Short Stories: Finding Fanny

Stock photo of  Young Girl from Vintage photos of Civil War Era

At the moment, I have been indulging myself in the reading of old Superior Court records from Stanly County, North Carolina that were just beyond the realm of the book published in 1991 by the Stanly County Genealogical Society and abstracted and edited by Helen Lefler Garner, covering Stanly's first nine years, 1841-1850.

The C. D's that I have acquired from the NC State Archives, have gaps in the years, but this particular one that I am reading now, covers those first nine years and then goes beyond. I have not yet reached the end of the C. D. and while much of it is repetitive and not informative, here and there, valuable trinkets of information can be found along the way.

In the minutes of the May Session of Court, in 1852, the judge ordered the Sheriff to bring in Louvina and Fanny Honeycutt, children of Susannah Honeycutt at the next term of court for the purpose of binding them out.

Name	Fanny Robins
Age	14
Birth Year	abt 1846
Gender	Female
Race	White
Birth Place	North Carolina
Home in 1860	Stanly, North Carolina
Post Office	Albemarle
Dwelling Number	48
Family Number	48

Household members

Name	Age
Susy Huneycut	55
Sylva L Huneycut	18
Fanny Robins	14

And in the 1860 census, I found them, and they were very familiar. Not just familiar, they were family.

Susannah "Susie" or Susan Huneycutt was my 4th Great Grandmother. She had appeared in the court records sometime earlier, bringing other children to court, one of them, Mary Anna Burris, or Huneycutt, as the courts made note of, who became my 3rd Great Grand mother. Mary Anna had been bound to the John Honeycutt family, and would marry their son Charles McKinley Honeycutt. And there were others, two sons, Joshua and John, son of Susannah, and older than these two, who had been ordered to court to be bound out a decade earlier.

The surprise here was that Louvenia, whose full name was Sylvia Louvenia Huneycutt, is shown as a Huneycutt, but Fanny was a Robins, or Robbins. Then it all came together.

Within the last year, I had been researching the Robbins family, and coming across this Fanny, as their were others, I wondered who she was. 

At first, I expected her to be the daughter of Elizabeth Robbins. Here is a link to my post on Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Robbins' Demons

Elizabeth Robbins was a single woman, she had been brought to court and ordered to reveal the name of the fathers of her two sons. Twice, she had to do this. The men listed on the Bastardy Bonds were John Honeycutt (Jr.) and Sam Coley. There had been two sons born to her, Green and Lindsey, why not a daughter? There were gaps in the old court records.

The list above in a clip from the 1860 census of Stanly County. It begins with the name of Charles Cagle, and being neighbors, there were interactions between the Cagles and this group of Honeycutts. Next is the household of my ancestor, John Honeycutt (or Huneycutt, even Hunnicutt), his wife Syliva (aka Sylvania), and some of their younger children, as their family had been large. Next was the household of an elderly Fanny Robbins, her daughter, Betsy, the Elizabeth Robbins mentioned above, and Elizabeth's (Betsy's) two sons, Lyndsey, 11, and Green., 7. Following Fanny Robbins, 80, is Susy (Susannanh or Susan) Huneycutt, 55, Sylvia L. (Louvenia) Huneycutt 18, and Fanny Robins (Robbins), 14. Lastly, there's Edmund Huneycutt, 22, and his family. Looks like a family grouping, huh?

So, now I know who Fanny Robbins, aged 14 in 1860 and living with Susy Honeycutt, was. Susy's daughter, and therefore, my 4th Great Aunt. 

The question remains, who was her father? Why was her last name different? That now made sense, too.

The Sins of Solomon Robbins

In the Bastardy Bonds of North Carolina, which can be found on Family Search, 

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/766391?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Solomon Franklin Robbins had been brought to court on a charge of bastardy, or fathering a child out of wedlock, but no mother had been mentioned. Add to that fact that Solomon F. Robbins was the only living male Robbins old enough to have sired a child at that time and there you go.

Mystery solved.

It's of value and interest, to me anyway, to mention that the oldest daughter of John and Sylvia Honeycutt was named Frances 'Fanny' Caroline. She was born in 1827, and died in 1903. She married Isaiah Coley and had 7 children.

As well, the oldest daughter of Solomon Franklin Robbins by his first, and probably only legal, wife, Sarah Hinson, was named Frances Caroline (or Clarinda) Robbins. She was born in 1850 and died in 1902. She married Robert Lindsey Cagle and had 7 children of her own. In the 1860 census, she is a 9 year old in the home of her parents as 'Caroline'. She and Fanny were not the same people, though I've seen them merged.

