The Curse of Bitter Rain

Bashie Whitley, grandchildren of Nancy Hatley Whitley

When Hardy Whitley lost his life on April 25th, 1864, during the Civil War, he left behind a widow and two children. These were the grandchildren of Nancy Whitley whom I have yet to cover.  I have recently posted on Nancy in my post, Nancy of Stillwater Creek. Hardin, or Hardy for short, had enlisted in Company H 42nd Infantry of the Confederate Army, on May 10, 1862, where he obtained the rank of Seargeant. He fought valiantly until he entered sick at the hospital in Wilmington, NC and did not make it out, passing away at 28 years of age. This is the story of who he left behind.

Above is shown the first record that I have found of Hardy Whitley. His mother, Nancy, is a 60 year old widow, sister Mary is 21, Hardy is 15, William Pinkney is 13 and Zachary Taylor is 12. All three of the boysin this household will fight in the Civil War. Only William Pinkney will survive, and move to Iredell County with his sister, Mary. Even Taylor will enlist during the last fleeting days of it, only to lose his life at 16. 

Yes, it says "Hatley", but they were Whitleys. It was not a transcription error. It actually says "Hatley". My theory is that Nancy gave her maiden name, misunderstanding the census takers question, and he ran with it, naming the whole family as Hatley's. I also believe Nancy was the widow of Isham Whitley. It only makes sense. They lived next to Alfred and Tempy Ledbetter. Their property also connected to Hezekiah Whitley, the brother of Isham Whitley.

One person who actually was a Hatley was Hardy Whitley's future wife, Basheba "Bashie" Hatley. Above, she was in the home of her father, Wyley or Wiley Hatley. Her mother, Martha "Maza" Harwood Hatley, had already passed away. With Bashie, here at 18, was older sister Telitha Tildy Hatley and younger brother, Hardy. Her grandfather was a Hardy, her brother was a Hardy and her husband was a Hardy. Lots of Hardys, and believe it or not, lots of Basheba's. The name Bathsheba, Basheba, or Barsheba, biblical, but rare, is also found several times in this family. Her uncle, Hasten Hatley Sr. married a Basheba Harwood and even Hezekiah Whitley would name a daughter Basheba. Hezekiah also named a son Hardy. There were lots of connections between these families not uncovered yet.

By 1860 Hardy and Basheba were married and listed under the correct name. They have a three year old son named James. The next year they will have a daughter named Eva. Below them are listed Hardy's mother, Nancy and his siblings in the next household. The war would change anything. 

Basheba Hatley Whitley does not appear in the 1870 census, that I can find. They missed a great number of people that year, from what I've seen. This is not the only family from the Big Lick area that I've not been able to locate in 1870. What I did find of her existence in that decade is her name in a taxable list of the Whitley's in her District, Number 8, for 1967. Also listed was Allison Whitley and his son, Noah, or N. A. Whitley, Green Deberry, or G. D., Columbus Whitley, M. E. Whitley, Elizabeth and Bathsheba. 

What we do know is that Bathsheba was deceased by February 3, 1873.  John Brooks appeared before Judge of Probate, J. M. Redwine and swore that Bashie had died intestate and that he was the proper person to receive the letters of Administration for her estate of about $150 and that she had left two heirs, James Whitley and Evy Ann Whitley. At this time, James would have been about 15 and Evy Ann, 12.

In the 1880 census, Evie Ann Whitley is found in Big Lick Township, at 18, in the home of John Brooks. For relationship, it says Orphan and for occupation, house keeper. Where was her brother? He would be an adult by then.

On the 10th of February, 1877, John Brooks paid $1.00 for letters as the guardian of James and Evy Ann Whitley, minors, so they both lived there at the time.

On January 3, 1878, Dr. R. A. Anderson billed the James Whitley estate for $9.75 for medical assistance during James's sickness. So sometime, probably in late 1877. young James Whitley died of an unknown illness, not long after his mother. He would have been about 20 years old. It is unknown where James and Basheba Whitley are buried. As Bashie was a Hatley, the  Hatley Grove Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery would make sense, or even perhaps the Riley Austin Cemetery. Both have graves either unmarked or with disentegrated, illegible stones.

On February 28, 1878, Hardy Hatley made a claim on the estate of James Whitley for $30.00 keeping him and $8.00 for clothing purchased for him. This would have been Hardy, the brother of Basheba, two years younger than she. It appears Hardy had custody of James at some point.

