Adam

It was the fall of 1844 in the fledgling 

 County of Stanly in the State of North Carolina and a young boy, of about twelve years old had been ordered to be brought to court.

Ordered by the Court that the Sheriff bring Adam Springer, a Bastard child to the next term of this Court to be bound out according to law.

And again, months later, in another term of Court, the Sheriff was again ordered to bring Adam Springer, son of Barbary Springer, to court to be bound out, according to law. Altogether, there were three orders of this kind issued involving the boy, Adam Springer.

So who was Adam, and his mother, Barbary?

Barbara Springer, nicknamed Barbara, was the daughter of George and Sylvia, or Sylvania, Springer. She was a sister of Lewis Springer who was mentioned in my last post. Born about 1800, Barbara would have been around 32 years old when Adam was born. His father remains unknown. 

Barbara's father died around 1830, and in 1847, her mother wrote a Will shortly before she died, entreating that her single, living, daughter be cared for and left with provisions.

Three years after the death of her mother, Barbara is found living in the home of her sister and brother-in-law, Joshua and Sarah Springer Burris.

Another Barbara was in the home at the time, Barbara Revels, a free person of color, as the year was 1850 and non-free persons were not listed by name. She was labeled black, but knowing that Revels is a common surname among the indigenous people of Eastern North Carolina, it's highly likely she was a Native American woman, possibly multi-racial. I have knowledge that a handful of Native persons had moved west on a temporary basis, as by this time, the surviving tribes were trying to assimilate into the dominant culture.

Barbara would be found living with her sister in the 1860 and 1870 census records. In the 1880 census, she was not to be found, leading to the assumption she died during the 1870's. 

What about Adam? There was never a mention of whom he was bound out to, if he ever was. 

The same year that he was ordered to be brought to court, Adam was a chain carrier, along with his Uncle Dempsey Springer, in a land grant for George W. H. Springer, for 100 acres that met the property of Dempsey Springer and John Perry, who was an Uncle by marriage, having married his aunt, Margaret Springer. George W. H. Springer may have been a son of Dempsey Springer, as he ends up in Georgia, where Dempsey would remove to in the next year or so, and fights in the War there.

At the estate sale of his grandmother, Silvia Springer, Adam, now 15, buys a dish, perhaps just to have something to remember her by. It seems as if his mother's family embraced him and took care of him. At some point he recieved an education and the training of a tailor. He may have been a apprentice to a local tailor,

Name	Adam Springer
Gender	Male
Race	White
Residence Age	18
Birth Date	abt 1832
Birthplace	North Carolina
Residence Date	1850
Home in 1850	Wadesboro, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Occupation	Tailor
Industry	Apparel and Accessories Stores, Except Shoe
Attended School	Yes
Line Number	20
Dwelling Number	10
Family Number	10

Household members

Name	Age
John Q McPhurson	43
Martha McPhurson	41
Adam Springer	18
Franklin Willoughby	18
Mary A McPhurson	19
Henryetta McPhurson	14
William D McPhurson	10

because in the 1850 census, he and Franklin Willoughby, 18, were living in the home of John Q McPherson, also a tailor, and appear to have been working for him as assitants, in the town of Wadesboro.

As a young man about town in the thriving southern city of Wadesboro in the 1850's, Adam began to establish himself and appears to have been well thought of and respected. He witnessed a number of legal transactions, including a tranaction between J. C. Purvis and J.P. Smith where he acknowledged the payment  in full for "Christian and Milly". Also, the gift of property from Francis Locke, of Stanly County, for love and affection, to his grandsons, William Locke Kendall and John Alexander Kendall.

On the second day of December, 1853, Adam Springer, of Anson County, pruchased his own lot in the Town of Wadesboro, at the age of 21. The purchase was made from William P. Jennings, of the County of Baker, Georgia via his attorney, Richard A. Caldwell, of Anson. The tract was of one acre on the corner of Green and Wade Street and bordered that of Walter R. Leak and near Jennigs Store House. He paid $600 for the lot. 

Later that month, on December 28, 1853, his lot is mentioned in the sale of Martha Morgan of Baker County, Georgia, via her attorney, Mr. Caldwell again, to Eli Freeman, of the lot next to Adam's.

On February 2nd, 1854, Adam Springer sold his lot to B.C. Hutchinson and Matthew Ballard for $600.

And just a few short months later, at the tender age of 22, Adam Springer was gone.

We aren't told what took the young life of Adam Springer, or where his body was laid to rest. In his brief life and in spite of  the circumstances of his birth, Adam Springer was proving to be an enterprising and 'useful' young man, as those of his time would have called him. His mothers family embraced him, raised him, and prepared him for life. A life that deserves acknowlegement.

