The Sad Estate of Burwell Hudson

I ordered the estate records of Burwell Hudson, because he was my Great, Great, Great grandfather. I knew he had died in December of 1862, in Richmond Virginia, during the course of the Civil War. I knew he had left a widow and several small children. I am descended from his oldest daughter, Nancy Caroline Hudson. I told her story in another post:

Sweet Caroline

Burwell Hudson was the son of William Joshua Hudson 1796-1896 and his first wife,  Elizabeth "Betsy" Smith. Joshua was known not only for his longevity, but for his prolificity. 

Burwell was married twice, both times to Sarah's. His first wife was Sarah Ann "Sally" Lee, the daughter of James Calvin Lee and Elizabeth Duke. 

Burwell and Sally were married in Stanly County, NC on January 8, 1852.

Nancy Caroline Hudson, called Caroline, was born slightly over 10 months later on November 21, 1852. 

Burwell's only son, Marion, was born in September of 1854.

Emma Frances Hudson, called Fanny, was born in December of  1858. By the time the estate was settled in 1879, Fanny was not mentioned, so she was likely deceased by then.


On January 17, 1860 Burwell Hudson married Sarah Arrena McSwain, the daughter of Lewis Jones McSwain and Lucinda "Lucy" Randle McSwain. 

Burwell Hudson is only shown in 2 censuses. In the 1860 census, he is shown in the home of his parents, Joshua and Betsy. The transcriber mistook his name for "Ruswell", but upon examination, it can be deciphered as "Burwell". 

18
Birth Year:	abt 1832
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Ross, Stanly, North Carolina
Gender:	Male
Family Number:	772
Household Members:	Name Age Joshua Hutson 50 Elizabeth Hutson 50 Nancy Hutson 26 Rebecca Hutson 21 Ruswell Hutson 18 Elijah Hutson 17 Elizabeth Hutson 14 Henry Hutson 10 Archd Hutson 10 Lucinda Hutson 8

In the 1860 census, he is shown with wife Sarah and children Nancy (Caroline), Mary (transcriber error for Marion), and daughter Fanny. As the census was taken after the marriage of Burwell and Sarah McSwain, she would have had to be the Sarah in the 1860 census. 

Burwell Hudson
Age in 1860:	28
Birth Year:	abt 1832
Home in 1860:	Stanly, North Carolina
Gender:	Male
Post Office:	Albemarle
Value of real estate:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age Burwell Hudson 28 Sarah Hudson 28 Nancy Hudson 6 Mary Hudson 4 Fanny Hudson 3

Burwell and Sarah Arrena McSwain Hudson had 2 daughters.

Sarah Anne Hudson was born on November 2, 1860, 10 months after the wedding and after the 1860 census was taken.

Lucy Ella Hudson was born sometime in 1862. It is possible that Sarah was pregnant with Ella when Burwell left to fight in the Civil War and that he never met her.  If she was born prior to September 5, 1862, then he may have been able to kiss his newborn daughter goodbye, and she would never have a memory of him.

There is quite a bit of debate about who was the mother of Sarah Anne Hudson, and most people do not even acknowledge the existence of Lucy Ella, or believe that she was a Norwood. But she certainly existed and she was certainly the daughter of Burwell Hudson.


Burwell Hudson died December 7, 1862 in Richmond, Wise County, Virginia. He was a Private in Company C 18th North Carolina Infantry. He was conscripted on September  5, 1862, aged 30 years old.

He was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital No. 3 in Richmond Virginia on December 6, 1862. He died the next day, December 7, 1862 of pneumonia.

Chimborazo Hospital, Richmond, Virginia. 

Sarah Hudson
Age in 1870:	38
Birth Year:	abt 1832
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1870:	Tyson, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Post Office:	Albemarle
Value of real estate:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age Sarah Hudson 38 Camelia Hudson 17 Sallie Hudson 8 Ella Hudson 6

In the 1870 census, Sarah Hudson is a widow. She is living with 17 year old Caroline, (which the transcriber mistook for Camelia), and her two young daughters by Burwell Hudson, Sallie and Ella. Later that year she will marry an elderly widower.

On November 30, 1870, Confederate widow Sarah Arrena McSwain Hudson marries farmer and merchant John Norwood. He was co-owner, with his brother William H. Norwood of the store in which the town of Norwood is named after. Prior to that, it was known as Center. John Norwood was 73 and Sarah was 39.

