https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e30d264e-4c84-4630-b317-859250ce3035/1.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-9x5yk-mhfzr monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1d166601-ed59-4219-bfdb-4af631bc3659/1+Ships+in+early+1600s.jpg Family History - The Immigrants - [Painting: Boarding a Ships to the New World in the 1600s] [Painting: Boarding a Ship for the New World in 1600s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c60cc526-9e53-40ea-8c5d-fad30349ad57/Majestic+Forest+of+England.jpg Family History - The Immigrants - Life in Europe in those days was extremely arduous. England’s majestic ancient forests and the animals that inhabited them had all but disappeared - felled to provide lumber for the Crown’s navy. Robin Hood, the hero of the poor if he ever existed, was long gone. Life expectancy for children was heartbreakingly short – one third of London’s children never made it to age six. City streets were fouled with the cast offs from chamber pots and horse dung. Raw sewage flowed down the Thames River. Periodic famine was common. Smallpox, dysentery, syphilis, tuberculosis, typhus and other miserable diseases were rampant and unchecked. In short as Germans say: “Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof” - life was no pony farm. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c99ad1b2-44b6-4460-b3b8-7b1640e57f44/London-Plague.jpg Family History - The Immigrants - In 1603 and 1606, London and the surrounding countryside was beset by yet another outbreak of the most dreaded disease of all time, the Black Plague. Its victims suffered a wretched, ghastly death. In 1607 Jamestown was founded. The timing was not coincidental. At that time, a handful of royals and gentry held on to their wealth and power with a greedy iron grip. Land was passed from father to the eldest son under the law of primogeniture, and marriages were arranged to preserve the family name and reputation. Beneath the gentry was a struggling middle class of yeoman, tradesman, merchants and artisans yearning for a better life, and a vast population of anguished poor living in squalor. Out of the darkness a faint light glimmered from the shores of the New World. Why did they leave home? The better question is why would anyone want to stay? [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/28d766f2-8ff6-4bcf-84ea-87d1a18163e6/Trading+with+Native+AMericans.jpg Family History - The Immigrants - Still most people were reluctant to board the ships. So in an insatiable quest for profits, the Virginia Company of London rolled out a propaganda machine to entice potential immigrants to cross the ocean with the prospect of land and limitless natural resources. Virginia they claimed was an unspoiled wilderness brimming with magnificent timber, lush vegetation, and an abundance of wildlife, and it lay there ready for the taking. Siblings who under the primogeniture law were denied an inheritance, began to see the New World as an opportunity to build their own wealth and reputation. Wealthy fathers saw it as an opportunity to exile a black sheep son who threatened to tarnish the family name at home. Those seeking a place to escape religious persecution sailed to New England. But those who headed to the Virginia Colony sought adventure, independence and a monetary reward. {Photo: Trading with Native Americans by John Buxton] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/cbee0938-4342-4157-8d3c-bb24077d8b45/Jamestown++Brides.jpg Family History - The Immigrants - The colonists desperately needed more laborers to help them stabilize the settlements. In response, the Virginia Company of London stepped up their propaganda machine and resorted to unsavory tactics to shore up their failing investment. They scooped orphans off the streets and felons out of jail cells to serve as indentured servants in America. They took advantage of desperate, impoverished women by coercing them into accepting mail order bride schemes. These so called “tobacco wives” were sold in America for 120 pounds of tobacco. Of the 144 tobacco brides who were brough to the shores of America by the Virginia Company between 1619 and 1622, only six of them survived longer than six years in Jamestown. My ancestors did not expect life would be easy in the New World but they weighed the risks and decided to make the leap. I for one, am grateful they did. [Photo: Tobacco Brides arrive in Virginia] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly-3b3jj-pejn2 monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/20a05f3c-3c58-4673-8189-69cae56c7734/Dutch+Ships+in+a+Calm%2C+Willem+van+de+Velde+1665.JPG Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - It was the year 1613. A determined 25 year old man named Joseph Cobb stood on the dock in London preparing to board the ship, the Treasurer, for the New World. He was a gentleman, “entitled by rank to wear a sword and trained by experience to use them.” He left behind his wife Elizabeth and their two young sons, Joseph Jr and Benjamin and ages 3 and 1, with the promise that he would return for them when the time was right. Joseph was born in Amsterdam in 1588. His father, an English military man named Richard Cobb, met his mother, Sybil Sheets, while on duty in Amsterdam. The seventh of sixteen children, Joseph was anxious to make his mark on the world. [Painting: Dutch Ship 1600s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a337ee76-1bc6-4e89-8701-3127fb58b58f/Abduction+of+Pocahontas.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Joseph selected a notorious ship for his journey. The Treasurer was a war ship whose captain, Sir Samuel Argall, had a checkered reputation. After dropping off Joseph and the other passengers in March of 1613 on the shores of Virginia, Argall sailed up the James River and kidnapped Pocahontas. He held her prisoner on board as a hostage for the return of seven Englishmen that her father had enslaved. Later that year in July, Argall sailed to Maine and decimated a French Jesuit Colony that lived there. The Treasurer committed frequent acts of piracy against the Spanish. In 1619 Argall and the Treasurer carried out the contemptible mission of escorting the Dutch vessel that brought the first Africans to Virginia to be sold into a life of misery. [Painting: The Abduction of Pocahontas buy Jean-Leon Gerome Ferris] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fc6cb7fa-bc67-4e20-ae4c-d20f8c5c6a8b/Powaten+Indian+Wars.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Joseph arrived in America only six years after the 1607 founding of Jamestown. Of the original 500 individuals who settled there, a mere sixty hardy souls were still alive. When Joseph stepped off the Treasurer in 1613, he became one of 1,232 colonists scattered along the banks of the James River and the Chesapeake Bay. In total 7,700 daring individuals arrived in Virginia between 1607 and 1625. The attrition rates were abysmal. Only one in seven lasted. It was a terrifying game of Jamestown musical chairs --when the music stopped some had starved to death, some had been killed by tomahawk, some died of malaria, dysentery and other diseases. In 1622 a bloody Native American uprising wiped out 25% of the total white population over a 100 mile area. Dreams crushed, the weary and dispirited fled back to their homelands. Chilling stories of the dire living situation in Virginia trickled back to Europe. When the music stopped in 1625, Joseph Cobb still had a chair among the living. Joseph remained steadfast in his determination to make his new life work. His name is present today on the elite “ancient planters” list compiled by the “Order of the Descendants of Ancient Planters.” The term is applied to those persons who arrived in Virginia before 1616, remained for at least three years, and paid their own passage. [Image: Painting of Powhatan uprising in 1622] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/11e023c3-3aa0-40a1-8b74-6bbdf735cb15/Jamestown+1630s.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - In 1623, ten years after he first arrived in Virginia, Joseph finally made arrangements for his wife Elizabeth and two sons to join him. They boarded the “Bonnie Bess” and reunited with him in the Virginia Colony. Elizabeth’s brother, Pharaoh Flinton, a physician and fellow “ancient planter,” had arrived in Virginia in 1612 with his wife Joane and four servants in tow. This may have played a part in Elizabeth’s willingness to make the long journey. After the 1622 Massacre, many settlers abandoned their plantations and hunkered down in more populated areas such as Elizabeth City to shield themselves from other Native American uprisings. Joseph was among them. In the 1625 census Joseph is reported as owning a house in “Elizabeth Cittee”, along with 8 barrels of corn, 2 swords, a piece and 3 pounds of powder. [Painting: Jamestown in the 1630s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ed35952f-048d-40dd-8180-9623d86ce82e/Corn+Field.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Despite Joseph’s meager belongings, only 38 persons owned their own home in the census and corn was a valuable staple for settlers. Corn bread, corn pudding, corn soup, fried corn cakes – the yellow kernel appeared ad nauseam in every meal. The cobs were dried and used as kindling to start fires and impart a much sought after smoky flavor for hams and bacon. From lessons hard learned during the “starving time” in the early Jamestown Colony, colonists were legally required to set aside at least two acres of their land to grow this essential crop. [Photo: Corn field, the Life Blood of the Colony] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2975ac2d-3442-453a-b1cd-bf043f1e86f6/Tobacco+Farming.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Soon after the Cobb family reunited, Joseph and Elizabeth were blessed with a son Pharaoh, (named for his uncle), a daughter Elizabeth (named for her mother), and some claim four others including a son named Nicholas. It is also possible other children may have been born but did not survive. Most infant deaths at that time occurred within the first few weeks of life and received private burials that were not recorded in public records. Largely because of child mortality and maternal deaths arising from childbirth, average life expectancy in the 1600’s in England was only about 35 years. In the Virginia Colony, where conditions were even harsher, the average life expectancy was 25. In August of 1637, Joseph received a belated grant of 400 acres of land in the Isle of Wight County in Virginia. The grant was based on “headrights,” the award of 50 acres for those “personal adventurers” who paid their own way and 50 acres for each family member or indentured servant they brought with them. Joseph’s grant was based on his wife, two sons and four servants. [Painting: Tobacco Farming in Colonial Virginia] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6a42a1d1-9d6d-4b22-b334-d8754e4704e8/Travel+By+Bateaux.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - The basic mode of transportation in early Virginia was by boat. Like his fellow farmers, Joseph packed his tobacco in heavy barrels called hogsheads, rolled them down to landings, loaded them on flat bottomed river boats called bateaux, and paddled to ports like Jamestown for shipment to agents in England. The encroachment of more and more land in Tidewater Virginia infuriated the Native Americans. In 1644 there was another Indian uprising in which 500 colonists were killed, sending shock waves through the Colony. The attack was organized by the same chief who had led the Massacre of 1622. There were reprisals and the chief was imprisoned and later shot in the back by one of the guards. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e1aeaf1c-833e-42e5-9e7d-2e2d2f92e890/Jamesttown+1650s.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Against all odds, Joseph and his family persevered. Planters with the financial wherewithal to purchase large tracts of land and have indentured servants or enslaved Africans became very wealthy. By mid-century Jamestown flourished as a center for both domestic and foreign trade. When Joseph prepared his will in March of 1653, he provided for his “well beloved wife Elizabeth” (300 acres of land called Goose Hill, and all “movables” on the land - seventeen cows, three calves, thirty-two hogs), his son Benjamin (one red cow and her calf), his son Pharaoh (one red cow and her calf), and his daughter Elizabeth (one black cow and one black yearling). There is no mention of the other children except to say that provided his wife does not remarry “ye said children that are left shall each have a child’s proportion.” [Painting: Jamestown in 1650s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/79a38b05-fced-4c17-8164-f1270c77e858/DNA+Image.jpg Family History - Joseph Cobb (1588-1654) - Despite the fact that Nicholas was not mentioned in the will, nearly all Cobb genealogy books (my father’s included) reported that Nicholas was the son of Joseph. And that this Nicholas fathered my ancestor Edward Cobb. It turns out with the advent of DNA testing this lineage was not correct and sadly the family myth of our connection to early Jamestown was shattered. [Image: DNA Image by Pete Linforth of Pixabay] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly-3b3jj-pejn2-5l6e2 monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dc40e578-ab8a-49fb-8185-8f5e8fa06d15/St+Kitts+1930+v2.png Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - It was September of 1635. An ambitious 24 year old man named Nicholas Cobb stood on the dock in Gravesend, England preparing to board the ship, “William and John”, for the New World. Its first port of call was St Christopher’s Island (now known as St. Kitts) in the West Indies (now known as the Caribbean.) The tiny island was “discovered” and named after Christopher Columbus and the area called West Indies because Columbus thought he had reached the Indies (Asia) on his voyage to find a trading route. A century later the formerly peaceful island became a hot bed of contention among the sea powers of Europe. [Painting: Spanish Fleet under Don Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo descended St Christopher’s Island in 1629] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/454fcb65-f821-485c-a70d-2d71741ab2f1/Sugar+Cane.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - The island boasted exotic sugar and tobacco offering immense riches to planters, merchants in England, and the ship owners who delivered the products. When sugar planters in the West Indies began converting the waste products from sugar to produce rum, the island became even more valuable. [Image: Sugar Cane Fields] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5dd3c2a6-b302-4476-b410-e2eb86c5d504/Slave+Trade+by+George+Morlland+1788.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - In 1635, the year that Nicholas set foot on the island, there were about 550 enslaved Africans on the island suffering in the scorching heat of the tobacco fields. When the Virginia Colony began to dominate world tobacco production, the economy in the West Indies collapsed. Many British tobacco plantation owners fled the islands for Virginia where land was relatively plentiful for those in a position to buy it. Others became buccaneers. The remaining planters rebelled against the government and their insurrection was brutally suppressed in 1642. It was hardly the idyllic island nestled in the Caribbean that we think of today. [Painting: Slave Trade by George Moriland] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6f088dda-f7bd-4a6e-aeda-d9e3380419a1/tobacco5.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - Despite the violent upheavals on the island, it was an important port of call for mariners who made their living traveling the seas between the West Indies and America and Europe to engage in international trade. Of the 104 men that set out for St Christopher’s Island in September of 1635 on the “William and John”, the names of 30 of them, including Nicholas Cobb, are listed in County Records in Virginia. The first known record of his life in Virginia was when Nicholas witnessed a transfer of land in 1656 in the Isle of Wight in Virginia. In March of 1659 he loaded four 1,000 pound “hogsheads” of tobacco in Virginia onto the ship the Speedwell which was bound for England. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3d8913aa-6c21-4d5b-a06b-c83ce956a1a4/drunken_sailors_5912.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - Nicholas was a mariner most of his life. Life at sea at that time was notoriously difficult. Many sailors were conscripted to serve against their will and grossly mistreated. Paraphrasing a famous Samuel Johnson quote: “ If a man could choose between life as a sailor or life in jail, they would choose jail.... a man in a jail has more room, better food, commonly better company and no chance of drowning.” Images of cat-o-nine tail floggings, peg legs and rum soaked mischief comes to mind but much of that imagery comes from war ships and pirate ships. Sailors on merchant ships were there by choice and were paid relatively well, in some cases they were even shareholders. The major trading companies allowed some of its sailors to invest in the cargo so they would have a vested interest in the goods they carried. We don’t know what kind of cargo Nicholas transported but given his early connection to St. Christopher’s Island its possible that he may have been engaged in slave trade. In the mid-1650s the population of Virginia was about 15,000, 1,000 of whom were enslaved. There is no record of Nicholas bringing enslaved persons to Virginia, but I am willing to bet that in addition to tobacco that rum was part of his portfolio. [Image: Sailors overindulging in some of their cargo] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9ceca200-3dac-4620-b8d9-7c2a7f4fdd23/Ship+in+Rough+Seas.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - Later in life Nicholas managed to stay off ships long enough to find a wife, Susan, and father three daughters: Mary (born about 1655), Susan (born 1657), and Jane (born 1659). After their third child was born, Nicholas made arrangements to bring his wife, daughters and a mystery woman named Jane Howard from Europe to Virginia. Jane Howard may have been his mother-in-law, sister in-law or perhaps a servant. No other record of this woman has surfaced to explain her connection to the family. In February of 1663, utilizing his head rights from his family’s journey, Nicholas obtained 202 acres of land called “Little Neck” on Floyd Creek, issuing out of Pagan Creek in the Isle of Wight. His wife gave birth to another daughter Sarah (1663) and two sons, Nicholas, Jr (1661) and Edward (1664). Nicholas must have amassed a fair amount of wealth as a mariner because there is documentation that he engaged in a number of land transactions after settling in Virginia the largest of which were a 900 acre parcel in June of 1664 and a 950 acre parcel in 1667. Apparently, his life at sea was over and Nicholas had settled into what appears to be the life of a well-to-do plantation owner. [Image: Ship in rough Seas] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c705cb71-5727-40a8-8f15-9bff46628b5a/Governor_William_Berkeley+By+Hariot+Montague+2.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - The seeds of the American Revolution against the British were present in Virginia from the early days of the colony. Settlers were furious at rising taxes, the low prices for tobacco, and the failure of the British colonial government to defend the frontier against attacks by Native Americans. They bridled at the special privileges that were handed out to the wealthy friends of the unpopular crown-appointed Governor Sir William Berkeley. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5908230e-b88f-43ec-8caa-7e02d3f9a545/NAthan+Bacon.jpg Family History - Nicholas Cobb (1611-1686) - In 1676 a wealthy 29 year old planter named Nathan Bacon fomented a rebellion against Berkeley and the British colonial government headquartered in Jamestown, the capital of the Virginia Colony. Bacon took the Capital by force, ignited a fire that left Jamestown in ruins, but the rebellion floundered without his leadership when he suddenly died ignominiously of dysentery. The rebels surrendered in 1677 with a promise of amnesty, but 23 rebels were hanged anyway, and Bacon’s property was confiscated by the Crown. On the list of treasonous rebels pardoned was a man named William Blunt. [Painting: Nathan Bacon] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly-3b3jj monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/51327447-131f-44a1-92c6-99bbefcea4d5/MayflowerPlymouthRockRapp-1.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - [Image: The Mayflower Landing by Mark Fredrickson https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/706b20e4-bc4e-43dc-8c5f-63bae0f8839c/William+Bradford.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - Being able to trace your ancestry back to the Mayflower is seen as a mark of prestige and historical significance. The voyage was a crucial moment in American history. We admire the Pilgrims for their courage, resilience, & unrelenting determination. Their DNA courses through the veins of at least nine US Presidents. William Bradford at the age of thirty was elected a leader of the Colony and then re-elected 31 times before his death. His statue is the quintessential face of the Pilgrim Colony. Clint Eastwood can trace his lineage to this man. An indentured servant named John Howland was swept overboard in a storm on the Mayflower but miraculously grabbed a rope and hoisted himself back onto the ship. His lineage is connected to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ernest Hemingway and Amelia Earhart can trace their lineage to Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren. John Alden’s DNA resides in the largest number Mayflower descendants, including Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch and Emily Post. In short, if you can trace yourself to this mighty ship you are in good company. [Image: Statue of William Bradford, Leader of the Plymouth Colony] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/187bb4e9-2bf4-4971-a11f-76aadb2dddbd/Mayflower+at+Sea+by+Mike+Haywood.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - The Mayflower was about 100 feet long from stem to stern and a mere 24 feet wide. Its living space was a tiny 58 feet by 24 feet. It was designed to haul lumber, fish and casks of French wine—not passengers. Its rigging and high ceiling compartments were suited for short journeys along the European coastline, not for sailing against the fierce Westerly winds of the North Atlantic. Remarkably it managed to make its way to the New World but missed its intended target, the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia, by a surprisingly large margin. [Image: The Mayflower Voyage] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1b4a8f5c-b9a9-463b-8a2a-a822b18de077/Mayflower+-+Inside.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - Among the 102 passengers that boarded the Mayflower on that fateful day on September 6, 1620 were eighteen women, including three valiant women who were pregnant, and thirty children under the age of eighteen. The ship’s thirty seven man crew ---sailors, cooks, carpenters, surgeons and officers were housed in small cabins above the main deck, while the Pilgrims were consigned to a suffocating, windowless space between the main deck and the cargo hold below. In its second month at sea, the Mayflower encountered the first of an unrelenting series of storms that buffeted and battered the ship for weeks. At times the crew was forced to lower the sails and let the Mayflower bob helplessly in the towering waves. The lumber creaked, the mortar leaked, and the drenched, storm tossed passengers suffered from crippling bouts of seasickness. [Image: Replica of Inside the Mayflower ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bd5cfba3-924b-47d2-978c-32f97e15c006/Mayflower+rigging.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - Miraculously, all but one of the Mayflower’s passengers survived the grueling 66-day ordeal. A young, indentured servant named William Butten who was ill during most of the journey, died just three days before the New England coastline was sighted. There was one bright moment: midway through the harrowing voyage Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a baby aptly names Oceanus. The oldest passenger on the Mayflower was a 64 year old tailor named James Chilton. James was born in Kent, England in 1555. Records show that from 1584 to 1600, James was charged and fined several times for offenses ranging from selling food and drink without a license to beating a man with a stick. He married in about 1586 to a woman who is known to history only as Mrs. James Chilton. They had ten children between 1587 to 1607 only three of whom, all daughters, survived to adulthood. [Image: Rigging aboard the Mayflower] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a173f66a-d537-4b85-8198-ab96f0cf35bc/YOung+Pilgrim.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - In 1609, Mrs. Chilton was among four people that secretly buried a dead child, without the Church of England’s mandatory burial rites. For this act of defiance she was excommunicated, prompting the family to emigrate to Leiden, Holland to join the Pilgrim Separatists. In the spring of 1619, Chilton's house in Leiden became the scene of a small riot, due to a case of mistaken identity. Shortly after Chilton returned home from church, about twenty boys assembled and began throwing things at his house, shouting that Armenians (religious followers of Jacobus Arminius) were meeting there. When James confronted the crowd, he was struck on the head by a large cobblestone, knocked unconscious and needed the aid of a surgeon. A year later he was off to the New World seeking greener pastures. When James Chilton boarded the Mayflower he was accompanied by his wife and thirteen year old daughter, Mary. The Chiltons left two of their children behind. Their daughter Ingle married Robert Nelsen in 1622 and no further record of her exists. Their daughter Isabella married Roger Chandler in 1615 and in 1630 the couple arrived in Plymouth with their two children. Mary Chilton is my genealogical connection to the Mayflower. [Image: Painting of Young Pilgrim, artist unknown] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6a06a050-0413-424c-8b1a-5ce8b9b63e13/Mayflower+Signing+of+the+Mayflower+Compact.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - The Mayflower dropped anchor in Provincetown Harbor on the tip of Cape Cod in November of 1620. While in port, John Carver drafted the “Mayflower Compact.” This remarkable document is thought to be the first purely democratic government ever produced. It set forth the idealistic notion of being governed by the consent of the governed. It was signed by 41 adult males and surprisingly two indentured servants. James Chilton was one of the signers, but he died of “the infection” on December 8, 1620 while on board ship in that harbor without ever setting foot in the New World. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/85672b9c-78be-47c1-b9bd-66740701fa7f/The+Land+of+the+Pilgrims+by+Henry+Bacon+1877.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - The Pilgrims remained in Provincetown for five weeks but got into a skirmish with the Nauset tribe of Native Americans and decided it was time to move on to a more hospitable location. Mrs. Chilton and her daughter Mary traveled on to Plymouth Harbor. Popular legend assigns Mary the distinction of being the first female to step ashore at Plymouth. Some historians embellish this story by saying that in her excitement to finally arrive, she leapt from the rowboat and waded to shore. Having experienced winters in chilly Massachusetts, I have good reason to doubt this “splashing through the water” version of the story. [Image: The Land of the Pilgrims by Henry Bacon 1877 depicts Mary Chilton stepping on Plymouth Rock] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bd82248f-9af7-4327-9cfd-08e3a099001e/The-First-Thanksgiving-at-Plymouth-by-Jennie-Brownscombe-1914.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - While the settlement was being built, the passengers continued to live on the Mayflower. Disease was rampant. Before the winter was over, half of the passengers had died including the sea-born infant Oceanus. Mrs. Chilton also died that dreadful winter, only six weeks after her husband, leaving Mary an orphan. When spring finally arrived only four of the eighteen women that boarded the Mayflower were alive and half of the surviving colonists were children under the age of 18. These four women - Elinor Billington, Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Hopkins and Susanna White (Winslow) - would have been the ones who prepared that famous first Thanksgiving feast in the fall of 1621. They were assisted by five surviving teenage girls. Mary Chilton would have been among them. Please remember to raise a glass to our ancestor Mary when you sit down each year for your Thanksgiving feast! The painting on the left underestimates the magnitude of this well-known gathering. According to Edwards Winslow’s journal, the feast included the 52 surviving colonists and 90 Massasoit Indians “whom for three days we entertained and feasted.” [Image: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock by Jennie Brownscombe in 1914] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f8084a67-ec49-42ff-b69e-283fb438b617/Jane+Fonda+in+Cat+Ballou.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - We owe these four surviving women a debt of gratitude. Thanks to Elinor Billington, children of the world now enjoy the works of Walt Disney. At one point spunky Elinor was roped to the stocks and whipped for slandering a church deacon. (Three thumbs down for her husband John for being the first convicted murderer in the New World for gunning down John Newcomen.) Thanks to Mary Brewster the world has Julia Child and Katherine Hepburn. Elizabeth Hopkins, who gave birth to the first baby at sea, made Norman Rockwell possible. Susanna White, who gave birth to the second baby in the Colony, brought us Humphrey Bogart. And I am delighted to report that thanks to Mary Chilton we have feisty feminist Jane Fonda. And me! [Image: Jane Fonda in Cat Ballou “They’ll never make her cry…”] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1a477597-f7bb-4f81-9dfd-4360e8e67ac3/Plymouth+Colony.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - In 1623 the Pilgrims divided up their land. To be eligible you had to have arrived on the Mayflower, the Fortune (1621), the Anne (1623), or the smaller mostly cargo ships the Swan (1622) and the Little James (1623). Mary Chilton at the age of sixteen received three acres – one acre for each of her deceased parents and one for herself. Her land was sandwiched between the renowned John Alden and Myles Standish. [Image: Plymouth Colony Living Museum Today] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5088cd95-4b6a-42b4-8804-451bbcef3090/Edward+Winslow%2C+brother+of+John+Winslow.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - Edward Winslow arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. His brother John arrived on the Fortune in 1621. Edward’s wife Elizabeth died the first winter in Plymouth and six weeks later Edward married the recently widowed Susanna White. Theirs was the first exchange of marital vows in the colony. The Winslow family was deeply involved in all aspects of the Plymouth Colony and made their mark on New England history. No known portraits exist for brother John Winslow, but quite a few exist for Edward. John Winslow married Mary Chilton in 1626 and together they produced ten children. Their second child, Susanna Winslow, who was born in 1630, is my ancestor. In 1653 after the birth of their last child Benjamin, the family moved to the Boston Massachusetts Bay Colony where John became a prosperous merchant and ship owner. At the time of his death in May of 1674 he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston. Mary died five years later in 1679. Both John and Mary are buried in the famous King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. [Image: Edward Winslow, three times Governor, brother of John Winslow] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/04846812-3275-4b70-877a-dc0198896295/Slave-Chains-11-900w.jpg Family History - The Latham Family - Susanna Winslow, the daughter of John and Mary Chilton Winslow, married Robert Latham in 1649 in Plymouth County. In 1643 Robert was a Constable in Marshfield. Between 1650 and 1672 Susanna gave birth to nine children. Their first child was named Mercy and as you will soon find out her name was an ironic choice. Their fourth child, James Latham, my ancestor, was born in 1659. Here’s where the story takes a nasty turn. In 1654 Robert and Susanna were accused of felonious cruelty in the death of their fourteen year old servant, John Walker. The circumstances surrounding his death were quite gruesome. The boy had been starved, beaten, under clothed, and housed in extreme cold conditions. His corpse has holes where he had been injured when being forced to carry a log that was too heavy for him to bear. His hands and feet were frozen; his sad little body scarred from numerous beatings. The court found Robert guilty, and his punishment was the branding of his hand with a hot poker and the confiscation of all of his property. Susanna was charged but perhaps due to family connections, the court chose not to follow up on her prosecution. In 1665 the family moved to the Bridgewater area. In 1679 Robert was fined twice for drunkenness. Susannah died between 1676 and 1683, followed by her husband in 1688. Some genealogists believe that Robert Latham was the son of William Latham, who arrived in the New World on the Mayflower at the same time as Mary Chilton. [Image: Slavery Chains] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e4fc9f6e-889f-496e-b416-600c446d0f13/Walk+of+Shame+to+the+Scaffold..jpg Family History - The Latham Family - [Image: The Walk of Shame to the Scaffold] [Image: ‘The[Walk of Shame to the Scaffold.”] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/thericksfamilystory monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ca3edcd8-1e6f-4ff1-b0c9-6c6e63251042/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.11.53+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - The name Ricks is thought to be of Germanic origin and its first appearance in England was about 1066 - the time of William the Conqueror. Spellings of names changed over time; names were recorded phonetically based on the interpretation (and literacy) of the person who recorded them, and they got anglicized upon arrival in a new country. Sometimes Ricks is also spelled Rickesis, Rickes, Rixe, and Rix. For consistency, I used the spelling “Ricks.” [Photo: Quaker couple in the mid-1800s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/56ed00f2-76fc-4a69-808d-6c406476abc9/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.12.49+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Make it stand out [Photo: Ricks Family Crest] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/cdde5c41-5737-4440-a1e6-cf0179a43cde/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.13.51+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - This castle is referred to as “Brancaster Castle” in the film, but sadly when things seem too good to be true, they often aren’t. This magnificent property is actually Alnwick Castle, the 2nd largest owner occupied castle in England. This castle was used as a setting for many other well-known films including Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Alnwick is a huge tourist attraction and for a fee you can even take “broomstick flying classes.” It appears that Duke and Duchess Percy need a little help with the upkeep of the premises. My internet search uncovered a village called Brancaster. It’s a lovely little fishing village with 797 residents. The village’s name means “Roman site of Branodunum.” Nearby is the ruins of an ancient Roman fort from the 5th century most of which was destroyed during the construction of a locally opposed housing development in the 1970s. (Humans can be such foolish creatures). Sadly, no mention of a castle in my hunt. Maybe, the Ricks lived in the fort?? [Photo: One of the castles where Downton Abbey was filmed] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9d75d331-e9cc-4f4c-a4c3-1c9b3e3e9793/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.14.35+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Isaac Ricks (spelled Rickesis in early accounts), my 8th great grandfather, was born in England in 1638 and died at the age of 85 in 1732. He immigrated to America and settled in a place called Chuckatuck on the Nansemond River in Isle of Wight, Virginia. According to old church records from the Chuckatuck Friends Meeting Place, his wife was named Kathren and they had a son, our ancestor, named Isaac Jr in 1669. They also had eight additional sons: William (1670), John (1672), Abraham (1674), Jacob (1677), Robert (1679), Benjamin(1682), Richard (1684) and James (1690); a daughter named Kathren after her mother who only lived for two months (1684), and another daughter named Jeanne (1687). In 1702 Abraham and Robert built the Chuckatuck Church in exchange for 32,000 pounds of tobacco (the currency of the time.) Prior to the building of the church the “Friends” (commonly known as Quakers) met in each other’s homes. The church was abandoned and “laid down” in 1769 because religious persecution forced large numbers of Quakers to relocate to North Carolina. [Photo: Brancaster, Norfolk England] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/daf74c7e-9268-436c-a81d-0752a65aa2fa/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.16.12+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - The first Quakers arrived in Virginia in the 1650’s. Elizabeth Harris, one of Fox’s missionaries, founded settlements of Friends along the James River and the movement spread to the Isle of Wight and Lower Norfolk Counties. Since Virginia Quakers, like their New England brethren, flouted civil disobedience the magistrates became increasingly hostile to them. The first documented arrest of a Virginia Quaker missionary was William Robinson, who was charged with “denying the humanity of Christ” and being a “seducer of people to faction.” He returned to Massachusetts, and in 1659 was hanged from an Elm tree in the Boston Commons with other Quakers for daring to return from banishment and continuing to preach doctrines unacceptable to the Puritan leaders in Boston. