James Marks Grave

Recently my distant cousin and fellow Marks descendant, Cyndi, sent me the following page from a bulletin she had been fortunate to find. The bulletin was from a Marks family reunion and was shared with her by a Marks descendant whose last name is Marks. It basically is a listing of the most immediate descendants of James Marks. I never knew there were Marks family reunions, because I descend from his oldest daughter, Tabitha. Cyndi didn't know because she descends from his brother. The family reunion appears to have just been held by descendants of one or more of his sons. 

James Marks was from Chatham County, which I was a fact I never knew, until I made contact with Cyndi, but apparently there were descendants of his who did. He moved to Montgomery County in the 1820's, on the side of the river that became Stanly. His brother John was here also. But James did live here long before passing away. However, he left a wife and 5 children. And here we are.

The top part of the bulletin was pure genealogical treasure, however. It included something we did not know.

"Settled near  the  Yadkin River in the area that is now Morrow Mountain State Park. Buried on the Grove Estate."

I'd never heard where he was, or might have been buried. 

James died before 1830, because in the 1830 census for Montgomery County,  his wife Caty is shown as Head of Household, which for women, usually meant they were widows. 

Name:	Caty Mairs [Caty Morris]  [Katy Marks]  [Cty Marks]
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):	Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9:	1 Thomas
Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14:	1 Benjamin
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:	1 Elias
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:	1 Nancy
Free White Persons - Females - 50 thru 59:	1 Catherine "Caty" Marks
Free White Persons - Under 20:	3
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:	1
Total Free White Persons:	5
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):	5

He had married Catherine "Caty" Gunther, daughter of Isham Gunther of Chatham County. Her sister, Mary, had married John Marks .

Name:	Will Solomon
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):	Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 30 thru 39:	1  William Solomon
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:	2 Martha Ann and Jane Caroline Solomon
Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29:	1 Tabitha Marks Solomon
Free White Persons - Under 20:	2
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:	2
Total Free White Persons:	4

Caty is shown with 4 children in 1830. Their oldest daughter, Tabitha, born in 1805, had already married with two little girls. She had married a minister, Rev. William Solomon, who had a familial and long-time association with both Ebenezer Baptist Church in present day Badin, and Stony Hill Methodist Church, near Morrow Mountain. (The Stony Hill congregation had begun as Baptists). 

Sign in Brick at Stony Hill

Now having a hint at where James Marks was buried, a task was to hand. Where was the Groves Estate? 

The old slate marker for Stony Hill, brought from it's orginal location. 

With a little research, I found two possibilities, First, I knew there was a Christmas Tree Farm near Morrow Mountain called "Grovestone". I also searched old newspapers for the mention of a "Groves Estate" and this is what I found. 

Remains of old road that led from Lowder's Ferry, through the Groves Estate, on to Rest (Present River Haven area) and on to the Swift Island Ferry.

James Alonzo Groves was born in 1873 in Gastonia to the affluent family of Robert A. Groves and wife Margaret Waddell. He was well-educated, well-connected and arrived in Stanly County in 1903 in Association with Wiscassett Mills.  Below he is shown as a boarder in the 1910 census of Albemarle, North Carolina.

Name:	James A Groves
Age in 1910:	38
Birth Year:	abt 1872
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Albemarle, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Boarder
Marital status:	Single
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Native Tongue:	English
Occupation:	President's Private
Industry:	Secretary Cotton Mill
Employer, Employee or Other:	Wage Earner
Able to Read:	Yes
Able to Write:	Yes
Out of Work:	N
Number of weeks out of work:	0
Neighbors:
Household Members:	Name Age Fannie R Stevens 50 Lenna Stevens 29 Farrel Stevens 20 Etta Belle Stevens 18 Albert Stevens 16 James A Groves 38

A collection of arrowheads and pottery shards found at Grovestone by its current owner, Mr Talbert. The area was a popular spot for Native Americans.

