Pearl's Sorrow

While researching the Faggart family of Faggart's Crossing in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, I developed a strong distaste for the individual, Albert Alexander Faggart, and too, his father, Daniel Miller Faggart. They were men of, and indeed products of, their time. They orchestrated a strategy to conceal the odious crimes that Albert had committed with conscious, and in the end, they won. Albert went on with his life, free and without consequence, while the family that suffered the consequences and ramifications of his actions were pushed to the side, and perhaps in some cases, out of the way completely, without even a thing to mark the fact that they had ever walked the earth. 

This tragic story was covered in my previous post, The Ruin of Mary Lilly

Despite the disdain I felt for the guilty family, one member of the Faggart family drew my sympathy, and that was the person of Albert's closest sister, Pearl. 

Pearl was a beautiful and tragic character. Born January 28, 1886, Pearl Maribell Faggart was the third of the six children of Daniel Miller and Mary Rebecca Cress Faggart. She was born in Faggart's Crossing, Cabarrus County, NC, just south of the City of Concord, a rural community hugged between Irish Buffalo Creek and Cold Water Creek, where the Miami Church Road met Flowe's Store Road and crosses Hwy 601, once known better as the Georgeville Road. Her brother, Albert Alexander Faggart was born in February of 1888, just 25 months younger than she. There were also the older siblings, Virgie Missouri Faggart, (1879-1972), Berry Barrier Faggart, (1882-1973) and the younger siblings, Hedrick Miller Faggart, (1890-1952) and Jenny Lee Faggart, (1892-1923). 

Being born in 1886, and the 1890 census missing, the only census record Pearl would appear in was the first of the new century, the 1900. In this, we see Pearl at 14, listed with her parents, Daniel and Mary. Her older brother, Berry was 17, her younger brothers Albert, was 12 and Hedrick was 10, while baby sister, Jennie was 7. Also in the home was her mother's unmarried sister, Eva, 37. Oldest sister, Virgie, was married by this time, and is listed right above the Faggart household, having recently married John A. Carter, 24, Virgie is 20 years old. 

Pearl grew up surrounded by family as at least half of the Faggart's Crossing citizenry were either Faggarts or Cresses or married into the Cress or Faggart family. The Mitchell family listed below them plays an important part in my former post on Mary Lilly, as they were part of her family. I first came across Pearl's name in the court testimony of Shelby Pless Lilly, the mother of Mary Lilly and the sister of Mozelle Pless Mitchell, seen in the above census record. Shelby, an angry mother, had gone to the Faggart home in search of Pearl's brother, Albert, and had found no one home except "Miss Pearlie". This was in December of 1908. Pearl seems to have been relegated to the house, while everyone else was free to roam out and about. Pearlie would only live a few more months, passing away the day before Valentines Day in 1909. She was only 23 years old. 

Concord, North Carolina · Monday, February 15, 1909

The Concord Times

Various newspapers reported on the shocking demise of young Pearl Faggart. Each report added a slight bit of context to the tragic story. The Concord Times reported that she had taken the drug, Laudanum, an addictive agent that predated modern additives, and cut her own throat. "The young woman had been brooding for some time, we learn, over her unhappy life, and it is supposed that her troubles were greater than she could bear." Pearl had gone to her room and did not come down for supper. Two bottles of the toxic medicine were found in her room and a razor. Blood covered the bed and flooring. The article stated that she had been found barely alive but died shortly afterwards. After that revelation, we are given another surprise, "The two-and-a-half-year-old child of the dead woman was the first to find her body." Pearl was a mother! 

The article concluded by reporting that Pearl was 23 and considered one of the most beautiful women in the entire county. She was buried in Rimer at a well-attended funeral. 

Pearl was young, beautiful and widely beloved. What had brought her to such melancholy? 

The years between 1908 and 1909 had seen much activity and change within the family of D. M. and Mary Faggart as their children were growing up, some much too soon.

The Concord Times Concord, North Carolina • Thu, Feb 25, 1909Page 5

On February 25, 1909, The Concord Times reported in their Community Notes that Albert Faggart had a position with Carter Brothers, at Polkton in Anson County, when he was called home because of his sisters catastrophic demise. Did he lose his job because of having to return home, as the article states "until", as if the postition had ended with the event. Abore that paragraph was another report that Mrs. A. A. Faggart had spent time in No. 5 with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Blackwelder. 

Albert had married Margaret Blackwelder on January 3, 1909, just a month before Pearls death. He was also involved in the court case at this time. 

Jenny Lee, the youngest Faggart daughter also married this year, on March 7th, 1909, just a month after her sister's death, to Ervin R. Moss. She was only 16 years old. I don't think the timing of these events were coincidental. 

Other versions of Pearls demise were published in other papers. 

The Evening Chronicle

Charlotte, North Carolina • Tue, Feb 16, 1909Page 4

It was copied to The Evening Chronicle in Charlotte, NC. 

The Courier

Asheboro, North Carolina • Mon, Feb 1, 1909Page 1

The Asheboro Courier reported that Pearl had been "held under serious suspicion" some years back. Suspicion of what? What did the trials and tribulations of this young woman, that were too heavy to bear, consist of? What was she held in suspicion of? It also described her family as one of the counties best. That's debatable. 

Statesville Record and Landmark

Statesville, North Carolina • Fri, Feb 19, 1909Page 6

The Statesville Record and Landmark made a clarification on what she had been "brooding" about. It was "over her ruin". Her two-and-a-half-year-old child had been the first to discover her body, evidentially, the cause of her "ruin". 

At this point, we can only speculate. Pearl had obviously had a child out of wedlock. At this antiquated and obtuse stage in history, this fact caused her 'ruin' and she was obviously not a virgin. My hypothesis is that her brother had married and her 16-year-old baby sister was at this time betrothed. Perhaps Ervin had originally been interested in the beautiful Pearl, but upon discovery of her 'ruin', he defected instead to her innocent young sister, Jenny Lee, who may have been just as pretty, but maybe not quite. 

At 23, in 2026, Pearl would have been at the pinnacle of her game. Fresh out of college, perhaps, or off to start a new career. She was not likely to have been married, and if not, she wouldn't have felt any pressure or desire to be so soon. If she had fallen in love, all options would have been on the table. But in 1909, we'd find a much different scenario. At a few years past twenty, she would have been considered an old maid, or dangerously close to it. Having a child would not have negated her chances of ever marrying, because I've seen it happen in the records of others in her position, but it may have precluded her from finding a good match, or a respectable one, as she was no longer a respectable girl. 

I can't help but think that her siblings' weddings and engagements are what pushed her melancholy into despair and pushed a fragile Pearl over the edge.

The Child.

We learned from the newspapers that Pearl was a mother, to a two and a half year old child. Who was this child? Did it survive the loss of its mother? Did it grow up and live a normal life after it's pitious beginnings? 

Following the moves forward of Pearls family, I discovered her child did survive, and grow up, with the aid and care of her parents. The baby was a boy and she named him Harold. 

Harold, or Hal for short, didn't show up in the census soon after his mother's death, the 1910. He was not listed in with her parents, or siblings, anywhere in Cabarrus County or any known orphanages of the day. I believe he most likely lived with her parents and they just hid him from detection.

In 1920, however, he does show up. D. M. and Mary Faggarts, Pearls parents, are still living on their farm in Faggarts, both now 60 years young. There with them, at age 13, helping out on the farm, is Hal, listed as their grandson. 

Scrutinizing the person of Hal, I discovered his full name was Harold Lee Faggart and he had been born on May 23, 1906. We know that Pearl was his mother, was is known who his father was? The answer to that question was "Yes". Not only was it a surprising discovery, it was a rather shocking one. On one of his later records, his father was listed as "John Carter". 

Now, have a gander back at the clip above from the 1920 census. Whose name appears just below Hal's in the document, in the very next household? Well, none other than John Carter!

John Carter is not only their next door neighbor, take a gander who he is married to, 40-year-old Virgie, or in other words, Virgie Missouri Faggart Carter, D. M. and Mary's firstborn child and Pearl's older sister. John Carter was her brother-in-law! John had married Virgie on October 3, 1895. They had eight children between 1900 and 1920. In 1906, when Hal was born, John and Virgie were the parents of three already, Missouri, Jesse and Marva. Pearl would have been 19 years old when she became pregnant with her son. All I can say is at least she was an adult. 

So this was the great sin, the act that had placed Pearl under "serious suspicion", the root cause of her depression and source of her ruin. She had gotten pregnant by her married brother-in-law.

But that's not all, John Carter was a player mentioned in one of my recent, earlier posts. I had come full circle. John is mentioned in my post, found at the post below:

Her Mother's Savage Daughter

In my story on Ella Honeycutt, a daughter of Maniza Honeycutt, in the Fall of 1890, the divorce of Ella and her first husband, Lindsey F. Yow, revealed that Ella had dalliances with multiple men during her marriage, one of them being, John Carter, this John Carter. This affair had taken place five years before John married Virgie. I was a bit startled to find out this fella was already in my research tree. 

