A Murder in Bear Creek Township, North Carolina, 1898

It has been a whirlwind six weeks, filled with lots of fun trips to visit with family!  And I have loved every minute.  My family is a high priority and when asked what makes me happiest, I would have to say anytime I can spend with them.  However, I promised more on the family history of my Great, Great Grandparents, in a previous blog, way back in January, so I thought I better get with it!

For years, I have been researching the death of my Great, Great Grandmother, Nancy Martindale Welch. She lived during the height of the Civil War, in North Carolina.  I have never found anything or heard stories of what her family went through, but living anywhere in the south during that time, had to be hard.  Nancy was the daughter of Jonathan and Lydia Martindale.  She married James Welch in 1866, shortly after the Civil War ended.  James was a soldier in the war.  They lived in Bear Creek Township, about three miles outside Harpers Crossroads, in Chatham County, North Carolina.

James and Nancy Welch had, by some sources, five children, and others six.  According to a newspaper article in the Chatham Citizen, Pittsboro, North Carolina, on 18 Jan 1899(1), James died in 1882.  In another article in the Chatham County Herald, in 1980(2), it said that he died from a disease he caught while fighting in the Civil War.  Speculation was that the disease was tuberculosis.  Grandma Welch, on the other hand, died in a more tragic way.  She was murdered, on her way home from her daughter's home.  Her Findagrave file says she died on June 10, 1898, but all other accounts say January 10, 1898.   I saw a picture of her weathered gravestone and it looks like the same month as the one of her birth, which was January, which makes sense, because it was snowing.

The story goes that she was on her way home, after spending the day with her oldest daughter and grandchildren, butchering hogs.  Her grandkids said goodbye to her, as she left in the sleet and snow. It is interesting because the Chatham Citizen article was written in Jan of 1899 but states that it happened "last Tuesday evening."  That is very confusing to a researcher when everything else says she died in January of 1898.

One of the old buildings still standing in Harpers Crossroads.

Nancy Welch died a brutal death. According to a 1959 article in the Durham Morning Herald(3) , “She was dead. Her mouth was stuffed with a red handkerchief. Her throat was slashed from ear to ear.”  It also stated. “Nancy’s hands were chopped all to pieces where she had grabbed the knife and he pulled it loose.”  The Statesville Record and Landmark, on January 13, 1899(4) reported that she "was outraged and murdered", "the deed committed about 5:00 p.m." Reports say she may have been raped, as well. What a horrible way to die! How did this happen?  Who did it? Well, the local people had an idea who they thought it was....but I am not totally convinced.  Check in next week to find out who the local community accused of committing the crime.
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(1) Chatham Citizen (Pittsboro, North Carolina), Wednesday, 18 Jan 1899, page 4
(2) Chatham County Herald, Wednesday, Novermber 26, 1980
(3) Durham Morning Herald, 1959
(4) Statesville Record and Landmark, Friday, 13 Jan 1899, page 6

Goldston, Chatham County, North Carolina

My Grandmother Hatch (Ola Mae Marley Hatch) graduated from Goldston High School in 1925. While on our trip through North Carolina, we decided to try to find where the high school was located. We had no idea where it was, just that it was in Goldston. So when we arrived we decided we should probably ask someone for help directions. Goldston is not very big. Population, according to Wikipedia is only 268. The downtown area is quaint but small. We were limited on where to go to seek someone's help.  


We saw a little local diner and figured there might be people there that could help us. We went in and scoped out someone that looked like they might be a local who would know the area. There was a very nice lady sitting there, who looked like she was quite comfortable in the setting, so we walked up to her and asked if she knew the location of the high school. She was so nice and proceeded to tell us that she could give us directions to where the school used to be! What? It wasn't there anymore? Another one of those disappointing moments along the trek we have embarked upon.  The sad thing was, she seemed very disappointed that the school had been torn down.  She said the community was not happy about the teardown, but it was not in good enough shape to leave standing.  

Some of the old buildings in Goldston, NC.

When we arrived at the location she had given us, there was not a trace of the main building.  We had a picture which kind of gave us an idea of the setting and there was a big smokestack in the background that could serve as a landmark, but that was gone too.  

Goldston High School.
Picture from the 1948 Gold-Stone Yearbook. (1)

We drove around the block a couple times before we found the actual site and the way we found it was the rock retaining wall that ran along the road in front of the building, as seen in the picture to the right. We got out and walked around the property.   All we could find was where the cafeteria had been (next to the current fire station) and a path that led to it.  The skeleton of the awning that ran between the school and the cafeteria was still standing, giving us an idea of how it was laid out.  

Original retaining wall in front of
what was the old Goldson High School.

The sidewalk that led to the front of the building was still visible, which is sort of visible in the middle of this picture, above the road, behind the wall.    

At the time of the picture of the school, there were very few trees in the front but the area had grown up a lot.  The location was just outside the downtown area and sat at the crossroads of several towns.  It is a beautiful area.  There wasn't a lot out there either, which made it a great location for a school  

Before the high school was torn down, they converted it from a high school to an elementary school.  

The High School was changed into an elementary school
before being torn down.  You can see the
smokestack is still in the background.

We left Goldston with a slight sadness that the school was no longer there.  We were finding that many things are not as they were in the time our family lived in these small little towns.  But we weren't going to let that deter us. We headed off to find our next landmark, which was Bear Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery and Harpers Crossroads, home of my Great Grandparents.  What would we find there?

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(1) From the Gold-Stone High School Yearbook of 1948, The Graphic Press, Inc., Raleigh, NC. From the Classmates.com website.