Built upon a small slip of paper from the large on-line collection of surviving Wake County civil action papers, my last post introduced a community residing in the county’s southwest-most corner. There was the Folsom Family and their ties to the Choctaw Nation, Joseph Cobb and Andrew Peddy with their ties to Elk River, and Leonard Green, William Bugg, and Barker family ties to Cabarrus where gold was first discovered in America. Also mentioned was Valentine Austin, a person of color who freely settled in Wake County.

Often under-reported in family histories are the stops made along life’s way as people migrated further west through our state and beyond. People did not make such moves alone as like birds, they often travelled with those of same feather. Continuing with that theme, as for this post, I’m widening my net just a bit while starting from scratch with what is known of the Barker family from here in Wake County. And yet, in this post will emerge a fellow named Thomas Barker who for sure died in the 1760’s North Carolina. He may be the person documented as travelling across the Yadkin prior to his death though little survives in support of that adventure. However, surviving deeds and records from present-day Cabarrus County shows that if this is indeed the same Thomas Barker, his sons Ephraim and William certainly made the trip. Of all possibilities, the story of Thomas Barker comes into focus by way of a free but indentured servant who lost her children to none other than John Sevier, famed frontiersman and leader of the Rogues’ March from Roane Mountain, Tennessee to fight in the Revolutionary Battle of Kings Mountain.  And then there is Valentine Locust whose sister is at the heart of the terrible times beckoning to be fully understood. That is a bit of information to be revealed in my next post though for now let’s start at the beginning.

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Samuel Letman’s last will and testament was penned in Orange County, North Carolina on 18 Oct 1766. In the document, Samuel divides his “plantation” between son Fonsable and wife Priscilla who received her portion of the estate where “I now live.”  An important detail lies in the subscribing signatures of William Barker, Mark Barker, and Christopher Woodard. Knowing historically that the lands of Christopher Woodard were situated along Middle Creek, one can surmise that Samuel and Priscilla Letman likely lived nearby or maybe had familial connections to the witnesses who are known to have lived in present-day Wake County. Note also that Wake formed from Orange County six years after the 1766 death of said Letman.

Much deeper in time, in Surry County Virginia, Henry Briggs of “Southwarke” Parish sold 80 acres to William Barker and wife, Priscilla. Priscilla’s father happens to be Henry Briggs as on 22 Jan 1738, the said Henry “bequeaths to my daughter Priscilla Barker all of that part of my estate as she is possessed with.” Also mentioned is daughter Mary Beddingfield and Mary’s believed son, being “my grandson Henry Beddingfield.” The will was probated “November ye 21st, 1739.”

As a side note, Dana Leeds who created the Leeds method of autosomal DNA research recently spoke virtually on her methodology at a well-received special event hosted by the Wake County Genealogical Society.  Concerning the topic of Dana’s presentation, part of her message involved a case study pertaining to family member Henry Beddingfield who happened to appear in Wake County at the time it was formed 1771, in part from Johnston County. Is Henry Beddingfield of Wake County the same as he who was mentioned in Henry Brigg’s last will and testament filed in Surry County VA? Concerning this writing, of curiosity is the said Henry Brigg’s believed wife, Elizabeth Lucas, who as you will later see, coincidentally represents an interesting twist concerning deep ties to a Lucas family, one being of color who ended up in Wake County.

Moving forward to the next generation, and dated 6 Dec 1761, Priscilla Barker received a land grant from the right honorable John Earl Granville for 450 acres situated on “White Oak, the Waters of Buckhorn Creek.” Clearly located in the southern extent of present-day Wake County, metes and bounds speak of the bents of White Oak and further identifies the land as adjoining that owned by Thomas Barker.  Note that Thomas Barker and Edward Hobson served as chain carriers for Priscila’s grant per the accompanying survey plat (below).

