"A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet". This oft quoted line from Shakespeare is apposite in the family of George Washington Cagle. The names of a few of his daughters were so fluid and variable one could wonder, 'what was her name?'. Because of this, one actual daughter could be spun into four or five mysterious deriviatives. Example, using the flower: Rose only shows up in 1870, but there's a Rosalind in an 1918 death certificate that gives these as her parents and there's a Rosemary who married in 1886, but we thought Rose had died as a child..With the daughters of George W. Cagle, I will try to layer the mummy into one specific woman, the 19th century beauty shown above, Miss ? Cagle.
The above excerpt from the 1850 census of Stanly County, NC shows George and his wife, Elizabeth with a graduated list of 11 children in their home. The last one, Joshua Honeycutt, was a boarder, or a bound child, and not one of their own. Despite Georges reputation as a philanderer, this one was not his.His oldest daughter had already married and left still, what looks to me, Rantina, David, Sarah, Mary, Martha, Elizabeth, Mashina, Catherine and Melinda. Typically, blood children were listed by age from youngest to oldest, but oddly, Melinda, 9, was listed after Catherine, 3. That is how I read it, but it was translated:
| Name | Methena Cagle |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Race | White |
| Residence Age | 7 |
| Birth Date | abt 1843 |
| Birthplace | North Carolina |
| Residence Date | 1850 |
| Home in 1850 | Smiths, Stanly, North Carolina, USA |
| Line Number | 13 |
| Dwelling Number | 714 |
| Family Number | 719 |
| Name | Age |
|---|---|
| George Cagle | 37 |
| Elizabeth Cagle | 38 |
| Barthena Cagle | 10 |
| David S Cagle | 15 |
| Sarah Cagle | 13 |
| Mary Cagle | 12 |
| Martha Cagle | 10 |
| Elizabeth Cagle | 8 |
| Methena Cagle | 7 |
| Catharine Cagle | 3 |
| Melinda Cagle | 9 |
| Joshua Honeycutt | 15 |
The daughter we are speciffically speaking of today, is the one shown as 7 year old "Methena", which in script, appeared to me as "Mashina".
In 1860, this same daughter is seen as "Mathene" instead of Methense. She is shown as 14 this time. A differnce of 10 years from 1850 would have been 17, so age was just as fluid as the spelling of her name.
| Name | Mathene Cagle |
|---|---|
| Age | 14 |
| Birth Year | abt 1846 |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | White |
| Home in 1860 | Stanly, North Carolina |
| Post Office | Albemarle |
| Dwelling Number | 1054 |
| Family Number | 1069 |
| Inferred Father | George Cagle |
| Inferred Mother | Nancy Cagle |
| Name | Age |
|---|---|
| George Cagle | 48 |
| Nancy Cagle | 35 |
| Mathene Cagle | 14 |
| Catherine Cagle | 12 |
| Anna Cagle | 5 |
| Laura Cagle |
George's first wife had died, and he had remiarried to Nancy Hinson Speight. Two daughters from his first marriage had remained in the home, Mathene and Catherine. He and Nancy had added two daughters more, Anna and Laura. Although these last names were more traditional, they weren't without their convolutions and variations.
In 1868, George Cagle wrote a Will, curiously, because it doesn't appear that he was in any immediate danger of death, but perhaps he had suffered an illness that made him think he best get things in order. He seemed particularly concernted about his widowed and single daughters, and orphaned grandson.The also named his daughters differently than they had been named before, revealling their entire names. In a lovely, legible cursive hand, belying his obvious education, George named a daughter as Beedy M. Cagle.
"Also I bive and devise next unto Ely Huneycutt, My illegitimate son, one hundred and fifty acres of land, the whereupon I now live, by his maintaining my daughter, Beedy M. Cagle during her natural life, in case she does not marry, and if she marrys, he shall be released from that obligation by paying her one hundred dollars."