Carr's Mountain

One of my current research projects is to locate the unknown "Mountains" listed in old deeds and papers of Stanly County. I, and every other person in Stanly County, have been living among these old hills for as long as we have dwelt here, and most people don't even acknowledge the ones outside of Morrow Mountain State Park, and few, if any, know their names.

Their names and locations have been lost to time.

Since I have been on my quest to find these mountains, I am now seeing them everywhere. I can crest a hill coming down 24/27 eastward towards Albemarle, and I see them in the distance. Every time I cross the square in Albemarle, I look westward and see Lowder Mountain. As I come down the North East connector, and crest a hill, I look across in the distance and see Shepherds Mountain. As I cruise the rolling hills and twisting highways of old StanCo, I'm seeing mountains in the distance, everywhere. And they were there the whole time.

One of the mountains I've been attempting to locate is Carr Mountian.

It was with a bit of luck, that I found an article to give me a hint on the location of Carr's Mountain.





The Enterprise
(Albemarle, North Carolina)19 Feb 1903, Thu  • Page 3


From this article. I assumed that Carr Mountain was located in the area of Shankle, which was a community south of Norwood, in the pennisula formed by the forks of the Rocky and PeeDee rivers and was one of the most fertile land in the area and drew some of the earliest settlers.

In the reports of the earliest academies of education in Stanly County, it was reported that on February 9, 1893, the North Carolina General Assembly passed an act to incorporate Carr Academy in Norwood, NC, with 26 trustees.




The Concord Times 
(Concord, North Carolina)26 Jan 1893, Thu  •  Page 3


Carr is not a name I was familiar with, so who was this Carr person or family, who had not only an Academy named for them, but a mountain, and where exactly is Carr Mountain?




Also looking for a Shankle Mountain, where Victorian teens from Norwood and the surrounding area loved to go hiking have picnics, I had learned that Shankle Mountain was in the vicinity of Norwood, but outside of Norwood, not in it. I also learned that Shankle Mountain was not in Shankle, but north of Norwood.






Shankle is the pennisula between the Pee Dee and Rocky Rivers as you get to the forks. Historically, it's been revered as one of the most fertile areas of the county.




Shankle remains a remote, but populated area. Covered in soybean fields and corn fields, with happy horses tossing their manes in multiple pastures, Shankle is an area of immense agrarian beauty.








I perused old maps and found that several of the family names that populated the area around the turn of the century (1880 to 1920) still populate the area at the most recent turn of the century (1980 to present). In the old 1916 map, Shankle Road veered left, or west and led down to the old Dunlap Ferry that crossed the Rocky River. This road is still populated by Shankles, and has several dead end roads branching off of it, as they hit water at every side. This is the road that the historic William Wall house was located on, and from what I can determine, was purchased and still owned by a Mabry family. The Mabrys are another family found on the 1913 map, so they have occupied Shankle for over a century.





Up the road before it got down to the old Wall house, another road branched off to the East. I believe this is now what is called Fork Road and cut between the homes of Killis Almond  and Joe Almond on the 1913 map. This led to the old Almond Ferry that crossed the Pee Dee River.

Fork Stables, a beautiufl place, occupies this area now. The Horse trials there have been a quite popular event for Stanly County.

Photo courtesty of Visit Stanly County

Up the road a little further on the 1913 is a Loop Road that loops out toward the Pee Dee side of the pennisula and reconnects with Shankle Road. I believe this is now called "Old Thompson Road", however, no Thompsons were listed on it in 1913. Instead, Jones Howell, Adam Mabry and W. A. Hough lived there.

Up the road still lived a Cap Lowder, and the railroad ran up above his place and headed out toward the dam. Near there was what looked like no more than a dirt path, as it did not have the markings of a road and a place called "Old Brick Yard" was located there.

End of state maintained part of Shankle Road. Ahead, the mouth of the Rocky River before it joins the waters of the Pee Dee

Shankle or Shankle Grove, as it was collectively known, had dwindled already by the turn of the century, as the town of Norwood had grown, but around the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction as Allenton had turned to not much more than a ghost town and Center had become Norwood in its infancy, Shankle was a center of commerce, agriculture, education and civilization. It boasted a churches, a school, industry, an academy and some of the best crops around.


But the one thing I did not find in Shankle was a mountain. That was because Car's Mountain or Carr Mount, as it was also called, was not in Shankle, was not even in Stanly County, but instead, was within the town of Wadesboro, in Anson County.



