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Area
in
and John Wayman Lived
The following is supplemental
information for the map on the Family History page, “Map-Twidwell/Wayman Land
in North Caroline”.
NOTE--I owe a huge debt of
gratitude to Cousin Faye Compton of Thomasville, NC, who drove me over many of
the back roads between Lexington and Thomasville, NC, searching for the lands
where our ancestors, Thomas and Obediah Twidwell lived.
Olen Twidwell
John
Wayman (Thomas’s father-in-law), Farmer and Methodist Minister
In 1797 John Wayman purchased land from Jonathan Cooper in Rowan County,
North Carolina (that part of Rowan became Davidson county in 1822) This land was
on Hunts Fork Creek--In old land records, when it refers to land being on the
waters of a certain creek, it means that the land mentioned is drained by the
named creek and not necessarily on the banks of the named creek.
Hunts Fork is a short creek and is just north of present day
In 1804, John Wayman bought 58 acres from Squire Ledford. This land
was on a ridge between Rich Fork and Abbotts Creeks. (A little North of
Thomasville on route 109 and on a ridge between Rich Fork and Abbotts Creek is a
school that is named
This deed was witnessed by Phillip and Thomas Cecil. A Cecil also owned land
adjoining part of Thomas Twidwell‘s land. ( There was a Cecil family who used
to live here in the
In the early 1800’s, John sold 60 acres on Hunts Fork to Wm Harland and in
1808 he sold land to Charles Colett. There was no land records found after 1808
and John died in 1818. Obediah Twidwell purchased some items at the estate sale.
John Wayman was a Methodist minister and because Thomas Twidwell married
John’s daughter, Polly Wayman, it appeared there was a good chance that they
met at a Methodist church and so I started looking for one that existed during
John Wayman’s time. I found that no Methodist churches in that area existed
before John Wayman died and that people would meet at “meeting houses” for
church and so Thomas maybe first met Polly there.
Clues indicate that Obediah and Thomas probably attended this church.
AREA
IN ROWAN/DAVIDSON COUNTY, NC
WHERE
OBEDIAH TWIDWELL LIVED
Finding the area where Obediah lived proved elusive, but because of the 1830
Davidson Co census showing several Kennedays living close to him ; it made
finding the area a lot easier as the descendants of Sherwood and John Kennedy
(Jr) were numerous. Sherwood and John (Jr) were brothers, with John (Jr) being
Obediah’s apparent father-in-law. (These 2 brothers came to NC from Halifax
Co, VA with a third brother (Wm) staying in
The 1830 census showed a John Kenneday living right next to Obediah and this
John looks to be Sherwood’s son John, as John (Jr) and his son John (3rd)
both died in 1822 according to some descendants. Elisabeth Kenneday lived a few
houses down the road in the census and looks to be the Elisabeth who was John (Jr)’s
widow.------This area would be a little north of Thomasville and bounded on the
west by route 109, on the east by the Davidson/Guilford county line, on the
north by the Old Greensboro/Highpoint roads and on the south by the Hasty School
Road.
The following information is taken from an excellent article on the
“South of Brummels Inn lived
families named Kennedy, Bodenheimer,
“An early Kenneday had a sawmill and gristmill on a creek a little
northwest of its crossing by Alternate US highways 29 and 70, at the foot of the
long Kennedy Hill, also near the eastern county line. Stones from the mill dam
remain though all parts of the mill are gone”-- (NOTE, the reference to an
early Kenneday would pertain to either Sherwood or John (Jr)-also NOTE- I was
there and will comment on the mill after the next paragraph.)
“Continuing on US 29-70 back towards
I was there in 2006 and took pictures (my lady friend did) and the stones
from the mill are still there.
There were several trees which were covered in very leafy vines close by and
while my lady friend was taking pictures and then told me she noticed something
which was a chimney sticking up among the vines. We went a little closer and by
looking very closely, you could tell there was an old building there. It was
very hard to see and because I didn’t know who owned the land, we didn’t
venture any closer. I am going to try to find out who owns it and get permission
to go inside it and because it is so close to the creek and mill remnants, it
perhaps is the mill house.--On the pictures we took, we couldn’t make out the
building and you had to look real close to make out the chimney.
