Archive for December 2020
Robert Coleman’s fishing hole…
I do not have time to pursue this mystery right now. But there is an area of Tar River right at the mouth of Swift Creek that is proving to be an absolute NIGHTMARE for me to map. I am posting this apparent piece of nonsense mainly so I do not forget it. I have considerable notes here on other Pages… if you simply search “robert coleman” in my search box. Coleman researchers have never “concluded” where the original Robert Coleman of Edgecombe.. you know, actually came from???
Merry Christmas to you all…
I normally would say Y’all but I’m feelin’ formal-like today. Just had Christmas dinner with the family and two of my grandsons may have reached that magical age to where they may have an interest in genealogy. If so, they may be showing up to help.
Yesterday I did a few patents for a map and this little jewel shows up… it is not very often we get a whole plate of filet mignons served up in such a small package. Most researchers would be happy with one or two references that could be tracked to find meager clues… But feast your eyes my friend- this is an encyclopedia of clues. smiling… this surrounds MY GUY! Well, my guy is at least attached to THE GUY!.
Good Lord Mable! Where does one start?
Hayseeds…
So I am carefully creating my puzzle pieces for my new and improved Swift Creek map. And up on my radar pops this character: Oroondates Davis! Trademark! Ha! Thinks I… how have these Halifax County hayseeds mangled a perfectly good name again! Hmmm… what is this?
“Oroondates Davis, lawyer, legislator, and member of the Board of War of North Carolina during the American Revolution, was born in what is now Halifax County, the sixth and youngest son of Thomas and Hastwel Davis. He was named after a fictitious Persian soldier of the fifth century B.C. who figures in the popular French romance by La Calprenède, Cassandra (Cotterell’s translation of which ran through ten English editions between 1652 and 1737). Late in 1743 Thomas Davis moved from Virginia to North Carolina with other members of his family and began acquiring land on Looking Glass Swamp in Halifax County. By the time of his death in 1764 he owned a town lot in Halifax and approximately 9,000 acres in Halifax, Bute, and Edgecombe counties.”
The whole sordid tale is here:
https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/davis-oroondates
And while it is fresh on my mind… this area of Halifax County is a spaghetti plate of random willy-nilly named Creeks, Swamps, Branches and Pocosons. I still have not found exactly where the “low grounds of Rayford’s Creek” is but I am working on it! This is a good source to zoom in on an area and actually find some of said obscure and irritating water sources. Try it…
Jacket Swamp
Imagine If you will, a robot brain…
Or better yet, imagine the Marvel Comics Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) standing in front of that fantastic computer screen in his workshop… and then his brain just short circuits… brizzlikslizziks!! brap!
My brain is fried… I have stared at this deed until my eyes are bleeding. There are mistakes in this mess and I am helpless to find them (plural?).
Your mission (should you accept it) is to FIND the aggravating errors and REPORT them in the comments.
Traci’s transciption attached…
Her professional eye is nothing to sneeze at. And the metes and bounds survey again turns out to look like a plate of spaghetti. So I think the problem is in the actual deed. I have seen minor examples of this but this is on a scale I have not ran across.
Again I find myself at odds with Colonial Bureaucrats! At some point the distinction between the two types of survey remarks may be hopelessly screwed up. The last example above says: North 50 West 100…. it can go either way? I shall set this revolting mess aside until I can clear my head and then renew the attack. Thanks Traci. Alternatively an earlier survey may tell the tale… but what a pain to dig up.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well… Kristen has stepped up and valiantly attacked this horrid excuse for a Colonial Document. And sad to say she has been miserably shot down also. Not that her painfully careful transcription is to blame… NO! Both hers and Traci’s attempts deserve applause or if no applause then, perhaps throw money? OK then, applause it is!
I fear we may have arrived at a problem that GASP!… we may need an actual, breathing SURVEYOR to solve.
update…
Well… Traci has stepped up to the plate and scored a home run. Here is the actual survey. Note in the survey that right off the bat (see the pun?) the survey notes have been corrupted over time. S 55 E 116 has been substituted for the original S 55 WEST 116. I rest my case.
just for fun…
Space Force
I’m a Air Force vet… the generation of Airmen after me started calling themselves “Zoomies“… cute … so this is fun for me…
the uniforms
this is a little difficult for me to swallow… can’t quite wrap my head around it? not that I might be a conspiracy kook tho’.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/space-force/2020/12/18/id/1002282/
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/escobar-when-deplorables-become-ungovernables
a little tidbit from Victor Davis Hanson…
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1220/hanson121720.php3
Y’all have a nice evenin’ now…
Jacob Johnston’s Mill Swamp
Well,
After a brief scolding from Nurse Ratchet, I realized that I too can fall victim to Megamappingus Irritatimus” which she promptly diagnosed a remedy. She explained that I was delusional and should come back to reality. Which I promptly have done.
It seems there is a White Oak Swamp in Wilson County.. which WAS Edgecombe… you know… back in the day.
There is a “pond” on the property of John Permenter. That pond is what I used through the magic of modern technology to group this whole bunch of patents together. Then I over-layed the group over the pond on the base map and my map. My assumption is that that pond is unchanged basically since the Colonial Times of the 1700s. I do realize that Hurricanes and Floods have visited this area of North Carolina. Creeks may change… yadda, yadda… I think this is very close.
Oh.. and for that mapping guy out there…. I always use a scale of 1″ = 1 mile. Note that the good folks at Topoquest.com readily snapped to attention and complied with my request to supply you at no cost, a handy-dandy map you can download. Please feel free to tip them.
