Kenneth McKenzie

Land of His Infancy — Kenneth McKenzie b. 1820

Betty McKenzie LaneLeave a comment
KMcKReceiptforInheritance1863
Barbara McKenzie’s favorite sister, Effy McLaurin, died in 1861. She remembered Barbara’s children and grandchildren in her will. Kenneth was likely the only one of Barbara’s sons to actually receive this small inheritance. The date on the receipt, 14 August 1863, may mark as near as we can tell the actual arrival of Kenneth in North Carolina.

Kenneth McKenzie in 1880, working at his carpenter’s bench in Stewartsville, NC, would have been sixty years old. Estranged from his Mississippi family and having outlived his parents and all of his brothers save one, he may have had little inclination to return to Mississippi. Kenneth left that state for North Carolina in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. Born in North Carolina in 1820, Kenneth revealed in the Duncan McLaurin correspondence an inclination to consider the land of his infancy his real home. On the other hand there must have been warmer if not joyful Mississippi memories: hunting in the pinewoods; political barbecues and counting votes at elections; the warmth and security provided by his hardworking parents, attentive caregivers during his chronic bouts of rheumatic illness; the family at a fireside reading from the long-awaited correspondence of their Uncle Duncan at Laurel Hill.

He may have felt himself entitled to former McLaurin property, since by 1873 he was involved in a failed property lawsuit against his beloved and aging teacher, his Uncle Duncan. The evidence of this is found in the probate hearing for his cousin Owen McLaurin. Over a decade later in 1885, one Kenneth McKenzie purchases land very near the property once owned by his Uncle Duncan in Richmond County, NC near Laurel Hill. Only a very single-minded person would have been motivated in his sixties to recover what he may have thought to be a rightful inheritance.

On the other hand, it is possible that Kenneth may have married and raised a family. His brother, Dunk, writes in 1867, “…he is young with a young wife,” having learned this information from his brother, Allen to whom Kenneth has written a letter. No evidence of his having a wife or children exists. It is strange that Duncan would speak of Kenneth as “young.” In 1867 he would have been forty-seven.

Kenneth working as a carpenter and purchasing land near his mother’s ancestral home in North Carolina is speculation based on evidence that cannot at this time be proved as our Kenneth’s. However, references to Kenneth in the Duncan McLaurin Papers leads one to believe the last decades of his life may have passed as a solitary man. His testimony at the will probate hearing of his cousin Owen McLaurin is revealing. He may have harbored a determination to connect with a tangible manifestation of what he considered his rightful inheritance and home or perhaps a sense of faded youth and family connections.

Civil War Years

KMcKConfArmyDisharge1862

Probate records following the death of his cousin Owen McLaurin place Kenneth in Richmond County, NC in the early 1870s. Evidence from correspondence and Civil War military records show that he left Smith County, MS in 1863 after mustering out of the Confederate Army. Probate testimony reveals that he joined a North Carolina regiment late in the war.

In October of 1861, Kenneth writes to his Uncle from Enterprise, MS on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, where the Smith County soldiers have deployed, “having embarked on the 30th day of July last as a private in a Company called True Confederates.” Kenneth says he is in Company D. His younger brother Allen is a Lieutenant in Company A, “Yankee Terrors,” of the same regiment, also at Enterprise. An outbreak of measles rapidly depletes the regiment. Having suffered measles in their youth and childhoods, the two McKenzie brothers are safe: “The measles have scourged the citizen soldiery heavily but all are now on the recovery, tho some linger yet, Allen and myself are well … both of us having had measles years ago.” For once Kenneth has managed to remain healthy without a recurrence of his chronic rheumatic condition. After expressing condolences on the death of his mother’s favorite sister, Effy, who has remembered the brothers in her will, Kenneth describes military life at Enterprise:

The roll of the drum the glittering bayonet the Keen

crack of the Mississippi rifle the multiplicity

of Buoie Knives and Colts Repeating pistols Show

that the boys are in for Strife or right we have

received a portion of our pay Each private

at eleven Dollars per month have received

ten Dollars in State or Confederate bonds

What will be the results of our efforts is all unknown

to us at this time tho I will Keep you informed as

much as possible at intervals without any

attention to receipts from you, as the guide to

my correspondence. — Kenneth McKenzie

It is possible Kenneth is waxing poetic regarding the rifles and Colts, since the Confederate Army in 1861 was desperately in need of weapons. So great was the need for weapons, that their brother Dunk had made a number of Bowie knives with leather scabbards and sent them to Enterprise. The “multiplicity of Buoie Knives” is probably accurate since they were easier to come by locally. Following this description, Kenneth adds that he would like to visit North Carolina again, “Should I live to be released from my present responsibilities I shall return to the land of my nativity and mingle with the friends of my childhood.”

Kenneth’s brother John writes from his deployment at Vicksburg in July of 1862 that all were at home except for Kenneth, who was deployed in Alabama near Pollard, on the border of Alabama and Florida. Kenneth is well and perhaps learning, through force, that he can survive traveling long distances under difficult conditions. Heretofore, he has set out on multiple journeys only to return home with either illness or lack of funds as an excuse. By 1862 Kenneth is over forty years old. In an undated letter Kenneth writes that he has been appointed an assistant surgeon to the company, where he will, “use my endeavors to maintain myself or act as not to be censured deservedly.” Evidently, this military life has become a trial for him. Within the Smith County regiment, he transfers from Company D to Company A and then to Company C. In 1863 Dunk writes that Kenneth has, “joined a company of Cavalry for the defense of the state.” Apparently, Kenneth never joined or found a way out of this service, for in 1863 John McKenzie, having survived the siege of Vicksburg, addresses a letter to Kenneth at Uncle Duncan’s in NC.

Brotherly Estrangement and Politics

It appears that in the face of war, Kenneth has begun to mend some of the recent fractures between himself and his brothers. The familial rift appears to have begun with negative reaction to some of Kenneth’s financial endeavors. Kenneth has evidently not always carried his weight on the farm due to chronic illness, but his livelihood appears to have come from the shared family interests in the farm. He also owned his own tract of land in Covington County. By 1860 Kenneth writes that he is living with a friend, James McGill and family.  He describes this situation to his uncle:

I am now living

with James McGill I appreciate the

respect with which I am treated by

himself and family, my health has

been good since the coming in of Septr

last, previously I had a severe attact

of fever from which I have not regained

my standard weight … as

for my self my future is hidden in oblive

iousness and will continue mystified

through life I fear oblivious curtain hides

the future. — Kenneth McKenzie

Earlier in November of 1857, Kenneth sums up some of his financial activities. He has been interested in the railroads that are being built in the state. In August he made a trip to New Orleans and marvels at the speed of the train, “the distance being made in seven hours including the time that was taken in taking the mail at each station, there being 13, if the country was filled up with railroads there would be little use for carriages or any such vihicles … and the travel would be cheaper as the speed is so much greater.” His Uncle Duncan had been involved in bringing the railroad through Richmond County in North Carolina. For these reasons Kenneth expresses an interest in supporting a proposed Brandon and Ship Island railroad. He claims, “If justice is done by the surveying engineer under the present charter the road will come directly through this county.” He follows this speculation with news that he has, “subscribed,” one thousand dollars if it (the railroad), “runs in a certain limit.” This rail line is not built until after the war and did not follow the exact route Kenneth had hoped.

Kenneth probably obtained the thousand dollar railroad investment from selling land, buying Spanish horses, and reselling them. Evidently Kenneth was drawn into the horse trading deal by others in Covington County.