Some swear that Priscilla is the wife of the above-mentioned Thomas Barker but that’s simply not correct as the metes and bounds from the above survey describe her relationship thusly:

“a tract of land surveyed for Prissilla Barker (Executrix for William Barker, deceased)”

The above confirms that Priscilla’s husband before marrying Samuel Letman was William Barker as it was customary for the widow, maybe with the support of another family member or friend, to administer their husband’s final estate. It is also known that Priscilla Barker married Samuel Letman following the ca. 1762 death of her husband, William Barker. Furthermore, and about the same time, Thomas Barker entered a tract of 700 acres in Sep 1761 indicating he had desires to acquire land as did Priscilla. However, the record for Thomas Barker’s entry at State Archives of North Carolina is filed as No. 01136.  The use of zero at the beginning of ANY North Carolina land grant file number indicates the grant may have been entered and even surveyed though no record exists showing it matured and was ultimately ISSUED. So, from the use of zero in the file number it appears Thomas Barker did not receive a land grant. However, and though no deeds survive in his name, from metes and bounds for surrounding tracts, it can be determined that Thomas Barker did own or otherwise settle land adjoining the said Priscila Barker to the south.

Some say that Thomas Barker is Priscilla’s husband and to me the land history screams out that is wrong, that instead, Thomas was William and Priscilla Barker’s son. Much like reverse engineering the movement of the ball in a well-played shell game, defining this genealogy becomes maddeningly impossible upon learning of a Thomas Barker who lived in Kentucky. That story is saved for my next post though for now, Priscilla’s 450-acre land grant did reach maturity which likely enabled her to assure future stability for her Barker children …prior to her marriage to Samuel Letman. Closing a life together that began in Surry County, Virginia, Priscilla was likely fulfilling dreams already set into motion before her husband William Barker died ca. 1762.

Oh, and as you will come to realize, the name Hogson, Hobson, Hobbs is always not-too-far from the Barker family as seen in records from Wake County. To that thought, who is Edmond Hobson and of all people, why was he the one who served as chain carrier for Priscilla Barker’s land grant?  Note that in 1779, another survey, this time for Drewry Barker, was for land below William Barker on Lashley’s Branch. The survey chain carrier happened to be “Briggs Hopson,” likely a descendant of Edmond or Francis Hobson who had land nearby. Does this indicate yet another maternal connection through the Briggs Family of earlier in Surry County, Virginia?

Time moves on and soon after the death of William Barker, Thomas Barker was also dead. We know this as dated 21 Oct 1778, knowledgeable citizens from the surrounding community in Wake County offered their collective perspective concerning a caveat (legal claim) raised by Jesse Barker against Shadrack Barker.  Jesse Barker believed that land being entered as part of the grant process initiated by Shadrack actually belonged to him, the said Jesse Barker, of which the committee provided the following response concerning title history:

    Specifically that some fourteen or fifteen years ago [1763 or 1764] Thomas Barker died in possession of the said Improvement leaving a Widow and several children all under the age of twenty one years – the widow being necciciated [sic] sold the improvement unto a certain Christopher Osborne for a valuable consideration and applied the same (for) the use of her said family which she could not support without and that the said Osborn sold the said land unto Ephraim & William Barker, sons to the said dec’d Thomas Barker who sold it unto William Barker who sold it unto the said Shadrack Barker and farther that the said Jesse Barker never claimed any title to the said Improvement until entering the said Caveat to our knowledge all these aff’d ——– to the county. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hand and seals this 21st day of October 1778.

Nath’ll Jones           Thomas Phillips

John Bradford            Britton Wommack

Nath Jones Jur                   John Taylor

William Utley            Arthur (AC) Cook

Charles Jones                Thos X Peddy

Jacob Utley               James (L) Lyn

Thomas Barker died shortly after he served as chain carrier on behalf of Priscilla Barker’s 1761 survey. William Barker also died and ca. 1763 Thomas himself left a widow with children under the age of twenty-one. We learn from the legal caveat of Thomas’ sons Ephraim and William Barker though there could be more. Some researchers seem to resurrect Thomas Barker, indicating the person who died ca. 1763 is the same as another who is later found in Tennessee.

