settlement | Fourth Generation Inclusive

January 5, 2016

Life on Underwood Settlement.

“John Underwood, a “free Negro” living on a farm he owned in pre-Civil War Vigo County, took part in the dangerous work of helping fugitive slaves flee the United States to Canada as part of the “Underground Railroad.”

“On one occasion, slave catchers discovered what Underwood was doing and “were threatening to do [him] bodily harm,” according to John W. Lyda’s book, “The Negro in the History of Indiana.” But Underwood, a member of the local Masonic lodge “saved himself by giving the Masonic Recognition sign. As those who were threatening him were themselves members of that lodge, they desisted from injuring him,” Lyda wrote.

“This story is one of few that remain from what was once a thriving black settlement in Linton Township in southern Vigo County. Settled by [North Carolina-born] John Underwood in about 1841, it was one of dozens of free, black settlements in Indiana that existed many years before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It became known as the Underwood Settlement. …”

See Arthur Foulkes, “Life on Underwood Settlement,” Terre Haute Tribune Star, 13 February 2011.

[Hat tip to Edie Lee Harris.]

May 23, 2013

Dempsey Reid’s estate settlement.

Inventory of the Estate of Dempsey Read dec’d taken 21^st May 1850

Cash on hand at the time of his death Twenty five 85/100 dollars $25.85. One Note on Council Best for four 80/100 due the 4^th April 1849. Bad debts – one note on James Mathews for $2.00 due 6^th October 1847, on d’o on Stephen Pettiford for $5.00 due 18^th November 1848, One account on James Pettiford for $1.50 Aug Co 1850 /s/ Jesse Coleman adm’r.

Jesse Coleman filed an account of the sale of Dempsey Reed’s property. The buyers included Tabitha Read, John Read, Wash. Read, Rhody Read, Benj. Read, Absalom Artis, Zion Read, Nelson Row, Jane Read, Dave, Dempsy Hall, Waty Locus, and a smattering of white neighbors. The sale netted $98.50. Recording Docket Book 10, pages 434-435, Office of Clerk of Superior Court, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro.

In the settlement of Dempsey Read’s estate, Jesse Coleman paid Pearcy Read $2.50, plus 38 cents interest, on 16 July 1850; and $9.50, plus 57 cents interest, each to Patsey Read, Lila Read and Barna Read on 19 November 1850. Recording Docket Book 11, pp. 163-164, Office of Clerk of Superior Court, Wayne County Courthouse, Goldsboro.

In the 1850 mortality schedule of Wayne County: Dempsey Read, age 70, black, free, hatter, died in March of unknown causes.

[Sidenote: The relationships among the Reids are not clear. As reported in the 1840 census of Wayne County, Dempsey Reid lived alone. He may not have had a wife or children. Other Reid heads of household were Allen Reed, Barna Reed (the one above?), Bytha Reed, Bytha Reed and Rhoda Reed. Pearcy Reid, above, born about 1825, was the daughter of Allen and Sarah “Sally” Reid. Tabitha “Bitha” Reid was married to an enslaved man named Raiford. They had no known children Rhoda Reid’s husband, David — “Dave,” above — was also enslaved. Their children were Tabitha Reid (one of the Bythas, above, born ca. 1811), Melvina Reid Artis (ca. 1813), Zion Reid (ca. 1815), Washington Reid (ca. 1818), John Reid (ca. 1822), Martha “Patsey” Reid Hall (married to Dempsey Hall above, ca. 1824), Isaac Reid (ca. 1828) and Benjamin Reid (ca. 1831). — LYH]

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January 30, 2013

Old-issue, heartily detested.

“Probably the largest group of free negroes to be found in North Carolina was the exclusive ‘old issue’ settlement known far and wide as The Meadows, near Ransom’s Bridge on Fishing Creek in Halifax County. The people still bear the appellation ‘old issue,’ and are heartily detested by the well-to-do negroes in the adjoining counties.”

Rosser Howard Taylor, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1920. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/taylorrh/taylorrh.html

According to North Carolina Gazetteer, Ransom’s Bridge is a “community at the junction of Nash, Franklin, Warren and Halifax Counties, formerly thriving, now sparsely settled. There is a bridge here over Fishing Creek, and a post office by the time existed as early as 1822 and as recently as 1882. This area of North Carolina was the center of gold mining activity before the Civil War.” Ransom’s Bridge is near present-day Hollister, and maps show roads — Richardson, Evans, Silvertown — bearing the names of free families of color. These families and others, such as Mills and Lynch, make up the core of the Haliwa-Saponi Native American tribe, recognized by the state since 1953.

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