George had not only officially claimed his child by a mistress, but had appointed him caretaker of his unmarried sisiter, as a condition of recieving a share of the inheirtance. George did not pass away yet for a while.Mathene or Methene was now "Beedy Methene", Beedy was a nickname for one of the old Quaker "Virtue" names, Obedience.
Two years later, George and his second wife were still very much alive, but this mysterious daughter, "Beedy Methene was no longer living with them, but yet unmarried. She was livng in the home of her older, twice married sister, Menece Adaline Cagle Coley Hartsell.
| Name | Luthena Cagle |
|---|---|
| Age in 1870 | 23 |
| Birth Date | abt 1847 |
| Birthplace | North Carolina |
| Dwelling Number | 215 |
| Home in 1870 | Big Lick, Stanly, North Carolina |
| Race | White |
| Gender | Female |
| Post Office | Albemarle |
| Occupation | At Home |
| Name | Age |
|---|---|
| Adaline Hartsell | 38 |
| Aaron Hartsell | 6 |
| Luthena Cagle | 23 |
And this time, her name is shown as "Luthena", with an "L" and an 'a' on the end. They are living, apparently, on Adeline's widow's dower, her inheritance from her last husband. With them is Adeline's young son, Aaron Hartsell. Near them, in the list below, are some of Adelines's stepchildren, although they may not have thought of her that way, due to a lack of age difference, and the brevity of her marriage to their father. On the other side, preceding them, were their sisters, Malinda, whowas married, and Martha who was not. This was not the sister shown as "Barthena" in the 1850 census, as she was married and accounted for, although her name is as problematic.
Here, Luthena, is shown as 23, which would give her a birth year of 1847. In 1860, it was 1846 and in 1850, 1843. She was getting younger, but we have a range, 1843-1847. Let's see how that changes.
By 1880, George Cagle is deceased, and sometime before the decade changed, a caravan of families seemed to have removed from Big Lick, in Stanly County, to Iredell County, NC, including some of George Cagle's children. Among them was Malinda, who had married the Cagle's neighbor, Jacob Crisco. Tagging along with them was Eli, who had changed his name from Huneycutt, his mother's name, to Cagle, his father's. True to his promise, he was taking care of his single sister, who in an entirely different incarnation had went from Luthena to Lou.
Lou was this time counted as 30 years old, with a birth year of 1850, getting younger still. The next household was that of their nephew, Adam Dawson Crisco, son of Jacob and Melinda. He had married into the Whitley family, that I have covered in an earlier post.
Within the next few years, life would change dramatically for Methene, Luvenia, Beedie Cagle. She met a man, an unknown man, an unknown man who loved and left the thirty-something old maid. On April 11, 1883, a little girl was born, a daughter, and the only child Methene Luvenia Beedie Cagle would have. She named her Effie Cumi Cagle. She was born in Iredell County. During the course of writing this post, a descendant of Effie would reveal whom they were told was her father, and I will reveal that story later.
Eli returned to Big Lick, possibly feeling his responsibility to his sister over in her indescretion, the kind that had brought him into the world and had made his life more difficult.
Eli, whose full name was Ellison Franklin Cagle, of Big Lick, Stanly County, married Sophronia Alice Thomas of Union County in October of 1884.
There is little information concerning the lives of our mysterious "Rose by any other name" and her daughter Effie, until Effie herself became a bride. It is believed they continued to live with the Crisco family, Jacob and Melinda Cagle Crisco, until Charlie took over their care.
On February 23, 1898, in Davidson Township, Charles Leroy Wilson, 19, married Effie Cumi 'Kagle', 16. The marriage was performed by JM Shook, JP and witnessed by L A Padgett and J, F. Walters. Charlie, as he was known, was the son of P. S. Wilson and his wife Susan and Effie was the daughter 'blank' and "Phenie" Cagle. The name had taken on yet another form.
