 6, Clara E., 4 and Mary 2, the typical 19th century farm family pattern of a baby every two years. 




A decade later, George has moved his growing family back across the north side of the Rocky River, and is again, living amongst, a number of Honeycutt's and others of the western Stanly County ilk. He's no longer a Miller, but just a farmer. He had purchased a 99-acre tract on Bear Creek, from a Sheriffs' sale, that bordered the Wright Burris property. This deed is found in the Stanly Court Register of Deeds records, Book 17 Page 543. Daughter Frances, or 'Franky', is now the oldest child in the home, as son John has begun his own household, at age 23, Maniza is 21, Lindsey, 19, Sarah 16, and now a Solomon has joined the group at age 15, who must have been left out in the 1850 census. Clara, "Clary", is now 12, Mary, who was listed as 2 in 1850, is listed as 10 this time. The ages were fluid in those days. The family has now been joined by two little boys, George W. Honeycutt, Jr., age 8, and Miles, age 6. More on him later. 

Things will change drastically for Maniza's parents and siblings in the years ahead, so this is a good place to stop before delving into her adult life, and adding a run-down of who her siblings were, as much as I can tell. I will only be focusing on a few that Maniza was closest to in her adult life. 

The children of George W. Honeycutt and wife Tabitha Tomlinson:

1)  John W. Honeycutt, born about 1836, married Elizabeth Cagle, daughter of George Washington Cagle and Elizabeth Rosa Whitley Cagle, on April 1, 1858. Three children: William Alfred (1859), Adam W. (1861) and Eli B. (1863). Killed May 3, 1863 in Chancellorsville, Virginia, a casualty of the Civil War.

2) Frances "Franky" Mary Honeycutt, born April 11, 1837. Never married, but became the mistress of Joshua Allen Burris. She had 8 children who all went by the name Honeycutt before marriage of daughters:

    A)  Calvin Arenus Honeycutt (1858-1941)

    B) Asbury Wilson Honeycutt (1860-1916)

    C) Sophronia Clementine H. Hinson (1862-1938)

    D) Mary Jane H. Hill (1864-1947)

    E) Ellen L H. Walters (1868-1918)

    F) John David Honeycutt (1869-1954)

    G) Eli F. Honeycutt (1872-1935)

    H) George Filmore Honeycutt (1874-1954)

Franky died on May 29, 1915, in Kannapolis, Cabarrus County and was buried in Mooresville, Iredell County. 

3) Maniza Ann Honeycutt born March 9, 1839, Story to follow

4) Lindsey Lafayette Honeycutt born December 20, 1840. Married Nellie Q. Smith, daughter of Edmund Smith and Elizabeth Ledbetter Smith. Two known children: Lindsey Lafayette Honeycutt, Jr. (1864-1928) and were guardians of Martha Frances Honeycutt, born in 1890. Lindsey survived both the Mexican American War and the Civil War. He left Big Lick, where he spent his childhood and settled in New Salem, Union County, then Lemley, Mecklenburg County, before returning to Union County. 


The Dispatch

Lexington, North Carolina • Page 5



5) Sarah C. Honeycutt born about 1844. She married an unknown Whitley and had a daughter, Eliza, born about 1866-1867. She may have been a Civil War widow. Her story remains incomplete. 

6) Solomon Honeycutt born about 1845. Was a Civil War Casualty. There were two Solomon Honeycutt's who died in the Civil War, one in 1862 and the other in 1865. He was one of them. 

7) Mary Catherine Honeycutt, born in 1846. She first married Daniel J. Hooks on September 15, 1865. They parted ways, whether by divorce or lack of one is unknown, both are shown back with their parents in 1870. She had one or two sons with him. A John Hooks, born in 1866, is shown with her in 1870, but a James Pless Hooks, showing he's their son in his marriage and death records, shows up later, born in 1871 and died in 1971. I'm wondering if his name was incorrect in 1870, as he doesn't show up before 1900 and there's no more record of John. If so, his year of birth is incorrect, but his mother doesn't appear to be back with Daniel Hooks at any point, as he remarries to Ellen Munson. Mary Catherine remarries to a man from Virginia named George Vanderbill and they live in Mecklenburg County. She passes away on December 21, 1916, and is buried there. Her informant was a J. A. Honeycutt of Charlotte, which was her nephew, James Alfred Honeycutt, son of Maniza.

8) Clara E. Honeycutt, born in 1846. Doesn't marry. Has one son, James Calvin Honeycutt Austin, (1868-1937) with Calvin Austin (1832-1872). Her son goes by Austin as an adult. 

9) George Washington Honeycutt, Jr. born in 1852. Accompanies parents to Lenoir, Caldwell County, NC between 1860 and 1870. Marries Elizabeth Isabella "Ebbie" Hatley in Caldwell County on March 14, 1872, she also being from a Stanly County family who migrated west, first to Watauga, then to Caldwell. Seven.  children: James Fillmore, Cordie Jerusha, Christopher Columbus, George Haywood, Rufus, Mary Lou and Alfred. Died in Caldwell County sometime between 1892 and 1900.

10) Milus Honeycutt. Shown as a 6 year old in 1860 (1854). Does not appear on the 1870 census with parents in 1870. It can be assumed he died as a child. 


Maniza Marries.

Maniza Honeycutt married Gabriel Barbee, (1838-1864), son of Josiah Barbee and Polly Little Barbee, on October 20, 1860, in Stanly County. By this time, Maniza would have two children already, Eli, born in 1856 and James Alfred, in 1857. Eli was claimed by George Cagle, and admitted as his son in his will. The father of James Alfred remains unnamed. 





Gabriel Barbee was a Corporal in the Civil War. He died about 1864 or 1865. Was Maniza left a widow, or had the marriage ended before then? I lean towards the option of the marriage coming to an end before the death of Gabriel Barbee. Maniza would never go by the name of Barbee afterwards, and it would seem she would if she were justly widowed. Some add a child to this marriage, a daughter named Martha, born in 1861. I can't say if there was or was not. The Martha linked to her seems to be the child of someone else, and not Maniza or Gabriel. 

In 1863, Maniza Honeycutt would give birth to her third child, Eliza Jane, born on May 10, 1863.



Eliza was named Eliza Jane Honeycutt on her September, 1877 marriage certificate to 22 year old James Berry "Jim" Philemon, when she was all of 14 years old. Her mother was named as Maniza Honeycutt of Goose Creek Township, Union County, and the blank for father was left empty. However, when she passed away on July 12, 1939, at the age of 76, her father's name was given as George Cagle and her mother as 'Enza' Honeycutt. On other records, like those of her children, Eliza Jane's maiden name was given as "Cagle". So Maniza had given birth to another child of George Cagle before the death of her husband, Gabriel Barbee or "Barba", in some reticulations. And with Eli and Eliza both being the known children of George Cagle, it can be assumed James, her second born, was probably a Cagle also. A fourth child, Mary Caroline, would arrive a year or two after Eliza. Her father is not named.


The relationship between  George Washington Cagle and Maniza Ann Honeycutt was long-standing, illicit, illegal and sometimes, pretty embarrassing.




In the February Sessions of the Superior County in Stanly County, North Carolina, in 1866, George Cagle was brought up on charges of indecency. It seems he had gotten sloppy drunk and proceeded to make his way to the dwelling house of Maniza Honeycutt and dance naked in her yard, yelling and carousing as he did so, and exhibit himself in full view of various persons, which probably included at least two of her sisters and all of their children. "With force and amour" they described it, "exhibit himself naked and in an indecent position." One can use their imagination.



George was convicted by a jury of his peers of the lewd behavior and was described as "lewd and unchaste" and possessed of 'scandalous subversions'. This appears to be about the time that Maniza may have moved to Caldwell County with her parents and a few of her sisters.


Maniza gave birth to her fifth child, a son, William Daniel, on 1867. It seems the Honeycutt family made haste from Stanly County as soon as the whole, embarrassing fiasco of the Cagle trial was over.



In the 1870 census, George Honeycutt, 58 and wife, Tabitha, are found living in Lenoir, Caldwell County, with their 15-year-old son, George Jr., living with them in the household. Youngest son, Milo, who would have been 13, is not shown, so had probably passed away as a small child. Next to them is Sarah Whitley, their daughter, 25, with her young daughter, Eliza, age 3. It is unknown which Whitley she had married. Next to Sarah was Catherine Hooks, 20, with a 4 year old son, John. This was their daughter, Mary Catherine Honeycutt, who married Daniel J. Hooks, a great, great, great Uncle of mine. She was not a widow, they were divorced and Daniel was very much alive. 
Maniza is not with them by 1870, but I believe she was in 1866/1867. In the area where the Honeycutt's settled was a large family by the surname of "Hise". Hise is not a Stanly County area name. Near them were several  Hice households, headed by Jacob A. Hise, Jacob Hise, Coonrad Hise, Francis Hise, John W. Hice, Larkin Hise, and John K. Hice. Maniza's fifth child only went by Honeycutt as a child of three. The rest of his life, and on all his documents, he was known as Willaim Daniel Hise. He named Jacob Hise as his father, and was recognized by Jacob Hise as his son.

Jacob Hise

Jacob A. Hise was born on December 29, 1830 in Burke County, North Carolina. He was the son of Leonard Hise, Jr. , who hailed from Mecklenburg County, and his wife, Isabella, whose people were from Randolph County, and is named in his father's will. He settled as a young man, in Summers, Caldwell County, North Carolina, with his family, before 1850. Sometime in the 1850's, he either had an undocumented marriage, or an informal common-law marriage, with Elizabeth Shuffler, who was born along the North Catawba River in Burke County, to Phillip and Carrie Shuffler. They had five children together, Lucinda "Cindy", Leonard, Christoper Columbus, Frances and Isabella.

