Searching for Lawrenceville

I have been fascinated with the lost and ancient civilization of Lawrenceville ever since discovering that several of my direct ancestors lived, visited and did business there.

Lawrenceville was at one time the County Seat of Montgomery County, North Carolina, when it included Stanly County. It was located in "East Pee Dee", or the current Montgomery side of the river, and the risks and encumbrances of crossing the river for business, court and other reasons, prompted the split of the one county into two, creating Stanly.


Below are a few mentions of Lawrenceville and its citizens from the Carolina Observer, out of Rowan county:

 13 Feb 1823, issue

10. Montgomery County NC Court of Equity Fall Term 1822. Alfred Randle vs. Parham Kirk and others. "James Hodges and wife Tempy are to appear at the nest Supperior Court at the Court house in Lawrenceville.

25 Dec 1832
171. William Allen vs. John B. Billingsly. John B. Billingsly does not live within the state.

2 Jun 1835, issue
201. Montgomery County NC P & Q Sessions, 1835. Priscilla Hancock vs. Ethelred Clemmons and wife Betsy, Spencer New and wife Sally, Wily Harris amd wife Nancy, John Andrews and wife Patsey, Wiley Scarborough and wife Lucy, Kenneth Hearne and wife Tabitha, Wilson Scarborough and wife Piety, Elisha, Frances and Eli Jancock, Heirs at law of John Hancock Deceased. All out of state.

20 Jan 1825, issue
43. Lawrenceville, Montgomery County NC, 5 Jan 1825. Announcement of Letters of Administration on the estate of Andrew Wade, Esq. by Edward Legrand.

3 Dec 1835, issue
202. Montgomery County NC P & Q Sessions, Daniel Freeman vs. Richmond Billingsly. Original attachment levied on defendants interest in a tract of land in which Christian Billingsly now lives.

28 Apr 1836, issue

According to resources, the original town plat was dated 1817, and the streets and lots were laid out in a grid system. A post office was established in 1818 and county movers and shakers began to build homes and businesses and settle there. Local politians, peace officers, county officials, businessmen and craftsmen and their families made up the populace. 

An estimate of the average population of Lawrenceville was 500, not much for a town today, but in those days of a much smaller population, and scattered villages, 500 was a sizeable community. 

Lawrenceville was located along Woodrun Creek and far enough from the Yadkin/Pee Dee River to avoid the fate of its predecessor across the river, Tindallsville, which had suffered an epidemic of Yellow Fever due to its proximity to water.  The old Fayetteville to Morganton market road ran through the village and off toward the ferry acoss the Pee Dee. The road ran off course and intertwined with todays' 24/27 from Albemarle to Troy and beyond, which in its present coarse is East of the village location and the old road.

One of the merchants who had settled in Lawrenceville was Daniel Freeman, whose ledger of that time, his customers and their purchases survive. In the old plat map, drawn up by Lockey Simmons and certified by Edmund F. Lillly, two of the major players in the area at that time, the town is mention as bordering "a stake in Henry Freeman's line". Daniel Freeman would relocate to the newly formed county of Stanly and to its new county seat of Albemarle. His contributions to Albemarle's origins were invaluable. Others of the citizenry would locate to the new Montgomery County seat, Troy, a more central location when the counties were separated.

Knowing that several members of the Freeman family of  Southside Virginia migrated here at the same time as my direct ancestors, Peter and Charlotte Freeman Winfield, I wonder if any attempts have ever been made to connect these Freemans, as I know she had a brother named Henry and that there were both Daniels and Henry's in the family tree. Her father was Arthur Freeman and her mother Agnes Stokes Freeman and both the Stokes and Freeman families left their marks in the early settlement of the Rowan/Stanly/Montgomery/Anson/Davidson/Randolph county areas.

A biography of Edmund Deberry states that he was born in Lawrenceville, Montgomery County in 1787, was educated at High Shoals, and served as a US Senator from North Carolina for three terms, 1829-1831, 1838 - 1845, and 1849 - 1851. He retired to his plantation in Pee Dee Township and is buried in the family cemetery near Mount Gilead. Lawrenceville did not exist in 1787, but Edmund Deberry did own property there, and perhaps lived there. His plantation still exists, is beautifully maintained and occupied. It is near the communities of PeeDee and Wadeville, not far from Mount Gilead, and not close enough to Lawrenceville to have been considered a part of it.

The remains of the village are difficult to be detected by the untrained eye and are scattered across a pretty large area. Recently, my daughter and I attempted to find the remains during a hike from the trailhead that leads to the old location. 

