Winifred Louise Leggett (1842-1930)

My Paternal 2nd Great Grandmother, married Robert Van Buren Ricks

Winifred Louise Leggett, the daughter of farmer Blount Leggett and Arietta Wynn, was born in Beaufort County, North Carolina in 1842.  In February 1861 at the age of nineteen she married Robert Van Buren Ricks and the couple settled down to farm life on Tranter’s Creek. Less than three months after their marriage North Carolina seceded from the Union. North Carolina was slow to secede but quick to mobilize once the war began. The state suffered the highest number of Confederate deaths during the war.  When her husband enlisted in the NC 55th Infantry he was part of a massive mobilization wave in 1862.  Louise was seven months pregnant when Robert marched off to war.  She gave birth to their first child, Robert Monford Ricks, one month after her husband fought in his first battle in June of 1862.

[Image: AI generated image of a civil war soldier saying goodbye to his wife]

Robert would have been allowed brief furloughs during the early part of the war to visit his family and help with the farm but after the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 through the end of the war furloughs became impossible. 

Although most Confederate soldiers could write simple letters, mail services gradually degenerated. Louise would not have known where Robert was or even whether he was alive for long stretches of the war. After Gettysburg communication was abysmal.  Letters were lost in transit, stuck in depots with no couriers to deliver them, or destroyed.  Only a fraction of the letters made it home. Newspaper accounts were filled with inaccuracies. Families had to live with the constant fear that their loved ones did not survive, were badly hurt  or imprisoned.  If no one from Robert’s regiment returned home during this period his family would have been left completely in the dark. 

[Image: AI generated image of a civil war soldier writing letters to his wife]

During the war Louise was alone with a young toddler having to scratch a living from their farm. It was a time of great stress and suffering.  Her husband’s regiment suffered devastating attrition by the end of the war.  Despite being wounded twice and imprisoned in one of the most horrific POW camps in the North,  against all odds her husband survived and returned home.  They wasted no time in growing their family.  Between 1866 and 1885 nine more children were born.

Their first born son Robert Montford Ricks, who had born amidst the civil war, worked as a farm laborer on his family’s farm at least through the 1880 census. When he was 26 years old he married Lena Durden and settled in Georgia to be near her family. The couple had seven children.  In 1900 Robert Montford  worked as a  lumberman and later in  life as a pipe fitter and a plumber.   He died of heart failure at the age of 76 in 1938.  Robert and Lena’s oldest son, Wiley, worked as a clerk in a local pharmacy in Louisville, Kentucky. His life ended tragically.   Complaining he was tired of life, at the age of 31, he stepped behind the counter and guzzled down a bottle of opium.  Four hours later he was declared dead.    

[Image: AI generated image of a women tending a farm alone during the Civil War.]

After Robert returned home from the war, Louise gave birth to a daughter Ida Amanda in 1866.  At the age of fourteen Amanda worked on her parent’s farm as a laborer.  When she turned eighteen she left home to marry John Belcher. Both of their children were born in Norristown on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Robert and Louise’s second son, James Fernandia was born in 1867.  In the 1880 census at the age of eleven his occupation was also listed as farm laborer. At the age of twenty four he left home to marry Sophia  Hodges  and the couple had one child.  In the 1900 census he was a farmer in Bear Grass, Martin County, North Carolina.  Ten years later he and his wife moved back to Beaufort County.     He died of tuberculosis there  in 1919 at the age of 52 and was buried in his wife’s family cemetery.

Robert and Louise’s third son, 

Thomas Blount Sr was born in 1870. Thomas is my great grandfather.  His story is told in another section.

[Image: AI generated image of a family farm in the 1880s - admittedly too cheerful for the nature of the daily grind they underwent.]

Their fourth son, John Samuel, was born in 1873. In 1902 at the age of twenty nine he married sixteen year old Iola Swann. By 1910 they owned their own farm on Tranter’s Creek Road.  By 1920 Sam was widowed.  His wife had died of influenza in January of that year.  Living in Sam’s home when the census was taken was their infant daughter Lucy. Also living in the household were six other children and  his 76 year old mother Louise. By 1930 all of his children, whose ages ranged from thirteen to twenty-four, were listed as farm laborers. Sam died in 1934 of unknown causes.

Their fifth son, Elmer Bunyan, was born in 1875. He married Susan Adeliade Woodard and in the 1900 census they were living in Beaufort County where he worked as a laborer in a sawmill. Ten years later, the couple had three children and his occupation was bridge keeper for the railroad. Ten years later was promoted to “stationery engineer”  for the railroad. In this job he would be responsible for maintaining steam powered machinery.  Later after moving to Edgecombe County, he became a crane operator.  The 1940 census mentions he had a third grade education.    In 1943 Elmer was walking on a sidewalk on his way to church when he was struck by a car. He  died of a fractured skull four days later at the age of 67.

[Image: A peaceful photo of Tranter’s Creek today.}

Son number six, George Zebulon was born in 1878.  At twenty two he married eighteen year old Charlotte Dixon. In 1910, he worked as a superintendent of a sawmill in Pitt County.  He moved back to Beaufort and in the 1920 census owned his own farm.  The 1940 census mentions he had a fifth  grade education and owned his own home valued at $1,000.  At the age of 72  in 1950 he was still working on his farm. In 1972 George died of senility and heart disease in a nursing home at the age of 94.

Son number seven, Edward Henry, was born in 1879. At the age of 21 he married nineteen year old Addie Ross and ten years later Mary Lovenia “Mamie” Hardison.    For most of his working life Edward worked as  a mechanic for the  railroad. According to the 1940 census he had a 4th grade education. When he died at age 69 of gastric carcinoma in 1949, three daughters, six sons, eleven grandchildren and two great grandchildren survived him.

[Image: AI generated image of a sawmill operation in the 1910]

Robert and Louise had a second daughter who was born in 1883, Laura Estelle, but she only lived to the age of eleven.

Their last child, Leon Desamos was born in April 1885. Shortly after Leon reached is second birthday, his father died the age of 52. In the 1900 census 14 year old Leon and 24 year old brother Sam were working as farm laborers for their brother Thomas. In 1906 he married Sular J Lucas and the couple lived in Carvers Creek Cumberland County where he worked in a saw mill. Sular gave three children before her untimely death in 1925. Three years later he married Inez Cole and by the 1930 census he was the owner manager of a box factory in Bladen County and his wife had given birth to twin boys Leon and Luin. In 1948 Leon Sr made a unsuccessful bid for sheriff. He died two years later of a heart attack while on a deer hunt.

Louise was living with her son Sam in 1930 when she died of heart failure at the age of 87. She had outlived her husband by 43 years.