Sometime in the late 1860's, Jacob, who appears to have avoided the Civil War, met Maniza Honeycutt and fathered son William Daniel. As I've found no record of a Hise in Stanly County during this time, it would make the most sense that Maniza had moved west with her parents at this time and met Jacob Hise there. 

After his soiree with Maniza Honeycutt, Jacob Hise, took off west into wilderness. He may have been escaping some legal entanglements. He abandoned his Caldwell County family. Elizabeth would remain under the care of her oldest daughter, Lucinda, and her son-in-law Max Lutz, until she passed away around 1910. She would refer to herself as a widow, as if  Jacob was dead.. He was not.


In the 1870 census of Summers, Caldwell County, NC, we find 39 year old Jacob farming with his slightly older wife, Elizabeth. Maniza Honeycutt had returned to Stanly County by this time with all of her children and had taken up residence with her sisters Frankie and Clara, who did not leave. Jacob and Elizabeth are listed at the bottom of a page, and I don't think Jacob was a happy man. 


At the top of the next page were the children of Jacob and Elizabeth Hise, just a continuance of the listing, Leonard, Columbus, Francis and Isabel, only 6 months old. The oldest child, Lucinda, was recorded at a relatives house. 



Next is 81 year old Grandison Hise, no doubt a relative of some measure. Afterwards is a household headed by Elizabeth Chester, with three small children and 21-year-old Sarah Chester. The following household is headed by 20-year-old Henry Chester. This is a sibling group. Elizabeth Caroline Chester had married her cousin, Calvin Chester. Shortly after this census, Jacob Hise will head west to Tennessee, leaving his wife and children behind, and taking with him, Sarah Chester.

They settled in Crab Orchard, Carter County, Tennessee. I found this really informative little article, seen below, on Crab Orchard during the Civil War era. Of course, there would have been some difference a few years later when Jacob arrived, but it was still a hideaway area. What was Jacob hiding from?



Wednesday, November 04, 2020

The Crab Orchard (Tennessee) and the Civil War

   
There were several places that bore the name of Crab Orchard during the Civil War. Crab Orchard, Kentucky, was probably the most famous, but for this post, we are going to look at Crab Orchard, Carter County, Tennessee. The Crab Orchard in Carter County, geographically speaking, is a rugged area. Near the North Carolina border, the area is split by the Doe River Gorge. It is rough place, but for those looking for hide out and escape, an ideal location. One veteran described it as a “most rugged country…”[1]

   Crab Orchard became a haven for Unionists and dissidents during the war. The area is rough, running through the Doe River Gorge. Nathaniel G. Taylor, a Carter County native who had served in the US House in 1854-1855, and had been outspoken in his defense of the Union during the 1860 election, reportedly fled to the Crab Orchard area following the secession of Tennessee. He was being guarded by 100 Union men. [2]

Crab Orchard section of East Tennessee. 

    After the bridge-burning episode in East Tennessee in November 1861, many of the bridge burners fled to the Crab Orchard area after Federal soldiers failed to support the activities of the local firebugs. Confederate soldiers chased the Unionists for a time, but did not enter the Crab Orchard area. (Judd, The Bridge Burners) An article in a Nashville newspaper reported at the end of November that many of the bridge burners were still in the area: “Some spasms of the rebellion yet exist on the upper borders of the Buffalo, in the Limestone Cove, and the Crab Orchard…”[3]

   William Penland, a sergeant in the 6th North Carolina Cavalry, was stationed at Mount Taylor, in the Carter County area. He wrote home on January 6, 1863, that he had been on a raid and the rumor was that the “tories in the crabb orchard that was a going to cutt us off if the Yankees whipped us and we had to retreat[.]” Wilson wrote that his command journeyed into the area, but found “none[.]”[4]

   Possibly the biggest movement of troops through the area came in June 1864, when Capt. George W. Kirk moved from Broylesville (then in Carter County), through the area into North Carolina. Kirk was heading to Camp Vance, in Burke County, in an attempt to capture a train to take his raiders east to destroy the bridge over the Yadkin River on the border of Rowan and Davidson Counties. While Kirk was able to capture the camp, along with 200 prisoners, he failed in taking a waiting train at the depot nearby and retreated back into Tennessee, probably passing through Crab Orchard once again.[5]

   North Carolina home guard forces, under Major Harvey Bingham, maneuvered toward the southern end of the Crab Orchard area in October 1864. A group of nine robbed several families in the Bethel community of Watauga County before heading back to Tennessee. Bingham followed with portions of the 11th Battalion North Carolina Home Guard just over the Tennessee line, capturing one man and driving “off some beef cattle” before heading back to his base.[6] 

Doe River Gorge. 

  The Crab Orchard was also a stop on a local version of the underground railroad, funneling escaped prisoners and dissidents out of the Carolinas and into Tennessee. Keith Blalock, Harrison Church, and Jim Hartley were all pilots on this route, moving from Banner’s Elk through Crab Orchard and then toward Greenville (or wherever Federal lines happen to be holding at that moment).  When Blalock was wounded late in the war while raiding a farm in Caldwell County, a group of fifteen to twenty men came to Banner’s Elk and rescued him, taking Blalock to convalesce at the home of David Stout at Crab Orchard.[7] When George W. Kirk followed Maj. Gen. Stoneman’s Cavalry raiders into North Carolina in March-April 1865, they supposedly moved via Crab Orchard and Banner’s Elk before arriving in Boone.[8]

   This small glimpse of the war inside the Crab Orchard community is just that – a small glimpse. There were many events that took place inside this community that have escaped the pen of the historian and are now lost to history. In Scott and Angel’s history of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry (US), they write of members of Thomas’s Legion roaming in the area, spreading “terror and dismay wherever they went.” Scott and Angel mention that a man named Andrew Buck “was taken out and hanged until he was black in the face by Walters to make him tell where his sons were concealed.” Outside of saying that Walters was “Captain Walters” from Georgia, who was in Carter County in May 1863, we don’t actually know who this is. Maybe in time we can dig out a few more of these stories and preserve this piece of history.[9] 

Historian Michael C. Hardy's quest to understand Confederate history, from the boots up

Jacob and Sarah would have 5 children together, beginning with Laura in 1873 and followed by: Edward Duncan, Rebecca, Abner and Robert Raymond in 1880. Again, there is no record of their marriage, and they probably did not proceed with the formalities.

Jacob Hise passed away on Roan Mountain, Carter County, Tennessee, deep in the Appalachians. He was buried June 20th, 1885, at the Hampton Cemetery.



Sarah Chester Hise would return to North Carolina and lived in Mitchell County, first and Snow Camp and later in Spruce Pines, where she died in 1937.


1870, Big Lick, Stanly County, NC



Wherever Maniza Honeycutt was when she conceived her fifth known child, William Daniel, she was back in Big Lick by June of 1870, where she is listed in the household headed by her sister, Frankie Honeycutt. Her sister, Clara, is also in the home, and this may have been the house that their parents and several other siblings, abandoned when they relocated to Caldwell County in Blue Ridge foothills. This was a house full of children.

The listing begins with Frances, age 32, "Keeping house" and was followed by Calvin, 15, Sophronia 8, Ellen L. 7, Mary J. 5 and John, 1. Frankie will have two more children after these.

Next in line is sister Clara, 21 and her son, James Calvin, who would go by the name of his father, Austin, as an adult.

After Clara in "Mania", or Maniza, age 30. She is followed by James "H", 12, although this would have been James Alfred Honeycutt, who would sign his Aunt Mary Catherines' death certificate in Charlotte in 1916. Eliza Jane is 8, Caroline is age 6, this is Mary Caroline Honeycutt, whose age was very fluid. Ten-year-old Asbury is out of line and out of place. Asbury Wilson Honeycutt was the son of Frankie, not Maniza. After Asbury comes 3-year-old William, or William Daniel Hise, and lastly, a newborn infant named Eva. This would be Maniza's sixth child.

After the name of one month old Eva Honeycutt comes the name of her probably father, George Cagle, in the next homestead counted, number 119 Big Lick Township. George is 58. His second wife, Nancy, is living with him, and their youngest child together, daughter, Francis, 13. After Francis is listed Eli, age 11. Eli Cagle, Maniza's firstborn, has been adopted by his father, and is named in his Will. Eli helps old George and will later go by his full name of Ellison F. Cagle. 

Eli is followed by Mariah Myers Meggs, a boarder and another mistress of George Cagle, and her daughter, Melissa "Lisy" Meggs, who was not George Cagle's child. Her father was a Parker. 

After the Meggs is listed William Honeycutt, 11. Now, William Alfred Honeycutt was a grandson of George Cagle, but also a nephew of the Honeycutt sisters living near them. George Cagle's daughter, Elizabeth, had married John W. Honeycutt, the oldest son of George W. Honeycutt and Tabitha Tomlinson Honeycutt. John, if you recall, was a Civil War Casualty. Elizabeth would remarry to a Baker but passed away in 1885.