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d891d5b9-3508-4c3c-9227-3593faa95900/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.17.19+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Benjamin’s son Meridith was a silversmith and was reported to be a miser. He never married and at his death in 1780; despite great efforts, mysteriously his money stash was never found. At least five of Benjamin Sr’s sons: Benjamin Jr, William, Lewis, John and Thomas, fought in the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Jr was a Sergeant Major in George Washington’s Continental Army. Two of his sons, William and Lewis, fought together at the bloody Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. Lewis was drafted into the army as a private but was a devout Quaker and did not believe in shedding blood. William witnessed his brother drop his gun and go into battle without his weapon. That was the last time he saw him. Lewis’ heirs received a postmortem 200 acre land grant for his military service; perhaps the government was unaware he hadn’t actually fired a single bullet. Interestingly, most of these civil war land grants came from the confiscated property of Tories who fought for the British during the war. [Photo: Paiing of Washington’s Army] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7c5a53a2-8eca-45cd-823b-b44681eccdd7/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.18.27+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Make it stand out [Photo: Thomas Ricks’ Revolutionary Pay Voucher December 1783] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9df8325b-4fab-4bae-a59e-0fd7678be1dc/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.19.24+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Make it stand out [Photo: The Battle of Petersburg] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/af922ffa-0337-4099-bc6c-a56820663fd7/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.20.54+PM.png Family History - The Ricks Family - Robert Van Buren Ricks, my 2nd great grandfather, was born in 1837. It’s possible he was named for President Van Buren who took office in 1836. At age 24 in 1861 Robert married Winifred Louise Leggett, and the couple settled down to farming life together in Tranter’s Creek, Beaufort County. A year later he enlisted in the Confederate infantry as a private May 30,1862 and five days later Union forces advanced to Tranter’s Creek and a battle commenced. Blood was shed on both sides of Myer’s Bridge which spanned the creek. You’ll note that in close proximity to the battle (the red circle inside the yellow area on the map), is a village called Latham, which very likely was named after Robert’s mother’s family. [Photo: Map of the Battle of Tranter’s Creek] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly monthly 0.5 2026-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/16783729-5a45-427d-8f94-630ac8404ab2/Revolutionary+War+death-of-general-warren-battle-of-bunker_s-hill-june-17-1775-photo-u1.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - Demsie Grimes, my fifth great grandfather, was born in 1740 in Norfolk County Virginia. He migrated to North Carolina and married Penelope Coffield of Bertie County North Carolina in 1760. The Coffield’s were an English family who were first reported in America in 1638. Demsie and Penelope settled in Edgecombe County on Fishing Creek to start a family and not long after, they moved to Pitt County where he bought land along the Tar River and built Avon Plantation. He was one of the signers on the 1774 Pitt County Declaration of Independence stating “no man could be taxed without his consent’ - two years before Thomas Jefferson’s famous declaration in 1776. Demsie served as a Justice of the Peace and was a member of the Pitt County Safety Committee, a group that raised militia, provided for the army’s salt (to preserve their food supply), gave relief to the poor and handled education. The Committee also tried people for offenses, routed out Tories, and appointed patrols to capture enslaved persons who had runaway from their “Masters.” Demsie served in the army during the American Revolution War. He died on Avon Plantation in Pitt County North Carolina in 1778. [Photo: Painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War 1775 by John Trumball ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8b794d1e-2efd-4c0a-a09e-8d5d2040bfbc/Bryan+Grimes+Sr+1793-1860.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - Dempsie’s son William, became a prosperous farmer, a prominent local politician and served terms in the General Assembly. He bought several tracts along the Tar River in Pitt County and built a plantation home on the property, which became known as “Grimesland.” In 1790 he married Anna Byran (1762-1828). William died young at the age of thirty-one in 1797. His will “lent his beloved wife Anna his plantation during her natural lifetime” and she and their four living children (one of whom was “yet unborn”) each received one fifth of the “Negros, furniture, bonds and bills and book accounts” when they became of age. William’s oldest son Bryan ultimately inherited Grimesland. Bryan married Nancy Grist in 1815, and it was in this plantation house that Nancy gave birth to at least ten children, one of whom Bryan Grimes Jr, was destined to become a living legend during the Civil War. [Photo: Bryan Grimes, Sr 1793-1860] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/83c2023a-6406-4526-b636-13cb13d67961/Replica+of+Enslaved+Family+Cottage+at+Primesland+Plantation+today.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - Bryan Grimes Jr. received Grimesland and control of 100 enslaved persons as a graduation gift when he graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1848. By contrast, when I graduated from college I got a Ford Pinto (it was later recalled because it had a propensity to catch on fire when involved in rear end collisions). Ultimately this horrific buying and selling and inheriting of human beings was about to be engulfed in a different kind of fire – the war between the states. [Photo: Replica of Enslaved Family Cottage in the Grimesland Plantation today] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/33e4dc62-4b8f-4d7c-b154-5a89170f9b13/General+Bryan+Grimes.jpeg Family History - The Grimes Family - Bryan Grimes Jr was a strong secessionist, and in 1861 was elected a delegate to the Secession Convention. He was a driving force in North Carolina’s withdrawal from the Union. Although he lacked military training and possessed a fiery temper, he demonstrated skill and legendary courage throughout his service with General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and received rapid promotions in the field. He joined the Confederate Army as a major and as the commander of the Fourth North Carolina Regiment at Sea Pines where 462 men out of 520 men were killed and he alone out of 25 officers survived. During the battle a cannon ball took off the head of his horse and Bryan’s leg was penned under the poor animal’s shattered carcass. Bryan wavered his sword calling for his men to free him, seized the flag that had fallen from a wounded soldier and led a charge capturing a fortification. [Photo: Major General Bryan Grimes, Jr in 1862] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9b9b79e6-9416-497c-931d-9167ac2eda1c/Battle+of+Gettysburg.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - The man was unstoppable. All told during the war, four horses were shot out from under him. In one battle he received a kick from a horse that was so severe that doctor’s discussed having to perform an amputation but fortunately they decided against it. It healed, and soon after he went back in battle. His military career involved nearly all the big name battles on the eastern theatre – Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (where his sword was broken by a ball, his clothes perforated by bullets one of which lodged in his belt and he was wounded in the foot), Gettysburg (his unit was the first confederate to enter the streets of this town), Wilderness, Overland, Petersburg. [Photo: The Battle of Gettysburg, artist unknown] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bdee8fbe-f98d-4fb2-b4eb-2c081caa9f53/General+Bryan+Grimes+Jr+and+Famly+after+the+War.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - At the war's end he had advanced to the rank of major general and his regiment fired the last volleys prior to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. He led his division in fighting at Petersburg, Fort Stedman, Sayler's Creek, and Appomattox. When notified of Lee's surrender to Grant, Bryan's initial reaction was to march to North Carolina, join the Confederate troops there and continue to fight, but another officer convinced him that it was disgraceful to violate a flag of truce. Bryan surrendered his division with the rest of Lee's tattered army at Appomattox Court House. "Go home, boys," he told his troops, "and act like men, as you have always done during the war." He rode back to his plantation and resumed his life as a farmer. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/28448d85-7d4d-4e0a-bdcb-4e80eb55895f/Grimesland+Plantation+Today.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - The Fully Restored Grimesland Plantation Today https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/82403bf8-3c53-4e46-b44d-1196f26cbaec/grimesland-cemetary1.jpg Family History - The Grimes Family - In a clearing some distance from the plantation, Major General Bryan Grimes lays quietly in the serene small family graveyard that’s separated from pastureland by trees and an ancient wrought-iron fence. [Photo: Grimes Family Cemetery] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/thericksfamilystory-fgwef monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e6d8b99b-7a31-4c6d-ad0f-9fee61897511/Wiliam-the-Conqueror-original.jpg Family History - The Stafford Family - The name Stafford has been identified with the English since before the Norman Conquest. The Castle of Stafford was so named because there was a shallow place in the river there that could be crossed with the aid of a staff. The Lord of Stafford and the founder of that family name was Robert de Toeni (1039 -1088). William the Conqueror made Robert governor of this castle and from this place his descendants took the last name “de Stafford”. It is very likely that all the Stafford families who entered the new World through Canada, New England and Virginia are descendants of Robert. [Image: William the Conqueror 1066 at the Battle of Hastings] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f17d9501-74eb-46c3-9610-48af74573de8/Stafford+Castle.jpg Family History - The Stafford Family - The direct connection between this feudal castle and our ancestors has not been proven but the name still carries with it a undeniable ring of prestige. The first Stafford ancestor I document in our family tree is William Stafford whose arrival in the New World will give you a clue just “how far the mighty have fallen” since their days in the castle. [Image: Ruins of the Stafford Castle in Staffordshire, England, built around 1100 AD.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/efd8114a-62ef-4e32-83d4-db5d58e855bb/Jamestown+Defending+Itself.jpg Family History - The Stafford Family - On June 12, 1622 a 180 ton ship called the Furtherance departed Gravesend England and set sail for the New World with 80 passengers. Among these brave adventurous soles was a young fourteen year old indentured servant named William Stafford. William is my 10th great grandfather. The ship stopped at the Isle of Wight in Virginia to take on additional passengers and supplies and reached Jamestown in late August of 1662. The passengers arrived at the colony at a time of crisis: Jamestown was still reeling from the Powhaten Indian Massacre in spring that had killed one quarter of the English population. The Furtherance had sailed before the news of the massacre reached England so the passengers has no idea of the dreadful hardships the Colony had experienced. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e92d9f07-fc81-42c8-83ad-29097a8f1497/COlonial+Bride.jpg Family History - The Stafford Family - Upon arrival William Stafford took up residence with the Lt. Francis Mason family where he was bound by his indenture (typically a 5 to 7 year arrangement). Some indentured servants were sorely mistreated in America but William was one of the lucky ones. The family apparently liked him because in 1640 he married their seventeen year old daughter Frances Mason. Oddly, this pattern of “servant becomes son-in-law” was not uncommon in the colonies. By marrying into the family William became part of a politically connected family and he gained access to a most prized possession: land. Francis gave birth to a son named William II in 1641, but sadly she died a year later. Her husband died two years later in 1644. https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly-g7swc-5ld6e monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/408f70be-39bf-4018-85c2-4428ecbe5805/Rosefield+Plantation+in+1982.jpeg Family History - The Gray Family - John Gray Sr, my 6th great grandfather, was born on October 21, 1662 in Glasgow, Scotland. He married Jean Pateson in July 1686 and produced four sons, John Jr, Daniel, William and Robert. His eldest son John Gary Jr, born in Scotland in 1691, emigrated to North Carolina in 1713 as a surveyor and married Susannah Ann Bryan, the daughter of Lewis Bryan Sr and Elizabeth Hunter in 1717. In 1729 John Jr acquired 1,000 acres of land overlooking the beautiful valley of Cashie for 140 pounds. The land was “always spicy with the scent of pine and cedar and in spring and early summer fragrant with the blooms of wild grape, sweetbriar roses and honeysuckle.” [Photo: Rosefield Plantation in 1982] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ae1cfcef-b85d-4626-bfcd-1c983c13b51e/Honeysuckle.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - Make it stand out Honeysuckle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bd118274-567d-41f4-9006-c6321b21a71f/Sweet+Briar+Roses.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - Make it stand out Sweet Briar Rose https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7c59d798-2259-4d22-a3f8-4b9dbb654870/Blount+Hall.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - John Gray Jr (1691-1750) and his wife Ann (1696-1770) produced eight daughters and three sons. It is unclear where John’s original house was on the Rosefield plantation, but their daughter Barbara and her husband Col Jacob Blount were living in it with her father when their son William Blount was born in 1749. When William was six years old his parents moved to their new home, Blount Hall, near today’s Greenville, North Carolina, where Jacob eventually owned 6,000 acres and held 74 people in slavery. [Photo: Blount Hall in Greenville, North Carolina] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/072b124e-b7e0-4668-97a4-3633d505f842/The+signing+of+the+Constitution.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - Painting of the Signing of the Constitution by Howard Chandler Christy Painting of Native Americans in Battle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2817a695-4acd-4017-bd3b-8612ac2fa946/William+Blount.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - After the war, the three Blount brothers formed a hugely successful merchant business. President George Washington named William Governor of the territory now known as Kentucky and Tennessee and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He didn’t know it at the time, but Washington had released the proverbial fox into the chicken house. In a display of unbridled greed William directed his company agents to file land claims under “any names – fictious ones will do.” The Cherokee Indians, whose land were stolen from them referred to him by the Cherokee nickname “Dirt Captain.” William led a statehood effort and when Tennessee became a state, he was elected as the new state’s US Senator. Throughout the 1780s and 1790s, William Blount and his brothers gradually bought up massive amounts of western lands, acquiring over 2.5 million acres by the mid-1790s  Much of this land was bought on credit, pushing the family deeply into debt. In 1795, the market for western lands collapsed, and land prices plummeted. His risky land investments left the family in financial straits, and in the 1790s, he (on his own accord) conspired to have Great Britain take over Spanish-controlled Louisiana and Florida in the hope of boosting local land prices. [Photo: William Blount, the only US Senator to be impeached] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fa47c5df-99de-4bce-b65f-600210013bb0/historic+windsor.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - John Gray Jr drafted his will in 1745 and died on 11 October 1750. His wife Ann was pregnant at the time of his death and in 1751 gave birth to a daughter Sarah Winifred Gray. (Nineteen years later Winifred married my 4th great grandfather Edward Cobb). In addition to the 1,000 acre Rosefield land and plantation house in Bertie County, John Jr owned land in Northampton, Edgecombe and Craven Counties, 89 hogs, 60 head of cattle, and 16 enslaved persons. His household inventory, which included among other things 6 feather beds, 80 books and 2 wig boxes reflected his prosperity. John’s son William Gray (1730-1801), inherited Rosefield and he began to build a second plantation home (the one that still exists today) on the property. William was a prosperous planter, merchant, ship builder, and was active in county politics. He is credited with being the founder of the Town of Windsor. [Photo: Windsor, North Carolina Historic District Marker today] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5e6e53bf-2eae-4b32-8421-d6a62bc12b21/Edenton+Tea+Party+250th+anniversary+Memorial+Tea+Pot.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - Edenton was known for its feisty women. In 1774 they made history staging the first female political protest in the American colonies. Lead by Penelope Barker, 51 Edenton women signed a petition boycotting British tea and cloth. Instead of hiding like the men at the Boston Tea Party, these women bolding signed their real names, risking being charged with treason. [Photo: Edenton Tea Party Memorial Teapot] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fa8b618c-b1b3-490b-9126-67746dca3e53/Rosefield+Plantation+Family+Cemetery.jpg Family History - The Gray Family - John Gray Jr and his wife Ann are buried in the cemetery at Rosefield plantation, along with his son William and his wife Francis. Today 54 of their descendants share this quiet resting place. Notably missing in the family cemetery is the black sheep William Blount, who is interred in Knoxville, Tennessee. His Knoxville home, the “Blount Mansion,” is a non-profit museum. [Photo: Rosefield Plantation Family Cemetery] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/ferebee-family-mw444 monthly 0.5 2026-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/62710ca9-aea7-40b9-b45f-dc75213167b5/Baptism+of+Virginina+Dare.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Baptism of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America [Photo: The Baptism of Virginia Dare] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a504f5c5-ba49-4faa-9139-529994b8331e/John+White+Returns+to+the+Colony.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: John White Returns to the Colony] John White Returns to the Colony https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f5a85725-32ff-4f9e-b4bb-f7bf4aec5fbd/Mother+Vine+Roots.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - The Ancient Roots of the Mother Vine on Roanoke Island https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3ac0a8ab-c0c8-4009-abfb-dc9ee5782b42/Mother+Vine+Vines.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Grapevines on the Ancient Mother Vine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6ce14555-6831-40b4-80cc-7d9cc564c3a1/Queen+Anne+1702-1714.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: The Lovely Queen Anne of Great Britain 1702-1714] Queen Anne who reigned Great Britain from 1702-1714 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d7f5f219-99bf-4fa4-8196-f702f7940ff1/Refuge+Camps+London+1709.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Refugee Camp in London 1709] Refugee Camp in London 1709 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6f9f6ead-54af-47bc-82be-6688ffd52b03/Tiny+Roanke+Island+Map.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Roanoke Island Tiny Roanoke Island, 8 miles long by 2 miles wide. Rich with Family History. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0d1355e9-274f-43fe-a0ad-38d2f2f853ef/Baum+Site+Mass+Grave.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Mass Grave found at the “Baum Site” Mass Grave uncovered at “Baum Site” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/cb5f9756-c40d-480d-ad07-c807f7515716/Baum-Meekin+House+circa+1930.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Baum Meekins Home Circa 1930. Note the Mother Vine to the right of the house.] Baum-Meekins House circa 1930 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/78f3b664-f84c-4435-b182-451dab3fa2c7/Baum+Meekin+Cemetery.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Baum-Meekins Cemetery in 2019] Baum Meekins Cemetery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e85cd00a-d119-4490-b474-7d27a3746f54/Map+of+Hyde+County+1834.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Map of Hyde County in 1834] Map of Hyde County in 1834 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/71fe7120-ea95-4297-9012-a5840fc680b2/THomas+Baum%27s+Barn.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family [Photo: Thomas Baum’s Barn circa 1816] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ba589121-be56-421b-9319-c68985978bc3/Thomas+Baum%27s+home+%28renovated%29+as+of+2015.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family [Photo: Thomas Baum’s home (renovated) as of 2015] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3ae49b14-79be-4ea5-83d5-0801e6b9c214/THomas+Baum+1776-1873.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Thomas Baum (1776-1873), Sea Captain. My 4th great grandmother Dolly Baum’s twin brother.] Thomas Baum https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/19bf22cd-559a-4c59-bfbb-6279c976fc27/Samuel+Lindsay+Baum.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo Samuel Lindsay Baum (1830-1900), son of Thomas. Farmer, married twice and had at least eleven children.] Samuel Lindsay Baum, Son of Thomas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d7365a3a-86e1-41aa-9e65-290b17387e55/Josiah+Blackwell+Baum.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Josiah Blackwell Baum (1842-1907), son of Thomas Baum. Hyde Ranger during Civil War, the Rangers operated in Union-controlled territory to disrupt enemy lines and secure provisions for the Confederate Army.] Josiah Blackwell Baum, Son of Thomas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7d3b44f2-4442-4d42-97ea-786372f89c09/The+Battle+of+Hatteras.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - The Battle of Hatteras 1861 [Photo: The Battle of Hatteras] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/51c9b337-53e1-4550-8373-35f8ecd57a13/Leonidus+Robert+White.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Make it stand out [Photo: Leonidus Robert White, Murder Victim] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/664a1357-bdd9-43dd-8b33-a5744abf3d27/Capt+John+Etheridge.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Local Legend Captain Jack Etheridge] Captain Jack Etheridge https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a1241ce4-abe3-4e5a-80c9-30555ee58b8d/Adam+Dough+Etheridge.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Adam Dough Etheridge, V, Fisherman and Boat Pilot] Adam Dough Etheridge, V https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/962938ab-47f5-4af9-8827-189f6f44b9ee/Augusta+Holly+%28Gus%29+Etheridge.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Augustus Holly “Gus” Etheridge 1860-1941, Cattle Rancher, Coast Guard Service, Hotel Manager, Sheriff, Legislator, Head of Detective Agency, Lighthouse Keeper, and BEST mustache!] Augustus Holly “Gus” Etheridge 1860-1941 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f07d0b3f-cd80-4924-93d9-8097b0bdd10c/Amanda+Dough+Etheridge.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Amanda Etheridge (1888-1945), Daughter of Gus and Roxie Etheridge] Amelia Etheridge, daughter of Gus and Roxie Etheridge 1888-1945 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7011851f-52b1-451d-a589-07d46df71adc/First+Flight.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: The First Flight, December 17, 1903] The First Flight https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/20daa1cd-ed1f-4abc-9b61-c2bfa2468ece/Willie+St+Clair+Dough.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Willie St Clair Dough (1870-1931] Willie St Clair Dough 1870-1931 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/da364dbb-927b-43fc-bea1-39d345e29ae5/Willie+St+Clair+Dough+Obit.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family Willie Dough Obit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/35a0f143-28e0-490e-a73b-86a3f1283db4/Wright+Brothers+Memorial.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - [Photo: Wright Brothers National Memorial Statute in Kill Devil Hills. On the far left is Adam Dough Etheridge VI wearing his life saving station hat.] Wright Brothers National Memorial Statute in Kill Devil Hills On the far left is Adam Dough Etheridge VI wearing his life saving station hat https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9c704b05-45d6-44e2-9111-e4baf1903142/Amelia+Earhart+at+Wright+Bro+Memoral.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Make it stand out [Photo: From Left to Right: John Daniels, Unknown (perhaps Willie Dough?), Adam D Etheridge VI, Orville Wright, Senator Bingham, and Amelia Earhart in 1928.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/88c9cf59-f218-4122-b9ef-79f608cefd11/Roanoke+Island+Lighthouse.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/460f844a-176f-4a57-80ae-2ae474919436/Inside+the+Lighthouse.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8715ed56-b75f-4d24-93f9-68278fa0d25e/Cupola+in+Lighthouse.jpg Family History - The Baum and Eldridge Family - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/ferebee-family-pw2em monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5aecc44b-3b03-44f1-991b-213ae05103ba/ships-mast-and-rigging-cathy-anderson.jpg Family History - The Marchant Family - Captain Christopher Marchant, my 8th great grandfather, was a French Huguenot, who made his fortune as a privateer. When he wasn’t aboard ship, he held many political and legal positions in Currituck County North Carolina: council member, clerk of council, custom collectors, clerk of precinct court, deputy escheator (the officer in charge of property transfers for those who died without wills). In his will written in 1698 he gave his daughter Abiah a gold ring, his son-in-law Thomas Tooley 20 pounds, his son Willoughby Marchant his sword and belt, his gold and silver buttons and buckles and his “prized priveteer gun.” His estate which included a 908 acre plantation was to be divided was to be divided between his wife, Abiah Bryan Marchant, and son Willoughby (who was still a minor) and should they “be in want of servants or any other necessary supplyes” they had permission to sell his lands. His wife’s brother, Richard Bryan, was placed in charge of overseeing all business affairs for the family. Willoughby Marchant (1675-1727), my 7th great grandfather most likely followed in his father’s footsteps because he was also referred to as “Captain”. He also served his community as a justice of the peace and as a sheriff. He married Elizabeth Corbett and had seven children one of whom, my 6th great grandfather, was named Gideon Marchant I (1710-1774). [Photo: Rigging of an Antique Ship] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7a45a1bb-71e4-440b-b1d4-03875e34c8d1/Map+of+Currituck.jpg Family History - The Marchant Family - The home of the Marchant family, Currituck County, is sandwiched between the Albemarle Sound and the Currituck Sound and separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks. If you made your living on the seas, it was the perfect place to call home. It was founded in 1668 and named by the Algonquian nation whose translation means “Land of the Wild Goose, ” which feels oddly appropriate. Today Currituck is it is home to the largest horse population of Banker Mustangs, which are said to be descendants of Spanish expedition if the 1500s. One account written in 1712 made this observation about North Carolina: “Of all the thirteen colonies, North Carolina was the least commercial, the most provincial, the farthest removed from European influences, and its wild forest life the most unrestrained. Every colony had its frontier, its borderland between civilization and savagery; but North Carolina was composed entirely of frontier. The people were impatient of legal restraints and averse to paying taxes; but their moral and religious standard was not below that of other colonies. Their freedom was the freedom of the Indian, or of the wild animal, not that of the criminal and the outlaw.” Photo: [Map of Currituck] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d9e47801-d273-446d-8a53-8310ff7f39fc/Pirates.jpg Family History - The Marchant Family - A pirate terrorizes and pillages merchant ships. A privateer is essentially a pirate who legalizes this lucrative activity by obtaining the blessing (“letters of marque”) from a government during war times. The line between the two can become blurred. Many famous pirates including Blackbeard and Captain Kidd started as privateers and then “turned to the dark side” - piracy. Privateering can be traced back as early as the 13th century. It played a very important role in the American Revolution. [Photo: Painting of Pirates by Gregory Manchess] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0cc5fbc8-7333-43a2-b789-bd6b96d6f883/1860+Map+of+Norfolk+where+Jordan+Marchant+was+murdered.jpg Family History - The Marchant Family - Malachi married Lydia Reed, and they had two children Edney and Jordan. When Malachi and Lydia passed away their teenaged son Jordan was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Gideon II. At the age of 27 Jordan married a widow Fanny Shields (Shepherd) and the couple had five children between 1798 and 1808. He served in the Virginia Militia and was a Justice of the Peace for Norfolk County. Jordan spent the evening of November 11, 1811, enjoying himself at the horse track. As he was crossing the drawbridge on his way home he was attacked and murdered, his body tossed in the river. He left behind his heartbroken wife (now widowed for a second time) with six children the youngest of whom (his namesake Jordan) was only two years old. Neither the cause of the murder nor the person who or persons who perpetrated the crime has ever been determined. [Photo Details: Yawpim Village and Reservation shown by the red arrow near Great Dismal Swamp] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/be71a360-7b82-4d1a-b1b3-4554bd6f28e3/Tarring+and+feathering.jpg Family History - The Marchant Family - Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture where a victim is stripped, drenched in hot tar or other sticky substances, covered with feathers, and then dragged through the streets to accentuate their public humiliation. Although the hot tar is extremely painful it is not fatal. This cruel practice originated in medieval times and was apparently quite popular during the American Revolution for punishing loyalists and tax collectors. Recorded cases of tar and feathering in the US occurred well into the 1900s. In 1930 five brothers from Louisiana were arrested for tarring and feathering a prominent dentist, in retaliation for the dentist having an affair with one of the brother's wives. And here’s a shocker in 1971 a Michigan high school teacher principal named Wiley Brownlee was kidnapped by the KKK and tarred and feathered for speaking at a school board meeting in favor of honoring Martin Luther King. [Photo Details: Maroons fleeing into Dismal Swamp"] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a2220c16-3999-4af0-bde6-15fc1cae640d/image_7.png Family History - The Marchant Family - Dr Gideon C Marchant IV, the son of Gideon and Mary Marchant III, was born in 1798 in Virginia. Dr. Marchant’s life reminds me of a memorable scene from the movie “The Graduate.” He fell head over heels with Margaret Elizabeth Ferebee and asked his beloved to be his wife. Her father, Thomas Cooper Ferebee, a very prominent man in Currituck County was not thrilled with the arraignment and persuaded her to marry a well to do neighbor instead. Gideon was at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in May of 1817, when he got the gut wrenching news that his fiancée was to marry someone else. He raced home, buying and exhausting five horses on the way from Philadelphia to “Culong”, the Ferebee Plantation in Currituck. When he got there the wedding guests were just starting to arrive. Gideon asked one of the Ferebee’s enslaved persons to tell his fiancée he had come for her. Emily escaped out the back door, joined Gideon atop his gallant steed, and they rode away to get married, leaving the bridegroom and the guests in shock. Unfortunately their happiness was short lived. Emily died in 1823 without any children. [Photo Detail: Culong Plantation on Indian Town Road built 1812] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/230fb301-877e-4649-baf1-c953bca8cb3d/Dr+Gideon+Marchant+Head+Stone.jpeg Family History - The Marchant Family - Five years later in 1829, Gideon married the widow Emily Dauge Trotman, and the couple had two children: Elizabeth Ferebee and Archann Dauge. The doctor and his wife lived on a plantation nestled in over 700 acres of land known as Indiantown Plantation on a road bearing the same name. It has been described as one of the finest in the Albemarle area. It was a village with twenty or more buildings connected with brick walkways. Gideon was quite wealthy. The 1860 Currituck County census lists his real estate at $30,000 and his personal estate at $50,000. Gideon died in 1861 followed shortly after by his wife; “after having been married for more than 30 years in life – were separated in death but by the brief space of three days.” After their deaths, the Civil War spilled onto their property and his house all of their buildings were burned down. Fallen Civil War soldiers as well as Native Americans from colonial times are buried in Gideon’s back yard. Today his medical equipment is on display at the Museum of Albemarle in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Gideon’s daughter, Archann Dauge Marchant married my 2nd great grandfather Durant Hall Tillitt. [Photo Detail: Dr Gideon C. Marchant and Emily Dauge Trotman Marchant’s tombstone ] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/ferebee-family monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b99b83c8-9f9f-4c23-9eb8-b6f316b62998/image_6.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - [Photo: Anne Boleyn, the 2nd wife of Henry VIII] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/31447d98-df2a-46b2-b33a-efbf7858dd9e/image_4.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - Indian Town is located in close proximity to the Great Dismal Swamp. This swamp is stunningly beautiful, but also wildly dangerous. It is easy to get lost in its mazes of islands and waterways. Home to Native American tribes for over 13,000 years, from the 1600s through the civil war it became an ideal place for emancipated people and indigenous people to find refuge from enslavement and violence. Hundreds, possibly thousands of these so called “maroons” found shelter and freedom in the dense tangled hostility of the swamp. Harriet Beecher Stowe used the Dismal Swamp setting for her famous book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” [Photo Details: Yawpim Village and Reservation shown by the red arrow near Great Dismal Swamp] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/34d3e3e7-5f9c-4ec5-91da-74029fa544bf/image_3.