William Edward Cobb (1843-1888)

My Paternal Great Grandfather, married Celia Martha Spivey

William Edward Cobb, the son of James Lang Cobb and Fannie May Williams, was born on December 20, 1843 in Bertie County, North Carolina. In the 1860 William at the age of sixteen lived at home with his widowed mother and three siblings on a farm. He turned 18 years of age in the year the simmering tensions between the North and South erupted into civil war. He enlisted as a private in the confederate infantry in August of 1861 and discharged a year later with a disability.

The draft set in place by the Confederate Congress initially applied to white men between the ages of 18 and 35 but as war conditions worsened they were expanded to age 17 to 50 and then in desperation age16 to 65. Initially if you owned  more than 20 enslaved persons you were exempt, and the wealthy could pay someone to take their place. By 1864 even these loop holes were eliminated.

North Carolina provided 125,000 soldiers to the Confederacy, more than any other Southern state, and their casualties amounted to a staggering 40,000 men.  For context, consider that in the 1860 census, the total number of men eligible for the initial draft in North Carolina was about 129,000.

[Photo: Wounded Soldiers in the Civil War]

Conditions for the soldiers fighting the war were horrific. More died from the wounds they suffered then those that died during the battle itself. Inadequately clothed and armed, it was amazing the rebels lasted as long as they did.

Families left at home also suffered great depravations. Houses were stripped of draperies, linens, quilts and even carpets to provide clothing for North Carolina's troops. Church bells were melted down and recast as cannon. 

Bacon soared from $.33 to $7.50 per pound, wheat from $3 to $50 a bushel, and coffee sold at $100 per pound. Confronted with scarcities, exorbitant prices, and depreciating currency, families lived life on the edge.

The reconstruction period after the war was also a time of great suffering for the South. Against all odds, William managed to survive both the war and reconstruction period and carve out a nice life for himself and his family.

[Photo: Image of Reconstruction Era in the South]

After the war, William was a correspondent for the Tarboro Southerner newspaper, (one of the oldest daily newspapers in North Carolina, which began publishing in 1826), and then entered the mercantile business. On November 21, 1884, at the age of 41, he married 25 year old Celia Martha Spivey of Woodville, North Carolina. The wedding announcement in the Raleigh Register described him as a “prosperous merchant of Tarboro.” Just over nine months later, Celia gave birth to their son, John Edward (1885); followed by a second son Thomas Spivey in May of 1887. John Edward was my grandfather.

In 1887 William and his family moved to Windsor, North Carolina where he worked in general merchandising and then to Lewiston, North Carolina where he worked with his brother-in-law, James W. Spivey in the same trade. While living in Lewiston, he was also a regular correspondent for a local newspaper.

[Photo: Image of old newspaper printing press]

The family was living the good life, until tragically in January of 1888, William caught pneumonia. In an era prior to the use of antibiotics, treatment options called for misguided efforts to remove “excess fluid from the body”, the use of cathartics to purge the gastrointestinal tract,  the use of mercury to induce vomiting, blistering agents applied to the skin on the chest, warm broths, wraps and baths, and opium for pain.   Two months after his diagnosis, William succumbed to the disease, leaving his wife Celia with two toddlers to raise alone. His obituary, which was carried by the same publication that William wrote articles for, described him as a “most affable, pleasant kind-hearted gentleman with a kind and jovial smile and word for all. His death will be regretted by both friends and acquaintances of whom he possessed a large number.”

{Photo: William and his wife Celia, buried together at the Grace Episcopal Church in Woodville North Carolina ]

In March of 1902 Margaret and Thomas produced a third child, Hugh Ward. In 1918 when Hugh registered for the draft he reported that he worked for Sun Ship Company in Pennsylvania as a ship fitter and in the medical section that he had two stiff fingers on his left hand.  In March of 1920 Hugh married 20 year old Sarah Martha Allen, who worked in a cotton mill. Hugh worked with his father in a sawmill as an inspector. 

Hugh’s wife gave birth to three children before their marriage fell apart.  Their first child, Frances Louise (born 1921) was named for his younger twin sisters,  he named his second child Hugh Jr (born 1922) for himself and his third child Thomas Allen (born 1925) for his youngest brother. 

In 1929 Hugh married a second time to Ruby Cribb.  Together they had six more children, two of whom were named after his older siblings Robert (born 1931) and Ann Laurie (born 1933).  When that marriage fell apart in the 1950 census his children stayed with Ruby. 

Hugh married a third time to Laura Heath Jones (she for her second time) in 1955.  In 1962 he was alone on his fishing boat on the Tar River when his foot got tangled in a drift net.  He fell into the water and drowned. Based on the fact he named his children after all of his siblings, clearly family was important to him. So it is sad that this “three times a husband” man is not buried with any of them. I found it odd that no one bothered to inscribe his third wife’s date of death on their tombstone. I discovered that she married one year after Hugh’s death and when she died in 1986 she is buried next to this man instead.