1880

We really don't hear anything else from the Honeycutt sisters who stayed behind until 1880. Frankie is still living in Big Lick with her children. Her oldest son, Calvin, has married, and is listed in Household number 25. He married on January 28, 1877, at 22, to Betsy Ann Smith, daughter of Big Lick neighbors, Alfred and Mary Smith. By 1880, they've already had two sons, William Thomas and Rufus Houston. He named his parents as J. C. Burris and Frankie Honeycutt. To add to Cagle/Honeycutt entanglements, Betsy's mother, Mary Cagle Smith, was a daughter of George Cagle, Maniza 's baby daddy. Add all the Honeycutt children who were really Cagle's by blood, and George's daughter Elizabeth marrying Maniza 's older brother, John Wilborn Honeycutt, that's a well-woven quilt of connections and relation between the two families.






Frankie is seen by her middle name, Mary, and at age 42, in the house below her son. The family, as a whole, appear to be trying to run a farm together. It must have been a profitable enterprise, because Calvin will eventually buy his own store building and become a merchant, but not in Big Lick. Living in Frankie's homestead is second son, Asbury, 20, Ellen, 15, Mary Jane, 14, John D., 12, Eli, 10 and George, 8. Yes, Maniza and Frankie both had sons named Eli. 




Maniza is also living in Big Lick, but not exactly close to her sister, or where she lived a decade prior. Her main source of support, George Cagle, had been murdered four years prior by Daniel A. Crisco, his employee and the husband of his other paramour, Mariah Meggs. For what reasons, I can't determine, but Maniza was now living in Household 118, while Frankie was in Household 36, and among a large number of Smiths and Jones, and households mostly headed by women. Widows, abandoned women, unmarried mothers, I can't say, but a community of women. She is now age 38, extant and desolate, with her two youngest daughters, Ellen, 8 and Rebecca 7, the last born about the time George Cagle perished by the blade of Daniel Crisco. Were these young ones his spawn? Had she been large with expectancy of Rebecca when the tragedy occurred?  And where was the youngest of George W. Honeycutt's wayward daughters, Clara, who had lived with her two older sisters a decade before?




Clara was living in New Salem, Union County, which borders Stanly and New Salem is just across the Rocky River from Big Lick. She was listed as 32 years old and she's living with a 72-year-old Clara Huneycutt as her daughter. There was no 72-year-old Clara in any other record, but the shoe fits the age of Clara's actual mother, Tabitha. Perhaps Tabitha had the middle name of Clara. Clara's son, James Calvin Austin, is shown as an 11-year-old in this record, and with the name Honeycutt. His father, Calvin Austin, died in 1872, and as an adult, James went by his father's surname. When he married Lydia Araminta Thomas, daughter of William Green Thomas and Lydia Adeline Dry Brooks Thomas, on January 30, 1887, Clara was still living and a resident of Union County. She's not to be found in 1900, when Jim Austin is living in Cabarrus County, with his family, and working in the Cotton Mills. As she only had the one son, she would have most likely lived with him until she passes away. I can't say when she died, presumably sometime between 1887 and 1900, or where she was buried, perhaps in Union County, or Cabarrus County, possibly even Stanly County, North Carolina. 


Maniza

Maniza Ann Honeycutt is found neither in the 1900 or 1910 census records, but she was very much alive, and living in North Charlotte during this time, as was told through other records. This may have been the story for Clara, also. I have searched for her with due diligence. Maniza lived long enough to have a Death Certificate, which had just become common in Mecklenburg County, NC, but would not catch on in other counties until a few years after. 




Maniza Ann Honeycutt passed away of heart disease on January 18, 1910, at the age of 72. Her residence was given as North Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC. The informant was her son, James Alfred Honeycutt, and oddly, he gave her marital status as married. Not single, not widowed, but married, indicating she had a living husband, but there is no sign that she had married, and she was still bearing her maiden name. Her birthplace was given as Anson County, and her parents were named as George Honeycutt and 'Tobitha Tomberland', which was close, as it was Tabitha Tomlinson. Her place as burial was only listed as "Country", what did that mean?


19 Jan 1910

Charlotte, North Carolina

A brief obituary was printed the next day in the Charlotte paper. The article revealed that she had been sick for awhile, and had been staying with relatives in North Charlotte. Her body was being taken for burial to Anson County. 



Maniza's tombstone gives her date of birth as March 9, 1839 and her date of death the same as her death certificate. Added were the words, "Asleep in Jesus" and "Gone, but not forgotten'. Her name was written with her nickname, 'Niza" Ann Honeycutt, and she was obviously not taken to Anson County for burial. There had been a change of plans. Instead, she was buried at Arlington Baptist Church in the Allen Community of northern Mecklenburg County. It's easy to see why this place was chosen. Also gracing the church grounds were her children, Eli Cagle, Ella Sanders, Eliza Philemon, her brother, Lindsey Honeycutt, and several grandchildren. This may have been her family church in those later days. 

Arlington Church was founded about 1880 by a man named Eli H. Hinson. If you are thinging that sounds like a Big Lick area name, you are thinking what I was thinking and we might be right, or we might be wrong. This seems to be the area where most of the children, and Maniza herself, ended up by the turn of the century. Mr Hinson was also the proprietor of a country store, that was an essential landmark for the Allen and Clear Creek Communities in those days. Now having been eaten by the insidious amoeba that is the ever-encroaching City of Charlotte, the surviving structure has been declared an historic property and righteously so, has been the subject of a research report by the Mecklenburg Historical Society and the following historical sketch was written by Lara Ramsey, whose surname makes me wonder if she is a descendant of my ancestor, Old Stark Ramsey.


The Hinson Store was built by Eli Hinson, a well-known and successful gold miner, farmer, and businessman, along with his son Francis Martin Hinson, who was also a prominent merchant. Both men were respected and important members of their small rural community located in the center of Clear Creek Township. Eli had been a founding member of Arlington Baptist Church and had donated the land on which the first church building was built. Martin was a teacher at both the Mount Pleasant School and Rutherford College before taking over his father’s farm and store. The brick store that remains today replaced the original wood frame store that Eli had opened across Arlington Church Road many years before, and was part of a number of enterprises (including a grist mill and brick yard) that encompassed the Hinson farmstead.


The Hinson Store was just such a commercial hub for the small community of Allen in Clear Creek Township. Run by Eli Henderson Hinson and his son Francis Martin Hinson, the store sold everything imaginable to its customers, from common household and farming tools to coffins. The Hinson Store is also significant for its association with Eli Hinson and his son Francis M. Hinson. Eli Hinson had already made a name for himself as a successful gold miner when he moved from his native Union County to Clear Creek Township in the 1850s. Through the last half of the nineteenth century, Eli established a large farmstead that included the general store, brick yard, cotton gin, and grist mill. He also continued to use his knowledge of mining, acting as manager of the Surface Hill gold mine for many years. After a religious conversion that is said to have happened on a Civil War battlefield, Eli also founded Arlington Baptist Church, providing land and funds for the building of the sanctuary. Eli’s son Francis Hinson (known in the community as “Martin”) followed in his father’s footsteps—after attending Rutherford College and teaching school for several years, Martin began working with Eli in the running of the farm, mill, and store. Martin received the deed to the farm in 1887 and continued to operate the store until his death in 1935.

So, Eli Henderson Hinson hailed from Union County.  A quick look into his predecessors indicate that He was the son of William M. and Peggy Cook Hinson of upper Union County, the part that was originally part of Anson, and that his roots sprang from the Hinsons who settled along the Rocky River in Big Lick Township and in the northern parts of Anson and Union Counties, the same stock that had produced the G W Honeycutt and Tabitha Tomlinson Honeycutt family.

Eli Henderson Hinson family near Mint Hill, Clear Creek Township

Looking into the children of Moniza Honeycutt, where were they in 1900 and 1910? Certainly she had lived among them, if she had died among them.

1900

Most of Maniza's children were living in Clear Creek Township, a grouping which included 36 pages of citizenry. The Eli Hinson family were listed on pages 30 and 31, near the end of it on page 32. Pages 33 through 36 enumerated the citizens of the tiny town of Mint Hill, as part of Clear Creek Township. They were surrounded by a few Stanly County names, but also by a large number of Hagers, Biggers and Philemons, which they married into. There were classic Union County names, like Helms and Starnes, some names typical of the Midland and Locust areas, like Burnett and McManus, and others popular to Cabarrus County, which it bordered, like Flowe, Mullis and Clontz. Are the far end, near the Hinson Store and Mint Hill, are seen several Lemmonds, my paternal grandmothers' family.


Ellison F "Eli" Cagle is on page 8 of Clear Creek Township. Near him is another Honeycutt family that were not descendants of Maniza or her siblings. It was headed by an Elizabeth Honeycutt, age 68. That would be a bit  anonymous, if she did not have living with her Nettie B Honeycutt, age 48, her niece, and Adam P. Honeycutt, age 21, her nephew. Nettie Brazilla was the daughter of an entirely different George Washington Honeycutt, (1796-1891) and his wife, Jane Elizabeth Burris, daughter of Old Solomon and Judith Burris, making her my multiple Great Aunt, four times over, as I descend from her sister Nancy and her brothers, Solomon, Jr., Taylor and Joshua Christian Burris. Adam was Nettie's son , Adam Pettigrew Honeycutt, whom she had out-of-wedlock with Solomon Robbins. This would mean her Aunt Elizabeth was the sister of this other George Washington Honeycutt.

James Alfred Honeycutt is on page 21 of Clear Creek Township. Right next door was another Honeycutt household headed by a 22-year old William Honeycutt, his wife Octavia and young family. It appears he could have been a son of James Alfred, but looks can be decieving. This was actually William Thomas Honeycutt (1877-1943), and his wife Nancy Octavia Hagler, a son of Calvin Arenus Honeycutt, son of Maniza's sister, Frankie, and therefore James Alfred's first cousin once removed.

