Moriah Murray buys Tobacco and Other Gems from an Old Store Ledger

The above page is from an old store ledger. The store appears to be a General Merchandise store and was located in "Center", Stanly County, North Carolina. Center is now known as Norwood, NC, named for the Norwood Brothers Store that was located there. Could this have been the Norwood brothers store ledger? Maybe. It's difficult to tell.

This ledger is full of names I recall seeing in my research. At times, names become so familiar, they are almost like living people you know, or at least like celebrities you are familiar with.

This page, page 57, was from August of 1849. The entries are shown in alphabetical order by month.
On this page we see-

R M Lanier, John R Livingston, Armstead N. Mills, Thomas S. Marshall, Moriah Murry, Thomas Morton and Miner McSwain.

Moriah Murray was the sister of my second great grandmother, Priscilla Murray Aldridge. She was a unique character and this shows she was at least still alive in 1849. Her estate was settled in 1853 and she left 7 children behind.

Here, it shows she bought a plug of tobacco for 40 cents

This September 1849 entry is of a different sort. It completes the September listing of accounts with the "W's". Hardy S. Watkins, Arnold Watkins, Miss Leah Watkins, John White.  After that, it has a list of payments on account.

Henry Johnston
Charles G. Armstead
William Simmons
E. F. Lilly
Job Davis
John Tyson, Sr.
Mrs. Mary Livingston
Wiley Thompson
Isiah "Colley" (should be Coley)
W B McCorkle

Of course, the person of interest for me in the above document is the name of my Fourth Great-Grandfather Job Davis, who was quite aged by then and lived about another 3 years after this.

This last entry is from January of 1850, page 227.

The name listing is in the "L's".  A number of the Lilly family lived along the river and near the forks, just above which Norwood, or Center, This listing shows how sometimes, these ledgers can solve mysteries on how exactly these families are interlinked by naming relationships. In this listing, there are two.

-Benjamin Lilly
-Miss Martha A. Lilly (daughter of D G L)
-James M. Lilly
-Martha M McSwain
-William (or Wm) Mills, (son of Jesse)


In February of 1851, Jesse Mills will marry Keziah Murray, sister of Priscilla and Moriah mentioned above. In the 1840 census, it appears as if he was married with children, but by 1850, he was boarding with someone and obviously alone. And by 1860, Keziah Murray has gone back to her maiden name, and no sign of Jesse Mills anywhere. This record at least gives a link to his family. He was the father of William Mills, who does show up in later records.

Jesse in 1840

Name:	Jesse Mills
Home in 1840 (City, County, State):	East Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9:	1
Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14:	2
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:	1
Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49:	1
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:	1
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:	1
Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49:	1
Persons Employed in Agriculture:	4
No. White Persons over 20 Who Cannot Read and Write:	1
Free White Persons - Under 20:	5
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:	3
Total Free White Persons:	8
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves:	8

Jesse in 1850

Name:	Jesse Mills
Age:	40
Birth Year:	abt 1810
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Smiths, Stanly, North Carolina
Gender:	Male
Family Number:	685
Household Members:	Name Age Henry Baker 35 Letta Baker 33 Mary E Baker 15 Julius A Baker 12 Sarah L Baker 10 James C Baker 9 Joel N Baker 7 Aaron W Baker 5 Robert A Baker 0 Jesse Mills 40

William Mills in 1850

Name	Age
William Mills	31
Jane Mills	57
John T Mills	23
B T Mills	21
Elizabeth Mills Name: William Mills Age: 84 Birth Date: Sep 1815 Birthplace: North Carolina Home in 1900: Peedee, Montgomery, North Carolina Race: White Gender: Male Relation to Head of House: Head Marital Status: Married Spouse's Name: Martha Mills Marriage Year: 1867 Years Married: 33 Father's Birthplace: North Carolina Mother's Birthplace: North Carolina William Mills in 1900 Household Members: Name Age William Mills 84 Martha Mills 60 Lilly Mills 30 Lucy Mills 21 Mary Mills 7 Jesse Mills 27 Emma Mills 18 John Mills 1	13 This makes sense as William later had a son named Jesse.

Center now indicates the Township, or area around Norwood and its voting district. It originally got its name, I have heard, because it was the Center of the road that went from Cottonville, a successful cotton-producing area at one time larger than Charlotte and Allenton, which was located east of the forks and on the lower Yadkin/PeeDee and was the earliest 'town' in that area. It was also a crossroads of that road and the old Salisbury to Cheraw road that went through Stanly County and down through Anson, the basic path of Hwy 52 today.






These scanned treasures are available online through digitalnc.org, one of North Carolina's true genealogical treasures.