On April 8, 1898, twenty years later, Evey Austin received from John W. Austin $130.00, 'payment due me by him as my Guardian from the estate of Hardy Whitley or Basha Whitley" She released him as her guardian and Riley H. Austin as surety on the guardian bond. Eva Ann was 37. Why did she need a guardian at this point? As one may have guessed, Evey had married JohnW. Austin.

John Brooks served as the executor for both Basheba and her son, James Whitley The reciepts shown above.

I've mentioned the Riley H. Austin family in a few of my last posts. His was also an associated family and neighbor to the Whitley family I have been researching. His son, John, shown as 14 above, would marry the one surving Whitley in the Hardy Whitley family, Eva Ann.

J. T. Turner applied for the license for the marriage of J. W. Austin, 21, son of R. H. and Elizabeth Austin, both living, and Evey Ann Whitley, 19, daughter of Hardy and Basheby Whitley, both deceased, on December 20th, 1880, just months after she is shown as living with the John Brooks family. The wedding took place in Tyson at the Turner residence. Minty Turner was one of the witnesses.

John Wesley Austin

Over the course of the next twenty years, John W. Austin and Eva Ann Whitley Austin would bring nine children into the world. They lost a son, James Benton Austin, at  the age of one year, 4 months and 9 days old in 1896. He was buried in the Riley H. Austin cemetery, his grandfather's property.

Name	Evie Austin
Age	41
Birth Date	Mar 1859
Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Home in 1900	Big Lick, Stanly, North Carolina
House Number	8
Sheet Number	14
Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation	261
Family Number	263
Race	White
Gender	Female
Relation to Head of House	Wife
Marital Status	Married
Spouse's Name	Jno Austin
Marriage Year	1882
Years Married	18
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina, USA
Mother: number of living children	8
Mother: How many children	9
Can Read	N
Can Write	N
Can Speak English	Y
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Jno Austin	40
Evie Austin	41
Lula Austin	17
Rufus Austin	16
Thomas Austin	14
Mollie Austin	12
Henry Austin	10
Jonah Austin	4
Mary Austin	2/12
Lucy Austin	2/12

John and Evie appeared in the 1900 census, in Big Lick Township, with their eight remaining children. Evie, at 38, had just given birth to twin girls, Mary and Lucy, two months prior. This is the second census she appeared in, and her last. The age of 41 here was incorrect. A few of her mother's brothers lived nearby.

Eva Ann Whitley Austin passed away on May 25, 1900 just after the census was taken. Her twins passed away near the same time, probably for lack of the mother, or either of the same illness. She was 38 years old.

The next decade after Evey's death, John W. Austin carried on in Big Lick.  A few of his children married. He had a 7-year-old granddaughter in the home named Hattie. This was the child of oldest daughter Lula. Lula would marry a Honeycutt and her daughter would go by Hattie Mae Huneycutt the rest of her life. But children grow and dipserse.

A peak at the surviving children in 1920, twenty years past their mothers death revealed that:

- Lula had married Thomas Huneycutt and was living on McSwain Mill Road in New Salem, Union County, and now had five children.

- Thomas C. Austin married Ella Sloop and moved to Concord, Cabarrus County, living on Allsion Street and working in a Cotton Mill.

- Rufus Austin has married Arianna Isabella Hatley and was living on the Oakboro & Rocky River Road in Big Lick and farming.

- Mollie Jane Austin had married Jonah S. Green and was living on the Coble Brothers Mill Road in Big Lick and farming. 

- William Henry Austin was living with his brother Rufus in Big Lick. He would die unmarried at a young 39. He had been in WWI and WWII.

- Jonah Columbus Austin was living in Charlotte working as a musician. He would marry twice, to Clementine Jowers and then to Katie Lee Goodwin. He spent his whole life as a musician, dying in 1969 in Columbia, South Carolina. 

J.W. Austin is found living in Concord,  Cabarrus County North Carolina in 1930, living with his oldest daughter, Lula. All but the three youngest children and himself, were all working in the Cotton Mills up there. This was his last census.

The Charlotte Observer Charlotte, North Carolina · Friday, February 06, 1931

John Wesley Austin was returned to Big Lick and buried with his wife in the Riley Austin family cemetery.

A bitter rain will kill a forest tree by tree. The Whitley family had suffered many early deaths, but one last hearty root, Eva Ann, had taken root long enough to be fruitful and have a large family of 9 children. Six of the nine would see adulthood. Four of the Nine would have large families of their own. The genes of Hardy Whitley and Basheba Hatley have survived.