[Photo: Gravestone of Hugh Ward Ricks.]

In August of 1904 Margaret gave birth to a set of twins, Frances and Sophia Louise. Frances was named for her grandmother, Frances Daniel Langley. Frances, known all her life as “Fannie,”  is my grandmother, and her story is told in a separate blog post.

Louise dropped out of high school in her third year. In 1922 just months after her 18th birthday, she married 28 year old Luther Carl Williams.  Luther had a 7th grade education and worked as a sawyer in a lumber mill. In 1923, in her 8th month of pregnancy, she gave birth to a stillborn baby.  A year later she had better success when she gave birth to baby boy who was named Luther Carl Jr after his father.  

Luther Jr made it through his 3rd year of high school and was drafted to serve in World War II on his 18th birthday. After the war in 1947 he married Elizabeth Doyle, whom he affectionately referred to as “Bunny” and they had two sons Matthew and a baby boy who died 27 hours after his birth. Luther Jr was employed for 30 years as a salesman in a building supply store and died of a heart attack in 2028.  

[Photo: Margaret Little Langley’s grandson Luther Carl Williams, Jr.]

In 1926 Louise’s second son, William Thomas Williams, was born. Nicknamed “Tommie” he served in the navy in World War II and after the war worked with his father at the sawmill.  He was 37 when he married a 47 year old widow named Jessie May Taylor in 1963. At the time of their marriage he was a grocery clerk.  When he died in 2000 his obituary said he had three stepsons, twenty step grandchildren and a number of step great-grandchildren.  

In 1931 Louise’s third son David Dalton was born. He was 23 when he married his 17 year old  bride Bettie Blue Farris. They had one daughter, Mary Lou. David served in the army in Korea War. He died in 2010.  His obituary said he worked as a salesman in the wholesale grocery business.

Louise’s first daughter Virginia Fay was born in 1937.  She married Jasper Harrell in 1953, and they had three children. Her husband served in the Korean War and worked as a postal worker after the war. He died instantly of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the age of 45 in 1975.  His obituary simply stated that he “died at home.” Virginia died in 2020.

Louise gave birth to one more child, Fannie Langley, in 1939. She married Elmer Gary Starke, and gave birth to a baby boy who die of respiratory failure 17 hours after birth.  They divorced after 20 years of marriage. Four months after the divorce in 1979 she married Howard Rae Gage, a divorcee with two children from his first marriage.

[Photo: Inspiring military recruiting poster. Louise’s sons, grandson and son-in-law all proudly served their country.]

Margaret’s last son, Thomas Blount Jr was born in 1910.  He worked at the same sawmill as his father, and later as a foreman in a box mill and an electrician at a lumber retail store. Thomas married Ruby Bartlett, who worked as a hospital switchboard operator, and they had four children. Their daughter Martha Anne had one child, worked in a radiology department and received a humanitarian award for her civic service. Their son Philip fathered nine children, was a US Navy Korean War Veteran and owned an electrical business.  Their son Paul Marvin had two children, was a Vietnam veteran and was inducted into the South Carolina Fox Hunters Hall of Fame. No information was found on their son Joseph.  Thomas died in 1983, a year after his wife Ruby.  Thomas Jr was the only sibling my grandmother ever talked about.

[Photo: Standing, Left to right, My Grandmother Fannie Rocks, her twin sister Louise and her younger brother Thomas Blount Jr.]

Margaret’s last child was born in 1913 and named Margaret Langley after her mother. In 1930 when she was 17 years old, Margaret Jr married Harry Bratcher, a truck driver, and they had three children. Their daughter Billy Jean was born in 1931; married Bill Sandlin and they had three children. She died in 2010. Their son Robert, born 1935, joined the navy at 17 and served in Korea and Vietnam.  Robert died in 2016. Their son Harry Dean was born in 1940.  Margaret Jr died in 1987.

[Photo: Margaret Langley Ricks’ grandson Robert Bratcher, joined the navy at age 17]

 On March 24, 1916, when her youngest child and namesake, Margaret Langley was only three years old, Margaret Little Langley contracted bladder cancer and within a few short m

onths she was gone. She was only 38 years old. Her obituary said she was “devoted to her children and gave them the attention and training worthy of motherhood.” Two of her children, Annie Laura and Thomas Blount Jr are buried with her.

Her husband Thomas Ricks Sr waited less than a year to find a new wife, Mattie Murray, who was 21 years younger than he was. 

[Photo: Margaret Langley Ricks weathered gravestone in Rockfish Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Wallace, NC]