Peter King

Today's family will feature one of my pseudo-roadblocks in my husband's family. I think I know each spouse and their parents' names, but I have no proof of them. To help sort this family out a little bit, I will try to only focus on the information I can back up with sources. Peter King was born about 1808 in North Carolina.

The 1840 census shows Peter living in West Pee Dee River, Montgomery County, North Carolina.

Clipping from 1840 census

In the household are:

• Male, under age 5
• Female, under age 5
• Female, age 5-10
• Male, age 20-30 (assume this to be Peter)
• Female, 20-30 (assume this to be Peter's wife)

The 1850 census shows Peter living in Montgomery County, North Carolina. A wife is not present in the household, but the following children are:

• Ann E. King, born about 1834 (assume this to be the female 5-10 in the 1840 census)
• Allen King, born about 1837 (assume this to be the male under 5 in the 1840 census)
• Dany King, born about 1840 (assume this to be the female under 5 in the 1840 census)
• Emely King, born about 1845
• Cummings King, born about 1847
• Peter King, born about 1849
• William King, born about 1849

I do not know if all of the children listed in this household are the natural children of Peter, but I assume they are. Some researchers suggest multiple spouses for Peter. I can only prove what I find in records, but more on that in a bit.

The 1860 census shows him living in Diffies, Montgomery County, North Carolina. Once again, his wife is not present, so I assume she probably died before the 1850 census. All of the same children are living in the house except for Ann, whom I assume has married by this point. Emely (listed as a female in 1850) is now Emsly (listed as male). So, since there are no new children in the household, it is possible that all of the children are, in fact, Peter's own.

Clipping from 1860 census

There is also a 41-year-old woman living with them in the 1860 census named Sally Manor. I do not know anything about her, but I hope to do some digging at some point to find out her relationship to the family. Perhaps she was there as a nanny (unlikely because they were farmers and didn't seem to be very wealthy), or perhaps she was a family member who was just visiting for a while.

The 1870 census shows another new person in the family. This time, it is 30-year-old woman listed in the place a spouse would appear. Her name is difficult to read, but I think it reads something like Ancis T. King. If this is right, then I believe this woman to be Ancez Coal.

Clipping from 1870 census

I have found a marriage certificate for Peter King and Ancez Coal dated 10 February 1866. This would fit with the lady in the 1870 census.

Marriage Licensus for Peter King and Ancez Coal

In addition to Peter's youngest boys, Peter and William (who are either twins or "Irish twins" since they always appear to be the same age or one year apart), there are also some new children in the house now. They are:

• Lucy King, born about 1858
• Martitia King, born about 1861
• George King, born about 1867
• Ella King, born about 1866
• (illegible girl's name - maybe Lebsa), born about 1869

If these (last few) are the children of Peter and Ancez, this means Peter would have been about 61 when the last child was born!

The first two children in the household appear to have been born before Peter and Ancez were married. Children out of wedlock was not unheard of in these days, but the 1880 census could shed some more light on the situation.

I believe Peter to have died between the 1870 and 1880 census. I have found what appears to be his widow living in Randleman Mills, Randolph County, North Carolina in 1880. Notice the name differences:

Clipping from 1880 census

Ancez is now listed as "Sarah," the illegible girl's name appears as "Liddia V." and is listed older than George, Ella is now "Mary E." and appears younger than mentioned in the previous census, and finally, Lucy J. and Nancy "Martitia" appear with the last name Cole.

This leads me to believe that Ancez/Sarah was married before she married Peter. (I was able to find a marriage record for Willis Cole and Ancetis Craven dated 23 January 1857 in Randolph County, North Carolina. The 1860 census shows the couple with daughter Jane living in Asheboro, Randolph County, North Carolina, but Ancetis/Ancez/Sarah shows up as Margaret this time!)

So, all of this still does not show Peter's previous spouse(s) name(s) or the names of his parents. I have my speculations and my leads based on other family researchers' efforts, but I haven't found any proof to substantiate any of the claims made yet. Until then, this is what I know.