Also, out of desperate need, we now know Thomas Barker’s widow sold “a certain [land] improvement” to Christopher Osborne who later sold it back to the said Thomas Barker’s sons Ephraim and William. This improvement could have been a field, orchard, cabin, a barn, a dam, or maybe even a mill. The action is portrayed as if the said Osborne was acting in kindness, holding to the land and providing the widow Barker with sustaining income until her children came of age. And as for Ephraim and William, according to the caveat, the two turned around and sold the improvement to William Barker who I believe is not the son of Thomas (as some say), but instead, this William is likely the said Thomas Barker’s brother, or possibly even a cousin.  This William Barker, in turn, sold the land to his own son named Shadrack.

The Barker family was large and acquired much land through the generations. Keeping them straight is a genealogical chore as is the case with many early North Carolina families as their number slowly migrated in generations across our state. As for Priscilla’s grant and the surrounding lands, below, I have graphically joined several important tracts using imagery gleaned from digitized land grant files found online at nclandgrants.com though the original records remain housed at State Archives of North Carolina:

1. Prissilla Barker, file 335 Orange, 06 Dec 1761, being 450 acres joining Thomas Barker. CC: Thomas Barker, Edward Hobson.
2. William Barker, file 388 Wake, 1 Apr 1780, being 297 acres on both sides of White Oak joining sd Barker’s lines, including his improvements being one half of a survey of land formerly made by Thomas Barker. CC: Mark Barker, Drury Barker.
3. John Utley, file 219 Wake, issued 1 Apr 1780, being 300 acres on both sides pf Great White Oak Creek, “being one half of a survey of land formerly made by Thomas Barker and also the vacant land joining the sd. survey.” CC: Sampson Holland, John Norris.
4. John Utley, file 848 Wake, issued 27 Sep 1779, being 150 acres on both sides of Great White Oak Creek joining his own line and William Barker. From the survey, Lashley Branch enters Great White Creek northeast of this tract and running through the southwest corner of the tract is “Thomas Barker Branch.” CC: Mark Barker, Drury Barker.
5. Mark Barker, file 1027 Wake, issued 1787, being 200 acres on the south side of White Oak joining the widow Letman’s south line. CC: Shadrack Barker, Lewis Barker.
6. Shadrack Barker, file 998 Wake, issued 1787, being 300 acres on both sides of Little Creek joining his line and widow Letman. CC: Mark Barker, Lewis Barker.
7. Shadrack Barker, file 1026 Wake, issued 1787, being 300 acres joining his former entry (a grant which Jesse Barker entered a Caveat). CC: Mark Barker, Lewis Barker.
8. Shadrack Barker, file 1025 Wake, issued 1787, being 300 acres on both sides of White Oak joining the lands of widow Letman and Benjamin Black including his own improvement. CC: Mark Barker, Lewis Barker.
9. William Barker, file 498[A] Wake, issued 1780. Being 342 acres on the Great Branch of White Oak on both sides of the Middle Creek joining Joseph Lane, Benjamin Blake, Burwll Pope. CC: Lewis Barker, Shadrack Barker.

One can clearly see “Prissilla’s” initial 450-acre tract, and we know that later, following Independence from England, Mark Barker acquired a North Carolina Secretary of State land grant (E) situated south of Priscilla Barker’s land. Mark’s land likely stood upon or near the place where Thomas Barker once lived. Also, Shadrack Barker received land to the east and north and note that tract (H) happens to be the same land disputed in 1778 by Jesse Barker. Thomas Barker’s possible brother William also received land to the north (I), and really, there are many other pieces of the land representing the Barker family nearby of which Priscilla’s acquisition is epicenter.

Of importance, and after originally publishing this post, I found several good clues identifying the lands of Thomas Barker. It appears that William Barker received a grant (B) for 297 acres “being one half of a survey of land formerly made by Thomas Barker.”  Neighbor John Utley appears to have received the other half as his granted land (C) is described as also “being one half of a survey of land formerly made by Thomas Barker and also the vacant land joining the sd. survey.” The idea is further confirmed in the survey plat for John Utley’s adjoining tract (D) which locates “Tom Barker Branch” as entering Little White Oak Creek below the mouth of Lashley Branch.  The records are quite clear.

