Job's Children: Rocky River Presbyterian

Showing posts with label Rocky River Presbyterian. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Joining of Mrs. Martha B.

Oftentimes, a bit of our heritage can be found in short blurbs in old books. Church histories make excellent references to our ancestors and offer invaluable insight into their way of life.

Rocky River Presbyterian Church is an old and well documented congregation located in Southwestern Cabarrus County, along the Rocky River, from which so much of my heritage sprang.

Several books of been written on it, and with mention of it, among the best and most thorough, one called "The Presbyterian Congregation on Rocky River". The author was Thomas Hugh Spence and it was published in 1954 by Rocky River Presbyterian Church of Concord, North Carolina.

The book in it's entirety is available online at this link : https://archive.org/details/presbyteriancong00spen

through the Univeristy of North Carolina Chapel Hill library.

It includes over a paragraph on and an extensive review of the career and family of my 5th Great-Grandfather, Rev John McKemie Wilson. His middle name can be found spelled any number of ways, from McClema to MaKemie to McKamy and so forth. But it is not the reknowned Rev. Wilson that this post is on.

Instead, it's on a singular mention of an elderly and blind lady who had joined the church. That lady was my mysterious Fourth Great-Grandmother, Martha.

Now, I hesitate to give Martha's surname, even her married one, as I am not altogether positive what it was.

I have been researching it as "Byram", because the available information seemed to point in that direction. I also have only been able to find Martha in one census, the 1880 one, living with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Louise and Frederick Fincher Starnes, my third Great-Grandparents.

NAME:

Martha Byram

AGE:

BIRTH YEAR:

abt 1810

BIRTHPLACE:

South Carolina

HOME IN 1880:

Rocky River, Cabarrus, North Carolina

RACE:

White

GENDER:

Female

RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSE:

Mother-in-law

MARITAL STATUS:

Widowed

FATHER'S BIRTHPLACE:

South Carolina

MOTHER'S BIRTHPLACE:

South Carolina

NEIGHBORS:

View others on page

OCCUPATION:

Boarding

CANNOT READ/WRITE:

BLIND:

DEAF AND DUMB:

OTHERWISE DISABLED:

IDIOTIC OR INSANE:

View image

HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS:

NAME	AGE
F.F. Starns	51
Mary L. Starns	43
Margaret A. Starns	23
Thomas M. Starns	19
Dalphia A. Starns	10
Georgia A. Starns	7
Fredrick L. Starns	5
Dasie L. Starns	2
Martha Byram	70

This census, luckily, gives quite a bit of information on her. First, it identifies her as being 70 years old, having been born in South Carolina and her parents being born in South Carolina. It also names her as the mother-in-law of F. F. Starnes, meaning she was Mary L.'s mother.

I do know that prior to F. F. Starnes showing up in Union County, NC in the 1860 census, living next to his father, Fred Jr. (son of Fred Sr.), he had purchased land along the Rocky River Road in Lancaster County, South Carolina and that his Civil War records identify him as being from both Union County, NC and Lancaster County, S.C.

The documentation I've found on the children of Mary Louise Starnes seemed to corroborate the information in the census that her maiden name is Byram, or something very close, as the spellings vary.

And now, I've found this mention of her in the Rocky River Presbyterian records.

"A special meeting of the session was held at the residence of Frederick Starnes in February of 1875, at which time Mrs. Martha Bryson, "a blind and aged lady" was recieved into the membership of the Church on confession of her faith. " pages 113-114, The Presbyterian Congregation at Rocky River.

This was without any doubt, my Martha. First, at this time, Grandpa Finch was the only Fred Starnes living in that area, and he did live very near the church. Second, his wife and Martha's daughter, Mary Louise, is buried there, along with several of the children who died young. I am sure they were members of the church.

Third, the 1880 census also identifies Martha as blind and her 7 year old granddaughter, Georgia, who would die young, as having rheumatism.

I should be able to find Martha in an earlier census record, as the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census records all list women and children. By 1860, her daughter Mary Louise was married to F. F. and in 1850, we find a 14 year old girl, Mary L. Byrum, living with a 33 year old Elizabeth Byrom, a 70 year old Mary Byrom, and 28 year old laborer, Ephraim Starnes. Further research on Ephraim Starnes shows quite a bit of earlier interaction with a Willliam Byram, who was more than likely related to these 3 ladies. But no Martha, born around 1810. Was her name reallly Byram, as is shown in the census, or could it have been Bryson, as shown in the book?