Sources:

• 1840 West Pee Dee River, Montgomery County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• 1850 Montgomery County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• 1860 Asheboro, Randolph County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• 1860 Diffies, Montgomery County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• 1870 Little River, Montgomery County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• 1880 Randleman Mills, Randolph County, North Carolina U.S. Federal Census (accessed on Ancestry)
• Marriage License, Peter King and Ancez Coal (accessed on Ancestry)
• Marriage License, Willis Cole and Ancetis Craven (accessed on Ancestry)

Nellie Jane Jenkins

I had my State DAR Fall Forum this weekend, so I again didn't get a chance to prepare a post this weekend. I will instead leave you with the death certificate for my father-in-law's aunt, Nellie Jane Jenkins. He never knew of her until I found her tombstone in the local cemetery. I found her death certificate a few months later.

Death Certificate for the stillborn "infant of Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Jenkins"

I will also attach her tombstone, which is the only record that shows her name.

Copyright Brittany Jenkins, 2011

Sources:

• Death Certificate, Infant of Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Jenkins (accessed on Ancestry)
• Tombstone, Nellie Jane Jenkins

No Post This Week

I had my first DAR meeting as an officer this weekend, so I did not have a chance to prepare a post. Instead, I will leave you with a photo I took at Gettysburg during the 150th anniversary of the Battle.

Copyright, 2013

While I don't know if any men from Randolph County fought with this unit, Ramseur is the name of a town in Randolph County, so I was convinced there had to be a connection. Sure enough, Ramseur was named after Confederate General Stephen Dodson Ramseur. I hope to do a post on him in the future.

Guilford Charge

While working on my Daughters of the American Revolution-themed Patriots Remembered blog last weekend, I found myself combing the North Carolina Colonial and State Records. I came across something that caught my eye and pertained to my husband's family. This specific excerpt discusses the founding of the German Reformed Churches in North Carolina.

The most exciting part of this document is that it is the only reference I have found that actually suggests the inhabitants of central North Carolina originally migrated from Pennsylvania. While I knew they were German and that a lot of Germans settled in Pennsylvania, I hadn't found satisfactory proof that that's where the people from Guilford and Randolph County came. I have seen a few other researchers suggest that they probably did, but they provided no sources to substantiate their claims. This does that.

The other exciting part of this document is the fact that it mentions several of my husband's family names. The one in particular I was happy to find was the Leinberger name. If I am correct, this name eventually evolved into Lineberry. As with the suggestions that the Germans in Randolph County came from Pennsylvania, I have seen unsourced references to this spelling for the Lineberry family. Until now, I assumed this spelling was just a theoretical possibility; one of the spelling variations the family researchers utilized but didn't actually find documented. This opens up a whole new realm of research avenues for this line of the tree.

The following is the related excerpt I found in the colonial records. Some of the names listed are names I do not recognize, but I hope to do a little extra digging now to see if I can unearth anything on these other names and lines.

It has been mentioned that the Reformed (German) Churches in North Carolina are, owing to their number, weakness and the paucity of ministers, divided into several pastoral charges, and of these we propose to gather what we can of their founders and history. 

GUILFORD CHARGE. 

The immigrants to this region—now making parts of Alamance, Guilford and Randolph counties—came in wagons by the emigrant route of those days from Philadelphia, through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, bringing their household furniture and farming tools, accompanied by young men coming to seek their fortunes in this new country. These came mostly from the counties of Berks, Lancaster and Schuylkill, and a few from Maryland, from 1745 to 1760, perhaps. This was then Orange and Rowan, and these German settlements were made on the waters of Haw River and its tributaries—Alamance, Reedy Fork, Beaver Creek, Stinking Quarter, Sandy Creek, etc. These were the Albrights, Clapps, Fausts, Holts, Sharps (Scherbs), Laws, Graves (Greff), Summers, Cobbs (Kaubs), Cobles, Swings (Schwenks), Cortners (Goertners), Ingolds, Browers, Keims, Staleys, Mays, Amicks (Emigs), Smiths, Stacks, Neases, Ingles, Leinbergers, Straders, Wyricks, Anthoneys, Scheaffers (Shepherds), Weitzells, Trollingers, Longs, Isleys, Shaffners, Foglemans, Sthars, Brauns, Reitzells, with others. 