The Messenger and Intelligencer
(Wadesboro, North Carolina)14 Aug 1911, Mon  • Page 3


Carr Mountain was the site that George Singleton chose to build his Silk Mill,  a progressive engagement and ground-breaking industry for the time. The Mill led to growth in the town of Wadesboro, in more ways than one. Investors from northern towns arrived, looking to make a profit with the cheap laborin the  non-union South, a trend that would extend well into the lifetimes of living persons.








In this 1940 map of Wadesboro, within the sideways triangle, is an empty spot in the northwest quadrant. Within that quadrant, it say "Silk Mill area" and the letter A is encircled there. The letter "A" marks Car's Mountain.

https://www.portercalls.com/singleton_silk_mill.htm


The above link gives a very thorough history of the Singleton Silk Mill. So there ends my search for Carr Mountain. It was not in Stanly County. But Shankle Mountain was.....

The Foretelling: The Bad Murray Blood.

I've mentioned often the Murray bad temperament that seemed to weave in and out among generations. How a kind and Christian father in this family gene pool could have a temperamental, and unscrupulous, even cruel son.




Old Ben Murray of Tyson Community in Southern Stanly County, was recorded as being one of the latter. His son Edmond, known as by both surnames of Murray and Coley, was one of the former. As was, presumably his son Jesse II, named for Ben's father, Jesse I. But in the grandsons the Murray fury raged.

 Alexander, son of Edmond, was known for his anger and hostile temperament, while his brothers John and Ben, not so much. The same could be said for Jesse II's son Benjamin P. Murray, while the youngest son John M. Murray, born during that deathly Murray trip to Arkansas that old Ben took his family on, was without doubt a manifest of the bad blood gene.

He had been born at th onset of the Civil War in Arkansas and had returned to Stanly County,NC with his grandmother by 1867.  Arkansas had taken his Grandfather, Ben Murray Sr., his parents, Jesse Murray II and mother Jenny Poplin Murray, his uncle by marriage, Henry Hudson and cousins, James Washington "Wash" Turner and Wesley Murray. Wash and Wesley actually had remained in Arkansas and passed away after Martha's return. Old Ben's widow, Martha "Patsy" Ross Murray had returned with her widowed daughter Rebecca Murray Hudson and Becky's daughter Mary Elizabeth Hudson, who like John was born in Arkansas. She brought back John and his two siblings, Mary Ann Murray and Benjamin P. Murray, who were born in Stanly County before the trip. They were afterwards raised by their mother's people, the Poplins.

The story of John Monroe Murray is an interesting one to tell, and this post will be followed by more of that.

The following article tells a bit of his caustic and cruel personality, that led to his ultimate fate.


The Farmer and Mechanic
(Raleigh, North Carolina)23 Jan 1884, Wed • Page 3



This article, from 1884, tells the story of John Murray, from whose swagger and attitude wholy tells us that he was most likely a good-lookin and arrogant young man. His behavior from start to finish reminds me of that of a narcissist. He had promised to marry this young lady and all of the arrangements had been made. Then he never showed up. 



Instead, it was learned that he had taken up with a Union county girl and had taken off to South Carolina the night before to be married, "without license" the article noted. The article doesn't name the jilted girl, it only states that she was from White Store, a community near the North Carolina - South Carolina border in the Southwestern most corner of the county. 

Name:	John Murray
Age:	17
Birth Date:	Abt 1863
Birthplace:	Arkansas
Home in 1880:	Wadesboro, Anson, North Carolina, USA
House Number:	145
Dwelling Number:	274
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Marital Status:	Single
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation:	Laborer
Cannot Write:	Yes
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age John Murray 17

In the 1870 census, John and his older sister are living in Stanly County with his maternal grandmother and uncle, while his brother, Ben, is living with another uncle. In 1880, he is in Anson County, age 17 and working for a man named Asbury Bailey. It may have been one of Baily's daughters that was the jilted bride. We don't know. But what we do know is that in 1884, he married Willie Henrietta Horne, daughter of William Bennett Horne, who died a year after her birth in the Civil War, and Mary Adeline Green Horne, who remarried to William James Thomas. And from all indications, she grew up in Anson County. 

J. M. Murray and Henrietta had 4 children between 1885 and 1890 and he remained in Wadesboro and learned the ins and outs of being a businessman from L. J. Huntley. From 1893 to 1900, he made several purchases of property. Some on Carr Mount Road near the silk mill, and the intersection with the Salisbury - Cheraw Road, and others on Rutherford Street. 


