Henrietta Hawkins Amis - A Presidential Pardon

Well, this is something new (for me),

something I never even imagined I'd see; 

a Presidential Pardon on MY family tree!

This won't be a long post, but I'm so amazed, right now, I just want to share this new finding with the world! 🌎

I've discovered a Presidential Pardon on my family tree! Yes, that's right. My second cousin, 4x removed, Henrietta HAWKINS Amis, received a presidential pardon from President Andrew Johnson in 1865. Her "crime" was taking part in the "rebellion" against the government of the United States. 

Source: Ancestry.com U.S., Pardons Under Amnesty Proclamations, 1865-1869
(Click to enlarge.)

There were three of these proclamations issued but this round, in which my cousin received hers, was the last, and the only one in which pardons were offered after the end of the Civil War. After the recipient of the pardon swore the oath to the United States, all of their property was to be restored except (of course) any (former) human chattel. To read more, click here. 

Just as an added tidbit, I only recently discovered Cousin Henrietta's place amongst my ancestors, after coming upon a newspaper clipping of her death. She was the daughter of my first cousin, 5x removed, William J. Hawkins, who was Governor of North Carolina from 1811-1814. Since I don't have a photo of Henrietta, I'll include an artist's rendering of her dad.

Governor William Hawkins - 17th Governor of North Carolina

And, this is the article I found about Henrietta's death. The copy is a bit light, but it tells of her being "one of the largest and most successful planters" in the area and identifies her as a slave owner. (A quick check of the 1860 Slave Schedule for Louisiana's Madison Parish shows her owning 191 slaves on one of her properties.

Death of Henrietta Amis - Daughter of Gov. Hawkins Thu, Sep 19, 1889 – Page 2 · The Roanoke News (Weldon, Halifax, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com

You never know what you'll find while researching your family tree!

Thanks for reading. :)

Renate

Additional sources:

Andrew Johnson, "Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction," May 29, 1865, Civil War Era NC, accessed November 15, 2018, https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/13.

Wikipedia contributors. (2017, December 11). William Hawkins (governor). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:29, November 16, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Hawkins_(governor)&oldid=814930227

Permalink to this post: https://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2018/11/henrietta-hawkins-amis-presidential.html

Road Trip - Tyrrell County, NC

One week ago, today, I traveled to Columbia, NC, to give a talk to the Tyrrell County Genealogical and Historical Society. I was honored to have been invited to speak to this organization, particularly since, through my research, I've uncovered a direct ancestral link to this county, through my mother's father. (My Tyrrell County surnames are HILL, BRYANT, and DAVENPORT.) Although I made an immediate post about my experience on Facebook, I also want to document it, here, on my blog.

The Ride
Tyrrell County North Carolina is located just over two hours away from my home in Newport News, Virginia. Prior to this excursion, I'd only visited the area once, and I was thinking that the drive had been longer than that. So, when I put the address for the Columbia Senior Citizens Center, where the meeting was to be held, into my GPS I was quite surprised to see that the distance was only 120 miles, and the length of the drive was estimated to only be 2 hours and 5 minutes. At that moment, I began to chastise myself for not having gone down, again, for research purposes (because I was thinking it was further). Now that I know, I'll be heading back to Tyrrell County "on the regular". :)

My talk was scheduled for 2:30, but I wanted to go down earlier, so that I could do a bit of exploring. Therefore, I left home at about 9:30 a.m., to head on down. The drive was lovely; it was a bright, sun-shiny day, and I was accompanied by the soothing sounds of gospel radio, followed by a little NPR, as I made my way out of Hampton Roads toward my destination.  My route provided a mostly uninterrupted rural scene all the way down 17S to 32 to 94, and then Highway 64 into Tyrrell County, and the quaint little town of Columbia.

These silos represent one of the few breaks in my beautifully monotonous drive .