On Mary L. , in the 1880 census, it reveals that she was born in North Carolina, as was her father, and verifies that her mother was born in South Carolina.

NAME:

Mary L. Starns
[Mary L. Starnes]
[Mary L. Byram]

AGE:

BIRTH YEAR:

abt 1837

BIRTHPLACE:

North Carolina

HOME IN 1880:

Rocky River, Cabarrus, North Carolina

RACE:

White

GENDER:

Female

RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSE:

Wife

MARITAL STATUS:

Married

SPOUSE'S NAME:

F.F. Starns

FATHER'S BIRTHPLACE:

North Carolina

MOTHER'S NAME:

Martha Byram

MOTHER'S BIRTHPLACE:

South Carolina

NEIGHBORS:

View others on page

OCCUPATION:

Keeping House

CANNOT READ/WRITE:

BLIND:

DEAF AND DUMB:

OTHERWISE DISABLED:

IDIOTIC OR INSANE:

View image

HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS:

NAME	AGE
F.F. Starns	51
Mary L. Starns	43
Margaret A. Starns	23
Thomas M. Starns	19
Dalphia A. Starns	10
Georgia A. Starns	7
Fredrick L. Starns	5
Dasie L. Starns	2
Martha Byram	70

The Death Certificate of Frederick Lafayette Starnes, known as "Fate", and shown as a 5 year old in the above census record, gives his mothers maiden name as "Brooms". Of course, the informant was son Silas Grier Starnes, who may not have been completely familiar with his Grandmother's maiden name, just the sound of it, and he also gave both of his father's parents as having been born in South Carolina.

In contrast, the death certificate of daughter Della (or Delphia) A. Starnes McAnnulty, gives her parents as "Fred Starnes" and "Mary Barren", the informant being her daughter, Stella. This 1948 death certificate is in typed print, so there is no mistaking the lettering and granddaughter Stella gives the birthplace of her grandparents as "North Carolina".

The 1936 Death Certificate of their brother, Thomas Mellon Starnes, gives his mother's maiden name as "Mary Byrums" and birthplaces for both parents being in "N. C." with the informant being his son Herbert Phillips Starnes.

The death certificate for eldest daughter, Sarah Alice Starnes Linker, or Mrs. Wiley Monroe Linker, names her parents as F. F. Stearns and Mary Byron.

Oddly, although my Second G-Grandmother Leavy, lived the longest other than one brother, passing in 1939, I've yet to locate a death certificate for her. Either the year is wrong on her tombstone, her name was horribly mangled on the certificate, or she just slipped by without one.

Also missing is daughter Daisy L Starnes who married Joseph M. Herrin. I can not locate her past her 1893 marriage license, but her story does not end there.

So what was Grandma Martha's last name? Byron, Bryson, Byram, Barren?

......the search goes on.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

More than Meets the Eye

Somehow, I got the feeling when I began researching my 3rd great, grandfather, Frederick Fincher Starnes, that there was going to be more to him than meets the eye. Cabarrus County, North Carolina has the wonderful ability to allow research at the Register of Deeds online. Land records, deeds, deeds of trust, plats, mortgages all at the touch of a key. Hence, three and a half pages listing land transactions for Finch and his wives.

Many of them give the locations of where his land was located, which parts he allocated to his children, and parts he leased or rented to unrelated families.

http://www.cabarrusncrod.org/DocumentView.asp?DocumentType=Deed&Instrument=00590286&Close=True

The above is a link to one of these documents, where in 1901, Frederick Fincher Starnes purchases a lot of land on Allison Street, in Concord, North Carolina, which at that time intersected with Beatties Ford Road, which now runs through Huntersville in Mecklenburg County and the Cabarrus County section no longer exists. This lot is described as being in the "Wadsworth Addition" in Concord, which was a subdivision at the time, much like today's housing developments or suburbs.