John Adam Carter had been born July 21, 1875, in Cabarrus County. He was the son of Jacob Alexander Cater and Mary Deal. He seems to have been a bit of a womanizer, but as was more custom, or common, than not, his wife, Virgie put up with it. They had four more children after the birth of Hal. Living next door, Virgie was probably reminded of her husband's infidelity every time she saw him. 

Not only that, she may have been haunted by her sisters death, to whom all the blame seems to have been placed. In those days, it was a "boys will be boys" world. Men were seldom held responsible for their own libido and indiscretions. It was the females fault for tempting him, for just being there, for just being female, for being in the position that this could happen. Pearl was just too beautiful. Mary Lilly had just been too young and naive when she had been assaulted by Pearls brother. 

Harold Faggart did live a normal early 20th century, North Carolina life. He grew up in his grandparents home, being found again there in 1930. 

Name	Harold L Faggert
Birth Year	abt 1907
Gender	Male
Race	White
Age in 1930	23
Birthplace	North Carolina
Marital Status	Single
Relation to Head of House	Grandson
Home in 1930	Township 6, Cabarrus, North Carolina, USA
Map of Home	Township 6,Cabarrus,North Carolina
Street Address	Concord and Salisbury Road
Dwelling Number	57
Family Number	57
Attended School	No
Able to Read and Write	Yes
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Able to Speak English	Yes
Occupation	Stretcher
Industry	Bleachery
Class of Worker	Wage or salary worker
Employment	Yes
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Daniel M Faggert	72
Mary R Faggert	72
Harold L Faggert	23
J Leroy Faggert	17

Harold, like many in his time and place, made a lifelong career of working in the textile mills. Here, at 23, he's working as a Streacher at a Bleachery, a place where the cotton was bleached. His 72-year-old grandparents are still running a General farm and the road is now called the Concord-Salisbury Road. Harold's cousin, Leroy, is also working at the Bleachery, as a Wetter. He's 17, and not actually a Faggert, they just neglected to include his real surname, so he was transcribed as Faggart. 

The Faggarts had lost another daughter. Jennie Lee, their youngest child, who had married Ervin R. Moss at 16, in 1909, the year of Pearl's disturbing death, died herself at the age of 30, on April 17, 1923. Leroy was her oldest son, his full name James Leroy Moss. Jennie had died in childbirth after having twins. She left behind not only James Leroy, (1912-1990), but Raymond Geneta (1914-2001), Carl Herman, (1917-2005) and Mary Elizabeth, (1921-2019). Then on April 3, 1923, Jennie gave birth to her fourth and fifth children, twins sons, Hoy Lee, (1923-1988), and Coy Ervin (1923-1978). Fifteen days later, being in bad health, malnurished and suffering from chronic nephritis, Jenny passed away from complications after the birth. Her husband, Erivin Moss, would quickly marry again, to another Faggart, Lona Roseazealea Faggart, (1894-1962), in November of the same year. While having the same surname in the same small community, that bore that same surname, the chances that Jennie and Lona were related somewhere along the way was pretty good, they were not close cousins. Lona would help Ervin raise his six children, the youngest of whom would have little to no memory of their biological mother, and she would quickly add five more children to the brood, bringing the total to eleven, namely Ruth Madeline (1924-2005, Willie Bunn (1926-2014), John Ray (1928-1969), Ruby Nadine (1931-2006) and Bobby Eugene (1936-2007). Ervin, who died in  1969, was buried with both of his wives, one on each side, at that little church in Rimer, Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, were Pearl, herself, was laid to rest, as well as quite a number of the surrounding community. 

Returning to the 1930 census, still next door lived their oldest daughter, Virgie, with her husband John Carter, who was working as a Woodworkman at a Repair Shop, while at the same time farming at a General Farm, with the help of he and Virgies now teenaged children, Reece 19, Daniel 16, Catherine, 14 and Johnnie 11, with eight-year-old Vonnie, a girl, bringing up the rear. While Hal grew up with his grandparents, he had also grown up with his father living right next door. I wonder what the dynamics of that relationship was? Did John acknowledge the relationship or ignore the boy as best as he could? Did John and Virgies children view Hal as a cousin, or were they also aware of the half-sibling relationhip? The answer to that question can be partially answered in the obituaries of the Carter children, and of Hal, himself.

There were eight Carter children altogether. One died as a toddler, three others died before Hal, and the youngest four died after. Not one mentioned Hal as a sibling. The same with Hal, when he passed away, only his wife and sons were named as survivors.

John Carter died in 1932. His own obituary was brief, and to the point. 

This was just the way the ball bounced in those days. Anything unfavorable was swept under the carpet. Truths were whispered in the dark of night and secret corners of the honky-tonk but never mentioned in the light. People existed without explanation and no one dared ask for one. Whether the Carter children knew Harold as a three-quarter sibling, or just a cousin is unknown, but Hal knew his relationship to them. He lived more as an uncle to them, however, taking care of the Grandparents until the end of their lives. 

Hal would marry on December 26, 1932, the day after Christmas, to Helen Cress, the daughter of Ross and Ora Bostian Cress. As Hal's grandmother was a Cress, and the two most populous names in the community were Faggart and Cress, Hal was marrying back into the family, which was not uncommon in those times. The couple would have three sons in a fairly close continuance, Donald in 1934, Frank in 1935 and Harold Eugene. in 1937.  Harold was 26 and a citizen of Concord. He gave his parents as D M. Faggart, living and Pearl Faggart, deceased. Nothing to freak out about. I've seen this repeatedly. It was too embarrassing to not have a father, so the mother is listed correctly. For his father, he named instead the man who raised him, his grandfather. It was not an uncommon practice for illegitimate children. Another ruse they used was listing the mother and just naming their father by his first name and letting the clerk assume that the child's name was, of course, the same as the fathers. For instance, if Sam Smith knew his father was Tom Jones, and his mother's name was Mary Smith, he would give his mother's name correctly, but just name his father as Tom, and the name would be written Tom Smith. Or, in other instances, an anonymous, overly used name like John was given, just pulled out of a hat and in generations to come, descendants of Sam Smith would be banging their heads on the door trying to find this nonexistant John Smith. Until DNA came along, and started opening doors and solving mysteries. 

1940 comes along and Harold is still working at the same job in the same Mill, except this time, he has a wife, three little boys and his 81-year-old grandparents to take care of. Virgie Faggart Carter, his aunt, was still living next door with three of her children, and some of theirs. 

Just a year later, on October 13, 1941, Harold would bury the man who raised him. Daniel Miller Faggart died of a cerebral hemmorhage at 82 and was buried in the same cemetery as his daughters, Pearl and Jenny. His widow Mary would live another decade. 

In the 1950 census, Mary had moved in with her oldest daughter, Virgie and it was just them, Mary at 91 and Virgie at 70. Harold was still living right next door, now in his early 40's, with his wife and three sons. He was still in the Cotton Mill, now working in the Finishing Department. One knows this good, hard-working man was taking care of his Aunt and Grandmother, all the while, too. 

Mary Rebecca Cress Faggart died the next year, August 5, 1951, at the age of 92, and joined  Daniel at the little Lutheran Church Cemetery in Rimer. 

Their youngest son and next to youngest child, Hedrick Miller, passed the next year in 1952, It would be over a decade before their fourth child, Albert, died in 1964. It was the two oldest siblings who lived the longest, and another decade off. Berry Barrier passing in 1973 at the age of 90 in 1972 and oldest sister, the longsuffering Virgie, passing in 1972 at the age of 92, the same age her mother had parted the world. 

The Salisbury Post

Salisbury, North Carolina • Mon, Jan 17, 1972Page 7

Harold Lee Faggart led a pretty normal, uneventful life. 

The Concord Times

Concord, North Carolina • Thu, Nov 23, 1922Page 3

In 1922, when he was about 16, he fell off a horse and broke his collarbone. Other than that, his was a quiet existence of a lifelong career in the Cotton Mills of Cabarrus County, living in the rustic rolling hills of Rimer and raising his three boys with his wife, Helen. 

The below link is to an article in the Salisbury Post, about a different Harold Faggart, perhaps a relation, in Rowan County. Although it's about a different family, from 1980, it is one of the best commentaries on Cotton Mill life for our Carolina predessors that I've ever read, from the way  the Mill controlled the lives of their employees, to the simplicities they enjoyed, to the hazardous they faced. Reminds me, in a way, of plantation stories.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/623497626/?match=1&terms=Harold%20Faggart

Harold lost his middle son early, at just 15, to myocarditis.

Hal, himself, passed away in 1988, at the age of 81 and joined his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins and son, in the cemetery at Prosperity, their home church.

The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte, North Carolina • Sun, Mar 27, 1988Page 88

His obituary was brief and to the point. His family was small. Only one of his sons had children, two of them, and those two left that son with three grandchildren. I can only imagine how Pearls life would have been different had she stuck around. How different Hal's life may have been. 