I have bot and sold some Spanish horses

they are noted for durability I have made

some money by it, I have it in mind to

take a trip to Western Texas and procure

Spanish mares and mules two of my

neighbors boys both Brothers named Lott

have made the first trip ever made to this

country from Goliad on the San antone River

with a … of 36 Horses part of which

I bought and sold all but two which I

have yet on hand they are severe in their

disposition until tamed and conquered a

man alone cannot make more than a lively hood

by labour  — Kenneth McKenzie

This last line regarding “Labour” is revealing and likely what worries Kenneth’s brothers. Kenneth says he has sold land to enable himself, “to have a surplus to catch tricks with tho not enough to catch many if I go to mexico I shall carry perhaps a thousand dollars which according to the statement of Morgan and Jesse Lott will buy from sixty to 75 Horses or perhaps 100 head.” For all of their adult lives until they marry, the McKenzie brothers have shared the financial vicissitudes of farming. Apparently in the late 1850s Kenneth breaks with this tradition.

It seems that Kenneth’s taking financial risks is not sanctioned by his brothers, although he appears not to have made the trip to Mexico or even Texas. Another brother writes that Kenneth has been spreading rumors about the family. These family conflicts come to a head in November of 1857 when Allen, who Kenneth has described as “the biggest and strongest,” seeks Kenneth out and accosts him.

this morning I was at the lot

gate looking at some sows and pigs all in

peace and harmony when Allen came there

and said that I had to gather up my ponies

and leave a damned loafer I made him

some evasive and perhaps insulting answer

when he caught me by the hair and struck me

several blows before I could extricate myself

from him I have given him no reason for this abuse to me

I shall have him arrested I will not be treated in any such

manner by him or any one else — Kenneth McKenzie

By March of 1858 Kenneth’s brother, Duncan, writes to his uncle that Kenneth is in the carpentering business, but he does not know how long he will continue at that. That carpentering experience could have served Kenneth well in the end, for he may have spent some time working with Hugh McCall’s carpentering business in Laurel Hill, North Carolina.

This rift between brothers was not a sudden thing. It had likely been brewing for many years, even as children. Their father, Duncan McKenzie, remarks that more work is done in the fields when they feel that they have an opportunity to best another. Kenneth himself brags about the times he has outdone his brother Duncan. In 1847 he writes, “tell Uncle John that I shot Daniels Spaniard gun and Duncans shot beat Buchannan I beat him I believe I am the best shot.” Kenneth’s brother Hugh writes that this competitiveness with his brothers reaches into his political opinions as well, “Kenneth has turned Locofoco with all his might and main down on the true American platform and particularly so on his best friends and the McLaurins … Kenneth is a Democrat because Daniel and Duncan are Whigs he does a great injury to the intelligent part of this county.” In addition, Kenneth appears to have given his brother Daniel some conflict as Daniel tried to settle up his father’s estate so that they could sell the property. Duncan writes, “you have heard about the trouble he (Kenneth) gave to Daniel in setting up the estate which is now wound up or nearly so.” No more detailed explanation of this “trouble” exists in the correspondence.

Competitiveness  does not quite explain Kenneth’s attitude fully. Possibly some jealousy enters into the equation. In a moment of deep bitterness during Barbara’s excruciating battle with the oral cancer, Kenneth writes resentfully and without mercy of his more successful McLaurin relatives:

Neighbors are generally kind in visiting tho some being close

born are not neighbors for instance the agust McLaurins

who compose the aristocracy of this county and are

amenable to the presbyterian order but they dwell more

on money finances than the immortality of the Soul

… the world they are aiming

to arrive at is flowing with gold and negroes and fine cotton

and comely pairs of fine animals with gaudy decorations …

uncle they do not come to see mother since she has

been afflicted Before then when she was able to trudge

round and prepare fine dinners they were con

stantly on a visiting expedition … — Kenneth McKenzie

Unsuccessful in relationships with family, he also felt thwarted in romantic relationships. Several times Kenneth refers to his attempts to engage in a courtship, but he seems to always come up short. In 1858 his brother Duncan writes that Kenneth has been too indecisive in engaging a Miss Malloy and has lost her to Alexander Magee. Duncan writes, “In regard to Miss MaLoys K says to tell you he is like Jethrew Robins was, Robins was sitting on the fence at the time of the marriage shedding tears on being asked what was the mater he replied Oh she’s gone and I wanted her …” It may have been that later in life Kenneth did marry, though he would have been closer to fifty years old.

During the 1850s Kenneth’s political attitudes are developing but cannot be explained altogether as sibling rivalry. He also readily takes note of the local fear of slave insurrection. If he were becoming Democratic, he probably supported the idea of slavery as a positive good. His brothers were Whigs, who generally justified slavery as a necessary evil. He is quick to report to his uncle the fearful incidents about which he reads or hears rumored. In 1851 he tells the story of a Mrs. Dixon, an acquaintance, and her child of Jasper County, MS who were, “murdered by a Negro man she fell victim to insult from the bestial being, and died defending her virtues and the life of her child.” In a racially charged incident such as this, no innocent-until-proven-guilty or justice-under-the-law existed for enslaved people. Kenneth goes on to report that, “The negro was burned by the citizens on the spot which the crime was perpetrated.” He continues to relate Negro crimes: one attempt to cut the throat of a white man, two negroes engage in murderous conflict. He follows this with the opinion that the “North has become conscience stricken at the servitude of the Ethiopian,” but that has little influence in the South except perhaps to incite slave insurrection. He writes that abolitionism has “implanted in the bosom of Southern people a feeling of contempt and disgust which if not eradicated by generous sentiment and feeling, will terminate in strife and bloodshed.” It would be a decade of this attitude that would culminate in war. In fact, Kenneth returns to this topic in an 1860 letter when he announces that the Governor of Mississippi has requisitioned all organized militia to come to rendezvous at the Capitol because he fears a copy cat John Brown type insurrection. Kenneth contends this:

It would be madness in the extreme

in any Patriotic heart to wish to blast

the foundation of a government

like this, but the intriguing demagogues

and fanatics leaders now in power

as has been the case for years past have

been by degrees undermining the prin

ciples of power which they cannot

reestablish — Kenneth McKenzie

Loss of Barbara McKenzie

In 1855, Kenneth had taken up the task of writing that his mother, Barbara, is ill and near death from what was probably oral cancer. He wrote touchingly of his youngest brother, John, keeping vigil at his mother’s deathbed. It may be that she had been troubled with this cancer for some years as a result of tobacco use. About four years earlier Kenneth wrote that he had tried to quit using tobacco. He had chewed for thirteen years, beginning about a year after the family moved to Mississippi. Ultimately, he failed in his attempt during 1849 but may have been forced to quit during the time of his war service. He describes his early attempt to quit:

I threw the chew I had in my mouth

out taking in no other for over 2 months,

inflammation seized my stomach and lungs

I used every precaution to shun …

and I am now nearly well in the time my

mind became touched or rather lit up quicker

and more sensitive than usual or at

least I imagined this to be the case, my Eyes

have been very sore for several weeks, in fact

some of the time I could scarcely see, they

are better now I hope on the mend — Kenneth McKenzie

After this description and the hopeful news that he is feeling better, he writes in the left margin before mailing the letter, “I have commenced using tobacco which perhaps I shall continue I fear to undertake to quit.” It is possible that service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War may have cured him of this habit, since I imagine chewing tobacco was scarce.

During the near decade since the death of their father in 1847, the McKenzie brothers had remained together supporting their mother on the farm. With Barbara’s loss, the brothers began slowly to follow their own paths. Kenneth seems to have been the brother for whom Barbara’s loss was probably most acute. Anchor-less, without the subtle direction in the presence of a parent, Kenneth’s inability to focus on his future likely intensified up until the outbreak of war, which temporarily settled his future.