There was a Colonel John C Wadsworth, who was a Hardware merchant in Concord during this era, co-owner of with N. Felix York. An old Ad in the Concord High School Yearbook hales "York and Wadsworth 'The Old Reliable Hardware Company Since 1885" South Church Street, Concord North Carolina. Their homes were on the elegant North Union Street. Felix York lived at 103 North Union Street and a Mr. J. P. Allison lived at 113 North Union Street. Their homes are featured in the Concord Historic Walking tour. It is supposed that Allison Street was named for Mr. Allison, who founded the Concord Telephone Company. The Wadsworth Addition and Allison Streets must have connected to this neighborhood, and the subdivision named for Col. Wadsworth.

This one purchase was made from Mr. Adam McGenis Hathcock and his wife Mary Jane Linker Hathcock, originally of Stanly County. A. M. Hathcock was the son of Jackson Hathcock and Mary Ann Furr who was born in Furr Township, in Stanly County. They eventually moved to Albemarle, in Stanly County and lastly to Kannapolis, where Mr. Hathcock lived when he died.

As F. F. Starnes would be living in Charlotte in 1902, the next year, I can only suppose he was making real estate investments with his purchases of land in and around Cabarrus and Mecklenburg Counties.

http://www.cabarrusncrod.org/DocumentView.asp?ReturnTo=BookAndPage.asp

F. F. Starnes soon conveys this property to his son Fate, or Frederick Lafayette Starnes, who in 1906 sells a portion of the property to Gibson Mills Manufacturing Company. In this document, the lot is described as being 'one town lot in Ward Number One Concord, NC situated on the North Side of McGill Street between Allison and Harris Streets.

A postcard of Gibson Manufacturing Company

Another deed records the Indenture on March 17, 1903, between F. F. Starnes and his second wife, Abigail D. Starnes of Cabarrus County and the Trustees of the Rocky River Presbyterian Church, namely, J. A. Barnhardt, James P Morrison, S. A. Grier, W. Ed Harris and Edwin Ervin. Quoting the document, "and in consideration of the sum of five dollars to them paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, do by these presents bargain, sell and conveyants said parties of the second part, as each trustee and their sucessors in office, in trust for the use and benefit of the members of said church and their descendents, as a cemetery and burial ground, a certain lot of land situated in on one township, said county, known as Spears Graveyard and being on a parcel of a tract of land owned by said F. F. Starnes and metes and boundaries of said graveyard lot are as follows;". It then gives directions of feet along a stone wall, from one dogwood tree to another until it winds up at a right angle at the "wall to the road leading to Pioneer Mills to said Church."

Rocky River Presbyterian Cemetery. One of several cemeteries asscociated with this church. Many Revolutionary Era citizens are buried here.

Pioneer Mill

The S. A. Grier mentioned in the list of trustees was likely Dr. Samuel Andrew Grier of Harrisburg, Cabarrus County, a Civil War doctor, who continued his medical education after the war and set up office in Harrisburg, near the Starnes's family properties. He was probably a treasured family friend as he would bear two namesakes, in the son of Margaret Leavy Starnes Lemmonds, Samuel Grier Lemmonds and in the son of her brother Fate Starnes, Silas Grier Starnes.

Period Grist Mill

F. F. Starnes operated a Grist Mill on Caldwell Creek near its conjunction with the Rocky River.

Land near Rocky River

This is the document involving the land on Caldwell Creek and Commercial National Bank of Charlotte.

It is going to take some time to pour through all of these land records of sales, purchases, mortgages, leases, gifts and acquisitions of my ancestors. He was certainly mobile and a wheeler dealer. But it's fun finding familiar names in these old documents and puts some color to life of an predecessor.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Abbie's Will: Abigail A D Furr Starnes Starnes Misenheimer.

Abigail D Furr Starnes Starnes Misenheimer was born in August of 1844 to Frederick Furr and Crissie Little Furr of the Rocky River section of Cabarrus County. At the age of 20, on August 7 of 1864, she would marry John C Starnes in Stanly County, just across the county line. He lived near the area now referred to as Locust, North Carolina, on the westernmost border of Stanly County with Cabarrus. John was a Civil War soldier and they were married just a month before Sherman burned Atlanta. The circumstances of John's ability to return home and marry his bride are unknown. Perhaps he was severely injured.

John and Abbie are never shown listed in a census with any children of their own. In the 1870 census, they are shown with 14 year old Adam Shoe in their home, an aparent orphan. Adam was the son of Tobias Shoe, a Civil War Soldier who died during the war. Perhaps he was hired to assist a wounded John.