Eliza Jane Cagle Philemon is on page 18 of Clear Creek Township. She's two houses up from Lindsey Honeycutt, 65, her uncle and Moniza's brother.

William Daniel Hise lived in Goose Creek, Union County, NC in 1900.

Mary Carolina Honeycutt is not to be found in the 1900 or 1910, but was the child who lived the longest, to 1957. She may have heard Elvis. As these are the years Maniza is missing, I'm inclined to believe that Maniza may have been living with this child, who could have been living under a different name with an unknown husband between the one she married in 1879 and the one she married in 1920. Curiosly, Maniza's sister Mary Catherine Honeycutt is also missing in 1900, but shows back up later after a second (or more) marriage.

Margaret Ella Honeycutt is found in Crab Orchard Township, next to Clear Creek Township in Mecklenburg County. 


Clear Creek and Crab Orchard

I have no other information at this time on Maniza's other two known daughters, Eva, born in 1869, and Rebecca, the youngest, born in 1873. 

The known children and grandchildren of Maniza Honeycutt, to the best of my knowledge, shown by the names they went by as adults, were:

1) Ellison F. "Eli" Cagle born June 3, 1856. Son of George Washington Cagle Jr. As a youth, lived with his father, near his mother's home, and migrated to Coddle Creek, Iredell County, with a numberof his half-siblings on his father's side. Returned to Stanly County by October 16, 1884, when he married Sophronia Alice Thomas of Union County, in Stanly County, daughter of William Green Thomas and wife, Lydia Dry. Five children in this marriage. Died Jan. 7, 1940, Cedar Creek, Mecklenburg County, NC.

    1. Dee Ellison Cagle (1886-1940)

    2.Walter Vance Cagle (1888-1964)

    3. Lourella 'Lula' Cagle (1893-1915)

    4. Rossa P. Cagle Belk (1896-1931)

    5. Ocey Ola "Flossie" Cagle (1903-1985)

2) James Alfred Honeycutt  born September 26, 1857, father not named, but being born only 15 months after Eli Cagle, George Cagle most likely candidate. Married on September 23, 1877 to Lutitia Adelina Williams, in Union County, daughter of John Daniels Williams and Nancy Griffin. Six children to this marriage.

    1 & 2)  Two boys, W. L. (1878) and G. L. (1879), of which no more is known, died before their father.

    3) Zebulon Ellison (1881-1944)

    4) Ida J. (1882 - 1901) *Married 1st cousin William Eli Philemon.

    5) Edward Mangum (1886-1961)

    6) June Jefferson (188-1935)

Married second: Isla Smith in Mecklenburg County, daughter of Alford Smith and Polly Cagle Smith, a granddaughter of George Cagle, so possibly a1st cousin marriage. Fiver children to this marriage.

    7) Jesse James (1893-1914)

    8) Samuel Howard "Verdette" (1895-1965)

    9) Tink E "Benett" (1897-1974)

    10) George Dewey "Dudett" (1901-1923)

    11) Maybelle (1914-1963)

James Alfred HOneycutt dieon July 3, 1933 in Mecklenburg County, NC. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.



3) Eliza Jane Cagle was born on May 10, 1863, in Stanly County, NC.George Cagle is named as her father on her death certificate. Married James Berry "Jim" Philemon on September 23, 1877, in Union County, NC at the age of 14. Settled first in New Salem, Union County, Removed to Clear Creek in Mecklenburg and finally, settled in the city of Charlotte by 1910. Six Philemon children:

    1) William Eli (1878-1943) Married cousin Ida J. Honeycutt as 1st of 4 wives, preceeding Maggie Hagler, Alice  and Maggie Byrd

    2) Mary Jane P. Kennedy (1880-1936)

    3) Martin Luther (1889-1968)

    4) A. G. (1891-1893)

    5) Rettie Cagle Philemon Mullis (1894-1952)

    6) George David Philemon Sr. (1896-1967)

Eliza Jane Cagle Philemon died on July 12, 1939 at the age of 78. She was buried at Arlington Baptist Church Creek in the Allen Commuinty of Clear Creek Township, Mecklenburg County, NC. 




4) Mary Caroline "Lina" Honeycutt was born about 1864, but consistenly lowered her age for reporting. She married first James Allen McIntrye on November 22, 1879, in Union County, NC, son of Young Allen McIntrye and Dolly Yow. Divorced, no children. She doesn't appear in records again until she marries William Thomas Simpson in Gaston County on april 10, 1920. She lived in McAdenville, Gaston County, then Ward 5, Charlotte, Clear Creek, Mecklenburg and lastly in Crab Orchard, Mecklenburg, in the County Home after the death of her husband, Thomas Simpson.  


No father is named for Mary Caroline on her first marriage certificate and George Honeycutt is named on her second, the name of her grandfather. I believe it was a reference to George Cagle, and not her grandfather, and the clerk added the Honeycutt, as that was her surname. No parents were named on her death certificate.


Mary Caroline Honeycutt Simpson passed away on December 28, 1957. Her obituary gave her age as 88. She had no children of her own, but her husband had a son by a previous marriage. She was buried at Wilson Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in the Wilgrove Community North of Mint Hill. 

5) William Daniel Hise was born September 9, 1867, in Norwood, Stanly County, NC, according to his records. His father was Jacob A. Hise, son of Leonard Hise, of Caldwell County, NC. He married March 16, 1886, at the age of 18, In Union County, NC to Apsy Idella Presson, daughter of James Postel Presson and wife, Mary Matilda Hagler. Hagler is another common named that intermarried with this branch of Honeycutts. They first settled in Goose Creek, Union County, before moving to Charlotte, Ward 5, in the city. Nine Hise children were born to this union:

    1) Wilma Elizabeth (1887-1908)

    2) Farley McCall (1888-1964)

    3) James Alexander (1890-1949)

    4) Lemuel Evander (1890-1964)

    5) Minnie Idella (1892-1927) 

    6) Charles Odell (1894-1983)

    7) Alice Ardella (1896-1926)

    8) Clyde William (1900-1976)

    9) Bonnie Odessa (1901-1982)

After the death of his wife Apsy Idella, in 1915, Dan moved back to Goose Creek, before settling finally in the town of Monroe in Union County. He remarried on October 14, 1917 to Kizzie Ella Nance. He was 50 and she, 41. There were no children born to this marriage. Ella was the daughter of Henry Nance and Martha Stewart.She must have been a good cook.


26 Nov 1942

Location

Charlotte, North Carolina


William Daniel Hice died November 25, 1942, in Monroe. He survived all of his daughters and all of his sons survived him. His only surviving sibling was Mary Caroline, aka Mrs. Thomas Simpson.

6) Eva Honeycutt or Hise was born in May of 1870, and shown only as a one-month old in the 1870 census of Big Lick, Stanly County. 

7) Margaret Ella Honeycutt was born sometime between 1872 and 1875, in Big Lick, Stanly County. She married first in Stanly County, but spent most of her life afterwards in Mecklenburg. She married first on December 14, 1883 to Lindsey Frank Yow, son of Henry Atkins Easley and Polly Yow, unmarried. She was disturbingly young. Her marriage ceritificate gives her age as 16, her father as unknown and her mother as Nizey Honeycutt. This would give her a birth year of 1867, but she doesn't show up in the census until 1880 as an 8-year-old, meaning she would have been only 11 in 1883. As her age was fluid, she may have been the same individual as Eva Honeycutt. One child to this marriage.

    !) Della Yow (1886- Marker bears no date)

Married second, formally or informally to Adam Alexander Hagler. One child.

    2) Bub Alexander Hagler (1891-1960)

Married third Jesse Sanders in Mecklenburg County on June 28, 1900, a much older man she worked for. Three children:

    3) Wylie D. G. Sanders (1895-1979)

    4) Davidson Guy Sanders (1899-1973)

    5) Mary Ann Sanders Stuttz (1899-1927)

Married fourth to Elbert Alvin Wooten, either formally or informally. Elbert was born in Yadkin County, son of Alvin Wooten and wife, Jenny Steelman. Two children:

    6) Margaret Agnes Wooten (1910-1990)

    7) Myrtle Wooten Wilson (1914-2002)


Margaret Ella Wooten died on March 23, 1935, of cervical cancer. Her age was given as 60 and the informant was her son Wylie Sanders. That would have given her a birth year of 1875, which is impossible, as her first marriage was in 1879. As I mentioned earlier, her age was fluid. I believe she was at least 70.


The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte, North Carolina • Page 10



Ella's father was said to have been George Cagle. When she passed in 1935, she had survived two of her daughters, Della Yow and Mary Ann Saunders Stuttz. Two of her brothers survived her, Eli Cagle and Daniel Hice, and two sisters Mary Caroline Simpson and Eliza Philemon. She was buried at Arlington Church Cemetery near Mint Hill with her mother, Uncle Lindsey and several siblings. Her daughter Della was buried in Iredell County.

8) Rebecca Honeycutt was born in Big Lick, Stanly County, about 1873. She is only shown with her mother, and her sister, Ella, in the 1800 census. I know no more about her. She could have died as a child, but as her mother hasn't been located in the 1900 and 1910 census records, although we know she was living, Rebecca may have lived until adulthood. She is not listed in her siblings obituaries, so she died before they did.