John Norwood
Age:	83
Birth Year:	abt 1797
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1880:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Self (Head)
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Sarah Norwood
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Cannot read/write: Blind: Deaf and dumb: Otherwise disabled: Idiotic or insane:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age John Norwood 83 Sarah Norwood 48 Lucy E. Norwood 18 John Norwood 8 Laura Norwood 6

By the 1880 census, Sarah has had 2 children with Mr. Norwood, who was now 83, John Henry born in 1872 and the youngest, Laura, born in 1874.  Sarah Anne Hudson, Sarah Arrena's oldest daughter, has married J. Wesley Whitaker, by then and Lucy Ella was mistakenly enumerated as a Norwood by the census taker. As she never really knew her father, Burwell, it is likely she was known around the community as a Norwood. I am not certain of the fate of Lucy Ella Hudson. Since her surname was confused, it could be she married and became a brickwall to her descendants. If any of this lines up for anyone, please contact me.

The estate of Burwell Hudson came in two parts. The first part was from October 23, 1866.

There is a page, the narrow front page with considerable doodles and illegible print. I can make out Lafayette Green vs heirs at Law of Burwell Hudson   Petition to make real estate  "asat?"

October Term 1866

Executed by delivery of this petition to each of the defts and also by serving a copy of  "Sub fr?" on the 25 of January 1867.

J Mann  Shff
By W H Randle 

In this petition, Lafayette Green is the Administrator of the estate, and states that all of the heirs are infants, meaning they are below the legal age of inheritance, and Burwell Hudson died intestate, which is to say that he died without leaving a will. 

At this point, Burwell Hudson would have had his widow, Sarah, and 5 children as heir. In 1870, Fanny was still alive. Marion and Fanny are living with their grandparents in the 1870 census.

Merion Hindson [Marion Hudson]
Age in 1870:	16
Birth Year:	abt 1854
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1870:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Post Office:	Albemarle
Value of real estate:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age Colin Lee 48 Lucy Lee 20 Levi D Lee 6 Merion Hindson 16 Fannie Hindson 12

Again, the transcriber mistaken recorded Calvin as Colin, Marion as Merion and Hudson as Hindson. Calvin Lee was the father of Burwell's first wife Sallie Lee Hudson and Lucy Lee was Calvin's second wife. As you can see in the census, he had a son younger than his grandchildren.

The second document is dated February 15, 1879 and takes 4 pages.

Lafayette Green Administrator of Burwell Hudson, Plaintiff

against: Marion Hudson, Nancy Caroline Hudson, Sarah Ann Whitaker wife of (blank) Whitaker + Ella Hudson.

Notice that Fanny Hudson is not mentioned, but that Ella Hudson is mentioned. Fanny was likely deceased by this date. 

I assume that researchers and Hudson descendants assumed that Fanny and Ella were the same person, but they clearly are not. They both probably died at a young age, but both show up in the 1870 census, Fanny, age 12, in the home of her Grandfather Calvin Lee and Ella, with her mother Sarah.

Lafayette Green states that he has used the balance of Burwell's estate towards the widow's pension and debts.

III  That, at the time of his death, the said Intestate was seized in fee simple of the following lands, one tract of land on the waters of Ugly Creek adjoining the lands of Franklin Swaringen, Henry Cooper, Williamson (or Wilkerson) Coley (or Coffey) and others containing 100 acres or thereabouts of the value of $2 an acre, and that said lands descended to his children, to wit:
Marion Hudson aged 23 years, residing in Stanly County, Caroline Hudson aged 25 years residing in Stanly County, Sarah Ann Whitaker wife of (blank) Whitaker aged 21 years living in Stanly County and Ella Hudson aged 19 years and residing in Stanly County. Said lands subject however to the dower of Sally Norwood, wife of John Norwood, the widow of said Intestate, which has been hereforto alloted to her. 

Notice that Ella is only 19, and is listed as a Hudson, not a Norwood and that the widow, Sally, is a Norwood.

Lafayette Green was appointed administrator in 1863. He won his petition to sell the lands in order to cover his expenses as administrator and also debts that had supposedly been incurred by Burwell Hudson or by Mr. Green.

In such a way, many widows and children left orphaned by the Civil War had any property taken from them, as if losing their husband and father was not enough. There is no wonder young widows like Sarah were forced to marry much older men for survival, or young teen-aged girls like Caroline got pregnant outside of the bounds of marriage.

Caroline eventually married and Sarah McSwain Hudson Norwood was left well off when her elderly husband finally passed. Sarah Anne, the daughter, lived a long and fruitful life and Marion Hudson was a story of his own, but moved south of the border into northern South Carolina and is buried in Cheraw.

Civil War Field Hospital

Like many families of the era, the Hudson's world was turned upside down by the Civil War. They were only subsistence farmers who had a small farm. 100 acres was small for the time, as only a portion would have been farmed. Only what the farmer himself, and his family could maintain. They did not own slaves. But they lost their breadwinner, at only 30 years of age, and the effect of this devastation has lasted for generations.