Upon arriving in the county, I first went to scope out the meeting location, so I'd know how long it would take me to get there. Next, I went to the Tyrrell County Visitors Center, a very well-appointed rest area,with extremely clean bathrooms (yay!). As an added treat, this rest area is home to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Center. I didn't go in, but I can just imagine what a treat that would be, especially for people traveling with children. I did, however, follow the outdoor walkway around to the back of the (closed) Visitor Center, to take in the beautiful view of the Scuppernong River, the bridge into Columbia, and I took note of the walking trail and the nice setup of benches and rockers on the back porch of the facility. Next time I go back (in warmer weather), I definitely plan to go back and spend some time in this serene setting.

          

Wildlife Center

Visitors Center (not open until 1 p.m. on Sundays)

                               

Exploring Tyrrell County
With about two hours to spare, and no real agenda, I decided to first head to the one place I'd already been on my previous visit to Tyrrell County, and that was to Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, where many HILL and BRYANT family members are interred. These are two of the Tyrrell County families from which I descend, both being recorded as Free People of Color, as early as the late 1700's, and also both known to be of Native ancestry, before intermarrying and/or procreating with blacks. I headed towards the church, hoping that perhaps, since it was close to 12:00 noon, I might catch service in session, or perhaps wrapping up, and that maybe I could introduce myself to some folk, and encourage them to come to the meeting to hear me speak. However, when I got to the church, the parking lot was empty. It didn't appear that a service had been held there, that day.

I turned into the cemetery, which is directly across the street from the church. (There is another larger part right behind the church.)

Chapel Hill Missionary Bapist Church

I hadn't originally planned to get out, because I had photographed most of the graves on my first visit there; but it looked like maybe there were some that I'd missed, so I couldn't resist the urge, and out I went. (Of course.) I quickly walked through the graves, snapping photos of almost every one in the area I'd chosen, and trying to step carefully on the soft turf, so as not to dirty myself before my presentation. I'd almost made it without incident, until I decided to try to get to one of the furthest back graves. While trying get close enough to brush away some leaves, I took one step too close and down went my foot and part of my leg... into the mud! Well, that was enough of a sign to me that it was time to go. After all, in just a short time, I'd be standing in front of an audience. I needed to keep myself presentable!  Anyway, I took the long way (lol) around to get back to my car, still snapping pictures as I went. Once in the car, I was grateful for my handy-dandy pack of wet wipes, which I used to clean off my leg and shoe, before I headed off to explore some more of Tyrrell County.

After leaving the cemetery, I decided to just explore a little of the area around it, so I headed back down Chapel Hill Rd., and turned right onto Travis Rd. After driving about 4 miles down that road, and seeing nothing (save a house or two and a little bit of industry), I turned around and headed back to the town of Columbia to check out some of the neighborhoods. First, on the same side of town as the Visitors Center, I found a neighborhood which was (very sadly) filled with deteriorated, falling-down homes. Upon stopping to chat with a kind young man, who was parked in front of one house, I learned that this had been (or still was) a black neighborhood, but that many of the original owners had passed and/or moved away, and that the children/grandchildren, etc. had no interest in living there, so the homes were just abandoned. As I shared with this young man, I see this often in my travels in more rural areas, but this was the first time I'd seen an actual neighborhood, in which so many homes were in that condition right next to each other. The example in this picture is located facing Rowson Street. This saddened me so, but I love how this home seems to be fighting against the inevitable; it seems to almost be saying, "But, still I stand."

                                         

This photo doesn't fully capture the degree to which
this house is leaning back.

                                 

I asked the young man about churches in the area, and he pointed me to the end of the road, saying that the church there should be about to let out. I followed the road to it's end, and sure enough, the congregants of what appeared to be a black church were just getting into their cars. I stopped in the middle of the road to greet two ladies who were chatting, and invited them to come to the meeting at 2:30. I was pleasantly surprised when one responded that she'd "read about that in the paper", and was planning to be there! I introduced myself as the speaker, told her I was a Hill-Bryant descendant, and asked her if she knew where those families might have lived. She pointed me in the direction of "Alligator", and told me how to get there. I thanked her and bid her farewell (until the meeting), and off I went.