Below is another story of how the bad attitude and mean mouth of John Monroe Murray nearly got him killed. 




The Messenger and Intelligencer
(Wadesboro, North Carolina)20 Oct 1898, Thu  • Page 3


That could have been the end of J. M. Murray, but his time was not up...not yet. Murray came away with a broken arm and Robinson came away with jail time, but that bad Murray blood kept J. M. from learning a thing. He would, in time, meet his match in the form of a 14 year old boy. 

Sentimental Sunday: For the Love of Patrick Ramsey

Sometimes stories of the heart make the most endearing news. The following article from the July 18, 1912 edition of "The Montgmerian", out of Troy, North Carolina, was one of those warm and fuzzy stories, with a dash of melancholy.




It struck a chord with me first, because the surname of the individual in the clip was one I have been researching, Ramsey, due to my ancestors Samuel Ramsey and his father Starky or "Stark" Ramsey.

The gentleman's name was Patrick Ramsey, and was from Anson County, North Carolina.

Patrick was born in the Gulledges section of Anson County in 1863 or 1864 to Holcomb Ramsey and his wife Harriett Bennett Ramsey. The Ramsey's had a large family that spanned several generations, as Mr. Ramsey had children born while he was in his 60's. The object of Patrick Ramsey's unrequited attention was Miss Eliza Tillman, who was also born in Gulledge, nearly two decades later, to Mr. Henry Sidney Tillman and his wife, Sophia Bennett Tillman.




Having been struck by the heartfelt endurance and hope in Patrick persistent love for his "crush" Eliza, I decided on a whim, to see if I could find out anything about the couple through records.


Patrick, born around 1863 or 1864, first shows up in the 1870 census as a 6 year old son, in the home of "H" and Harriett Ramsey. Having first found Patrick later in life and working backwards, I knew that the H stood for Halcomb, as his parents were listed on other records as "Haltomb", "Malcolm" or "Hartman" Ramsey and wife Harriett. They always managed to get the Harriett right, but had problems with his father's name. His Mother's maiden name was Bennett.

Name	Age
H Ramsay	70
Harriet Ramsay	55
Jane Ramsay	18
Ralph Ramsay	17
Alis Ramsay	16
Delie Ramsay	12
Nancy Ramsay	10
Lee Ramsay	8
Patrick Ramsay	6
Cross Ramsay	9

Patrick loved not only Eliza Tillman in life. As a young man, he had married Miss Mary A. Horne. He was 22 and she was 21, the daughter of Cindy Horne.

Name:	Patrick Ramsey
Gender:	Male
Race:	Colored (Black)
Age:	22
Birth Year:	abt 1864
Marriage Date:	30 Dec 1886
Marriage Place:	Anson, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Malcom Ramsey
Mother:	Ramsey
Spouse:	Mary A Horne
Spouse Gender:	Female
Spouse Race:	Colored (Black)
Spouse Age:	21
Spouse Mother:	Sindy Horne
Event Type:	Marriage

Patrick Ramsey had been fortunate enough to find a good job. He worked on the railroad. It allowed him to travel and support his wife. In 1900, he was boarding in Chester, South Carolina. As Anson County is on the SC/NC line, people crossing the border was no more unusual than being found in the next town. 

Name:Pat Ramsey
[Patt Pansey] Age:37

Birth Date:Oct 1862

Birthplace:North Carolina

Home in 1900:Chester, Chester, South Carolina

Race:Black

Gender:Male

Relation to Head of House:Boarder

Marital Status:Married

Marriage Year:1897

Years Married:3

Father's Birthplace:North Carolina

Mother's Birthplace:North Carolina

Occupation:View on Image

Neighbors:View others on page

Household Members:

Name	Age
Andrew Darby	54
Mary E Darby	48
Camelia Darby	32
Roxie Darby	21
Arthur Darby	17
Leander Darby	13
Macey Darby	10
Pat Ramsey	37

1910 found him in all liklihood in Roanoke, Virginia. He must have worked for a North to South line. 

Name:	Patrick Ramsey
Age in 1910:	53
Birth Year:	abt 1857
Birthplace:	Virginia
Home in 1910:	Roanoke Kimball Ward, Roanoke (Independent City), Virginia
Race:	Black
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Marital Status:	Widowed
Father's Birthplace:	Virginia
Mother's Birthplace:	Virginia
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Patrick Ramsey 53

Eliza Tillman also grew up in the Gulledges area of Anson County. In the 1880 census, she is shown as a child, surround by a number of families named "Little", which was the same situation for Patrick in 1870.