In the 1880, a 17 year old Daniel Starnes is shown in their home with the relationship 'servant'. He was most likely a relative, a nephew or cousin, hired to give assistance to John. John died on May 2, 1894 and Abbie married his cousin, Frederick Fincher Starnes on June 2, 1894, exactly two months later. That may have been exact protocol for a grieving widow.

In John's estate papers, a 'widow and one child' are mentioned. Nowhere else does a child of John and Abbie show up. By 1894, Abbie is 49 years old. As there was no 1890 census, it was mostly destroyed by fire, the child would have had to be born after the 1880 census, and could have been a young teenager by 1894. As of yet, I have not found a grave for a young Starnes buried near any of the other family members that could be the child of John and Abby. The two young girls buried near Abby, John and F. F. Starnes and his brother N. M. Starnes are the daughters of Nathan Monroe Starnes and his wife Elizabeth, who was Abbie's younger sister. In the 1900 and 1910 censuses, which lists the number of children a woman has had and also the number of those children still living, Abbie is listed as 0 and 0. None born. None Living.

Frederick Fincher Starnes and Abbie had moved to Charlotte, NC to retire, and living first in the Piedmont Park section, near the Elizabeth community, and then she later moved to some property closer to the trolley system, on Arlington in Ward 6, that F. F. had purchased at some point. So, her will was probated in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on March 13, 1925. It had been recorded on October 17, 1924. After the death of F. F. Starnes in 1913, Abigail remained single for 3 years, then later married someone she may have known from her childhood in Cabarrus County, Marion Harrison Misenheimer, whose family had lived close to the Furrs. Although Marion Misenheimer was 9 years her junior, she would outlive him by two years and in 1923, Abigail became a widow for the third and final time.

Most of Abbie's property, she left to nieces and nephews. Some she left to neighbors.

The Will reads: I, Abbigail D. Misenheimer, of the aforesaid county and state, being of sound mind, but considering the uncertainty of my earthly existance (er), do make and declare this my last will and testament:

My Executor, hereinafter named shall give my body a decent burial, suitable to the wishes of my friends and relatives and pay all funeral expenses, together with all my just debts our of the first moneys which may come into his hands belonging to my estate.

I give and devise to Old Meadow Creek Baptist Church $100.00 (note: this Church was known as 'old' at this point in time).

I give and devise to Sallie Cruse, wife of Walter Cruse, $50.00 (note: The Cruse's were next door neighbors of F.F. and Abbie on Sunnyside Drive in Charlotte. Sallie must have been a dear friend.)

I give and devise to George W. Dry my Iron Safe. (George was her nephew and executor)

I give and devise to Missouri Dry, wife of Pink Dry, my Kitchen Cabinet. (Pink was another nephew and brother of George).

I give and devise to Arthur Starnes my big yellow bedstead and sufficient bedding for same. (Note: Arthur Beachum Starnes was the son of N. M. Starnes, her first husbands brother and his wife Elizabeth, Abbie's sister. So he was her double-nephew. )

I give and devise to Silas Starnes my big Rocking Chair (a grandson of second husband F. F. Starnes)

I give and devise to Ely Starnes, son of my deceased sister Elizabeth, the sum of $1.00. (Eli Starnes)

I give and devise to Vick Dry, the son of my deceased sister Rosa Ann Dry, the sum of $1.00 (D. Victor Dry)

My Will and desire is that after paying the above specific legacies my Executor, hereinafter named, shall sell all my real estate, consisting of a house and lot in Charlotte, N.C. a either public or private sale, as to him may seem best, but that my said executor shall not sell said house and lot for less than the sum of $3000.00; that my said Executor shall also sell all the remainder of my household and kitchen furniture and other personal property at either public or private sale, as to him shall seem best.

It is my will and desire that my Executor after paying the specific legacies, hereinbefore devised, and after selling my real and personal property, as hereinbefore directed, shall divide the funds remaining in his hands into equal shares.

I will and devise to my sister, Deemie Cauble, wife of Horace Cauble, one share of my estate for the term of her natural life and at her death to go to her children surviving her. It is my will and desire that my Executor, hereinafter named, shall invest the share of my sister, Deemie Cauble, (Bebie Loudemie Furr Cauble) in some safe and sound security and pay over the interest or dividends to my sister, Deemie Cauble, for the rest of her natural life and at her death, the principle is to go to her children, as herein directed, and the same is to be treated as real estate in the hands of my said exectutor.