Where Whitleys Walked

Previously, I had written a lengthy dialogue of my visits to a few chosen family cemeteries that had ties to a group of individuals I have been recently researching. The original version was verbose and descriptive and became burdensomely long. It also self-deleted twice. Therefore, I've rehashed it as a trilogy, and a more perfunctory one at that. This last breath of air into a difficult tale of a journey into the Oakboro area historic cemeteries has already deleted once from just a tap on the phone screen. Alas, let's trek forth for this one brief end to the journey, shall we?

Whitley families, after making their way from the Eastern part of the state to the middle of it, as this part began opening up more to settlement and became safer after the establishment of a Fort near Statesville and the establishment of the town of Salisbury, near Trading Ford. There were several early Whitley's in this area, many of them only temporarily. It's commonly accepted that the ones who remained were of one family, at least a generation or so back, but I've not looked into this long enough or deep enough to verify that long held assumption. The family of George Whitley, with a multitude of descendants, has been researched fairly well. The family of Exodus Whitley, whose descendants I've been looking into, not so much. The availability of records, or lack of such, has been a detriment. Most calls are unproved, or assumptions based on cumulative, and circumstantial evidence. 

The first Whitley Cemetery I stopped at was well North of Oakboro. The early Stanly County Whitleys were seen taxed as living on a variety of Stanly County Creeks from Stony Run to Bear Creek to Stillwater. This cemetery is located near the headwaters of Stony Run Creek. Situated along the current Austin Road, it can be said to be between Bloomington and Ridgecrest or just out of Frog Pond and Red Cross, or a hop, skip and a jump from Lambert, all of them places, and not towns, except Red Cross, which has incorporated.

The Whitelys has a "look", at least back in the 19th century. After a few generations of intermarriage with a variety of spouses from various other places and other origins. I have described the look in a preious post as "square jawed and light-eyed". Below are a few examples. 

The above hawkish looking young man is George W. Whitley, in his Civil War uniform. He was the son of Green Deberry Whitley and wife, Jane Almond Whitley. He was born in 1836 and died here, in Stanly County, NC in 1902. George was married to Nancy Ledbetter, a daughter of Alfred Ledbetter, whose family and cemetery I have mentioned in an earlier post in this series. He was in the George Whitley line, and a grandson of the George who married Rebecca Cagle and later moved to Georgia to start a new family there, leaving the old one behind. That's a lot of George. George W. the Confederate is a good example of the Whitley 'look', and they were generally a good-looking bunch in their youth.

Temple Whitley, shown above, is from a younger generation. He was the son of Israel Irenus Whitley and Oma Jane Morton, and the Grandson of Temple Irenus Whitley the first, who was in turn, another son of George Whitley and Rebecca Cagle, so a first cousin once removed of George W. Whitley, above. He still bears the classic Whitley male look, however, of the square jaw and serious, light eyes.

The Green Deberry Whitley family cemetery was my first stop. Standing in repose by the side of Austin Road, next to a verdant July cornfield, an old farmhouse guards over the resting Whitley clan. I am not sure how far back it dates to, but it was not underpinned, which puts some age on the structure.

Graves here date back to at least the Civil War, and the most recent internments date to the 1940's. 

A monument has been placed to the family as a whole, and a flagpole proudly flying Old Glory over the fields and family has been erected. 

Out to the side of the cemetery, oddly sits the grave of Adison Franklin Whitley. He rests beside a bush and I wonder why his grave and his alone, was not included in the neat rows of graves with the rest.

White pebbles line the rows of graves of most of the Whitley's in this family. Above is the marker of he matriarch, Jane Almond Whitley, wife of Green Deberry and mother of George, the soldier pictured above.

This one pays tribute to Elizabeth, wife of Noah A. Whitley, a younger son.

The family monument, with the flag, is adorned with a new floral arrangement, proof this old ground is still visited often, well preserved and lovingly cared for. The memories of those resting here have not been forgotten. The monument is simply engraved "Whitley", with the agrarian scene of farm equipment and crops engraved softly into the marble in various tones of gray. The lush field of corn behind the monument is the perfect backdrop.

One of the rows is shown above, with original markers fronted by modern foot stones to mark the graves for posterity.

A memorial bench proclaims ,"If tears could build a Stairway and Memories a Lane I'd walk right up to Heaven to see you again."

The next stop was the Allison Whitley Cemetery, and this one was dead in the heart of Oakboro, in town, but pretty difficult to find. After stopping by a local store, I found someone who knew where to look. It's located in the middle of a lively neighborhood, down what looks like an industrial entrance to an old factory. 

The cemetery sits east of the parking lot and anything but abandoned. 

Allison Whitley was the oldest son of John Whitley, who died in 1842, and wife, Jane Hathcock Whitley, who followed her younger children to Iredell County and died there sometime after 1880. 

