The Forever Windblown: Sweet Caroline.

The first time I saw her picture and heard her name I was 5 years old. The summer before first grade. The haunting photo of the lost old lady in a baggy sack of a dress with a large collar and deep pockets, and the pointed shoes,  never left my memory. Her image was captured in front of a weathered cottage, not underpinned, with fields in the background. Her light colored hair was pinned up, but falling down and looking wind blown. She looks not at the camera, but to the distance. What was she looking at, if at anything at all? What sites and change those eyes had seen. Her name was Caroline Ann Hudson Singleton. She was born November 21, 1852 and died June 11, 1930. She was my Grandmother's Grandmother. I find this generation the most intriguing. Maybe it's because they were survivors who suffered through a pivotal, painful period of American history. They carried the cross for future generations and paid for the sins of previous ones.

Caroline was born before the Civil War, when slavery was in existence, and the area she grew up in was sending wagaons and later, trains,  full  of cotton to the ports in Wilmington. She was the oldest daughter of Burwell 'Burl' Hudson and his first wife Sarah 'Sallie' Lee. Burwell was one of the sons of Stanly County Hudson patriarch William Joshua Hudson, who was known for his long life of 100 years and of having fathered over 20 children, outliving two wives and marrying a 30 year old when he was 70 and  his last child being born during his mid-80's. Burwell was a son of  Joshua's first wife, Elizabeth 'Betsey' Smith. Joshua had been born near the Virginia/North Carolina line and came to the Anson County area at a young age. He bought 800 acres in what is present day Stanly County from Lewis McSwain and built a small sturdy home on Ugly Creek, in which he raised 22 children, which still stands.

Sallie Hudson would die prior to 1860.  She was the daughter of James Carl Lee and Elizabeth Duke or Duck Lee. Sarah Ann, born in 1860, younger sister of Caroline,  may have been the daughter of Burwell's second wife, Sarah A. McSwain, whom he married on January 17, 1860, possibly immediately after the death of his first wife, Sarah Ann Lee Hudson. Between Caroline Ann and Sarah Ann were Marion M and Emma Francis Hudson.

Caroline Hudson
Age:	26
Birth Year:	abt 1854
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1880:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Marital Status:	Single
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Occupation:	At Home
Cannot read/write: Blind: Deaf and dumb: Otherwise disabled: Idiotic or insane:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age John W. Whitaker 26 Sallie A. Whitaker 19 Thompson A. Whitaker 5m Caroline Hudson 26 James R. Hudson 9

Several of the Hudson boys went to war during the Civil War. Burwell did not return. He died December 7, 1862 in Richmond, Virginia. Caroline and her  two youngest sisters were left fatherless and living with their stepmother near their grandfather in the 1870 census. Her brother Marion M Hudson and sister Fanny were living with their grandfather Calvin Lee.  Sometime around the time of that census, Caroline met a man. She may have known him already, he may have been a neighbor, or even a relative. That part is not known and probably never will be.

Her mother died when she was about 8. Caroline must have had to be a mini-mother to her younger siblings. Then her father died when she was around 10. She had a stepmother, Sarah Ann McManus, who married an elderly man, John Norwood, in November of 1870. She was 39, he was 73. They would have 2 children together, John Henry Norwood, born in 1872 and Laura, born in 1874.

The days and years of post Civil War reconstruction were ones of desparation and suffering in Stanly County. There was a report of women and children from the southern part of the county, raiding the storehouse in Albemarle for want of food. All the males that were left were old men and young boys. Of the soldiers who did return, many did not return whole, but missing limbs or minds. Suicides were rampant. Murders went unreported and unpunished. Fields were abandoned. People were starving. Citizens, both black and white, were uncertain of how to move forward. Many tried relocation, heading mostly North and West. Many widows, orphans and the elderly, did not have the means or the health to relocate. Some young widows like Sarah Ann McManus Hudson married old widowers, who had homes and property, like John Norwood. Some would marry teenage boys 10 years their junior. Females of this time had few resources or rights,  and fewer options.

How Caroline became an unwed teenaged mother is not known. Perhaps she became the mistress of a more secure married man. Several men in Stanly County in these days actually supported two families, having children by both a wife and a mistress simultaneously, or back and forth. Perhaps she met a boy her age and fell in love, and without the guidance of her father or mother, a pregnancy occured.

What is known is that she had a son she named James Robert Hudson on December 8, 1868, six years after her father died.

My grandmother looked very much like Caroline, her own grandmother, in her later years. My Daddy, Robert, carried a strong resemblance to his grandfather, J R Hudson.

I would like to see several descendants of James Robert Hudson take the Ancestry.com DNA test, to see what distant cousins may pop up, genetically, to at least track down what family his father probably came from. I have a theory, based on Caroline's naming of her children, and known 'ramblers' of the Tyson community during these days, of who fathered J. R.