Young Adult Years

In May of 1849 at nearly age thirty, Kenneth reveals his lack of focus particularly his indecisiveness about employment. He mentions that Daniel is busy teaching school, Duncan and Allen are strong and able farm workers, Hugh enjoys his wagoning and John is also working in the crop. As for himself he says, “I am at nothing much yet what perhaps I am best fit for.” He follows this with a decision not to join the rush for gold in California because he is looking for something less “laborious” and “arduous.” His Uncle Duncan has suggested  a mercantile business. Kenneth’s excuse is a lack of capital and that he does not wish to work for another. Kenneth grew up on a distaste for what his father disparagingly called “wage working.” Kenneth concludes that, “I am necessarily bound to kick along the best I can,” as if his own actions and decisions had little to do with the matter.

In spite of competition from migrants from the northeastern states anxious to engage in the occupation of teaching in the South, in 1845 Daniel proposed to Kenneth that he try teaching school. Kenneth does but soon quits. Their father assesses the difference between his third son Daniel and Kenneth, the oldest. Daniel, he says, has some experience dealing with people out in the world, but Kenneth reveals himself as, “downright candid plain and honest in sentiment and but little acquainted with the wiley ways of the world but he must learn.” By April of the same year Duncan McKenzie writes, “Kenneth has abandoned his profession of school teaching having served three months, he alleged that it did not agree with him and has come on home to follow the plow.”

When Kenneth turned twenty-one and his younger brother, Hugh, turned nineteen, their father saw fit to give them title to some of his property, anticipating that the young men might prove themselves worthy of making the land prosperous. Duncan McKenzie writes in June of 1841, “Kenneth and Hugh are to have the title of the lower place on condition of their good performance.” It is possible that they did well enough, for land near Duncan’s is in Kenneth McKenzie’s name in 1841. Another parcel of land in Covington County is owned by a Kenneth McKenzie in 1859.

Kenneth was about thirteen when the family moved to Mississippi from North Carolina. Much of his youth then was spent working hard on the farm in between bouts of what his father called Kenneth’s, “rheumatic affection.” From time to time this would keep him out of the fields, though he managed likely to pull his weight and enjoy the pleasures of hunting on the farm. It is Kenneth in June of 1843 who flushes the “tiger” out of the woods that Duncan shoots. Duncan encounters the animal, likely a panther, after he, “heard Kenneth encouraging the dogs smartly.” Kenneth, as mentioned before, took pride in his ability to shoot.

If Kenneth’s life in Mississippi seemed unhappy to him, it was likely due to his own attitude and lack of direction. The war years do not appear to have given him greater direction in his life but perhaps the experience mellowed his outlook.

Kenneth’s Revelatory Testimony at Owen McLaurin’s Will Probate

Among Kenneth’s many first cousins in Richmond County, NC, both McKenzie and McLaurin, his interactions with his cousin Owen McLaurin offer the most revealing factual evidence that exists of Kenneth’s life there. By 1873 at fifty-three years old, he had been in the state for ten years. He had been helping his Uncle Duncan McLaurin with some of his business, living on his Uncle John McLaurin’s farm, where he helped out as well. His Uncle John unexpectedly died in 1864. John’s death was followed by the deaths of all of his children, two daughters in 1867 and his son Owen in 1869. 

On February 14, 1873 Kenneth receives a subpoena signed by Daniel Stewart, Clerk of the Superior Court (CSC). Kenneth is called to appear before the CSC in Rockingham, NC in the lawsuit brought by Duncan McLaurin before his death against John Stalker and his sister Effie Stalker McLaurin, executor and executrix for the will of Owen McLaurin, Effie and Johns’ son. Kenneth’s presence on the farm and the knowledge he might have had about the financial status of the farm at Owen’s death is the reason he was deposed.

Kenneth was not the only person on the written subpoena. It is also addressed to a Lydia Gibson, known in the testimony as Lydia Leak. Evidently, she had been a slave on the McLaurin farm for all or most of her life. She claimed in the testimony to have been “raised” by John McLaurin.

We have access to Duncan McLaurin’s reason for contesting the Stalkers’ execution of Owen’s will. An account written by Duncan McLaurin exists in the Duncan McLaurin Papers. He titles this account, “A true statement of the feigned friendship of John Stalker the Brother in law of my Brother John McLaurin so far as regards his pretended assiduity to my Interest is concerned.” In this document Duncan McLaurin accuses John Stalker and his sister of taking possession of John McLaurin’s property after his death and denying that John had ever made a will. He also accuses the same of usurping property Owen had purchased after he returned home.

In addition, it was generally believed and written in Owen’s will that Owen sold his father’s land to keep it from being confiscated by U.S. federal authorities. When the war ended shortly after the death of his father, Owen did not come directly home. He had been in the service of the Confederate military and feared confiscation of his deceased father’s property, so he elected to live for a time with his McEachin cousin in Canada. Duncan McLaurin’s account confirms that Owen had sold property for three thousand dollars to his cousin Duncan McEachin, who lived in Ontario, Canada.

Owen returned from Canada some time around 1865 and began overseeing his family property. In addition to farming the property, he was involved in the business of hauling cross-ties for the railroad, purchasing wagon gear, two mules, and a horse for this purpose. Some of this property, Duncan claims, has also been assumed by John Stalker. Owen owed Duncan McLaurin one hundred dollars but was only reimbursed half of that supposedly because Owen did not leave enough property to fully cover his debts. Owen also leaves his personal effects to his mother to do with what she will with a stipulation to send the value of some of his personal property to the woman he intended to marry in Ontario, Canada, Jennie McKay. Duncan accuses the Stalkers of using the small value of Owen’s personal effects as the greater evidence of the value of the property. Also the Stalkers apparently  attempt to use Sherman’s raid through the area to make it appear that the property was worth less than it was. By March of 1865 Union General William T. Sherman had captured Savannah, Georgia and had begun burning his way to Fayetteville, NC on his way to capture Richmond, VA. The area of Laurel Hill near Gum Swamp, NC did not escape Sherman’s path. Much property was burned including large amounts of cotton. However, some was saved, this included six bales on the Owen McLaurin’s family farm.

In his will Owen specifically requests that his Uncle Duncan leave any property intended for him to his cousin Hugh McCall, for he is most deserving of it. The story behind this request is that Owen wished, along with his uncle, for the McLaurin family farm known as Ballachulish to stay out of the hands of certain relatives. Some of Owen’s cousin’s had been openly ungrateful for the sacrifices their Uncle Duncan had made for them. This might have included Kenneth but more likely included Isabella Patterson’s sons, who had been openly ungrateful for their Uncle’s sacrifices. It is likely that Owen knew the history of this conflict.

Kenneth’s testimony in the Owen McLaurin probate hearing in the Superior Court of NC begins on October 21, 1872 after “being duly sworn.”

The first question asked of Kenneth is what property remained on the John McLaurin farm after Sherman’s raid swept through. He is also asked how he came to know this information.  Kenneth responds that, “It was mostly my home up to September 1864.” September 1864 is evidently when Kenneth joins the Confederate military again but in North Carolina. After April of 1865, Kenneth had returned from his short time in the military. April would have been the month after the raid, so he was able to describe what was lost. Kenneth continues to list in some detail the property still on the farm including livestock, farm equipment, household items, and corn and cotton that could still be sold.

