The Citizens of Davis

I've been having a little fun with newspapers lately, and finding all kinds of things within my family spider web.

Several years ago, while scanning microfilm at our local library, I found a little gem under "Community News" where it listed the gossip of the small community called "Davis".

The except said that Mr. and Mrs. Lewis T. Davis and family, from Albemarle,  had been visiting family down in Davis. This was in the year 1939, when my mother had been a baby.

Unlike some named communities named in the papers of those days like "Rest" and "Silver", I did not have to ask anyone where Davis was. It was centered around what remained of the old Davis plantation that once belonged to Job. It was near Cottonville and probably took in the current Old Davis Road, Aldridge Road and where Mt. Zion Church road hits Plank Road and down to the river.

The old road that had been the Winfield road had once cut past Rehobeth, and crossed at the old Ford into Anson County. There was a school there well into the 1930's and 1940's. My paternal grandmother, and her sisters, who were not Davis's, attended there. E. W. Davis had had a store there prior to the turn of the century. Along the paths that were at one time roads are the remains of several buildings and old houses. Some were existence as late as the 1970's.

Abandoned House freed from the woods photographed by Stanly County's talented photographer, Cindi Mullis Poole

But like many communities of old, where railways did not cross, the village of Davis has ceased to exist. The two cemeteries remain and the memories of the community dies along with those old enough to remember. The last person to show me where the schoolhouse once stood was my great-aunt Dorothy, who passed away in 2010.

Dorothy Burris Luther as a young woman. She attended the old Davis School. 

It is exciting to find mention of the old community from which pieces I was constructed, in old newspapers.

Of the above mentioned persons, Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Davis was referring to Thomas Edward Ashley Davis and wife Elizabeth Ann Deese Davis, son of E. W. "Ned" Davis and Rebecca Hathcock Davis. Z. V. Deese, would have been her brother, Zeb Vance Deese and his wife Lillia Lee Deese. 

Numerous Stanly County baby boys were named for the beloved Governor. 

Zebulon Baird Vance, twice Governor of the State of North Carolina

To quote his contemporary and fellow Governor, Thomas Jordan Jarvis:

"He was the Mount Mitchell of all our great men, and in the affections and love of the people, he towered above them all. As ages to come will not be able to mar the grandeur and greatness of Mount Mitchell, so they will not be able to efface from the hearts and minds of the people the name of their beloved Vance."

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Holt mentioned above was Martha "Mattie"  Davis and her husband, Tom Davis and wife, was her brother, Thomas Parrish Davis and his wife Nealie Howard Davis.  Mrs. H. H. Davis was my great-great grandmother, Frances Julina Aldridge Davis, the mother of Tom and Mattie, and they were visiting Jesse Filmore Aldridge, Julina's son and Tom and Mattie's half-brother. All of these were cousins to the T. A. Davis mentioned in the first article. 

And of course, the J. F. Aldridge who went to Oakboro with his son Marvin, is the same Jesse Filmore Aldridge. 

Standing from left: Barefoot girl Carrie, Will, tall Filmore, George aka Gus, Titus, Becky, Mattie. Seated H. H. Davis and wife Julina. Tom leaning on his father's knee, Cora sitting on her mother's lap and Ritchie, to the right of his mother. Ritchie would die at the age of three. All of the others lead long lives and had families. Carrie and Becky both nearly made it to the 100 mark and I was able to meet them. Will, the first little boy from the left, was my great-grandfather and I had the pleasure of his company until I was about 14 or 15 years old.

 

The Proof is in the Pudding; Julina's day in court.

In the words of a distant relatives Aunt, my Great Grandpa's mother was, in her younger days, 'not a nice' person. That did not mean she was ill-tempered or dishonest. What Maudie Scarboro meant when referring to her Aldridge relatives, was that Julina, like many Confederate orphans, had become a mother outside the bounds of marriage. 

In 19th century Stanly County, North Carolina, the problem of illegitimate children was handled by the court system. An unmarried woman, when found to be with child or having just had a child, would be ordered to be brought to the next term of court by the currently serving Sherriff. There, she would be ordered to pay a bond, so the burden of the cost of raising the child did not fall on the County. She would be required to name the father of the child, so he too, could be brought to court to pay the bond. If she refused, the full cost of the bond would fall on her and sometimes her own father, or brother, or another relative, or even a caring friend or relative, would pay the bond. 

Bonds were not always filed. If the family were wealthy, the county would assume they could afford to pay the bond. Sometimes, the angry father of the pregnant girl would arrange to have the responsible male brought in to court, or an abandoned woman would file herself to have her runaway beau brought into court, who had likely promised her marriage.

So there were a number of circumstances surrounding bastardy bonds. 

Julina in later years, after her marriage. The tallest two sons, Filmore and George, were born prior to the marriage.  Molly is not in the picture. She was married by then. 

In the case of Julina Aldridge, she was one of a set of twins, and the youngest daughters of Henry Garner Aldridge and his wife Prussia. She was about six years old when her father died in 1862 in Virginia, of disease caught while serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Julina was 20, nearly 21, when the above order was served against her. It states: "To any lawful officer to execute and return within thirty days......wherein information hath been made to me, one of the Justices of said county that Julina Aldridge of said county is with child and when born will be a bastard and may be charged to the county. ....command you to apprehend and bring before me or any Justice of the Peace of said county, the said Julina Aldridge to answer the matter alledged against her as aforesaid and This shall be your Warrant.

This 12th day of January, 1877
R. J Morton J. P. 

Mollie Eliza Aldridge was born February 6, 1877, so Julina would have been heavy with child.

At the bottom of the above document, E. J. Whitley has signed. On Mollie's marriage license, her father is listed as Ephraim Whitley.

For a bond of $300, Julina Aldridge and her baby daddy, Ephraim Whitley, promised the court of Stanly County that the infant Mollie Eliza would not be chargeable or a burden to society.

Julina went on to have another illegitimate child whose father was a Whitley, Jesse Filmore Aldridge. Filmore lists B. L. Whitley (Benjamin Lindsey Whitley) as his ancestor in the Permanent Voter Book.

Filmore was born 1879 and is the tallest son in the picture.

Julina Aldridge married Horton H. Davis on September 10, 1889.

She was also the mother of  George W. "Gus" Davis b 1881, Titus Henry Davis b 1887, Rebecca Jane "Becky" Davis b 1888, Martha Priscilla "Mattie" Davis b 1890, William Hampton "Will" b 1891, Carrie J Davis b 1893, Thomas Parrish Davis b 1895, Ritchey Clark Davis b 1897 and Cora Victoria Davis b 1898.

All of the other children only are seen with the surname Davis, whether born prior to or after the marriage.

There is an Aldridge cemetery close the the intersection of Aldridge road and Plank Road and close to Old Davis Road where Julina once lived. Supposedly there are two daughters of hers, Sarah and Elizabeth, buried there, who died as infants. The story is that a man named Kimrey plowed over the graves. Some members of the Floyd family were reputedly buried there as well.

The child referred to in the bond,  Mollie,  died in 1945 and is buried at Rehobeth Church near Aquadale next to her first husband, John Frank Boone, Sr. in a grave surrounded with stones and a large monument. They are buried in the 'new' section of Rehobeth. Her mother and brother Filmore are buried in the same cemetery.