Pearl could have looked towards the sunshine. She could have escaped the hiding in shame in her parents house and found her way to Concord, or even Charlotte, where she could have found work. Her face would have opened doors, so she could support herself and perhaps her son. She may have caught the attention of someone with whom she could have lived in comfort. She could have reinvented herself, and invented whatever tail she wished to disguise her past. She could have made a place and a path for herself into the future, enjoyed her son and grandchildren, and possibly met her great-grandchildren. 

Rest in Peace Pearl Marybell Faggart. 

Picasso's 'Melancholy Woman'

Where Finger Got Its Name

 

Drive through any county, in any state, throughout the South and the Southwest, USA, and you will come across little towns, communities, and pigpasses, with quaint, colloquial and curious names. Not so much in the North, and I am not sure why, perhaps they lacked imagination. The above map of Stanly County is over one hundred years old, and reveals that in its day, the County was just chock-full of such little communities, most of which no longer exist, not to any popular use, at any rate. Some are still marked by a road, or a road sign. Others grew into towns, or cities, who may have absorbed the smaller communities near them. Some changed names, or were replaced by newer communities built along the railroad. Others are still there, on a whisper, cherished as their own by the small group of families who might call them home. One of those is a place called Finger.

Finger is located along Highway 73, on the road between Albemarle, in Stanly County, and Mount Pleasant in Cabarrus County. It's very near the Cabarrus County line, so much that some of its residents have Mount Pleasant addresses, despite being in Stanly County. Others have Albemarle addresses, despite being ten or twelve miles away. The map above is off on location quite a bit, as one would pass through Porter first, then Millingport, then Finger, before arriving in Mount Pleasant, seen only as "Pleasant" on the western side of the map.

Finger is not a town, but a community without exact boundaries, and is a place. It once had a country store, and a ring-a-ding diner, not very long ago, actually, and still is blessed with several businesses. There's a garage, a storage building lot, a storage facility and George's Plant Farm, where we go for our tomato plants and spring annuals every year. In fact, there's several other buisnesses and most of them agri-businesses of some sort. The citizens of Finger, in many cases, have lived there and farmed there, for generations. Many of the families names seen on documents from the 19th century, are the same family names you'd find on mailboxes there today.

Stanly News and Press

Tue, Sep 06, 1921 ·Page 6

But where did this unique little hamlet get it's name? Some places in Stanly County were named for their character, like Big Lick, which was named for a Salt Lick that exits there, or Millingport, which was the location of multiple Grist Mills and other milling operations. Others were named for a prominent family name in the area, like Lambert, or Porter, or Plyer, or even Richfield, which began as "Ritchie's Old Field". Others were given fancy names in order to impress somebody. Seriously. 

On the below map of the North Carolina Gold Region, Stanly County is still part of Montgomery County, which means it predates 1841, when they separated. Lawrenceville, east of the Pee Dee River, was the County Seat and one of the old County Seats, Henderson, is pictured above it. Both were located in what remains Mother Montgomery. There were few towns marked in what became Stanly, where the sparse populations were centered along the rivers and creeks. Allentown was the main town and population center at the time of the Revoluctionary War. 

But Allenton, being near water, would be plagued by thyphous outbreaks, as would Tindallsville, which was located where only marked by "FY" for Ferry, as it was across the river from Henderson and Lawrenceville. A community grew around the Narrows, known as 'Narrowsville', but was relatively short-lived, populated somewhat by folks who had came down from Rowan County. When the county split in half, the western half would be named for John Stanly, a politician from New Bern who was known to have participated in a duel, in order to impress State Legislatures and gain their approval. When the county seat was laid out upon a 50 acre tract belonging to the Hearne family in a central area of the new county near the junction of several smaller creeks into Long Creek, and where the old Salisbury Wagon Road forked, as seen on the above map, with one fork being the Fayetteville Road, crossing at the Ferry towards Lawrenceville and the other going south, crossing the Rocky River into Anson County at Beard's Post Office towards Wadesboro. The new county seat was named Albemarle, for George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, who was one of the early Lord Proprietors of North Carolina. 

New London, also was named to impress someone. Originally called "Bilesville" for the Biles family who had founded the town near a gold mine, marked on the above map, under the "P" that marked Pennington's Ferry. Seeking attention and approval from British investors, the name was changed. Several mines still exist in the northern part of the county in a gold belt that ran through several counties in NC, particularly Cabbarus, Rowan, Stanly, Montgomery and Mecklenburg. 

Norwood was named for the Norwood Brothers Store, that was located at a crossroads of one road that ran from Cabarrus County  to Allenton and the other that was previously mentioned that ran from Salisbury to Wadesboro. It was originally Center, a place in between the agricultural boomtown of Cottonville, named not for a person, but for the white gold that fiercly grows there and does to this day, and the trading town with an Inn, Allenton, named for the Allen Brothers who settled it, one of them, Mark Allen, my ancestor. 

Stanly News and Press

Fri, Jun 04, 1920 ·Page 3

Yet again, so where did the name "Finger" come from? Some suggested that perhaps it came from the shape of the community, a slim straight grouping of homes and businesses along the Concord to Albemarle Road, long ago referred to as the Morganton Road. But that is incorrect, as the community is actually spread out, along roads that intersect with the highway. 

Another suggested a story about a woodchopper that lost his finger. That too was the figment of someone's imagination. The truth is much less colorful. Finger was named for a person.

Stanly News and Press

Fri, Apr 03, 1936 ·Page 8

As you've been seeing in the community clips from old newspapers, several of the family names that lived and settled in Finger, match others of the county and counties, at large, Hahn, Herrin,  Eudy, Hatley, Burleson, Harwood, Lowder, Lipe, Shue, Cauble, Sides, Plott, and others. It was not one of the local citizens for whom the Town, and the following Post Office was named, but for someone who lived there briefly and gained their respect and attention. 

Rev. John Finger was neither born there or died there. 

Stanly News and Press

Tue, Jun 24, 1947 ·Page 8

The community really began as Herrin's Grove, from the family of my 4th Great Grandfather, Hezekiah Herrin, (1794-1884). Hezekiah married Amelia "Milly" Hatley, daughter of Hardy Hatley and Isabell Foreman Hatley. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters, and after a few decades, had created their own community and Hezekiah was part of the community who desired a church be built. That Church is now Oak Grover and Rev. John Finger was a minister to the community. As seen above, in 1947, the town of Finger had its own Baseball Team.

Stanly News and Press

Fri, Sep 13, 1940 ·Page 10

Others moved in to the community, some had married into the Herrin and Hahn families, early staples of the place. Soon, families from other parts of Stanly and Cabarrus County had joined the community, as fertile parcels were sold and business deals were made. By the 1940's new names like Mauldin, Lefler, Harkey and Ritchie were joinng the staples of the community like Harwood, Sides, Shoe and Lowder. There were no Fingers. Finger was a fingerless community. 

In the 1870 census, John Finger, 56, appears as a Methodist Minister, aged 56, living with his family in Cabarrus County. 

Name	John Finger
Age in 1870	56
Birth Date	abt 1814
Birthplace	North Carolina
Dwelling Number	59
Home in 1870	Township 8, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Race	White
Gender	Male
Post Office	Concord
Occupation	ME Minister
Male Citizen Over 21	Yes
Personal Estate Value	1000
Inferred Spouse	H E Finger
Inferred Children	Robt C FingerJames A FingerMary E Finger
Household Members (Name) Age Robt C Finger 3 Eliza Banner 15 John Finger 56 H E Finger 42 James A Finger 16 Mary E Finger 7

The family is listed in Township 8, Mount Pleasant area, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he lived in Cabarrus. As previously mentioned, Finger abutted the Cabarrus County line. Borders, especially in those days, were uncertain, fluid at best. Families who actually lived in Stanly were counted in Cabarrus. Families who actually lived in Cabarrus were counted in Stanly. It all depended on where the census takers mule took him before some family stopped and corrected him if he mentioned the wrong county. 

So, for a time Rev. John Finger had preached to the community around Herrin's Grove in the area where Stanly met  Mount Pleasant in Cabarrus. He made a significant impression upon them and so when they gathered to devise a name for their new post office in 1888, ran by Daniel Shue, or Shoe, one of them suggested Finger for Rev. John and the rest agreed. So, the community of Finger was born. 

One may wonder why it became Finger instead of "Shoe". Perhaps they preferred hands over feet in their decision. Bad Joke.

So, in the latter part of the 19th Century, to well past the middle half of the 20th, the little community of Finger grew and grew. 

They had a Beekeepers Club, and I've mentioned before, the infamous and fabulous Finger Grill that fed many a farmer, truck driver and out-for-visiting Sunday diners. 

Stanly News and Press

Thu, Jun 28, 2018 ·Page 17

Oak Grove Church, perhaps and probably founded by Rev. John Finger, remains the center of the community. The above clipping is from 2018, and announced the church's 133rd homecoming and revival, meaning the church was founded in 1885, around the same time as the Post Office was created. 

