Now . . . aboul Samuel . . .

Continuing with my effort to get beyond my roadblock on Benton HAYWOOD.  (See blog ROADBLOCKS 10/7/13.)  When Benton and Catherine removed to Mecklenburg County around 1831, they founded the HAYWOODs which populate Mecklenburg and Union county today.  There were none there before they arrived – there are many, many there now.  There is a full record of the family from that point on.  There is no record before 1830.

1830 CENSUS LINCOLN CO. NC

Benton pops up in the 1830 Lincoln County NC census, and I cannot find him before that time.  How did he happen to be in Lincolnton, the main town at that time of Lincoln County?  There were no other HAYWOODs in this area . . .

except . . .

I know genealogists are not supposed to “assume.”  FACTS!  You must have FACTS!  You cannot just “adopt” someone you want to put on your tree.  But there is Samuel . . . I don’t “assume” he is mine, but like I’ve mentioned in the past I have a feeling about Samuel.  Like my “feelings” about Catherine, about Josiah, (see blog Can you Feel Your Roots 9/4/13), I just know he is mine.  I can’t prove it (yet!)  I don’t assume, but I consider him a very interesting possibility!

I first met Samuel a long time ago, about 1994, when I was just beginning to learn about genealogy.  I found him in a book in the LDS library in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida -  a book on plantation owners in North and South Carolina.  And like most beginners I failed to record the name of the book!  (And have never come across it again.)  Anyway, it said Samuel HAYWARD had a “plantation,”  (any farm at that time was called a “plantation,”)  on Fisher’s Creek  south of the South Fork River.

When I investigated the South Fork River I found that it forked off the Catawba north of Lincoln County in NC, ran past where Charlotte is now, and on into South Carolina.  On a map I found a small creek called Fishing Creek just below what is now Mecklenburg County, on the South Carolina line.  This is where I pictured Samuel, right at Charlotte, right where my known family was located.  I had assumed!  I carried this tidbit of information with me for 20 years, a small note on a piece of paper, tucked into the back of my file folder.  All the time I was constructing my family tree (from Benton forward) this tiny note stayed hidden, deep in my mind.

Much later, after I retired and moved back to North Carolina, and resumed my genealogy research in earnest, I discovered how wrong I was.  In Brent Holcomb’s abstract of Land Grants in NC, I found the following:

SAMUEL'S 400 ac. PLOT

Pp.  183 – 184:  17 JUL 1752, Thomas POTTS of Anson Co. to SAMUEL HAYWARD of same, for £10 Va money…land on S side Catabar R. (sic)… Francis MACKILWAINE line…granted to POTTS 29 SEPT 1750,  400 A…THOMAS POTTS  (SEAL) , wit: WILLIAM SHERIF  JUR  (W),  ANTHONY HUTCHINS.

337   Pg 63   SAMUEL HAYWARD    30 AUG 1753   260 acres in Anson County on the S. fork of the Cataba river on Fishers creek.

359   Pg 66   SAMUEL HAYWARD    30 AUG 1753   350 acres in Anson County on the S. side of the S. fork of the Cataba River on Leonard Reeds branch above DANIEL WARLICK, joining sd WARLICK.

5082   Pg 196   Samuel Hayward   13 OCT 1756    400 acres in Anson County on the South side of the South fork of the Cataba River, joining his Old Survey, His Lower Corner,  FRANCIS MACKILWEAN, PETER HAVENY and Fishers Creek.

Pp 162 – 166  23 SEPT 1755  Samuel is listed as a Witness on a grant to DERRICK RAMSEUR

s. s. 894  (Inventories  fr. Sec of State’s papers) 28 Oct 1756    SAMUEL HAYWARD is listed as being present at an estate sale for BURILL GRIGG,  Decd.

5694  Pg 338   10 APR 1761   SAMUEL HAYWARD is listed on a land description as…”joining  SAMUEL HAYWARD Decd.”

7158  Pg 57  The creek was first called HOWARDS CREEK  about 1764.

Pp.110 – 111   30 OCT 1769  Samuel’s first 260 grant was transferred to CHRISTIAN REINHARDT, and noted as being “ on waters of S fork of Catawba River on Fishers Creek, now called Howards Creek.