Their first place of worship was in a log building near where Law's Church now stands, on the old road from Hillsborough to Salisbury, now in the South-east corner of Guilford County. It was a union Reformed and Lutheran Church. This union was brought to an end by the divergent sentiments growing out of the sentiments and feelings that culminated in the Regulation movement and the rebellion of the colonies. Rev. Samuel Suther, who had recently come from the County of Mecklenburg, an advanced patriot, was the Reformed pastor, and under his inspiring guidance the Albrights Goertners, Clapps, Fausts, the Scheaffers, Ingolds, Schwenks and Leinbergers, who were of Reformed stock, at once moved to a schoolhouse near where the Brick Church now stands, and, there undisturbed by factional differences, erected an altar where to serve God. Suther was pastor until the close of the war, and was the animating spirit of the community. Soon this small log house gave way to a larger and more comfortable place of worship, whose corner-stones a few years since could still be seen. In these years Ludwig Clapp and Christian Faust were Elders, and Ingold and Leinberger Deacons, and even in these dark years the church grew and was prosperous. Rev. Bithahn, of Lincoln, succeeded Suther after three years. His ministry was a short one, he dying suddenly on a Sabbath evening after preaching a long-remembered sermon. His grave is in the Brick Church cemetery unmarked, and to-day no one knows his resting-place. For twelve succeeding years this church was without a pastor. In this time the Rev. Andrew Loretz, with unflagging devotion, four times in the year made visits to the Guilford churches and ministered to their spiritual wants. In 1801 Rev. Henry Dieffenbach became pastor, and for six years had the oversight of this church. He was a student of Dr. John Brown, the apostle of the Reformed Church in Virginia. During this time Jacob Clapp (of Ludwig) and John Greff were Elders. There was now again an interval of fourteen years, during which time the visits of Rev. Loretz were again made annually until his lamented death. It is not to be supposed that these godly people were content with these infrequent ministrations. They were wont to meet in their place of worship on the Sabbath—had services of prayer and praise, when Jacob Clapp (of Ludwig) or the school-master, Scherer, read a selected sermon. In 1812 Captain Wm. Albright, an Elder of the church, a patriot captain of the war of the Revolution, was sent to attend the meeting of the Reformed Synod in Pennsylvania to secure the services of a pastor for the Clapp church, as it was yet called. The Rev. James R. Riley, a young minister, was deputed by the Synod to visit all the Reformed Churches of the South. In 1813 he made the visit on horseback, coming by the emigrant route, and spent several months among the Guilford churches. On October 16th was had a memorial communion, the largest, till then, ever held in the Clapp church. Fifty-seven were added to its membership. On this occasion the old log church, large as it was, could not hold the congregation, and it had become dilapidated and uncomfortable. In their joy and gratitude the congregation proposed to erect a new frame house of prayer, but at the suggestion of Mr. Riley it was determined that it should be of brick. From thence it was no longer the “Clapp” church, but the “Brick” church of the present day. So harmonious and liberal were the people, that no difficulty was experienced in raising the needed funds for the purpose. This was, perhaps in 1814, and in this church's palmiest days, when Captain Albright, John Clapp, Jacob Clapp, George Clapp, Barney Clapp, Col. D. Clapp, Daniel Faust and Daniel Albright were the leading spirits in the church. Still no permanent ministry could be had, owing to the paucity of preachers, and the churches were dependent on the casual visits of missionaries sent by Synod until 1821, when Rev. John Rudy became pastor of the associated churches in Orange, Guilford and Randolph. After a successful ministry of four years he returned to New York. In 1828, the Rev. J. H. Crawford, of Maryland, was elected his successor. His pastorate lasted twelve years. It was now that the pulpit service was heard in the English language. For the welfare of the church this was none too soon. In 1841, Rev. G. William Welker, the present pastor of the church, took charge of it. It is a large congregation, mostly composed of the descendants of those early German immigrants from Pennsylvania. In the grave-yard, hard by the church, rest in unmarked graves Tobias Clapp and Peter Goertner, who were in the Regulation battle; and there also sleep Capt William Albright and Barney Clapp and Matthew Schwenck, and others, who were soldiers in the War of the Regulation, and the passer-by who stops to read may find other humble graves of noble men, and that of George Goertner (Cortner), who was the civil leader of this community of Germans.

Sources:

• Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Volume 8, History of the German Reformed Church in North Carolina, Pages734-736