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - Soon after William and Elizabeth settled in Indian Town, Elizabeth gave birth to three more daughters and two sons, including my 4th great grandfather Thomas Cooper Ferebee (1771-1834). William built the Indian Town Academy on his land so that his children and his neighbor’s children could receive an education. He served in the legislature in the NC Assembly and the State Senate and was a justice of the peace. He was appointed the road commissioner and oversaw the building of the Great Swamp Road which led to and traveled along parts of the swamp. Today the swamp is protected by the National Wildlife Reserve Program and is a popular tourist attraction. [Photo Details: Maroons fleeing into Dismal Swamp"] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9267a408-cade-4b5e-9739-ccb9b64f52bd/image_2.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - Make it stand out Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3c8045b5-7b3b-42bb-8bf2-3a2d8425a708/image_1.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - Make it stand out [Photo Details: The Battle of Great Bridge 1775] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a2220c16-3999-4af0-bde6-15fc1cae640d/image_7.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - At the age of 58 Thomas C. married for the third time to Judith Gregory Mackie who was 23 years younger than he was. Her family was quite wealthy. Her father owned salt mines and a fleet of sea going vessels that traveled to and from the West Indies, Bermuda and New England. Less than a year after their marriage, their son Thomas Cooper Ferebee Jr was born. Thomas C. Sr added more acreage to his property and increased his enslaved persons headcount to 43 “elevating him to planter status”. When he died in 1834 his obituary said: “Thomas Cooper Ferebee, Esquire was one of the oldest and most respectable men in the county.” His name became quite popular with his descendants. His name legacy ended with Thomas Cooper Ferebee VI who died young without any children in 1981. Thomas C.’s brother Samuel was the most prolific member of the family. Samuel once held a family reunion at which 72 family members were in attendance. He married three times and produced 14 children, one of whom was also named Thomas Cooper Ferebee. Two of Samuel’s wives were sisters: Sarah and Peggy Dauge. (The Dauge family name is entwined with the Ferebee family in many places and all of these Dauges have a common ancestor, Peter Dauge, who in turn is related to Capt. James Dauge the French Huguenot who immigrated to America in the late 1600s.) Samuel’s son, the Reverend Samuel Ferebee II, married 5 times. One of his children was named Thomas Cooper but the baby died in infancy. [Photo Detail: Culong Plantation on Indian Town Road built 1812] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bfcfe527-77f4-42c5-b629-0ed6f16551b6/image_5.png Family History - The Ferebee Family - There was also another very unexpected connection I came across involving the Thomas Ferebee name. My 6th great grandfather, Thomas Ferebee (1682-1739) had a brother named James (1683-1753). James had a son named Peter (1704-1786), who in turn had a son named Thomas (1774-1849), who in turn had a son named Thomas (1811-1887), who in turn had a son named William Calvin (1851-1926), followed by William Flavious (1892-1979), followed by Thomas Wilson Ferebee (1918-2000), my 6th cousin. On March 18, 2000, Thomas Wilson Ferebee, the bombardier on the Enola Gay, pulled the trigger that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. The firestorm that followed covered a five square mile radius. The death count, most of whom were civilians, is unknown due to the immense destruction and confusion that followed the blast. [Photo Detail: Thomas Wilson Ferebee, on the right] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0c48a973-a9df-450c-ab7c-c3a087b90b0f/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+4.53.36+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - In 1534 John Rogers traveled to Antwerp, Belgium to serve as a chaplain. There he met the celebrated William Tyndale, a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation, who convinced John to abandon his faith in the Roman Catholic Church. William translated the New Testament into English from Hebrew and Greek texts and created the first English translation of the bible to use a printing press in 1526. William felt everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language, directly challenging the authority of the Catholic Church that maintained control over biblical interpretation. He fled from England to Belgium to escape persecution; and was betrayed, imprisoned and executed there in 1536. John took up the cause where William left off, publishing the Bible under the pseudonym “Matthew’s Bible” in 1537. For his efforts he was imprisoned in the notorious Newgate Prison in London to be “lodged among thieves and murderers and very uncharitably treated.” He refused to “revoke his abominable doctrine” and in 1555 was burned at the stake. [Photo: John Rogers 1505-1555 Bible Translator and Martyr] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/136043c3-94a4-4793-ac8a-8f6c102804f1/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+4.56.01+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Make it stand out [Photo: The Matthew Bible published in 1537 by John Rodgers] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/95a3b46e-cf18-428c-beab-176b33257dce/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+5.03.12+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - John Caldwell and Margaret Phillip’s oldest son, Major William Findley Caldwell (1704-1761), married Rebecca Park, and fought in the French & Indian War. William’s daughter, Martha, married Patrick Calhoun and their son, John Caldwell Calhoun, became a South Carolina statesman and served as Vice President under John Quincy Adams. Calhoun was a fiery advocate for state’s rights and slavery. The owner of 70 to 80 enslaved persons, his beliefs heavily influenced the South’s secession from the Union. John Caldwell and Margaret Phillip’s son Robert (1732-1806) served in the Revolutionary War. He had a son General John Caldwell, a veteran of the Kentucky Indian War of 1786, who became the 2nd Lt Governor of Kentucky in 1804. While presiding over the state senate John died from a stroke, known in those days as “inflammation of the brain.” Caldwell County in Kentucky was named in his honor. [Photo: John Caldwell Calhoun, fiery statesman (1782-1850)] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/07cbdd55-302a-429c-9efd-a2a7d53375c9/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+5.04.50+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - John Caldwell and Margaret Phillip’s youngest son, Rev. James Caldwell, was a hero in the Revolutionary War. James took an active role in military operations and his patriotism and fervor led the British to call him “The Black Rebel” and to his patriots “The Fighting Pastor.” He moved his family away from the parsonage but returned on occasion to preach to his congregation. A price was out on his head and he was often forced to preach with a loaded pistol lying on the pulpit. His wife, Hannah Ogden, was at home with their three youngest children and an eight month old infant when British soldiers arrived at her doorstep. She expressed confidence to her children that they would not do injury to them. To calm them she said, “They will respect a mother.” She was mistaken. A shot was fired through the window, it entered her chest and she was killed instantly by the “bloody hand of a British ruffian” right in front of her terrified children. The house was torched and reduced to ashes along with all their belongings. Fortunately, her children were spared. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ebe6aa43-2081-4b4a-a697-41a7ea714980/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+5.06.14+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - A year later in 1781 James was also shot and killed, this time by an American sentinel who was thought to have been bribed by the British to do so. James left nine orphaned children. When his body was brought home many lined the streets and wept. The sentinel was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Offers poured in from around the country to help take care of his children. Marquis de Lafayette took in one son and sent him to France to be educated. The future President of the Continental Congress Elias Boudinot gave assistance. General George Washington himself contributed $100. [Photo: Hannah Ogden Caldwell] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/84b3e8b7-b438-46a9-9ec2-2a7cbe382497/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+8.05.27+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Make it stand out [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b08d3036-7496-4a29-a128-f1ef6cb82d09/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+8.07.45+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - William Rodgers and Margaret Caldwell also had a son named Andrew (1749-1825)of whom not much is known and a son named John, (1747-1836) who is my 5th great grandfather. John Rodgers, the son of William Rodgers and Margaret Caldwell, was born 25 miles from the Caldwell Settlement. He married Margaret Ann Daughtery (1748-1808). To highlight what a small world they lived in, her grandmother Anne Phillips Daughtery was the sister of John’s grandmother Margaret Phillips Caldwell. In other words John and Margaret were “kissing cousins.” John enlisted in the military in 1776 and served a two year term as a Corporal in the third Virginia regiment in the Revolutionary War. He and his wife lived in the Caldwell Settlement area until 1781 when they ventured off to Kentucky and later to Franklin, Tennessee where William died. William was a surveyor and is said to have surveyed 12,000 acres of land along the Mississippi River. The first six of their children, including my 4th great grandfather William Caldwell Rodgers, were born in Virginia and another three were born in Kentucky. [Photo:Col. James Smith (1737-1810)] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6d848823-bd7e-4951-91a9-b66463b34a80/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+8.09.48+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Make it stand out [Photo: Sarah Rodgers and Randall McGavock] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f404aa01-e3c3-43f3-b1a5-d7b1e459b1e5/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+8.12.18+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - After the battle was over John donated two acres of land to be used as a cemetery for 1,500 of the soldiers. Carrie maintained a book of the dead, carefully cataloging the name of each dead soldier so they could be remembered. She wrote letters to their families and made daily walks in the cemetery grounds in her mourning clothes. She became the subject of a NY times bestselling novel in 2005 by Robert Hicks called the “The Widow of the South.” [Photo: Confederate Cemetery, Carnton Plantation in the background"] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/38b5acfc-77d0-42ad-bfa7-4c28ad87809f/Screen+Shot+2025-10-22+at+8.14.12+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Make it stand out [Photo: Felix Gundy and his wife Ann Phillips Rodgers] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b3c6215f-8996-44b7-a65a-900c772956b5/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.05.53+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Edmund’s eldest son, William Chenault Rodgers (1820-1860) my 2nd great grandfather, was born in Tennessee. William made his living as a merchant. He married Martha Ann Wingo in the mid-1840s and they had three children. According to family legend he suffered from debilitating depression and on April 8, 1860 at the age of 40, he neatly folded all is clothes by the side of a river, walked into the water and drowned. The official cause of death on the death certificate was drowning but those close to him were convinced it was a suicide. [Photo: William Chenault Rodgers and Martha Ann Wingo] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d78e0884-7f05-40ca-b6a9-37839b3564ce/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.07.18+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Their first child Edmund Rutter “Ed” was born in Feliciana Kentucky in 1848, married Susan Amanda Simmons, fathered four children and made his living as a dry goods merchant, a grocer and later in life as a rancher with 500 cattle in Texas. Their second child William Chenault Jr. was born in 1854, married Mary Catherine “Kate” Ray, fathered seven children and owned a water powered grist mill. I was stunned to come across a newspaper article which reported that William Jr committed suicide in 1912. Since depression is an inherited trait it adds credence to the family’s claim that his father’s death was also a suicide. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1d7a05f8-c150-4793-8d29-8377a5124136/Screen+Shot+2025-10-23+at+12.08.37+PM.png Family History - The Caldwell and Rodgers Family - Make it stand out [Photo: William Chenault Rodgers Jr and Mary Catherine Ray] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-sb9ly-g7swc monthly 0.5 2026-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ca40d55f-9dc9-4fae-b596-c56f0b943ff2/Daniel+Boone+Leading+an+expedition+to+Kentucky.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - In 1775 Daniel Boone lead a group of settlers through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains opening the way for others to migrate to Kentucky and beyond. And so began the growing tension between the Native Americans and the white settlers in that area. Three generations of the Bland family left Virginia in the winter of 1781 and made the harrowing journey through the Cumberland Pass in Virginia and into Kentucky to start a new life. What started as small isolated ambushes culminated in a full out assault on the Kinchloe Station on September of 1782. The story that follows has been passed done through generations and undoubtedly embellished over the years but without question whatever happened that terrible day left an indelible mark on the Bland family. [Photo: Painting of Daniel Boone leading group of settlers through the Cumberland Gap] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3922bcc4-eee5-43d2-bd0f-0c942390e0c5/Native+Americans+in+Battle.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Painting of Native Americans in Battle Charge Painting of Native Americans in Battle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c814df22-5181-4a77-8dad-3200995bb26e/Bear+in+the+woods.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Osborne was bound and Lettice was stripped naked and left to walk free beside him. As they began the long march to the a village to meet their terrible fate, Osborne urged Lettice to break away and leave him when she could. The opportunity came at night while the Indians were sleeping. Lettice crept away and her departure was not noticed until the Shawnee awakened the next day. Meanwhile, Lettice, who had been walking in circles, had not gone far from her tormentors. Fearing discovery, she climbed into a hollow log and concealed herself well enough that the Shawnee passed by her. Lettice tried to walk back to the fort, but again walked in circles and ended up the first day of freedom back at the hollow log where she slept until she was chased out by a bear. She wandered in the wilderness for seventeen days, eating "sour grapes and green walnuts," until she finally made her way back to Kinchloe's station. Arriving at the burnt station's walls, her gaunt and nude body gave out and she fell into a dead faint. Fortunately, a passing huntsman found Lettice and carried her to nearby Lynn's Station, where she was nursed back to health. [Photo: Black Bear in the Appalachians] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/51d949b9-d7cb-4fec-aa4e-682d1de27ced/Area+where+Kinchloe+Station+was+Burned+to+the+Ground.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Osborne somehow managed to get a reprieve from his death sentence and after three years in captivity he was taken to Canada where he was sold to a Frenchman and returned to Kentucky. His son Jesse was reared by the Indians until many years later when he when he was also sold back to whites. He was recognized by his family by a scar on his body. Against all odds, Osborne and his wife and their children were reunited. Osborne and Lettice did not have any children after their ordeal but it has been speculated that she was brutally raped and possibly rendered sterile. Their son Jesse recovered from his ordeal, married, became a minister and moved to Arkansas where he established a Baptist church. He was nicknamed “Old Hardsides” for the force with which he preached. [Photo: Area where Kinchloe Station was burned to the ground with Historical Marker shown on right] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/375d6d0e-caab-47c3-99c0-cdee598c3310/Bland%2C+Sarah.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Osborne Jr. had a difficult life. He married Patsy Donahoo in 1799 and the family moved to Indiana. Their children were hellions and made quite a notorious name for themselves by engaging in various shootings, adulteries, drunken raucous fist fights and in the case of their son, Hiram, murder most foul. Patsy died in 1847. Shortly thereafter, on December 15, 1848 Osborne married Sarah Kent Andrews, a gold digger that was 25 years younger than he was, who wanted the pension she mistakenly thought he had. On February 1, 1849 her son Isaac beat poor Osborne to death with a fence post. At the trial Isaac claimed that Osborne died of "old age, drunkenness, exposure to cold and falling from his horse." Sarah Kent’s first marriage was to a man named Alexander Andrews in 1814. After he died in 1839 Sarah had tried unsuccessfully for many years to secure a pension based on Alexander’s 1814 war service. (The War of 1812 was over three months after he enlisted.) After Osborne was brutally killed, Sarah dropped the name Bland and pretended her second marriage never happened. She went back to her former husband’s name, and applied again for his pension. She was very persistent – I found a copy of an application as late as 1899. She died in 1890 at the age of 99. Her obituary said she must had great endurance to “withstand the attacks of the enemies of life and the burdens that had been cast upon her.” [Photo: Sarah Andrews Bland, Osborne Bland Jr’s 2nd wife] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c7a80503-cd61-4723-b3fb-b0926ff1fbb1/Hangmans%27+noose.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - In 1851 not long after the beating death of his father Osborne Jr, 25 year old Hiram was charged with the murder of his brother-in-law William Walker. Walker was married to Hiram’s sister, Lettice. Walker objected to the cruel treatment that Hiram gave to Lettice. There were two versions of the story presented at trial. In one version Hiram climbed over the fence where Walker was tending his tobacco, drew his knife, shouted “I have come to kill you, you #%&*!” and stabbed him. In the other version Walker’s wife, Lettice, testified Walker had chased Hiram with a stick and in self-defense Hiram turned and stabbed him. In both versions Hiram was “drunk as a coot.” The jury was quick to return a verdict of guilty and sentenced Hiram to be hung by the neck until dead. A contributing factor in calling for the death penalty was Hiram’s bad reputation. Hiram and several of his brothers were powerful men physically, and when drinking were excessively quarrelsome, and viewed as extremely dangerous. [Photo: Hangman’s Noose] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/014986ee-09c9-42dc-a9d9-5571badace99/Bland%2C+Hiram.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Two weeks before his scheduled execution Hiram escaped from jail and it took the authorities two months to find him, based on a tip from one of his “friends” who betrayed him “for the price of a new saddle”. Hiram was recaptured and swung from the gallows for his deed on June 13, 1851. The Sheriff who conducted the execution said Hiram conducted himself in an exemplary manner. After the hanging, the gallows were left standing until it rotted into decay. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3a2e8ed4-6e07-4b77-85bb-76968a3a1e2b/Axe.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - One evening on the 20th of January of 1882, in a drunken stupor, consumed with anger (which had nothing to do with his Aunt Bessie) 25 year old Will grabbed the axe from the wood shed and hacked his poor 80 year old Aunt to death as she knitted quite innocently in her living room. In addition to the deep gashes from the axe, her face bore the marks of a boot heel. When Will was apprehended her grey hairs still clung to his boot and he had blood on his clothes. He claimed he had been out hunting rabbit. [Photo: Axe for chopping wood] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5f615f4a-d0bf-498d-8bf0-a7167281d429/Austin%2C+WIlliam.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Will was hanged for his gruesome, senseless crime on October 13, 1882 and it turned out to be a gala event. Residents whose homes had a view of the gallows charged scalping tickets (50 cents to $1.50) at higher prices than the official ones offered by the sheriff. Will proclaimed his innocence until one hour before his execution. He claimed “whiskey made me do it” and that he “loved Bessie like a mother.” He went on to say, “I offer myself a willing sacrifice on the gallows for the deed. I will die happy believing that the vilest sinner can be forgiven if he truly repents. I believe God has given me a full pardon. I believe my aunt was a Christian and I will met her in heaven.” I doubt Aunt Bessie would share his sentiments. [Photo: Will Austin, from newspaper clipping] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4dec4641-d7f9-45ec-b360-8ec429c47d64/about-hollywood-cemetery-2.jpg Family History - The Bland Family - Elizabeth Lear Wilmot, the mother who was murdered by her own son on that terrible night, was James Sr’s father’s second wife. His father, Erasmus Wilmot, had been previously married to Sally Bland …. wait for this, folks…..Sally Bland Wilmot was buried in the same cemetery as another axe victim - her sister, Bessie Bland. As Paul Harvey was known for saying, “And now you know…… the rest of the story.” May they all rest in peace. https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-2fse6-37n58 monthly 0.5 2026-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/50ff7c26-894b-4c63-8438-022b0ffcb948/The+Beauty+of+Scotland.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Families bearing the “Little” name were found as early as 1273 living in the border counties of England and Scotland. Legend has it they were big strong men (hence the teasing name “Little”) sporting reddish hair, fair skin and blue green eyes. The first Little to set foot in Pitt County, North Carolina was James Little who died in 1799 leaving behind a son William. William married Mary Crandall who bore 14 of their children, one of whom was named John (born 1779). John in turn married a woman, most likely also of Scottish descent, whose name has been lost to history. Their only known child was a daughter, Margaret, who was born on April 18, 1806 in the same county, Pitt County, as her great grandfather before her. [Image: The magnificent landscape of Scotland] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9b78db04-c21c-458e-b243-5e514ba73a68/Slaves+oon+a+Plantation.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Margaret married Benjamin Lanier Daniel, a well-to-do farmer, 10 years older than she was. From the 1850 census, we know that Benjamin owned $4,975 in real estate, and that seven of their nine children were still living at home with them: John age 23, McRisden 20, William 18, Ebenezer 15, Beverly 9, Frances Elizabeth 6, and Benjamin Jr age 2. Francis, their only daughter, is my ancestor. According to the 1850’s census slave schedule, Benjamin owned 25 enslaved persons of ages ranging from 1 to 65. Ten years later in the 1860 census the value of his real estate had doubled; their son Beverly was a college student and young Francis and Benjamin were still living at home with them. Their lives were about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/83fb1124-1ea5-4eda-b9d5-a0733de13583/Fort_Sumter_Bombardment_1861_19520v.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - [Painting: The Battle of Fort Sumer 1861] [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6a44479a-ec2d-47f1-8e3e-13c6a72e8c94/Elmwood+Cemetery.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - On April 26, 1861 their firstborn child, Sydney (born 1823) enlisted in the Confederate army as a Sergeant in Company C of the NC 17th infantry. He made out a will in May, joined the ranks, and was never heard from again. His will was discovered and probated in November of 1861. He left his sister Fannie “one negro woman named Sanna and her issues to her and her heirs forever”, and his brother Ebenezer “one negro boy named King Solomon to him and his heirs forever” and the balance of his property was left to his youngest brother Benjamin. The contents of the will are quite ironic under the circumstances. His body is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdsville, West Virginia where 252 other Confederate soldiers are buried. {Photo: Elmwood Cemetery ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e9f694f2-4749-4696-8c0e-6bad9e066852/Confederate_monument_Elmira_NY.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - In June of 1863, their second son, Joseph (born 1825), enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in the NC 8th infantry, Company C. He was imprisoned a year later at Cold Harbor Virginia, where a bloody sprawling two week military engagement left more than 18,000 soldiers killed, wounded and captured. He was transferred to Elmira New York where he died as a POW of disease in August of 1864. Elmira Prison Camp, the most infamous of all the Union prison camps, held the largest number of Confederate POWs. Within three months of its opening in 1864 it was filled to three times its capacity. Dubbed “Hellmira” by its inmates, one third of the prisoners died of malnutrition, exposure and poor sanitary conditions and lack of medical care. It was such an embarrassment that after the war, the prison camp site was demolished and converted to farmland. [Photo: Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/05e1d8c7-b42d-4de6-8dac-e0751a5a5d8a/Wounded+Soldiers+in+1863.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Their third son, John Little (born 1827), married Lizanna Chapman in December of 1859. Nine months later their daughter Margaret Francis “Maggie” was born. In May of 1862 he bid his wife and infant daughter goodbye and followed his brothers to war as a private with the NC 20th Infantry. He was wounded two months later in Malvern Virginia, recovered and went back into action. Two years later he was promoted to Corporal. In between battles he managed to impregnate his wife who gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth in the summer of 1864. War weary, in November of 1864 he was mustered out “absent without leave”. After the war John went back to farming and they had three more daughters: Nancy in 1868, Lovie in 1870 and Ann in 1883. In the 1900 census John was a town watchman, his wife an invalid, and their daughter Lovie a 23 year old seamstress, lived with them. Lizanna died in 1906, and John died a year later. [Photo: Wounded Soldiers in Hospital in 1863] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d4973ac8-768b-4c50-8091-ac674426c527/Battle-of-Antietam.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Their fourth son, McRisden (or McGilbra or McGillan), was born in 1830. He never married and was killed in battle but not much detail is known about him. Their fifth son, William Barsylla (born 1832), married Julia Wilson and they had two children, William Edgar and Susan Rebecca. Two months after his second child was born in May of 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in Company E of the NC 55th infantry. One month later he was promoted to Full Corporal. The 55th Regiment moved to Virginia where it was assigned to fight with Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. On September 17, 1862, William was gravely wounded at Antietam, in the bloodiest single day battle of the Civil War and of America’s history with a combined tally of nearly 23,000 killed and wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads of Maryland. He was one of several hundred Confederate soldiers who were brought back across the Potomac River where he died and was buried in a marked grave at Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in the same graveyard where his older brother Sydney was interred. [Painting: Battle of Antietam by Thure de Thulstrup] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b882e173-49c6-46f1-900d-c7910e40319f/Cannons+from+CIvil+War.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Their sixth son, Ebenezer Pettigrew (born 1835) married Georgia Ann Holliday who gave birth to a son Sylvester in 1859. In the 1860 census Ebenezer was a farmer, had a live-in farm laborer and owned two enslaved persons. In February of 1862 Ebenezer enlisted as a private in the NC 3rd Calvary and eight months later he was wounded in a skirmish with the Federal army in Washington, North Carolina. In 1863 his wife gave birth to a second son, Sydney. He was listed on the NC troop roster in October of 1864 as a Corporal. Mercifully, he managed to survive the war. In 1869 a third child was born, Ida Clementia (“Tiny”). The last record of Ebenezer is in the 1880 census where at 45 years of age, with the help of his sons, he was making ends meet as a farmer. [Photo: Cannon used in the Civil War at Antietam] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e6781477-6be5-43cf-9324-190695f2c5f2/Last+of+the+COnfederate+soldeirs+at+Lookout.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Their seventh son, Beverly (born 1842) enlisted in August of 1861 as a Private in the NC 8th Infantry Regiment. Five months later in October he was captured and imprisoned at Roanoke Island in North Carolina. He was held for six months and then exchanged. He was captured again and imprisoned a second time in September of 1864 at Fort Harrison Virginia and then transferred to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland. Point Lookout was one of the largest and notoriously deadly Union prisons. Prison guards at the camp were primarily African American Union soldiers who undoubtedly took this reversal of fortune as an opportunity to exact revenge on former enslavers. Major General Benjamin “the Beast” Butler would review the camp and gallop through the crowd of men hitting them as he sped by. Prisoners lived in horrific unsanitary conditions, crowded into flimsy tents and shacks with no protection from extreme eat, cold and coastal storms. Flooding was frequent causing living conditions to be unbearable. Chronic diarrhea, typhoid fever, respiratory diseases, scurvy, smallpox, and lice plagued the camp. Food was so scarce that rats became a major source of protein for some inmates. Beverly managed to survive and was exchanged once again in March of 1865. He returned to farming, married Maggie Louise Perkins and had three children. After her death he married Marina Langley and in the 1890s had two more children. Beverly died in 1907. [Photo: Last of the Confederate Soldiers signing the Oath and being released from Outlook Prison in July of 1865] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6d6e94f0-b529-4f83-9195-ec5e738cd9ee/Civil+War+Young+Confederate+Soldier.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Their eighth and youngest son, Benjamin Jr (born 1847) enlisted in the Confederate army in Company H of the NC 2nd Regiment Junior Reserves. As the war waged on and the Confederacy became desperate for soldiers, a law was passed in the early spring of 1864 reducing the draft age for young men to age 17. These youngest recruits served in “Junior Reserve Units” in which they were responsible for guarding key military posts such as bridges, railway depots and prison camps. On their 18th birthday they were transferred to combat units. In March of 1865 Benjamin died in a military hospital in Raleigh North Carolina at the age of 18 of rubella. Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. [Photo: A haunting picture of an unnamed young confederate soldier, age unknown] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/44d061ea-1117-4188-ba22-dbd6afe59f6e/Surrender+of+a+Confederate+Soldier+by+Juian+Scott.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - The aftermath of the war in the South was also deeply traumatizing. My grandfather, Durant Howard Tillitt, wrote this heartfelt passage more than 50 years after the conflict: “…..in 1861 North Carolina heard the beat of the drum and the roar of musketry. A sound that called nearly 150,000 of her bravest sons to battle. After four long years of struggle the heroes, over soil that had been fertilized by the blood of their comrades, marched home. They found their livestock gone; their barns plundered; their once cozy homes in ashes; the government they had helped to make and loved so well controlled by Northern men – all gone save honor, the memory of serving their state well, and loved ones that were as true as ever heroes… waiting at home.” [Painting: The Surrender of a Confederate Soldier by Julian Scott. It is interesting to note that the artist enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 15 as a drummer boy, later served as an infantryman and awarded the Medal of Honor. He became an artist after the war was over.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/16a624f3-ba41-4666-9402-c20114aa65ec/Carpetbaggers.jpg Family History - Margaret Little(1806-1879) - Abraham Lincoln had intended for the reconstruction to be handled humanely, without punishment for those who had rebelled against the Union. After his assassination Congress felt no such sympathy for the war torn south. Military rule was imposed, wartime leaders were forced to resign from their political posts, and voting was restricted to those men over twenty one who had not supported the Confederacy. The new rules ensured that freed slaves could participate in elections and government, while those white men, who had supported the Confederate cause, could not. Military courts were established to try civilians that allowed newly freed blacks to serve on them. Unscrupulous opportunists from the North traveled south to exploit the populace. Government corruption was rampant. The humiliations suffered by the South during this period set the tone for simmering hate and unrest. The divisiveness it caused has yet to be fully healed. [Image: Political Cartoon. Carpetbaggers Crushing the South] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-2fse6-37n58-mazgj monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fdd94e67-02e8-46e5-a0fb-7b8c16cf25a7/a-closeup-of-saw-palmetto-plant.jpg Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - Nancy Mary Kelley, the daughter of James Wilbourne Kelley and Elizabeth Burrow, was born February 20, 1810 in Campbell County, Georgia. At the age of 22 in 1832 she married John Maud Blakely Carlton, a well to do cotton farmer, grocery store owner, justice, and representative in the Georgia General Assembly. In the 1850 census John and Nancy owned a farm valued at $7,800 located in Palmetto Georgia about 25 miles south of Atlanta and all six of their children with ages ranging from seven to seventeen were living at home. Her husband’s father, Blake Carlton, age 86 was also living with them. Nancy’s brother, John W. Kelly with his wife and 6 children were living next door. Nancy was not able to experience the joy of seeing her children grow to adulthood – she died on June 9, 1853 at the age of 43. [Image: Image of a Georgia Saw Palmetto Tree] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/014a51ee-c8fb-4b4d-8a36-7320586c5285/Mary+Elizabeth+Carlton+%281%29.jpg Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - Their first child Evaline Ann was born in 1833. She married a farmer, Wiley Washington Russell, in 1850 at the age of 17, moved to Alabama and had two sons. Six years later when her 26 year old husband died, she moved her children back to Georgia She waited two years then married a carpenter named James Hill Awtry and gave birth to a daughter. Evaline died before reaching her 30th birthday in 1862. Their second child, Mary Sophronia was born in 1835. At age sixteen she married a farmer, Jesse Bailey, gave birth to four children: Jacobus Alonzo, Ada Frances, Edgar and Judson Carlton and moved to Texas. Her son Jacobus became a druggist and acquired stock in the Golden Peacock Cosmetics Company based in Paris Tennessee. (This cosmetics company was acquired by the Revlon Company in 1970.) In 1907 Jacobus sold his stock for $20,000 ($700,000 in today’s dollars). Her daughter Ada married a farmer. Her son Edgar died before his 10th birthday. Her son Judson became a real estate dealer and a debt collector. After Jesse died in 1865 Sophronia married another farmer, Benjamin F Browning, and had four more children. She died at the age of 81 in Pittsburg, Texas in 1916. Their third child, Christiana Frances (“Fannie”) was born in 1837. Fannie is my ancestor. Her story follows in a separate blog. [Photo: Sophronia Carlton] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b2f523c8-cfc0-4a34-83be-2f42f9197a13/Emaciated+Prisoner+at+Andersonville+Prison.jpg Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - Their fourth child, John McPherson Berrien (“Berrie”) was born in 1839. He was named after a prominent figure who served as a US Senator and the Attorney General of the United States under President Andrew Jackson In April of 1864 Berrie enlisted in the Civil War as a Captain and was assigned to work at the notorious Andersonville Prison as a guard where he worked “until the surrender”. Of the 45,000 Union soldiers imprisoned there, 13,000 died from starvation and diseases due to the ghastly conditions at the camp. The 41 year old commander of the camp Commander Henry Wirz was tried and hung for war crimes – one of the few convicted and executed for crimes during the Civil War. Berrie married three times: to Martha Missouri Dean in 1865 (who gave birth to one child William Howard and died in 1868), to Annie Allen in 1873 (who died in childbirth as did her baby in 1874) and lastly to Mrs. M.A. Henderson in 1896. