Page 251 March 1837, Daniel Freeman and wife to Allen Huckabee, Thomas Biles, Parham Smith, John Smith, and Archibald Smith, Trustees in trust for the use and purposes hereinafter mentioned - $1.00 - Lot - "Laid out for Stoney Hill Church" - they shall erect and build thereon a house or place of worship for the use of members of the M. E. Church ---- and in further trust and confidence, that they shall at all times forever thereafter furnish such ministers and preachers belonging to the said Church or by the annual conference authorized by the General Conference to preach and expound God's Holy Word therein".
Witnesses: Arthur F. Atkins, Richard D. Biles
Signed: Daniel Freeman, Martha Freeman.
The above deed is but one of several documents that prove to reify my theory of my Smith origins, their comingled connections to my Atkins and Freeman ancestors, and how small the world was in Stanly County, NC, two hundred years ago or so.
The Biles withstanding, who came from Rowan County, NC, to this area, most of these names can hang in some place on the family tree. The Smiths named are sons or grandsons of one William Smith, who is an eidolon of the misty past, I've not claimed a full grasp of. This includes Martha Smith Freeman, who signed with her husband, merchant Daniel Freeman. The Freeman name carries over to Rev. Arthur Freeman Atkins, with his harrier appellation, carrying the name of my sixth Great Grandfather, Arthur Freeman, as his first two given names and Atkins, the surname of a female ancestor who married a Palmer, whose daughter married a Davis and became my third great grandmother.
Rev. Arthur Freeman Atkins is all over my ancient family records like the scars of a measles survivor. Our co-ancestor, Arthur Freeman of Brunswick County, Virginia, bled sons and daughters to the North Carolina Piedmont. Two daughters married Atkins, most of whom further migrated West and South, one being the mother of Rev. A. F. Atkins, and a nephew of my Great Great Great Grandmother Martha "Patsy" Atkins, who married James Palmer. Two daughters married Winfield brothers, Jemima, who stayed in Virginia with her husband Joshua, and Charlotte, who married Peter and moved to the Rocky River area, bringing daughter, Sarah, who also married a Davis.
The crossing of paths, and genetics are numerous.
There's an old standing rumor about merchant Daniel Freeman, who was not only one of the earliest merchants in Albemarle, but also in Lawrenceville, in Montgomery County, the county seat of the two counties, when they were one, before the founding of Albemarle. The story was that he was the nephew of my ancestor, Charlotte Freeman Winfield, son of one of her brothers, and therefore, also a grandson of Arthur Freeman and wife, Agnes Stokes. I believe Henry Freeman was the name most often quoted, but I can't be sure. I've found no proof of this, but there's a great deal of circumstancial evidence, and it's certainly plausible.
Then there's the veridical existence and roots of the Stony Hill Church. A very early congregation began on the Yadkin -PeeDee River in what was then Montgomery County called 'The Mouth of the Uwharrie Baptist Church '. This church was founded by an old Scottish Minister named William McGregor, an ancestor of mine. His daughter, Ava McGregor, married Bennett Solomon, of Franklin County, NC, also a minister. This congregation would become Stony Hill, although they switched from Baptist to Methodist. The old church was located in Tindallsville, which no longer exists, but was just down the way from the restored home of Dr. Francis Kron, who purchased his home from Rev. McGregor. The graves of both of these men, and the properties, are within the current boundaries of Morrow Mountain State Park.
Ava McGregor Solomon followed most of her children to Henry County, Tennessee, where she is buried. One son and two married daughters remained in Stanly County, NC. The son, another minister, William, married Tabitha Marks and their daughter, Margaret, would marry a Mauldin. A few generations later, her Mauldin granddaughter would marry a Davis and become my grandparents. That Davis was a descendant of James Palmer who married Patsy Atkins and his Mauldin wife was a descendant of Mary Smith who married James Mauldin. Back in a circle to the family of this mystical, magical William Smith.