Stanly News and Press

Sun, Dec 19, 1999 ·Page 4

In 1989, it was reported that Mr. Frank Eury of Finger had a goat who had given birth to quintuplets. I can imagine that poor goat being barely able to walk. So, the history of Finger has spread out over 150 years. Who exactly was this charismatic Minister whose name it bears. 

Back to the 1870 census, where we first were introduced to Rev. Finger, we see that he seems to have done quite a bit of traveling in his life. He, his wife and oldest son, James, age 16, was born in North Carolina, while his 7-year-old daughter, Mary, was born in South Carolina. 

Title The Finger Family of Lincoln County, North Carolina: With Brief Sketch of Saint Matthews Church Author Nixon, Alfred, b. 1856

A history of the Finger family of Lincoln County, NC details that Rev. Finger was the only child of a David Finger and Mary Summerow Finger. He would have half-siblings later, as his mother remarried after the death of his father. He was a member of the South Carolina Methodist Episcopal Church southern circuit. He married Hannah Elvira Avery, of Burke County, NC and they were the parents of three children, James Avery, Mary Elmira and Robert Gage, who died at age 5 in South Carolina, and was listed on the 1870 census of Cabarrus County. 

In 1880, the family of Rev. John Finger is found in Williamston, Anderson County, South Carolina. Avery refers to son James Avery, who at age 25 was a teacher. Mamie was the nickname of daughter Mary, and the family employed a man named Peter as farm labor and Sallie, as a cook. The couples surname is not mentioned, but perhaps they were actually also Fingers. 

Title	The Groton Avery Clan 1, Pt.2
Author	Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935,Avery, Catharine Hitchcock Tilden, 1844-1911

The heritage of Mrs. Finger, Hannah Avery, is recalled in the book North American Family Histories under The Groton Avery Clan, Part 2.

Rev. John Finger died at the age of 70 on June 15, 1884, in Anderson County, South Carolina.

So the naming of Finger coincides with the death of Rev. John Finger. 

Hannah followed in 1905 and was given a very lengthy and descriptive obituary. Both of the Finger children went into the educational field, with James residing in Charleston, SC. and Mary in Bamburg.

It appears to me that the christening of the Finger Post Office by Postmaster Shoe, and others of the community, and the death of Rev. Finger at about the same time, suggests the Village was named in honor of Rev. Finger upon his demise. So, this is how a small community in Stanly County, North Carolina, was named for a Methodist Preacher from Lincoln County who moved to South Carolina.

The Finger home at Cabin Hill. 

5

The Ruin of Mary Lilly

One of the saddest cases I have ever came across while searching old court records was the case of 'The State and Mary Lilly vs Albert Faggart ".

The Concord Daily Tribune Concord, North Carolina • Fri, Jan 28, 1910Page 2

The case first appeared on the dockets in late 1908 and drug through the courts over two years.

For those of us attempting to dig through old records for historical and genealogical purposes, the first decade of the 20th Century seems pretty recent, and in a way, it was, but in other ways, that decade was bucolic, life in rural areas of the South was still very rudimentary, and provincial. Dresses still drug the ankles, telephones were rare, spread out, and used mostly in government offices or businesses, and automobiles were a novelty. It was the age still of horses and wagons, and a long walk to a train station. Most notably, the mindset of the populace was still very much stuck in the 1800's. Things would soon change, but they had not changed yet. The main characters in this story, Albert Faggart and Mary Lilly, were very much the product of, and victim of, respectively, the times.

The state took up the Case of Mary Lilly, the Plaintiff, against Albert Faggart, the Defendant. The first page entered into evidence was the testimony of Mary Lilly. 

The court transcriber was noticeably in a struggle, with lack of short-hand, to record the proceedings, often skipping connecting words and foregoing punctuation . I have inserted three dots between phrases in my own transcription to indicate a break in structure, but with lack of punctuation.

Mary's testimony began the proceedings. "Evidence State and Mary Lilly vs Albert Faggart"

"Mary Lilly introduced and says. The evening this thing happened I was sent over to aunt Esthers and was to come by the store to get home...Albert told his brother to wait on me...Albert got his gun and went down through the pasture... I went down that way...met Mr. Walker...went on a little farther and met Albert."

To summarize, the plaintiff, Mary Lilly had been sent (by a parent we may assume) to her Aunt Esther's house and to stop by the store on her way home. The defendant, Albert Faggart, had tasked his brother with watching for Mary while Albert went to get a gun. Mary was walking through a pasture on her journey and passed by a man named Mr. Walker. After passing Mr. Walker, she soon encountered Albert.

On pages two and three, Mary's testimony continued. "he ask me to do some for me (him) and I told him I was too little...he grabbed the things out of my hands and ran down in the woods...he told me to come out there and get the things...when I got to him he caught me and threw me down...he told me if I hollered he would choke me to death so when I got to the house I was crying..mother ask what was the matter..saw leaves on my back and I told her Albert had done something to her (Mary)..I am thirteen years old...never had said anything like that to me and has never sense (Inserted) - saw him on Thursday evening after this happened- Albert talked to her and said he would get some drugs at the drug store to drive it off. Mother said no they would not do that..Albert and myself were down there in the woods about half or an hour. happened on or about third of July 1908."

What you have read is the testimony, in court, of a child who has been raped. An armed man, named Albert Faggart, had stolen items from her arms, that she had purchased at the behest of a family member, and ran with them to a secluded area in the woods, in order to lure her out of sight of a community path through a field. Once there, he pushed her down and raped her, but the naive child had not the words to accurately recount the heinous atrocity that had occurred. A few days after the rape, she again encountered her assailant. He suggested that he purchase an abortifacient, which her mother had no confidence would work. The event took place on July 3, 1908.  

The case suffered continuance after continuance. It appears Mary was represented by James Long while Albert was represented by Truman Chapman.

Testimony began on January 18th, 1909, and then was continued a few more times before returning on June 11, 1909, when Albert Lilly began his testimony.

Witnesses for the Plaintiff were: 

Mary Lilly, herself

Shelby Lilly, her mother

Horace Lilly, her stepfather

GM Cress

Witnesses for the Defendant were:

Albert Faggart, himself

DM Faggart, his father

John Colston

J H D Walker

It was noted that they were in Number 6, Township, Cabarrus County. After the testimony of Mary Lilly, the next attestant for the plaintiff was Shelby Lilly. Again, following the court transcriptionists omission of words for speed and inserting dots between phrases.

"Shelby Lilly sworn and says was over to Mrs. Faggarts..nobody at home by Miss Parlie, (Pearlie)...started on home met Albert over in the pasture..told him he was the one I  wanted to see..ask him what he fooled with Mary for and get her in the family way for...Albert said that Mary was mistaken..I told him on the day he had dealings with her Mary came home and told it...I washed her clothes and she has never been sick since..she was sick the week before. 

Albert asked how far along she was...told him about two months..ask me to come over to our (sic) house that afternoon...he said he would...He come over to the edge of the woods...took Mary over to where he was..ask him what he was going to do...said he was going to town but if he could send to town and get a bottle of medicine that would fix her and not let it be known as it would be a hanging crime...said he would pay for the medicine then we parted. Told me afterwards..saw him again and ask me to not let his father and mother know... on January 11, 1909 he came to my house..Hollowed (hollared or yelled)..asked Mary who that was..said it was Albert...said to me is there anything to matter with Mary for sure..told him there was..told him she had about two months to stand up..asking if it was his for sure..Told him it was his...ask if I had been off to see about it...said I had not..said Babe you know that will never do for it to get out..ask what we would do..make it up for..said could you not tell him herself. Ask for Horace..told him he was over in the old field at work...said you and Horace talk (or take, difficult to read)..He did not want it to go any further. He did not want Horace Lilly to find out. He did not want his mother and father to find out. Did not hear about it being anybody else's but Dock (probably Dock Faggart, a character in a coming story from the same area) ...who said that he heard it was Albert. Also, that he heard it was Mr. George Cress's. " G. M. Cress, a witness for the Plaintiff.

Albert's Turn

"Albert Faggart sworn and says tht he met Mr. Walker down next to Mrs. Dan Cliner's meadow and went home with him and met Mary up next to our wire fence...never offered to pay them anything or never offered to get them any medicine..never acknowledged that it was my (his) child. 

D M Faggart " knowed nothing, only what John Colston told him..that he had dealings with her and that Wade Furr told GM Cress he heard it was his."

J H D Walker said the evening this happened I was coming up through the woods..I met up with Albert and we went on about 50 or 75 yards and we met Mary Lilly and we went on home together and if anything like that had happened it was over before I met up with her. It could have happened before I got there.

