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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