Phoebe Holloway

Phoebe Holloway is my husband’s great-great-grandmother. She was born, according to her grave marker, June 2, 1859 (which was long before North Carolina required birth certificates.)  However, according to the 1860 and 1870 census entries when she was in the household of her parents, Martin and Margaret Holloway, she was actually born about  1853 or 1854.

Phoebe was married to James Harvey Blevins. I have not been able to locate a NC marriage record for Phoebe and Harvey.   And since they were Baptists,  church marriage records were not kept.

Phoebe Holloway Blevins is buried in the cemetery at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Hays, North Carolina.¹  Her death date is given as November 17, 1933. She should have had a death certificate but I've been unable to locate one, either on Ancestry or at the local courthouse.

Phoebe’s monument looks like it was placed much later than the 1930’s. We don’t know how much later, or who placed it there. But the dates inscribed on the grave marker are the only dates that we have.

(click to enlarge)

 

In 1860, Phoebe’s parents, Martin and Margeret Holoway, lived in Wilkes County, NC, with their four children.²   In 1870, when Phoebe was 16, her parents' household had added four more children.³

In 1880, Harvey and Phoebe Blevins were living in Cranberry Township in Alleghany County, NC, with four children.⁴

Phoebe’s parents, however, had moved to Burnet County, Texas before 1880. Phoebe and her husband, and Phoebe’s brother Meredith and his wife, did not move to Texas.  Another young brother was born in Texas around 1874, indicating the family move occurred between 1870 and 1874.⁵

(Name withheld), a 3rd cousin of my husband, told me a story, via email, that one of Phoebe's granddaughter-in-law's had told him. According to this elderly cousin, Phoebe's parents moved to Texas and her father came back, by wagon, to try to get Phoebe and her husband Harvey to move, too.⁶

Janet Crain recounts a family legend on her “Crain/Lewis Genealogy” page on RootsWeb that says:

            “their oldest son and daughter, Meredith and Phoebe, remained in North Carolina with their new spouses. Martin returned twice, trying to persuade the young couples to move to Texas. Meredith and Susan finally did, but Phoebe and her husband, Harvy Blevins did not.”⁷

So the two stories that came down through different lines of the family, one in North Carolina and one in Texas, are quite similar.

That means that Phoebe was left behind in North Carolina while her entire family (her parents and ultimately, all her brothers and sisters) moved to Texas.  Neither Phoebe or her husband Harvey were able to read or write.

Phoebe could have been about 20 years old, possibly younger (depending on which birth year is correct) when her family moved away.  Did she get news from them very often?  Did she beg her husband to move, too?

I know that I would have missed my family, if I were in her situation.

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¹ Walnut Grove Baptist Church, Hays (NC, Wilkes, Cabin Creek Road), Phoebe Holloway Blevins marker, photographed by Debbie Pruitt, 2008



² 1860 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, population schedule, Lower Division, p. 15, dwelling 210, family 210, Martin Holoway household; digital images, Ancestry.com; accessed 20 Sep 2010; citing NARA microfilm M653, roll 918.



³ 1870 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, population schedule, Walnut Grove Township, p. 429B, dwelling 174, family 174, Martin Holaway household; digital images, Ancestry.com; accessed 20 Sep 2010; citing NARA microfilm M593, roll 1165.



⁴ 1880 U.S. census, Alleghany County, North Carolina, population schedule, Cranberry Township, dwelling 61, family 62, Harvey Blevins household; digital images, Ancestry.com; accessed 20 Sep 2010, citing NARA microfilm T9, roll 951.



⁵ 1880 U.S. census, Burnet County, Texas, population schedule, Precinct 4 and 5, P. 165A, dwelling 161, family 166, Martin Hallaway household; digital images, Ancestry.com, accessed 17 Jul 2011; citing NARA microfilm T9, roll 1293.



⁶ [Private emails] to Debbie Pruitt, 15 Aug and 17 Aug 2010, “Re” Wilkes connections”, privately held by Pruitt [address for private use] Moravian Falls, NC.



⁷ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=craingen&id=I0695; accessed 21 Sep 2010.