As Effie was a minor, she had to have the consent of a guardian, in this case, her mother, shown in that space as "B. L. Cagle". Although no father is mentioned, it was noted that the nonexistant father was deceased and the mother living. This may have been a total fabrication. Folks did such back then to avoid the embarrasment of the truth.
Two years later, we find Charlie and Effie living in Davidson Township in Iredell County, his age given as 21 and hers as 17. This would be an accurate age for her in 1900, meaning she was actually 15 on her wedding day. Her mother's name is written as 'Bedie L. Cagle'. Her initial is transcripted as a 'T', but looks like an L to me. She is 58 years old, and single. Mother of one child and one living, as opposed to her daughter, reported as having been married three years, and mother of one, with none living.
Ten years later, Charlie and Effie are still living in Davidson Township, Iredell County. They now have four children, ages 7, 5, 2 and a 7 month old infant. They've been married twelve years, Effie, the mother of 6 children with 4 living, meaning the couple had lost another one in the last decade. Her mother is now named Phenie, 62, "widowed", which was incorrect, mother of one, with zero living, which was also incorrect, as Effie was listed above her, and would honestly live for another six decades.
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Statesville Record and Landmark
Statesville, North Carolina • Page 2 |
The Rose by any other name would live just another two years . Upon her death, we discover her actual date of birth, September 26, 1846. She wasn't 7 in the 1850 census, she was four. 1860 at 14 was correct. Her date of death was March 25, 1912. She was 65 years old.
Two mysteries remain. What was this woman's real name?
She was buried at the old McKendree Church in Mooresville, NC as Phenie Cagle. Her father revealed her first name as Beedie or Beadie. Beedie M., he called her, the man who gave her the name. She was called Methene or Mathene as a child and teen. As a young woman, she became Luthena or Lou. As an older woman, she became Phenie or Phremia. What antique 19th century name or names could encompass these bits and pieces or versions? Bethania ? Luvenia? Euphemia? Whatever this name-changers true moniker was, She was the child of George Washington Cagle and his first wife Elizabeth Rose Whitley. She was the mother of Effie Cumi Cagle Wilson. She lived between 1846 and 1912, seeing the beginning and end of several wars, the turn of a new century, the start of the industrial revolution, the advent and growth of the railroad era, the change from horse and buggy to the automobile.
She left one last mystery? Who was the father of her child? Family lore has it, that it was none other than "Jake Crisco" or Jacob Crisco, her brother-in-law, husband of her sister, Malinda and head of the household she was living in at the time. Location and convenience, makes sense.
Malinda 's family also lived in Iredell County, but in Coddle Creek in 1910, but soon relocated to Cabarrus County, where she and Jacob A Crisco, lived with one of their children. They lived in the community of Hartsell Mills, a textile factory with what was known as a Cotton Mill Village, surrounding it.
Melinda passed away at the age of 70, on February 6, 1917, of pneumonia. She was buried at the Coddle Creek ARP cemetery.
Jacob A.Crisco would live a few years more, passing away on April 20, 1919, at the age of 81. He had been born in Stanly County, as well, on June 5, 1837, to Jacob Crisco Sr. and Mary Yow Crisco. He married Melinda Ellen Elizabeth Cagle on July 20, 1858.
They were the parents of 8 children:
1856-1860 William
1860-1927 Adam Dawson
1866-1925 Araminta "Minty" Evelyn
1869-1942 Dolly Lupene
1870-1945 John C.
1872-1945 King David Sr.
1878-1955 Mary Magdalene "Maggie"
1880-1838 Bingham Caldwell.
Jacob was buried next to his wife.
Charlie and Effie, despite loosing a few, would raise a family of thirteen children. There's a multitude of descendants from Phenie's one child. They moved from Iredell to Deweese in Mecklenburg County, and finally to Kannapolis, in Cabarrus County. Charlie passed in 1945 and Effie in 1970, at the age 92. They're children are too recent to name, some living until the 21st century.