Question three asks Kenneth to explain how he was so closely acquainted with John McLaurin’s property before and after the raid. Kenneth answers:

I come on a visit to the country. My

Uncles John & Duncan McLaurin wished

me to stay here in this country. John Mc-

Laurin offered to board me while I would

stay and superintend Duncan McLaurins

business. I took up their offer. This is

the reason I was so intimately acquainted

with the property after I quit living at Johns I frequently went there

and staid as long as I pleased and attended

to the stock and made myself as useful as I

could there were nobody but women there when

Owen was gone. — Kenneth McKenzie

John McLaurin and Effie Stalker McLaurin had three living children in 1863 when Kenneth arrived in North Carolina. It is interesting to note here that Duncan McLaurin, during the late 1850s, had been writing to his relatives in Mississippi requesting that someone, perhaps one of his unmarried nephews, might be available to come to NC to help him manage his affairs in his old age. Kenneth’s Aunt Effy McLaurin, unmarried and living with her brother, had died in 1861 and remembered Barbara’s progeny in her will. A receipt found among the Duncan McLaurin Papers is evidence that in 1863, Kenneth received his portion.

In answer to what he knew about Owen deeding his land to his cousin Duncan McEachin in Canada, Kenneth replies that Owen’s purpose in conveying the land to his cousin was to avoid confiscation. Kenneth continues to reveal that Owen had made an offer to Kenneth. His impression was that he would “hold” the land until the danger of confiscation was over. Owen, according to Kenneth, must have been under the impression that Kenneth was an “ante-war man.” That, of course was not the case. The land in Kenneth’s hands would have been just as much in danger of confiscation.

Other information we learn about Kenneth in his testimony is that he went into the Confederate Army from NC, “about the first of September 1864. He also reveals that when he realized baled cotton remained on the farm, he made an offer to Owen to buy the cotton at fifteen cents a pound. Evidently, Kenneth was receiving income from some endeavor. However, Owen sold the cotton to someone else. Kenneth appears to have been keeping up with the price of cotton because he is ready with an answer when asked. He admits seeing the evidence of the Yankee raid and the “heap of cotton” burned but was also cognizant that some property escaped burning. When asked how long he had stayed at the McLaurin farm, Kenneth replies, “I staid under this arrangement during his (John McLaurin’s) life time from Dec 1863 to Sept 1864. I was there a great deal after the raid up to Owen’s death.”

When asked if his Uncle Duncan had talked with him about the pending probate hearing of Owen’s will, Kenneth replied that he had. However, when asked if his Uncle Duncan had offered him anything if he was able to recover something from the estate, Kenneth readily stated, “He did not He didn’t fulfill the promises already made to me.” When asked about earlier promises Kenneth replied, “He promised to give me a tract of land that he didn’t give me.” This answer was followed by asking if Kenneth had sued his uncle in Superior Court for the property worth fifteen hundred dollars. He replied that he had, that he was the only witness on his own behalf, and that he had received nothing from the litigation.

Under cross examination Kenneth is asked again under what terms he was working for his uncle. Kenneth replies that he, “was to take charge, make a support for Uncle Duncan and Aunt Polly (Mary) and I was to have the balance that was made.” Kenneth adds that he never received the “balance,” and that was the subject of his lawsuit.

Evidently, Duncan McEachin visited the area and left in the fall of 1867. This was about the time Owen was talking to Kenneth about preventing confiscation of his land. It is important to note that Kenneth was honest about his inability to hold the land due to his own service in the Confederacy. To have family land in his possession would have meant a great deal to Kenneth.

Lydia Leak’s testimony at the litigation is very short and is not consistently recorded word for word. Others who testified as to Owen’s property were L. Ross Hardin, who sold Owen the wagon gear, mules, and horse for the cross-ties hauling, a business that Owen shared with Gilbert M. Morrison. Owen’s cousin Hugh McCall, who inherited Duncan McLaurin’s Ballachulish property, also testified at the hearing and stood in for his Uncle’s interest. McCall’s testimony provides the larger portion of the information. In the end it was found that John Stalker and his sister had inherited enough property to pay all of Owen’s debts, and John Stalker was required to do so.

JohnFairlyProbate1887
A lost deed calls into question the transfer of a tract of land from Duncan McLaurin. This has resulted in a dispute over ownership, which requires the possible heirs of Duncan McLaurin to be notified. Listed here are his nephews, nieces, and some of the children of those deceased by 1887. Kenneth is listed here, indicating that he may have been still living in 1887.

Though the testimony Kenneth gave at this hearing outlines Kenneth’s activities from the time he left Mississippi in 1863, it does little to reveal whether or not he is the carpenter living alone in the 1880 census or whether he finally did purchase land at Gum Swamp.

JFairlyProbate1887
Advertisement for the John Fairly property hearing in 1887, which lists Allen as the only living of Duncan McLaurin’s McKenzie nephews. Kenneth is not listed here, though his name appears in the actual report of the litigation.

The last information I have found regarding Kenneth is his being listed in a probate hearing of the estate of John Fairly, to whom Duncan McLaurin had sold some property. Evidently, a lost deed had caused some contention over who actually owned this tract of land. The estate record in North Carolina Superior Court of September 1887 lists all of Duncan McLaurin’s heirs who might have an interest in the property. All of the living descendants of Duncan McLaurin’s married sisters are listed. The list includes Kenneth and his brother Allen, though the heirs of their deceased brothers were listed with “names and places of residence unknown.” Daniel had died in 1861, John in 1865, Hugh in 1866, and Duncan in 1878. However, the news clipping in the Fayetteville Observer announcing this same Superior Court hearing does not include Kenneth’s name. Unfortunately, we are left wondering if he was alive or deceased in 1887.

 

 

 

SOURCES

Barrett, John.”Sherman’s March.” NCpedia.2006. Accessed 11 December 2018. https://www.ncpedia.org/shermans-march.

Bridges, Myrtle N. Estate Records 1772-1933 Richmond County North Carolina Hardy – Meekins Book II. Brandon, MS Genealogy Room. “Duncan McLaurin – 1872,” “Effy McLaurin -1861,” “John McLaurin – 1864.” Franklin, NC Genealogy Publishing Service: Angier, NC. 2001.

Bridges, Myrtle N. Estate Records 1772-1933 Richmond County, NC Adams – Harbert Book I. Tennessee State Archives. “John L. Fairley – 1862.” Franklin, NC Genealogy Publishing Service: Angier, NC. 2001. 412, 413.

Census Record Year: 1880; Census Place: Stewartsville, Richmond, North Carolina; Roll: 979; Family History Film: 1254979; Page: 406A; Enumeration District: 173; Image: 0295. Kenneth McKenzie.

“KMcKenzie.” Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Serve in Organizations from the State of Mississippi. Fold3. https://www.fold3.com/image/72254105. Accessed online 23 May 2016. Original Source: National Archives.

Letters from Kenneth McKenzie to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. 29 April 1847, May 1847, 17 September 1847, 16 December 1847, 14 October 1848, 11 December 1848, 1 May 1849, 29 July 1849, 14 September 1849, 13 April 1851, 19 April 1855, 29 December 1856, 15 September 1857, 1 November 1857, 1 January 1860, 11 July 1860, 23 October 1861, Undated Letter probably 1861 or after. Boxes 1 & 2. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letters from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. April 1837, June 1839, March 1842, December 1842, June 1843, February 1844, March 1845,  April 1845, November 1845, January 1846, February 1846.  Boxes 1 and 2. Duncan Mclaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letters from Hugh L. McKenzie to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. 5 April 1853, July 1855, September 1859, December 1859, September 1863. Boxes 1 & 2. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letters from Duncan McKenzie to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. November 1855, March 1858, October 1858, September 1861, February 1862, January 1863, May 1863, June 1864, February 1867, April 1867. Boxes 1 & 2. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from John McKenzie to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. July 1862. Boxes 1 & 2. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from John McKenzie to his brother Kenneth McKenzie in care of his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. September 1863. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

North Carolina Superior Court Richmond County. Spirit of the South. Rockingham, NC. 17 December 1887. Saturday. 2. Accessed from newspapers.com 7 March 2017.

Wills, 1663-1978; Estate Papers, 1772-1933 (Richmond County); Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History; Probate Place: Richmond, North Carolina. Accessed 4 December 2018. Ancestry.com.