G. M. Cress said Mr. Faggart came to my house January 17, 1909. Mr. Faggart asked me if I knew about Horace going to Esquire Crowell to get a warrant for Albert..told him I heard he had. Mr. Faggart said he heard that others had dealings with this girl..I told him if that was the case Albert need not be scared...ask me if I had heard this talk...I told him I had and told him that I told the (N) when I heard that they were going to put it on Albert that the better go slow for it it should come black Faggart could give them a whole lot of trouble. He said he was going to town and was going to Esquire Crowell and see if Horace had been down there to get a warrant. 

John Colston said he knew nothing about it at all. "

Summary: It appears that in the beginning, Albert was terrified to discover that Mary was pregnant. He begged her mother, Shelby, not to "tell it", to not tell her husband, Horace, or Albert's parents. He pleaded with her, because it was a "hanging offence". Albert offered to buy medicine that would 'fix her', or force an abortion, or miscarriage. That did not happen. Albert tried to get the word out to ruin Mary's reputation and insinuate that she had been with other men. There were really no physical witnesses, so it ended up being a case of "he said, she said." Horace had gone to the Magistrate to attempt to get a warrant. The charges were not for the assault, the taking advantage of a woman against her will, or the abuse of a child. Mary and Albert were in court simply because the act had resulted in a pregnancy and she was not married. Boy, have things changed for the better. Albert's heinous crime would have been a hanging crime if there was not another factor that had come into play.

Now that the trial was complete, it was time to discover who were the real,  live people in this story, the foilable and fallible human beings who lived in this section of Cabarrus County. 

Mary Lilly remained elusive for a while. There was no one in the area who matched her age and situation. Lilly was not a Cabarrus County name. There were numerous Lilly's in not-too-distant counties though, stemming from the long-ago settlement of the Edmund Lilly family, a wealthy landowner, along the Yadkin-Pee Dee River in Montgomery County. By the 1900's they were fairly common in Montgomery, Stanly, Anson and surrounding Counties, and remain so today, but with more of a twist to the story.

Finding D. M. Faggart, we easily find his son, Albert, shown in the 1900 census as a 12-year-old, meaning he would have been 20 in 1908. Albert was the son of Daniel Miller Faggart, (1859-1941), and his wife, Mary Rebecca Cress, (1859-1951). Albert was a member of the Cress family that were numerous in the community. The name of the community was Faggart's Crossroads. 

Faggart's Crossroads is located just south of Concord, now part of the greater Concord area, where Miami Church Road meets Flowe's Store Road at Highway 601. A store known as Safrit's Country Store once sat at this intersection and plays a part in this drama. 

Albert was the fourth of six children in this farming family, preceded by Virgie Missouri, (1879-1972), 

Berry Barrier, (1882-1973), Pearl Mary Bell (1806-1909), aka "Pearlie", named in the court transcript, and followed by Hedrick Miller, (1890-1952) and Jennie Lee, (1892-1923).

The Faggart family seemed to be well-thought of and fairly prosperous and successful, as Cabarrus County farm families went, but they were not without their own tragedy's. During the turmoil surrounding their son's trial, another misfortune had befallen the Faggart's, the loss of their beautiful daughter, Pearl. 

The news reported the suicide of the young woman, only 22 or 23 years old. What had caused her so much misery to thrust her into such depths of despair? The article hinted at some mystery that may have been at the center of it, in that she was "held under serious suspicion" several years before this incident. What was the young sister of Albert Faggart suspected of? This intriguing detail is something I must look into later. 

So next, a closer look at the characters in this real human drama, those who were mentioned or participated in the trial. 

Daniel Miller Faggart, (1859-1941) was the easy find, and the father of Albert Faggart.

D. M. Faggart was a product of and seems to have spent his entire life in this section of Cabarrus County. He, and his relatives gave the area of Faggart's Crossroads its name. Nearly all descendants of the early Dutch Buffalo Creek Settlement of early German immigrants in Cabarrus County, they had settled the fertile rolling hills between Coldwater Creek and Irish Buffalo Creek. Yes, Virginia, there were Buffalo in North Carolina in those days and while German immigrants had settled upon one creek, a group of Irish had settled upon the more western-situated Buffalo Creek. Daniel Miller Faggart lived to be 82, and spent his life in Faggart's Crossroads. He is buried at the Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, on Rimer Road, in Rimer, Cabarrus County, NC. 

Aunt Esther would turn out to be Sarah Esther Pless Meachum, the sister of Shelby Pless Lilly, Mary's mother. (1875 - past 1950). 

J H D Walker also seen as "Mr. Walker" in the testimonies of both Mary and Albert, was John Henry Donald Walker, (1856-1936), a farmer, and long-time resident of Faggart's Crossroads, who had married into the Cress family. He had met both Mary and Albert on that fated day of the 'event'. 'The day this thing happened', as he referred to it, an event so despicable to even Mr. Walker, that he couldn't name it for what it was. 

Pearl Maribell Faggart  aka "Miss Parlie", (1886-1909), who was the only person home, when Shelby Lilly went to find Albert Faggart to confront him, was the sister of Albert and daughter of D. M. Faggart. She is buried in Rimer with her father. 

G. M. Cress was George Melonchton Cress, (1874-1938), another long-time resident of Faggart's Crossroads, and a member of one of its' founding families, the Cresses. He was a Grocery Merchant and farmer,  son of  Daniel Melanchton Cress, Jr. and wife, Martha Josephine Cunningham Cress. 

The Concord Times Concord, North Carolina • Mon, Jan 5, 1920Page 3

G. M. Cress had testified for the Plaintiff and had been approached by Albert's father, Daniel Miller Faggart, inquiring if he had heard about Horace going to the Magistrate, and any other rumors. George Cress was also one of the other men Albert had been trying to blame Mary's pregnancy on. He had spoken more plainly, and with common sense and integrity than many others in the trial. George M. Cress would pass away in Cabarrus County and is buried at the Cross of Christ Lutheran Church. 

Mrs. Dan Cline, whose meadow both Mary, Albert and John H. D. Walker were crossing through, would have been Mary Jane Moose Cline (1859-1932), wife of John Daniel Cline, (1850-1929), a farm family who was living on the Concord Road in 1910, which I believe, roughly, is what we refer to as Hwy 601 today.

They are both buried at Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

John Colston, who testified that he didn't know anything about any of it, was a young, black man, (1884- 1960), who was a migratory farmhand and laborer, who traveled around Rowan, Cabarrus and Stanly Counties. He was from and lived most of his life in Salisbury, NC.  I believe John was distressed about being dragged into the matter at all. John died at the age of 72 in Rowan County, and was the son of Fred and Mary Kendall Colston from Stanly County.

The Afro-American Baltimore, Maryland • Sat, Dec 24, 1960Page 19

Wade Furr, had been a middle-man, and the source of the a rumor to tell D. M. Faggart that he heard Mary's child was that of George M. Cress. Wade Hampton Furr, ( 1872-1941 ), lived on Rimer Road in Faggarts, and was another resident of the farming community. In 1910, he was the next door neighbor of Albert Faggarts' older brother, Berry. He married Katie Rowe and they were also buried at the Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Rimer.

Esquire Crowell referred to the Magistrate to whom Horace Lilly went to town to request a warrant from. This would have been James Lee Crowell, Sr., (1863-1942), who I found in my family tree, as he married Minnie Mauney, whose parents were Wincie Catherine Davis and Valentine Mauney. She was a granddaughter of my third Great Uncle, James M. Davis of Stanly County. James Crowell was an attorney, and originally from New London, in Stanly County. He was elected Mayor of Concord in 1893. 

The Concord Daily Tribune Concord, North Carolina • Mon, Jan 9, 1911Page 4

Esquire Crowell heard many cases from the Rimer and Faggarts area of Cabarrus County. He would not issue a warrant for Albert Faggart on the 'ruin' of Mary Lilly, however. As there was not sufficient evidence, or witness, from the 'right' kind of people. He did issue the warrant on the bastardy case, but for Mary, as she began showing an evident pregnancy. Then when she named Albert as the father, he became the defendant. 

Esquire James Crowell, Sr.

Albert had plans. This untidy incident with Mary Lilly was a complication in his plans. It was getting in his way, in more ways than one. On January 3, 1909, in the midst of trial and testimony, Albert A. Faggart, 20, married Margaret M. Blackwelder, 17, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Catherine Goodman Blackwelder. 

The Concord Times Concord, North Carolina • Thu, Feb 25, 1909Page 5

Just a little over a month later, Albert lost his sister Pearl on February 13th. On  the 25th, it was reported that his wife, Margeret had returned to Faggarts Crossing to visit her parents. In the same community news column, it was reported that Albert had received a job, or position, with Carter Brothers, at Polkton, in Anson County. He was seeking a fresh start. Then he had to come home for his sister's funeral. Had Albert's marriage triggered Pearl's suicide?

So, we fully know who Albert was, but still haven't found Mary. However, it was easier to find her mother, Shelby Lilly, because of her more uncommon name, Shelby. 

The story of Shelby Pless begins with her mother, Esther. 

