Letter from Wayne Co.--Raney Ward 1859

  I already posted the first page of this letter as an example in a previous entry.  But I thought that the entire text is worth viewing, simply because it mentions so many names associated with the family.

   Names and things to look for:
   Page 1:-- Raney refers to his brother Quinton who remained in NC.
               --He discusses the disposition of the children of Andrew and Nancy White Ward's children.  Both were deceased by the time.  Andrew was Raney's brother.  Nancy was the sister of Raney's wife, Ruth.  Two of the children are with Hampton White--Nancy and Ruth's brother.  A good link to his picture and gravestone is here.
              --A reference to the 'old man' and the White family, obviously refers to Luke and Nancy White, parents of the above Whites.
              --Raney notes that Meshach Ward and family are well, and then mentions Meshach's recent election as County Judge.
              --Last is an interesting mention of all the people who have gone off to Pike's Peak and California (and how many have returned broke).

     Page 2: --Begins with the usual farming discussion you see in most of his letters.  Note the rust outbreak the previous year which wiped out the entire crop.
                --Mentions he taught Public School for 3 months, receiving $16.6667
                --Notes that the Huggins are well, but 'the Old Folks' still live quite distant from him, a good ten miles.  (Raney seems to call everyone older than him "the Old Folks")
                --A reference to Brown and Quinton, his brothers back in NC.  He wants Quinton to come and visit, saying the journey could be made alone in 6-8 days.
                   A side note here: Raney will die in a hospital while in Union uniform.  Meanwhile, Brown died in a hospital about the same time in Confederate Uniform. 

    Page 3: --"Ruth wants to be remembered to you..."  It takes almost the full paragraph before one realizes that from that point, it's Ruth's words as she signs her name at the end of it.  She discusses the horrid reaction of Andrew and Nancy's son, James Murphy, to becoming an orphan.  Ruth also makes a plea for Shad to come see them.
               --Raney concludes with a plea for his brother, Brown, to write.

  All in all a very important letter because it helps nail down all the parties in this particular family cluster that have moved from Orange Co NC to Wayne Co MO.
                                                                         (Kevin)              

Still more on the Huggins situation

  Ok, so you all have me hooked on the Huggins question.  I thought I'd do just a bit more digging before moving back to the Wards. 

   Although some of the following were not filed until a few years after the actual transaction date (not unusual back then),  Jacob Huggins of Onslow Co participates in 5 indexed deeds there.
   He is Grantor in deeds: 1800, 1815, and 1827.
   He is Grantee in deeds: 1791 and 1815.

   One can see how some of the confusion might have come about.  Frankly, there were several researchers who used to think that the Wards in Orange Co must have come from Onslow--such is the size of the Ward concentration over there.  But those Wards have been quite well researched and are a part of the Virginia Ward line. Still, in this case, the first deed on record for Jacob Huggins of Onslow Co is in 1791 from Edward Ward Jr. It must have been very tempting to see a Huggins (by the name of Jacob!) associated with Wards in Onslow...and then just make the 'leap' to assuming this must be the Jacob whose son marries a Ward in Orange Co.  Same surnames--but, sadly, it's a different Ward line.
   I think it will become pretty clear that we can say the same thing about Jacob Huggins of Onslow Co. as well.
   I've chosen to post a couple of the Grantor deeds for the Jacob Huggins from Onslow so you can see them for yourselves--as well as for one other reason I'll get to afterward:
                           
                                    Deed #1 is from Onslow Deed Book B, pp6-7.

   

Deed #2 is from Onslow Deed Book 7, pp157-8:

In addition to the years in question, the main thing to note here in each of these deeds is that Jacob Huggins of Onslow signs his name--he is literate.

    Below is a deed that falls, in the timeline, right between these two documents.  This is Jacob Huggins of Orange Co selling a portion of his land.
                               
                                          Deed is from Orange Co Deed Book 12, p.370

  
Again, the thing to notice here is that this Jacob signs by mark. He is illiterate.