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ebe4be20-e817-4487-9954-0340ba7b33cf/John+McPherson+Berrien+Carlton+Gravestone.jpeg Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - Two years after the war, Berrie signed the “Reconstruction Oath Book” pledging that he would uphold the constitution of the United States. In the 1870 census he lived with his brother Bud and his wife Emma and their two servants. The two brothers owned a clothing store in Atlanta for many years. He applied for a military pension in 1906 reporting he was infirmed, unemployed and had been supported by his brother for the previous five years. Berrie died in 1919. His obituary mentions he was a Captain in the civil war but there was no mention of his work at Andersonville. [Photo: Gravestone of JMB Carlton in College Park Cemetery in Fulton Georgia] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/090c68b3-28a6-49ed-b022-239ce4b8db42/Rebecca+Merill%2C+Wife+of+John+Caldwell+Calhoun+Carlton.png Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - John and Mary’s fifth child, John Caldwell Calhoun, was born in 1841. He married Sarah Rebecca Merrill in 1862, and they had between eight and ten children. John served in the Civil War in the 2nd Regiment of the Georgia Cavalry and was taken prisoner in July 1864. In 1870 he was a farm laborer with a wife and three children to feed. In 1880 he was a postmaster with a wife and six children. In 1901 he applied for a military pension because he was too feeble to be able to support himself due to a variety of medical conditions including “eczema, laryngitis and dyspepsia that produced extreme nervousness and at times prostration.” His only support at the time was a small salary from his dry goods store company, Carlton & Smith. His wife died in February 1914, and a year later so did he. {Photo: Rebecca Merrill, Wife of John Caldwell Calhoun] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dfd0df0a-8c72-4cb0-930d-b67e742217de/James+Knox+Polk+Carlton.jpg Family History - Nancy Mary Kelley(1810-1853) - Their last child, James Knox Polk (“Bud”) was born in 1843. He was named for the 11th President of the United States. Bud enlisted in 1861 and served as part of the 2nd Regiment Company C Georgia State Troops and later the 19th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry. He was seriously wounded in February of 1864 at Weldon Railroad in Virginia, captured and held in the dreaded Point Lookout Union POW Prison in Maryland. He was exchanged in November of 1864. After the war was over, he married Sallie Emma White in 1869. In the 1870 census Bud’s occupation was listed as “no business” and in addition to his wife Emma, his brother Berrie was living with him. He must have had some means of support because the census also mentions two black servants. When the 1880 census was taken Bud had two children, his brother Berrie had moved out and so had one of the two servants. He was employed as a grocery merchant. In the 1910 census he and Emma had four children (one of whom was 29 and was an optical merchant) living at home with them. His merchant business must have been doing well because he was back up to two servants. His youngest son Howard moved to Alabama and was killed in a streetcar accident in 1916. Bud helped to support his brother until Berrie’s death in 1919. In the 1920 census Bud had a boarder to help pay the bills. He prepared his will on the 26th of January in 1921 and died of stomach cancer ten days later leaving everything to his wife, Emma. [Photo: James Knox “Bud” Polk] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e-ss8yd-kkhyp monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1767360816166-3AACA9FJD4JEA1QXQB9X/James%2BLang%2BCobb.jpg Family History - James Lang Cobb (1812-1858) - James Lang Cobb, the son of Stephen Cobb and Patsy Lang, was born on February 17, 1812 in Pitt County, North Carolina. Despite his humble beginnings, he seems to have enjoyed a modicum of success. He was a farmer, a merchant and served as the first postmaster of Falkland District, North Carolina (from 1838 until his death in 1858). Being appointed Postmaster in those days was part of a political patronage system. Postmasters were often seen as key figures in maintaining the loyalty of political representatives to the party in their area. President Lincoln once served as a Postmaster, and in 1835 was paid $55.70 for his efforts. North Carolina was struggling in the early 1800s but things gradually began to change. In 1834, railroads began construction and cotton mills were built. Mill towns sprung up and each county began developing infrastructures to support its population - courthouses, jails, bridges, merchant establishments and the like. The out-migration stopped, and the state’s population began to grow. [Photo: James Lang Cobb] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/061cce0a-b6ff-4410-b6cb-ea6ae198cae1/Slave+Schedule+1850+J+lang+Cobb.jpg Family History - James Lang Cobb (1812-1858) - In 1839 at the age of 27, James married Fannie May Williams. She gave birth to eight children between the years of 1840 to 1856, one of whom is my great grandfather William Edward Cobb. In the 1850 census James and his family lived in the district of Stancill, in Pitt County. He listed his profession as merchant and he had real estate valued at $1,000. The 1850 Federal Slave Schedule reported that he owned 8 enslaved persons between the ages of four and fifty-one. Pitt County was composed of 1,315 dwellings, housing a population of nearly 14,000 individuals (half of whom were white). Only 1,135 of the white population over the age of 20 were able to read and write. The Pitt County legislature chartered a road in 1850 in the neighboring district of Greenville that provided that “any white person who should travel the road without paying a toll would be fined five dollars. Any slave who failed to pay the toll would receive up to twenty lashes.” [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b9783290-79b9-461b-b203-d2237ce69847/James+Lang+Cobb+Home.jpg Family History - James Lang Cobb (1812-1858) - One morning in September of 1853, sparks from the fireplace caught the roof on fire and their home was severely burned. This must have been a huge blow to the family at a time in history when insurance was not widely available. Another terrible blow: in the spring of 1856 there was snowfall and a freeze in Pitt County the likes of which the oldest inhabitants had never seen before. All of the fruit and vegetation were completely destroyed and whole fields of wheat were decimated. [Photo: The home of James Lang Cobb and his family in Pinetops, North Carolina] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/96e68b4b-2e89-47ed-a417-17c9fd729b6b/Sorghum+Molasses+Cane+field.jpg Family History - James Lang Cobb (1812-1858) - Two years later in August of 1858, James died at the age of forty-six. At the probate, his widow received one year’s provisions out of the crop which included among other things: 2,000 pounds of pork, 60 barrels of corn, 30 pounds of coffee, and 2 pounds of allspice. Certain items were not on hand when the Executor visited the residence, and the missing items were valued at $392. These missing items included 2,000 pounds of pork, 25 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of brown sugar, 70 pounds of coffee, 20 gallons of molasses, 75 pounds of picked cotton, 5 gallons of brandy, 2 gallons of wine, 2 ounces of nutmeg, 4 ounces of cinnamon, 4 cakes of chocolate, 2 pounds of ginger, 25 pounds of soap and a barrel of fish. At his death his distraught widow, Fannie, was left alone to provide for five of their children. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e-ss8yd-kkhyp-3l7nm monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/72bf3a54-0757-4263-8029-815ce281fd5e/Needham+Bryan+Cobb+and+Martha+Louisa+Cobb+with+children.jpeg Family History - Fannie May Williams (1817-1876) - Fannie May Williams, the daughter of William Williams and Nancy May was born in Pitt County, North Carolina on December 26, 1817. She was the great granddaughter of Scottish born Benjamin May who was a renowned hero in the Revolutionary War. Her father, William Williams, was a farmer. Fannie married James Lang Cobb at the age of 22 and gave birth to eight of their children between the years of 1840 to 1856. Their first born child, Martha Louisa, married Reverend Needham Bryan Cobb, an educator and historian who received the first master’s degree offered by the University of North Carolina in 1856. [Photo: Martha Louisa Cobb with husband Needham Bryan Cobb] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e9f4bd5f-9617-49d6-a722-bb404ff7ee92/Mary+Alice+Cobb%2C+Daughter+of+James+THomas+Cobb%2C+sonof+Fannie+May+Williams+and+James+Lang+Cobb.jpg Family History - Fannie May Williams (1817-1876) - Fannie’s second born child, William Edward Cobb became a journalist and merchant. He is my great grandfather and his story is told in a separate blog. Fannie’s next child Benjamin Joseph was born in 1847. At the age of 24, Benjamin married Lelia Reese, a farmer’s daughter. Ben and Lelia’s only son attended the University of North Carolina. Fannie gave birth to James Thomas in 1848. James married Linda Vine, the daughter of a wealthy planter, and they lived together on the plantation she had inherited called “Vinedale.” Three of Fannie’s children (Mary, Richard and Stephen) died before they reached four years of age. Her last child Lucy Williams was born in 1856. Lucy married Charles Spencer who was a lawyer and later the Camden County Superintendent of Schools. When her 46 year old husband died in 1858, Fannie was left to care for their five children on her own. Fifteen year old William and ten year old James worked side by side with her in the dry goods store started by their father and both would become owners of their own stores later in life. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a08578c5-005d-4832-90a3-5a2a507c3404/Gone+with+the+Wind++PickingCotton.jpg Family History - Fannie May Williams (1817-1876) - In the 1860 census, Fannie, age 42, listed her occupation as “farmer”. One of her daughters, Martha, had left home and Fannie was still supporting the other four. Oddly, there is no mention of their dry goods store. Her personal estate was reported as $10,000 and the value of her real estate as $2,000. In 1860 Pitt County had a population of 16,440 (less than half of whom were white). There was growing agitation among its residents on questions of slavery, state’s rights and dissolution from the Union. In April of 1861, Fort Sumter fell under siege. The die was cast and the Civil War began. Forty five battles were fought in North Carolina. Pitt County experienced five of them between 1862 and 1863. [Photo: Scene from Gone with the Wind when Scarlett and her sisters are forced to work the farm] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8a99a319-68a7-4518-b9dc-535d60a31a24/Gone+with+the+Wind+Flag+and+wounded+Soldiers.jpg Family History - Fannie May Williams (1817-1876) - When General Sherman marched his army across the South behind him came an army of marauders who attacked Pitt County stealing horses and other food provisions from the unfortunate residents. The value of the confederate dollar plunged and there was a great deal suffering across the south. There is no question it must have been a very terrifying time for Fannie and her children. [Photo: Iconic Scene from Gone with the Wind of the fall of Atlanta] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d752a772-2485-4619-af43-6199a86690dd/Vintage+photos+of+drinking+ladies_.jpg Family History - Fannie May Williams (1817-1876) - In the 1870’s census, two of Fannie’s children 21 year old James and 15 year old Lucy were living with their aunt, Penelope Grimes Williams, in the Gay family household (her deceased husband had a stepsister who married a man named Jonathan Gay). It is not known why, but Fannie was not living with them. Sadly, Fannie died of liver disease on November 11, 1876 at the age of 58. I suspect she suffered from alcoholism, another victim of the far reaching repercussions of the Civil War. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e-ss8yd-kkhyp-3l7nm-zwlay monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/355b639f-4f5c-4d9c-b9da-a5fddccb6f4d/Slave+Sale+Ad.jpg Family History - Thomas Hatton Langley (1840-1912) - Thomas Hatton Langley, the son of wealthy planter David P Langley and Penelope Edmundson was born in Pitt County, North Carolina on May 30, 1840. At the age of nine he lost his mother when she (along with two hogs) were struck by lightning as she walked in her beloved garden. The 1860 census of Pactolus District in Pitt County contained a number of wealthy planters. Wealth in those days was measured by the number of enslaved persons a planter owned. The wealthiest in the district was a planter named C Perkins whose real estate was valued at $50,000 and personal property was valued at a staggering $233,890. (His net worth is the equivalent of about $11 million today.) Living with 54 year old Perkins in 1960 were two doctors and an overseer. The next closest in wealth had $100,000 in enslaved persons. Coming in third place was Thomas’ father David who owned $12,000 in real estate and $45,500 (80 enslaved persons) in personal property. In 1860 the family had a live-in teacher. Very few others came even close to this much wealth in their district. Their financial world was about to collapse. [Photo: Chilling Advertisement for the Sale of Enslaved Persons in 1857] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/37cd1328-ede2-4f29-8796-31f4b1be7188/Civil+War+Bonnie+BLue+Flag+by+Don+Trioiana.jpg Family History - Thomas Hatton Langley (1840-1912) - [Photo: Bonnie Blue Flag, painting by William Gilbert Gaul] [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a6d3426b-3662-437e-814c-77b844a789b9/Lee+Accepts+the+Surrender+Terms.jpg Family History - Thomas Hatton Langley (1840-1912) - On April 9, 1865 the General Robert E Lee surrendered is troops to General Ulysses S Grant at the Appomattox Court House and the war was over. Five months later Thomas married Frances Elizabeth Daniel in the same district where he had enlisted in the army. Between 1867 and 1886 Francis gave birth to eight children, one of whom is my great grandmother, Margaret Little Langley. In 1870 census 30 year old Thomas was a farmer, owning real estate with a value of $1000 and personal property of $200 - a far cry from the life of luxury he was accustomed to before the war. [Photo: Lee Accepts the Surrender Terms, Painting by Tom Lovell] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/10c53c75-404f-4d56-9aff-fe4121f776e0/Thomas+Hatton+Langley+headstone+.jpg Family History - Thomas Hatton Langley (1840-1912) - By the 1910 census Thomas at age 79, and his 66 year old wife had moved in with their son Benjamin. Thomas contributed to the household by working as a “car builder.” Fannie passed away in August of 1911 followed by Thomas in November of 1912. They are buried together in the Thomas H Langley Family Cemetery in Pactolus, Pitt County. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-2fse6 monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ec9b9d6c-78bf-4561-a5ed-4d422f1715b4/Wheat+field.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - Francis Elizabeth (“Fannie”) Daniel, the daughter of Benjamin Lanier Daniel and Margaret Little, was born on January 29, 1844 and lived with her parents until she married 30 year old Thomas Hatton Langley in September of 1865. They settled down together to farming life in Pitt County, North Carolina where both of their parents had lived. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 her husband enlisted, along with his father and brother. All eight of her brothers also enlisted in the Confederate army. The family suffered heart wrenching losses. [Photo: This Wheat Field Captures the Beauty but not the Hardships of Farming] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/94d4cfd2-ec90-4758-8097-6a126afc8a3a/civil+war+amputatees+young+boy.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - The end of the war would certainly have been a welcome relief for the newlyweds, but the couple had to face the economic hardships and upheaval brought on by post war reconstruction in the south. Whatever wealth their families had enjoyed before the war was gone. Still, they were lucky to have each other. There were tens-of-thousands of widows and fatherless children all over the south; tens-of-thousands of morphine addicts from war related injuries, and homeless veterans and disabled veterans whose injuries prevented them from tending to life's basic tasks. The most chilling statistic of the era – Mississippi spent 20% of its entire state budget on artificial limbs. As a rule, Civil War soldiers were more religious than Americans today, more imbued with notions of honor and glory, and less inclined to share their pain or seek help for it. The mental health profession was in its infancy in those days and without a support system in place, those that suffered from PTSD or other war related afflictions had to struggle alone. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4ad1748c-cf1c-4d10-87b9-8b32e89e1502/Farm+Tractor+1920s.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - Fannie gave birth to their first son, David Sydney, in 1867. David was named for Fannie’s oldest brother who had been killed in the war. David dropped out of elementary school after 3 years of education. He married Virginia Laura Woolard, fathered at least nine children and in the 1940 census at the age of 73 was still working 50 hours a week as a farmer. He died 3 years later of breast cancer. Fannie gave birth to her second son, Benjamin Daniel, in 1869. He was named for Fannie’s youngest brother who also lost his life during the War. In 1895 Benjamin married 17 year old Sarah Electa Teel and together they had eight children. Benjamin never attended school and, in the family tradition, made a living farming. He died of heart disease in 1937. Fannie gave birth to her first daughter, Penelope Elizabeth, in 1872. Penelope married Edgar Hatton in 1889 and gave birth to four children the oldest of whom was nine when her husband died. She married a second time to George Washington Griffin in 1899 and added five more children to the family. Both George and Penelope could read and write but neither of them had ever attended school, and not surprisingly the family lived by farming. Interestingly, Penelope died in 1953 of the same disease as her brother David, of breast cancer. Fannie’s second daughter Margaret Little was born in 1876. Margaret, named after her grandmother, is my ancestor. Her story is told in a separate blog. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6ad28479-11f3-4055-a7a2-6d698ca60313/Corinne+and+Johnnie.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - Fannie’s third daughter, Fannie Corinne (born 1879) escaped farm life and lived a colorful albeit tragic existence. There is evidence that at age fifteen Corinne gave birth out of wedlock in 1895 to a son named Walter Raleigh who was taken care of by her parents. At age nineteen Corinne married a man, John Powell, who had had three other wives in previous marriages. Corrine and John had a daughter, Belle Francis, and Corrine was 8 months pregnant with their second child (Corinne “Johnnie”) when John was killed in a horrific fire on the steamship S.V. Luckenback in March of 1903. The ship was loaded with 26,000 barrels of crude oil. All members of the crew perished. All that remained was a message in a bottle found on a beach in Virginia that said: “This is thrown overboard from the steamship SV Luckenbach bound from Sabine pass to Philadelphia with a cargo full of oil on fire.…..been working two days and nights to extinguish the flames. Signed JS Flint, Fireman….” {Photo: Corrine’s children, Johnnie and Belle Francis] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/37e1b41f-5df0-480c-ae66-5dbfe4399a03/Pheobus+Va.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - [Photo: Phoebus. Virginia in early 1900s] Corinne moved with her two children into a boardinghouse in Phoebus, Virginia. In those days, Phoebus had a reputation as a “wild village with the most dangerous port on the Atlantic seaboard.” In 1900 it housed 52 saloons and was home to an abundance of prostitutes that catered to lonely veterans and sailors. While there in 1906 Corrine met and married husband number two, Benjamin Holland. Benjamin had previously been married to a woman named Irene Davis who had been arrested for “frequenting houses of ill fame” the day before the couple tied their nuptial knot. The newspaper reported the “bride wore a comfortable shirt of light material and a sailor hat which crowned a profusion of auburn hair” and the groom was attired in “rags regimental.” Benjamin and Irene couple divorced in 1906 and soon thereafter Corrine became Benjamin’s wife. The 1910 census reported Benjamin’s occupation as saloon proprietor. Corrine gave birth to their son Raymond a year after they were married. Raymond dropped out of high school and married three times. His first marriage in 1932 lasted one year and the divorce degree not surprisingly reported adultery as the cause. The second marriage produced a child three months later. The 1940 census reported a divorced Raymond was in the Hampton city jail. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/736a7312-45f6-4f73-a256-0f1ec422281b/Coal+Mine+Explosion+2.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - In 1911 poor Corrine suffered the loss of her mother, followed by her father’s death in 1912, and then her husband succumbed to tuberculosis in 1914. And if that wasn’t enough her sister Deborah died in 1915 and soon after her sister Margaret in 1916. Not to be discouraged, Corinne dusted herself off and tried again. In 1920 at the age of forty-one she was married for the third time to Albert Martin, who worked for the Coal Glen coal mine in North Carolina. In May of 1925, he was killed in a gas explosion at the mine. Rescue crews were not able to save any of the forty-seven men in the mine at the time of the explosion. Corinne received $1,000 in insurance proceeds from his estate and used half of it to pay for funeral costs. [Photo: The Cole Glen Mine Explosion in May 1925 which killed Fannie Corrine’s third husband.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0549d9f6-2413-4be1-9a00-e9be26c3e356/Oakland+Cemetery+Hampton+VA.jpeg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - A year later in July of 1926, Corinne married husband number four, John Wesley Ward, but according to her death certificate she was divorced. A sad note in a life of tragedy -- poor Corinne died of liver cancer in Phoebus in 1935 at the age of 55. Her headstone recorded her last name as Ward, despite her divorce, and she was buried in the same plot in Oakland Cemetery in Hampton City, Virginia with her second and third husbands, Benjamin Holland and Alfred Martin. [Photo: Oakland Cemetery In Hampton, Virginia where Corrine and two of her four husbands are buried] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0402861b-3ca3-430d-a501-1b1f11e46de5/Thomas+P+Langley+Photo.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - Fannie’s third son, Thomas Pollard was born in 1882. In 1908 he married 16 year old Nettie Evans and she gave birth to four children for him before dying in 1913. He then married Allie Virginia Pilgreen who was twenty years younger than he was and she gave birth to a full dozen of his children. Based on his photo, the guy looked like quite the catch. Thomas worked in a sawmill for a while but then turned to farming to make a living. Thomas dropped dead of a heart attack in his yard at age 70 in 1952. His wife, Allie, looks pretty regal (and pregnant) in the picture that follows. She outlived him by 36 years and died in 1988. [Photo: Thomas Pollard Daniel] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2c5d99cd-79a6-4798-bc9b-be93eb884368/Allie+Pilgreen+wife+f+Thomas+Pollard+Langley+3.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - Fannie’s fourth daughter, Mary Perkins, was born in 1884. At the age of 18 in 1901 she married John “Jack” Tilghman and had four children. In the 1910 census Jack was no longer in her life and she and her four children had moved into her brother Benjamin’s household. Another son, Sam was born in 1912 so she must have had a marital reconciliation, but it was short lived - Jack died in 1913. In the 1950 census, Mary lived with one of her sons, Ernest, who made a living driving a bread truck. Mary died of a heart attack in 1956. Fannie’s fifth daughter, Deborah Estelle, was born in 1886. She married a farmer, William J Paramore in 1909 and gave birth to two sons. One son, Edgar, earned his living as a foreman in a fertilizer factory, and served in the navy during World War II. The other son, Joseph, had an eighth grade education, worked as a stock keeper in a furniture store and later as a farmer, and served as a private in the army during World War II. Deborah died in 1915. [Photo: Allie Pilgreen, wife of Thomas Pollard Daniel] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a87d762c-8c60-470f-9503-634183aba5aa/Remembrance.jpg Family History - Frances Elizabeth Daniel (1844-1911) - By the 1900 census, Fannie’s husband Thomas had given up farming and at the age of 60 was a “car builder”. Their seventeen-year-old son Thomas worked as a sawmill laborer. Their daughters Mary and Deborah at 15 and 12 were still at home and so was their grandson Walter Raleigh, the illegitimate child of their tragic daughter Corinne. When the 1910 census rolled around Thomas and Fannie with grandson Walter in tow, had moved in with their son, Benjamin, who had also taken in his sister Mary and her five children. It must have been a very crowded household because Benjamin and his wife had five children of their own living at home at the time. Fannie died in August of 1911, followed by her husband a year later in November 1912. [Photo: The Remembrance Book for Francis Elizabeth Daniel 1911] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e-ss8yd monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/481d90a5-e293-45cb-a978-018cdbe2fe16/St+James+College.jpg Family History - Durant Hall Tillitt (1831-1866) - Durant Hall Tillitt, born March 22, 1831 in Powell’s Point Currituck County, North Carolina, was the eldest son of Isaac Tillitt and Mary Hall. In 1850 at the age of nineteen, Durant was one of 81 students ranging in age from ten to twenty-two at the College of St. James in Maryland. St. James opened its doors in 1842 and within ten years it became widely known for the strength of its academic program. In 1853 when Robert E. Lee was asked to recommend a school for his nephew, this college was one of his top choices. The president of Harvard commented in 1855: “there is one institution in the South which has sent to Harvard some remarkable exceptions to the rule of negligent and rowdy students. It is called the College of St. James.” In sharp contrast to Durant’s privileged life, most of the 7,236 black and white inhabitants of Currituck County in 1850 could neither read nor write. [Photo: College of St James] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2f10323d-11af-4433-b4d0-982f42f118ea/1860+CEnsus+Durant+Hall+TIllitt.jpg Family History - Durant Hall Tillitt (1831-1866) - In 1851 Durant married fifteen year old Cornelia Walston, the daughter of Ambrose Walston and Harriet Perkins and the brother of Joseph Walston, the Sheriff of Camden County. Poor Cornelia only lived to enjoy two years of her married life before she met an untimely death. In 1856 Durant married a second time to Archann (“Archie”) Dauge Marchant, the daughter of Dr. Gideon C. Marchant and Emily Sawyer Dauge. Gideon was a descendant of a French Huguenot privateer named Christopher Marchant. Durant and Archann lived on Blue Bonnet, the plantation he had inherited from his father near Shiloh in Camden County. In the 1860 census, the year before the Civil War erupted, Durant was 30 years old, his wife 25 years old and they had three small children: Gideon Marchant age three (my ancestor), Isaac Hall age two (who died later that year), and Sophie Martin age eight months. His brother Isaac Newton also lived with them. Durant, like his two siblings, was quite wealthy. According to the 1860 Slave Schedules, Durant owned 19 enslaved persons. He was a farmer with $9,000 in real estate and $10,000 in personal property. Archie’s father had $50,000 in real estate. The Civil War and Reconstruction dramatically changed things for the worse. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a721edb9-c14c-413b-a896-960619920cc3/Fleeing+from+home+in+CIvil+War.jpg Family History - Durant Hall Tillitt (1831-1866) - The Union army decided the area where Durant and his family lived had strategic importance. By the second year of the war the Union army had occupied the entire Albemarle Region of North Carolina and recruited runaway slaves, deserters and lawless whites. Their job: to terrorize residents, plunder the countryside, confiscate horses and provisions, and burn homes. Durant packed up his family, fled their home and joined his sister, Mary, further inland in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Durant’s brother in law lost his life at Gettysburg in 1862 and his brother, Isaac Newton, was captured and imprisoned by Union troops in Virginia in 1863. [Photo: A terrified family abandons their home during the Civil War in North Carolina] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/be00cc7e-0f85-4ace-9deb-3bbe994b9b38/shermans-march-1864-granger.jpg Family History - Durant Hall Tillitt (1831-1866) - As if that weren’t suffering enough, General Sherman’s notorious march through Georgia spilled into North Carolina and blazed a destructive trail as far north as Raleigh. The first sizeable raid of his cavalry in North Carolina struck the town of Monroe, about sixty miles away from where Durant and his family had sought refuge. According to a first person account of a Monroe resident: “they struck furiously terrorizing the town and nearby rural community. Episcopal Bishop Atkinson, under the threat of death if he refused, gave up his clothing, watch and horse. A raider shot one of the oldest and wealthiest residents of the county in his own home when the old man did not surrender his money and watch, which he could not do because another raider had already taken it.” [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-heslb-8myn6-3wdg5 monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d83cd9e8-b2c0-4c2f-892b-598314a8a1e2/Sophie+Martin+Tillitt%2C+daughter+of+Durant+Hall+Tillitt.jpg Family History - Archann Dauge Marchant (1834-1879) - Archann Dauge “Archie” Marchant, the daughter of very wealthy parents Dr Gideon C Marchant and Emily Sawyer Dauge was born in 1834, in North Carolina. She lived at home with her parents until March 10, 1856 when she married Durant Hall Tillitt. Their first born child, my great grandfather Gideon Marchant Tillitt, was born 9 months later. A daughter named Lydia age 3 and a son Isaac age two appear in the 1860 census but both died very young. The 1860 census also mentions a newborn daughter named Sophie Martin. Sophie married Samuel Weston in 1878 and their first born child Frances Weston, married a cousin Bruce Martin Tillitt (my grandfather Durant Howard Tillitt’s brother.) [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/aef6cf0e-0f9e-4d00-bc9d-7f2032017bd0/Durant+Edward+Weston+son+of+Sopie+M+Tillitt+%28Weston%29.jpg Family History - Archann Dauge Marchant (1834-1879) - Sophie also had two sons Samuel C Weston (born 1893) and Durant Edward (born 1896). I found this two adorable picture of her son Durant on Ancestry.com. By the 1900 census Sophia was widowed and teaching music in Norfolk, Virginia. In the 1910 census she supported herself by taking in boarders. Still living with her: her son Samuel a draftsman for an architectural firm, Edward a clerk in a shipping company and daughter a salesclerk in a drug goods store. In 1920 Sophie was worked as a tailor. She passed away in 1941. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4f7a04ed-2d2d-40ab-a656-0bb36451e488/Archann+D+Marchant+%28TIllitt%29+2nd+marriage.jpg Family History - Archann Dauge Marchant (1834-1879) - Archie gave birth to two boys, Samuel Caldwell (born 1864) and Durant H (1866). She was pregnant with a daughter, Archann her namesake, when her husband suddenly died in 1866. The court ordered a public sale of their home and surrounding land near the village of Shiloh to pay his debts and out of the proceeds Archie received $2,500 as her “widow’s dower.” Three years later in March of 1870, Archie married a second time to Dr. Joseph Baxter. Despite the war he was relatively well off, having $10,000 in real estate and $1,000 in personal property. They lived together in Currituck County until her death in 1879. [Photo: Marriage Record Dr Baxter and Archie D Marchant (Tillitt)] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-heslb-8myn6 monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6b5e063f-c6f8-4c67-8a57-8db6f0d7eae0/Chaplains+in+the+civil+war+1861.jpg Family History - Simpson Columbus Hearne (1839-1918) - Simpson Columbus Hearne, the son of Cyrus Robert Hearne and Charlotte Alexander was born March 10, 1839, in Henry County, Tennessee. He and his brother Orren worked on the family farm from a young age. When he was eighteen, he joined the Turkey Creek Baptist Church where he was ordained a year later in 1858. In 1861 when the civil war broke out, he joined the 5th Tennessee Regiment as a soldier. Two years later he was appointed chaplain and served in that capacity until the end of the war. He was said to be very eloquent and “in his zeal hundreds of rough soldiers were led to Christ; the revival meetings carried by him quite popular and wonderful to see.” [Photo: Famous photograph by Matthew Brady taken at the Battle of Bull Run of a chaplain providing services to soldiers in 1861] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d4639a8a-ca1a-4252-b1f2-e478fad080fb/Simpson+C+Hearne.jpg Family History - Simpson Columbus Hearne (1839-1918) - During the war, it was a chaplain’s duty to console, comfort and encourage those that waivered in the face of death. Chaplains prayed with the wounded and dying They helped to prepare soldiers for impending death. By recording last words and witnessing deaths, chaplains provided crumbs of consolation for grieving relatives, reassuring them that their son, husband, or brother had “died peacefully in the hope of Christ.” In April of 1864, while he was on furlough from the bloody Battle of Chickamauga, Simpson visited Fannie Carlton, the fiancé of one of the men in his unit, to give her the terrible news of his passing. They fell in love and were married before he left to return to the battlefield. Nine months later on January 13, 1865, my great grandmother, Anna Letita Hearne was born. Anna was quite fond of telling people, “I was born in the year of the surrender!” [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b2bb02d9-dd9f-4b02-8f98-42f9edf35bad/Attorney.jpg Family History - Simpson Columbus Hearne (1839-1918) - Simpson and Fannie had another daughter, Rosa Carlton, in 1868 and the family moved to Opelkia Alabama. He listed his occupation in the 1870 census as “preacher of the gospel.” Simpson tired of the ministry and apparently of Alabama. He returned to Tennessee, bought and sold land, and studied law. He put his eloquence to work. As a lawyer and it was said that “his power before a jury was wonderful and his success phenomenal.” He also served for a term in the State Legislature and made an unsuccessful bid to run for US Congress. When he reached point when he felt financially secure, he re-entered the ministry and hoped “by God’s grace to continue in the harness to the end.” [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/758ec5f4-98cd-4463-a354-06c3fbc9c7b7/Simpson+Hearne.jpg Family History - Simpson Columbus Hearne (1839-1918) - No matter what profession he entered throughout his work life Simpson used his eloquence and force of character to hold the attention of his audience. John D C Atkins, a member of the US House of Representatives and Colonel in the Confederate army said of Simpson that he, “had more power over his audience than any other man he had ever heard.” Between 1870 and 1880, Fannie gave birth to four more children. One died as a toddler, but the rest went on to lead successful lives. For the next twenty plus years he continued to work as a minister until ill health he forced him to retire. He and Fannie moved in with their daughter Rosa in Louisville, Kentucky. He was living there when he died at the age of 80 of kidney disease on November 1, 1918. His obituary announced, “Aged Minister Called Home” and described him as “a man of unusual intellect who had experienced a decidedly active life of long and useful stewardship here on earth.” His body was brought home to his beloved Paris, Tennessee where he was laid to rest. [Photo: Simpson Columbus Headstone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee.] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-heslb monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2c10a3e5-a30c-41c1-9a4c-ebb25155b67c/General+Shermans+March+to+the+Sea+1864.jpg Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - [Photo: Sherman’s March to the Sea] [Photo: Sherman’s March to the Sea] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0e057e6a-0de5-4ccf-b60f-1f0ae3faa922/Rev.+Simpson+Columbus+Hearne.jpg Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - Fannie’s father fought in the war and died in 1865 which potentially could have been the result of his experience in the Civil War. Two of her brothers suffered in Union POW camps and the third brother had the misfortune and emotional trauma of being assigned as a guard at the Confederate Andersonville Prison. Fannie was engaged to a young man who also had enlisted in the Confederate army. In April of 1864, the Reverend Simpson Columbus Hearne of the 5th Tennessee Army appeared at her doorstep in Palmetto, Georgia while he was on furlough from the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. He was there to deliver the terrible news that her fiancé had been killed in battle. Despite her grief for her fiancé, Fannie fell under the spell of the Reverend (who had a reputation of being quite the eloquent speaker) and the couple were married on 22 April 1864. Nine months later she gave birth to their child, Anna Leticia Hearne, who was my great grandmother. Anna’s story is told in a separate blog. After the war Simpson returned to Palmetto where Fannie was anxiously waiting. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/97c730bb-923e-49fc-9040-03f474137c3f/Effie+Judson+Hearne.jpg Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - Fannie and Simpson’s second child, Effie Judson Hearne, was born in 1868. Effie married William Rufus Lasater in Paris Tennessee in 1886, and they had four children: Samuel Barstow (born 1887), Katie (1890), Frances C. (1893 who died eight years later), and William Calvin (1900). Rufus was the well-to- do owner of a lumber company that he founded in 1912. My mother recalls that he was known for his punctual stroll to his business every morning with an ornate diamond stick pin in his lapel. Rufus’ brothers, John Porter and Hafford Lasater, co-owned a soft drink bottling company in town that bottled their own brand, Electro-Cola, and eventually merged successfully with a Coca-Cola plant. When Effie and William married, Paris had only 1,800 residents. John Wesley Crockett, son of the famous Davy Crocket, had a law practice in Paris and served as a Representative in the House of Representative between 1837 and 1841. In the 1990’s students at the Christian Brothers University constructed a 65-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris France in the town of Paris Tennessee which has become quite the offbeat tourist attraction. Today the town boasts about 10,000 residents. Effie died of infection due to Pellagra in 1944. Rufus died 6 years later in 1950. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fe5d3eb0-5943-4c95-8acd-3f5286e3662b/Hollywood+Cemetery.jpg Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - Fannie and Simpson’s fourth child, Rosa Charlton Hearne, was born in 1873 in Paris Tennessee. She graduated from Clinton College in Kentucky in 1892 and won a scholarship for graduate studies at Wellesley. In 1894 she got a job as a teacher at Brownsville Female College. The following year she married William Henry Harrison, who was a distant relative of the US President of the same name (William’s great, great, great grandfather was the brother of President William Henry Harrison). President Harrison is known for having the longest inaugural speech in history and also the shortest term in office – he died of pneumonia after serving 34 days in office. William was employed as a life insurance agent and was promoted to Vice President of the company. Their first child, Katherine, was born in 1896 in Tennessee. The family moved to Kentucky where Rosa gave birth to three sons: Edmond Randolph (1901), William Henry (1907), and Benjamin H. (1916). Rosa died of pancreatic cancer in 1934 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond with her husband’s family. In the same cemetery are such notables as James Monroe, John Tyler, John Randolph, Jefferson Davis, General JEB Stuart and General George Pickett. In the 1940 census Katherine, who never married, lived with her father in Richmond and worked as a schoolteacher. William died in 1944 of heart problems. [Photo: James Monroe Memorial at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/20277c56-c2b3-4d42-97af-2964ae492f65/NC+and+St+Louis+Railroad+circa+1904+Fannie+Carlto Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - Fannie and Simpson’s fifth child Alice C who was born in 1877 and tragically died of congestive fever three years later. Their sixth and last child and only son, John Robert, was born in 1880. He worked for the NC and St Louis Railroad in Nashville Tennessee. He married Mary Gertrude Lindy in 1907 and had two children Howard (1909) and Jane (1914). The family moved to Kentucky and John continued to work for the railroad company until the great depression in 1929 when he lost his job. His daughter Jane moved to Alabama and became a beautician, and his son Howard married a professional dancer named Emily Van Arsdale. They divorced and Howard married again, moved to Chicago and had four children. In the 1940 census John and his wife Mary lived with their daughter and son-in-law in Nashville Tennessee and John worked as a clerk for an amusement company. John died of pneumonia in 1957. [Photo: The NC and St Louis Railroad circa 1904] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bc24a545-a890-4881-8600-46f99c43dbea/Fannie+C+Hearne.jpg Family History - Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920) - Simpson died in 1918 of kidney failure at the age of 79 in Louisville, Kentucky. In the 1920 census Fannie was living with her daughter Effie’s family. She died at the age of 84 of tuberculosis on September 25, 1920, in the home of her son-in-law Dr Charles W Rodgers. Her obituary reported she was a woman of “marked intelligence and innate refinement and was endowed with a splendid education. Her life was well spent in useful service. Her eighty-six years were a blessing to her family and acquaintances.” [Photo: Fannie Carlton’s headstone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-9x5yk monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/49c0be18-a4b0-4106-9957-fca88d0d0f7c/Wounded+Soldiers.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/07b2c3c7-f4d4-476a-bb0e-c88d57d6ca4e/Civil+War+Reconstruction+Era.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/02794c90-eace-4664-8c35-a4e91ffb60cb/Old+printing+press.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/476db9ad-5039-4351-a133-17bc0569a169/Headstone+W+E+Cobb.jpeg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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 ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/39161430-ae2e-40d7-acaf-67187d7296c8/Hugh+Ward+RIcks+Gravestone.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c3ce56e6-a736-4b85-a703-a07b64724539/Luther+Carl+WIlliams+Jr.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ddf30619-a87e-4a4d-ac50-ec4c319f74ba/john-e-sheridan-army-navy-and-marines-saturday-evening-post-cover-november-13-1937_u-l-q1hykbv0.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ce9af186-7784-476b-9229-c5c27bc96853/Fannie+%26+Her+Twin.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9c23bb46-3858-4744-8e47-d48da3327b45/Robert+Bratcher.png Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8b6c85cf-5af3-4063-a074-a3fc8135736e/Gravestone+Margaret+Langley+Ricks.jpg Family History - William Edward Cobb (1843-1888) - 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] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-9x5yk-exgax monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dfdad50c-fdfb-4cab-88e7-302a9f1472a2/Cecila+M+Spivey.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - Celia Martha Spivey, the youngest child of Scottish parents Whitmel Hill Spivey and Mary Celia Cherry, was born in Bertie County, North Carolina in 1859. When she was born her father was 34 years old and her mother 40. The family made their living by farming and in 1860 their real estate holdings were worth $6,000. In April of 1877, when Celia was only 18 years old, her mother passed away. Soon after her father married another woman, Philanda, who was 10 years younger than he was. Celia graduated from St. Mary’s College, Carolina’s finishing school for “proper young ladies”, the same school that Robert E. Lee’s youngest daughter attended. In the 1880 census, an unemployed Celia and her brother James, a merchant, were still living at home but her other siblings had moved on. Celia lived at home until her marriage at age 25 to William Edward Cobb, who from all accounts appears to have been quite the catch. He was friendly, likeable, kindhearted, and given the post-Civil War economic times - remarkably successful. A match made in heaven. Their first son, John Edward, was named after his father, their second son, Thomas Spivey for her brother. After a brief three year marriage in 1888, when the boys were still toddlers, tragedy struck. Celia’s husband unexpectedly became ill and died of pneumonia. Poor Celia’s world turned upside down. Finishing school had landed her a husband but had not prepared her for coping without one. [Photo: Celia Martha Spivey] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/74d6e15e-fe77-4249-b9d1-b61422bedb06/Civil+War+Reunion+1915+in+North+Carolina.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - Celia’s sister Mary Winne Spivey married John Grant in 1873. John must have been a man of some means because in 1880 the census reported two male “servants” and a young girl aged 13 named Athe Pritchard who is listed nebulously as “one of the family.” The couple had one son named James Whitmel Grant who died in 1883 before he reached 6 months of age. When Celia asked for their help, they opened their doors and happily shared their household with Celia and her children. When the two boys came of age they helped John by working as farm laborers. John lived until 1914 when at age 72 he died of “unknown causes” (his death certificate says the cause of death was “no physician attended”). John’s obit said he was a “born confederate soldier” who always attended the old soldier meetings and was said to be one of the county’s best farmers. Four years after her husband passed away, Mary died of heart and kidney disease. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/112c9a88-887c-4d3d-8d0f-8975b134a1b4/1855-1943+Lucy+Johnnie+Clark%2C+dau+of+John+CLark+and+Marg+Garrett%2C+and+Mary+Grant+Spivey%27s+mother.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - Celia’s brother James William was her husband, William Edward Cobb’s, partner in the merchandising business until William’s untimely death. James married Lucy John Clark, and together they had five children. Lucy kept an extensive photo album. I am fortunate to have it in my possession and am delighted to be able to make her photos available to you. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dea261bb-55d4-4771-b97d-8a9f9945889c/Whiteml+HIll+Spivey+Jr+1884-1914+022.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - James and Lucy named their first born son, Whitmel Hill Spivey, Jr after James’ father. Whit was a handsome lad but never married and died young of tuberculosis at the age of 30 in January of 1914. [Photo: Whit, born in 1884, as a boy] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/de14d427-5a09-4103-a2ba-c7a0da537d95/Whitmel+Hill+Spivey+Jr035.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) [Photo: Whit as a young man] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f8c4d717-643e-4fd2-bdea-1e28fe33b8e5/James+William+Spivey+Jr+w+Brother+Franklin+.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - James named his second born son after himself, James William Spivey Jr. James Jr lost his life fighting in the Navy during the Mexican Revolution. He died in Vera Cruz, Mexico in October of 1914 at the age of 27. James named his third son, Franklin Cobb Spivey, after Celia’s husband. Franklin was a farmer, never married and died in 1916 at the age of 27. Sadly, his death was listed on his death certificate as suicide by gunshot wound. {Photo: Franklin on the left and James Jr on the right] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/60161ea2-a075-4a13-9287-5e67fbe2de89/Florence+Estelle+Spivey+Age+6.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - James and Lucy’s first daughter, Florence Estelle, was born in 1891. [Photo: Florence Estelle, at age 6] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f8054984-2cc8-4514-ab42-31795a71182d/Florence+Spivey+and+Dr+Garris.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - Florence Estelle, married Frank H. Garris, a doctor who had served in World War I. They never had children, although my father’s Uncle Tom lived with them in the 1920s. Florence died at the age of 54 of breast cancer in 1946. Frank remarried a year later to Louise Norfleet and died in 1961 of a cerebral blood clot. [Photo: Florence and Frank at the beach] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5f326a5d-8049-4a6c-8147-822ea7d4cb36/Mary+Grant+Spivey.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - James’ last child, Mary Grant Spivey, was named for his sister Mary and her husband, John Grant. Mary Grant Spivey never married and although she lived modestly as a piano teacher, she carried on airs of living a genteel life. When she heard my mother and father were getting married she checked up on my mother’s background to ensure she was good enough for him (she passed the test). Once when they came to visit she left them waiting outside the front door while she took 20 minutes to put on make-up and properly present herself. She was a bit eccentric and set the table with multiple settings of fine china even when dining alone. My father was always very fond of her and when I was born, it was decided my middle name would be Grant. Mary Grant outlived all her siblings and died of breast cancer in 1975. [Photo: Mary Grant Spivey, my namesake.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9287ea0e-969d-4fc3-ad6f-7e9ec282a5de/Grace+Episcopal+Church+Woodville+NC+v3.jpg Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - Celia and her boys lived with the Grant family until she died in 1899, eleven years after she had lost her husband. When she died her sons were teenagers - Ed was sixteen and Tom thirteen. Her brother-in-law John Grant handled the probate documents. Celia left an estate worth $1,400 which was given to her two sons when they turned 21 years of age. She was laid to rest with her husband in the episcopal cemetery in Lewiston-Woodville, North Carolina along with her parents, three of her siblings, (Mary, James and and Alfred) and her son Thomas. [Photo: Grace Episcopal Church in Lewiston-Woodville North Carolina circa 1854, where Celia and many of her relatives are buried] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4f6b7f3d-b7bd-4c8b-a8e7-84af9b10d36d/Map+of+Woodville+1832-1893.gif Family History - Celia Martha Spivey (1858-1899) - In 1900, the year after Celia died, the tiny town of Woodville had only 163 residents. The town boasted the presence of a private school, the Bertie Academy in Woodville but it has long since been torn down. In its day the Academy held dances between 1913 to 1914 that according to the local paper “were famed for their charming entertainment and gracious hospitality” by drawing together the “beauty and chivalry of the adjoining towns.” Celia’s brother James was instrumental in establishing the first public school in Woodville in 1903. His daughter Florence was a teacher there and his daughter Mary Grant taught piano lessons there. Sadly, the town has not faired well over the years. In 1981 it merged with a neighboring town Lewiston. In 2000 census a third of its 613 population was below the poverty line. By 2020 the residents had declined to 426. Today, its largest employer is a Perdue Farms processing plant. [Photo: Map of the town of Woodville, North Carolina https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2-262mr monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/cefc0244-4da7-49ce-9022-8ef7b82ecedf/Waterfront+Washington+NC+early+1900s.jpg Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/141bd55c-6067-4413-98ac-c3f61b86d543/Town+of+Washington+NC.png Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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. The Town of Washington today https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f32efc5a-0e62-4df8-b40d-b09c62a31da9/lumber-yard-early-1900s-old-lumber-mill-old-lumberyard-2M8X231.jpg Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/adeadabd-124a-45ed-8d73-ee36115d2369/Carroll+Murray+Ricks+Wallace+NC+1945+v2.jpg Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2db99e92-3e2a-4949-bf30-ac830eb201f0/Thomas+Ricks+Sr+Tomestone+1943.jpg Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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 ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b734ea63-325d-4054-bbf9-2dc819910ef9/George+Daughtery+age+23+in+Vietnam.jpg Family History - Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr. (1870-1943) - 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.] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-sawc2 monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a2d5ddbc-047d-4539-8e31-3d8a238b5931/Norristown_State_Hospital.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - Margaret Little Langley, the daughter of Thomas Hatton Langley and Frances Elizabeth Daniel, was born on September 24, 1878 in Pitt County, North Carolina. In 1895 at the age of 18 she married 25 year old Thomas Blount Ricks and like her parents before her, she settled into farm life with her new husband. Thomas’ brothers, John and Leon, worked as laborers on their farm in the 1900 census. Before the next census in 1910 Thomas had a new career working as a lumber inspector in a sawmill. In the fall of 1898 Margaret and Thomas produced their first child, Robert David Ricks. Robert left home in his teens and moved away from home. In the 1920 census Robert and his young 18 year old wife, Alma Rebecca Garris, were living in Pennsylvania with their two sons. One son, Robert James was born in January of 1919 and the other, Thomas Eugene, in December of 1919. Robert was employed as an electrician in a silk mill. During the next decade their world was torn apart. In the 1930 census Rebecca was listed as an “inmate” in Norristown State Hospital. She had contracted a strange disease called “encephalitis lethargica.” Her husband divorced her, and her two sons moved in with her parents. Poor Rebecca died in 1932. [Photo: Norristown State Hospital awaiting renovation in 2025] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4308f9ce-be26-4d13-bd1a-718b531ce4ee/Awakenings+movie+poster.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - An epidemic of this bizarre disease swept through Europe and America during the 1920s. The affliction caused muscle rigidity, tremors, psychosis, and overwhelming lethargy which in many induced a coma like state. Patients were “conscious and aware yet not fully awake, they would sit motionless and speechless in their chairs, they neither conveyed nor felt the feeling of life, as insubstantial as ghosts, as passive as zombies.” Norristown Hospital, formerly known as the Norristown State Lunatic Hospital, was built in 1880. It viewed itself as a compassionate facility: in 1881 it added a library and a billiard room and in 1909 a dance hall for its “inmates”, but is has a checkered reputation. In 1892 it was accused of removing the ovaries of six female inmates as a “cure” for their insanity. Ironically the doctor accused of performing these operations, Dr Alice Bennett, was politically tied with Susan B Anthony. Nearby Trenton Hospital removed the teeth of inmates in another cruel and senseless attempt to “cure” insanity. Serial killer Dr. Holmes, who killed 27 women during the 1893 World’s Fair, was briefly employed at Norristown as a “keeper” but fortunately quit after a few days. During the 1930’s electroshock therapy and lobotomies were introduced. In short, it was not a shining time for psychiatric medicine. Remarkably, some patients who contracted lethargica during the 1920s pandemic lived in a catatonic state until the 1960s, when an experimental drug called L-Dopa was introduced by Dr. Oliver Sacks. The drug successfully “awakened” the patients who were astonished to find a changed world. Unfortunately the drug had only a temporary impact on most of the patients, but some were able to enjoy the possibilities of life. Sacks wrote a memoir about his work, and it was made into a movie starring Robin Williams called “Awakenings” in 1990. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/62ace1b1-7970-4caa-b5d6-502a68535245/Robert+James+Ricks.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - Robert David decided to give marriage a second change and in 1933, at 35 years of age, he married Odie Pauline Delp. The couple had no children. She worked for a time as an x-ray technician and died in 1960. He worked for Sun Oil prior to his retirement and died in 1964. Despite the tragedy that struck his poor wife Rebecca, their children appeared to live normal lives. Robert and Rebecca’s first son, Robert James, worked as a machinist for a newspaper company. In 1939 he married Dora Cullis, a packer in a cereal plant, an they had three children. Robert served in the army in World War II in Asia and the Pacific and later as the Chief of the Brookhaven Pennsylvania Fire Department. He died in New Jersey in 2004. Robert and Rebecca’s second son, Thomas Eugene, lived with Rebecca’s parents until at least 1940. He served his country in World War II, married Lucille Manning, and had six daughters and a son. He moved to Florida and opened a successful restaurant. He died in 1993 in Delaware. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8fd939bc-4766-4856-90e2-161e9370f17c/vogue-1920-feb-1-pg-141-ad-for-maternity-gowns-lane-bryant-catalog.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - In July of 1900 Margaret and Thomas had their second child, Annie Laura Ricks. At the age of sixteen Annie got pregnant, left home and married 24 year old William “Willie” Dunn Cavanaugh. Three weeks after they tied the knot, she gave birth to their son, William David. Willie was employed as a clerk in a furniture store. The couple had two more children, Annie Laurie, named for her mother in 1921 and Louise Caroline in 1923. In 1928 Annie underwent heart surgery. It was unsuccessful and she died three days later. Her husband Willie got a job selling cars and hired a servant to care for their children. He remarried Ruby Jones, had two more daughters, Gwindolyn who died in infancy and Elizabeth who was born in 1934. Willie died of kidney disease in 1941. As for Annie’s three children: William Jr. married Eula Pleasants, had four children and worked as a line type operator for a newspaper company. Annie Laurie Jr married a barber named William Batts and together they had three children. Louise married but later divorced and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1984. {Photo: 1920 ad for maternity clothing published in Vogue magazine. Although I suspect Annie Laurie had bigger concerns that being pretty and stylish in pregnancy. ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/39161430-ae2e-40d7-acaf-67187d7296c8/Hugh+Ward+RIcks+Gravestone.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c3ce56e6-a736-4b85-a703-a07b64724539/Luther+Carl+WIlliams+Jr.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ddf30619-a87e-4a4d-ac50-ec4c319f74ba/john-e-sheridan-army-navy-and-marines-saturday-evening-post-cover-november-13-1937_u-l-q1hykbv0.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ce9af186-7784-476b-9229-c5c27bc96853/Fannie+%26+Her+Twin.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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 Ricks, her twin sister Louise and her younger brother Thomas Blount Jr.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9c23bb46-3858-4744-8e47-d48da3327b45/Robert+Bratcher.png Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8b6c85cf-5af3-4063-a074-a3fc8135736e/Gravestone+Margaret+Langley+Ricks.jpg Family History - Margaret Little Langley (1878-1916) - 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] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/322b14c0-5b2f-4eb2-be76-b7f51143e30d/1920+Gideon+Marchant+Tillitt213+%283%29.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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. His story is told in the next chapter. 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] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f944262c-9753-4873-922e-a9abf1af03d0/Howard++and+Archann+v2.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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 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: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ca211692-a117-432a-9a45-e899a557689e/Bruce+MArtin+Tillitt+1920.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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: Bruce Martin Tillitt in 1920] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7bc47630-ebf9-42d3-9f92-7b67f41e185c/Aunt+Bess.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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). Her life story appeared in a biographical history of Camden County which described her in glowing terms: 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: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b7c76f47-5b2f-43cb-bfa3-7f864cc573a0/1938+Aunt+Bess+and+Old+Faithful129.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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. 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: Aunt Bess with her Model T Ford] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2fff4386-4708-47fd-b7f5-1391306cf03a/1921+Aunt+Gid+and+Uncle+Will+Godfrey124.jpg Family History - Gideon Marchant Tillitt Sr (1856-1919) - 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:[Aunt Gid and Uncle Will in 1921] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95-tt33e-wrs3m monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2e8d9bf0-5f10-4ed2-87b2-60ea147ddd11/Bettie+Ferebee+Sanderlin+115.jpg Family History - Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin (1863-1925) - Elizabeth “Bettie” Ferebee Sanderlin, the oldest daughter of Caleb Sanderson Sanderlin, and Hulda Frances Ferebee-Carter, was born in 1863. Her family history was filled with sadness and tragedy but she found a life of happiness when she married Gideon Marchant Tillitt. Bettie’s grandmother, Delia Carter, was addicted to laudanum. Delia gave birth to to two daughters, Ann (1834) and Hulda Frances (1845), out of wedlock. Their biological father, Samuel Williams Ferebee, did not live with Delia or their children, and neither Hulda nor Ann bore his name. Delia’s daughter Ann Carter married at the age of 16 to Benjamin MacPherson and the couple had seven children. When she was pregnant with their 7th child in 1862, Benjamin was murdered by the Yankees. According to family legend, his corpse was tossed into bed with her while the heartless soldiers plundered their home. Ann married a second time to John Anderson McKimmey, and she gave birth to another five children. Delia’s daughter, Hulda Frances Ferebee Carter was only 14 years old in 1860 when she married 35 year old Caleb Sanderson Sanderlin. Caleb was a wealthy man– in the 1860 census he had real estate worth $50,000 and $6,000 in personal property. [Photo: Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a6977a2b-8ad3-4d5d-a0ed-3a293032dd50/Gravestone+Hulda+Sanderlin+1867+to+1867.jpeg Family History - Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin (1863-1925) - In 1863 Hulda gave birth to my great grandmother, Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin. Two years later another daughter, Ann (named after Hulda’s sister) was born. When Hulda got pregnant a third time in 1867, the birth was difficult. Six weeks after her daughter was born, Hulda died of complications related to the birth process. The poor baby, who was named Hulda Francis after her mother, only lived for three short months. Caleb was a captain in the Confederate army and suffered as a prisoner of war at Balfour Hospital. By the end of the war he was heavily in debt. Caleb couldn’t handle it, and after his wife died, he abandoned the girls and went to live with his brother Maxey. Three year old Bettie and one year old her sister Ann, were sent to stay with their Aunt (her mother’s sister Ann McKimmey), who raised them with her own 12 children. According to the 1870 census Ann, in the bottomless goodness of her heart, also took in her 60 year old mother Delia Carter. Tragically, in 1873 Bettie’s little sister, Ann died before reaching her 8th birthday. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/93edc607-7bda-4340-85e1-b2af9d6d13c7/Ann+Carter+MacPherson+MacKimmey+gravestone.jpeg Family History - Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin (1863-1925) - Bettie’s father, Caleb never remarried and died in 1887. They may have been torn apart during life but in death Caleb, his wife Hulda, and all three of his children are buried side by side in the Tillitt Family cemetery. Aunt Ann was the family member that selflessly nurtured the other members of her extended family. When Ann died in 1915 her obituary said she was “an excellent woman known for her sunny, congenial disposition and many acts of kindness.” It seems fitting that her grave marker in the McKimmey family cemetery is a tree trunk over six feet tall and the footstone a one foot tall stump. Despite a tumultuous childhood and family history, Bettie was fortunate in having the support of her beloved supportive Aunt Ann and in her selection of her husband, Gideon, who provided so much joy in their household for the forty years of their marriage. Bettie outlived her husband by 6 years and died in 1925. Gideon and Bettie are buried together in the Tillitt Cemetery in Camden County with three of their children. [Photo: Aunt Ann McKimmey grave marker.] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d-8zn95 monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/afb2b783-fe87-4cc0-ad4d-29bb6b0e8ac2/Dr+Charles+Rodgers%2C+father+of+Rosa+Judson+Rodgers+%28Tillitt%29.jpg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - Charles Weldon Rodgers, the handsome son of William Chenault Rodgers, a merchant, and Martha Ann Wingo, was born in Kentucky on September 16, 1856. He had an older brother Edmund Rutter who was born in 1848 and another brother named William Chenault, Jr (“Will”) who was born in 1854. In 1860 when Charley was only four years old his father, who allegedly had a history of depression, drowned at the age of forty in what may or may not have been an accidental death. Three years later his mother remarried a man named Jefferson Alexander who had been married two times before and had fathered seven children. Jefferson was a farmer and wealthy by the standards of the day. Soon after the marriage in 1864, Charley’s half sister Kate was born. [Photo: Dr. Charley] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/84ee5936-2447-4334-b8db-6a4a8a772aa4/Martha+Ann+Wingo+Rodgers%2C+mother+of+Dr.+Charles+Rodgers.jpg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - When Charley’s stepfather died in 1873, his mother was left to care for both her children and her stepchildren. His mother married for the third time to JN Hunt. According to family legend, his mother (known later in life as Grandma Hunt), claimed her first two husbands were rich but her third husband spent all her money. After she was widowed from her third marriage, she spent time living with each son, but her disposition was so bad that neither of her daughters-in-law could tolerate her for any length of time. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8327b865-7632-4747-b0ae-f31ef1a28e2f/Mill.jpg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - In 1877 at the age of 23 Charley went into business with is younger brother Will. For $355 they bought a water powered grist mill known as the Little Creek Mill from Barham Ray, Will’s future father-in-law. Located on Old Town Creek one mile from Como, Tennessee, the mill was one of 20 mills that processed corn and wheat for the surrounding farm communities in Henry County. Sadly none of this mills still exist today in the county today. This photo was taken of the their mill in 1925 but the names of those in the photo are not known. Charley had bigger ambitions. He wanted to become a doctor. Later in life he gifted his half of the mill to brother Will. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bece7315-2391-4a8c-b2d0-b54faf8f5397/Vanderbilt_University_in_1880_by_HP_Whinnery.jpeg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - In 1880 Charley graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee with a medical degree. He moved in with his brother Edmund in Como Tennessee and set up his medical practice there. Standards for admission to medical school at that time in US history were sorely lacking and the curriculum very limited. It was not until fifteen years after Charley graduated that Vanderbilt upgraded their admissions standards to require a high school diploma. They added lab work in the sciences to the curriculum and the medical degree program was lengthened to three years of six months each. In those days, doctors learned their trade by harrowing years of on the job training. It must have taken true grit for Charley to take on the heavy responsibility of being the sole practitioner for his community. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6f2cf919-21d2-47e0-9b51-b361daa15b82/Doctor%27s+Buggy.jpg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - Charley was the only doctor in the area and would visit his patients in a horse drawn buggy. He charged $1.50 for a house call within 5 to 6 miles and $2 for distances over six miles. He had to be patient in collecting fees because most of his patients were farmers who had to wait for their crop to come in. His niece (his brother Will’s daughter, Flossie) was a pharmacist and would often go on calls as his assistant and would sometimes dispense medication to poor families who could not afford a doctor. He actively purchased real estate and loved to farm and much of the earnings from his medical practice was poured into it. [Photo: Doctor’s Buggy circa 1880s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0a884077-6a0e-45ee-9a35-bacdc598d80e/Gravestone++Dr+Charley.jpg Family History - Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers (1856-1929) - In 1886 Charley married Anna Leticia Hearne and together they had eight children. Despite the fact that both he and his wife had college educations, he did not assist his children in their education beyond high school. Two of his sons had aspirations to become doctors and against all odds both of his two daughters scrapped together the funds to attend college as well. At that time in America very few young men went to college and even fewer women did so. So this is really quite remarkable. Less than a year after his son Hearne died, Charley died of pneumonia at the age of 73 in 1929, His obituary said that he was “one of the most widely known men in the county because of his long service to the community as a physician and a citizen, and because of the exemplary life he had led. The article went on to say: “Dr. Rodger’s death will leave a vacancy that can never be filled. Men and women living in the vicinity of Como, themselves brought into the world with the friendly doctor in attendance and now with children and maybe grandchildren of their own, have known no other physician than Dr. Rodgers. They depended on him in hours of sickness and trial, and they called him friend.” Charley was buried alongside with the four children that had preceded him in death. His wife, Anna, would live another 23 years before she was laid to rest beside him. [Photo: Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers gravestone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-nz38d monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c5051524-860e-40e8-9032-72b4aa8e8b8d/Anna+Leticia+Hearne012+%282%29.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna Leticia Hearne, the daughter of Simpson Columbus Hearne and Francis Christiana Carlton was born in Palmetto, Georgia in January of 1865 (or as she loved to say in “the yeaah of the surrenda”). As a young child her family moved to Opelika, Alabama and then on to Paris, Tennessee. She studied music at Peabody College in Nashville and later earned money teaching piano lessons. In 1886 at the age of 21 she married a doctor, Charles Weldon Rodgers, who had graduated from Vanderbilt College. Her father gave them a home on a farm in Como Tennessee as a wedding gift and her husband set up his medical practice there. She had known her husband since childhood referring to him as “Cousin Charley” until they married after which point he became “Dr. Rodgers” because she felt “his position called for respect.” [Photo: Anna Letitia Hearne] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/69db1ff9-5c93-40a3-afab-283dd5a72b1e/Como+TN+HOme+of+Anna+Hearne+and+Charley+Rodgers900+v2.