Esther Please was born about 1846. In the 1870 census, she was living in Township 4 in Cabarrus County, which was between Concord and Kannapolis, which didn't exist yet. She was living with a man named Peter Long and his wife. Her first daughter, Elizabeth "Bettie" Pless was 6 years old. 

If you haven't figured it out by now, here's the fact that threw a  wrench into the machine, the Faggart family was white and the Lilly family was black. Horace couldn't get a warrant against Albert because Jim Crow was in full force and a black man couldn't really testify against a white one. Technically, he could, but it was risky. Esther Pless had been born a slave. Their status hadn't changed that long ago from 1909. If Albert had committed the same crime against a white girl, it would have been a hanging crime, but little Mary? Her virtue really didn't matter to the people that had the power to do anything about it and the people it mattered to didn't have the power to do anything about it. 

The neighborhood that Esther and Bettie were living in seemed to be a cluster of freedmen, or the recently emancipated former slaves. Several Partee families, but a collection of many surnames from several counties, Gilmer, Alexander, Phifer, Pickens, Cannon, Fisher, Harris, Allison, Walton, Hood, Ford, White, Linn, Biggers, Sumner, Kirk, Pless, Snead, Russell and others. Since they all worked as laborers, farm hands and housekeepers, it seems this may have been the beginnings of a segregated black community on the outskirts of Concord, at the time. 

1880

In 1880, Esther Pless is shown with all four of her daughters, Bettie, (Elizabeth), now 17, Esther, 8, (Sarah Esther or Aunt Esther, who is mentioned in the court proceedings, Mozelle, 4 (Addie Mozelle who married Jesse Meachum, and Shelva or Shelby, age one. 

The Daughters

Elizabeth "Betty" Pless was born about 1863, while her family was still trapped in slavery, and her father was unknown. 

Sarah Esther Pless was born about 1875, and her father was named as Isaac Fisher. She would marry William Meachum, and her father was named on their marriage certificate. Isaac Fisher seems to have been a married man when Sarah Esther was born. His wife was named Julia Ann Dinkins Fisher and the first of their 10 children was born in 1848, and the last in 1868. Born in 1837, he was 15 years Esther's senior. He is seen living with his wife in the census before Sarah Esther was born, 1870, as well as the one after, 1880. In 1900, his wife Julia, is deceased, passing in 1892, and he is living with his daughter, Sarah Fisher Safrit, and her family. Isaac Fisher died in 1907 and was buried at the Bell's Mission Cemetery in Concord.

Tombstone of Isaac Fisher

Addie Mozelle Pless was born in 1881. On January 27, 1894, she had married Jesse Meachum. Her marriage certificate only listed her mother, Esther Pless, with father unknown. Mozelle and Jesse are listed as the household directly beneath the Daniel M Pless family in 1900. I believe this was probably how Albert was so familiar with Mary.

Shelby Pless was born in 1882. She would marry Horace Lilly.  Shelby was the daughter of Payton  Luther. More on them forthcoming. 

On April 24, 1889, Esther Pless, 37, daughter of Cain (aka King) Faggart and Selena Pless, married Tony Long Meachum, 50, son of Fraizer Meachum and Edith "Edie" Bennett Meachum. A year later....

October 27, 1890, Sarah Esther Pless married her now stepbrother, William Meachum, son of Tony and his first wife, Julia, (1845-1889), who passed away a few months before Tony married Esther.

January 27, 1894, Jesse James Meachum, 20, would marry his step-sister, Addie Mozelle Pless, about 18. Now, all of Mozelle's later records would give her birth date as April 2, 1887, but she is a perfect example of how women would get younger as she got older in those days, as Addie was 4 years old in 1880 and her marriage certificate declared her 18 in 1894, which would match a birth year of 1876 given in the 1880 census. A birth year of 1887, which is engraved on her tombstone, and written on other documents, would've made her 6 at her marriage. I don't believe a six year old could pass as 18. 

Faggarts Corner was a bucolic, pastoral, and meagerly populated area. The white population of rural Cabarrus was small, and the black community within that community even smaller. It was no strange thing that two sisters had married the sons of their mothers new husband.

Tony and Esther would have one child together, Grace Pearl Meachum/ Mitchell Safrit, born around the time they were married or shortly after. Her birthdate would also migrate, as would the name Meachum, that would turn into Mitchell as time progressed. 

Tony Meachem born about 1830 was from Union County. The 1870 census found him in the Beaverdam community. He had moved to Cabarrus County by 1880. He and his wife, Julia, had  8 children together, born between  1863 and 1878, namely, Charlie, Nora, Monroe, William, Jesse James, Henry, Willis and Lillie M. Meachum. He would also have a daughter, Katie, by a woman named Margaret "Maggie" Cruse in 1892, three years after his marriage to Esther. As in modern times, men roamed. 

The marriage certificate of Tony Meachum and Esther Pless had revealed the names of her parents as Cain Faggart and Selina Pless, taking us back another generation in the family tree of Mary Lilly. 

Cain Faggart's years upon the planet are unknown. It appears he was at least old enough to a father by 1850, and seems to have passed away before 1870. He and Selina are recorded as the parents of three people, Jordon Pless, Esther Pless, and Julia Pless. 

Jordan "Jo" Pless was born about 1850. He first appears in Township 11 of Cabarrus County, south of Concord, in an area known as "Old Field", not far from where Esther was living. He was working as a farm laborer for a Mr. White who had married a Cress. On September 10, 1887, Jordan married Sarah "Sallie" Boger, daughter of Marcus Lafayette and Eliza Alexander Boger. Jordan and Sarah settled in Township 12, a place called John's River, Cabarrus County, before finally taking root on Prince Street in Ward 4, an historically black only neighborhood. They had a very large family of abut a dozen children and a long marriage. Jordan passed away on December 13, 1920 and was buried at the Old Campground Cemetery. His wife joined him in 1938. Esther Pless was the middle child, having been born around 1852.

Julia Ann Pless was born about 1853. She first appears in the 1870 in Township 11, Cabarrus County, as a 17 year old, in Old Field, the same as her brother Jordan. She married May 29, 1872 to Elam "Eli" Scott, son of Samuel and Millie Scott. Julia's line had the curse of brief lives, I wonder if there was a common medical issue behind it. She and Eli had three daughters: Mary in 1872, Margaret in 1873 and Sarah Jane in 1877. Julia died before January 8, 1880, when Eli married Lettie Ford, so sometime between 1877 and 1879. 

Mary Scott had two children: Della Scott in 1892 and Eli Scott II in 1898 and died before 1900. Both children died young.

Margaret Scott married Robert Anderson "Anse" Hayes on May 10, 1896, at age 23. She settled in Mount Pleasant, NC and had two children, Thomas "Tom" Hayes, (1891-1919), who died of Typhoid Fever,  and Zeta Hayes, born about 1894. Neither Margaret or her daughter, Zeta, and found after 1910, but her son, Thomas, had married and left three children who lived longer lives than these. At this juncture, it appears both Margaret and  her daughter died before death certificates became common in the area, about 1915. Her husband had passed before 1910, when she is seen as widowed.

Sarah Jane Scott married Edward G. Foil on December 17, 1891. She had two children, Viola in 1895 and Odell in 1898. They are all seen in the 1900 census, then the newspapers reported that both children died in a house fire, but did not mention Sarah Jane, aka Jenny. Edward G. Foil remarried on December 22, 1901, so it appears Jenny died between June 8, 1900 and December 22, 1901. To add to the curse, Eddie and his second wife, Alice Threadgill, had 4 daughters and it appears only one of them lived into adulthood. 

Salina Pless, Esthers' mother, was supposedly born around 1832, and died in 1869 in Old Field, Cabarrus County. She appears to have been enslave by a Henry Pless and her family line might be traced back to the farm of his father, Jacob Pless in Cabarrus County.

Henry Pless in 1850 Rowan County Census Slave Schedule.

Jacob Pless in 1850 Cabarrus County Census Slave Schedule

Paton Luther was the father of Shelby Pless and grandfather of Mary Lilly. He was born about 1851 and was a native of Montgomery County, NC. His first record there was his marriage to Sylvia Baldwin on December 10, 1868, which revealed he was the son of Jackson Harris and Julia Luther. He then moves to neighboring Richmond County, where he is found in 1870. A few years later, he is found back in Montgomery County, NC, where he marries for a second time to Mary Jane Christian on Februar 19, 1873. Sylvia, his first wife, had not passed away. Things didn't work out, as she is found in 1880 declaring herself single. She went on with her life. 

Within the next few years, Paton had moved himself and his new family to Cabarrus County. Seems, he was quite the character. I can't say whether or not he was a bigamist or not, but there was a lack of records. That does not mean a divorce didn't happen as records of this time and this place were sometimes destroy and are spotty, at best. 

The Sun Concord, North Carolina • Tue, Aug 29, 1876Page 3

In the summer of 1876, Paton had gotten involved in a confrontation at a baseball game and was hit in the head, as was reported by The Sun.