Name	Caroline Robbins
Age	9
Birth Year	abt 1851
Gender	Female
Race	White
Home in 1860	Stanly, North Carolina
Post Office	Albemarle
Dwelling Number	1084
Family Number	1099
Attended School	Y
Inferred Mother	Sarah Robbins

Household members

Name	Age
Sarah Robbins	32
William Robbins	11
Caroline Robbins	9
Martha Robbins	7
Franklin Robbins	4
Sarah Robbins	2
George Robbins	5/12

The other  sister mentioned in court that day was Louvenia. Her full name was Sylvia Louvenia Honeycutt/Burris. 

Ten years after, she is 28, still living with her mother, Susan, now 65. The family listed ahead of them in No. 11, is that of the Perry's. Caswell Perry, 34, is of Note. No. 12, is Susan and Sylvia Huneycutt.

The house listed after them, No. 14, on the next page,  is that of C. M. Honeycutt, son of John Honeycutt, and his wife, "M. A." , or Mary Anna, oldest daughter of Susannah Honeycutt.

The next year, on March 2, 1871, neighbor Caswell Perry married 'Laviney' Honeycutt. She named her parents as Joshua Burris and "Sukey" or "Susey" Honeycutt. The script was smeared at her name. They appeared to have gotten married at the Courthouse in Albemarle in the Clerk's Office.

Caswell and Lavinia Perry would have three daughters; Mary Ann (1872), Sarah Elizabeth (1876) and Syliva Samira (1879), a name that ran in the family and was also the first and middle name of one of John Honeycutt's daughters, and his wife, at least the first name, Sylvia, as I don't believe I have seen her middle name in a document.

Sylvia Lovenia Honeycutt-Burris Perry passed away on July 26, 1915 of Dropsy. She was buried at Running Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. The names is this cemetery reflect the surnames of families who had lived in this area for two hundred years, if not more. There are lots of Allmans and Almonds, one family, two speillings, if you go back far enough. Also, Burris's, Lamberts, Eudy's, Pages, Tuckers, Whitley's  Furrs, Harwoods, Hatley and Honeycutts, both with a 'U' and an "A".

Albemarle, North Carolina • Thu, Sep 30, 1915Page 1

The Enterprise

Her husband, Caswell, joined her just a few months after, on September 23, when he died at aged 85 of paralysis.

Susan/Susie/Susannah Honeycutt is not seen after 1870. Born about 1805, she had probably died before 1880. It is not known where she is buried. But what of her other children?

Mary Anna, born on November 14, 1833 lived in the western part of Stanly County her entire life, with her husband Charles McKinley "Kin" Honeycutt. They had six children together, Ellen, Eva L., Adam E., C. M. Jr,, and Ephraim E. She died sometime between October 23, 1882, when she is recorded as living when her son C. M. married Roxanna Burris and September 23, 1889, when she is recorded as deceased when her son Ephraim married Evy Almond. Her husband outlived here, but was gone between 1900 and 1903, when his property was sold and it noted that he had passed away. The property adjoined that of Caswell Perry.

Joshua, was ordered to be brought into court, along with sister Mary Anna, in the February 1844 Session of Court. It was noted in the Court Record that the children went by either Burris or Honeycutt. In May of 1844, Joshua was bound to George Cagle, Jr., who gave bond. 

In the 1850 census, Joshua is seen still living with the George Cagle, Jr., family. His age is given as 15, or a birth year of 1835. In this record, he is listed as a Honeycutt.

John A., was ordered to be brought into court and in the February Session of Court, 1848, was bound out to James W. Hartsell.

In 1850,  John is found still living with the James Wiley Hartsell family, in household 707. Worthy of note, in the house listed before him, 706, is the Charles Cagle family? Remember where Susie and John Honeycutt lived in  1860, although Susie and the younger two girls, Lavina and Fanny, were missed in the 1850 census? Next to the Charles Cagle family. In Household 705 is the Perry family, with Margaret Melton Perry, at the time, as a bound out, orphaned child herself, living with them. John is listed as a Honeycutt and his age is 14, or a year of birth around 1836.

This brings the total of Susanna Honeycutt's children to 5.