I will and devise to Etta Starnes and Nora Starnes, children of my deceased sister, Elizabeth Starnes, one share of my estate to be divided equally between them.

I will and devise to Charlie Rhinehardt, Titus Rhinehardt, Lottie Rhinehardt, , George Rhinehardt, Victor Rhinehardt, and Berry Rinehardt, children of my deceased sister, Mandy Rhinehardt, one share of my estate to be divided equally among them.

I will and devise to Cora Honeycutt, Pierce Rhinehardt, Paul Rhinehardt, and Fronie Rhinehardt, children of my deceased sister, Martha Rhinehardt, one share of my estate to be divided equally among them.

I hereby appoint George W. Dry of Cabarrus County, NC my lawful Executor to all intents and purposes to execute this, my last Will and Testament according to the true intent and meaning of the same and every part and clause thereof-- hereby revoking and declaring utterly void all other testaments by me heretofore made.

In witness hereof, I, the said Abbigail D Misenheimer, do here-unto set my hand and seal this the 17th day of October, 1924

signed Abbigail D Misenheimer

witnesses: M. L. Eudy

Rubye Misenheimer.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Where They lived and Died: Starnes and Lemmonds

The Goose Creek Community, Union County, North Carolina was the original home of the Lemmonds family from which Robert Lemmonds descended. Goose Creek is situated in the North of Union County and bordering Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and the southwestern corner of Stanly County. Union was formed in 1842, one year after Stanly County in 1841, from portions of Anson and Mecklenburg counties. The progenitors of the Lemmonds family, and the branch from which my family came, William Marr Lemmonds and his son John, are listed in records in Mecklenburg County. They likely lived in what was later Goose Creek, the Clear Creek Community of Mecklenburg and modern Mint Hill. William Marr Lemmond was a clerk and a surgeon and served in the Revolutionary War as such. His son John entered as an Ensign and was later promoted to Lieutenant. John's son Robert would have a son named Cyrus Q Lemmonds.

The following is from Lemmonds records.

Cyrus Q. LEMMOND

Cyrus Q. LEMONS, Bugler, Discharged July 31, 1848 by expiration of service. Listed on Muster Roll of Capt. Green W. Caldwell’s Troop (A) of the Third regiment of the U.S. Dragoons, Army of the United States, Colonel E. G. W. Butler. Organized 1847, discharged July 31, 1848.

-C. Q. LEMMOND became a lawyer in 1852 after serving in the Mexican War with his two brothers. He practiced law in Monroe and served in the Legislature from 1858 to the end of the Civil War. His speech to the legislature urging secession was a masterpiece and was widely quoted, even in other states. (Source: Looking Back at Monroe's History, by Virginia A. S. Kendrick, p.11-12.)

-MONROE JOURNAL, Union County, N.C., Tuesday, March 29, 1904: Mr. C. Q. LEMMOND, a Mexican war veteran of this county, living in Goose Creek township, has been granted an increase in his pension of four dollars per month, making [?page torn?] which he now gets. The increase came from Congress by the aid of Senator SIMMONS.

-Index to Mexican War Pension Files by Virgil D. White: Cyrus Q. LEMMMOND. Widow Eliza. Widow’s Certificate (WC-14706l) filed on Apr 8, 1907 & Soldier’s Certificate (SC-8843) both filed in NC; Served in Co. A 3^rd US Dragoons as Bugler.

-Died abt.1906/1907. See mention of his widow (Mrs. Eliza LEMMOND) in the Monroe Journal, Tues. Dec. 2, 1924, p.5, col. 3. Article mentions he was a Mexican War veteran and that his wife was one of the few remaining widows to be receiving pension.

Cyrus would later live in Goose Creek and then Mint Hill. He and Robert Lemmonds are buried at Philadelphia Presbyterian Church within the modern town of Mint Hill.

Frederick Fincher Starnes with his wife Mary L. Byram Starnes first show up in the 1860 census of Union County, North Carolina living in the community of Brief, with their young daughters Alice and Leavy, or Sarah Alice Starnes Linker and Margaret Leavy (or Olivey or Arleavis) Starnes Lemmonds, and next to F. F. Starnes parents Fred and Elizabeth (Betty) Starnes.