Priscilla remarried and then “Priscilla Letmond” is documented as alive in 1797 as at that time neighbor James Lin wrote his last will and testament in which he bequeaths all his stock of hogs, corn, and other produce in the field to “my good old house keeper Priscela Letmund.” For James Lin’s last will, friend Andrew Peddy served as co-executor and Daniel Oaks served as one of the witnesses. Remember those names from my last post?

At this point, I would like to switch gears by introducing the reader to goings-on in the little community of Midland in present-day Cabarrus, once Mecklenburg County. It may at first feel a bit odd, but please realize that events playing out in south-western Wake County will soon be felt far away as families continue their slow march across the untamed southland.

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As a child, my family frequently wound our way through Dead Man’s Curve before passing Hell’s Half-Acre. Dad drove the old road from our home situated near the Billy Graham homeplace in southern Charlotte to visit kinfolk and our ancestral lands beyond the Cabarrus County town of Midland, having to travel further yet into neighboring Stanly County. Such trips included fond memories of the old bridge where Highway 24/27 crossed the Rocky River. I remember as a kid hanging my head out of the car to capture a glimpse of the flowing waters below. This was the land of my people and I tried to imagine family and their finding of gold along the waters as the 18^th century closed. The drive was always good to which my dad used the opportunity to gauge the growing season from the condition of cornfields as we passed rolling farmland from Midland to the river. At that point I knew Dad was at home, and for me, raised in the city, this road and crossing-over will always remain in memory as an important part of my childhood. Not only did the road carry me to my country cousins, but it also introduced me to a whole other way of life.

The town of Midland is officially located a few miles south from the crossroads of highways 24/27 and 601.  As appears on the 1840’s survey plat for 50 acres granted to S. W. Rogers (right), the roads illustrated existed long ago though at the time of survey they were referred to as being the “Dutch Road” and the “Fayetteville Road.”  Nearby land grants refer to the north-south running road as being the “Charleston Road” because it served both people and the movement of products to and from the major port cities in South Carolina.  The Fayetteville Road is an iteration originated in 1771 as a colonial order connecting Charlottetown to Elizabethtown.

Within a stone’s throw south of this intersection, an abandoned cemetery stands sentinel atop a hill crest in testament of historic Haynes Baptist Meeting House which once stood nearby. Levi, the baby brother of Thomas Dove Keiser, who happened to be one of the wagon masters on the first Oregon Trail, is buried in the cemetery.  Also interred is the grandmother of 1933 Atlanta Constitution newspaper editor Clark Howell. The site is historically significant and once, being called the “town of Garmon,” close-by lands hearken back to even earlier times when records spoke of a rather sizeable community that made its way from our state’s northeast.

Upon the topographic image below, do you see the river, the crossroads and ancient church site? Also shown are colorized tracts of land indicating properties settled upon by folk living in southwest Wake County.

Much is said of German heritage and of those who settled nearby after travelling the Great Dutch Wagon Road from their beginnings in Pennsylvania. However, often overlooked is a much more significant migration emanating from our state’s Northeast. People like John Campbell sailed his ships to North Carolina from Europe, but in doing so, records in England tell a story otherwise lost:

27 th of Feb 1739/40 an Order of Council and Warr for “discharging from the Embargo the Snow Mary and Mariane John Campbell Burthen 100 tons or thereabouts Navigated with five men now in the River of Thames bound for North Carolina loaden with Sundry Merchandise in a perishing condition, and having on board 50 poor foreign protestants and Servts whom he has maintained on board ever since 23rd Dec last.” [PRO, 1734-1740]

There must have been many other such voyages and as for the ships Snow Mary and Marianne, they likely ended up in the Albemarle Sound where John Campbell named the town of Colerain in Bertie County for his home in Scotland. Furthermore, we know many of our people in western North Carolina came through this region, and yet the surviving quartermaster logs back then only account for produce and supplies being transported as there was no passenger lists or other records of passage in the early years.