CLIPPED FROM

The EnterpriseAlbemarle, North Carolina09 Apr 1903, Thu  •  Page 3

Nell Hearne

J. A. Groves moved quickly up the ranks at Wiscassett Mills and within Albemarle society, where he met and married a local girl, Sarah Ellen "Nelle" Hearne. Nelle was the daughter of Sidney H. Hearne and his wife Ellen. The Hearnes were the founding family of Albemarle, the town literally built on the Hearne plantation, and were scions of Albemarel society.The Groves House in town was located on North Second Street in Albemarle, across from Franklin Street. It has since been demolished. 

The Groves had a house in town, but Nelle loved horses and J. A. loved Nell. He purchased 1300 acres in the area between Morrow Mountain and Stony Mountain and there built a weekend getaway house, a place for Nell to ride her horses and have parties.

Nell Hearne Groves and  one of her horses

The property where they built the weekend house was called 'The Groves Estate".  At first, I wasn't sure if the Groves Estate and Grovestone was the same place. So I called the current owners and spoke with a Mr. Talbert. He was so very cordial and informative. Yes, Grovestone was indeed part of the Groves Estate.Mr. Talbert had been informed somewhat on the history of the property somewhat when he purchased it. The story was that Mrs. Groves had gotten ill and was sent to a sanitorium out west to recover. Before her return, Mr. Groves had built the getaway house as a gift for her.He explained about various caretakers houses that were also on the property and later occupied by Kirks and Spiveys. A stable had been built there for the horses. It had been a magnificent place, parties on the weekends for the Stanly elite and vistors from Gaston and Mecklenburg counties would show up.I have explained to Mr. Talbert who I was and what my interest was, and about the bulletin that stated that my ancestor, James Marks, had been buried on the Groves Estate.
That is when Mr. Talbert remembered a group of people who had came to his place in about the mid-1980's. He said they brought flowers to put on a grave, and that they knew exactly where the grave was. These were Marks descendants and the grave was that of James Marks.Mr. Talbert so graciously  offered to give me, and my cousin, a tour of the place, anytime. We took him up on his offer.

Mr. Talbert remembered the grave had been somewhere down the hill behind the cabin.

So a few short weeks after I spoke to Mr. Talbert on the phone, we touched base a few times and  set a time to meet. So myself and two other Marks family researchers, Cyndia and Leah met with Mr. Talbert for a tour of the former Groves Estate with the high hopes of discovering where James Marks had been buried. 

A place in the woods that may have been the site of the Grave

Mr Talbert was able to provide some background on the estate and show us where certain fixtures once were, and where others still were. Remnants of an old road can still be seen crossing the property. A springhead at the bottom of the hill from the house still bubbles, and obviously where ancient residents of the property once got their water. 

This mound of stones may have been a Grave, many quartz rocks intermingled .It marked something and is not a natural formation.



One of the more interesting facts our tour guide provided was that the support beams under the house and within, were of a chestnut wood no longer available in the area, as the North Carolina Chestnut has nearly been wiped out. Only a few remain. The building style of the joists and beams also predate the building of the Rock House, which was built in the 1930's, by at least 100 years or more. Primitive. The rock house had not been built from scratch, instead, it had obviously been built over and existing cabin.

Mr. and Mrs. Groves in their later years sitting on the steps of The Rock House. He died in 1955 and she lived until 1970.

Mr. Talbert provided us with blueprints, and maps of the property, along with the above photo of Mr. and Mrs. Groves and several of the Rock House and the view from the front porch of it from many decades ago.

The Rock House as it originally appeared circa 1935

Knowing that the Rock House was built over an existing structure of much older origin, I wondered who had lived in the original cabin. As James Marks grave was on this property, could the structure have existed back that far? Or had some more recent Marks descendants lived there. In searching land deeds in Stanly County, I came across an unusual phenomena. Stanly County was formed in 1841 from the West half of Montgomery County, using the Yadkin-Pee Dee River as the dividing line. There are no deeds in Stanly County involving the Marks family until 1875. This is a space of 34 years, and in this deed, W. A. Marks, a grandson of James Marks, sells property to Dupree Clodfelter, who hailed from Davidson County. 

