Never stop looking !

 For over 30 years I have looked for the marriage record of my maternal grandparents, Thomas Fritz Matherly (1893-1965) and Nancy Margaret Edwards (1898-1992).  He was from Wilkes County, NC and his first wife died young and left him with 5 children.  She was from Elberton, GA. I looked relentlessly for their marriage record and had pretty much come to the conclusion that maybe they never legally married and it was just a common law marriage because I could not find a record.  Trust me, I looked.  Well, I finally found the record.  They were married on the 20th of December 1933 in Anderson, South Carolina.  The record was there in South Carolina all along but it WASN'T digitized and put online until a year or so ago.  It was Christmas time and I assume that they married  on the way to Georgia from North Carolina for the Christmas holidays since that is where her family was.  I've had some great finds over the 40+ years I've been doing genealogy but I think I was more excited to find this record than any of the others.  Maybe because they were a real living breathing part of my life and two people I truly adored.  I have such very fond memories of them both and that rock house on Bruce Garner Road in Granville County, NC.  

I just wanted to share my joy in finally having this record.  More records are added online daily. Never give up your search, go back every so often and check again. Maybe you will get lucky and find what your are looking for without having to wait 30 years like I did.  Happy hunting!

Update: Issue with comments and replies not working

Due to the migration by Google of the removal of Google+ there are some issues with being able to comment or reply to comments.  Until this is sorted out please email me directly at lenoradbaker@gmail.com.  Sorry, but it's out of my control until the full migration is completed or Google resolves the issue.  If you left a comment while logged into Google and you had a Google+ account then your comments will not be visible on the blog due to Google+ being eliminated by Google.  Problem is as administrator of this blog I can see those posts, but I can't reply to them, nor can I reply to comments that were posted anonymously  I sure wish I could.  It's my understanding that all comments via Google+ are gone forever with no way to retrieve them. If you revisit the blog please leave another comment so I can reply if you never heard back from me regarding your post. Your comments are important to me. Thank you for your patience and for visiting.  Darnell Baker

What Sacrifices Did Your Ancestors Make For You?

On Sept 6, 1934, Labor Day in Honea Path, South Carolina at the local cotton mill workers protested working conditions and supported Labor Unions. When it was over 7 men were dead, one of them was my ancestor, Charles Livingston Rucker. 

Charles was the son of Mary Jane Dixon, my great grandmother, Addie Elizabeth Dixon Edwards sister.  Charles was my grandmother, Nancy Edwards Matherly's first cousin, making him my 3rd cousin.

Note: In the newspaper clipping below the cemetery burial place mentioned is wrong, it says Hoke's Chapel in Ebert County but he is actually buried at Pope's Chapel Cemetery in Wilkes County, Georgia.  Here is a link to his burial site on Find A Grave:  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97532888?search=true

Charles Livingston Rucker 

died of not one but two gunshot wounds that day.   He was just 39 years old.

He was and always will be a hero of the working man.

In 1934 the General Textile Strike grew to the largest labor strike in American History. The workers at Chiquola Mill, the local cotton mill in Honea Path, circled the mill in protest of unsafe working conditions and low wages.  A fight broke out and shots were fired. The day is known as Bloody Thursday.

Most local history books have recorded very little about the incident and local's kept their mouths shut about what happened that day. Fear, threats and intimidation were used to silence the story. Those that supported the union were fired and kicked out of mill housing or required to never speak of the incident or become involved in union organizing.

 Not one person was ever charged for the murders that tragic day.  Over 10,000 people attended the funerals of the slain men.

Today a monument is erected in the local park in Honea Path, just a mile from the mill to honor those who died that day. The stone is etched with the words "They died for the rights of the working man" and the names of the men who lost their lives standing up for something they believed in.  

Charles Livingston Rucker was one of them.  

What sacrifices did your ancestors make for you?

More information about the documentary "The Uprising of 34" can be found at http://www.pbs.org/pov/uprisingof34/film_description.php

After a few requests for the info here is a link where you can purchase the 88 minute film for home use for $44.95   https://store.der.org/the-uprising-of-34-p282.aspx

I found this today, where the film can be rented from Vimeo for $5.95 here is the link:https://vimeo.com/ondemand/uprisingof34#

Or FREE if your local library partners with Kanopy you can watch it for free, just sign up with Kanopy and check if your library participates.  Here's the link:  https://www.kanopy.com/product/uprising-34

You can also search YouTube for "Uprising of 34" and find more videos about this tragedy.

As always, I welcome your comments.

What Ancestor Do You Wish You Could Have Met?

What would you ask them?  How would you spend a day together?

For me, more than one person comes to mind but for today I'm choosing my maternal great grandmother, Addie Elizabeth Dixon Edwards. Addie was a remarkable woman. 

Addie and Grissom Edwards  shortly after their marriage in 1897

She had 11 children.  My grandmother, was her oldest daughter and helped her mother to raise all the younger children and did most of the cooking for the family. 