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna gave birth to eight of children, two of whom did not live to adulthood, in the Como farm house her father had given her. Her family called her Mimi. In the 1900 census two servants, a 30 year old farm laborer named Jim and a 25 year old cook named Mattie lived with the family. In the 1910 census the servants were gone but her 81 year old mother-in-law, Martha (a three time widow) had moved in with the family. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4e58cb2c-9fb1-435f-8052-87e92bd24a0a/Alice+Rodgers181.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s oldest child, Mary Alice, was born in 1888. After finishing high school she left home to work her way through college and eventually became a librarian at the state Library of North Carolina. There she met and became engaged to Howard Tillitt but later broke up the engagement saying he was better suited for her younger sister, Rosa Judson. Alice introduced the two of them and lived just long enough to attend their wedding. She had been in bad health for several years. She died at the home of her parents at the age of 33 on October 24, 1921 of unknown causes. Her obituary described her as being sweet and lovable. In 1890 Anna gave birth to a son, Harry Parker. Harry died of cholera several weeks before his first birthday. Anna’s second oldest daughter, Rosa Judson, was born in 1893 and was named after her two aunts, Rosa Charlton and Effie Judson. Rosa was my grandmother and her story is told elsewhere in this website. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/309a2cda-f6cb-4c1d-8a7b-dc30cd30d599/Hearne+Rodgers+%281%29.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s son, Carlton Hearne, was born in 1897 and named for Anna’s parents. Anna liked to call him her gypsy boy because of his thick black hair and eyebrows. He was her favorite child. Hearne wanted to be a doctor just like his father but first worked to assist in getting his younger brothers an education. He graduated from Georgetown College in Kentucky, spent one year at the University of Pennsylvania and then went on to Louisville School of Medicine in 1925. He worked long hours to fund his education and even sold his blood to pay for educational expenses. He was an intern at City Hospital in charge of the ambulance and also worked as night superintendent of the receiving ward. He’d study long into the night and then call his fiancée who would take him for long rides to help him relax. During his senior year he received a job offer from Witt’s Hospital at Duke University and his dream of being a doctor would be realized when he graduated in June. Six months after graduation in January of 1929, at the age of 21, he was struck down by acute hepatitis complicated by pneumonia and tragically died. His fiancée had been very devoted to him and continued to send flowers to his grave long after he passed. {Photo: Rosa and Howard in 1921] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/da861ff4-b0df-45e0-aae9-757a2ed323fd/1927+Bettie+5+months+old+%282%29.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) [Photo: Rosa, Howard and Bettie Anna in 1927] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/681e3c18-ad01-4d54-92f5-846715aa4328/1928+Rosa++and+9+month+old+Bettie+Anna+++%28v2%29.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) Rosa got a job teaching 5th grade at the elementary school where she continued to work until she gave birth to their only child, Bettie Anna (my mother) in 1927. Rosa wanted more children but her husband, who was 10 years older than she was, felt he was too old to have any more. [Photo: Rosa with Bettie Anna in 1828] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/bd9f5d8e-d6ac-432f-8331-a63e76df9819/Charles+Weldon+ROgers+Jr+1921+Grove+High+School+Paris%2C+TN089.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s son, Charles Weldon Jr was born in 1899. He moved to Louisville Kentucky where his Uncle Robert Hearne got him a job working for the L&N Railroad. He was married to Bessie Rice in the 1920s. Bessie had a child that didn’t survive and couldn’t have anymore. After her death in 1968 he remarried Estelle Barnes. Estelle said he was very difficult to live with. They were divorced, remarried and then separated again. In the end she came back to take care of him when he was dying of prostate cancer. He died in a nursing home at the age of 80 in 1979 without ever having had any children. ! [Photo: Weldon at Grove High School in Paris, Tennessee in 1921] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6c7b13b0-bba4-4547-90ed-fd2f4701f577/William+Gordon+Rodgers+1921+Grove+High+School+Paris%2C+TN090.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s son, William Gordon, was born in 1902. According to his widow, Leila Owen, when Gordon finished high school his parents gave him a new suit of clothes and from then on he was on his own. He and his older brother Hearne had planned to become doctors and go into practice together. They agreed that Gordon would put Hearne through medical school and when Hearne became a doctor he in turn would pay for Gordon’s medical education. When Gordon was at Georgetown College working on his undergraduate degree, he slept in an overnight parking garage and waited on tables for his meals. He delivered newspapers and worked in a greenhouse for his tuition and books. When his brother died, the dream of being a doctor died with him. He got a job working at Proctor and Gamble and worked a grueling seven day a week pace for ten years, while at the same time working as a co-owner of a miniature golf course. The work overload caught up to him and he had a mental and physical breakdown and moved in with his sister, Rosa, to recover. [Photo: Gordon at Grove High School in Paris, Tennessee in 1921] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d9ecfa81-2845-4778-a03d-d172a4123b0b/Leila+Owen+%28Rodgers%29%2C+wife+of+Uncle+Gordon+Rodgers.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - When Gordon felt better he used the money he had saved to buy a hardware store in Canton, North Carolina. Rosa introduced him to a teacher, Leila Owen. Leila was the daughter of missionary parents in China. The Owen family lived in China during the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreigners during which 200 Western missionaries and 32,000 Chinese Christians were brutally killed. At one point Leila and her family were evacuated to an American Consulate river boat for safety. When her parents returned to America they were destitute and weakened by health issues and did not live long. Gordon and Leila were married in 1934 and had two children, Rebecca Hearne and William Gordon Jr (“Buddy”). Gordon was a generous man with a big heart and was always there to support other members of his family – he helped pay for his brother Hearne’s medical school tuition, his widowed mother’s living expenses, his sister Rosa’s new home, and his brother Douglas’s medical and living expenses. Gordon sold his hardware store in 1962 when it became apparent his son had no interest in the business. He died five years later of pneumonia complicated by emphysema in 1967 (he had been a heavy smoker most of his life). Leila moved to Newport News, Virginia to be closer to her children and died there at the age of 90. [Photo: Leila Owen, wife of Gordon Rodgers, from her college yearbook ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e650563a-a7e3-4d72-b41c-557f422de17c/Douglas+Rodgers+and+Maurren+Boyd+Gravestone.jpeg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s last son, Robert Douglas, was born in 1905. He was badly burned as a toddler and did not walk until he was four years old. At the age of 19, he left home to work for the L&N railroad like his brother Weldon. He did not keep the job for long and worked for a while for Greyhound Corporation. His brother, Gordon tried to set him up in business three times – a traveling grocery, a chicken business and a greenhouse – but still Douglas struggled. At one point he worked in a liquor store but quit after he was shot twice in robberies. He married Ruth Maureen Boyd in 1928 and they had a child that did not survive. They were not able to have any other children of their own, but they kept foster children from time to time. Maureen had a “nervous condition” and the foster care agency decided she was too unbalanced to keep the children. At some point she attempted suicide by shooting herself. As a result she lost an eye and from then on she wore an eye patch. Douglas relied on his brother Gordon’s financial support to make ends meet for most of his life. After Gordon died my mother also sent him money to help him. Douglas died in 1982 of leukemia in Louisville Kentucky. Maureen died at the age of 92 in a nursing home in 2001. [Photo: The only photo I found of them was their gravestone with sad blank space that will never contain a third name] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a21371d8-bff8-4d60-9d5b-9feaafd32677/Charlotte+and+Harry+Rodgers+Share+a+Tombstone.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - Anna’s last child, a daughter named Charlotte, was born in 1908. I found a brief article in the “Parisian” a Paris Tennessee newspaper that reported on June 25, 1920: “Little Miss Charlotte is seriously ill at the home of her parents, Dr. and Mrs. C.W. Rodgers.” Five days later her obituary appeared. After a three week illness twelve year old Charlotte died of “fever.” Her heart wrenching last words were spoken to her mother: “Oh mother, if I must go I want you to come with me." She was buried next to her infant brother Harry. [Photo: Charlotte and Harry on a shared tombstone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris Tennessee] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5bda44da-be98-43ed-9501-b734b434fd26/Add+for+sale+of+household+goods.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - In 1929, in the same year that Anna lost her son Hearne, her husband was struck down with bronchial pneumonia with complications due to an enlarged prostate and died. She was quick to react. Within a month she sold the farm, auctioned “her household furnishings, farm implementation and one horse” and moved in with her daughter Rosa Judson and son-in-law in the small mountain town of Andrews North Carolina. She had approached her three sons as well but they all three had been unable or unwilling to take her in. Anna was a tiny woman but had the reputation of being a “firecracker.” She had her own bedroom on the first floor but felt the space was too small to accommodate her needs. Without seeking anyone’s approval she brought in a contractor to tear down walls. Her daughter and son-in-law were stunned when they came home to view the damage but had no choice but to complete the construction because of the advanced nature of the project. Later, another room with a bath was added to the first floor at Anna’s insistence because she wanted the maid to live close to her instead of on the second floor. The maid wanted no part of it and refused to move. [Photo: Ad for Sale of Anna’s household goods after the death of her husband] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/29040138-06a3-4300-9f53-8f46f122c3ce/1944+Bettie+HIgh+School+Graduation+Statesville+NC+Bettie%2C+Bess+Bess+T%2C+Gid%2C+Rosa%2C+Annie%2C+Ida%2C+Pudge%2C+Alice.jpg Family History - Anna Letitia Hearne (1865-1952) - The family’s fortunes changed in 1940 when her son-in-law Howard died suddenly of a heart attack. Rosa went back to school to finish her master’s degree at Peabody College and then relocated to Statesville, North Carolina in 1943 for employment. Their grand home in Andrews was sold and the family moved into a small two bedroom apartment. Four years later, in 1947, Rosa got a great job opportunity in Durham North Carolina and purchased a home there. Brother Gordon, sent his sister $4,000 (in cash in $500 increments in an envelope through the US mail with a 3 cent stamp!) to assist with the $8,000 purchase price. Around 1950 Anna had a series of strokes and when her mind wasn’t clear she often spoke to her deceased son Hearne. She died in 1952 at the age of 87 of cardiovascular disease. She was laid to rest in the Hearne Family plot in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris with her parents, her husband and four of her children. [Photo: Anna second from the right in 1948 at her granddaughter Bettie Anna’s high school graduation. Others in the picture left to right my mother, her Aunt Bess, her Aunt Gid, and my grandmother] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/North+Carolina+history monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/Ferebee+family monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/Early+Virginia+history monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/The+Bland+Family monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/Caldwell+Family monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/Ferebee+genealogy monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/family-history/tag/Rodgers+Family monthly 0.5 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/cobb-family daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3c6c25b5-6c69-46d2-895b-6cbbee94cc08/Children+%28002%29.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/cobb-family/blog-post-title-one-32nxc monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/blog daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/aecd96b9-af31-4ed1-800c-89755c113036/Girl+with+Elephant.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-bbx94-4fzey monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9e6679b7-e735-449b-bcfa-0e0fa9bf0e3e/1885+-+1940+John+Edward+Cobb+Sr%2C+Son+of+William+Cobb.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - John Edward Cobb, Sr (“Ed’), the son of William Edward Cobb and Celia Martha Spivey, was born on September 3, 1885 in Bertie County, North Carolina. His father died when Ed and his brother Tom were just toddlers. Ed’s father had been a successful merchant and journalist before his untimely death at age 45. When the young boys lost their father, their 28 year old mother could not support them, so she and the boys moved into their Uncle John Grant and Aunt Mary Spivey Grant’s household in Windsor, North Carolina. Their mother never remarried and died eleven years later in 1899. Ed and Tom were barely teenagers. They helped their Uncle John by working as laborers on the family farm. When Ed turned 21 in 1906 he was eligible to receive the inheritance money his mother had left him. He received $700 (the equivalent in today’s dollars of about $19,500.) Ed used the money to travel to Europe. The more practical Tom used his to start a retail business. Ed was a shy man who hated having his picture taken. The picture of him at right is one of only a handful of him that exist. [Photo: John Edward Cobb, Sr. 1885] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5cff5ea9-5824-4daf-ac86-10f5f839a4ff/JEC+Sr+DRaft+Card+page+1.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - In the 1910 census Ed was single, 24 years old, living in a boarding house in Woodville, North Carolina and working as a salesman in a general store. His brother Tom was unemployed and living on a farm with another of their uncles, James W. Spivey Sr. James had been in business with their father, William, the year William unexpectedly died of pneumonia. In September of 1918 Ed registered for the World War I draft. He was never called up to duty most likely because his draft card said: “loss of left eye.” He listed his closest relative as Mrs. F. H. Garris (the married name for Florence Spivey, his mother’s sister). [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0422b344-d722-470e-a506-24ded42120a5/JEC+Sr+Draft+Card+page+2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6bd551b1-28cd-4374-a56f-6d05c96a3dab/JEC+Sr+1920+Census+.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - In the 1920 census Ed was single, 34 years old, and living in a boarding house in Island Creek in Duplin County, North Carolina, working as a clerk for Camp Manufacturing Company, a multi-state lumber enterprise. That year his brother Tom had moved in with his cousin Florence and her husband, Frank Garris. Tom was single, 31 years old and in the general merchandise business. Interestingly in the 1920 census, there was a man named Thomas Blount Ricks, Sr who was also living in Island Creek and working at the Camp Company sawmill. Thomas had a 16 year old daughter named Francis “Fannie” Ricks. Fannie was to become his future wife. [Photo: 1920 Census in Island Creek, South Carolina. Ed is on line 63] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/119c8291-6959-4831-900c-efade069f631/Run+on+a+bank+in+1933+Raleigh+Bank+%26+Trust.png Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - In August of 1922 Ed put an end to his boarding house life and married Fannie Ricks, who at eighteen years old, was half his age. The couple moved to Wallace, North Carolina where Ed managed one of the Camp Family company stores. There Fannie gave birth to their three children John Edward Cobb Jr (“Jack”) in 1924, Martha Langley in 1926 and Mary Ann in 1928. Jack was my father. The stock market crashed in 1929. It was the beginning of the Great Depression which brought nearly a decade of economic suffering and despair for many families. Although the logging industry was one of the industries that suffered the most during the depression, fortunately, Ed was able to maintain his employment. When the store in Wallace was closed Ed was transferred to Franklin, in Isle of Wight County, Virginia to manage the company store there. In the 1930 census Ed found himself once again living in a boarding house. He lived in Franklin, but his wife and children were not living with him. A year later he was transferred to Russellville, South Carolina to manage the mill store there and the family was reunited. His employer provided them with a modest company owned house to live in. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/780600c8-177c-4136-b066-5b225ad76cab/John+Edward+Cobb+Sr216.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - In 1937 Ed’s health began to fail. In the April 1940 census, the family was living together in a rented home in St. Stephens, four miles from Russellville. Ed had retired from the Camp Company and was employed as the local postmaster working 40 hours a week for $2,940 per year (the equivalent of $54,400 today) and while his industrious young wife Fannie worked 60 hours a week as a clerk in a retail grocery for $840 per year (worth $15,418 today). Jack was 16 and in his senior year of high school, his two sisters were 14 and 12, respectively. {Photo: Ed Cobb, date unknown] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/efbf4717-e36e-4bfa-bb00-18e54df60121/John+Edward+Cobb+Sr223.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - In May of 1940 Ed was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and four months later, just as his son Jack was about to attend The Citadel Military College, he was gone. In gratitude for his years of service to them, the Camp Brothers generously stepped in to help Ed’s 33 year old widow, Fannie, get set up in her own grocery business so she would be better able to support herself and her children. The Camp Family could afford to be generous. Camp Manufacturing Company was founded in 1887 by three Camp brothers who started their operations with the purchase of a small sawmill on the outskirts of Franklin, Virginia. The onset of World War I greatly increased demand for lumber and by 1918 “...tiny Franklin was a booming war time village.” Despite the depression, toward the end of the 1930s, the Company had been able to expand their operations into multiple states and added paper and pulp products to their portfolio. Had Ed been able to survive his illness he might have been able to achieve some financial security for his family. (By 1955 Camp Company annual sales reached $28 million. It eventually merged with another “timber tycoon” and in the 1990’s was eventually acquired by International Paper.) However, despite the help the Camp brothers provided in 1940, Fannie had to struggle to make ends meet. [Photo: The last known photo of Ed] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/483bcda9-14b0-4d41-a96c-8ee7929b7736/JEC+SR+Obit.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Sr. (1885-1940) - Ed’s obituary was very brief. Not too surprising, given that his early death must have created a great deal of uncertainty and angst for the family. However, I do find it odd that his wife and children were not mentioned. His life remains remains largely a mystery to me. After my father and mother were married in 1949 they went to visit the Camp family. Dad wanted to thank them for what they had done to help his mother in her time of need. My mother recalls being awe-struck by the Camp family’s grand home. It was the first time she had ever seen a private residence with an elevator and the house was filled with artifacts from their travels to Africa and other places around the world. [Photo: Ed Cobb’s Obituary 1940] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-bbx94 monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/38fd0584-7c6b-465d-b057-291573b1b4b4/Cotton+Mill+Workers.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Francis L. Ricks, known to those of us that loved her as “Fannie”, was born along with a twin sister, Sophie Louise, on August 4, 1904 in Washington, North Carolina. In 1910 she lived with her 39 year old father, Thomas Blount Ricks Sr, a lumber inspector in a mill owned by the Camp Manufacturing Company, her 33 year old mother, Margaret Little Langley and five siblings ranging in age from six months to thirteen years. Tragically, her mother died in 1916 when Fannie was only twelve years old. A year later in 1917 her father married a second time to Mattie Murray, a woman 21 years younger than he was. That year her oldest brother and sister left home. In the 1920 census, I was surprised to learn that at the tender age of 16, Fannie and her twin sister were living together in a boarding house in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina 140 miles from home. Fannie’s occupation was reported as “cotton mill operator.” Louise was not working, so possibly Fannie supported them both. Mill towns like Roanoke Rapids had sprung up all over North Carolina to meet the growing demand for cotton textiles. The mill workers were nicknamed “lint heads” because they had to dust themselves off before heading home. Life could not have been easy for the twins. It is not known when they left home to work in a factory or why. But it is telling that she never spoke about her childhood except to say she was a twin and had a younger brother named Tom. [Photo: Cotton Mill Operators in the 1920s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8b8713bb-0fd2-4827-8a52-a19f100cbecd/Fannie+Home+in+Wallace+NC.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Twelve days after her eighteenth birthday on August 16, 1922, Fannie married John Edward Cobb (“Ed”), a man nineteen years older than she was. Family legend has it that Fannie was a big flirt and that she captured Ed’s attention by throwing popcorn at him in a movie theatre. Ed, a long-time family friend, worked with her father at Camp Manufacturing Company. In the fall of 1922 her twin sister Louise also married an older man and sawmill employee, Luther Carl Williams, who was ten years older than she was. I hope both marriages were entered into for love and not for convenience. It’s hard to know. After they married, Fannie and Ed lived in a pleasant home in Wallace, North Carolina (population 650). This sleepy town is allegedly “home to the world’s largest strawberry exchange” and its annual strawberry festival was once honored with the presence of Eleanor Roosevelt. Today the town is still sleepy – boasting less than 4,000 residents. In this town, in the mid-1920s, Fannie gave birth to three children, John “Jack” Edward Jr (born 1924), Martha Langley (1926) and Mary Ann (1928). Jack was my father. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f5edd102-41a1-4262-9ba2-1f8c7ebcc1ed/Fannie+Ricks+with+children.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - The photo is such a jewel and foretells much about the family. Mary Ann’s face is lit up with an endearing smile. Her whole life she was a bright and cheerful person. Jack’s eyes are appear innocent but those eyebrows reveal his underlying mischievous nature. A cowlick just might pop up any out of his hair any second and he looks like he is ready to spring out of the chair. He became a man of action. Martha’s lips are turned down and her body language says she’s annoyed about something. As an adult she had strong opinions and never minced her words. At times it could be off-putting but on the whole I found her quite amusing. [Photo: Fannie and her three children, left to right Martha, Fannie, Jack and Mary Ann.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/21b7b156-b6e3-4d5b-8d5e-ad5ce41e23be/Fannie+home+in+Russelville%2C+SC.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - The Camp company mill store that Ed worked for was closed in 1929, and he was transferred on a temporary assignment to manage the company store in Franklin, Virginia, where the company had its headquarters. In the 1930 census Ed was living in a boarding house in Franklin, but his family was not living with him. Oddly, I was not able to find Fannie and their children in any of the 1930 census records. A year later the family moved to an obscure little town called Russellville when Fannie’s husband was re-assigned by the Camp family to manage their South Carolina based company store. The Company provided a house to the family as part of Ed’s compensation package. Their children attended grammar school just down the street from where they lived and were bussed four miles away for high school in St. Stephen. Today the town has less than 500 residents. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f8963121-a9f4-4130-9eee-6e5ef4392653/Home+in+St+Stephen+SC.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - In 1938, Ed retired from the Camp Company and the family moved to St. Stephen where he got a job as the Postmaster and Fannie worked as a grocery store clerk. In May of 1940, Ed was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Four months later in August, when his son Jack was about to start his first week of college at the Citadel, his father died. Fannie, widowed at the age of 33, was all alone with limited resources to support herself and her three teenaged children. After my father died, my mother told me that during that sad time Fannie had taken solace in the arms of a married man. Small towns cannot hold secrets, and societal pressure ended the relationship. Her children felt betrayed and humiliated by her behavior and it took years for them to forgive her. When I heard the story I was astonished because it seemed so out of character for this shy woman to step outside of norms. I was glad that Fannie had found refuge from the storm, however brief, and it added a new piece to the puzzle of her life. {Photo: The Cobb Family Home moved to this home in 1938 in St Stephen, South Carolina ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6f81d146-2b08-48ad-85e0-ac67f69a4f99/1940s+Fannie+155+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Always the determined diligent worker, with the help of Ed’s former employer, Camp’s Manufacturing Company, Fannie managed to start her own small general store business. Despite the fact that she never attended college, or perhaps because she hadn’t gone, she insisted all three of her children attend. Against her wishes, her daughter Mary Ann dropped out her freshman year to get married. Fannie forgave her and helped them make ends meet by providing them with groceries from her store. Her other two children went on to college and later got master’s degrees. [Photo: Fannie in the 1940s] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d5bee5e9-4d95-46bb-87ee-04e0b1ad295f/Fannie%27s+Store420.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - [Photo : Fannie’s Store, date unknown] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/99a411b5-989a-474f-873c-7094223067f6/Martha+Langley+Cobb.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Fannie’s first born child and only son, John Edward “Jack” Cobb, Jr was my father. His story is can be found be clicking the following link: Fannie’s second child, Martha Langley, married her brother’s best friend, Everett “Lash” Lashley. Jack and Lash were roommates at the Citadel, and after they served in World War II, attended graduate school together where they both majored in chemistry. Lash, the son of a postal worker, was raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Martha and Lash settled in Charleston West Virginia where Lash made his living as a chemist For DuPont. Martha obtained a master’s degree in sociology and was a social worker and truant officer for the public school system. Despite her humble beginnings Martha was a bit of a snob who never pulled punches with her opinions, but I found her frankness amusing. Lash was more laid back and had a jovial contagious laugh. They had three children, Elizabeth Ann, Lillian Louise and Thomas “Tommie” Marion and we would often get together with them for family beach vacations at Pawley’s Island in South Carolina when we were little. Martha and Lash bought a home in Beaufort, South Carolina with the intent of retiring there. Their West Virginia home was up for sale and a potential buyer was due the next day to take a second look at the house. That afternoon Lash went up a ladder and did some last minute painting on the house. That night, the day before his retirement was to begin, he had a heart attack in his sleep. Despite all those years of trudging up and down those West Virginia hills to work every day to stay fit, at the age of 58 he was gone, taking their retirement dreams with him. Martha moved to the house they bought together in Beaufort, got her real estate license and started a second career. Her home was a charming antique house that had been commandeered by Yankee officers during the civil war. She had a green thumb like her mother and surrounded her home with lovely gardens. Her daughter Lill contracted throat cancer and died in 2009. Martha died a year later at the age of 84. [Photo: Martha Langley Cobb (1826-2010), Fannie’s second child] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/00526441-14c4-422b-9e77-64cddb7720e6/Mary+Ann+Cobb.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Fannie’s third and last child, Mary Ann, created a big controversy when she dropped out of college and married John Salters Tuttle in 1947 and an even bigger hub bub when she got pregnant against the advice of her doctor who said her heart might not be able to take the strain. It could and she did. The resulting baby girl was named Frances “Frankie” Cecelia. Mary Ann went on to tempt fate again by getting pregnant a second time and gave birth to a baby boy named Edward “Eddie” William. Jack and Martha were terribly upset that Maryann risked her life to have children and blamed Salters. When Salters developed a drinking problem it further alienated him from his brother and sister in law, but Mary Ann clearly loved him and stuck by him. Frankie was the oldest of the Cobb family cousins and I was in awe of her because she was very pretty and talked about boyfriends when we went to our Pawley’s Island childhood family reunions. Salters worked for 34 years for the International Paper Company. Mary Ann was the department head of the Georgetown County Delinquent Tax Collectors Office and was a volunteer with Tidelands Community Hospice. She had the same sweet disposition all her life and was rarely without her trademark smile. She died of lung cancer in 2005 four months after her husband’s death. [Photo: Mary Ann Cobb (1928-2005, Fannie’s second daughter] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/14c3926d-5607-42e3-af85-25feca8fa520/Gone+Fishing396.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Fannie sold her business in 1948 and retired. In 1949 she married a second time to Lloyd N. “LN” Cooper whom I remember as a cranky man who didn’t care much for children and would disappear whenever we visited. He owned an equally cranky, diabetic Mexican Chihuahua who liked to drink coffee with milk and sugar for breakfast. I always wished Fannie had been able to find someone who was better company. [Photo: A rare smile from LN Cooper when he took my brother, Ed out fishing.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6b9a5d06-8839-4f5e-9c11-b49fc8638faf/Fannie+1957.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - When we would arrive at her house to visit, Grandma Fannie would always have a pot of boiled peanuts on the stove and a homemade German chocolate pound cake ready to be sliced. We liked to go out to eat fried catfish and hush puppies at the local restaurant. At night we’d listen to the sound of the crickets and the trains clanking down the tracks. Her well-tended garden boasted tall, elegant gladiolas. She had a little fishpond, and it became an inspiration for not only my father but also my brother and me. All three of us built a pond at our house later in life. Her sunporch was stacked high with dog eared home and garden magazines that smelled faintly of mildew. I poured over the magazines. It was the origin of my love for gardening. [Photo: Grandma Fannie 1957] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/48391a25-d62b-4781-90fa-5a17b8e097f4/1969+Amsterdam+509.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - When she would visit us at Christmas she loved to putter around the kitchen preparing delicious meals. She’d pull out a sewing kit and mend my father’s clothes. She liked to stay busy. She wasn’t much of a traveler but in 1969 she enthusiastically flew to Germany to spend six weeks touring Europe when my father was stationed there. When she was younger she had broken a leg, and it hadn’t healed quite right. She limped because one of her legs was shorter than the other, but she was determined to keep the pace with the rest of the family. [Photo: Grandma Fannie traveling in Europe with her family in 1969] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c2626a55-0a2c-4215-8533-ddd7353d3b2b/1981+Rose+Garden+Dedicated+to+Fannie706.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Fannie had such a sweet disposition. I don’t recall her ever speaking negatively about anyone. She was always smartly dressed. She was active in her community, an accomplished gardener who served on the local garden club. She loved flower arranging and her afternoon soap operas. Such a quiet gentle spirit. I wish I had asked more questions about her life. There is so much we do not know. I n 1979 a rose garden in St Stephen located next to Dolly’s Barber Shop was dedicated to her for all the projects she had undertaken to beautify the town over a 30 year period. One hundred and twenty five people turned out to attend the dedication. The newspaper article reported: “She’s been known to perform surprise inspections of local business. You can see her picking up trash along the sidewalks and working on one of the club’s project sites. if you have trouble sleeping and would like a good night’s sleep, volunteer to help her one day. You will be so tired from trying to keep up with her you’ll sleep like a baby.” [Photo: Fannie at the Rose Garden Dedication in 1979] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5b2af247-eef7-4a6a-827c-b0aaaae4447b/Fannie%27s+House+in+St+Stephen+SC148.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - Fannie died at the age of 77 very unexpectedly of stomach cancer. I went to visit with her in the spring of 1982. On the day I was scheduled to leave she said she wasn’t feeling very well and asked her friend to drive me back to the airport. She was hospitalized that day. I recall calling her and in her polite stoic fashion she said, “ I am feeling better today.” I sent her flowers and a get well card but when they arrived she had already passed away. I was stunned. The home Fannie lived in was part of the life estate belonging to her 2nd husband. My Aunt Martha swept in and hauled away all of Fannie’s beautiful azalea plants before the Cooper family could take back control of the property. [Photo: Fannie’s home in St Stephens, South Carolina that reverted back to her 2nd husband’s family.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c279a0d8-0fe0-40f9-879b-a07061bca396/Fannie+in+Yard.