Alison Whitley Cemetery

Also known as Jones Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery

Oakboro, Stanly County, North Carolina, USA –

Online, the cemetery is claimed as the Jones Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. 

On the old CB Miller map from about 1904, the area marked as the Jones Hill Church and Schoolhouse seem to be along a major road, and no where near where the current town of Oakboro is.

Most of the souls here inclined are the children and grandchildren of Allison and his wife, Betsy, but a few standouts exist.

The cemetery seems to date back to the Civil War era, but with the graves of children, two year old Willie Whitley in 1861, and one year old John R. Whitley in 1862. The oldest was young Jacob Whitley in 1860,  just 18. The most recent interment is from 1989, so their are living descendants who keep these grounds well-tended. 

One of the saddest parts of the plot is what I refer to as "Infants Row", with the markers of young children, some named, others just noted as the son or daughter of the parents named.

That wraps it up for my search of a select few Oakboro area cemeteries. See you next our "Mayberry -esque", bucolic little burg! Until it's time to do the red-white and -blue again.

Adventures in Oakboro Part One

This Building is an Oakboro icon from my earliest memories of it.

Although I wasn't born in Stanly County, NC, I grew up here. My roots in this places go deeper than our quest for Independence from Brittain. My family ties to the Rocky River are many, be it those of my Paternal Grandfather in Almond, Furr and Big Lick Townships, or my Maternal Grandfather's in Tyson Township, or my Paternal Grandmother's on the Cabarrus end of it. If you'r counting, that's three out of four grandparents, having family ties to the Rocky River.

However, I, myself am a city girl. I grew up in the city of Albemarle, if you can really call it a City. It's a small city, larger than a town. We had readily close merchantiles, restaurants, gas stations, a hospital, trash service, swimming pools, YMCA, parks and sidewalks, four or five elementary schools, a courthouse, police department and Sheriff Department Headquarters, and a fire station in each neighborhood. We even had Malls, two of them! As a kid, I didn't know much about the western part of the county or the small towns therein.

Oakboro was where we went for their annual and quintessential July 4th celebration. Recalling the long trips down the curvacious Saint Martin Road, awash with the spicy scent of its lush fields of corn and silo, dotted with the occasional picturesque cottage festooned with seasonal flowers and the brick ranch farmhouses that sit far back off the road with front lawns large enough to host their own Olympics. Arriving in the rustic little town for the annual parade of floats and firetrucks, bands, clowns and beauty queens and cowboys on horseback, with red, white and blue over every person, building and vehicle. This would be followed with food, music, contests, and carnivals, ending in the most brilliant display of fireworks to amaze young eyes.

Stanfield was the two stop-light town stuck in a time warp, decades behing the rest, so much so its nickname is "Standstill". I bear fond memories of going there to this historic and iconic general store, adrift in the fusty scent of old wood and sweet pipe tobacco, where one could find the stiffest, but most durable denim overalls, perfect for ferel children to play in, because they never wore out. 

Locust was the crossroad community we drove through on the way to Charlotte, with a one block business district down the left side of the road. That Locust has long faded away. Now all of these quiet, quaint western county communities have been infected by the harried, perilous, amphetmine- driven, amorphic virus that is the city in the previous sentence. Hoards of former Big City residents, especially those with young families, are chosing to commute upon the Speedway track into the inner realm of the gravitron, and raise their family in a familial, collogquial safety, than in the perilous buzz adrift with predatory vermin. Some parts are unrecognizable. 

When researching a particular family or individual, I like to put foot to ground, if possible, to get a sense of where they walked, farmed, lived and died. To connect with the essence of past existences, so to speak. I did this a year ago at Stonehenge. You must be still and breathe deeply, block out all distractions and allow the place to take over, peeling the layers of time away. Allow yourself to connect to the essence and exitance of the spot of earth in a distant and different era, and bring your genetic memory to the forefront. My brother must have thought me strange, and I acknowledge that I am, having discovered as much at about 10 years old. With that experience, I can verify that we did, an extremely distant time ago, connect back to that place and the people who dwelt there. 

My first "Oakboro" stop was at the Hatley Grover Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery. I say it that way because these places were not in Oakboro. They were actual quite a distance from it, south towards the river, but not on the river. Oakboro just happens to be the closest place with a name.

The Church Building, although well kept, had obviously not hosted an active congregation for many a year. The cemetery was a different story.  It's been lovingly maintained and is still actively in use. The place is easily seen from the road, but the drive to it is a little precarious. 