James Robert Hudson was not Caroline's only child. On November 26, 1881 she married Robert Dock 'Dodi' Singleton, the son of Tillman F Singleton and Fannie Swaringen Singleton. Dodi had just lost his first wife, Priscilla Duke, who had died in 1880. She might have died in childbirth, but they had no child.

Dodi and Caroline would have 7 children: Sarah Frances Singleton, named for her 2 grandmothers, who never married, (1883-1927); Rosa Ellen Singleton (1885-1953), who would marry Randall F Morton;
David Tillman Singleton (1888-1974), who would marry Dannie Morris; his twin sister Sophronia Ann 'Fronie' Singleton (1888-1963) who married Jonah O Morton; Mary Florence Singleton (1891-1878) who would marry Jacob Eudy, Burl Whitley Singleton (1893-1944) who would marry Rilla Ethel Thompson; and the youngest daughter, Pearl Eldora Singleton, (1899-1931) who would marry Lewis Thompson.

Caroline Singleton
Age in 1910:	57
Birth Year:	1853
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Robert D Singleton
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Robert D Singleton 55 Caroline Singleton 57 Frances Singleton 26 David Singleton 22 Francis Singleton 22 Mary Singleton 19 Burl Singleton 16 Pearl Singleton 13

J. R. Hudson would have 2 daughter by the time his mother had her last child. My grandmother was born the same year as her Aunt Pearl Singleton.

The only other photo I have seen of Caroline, she and Dodi are in middle age. Her blonde hair appears windblown and disheveled in this photo, even more so as the one made in her later years. She even appears to be wearing the same dress, albeit 20 years perhaps prior to the other photo. I've even been able to picture her as a windblown, disheveled little 8 year old, just having lost her mother, as she gazes out across and endless meadow. 

Caroline Singleton
Age:	68
Birth Year:	abt 1852
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1920:	Center, Stanly, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	R Dodi Singleton
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Able to read:	Yes
Able to Write:	No
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age R Dodi Singleton 62 Caroline Singleton 68 Fannie Singleton 37 Mary Singleton 27 Pearl Singleton 22

Caroline died on a June day in 1930, at the age of 77, and is buried in the Norwood Cemetery in Norwood, North Carolina. She was a witness to the Civil War and lost her father. She saw her son off to fight in WWI. She saw her granddaughters bob their hair, wear pants or 'bloomers' and shorter skirts during the Roaring 20's. She rode in a car, talked on a telephone and listened to the radio. What a burden of sorrow and shame she had carried. What a breadth of change she had experienced. 

Wednesday's Child: Robert Lee Hudson

Little Robert Lee Hudson only lived 3 weeks past his first birthday. He was the younger brother of my grandmother, Hattie Helen Hudson Thompson and the son of James Robert Hudson and Judie E. Aldridge Hudson. He was the grandson of Caroline Hudson Singleton and J. Pink Aldridge and Susan Floyd Aldridge. He was buried in the same spot his mother would be buried 12 years later. His sister Hattie would later name her only son Robert.  Rest in peace little Robert Lee. Forever an Angel.

Edith: The Beloved Baby Sister

My grandmother, Hattie Helen Hudson Thompson, was born on September 3, 1899, just before the dawn of the Twentieth Century. Her little sister, Edith J. Hudson, was born on May 28, 1915. Hattie was nearly 16 years old when Edith was born.

Their mother, Judie E Aldridge Hudson, would died on Dec 23, just before Christmas, in 1922. Grandma was adult by then, and married to her first husband, Eleazor McSwain, and just widowed, as he was is World War I and died the same year.

Judie died of bronchial pneumonia, following influenza. The same disease, pnuemonia, that would claim Edith in less than a decade.  Her youngest child, Edith, was only 7 years old.

I can tell how much my grandmother loved her little sister by all the photos she had of her. She had dozens and dozens of photos in her box of Edith at various stages of life. She even had photos of Edith in her white casket. I feel those were too morbid to copy. Instead, I chose to celebrate the life of a young girl who was full of it and whom my grandmother adored. She must have been like a second mother to Edith from birth, and after their mother's death, she must have become a primary caretaker.

Top row, my Grandmother, Hattie H. Hudson McSwain, her brother Walter and his girlfriend Annie B Talbert. Second row were friends Olon Carrol and Ila Biles. First row, the younger Hudson siblings, Craven Reece Hudson, who I knew as Uncle Ted, Aunt JoAnne, who would marry a Pruitt and move to Greensboro, North Carolina and little Edith. This picture, judging from the approximate ages of the children, was made while Grandma's first husband was in service and just before the death of their mother. The wind and the sweaters suggest early fall and Judie would die in December.