In 1880, Paton and his family are living in the city of Concord, where he is working as a laborer. He and Jane have three children and her teenaged sister, Josephine is living with them. Two years after that, he's had an affair with Esther Pless and fathers Shelby, if not Mozelle, who was just a year older. 

Paton and Mary Jane will have a total of five children: Julia Luther Morgan, (1877-1938),  Jeanette Luther 

Twenty years later, Paton is back in Richmond County, alone and widowed. He was 54. It doesn't seem like he made it to 1910, or 64 years old. There is no more record of him. But he wasn't widowed. His second wife, Mary Jane Christian Luther, like his first wife, was very much alive. She is found living in Concord in 1900 and 1910, working as a washerwoman. In  1920, she is found with two of her daughters, and several grandchildren, living next to another daughter.

1900

In 1900, we find the Tony "Mitchell" household, as the Meachum and Mitchell surname seemed interchangeable. He and Esther claim to have been married 10 years. He's now 70, and she's 53. Esther claims to have been the mother of 5 children, with four living. The deceased one would be Bettie, as she's seen no more and the other daughters are all alive and accounted for. Her two youngest daughters are living with her. Shelby is 21 and Grace, her only child with Tony, is 15. And there, at 3 years old, is Mary, her granddaughter. This is our Mary Lilly. Just think, in less than a decade, little Mary will be sent to the store, and the nearly 20-year-old Albert Faggart will be lying in wait. I believe Mary was probably more like five here and this also reveals that Shelby was also a teenager when Mary was born. Mary wasn't actually a Lilly. Horace had not even moved to Cabarrus County yet. It is apparent that at some point, Mary was known by her stepfather's surname. 

At this time, the family was living in Township 5, called New Gilead, not to be confused with Mount Gilead, the town in Montgomery County. 

Shelby will get married on November 14, 1895, to Horace Lilly. Lilly was not a Cabarrus County name. It harkens back to an early settler along the PeeDee River in Montgomery County, right across the river from Stanly. By the turn of the century, most Lillies were found in Stanly, Anson and Montgomery, and one branch was barely represented anymore, if at all. 

The Concord Daily Tribune Concord, North Carolina · Tuesday, February 14, 1905

This is also the year she had a letter at the Post Office she needed to pick up.  I wonder if it was from Horace. Horace was 22 and the son of Lewis and Alice Lilly. Shelby was 23 and the daughter of Paton Luther and Esther Pless. By this time, both of Horace's parents were still living, but both Paton and Esther had died between 1900 and 1905. The wedding took place at Justice of Peace's home, Esquire Crowell and members of his family were the witnesses. 

Shelby and Horace did not have a long marriage, or any children. Someone has Shelby's date of death as 1907, however, that is impossible because she testified in Court in January of 1909. It appears Shelby Pless Lilly died sometime in later 1909, or early 1910. It is not known what she died of or where she was buried. Chances are, she was buried in the Old Campground Cemetery with many of her kin, but in a grave no longer marked. Something feels suspicious about it. Something does not feel right. 

Rimer Road

In 1910, we find the whole neighborhood, almost, and a list of the witnesses in the court case, living in a row on Rimer Road in the Faggarts Crossroads Community. 

There Dan Cress, followed by the Safrit home. While the Safrits were not mentioned in the Court testimony, their store was.

Rufus was the head of the family in the 1910 census, but his 64-year-old father, John D. Safrit was living in his home, and Merchant, of a Country Store. Safrit's Store was reported as being at the intersection at Faggarts Crossing, serving members of the Safrit, Faggart, and Cress families, along with other at this crossroads connecting Flowe's Store with Rimer and Concord with Georgeville. 

After the Safrits, appears the home of Mr. John H. D. Walker, who had passed both Mary and Albert at different times on the path from the store to home. 

After Mr. Walker's family is found that of George Melanchon Cress, a witness for the Plaintiff, who had been accused of being the possible father by Albert's own father, Daniel Miller Faggart. After George Cress's homestead comes that of Jesse Meachum and his wife, Addie Mozelle Pless Meachum, Esther's daughter, and Shelby's sister. After the Jesse Meachum family is the homestead headed by Sarah Esther Pless Meachum, Mary's "Aunt Esther" and another sister of Shelby Pless, who had married Jesse's brother, William, now deceased. Next in line is the household of Daniel M. Faggart and his wife, now empty nesters. 

Taking a closer look at the home of "Aunt Esther", Sarah E. Pless Meachum, we see her 11-year-old daughter, and only child, Daisy, followed by her niece, Mary L.. This is Mary Lilly, at 14 years old. 

And here we discover what the baby that Mary Lilly carried was. It's s a Girl! Also living with Mary Lilly in Aunt Esther's home was her year and a half year old Grand Niece, Ruth M., Mary's baby. Living right next door to grandparents whom I am certain didn't claim her. Also notice another interesting, or disturbing, whichever way you look at it, little detail. While both Sarah Esther and her daughter, Daisy, are listed as black under the race column, Mary and her daughter, Ruth are listed as "MU", short for Mulatto, or mixed-race. We know Ruth had a white father, as Albert's behavior certain spoke of guilt, no matter his lies to his parents. But so did Mary, as her mother was not mixed. Had a similar incident happened to Shelby when she was only 15 that resulted in the birth of Mary? Mary's unknown father was also a white man. 

This makes Shelby's death shortly after her testimony, an angry mother who felt her child was given no justice, seem even more problematic, even dubious. What had Shelby done? And what had happened to her?

Horace Lilly

Horace Lilly had not remained in Cabarrus County after the trial, and after Shelby's passing. Horace had faithfully approached the Magistrate, Esquire Crowell, for a warrant for Albert. Esquire Crowell had kindly advised him that could foment calamity for the Lilly/ Meachum/ Pless family. He was not given one for her attack or ruin, but later, Albert had been brought into the farrago due to the conception of Ruth by an unmarried Mary. Horace had not failed Mary. He had no agency.

 In the heart of Jim Crow, the rules were different for blacks and whites, unwritten rules, social rules. Mary's grandparents had been born into slavery and were freed as children. It had been that far erased from social memory. Accusing Albert of his own dastardly dead would stir up more anguish for the accusers than the accused and exacerbate the situation instead of appeasing it.

County lines were not barbed wire fences. Dirt paths through meadows became dirt roads and eventually paved ones. Some were later abandoned for straighter paths.

Horace Lilly was born on July 15, 1884, in Albemarle, NC. In the 1900 census, he was a 16-year-old farm boy, helping out on his father's farm in South Albemarle Precinct. 

Name	Horace Lilly
Age	16
Birth Date	Mar 1884
Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Home in 1900	Albermarle, Stanly, North Carolina
Sheet Number	10
Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation	153
Family Number	157
Race	Black
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Son
Marital Status	Single
Father's Name	Lewis Lilly
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Mother's Name	Alice Lilly
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Occupation	Farm Laborer
Months Not Employed	0
Attended School	0
Can Read	N
Can Write	N
Can Speak English	Y
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Lewis Lilly	56
Alice Lilly	54
Amos Lilly	20
Martha Lilly	17
Horace Lilly	16
Hannah Lilly	11
Henry Lilly	8
John Snuggs	20

Horace had the privilege of growing up in a large, bonded farm family, intact and self-supporting, unlike Shelby.  He was supported by his parents, Lewis and Alice Lilly and surrounded by his siblings, Amos, Martha, Hannah and Henry, and he was the very middle child of the five. Five years after this, he had made his way the 25 miles from Albemarle to Faggarts Crossroads and met and married Shelby Pless. It is unknown what had brought him to Cabarrus County.

Name	Horace Lily
Age in 1910	26
Birth Date	1884
Birthplace	North Carolina
Home in 1910	Township 5, Cabarrus, North Carolina, USA
Sheet Number	6b
Race	Black
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Laborer
Marital Status	Widowed
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Native Tongue	English
Occupation	Farm Laborer
Industry	General Farm
Employer, Employee or Other	Wage Earner
Able to read	Y
Able to Write	N
Enumeration District Number	0039
Out of Work	N
Number of Weeks Out of Work	0
Enumerated Year	1910
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Charler S Dry	27
Maud E Dry	22
Horace Lily	26

The 1910 census for Cabarrus County that Horace appears in as a 26-year-old widower was taken in April of 1910, meaning Shelby died between July of 1909 and April of 1910. He was working on the farm of a young couple, the Dry's, and had learned to read in the past decade. Shelby could have died in childbirth of their first child together. She could have passed from Typhoid or Influenza, or any other of the horrible diseases that plagued the land back then. Or she could have just mysteriously disappeared in a way that may have been a warning to others.

Horace Lilly would not linger in the evil hills of Cabarrus County. On January 13, 1917, Horace, now 32, married Miss Bessie Kendall of Tyson Township, near Norwood, age 25 and daughter of George and Mary Nelvina Douglas Kendall. 