I found on a map that the creek that runs through there is named Kennedy
Creek and that it flows west into Rich Fork Creek. Also on an old map that Faye
Compton gave me, in the area mentioned, are the names of people who owned land
in that area. There are a lot of Kennedys listed plus several Cecils. This map
is approximately two generations after Thomas and Obediah.
Back to
Obediah and Elisabeth had one of their sons named Alson Gray and I knew that
back in those days, people would name their offspring after someone they admired
and use that persons last name as the child’s middle name.
In the course of my research on this I found two other people with the first name of Alson and the middle name of Gray. One of them I can’t remember, but I am pretty sure the other one was Alson Gray Cecil.
And so from the “Before Thomasville, What ?” article----
“In July 1828, John W. Thomas ( founder of
Alson Gray Twidwell ( Obediah and Elisabeth Twidwell’s son) was born circa
1824 which was 4 yrs before
THE
AREA IN ROWAN/DAVIDSON CO., NC
WHERE
THOMAS OWNED LAND
In searching for where Thomas owned land in Rowan/Davidson county, I used old
original land records that I had gotten from Salisbury, (county seat of Rowan
Co) and Lexington, (county seat of Davidson Co) Most of them I had gotten on
previous trips to NC, but I did find one from 1818, that I hadn’t found
before, earlier this year at Salisbury and also a tax list from 1815 of Rowan
Co. This was titled “ TAX LIST OF CAPT IIAM’S CO. FOR THE YR, 1815” and
listed Thomas as owning 70 acres then..( Thomas married Polly Wayman in March,
1815)
I couldn’t find any land records before 1818 and that may be due to some
records being destroyed by a fire at the Rowan Co. Courthouse in the middle
1800’s. Also on this tax list were 6 different Kennedys, including John and
Sherwood and James Regan, 2 Morris’s, a Myers and 9 Cecils.
From the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions---1823-1831---------some members
of the Grand Jury were; Daniel Myers, Wm Ledford, Aaron Morris and Thomas Cecil
The Thomas Twidwell land records that I found list all his properties except
for one, being on the waters of Rich Fork Creek of Abbotts Creek (Rich Fork
empties into Abbotts)----So, most of Thomas’s land was drained by Rich Fork
Creek. Thomas’s house where he and Polly lived was probably located on the 70
acres he owned in 1815. Most of the houses back then were probably good size in
anticipation of having a large family and I am guessing that Thomas and Polly
didn’t rebuild on some of the later land he bought and that land was close to
the house, because he was a farmer and wouldn’t have wanted to move the
farming equipment and horses or oxen very far away. In 1818 Thomas bought some
land from Wm Twomey and that land was right next to his other land, as the land
record says “land lying on the waters of Rich Fork Creek; beginning at a stone
in the old Field, said Twidwells corner, thence south with his line twenty six
chains, twenty five links to a black oak, John Kennedays corner” etc, etc.
On the other records that I have, the rest of the land Thomas bought was on
the waters of Rich Fork creek with the exception of one. In October, 1829,
Thomas bought from George Kanoy one hundred eighty seven and a half acres. This
land was on James Branch of Abbotts Creek,
And so I set out to try to find out where James Branch was located, while
keeping in mind that Thomas’s other land was drained by Rich Fork and James
Branch probably wasn’t far from there.
I searched high and low and many places on the internet with no luck. I found
land records at the courthouses mentioned, of the adjoining neighbors of this
land Thomas bought in 1829 (Neighbors then were John Shuler, Samuel Collet,
Micheal Sowers, John Hepler and George Myers) and these records mentioned the
neighbors land being on James Branch or
I finally decided that what they called James branch back then was now an
unnamed small stream flowing into Abbotts Creek, but hoped I would eventually
find it.
I then turned my attention to some land that Thomas sold John Black on Nov 25th, 1833 (This was the year before Thomas came to Illinois) It was for 145 acres and I wondered if this was part of the land (187 and a half acres) that he got from George Kanoy 4 years before.)
