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

Preserving the Ha(y)worth Family History for Future Generations, Part 5

The next letter we have from George Haworth is dated March 1706, still based on the Quaker Calendar dates. He is very appreciative of the fact that he received something from home, “I have received your token with great comfort to bear of your wellfare and health to which I won myself obliged to you for the tenderness and care towards me which makes me desire to make a large acknowledgement to you …”  (All italics are excerpts from George’s letters, as written.(1))

I get the impression, from things he wrote, that it was not a letter he received from his family, “but I much admire that you are so negligent and soon forgotten me that you never writ to me since I left you, it makes me ready to weep often, when I think how I cannot have so much as one letter from some of your hands, I would desire some of you to write to me by the next opportunity and not to fail I would not have you to forget me, tho' I be far distant from you I have some thoughts of coming to England and see you but the Seas are so full of Enemies that there is no good coming as yet, I have sent 9 or 10 letters and my Sister hath sent but one and never received any…”  I have to wonder if letters were written but never received.

He seems to be quite elegant in his wording, and although to us it may seem a bit choppy, I think he got his points across to his family.  "Seeing the distance between us, I desire you accept of my goodwill and dutiful affection towards you, together with my desire for your prosperity and wellfare and hoping these lines will find you in good health as I am at present the Allmighty be praised for it. Remember my dear love to my Brother and to my loving Sisters and all relations in general…"

Sometime in the recent past, George’s cousin James had passed away, as he mentioned his widow in this letter. “James Haworth's widow and her little daughter are in good health and she hath married one of my shipmates one George Clough..” She remarried a man who came over on the ship Britannia, with George, from England.

A lot has happened to George and America, since his arrival in 1699.  What does the future hold for him and the Haworth family?

Today's Terri's Tidbit:  Check out this fascinating website called "The American Civil War, then and now".  It is a fun, interactive website.  To view, click here.
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(1)George's letters can be found in many publications but most notably in: 
      Early Letters from Pennsylvania, 1699-1722
      George Haworth The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
      Vol. 37, No. 3 (1913), pp. 330-340