Gideon Marchant Tillitt (1856-1919)

My Maternal Great Grandfather, married Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin

Gideon Marchant (“Gid”) Tillitt, born December 31, 1856 was the first born child of Durant Hall Tillitt and Archann Dauge Marchant.  He was nine years old when Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, the beginning of the end of the bloody four year conflict; eleven years old when his father died; and fourteen when his mother remarried in 1870. 

In 1879 he married 16 year old Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin, the daughter of Caleb Sanderlin and Hulda Carter, and she gave birth to all of their children in the tall four poster walnut bed on the first floor of their home at Blue Button.  The first two children (sons) were named Gideon Jr after their father, but both were stillborn.  Their third baby, another son, Durant Howard, was my grandfather.    When they had their last child, they decided the jinx of the stillborn births had passed and they named the baby daughter Gideon, Jr after her father.

[Photo: Gideon Marchant Tillitt, Sr]

Their eldest daughter Archann Marchant, named for her grandmother, was born 1885. She was a teacher in Shiloh public schools and lived at home until her marriage to Mark Gregory Grandy in 1926.  In July of 1933 she had a seizure in her bathtub.  Her husband found her and called a doctor but ten minutes after the doctor arrived, she died. The death certificate said the death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage.   Archann’s little sister, Gid, refused to accept this version of the story and insisted that Mark had murdered his wife. It infuriated her that he had left her sister’s body to go to a bar to get drunk. Although no evidence ever emerged to support Gid’s position, that did not stop her from writing “Archann was murdered!” in the family bible which is now part of a collection of bibles in the Library of Congress archives in Washington DC.

[Photo: Howard with his big sister Archann]

Bruce Martin, their blue eyed red haired son, was born July 15, 1888.  He graduated from high school but never attended college. He married his cousin Fannie Weston in 1913 and fathered a daughter Bettie Marion Tillitt.  His employment history was a patchwork quilt. In 1917 his World War I draft card listed his occupation as yard conductor for the Northern & Western Railroad in Norfolk, Virginia (he claimed an exemption because he was married and had a child.) In the 1920 census he listed his occupation as a solicitor for a bakery. In the 1930 census his occupation was brakeman for the railroad.   During the depression he lost his job and his wife’s family found him a job with the AT&T Company in New Jersey.  In the 1940 census at the age of 53 his occupation was foreman, and he was still renting instead of owning a home.   Prior to the onset of World War II he had a heart attack and moved back to North Carolina to be near his two sisters. He died at the age of 54 in 1943 of heart disease. 

[Photo: Left to right on first row: The Tillitt siblings. Archann, Gid, Will Godfrey (Gid’s husband husband), and Bruce. Howard is peeking over their heads in the back row.]

Their 2nd daughter, Bess Sanderlin, was born on August 31, 1895. She graduated from Eastern Carolina Teachers College (with the help of her brother Howard) and was a schoolteacher in Shiloh until 1927 when she married Phillip Perkins Gregory, a well-to-do farmer and lumberman, and lived in a gracious home she called “The Oaks”. Bess was gregarious and made friends easily.  She was very active in her community and was elected President of the Camden Women’s Club and the North Carolina Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs (which was formed to improve the lives of rural women).

When Bess served on the State Board of Pardons, she sympathized with a young female prisoner who had stabbed her husband in self-defense.  Bess worked to get her a pardon and then gave her a job as a maid in her home when she was released from prison. 

Her life story appeared in a biographical history of Camden County which described her in glowing terms:

“Happy” is the word which seems best to describe the personality of this energetic lady who so thoroughly enjoyed life. She took a delight in humorous pranks; everyone who is old enough will recall with amusement the disreputable looking jalopy she purchased several years ago for twenty-five dollars, and in which, to the merriment of the onlookers, she and other young matrons among her friends used to cavort happily, if uncomfortably, along these country roads. Perhaps her keenest pleasure came from entertaining those who came to her home. Many of her kindly deeds were known only to herself and to the recipient; many others are matters of public knowledge—her hospitality to boys in the service away from home, though she was childless, sympathetic counseling of wayward women while she was a member of the State Parole Board, consideration shown to her servants, and practical assistance to those in distress.

[Photo: Great Aunt Bess]

As a child, my mother stayed with her Aunt Bess nearly every summer while her parents worked and thoroughly enjoyed the rides around town in her aunt’s infamous Model T Ford.   Bess bought the car using her own money because her husband refused to buy her a car.  One day when his sawmill caught on fire, his own car wouldn’t start, and he was forced to drive to the mill at 15 miles an hour in the Model-T.  He stopped several blocks from the mill so no one would spot him in the car. Phillip was so embarrassed he finally broke down and bought Bess a new car. 

In November of 1956 Bess entered the hospital for surgery for a tumor.  Bess had struggled with a weight problem all her life and died on the operating table from a blood clot that traveled up to her heart.

[Photo: Great Aunt Bess in beloved 1924 Model T]

Their youngest child, a daughter, Gideon (“Gid”) Marchant Jr, born on April 27, 1901, was named after her father.  As a young girl she was sent off to boarding school but returned home her freshman year in college to marry William Godfrey in June of 1920.  Will was a widower with children almost as old as Gid was. He had suffered from a work related injury (he fell off a ladder) and received a government pension.  They had one daughter named Bess Tillitt after her aunt. Gid was a pianist for her church, worked in the retail business for a few years, and pursued her interest in family history by becoming an active member for the D.A.R., the North Carolina Huguenot Society and the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century. She died at the age of 84 of cardiopulmonary arrest in 1985.

[Photo: Great Aunt Gid and Great Uncle Will Godfrey]

Although Gideon Sr had inherited a large amount of land from his grandfather, Dr. Marchant, and a smaller amount from his father, unlike his ancestors, he was not inclined to add to his holdings.  When he needed money, he simply sold off some of the land.  This meant a good life for him but not much was left to pass on to his family.  He was a farmer, a Justice of the Peace for Camden County for eight years, an active supporter of the Democratic Party, a member of the Independent Order of Good Fellows (a social and benevolent organization whose ambitious goal was to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, educate the orphans and protect the widows).

Gideon Sr died at home in May of 1919 at the age of 63 of arteriosclerosis and chronic nephritis.  His son, Howard, remembered him as a wonderful storyteller who loved a practical joke.  He played the violin and fiddle, and the house was always filled with company.  He hired a tutor to home school his children and neighborhood children were welcome to join in the lessons.  A horse and buggy was available to shuttle the children back and forth.  His obituary said he was well known for his sense of humor and genial disposition and that he was a prominent farmer and landowner who had a host of friends.