The community of Brief in Northern Union County

West Corner of Brief Road and Cabarrus Road near marker labeling area as " Brief".

The Community of Brief within Goose Creek Township is aptly named. It is very brief. Just a crossroads and nothing more. Two businesses and no more than a dozen homes. It is however, surrounded by beautiful rolling hills of farmland where cattle graze and cotton, corn and soybeans are grown. This is where Frederick Fincher Starnes and his first wife Mary Byram Starnes first began housekeeping and where my Great-great grandmother Leavy was born.

Log House in Brief. Could it have belonged to a Starnes family?

East Corner of Brief Road and Cabarrus Road

Street sign at Intersection of Concord Highway and Brief Road

After Mary's death, and the death of several children, Fred F. Starnes would marry the widow of his cousin John S Starnes and they would move into the growing metropolis of Charlotte. Fred was older than his bride, who was childless, and perhaps wanted to please her by moving her to a more populated area with arts, parks, operas, society events, a variety in shopping opportunities and trolleys. Their first residence was on Sunnyside Drive in the Elizabeth section of Charlotte. Fred and Abbie lived in Elizabeth from at least 1905 until 1915, according to the Charlotte Ciry Directories. They may have moved there immediately after their wedding in 1894. The Elizabeth community was named for Anne Elizabeth Watts, whose husband, G. S. Watts had made his fortune in tobacco in Durham. Her son-in-law, Charles King, chose Charlotte as the location for a Lutheran College for Women that opened in 1897. Because the Watts provided a majority of funding for the college President King named it for his mother-in-law.

The Charlotte Evening Chronicle in its April 16, 1910 edition stated the following concerning the Elizabeth community. "The breezes of heaven blow their freshest, the light of the sun is at its brightest, in this favored neighborhood." There is no wonder in why Abbie would have coerced Fred into selling the farmland and move to this neighborhood.

Elizabeth College stayed in Charlotte until 1915, the year the twice widowed Abby would move to Arlington Avenue. It then relocated to Salem, Virginia. The neighborhood had began outside of the Charlotte town limits, but had been annexed in by 1907. It is said elegant Victorian ladies played tennis on the college grounds. The Elizabeth neighborhood, named for the College, became one of the most fasionable and elite sections of Charlotte. Community leaders such as William Henry Belk, founder Belk's Department Stores lived there. A great-granddaughter of Job Davis, whom this blog is named for, Minnie, married into this same Belk family. In December of 1902, a trolley line had been completed that ran from McDowell to Elizabeth College. In 1907, Independence Park, the first Charlotte City Park, opened in the Elizabeth neighborhood. The streetcar line was extended to run down Hawthorne and to the park entrance. Presbyterian Hospital would have her start in this area.
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Victorian home on modern Sunnyside Drive

2012 view of Sunnyside Drive

Sunnyside Drive Victorian, where Fred and Abbie relocated to.

Rocky River Presbyterian Church was the final resting place of Mary Byram Starnes, and the children who died young, Martha, Georgia and perhaps even little John, who only shows up at age 2 in the 1860 census. Rocky River was a very old church and near the river on the Cabarrus side. The range of area where Fred and Mary had raised their family were in several different counties, but not altogether far apart. Brief was in the Northernmost part of Union County, as pictured on the above map. The Rocky River community was just across the river from the Clear Creek Community of Mecklenburg County, but on the Cabarrus County side. Meadow Creek Primitive Baptist Church near Locust, Stanly County is so close to the Cabarrus County line that many of the families buried there were enumerated in both counties in censuses. John S Starnes and his brother Nathan Monroe Starnes, both sons of Nathan T Starnes are buried there. They married sisters, Abigail D Furr and Elizabeth Furr, daughters of Frederick Furr and his wife Christina "Chrissie" Little Furr. Frederick Furr is buried there and this is how Frederick Fincher Starnes, who married his cousin John's widow Abigail Furr Starnes, ended up buried on there. John is buried on one side of Abigail, who would marry a third husband after Fred's death and Fred is buried on her other side.

Martha's tombstone, daughter of F. F. Starnes and Mary.

Rocky River is an ancient and beautiful cemetery

The Restore Session House

The Starnes are buried just the second row past this rock wall

Tombstone of John Wesley Starnes and wife

Fallen Tombstone of Geogia Ann, who lived to be 7.