The place has been kept up, with freshly mown grass. Unfaded, new looking fake flowers gave proof of  recent visitation. Some stones ever professed 21st century interments. Called Hatley's Grove because it was in the center of a the lands of a large group of Hatley family members, I'm sure, descendants of the Hardy's and the Hastens, the Oakboro area boasts similar congregations. Barbee's Grove is an active, modern congregation, began among a cluster of the Barbee family. Smith's Grove, similarily, which claims to have begun as the Jones Hill Congretion, an area and a church named on an old map I've recently viewed, is nestled among a hive of one branch of the Smith family.  

While the front of the cemetery is still in use and the interments fairly recent, the back of the lot tells a different story. This Hatley dominated spot is near 200 years old. Slate markers jut out of the ground like jagged shark's teeth. Few are legible, many are unmarked. 

Of the legible stones, the oldest date back to the 1860's, like that of Farrington Hatley, who passed in 1865, and L. A. Bird in 1863. There were a few names other than Hatley's there. This is where Caroline Whitley, daughter of Hezekiah Whitley is buried, and perhaps others of his family, their markers fading or gone. There seems to be a definate Hatley connection to this branch of Whitleys. 

This cemetery card is for a little girl named Aney who died at about 4 years old. There are Harris', a few Springers, and I've mentioned the Birds, all who lived in the area. 

Above, the modern grave of another Hatley child. 

I happen to be a Hatley descendant. Old Hardy,  (1765-1838), was my Fifth Great Grandfather.

Although the Hatley Grove plot was the best kept of the inactive congregations or family cemeteries I have visited in recent weeks, it was also the spookiest. Inevitably, those of us bitten by the genealogy bug will be found hustling about in old abandoned cememteries. I've been in many, but they never loose their ability to creep me out. The worst is take a step in plush grass that sinks a few inches deeper than the previous step.

 An old man dwells there, although he prefers to present a younger version of himself, despite having lived a long life, even by todays standards. He seems very protective of the place, in a kindly way. Bright-eyed and light-haired, he had an easy demeanor and a squarish jaw, like many of the early Whitleys. There was another man there too, who lurked at the edge of the manicured plot. He seemed dark and sulky. It felt as if he didn't belong, slender and bent, like a weathered  twig, he wore a thin,  stubbled jaw and an ominous scowl. He stayed at the back, adjacent to the nearby house, across from the church building.

Leaving Hatley's behind, my next stop was the Ledbetter Family Cemetery. 

Located on the aptly named, Ledbetter Ford Road, this old family burying ground is also easily seen from the road. While not as manicured as the Hatley place, this ancient plot is also tended to and groomed, and sheltered under a small grove of ancient cedars. Located on a rise, off of the road that was probably unpaved a few years back, this is the resting ground of Alfred Ledbetter and his family.

A modern monument has been placed by descendants in front of his original, decaying one.  This area was his plantation, this is where he lived, raised a family, tilled the soil and joined with it in death. Alfred Ledbetter entered 100 acres along Stillwater Creek in 1844, in the newly minted County of Stanly. His entry bordered that of Hezekiah Whitley, and Isham Whitley, which adjoined each other, and Nancy Whitley, after Isham. 

Set among  verdant ferns and grasses, above is the original stone of Alfred Ledbetter's wife, Temperance Jane Tucker Brooks Ledbetter. Previously married to a Brooks, who died in 1829, Tempy married Alfred around 1830, as their first child was born in 1831. 

A beautiful and peaceful resting place in a pastoral setting, the Ledbetter plot dates back to at least the 1840's. A good number of  Brooks are buried here as well, having intermarried into the Ledbetter family. There is also the grave of James Thomas Turner, an unrelated man, who witnessed the Will of Alfred Ledbetter, but died at the young age of 23 before it was probated. I wonder what his connection to the Ledbetters was. Could he have been a farmhand or employee? And what tragic incident ended his young life at the beginning of manhood?

The Ledbetters and the Whitleys lived along the Austin Road, as it existed in that era, a path south to the river and through the Bryant Austin family lands. I am not a Ledbetter, and have no genetic connection to them, but Tolitha Jane Whitley Springer, one of the people I have been researching, lived with them when she was 14 years old, as is seen in the 1870 census. 

The Ledbetter homeplace is still standing, if barely. Above is the front entrance, shared to Alfred's profile by Richard Crotwell. That's a sturdy American build right there. The existence of Alfreds' lands helps me get a sense of where the lands of Hezakiah and Nancy Whitley may have been.

What tales these old conifers could tell, if we could understand their language. How many generations have they seen pass below their branches? How many footprints have their detritus covered up after decades of growth and shed?

My trip to Oakboro will continue in my next post.