Ancient home near the location of Job's Lot in need of repair.
Unusual shaped buildings line Old and Hay Streets
I love the Market square roundabout
I crossed the Cape Fear River on Thursday, but no less beautiful than the Catawba, which I crossed on Friday, or the Yadkin-PeeDee, which I cross everyday. I had ventured into Cumberland County to do research in Fayetteville and to plot out an 1825 deed detailing the purchase of a house and land on Hay Street in downtown Fayetteville of my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather and the namesake of this blog: Job Davis.
The Edgar Allen Poe House
The deed was fairly clear in its description, and I had hopes, that even now, 188 years later, I might be able to acertain a reasonable estimate of where the house had been located, although I had no actual hopes that the house still stood.
View heading into town.
near the foot of HayMount, where Job's lot would have been located is Davis Street. A Coincidence? I would like to think not.
Liberty Point is still recognizable from old pictures.
The description read that the house was brick and located on the "South side of Hay Street near the foot of HayMount" and that one corner was at the "intersection of Hay St with the Orchard Alley in the new brick buildings on the south side of Hay street running with arched alley south 70 and a half feet east and 20 feet to a stake and partition of the Brick house beginning being Lot # 4". It also mentions the property having been a deed from William Moore to Abel Turner, Abel Turner being the gentleman from whom Job had purchased the property.
The Huske family was one of Fayetteville's Oldest and Most inflluential
The Arts Building, an old Courthouse, I believe
The library in Fayetteville is an impressive, modern, high tech building. Well-staffed and very organized, it was a delight to explore. The History Room is one of the better ones I've visited, and the librarian reigns there is one of the best, most professional and helpful I've ever encountered. It is easy to see that Ms. Arletha Campbell loves what she does and I loved meeting her.
The Lawyers Building
Hay Street
In 1844, Job Davis, then 71 years old, would sell the house and lot to his stepson, John Winfield Howell, as he and his wife Sarah were presumably getting too old to make the 93 mile trip from their plantation in Stanly County to Fayetteville.
I found Fayetteville to be enchanting. I had been there several times before, but never to her historic heart and center and what a treat I was missing.
Downtown Fayetteville reeks of history. A large number of historic retail buildings and historic homes have been lovingly maintained and restored. Beauty abound. A trip to the library allowed me to copy off a collection of historic maps. Although much has changed, the general layout of the streets and the location of the creeks from which the town gained its original name of Cross Creek were still there and traceable. HayMount Hill rises clearly from where Hay street crosses Rowan and an Inn on the side of the hill stills stands and is marked as such.
The last thing I was looking for on my trip was the old Crosscreek Cemetery where I know from an old cemetery book, holds the grave of my (several greats) Uncle John Winfield Howell, and most likely his wife Clarrisa Harlow Phelps Pearce Howell as well, and probably his brother Jordan Howell whose obituary in the Fayetteville Observer noted that he had been interred in "the usual place", which one could assume would be the Cross Creek Cemetery.
It was getting dark as I arrived at Cross Creek Cemetery and the first grave I encountered was that of a Mr. John L. Kennedy, which makes me want to look into who he was.
Cumberland County now makes the Nineteenth County in which I've traveled for Genealogical Research. Begining with Stanly, Anson, Cabarrus, Rowan, Davie, Davidson, Montgomery, Union, Richmond, Moore, Hoke, Guilford, Forsyth, Burke, Iredell Counties in North Carolina and Marlboro, Chesterfield and Lancaster Counties in South Carolina. I feel like I am forgetting a few.
I began the Howell saga with Richard, the first known for certain Howell in this leg of the family. Richard was not a child of Job Davis. Instead, he was Job's wife's first husband and the father of Job's step-children.
Not a great deal is known about Richard at this juncture and some of what is known is basically assumed.
Richard does not appear in the 1790 census as a Head of Household. However, it would make sense that he was in the area at the time, as this is the year he marries Sarah "Sally" Winfield, according to the Southern Christian Advocate.
The first census that Richard does show up in is the 1800 census, Fayettville District, Anson County. His name is listed directly under that of his Father-in-law, Peter Winfield.
Name:
Richard Howell
Home in 1800 (City, County, State):
Fayetteville, Anson, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 10:
3
Free White Persons - Males - 26 thru 44:
1
Free White Persons - Females - 16 thru 25:
1
Number of Household Members Under 16:
3
Number of Household Members Over 25:
1
Number of Household Members:
5
Richard would be the adult male in this census and born between 1756 and 1774. Sarah, whom we know by her tombstone and subsequent census records, was born in June of 1773 is listed as being betwenn 16 and 25, or born between 1775 and 1784. So we know the census takers made mistakes. As Richard was likely not considered an adult in 1790, he was probably under 21, or born between 1769 and 1774.
He made his will out on May 31, 1802 and it was admitted to probate in the October session of Court in Anson County during the October session of 1802. Richard died young, and knew that he was sick, dying sometime between June 1 and October of 1802.
He mentions his wife Sarah or Sally:
"After my just debts are honestly paid, first, I lend unto my loving wife Sally Howell, during her widowhood, all my estate both real and personal, to raise my children on, but if she should marry then, I give all to be equally divided among all my surviving children and Loving wife equally."
He appoints his friend, William Marshall as executor. The Marshall family had close ties with the Winfields and migrated from Virginia with them in the 1780's.