Maniza Ann Honeycutt was a surviver. The Civil War had changed the rules of polite society. With few rights and limited options, the widows, orphans and single women of Big Lick, and the greater South, did what they must to survive. Maniza, and her sister Frankie, too, had settled under the canopy of second wives, though not legally, of one of the few, healthy and mildly prosperous living men, albeit already married. They depended on him for housing, supplies, protection and survival, George Cagle for Maniza and Joshua Burris for Frankie. Later, they would depend on the several children they had born, after they had grown up and spread their wings into a new world of change and discovery that their mothers could only imagine.

A New 🍂 Autumn Leaf





Our family received a wonderful surprise this autumn, a new little leaf on the family tree. This is my eighth grandchild and seventh grandson. It's a wonderful reminder that while we're busy digging through the roots in our genealogical quests, the family continues to grow in the other direction as well. 

My new little fellow was quite the surprise. Sometimes the good Lord has other plans, despite all efforts of humankind. Midsummer he was discovered mid-journey, and waved his tiny hand on the ultrasound, "Hi! I'm coming! Surprise! Be there in four months." He joins three big brothers and a big sister. He will not have any younger siblings, not by his Mommy at any rate. His poor sister, she received two new brothers this year, as her father, my daughter's first husband, also welcomed a little boy earlier this year. That makes five little brothers. At least she has an Aunt on her Dad's side, just two years older, that is like a sister to her. 

But what a blessing! A beautiful, healthy little guy, and at over 10-and-a half pounds, larger than any of my other grandkids or my kids. He may grow up to be the 'big' brother if his size out-of-the-gate is any indication. 

This may be my last grandchild. My oldest son and his wife stopped at two and my oldest daughter's one son is well into his teens and his mother is not likely to start over at this stage of the game. Yet, I do have a single son still within the range of typical child-bearing years. His concentration is on furthering his education for the moment, but it's possible he could settle down and start a family one day, or join a ready-made one. 
Welcome to the newest branch on my family tree, whose Halloween 'costume' in the photo above, was very fitting. 


Sunday, November 9, 2025

The Damning of Mariah Meggs



"It's a Man's World" sang the legendary James Brown, and at no time was this statement more true than in the mid-nineteenth century. Men would do what they did, and women suffered the consequences of those actions, then struggled to survive the after-effects as best they could.

After George Cagle passed away, I wondered what happened to Mariah Meggs, a woman who had lived with him, and with his second wife, Nancy and all of their children, known in the community of Big Lick, Stanly County, North Carolina, as a paramour of old George Cagle. George, a fairly well off businessman and farmer for the time and place, had an eye for pretty girls, and he also had a knack for making mistakes. But one of the worst mistakes he ever made was hiring this misbegotten teen-age boy name Daniel Alexander Crisco , to tend his stock. Daniel Crisco was the result of an illicit relationship between Blacksmith and Carriagemaker William G. Crisco and an unmarried woman named Rebecca Elizabeth Crisco. George may have felt sorry for the boy, as George had his own illegitimate children, which he embraced to some degree. I've came across several young men in my research of old Stanly County, and the surrounding counties, who were born into similar circumstances and several of the seemed to have carried this seething anger within them, repressed by an inadequate seal. The malice seemed to be caused by a bitterness towards the community for its ostracization of them and the assault to their characters, by simply virtue of the unfortunate circumstance of their birth. 

The last half dozen posts of mine have been about George Crisco, or members of his family and stages of his life. This one will be about his mistress, Mariah. The more I found out about her, the more pity and empathy I had towards her. She had gotten a raw deal in life. 

Mariah had been born to a woman named Elizabeth, around 1844, probably in Union County, North Carolina, near the Rocky River. Elizabeth's maiden name is unknown. Some have her as a Thomas, others as a Meggs, however, I've found proof of neither. She is always called "Meggs" in the documents of her children, and that was her married name. Her husband would later marry a Thomas, after her death, and that may be where the confusion came in. I believe that Meggs may have been a likely maiden name for Elizabeth, and perhaps she was joined into a cousin marriage, than Thomas, simply because Mariah Keziah Meggs, her firstborn child, went by Meggs. In those days, it was much more likely for a child born out-of-wedlock, to go by their mother's maiden name, than the name of any future husband the mother may marry. In this text, we will refer to her as Elizabeth Meggs. Several refer to her as Sarah Elizabeth, as well as her widower's future wife. That is also misleading and I believe, a case of two people being merged into one. Elizabeth was older, and I only see her in records as Elizabeth. Sarah Thomas was younger, and I've not seen her as Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth Meggs, whether the surname was her current or future acquirement, gave birth to Mariah Keziah Meggs, out of wedlock, and as the mistress, or at the hands of, a married man. That man, as is named on Mariah's documents, was Shepherd Myers.

Shepherd Myers was fully named, Wilson Shepherd Myers, was born on March 5, 1811, in Anson County, NC to Marmaduke Ransom Myers (1772-1831) and wife, Rebecca Brewer (1789-1830). He was married twice, first to Clarissa Jane Teal and second to Catherine McDearmind. Isn't it great that we can know so much about Shepherd, and almost nothing about Elizabeth, not even her maiden name?




Shepherd Myers first appears in the 1840 census of Anson County as a young man counted in his 30's, with a young woman in her 20's, and two small children, a boy and a girl under 5, in the home. This looks like a young married family. His neighbors indicate that he is near what will become the Union-Anson County border. Preceding his name is Holden Lisenby, Henry Deberry and William Horn, Deberry being a name usually associated more with eastern Montgomery County, in this year. Following his listing is Margaret Jones, James Dumas, Moses Sanders and James Tice. Not far down the list I see my ancestor, William Hill, son of Julius Hill; which gives me some perspective of where this census taker was riding his mule. Other familiar names on this page are Wyatt Nance, Hosey (Hosea) Tomberlin, Berry and Coleman Austin, Thomas Polk and a few Mullises. No Meggs nearby.



NameShepherd Myers
GenderMale
RaceWhite
Residence Age39
Birth Dateabt 1811
BirthplaceSouth Carolina
Residence Date1850
Home in 1850Meltonsville, Anson, North Carolina, USA
OccupationFarmer
IndustryAgriculture
Real Estate500
Line Number23
Dwelling Number894
Family Number894
Inferred SpouseClarissa Myers
Inferred ChildJames Wilson Myers; Margaret A Myers; Eliza Myers; Alexander Myers; Hampton Myers; John Myers; Harrison Myers
Household members
NameAge
Shepherd Myers39
Clarissa Myers35
James Wilson Myers12
Margaret A Myers11
Eliza Myers9
Alexander Myers7
Hampton Myers5
John Myers1
Harrison Myers0


By 1850, Shepherd and his wife, Clarrissa Teal Myers have added five more children in the course of ten years, to the first boy and girl from 1840, which would have been James Wilson and Margaret. Mariah Keziah Meggs was born to Shepherd and Elizabeth in 1844, which would have been the year between the births of his sons, Alexander and Hampton, to Clarissa. They are located in the Meltonsville area, and one would think Elizabeth may have been close by but cannot be found. This census reveals that Shepherd was born in South Carolina, while his wife was born in North Carolina.

Clarrissa is found with Shepherd in the 1850 and 1860 census records, and according to her tombstone, she died on September 20, 1865, at the age of 49, having been born October 15, 1815. She and Shepherd had 11 children together, Mariah Meggs' half siblings. They were:

James Wilson Myers (1837-1963). He had married Rebecca Ann Rivers , and had one son, Charlie Shepherd Myers, before James died on September 5, 1863 at Pennsville, Salem, New Jersey, where he died of disease as a POW in the Civil War.

Margaret Ann Myers (1838-1908) Became the second wife of James Ratliff Gulledge. No children.

Eliza Jane Myers (1840-1892) Married James Green Jones, 5 children.

William Alexander Myers (1842-1935) Moved to Madison County, Tennessee, becoming a Grocery Merchant and living to age 92. Married twice, first to Josephine Price, by whom he had one daughter and second to Victoria Mathis, with who he had three sons.

Hampton Myers (1844-1871) Survived the Civil War, and afterwards, joined his brother in Madison County, Tennessee, where he died at age 26.

John Shepherd Myers (1848-1932) Married Sarah Ellen Jarman or Garman, 7 children. Farmed in Gulledge Township, Anson County, where he was born until moving to Rocky Springs in Montgomery County later in life. Lived to 83.

Benjamin Harrison Myers (1850-1936) Moved to Fannin County, Texas, as a young man, where he worked as a Carpenter. Married Bernice Brigance there, three children. Lived to see 86.

Thomas Albert Myers (1853-1924) Moved to Grayson County, Texas, where he worked as a Carpenter. Married Elizabeth Ellen Sharpe, three sons. Made it to 72.

George Franklin Myers (1855-1924) Married twice, 1st to Nora Francis Braswell, no children. Second to Emma A. Tarlton, ten children. Worked as a farmer in Anson, Lee and finally, Richmond Counties, NC. Died at 68 years old. 

Elijah Dorsey Myers ( 1858-1919) Married twice, 1st to Sarah Francis Ratliff, 4 children. Second to Elizabeth Ann Gaddy, 5 children. Remained and farmed in Gulledge, Anson County.

Sarah Teal Myers (1863-between 1900 and 1910) Married John Davis Rushing, 6 daughters. Lived in Gulledge until she died at age 48.


After Clarissa died, Shepherd still had young children, so he married an "old maid", Scottish lady, Catherine McDermaid, who had just inherited property after the death of her mother, Mary.