Bear with me in the following photos. The terrain is not as observable in these shots as they are with the naked eye.  The above indentations and trenches in the earth are an old road bed. It was on a determined route to or through the town. Due to the level spots and rock piles around we found at this location, we were pretty sure we had arrived in Lawrenceville. 

Another shot of the road, this time going up the hill. This may or may not have been the original Morganton to Fayetteville road. Due to the direction it was coming from and heading toward, and its proximity to the modern highway that follows pretty much the same coarse, I would bet that it is. 

Leveled off spots and the location and growth of the vegetation belie old home places or building locations. This area was near the road. These old places make for good camping areas and sadly, modern day campers make use of the old chimney remains to set up campfires. These rocks could have once formed a chimney to a house or the foundation posts of a store. But there was definitely some man-made structure once located here. 

An old and well-used creek crossing. There appears to have once been a bridge or some other structure located here, due to the arrangement of the rocks. I would not be surprised if it was once the location of a mill. 

Another overgrown area around a former structural location. 

The sun eerily shining through the trees over the ghosts of homestead passed. 

This is another one of those shots, where it is hard to tell by the picture, what you can more readily observe with the eye. This was evidently a dug-out area made to be flat, where some small house or structure was located, maybe a barn or storage shed. 

A chimney stood here and the trees and other foliage took over. There was one area where the rocks appeared like tombstones in an old and abandoned cemetery. I don't know, but it could possibly have been, as the town was occupied from at least 1817 to 1842, and I am sure not all families abandoned it immediately. The Cochrans were the last known family to have owned the land and they donated it, not too long ago, to the National Forest Service. 

In this shot "signs of man" are more easily seen. A possible homesite or business, not far from the old wagon rut. 

Another area that speaks of human habitation. Piles of rocks and obvious use by campers. But the area is leveled and shows signs of a building site. 

At some areas, campers have not relocated the moss covered piles of rocks that used to be chimneys or footings to a wooden structure. 

Here a narrower road veres off the "Main Road" and past several possible homesites. This is a very hilly area and most of the homeplaces were on leveled off spots and very near a creek. This one appears to have maybe been one of the created "gridded" streets as appears on the plat. 

Another possible building location just 'down the street' from the above lane. 

Again, campers have taken the remains of Lawrenceville to make campfires on top of old homesites. 

From this angle, looking toward the center of the photo, I hope the reader can envision the cabin that sat here. 

The ghosts of Lawrenceville and the old Morganton to Fayetteville road say goodbye in the twinkling of the setting sun, as the road leads into emptiness, forests and infinity. 

One day soon, I hope to walk the entire trail, but on this day, we had constraints of responsibilities and the setting sun. Rangers have before taken groups on hiking tours of this beautiful and historic area. I hope they schedule another soon. I'll be there. 

J R Who

J R Hudson with l to r, son Ted, daughter Hattie, second wife Nealie.

J R Hudson with his grandchildren

James Robert Hudson was born on December the 8th, 1868 to an orphaned,  teenaged,  unwed mother, in Stanly County, North Carolina. Harvest season was over, if there was a harvest at all. Farms had been abandoned, fields lie untilled. The male population had been decimated, reduced largely to one of old men, young boys and crippled or blind soldiers. There were a few healthy survivors of the war, but not many. JR's mother had lost her own mother in childbirth at age 8. Then her father died in the war in 1862. The previous census had shown her living with her stepmother and two younger sisters. Her stepmother, Sarah Ann McSwain Hudson would remarry an elderly merchant, John Norwood and have more children. Half-sister Ella, born the year their father died, in 1862, would not show up again. Sister Sarah Ann, born the year their mother Sarah Ann Lee Hudson, died, would marry a Whitaker, son of Nelson and Sophia Murray Whitaker. In the first census JR Hudson shows up in, his unwed mother is living with her little sister Sarah and her husband. 

I remember when I was small, my grandmother telling me her father had been illegitimate and that her grandmother's name was Caroline Singleton. There were two Caroline Singleton's in the area. One born a Singleton and the other married a Singleton. I finally found the answer to who she was on her death certificate. The married Caroline Singleton had been born Caroline Hudson. A lightbulb went off and I realized, James Robert had been given his mother's maiden name, having been born when she was only 15 and unmarried. Her father was named, Burwell, and I discovered he was one of the sons of Hudson family patriarch, William Joshua Hudson, Jr, who lived nearly 100 years, who had not returned from the war. Everything fell into place. 