With just a little over an hour to go before I needed to be at the Center, I decided to ride off down Highway 64 in the direction of Alligator. I drove for miles and miles and miles, seeing nothing but a pattern of fields, then trees (in swamps). Finally, I arrived in the general area of Alligator. I rode all around this mostly unspoiled area, passing field after field, and seeing only the occasional home and a couple of small churches. The area was beautiful, though, and filled with so much of nature's goodness. I felt a true peacefulness, as I traveled the unknown roads. I honestly can't tell you where I turned or how I got to where I ended up, but I'll just show you a few photos.

When I first passed this log, there were about 6 or 7 turtles sunning on it, but when I stopped my car and backed up to take this picture, the smaller ones just into the water.

This Methodist Church sits along
Dock Landing Rd., in Alligator.

Fields, fields, and more fields... That's what Tyrrell County
 seems made of!                                                

The Meeting
With it being after 1:30, I knew I had to head back to town,  so I did. On my way back in, I snapped a few photos. (Unfortunately, my iPad case got a little in the way.)

Tyrrell County Courthouse

Main Street - Columbia

Cooper House

  

Winery

I wondered if this was the original school house. It is on the high school property.

When I arrived at the Senior Citizens Center, I was greeted by Cathy Roberts, President of the TCGHS, and Lamb Basnight, the gentleman who'd originally contacted me about speaking. Lamb, was dressed in period costume, which kind of threw me off, at first; but I soon learned that he volunteers Several other members, and a few guests arrived, including author of Somerset Homecoming, Dorothy "Dot" Spruill Redford (which really took me by surprise)! After a short wait outside, we all proceeded in and prepared for the  start of the meeting, which had a great turn out, indeed. :)

It was so nice to meet Lamb Basnight. He is so cool! :)

I was honored to meet Dorothy Spruill Redford!

Following the business meeting, came my time to speak. My presentation, "Researching Ancestors of Color - It Takes a Village" is one that I've prepared to not only discuss first steps and resources for researching ancestors of color (whether free or formerly enslaved), but also to share with descendants of white, slave-owning (or not) ancestors how they can help to further the research of those who descend from ancestors of color.

The talk ran about an hour, and was very well received. Audience members were quite complimentary, and seemed genuinely moved and interested in looking back into their families' records and artifacts, to see if they might have any information related to connections of their ancestors with people of color. (This is the goal of the workshop!) One participant has actually already emailed me with information about an ancestor's "body servant" (from the Civil War), whom she has been seeking more information about, the details of which she'd like to share with the larger community!

The meeting was followed by close to an hour of chatting with attendees - answering questions and sharing information. As an added bonus, I met two people who are (apparently) my cousins! One was a Bryant descendant (pictured), and the other (who was camera shy) was a Hill-Bryant descendant, just like me! That was so exciting! I look forward to communicating with these two, to confirm our connections and share information!

This is Otis. His (known) cousin has confirmed our BRYANT connection via DNA.
Since he lives locally, he came out to hear my talk and to meet me! That's my cousin, ya'll! :)

Finally, at about 5:00, it was time to say my last goodbyes, and get on the road to head home. I had such a fulfilling day in Tyrrell County, and I can't wait to go back!

This picture doesn't do it justice, but on the way I passed this beautiful field of windmills, near Elizabeth City, NC.
They went on for at least 7-8 miles. Amazing!

Permalink to this post: http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2017/03/road-trip-speaking-in-tyrrell-county-nc.html

Finding Precilla - Uncovering the Life of My Formerly-Enslaved Great-Grandmother

I’ve been working to uncover the details of the life of my formerly-enslaved great-grandparents, Calvin and Precilla YARBOROUGH, since I "officially" began my research, in 1997. It took some time, but after numerous visits to courthouses, libraries, and the NC State Archives, I was finally able to first determine their status as formerly enslaved (2007), and then to piece together some of the data to create a timeline of Calvin's life. In the course of doing this work, I’ve been on the lookout for any information about the origins of, my great grandmother, Precilla, but it’s been tough to track her down, because I’ve never found any definitive records of her existence, before the 1866 Cohabitation Record, which is the document that confirmed for me that she and Calvin had, indeed, been enslaved.