The 1840s: Stepmother and Yellow Fever

Betty McKenzie Lane1 Comment
ChurchStGraveYardGate
Mobile historic cemetery, where some Yellow Fever victims were buried.photo from http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1039.

On August 2, 1847, the first case of yellow fever in Mobile, Alabama was reported for that year. The disease, which did not originate in North America, was fairly common in United States port cities in the south during the 19th century. Outbreaks would usually begin in the summer and begin to decline after the first frost. Yellow fever’s early symptoms, similar to other fevers, made it difficult to diagnose. For this reason communities were slow to initiate warnings. Unaware of the true source of the disease, controversy ensued about whether sanitation or quarantine was the best response. The 1847 epidemic resulted in 78 deaths in the port city of Mobile, Alabama. It would be the turn of the 20th century in Cuba, where a U. S. Army Commission made the definitive discovery that the transmitter of yellow fever was the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Since the mosquito was the vector, quarantine would probably not have mattered much. Extra sanitation efforts might have made little difference in the spread of this disease except to ward off secondary infection. The mosquito vector breeds in fresh water. According to the author of “The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana,” epidemic yellow fever in the United States was essentially eliminated after 1905 thanks to medical science and public health practices. The following is a brief but revealing encounter with one of its victims.

We first learn of “Stepmother” McKenzie in 1833 when Kenneth McKenzie proudly introduces his new son, Kenneth Pridgen McKenzie. He is writing to his son John when he breaks the news from Brunswick County, NC:

John and Betsy you have a little Brother born on the

7th October named Kenneth P for Pridgen I am

in my 65 year his mother in her 48th He was fully

as large as your Mary when born

I will call her Stepmother since her first name is never revealed in any of the Duncan McLaurin Papers, and that is how the letters reference her. She is forty-eight when her last child is born. In February 1840 Duncan McKenzie writes, “I heard from Stepmother in Dec she expects to move to Mi in the spring.” Though I have never found evidence of Kenneth’s death, Stepmother is a widow in 1840, perhaps for the second time. Duncan appears to feel some concern about her wellbeing. Stepmother’s marriage to Kenneth McKenzie was not her first. Her first marriage produced at least four daughters that we know of. One of those daughters was widowed and also had a son.

Stepmother must have been desperate to find a sense of security by coming to Mississippi to be near Duncan and his family. Perhaps, as Duncan likely fears, Stepmother and her family will become dependent upon him. Still, he does not appear to discourage her from coming and probably feels some responsibility for the family. He expresses some concern for their welfare once he has confirmation that they are on their way. In April 1840 Duncan receives information that Stepmother was to leave Wilmington on March 4 by way of schooner or steamer to Charleston, SC. From there she would continue to Mobile, AL. He writes to Duncan McLaurin:

I have been looking for my

Step Mother from Wilmington, I received a letter

from her dated the 2nd of March Stating that she

was to leave there on the 4 of the same month in a

vessel bound for Charleston SC from which place

She would take passage to Mobile, Ala, She

had not reached the latter place on the 10th Inst

I am uneasy for her safety

Duncan could have rested more easily, as he would soon learn, for Stepmother was likely more adventurous and resourceful than he might have thought. In July of 1840, after the party of four had arrived in Covington County and were welcomed into Duncan and Barbara McKenzie’s home, we learn of her travels.

Stepmother initially set out from Wilmington on the fifth of March en route, via probably steamship or schooner, to Charleston, SC — a distance of around 159 nautical miles. At the beginning of her journey, she likely passed near her former home with Kenneth McKenzie at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Before passing what is today called Oak Island, she might have spied the lighthouse near her former home at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. She might have said a nostalgic good-bye to the birthplace of her young son. Or she may not have had time to direct young Kenneth’s attention to this landmark, for the seabirds following the vessel along the shoreline may have been too much of a distraction for two young boys. Stepmother also traveled with her four daughters and a widowed daughter’s young son — quite a number of people headed toward Covington County, MS and Duncan’s modest home.

However, the party was delayed two months after reaching Charleston, SC. Evidently, Stepmother’s funds were running out sooner than expected. In Charleston she made the decision to send one of her daughters back to a son-in-law in Wilmington and a second daughter stayed in Charleston. No evidence exists in the correspondence as to how this young woman was to fend for herself there. Perhaps they had family or friends in that place. Duncan does not explain further.

After a two month’s delay, Stepmother’s party of five boarded a schooner, captained by one James Nichols, en route to New Orleans, Louisiana. The schooner was nineteen days struggling against uncooperative winds in reaching port. During the nineteen day voyage traversing about 1,173 nautical miles, one daughter began a courtship with Captain Nichols, and in September of 1840 Duncan writes, “…their connubial knot was tied (on the 31st of May) in New Orleans, she thus took on her self the weals and woes of a sailors wife, her mother has not heard from her since.” Though Captain Nichols and the daughter headed for New York, they promised to return to Mississippi by way of Wilmington, where the Captain would give up command of the ship to the owners. By the end of 1840, Stepmother had received letters from her other two daughters left behind, with some assurance of their safety, but the fate of Captain Nichols and his wife is unknown.

Before leaving, Captain James Nichols placed Stepmother’s party of four (two widows and two sons) aboard a steamboat headed for Mobile, Alabama, where they arrived with seven dollars left. Duncan found land passage for them from Mobile to Covington County, MS through a friend, Peter McCallum. They stayed with Duncan and Barbara until they found a vacant house “in the neighborhood.” It appears that Duncan does not hear much from Stepmother while she lives amongst them. In one letter he describes them: “I think they are smart women,” and later says, “Stepmother and her daughter are verry industrious to make a living, they are not ashamed to ask for their wants and you know that is the first part of getting a thing.”

The following is Duncan’s account of Stepmother’s adventure:

you stated that Neil McLaurin of wilmington

had told you something about my Step Mothers leaving

that place in Febry or March, She left there on the 5th of March

and came as far as Charleston S C where She

was detained 2 months waiting a passage to Mobile

and for want of a sufficiency of funds she sent one

of her daughters back to Wilmington to a sone in laws

and left an other daughter in charles ton, She set

sail for New Orleans with her oldest daughter who

is a widdow & and an other daughter, her little sone, and her

widdowd daughters sone, five in number, owing

to contrary winds the Schooner was 19 days in making

the voyage during which time the captain was agree

=ably entertaind in courting the old ladys daughter

who he Married in New Orleans on the 31st May

leaving the two widdows to work through life

the best they could, James Nichols is the name

of the man, he parted with his mother in law

after seeing them on board a Steam boat bound

for Mobile with a promise of coming on

to her in Mi — After going a trip to New York

and returning to Wilmington where he would

surrender the schooner to the owners, and come

on with his wife, the two widdows arrived safe

in Mobile with 7$ left — P. McCallum to whom

I had previously written procured a passage for

them from thence to this place where they

arrived on last Saturday week, Still

in with us, but they are going to a vacant house

in the neighborhood, thus ends the narrative of the poor

widdows & their sones, If they are industrious they may

get along, I will try to see to this adopted little

brother he is a likely child —

MapUS1849
This map dated 1849 shows the name of Smithville, NC, now known as Southport. Stepmother’s route can be traced from Wilmington to Charleston. From Charleston, Capt. James Nichols navigated his schooner 19 days through the Gulf of Mexico to arrive at New Orleans in May of 1840.  To zoom into a version of this map visit this address: https://www.loc.gov/item/2007626897/

In fact, Duncan did not have to put himself out for the young half brother, for his half sister, named Mrs. Turner, soon married the Yankee schoolteacher that Duncan thought brought the younger students on so well in their schooling. Reese H. Jones was from Pennsylvania, perhaps Philadelphia, for he returns home around 1846 to recover from stubborn mouth sores. While Jones is in Philadelphia, Stepmother and her daughter, their two sons — probably young teens by 1846 —leave Covington County for Mobile, Alabama. Stepmother and her family had been in Mississippi about six years when Duncan writes in January 1846, “Stepmother & crew left this for Mobile some time in Nov last Kenneth and all & if it suits their convenience they may stay there, her sone in law Reese H Jones came to Williams Burgh the day after she crew & caravan passd on their way to Mobile he of course followed they reached their place of destination and I hope that is the last of them.”