To tell the story of our people coming from the east, I begin with a land grant issued to a distant cousin named Joseph Thomas. The life of Joseph Thomas comes into focus ca. 1771-1778 when he settled on Thomas and Tom Jack Creeks which streams bound the Shearon Harris plant in extreme present-day southwest Wake County.

Surveyed at the close of war, in 1783, Joseph Thomas received two hundred acres assigned to him as earlier entries made by Thomas Tedder. Thomas Tedder is the father of Andrew whose son Andrew Peddy Jr appeared in my previous post. The survey plat (above) illustrates this land as being situated on the fork of Tom Jack Creek and Buggs Branch. Furthermore, “William Bugg” appears on the related survey as being one of the two customary chain carriers. William is mentioned but a few times in Wake County though records indicate his father died as there were concerns raised on behalf of Widow Bugg. However, an extensive Revolutionary War pension application filed in Haywood County, North Carolina provides us with the rest of William Bugg’s story.

From the document, Elizabeth Bugg “declares that she was married to the said William Bugg in the County of Wake, in the State of North Carolina, after the termination of his last service in the war of the revolution.” Also providing testimony, John Howell, aged 81, stated

“he [John Howell] first became acquainted with William and Elizabeth Bugg in Mecklenburg County before the close of the Revolutionary War; that they came to Mecklenburg County from Wake County as man and wife and lived together many years in Mecklenburg County as man and wife; that he was acquainted with Mrs. Bugg’s father and mother in Mecklenburg County at the same time; that he, affiant, removed from Mecklenburg County to Buncombe County (now Haywood) some 36 years ago and that a few months after he moved, William and Elizabeth Bugg removed their family to the same area; that Mrs. Bugg’s maiden name was Elizabeth Kent, her father’s name was Henry Kent; he also testified: “As to the service of William Bugg I know nothing, except that it was the general report in Mecklenburg at the time I first knew him and afterwards, that he had been an American soldier in the War of the Revolution previous to his marriage to Elizabeth Kent and this report was generally believed.”

William Bugg’s son John provided a copy of the family record as follows:

Marey Bugg was born October the 21st 1780
Fanney Bugg was born March the 8th 1783
John Bugg was born March the 21st 1785
William Bugg was born August the 26 1786
Elisabeth Bugg was born February the 20th 1790
Henery Bugg was born January the 9th 1795
Liddea Bugg was born December the 17th 1797
Henery Bugg was born July the 22nd 1816

William Bugg’s father-in-law, Henry Kent, also made the trip to Mecklenburg, now Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Henry received a land grant south of Priscilla Barker in southwest Wake County before he moved to now-Cabarrus County.  Later, following the war, David Straight of Wake purchased Henry’s tract while entering a grant for additional adjoining land. Let’s look closer at Cabarrus County, once Mecklenburg.

Dated 12 Sep 1779, Henry Kent purchased the above shown yellow-shaded tract in Cabarrus County from Adam Garman at which time Henry’s wife Martha also signed the deed. Furthermore, related descriptions refer to the land as being “nigh the Baptist Meeting House” and “on Meeting House Branch” which through testimonies we know to be the Haynes Meeting House. Isaac Garmon later acquired this land as was witnessed at that time by Rees Shelby and none other than Leonard Green. As you are about to see, Leonard Green of earlier in Wake County played a deeper role in this story.