Mary Anna abt 1833

Joshua abt 1835

John A. abt 1836

Sylvia Lovina abt 1842

 Fanny abt 1846.

Mary Anna married Charles McKinley Honeycutt.

Sylvia Lovina married Caswell Perry.

But what about the other three?

I believe Fanny and Joshua died young. I think I might even know where they are buried. There's an abandoned Honeycutt Cemetery and at least some of the people buried there belonged to the John and Sylvia Honeycutt family. It's where the others came from and the child not buried there.

I've found family trees that have the one census, 1850, that John appears in Stanly County in, linked to a John A. Honeycutt in another county. Is it one and the same? He doesn't appear in the 1850 census there. I can't say where because I am still trying to uncover it. The origins of others buried in the old cemetery I just mention just may corrobate the possibility. 

All of Susanna's children went by both the Burris and Honeycutt names at some point, except for Fanny. Fanny was a Robbins. Most likely named for her grandmother, Fanny Whitley Robbins. Could Fanny have been buried as a Burris, since her siblings were Burris's? It's out there, but feasible. 

If Fanny is the person I believe is buried in this grave, she died in 1863 at the age of about 17. She is buried next to the person I believe is her brother, Joshua Honeycutt/Burris who would have died in 1853 at the age of 18. The cemetery contains members of the Honeycutt family that they lived with and near. The search continues.

Elizabeth Robbins' Demons

 Having just spent a very long time and a great deal of research on a post, only to lose the whole thing following the very last sentence, I just had to step away. Step away from the subject, the road I was going down and that lane of research and topic altogether. Breathe. All due to one missed keystroke on my phone. That happens. It has happened before and in those two cases I've not yet returned, but held some of my steps in my mind. Who knows how long it will take for me to want to take those same steps again?

Instead, I will return to a series I have been back and forth on a few times. I call it the "Bad Girls of Stanly County." It's good to be back home. The 'bad girls' were the rare females who showed up as defendants in the early courtrooms of Stanly County, North Carolina. Some appeared over and over, others only once. Occasionally, women appeared in Civil proceedings, challenging inheritances, dower rights, tenant contracts and the such. These were not the bad girls. The bad girls were those who stepped outside the boundaries of proper behavior for ladies of the 19th century. Sometimes they were drunk and disorderly, sometimes they even went to brawling. Most of the time, the offenses had to do with the control, or lack of it, of their sexuality, adultery, fornication, or giving birth to a child out of wedlock. A few even ran 'bawdy houses', or dens of iniquity, a place where immoral or illegal things happened. 

The genealogical importance of these events come in the form of brickwalls in family trees. Children born out of wedlock, most of the time, took the surname of their single mother. Occasionally, the individual would go by different surnames at different times in their life, making it difficult for those trying to build their family tree. Some ill-begotten folks would even invent an imaginary father, usually "John", to disguise their shame of not having a father and use it on their legal documentation, their spouse and future children never knowing the difference. And then comes DNA testing and all those old secrets coming spilling out.

For this post, I have returned to an old list, made over a year ago, and a few individuals in my own family tree.

The simplest way to explain Bastardy Bonds to a novice to old court records is that they are the antiquated form of child support. The scrofulous word used to describe them, simply meant, in its day, a child born out of legal wedlock, which  was considered a shameful thing to be. The thing colors the word, the word doesn't color the thing, a fact modern society seems to have forgotten. They keep printing up new terminolgy to refer to something, to make it more, um, palatable, 'a rose by any other name.' In time, the new terminology becomes unusable because it is offensive, as it describes 'the thing', and they have to create new, unoffensive terminology again, and that new term will also become offensive in time. The cycle repeats itself.

John T. Honeycutt, (1803 - 1878) was my 4th Great Grandfather. I don't know for certain who his parents were, despite the several guesses of other researchers. There were more than a few Honeycutts in early Stanly County and how they were related to one another has not been nailed down to my knowledge. That's a mountain I haven't climbed. I have been able to find mention of John, himself, in a number of places and had always thought of him as a good and decent man. 

It was John who owned the  land where Liberty Hill Baptist Church near Red Cross in western Stanly County was originally built, a church co-founded by another of my ancestors, the Rev. John Lambert. The current building is directly across the road from where the original building stood, so that gives me a general idea of where John Honeycutt lived. 

Liberty Hill Baptist Church in Stanly County, NC 

You can imagine my surprise, when, while perusing the bastardy bonds of Stanly County, NC from the 1850's, looking for something else, for someone else, I came across the following entry.