As you probably know the names HOWARD, HAYWARD, and HAYWOOD were interchangeable at that time.  I believe the creek was named for Samuel after he came there, and towards 1800 some people were already calling it “the HAYWOOD Tract on Haywood’s Creek” in land records.  The name was evolving to HAYWOOD. 

Samuel was mentioned often in other land grants stating their land was “adjacent to, bounding, or in some way beside of or touching” the land of Samuel HAYWARD.  He was a witness on a deed in 1755, he was present at an auction in 1756.  Samuel was around and about in Anson County in the 1750s.  The part of Anson County where all this took place later became Tryon County, then Mecklenburg County, and finally in 1779, Lincoln County.  You have to look in all these counties, when doing your research.

And then, finally, on a land grant dated 10 APR 1761 to DANIEL WARLEIGH it states that this land bounds the property of Samuel HAYWARD, Decd.  Samuel has died sometime between his last mention at the estate sale in 1756 and 1761.  His land is mentioned (for location purposes) in other land records up until about 1800. 

And then one day I discovered that between 1782 and 1789  (there are several entries noted as “n.d.” which meant no date and Samuel’s was, of course, one of the ”no dates”) the “Inventory” of Samuel HAYWARD was entered into the court record by Administrators Samuel WILSON and his wife Sarah. (Administrators, not Executors, means there was no will.)  Who were these WILSONs?  Why were they handling the estate of Samuel HAYWARD?  This puzzled me for several years.

SAMUEL'S INVENTORY

The Inventory provides good information about Samuel.  He seems prosperous.  He owns books (very unusual on the frontier, - he evidently was an educated man,) guns, horses, wagons, much household and kitchen equipment (pewter plates and spoons,) a bed, with linens, 3 blankets and 2 quilts, much wearing apparel – men's and women's, much farm equipment.  Interestingly it mentions good coats, two “children’s” coats, a bolt of good broadcloth, bolts of silk dress material, a bolt of ordinary dress material, and a spinning wheel.  There were definitely two children and women in the household.

One day as I was researching at the Historical Library in Lincolnton, my head was all in Lincoln County at the time, but lying on a table I saw the very large Heritage Book for Mecklenburg County.  I said to myself “well, I have people in Mecklenburg County, I’ll just glance through it looking for HAYWOODs.”  I picked it up and carried it to my table, and when I put it down, it practically fell open in the “Ws.”!  (I told you before to pay attention when these things happen.  They are probably important.  Someone is trying to tell you something!)  I could have flipped on over to where the HAYWOODs were in the book, but instead I looked at the top right corner of the page and - I saw SAMUEL WILSON!  That was the name of the person listed as Adm. of Samuel’s estate!  And then I read the article.

It mentioned Samuel WILSON and his wife Sarah HAYWARD, born in Anson County!  It listed her father as Samuel HAYWARD.  This was all that was said about Sarah.  But it explained why the WILSONs were administrating Samuel HAYWARD’s estate.  SHE WAS HIS DAUGHTER!  I have since found Sarah named in two WILSON family trees on Ancestry, listing her as wife of Samuel, and mother to George (1775 - 1850,) but I have been unsuccessful in contacting the owners to find out where this information came from.

Now, this raised the question “Why, if Samuel HAYWARD died by 1761, was the inventory not entered into court record until 1782 - 1789?  That was at least 20 years after he died.  I learned that when a person died, if there were any minor children, the estate could not be settled until all the children were of legal age, 21 years old. 

So – o - o,     

who were they waiting on to reach 21 years of age!  Waiting 20 years to begin settling the estate doesn’t make sense otherwise.  Samuel is too old to be the father of Benton.  But if there had been a son (who had become 21 years old around 1782 - 1789 when the Inventory was entered, the one who wore the second child’s coat) he could have been Benton’s father!  Benton was born between 1790 and 1800 according to the 1830 census.  All this would have taken place in the part of Anson County which became Lincoln County, right at the town of Lincolnton where Benton turns up in 1830.  This Unknown HAYWARD/HAYWOOD is who I am looking for.