In 1920, Horace would buy a lot in the newly established neighborhood of Kingville, one of the first landowners in one of the first subdivisions in town. Just a quarter acre lot, next to the Baptist Church, and next to his own mother. Kingville was platted out on the property of Dr. O. D. King, who had married into the Hearne Family, upon whose property the town of Albemarle had been platted out. Mr. King had noticed the long distances that black families who worked in town had to travel to get to work, so he wanted to create their own neighborhood convenient to town, but still on the edge of town.

Many small towns around the south had their own such neighborhoods, with separate churches, separate schools, and black-owned businesses within them. The neighborhoods grew and expanded, although the schools closed during intergration, many of them were repurposed, and inside the city limits now. Norwood had Bennettsville, Badin had West Badin, New London had Isenhour. Some neighborhoods have thrived, while others were mostly abandoned and gone to ruin.

In 1920, Herman was working as a Drayman, or wagon driver who delivered goods. He and Bessie had two little girls and his closest neighbors were Fletcher Parker, Charlie Bruton, the Frank Clegg family from South Carolina, Richard Wall and Henry Morgan, all African-American families working as brickmasons, ministers, farmers, running a steam laundry, working in the cotton mill, or building industry, driving teams (horses or ox-carts transporting items, while women were mostly employed as cooks, nurses, washerwomen, seamstresses, or in some other capacity for a Private family, or working in the Cotton Mill.

Josiah Davis ran his own Grocery Store. William Martin worked at the Aluminum Plant all the way in Badin, while living in Kingville. Dargan Pennington delivered furniture. Dock Kendall was a laborer for a Marble Yard. William Curr and Jones Harris Jr. were both Pressers at a Pressing Club, while Jones Harris Sr. worked at the 'Bottling Works'. Horaces' next door neighbor, Fletcher Parker, was a Fireman for a Steam Boiler. Miss Lilly Wall was a teacher. Frank Cregg was a Chauffeur and David Cross worked at a Lumber Plant. Lincoln Harris was a Cook at an unnamed Cafe. Lula Parker worked at the Drug Store, while her son Clyde, 16, was a Sweeper.        William Jones, who was from Arkansas, but had married a local woman, Drucie Wall, was a brickmason, also. Clifton Speller, still a teen, was a machinist at a garage. Fifteen year old Henry Ledbetter was a boot black at a barber shop, while his father, Eli was a woodchopper and his mother, Martha, was a Washwoman. Everyone worked. Jacob Davis did Plastering. Mary Barringer was a Dishwasher at a Hotel. Horace Lilly's 72-year-old mother, Alice Lilly, no longer worked, but she boarded two of her grandchildren who did, Rufus, 14, who worked in a Cotton Mill and Johannah, 17, who worked as a Cook for a Private family. Several families had their entirity over 12 working in one of the Mills.

Sam Lilly was a school janitor. Henry Bruton was a Porter at the Hotel, while his neighbor, Casey Coggins was a Waiter at the Hotel. Chester Heilig and several others also worked at the Pressing Club.

The Press Club was something unfamiliar to me so I had to look that one up and was given the following definition by Google:

"Pressing Club" refers historically to early 20th-century, often African American-owned, subscription-based dry cleaning shops. Modernly, it refers to specialized businesses like The Press Club Dry Cleaners in Charlotte, NC, which offers non-toxic cleaning, alterations, and home delivery. 

Basically a dry cleaning establishment. The community of Kingville seemed to be a vibrant, bustling neighborhood, full of industry and activity.

Horace, like all men of his generation were registered for the Draft in WWI. This revealed in the years before the 1920 census, he had been a laborer for the company, or merchantile, of Morrow Brothers and Heath. I wonder if this was the company he was a Drayman for. By 1930, Horace, now 40, had bought a little farm possibly near where he grew up, just a little ways out of town near Rock Creek, and was farming at this own 'General farm'. He and Bessie now had six children, ranging in age from 12 to 1. 

Sadly, Horace did not live a long life. At only 46, he died of mitral insufficiency. He left a wife and seven children: Ira, Vanilla, Florence, Cleora, Gladys, Mary Alminer and Dorothea.

The Verdict

We've explored the individuals involved in the case, but not yet the verdict. In the case of the State and Mary Lilly vs Albert Faggart, Judgement found for the Defendant. 

A more indepth recitation of the verdict on the charge of Bastardy, found for the defendant declared, "At a Superior Court held at the Courthouse in Concord, N.C., on the 31 day of Jan 1910 present Hon. E. B. Jones, Judge,

        This action having been called and the Plff. and meeting through her atty. L. T. Hartsell that the Deft. in not the father of the child and requesting that the action be dismissed at her cost. In this now motion of L T. Hartsell counsel for the Plff. adjudged that this action be and is hereby dismissed and cost of action to be taxed against the said Mary Lilly by the clerk of court. 

                                                               E. B. Jones, Judge."

I ask myself, where would this 14 year old girl in 1910, with a poor family, a deceased mother, and no known father get the money to pay a fine, court cost and attorney fees? I don't know, but I can surmise. 

I believe the money surreptitiously transferred from the Faggart family to Attorney Hartsell to pay the expenses in order to clear Albert of this nasty blight to his reputation. Albert had promises of a career and an acceptably virtuous and blanched bride. This unfortunate incident was standing in the way of his reputation. There may have been other threats, or promises of actions if the charges were not dropped. Albert had but one day of temerity and the life and virtue of this fatherless,  and motherless, mulatto girl was no measure to sully Alberts future.

Albert Faggart 

We saw that in the 1910 census, Mary and her daughter Ruth were living with her Aunt Sarah Esther Pless Meachem, and next door to Alberts parents. Where was Albert?

Well, by this time, he was in his own home with his 18-year-old wife, Margaret, and their two months old son, living in Township 5, Cabarrus County. He wouldn't remain in Cabarrus County long. After his aquital, he would move to Stanly County and get a job in the new Aluminum plant, then ran by Tallahassee Light and Water Company. This factory would become Alcoa and the village built around it was named Badin. Albert worked there in the Pot Room during the 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950 census, where he and Margaret would raise their seven children. Two of their sons would die young, in their forties, and appear to have had down syndrome, as they were decribed as "Mongoloid Idiot", the terminology of the times. Albert Faggart lived into my lifetime, as is with the circumstanes of researching people who lived into the20th century. As I looked into his passing in July of 1964, and briefly at his family, I made the startling discovery that they were people I knew. One child and spouse had been friends of my grandparents, that I remember from childhood, others I had went to church with and called friends. Some live to this day on property that had been purchased by Albert in his later years.And at least one inherited his mephistophelian personality. 

Mary Lilly

I am sad to say that I was unable to descry the fate of Mary Lilly. I can not with any amount of confidence say what happened to her after 1910, nor have I discovered any further record of her daughter, Ruth. This is disheartening to me since having such a scripturient draw to find her after reading the court transcripts. This little girl went through such a onerous situation of which she had little remedy. There is a chance that she married back into the Meachum/Mitchell family, but one of the children of that Mary gave a maiden name to her mother that was not one that Mary had worn, Pless, Lilly or Meachum. I can't help but think that three generations of unfortunate women had befallen something malicious and evil, that was categorically swept under the rug.

I followed Mary's known family to see if she had lived with any of them. 1920 found some of them living on Spring Street in the City of Concord, working in the Cotton Mills. Her Aunt Sarah Esther's only daughter, Daisy, had married her first cousin, Earl, son of  Mozelle and Jesse Meachum/Mitchell. Both mothers/sisters were living with their double-cousin offspring and their family. Mary was not with them.

Mozelle outlived Jesse and remained in Concord until her death in 1941 at the age of  54. She was buried at the Old Lutheran Cemetery.

Sarah Esther was living, at 75, with her daughter, in Concord, in the 1950 census. Surprisingly, there seems to be no record of her death, despite the fact that one of her Grandsons was a Funeral Director.

Grace Pearl Mitchell, the only child of Tony and Esthe together,  married a John Safrit, lived in Mount Pleasant, Cabarrus County, and had a large family, living nearly 100 years, from 1887 to 1986. She was a beautiful, very honey-skinned lady and labeled a mulatto, although neither of her parents were. It makes one wonder what the actual ancestorial makeup was of this family.

I road out to Faggarts Crossroads, just to get a sense of the place, to feel the energy near Safrits old store, and to see if I could reimagine the area of Rimer and Faggarts and what it was in 1908. 

It was just that , a Crossroads. While Rimer is just a beautiful, rural bump in the road, with a store, a church, a volunteer fire department and a spattering of houses, and lots of cows.

The church holds lots of names of the people whom I've mentioned in this post. 

The area is rustic, bucolic and haunting. I wonder if it holds the ghosts of that horrible day in 1908. 

Several of Mary's cousins moved to larger towns, and other states, improving themselves,  completing their education, furthering their careers and making a nice life for themselves and their families. I kept thinking, that could have been Mary 

I hope that whatever the future really held for Mary , past that 1910 census, where she's 14-years-old, with an 18-month-old daughter, living with her Aunt, that she found peace. Something emotionally dragging, tells me that she didn't.