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Francis L. Ricks (1904-1982) - This is the last known picture of our beloved grandma Fannie which appeared in her obituary in the local newspaper. My father said this about her in his eulogy at her funeral: “My mother had ears that could really hear and eyes that could really see all the beauty that God provides. She had an imagination that could construct the perfect from a fragment. She was nearer to God’s heart in her garden than any other place on earth. She was a gifted person, unafraid of hard work. She worked most of her life. She was self educated. She taught herself to be a good clerk, a bookkeeper and store owner. From these labors she educated three children. She gave more than she received in return….” [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth-a5m8y monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c4bf6e4d-15e2-475c-bdbc-5c7b74bea783/Howard+Tillitt+as+a+young+boy100+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Durant Howard Tillitt, the eldest son of Gideon Marchant Tillitt and Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin, was born April 25, 1883. He was home schooled, then sent to Whitsett Institute, a private boarding school with nearly 300 students. Tuition for a full term was $20 and room and board cost $7.50 per month. The school’s marketing materials in 1899 seem amusing by today’s standards: “….students here are free from the dissipations and distracting influences of large cities. Magnificent groves of stately oaks, charming walks, ample athletic grounds, tennis courts, drives, etc. are here, for the school is fortunate in owning 150 acres of land. Vales decked in verdure and studded with wildflower – an educational home for students at once beautiful and healthful and delightful. Bar rooms are prohibited in the village and temptation to vice and dissipation do not exist. The moral and social atmosphere is pure…..It is almost absolutely free of malaria and fevers, etc. Students invariably improve their health while they are here.” [Photo: Howard Tillitt as a young boy] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dbf0aeec-a66c-4fb0-a170-496c77be40f4/Howard+Tillitt+025+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - [Photo: Howard at boarding school] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d5ba7754-e0bb-4348-8582-3c9ce195174d/Whitset+Institute135.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6a832943-93d5-4a80-8e6f-d9514fcc0846/Howard+in+Law+School220+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Howard attended law school at Wake Forest College where he graduated in 1909. Apparently most of his friends were medical students. In an amusing postcard he sent to his sister Bessie with his picture and five of his friends he scribbled on the back “ On this card are five doctors and one lawyer. They would have me in practice so as to give them legal advice.” [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d27f36d7-718f-486a-a089-d99767a3e71e/Durant+Howard+Tillitt.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Howard was actively involved in politics. During his lifetime, he was elected as State Representative from Camden County for five terms, served on the bench of the Camden County Court, was the chairman of the Cherokee County school board, the attorney for Cherokee County, and Mayor of Andrews, North Carolina. {Photo: Howard, exact date not known] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5e8a720c-c191-4381-9e4f-038cebccc139/War+Poster+WWII.jpeg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - During World War I he served as the County Food Commissioner, a post established by the United States Food Administration in 1917 to control the production, distribution and rationing of food to aid in the war effort. He was also chairman of many other organizations such as The Red Cross, the Liberty Loan Drive (the selling of bonds to support the allied cause --“Halt the Hun! Buy US Bonds!”), and the Four Minute Men (a group of volunteers who read short patriotic government prepared speeches in movie theatres during the four minutes it took to change the film reel.) [Photo: World War I War Poster] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6b0a4150-fc20-47f0-abfc-af7c19721276/Alice+Rodgers181+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Howard fell in love with a librarian at the Raleigh, North Carolina State Library named Alice Rodgers while he was in Raleigh representing Camden County in the state Legislature and they became engaged. However, she broke off the engagement and told him he would be happier with her sister, Rosa Judson. Alice introduced them and in 1921 Howard and Rosa were married. Alice attended the wedding but sadly, on October of 1921 she passed away. According to her death certificate she had been ill for three years before her death, but the actual cause was listed as “unknown.” It appears Alice was well aware of her failing health when she broke off the engagement. [Photo: Rosa’s sister Alice] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/89cfa309-f67d-46ca-b98c-fa6f70153878/1927+Bettie+Anna+with+parents.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Howard and Rosa settled into married life in Andrews, a small town tucked away in the far west corner of the mountains of North Carolina -- “elevation 2,000, population 2,000.” A newspaper article announcing his relocation reported: “D. Howard Tillitt, of Camden, has gone from his beloved Camden County to cast his lot among people of the hills, going into law practice in Andrews, North Carolina with C.C. Smathers, a young attorney of that place. He says he leaves Camden, the home of his childhood, because he thinks Andrews is just that much closer to heaven.” Rosa taught school until the birth of their daughter (my mother), Bettie Anna in 1927. Rosa objected to her husband’s political career, so they compromised, and he settled for managing the political campaigns of others. He was the western district manager for three successive governors. When he ran for Mayor in Andrews, Rosa claimed she voted for his opponent, but everyone knew it wasn’t true. [Photo: Howard and Rosa with Bettie Anna in 1928] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7d5aef89-e2f1-43fe-b11d-8ef2612e7297/DH+Tillitt+Home+in+Andrews%2C+NC.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - The family was well off compared to most of their neighbors. My mother recalled that they had a maid (who was paid $3 per week), a yard man and a laundry woman. When the great depression hit in 1929, my mother was sheltered from the brunt of the upheaval it caused others in the community. And yet, it must have had a lasting effect on my grandmother because as a child I remember she always set the table by tearing the paper napkins in half and leftover milk from breakfast cereal was put back in the fridge. [Photo: The family home in Andrews, North Carolina] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/eb659f78-c4db-4c64-bc26-e9c37b0bf17d/1937+Bettie+Anna+Age+10++Christmas+in+Cubs045.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - Despite how active Howard was in his business life, my mother recalls that every day on her way home from school she would stop in to visit him at his office, and he always dropped whatever he was doing to spend time with her. He unfailingly wore a hat to work – a fedora in winter and a hard flat top straw hat in the summer. In the 1930’s Rosa bought him a radio, and he took great pleasure in listening to baseball. One of Howard’s clients was in the railroad business and gave him free passes that he used to take the family on various train excursions. In 1936 he took the family on an overnight train trip to Miami where they caught a ferry to Havana, Cuba for Christmas. Down the street from their hotel Howard discovered an “all you can eat for 5 cents oyster stand.” He consumed so many oysters that he attracted a crowd, and the owner begged him to stop because he was losing so much money. [Photo: The family on their Cuban vacation in 1937] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1ef8566f-fb59-46a5-adfc-858329663522/DH+Tillitt+Obit+1940056+2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Durant Howard Tillitt (1883-1940) - One Friday night on April 13, 1940 Howard came home from work and complained that he was tired. After dinner, he sat down in his easy chair by the fireplace in the living room to chat with a friend. He reached for his pipe for his customary after dinner smoke and was filling the bowl when he slumped over in his chair. His heart stopped beating and moments later he was gone. His heart attack, despite being his second heart attack within the last year, stunned his wife and daughter. My mother was only 12 when it happened. Even into her nineties she referred to him as “my daddy” with a childlike quality to her voice as transported back in time. She said she felt close to him because when he died she was too young to think of him as anything but perfect. Howard was well loved by his community. According to a newspaper article “almost a truck load of flowers banked the grave”. He was remembered as “a kind, generous man always ready for a friendly chat or to help out a neighbor or friend.” In his will he left everything to his beloved wife Rosa, “who has been my chief source of comfort, support, cheer and affection and who has never failed me in any moment of darkness or joy” with the knowledge that she would take care of the daughter he had loved so much. [Photo: From local newspaper reporting his death] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-ashth monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ee772b07-07cc-4977-8aa0-fe094d6b9704/1895+Rosa+Age+2+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Rosa Judson Rodgers, the daughter of Dr. Charles Weldon Rodgers and Anna Leticia Hearne was born in Como, Tennessee on May 20, 1893. She was named after her mother’s sisters, Rosa Carlton and Effie Judson. When she was a young girl, a boy had a crush on her and showed his affection by dipping her long strawberry blond pigtails in the ink well on his desk. He also gave her a paper ring from an RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company cigar because it had her initials on it “RJR”. Her father didn’t think girls needed to go to college, so with single minded determination, Rosa paid her way through both an undergraduate and graduate degree at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee (now part of Vanderbilt University). She had a summer teaching job at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she graded student papers on the Mississippi River ferry to catch the breezes and stay cool. She taught elementary school in Mackenzie, Tennessee (5th and 6th grade) and later in Paris Tennessee (3rd grade) followed by a two year position at Peabody College helping to train other would be teachers. After completing her undergraduate degree in 1919 at the age of 26 she attained a supervisor position in the education system in Montgomery, Alabama. No small feat given the times she lived in. [Photo: Rosa Judson Rodgers Age 2 1895] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/04109909-4cdd-4259-9939-98168d27a490/Peabody+College+for+Teachers+in+Nashville+in+1909.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - The view up until the early 1900s was that women were not capable of advanced education and that the “strains of collegiate life” could harm a woman’s health. Why waste resources on women if they were only going to stay in their “natural sphere” and stay home and raise babies? In 1900 barely 2.8% of U.S. females attended college. Only the “wealthy and favored few” attended colleges. Rosa was neither wealthy nor favored, she was just drawn to learning and wanted a career. Eleanor Roosevelt’s mother once remarked that “women who went to college were very apt to be old maids and become book worms – a dire threat to any girl’s chance of attracting a husband.” Yet, Eleanor grew up to become one of the most influential and beloved First Ladies and female leaders of the 20th century. I’ve often wondered who Rosa’s role model was. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/976b4a67-e825-4a88-a36b-a3b6d4dba737/photo-0824-2020-women-voting-poster-2.png Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - By 1920 the number of women attending college at risen to a mere 7%. In August of that year, women after decades of struggle, were finally given the right to vote. Although in some places in America the “roaring twenties” were in full swing – illegal alcohol, bobbed hair, short dresses and the new dance craze “the Charleston” - people in small town America did not participate in this lifestyle. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/92289999-d893-4abd-b2a7-d95dac4c7c29/1921+Rosa+and+Howard.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Rosa met and married a man who was an equal to her intellectually and supported her need to have a career. His name was Durant Howard Tillitt. They married in 1921, honeymooned in Niagara Falls and settled into married life in a quiet little town, Andrews, in the mountainous western corner of North Carolina. Howard opened his legal practice and was actively involved in politics. {Photo: Rosa and Howard in 1921] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/da861ff4-b0df-45e0-aae9-757a2ed323fd/1927+Bettie+5+months+old+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) [Photo: Rosa, Howard and Bettie Anna in 1927] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/681e3c18-ad01-4d54-92f5-846715aa4328/1928+Rosa++and+9+month+old+Bettie+Anna+++%28v2%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) Rosa got a job teaching 5th grade at the elementary school where she continued to work until she gave birth to their only child, Bettie Anna (my mother) in 1927. Rosa wanted more children but her husband, who was 10 years older than she was, felt he was too old to have any more. [Photo: Rosa with Bettie Anna in 1828] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/95decb82-8853-4a68-950e-2bf09f496aad/RCA+TV+at+the+NY+Worlds+Fair.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - When their daughter started school, Rosa went back to work teaching – this time for 7th graders. Three years later in 1936 she became principal of the Andrews Elementary School. Her world changed on April 13, 1940 when her beloved Howard died suddenly one evening of a heart attack. Rosa laid off her live-in maid, took in boarders and rented two rooms in the house to help make ends meet. The family had planned to take a trip to the World’s Fair in New York that summer and Rosa decided to attend, despite the tragedy that had occurred. My mother recalls that even though Europe was embroiled in war, they were surprised to discover France and Germany had a pavilion side by side at the Fair. At the Fair they were astonished to see an exciting new invention: the television! [Photo: RCA Television at the World’s Fair in NY] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/714de94d-3526-40a5-815e-ed3a6219f4e4/1944+Bettie+High+School++Grad+with+Rosa+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - In 1942, Rosa with her daughter Bettie Anna in tow, went to Nashville to attend summer school to complete her final work on her master’s degree at Peabody College. While there, Rosa rekindled a relationship with an old high school beau, Charlie Witherspoon. Charlie was a widower who was living with his son and his sister-in-law. The sister-in-law was dead set against the romance and threatened to have his son’s inheritance cut off unless Charlie ended his relationship with Rosa. The threat nipped their relationship in the bud. When Rosa returned to Andrews, the superintendent of schools was jealous of her, and convinced himself she was out to get his job. He convinced the School Board that the two of them could not work together and he had her fired -- something he would never have got away with when Rosa’s husband, the Mayor of the town, was still alive. Undaunted, in 1943 she landed a job as Supervisor in the City School system in Statesville, North Carolina. The only home that Bettie Anna had ever known was sold and the family moved into a small two bedroom apartment on 118 Mulberry Street. Rosa slept on the couch in the living room so her mother and daughter could have their own rooms. Her daughter Bettie Anna graduated from high school in Statesville in 1944. [Photo: Rosa and Bettie Anna on high school graduation day] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/18e19ef6-c8e8-4408-bcc4-bb664cc97f19/Rosa+Tillitt%27s+Home+in+Durham%2C+NC.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Four years later in 1947 Rosa got a break and was given an exciting job opportunity as Director of Elementary Instruction working for the Superintendent of Schools in Durham, North Carolina. With the generous help from her brother Gordon, she purchased a charming home in Durham where she lived for the rest of her life. [Photo: Rosa’ home at 1410 Magnum Street in Durham, North Carolina] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/50a2d1ac-4616-45d1-b8f1-294a765a062c/Ralph421+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - In the early 1950s Rosa took in a boarder named Ralph Reins who lived for many years in her spare bedroom. He had studied design at NC State University and Richmond Professional Institute and was employed as a graphic artist for various commercial businesses. They became the best of friends, and she was heartbroken when he moved out (while she was traveling so he would not have to face her!) in 1959. They remained friends for nearly 40 years. Ralph was strikingly handsome with a heart of gold, and we all adored him. I decided at a very young age that when I grew up I wanted to marry him. He was my first crush. After he moved out, he lived in a house with a male housemate named Mack. Their home was filled with wonderful art and their landscaping was a lush magazine-worthy treasure with secret nooks and crannies and hammocks. It was an inspiration for my young mind. In the 1980s Mack came down with a strange blood disorder of unknown origin and died. In August of 1991 Ralph sat in a chair in his beautiful garden, stuck a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He died instantly. The pieces fell together, and it dawned on us that Ralph was gay, that he too must have contracted AIDS (the strange disease that finally had a name), that he had seen what it could do to his lover and decided not to go down that road himself. [Photo: The charming and handsome Ralph Reins, my first crush] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b9279a75-1513-49de-9804-056b0d07b520/Rosa+Passport+2+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Rosa traveled all over the world bringing home artifacts and costumes and prepared slide shows to share with civic clubs and church groups. She believed that laughter was the common bond among people. “I have rarely met anyone, anywhere I have ever been, that wouldn’t smile if I smiled at them.” One time she flew to London and took a voyage on a Dutch cargo ship all the way around the tip of Africa and back up again through the Suez Canal and back to London. One woman in the audience at one of her lectures said she wanted to go to Africa, but she wasn’t interested in the people, or the animals and my grandmother responded: “Well, then why on earth would you want to go?” It was unusual for women of her era to travel unaccompanied around the world. The passport issued to her in 1953 had her name followed by the words “…the bearer is accompanied by his wife xxx and his minor children xxx, xxx.” America was just not prepared for women like Rosa. [Photo: Rosa’s 1953 passport] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3adfdc0f-0ae8-42f1-a485-ed4d7aa1f504/1955+Rosa++Reads+to+her+Grandchildren060+%283%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Rosa had a hearty infectious laugh and was well loved for her story telling by children’s groups and adults alike. She was widely known as the “Story Lady” in Durham because of the delightful fables and children’s stories she shared with the children all over the City. As children we rocked on the glider on her front porch on hot summer nights and were mesmerized by her stories and colorful accents, particularly the stories about “Brer Rabbit.” Her home was chalk full of wooden African carvings and masks, Japanese dolls in glass boxes, costumes, hand painted Asian plates and other goodies from her travels. She set up her slide projector in the dining room and we gazed wide eyed at pictures of her adventures. I particularly remember one picture of her standing next to an ant hill in Africa that was taller than she was. Very few women in her time would have embarked on such journeys. Hands down had the most amazing grandmother ever. [Photo: Out favorite place in Grandma’s house, her lap at story time. Photo taken of Rosa with her granddaughters in 1955.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/57742a7d-5e33-4a94-abe5-6a6c7e5e75b7/Rosa+Judson+RodgersTillitt+in+the+News898.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - If you take the time to read this glowing newspaper article written about Rosa in 1956, you’ll understand why this remarkable woman was beloved by her family and her community. [Photo: Newspaper article featuring Rosa in 1956.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d5f1f6d6-cdff-4bed-8682-be1ce38b162d/1960+Rosa+Judson+Tillitt034+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - Her bookshelves were loaded with age appropriate children’s books each time we visited. She had a chest with tiny drawers filled with brightly colored beads that she used for making her dolls and intricate beaded stuffed animals that were sold in local gift shops. She had stacks of sketch books around the house in which she drew pictures of eyes and noses and ears. We’d dangle yarn off the porch to play with a feral cat named Mustard. She’d give us empty spools with bowls of soap detergent and water, and we’d cover her porch and sidewalk with bubbles. We’d walk down the honeysuckled lined street down to the park to play on the swings and the merry-go-round. We’d catch lightening bugs in her front yard at night and make homes for them in glass jars. She’d make what came to be known as the “Grandma breakfast” – scrambled eggs, bacon, grits and thin sliced toast slathered in apple butter. The bread was sliced very thin and broiled so it was deliciously crispy. Her other claim to fame was a delicious homemade vegetable soup but other than that, this career women had never really learned to cook and fed us mostly take out dinners (yummy Brunswick stew!) when we would visit. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/66af715f-46f3-4c11-8df4-e78cb0637195/1964+Rosa+and+Bill+Taylor+Wedding419.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Rosa Judson Rodgers (1893-1967) - I adored her – as the middle child in the family I always felt somewhat neglected – but she always made me feel special. She once told me never to worry because like me, the best gifts came in small packages. In the early 60’s she wanted me to take a river boat trip down the Mississippi river with her, but I was busy in my pre-adolescent world by then and turned her down. It was a decision that I have always regretted. Not only did she love crossword puzzles she was also skilled at creating them. She had chess boards all over the house and would play chess by mail with various people, each letter indicating the next move the player wanted to make. She married one of her chess partners in June of 1964, William Whigham Taylor, a retired professor from Florida, in the hopes of having a travel companion. Unfortunately, he became ill, and she spent much of their short marriage taking care of him until his death from a stroke in February of 1967. Five months later, Rosa became ill as well and died after several weeks in the hospital of kidney failure. The doctor told my mother that Rosa’s disease was terminal, but Mom chose not to tell her because she didn’t want to upset her in her final days. Rosa was so admired that even though she had been retired for eleven years, Durham city schoolteachers, principals and office personnel of the city schools all served as honorary pall bearers at her funeral. The Story Lady was gone forever, but certainly not forgotten! [Photo: Rosa marries Bill Taylor in her home with her family in 1964] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1764358672879-QEJSHZV2UZ9941R1T3D9/1927+Jack+Age+3193.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - John (“Jack”) Edward Cobb, Jr, the son of John Edward Cobb, Sr and Francis L Ricks, was born on January 7, 1924 in Wallace, North Carolina. As the first born child and only son, he was a shoo-in for favorite child status in the family. Neither of his parents had a college degree, and they never owned their home, but they both worked hard to provide for Jack and his two sisters, Martha and Mary Ann. When the company store his father managed was closed down in 1928, the family moved further south to another small town called Russellville, in South Carolina. Jack had a goat drawn cart that he loved to ride and spent much of his youth with a fishing pole in his hand. As an industrious elementary schooler, he could be seen around town peddling peanuts to make a little money. He briefly fell from grace when he was caught with his pants down relieving himself after stealing a watermelon from a local farmer. [Photo: John Edward Cobb, Jr Age 3 in 1927] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c046215e-34ea-4ce7-b9ca-4dc08ac38699/Jack+Cobb+High+School+Graduation+1940+cropped.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - As a teenager Jack worked at one of the sawmills owned by his father’s boss. In January of 1940 he celebrated his seventeenth birthday. Four months later in May, his father was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. In June, Paris fell to the German army and Auschwitz took its first prisoners. That September Jack was scheduled to attend The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Sadly, his father did not live long enough to see his son step onto the campus to don his cadet uniform. His determined mother had no intention of letting this unfortunate turn of events prevent her son (or later her daughters) from going to college. Jack settled into college life and struggled with his chosen field of study, chemistry. Fifteen months later, in December of 1941, the Japanese dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor. America was at war. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ded9a0c5-9367-4463-a78c-9dd871a052e2/Lt+Jack+Cobb+1946.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - College life was short lived. In the spring of his junior year, in 1943, the entire class of ‘44 was called to active duty. The President of the college objected because he felt the cadets should be allowed to finish their military training, but the government was desperate for junior officers and ignored his pleas. Jack, along with his classmates, were sent to “90 day wonder” officer candidate school and emerged as 2nd lieutenants. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b900a6ab-f081-47c0-8c70-44a706a60869/Lt+Jack+Cobb+-a+shave+and+a+hot+meal+before+crossing+the+Rhine+March+1945.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Jack landed at Omaha Beach in 1944 as part of the 84th Infantry Division. Thirteen men from the Citadel lost their lives on that blood stained beach. Fortunately, my father was not among them. His group was one of the last Divisions to land but the first Division to march to the Elbe River, near Berlin, where the American and Russian armies converged to launch the final mortal blow to Germany. {Photo: Lt Jack Cobb, lower left, “a shave and a hot meal” and ready to cross the Rhine River in 1945] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/05dae342-b52f-4637-b5a2-df491164de46/Battle+of+the+Bulge.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Jack served as a rifle platoon leader in three campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, where in the bitter cold winter in December of 1944 Adolf Hitler launched his last great offensive action of the war. The Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II. Jack received two purple hearts for wounds he received during battle - one in the arm at the Bulge in Belgium in January 1945 and one to the neck while leading his platoon across the Elbe River in April 1945. The American army swept in from the West and the Red Army advanced from the East and combined forces to crush the German capital in Berlin. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. [Photo: The Battle of the Bulge 1944-1945] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/0d95ef6d-b76c-4be3-b7d5-0c54e2b7b960/1945+August+Jack+standing+in+front+of+what%27s+left+of+Hitler%27s+Home+The+Eagles+Nest191+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - In February of 1946 Jack was assigned to the office of the judge advocate division in Germany to assist in the investigation of war crimes. He was released from service in September of 1946 and returned as a veteran student with the remnants of the rest of the class of ’44 to complete his college degree. Losses to this class of students were among the highest of any class in the history of the Citadel, whose cadets fired the cannon that started the Civil War. Jack brought back souvenirs from the war – a Nazi flag, a set of antique dueling pistols that he “liberated” from a German soldier, and an intense pride that he had served his country in its time of need. General Douglas MacArthur said it best: “Duty. Honor. Country. Those hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are the rallying point to build courage, when courage seems to fail, to gain faith when there seems little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.” [Photo: Jack standing in front of the ruins of Hitler’s home after the war] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c2c459a2-3b85-4299-80ba-79a77bfb2207/1947+Citadel+Graduation+as+a+Veteran177.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - During World War II to remind men what they were fighting for, servicemen hung up postcards of “pin up girls” like Betty Grable and Jane Russell on their walls. As a lark a small women’s college in South Carolina held a “pin up man” contest in February of 1947. All of the contestants were war veterans. In a yellowed newspaper clipping stuffed in a box of mementoes I stumbled on a newspaper article announcing that Jack Cobb, then a senior at the Citadel, had been the third place winner in this contest. The article quoted Jack as saying he liked to travel (an odd choice as his only travel at that point had been while fighting in the war), that he liked to rhumba (if you had ever seen him dance you would know this could not possibly be true) and that he was 5 feet eleven inches tall (more than three inches taller then he actually was). Dad always had a great sense of humor. He was nominated by a young woman who said he was “just plain good looking and had a brain to go with it.” [Photo: Jack Cobb’s College Graduation 1947] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b79dc10b-8a72-466d-acff-4fc897ae9b6c/1948+Charles+James+Hall+of+Chemistry+178.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Jack went on to get his master’s degree in organic chemistry at the University of New Hampshire. His best buddy from the battlefields of Europe, Everett Lashley, was also a student there. Jack invited his sister Martha to New Hampshire on a ski trip and introduced the two of them. Sparks flew and later the two got married. I’m guessing he thought the pipe was chick magnet. (He was probably right.) [Photo: Jack in front to the Charles James Hall of Chemistry at UNH in 1948] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b9e355b9-966e-483e-9deb-9cca2925ffe2/1949+The+Newly+Weds226.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - After he graduated in 1948, Jack landed a job as a technical rep for the Du Pont Company in Wilmington, Delaware where he fell head over heels for a beautiful 21 year old lab technician, Bettie Anna Tillitt, who succumbed to his charms. At the age of 25 on June 11, 1949 he married her, and the couple moved into a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of town. It was here they bought a boxer named Champ. Champ became so attached to Jack that when they went to the beach, Champ would become agitated and try to “rescue” Jack by dragging him out of the ocean by his bathing trunks. [Photo The newly weds in 1949] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f9193e81-0991-4db5-97ac-088cd72b8ec1/1951+Kathy+Edgewood+MD230.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - With two salaries Jack and Bettie were able to afford a three bedroom house in New Castle, Delaware and their first child, Katharine, was born there in February of 1951. She was named after one of Jack’s old girlfriends. Bettie was so non-confrontational she didn’t object. [Photo: Bettie with daughter Kathy in 1951] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/a632db35-b59d-43a5-8e1f-523cd2b17896/1952+Patty+in+Florida+with+Rosa234.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Shortly after Jack was called into active duty and together they began the nomadic life of a military family. First to Fort McNair in DC, then on to Maryland and in 1952 to Fort McClellan, Alabama, where their second child, Patricia, was born. In August of 1954 Jack was assigned to the post war clean-up effort in Korea. [Photo New baby Patricia with Kathy, Bettie and Grandma Rosa Tillitt.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f3e5d421-ad76-4552-96bd-937347ea216b/1954+Dec+18+Pusan+Korea546.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Although it was never officially declared a war, the “conflict” was very destructive. According to some reports, 25% of the pre-war population of North Korea was wiped out during the conflict. The ceasefire was signed in 1952, but it took a year for the American troops to be withdrawn. The aftermath was a hell hole for both sides of the divided country. When Jack boarded the plane for his Korean tour of duty, his pregnant wife and two daughters moved in with his mother-in-law in Durham, North Carolina. The Red Cross tracked him down to notify him that his wife gave birth to their son, John Edward “Eddie” Cobb, III. After a miserable year in Korea, Jack was given a more rewarding tour in Japan where his family was allowed to join him. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/86cbacea-285d-4c45-9c32-ae16b613905a/1956++Tokyo293.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Despite the devastating war that Japan had endured, by 1956 they were remarkably friendly and welcoming to westerners. [Photo: Jack in 1956 with daughter Patty and two Japanese women who, much to her dismay, were fascinated by her blond hair and ruffly underwear. ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/82c28149-500c-4285-abd1-0010d3a19617/1956++Tokyo300.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - The family lived frugally on his meager military salary but compared to most of Japan they lived in “high cotton.” [Photo: Family photo in front of their humble abode] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f2c78572-1c2f-4906-8ec9-57bf542405a9/Jack+Cobb+with+daughters+1957.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) After Japan, Jack was then transferred to San Marcus Texas to attend flight school where he learned to fly to supplement his family’s income. [Photo: Jack with his daughters in 1957 in San Marcus Texas] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dd9d8644-f4eb-4aaf-bba0-e823d9ee719c/Paratroopers.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - In October of 1957, the family loaded up their belongings once again and trailed behind Jack to transportation school in Fort Eustis Virginia, then off to St Louis Missouri, Fort Leavenworth Kansas, back to Fort Eustis, off to the rigorous parachute jump school in Fort Benning Georgia, and then helicopter school in Mineral Wells Texas. Jack had a second assignment in Korea and then rejoined his family in Alexandria Virginia to serve at the Pentagon. While at the Pentagon he would periodically disappear to work in an undisclosed location mysteriously he called “under the rock.” Much later when the spot was declassified, I learned it was a secret supersized 113,000 square foot bunker carved deep into the mountainside beneath a famous West Virginia spa resort. It served as a cold war fallout center for top military operations and Members of Congress. I chuckled to learn the location was exposed after three decades by the Washington Post (of course) and is now (don’t you just love America) a tourist attraction. [Photo: Paratroopers take the plunge] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3e2962c7-1d10-4cf2-8b6d-2145be665012/1967+Vietnam555.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - In 1967, Jack was assigned as the Commander of the Army’s First Seaborne Battalion and Facilities Commander of the USNS Corpus Christi Bay, an aircraft carrier positioned in the waters near Saigon during the Vietnam War. There he witnessed the Tet Offensive (a series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam.) His anxious wife was left at home to manage life with three teenaged children. She had reason to be nervous - while in Vietnam he received an air medal for participating in over 25 aerial missions over hostile territory. [Photo: Far right - Jack on his aircraft carrier in Vietnam in 1967 ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/56eb2903-5a12-4bae-b956-1537452dea4b/1968+Berlin490.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - In 1968, he was rewarded for his contributions with a choice assignment in Heidelberg, Germany, the US military headquarters for Europe. There his teenaged children enjoyed travel most Americans never have the opportunity to experience and much to my astonishment for the first time the thrill of living in a place with no drinking age. His last assignment was back at the Pentagon as Assistant Director of the National Military Command Center and Senior Logistician. Somehow, amidst all the chaos of military travel, when we were young he’d somehow manage to find a way to get our family together for beach vacations in South Carolina. [Photo: Bettie, Jack, Patty and Kathy in center row in Berlin Germany in 1968] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7627c9e1-c010-459c-b0af-a6f14a3ee772/1975+Dad+on+a+Camel+in+Eqypt141.