What the Rock House and Property looked like in the 1930's. Check the old car. 

Now, in present day, Clodfelter Road comes off of Valley Drive and heads up the hill to the top of a ridge between Morrow Mountain State Park and Stony Mountain. The road goes through the Groves Estate. While the current Grovestone is only on one side of the road, the original Groves Estate covered 1300 acres. A road that leads to Stony Hill Church veres off of Clodfelter Road to the left coming up. At the top of the hill is a community known as Clodfelter Town where descendants of Dupree Clodfelter still live. It's no longer a town, but it is still populated and still lies in the shadow of Morrow Mountain.

Could the property that W. A. Marks sold to Dupree Clodfelter, the progenitor of the Clodfelter family, be where Clodfelter Town sits today? It appears so. And if W. A. Marks sold it in 1875, how and when did he acquire it? There are no records of W. A. Marks buying it before then. Whitson A. Marks was the son of Thomas Marks and wife Nancy Carter. Tom was the youngest son of James Marks and Catherine Gunter Marks. Whitson was born in 1849, so he did not yet exist in 1841 when Stanly became a county. The property was obviously acquired before 1841, when the county was still part of Montgomery, but not by Whitson Marks. How then did he acquire it? I can only feel it was by inheritance. 

Another interesting fact is that in the book, "These Hallowed Grounds", published in 2012 by The Stanly County Genealogical Society, a year before I joined, is the mention of a cemetery, located on the property just across Clodfelter Road from Grovestone. 

I spoke to a member of the SCGS who had been on the adventure of discovery in locating the old cemetery. It is quite a walk from the house and off to toward the end of what is now Dunlap Road, below the west side of Stony Mountain. Still, not that far from where James Marks grave is supposed to be. The procession was led by Rayvon Shepherd, a descendant of Tom Shepherd, Grandson of Nancy Marks Carter, James Marks youngest daughter. Tom Shepherd lived in this area years ago. The cemetery is believed to be a Marks cemetery. And not far from the area of James Marks Grave!

Mr. Talbert shows us the original plans for the property.

It's not hard to imagine the original cabin, sitting atop the hill where the Rock House now stands, and looking out toward the property where the other Marks cemetery is said to be. Was this area inhabited by the Marks family, spread out with the view of Morrow Mountain in the distance and Stony Mountain in the other direction?

Peeking at the Mountian beyond from the road to Stony Hill Church

We will have to back in the winter if Mr. Talbert so allows, with someone who knows the art of divining, to help us pinpoint James Marks exact grave. At this time, we don't know for sure if the stone covered mound is it or not. Mr. Talbert said he felt it was a little further up the hill, closer to the house. 

The old road went right by the house, right across the front yard, above is the picture of the road bed going from the property south. Many of these old places that seem out in the middle of nowhere, were actually located on the byways of the day. 

The above is a clip from an old map of Stanly County. Just above Stony Mountain you can see '"Grovestone" J. A. Groves Place'. A little beyond, on the 'loop' road is Stony Hill Church. The below clip picks up a little north of the first one In this map, you can see where the Kron Place was, and Lowder's Ferry.  The map identify's an area as Morrow Mountain State Park, but with just a dirt road, or path to the old Ferry, which is now a road that goes past the campgrounds and leads down to the boat landing and canoe rentals .

All in all, we had quite a day and was blessed by Mr. Talberts hospitality and knowledge. I believe we have found the general are where the Marks lived when they settled here. Hopefully, by tracing J. A. Marks purchase of the property backwards, we can find if it does trace back to the Marks. 

Special thanks for information, the tour and other assitance to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Talbert, Cynthia Gordon, Leah Morris, Greg Marks, Phil W. Lowder and the other owners of portions of Grovestone, whose names I do not know who gave Mr. Talbert the okay to take us trapsing across their property. 