The ancient script is a little difficult to read, and was written in 19th century legalese, so, I will translate a few of them. Above, the mostly printed document stated that John and George Huneycutt were held and firmly bound to a bond of 500 hundred dollars, a significant amount of money in those days. The bond was for an Obligation that John Huneycutt was the reputed father of a Baseborn child begat upon the body of Elizabeth Robbins, a single woman of Stanly County, a fact he did not deny. John Huneycutt and Elizabeth Robbins had concieved a child out of wedlock. The year was 1853.

Following are several excepts from the same group of documents.

Basically, in November of 1853, John Huneycutt had been taken to court to answer to the charge of Bastardy.

He had given bond, along with George Huneycutt, in order to support the illegitimate child for at least the first 5 to 7 years of its life. 

George D.Whitley was the Justice of the Peace hearing the motion.

Bonds were given and plans were made and all parties went on to live and the child was provided for, for a time.

The question remained, which John Huneycutt and who was Elizabeth Robbins?

John Huneycutt, my 4th Great Grandfather first shows up in census records in 1830 and by that time, he is a young man with a wife and 3 small children under 5, two boys and a girl. No marriage record is found, but it can be easily assumed he married around 1825. His neighborhood was typical west Stanly names, Tucker, Efird, Furr, Crisco, Little. A Great to some degree Uncle of mine is also listed on the same page, Frederick Lambert, who ends up moving to Mississppi. 

John and his wife Sylvia, grow their family. There appears to have been at least one child who was lost before 1850, when they were named, which was typical of the times, but they appear to have brought in to the world a pretty healthy brood, as 11 children made it to adulthood. These were:

1) Frances Caroline (1827-1903)

2) George Washington (1828-1907)

3Charles McKinley (1830-1910)

4) John Timothy (1832-1892)

5) Asberry Franklin (1837-1912)

6) Ephraim E. (1839-1935)

7) Eben Zebulon ( 1842 - 1863)

8) Sylvia Samira (1844-1916)

9) Mariah Priscilla (1846-1887)

10) David Levi (1848-1893)

11) Eli Filmore (1850-1922)

Of these, Charles McKinley, known as "Kin" or "Ken', is my line and my 3rd Great Grandfather. He, his sister Fanny ,and brother, George, were the three children who would have been in the 1830 census. Next came John Timothy "Jackson" Huneycutt, the fourth born. In 1853, John Timothy would have been a 21 year old man, young and full of vinegar and spit. His father, notably pious, would have been a time-worn 50 year old. Older brother George also gave bond on this situation, to help John, whom I believe was John the younger. It makes more sense. 

So, who was Elizabeth Robbins?

In the early records of Stanly County Superior Court, in 1843, the estate of one Isham Robbins was settled. His will was mostly one full of religious rhetoric and prayer, but after about 3 paragraphs of behailing the Lord, Isham finally names his wife, Fanny, short for Francis,  as the recipient of all his wordly goods and names John Huneycutt as the executor of his Will. Isham Robbins does not appear in one census record of Stanly County, or in the 1840 one of Montgomery, which is where the citizens of Stanly, which didn't exist until 1841, were enumerated. Oddly, he is listed in the very first tax record of Stanly County, in 1841, with 100 acres of Cucumber Creek. There is no record of him purchasing this land. Four years later, in the 1845 Tax List, his widow, Frances, is shown with 100 acres of property on Bear Creek, and their son, Solomon F. Robbins, is shown with 125 acres on Stony Run Creek. Of note, John Huneycutt, in this same list, is shown with 300 acres on Stonly Run.

Isham Robbins and wife, Francis had two known children, Solomon Franklin Robbins, born in 1826, and Elizabeth "Betsy" Robbins, born in 1823. Solomon had married Sarah Hinson, daughter of William F. or T. Hinson and wife, Martha Curlee Hinson, in the late 1840's. Elizabeth never married. 

Betsy Robbins was already a tainted woman by the time she had a child with John Timothy Huneycutt. In the August, 1849 Session of Stanly County Superior Court, we find this entry:

'Samuel Coley, reputed father of baseborn child begot of Elizabeth Robbins gave bond of $500 for maintenance of said child with G. M. Sides, S. F. Robbins, Hardy Hatley and J. C. Kennedy as securities." 