Click here to read an earlier post about my search for Precilla.

Click here to view the timeline (created in 2009) for the life of my great-grandfather, Calvin YARBOROUGH, Sr.

Today, while doing some cleaning, I ran across an old legal pad filled with notes from a July 23, 2008 visit to the NC State Archives. It’s was fun to flip through the pages of the pad, reading my plan for the research trip, and recalling the celebratory moments when I was able to confirm, strike off, or add information to my growing body of research. (This was also when I found my great-grandfather’s last owner!)

Yep -- This is what my research used to look like!

Anyway, after I’d read all the way through the pages of the pad, I decided to go back and make some notations, just in case there was something I needed to review on my next visit to the Archives (which will be in three days!).  While reading this paragraph on the second page of the notepad, I had an “ah-ha” moment.

Several years ago, after I’d gathered a significant amount of information about Great-Grandpa Calvin’s former owners (and a little about whom I suspected Precilla’s to be), I noticed that perhaps my great-grandparents had purposefully left clues about their time of enslavement, in the names they chose for their children. (See notes about this on the timeline.) 

I’d long-since interpreted the middle name of their son, Henry King Yarborough, to be a clue that Priscilla was once owned by the prominent (wealthy) KING family of Franklin County, NC, but I hadn’t found any connection for his first name. (I did, however, note that there was a “Henry” in the lot of slaves that my grandfather was bestowed to his last owner with.) Well, today, I realized that in the paragraph, above, I’d noted that William Richmond KING owned a slave named “Priciller”, and I’d jotted this question to myself, back in 2008: “What year did W.R. King die?” Realizing that I’d never answered my own question, I set out, today, to do so.

Upon searching for William Richmond King (on ancestry.com), I found my answer, right away. He died on March 6, 1888, well after the Civil War and the end of slavery. Knowing that, I can surmise that, unless there was a reason for him to have sold Precilla, it’s probable that she remained with (or connected to in some way) the King family until emancipation.

I’d also posed another question in this section of my notes: “Did Joel King leave her (Precilla) to Sarah?  I think what I meant to ask was if William, Jr. ended up leaving Priscilla to (his sister) Sarah, but the point is, I was trying to figure out if my ancestor had eventually ended up belonging to Sarah.

But, who is Sarah, you might ask? Well, Sarah is Sarah Helen King, who married Robert John SHAW, thus making her Sarah Helen SHAW. 

And, why was I asking if perhaps Joel William had left (or given) my great-grandmother to this Sarah? Well, because if you take a look at what Priscilla named her first daughter – BOO-YAH! Sarah H. Yarborough. (I presume the H to be Helen.) 

Oh! And, what surname did Pricilla give to the clerk, in 1866, when she and Calvin went to register their cohabitation as man and wife? Precilla SHAW, that’s what!

Cohabitation Records, Franklin County, 1866: North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC

Sooooo…. long ago in the days before errr-thang was on the internet, I began to put these findings together, and I deduced that there was a high degree of likelihood that my great-grandmother, Precilla, had been owned by the KING family of Franklin County, and that perhaps she had somehow ended up with the daughter of that family, Sarah Helen King Shaw, at some point prior to emancipation. Even if Precilla was never actually owned by Mrs. Shaw, it’s possible to imagine that perhaps there was an admiration for this daughter of her owner, which led Precilla to want to honor her by naming her first daughter after her.

This very worn and scribbled upon page is from the front of the reunion booklet from the first-ever YARBOROUGH Family Reunion (descendants of Calvin and Precilla), held in 1993. This was where my interest in family history began. I do have a photo of an actual page in the family bible (shown) has all of these names written, but I can't find it at this time.

An additional finding which strengthens my hunch that Precilla must’ve been close to (or owned by) Sarah King is this: Sarah’s first child – a daughter- is named Josephine. Little Josephine and my great-grandmother, Precilla, were born within a year of each other (1838-1839), which makes me suspect that they must’ve grown up, adoring (?)playmates, which would make total sense of the fact that my great-grandmother named her fourth daughter, Josephine. 