Above, is the family in 1870, with Catherine and two older ladies boarding, Ann McLaurin, who never married and Kizzie (Kessiah) Meaders Hubbard, recently widowed. 

Shepherd Myers died on Christmas Eve, 1884 and is buried at Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Wadesboro, NC. 


His widow, Catherine McDermaid Myers, became insane and died four years later at the Asylum in Morganton.


Elijah Dorsey Myers and wife Fannie Ratliff Myers.

Elizabeth, the mother of Mariah Meggs, is not to be found in the 1850 census. It can be estimated that she married James Meggs by about that time, as their first child together, Jane, was born in 1852. 




In 1860, the family is found living in the Beaver Dam Community of Union County. James Meggs is a Miller, and Elizabeth is listed as a Spinster, a one who runs a spinning wheel. They have three young children together, Jane, Ellen and James.
Mariah is shown by her middle name, Kizzy, short for Keziah. She's incorrectly given the age of 22, when she was actually about 16. 

In 1866, Mariah Keziah Meggs is brought to court. Following in her mother's footsteps, Mariah has become pregnant outside of wedlock. Ordered to court on a Bastardy bond, and is compelled to name the father of her child, who she names as Levi Parker, a member of the Parker family that George Cagle was in a business partnership with. 






A portion of this document, shown above, shows that on May 24, 1866, that Mariah Meggs had been delivered of a child, and that child had been born a 'bastard', or outside the legal binds of marriage. Mariah, of Stanly County, confessed that Levi Parker, of Union County, was the father of the child, a girl she named Melissa Ann Meggs.

Levi Guilford Parker

Levi Guilford Parker, born April 26, 1843, was from Union County, and just a year older than Mariah. It can be assumed that by 1866, she may have already taken up residence in the Cagle home, as a boarder, bounded, or laborer, as he was in association with the Parkers.  She would have been about 21 or 22 and Levi 22 or 23.

He was a son of Elijah Parker Jr. and wife, Nancy Laney Rogers, and one of a very large clutch of children.


NameLevy G Parker
Age16
Birth Yearabt 1844
GenderMale
RaceWhite
Birth PlaceNorth Carolina
Home in 1860Union, North Carolina
Post OfficeLanes Creek
Dwelling Number57
Family Number57
Attended SchoolY
Household members
NameAge
Elijah Parker40
Nancy Parker
Jerusha Parker20
Georg N Parker18
Levy G Parker16
James E Parker14
Young R Parker12
Cullin Parker11
Thomas Parker9
William Parker7
Adolphus L Parker5
Emoly R Parker2
Samuel M Parker1
Manizer A Parker6

In 1860, the family was living in Lane's Creek Township, and there were already 11 children, and more would follow. Maniza Ann Parker was a niece, daughter of Levi's oldest daughter, Jerusha. Like many young men his age, Levi would serve in the Civil War a few short years after this. He lost a few brothers, but Levi survived.




NameLevi G Parker
Enlistment Age18
Birth Dateabt 1843
Birth PlaceUnion County, North Carolina, USA
Enlistment Date16 Sep 1861
Enlistment PlaceUnion County, North Carolina
Enlistment RankPrivate
Muster Date20 Nov 1861
Muster PlaceNorth Carolina
Muster CompanyD
Muster Regiment37th Infantry
Muster Regiment TypeInfantry
Muster InformationEnlisted
Imprisonment Date2 Apr 1865
Imprisonment PlaceNear Petersburg, Virginia
Casualty Date30 Jun 1862
Casualty PlaceFrazier's Farm, Virginia
Type of CasualtyWounded
Side of WarConfederacy
Survived War?Yes
Residence PlaceUnion County, North Carolina
OccupationFarmer
Notes1862-11-15 Returned, Estimated day; 1863-09-15 Returned, Estimated day; 1865-04-03 Confined, (Point Lookout, MD), Estimated day; 1865-06-16 Oath of Allegiance, (Point Lookout, MD)
Additional Notes 2Casualty 2 Date: 03 Jul 1863; Casualty 2 Place: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Casualty 2 Type of Casualty: Wounded
TitleNorth Carolina Troops 1861-65, A Roster

Enlisting in September of 1861, Levi's military career was one of hardship and endurance. He was first wounded at Frazier's farm, Virginia, near Richmond on June 30, 1862 and the next year, wounded again at Gettysburg on June 3, 1863. Levi was imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland and released on June 16, 1865 under an Oath of Allegiance. He was described as being 5 foot 9 3/4 inches tall with a florid complexion, dark hair and gray eyes. He was literate and returned home an injured, but determined man. Shortly  after he must have met, or reconnected with, Mariah Meggs, the bastard stepdaughter of James Ransom Meggs.

After his day in court, Levi Guilford Parker did what most young men in his position died, find a "good girl" and marry her, a respectable one, deserving of wifeing. On April 13, 1867, the spring after the birth of his daughter, Melissa, Levi married Lavina Elliot, 28, of Union County. Lavina ,or "Viney", was the daughter of William and Sarah Elliott, her mother a widow.  She and Levi would raise a family of five; Dora, Ellison, John S., Lewis and Isaac M. Parker, remaining in Lanes Creek, Union County, NC, while the children were small, and then moving to the town of Academy in Lamar, Texas by 1900.


Academy was short-lived, but Lamar sits to the east of Fannin, Texas, where a couple of Levi's siblings relocated. Red River County borders it on the east and it's northern border is the Oklahoma state line. The County seat is Paris, which was made famous by the 1984 movie of the same name, "Paris, Texas'.

Lavina died in 1904, in Texas, and by 1910, Levi is shown living in Muddy Fork, Arkansas, with his son, Ellison. They had returned to Texas by the 1920 census, Levi was alone in his own household, but living near his sons, Ellison and Isaac. They must have had a sense of humor. In the census, these North Carolina born fellows fibbed a bit, obviously. While Levi gave his 'Native Tongue' as Dutch, he stated his mother's native tongue was Irish. Ellison gave his father's Native Tongue as French, which would have been Levi?~!

 When Levi applied for his military pension, he was 78 and living in Windom, Fannin Couty, Texas. The year was 1921 and he stated that he had lived in Texas for 27 years. Levi Guilford Parker would pass away on June 20, 1924, in Windom, Fannin County, Texas.

1870 Mariah Keziah Meggs is living in the home of George Cagle with her daughter, Melissa "Lisy Ann' Meggs.








Her family had left her behind. She is shown as 26, and by her father's surname of Myers. With her is her 6/7-year-old daughter, Melissa, or "Lisy". Because of the way their names are written in this document, some folks have her as Marion, instead of Mariah, and her daughter as Lucy instead of Lisy. They are living with George Cagle, age 58, his wife Nancy, 52, and their youngest daughter Fannie. Eleven-year-old Eli is George's son by Maniza Honeycutt, and the William Huneycutt, also eleven, is George's grandson William, son of his deceased daughter, Elizabeth. While Melissa's father, Levi Parker, is living in Union County, the mother and daughter duo are living across the river to the north in Big Lick, Stanly County. 

The Meggs 



In 1870, while Mariah and her child are living in the Cagle household, her mother, Elizabeth, and stepfather, Ransom Meggs, are still living in the Union County Community of New Salem, and Mr. Meggs is still operating his gristmill. Their three children together, Jane, Eliza and James W. Meggs, are now in their teens. Living with them is William Wesley Meggs, 21 and his wife, Nancy Coley Meggs, a nephew of James Ransom Meggs. Within a few years, Ransom will sell his Grist Mill and his Olive Branch and New Salem properties and remove, like many in the Big Lick area, to Iredell County, North Carolina.





Elizabeth Meggs, Mariah's mother, contracts some ailment after moving to Iredell County, and passes away in September 1879, at the age of 54, of dysentery.  It is unknown where she is buried. 




James Ransom Meggs wasted no time after the death of his wife, Elizabeth, and remarried on December 9, 1879, about two months later. He married Sarah Elizabeth Thomas, who I believe he knew previously, the daughter of Jacob Thomas and Hester Jane Holley Thomas, who grew up in the New Salem/Olive Branch area of Union County, NC. 






The 1880 census revealed that James R. and Sarah T. Meggs were living in Davidson, Iredell County, and Ransom was still a Miller. 

Ransom and Sarah had one child together, a son, the named William James Meggs, who was born November 20, 1880.

After another few years, the Meggs family would move again, this time a little further, to Faulkner County, Arkansas. 




NameJames Ransom Meggs
GenderMale
Birth Date1822
Birth PlaceAnson County, North Carolina, United States of America
Death PlaceFaulkner County, Arkansas, United States of America
CemeteryCopperas Springs Cemetery
Burial or Cremation PlaceGuy, Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States of America


James Ransom Meggs died on January 7, 1904, in Guy, Faulkner County, Arkansas, at the age of 84, and is buried at the Copperas Springs Cemetery. 



Faulkner County sits in the middle of Arkanasas, where the Ozarks give way to the Arkansas River Valley and where a Miller could find a bounty of creeks to operate hisMill.


After the death of Ransom Meggs, his widow, Sarah, married a Mr. Wilson and divorced him, all before 1910. But she didn't rest on her Laurels, oh no.





1910 finds Sarah living with her only son, William J. Meggs, who has started his own family with a wife and two little children.








In 1919, Sarah Thomas Meggs Wilson, at age 64, married an old Civil War Veteran named Jacob J. Hill, 78. That one didn't work out , either, as in the 1920 census, poor old Jacob is listed as married, but living alone.