Name:	Eliza J. Tillman
Age:	7
Birth Year:	abt 1873
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1880:	Gulledges, Anson, North Carolina
Race:	Mulatto
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Daughter
Marital Status:	Single
Father's name:	Henry Tillman
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's name:	Sophy Tillman
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Occupation:	On Farm
Cannot read/write: Blind: Deaf and Dumb: Otherwise disabled: Idiotic or insane:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age Henry Tillman 44 Sophy Tillman 34 George Tillman 10 Eliza J. Tillman 7 William S. Tillman 3 Henry Tillman 4m

This census gives her a birth year of 1873, about 10 years younger than her marriage license. But the parents are correct. Maybe Miss Tillman was shaving a bit off of her age as women had a tendancy to do in these records. 

Eliza had been on her own in 1900, working as a servant to a Hardware dealer, Mr. Plunkett. 

Name:Eliza Tillman

Birthplace:North Carolina

Home in 1900:Wadesboro, Anson, North Carolina

Race:Black

Gender:Female

Relation to Head of House:Head

Marital Status:Single

Father's Birthplace:North Carolina

Mother's Birthplace:North Carolina

Occupation:View on Image

Neighbors:View others on page

Household Members:

Name	Age
Eliza Tillman

After the newspaper article in July of 1912, maybe Miss Tillman, 20 years younger than poor Patrick, was moved by his persistence. They were married on July 9, 1912. Eliza was the daughter of  Sidney and Sophia Tillman. 

Name:	Patrick Ramsey
Gender:	Male
Race:	Colored (Black)
Age:	50
Birth Year:	abt 1862
Marriage Date:	9 Jul 1912
Marriage Place:	Anson, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Hartman Ramsey
Mother:	Harriet Ramsey
Spouse:	Eliza Tillman
Spouse Gender:	Female
Spouse Race:	Colored (Black)
Spouse Age:	30
Spouse Father:	Sidney Tillman
Spouse Mother:	Sophia Tillman
Event Type:	Marriage

Sadly, Patrick and Eliza's marriage did not last long. In 1915, at the age of 52, Patrick died of Bright's Disease. His death certificate records his as being a railroad worker and being married. 

Name:	Patrick Ramsey
Gender:	Male
Race:	Black
Age:	52
Birth Date:	1863
Birth Place:	Anson, North Carolina, United States
Death Date:	23 Jul 1915
Death Location:	Wadesboro, Anson
Father's name:	Hal Kum Ramsey
Mother's name:	Harriet Bernnett

So what happened to Eliza after Patrick's death? She remarried to a Mr. John Allen, about a year later. 

Name:	John Allen
Birth Date:	1876
Age:	40
Spouse's Name:	Eliza Ramsey
Spouse's Birth Date:	1881
Spouse's Age:	35
Event Date:	05 Sep 1916
Event Place:	Wadesboro, Anson, North Carolina
Race:	Black
Spouse's Race:	Black

. 

Name:	John Allen
Gender:	Male
Race:	Col
Age:	40
Birth Year:	abt 1876
Marriage Date:	5 Sep 1916
Marriage Place:	Anson, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Bob Allen
Mother:	Emma Turner
Spouse:	Eliza Ramsey
Spouse Gender:	Female
Spouse Race:	Col
Spouse Age:	35
Spouse Father:	Sidney Tillman
Spouse Mother:	Tillman
Event Type:	Marriage

The name of Eliza's father, Sidney Tillman, assures that this was the right Eliza Ramsey. She was not Mr. Allen's first wife, nor was she his last. 

Eliza's marriage to John Allen ended on November 20, 1918, when at the age of 45, she died of uterine cancer. Both of her marriages lasted about 2 years each. There is no indication that either she nor Patrick Ramsey, had any children. John Allen did, however, amongst his several marriages.

Name:	Eliza Allen [Eliza Tillman]
Gender:	Male
Race:	Black
Age:	45
Birth Date:	abt 1873
Birth Place:	Anson, North Carolina, United States
Death Date:	20 Nov 1918
Death Location:	Wadesboro Township, Anson
Father's name:	Sidney Tillman
Mother's name:	Sophia Tillman

Note: On the actual death certificate, the "fe" in front of female is smeared, so the transcriber was not paying a great deal of attention to what they were doing. The parents of Eliza are correct and a male would not have uterine cancer. 

So with that, in just a few short years, ended the love story of Patrick and Eliza. he spent the last few years of his life, from July 1912 until his death in 1915, married to the love of his life. To the lady he had proposed to 10 times with an answer of "No" the first 9, and finally a "Yes".