This brings me back to today…

Since I know that Sarah Shaw’s daughter, Josephine, and my great-grandmother, Precilla, were close in age, and may have grown up together, I needed to see if the two girls lived in close enough proximity for that to be true. Well, I struck gold, again, as hit after hit continued to support my theories about Precilla’s pre-emancipation background.

As it turns out, Robert John Shaw (Sarah’s husband) died in June, 1847, leaving her a widow, with six children. Three years later, in the 1850 Census, we find Sarah and her children enumerated in the household just after her father's, with her five children, including Josephine (who is recorded as being 14, but according to all other records found, she should have been 11). And, right next door (most likely on the same property), is her brother, Dr. William R. King, who is shown on the 1850 Slave Census as being the owner of a 12 year old girl, who is (quite likely) Precilla. (Sarah, herself, owns 13 and 9 year old girls. This group of girls probably all worked and played together.)

This 1850 Census shows Sarah living next door to what looks like her brother, William, age 35. However, in the image, below, it appears to be her father, William, Sr. (age 65) in the same location.  Either way, Sarah is back home on her family's property, with her children.

Ancestry.com. 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.

If my thinking is on track (and I believe it is), this research gives a LOT of support to my theory that the Pricilla who was willed to William Richmond King, by his father, Joel King, in 1853 is my great-grandmother, Precilla Shaw Yarborough. What remains to be determined/explored/proven is why she ended up giving the SHAW surname on her cohabitation record, in 1866. However, since we know that the formerly-enslaved were allowed to use any surname they chose, my guess is that even if she was never owned by Sarah Shaw, my great-grandmother had a certain affection and respect for her, and because of that, she chose to give SHAW as her surname. This would, perhaps, further support what I was told by a descendant of the SHAW family, many years ago, when I first began to formulate these ideas. I’d reached out to this fellow researcher to see if he had anything that might lead me to my Precilla. He didn’t, but he did tell me that it was passed down in their family lore that "Sarah Shaw felt a lot of affection for her slaves, and they for her".  At that time, I wasn’t really trying to hear that, but now, it kind of makes sense that it may have been true, since it seems that my great-grandmother thought enough of Sarah and her daughter to name her own children after them.

Whew! I'm going to pause here, but I will be back with a Part II. My next steps will be to see if I can put Precilla and Calvin in proximity to one another in 1860 and/or the period just before that. I already have some documentation, showing a "Sylla" belonging to Calvin's last owner, but I'll need to find proof of some kind of transaction before and can know for sure that she's the right one.

So, for now.... That's all folks! 

Thanks for reading, and please share, widely, so that perhaps some of the Shaw and/or King descendants might see this, and come forth with more info!  And, if you have comments and/or suggestions as to how I might further explore this, please leave them below. Thanks!

Renate

C is for Calvin - Where it all began #A-ZChallenge

Original post -9/13/09  Updated and re-posted - 4/3/17 for the A-Z Challenge

My great-grandfather, Calvin, was born enslaved in 1839. He belonged to the NEAL family, a slave of Chloe Crudup Perry Neal, whose husband, John, died shortly before Calvin was born. The Neals were from Franklin County, NC, but members of the family, including John and Chloe, expanded westward to lands in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. Slaves, as well as many of the family members moved between these properties throughout their lives. After John Neal died in Tennessee, his wife, Chloe, returned to her family (the Perrys of Cascine Plantation), bringing all of their human chattel with her.

I've never seen a picture of either of my great-grandparents, so I use this Cohabitation Record to represent them.

Here follows a timeline of Calvin’s life and relevant connections, as revealed during many years of research:

1838 – John NEAL dies in Tennessee. His slaves become the property of his wife, Chloe. (No will or probate has been found.) Presumably, Calvin’s mother was one of those slaves.

1838-39 – Chloe Neal returns to Franklin County, NC with her three children, John, Leonidas, and Elizabeth Temperance, as well as with all of the family's slaves.

