Rumors:The True Story of Prussia Murray.

Prussia Murray was the grandmother of my greatgrandfather William Hampton Davis. It is easier for me to say it that way than to list all of the greats. There is nobody alive who remembers Priscilla Murray Aldridge, aka Prussia or Prucey as she died shortly before the turn of the century, the turn of the last century, I meant to say. From all signs, she did not make it to bring in the new year in 1900. She was listed as living on one of her daughters marriage licenses the year prior.

There were numerous rumors passed down about Prussia. One of the rumors was that she was an Indian.

She married Henry Garner Aldridge probably around 1836, when she would have been only 14 or 15 years old. Stanly County did not come into existence until 1841, meaning the marriage bond was likely filed in the Montgomery County Courthouse, which caught on fire 2 or 3 times. There are little to no records for Montgomery County during this time. Her oldest son J. Walker Aldridge was born in 1837, and as young as Prussia was, I am sure she was not married very long when Walker was born. He made it to adulthood, but barely, dying at age 18 in 1855.  Pictured is Rehobeth Church, where Walker is buried, along with many other members of the Aldridge family.

Aldridge road near Aquadale and Cottonville in Southern Stanly County, runs between Plank Road and Old Davis Road. This is where the Aldridges lived, and some still do, during the late 1800's. Prussia's brother Benjamin Murray was the original owner of the property that Rehobeth Church sits on and the Murray family Cemetary, where their parents are buried, is on Prince Road, very close to Long Creek.

So the Murrays lived just north and slightly West of the Aldridges and the Davis's lived directly south and east of the Aldridges on the Rocky River.  We know that Henry Garner Aldridge and Priscilla Murray Aldridge, whom I will refer to from here on by their call names, Garner and Prussia, had 10 Children together: Josiah Walker Aldridge, Martha Aldridge Easley (Miller Easley), Caleb Hampton 'Hamp' Aldridge (Sophia Floyd, Elizabeth Floyd McSwain, had child by her young daughter Martha McSwain), Emaline Aldridge Floyd (John Floyd), Lucy Aldridge (died as a small child), William Henry Aldridge (who would marry his first cousin Rebecca Murray, daughter of Ben Murray, after she was widowed.), Margaret Jane Aldridge Floyd (Ephraim Floyd),  Elizabeth Rosetta Aldridge (George Whitley), twins Julia and Frances Julina Aldridge (several children by Whitley's, then married Horton H 'Hawk' Davis), John Adam Aldridge (who would marry his first cousin Glennie Wilmartha Whitaker, daughter of Prussia's sister Sophia Murray Whitaker).

Garner died of the measles in Virginia in 1862.

This is Prussia's claim for a Widow's pension.

This is part of the Widow's pension that spoke of his cause of death. They had her name correct, but Garner's first name wrong.


This is only the first installation of my story of Prussia. See part two for her life after Garner's death.