My Newest Passion: Mountain Hunting

While researching in old land records, where sometimes you can find genealogical treasure, I often come across the names of unknown landmarks. Knowing the names of local waterways and archaic areas or even long lost towns helps to figure out exactly where an ancestor lived. Sometimes, as in my recent passion, it can show a chain of occupancy, where a deed may no longer even exist, most especially in burned counties, of which Montgomery was one.



All in all, I'm not just fascinated by genealogy, or even just history, but also the topography of my little piece of Eden. I love old maps and sometimes, it's really not so easy trying to pinpoint the location of an old town, or a plat of land. So one of my newest pursuits has become Mountain Chasing.



Now, they don't move, but sometimes they do hide, in plain sight, I'm discovering, We just haven't noticed them.


Stanly County, North Carolina is part of a small, ancient mountain range known as the Uwharries. Most people think of Montgomery County when thinking about the Uwharries, but they really cover 4 counties, Montgomery, Stanly, Randolph and Davidson. The foothills of the Uwharries even range down into Cabarrus, Anson and Union. While Montgomery boasts the Uwharrie National Forest, a federally protected forest preserve, Stanly County boasts Morrow Mountain State Park.

When most locals think of the Mountains of Stanly County, they think mainly of the area of the park and the mountains contained therein. Morrow Mountain is  the largest, once known as Naked Mountain because of Cyclone damage. The park also includes Sugarloaf, Tater Top, Hattaway, Mill and Falls Mountains. More observant locals could probably name as many as 10 Stanly County mountains that are still recognized by road names or other markers, the 6 within the park, but also Stone Mountain, because of the winery and housing development, Nelson Mountain, because of the road of the same name and treacherous golf course, Morgan Mountain near Norwood, because of the campground at the foot of it, and Palmer Mountain, because of the canal that now separates it from the mainland. I've grown a tad more knowledgable in the names of local mountains, found through research, Shepherds Mountain and Lowder Mountain, which are literally in the City of Albemarle.




So, in addition to my normal genealogy, I am going to be starting a series called "The Mountains of Stanly County", trying to determine which bumps in the local terrain correspond to names in old deeds, and it might help folks pinpoint more exactly where their ancestors lived.

I'm also hoping to give some of these old Uwharries their names back in the process.

A Trip to the Badin Museum

The old Ferry

The town of Badin, along the eastern border of Stanly County is getting close to celebrating it's 100th birthday.

Before Badin, there was Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Falls, the Narrows, the Ferry's and the Yadkin River. A narrow road, following roughly present day Valley Drive, led from the area of Ebenezer Baptist, down through the Valley connecting with the ferry roads all the way to the Swift Island Ferry, close to where the Swift Island Bridge crosses between Stanly and Montgomery Counties on Hwy 24/27.

Millertown

Ebenezer Baptist Church has it's place in my family tree as one of my ancestors, Samuel P Morton ministered there. I am a descendant of he and his first wife, Vashti Calloway. Vashti Calloway is supposed to be buried on one of the Graveyard Islands in the Yadkin River, where many cemetaries were relocated due to the damming of the river. Her father Job Calloway is supposedly buried there. The above photo is of one of many Ferry's that operated along the river. Two of the most well known were the Kirk ferry and Lowders ferry, which operated near the present day Morrow Mountain State Park boat landing. There were several communities that sprung up along the river in the early days of the county. These photo are of one of them, Millertown. Several of these small communities, like Tuckertown and Henderson across the river in Montgomery County, are now mostly underwater after the damming of the river. Many families were displaced and it was the cause of a great deal of migration from the area or to the larger towns in the area. Many of these little towns were called so as an extended family, like the Millers, started their own businesses, like mills and ferrier services, and Inns,Ferry's and Harness shops and everyone that lived in the little town was related.
The town of Badin, itself, is the baby among the communties of Stanly County.

A torrent of water of the Yadkin

Built with Ebenezer Baptist Church as its center, it had its beginnings when in the spring of 1913, a French company, L'Aluminium Francais, began working on a dam at the Narrows of the Yadkin to provide a smelter for power. They began to build a village for the workers to live in and named it Badin for the president of the company Adrien Badin. The village was located at the southern end of the lake created by the dam, at which Ebenezer Baptist Church, and a few homes surrounding the church and nearby, already existed. The French built several single family residences, buildings for the smelting plant, a clubhouse, a managers residence, and had started a series of apartments.