1839 – March - Calvin is born in either TN or NC on a NEAL plantation – There is further support here for the confusion about Calvin being born in TN, since John NEAL and his brother, James were settled there during the 1830’s. However, John NEAL died in 1838, and his widow, Chloe, returned to Franklin County with her children (and her slaves) soon after that. If Calvin’s mother (name unknown) had been pregnant during that transition, it’s easy to see how and why perhaps someone may have told him he was born in TN, only for him to find out later that they were actually in NC at the time of his birth, or she may have even given birth to him on the way! (Evidence is beginning to lean more towards an 1840 birthdate for Calvin.)

1851 – October 14 - Chloe NEAL dies. In 1852, her slaves are divided into 3 lots, for her three children. 12 year old Calvin, valued at $620, is in the lot that goes to Elizabeth T NEAL.

1853 – November 28 - Elizabeth T. NEAL marries James H. YARBOROUGH

1855 – Feb. 6 – Birth of Herbert Neal YARBOROUGH, son of James H. and Elizabeth YARBOROUGH

1855 – April 10 – Elizabeth T. Neal YARBOROUGH dies. Her slaves (including Calvin) become the property of her husband, James H. YARBOROUGH.

1855 – July 8 – Death of infant, Herbert N. Yarborough

1859 – June 8 - James H. Yarborough marries Areta E. Johnson, oldest daughter of Wood T. Johnson.

1860 – August - James H. Yarborough dies. Calvin now becomes the property of his wife, Areta, through a division of slaves. (James and Areta had only been married for 13 months.)

1860 - December 27 – Calvin (slave) begins to cohabitate with Precilla (slave) – The cohabitation record gives Precilla’s “maiden” name as SHAW. They have left what I believe to be hints of their previous  owners’ surnames in the middle names of their oldest children. This researcher believes it possible that Precilla may have also, at some point, been an EATON, WHITE, and/or KING slave.  It’s quite possible that Calvin met Precilla when James and Areta combined their property. KING was the maiden name of Sarah SHAW, the person I believe to have possibly owned Precilla originally. I have not yet found a WHITE connection.)
For an update on my research on Precilla, click here: Finding Precilla

1862 – Louis (or Lewis) NEAL YARBOROUGH, Calvin and Precilla’s first child, is born. (Notice the middle name, Neal. This researcher believes that Calvin maintained an emotional (and/or perhaps more) attachment to the Neal family, into which he was born, and thus he wanted to give his son that name. Also, this is the first indicator that my great-grandparents wanted me to find and figure out some things about their/our history! I believe that all, or at least most of their 11 children were given middle names that connected Calvin and Precilla to their former owners, or perhaps maybe in some cases to people who had been kind to them. Here are the remaining children and their approximate dates of birth:

1864 - Samuel E. (believed to be Eaton)
1866 – Sarah H. (I’m not sure about the H, but the person I believe to have been Precilla’s main owner greatly influenced Precilla was Sarah H. Shaw. I’ve been in touch with some of her family members, and it seems, according to the records they have, that she was much loved by her slaves. I also am suspecting a Neal slave, named Sarah (whose husband was named, Lewis), as the possible mother of Calvin, but I have nothing to verify that – it’s just a hunch.
1867 – Thomas W. (WHITE?)
1872 – Henry KING
1874 – Quinea A.
1876 – Caroline B.
1878 – Josephine I.
1879 – Mattie Louise
1882 – Calvin Roy (my grandfather)
1884 – Eugene Carter

1863 – January 1 – Abraham Lincoln, in his EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION declares that all slaves are to be permanently freed in all areas of the Confederacy that had not already returned to federal control.

1865 – July – Final freeing of the majority of slaves under the Emancipation Proclamation.  Calvin would had at least four different owners during his life.

Post-Slavery Life:

I do not know exactly when or how Calvin and Precilla gained their freedom, so I go with the assumption that Calvin was held in bondage by Areta Yarborough (widow of James H.) until 1865. My guess is that she must have treated him relatively well, since Calvin chose to take the Yarborough surname for his family, and since he and Precilla were married under her watch. I continue to press forward to find out as much as I can about this period in Calvin’s life.