The view of the Cabarrus section of Rocky River, on which the Starnes family lived and farmed.

Present view of the farmland of this area

Beautiful rolling hills of Southern Cabarrus and Western Stanly

The fertile Rocky River Valley and her amber waves of grain.

Green pastures as fall sets in.

Home in the Rocky River community

Historic structures remain

A creek winding through former family property

In rural Stanly, Union and Cabarrus Counties, Cotton is still King.

Striking red barn beyond a snowy field of cotton.

Restored Home on Sunnyside in Charlotte where Fred and his second wife Abigail moved to after their marriage.

Valley in Stanly County, where Fred and Abbie made their final resting place.

Rocky River Presbyterian Cemetary, founded in 1736

First page of John Starnes estate papers, first name to appear, Fred Starnes

Charlotte area home where Abbie moved after she was widowed a second time.

View of Arlington Ave, only one block of which is left, where Abigail Furr Starnes Starnes Misenheimer moved after her remarriage to her third and final husband, Marion H. Misenheimer.

Arlington Ave off of South Boulevard is nothing more than a one block alley now. In the time of Abbie and her husbands, it led to a Trolley station and was a growing business area.

South Boulevard, and Arlington Avenue, during the later years of Abigail Starnes time there.

Abbie Sterns
Gender:	F (Female)
Residence Year:	1905
Street Address:	Sunnyside
Residence Place:	Charlotte, North Carolina
Spouse:	Fred F Sterns
Publication Title:	Walsh's Charlotte, North Carolina City Directory

After the death of Frederick Starnes, Abigail was no longer a childless lady in her middle years hungry for the arts and cultures, but an elderly lady looking for the easiest way and shortest distance to get where she needed to go. She and her third husband, Marion H. Misenheimer, whom she probably had known since childhood, due to growing up in the same area of Cabarrus County, moved out of the beautiful Elizabeth community into the Southern part of Charlotte, at the time, known then as the 6th ward.

Abagail D Misenheimer
Gender:	F (Female)
Residence Year:	1917
Street Address:	1500 Arlington av
Residence Place:	Charlotte, North Carolina
Spouse:	Marion Misenheimer
Publication Title:	Charlotte, N. C. City and Suburban Directory

During the early part of the 1900's and into the 1920's, this area was a growing area of industry. In 1901, Charlotte Pipe and Foundry opens on South Boulevard between Park and Renselaer. In 1905, the first Pepsi bottling franchise begins there. In 1906, the first air conditioning manufacturing plant, Parks & Cramer opens there. By 1911, Edward Dilworth Latta has invited Frederick L Olmstead, Jr. to design the area called Dilworth, and Myers Park, using a new idea in landscape design called naturalistic suburban planning. In 1914, the Charlotte Machine Company is founded by Egbert Gribble. Into the 1920's, hosiery mills and other manufacturing ventures, as well as the new Lance Snack Packaging company has been built along South Boulevard. Young farm kids, disenchanted with life on the farm, and looking for the excitement, nightlife and mass transit of the city, flock into this area of Charlotte to find work in all of the available factories. Abigail, however, may have just wanted to be close to the trolley's and streetcars.

Present view of Abigail's last neighborhood in Charlotte, one she could never have imagined.

Mathews.

Robert Lemmonds, known as Bob, would marry Leavy Starnes, daughter of Frederick F and Mary Byron Starnes. Moving away from the Clear Creek and Mint Hill area, he would settle in the tiny town of Mathews, a point between Monroe and Charlotte. Mathews began as a community called Stumptown, because farmers who first invaded the area cut the thick timber so fast, they left a sea of stumps. In 1825, a man named John Miles Fullwood established the first post office in Stumptown and the Postal Service addressed mail sent there to Fullwood Station. Soon the town would be known simply as Fullwood. By 1874, the first train would come to Fullwood and the Railroad would rename the stop Mathews in honor of company director, Edward W. Mathews.

Renfrow-Lemmonds house, one of the oldest original homes in Mathews.

Historic Renfrow Hardware Building, Mathews

Mathews Town Hall

Lemmonds land near Mint Hill.

The original plantation of the Lemmonds family was located near the modern community of Mint Hill on the Cabarrus Road, that crossed through the tiny community of Brief, in Union County. There is now a modern housing development along this road called Lemmond Acres.