On Dec 6, 1890, just two days before his 22nd birthday, J. R married  19 year old Judith E. "Judy" Aldridge, the daughter of J. Pink Aldridge and his wife Susan Floyd Aldridge. Her father Pink was a first cousin of my great, great grandmother on my mother's side, Frances Julina Aldridge Davis.
The marriage certificate list father as unknown and mother as Caroline Singleton. At age 27, Caroline had married Robert Dock Singleton, known as 'Dodie', the son of a shoemaker who had settled in the small growing town of Center, which would be renamed Norwood, after the Norwood brothers store.

JR and Judie would bring 8 children into the world, but not all at once. Bessie, the oldest, who would marry Henry Bunch, would not arrive until 5 years after the wedding in 1895, the second daughter, my grandmother, Hattie Helen Hudson McSwain Thompson, would not arrive until 1899. The 1900 census would find the young family living in the town of Norwood. The census indicates that JR was working as a farm laborer while his wife was housekeeping and that he owned his home, but it was a house and not a farm. The census also indicated that Judie had been the mother of 3 children with two living, Bessie and Hattie.

By 1910, JR and Judie had moved their young family into the country not far from Norwood Town, because they were still in Center Township. Center had once been what the area of Norwood was called, as it was a Centerpoint on the old road from Salisbury to the Cheraws, and the site of an early Methodist Camp Meeting site. Eventually, the old River town of Allenton, that predated Norwood by many decades, would be abandoned due to Thyphoid and other outbreaks and the survivors would move up to the old Camp Meeting grounds and the town of Norwood formed.

JR is listed as a farmer, not a farm laborer. He is renting his home, and it is a farm, not just a house. The census indicates that he and Judie, along with older daughters Bessie and Hattie, can read and write. Two more children have joined the family, Walter in 1901 and JoAnne, in 1905. The census indicates that Judie has born 6 children, 4 of whom are living. The sixth one was son Robert Lee, who was born in 1909 and died in 1910 and is buried in the same plot as his mother.

By the next census, JR has moved his family again, this time to the other side of the river in Anson County, in the township of Ansonville. He is running his own farm and his family are working on that farm as laborers. Older daughters Bessie and Hattie are married by then, Bessie to Henry Bunch from Wake County, North Carolina and Hattie to Eleazor McSwain from the Center and Tyson area of Stanly County. Both sisters would marry young men who would fight in World War I. Henry Bunch would survive. Eleazor McSwain would return ill and die.

Bessie and Henry Bunch would set up houskeeping near Mountain Creek, near New London in Harris Township, Stanly County. Hattie and Eleazor in Norwood. Bessie and Henry would have 3 children as families during this era and into the Great Depression, would get smaller. They were Cora, named after Henry's mother, Henry Jr, who would be called Herman, and Walter, named after the sister's beloved younger brother, Walter C. Hudson. Hattie would remarry, a younger man, William J Thompson and have one son, named Robert William, after his father and his grandfather, James Robert Hudson.

Henry Bunch, Sr's death certificate reveals the middle name of his wife Bessie, who is otherwise just shown as Bessie F. Hudson Bunch. The 'F' stands for Freeman. Not a typical middle name for a daughter. If JR and Judie were to chose a family surname as a middle name for their firstborn, would they not have chosen a family surname, like Aldridge, Judie's maiden name, or Floyd, her mother's maiden name? Their other daughters were given feminine maiden names. Could Freeman be a clue as to who JR's father was?

In 1920, Craven Reece Hudson (1912) and Edith Julia Hudson (1915), have joined the family. I would know Craven Reece Hudson as Uncle Ted and Edith, I would never know. She died just short of her 17th birthday.  Shortly before Christmas in 1922, on the 18th of December, Judie Hudson would die of Bronchial Pneumonia, following influenza. The "Flu" as we know it, was a very deadly disease in those days. Today, it might knock us out of a few days of work or school.

On February 25, 1928, JR would marry his second wife, Cornelia Blalock in Center Township by Phillip L Shoe.  Witnesses were R D Burleyson, Mrs.  R L Calloway and D N Burleson.