The Devastation of Richmond, Virginia

Blessed Connections

Yesterday was an extremely fruitful day genealogy-wise. You would not think that a Sunday would be so, as no county offices are open, or library history rooms. But I met a couple of amazing cousins with tons of information.

I first got a message from the blog of someone knowing who the father of my great-grandfather was. I had posted concerning Carolina Hudson, my grandmother's grandmother. She had been orphaned by the Civil War and had became an unwed teenaged mother. Her son bore her maiden name and no one on this side of the family ever knew who his father was.

Enter my cousin Julian. He is a knowledgeable young man, a virtual walking encyclopedia of local history, who is a descendant of my great-great grandmothers' legitimate family. She married at age 26 and he and his mother hail from one of her daughters. His family had been told my a niece of the biological father of J. R. Hudson that her grandfather's brother was the father of  Caroline's oldest child. I am looking into that now, but it seems obvious, as she name her son after his father, both are James Robert's, with different surnames.

James Robert Hudson died in 1949 and 62 years later, we find out from a living descendant of his father's brother who his father was. Amazing.

But that was not the only thing I learned from this distant cousin. His family still lives on the property that belonged to Caroline's maternal grandfather, Calvin Lee. I did not have any of the information on him that they were able to provide. There is an old graveyard on a hill in the woods near their place, where the Lee family is buried, along with family of Calvin's first wife. A Revolutionary War Veteran, James Duke, is buried there, Calvin's first father-in-law, who was a founding member of Cedar Grove Church in Southern Stanly County. 

It will take some time to digest all of this new information and get it into an organized form. I was able to tour the old graveyard, littered with leaves and some of the gravestones barely legible in the fading light, but we were able to read them thanks to the amazing eyes of young cousin Wesley, about 10 years old. The house was one where my  great, great, grandmother resided during the 1870's and 1880's. The remains of an old well are in the front yard.

It is always great to meet new cousins, and we are related down multiple lines, so it's not easy to calculate the number of 'cousin' they are down which ever line. Suffice to just know that this family is my cousins down at least the Hudson, Lee and Mauldin lines.

Thankyou so much Cousin Julian, Wesley and Deborah! I had a great evening and learned so much. But learning who my great-grandfather's father was is just mind-bogglingly amazing.

The Forever Windblown: Sweet Caroline.

The first time I saw her picture and heard her name I was 5 years old. The summer before first grade. The haunting photo of the lost old lady in a baggy sack of a dress with a large collar and deep pockets, and the pointed shoes,  never left my memory. Her image was captured in front of a weathered cottage, not underpinned, with fields in the background. Her light colored hair was pinned up, but falling down and looking wind blown. She looks not at the camera, but to the distance. What was she looking at, if at anything at all? What sites and change those eyes had seen. Her name was Caroline Ann Hudson Singleton. She was born November 21, 1852 and died June 11, 1930. She was my Grandmother's Grandmother. I find this generation the most intriguing. Maybe it's because they were survivors who suffered through a pivotal, painful period of American history. They carried the cross for future generations and paid for the sins of previous ones.

Caroline was born before the Civil War, when slavery was in existence, and the area she grew up in was sending wagaons and later, trains,  full  of cotton to the ports in Wilmington. She was the oldest daughter of Burwell 'Burl' Hudson and his first wife Sarah 'Sallie' Lee. Burwell was one of the sons of Stanly County Hudson patriarch William Joshua Hudson, who was known for his long life of 100 years and of having fathered over 20 children, outliving two wives and marrying a 30 year old when he was 70 and  his last child being born during his mid-80's. Burwell was a son of  Joshua's first wife, Elizabeth 'Betsey' Smith. Joshua had been born near the Virginia/North Carolina line and came to the Anson County area at a young age. He bought 800 acres in what is present day Stanly County from Lewis McSwain and built a small sturdy home on Ugly Creek, in which he raised 22 children, which still stands.

Sallie Hudson would die prior to 1860.  She was the daughter of James Carl Lee and Elizabeth Duke or Duck Lee. Sarah Ann, born in 1860, younger sister of Caroline,  may have been the daughter of Burwell's second wife, Sarah A. McSwain, whom he married on January 17, 1860, possibly immediately after the death of his first wife, Sarah Ann Lee Hudson. Between Caroline Ann and Sarah Ann were Marion M and Emma Francis Hudson.

Caroline Hudson
Age:	26
Birth Year:	abt 1854
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1880:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Marital Status:	Single
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Occupation:	At Home
Cannot read/write: Blind: Deaf and dumb: Otherwise disabled: Idiotic or insane:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age John W. Whitaker 26 Sallie A. Whitaker 19 Thompson A. Whitaker 5m Caroline Hudson 26 James R. Hudson 9

Several of the Hudson boys went to war during the Civil War. Burwell did not return. He died December 7, 1862 in Richmond, Virginia. Caroline and her  two youngest sisters were left fatherless and living with their stepmother near their grandfather in the 1870 census. Her brother Marion M Hudson and sister Fanny were living with their grandfather Calvin Lee.  Sometime around the time of that census, Caroline met a man. She may have known him already, he may have been a neighbor, or even a relative. That part is not known and probably never will be.