Jacob J. Hill died on March 31, 1828, and Sarah followed soon after on August 31, 1929, passing away from Bright's Disease at the age of 65, in Clifton, Faulkner County, Arkansas.

Mariah also had half-siblings through her mother. They're listed below.

Jane Ransom Meggs

Jane Meggs was the first child of Elizabeth and her husband, James Ransom Meggs. Elizabeth is thought to have possibly been a double-Meggs. Jane was born November 23, 1852, in the Olive Branch Community of Union County, NC. 





She married at the age of 19 to George Lafayette Hinson, in Stanly County on January 26, 1872.
After starting their family in Stanly County, they first moved to the Leaksville Community in Richmond County, where George died in 1897.  George and Jane were the parents of 10 children, with 8 living until adulthood. These eight were Ida Elizabeth Hinson Miller (1872-1957), Ella Hinson Jarrett (1877-1904), Julia Emma Hinson McCall (1879-1963), Gilena Hinson Brown (1882-1972), Rose Hinson Goldston (1884-1972), Docia Belle Hinson (1886-1965), only son, Lonnie Yeates Hinson, (1888-1945) and Nellie B. Hinson Puckett (1896-1972). 

Jane was left in a mess when George died, her youngest still an infant, but with the help of her older children, they thrived. They moved to Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, a growing city, with more opportunities for working women and teenagers, and there they remained. At first, she took in boarders and worked as a stenographer. She then moved in with her married daughter, Nellie Hinson Puckett, whose husband was an architect for the Railroad. Her unmarried daughter, Belle, followed. They would remain with the Pucketts until she passed away.


NameJane Ransome Hinson
Maiden NameMeigs
GenderFemale
Birth Date23 Nov 1852
Birth PlaceOlive Branch, Union County, North Carolina, United States of America
Death Date23 Apr 1931
Death PlaceCharlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States of America
CemeteryElmwood Cemetery
Burial or Cremation PlaceCharlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States of America
Has Bio?Y
ChildrenGilena BrownIda Elizabeth MillerDorcia Belle HinsonElla JarrettRose A. GoldstonJulia Emma McCallLonnie Yates HinsonNell B. Puckett





Jane Meggs Hinson passed away in 1931, at the age of 78, in Charlotte, NC. She was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.


Eliza Ellen Louisa Meggs Speights

Ellen Meggs was born on June 2, 1856, in New Salem, Union County, NC






She married November 24, 1872, just several months after her older sister, at the age of 16. Her husband was William Paul Speights of Stanly County, and the marriage took place in Stanly County.  The Speights first moved to Davidson, Iredell County, NC, where Ellen's parents had relocated and where her mother died in 1879.

Their next stop with their growing brood was to Saline County, Arkansas, where they settled in a community called Marble by 1898. The family remained in Arkansas for two decades, after which, they relocated once again to the town of Fairley in Hunt County, Texas.





This would be their last stop. William Paul Speights died on January 2, 1922 and Ellen followed 7 years later and joined him on August 15, 1929, at the age of 73.



NameEliza Ellen Speight
Maiden NameMeigs
GenderFemale
Birth Date2 Jun 1856
Birth PlaceUnion County, North Carolina, United States of America
Death Date15 Aug 1929
Death PlaceFairlie, Hunt County, Texas, United States of America
CemeteryHope-Sweatbox Cemetery
Burial or Cremation PlaceJardin, Hunt County, Texas, United States of America
Has Bio?Y
FatherJames Ransom Meggs
SpouseWilliam Paul Speight
ChildrenMartha Jane Quinn; Lillie Mae Pingleton; Charles Green Speight; Rufus Alexander Speight; Mary Magdalene Lovelace; James Preston Speight; John Wesley Ransom Speight; Millard Fillmore Speight




William and Eliza Meggs Speight also had 10 children, with 7 living until adulthood. All of these were recorded. Their first, 'Leuter', was born September 22, 1873, in Stanly County, and died a few weeks later on October 14. She was followed by John Wesley Ransom Speight (1875-1937), Mary Magdalene Speight (1877-1914), James Preston Speight (1879-1964), little Willie Speight was born in Davidson, Iredell County, and lived two years (1882-1884) and is buried there. He was followed by Martha Jane Speight, who was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas (1885-1964), Charlie Green Speight (1888-1964), Rufus A. Speight (1891-1959), Lillie Mae Speight (1894-1900) and Millard Fillmore Speight (1898-1981).


James William Speight

James was born on November 14, 1857, in the Olive Branch Community of Union County. He worked as a farm laborer while a teenager, and died on February 22, 1876, and was buried in New Salem, Union County, NC. He was only 18 years old.  His parents moved to Iredell County after his death. 

William James Speight

William James Speight was not a biological sibling of Mariah Meggs, as they did not share either parent, but he was a half-sibling of her mother's other children. He was born by James Ramson Meggs' second wife, Sarah Thomas Meggs, on November 20, 1880, in Iredell County, NC, and named for his older half-brother who had died just four years prior, by flipping his two given names from James William to William James. His sisters were adults and married before he was born, so he grew up in an entirely different world to an aging father and a mother late in her child-bearing years. 




William James Speight






William married in Faulkner County, Arkansas on February 15, 1899, to Mary Etta Glover, at the ag of 18. His wife was only 15, and had been born in the little town of Guy.

After his father died in 1904, William, now about 24, took care of his widowed mother, even though she married twice more. 



On his draft card for World War I, it was declared that he was a farmer, and a citizen of Guy, of medim height and weight, and a blue-eyed blonde. He would remain in Faulkner County, Arkansas for the remainder of his life, passing away in 1938 at the age of 58. He and Mary Etta had 7 children together; Henry, Velma, Bertha, Beverly Wayland, Oscar Marion, Opie Hester, and Autie Mae. 

Mariah Keziah Myers-Meggs

When we last saw Mariah, she and her young daughter were boarding with the Cagle family.  Within a few years, George Cagle would hire a young man of the neighborhood to help work his farm. His name was Daniel Alexander Crisco, which decision would become an act of attrition for George Crisco. 

Daniel Alexander Crisco had a background analogous with that of Mariah's. He was son of Rebecca Elizabeth Crisco, a single woman, and William G. Kennedy, a man who would marry, but not to Rebecca. He grew up in the shadow of shame, in a reprehensible status eschewing condemnation. The embullient George Cagle, full of spit,vinegar and impudence, yet gifted with empathy and a big heart, hired the young man, gave him honest work, casting aside the wagging tongues of neighbos.

One can not say what the exact circumstances were of the marriage of Dan Crisco and Mariah Myers Meggs, only that we can view it with a little askance. Yes, they were both 'bastards', the term of the day, now hurled only in insults and vagarity. Otherwise, the circumstances were suspect.



The facts are that on August 25, 1872,  Daniel A. Crisco, son of William 'Kennada' and Elizabeth Crisco, applied for the marriage license with 'Marisa K Meggs' ,( or Marian or Mariah, the spelling nearly illegible), daughter of Shepherd 'Mires' and Elizabeth Meggs. Six months later, on November 24th of the same year, the wedding was performed by John Burris, Justice of the Peace.

Dan Crisco was a boy of 17. Mariah Meggs was a woman of 28 with a young daughter. Had they fallen in love over shared space and shared circumstances? Had George Cagle a hand in it, encouraging it, or had it been stronger than encouragment, some kind of deal? Was it an interdiction to keep himself from being blamed for any additional children that might be born of his former mistress, or was it somehow to appease his wife, Nancy, and get Mariah out of his house?  We can't know, but we do know the marriage lasted for about 4 years, without the birth of any known children, before tragedy struck.


The in-depth story can be read at this link: A Woman Was In It:The Cagle-Crisco Murder.


Breifly, I will rehash Mariah's part in it. Mariah was an abused spouse under the hands of the angry Dan Crisco. The couple worked and lived on George Cagle's farm. One night, Daniel had a particularly violent fight with Mariah and 'ran her off', or made her vacate the house. The next day, with seemingly little concern for his wife's whereabouts, Dan Crisco went to work, as usual, and at some point when George and Daniel were working close to each other, the beaten wife reappears, out of habitude or hunger, reason unknown.



Like a beaten dog, wagging its tail, crawling up to its angry master with it's head down, Mariah made her way towards the two men. Crisco addressed his wife profanely and gesticulated for her to go back to the cabin he had evicted her from the night before. The aging George Crisco, who obviously still had benevolent and empathetic feelings toward the young woman, admonished Dan Crisco for berating his wife and the evident violence. George's protective stance angered Dan and he invited George to an altercation. This threat may have caused the older man to back off, as it seems they continued their work until the end of the day.






The Concord Register
(Concord, North Carolina)
4 Apr 1876, Tue • Page 4

Daniel Crisco went home and not finding his wife, instinctively knew where he would find her. He returned to the Cagle home, armed with a knife and found his beaten wife seeking safety there. She may have had her child with her, but that is not addressed. The papers reported that he again became abusive towards Moriah, hitting her, kicking her and ordering her home. She refused and at some point, George Cagle stepped in to defend her, and demanded Crisco leave his home. Dan pulled the knife on George, prompting George to pick up a chair in self-defense. Using the chair, the old man pushed Dan out of his house and attempted to force him from the property. Coming upon the hooped frame of a Conestoga Wagon cover, and using that as a weapon, he kept advancing on Daniel to chase him away. Daniel threw a rock at the old man, causing George to dash at him with the wooden object and struck Daniel, after which Daniel stabbed George with the knife, killing him.