Fessin’ up time…
I’ze been down in de dumps last couple years… but I be back now. Went to da Docter tother day… tole him I be considren ‘tirin. He say he run some tests which he done lickity split. He had me back quick like. He say might be good to sit down. I besat. He say I regret to inform you that you be impotent.
So I’ze go to town an’ buys me some fancy duds.
My girlfriend looks at me an’ say “Good Gawd Man!… why you so dressed up”?
I sez dat By Gawd if I gotta be impotent… then I gonna LOOK impotent.
They will not go away… kinda like that Biden kid…
Well… Traci has chimed in with some helpful history. She basically said I was totally out in left field with my dates and ought to be ashamed of myself. (very friendly like of course).
“Halifax became a bona fide county effective 1 January 1759.
“In 1758 the residents of Edgecombe County petitioned the Governor and the Colonial Assembly requesting that the parish of Halifax be granted the status of an individual county – having functioned along with St. Mary’s Parish as the two original Edgecombe County parishes since its creation in 1741 from the southwestern section of Bertie County. Bertie County was formed from the western extension of Chowan Precinct (west of the Chowan River) in the year 1722, and was even earlier, an undefined part of the now extinct original Albemarle County 1664-1668. All territory within the boundaries of Edgecombe County north of the Fishing Creek and Rainbow Banks on the Roanoke River – approximately 711 square miles – was officially designated as Halifax County on January 1, 1759.”
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Halifax_County,_North_Carolina_Genealogy
Edgecombe was created as a precinct in 1732. Some confusion comes in with the fact that most of the precincts were elevated to counties in 1739, but legislation did not make Edgecombe officially a county until 1741. By the formation of Halifax, however, all were definitely counties, not precincts.
and then in classic librarian fashion she can’t control herself and adds even more salt upon my wound:
“I should have added, more confusion comes in with the fact that, when Halifax County was created in 1758/9, the first six deed books of Edgecombe stayed in Halifax. As Margaret M. Hoffman explains, “By about the mid 1740s, the Edgecombe County courthouse at Enfield, NC was in use. Early in 1759, when Halifax County, North Carolina was formed from a part of Edgecombe County and the limit of Halifax County was set, one boundary was and still is Fishing Creek which flows just below Enfield. The Edgecombe County courthouse was then within the new County of Halifax. For this reason deed in the Halifax County, NC public registry prior to 1759 call for lands within the huge area that Edgecombe covered in its very early days.”
But not to belabor a point to a level of ridiculousness, here is a practical example of what Traci refers to concerning mere mortals like you and I when we search the county records.
Concerning the Ambrose Pitman property above I will attach a record I just found. It describes William Whitehead selling his land to Ambrose Pitman. (Which rewards my careful research to explain the missing land in my map! Capich?
The point is that it never would have occurred to me to search Halifax records for a “known” Edgecombe deed.
And yes, I dig this deeply when I get stumped on the maps.
And of course Holmes had to chime in with his perturbations, recollections and hindsight. He says Hold the damn horses a minute… he vaguely remembered a “disturbance in the Force” concerning this pissant little area of Edgecombe County that I found myself researching.
And Traci once again produced the goods… Voila!
“Part of Halifax was annexed to Edgecombe in 1779: “…all that part of Halifax County lying below a line beginning at John Wall’s and Drewry Crokers dividing corner tree on Fishing Creek, then along Wall’s line to the back corner, thence a direct line as near as may be to the fork of the Marsh Swamp at or near Matthew Parkers then down said swamp to Deep Creek and across said Creek to the mouth of the Indian Branch then the various courses of said branch to the Martin County line shall be held and deemed part of the County of Edgecombe…”
David L. Corbett, The Formation of the North Carolina Counties, p. 97.
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr24-0005
Holmes seems satisfied. But then he flips a few pages here and there and comes up with what is called a “practical Example”:
FYI
John Wall left a will dated 15 Sep 1778, said he was of Halifax County, but proved in Edgecombe May 1779.
Children: Jesse Wall
Elizabeth Weeks
Henah Alsobrook
Selah Kelly
Faithy Griffin
Pheby Alsobrook
Hannah Hyatt
Also gave a share to the children of David Alsobrook, namely Priscilla, Hannah, band Rhoda.
Son-in-law Giles Kelly
Note:Daughter Elizabeth married Archelaus Weeks
Traci adds: Makes perfect sense. He was of Halifax when he wrote it in 1778, annex law was Jan/Feb 1779, and so by May 1779 he was a resident of Edgecombe.
Who ARE those guys?
So I’m working on a new improved map of the Swift Creek area of Edgecombe county. I’m working along some grants on the White Oak Creek area and two strange mentions show up on a patent for Joseph Wall and one James Wall… I haven’t reached a “ready for prime-time moment” yet to publish the map.
The Wall patents are towards the top… note the rather unususal mention (noted in the actual grants which I diligently reproduce damn near verbatim) “the plantation Thomas Hicks now lives”. Note also that Mr. Thomas Hicks also has a patent an arrow shot away to the south… whereupon Mr. Hick sold some property in 1746 to one John Pitman.
I speculate about such on an earlier post here:
2 John Pitmans of IOW
The lovely and gracious Traci the Librarian even ventured into the quagmire of speculation and offered some comments… we were however, left stumped and dumbfounded once again and we ventured on to other things.
C’mon man! as that clown in Washington is now so fond of saying… This is some really heady stuff here when you can actually speculate that the quiet and well-mannered folk of 1740s Edgecombe county had a freaking NOTORIOUS Indian Trader in their midst.
Communal head-scratching and general lamentations of disgust for the trade are not only allowed but encouraged in the comments.