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Dad retired from military life as a full Colonel at the age of 55 in 1974. He filled his passport with stamps from all the exotic places he and Mom visited. He built a nice home on a steep hill on Tatum Drive with a swimming pool overlooking, much to his delight, a retired army general’s house. His neighborhood contained many other retired officers who formed, not surprisingly, a well-run neighborhood watch program complete with roving cars and a radio command center. He did volunteer work for “meals on wheels” and was an avid tennis player. He was wild about Redskin football games and would sit in his reclining leather chair with a redskin hat on cheering them on in a booming voice even if he were alone in the room. You could always tell which packages under the Christmas tree were from him because they often were held together with electrical tape. He wrote a series of books on his family genealogy, a how to book to help others to do the same thing and a fictional novel based on his experiences in World War II called ”War Class”. He built a small fishpond in the back yard where he joyfully fed his goldfish. He bought a condo at the Isle of Palms near his beloved Citadel College in Charleston, South Carolina to act as a magnet to reel us all back in for family vacations. [Photo: Jack on a camel in Egypt in 1975] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6c3d78eb-250a-4756-b632-0ac1a000ad08/1972+Christmas579.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - The family would erupt in heated political discussions over family dinners – father and son with staunch conservative views clashing with his oldest daughter and son-in-law with equaling intense liberal views. As a conflict averse middle child, I would wander off to the kitchen to clean dishes rather than participate in a senseless political fray that would never be resolved. No one on either side would ever be able to give an inch on their position. Despite our political differences, we all loved him dearly. His “work hard, save your money” ethic and his sense of honor were ingrained in each of us, and we were made better human beings because of it. Once he returned from vacation and thought the family silverware had been stolen. He filed an insurance claim and was paid. Two years later he found where the “stolen” silver in the house. He had hidden it to prevent its theft, only to forget he had done so. He sent the insurance company an apologetic letter and repaid them in full. [Photo: Dad Christmas 1975] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/354c1529-5343-406f-bd6c-37fbf532758c/1977+Citadel+Graduation654+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - It wasn’t his nature to openly share the love he felt for his children. It wasn’t what his generation did. He never uttered the words “I love you” out loud, which made those rare letters he’d write with the coveted “Love Dad” at the end so very special. The wall in his office at home displayed framed photographs, awards and newspaper articles written about his three children. Kathy getting her law school degree. Me receiving an award for civic service from the governor of New Hampshire. Ed shaking hands with Dad as he received his Citadel diploma. He called it the “wall of fame”. It was his way of sharing the great pride he felt but couldn’t articulate. [Photo: Dad and Ed at his Citadel Graduation 1977] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/52bb2f81-1fd8-4eac-b7f4-1b2f4163951b/1982+Paris714+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Make it stand out [Photo: Dad pretending he’s French in Paris in 1982] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b39accfd-f35c-4b21-a9b2-2d485117dd21/1981+Venice712.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) [Photo: Dad in Venice 1981] In the 1980’s Mom and Dad continued their treks all around the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d69df8d8-70b6-4bdd-b54e-91d10b114bd7/1987+Dad+being+Goofy+in+Europe891.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Make it stand out Photo: Dad being goofy in Europe in 1987 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2500caf6-eac6-492a-86cc-08e3c0513edb/1993+Halloween443.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - As he got older, the Colonel mellowed, the stress of work was behind him, he let go his authoritarian façade and his playful side emerged in full force. He’d don a witch costume at Halloween so he could greet neighborhood kids at the door with candy. He adored his grandchildren - he’d feign terror at the sight of a small stuffed gorilla and let them chase him around the house with it, he’d practiced ballet steps with my daughter and tolerated their raucous banging on the piano. Once he put a small saddle on his back and played bucking bronco with my young son and when his false teeth fell out mid buck we all laughed hysterically. He’d put big bright multi-colored tacky lights on his shrubs at Christmas because he knew the neighbors preferred the tasteful, tiny white ones. [Photo: Dad dressed as a witch on Halloween] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/37393480-e34f-4d39-b0f7-e8ece1da9f77/1997+Lindsay+goes+to+Mediterranean+Venice715.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Lindsay in Italy in 1997. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e987fc1b-e87b-49a7-a741-c479f585a5fa/1999+Tyler+in+London+Tower+of+London668.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Tyler in London in 1999 Mom and Dad took their three oldest grandchildren to Europe to experience life beyond the American shoreline. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/06431e6c-4ded-4705-85da-f36c8a99b9a3/2001+June+Ann%27s+Cruise+in+the+Mediterranean++Ephesus594.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Anna at Ephesus in 2001 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d1114571-7f7f-42b1-991c-6bebbfd774b3/Top+of+the+Hill+at+Taum+Drive199.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - John Edward Cobb, Jr. (1924-2003) - Dad died at the age of 79 on June 17, 2003. He was buried in Arlington Cemetery in a moving ceremony with a 21 gun salute, a haunting taps bugle melody only a military bugler gives true justice to, a precision folded American flag, and a well-deserved thank you for “his honorable and faithful service on behalf of a grateful nation”. He was gone but his spirit lives on in each of his children. One of his favorite expressions was “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” We took this to heart. We are all overachievers with master’s degrees and successful careers. We are a hardy bunch, made stronger by the mercurial road trip of military life. We have all been involved in civic service. His legacy to us is a strong moral compass, a deep-rooted love of nature and a wanderlust to explore new places. [Photo: From humble beginning to the top of the Hill at his home on Tatum Drive.] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-grandparents-grandparents-parents/caldwell-and-rodgers-family-history-7jngl-r474j monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7f8bf131-2ca6-4fd0-a834-4c8c4b2ff871/Bettie+Anna+Tillitt+Age+3.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Bettie Anna Tillitt, the only child of Durant Howard Tillitt and Rosa Judson Rodgers, was born in the spare room of their family home on the 17th day of the 7th month in the year 1927 in Andrews, North Carolina, a quiet town in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Her mother was 34 years old, and her father was 44. She was named for her father’s mother, Bettie Ferebee Sanderlin, and her mother’s mother, Anna Leticia Hearne. Her mother wanted more children, but her father felt he was too old to add to their family. Bettie Anna enjoyed a privileged life. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was an attorney and the mayor of the town. The family had a maid, who also functioned as a nanny, a yard man and a laundry woman. Bettie Anna recalled that there was one family who was better off than they were – she knew this to be the case because they had a “powder room” in their house whereas Bettie Anna’s house only had one bathroom and that family’s maid wore a uniform and theirs did not. In exchange for her services the maid was paid a whopping $3 per week. [Photo: Bettie Anna Tillitt Age 3 1930] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/3ba318bb-7a1f-41ae-8970-328c90e2df03/Bettie+Anna+Tillitt+with+Dolls+1934.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - When Bettie Anna entered first grade the country was under the dark grip of the Great Depression – kindergarten and 12th grade was eliminated and the school year was cut down from nine months to eight. But for the most part she was not directly impacted by the economic slowdown. The summer after her first year of school, she took a train ride alone to visit her mother who was teaching summer school in Cullowee, North Carolina. Her father pinned her destination on her dress, but she took it off after she boarded the train because: “I knew where I was going!” One of her favorite past times was the Little Orphan Annie radio show and in the evenings the Amos and Andy show. Despite its small population (less than 2,000 people) the town had a movie theatre and Bettie Anna and her friends shelled out ten cents each for a chance to watch Shirley Temple movies. The town had a public cement swimming pool that had wood around the edges. It leaked and had to be refilled often. Bettie Anna didn’t use the pool very often because she spent her summers with her Aunt Bess splashing around in the river behind Bess’s house. Visits with Aunt Bess were a blast because they tooled around town in Bess’s rickety old Model T Ford, went shopping, called on friends, went to the beach, and had their hair done at the beauty parlor. Life with Bess was full of laughter. [Photo: Jack at High School Graduation 1940] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d6169e2e-388b-4cba-804e-42d2ec9f7011/Bettie+Anna+Tillitt+Cuba+Christmas+1937+-+Copy.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - In the mid 1930’s her father worked on the successful democratic North Carolina gubernatorial campaign committee for Clyde R. Hoey and Bettie Anna remembers being present at one of Franklin Roosevelt’s speeches. She was thrilled when Hoey won because she got to attend the inauguration and her mother let her wear knee socks instead of the long cotton tights she hated. When she was nine years old Bettie Anna accompanied her parents on a trip to Havana, Cuba --her first trip to a foreign country. She was awed by the luxury of traveling in the Pullman car where the dining car boasted china, linen, crystal and finger bowls with floating lemon slices. During her ride through Florida she saw groves of orange trees and date nut palms for the first time. Her father hired a taxi driver who took them around Cuba to see the sights every morning, and at night they sat on the terrace of their hotel and listened to an all-girl orchestra. Bettie Anna developed a crush on the shoeshine boy that polished her father’s shoes, and she dreamed that one day she would return to Cuba and play in the band while the shoeshine boy watched and listened. [Photo: The Handsome Lieutenant Jack Cobb https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b9290024-06a9-422d-baa0-98b4ae5a7fea/Bettie+as+a+Young+Girl+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - When Bettie Anna was fourteen she went with her mother to Nashville, Tennessee where her mother attended summer school to complete her master’s degree. When her mother reunited with an old boyfriend, Bettie Anna was thrilled at the prospect of having a “new daddy” but unfortunately the relationship did not last the summer. One day in 1941 as Bettie Anna and her mother were walking home from church, Doc Davis, the town’s pharmacist rushed out of his store to tell them some terrible news: Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. None of them had any idea where Pearl Harbor was. The next day they tuned in to the radio to hear President Roosevelt’s famous “Day of Infamy” speech. The small town of Andrews took this unfolding of events very seriously. They had air raid drills at which time everyone had to close their curtains to black out the lights so the Germans could not find them if they flew over. Gas was rationed, and so were sugar and shoes. Skirts were shortened so material could be used for uniforms, nylon stockings were impossible to get so women used eyeliner pencils to draw lines down their legs to mimic the look of the real thing. {Photo: Bettie Anna as a young teenager] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/26465f02-017d-487f-8ff0-8ee68f9877b6/1944+College+boyfriend+is+Lonnie+Turnipseed.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Bettie Anna had a high school boyfriend named Lonnie Turnipseed, and as a token of his affection he gave her his ID bracelet (all the boys had them and all the girls wanted one). Lonnie visited Mexico and bought her black market stockings, but they were mismatched and didn’t fit right. When he graduated he went off to join the navy. His first paycheck was $3, and he gave one dollar of it to his mother and one dollar to Bettie Anna. On Bettie Anna’s dollar bill he signed “Love Lonnie”. Later in life, Lonnie became a missionary in Hong Kong. In 1945, the year the Japanese surrendered, Bettie Anna started college. Her mother had to drop her off at college one day early because of a work commitment (her job always came first, lamented her daughter). To compensate for not being there when all the other mothers arrived, she bought Bettie Anna a much coveted pair of slippers. Bettie Anna wanted to be like everyone else, and no-one at college was called by their first and middle name so she dropped Anna and became just Bettie. The long distance did not bode well for her romance with Lonnie. They split up amicably and he asked her to return the bracelet. [Photo: Bettie Anna’s High School boyfriend Lonnie Turnipseed] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/6a0bcc64-9c3c-46a4-916f-977d22ce7199/1946+Bettie+Enjoys+the+Spring+at+UNC+Greensboro212.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - For the first two years Bettie attended the Women’s College in Greensboro, North Carolina and then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill her junior year (she couldn’t attend sooner because they had no girls dorms). She majored in chemistry because she thought it would help her get a job. Her ever generous Uncle Gordon helped her mother pay the cost of her college education. College was strict in those days -- you had to be in your dorm room by 7:30 PM and at 11:00 it was lights out. No men were allowed in the dorm. If Bettie studied late she used a flashlight under her covers. Once she recalls her strict dorm mother berated her for not wearing stockings to church. [Photo: Bettie at UNC in Greensboro in 1946] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/22b7cc43-7522-4c2a-a35b-57177254b3bc/1945+Bettie+dates+Morris+Jenkins.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - At summer school between her freshman and sophomore year Bettie fell in love with Morris Jenkins (“Jinx”). Jinx was a marine in the officer candidate program at Chapel Hill. His military service had been deferred until he completed college. He would drive to visit her every weekend and the boarding house where he stayed liked him so much they stopped charging him rent. She was eighteen when he proposed to her, but their marriage plans were dashed because he was Jewish, and she was Protestant. His parents said they would disown him if he married a gentile, and her mother told her she would cut off all of her college tuition and housing payments. Although they stopped seeing each other when he did eventually marry someone else, he sent her a wedding invitation that said, “I will never stop loving you.” [Photo: Bettie and Jinx in 1946] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7959d76d-b00e-4e80-b1db-0fa9d840b756/Bettie+Anna+Tillitt+at+Chapel+HIll.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - After the war, young soldiers trickled back home from the war and attended college paid for by the GI Bill. After Jinx, Bettie dated a young man named Tommy who had been a fighter pilot. Her last year of college, she dated Jack Swift, who had been a bombardier. Swift had aspirations for medical school, and proclaimed he was only interested in a wife who was a nurse. The relationship ended when Bettie graduated. (He became an orthopedic surgeon, married a nurse, had six children and lived in a house he humorously called “Bone Acres”.) Her Uncle Phillip (Aunt Bess’s husband) had promised that if she didn’t smoke or drink in college, upon graduation he would reward her with a fur coat. She kept her side of the bargain and so did Uncle Phillip. [Photo: Bettie from her UNC Chapel Hill Year Book Photo] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d4327aed-2bfb-48b2-b194-428daf892d25/1949+Wedding003.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - After having to work her way through college, Rosa was adamant that her daughter would not have to do so. After college Bettie got her very first job working for DuPont in the nylon research department for $300 a month. While working there she met John Edward Cobb, Jr (“Jack”), who worked as a technical representative for DuPont. He asked her out for lunch and was so smitten by her that he proposed to her in the parking lot of a fancy restaurant called the Old Mill a month after they started dating. She saw her first commercial television set when she was on a date with him in the fall of 1948. Two months later at Christmas he gave her a wedding ring and she celebrated with him by having her first alcoholic beverage – a Manhattan. The couple wasted no time, nine months after they met, they married on June 11, 1949. She was 21 and he was 25. He owned a tan mercury convertible and with their combined salary (he made $60 per month more than her) they were able to pay off the car loan. They settled down to married life in a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Wilmington, Delaware. [Photo: Bettie and Jack tie the knot in 1949] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/81cc9656-84ff-4d05-aaf6-062869877ce4/1954+Easter+Anniston+Alabama+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - A year later, the couple bought their first house in New Castle Delaware for $9,995 (priced under $10,000 to allow veterans to obtain “no down payment” loans). Jack had stayed in the army reserves after his service in World War II and was called back into active duty when the Korean War started. Bye-bye DuPont and hello military wife. The army assigned Jack to a job in Maryland and every day he would commute 50 miles back to Bettie who was pregnant with their first child and wanted to stay in Delaware to be close to her obstetrician. Bettie gave birth to a baby girl, Katharine Tillitt, and when the baby was four weeks old, Bettie joined her husband in Maryland. The army assigned Jack to another post (Fort McClellan, Alabama) where their second daughter, Patricia Grant, was born. Patricia was named after Jack’s cousin, Mary Grant Spivey. The Spivey family had taken in Jack’s father and brother Tom when they were orphaned. [Photo: Bettie, Grandma Rosa Tillitt, Patty, and Kathy celebrate Easter in 1954 in Anniston, Alabama.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8dd3e651-b582-43e9-a6be-29c6844e23ad/1955+April+Eddie+and+Bettie271.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Bettie was pregnant with their son, John Edward Cobb III, when Jack was sent to Korea in September of 1954. The family moved in with Bettie’s mother Rosa in Durham, North Carolina where little Eddie was born. Five days later the birth announcement reached Jack via the Red Cross. Jack sent a postcard back from Pusan, Korea which read: “Happy to hear about the new son - He’s going to have a rough go of it with two sisters.” Bettie was an only child but Jack had grown up with two sisters so he knew just what his son was in for. [Photo” James Caldwell distributing hymn books to be used for gun wadding at the Battle of Springfield. Painting by Henry A. Ogden] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f2dd9e1e-1026-472f-b1c1-e6904bca7a10/1954+Dec+18+Pusan+Korea+written+on+back+of+postcard548.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/36674613-228b-4815-a543-0e8312efff6c/1955+Cobb+Family+Passport+Off+to+Japan+2115.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Jack’s next army assignment was Japan. He flew back to North Carolina, loaded his wife and three youngsters under the age of four into a station wagon and drove them across the country to San Francisco where they all boarded a military ship for the sixteen day journey to Tokyo. What a nightmare that must have been. [Photo: Family Passport taken before journey to Japan. ] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b6fdc6a2-76df-4531-89b8-bc0be4bc88fc/1956+Japan+Nanny+Shisuko.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Life in Japan was made easier for Bettie because she hired a live-in teenaged Japanese maid named Sheishiko who worked six days a week for $27 per month. Japanese revere male children and Sheishiko spoiled Eddie so much, Bettie thought he was out of control. In Japan the family experienced its first earthquake. The maid scooped up Eddie and stood in the doorway while the building shook to protect him and ignored Bettie and her daughters. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Bettie tried to make life as normal as possible. Once she took her children to a Japanese movie theatre that was featuring “101 Dalmatians” however except for the musical score, the movie was shown in dubbed in Japanese. [Photo: Family photo with Sheishiko in 1956] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4cf943d1-c192-4329-8f8a-ef451410c9de/Japan+Heading+Home320.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) The Family left Japan in 1956, the military ship was not designed for children so they had to wear adult sized life preservers during the mandatory safety drills on deck. [Photo: Patty and Kathy the military ship Morton in 1956] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/7a3ef244-af67-400f-acfa-95ab3129df8b/1958+St+Louis+Missouri+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - In the fall of 1956 it was off to San Marcos, Texas for six months and then six months in Ozark, Alabama so her husband could train to be a pilot, followed by a one year stint in Fort Eustis, Virginia for transportation school. In January of 1958 it was off to St Louis, Missouri and in September of 1959 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Life on military bases during the cold war meant her children had to participate in practice evacuation drills. In the event of an attack by the Russians they were taught to hide under desks, and they had lockers at school with scratchy military blankets and Hershey candy bars in case they had to remain in shelter for a longer period of time. Army wives were told in case of attack they could not depend on their husbands who would be busy protecting the country. It was their job to take care of the family and fend for themselves. [Photo:Cobb family home on 9923 Cambria Court, Louis, MO in 1958] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/e0976bfd-1882-4825-888b-456d1981ee48/1960+Ft+leavenworth+Kansas013.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - In 1960 Jack was transferred back to Fort Eustis, Virginia where they bought a home off base in Denbigh, Virginia. One week after they bought the house, a hurricane swept through the area. Bettie told her children to take their pillows and blankets and sleep downstairs in the living room where it would be safer. In the middle of the night the tree outside her daughters’ upstairs bedroom snapped in two. Her son had nightmares about the storm and days later was found sleepwalking down the halls repeatedly saying, “a hurricane came, and it boomed down the trees and it boomed down the leaves….” In the summer of 1963 the family was back in Texas for three months, this time Fort Wells, so Jack could learn to fly helicopters. Always packing, unpacking, making friends, losing friends, no control over the next destination, no possibility of having her own career. Many wives could not withstand the pressure, but Bettie was very resilient. [Photo: Cobb Family in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1960.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/b9e15d0e-8f41-41af-bf6b-246aa542a534/1965+Turbridge+Lane413.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Army wives were also encouraged to do volunteer work so they would not interfere with their husband’s career. Bettie became a troop leader for the campfire girls and also did volunteer work in hospitals as a “Grey Lady.” She decided to try to get back into the work force but her fifteen year old chemistry skills were outdated, so she took a typing course to develop office skills. She never learned to type very well but the company kept her on as a typing teacher at $2.00 per hour. This job ended when her husband was given a new set of military orders. In November of 1964 Jack was assigned to the Pentagon and the family moved to the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia. Two and half years later he was sent to Vietnam. Bettie was left alone to care for three teenaged children. Her husband came home from the war in the summer of 1968 and as a reward for his efforts was given a choice assignment in Germany. [Photo: Bettie and her children at their home in Stratford Landing, VA in 1965] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d9ff104e-a176-4bee-a91f-893bccb9885e/1969+Kukenhof+Tulip+Gardens+Netherlands024+%282%29.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Jack was assigned to work in Heidelberg, Germany. Instead of traveling on a military ship, this time the the family traveled in style across the ocean on a beautiful ocean liner. The accommodations on a military post were pretty basic but Bettie took full advantage of travel opportunities with her family all over Europe. [Photo: Bettie with her three children and mother-in-law Fannie traveling in the Netherlands in 1969] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/1f7e74c4-d69f-4f00-bc63-6055f18a387c/1970-2002+1208+Tatum+Drive+Alexandria%2C+Vs411.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Unfortunately his Heidelberg tour of duty only lasted a year. In 1969, it was back to America to West Springfield, Virginia. A year later they bought land and built their “forever home” with a swimming pool on Tatum Drive in Alexandria, Virginia. [Photo: Dad Christmas 1975] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/9a474426-f21c-48b5-965b-c3aca77f7054/1979+Bettie+Reference+Librarian+at+Martha+Washington+Library+Fort+Hunt+Rd.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Bettie attended some career placement seminars and decided she wanted to be a librarian. She started working part time in a library and in 1970 they awarded her a scholarship to get her master’s degree in library science. Jack retired in 1974 but Bettie, who thoroughly enjoyed her job, continued to work as a full time reference librarian at the Martha Washington Library until 1991. After retirement she wrote two books on her family genealogy and did volunteer work for nearly 30 years as a docent for the Smithsonian Institute at the American History and the Natural History Museums, where she once gave a tour to Chelsea Clinton. Her volunteer work was interrupted in March of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic encroached on all our lives. She was always a fountain of fascinating bits of information about every US President and their wives. [Photo: Bettie at the Martha Washington Library in 1979] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5cb1af4d-d877-4340-9a8a-a9cbb71fa9e2/1975+Eqpyt+on+Camel+Back.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Make it stand out Photo: Bettie and Jack in Egypt 1975] Bettie traveled all over the world to a staggering number of places. She rode camels in Egypt, elephants in India, gondolas in Venice, canal boats in Amsterdam, river cruises in France, train rides on the Orient Express. The list goes on and on. To share their passion for travel, they traveled together with each of their three oldest grandchildren to Europe to expose them to different cultures and food and people and historical sites. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/d75b467f-5086-4d29-856d-06c1980fb454/1981+Victoria+Peak+Hong+Kong038.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Make it stand out [Photo: Bettie and Jack in Victoria Peak in Hong Kong in 1981] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2d5670e3-1826-4703-984d-b0916ab38693/2000+Balloon+Ride+Serengeti105.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - In 2000 Bettie went to Africa during the annual mass migration in the Serengeti with her daughter Paddy. The two of them took a balloon ride and upon landing had a quite memorable champagne brunch in the midst of herds of roving wildebeests and zebra. Bettie continued to do volunteer work at the Smithsonian and travel despite the fact that she had had three hip operations, had broken her femur bone, her collar bone and several ribs, and had survived sinus cancer, breast cancer and skin cancer. She didn’t let these temporary setbacks interfere with her zest for life. [Photo: Balloon ride during the Serengeti Migration in 2000] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c4eb4e3b-0a86-4634-9f34-63105e43ecd9/2002-2022+Carlyle+Towers+2181+Jamieson+%231909+Alexandria+Va916.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - When Jack was diagnosed with ALS, they sold their home and bought a beautiful condominium in a high rise building in the City of Alexandria with stunning views of the city. They had been married for 54 years when he tragically died in June of 2003. It was a devastating loss but with the same resiliency that marked their nomadic military life together, my mother bounced back and is an inspiration for those of us that are lucky enough to be part of her family. After Jack died Bettie continued the family tradition of taking grandchildren to Europe. [Photo: Carlyle Towers in Alexandria] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8a8a548b-c34d-4843-8e26-dd7ceb89ca4e/2004+Mediterreanean+Cruise259+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - [Photo: Emily in Italy in 2004] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4b31f50d-304c-49ef-a32d-8eca126d197d/2010+Olivia+Goes+to+Europe095.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Here are photos of Bettie’s trip to Europe with her three youngest grandchildren. [Photo: Olivia in Spain in 2010] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/77c3686d-5d11-4d10-95de-92c7f64c6f28/2011+Kevin+Goes+to+Europe+with+Grandma+and+Ed+1.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - [Photo: Kevin in London with Bettie in 2011] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/342951db-37e4-4949-b690-cf341ed31a01/Christmas+at+Tatum+Dr+v2.jpeg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - Hands down, Bettie’s favorite time of year was Christmas when all her children and grandchildren would travel from all over the country to her home to celebrate. She’d start months in advance with detailed lists of what she bought for whom to be sure no one got slighted. Out would come the dancing Santa, each family member’s special Christmas tree decoration, and the stocking for each of us that we could not open until every single person had finished our Christmas morning breakfast. Out would come the ceramic cherubs decorated with fresh evergreen and candles, the 12 days of Christmas balls, the crystal star candle holders, the red candles that the young ones liked to spit on their fingers to extinguish after dinner. The “kids table” would be retrieved out of storage so there would be room for all of us to eat and afterwards to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. She’d put on her long red plaid skirt and drag out a mountain of gifts (a few of which she’d forget to label so every year there would be a mystery gift or two). After all the gifts were opened and much discussion about what we wanted to see, we’d march off to the movie theatre. Over the years, I have only missed two of these special Christmas pilgrimages (once because I gave birth to my son on December 26th!) [Photo: Bettie’s children at Christmas time at Tatum Drive before grandchildren arrived on the scene.] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/c78c9433-fbd3-4957-9d89-41c3fa0b6742/2021+Bettie+at+Age+94.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - As a child Bettie led a pampered, sheltered life in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains, but despite all her worldwide travel and experience, she still had that cheerful child within her that greeted each day with joie de vivre and a zest for learning. When asked her if she wanted to take a trip with me, she said yes before she asked where to. A paragon of southern charm and elegance, we are all so very proud to be her children. In the afternoon of February 19, 2022 Mom fell and fractured her hip. She was hospitalized for two days and then moved into a rehabilitation center for physical therapy and healing. She started with her usual can-do attitude. She insisted on trying to get out of bed even though she was told it was too risky. She insisted on sitting in a wheelchair so she could be wheeled out to chat with people coming in and out of the elevator. But this time she just didn’t bounce back. She lost her appetite. She was extremely fatigued. Her balance had never been great, but it got even worse. Her cognitive skills began to decline. It was not possible for her to live alone at home, so we found a place for her to live in a beautiful retirement community called The Landing in Alexandria. The Landing promised an enriching social program with field trips to concerts and museums, in-house social events (Broadway music at the piano bar anyone?), an in-house movie theatre, a beauty salon, a stunning magazine worthy décor and three restaurants. It seemed perfect. Mom didn’t want to leave her home, but she knew it was time. On May 18, 2022, she moved to a lovely light filled assisted living apartment in the Landing, where she promptly endeared herself to all the staff. [Photo: Bettie at 94 in 2021 in the lobby of the Carylyle Towers] https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f37dcb47-93e3-403d-9d9f-47e96ccdd6d3/2022+June+at+Assisted+Living+at+the+Landing+v2.jpg Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents - Bettie Anna Tillitt (1927-2022) - My siblings and I were optimistic that she might perk right up and enjoy life again. But something happened inside her brain that stole that from her – week by week she slid into the mystery world of dementia. After only a month in her new apartment the staff told us she needed to move down to the memory care unit where she could get the increased level of help that she needed. So we packed up her belongings and relocated her again. She grew weaker every day; this brilliant woman’s words became mostly nonsensical; she could not sit up or briefly stand without assistance; and spent much of her time sleeping. We were devastated to watch the decline, but she seemed blissfully unaware. When she briefly came out of the fog, she would smile, her face would light up and this childlike joy shone through. In the end, her body grew weary of the struggle and sadly on August 14, 2022, just after her 95th birthday, our extraordinary mother took her last breath. She’s gone but she will be etched in our hearts forever. [Photo: Mom still beautiful at 95 in her final home at the Landing in July, 2022.] https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/great-great-grandparents daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f13e7d6b-5a0d-41dc-b1d9-63d8482b3054/Civil+War+Clash.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/home daily 1.0 2026-02-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/8c4d2b76-df90-49f7-b987-8c2443ec5be3/Old+shoes.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/dda5113a-74ea-430c-b7da-52c0210c6c42/0+Patricia+Grant+Cobb+6+Generations+v4.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fb77ce22-4076-49cd-94a3-aaa4b8515647/Wild+West+Family+v2.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/ba20cb67-6986-47b6-bf5b-7a9f2eabebf6/2002+Rockport+Confederate+Family139.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/2f3d4ace-50c7-49a8-827f-a0447d8ecacb/Lindsay%2C+Tylelr+and+Western.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/4ad30e2a-9337-4335-8dc4-6a1b6a7f7bde/Tyler+Gangster.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/f5e0873c-54a0-4a8c-bc44-f5d28c31e553/Lindsay+Roaring+20s.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/af450e62-10a8-4b5d-b383-50d924479614/Paddy+Roaring+20s.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/5a371ad0-772b-4b84-b14b-00fdf81a8e1e/1-1.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/about-the-author daily 0.75 2026-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68f94baeb8597d1bed6f6773/fe9d0bdb-16f5-4759-a890-f705ef4877c4/You+can+call+me+Glam+Glam.jpg https://www.cobbfamilyroots.com/faq-1 daily 0.75 2026-01-11