Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943)

My Paternal Great Grandfather, married Margaret Little Langley

Thomas Blount Ricks, the son of Robert Van Buren Ricks and Winifred Elizabeth Leggett, was born on March 12, 1870, in Pitt County, North Carolina.  In the 1880 census his family lived in Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina. Thomas’ older brothers, Robert age 18 and James 11 and his older sister Ida age 14 were listed in the census as farm laborers. At age nine Thomas and his three younger siblings appear to have been excused farm labor. But in a few short years no doubt Thomas would join them out in the fields. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade. His father died when Thomas was 16 leaving the family in dire straits.

In 1895 at the age of 25 Thomas married 18-year-old Margaret Little Langley. By the 1900 census in Washington Thomas owned a mortgaged farm and house, and the couple had two toddlers. Thomas’ younger brothers, 24-year-old John and 14-year-old Leon, were living with them and working as laborers on their farm. Everyone on the same page as Thomas in the census that year listed their occupation as farmer or farm laborer except for three people who were identified as saw mill laborers.

[Photo: Waterfront in Washington North Carolina early 1900s]

Named for George Washington, the town of Washington is located on the banks of the Pamlico and Tar River. George Washington used the town as critical army supply post during the Revolutionary War. Later during the Civil War the town was captured by Federal troops who set devastating fires as they vacated under threats by the Confederate army. The town was left in ruins, most of its historical buildings burned to the ground. Over time the town was rebuilt but suffered another major setback when a fire consumed much of the business district in 1900. During the time Ricks family lived there the town was a shadow of its former self. It was rebuilt in the later 1970s and has recovered much of its charm.

[Photo: The town of Washington today]

At some point in the early 1900s , Thomas sold his farm and moved his family to Island Creek, Duplin County, North Carolina, where they rented a house on Mill Settlement Street. In the 1910 census he had six children ranging from a newborn to age thirteen, including my grandmother Fannie and her twin sister Louise who were five years old. Thomas worked as lumber inspector. With the exception of a fireman and an engineer who both worked for a locomotive company and a 17-year-old “washerwoman”, every other occupation on the page of the census is related to the saw mill.

Margaret’s last child was born in 1913 and named Margaret Langley after her mother. The little girl was only three years old when her mother died of bladder cancer in the spring of 1916.

[Photo: North Carolina Saw mill in the 1920s]

Thomas waited less than a year to find a new wife, Mattie Murray, who was 21 years younger than he was.  His four oldest children moved out of the house. In 1917 his son Robert moved to Pennsylvania, his daughter Annie got pregnant out of wedlock and married in 1917 and my grandmother and her twin at the age of 16 in 1920 lived in a boarding house and worked in a cotton mill. His son Hugh at 18 stayed home and worked with his father in the sawmill.

Mattie gave birth to their only child in June of 1921 and they named him Carroll Murray Ricks.

Carroll was a troubled soul.  He had a relationship with a woman named Effie Copeland and had a son, George, out of wedlock.  At the age of 21  he enlisted in the Army and was discharged in October of 1945. Carroll as an aerial gunner and flew 30 combat missions over Germany in World War II. He suffered from PTSD and in 1949 brutally beat a 32 Swedish man to death with a jagged rock in Georgia because “that German accent irritated me.” The jury took less than an hour to convict 27 year Carroll of murder and he was sentenced to die by electrocution for his crime.  His sentence was appealed and based on his military record and the State Sanity Commission’s recommendation; the Governor gave him a stay of execution. 

The newspaper headline declared “Ricks Insane, Escapes Chair.”  Carroll was sentenced to the notorious Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia with the understanding that he would be executed if his sanity was restored. In 1970 he was among five convicted murderers still being held at the hospital, clearly with no real motivation to seek wellness.  He died in a nursing home in Jacksonville Florida in 1984. It is assumed he was transferred there directly from the mental institution. Carroll is buried in the same town, Wallace, North Carolina, where my father was born. 

[Photo: Carroll Murray Ricks 1945]

In 1930 census Thomas still rented a home in the “mill section” of Island Creek worked for the same company and had been promoted to yard foreman. Living with him, his second wife Mattie, his daughter Margaret from his first marriage who had turned eighteen along with his son Carroll from his second marriage. By the 1940 census Margaret had married and moved on. Thomas, Mattie and Carroll rented a home in Wallace, North Carolina. Thomas had been promoted to lumber inspector and Carroll worked there piling lumber. His daughter Louise and her family are lived next door.

In March of 1943, 73 year old Thomas Ricks, Sr completed a day’s work at the sawmill where he had worked all of his life and dropped dead of a heart attack.  Fortunately, he did not live long enough to learn about his son Carroll’s terrible fate.

{Photo: Thomas Blount Ricks gravestone in Rockfish Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Wallace, NC ]

Effie, who had conceived Carroll’s son George, married Grayden Daughtery went to her grave in 1977 without ever revealing any information to  her son George about who his biological father was.  George yearned to discover more about his mystery father and hired a specialist to help him track down his lineage.  As part of his journey George joined ancestry.com and submitted a DNA sample as part of his search. In a remarkable stroke of luck my son, Tyler had also submitted a DNA sample. This resulted in an exchange of emails, and it has been confirmed that Carroll is indeed my grandmother’s half-brother and my granduncle.  His son George would be my 1st cousin once removed. 

[Photo: George Daughtery age 23 in Vietnam.]