Janie Blevins, wife of Martin Caudill

My father-in-law's grandmother (his mother's mother) was Francis Jane Blevins. She was called Francis, Frankie, Janie, Jane, and Frankie Jane, depending on which document you look at. She was born April 22, 1876, died March 20, 1933 and is buried at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Hays, North Carolina, beside her husband, Alfred Martin Caudill, who she married on September 16, 1894.



(click to enlarge)

Martin and Janie lived in a small cabin at the head of Basin Cove. This cabin is now preserved as part of Doughton Park, which is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It can be accessed by hiking four miles upstream from Longbottom Road in Wilkes County, NC, and involves crossing several streams.


Several of her children, including my husband's grandmother, were born in this cabin. Martin and Janie were once part of a thriving mountain community, largely wiped out during the 1916 flood, which took the life of a child, Cornelius Caudill, and a daughter-in-law, Alice, as well as Alice's mother.


Francis Jane Blevins, known as Janie by her descendents, was the daughter of James Harvey Blevins and Phoebe Holloway.