1870 – (Census) Calvin (a farmer and former school teacher), and Precilla (keeping house), are living in Louisburg. They have 3 children (Louis, Sam, and Thomas) living. A daughter, Sarah was “burned” and died that year, at age four. Addendum, added 2/5/11 - See post: Calvin Yarborough - TEACHER

1872 – Calvin is named as one of the trustees of the “Colored Presbyterian Church” in Franklin County on a Deed of Indenture between the church and J.C. Wynne (and wife). The church was buying land in Louisburg. (This is Saint Pauls United Presbyterian Church, which my aunt still belongs to. my family has had continuous membership in, until the death of my aunt in November, 2013.) My grandfather, Calvin, Jr., with the help of his brother, Sam, built his house directly across the street from this church.)

1877 – August - Calvin purchases land (for himself) in Franklin County near the grave yard on the Louisburg and Newport Road for $75.00.

1880 – (Census) Calvin, a farmer, and Precilla now have eight children living (Louis, Samuel, Thomas, Henry, Quinea, Caroline, Josephine, and Mattie). Just a few doors down lives the renowned, John H. Williamson, with whom Calvin is connected via the church, and who was a pioneer in Negro education in the Franklin County area. Calvin's circle of friends and fellow trustees included several educators, such as Williamson, Moses Hopkins, and George C. Shaw.

1888 – September 15 - Calvin is again named as a trustee on a Deed of Indenture between E.N. Dent and the Colored Presbyterian Church, this time for $100.00.

1890 – GRRRRRRRR….akdfnasdfinaksdfasdfand!!!

1896 - Apparently, Calvin was in a Union, or was a Mason or something. I have a handwritten receipt, which was in the Yarborough Family Bible at my grandparents' house, which states, "Recd of Calvin Yarborough 38.63 for a pymt for Mr. Levitt from the colored union (or mission) meeting this the 21st day of December 1896."

1900 – Calvin and Precilla, now 61 and 56, respectively, have been married for 40 years. Several of their adult children live in the home with them. Sam, Quinea, Carrie, Jacqueline, Mattie, Calvin (18), and Eugene (16) are all still single! (What was wrong with my ancestors – were they ugly or something???) Sam is a carpenter, and both Quinea and Josephine are school teachers (which probably explains why they weren’t married).

1910 – 71 year-old Calvin is now widowed. (Precilla died sometime before October of 1903, when Mattie got married.) Sam, also widowed, lives with his father, as do Quinea (Clennie in the census, which was probably for “Quennie”), Caroline, and Josephine (“Joe”), who is also widowed, although her married name (Lane) is not noted in the census. Neither Josephine, nor Quinea are still teaching. Most likely, Jo had to stop when she married, since teachers back then were require to be single. Caroline is a cook for a private family. Sam is still a carpenter, his trade until he died in 1922.

Calvin Yarborough, Sr. died sometime after 1910, but before 1919, when his son (my grandfather), Calvin Roy Yarborough, Jr. married my grandmother, Anna Beatrice Green. (Most likely, he died before 1913, because that was when NC began to require death certificates, and there is not one for him.) 
To date, I’ve identified close to 300 of his and Precilla’s descendants, spanning six generations. Unfortunately, out of the 20 or so cousins I’ve had contact with, none seemed to know, or have any additional information about Calvin and/or Precilla, nor has anyone shared pictures of them or either of their children with me. (I’m very blessed to have a picture of my own grandfather, Calvin, Jr., which was supplied to me by his daughter.) The search for more information continues. The ancestors want me to know…

04/03/2017 -Addendum: As I'm re-posting this almost 8 years after it was originally written, I'm very aware of the lack of source info. However, this was written before I'd learned of the importance of providing sources in our blog posts. I'm on vacation, right now, and I don't even have my regular computer with me, which has some of the documents saved on it that I would refer to for source info. To try to find all that data right now would be nearly impossible, so please excuse me. One day, I'll have to make a project out of revisiting all of my old posts and attempting to source my data.

Renate

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