The last line seems to me a bit foreboding because it actually was the last of Stepmother. About nine months after Duncan McKenzie died in 1847, his oldest son Kenneth writes to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin of Stepmother: “I have to write … of Mobile grand … is no more she died of the yellow fever in Septr last Kenneth is in Mobile if he was separate from his sister I would try to tighten his reigns and put him to work.”

One is left only to imagine Stepmother’s suffering from yellow fever. Likely they were in temporary quarters when the disease struck. At first she might have suspected the fever and chills not unlike those she may have had before. The first five days would have brought nausea, vomiting, constipation, headache, and muscle pain in the legs and back. The acute stage would follow with the yellowing of the skin through jaundice. Hemorrhaging from almost any part of the body is common. Black vomit can occur as a result of blood from stomach hemorrhages being acted upon by stomach acids. This would take the form of almost involuntary vomiting. Before death, convulsions or coma occurred. If one recovered, and some did, it would begin about two weeks from the onset of the illness.

The treatment Stepmother was likely to have endured included heavy doses of Calomel, a mercury-based compound that purged the system. Other purging methods would have included blood-letting. These purging treatments are said to have had some limited success in treating the illness.

There is some evidence that soldiers returning from the Mexican War via New Orleans and Mobile may have made the epidemics worse during 1847. Many, many soldiers died of yellow fever while in Mexico. The ships and steamboats bringing them back through these ports perhaps harbored the deadly mosquito.

ChurchStGraveyardMobileAL
This photograph shows graves at Old Church Street Cemetery in Mobile, AL – possibly Stepmother’s final resting place. photo from http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1039.

It is possible that Stepmother lies buried in the Old Church Street Cemetery in Mobile. The cemetery was originally set aside for yellow fever victims in 1819. During the epidemic of 1820, 274 people died, so the cemetery was put to immediate use. The cemetery covers over four acres.

Volume One of the Mobile County Burial Records from 1820-1865, page 113 lists “MaKenzie, Mrs., 60, North Carolina, Sept. 30, 1847.” The same record on page 112 lists, “Jones, R. H., 35, U. S., March 2, 1847.” Apparently Jones, likely weakened from his previous illness, succumbed first. His cause of death may also have been Yellow Fever. Whether Stepmother’s daughter, her son, and young Kenneth P. McKenzie survived the epidemic and perhaps made their home in Mobile is awaiting discovery.

Stepmother died in September of 1847. Ironically, in 1848 the American physician Joseph Clark Nott became one of the first to introduce the idea of the mosquito vector. It would take a second American war at the end of the 19th century in a tropical climate — Cuba during the Spanish-American War — to confirm the mosquito as the source of yellow fever.

SOURCES

Colton, G. Woolworth, J. H. Colton, John M. Atwood, and William S. Barnard. Map of the US of America, the British Provinces, Mexico, the West Indies and Central America, with part of New Granada and Venezuela. New York: J. H. Colton, 1849. map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2007626897/.

“Distances Between United States Ports.” U.S. Department of Commerce. Dr. Rebecca M. Blank. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D. National Ocean Service. David M. Kennedy. 2012. p 4. https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/publications/docs/distances.pdf

Letter from Kenneth McKenzie to his son John McKenzie. 3 November 1833. Boxes 1 and 2. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 19 February 1840. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 26 April 1840. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 4 July 1840. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 26 September 1840. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 24 December 1840. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 22 March 1841. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. January 1846. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Kenneth McKenzie to his Uncle Duncan McLaurin. 16 December 1847. Boxes 1 and 2. The Duncan McLaurin papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Mitchell, Mrs. Lois Dumas and Mrs. Dorothy Ivison Moffett. Burial Records: Mobile County, Alabama 1820-1856, Vol. 1. Mobile Genealogical Society: Mobile, AL. 1863.

“The Saffron Scourge: a History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905.” Jo Ann Carrigan. 1961. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 666. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/666

“A Short History of Yellow Fever in the US.” Outbreak News Today. Accessed 24 June 2018. http://outbreaknewstoday.com/a-short-history-of-yellow-fever-in-the-us-89760/

Sledge, John S. “Church Street Graveyard.” Encyclopedia of Alabama. Accessed 28 June 2018. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1039.

Yellow Fever. History Timeline Transcript Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services. Accessed 25 July 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/travel-training/local/HistoryEpidemiologyandVaccination/HistoryTimelineTranscript.pdf

“Yellow Fever.” Alabama Epidemic History. Alabama Genealogy Trails. Accessed 23 June 2018. http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

The Donald Stewart Property in Guilford County, NC

Betty McKenzie Lane2 Comments

Duncan McKenzie’s letter to his brother-in-law on May 15, 1832 introduces a group of characters and a story. The story emphasizes the importance of land and property ownership to individuals in 19th century southern states and the difficulties in bequeathing to relatives a world away. The characters are his great Uncle Donald Stewart and wife Susanna and his father Kenneth McKenzie. Another more historical character peripherally involved with the Stewart property case is George C. Mendenhall, who writes several letters regarding the legal case.

Kenneth McKenzie (b. abt 1768 d. abt 1834) is the father of Duncan McKenzie. He was married to Mary McLaurin, who died about 1825 and is buried in Stewartsville Cemetery near Laurinburg, NC. Kenneth and Mary were probably both born in Scotland and likely came to the United States before or about the same time as the Hugh and Catharine McLaurin family. According to Marguerite Whitfield’s information, Mary was likely a sibling of Hugh McLaurin. This information is supported by Volume 8, Number 29 pages 15 – 18 of the Clan McLaurin Society Quarterly published from the late 1960s to the 1980s and edited by Banks McLaurin. If true, Duncan McKenzie and Barbara McLaurin would have been first cousins. Marriage between first cousins was not uncommon during the 18th and early 19th century. After Mary McKenzie died, Kenneth McKenzie evidently became restless to move east. He left a Power of Attorney and a Will with Duncan McLaurin before he left Richmond County some time during 1832.

Kenneth McKenzie’s Power of Attorney on October 11, 1831 as he leaves to move eastwardly does, “nominate constitute and appoint Duncan McKenzie and Duncan McLaurin or Either of them of Said State and County my Sole and lawful attorneys to ask demand Sue for recover and receive all monies or other effects … due or owing to me from my Uncle Dr. Donald Stewart’s estate …” In Kenneth’s will he leaves all of his property to his sons Duncan McKenzie and John McKenzie. He includes in this the property that “… ever will come in my name from or by Doctor Donald Stewarts Estate Deceased late of Guilford County in this State.” In other words, even in 1832, Kenneth was still expecting to inherit some of Donald Stewart’s property. Stewart had died in the very last days of 1829. By 1833 Kenneth is remarried and living on property in Smithville, NC (Southport today) near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

Donald Stewart is Kenneth McKenzie’s uncle, who died in Guilford County, NC in 1829. According to The Greensboro Patriot newspaper of January 6, 1830, “Died, In this county, on Wednesday last at 7 o’clock P. M. Dr. Donald Stewart, a native of Scotland.” Stewart was a native of Ballachulish Appin in Lismore Parish, Scotland, but had lived with his wife Susanna in the United States for many years and was a naturalized citizen. A November 1831 letter from his widow Susanna Stewart, since married to Arnold Duncan, contains the copied text of Donald Stewart’s naturalization in the Petersburg District Court of Virginia during September Term 1807. The text states that Donald Stewart has resided in the U.S. since before 29 January 1795, at least two years in the U.S. and at least one in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has also taken the oath of allegiance.  At some point the Stewarts moved to Guilford County, North Carolina, where Stewart owned a farm of at least three hundred acres and a number of enslaved people – meeting all of the definitive requirements of a plantation owner. 