   Thus, the Jacob Huggins out of Onslow Co shows documentary evidence of a quite constant presence in that county from the time of his being exec. of his father's will in 1789.  He is steadily involved in deeds there from 1791 until 1827.  In each instance, he is referred to as "Jacob Huggins of Onslow County."  Further, he is literate and always signs his name.
   The Jacob Huggins in Orange Co is clearly present by 1788 (as shown previously in the Orange Co tax list).   He is dead by 1813 when his will is proved (the Jacob Huggins of Onslow is involved in at least 3 deeds after this time). And, this Jacob is illiterate, signing by mark.

  I would humbly submit these are not the same men.
                                                                                 (Kevin)

A bit more on Jacob Huggins

  While I've already expressed my questions about the timeline involving Jacob Huggins of Orange Co vis a vis the Jacob Huggins from Onslow Co in the comments section of the previous Huggins post, certainly nobody should ever have to take what I say at face value.  I dug this out of my files and am posting it with the hope that some Huggins researchers out there can make use of it.

   First is a page from the actual 1788 Orange Co tax list.  This is the portion from the Orange District where John Ward and Jacob Huggins resided.

                

We are seeing a nice little cluster here:
The first name on the list is Zebedee Hicks.  Well-documented to be from Baltimore Co.  He will stay in Orange for a bit and then move out west.
Moving down there's John Millington--Son-in-law of John Ward.  He married John's daughter, Constant Ward, in 1784.
Next name is Richard Minson.  You'll sometimes see the name as Richard Menson.  He's shown in the Parish register back in Baltimore Co marrying John Ward's first cousin.  He stays in county briefly and then also heads west.
Then comes Jacob Huggins, showing that he owns 100 acres.
The two Lynches that come next have close ties to the Rileys, but nothing that solid to the Wards, other than living close by.
Then you see John Ward, followed by son, Sutton Ward.

  Sadly, I do not have the original of Jacob Huggins' will, but I will post a copy of the abstract.

                   

Hopefully someone out there can make some sense of it all for the rest of us to enjoy.
                                                                            (Kevin)

Wayne Co--the smoking guns.

 I have to laugh.  It was simply my intention to show that Meshach Ward's biographical entry about his parents was almost certainly a concoction of his--and, I suppose more importantly, to separate the two Ward lines from each other in Wayne Co.   I didn't figure on getting so drawn into the line from Lincoln Co NC, however. :)

   In his book, Old Wayne, Ellinghouse wrote the following passage:

"Alexander Ward was taken into custody by Union soldiers on October
11, 1862, and charged with aiding guerrillas but released two days later after
denying the allegation and taking the oath of allegiance. His siblings who came
to Wayne County were Susanna (wife of Jacob Douglas Huggins), Iverson,
Meshach, and Lawson H. Ward, according to a published account. They are
said to be the children of William Ward (1780-1812) and the former Delilah
Compton (1785-1812) who, after the deaths of their parents in Orange County,
North Carolina, were reared by guardians."

   Ellinghouse was getting most of this information from previous researchers and publications.  At one point in this book he even admits that real proof of this supposed William and Delilah being related to the Lincoln Co line has never been forthcoming.  I hope that I have already shown that there was, very likely, no William Ward who married Delilah Compton.
   Now I'd like to take on the prevalent notion that Alexander Ward and Lawson H. Ward (mentioned in the passage above) were somehow 1) sons of the mythical William and Delilah and 2) that they were Meshach's siblings.
   In Lincoln Co NC (1831-4) there were a series of what are known as 'love and affection' deeds carried out from Frederick Ward to 4 different people.  Although not always the case, generally speaking a 'love and affection' deed goes to a child of the grantor.  I've certainly seen several where this wasn't so--most of those went to grandchildren.
   Luckily, in the case of two of the parties involved below, Frederick Ward made it very clear as to the relation of the grantee.

              

                                   

   As you can see in the above deeds (Lincoln Co DB 35, pp 385-387), Frederick Ward clearly names both Alexander and Lawson H. Ward as his sons.  
   Hopefully this will put an end to the notion that Alexander and Lawson H Ward were sons of the mythical William Ward.   For genealogists of the Lincoln Co NC Wards, I'm hopeful that it will also bring about a new re-examination of the line.
   For what it's worth, the other two 'love and affection' deeds were from Frederick to Thomas Ward and, also, to Conrad Ward.  I assume this infers they were likely his sons, also?
                                                        (Kevin)