Betsy's brother and some of their neighbors had agreed, together to help support this child with Sam Coley. It was unusual to see the name of J. C. (Jordon) Kennedy, as the very next paragraph had found him in the very same situation with a child born of Sarah Smith.

Sam Coley (1818-1901), was a man about 5 years older than Betsy and had lived in the same general area. The twist was that when he had the trist with Betsy Robbins, he had been married to the former Martha Eudy for about 5 years and was already the father of 3 children with 6 more, by his wife, to follow. Lyndsey, the son of Sam Coley and Betsy Robbins, was born the year between Coley number 3 and Coley number 4. Such was the life in mid 19th century Bick Lick Township. 

The 1850 and 1860 census records for the Huneycutts and Robbins have to be seen together to understand what was going on.

In 1850, we see the Charles Cagle household, followed by the John Huneycutt household. In the John Huneycutt household is 17 year old MaryAnn Burris, who will marry his son, Charles McKinley and become my third great grandparents. MaryAnn or Anna, was the daughter of Susan Honeycutt and Joshua Christian Burris, who was a man with many mistresses. I believe Susan was a sister of John's, making Mary Anna his niece. 

Listed after Mary Ann Burris is a 70 year old Frances Huneycutt, with Elizabeth 27, and 'Linda' (actually Lyndsey), in the home. Following them is George W. Huneycutt, John's son, who is already married, and working as laborer on his father's farm. John T. is 18 years old at this time.

In 1860. is the Charles Cagle household followed by the John and Sylvia Honeycutt household. Several more of the children are know adults. They are followed by the household of 80 year old Fanny (Frances) Robbins, Betsy, (Elizabeth), now 36, and her two sons, Lyndsey (fathered by Sam Coley) and Greene, (fathered by John Huneycutt).  After them is Susy (Susan) Huneycutt, 55, whom I believe was John's sister, and her youngest daughter, Syliva, 18. Susan had a son, Joshua and I believe another son , John, who are shown as being bound out, as Mary Anna was, in the early court records. Sylva, at 18, seems to have stayed with her mother, and reveals the name of her father, J. C. Burris, on her documents. 

It's easy to see that Fanny and Betsey "Honeycutt" of 1850 were actually Fanny and Betsy Robbins of 1860.

Why were they enumerated as Huneycutts in 1850? What was the exact relationship of the Robbins and the Honeycutt family, beyond that of John II and Betsy?

Another oddity is the appearance of a 14 year old Fanny Robbins in the home of Susy Honeycutt, who was a tenant of John (and likely sister). Who was this? Solomon Franklin Robbins had a daughter named Frances Caroline, who is shown as a 9 year old in the home of her mother, Sarah, in 1860. She marries Robert Cagle, son of the above mentioned Charles. Was this the same girl, and the census taker was off on her age? Was she visiting her grandmother, whom she was named for and just happened to be in Susy's house, on the same farm? Or was this a different girl altogether? Was she the daughter of Betsy, maybe? She wasn't anywhere in 1850, and she is not shown again, unless she was Solomon's child. And in case you missed it, the oldest daughter of John and Sylvia Honeycutt was also named Frances Caroline. Was this a clue?

Fanny Robbins, the older lady, was Frances Caroline Whitley Robbins, daughter of George Whitley II. I've read several accounts of the Whitley family, and they all give her a death date of 1858, yet, here she was, counted in the 1860 census. The particular place I found this information was "George Whitley Family", compiled by Walter Charles Whitley of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Fanny was not in the 1870 census. 

Also not in the 1870 census was her grandson, Lindsey Robbins, son of Betsy and Sam Coley. 

Name:	Linsey Robbins
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Estimated Birth Year:	abt 1853
Birth Place:	North Carolina, USA
Age:	17
Death Date:	Feb 1870
Cause of Death:	Pneumonia
Census year:	1870
Census Place:	Big Lick, Stanly, North Carolina, USA

Lyndsey died of pneumonia in February of that year at age 17, according to the Mortality Schedule. It would have been nice if they had kept a mortality schedule for every year.

With her mother and oldest son dead, Elizabeth and her younger son, Green, took refuge with the Borroughs or Burris family.

Elizabeth was found living with the Davidson Burroughs family, while Green, 14, was in the home of J.C. Burroughs, previously mentioned.

Her brother, Solomon Robbins was still alive and has a story of his own, but as for Green and his mother Betsy, they disappeared to be seen no more. Or did they?