This makes for an interesting (not assumption) possibility.  The coincidences are too much to be ignored!  Benton appears in Lincoln Co. and the only other HAYWARD/HAYWOOD in that county was Samuel 50 years before and “UNKNOWN”  20 – 30 years before.  My “to do” list says I must go back to Lincoln County and begin searching the Quarter Sessions and Pleas for the time period 1750 – 1790 to see what information may be there concerning the final settling of Samuel’s estate.  These records are not indexed, so it will require much page turning and bleary eyes.  This will consume many, many day trips to Lincolnton during the coming winter.  (Good time to research – cold winter days.)

Don’t Assume - Research

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ROADBLOCKS

ROADBLOCKS !          

    The bane of  genealogists.

I think everyone working on a family history has a roadblock they are struggling with.  In our genealogy group in Belmont I can think of no one not anguishing over their own roadblock.  Every now and then we as a group jump on one of these and brainstorm about what the person could try next, coming up with new ideas not thought of before.  We are like detectives working on a case over a long time (they call it a cold case file,) following every little clue, adding them up, coming back over and over again, trying to come up with a solution.  It is not easy!

In my family history, I have eight family lines which I can trace back to the early 1700s or further.  Almost all of my ancestors were already in the Charlotte, NC area before 1776.  But then there is my roadblock!  What I consider my main line, my father’s line the HAYWOODs, is my problem. 

(Why do we consider our father’s line the main line?  Is it because it is the name we carried from birth?  Why is it any more important than our mother’s line, or our maternal great, great grandfather’s wife’s line?  Don’t we have just as much of their genes in us?  It is a puzzle.  Just as astonishing is the fact that in just four generations, we have the genes, the DNA, of sixteen people running through our bodies!  And we wonder where the “redheaded” child came from!)

My Great Great Grandfather Benton HAYWOOD is my roadblock.  We didn’t find him for a long time.  As I wrote about in Butterfly Whispers (June 28) my cousin Peggy and I were working on the two brothers, my Josiah (1825 – 1865) and her John Franklin (1829 - 1911) HAYWOOD at the same time.  (There was a third son James Madison [1831 – 1896,] who was born after they moved to Mecklenburg County, NC.)   Peggy, who had been at it a lot longer than I had, thought there was another Josiah who was the father of them both.  She had found a deed where Josiah was giving some land to John Franklin.  So she thought he must be the father.

She was on the verge of printing her book on the HAYWOODs.  I was in NC for the Christmas holidays and I decided to go to Monroe, the county seat of Union County, NC.  They have a wonderful History Room in the Court House, so I took the opportunity to do some research.  In the process, I met my newly found cousin (first cousin once removed) Sandy who I had only conversed with by telephone at that time.  Sandy took me all over Union Co., finding all the old home places, cemeteries, and such.  She took me to Morning Star Lutheran Church to see what they had.  We were sure of Catherine Wentz as the mother of the boys for they were with her for a long time, living right beside each other.  The Wentzes had helped found Morning Star, and the family were strong members. 

Morning Star has a huge ledger of the minutes and church business from their beginnings.  The pages have been laminated so you can handle them.  I was just turning pages to see what I could find.  I turned the page and looked down to see:

Benton Haywood and his wife Catherine brought their two sons John Franklin and James Madison to be baptized.

We had found the father of the three boys!  We had never seen that name before.  I called Peggy frantically telling her NOT to give the “book” to the printers!  I stopped by her house in South Carolina on my back home to Florida, and we went through the book, finding every time “Josiah” had been mentioned as the father, and replacing it with “Benton.”  WHEW!

Back home, I entered Benton into the Ancestry search box, and up he popped – In the 1830 Census of Lincoln County, NC!  Lincoln County – that was a surprise!  The problem is he is never mentioned again.  He was in the 30 – 40 age group, meaning he was born 1790 – 1800.  He should have been in the 1820 census as he would have been age 20 – 30.  He was not.  Then otherwise, he should have been in someone else’s household.  But since there are no names other than the head of house before 1850, he cannot be found.  But there were no other HAYWOOD households In Lincoln County, or in Mecklenburg County in 1830 that he could have been in.  There were no HAYWOODS in either the 1800, 1810 or the 1820 census in this area.