Donald Stewart is listed among the managers of the Greensborough Academy in an article in the Weekly Raleigh Register of 23 February 1821. Dr. Donald Stewart is also mentioned in another Raleigh Register article dated 29 February 1828. He was a member of a committee formed to draft resolutions during a meeting held at the Greensborough Academy. The resolutions were politically in support of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay as opposed to Andrew Jackson. The committee also called for four people to draft an address to the people locally on the Presidential Election. During the election of 1828 the Democratic-Republican Party split. Nationally, the group that supported Adams and Clay called themselves the National Republicans. By 1832 the Whig Party would form in opposition to Jackson’s followers, who called themselves the Democrats.

One of Dr. Donald Stewart’s relatives in Scotland, Dugald Stewart of Ballachulish in Argyllshire, had fought in the American Revolution with the 71st Regiment of foot soldiers known as Fraser’s Highlanders. This group was involved in the bloody battle of Guilford Courthouse during which many Scots died. In a letter to Dr. Stewart dated October 25, 1825 Dugald says the following:

The regiment to which I belonged … was drawn up on the left of the British line along with the 23d, or Welsh Fusileers, with some other regiments. In the advance we received a very deadly fire from the Irish line of the American army, composed of their marksmen lying on the ground behind a rail-fence. One half of the Highlanders dropt on that spot. There ought to be a pretty large tumulus where our men were buried. — Dugald Stewart

Quoted from Caruthers by Rev. William Henry Foote, 1846.

George C. Mendenhall is another interesting character in the Donald Stewart property story and is of some historical significance to Guilford County, NC. George C. Mendenhall was an attorney in Guilford County. He also operated the family gristmill and sawmill. His grandfather, James Mendenhall had been the first settler of Jamestown in Guilford County. George Cameron Mendenhall is unusual due to the fact that he was a Quaker who also owned slaves. It seems that in 1824 he married Eliza Webb Dunn who had recently inherited quite a bit of land and twenty-five slaves. After a couple of years the Quaker Mendenhall was a widower, the father of a newborn son, and the owner of enslaved people. His second wife, Delphina Gardner, was also a devout Quaker, and reinforced George’s plan to gradually liberate his slaves. The Mendenhall plantation built by George’s brother Richard stands today in Guilford County as a historic site on which one can see an example of the log cabin slave quarters preferred by the Mendenhalls. Supposedly, they tried to keep families together and sometimes purchased family members that had been separated. It seems the Mendenhalls never sold any of their slaves. The highest total number George C. Mendenhall ever owned was purported to be about seventy. Since it was completely illegal in North Carolina to free one’s slaves there, Mendenhall found Quaker groups in Ohio that would find work for the slaves he freed in small groups over a period of time. However, the support for the slave system in the American South was growing as cotton production became more lucrative, ultimately drowning out the voices of abolition in the area. 

Mendenhall’s respect for the abilities of the enslaved population on his plantation is evidenced in an excerpt from Sallie Walker Stockard’s 1902 The History of Guilford County, NC. Though his intent was to free the people he owned, he apparently made an effort to teach a variety of vocational skills on his plantation:

In his store a negro clerk sold and bought goods. His harness shop was kept by a slave, a set of whose harness before the War took first premium at the State Fair. His carpenter helped to build the capitol at Raleigh, NC. His caterer was sent to wait on President Buchanan when he visited the University of North Carolina. George Mendenhall had a shoe shop; a work shop in which were made plows, rakes, hoes, etc; a large flouring mill, cotton gin, tanyard and farm, …  — Sallie Walker Stockard

Historical accounts of slavery such as Stockard’s that describe the institution in the very best light possible are common in early twentieth century publications. Though Mendenhall’s is likely an example of a well-run plantation, it was probably not the norm. The people on his plantation were still enslaved.

Evidently, his freeing slaves had not been popular with the Charlotte Democrat newspaper, for on July 7, 1857, the paper published an article called “An Unkind Master” that was first published in the Columbia Times. The article portrays Mendenhall as the type of slave master who would work people down, and when no longer useful, sell them to “shift for their own support in Ohio.” In the face of contrary evidence, this is likely an example of the kind of distortion of the facts common in our twenty-first century news, written to feed the beliefs of one side of an issue – in this case slavery or its abolition.

On March 9, 1860, Mendenhall was working at Stanly Superior Court. He left for home driving his buggy. The Uwharie River, which he had crossed at the same spot for many years, was quite full and rapid. Inexplicably, Mendenhall still tried to cross. The next day when someone noticed the horse and wheels of the buggy, his body was found part in and part out of the water

Story of the Donald Stewart Property

At his death in 1829, Dr. Donald Stewart owned substantial land and a number of enslaved people in Guilford County, NC. Stewart’s 1822 will is rather straightforward. He leaves his property to his wife, Susanna. Upon Susanna’s death the enslaved property was to be sold and the proceeds given to the children of Stewart’s sisters in Scotland, Catherine McKenzie, Isabella Robertson, and Jannett Hamilton of London. When Susanna remarries to Arnold Duncan and moves out of the state of North Carolina, she “disposed of her life estate in the land.” Both Susanna and her new husband of 5 February 1831 agreed to the will. In fact, a marriage contract between them, signed on the May term of 1831,  restates the text of the will and protects her rights to the Stewart property and property she inherited from her mother and brother John in Nottoway County, Virginia. 

A man named Henry Humphreys, a prominent manufacturer in Guilford County, was administrator for the property even before Donald Stewart’s death. Humphries had evidently sold many of the enslaved people and likely some of the land after Stewart’s death. Henry Humphries accrued enough wealth through merchandising and the sale of property to build the first steam-powered textile mill in the South located in Greenboro, Guilford County, NC called Mt. Hecla.  In 1832 a court case ensued to discover the value of what was left in Stewart’s estate and who should lawfully receive it. In 1822, Donald Stewart says in his will that his estate is debt free. Evidently, that had changed by 1832.

Kenneth McKenzie seems to have believed that he was entitled to a portion of the estate. In the face of the circumstantial evidence in a letter from Stewart and his will, Kenneth was probably related to Catherine Stewart McKenzie. More documented evidence is the Lismore Parish christening record of Allan McKenzie, Kenneth’s youngest brother, which shows him to be the son of Catharine Stewart and John McKenzie.

Kenneth mentions his hope of receiving an inheritance in both his power of attorney and the will he leaves in the hands of Duncan McLaurin. In 1831 attorney George C. Mendenhall writes in a letter to Duncan McLaurin that Kenneth McKenzie should come to Greensboro to discover the amount of the property sold and the names and value of the slaves sold. However, he also says this information can be easily obtained from Henry Humphreys and Stewart’s widow, Susanna. Mendenhall includes in this letter numbers that appear to represent the supposed value of the property. In 1832 Kenneth leaves Richmond County to settle in Brunswick County, NC.

In 1831 Kenneth’s son Duncan McKenzie communicates with his great aunt, now Susanna Duncan, regarding the possibility of purchasing the land. Duncan McKenzie has in his possession papers relevant to the estate. Duncan McKenzie offers to send the names of the children of Nancy, one of Stewart’s enslaved people that was left to Susanna. However, their names are already mentioned in Stewart’s will. Evidently, Nancy and her children were enslaved persons of more interest to the family than the others listed in the will. Possibly Duncan McKenzie was hoping to purchase reliable people at this time. He was known to have purchased one female enslaved person from John Fairly in the fall of 1832 before leaving for Mississippi.

