Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Maniza

 


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

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

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

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



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

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




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

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

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

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

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

    A)  Calvin Arenus Honeycutt (1858-1941)

    B) Asbury Wilson Honeycutt (1860-1916)

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

    D) Mary Jane H. Hill (1864-1947)

    E) Ellen L H. Walters (1868-1918)

    F) John David Honeycutt (1869-1954)

    G) Eli F. Honeycutt (1872-1935)

    H) George Filmore Honeycutt (1874-1954)

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

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

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


The Dispatch

Lexington, North Carolina • Page 5



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

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

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

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

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

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


Maniza Marries.

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





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

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



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


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




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



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


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



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

Jacob Hise

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

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

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


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


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



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

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



Wednesday, November 04, 2020

The Crab Orchard (Tennessee) and the Civil War

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

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

Crab Orchard section of East Tennessee. 

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

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

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

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

Doe River Gorge. 

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

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

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

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

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



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


1870, Big Lick, Stanly County, NC



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1880

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






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




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




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


Maniza

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




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


19 Jan 1910

Charlotte, North Carolina

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



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

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


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


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

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

Eli Henderson Hinson family near Mint Hill, Clear Creek Township

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

1900

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


Clear Creek and Crab Orchard

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

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

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

    1. Dee Ellison Cagle (1886-1940)

    2.Walter Vance Cagle (1888-1964)

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

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

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

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

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

    3) Zebulon Ellison (1881-1944)

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

    5) Edward Mangum (1886-1961)

    6) June Jefferson (188-1935)

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

    7) Jesse James (1893-1914)

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

    9) Tink E "Benett" (1897-1974)

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

    11) Maybelle (1914-1963)

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



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

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

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

    3) Martin Luther (1889-1968)

    4) A. G. (1891-1893)

    5) Rettie Cagle Philemon Mullis (1894-1952)

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

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




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


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


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

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

    1) Wilma Elizabeth (1887-1908)

    2) Farley McCall (1888-1964)

    3) James Alexander (1890-1949)

    4) Lemuel Evander (1890-1964)

    5) Minnie Idella (1892-1927) 

    6) Charles Odell (1894-1983)

    7) Alice Ardella (1896-1926)

    8) Clyde William (1900-1976)

    9) Bonnie Odessa (1901-1982)

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


26 Nov 1942

Location

Charlotte, North Carolina


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

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

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

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

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

    2) Bub Alexander Hagler (1891-1960)

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

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

    4) Davidson Guy Sanders (1899-1973)

    5) Mary Ann Sanders Stuttz (1899-1927)

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

    6) Margaret Agnes Wooten (1910-1990)

    7) Myrtle Wooten Wilson (1914-2002)


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


The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte, North Carolina • Page 10



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

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


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

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