In the 1830 census all the other given facts match Benton.  There was a female age 20 – 30 which matches his wife Catherine WENTZ who was born in 1805.  There were two males, the dates matching Josiah born 1825, and John Franklin born 1828.  Benton lived in Lincolnton.  He is living among many of the well known, financially well-off citizens of this area at that time.  His next-door neighbor Ephraim Brevard was one of the most prominent citizens of Lincoln County.  He is listed with 26 slaves, who probably worked in his mines and iron furnaces along the South Fork River.  There were several of these iron furnaces in this area which contributed greatly to the economics of Lincolnton and Lincoln County during these years. Other prominent men living in proximity to Benton were Larson Wilson, D. M. Forney (another iron furnace,) Andrew Dellinger, and Joel Stowe.  He was in “good company.”  Benton appears on no tax records, voters list, no other record in Lincolnton or Lincoln County.  This is my Benton, but where did he come from?

(The following is excerpted from my blog We came From The West, dated 7/24/13)

“I did my searching.  I followed every path I could find.  There was a whole county named HAYWOOD  over on the North Carolina/-Tennessee Line.  It must be full of Haywoods, I thought, since they named the county that.  It turned out that HAYWOOD County, NC (founded in 1808) and also HAYWOOD Co in Tennessee were both named in honor of a retiring Judge John Haywood who had been the Treasurer of NC for 40 years (1787 to 1827).  He came from a large family of HAYWOODs settled around Raleigh and Wake Co, NC.  His ancestor John H. HAYWOOD (1684 – 1758) had sailed from Barbados into New Bern harbor in the mid 1700s and they had settled from Edgecombe County on the coast drifting across the state leaving GREAT MEN in their path to situate at Raleigh.  I call them “The Society Haywoods.”  They were wealthy; doctors, judges, lawyers, and professors, and I can find NO connection between them and Benton.  None of them would ever have been found plowing a mule to feed himself and clothe his children.  And it also turned out back then there were hardly any HAYWOODs in Haywood County after all, except for the Judge’s family who had moved with him.  So that blew that theory!

Then my attention turned to a clan of HAYWOODs settled in Montgomery Co, NC near Rockingham.  There is a grand restored home there close to Mt. Gilead called HAYWOOD HOUSE which had been the site of a large plantation with a huge number of slaves.  There is a wonderful culture which has grown up around HAYWOOD HOUSE, and many African-American people today have built their genealogical tree from that point in time and go by the name of HAYWOOD.  But alas, I couldn’t connect to HAYWOOD HOUSE, finding it had been founded by a Byrd HAYWOOD who had come down from coastal Brunswick Virginia in 1778.  No Benton in that family.

These two HAYWOOD families were the only ones in North Carolina before the early 1830s.  They are the ones showing on the 1790 census.  There were no HAYWOODS in Union, Mecklenburg, Gaston, Lincoln, or Anson Counties before 1830.  So if there were none anywhere for us to come from, where the “heck” did we come from!”

By 1831 when the third son James Madison was born, Benton had moved his clan to the Stallings/Hemby Bridge area of Mecklenburg County, which eventually became Union County (just east of Old Providence Road.)  This was quite near the family place of Catherine’s parents, John Andrew WENTZ (1751 – 1827) and wife Catherine STARNES (1774 – 1814.) and her grandfather Johann Andreas WENTZ, the immigrant, (1717 – 1809,) and his wife Catherine CHURTZ (1729 – 1826.)  I had often wondered, in that time period, when travel was so difficult, and there were two rivers to cross (the Catawba and the Southfork,) how in the world did Benton and Catherine get together.  And then I discovered (ah the joys of genealogy!) that two of Catherine’s aunts had married men from Lincoln County earlier and had lived there for a time before moving on west.  Barbara WENTZ (1767 – 1849) had married Leonard Lipe (1763 - 1848) and sometime around 1820 they moved to Nine Mile Prairie, Perry, Illinois.  Catherine WENTZ (1775 - 1875) married John Slinkard (? - ?) and they eventually moved to Newberry, Green, Indiana.  So that offered an opportunity for Catherine to be in Lincoln County and meet Benton.

When Benton and Catherine removed to Mecklenburg County around 1831, they founded the HAYWOODs which populate Mecklenburg and Union county today.  There were none there before they arrived – there are many, many there now.  There is a full record of the family from that point on.  There is no record before 1830.

. . .Unless you consider SAMUEL HAYWARD, Anson County, circa 1751!

 More about Samuel next time!

This remains a

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