In this photo, Grandma designated Edith as 'almost 17.' She never saw 17. She passed away at 16.

Judith E Hudson
Age:	48
Birth Year:	abt 1872
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1920:	Ansonville, Anson, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Wife
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	James R Hudson
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Able to read:	Yes
Able to Write:	Yes
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age James R Hudson 57 [54]  Judith E Hudson 48 Walter Hudson 18 Joe A Hudson 15 Cravan Hudson 8 Julia Hudson 5

This is the first census that Edith would show up in. She is the child Julia, her middle name, age 5. The Joe A Hudson is actually JoAnne Hudson and Craven is Uncle Ted, Reece Craven Hudson. The two older daughters, Bessie and Hattie are married by this time, and little Robert Lee, born in 1910, only lived a year.

Name:	Edith Hudson
Gender:	Female
Birth Year:	abt 1914
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Race:	White
Home in 1930:	North Albemarle, Stanly, North Carolina View Map
Marital Status:	Single
Relation to Head of House:	Sister-in-law
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation: Education: Military Service: Rent/home value: Age at first marriage: Parents' birthplace:	View image
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Will Thompson 24 Hattie Thompson 30 Edith Hudson 16 Tom Thompson 62 Tom Thompson 15

In the 1930 census, the family was counted twice. Grandma had already married my Grandpa, William Joseph Thompson, who was a little younger than she was, and they had moved to Albemarle. Living with them was Grandma's little sister Edith and Grandpa's father, Thomas Jefferson Thompson and his youngest brother, Tom Jr.  Being close in age, Tom and Edith may have been good friends.

Edith J Hudson
Gender:	Female
Birth Year:	abt 1914
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Race:	White
Home in 1930:	North Albemarle, Stanly, North Carolina View Map
Marital Status:	Single
Relation to Head of House:	Boarder
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation: Education: Military Service: Rent/home value: Age at first marriage: Parents' birthplace:	View image
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Will Thompson 24 Hattie Thompson 30 Edith J Hudson 16 Tom J Thompson 61 Tom Thompson 15

This census taker made Edith a year older than she was. Maybe she had understood him to ask how old she would be on her next birthday instead of her last. He also designated her as a boarder instead of sister-in-law and he included her middle intial 'J".

The 'J'. I've seen in listed as standing for Julia and also as standing for Junior. As her mother's name was sometimes written as Julia instead of Judie and the fact that Judie's middle initial was E, perhaps her full name was Edith Julia Hudson, Jr. which was sometimes included with daughters named after their mothers.

Edith Junior Hudson
Event Type:	birth
Birth Date:	1914
Birth County:	Stanly
Parent1 Name:	Robert
Roll Number:	NCVR_B_C089_66002
Volume:	14-16
Page:	39

Edith and her brother Walter would be buried side by side under the same tombstone.

Clark's Admission

Biologically, we have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, 32 great, great, great grandparents and so on to eternity. Some of us are lucky enough to have more than that when extra branches are grafted into our Family Tree. I was one of those fortunate persons. I have two Dads. One is biological and we have reunited and I love him. The other was a gift from God who I was blessed with as the father who raised me and his parents were wonderful people who accepted me as their grandchild, although I was about 3 or 4 when they met me. Their family tree is mine too, even though my DNA test will not connect me to any cousins on that side. 

The little boy to the far right in this photo, on the back row in the suit and the knickers is William Joseph Thompson. He was my grandfather and died in 1992. Seated are his parents, Thomas Jefferson Thompson and Mollie Dennis Thompson. Mollie died July 26, 1917, leaving her children motherless. Her youngest, Tom Jr, was born in 1915. Only Arlie, Cletus and Tom were younger than my grandfather, who was born in 1905. It appears that the youngest was not yet born in this photo, so this photo was made sometime between 1911 and 1914.

Thomas Jefferson Thompson, the man seated with James Arlie Thompson on his knee, was born April 20, 1868 in Anson County and died December 3, 1942 in Albemarle, North Carolina. At some point the family had moved to Montgomery County from Anson and he raised his 12 children on the banks of the PeeDee River in the community of El Dorado, Montgomery County, North Carolina.

Tom Thompson was the son of James Clark Thompson, born in February, 1839 and died in Burke County, North Carolina on March 2, 1913 of senile dementia. He had been admitted to Broughton Hospital on March 25, 1911 with dementia at the age of 72 and died 2 years later there, at the age of 74. Records show that he was admitted 'late in life'. My grandfather was only 6 when his grandfather was admitted to Broughton. I wonder how well he got to know them. As this was about the age my grandfather was in the above photo, this was probably the year that Clark, as he was known, was admitted.