By fall of 1915, the start of World War I would change things. The French would pull out of the project and an American Company from Pennsylvania would take over. The Mellon group owned the Aluminum Company of America and ALCOA would become a big part of the Stanly County landscape for decades to come.

Before the Roaring Twenties, the town of Badin would include a school, a theater, a hospital and several merchants and store buildings. Besides it's picturesque French architecture, another unique feature of Badin is that it was actually two villages, one that mirrored the other. While the clubhouse, golf course, supervisors housing, plant offices, fire department and other buildings were built on the part of Badin that is situated on the banks of Badin Lake, the west part of Badin was built behind the large plant dividing the two sections of town by an enoromus smelter and industrial presence. This section also included churches, a school and various sizes of cottages and was built for the non-white employees and their families. ALCOA was one of the first industrial facilities in the area to

The Narrows before the dam.

hire non discriminately and offer equal pay to minority employees. Being a north company, and a Union industry, Alcoa paid wages above and beyond what most farm employees and textile mill workers were accustomed to and allowed their employees a solid middle class existence.

Recently, my three year old grandson and I visited the Badin museum. It is located in what I believe is the former post office and also includes the old fire station and one side of one of the unique townhouse apartments built by the French company.

There are fascinating photos of the old village of Badin, from the building of the dams to the building of the village. Above is the old clubhouse, which I believe was destroyed by fire. To the left is a photo of the town around 1919 with a Department Store in the foreground and houses behind.

The town of Badin climbs Falls Mountain. A road accesses Falls Dam, but the far side of Falls Mountain is part of Morrow Mountain State Park and the road used to travel all the way through and passed by the foot of Attaway Hill, home of Dr. Francis Kron, on its way to Lowder's Ferry.

The scenic path of Valley Drive ambles out of Badin through the valley of Mountain Creek, past Millertown and at the foot of Clodfelter Town and intersects with Morrow Mountain road at the site of the old Moonset Inn. Valley Drive follows roughly the same projectory of a much older road that traveled to the Swift Island Ferry.

Sadly, the glare on the glass was unavoidable in trying to capture by camera, these old glass encased photos of old Badin. It is truly a one-of-a-kind little town.

The photo above is of the old drug store. Other businesses currently occupy the old buildings in the little town.

The photo to the left shows the gentle rise in the hill climbling streets and a good view of some of the townhouses. Below is a shot from the top of one of the streets looking down into the village.

To the left is shown some early construction in West Badin, houses built for dam workers before the roads were set and the houses were underpinned. West Badin was built strictly for minority workers, mostly African-Americans, but I am told their were a few Native Americans and Asian immigrants that lived in that section as well.

My grandson loves fire trucks and firemen. Here he is standing beside an early 1900's fireman's uniform. Also on display is an old motorized firetruck, alongside a very early manpowered firehose wagon, you can't exactly call it an engine, as it did not have one.

Inside the refurbished townhouse. A kitchen as it may have looked in 1915.


To the left, what the fashionable office employees wore in the early days of Alcoa. A hat was always part of the ensemble.

To the right, my grandson checking out the way a bed was strung to hold up a mattress back in the day.

Below, beautiful quilts were an art in the early part of the last century.

I had no idea vacuum cleaners predated electricity. 

Eli and an old timey cradle

A childs bed as it may have looked in 1919 Badin. And to the right, Eli posing with an antique cradle that most likely rocked many a baby to sleep.

We enjoyed our visit to Badin and to the museum. I believe I learned as much as Eli did. I hope I can take him on many more excursions to learn about his heritage. I was the recipient of my grandfathers love of family history and genealogy. Eli is the only one I have so far to pass it down to. I hope to instill in him the value and love of the knowledge of who and what came before. Our children are our future. They are the link to preserving our past.