Her mother died when she was about 8. Caroline must have had to be a mini-mother to her younger siblings. Then her father died when she was around 10. She had a stepmother, Sarah Ann McManus, who married an elderly man, John Norwood, in November of 1870. She was 39, he was 73. They would have 2 children together, John Henry Norwood, born in 1872 and Laura, born in 1874.

The days and years of post Civil War reconstruction were ones of desparation and suffering in Stanly County. There was a report of women and children from the southern part of the county, raiding the storehouse in Albemarle for want of food. All the males that were left were old men and young boys. Of the soldiers who did return, many did not return whole, but missing limbs or minds. Suicides were rampant. Murders went unreported and unpunished. Fields were abandoned. People were starving. Citizens, both black and white, were uncertain of how to move forward. Many tried relocation, heading mostly North and West. Many widows, orphans and the elderly, did not have the means or the health to relocate. Some young widows like Sarah Ann McManus Hudson married old widowers, who had homes and property, like John Norwood. Some would marry teenage boys 10 years their junior. Females of this time had few resources or rights,  and fewer options.

How Caroline became an unwed teenaged mother is not known. Perhaps she became the mistress of a more secure married man. Several men in Stanly County in these days actually supported two families, having children by both a wife and a mistress simultaneously, or back and forth. Perhaps she met a boy her age and fell in love, and without the guidance of her father or mother, a pregnancy occured.

What is known is that she had a son she named James Robert Hudson on December 8, 1868, six years after her father died.

My grandmother looked very much like Caroline, her own grandmother, in her later years. My Daddy, Robert, carried a strong resemblance to his grandfather, J R Hudson.

I would like to see several descendants of James Robert Hudson take the Ancestry.com DNA test, to see what distant cousins may pop up, genetically, to at least track down what family his father probably came from. I have a theory, based on Caroline's naming of her children, and known 'ramblers' of the Tyson community during these days, of who fathered J. R.

James Robert Hudson was not Caroline's only child. On November 26, 1881 she married Robert Dock 'Dodi' Singleton, the son of Tillman F Singleton and Fannie Swaringen Singleton. Dodi had just lost his first wife, Priscilla Duke, who had died in 1880. She might have died in childbirth, but they had no child.

Dodi and Caroline would have 7 children: Sarah Frances Singleton, named for her 2 grandmothers, who never married, (1883-1927); Rosa Ellen Singleton (1885-1953), who would marry Randall F Morton;
David Tillman Singleton (1888-1974), who would marry Dannie Morris; his twin sister Sophronia Ann 'Fronie' Singleton (1888-1963) who married Jonah O Morton; Mary Florence Singleton (1891-1878) who would marry Jacob Eudy, Burl Whitley Singleton (1893-1944) who would marry Rilla Ethel Thompson; and the youngest daughter, Pearl Eldora Singleton, (1899-1931) who would marry Lewis Thompson.

Caroline Singleton
Age in 1910:	57
Birth Year:	1853
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Robert D Singleton
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Robert D Singleton 55 Caroline Singleton 57 Frances Singleton 26 David Singleton 22 Francis Singleton 22 Mary Singleton 19 Burl Singleton 16 Pearl Singleton 13

J. R. Hudson would have 2 daughter by the time his mother had her last child. My grandmother was born the same year as her Aunt Pearl Singleton.

The only other photo I have seen of Caroline, she and Dodi are in middle age. Her blonde hair appears windblown and disheveled in this photo, even more so as the one made in her later years. She even appears to be wearing the same dress, albeit 20 years perhaps prior to the other photo. I've even been able to picture her as a windblown, disheveled little 8 year old, just having lost her mother, as she gazes out across and endless meadow. 

Caroline Singleton
Age:	68
Birth Year:	abt 1852
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1920:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	R Dodi Singleton
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Able to read:	Yes
Able to Write:	No
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age R Dodi Singleton 62 Caroline Singleton 68 Fannie Singleton 37 Mary Singleton 27 Pearl Singleton 22

Caroline died on a June day in 1930, at the age of 77, and is buried in the Norwood Cemetery in Norwood, North Carolina. She was a witness to the Civil War and lost her father. She saw her son off to fight in WWI. She saw her granddaughters bob their hair, wear pants or 'bloomers' and shorter skirts during the Roaring 20's. She rode in a car, talked on a telephone and listened to the radio. What a burden of sorrow and shame she had carried. What a breadth of change she had experienced.