Daniel ran, but was later arrested. In jail, only Daniel Crisco was alive to talk. He had hours to sit and think of ways to prune and embellish his side of the story, to spin it in a way to ingratiate himself to whomever would listen. Reporters would come, seeking details of the scandalous tragedy. Daniel Crisco took full advantage of their thirst for drama and dirt, to prevaricate the tale in his favor. 

There were other factors in play, Dan's youth and good looks. He was apparently handsome, boyish and charming, blonde, blue-eyed, affable and loquacious. And Dan Crisco was fully cognizant of his attributes on the inquistive and curious, taking full advantage of it. By the time court came around, public sentiment was changing. 

The community reputation of George Cagle was a factor in the end. George, wealthy for the times in his community, and a shrewd, although fair, businessman, was known for drunken and depraved behavior. Dan Crisco used this fact to full effect. He was convicted of the murder of George Cagle but later after petitions from the community citizenry, after talk and the pitious portrayals from news reporters, convinced by Dan's whitewashed image of himself as a wronged husband, defending himself against the adulterous lover of his unfaithful wife, true or not, Dan was pardoned and released. He went on with life, first divorcing Mariah on grounds of adultery, which I am sure was a relief for her as well, to release her from his abuse. 

Daniel Crisco would soon remarry and have several children with a woman of his own age, and seem to live a fairly normal, georgian existence, until an act of kismet, where he died at the hands of an angry drunk man, himself a murder victim, at the age of 58 in 1914.


NameMariah Meggs
Age33
Birth DateAbt 1847
BirthplaceNorth Carolina
Home in 1880Big Lick, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Dwelling Number284
RaceWhite
GenderFemale
Relation to Head of HouseSelf (Head)
Marital StatusDivorced
Father's BirthplaceNorth Carolina
Mother's BirthplaceNorth Carolina
OccupationHousekeeper
NeighborsView others on page
Household members
NameAge
Mariah Meggs33
Melisah Meggs16



1880 finds Mariah, now 33, living quietly, and obviously, on the former lands of George Cagle. She may have even been in the house she had shared with Daniel Crisco. She is in Big Lick, living next to George's widowed daughter, Adeline Crisco Hartsell, and her young daughter, Nellie, and George's only legitmate son and main heir, David S. Crisco. George's widow, Nancy, had moved to Iredell County, with her two daughters with him,  a few of his  daughters by his first wife, and his son Eli Huneycutt Cagle, who was by another of his mistressess, Maniza Huneyuctt. David S. Crisco lived a quieter life than his father, and seems to have taken care of, not only his own large family, but his sister and Mariah, by allowing her to remain on the property.

Mariah has returned to the surname Meggs, her marital status given as 'divorced', and her daughter, Melissa, now 16.

The next recorded event in the life of Mariah Meggs was the marriage of her daughter, Melissa Ann.




On July, 2, 1886, Levi McIntyre, 21, of Stanly County,  the son of Stokes McIntyre, deceased and Margaret Huneycutt, deceased, applied for a marriage license for the marriage of himself and 'Lis Ann Meggs' of Stanly County, aged 20, father unknown and mother, Mariah Meggs, living. The wedding took place at the office of J. W. Huneycutt, Justice of the Peace, in Big Lick, Stanly County, North Carolina. Witnesses were Leander Austin, Lafayette Walters and 'Boss' Hinson. 

Levi Huneycutt McIntyre, was again, a child born in similar, and shamed, circumstances as Melissa Meggs. 

His father, Malachi Stokes McIntyre, born in 1804, was a married man, in fact, married to the sister of my second Great Grandmother. His wife, Elizabeth Murray McIntyre, outlived him. He served in the Civil War, despite being a middle aged man, and after his return, despite still having a wife and 10 children, took Margaret Huneycutt as a mistress. 

Levi Huneycutt McIntyre 

Levi Huneycutt/ McIntyre was born around 1858. In 1870, shown above, he is living in Burnsville Township, Anson County, in the home of his father, Stokes McIntrye, helping on the farm. Also in the home of Stokes McIntyre is his younger sister, Elizabeth, aged 8.They lived near the Stanly/Anson County border and Stokes often vascillated between counties. His records are found in both counties, Stanly/Montgomery more than Anson, actually. What boggles the mind by todays standards, are that Stokes was not a single man. His wife, Great Great Great  Aunt Elizabeth, is still living with him, as is three of their single daughters together, along with two of his children by his mistress, Margaret Huneycutt. Margaret was 37 years his junior and was 17 years old when Levi was born. Living right next door at this time, perhaps even on land owned by Stokes McIntrye, was the home of Marion Blackmon.

Marion Blackmon or Blackman shows up nowhere else in Anson, or any bordering county. He's 38 years old and his wife, Mary, is listed as 40. Also in his home is Nancy Huneycutt, 68, the widow of Samuel Huneycutt, Margaret, 31, her daughter and mistress of Stokes McIntyre, and mother of Levi, and presumably, Elizabeth, the 8 year old. Also in the Blackmon home are two little girls, Clementine, 6 and Melinda 2, whom also appear to be children of Margaret, corroborated by the next census. I believe due to the dependants, that Mary Blackman was probably also Mary Huneycutt, a sister of Margaret, and daughter of Nancy, as Mr. Blackman soon removes himself to South Carolina, and on later to Georgia, without her, if he be the same, and she returns to Honeycutt, without being found elsewhere in 1870.

Margaret Huneycutt was the daughter of Samuel Honeycutt, who was not a wealthy or well-documented man. Honeycutt was not a common Anson County name, they tended to constellate more in Stanly and Cabarrus Counties. I believe Samuel was part of the Stanly County Honeycutt family, but where he fits in is obscure.

He shows up first in the Muster Roll of Montgomery County, NC, during the War of 1812.

In the 1830 census, he is counted in Montgomery County, on the West Side of the PeeDee (now Stanly), near some Furrs, Daniel Reap, Lewis Springer, William Wall. His household is presented as a male in his 40's and a female in her 20's, with five young children; three boys and two girls, all under 9.

In  1840, he is in Cabarrus County, next to Oliver McLure and near an Elizabeth McIntyre. I'm not entirely sure this is the same Samuel. In Anson in 1840, there is a 'Bry't' Honeycutt living next to Milton and John Winfield, sons of Edward Winfield and cousins of mine, and also near my ancestor Stark Ramsey.

In 1850, Samuel, now 70, with wife Nancy 60, are living in Burnsville Township, next to Stark Ramsey's son, James, Robin McIntyre and another ancestor, Thomas Carpenter. I wonder if 'Bryt' was Samuel, or a son of his? There are three children of his in the home, and not Margaret, Mary 25, Betsy, 16 and Andrew, 13, who will die in the Civil War. There's also an 8 year old named Lucy, who could be a grandchild.

In 1860, Samuel has gotten younger, now counted as 68 and Nancy 60. Ages were fluid. The only child listed is Margaret, at 19, which leads me to believe she may have been the 8 year old Lucy.



In 1880, Margeret is now 29, and Mary Honeycutt is 60. The ages do not line up with the previous census. Mary should have been 50 and Margaret 39. Mary is the head of household, and Margaret is listed as her sister. Neither woman has a listed occupation and Mary is noted as having heart disease. There are now three children in the home. Clementine is now listed by a nickname, Tiny, and shown as 15, was 6 in the previous census. Melinda L. is shown as 11 and was 2 in the previous census. There was another child born in the interim, John William Honeycutt/ McIntyre, age 7, who marries in 1901, naming his father as Stokes McIntrye and his mother as Margaret McIntyre, father deceased and mother living, a resident of Anson County. 

So, Stokes McIntyre was the father of Margarets oldest child, Levi and youngest child, John W., so the odds were that he was probably the father of the sisters in the middle, and probably provided for them as long as he was alive.






On November 30, 1889, Levy McIntyre, 28, of Stanly County, son of Stokes McIntyre and Margaret Honeycutt, marries Jane Spears, 28, of Union County, daughter of Margaret Spears, living, and an unknown father. This was only three years after his marriage to Melissa Meggs. As Melissa is not to be found again, it can safely be assumed she passes away before November of 1889, possibly in childbirth.

This was the last record I find for Levi Honeycutt McIntyre, too and the terminus of my journey. His second wife, Martha Jane Spears, is not found in the 1900 census, but reappears in 1910, living on Marshville Road in New Salem, as a widow, living with her sister and niece. She has returned to her maiden name of Spears, which leads me to believe her marriage was brief. Jane is found again in 1920, still in New Salem, but living with her brother, then again in 1930, living with the niece who was living with her in 1910. This time, she has returned to the surname, McIntyre.








Martha Jane Spears McIntyre died on January 6, 1934 of  myocarditis and hypertension. She lived long enough to recieve a death certificate and her tombstone still stands. She was 83 years old and her niece, Dora Honeycutt was the informant, naming her parents as Allen Spears and Margaret Nance. Jane was a half-orphan, but not a 'child of the wind'. She was buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Marshville.



Mariah Keziah Meggs was alive when her only daughter, Melissa, was married in 1886. I can't find a trace of either of them afterwards. It appears that Melissa Meggs McIntyre died prior to November of 1889, and that Mariah Meggs Crisco died prior to the 1900 census. There was not a generation afterwards, as Levi McIntyre had no children by either wife, that survived to be recorded, at any rate. These children of the wind left little trace, and were not notable enough, prominent enough, or troublesome enough, to have made the papers, yet they deserve to be remembered.