In November of 1831, Susannah writes to Duncan McKenzie giving him a copy of the naturalization certificate of Donald Stewart. In February of 1832 George C. Mendenhall writes to Duncan McLaurin informing him that Susanna Duncan and her husband wish him to “come up to Guilford before or at May court.”

Stewart’s will itself contains a list of the enslaved people he is bequeathing to his wife: Nancy and her children Kathy, Donald, and Sandy; also Ally, Peter, Lucy, Libby, Ann, Jeanny, Jack, Tom, Henry; Charly, Jenny’s child; and all of their increase. His farm contains over three hundred acres. 

Twenty-first century sensibilities are struck by the matter-of-fact legal tone in which the lives of human beings are bought and sold with little thought to their own wishes and aspirations. Only monetary value appears at issue here except for the singling out of Nancy and her children. Evidently, many Quakers in Guilford County shared an anti-slavery sentiment, George C. Mendenhall was one of them.

(Wills, such as the aforesaid, and other personal papers kept by plantation owners, and more rarely by small farmers who owned slaves, are a valuable source of information for families with ties to slavery. Although some surnames were taken from plantation owners, this is not a hard and fast rule. Still, it is a place to begin. It is certain that enslaved people made individual choices regarding surnames as well as they did survival strategies. After the end of the Civil War, churches and black-owned newspapers across the country aided formerly enslaved people in finding family members separated by slavery. Ads would appear in newspapers, especially during and after 1865, that offered rewards for information about specific individuals.) 

In May of 1832, just months before he leaves North Carolina for Mississippi, Duncan McKenzie writes from Hickory Grove to Duncan McLaurin sending all of the information about the Donald Stewart property to Duncan McLaurin, who he believes is going to be present at Guilford Court for the review of the estate. An excerpt from Duncan McKenzie’s letter reveals the attitude the McKenzie’s had toward the management of the estate by Henry Humphreys:

but it will be Some Satisfaction to know the end of the administration of Humphreys on the estate — no doubt all is exhausted but that part held by the widow except the land and I expect if possible even that would have been embezzled as I do think Some was.  –Duncan McKenzie

According to a letter in June of 1832 from George C. Mendenhall, Duncan never made it to court. Mendenhall includes the following lines summing up the settlement:

… the final Settlement was made on the 23rd of May 1832 with Henry Humphreys Esqr Admr with the will annexed of Dr. Donald Stuart Deceased and there remains a Balance in the hands of Mr. Humphreys of $257.77 the Interest of which he will pay over to Mr. Duncan and wife — This Settlement is filed in court and I believe is correct — I was satisfied and Sanctioned it. – George C. Mendenhall

Oddly, even after the case appears closed, Mendenhall’s letter is followed by two interesting letters that appear to disagree with the settlement. Anna D. Duncan, likely a relative of Susanna’s husband, in a July 21, 1832 letter questions the report of the committee:

Mr. Humphreys made out the accounts gave it to Mr. Mendenhall to look over while he Humphreys red over the vouchers the committee were present but not one of them examd one voucher nor indeed did they stay until the vouchers were all read over it was concluded on that on the next morning Mr. Humphreys was to present the accounts for their signatures if this is the proper way to do business I assure you I am grossly ignorant. – Anna Duncan

Even more surprisingly, a full decade later in 1842 a man named Thomas R. Tate, executor of the estate of Henry Humphries and also the son-in-law of Humphries, answers an inquiry from Duncan McLaurin about the Stewart property. Tate explains the terms of Stewart’s will and seems to think there is little to question. He says he has not heard from Susanna Duncan and her husband since they left North Carolina. He ends his letter with an assessment of the land that is left and its value:

there is between two and three hundred acres of the land; and from what knowledge I have of the plantation the land is very poor and in all probability by the time disposition is made of  it will not be worth a great deal. – Thomas Tate

If nothing else, this last inquiry by Duncan McLaurin attests to his tenacity in following up on issues, especially those that involve his family members. Whether or not the value of any of Stewart’s property ever made it into the hands of his sister Catherine’s relatives, either in the US or in Scotland, is unlikely.

Sources:

“Administration Meeting.” The Raleigh Register. 29 Feb 1828, Friday. 2. newspapers.com.

“After Slavery, Searching For Loved Ones in Wanted Ads.” All Things Considered with Ari Shapiro. National Public Radio. 22 February 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/22/516651689/after-slavery-searching-for-loved-ones-in-wanted-ads. Accessed 3 October 2017.

“An Unkind Master.” The Charlotte Democrat. p2. 7 July 1857. Downloaded 1 May 2017. newspapers.com

Banks McLaurin, ed. Clan McLaurin Society Quarterly. Revised “F” Family Outline. Volume 8, #29, p. 15-18. 1976.

Browning, Mary “G.C. Mendenhall had slaves taken to Ohio to be freed.” 27 November 2013. http://www.greensboro.com/life/mary-browning-g-c-mendenhall-had-slaves-taken-to-ohio/article_363f2400-57a2-11e3-81a7-001a4bcf6868.html accessed 1 October 2017.

“Died.” The Greensboro Patriot. p3. 6 January 1830. Downloaded 22 March 2017 from newspapers.com

Foote, Rev. William Henry. Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical, Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of her Early Settlers. Robert Carter, 58 Canal Street: New York. 1846. 275, 276.

General Index to Real Estate Conveyances – Guilford County, N. C. – Grantors To December 31st, 1921. Arnold Duncan and Susanna Stewart Marriage Contract 1831. Book 19 p. 349. https://rdlxweb.guilfordcountync.gov/guilfordNameSearch.php . Accessed 20 July 2021.

“Greensborough Academy.” Weekly Raleigh Register. 23 February 1821, Friday. 4. newspapers.com.

Letter from George C. Mendenhall to Duncan McLaurin (?). 6 February 1831. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Susanna Duncan to Duncan mcKenzie. 10 November 1831. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from George C. Mendenhall to Duncan McLaurin. 23 February 1832. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and manuscripts Library. Duke University.

Letter from Duncan McKenzie to Duncan McLaurin. 15 May 1832. Boxes 1 and 2. Duncan McLaurin papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from George C. Mendenhall to Duncan McLaurin. 5 June 1832. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Letter from Anna D. Duncan to Duncan McLaurin. 21 July 1832. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscripts Library. Duke University.

Letter from Thomas R. Tate to Duncan McLaurin. 4 April 1842. Box 1. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscripts Library. Duke University.

Power of Attorney from Kenneth McKenzie to Duncan McKenzie and Duncan McLaurin. 11 October 1831. Legal Papers. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Stockard, Sallie Walker. The History of Guilford County North Carolina. Gaut – Ogden Co., Printers and Book Binders. 1902. 80.

“The Late George C. Mendenhall.” 21 March 1860. Semi-Weekly Standard. First Edition. p3. Downloaded 1 May 2017.

Webster, Irene H. Guilford County, North Carolina Will Abstracts 1771-1841. “Donald Stewart.” Southern Historical Press. 2014.newspapers.com

Whatley, L. McKay. “Mt. Hecla Factory.” Randolph Heritage. https://sites.google.com/site/macwhat/mt.heclafactory . Accessed 20 July 2021.

Will of Kenneth McKenzie listing Duncan McLaurin executor. 28 September 1832. Legal Papers. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.

Will of Donald Stewart of Guilford County, NC. 27 February 1822. Boxes 3, 4, 5. Duncan McLaurin Papers. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke University.