All of this takes place in the Welsch Tract, one of Dobbs’ 100,000-acre “Great Tracts.” Following the death of said Dobbs, after his wife Justina married Abner Nash, in the continued subdivision of one of these tracts, in 1771, then Governor Abner Nash and Justina his wife sold to Burdig Howell the blue-shaded land located where Hwy 24/27 crosses the river.  That land later passed through the hands of Peter Kizer, Joseph Garrott, Joseph Gault, and William Mitchell before being sold to Leonard Green in 1779. Leonard was named in a 1772 Wake County civil action paper along-side Gideon Green, Joseph Thomas, Joseph Cobb and others. At the time of his 1779 acquisition in then Mecklenburg County, Leonard’s purchase was witnessed by Elizabeth Balch and none other than William Barker. God knows you can’t make this up. The next year, Leonard Green and wife Ann sold their land to Samuel Bonds with that transaction being witnessed by William Haynes and Jacob Self.  Jacob was also a new arrival from the east from the area of Chatham County, North Carolina. Samuel Bonds was an important minister who received a land grant and likely built a church nearby in Anson County prior to the accepted founding date for Jerusalem Primitive Baptist church which stands at or near the site along Richardson Creek. I believe Samuel pastored the flock at Haynes Meeting House. By 1800, Samuel Bonds can be found in service of South Carolina Baptists at which time William Bugg’s father-in-law, Henry Kent, also appears in the same county as Samuel.

As for Haynes Meeting House (built on lands once owned by Henry Kent), Revolutionary War soldier Hezekiah Bryan requested a pension while living in Marshall County, Tennessee at which time the said Hezekiah spoke of Wake County and the old church:

“During the Revolutionary War I lived in Wake County, State of North Carolina, 18 miles from Raleigh, with one H. L. Dreg. Jones, a blacksmith with whom I was learning the blacksmith trade. After the revolution I lived in Mecklenburg County State of North Carolina about 25 miles from Charlotte where I married Mary Powell about the year 1786 at the house of John Furr, by the Reverend Mr. Neuseman, a Baptist clergyman, after posting public banns, according to law, at Haynes Meeting house, with whom I lived until the present time. We had eight children in North Carolina and then moved about the year 1810 to the Indiana, when General Harrison was Governor, where we remained until about the year 1816 or 1817 when we removed to Rutherford County, State of Tennessee and lived several years, and about the year 1823 or 1824, we moved to Bedford County of said State, where we have lived until the present time.”

“I was a substitute in one tour, as I have already stated, I was a substitute for Asa Thomas and in the other, or 12 months tour, I was a substitute for Frank Jones. I was always and infantry or foot soldier & went as a substitute for drafted man. “Hezekiah Bryan’s widow Mary later stated that “she married him [Hezekiah] September 24, 1785 or 6; that she was married to him at the house of John Powell, her father in the County of Mecklenburg”, now Cabarrus.”

Hezekiah Bryan’s home in present-day Cabarrus was located a mile or so to the west of Haynes Meeting House.

For the above-mentioned Etheldred Jones and others representing his Jones family, there are many in southern Wake County. And as for Asa Thomas, any recorded ownership of land by him in Wake is lost, likely resulting from the accidental burning of 14 deed books during an early courthouse fire. Indicating a familial relation I cannot connect to my own Thomas family from that county, Asa Thomas appears in land grant documentation as chain carrier on behalf of a person named Nathan Thomas, and in 1793 with the said Nathan as buyers in the estate sale for Jonathan Thomas who may be their father. Furthermore, from the last will and testament for Redden Matthews, Nathan Thomas and a free person of color named Valentine Austin served as witnesses at which time a bay mare was bequeathed to Micajah Thomas, who most certainly is the son of Joseph Thomas …a member of my DNA family. And yet, in Wake County, Asa Thomas’ son David later requested a pension on his father’s service to which the following was provided:

“Asa Thomas served as a Continental soldier in the Revolutionary war, a period of two years and upwards, that he entered the service of the United States from Wake County in the State aforesaid, that after the conclusion of said war he removed to Anson County. …that his wife Pleasant Thomas whose name before marriage [sic] was Pleasant Matthews, died in Cumberland County in said State aforesaid Asa Thomas, that said Asa Thomas left him surviving several children of whom said declarant and Charity Matthews wife of Alsey Matthews whose name before marriage was Charity Thomas, alone survived.”