As I studied this land record, I noticed that the landmark listed was the
Raleigh Road and didn’t mention James branch, but it mentioned
this:--“Beginning at a dogwood 14.42 (14 chains, 42 links) to a stake,
formerly SAMUEL COLLETS CORNER, thence east 6.70 to a stone, Christian
Myers corner thence North 12.50 to a stone, the said Myers corner thence west,”
etc, etc.
On the deed of the land Thomas bought from George Kanoy in 1829, it mentioned this: Beginning at a post oak, John Shulers corner, running thence east 45.50 to a post oak, the said Shulers corner then north 5.60 to a stake, SAMUEL COLLETS CORNER, thence east 6.70 to a stone, Micheal Sowers corner, thence North 12.50 to a stone, now the said Sowers line and corner, thence west”etc, etc.
So, it certainly looked like the land Thomas sold John Black was part of the
land he bought from George Kanoy 4 yrs earlier and I decided to draw it out,
based on both land descriptions.
The part of the later deed mentioning the Raleigh Road rang a bell, also, as
the article “Before Thomasville, What? “ said there was a map that showed
the old Raleigh Road and so I went back and reviewed that article.
The article basically covers from the time Davidson Co was formed from Rowan
Co. (1822) until Thomasville was founded in 1852 and says that old maps show
that there were two main roads leading through the area : The Old Greensboro
Road roughly paralleling the present northern and western boundary of the present
day Thomasville Township and the Old Raleigh Road near the southern and
eastern boundary. It said that the MacRae-Brazier North Carolina Map of 1833
shows only 4 post offices in the county and that Fair Grove was the only one in
the present day
So I knew that if I could find this map and if it did show the
It showed the
Drawing the outline of the land from George Kanoy to Thomas and the land from
Thomas to John Black was somewhat of a challenge. I had to break the old land
measurements of Links and Chains down to a scale that would fit on a drawing
sheet.
On old land records, they used chains and links in measurements of property.
This method is as follows:--There are 100 links to a chain--These 100 links ( or
1 chain) equals 66 feet and one link equals 7.92 inches There are 80 chains in
one mile.---After much trial and error and several scratch pads in making these
measurements fit on a drawing sheet, I ended up using one inch on the drawing
equals 740 feet of land.
In the old land records, when it starts with a detailed description of the
property, it usually says “Beginning” at a certain landmark and then it will
go either North, South, East or West and sometimes Northeast, Southwest, etc.
For instance, if Joe Smith’s land was shaped in a square, it might read like
this-----Beginning at a post Oak, Bill Whites corner, running thence North 50.30
(50 chains, 30 links) to a Hickory, said Whites corner, thence West 50.30 to a
stake, Bob Johnsons corner, thence South to a stone, Joe Blows corner, thence
East 50.30 to the Beginning
On George Kanoy to Thomas Twidwell land record, it went like this--Beginning
at a post Oak John Shuler’s corner running thence east 45.50 (again 45 chains,
50 links) to a post Oak, the said Shulers corner, thence North 5.60 to a stake,
Samuel Collets corner, then East 6.70 to a stone, Micheal Sowers corner, thence
North 12.50 to a stone now the said Sowers line and corner.
( In order to shorten this, I’ll just use directions and measurements , as
it becomes quite lengthy otherwise)--Thence West 12.50, Thence North 5.0, Thence
West 1.25, thence North 6.1,
Thence West 1.0, Thence North 14.0-etc (It looks like stair steps, doesn’t
it, Ha). By looking at the drawing, this will give you an idea how the property
ran back then.
The drawing of the Thomas Twidwell to John Black land was somewhat easier to
draw, although it had 4 measurements that involved degrees of angles. One was
Northwest 18 degrees, another was Northeast 75 degrees, another Southeast 76
degrees and another was Northeast 82 degrees.
By looking at the two drawings, you can see that some the land Thomas had
gotten from George Kanoy wasn’t included in the land Thomas sold to John Black
( particularly on the west) and that the land to the south ( that picked up the
Raleigh Road) on the property Thomas sold John Black wasn’t part of the land
Thomas got from George Kanoy. So--in the 4 years that Thomas had this land, he
sold some of it and added some to it. Perhaps he was speculating some as there
were silver mines in the area back then..
The “
Olen
Twidwell
2006
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