Addie was born in Elberton, Georgia in 1880 to James Dixon and Nancy Charles. At the young age of 17 she married my grandfather Grissom Stewart Edwards in 1897.   She spent her entire life in Elberton. After raising 6 sons and 5 daughters and celebrating 58 years of marriage Addie died in 1955.

Addie & Grissom Edwards and all 11 of their children, my grandmother Nancy in the dark dress, about 1940

Addie was a strong and resourceful woman and raised a wonderful family. I was lucky enough to meet many of her children in my younger years.  My grandmother used to tell me that my hands looked just like her mothers, which makes me happy.  

Addie and Grissom Edwards at their 58th Wedding Anniversary Celebration  February 1955.

Who do you wish you could have met?

The Harricanes ("hair-uh-cuns") Ain't On No Map

"The Harricanes", pronounced "her-uh-cuns" or "hair-uh-cuns"or some say "hairkins" depending on who you ask, is a real place with a real history.

Even though national prohibition didn't become law until 1920, good ole NC took the lead  in the fight of good vs. evil and was the first southern state to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages 11 years earlier, all the way back in 1909.  Of course, "ain't nobody got time for that" and moonshine and liquor stills throughout North Carolina answered the call. Moonshine and North Carolina have a long and sordid history together including the area known as "The Harricanes" which encompassed parts of Wake, Franklin and Granville Counties in North Carolina.

The Harricanes was a place nobody claimed and nobody went to. To this day no one can tell you exactly where it begins and ends. I don't know precisely where it begins and ends but I do know when I'm IN it. If you take Highway 96 west of Youngsville and take a left at Pokomoke and travel west across the Granville County line where the road becomes Bruce Garner Road while you are in Granville County, and stay on that road until it crosses into Wake County where the road name changes to New Light Road then you are IN the Harricanes.  Exactly where it begins and ends north, south, east and west of that is anyone's guess. Some say it runs all the way to Highway 50 to the west and Highway 98  to the south,  and Pokomoke to the east, with the Grissom area of Granville County being just about dead center of the Harricanes. The Harricanes isn't on any map you will find, that's for sure. While you might find folks now that will admit to living there, back in the day  if you asked the folks around there, you would get a different answer each time. That is, IF you got an answer at all.  Most times the answer was "just up the road a ways" and up the road they would tell you it was "back that way" or "just over yonder". Because nobody lived in the Harricanes, or to rephrase that ,nobody SAID they lived there. The Harricanes was always someplace else.  

 The Harricanes had a reputation of being a place full of renegades and secrets. The area then was a well known dangerous place. In Raleigh's backyard, the Harricanes was the slums of  it's time, the "wrong side of the tracks" so to speak even though there were no tracks or boundaries that anyone would claim.  Even without a sign to mark  the Harricane's location anywhere, the invisible "Keep Out" sign was clearly hung.  A place known for moonshine, violence, cock fighting, gambling and late night dirty deals with a few dead bodies here or there, that was "The Harricanes".  Just the stuff that legends are made of except it was all true. Ok, mostly true.  It's been called many things over the years but I  kinda like "The Bermuda Triangle of the Triangle" description the best. 

Only the brave or just plain foolish intentionally went to or even through the Harricanes. You didn't just go for a Sunday drive through the Harricanes. The people of the Harricanes looked out for one another and had each others back. If you crossed one, you crossed them all and revenge was sweet. These folks stuck together. They were resourceful, independent and hard working. Despite what went on in the Harricanes that nobody talked about, they would all be in church come Sunday!

Folks from the Harricanes liked the bad reputation the area had and that bad reputation served a purpose. It kept people out and they liked it that way. The fewer strangers snooping around, the better. The only good reputation the Harricanes had was that some smooth, strong moonshine came from there if you were lucky enough to get your hands on a jar. Even if you heard about moonshine from the Harricanes through the grapevine, it was still only available if you knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody and even then it was doubtful.  Even the Revenue Officers didn't like to venture into the Hurricanes looking for stills. There are a few stories of when they did, rarely successfully.
 

My Mother, Betty Matherly, age 16

My mother was raised in the Harricanes, on Bruce Garner Road and depending on who you talk to about where the Hurricanes was or wasn't located, my father Valton Mitchell, raised on a farm near Pokomoke was too. I remember when none of the red dirt roads were paved and were lined instead with chicken houses, tobacco fields, rock houses and an old country store or two. While no one back then would have dared say it, I'm proud to say "My family comes from The Harricanes". I pronounce it "hair-uh-cuns". 

Back of my Grandparents home on Bruce Garner Road, Granville County, NC, about 1960

These days the Harricanes roads are mostly all paved and the area is full of subdivisions with homeowners who have never heard of "The Harricanes". All these years later nobody still can tell you where the Harricanes is. I'd say they did a pretty good job of preserving their secrets. The legend lives on.




Did you like this story?  Share it or comment below.