Looking back to Cabarrus County, in 1805 William Bugg and son John Bugg jointly sold 240 acres on Muddy Creek (green) adjoining the lands of McLarty and George Keiser. I once was able to read the decaying stone for the said Keiser at the Haynes Meeting House cemetery as well as that for George’s infant son Levi. George Keiser’s son Thomas Dove Keiser married Mary Gurley and it is Thomas Dove to whom a statue stands today in Oregon in celebration of his service, both to the state and while helping to lead the first Oregon Trail wagon train. But for the Bugg family, Mecklenburg County sheriff sales account for two small tracts “in Cabarrus County” purchased by William Bugg.   In 1779, William and Daniel Barker purchased four small tracts in the same location on Muddy Creek for which there is no record of the land being further sold or released.  Being land in the “Welsh Tract,” agent Thomas Polk, Atty, and David Oliphant originally sold to William Barker three of the tracts with one being purchased from John Powell, the father of Mary Powell Bryan who happened to marry Hezekiah Bryan of Wake.  Of significance, the deeds were witnessed by family members including William and Ephraim Barker with Daniel and Ruth Barker witnessing for the purchase from the said Powell. It is my belief that the Barker family left this area for some reason yet unknown. That their land was picked up by the Bugg family who later sold it before removing to Haywood County in western North Carolina.  Knowing the families once lived near each other in Wake County, I cannot help but believe there are further implications we do not yet understand.  Furthermore, who exactly are Daniel and Ruth Barker? And as for William and Ephraim, I believe they are the sons of Thomas Barker, being the ones named by the committee who settled the 1779 land dispute raised a year earlier by Jesse Barker in Wake County. Remember?

“…the widow being necciciated [necessitated] sold the improvement unto a certain Christopher Osborne for a valuable consideration and applied the same (for) the use of her said family which she could not support without and that the said Osborn sold the said land unto Ephraim & William Barker, sons to the said dec’d Thomas Barker.”

As happenchance would have it, the said Christopher Osborne also made the move to now Cabarrus County where he and son Jonathan acquired land grants near the present-day intersection of Hwy 601 and Mt. Pleasant Roads (shaded pink). Witnessing Christopher’s 1779 purchase were of course Ephraim and William Barker, the fellows the said Christopher had helped out back in Wake County. The agreement pertaining to the deceased Thomas Barker’s children appears now to solidly reach beyond Wake County, across the Yadkin and Rocky Rivers to present-day Cabarrus County where the families acquired land. Furthermore, Christopher Osborne is documented nearly simultaneously in both Wake and old Mecklenburg Counties throughout the late 1770’s, though his life came to an end ca. 1789 in Mecklenburg (Cabarrus) at which time a not yet born child is mentioned in his will.  Moses Osborne, as the child would be called, lived in Stanly County below Love’s Chapel. One of Christopher’s daughters married Charles Love and their son James would go on to provide land for the town of Shelby, the seat of government for newly formed Cleveland County.  Another daughter married Henry Plott whose family is the namesake for our state dog as well as a mountain Range in Haywood County and beyond. And yet another daughter named Rebecca married John Powell who sold land to William and Ephraim Barker. Families of Osborn, Howell, Bugg, Plott and others once filled the hollows near and surround the present-day town of Waynesville in Haywood County. They lived earlier in Cabarrus and before that in Wake County. Of importance to me are untold beginnings from the east, and how mixing with arrivals who traveled the Great Wagon Road changed who we have become.

Concerning Ephraim and William Barker, their names also appear in both Wake and now Cabarrus County such that I cannot say with certainty what ultimately happened to the two. The names are also found in Tennessee and in 1820 Gwinnett County Georgia where persons named Jesse Barker and Ephraim Barker are living but a few doors down from “Burdig Howell” who I solidly believe to be the same as he whose land passed through the hands of Leonard Green in Cabarrus County. I believe the family moved back and forth, but also the naming demonstrates repeated use of given names by at least two lines of the family. I may not be able to connect the dots in this mixed-up naming of family though pointing them out adds hugely to our understanding of community in Wake County.

My next post will connect to Thomas Barker and Barker family in a completely different way, that being in the form of a letter written on the actions of Wake County citizens on behalf of people abused.   Years beyond events as they occurred in Cabarrus County, and beyond the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky, being the memories of folk from Wake County, my next post will tell of people of color, their freedom, and of freedom lost.