Fourth Generation Inclusive

Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color

Tag: Drake

October 22, 2012

Looked for and prayed for and expected to see the time come.

Lewis Dunn filed claim #17583 with the Southern Claims Commission.  He was 56 years old, lived in Fayetteville (“in my own house, my lot is 1/2 acre”) and worked as a drayman.  The Confederate Army conscripted him to work at an arsenal for 12 months.

“I was free.  I bought myself.  Finish paying for myself about 20 years ago.  I was the last col’d man in the state that the legislature emancipated. … My former master was James England.”

Dunn did not see his property taken.  He was hauling provisions for the United States Army and when he returned “cattle drivers came and camped all around my stable and made a slaughter pen of my lot….”

William S. Bryant, 58, testified that he lived in Fayetteville and worked as a blacksmith.  He was not related to Dunn, but had known him about 40 years.  Bryant reported that Dunn said “the war was brought on an account of slavery and he looked for and prayed for and expected to see the time when all his race would be free.”

Carpenter Jere Husk, 40, and butcher Tom Drake, 57, both of Fayetteville, also testified on Dunn’s behalf.

Dunn’s wife Harret Dunn, 30, testified: “My grandmother was present [when Dunn’s property was stolen.]  She is now dead.  Also a col’d man name Prince McNeill.  He is not in this section of the county now.”

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October 20, 2012

A very respectable woman and a worthy one.

Elsie Drake filed claim #15804 with the Southern Claims Commission.  She was 79 years old and lived near Fayetteville.  “I lived on my own land.  I have 3 acres all cultivated.  Nursing was my occupation.”

“I had one grandson in the Confederate Army as a drummer.  His name is Warren Drake.  He is living in Montgomery Al. I did not furnish him with anything while in the Rebel servace.  He was carried off against my wish.  He ran away from the Army and came home.  He was a boy of about 14 years old.”

“My feeling was with the union.  My language was for the union.”

“I am a widow.  My husband has been dead about 15 years. I have 3 children living Thos. Drake … Robt. Drake … Warren Drake.  Neither of them was in the confederate servace.  They were slaves.”

“I was free at the beginning of the war.  My husband was a free man.  He bought me about 20 years ago. …  I bought some of my property  and raised some.  Got the money to pay for it by cooking and nursing.  John H. Cook was my former owner.  I am not and have not been in his employ since my husband bought me.”

Though Elsie Drake appears in neither the 1850 nor 1860 census of Cumberland County, in 1870 she is listed as “Elsey Drake,” age 77, in the household of her son Thomas in Cross Creek township.

Union soldiers took bacon, hogs, corn, flour, coffee, cooking utensils, soap, turkeys, geese, water buckets, bed quilts, tubs, blankets, a shawl and some sugar from her. Witnesses to the theft were Jenette Smith, Mollie Stephens and Ellen Simmons.

Special Commissioner John J. Minor noted: “Her husband … was always free and his wife lived with [him] since I first knew them up to his death.  She was a slave belonged to John H. Cook.  I presume her husband hired her time up to the time he bought her — She is a very respectable woman and a very worthy one … Her witnesses are all very respectable col’d people.”

Though she appears in neither the 1850 nor 1860 censuses, in 1870, 70 year-old “Elsey” Drake is listed in her son Thomas’ household in Cross Creek township, Cumberland County.

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