James Clark Thompson was the son of George W. Thompson and Mary Ann Capel. His siblings were Joicy Catherine Thompson, 1837, George Winton 'Wick' Thompson 1845, John Melton 'Jack' Thompson 1849, July A Thompson, 1851, Christine, 1856, Mathew Thomas Thompson, 1858,  Adam 1859 and Mary F. 1862.

He married Margaret "Maggie" Talbert and they had 6 children together: Thomas Jefferson Thompson (1868), Charles M Thompson (1870), Claud (1872), Sophronia (1874), William Battle Thompson (1878) and Adam (1879).

Clark was a Civil War Veteran, having enlisted in Montgomery County on March 1, 1862.

James Thompson
Residence:	Montgomery County, North Carolina
Occupation:	Farmer
Enlistment Date:	1 Mar 1862
Enlistment Place:	Montgomery County, North Carolina
Side Served:	Confederacy
State Served:	North Carolina
Service Record:	Enlisted as a Private on 1 March 1862 at the age of 23. Enlisted in Company F, 44th Infantry Regiment North Carolinaon 3 Apr 1862. Surrendered Company F, 44th Infantry Regiment North Carolinaon 9 Apr 1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA.
Sources:	16

His last wife would be a lady known as Julina or Lina, and they would reside in Albemarle.

The Estate of Jonathan Wilkerson, March 1849

Jonathan Wilkerson is one of those 'touch of ancestors' that keeps popping up in the records of my direct ancestors, and I haven't quite figured out where he comes in yet. 

I began researching Jonathan Wilkerson or Wilkenson while attempting to connect the father of Moriah Murray's children, Henry Wilkerson, with someone in the area. Jonathan Wilkerson was the only person of that name in Montgomery County, the part that became Stanly, during the time Henry Wilkerson and Moriah's children were born. 

In discovering his estate papers, I found out that his daughter Sarah married a George Thompson, maybe the George Thompson that is in one of my family trees, and another daughter Eliza, married Charles McSwain, and my trees are wrought with McSwains. 

Either of those connections could bring Jonathan full swing into the family circle, however, it is his name as bondsman on several of the marriage certificates in the Ramsey/Hooks/Hill/Means side of my tree, which is my paternal grandmother's side, that has me intrigued. I've just begun to turn the soil on that side. 

                                   State of North Carolina for Equity
                                  Stanly County  March Term 1849
Is the Honorable the judge for this court of Equity in and for the County of Stanly.

The Petition of Arnold Watkins and wife Sarah,

2 John L Wilkenson
3 Mathew P Wilkenson
4  Geo Thompson and wife Sarah
5  James M Wilkenson
6  Martha Wilkenson
7  Frances Wilkenson
8  Charles McSwain and wife Eliza
9  Susan Wilkenson
10  William Wilkenson
11 Rowland Wilkenson &
12 Jordan Wilkenson

Heirs at law of Jonathan Wilkenson humbly complaining shew unto your Honor your Petition in that Jonathan Wilkenson late of Stanly County died '? swzio thososio? of a tract of land of two hundred acres more or less on Ugly Creek adjoining the lands of John Early and Alex Woodruff + others and left him surviving your Petitioners his heirs at law.

Your petitioners shew unto your Honor that said lands can not be advantageous to divide among them but that a sale of the same would for note their interest.  Your petitioners Susan Wilkenson, William Wilkenson, Rowland Wilkenson and Jordan Wilkenson are infants under the age of twenty one years and petition by their next friend Arnold Watkins.  Your petitioners  therefore pray your Honor to decree a sale of said land to be made by the clerk and master of this court upon such times as to your Honor shall be seen next and to grant to your petitioners such other relief as their care may require and as in duty bound your Petitioners will even pray.

Garris sols for Petitioners.

State of North Carolina Stanly County, Court of Equity

Edward W Davis  (a familiar name...son of Job)


In the end, GGGGUncle Neddy (Edward W Davis) had the land advertised for sale. There is a plat included in the papers with the land mapped off  222 3/4 acres. 

On the last page: Arnold Watkins and wife, et. al  Report of sale to Fall Term 1849

Pursuant to a decree of the Honorable the Court of Equity for the County of Stanly aforesaid made at Spring Term 1849 of said County, I proceed after due advertisement to sell to the highest bidder at public sale on the 12th day of May A. D. 1849 on the premises the land mentioned in the Petition at which time and place Arnold Watkins became the last and highest bidder at the sum of three hundred dollars. The purchaser, Arnold Watkins, gave bonds and goods security for the payment of the purchase money and interest, all of which is respectfully submitted. 

John W Treadwell  C. M. C. 
By Preston W. Wooley, D, C, M. E. 

So in the end, the land stayed in the family with the purchase by one of Jonathan's son-in-laws. The importance of the documents is in the naming of the heirs, and designation of those who were underage, and the naming of the husbands of 3 of Jonathan's daughters.