Richard does not mention his children, but the 3 boys listed in the 1800 census were John W, Peter and Jordan. Exacting the direct birth order of these 3 might lend a hand in deciding the father of Richard Howell as the Winfield's and others of their ilk were exact in the naming strategy of their children. Daughter Charlotte was not born until later in 1800 or in 1801.
Peter Winfield was from a family of wealth and status and surely would not have allowed his daughters to marry beneath them, so Richard must have came from a family of some status and property.
Witnessing his will were James Marshall, James Morrison, husband of Sarah's sister, Ancena Winfield Morrison Avett and Jordan Howell.
This Jordan Howell does not show up in the 1790 census and his son Jordan would have only been a small child of 4 to 6 upon his father's death. This Jordan does show up in the 1800 census, with 1 male 26 to 44, 1 female 16 to 25 and one female under 10.
There is mention of an older Jordan in Fayetteville later, with Richards' sons John W and Jordan moving there while Peter stayed in Anson on the Rocky River, after buying his siblings share of their fathers lands. Charlotte married Levi Stancill and later moved to Newton County, Georgia.
Howell's in the 1790 census were Hardy, Hopkin, John, Joseph, Lewis, Lewis, Stephen and William.
One of them was likely the father of Richard and Jordan who witnessed his will was likely his brother.
Jordan would later migrate to Tennessee and end his days in Missouri. He seems to have been born in the early 1780's. But that is another post.
Richard was a young man who fell ill. His mention of love for his wife mulitple times in his will leads one to believe they deeply cared for each other. He seems like a wonderful, loving husband and father.
In today's concrete cities, we plunge into the jungle-ish mass of kudzu-covered forests that were once over-plowed fields that caused ancesters to migrate when the fields failed to yield, or barely distinct trails that were once the most traveled roads. Waterways have been the most helpful landmarks when trying to locate exactly where an ancestor lived, as they are the least changed, but most of them have fallen victim to the hand of man as well. Damns have created huge man-made lakes that have left entire towns under water, a reason many of our more recent ancestors left the homes granted to their fathers and grandfathers and moved into towns during the industrial years.
Finding abandoned homesites can be difficult, if not impossible, but there are hints, beyond a rooftop peaking through the trees, or even just nothing left but a chimney. Trees are our best allies. Especially certain kinds of trees. See a huge square area between some lumbering old oaks surrounded by young pines or scrub trees? A house or building likely existed there in years past. See a grove of magnolias? They might be marking an abandoned graveyard, or the entrance to a past driveway.
In my searches, I found that certain ornamental plants must have been passed from neighbor to neighbor, from mother to daughter and so-forth, and some homefronts and gardens that were obviously meticulously tended by a devoted gardener in one day long gone, had now survived their planter and still marked the area where the home was, or is buried. Seeing hints of magnolias through the trees or huge groves of wisteria, or in very early spring, masses of daffodils along the way hint that someone once lived here.
In hunting the homes of Peter Howell and his sons, in North Anson County, in the old Cedar Hill township along Howell and Kendall roads, all of which are not yet paved, I found old driveways lined with ferns and Nandina bushes everywhere. These were bushes my grandmothers had around there front porches, which have decorative red berries that I used for pretend foods for my dolls in my imaginary tea parties.
Ivy was another common decorative plant that can be a taletail sign of an ancestorial abode, and can totally hide a rock wall or entrance to a driveway.
This looks to be an old barn or stable that was on the Howell property, that was of some substantial size. Vines and scrub trees had taken over, but enough of the structure remained to give a hint of its former self. Sometimes, rusty old horse-drawn farmer equipment will remain inside or nearby. On the Howell property, several old farm buildings lined a dry creek bed.
Huge old trees mark the spot where a home once stood.
There were the remains of 3 or more two story farmhouses, not very far from each other and not all of them near a road, but a clear path leading from one to the other. The family must have stayed close together for each others aid in running the farm.
One of the more recent houses.
The trail between one house to the other.
While winter time loss of leaves will revel more of the hidden treasures, early spring will give tailtale signs of a lady trying to beautify her home.
Can you see the building hiding behind the trail of vines and the not yet blooming daffodils?
I don't know the name of this vineing purple flower but they were everywhere among these old houses.
The trail of purple flowers will lead to a house, bring your machete.
This old house had obviously sheltered vagabonds before being totally abandoned.
The Howells decorated with Nandina berries
These tropical looking plants were common decor around Rocky River plantations
The back porch trying to hide
Bunkbeds for a large family and PLASTIC, someone slept here within the last century. Homeless tramps often found shelter in old abandoned homesites and were the cause of lots of fires that destroyed them.
A Staircase and cupboards and signs of vandalism.
Morning glories were a common decorative plant.
Wisteria can cover an entire dwelling in a few years.
Yellow bell bushes were a common and naturally growing plant that will take over a property if not tended and trimmed.
Nandina bushes are not native, but were used as decorative bushes and are as hardy as Kudzu.
the Cape Fear River on Thursday, but no less beautiful than the Catawba, which I crossed on Friday, or the Yadkin-PeeDee, which I cross everyday. I had ventured into Cumberland County to do research in Fayetteville and to plot out an 1825 deed detailing the purchase of a house and land on Hay Street in downtown Fayetteville of my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather and the namesake of this blog: Job Davis. 