Tombstone of JR's mother Caroline Hudson Singleton

Tombstone of J R's parents

In 1930, JR and his second wife Nealie are living in Harris, at the end of Mountain Creek Road, in the Harris Community. I remember going into this old house as a young child, while my grandmother was visiting the children of her sister Bessie, Cora Bunch Williams and Herman and Eula Bunch, whose families remained on this road and on this land. I remember her finding treasures and showing me old schoolbooks she used as a child that were stored there. In 1930, youngest son Craven Reece (Ted) was living with his father at age 18, while 15 year old Edith was living in Albemarle with her sister Hattie and her husband Will Thompson. JR is listed as a farmer and Ted is listed as working at the brickyard. The Yadkin Brickyard operated until just a few years ago, not very far from where the Hudsons lived at this time. By 1940, Ted had married and moved on and older son Walter had moved back home. Walter had never married, had been a soldier and in the previous census, was working in Albemarle as a jailor at the County Jail. JR was still farming up on Mountain Creek Road between New London and Badin, right off of Hwy 740. 

James Robert Hudson would not quite make another census, he died on November 5, 1949 of Bronchial pneumonia, anemia and cause unknown. Basically, the same disease that killed his first wife and daughter Edith.  He was 78 years old, a retired farmer. Both wives, Judy Aldridge and Cornelia Blalock are listed. 

His father is listed only as Hudson, his mother as Caroline Singleton. On his marriage license to Cornelia Blalock, his father is listed as Robert Hudson and his mother as Caroline Hudson. Was his father really a Hudson, a relative of young Caroline or was this a vague reference to his stepfather, Robert "Dodie" Singleton and the clerk just assumed that his name was Hudson and JR maybe too embarrassed to offer a correction, not wanting his new bride to know the circumstances of his birth. Or was his father really Robert Hudson. Or was his oldest daughters middle name "Freeman" a hint as to his biological heritage. There were no Freemans in either JR or Judie's family tree. We may never know. 

My Daddy, Robert Thompson, bears a strong resemblance to his grandfather in photos, as his mother Hattie, bore a strong resemblance to JR's mother Caroline. They both carry the soft, deep blue eyes and Daddy had JR's ears and shape of head and face and inherited the early whitening of the hair. It would be terrific if some biological descendants of JR Hudson would all get together and have a DNA test and compare it to others on Ancestry.com and she what unknown distant cousins pop up. Rule out the ones who come from other parts of their family tree and see what unknown connections who lived in the area shortly after the Civil War they have in common. This might determine JR's real surname. Until then, JR will continue to be a broken branch on the family tree. James Robert, father unknown. 

Tombstone of Judy Hudson and infant Robert Lee Hudson

James R. Hudson
Age:	9
Birth Year:	abt 1871
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1880:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Marital Status:	Single
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 W. Whitaker 26 Sallie A. Whitaker 19 Thompson A. Whitaker 5m Caroline Hudson 26 James R. Hudson 9

Name:	James Hudson
Age:	28
Birth Date:	abt 1872
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1900:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Judie Hudson
Marriage Year:	1891
Years Married:	9
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation:	View on Image
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age James Hudson 28 Judie Hudson 28 Bessy Hudson 4 Hattie Hudson 8/12

Robert Hudson
Age in 1910:	39
Birth Year:	1871
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Head [Self (Head)]
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Juda E Hudson
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Robert Hudson 39 Juda E Hudson 38 Bessie F Hudson 14 Hattie H Hudson 11 Walter K Hudson 8 Jaana B Hudson 5

James R Hudson
Age:	57 [54]
Birth Year:	abt 1863 [abt 1866]
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1920:	Ansonville, Anson, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Judith E Hudson
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home Owned:	Rent
Able to Read:	Yes
Able to Write:	Yes
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age James R Hudson 57 [54]  Judith E Hudson 48 Walter Hudson 18 Joe A Hudson 15 Cravan Hudson 8 Julia Hudson 5

James R Hudson
Gender:	Male
Birth Year:	abt 1872
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Race:	White
Home in 1930:	Harris, Stanly, North Carolina View Map
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Spouse's Name:	Nelie Hudson
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation: Education: Military Service: Rent/home value: Age at first marriage: Parents' birthplace:	View image
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age James R Hudson 58 Nelie Hudson 47 Craven R Hudson 18

ames R Hudson
Age:	67
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1873
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Marital Status:	Married
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Home in 1940:	Harris, Stanly, North Carolina View Map
Farm:	Yes
Inferred Residence in 1935:	Harris, Stanly, North Carolina
Residence in 1935:	Same House
Sheet Number:	11A
Number of Household in Order of Visitation:	208
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age James R Hudson 67 Cornelia Hudson 58 Walter Hudson 36

Cornelia Blalock, JR's second wife, buried in Norwood City Cemetary

JR's tombstone, buried at Cottonville with Judie, Walter and Edith.