Samantha Blevins Pruitt Adams

Samantha Blevins was born December 5, 1870, to Rev. Calloway C. Blevins and his wife Lucinda Caudill, presumably in Wilkes County, North Carolina, as her parents were living in Walnut Grove township when the census was taken in July of 1870.  (1)

Samantha married Adam Hampton Pruitt on December 30, 1885, and gave birth to thirteen children, twelve of whom lived to adulthood. She was widowed in July of 1916, when her husband, Hamp, died of cancer of the stomach at age 53. Samantha was about 46 years old, with six children still under the age of 18.  Dora was 17, Fay was 14, Gar was 12, Vestal was 9, Zona was 7 and Dennis was only five years old. All except the perhaps the youngest two children were old enough to do chores and help provide for the family. Additionally, two of the older boys, Mack and Charlie, were still at home. Mack was 20 and Charlie was 19 years old when their father died, and were still living with their mother and all the younger siblings when the census was taken in 1920, except for Dora, who married in 1919.  (2)

Samantha Pruitt and her five youngest children - click to enlarge

In this photograph, from left to right: Gar, Samantha and Fay. Back row, left to right, Vestal, Dennis and Zona Pruitt.  Dennis was born in 1911, so perhaps the picture was taken around 1920 or so.  (3)

In 1926, Samantha and five of her children, Fay, Gar, Vestal, Zona and Dennis were living at 221 E. 13th Street in Winston-Salem, NC. Fay and Zona worked at P.H. Hanes Knitting Company, Gar was a barber, Vestal was a laborer, and Dennis was a clerk at Hampton Brothers. The youngest in the family, Dennis would have been 15 years old in 1926. No city directory was found for 1927, but in 1928 Samantha and the five children were still in Winston-Salem. By 1929, Samantha and Fay had left Winston-Salem.  (4)

By 1930, Samantha was back in Wilkes County living with her son Charlie, who was married with four children of his own. Her daughter, Fay, was also living with Charlie and his wife, Phoebe.  (5)

On September 14, 1931, Samantha married a second time, to her late husband's first cousin, Ambrose Adams. (6)  Samantha was 60 and Ambrose was 56. This was a first marriage for Ambrose, whose shared the homeplace with his mother, Lucy Adams. Ambrose died May 27, 1943, leaving Samantha a widow for the second time.  (7)

Ambrose and Samantha, probably 1941, with three of Vestal's children - click to enlarge

Samantha died of bronchial pneumonia at the home of her son, Gar Pruitt, in Edwards township of Wilkes County, in the town of Elkin, on April 2, 1957, at the age of 86. (8)  She is buried at Walnut Grove Baptist Church beside her first husband, Adam Hampton Pruitt.  (9)

Hamp and Samantha Pruitt's grave marker - click to enlarge

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Information added after initial publication is referenced in red below

(1)  1870 census, Calaway Blevins household, Walnut Grove township, Wilkes County, NC, www.ancestry.com.

(2)  1920 census, Mack W. Pruitt household, Walnut Grove township, Wilkes County, NC, www.ancestry.com.

(3)  picture shared by Robyn Pruitt, daughter-in-law of Vestal Pruitt, email to Ervin Pruitt dated 20 January 2007.

(4)  Winston-Salem City Directory, 1926-1929, www.ancestry.com

(5)  1930 census, Charlie Pruitt household, Walnut Grove township, Wilkes County, NC, www.ancestry.com.

(6)  Register of Deeds Office, Wilkes County Courthouse, Wilkesboro, NC, record #7362.

(7)  NC Death Certificate for Ambrose Adams, #336 (stamped), www.ancestry.com.

(8)  NC Death Certificate for Samantha Pruitte Adams, #13916 (stamped), www.ancestry.com.

(9)  Photograph taken by Debbie Hendren Pruitt at Walnut Grove Baptist Church, 4650 Cabin Creek Road, Hays, NC.

The Picture Taken at Cleghorn Baptist Church with all those Blevinses

The spouse of a descendant of John Andrew Blevins has provided the names of some of the people in the picture with Calloway Blevins.  The group includes Calloway, his mother, and five of his brothers. And no doubt a lot of their extended families!

Susan (or Susanna) Joines Blevins

Susan Joines Blevins was the daughter of Thomas Joines and Lydia Hoppers Joines. Susan (or Susanna or Susannah) was born in northwest North Carolina on March 5, 1826 and died July 6, 1918 in Virginia.

Susan married Andrew Franklin Blevins and was the mother of 10 children who survived to adulthood. Two more children evidently died young, but we know about them because Susan indicated on the 1910 census that she was the mother of 12 children.

Of the ten children who grew to adulthood, three were daughters and seven were sons. Several of those sons became ministers - perhaps four, maybe as many as six.

Susan outlived her husband by more than twenty years, and lived in Washington County, Virginia, with her son, Daniel Smith Blevins, in 1900. By 1910, she was living in Marion, Virginia (Smyth County) with her son, Esquire (Squire) Blevins.  Both of those sons have been identified as ministers.

This picture was found online; I am not certain who owns the original. Susan is seated with a dark scarf on her head. The identities of the other people are not known. Likely this picture was made while she was living with one of her sons, either Smith or Squire  (**Correction**) with her daughter, Rhoda Blevins Caudill, in Smyth County, Virginia (according to the distant cousin who sent me this picture).

Susan Joines Blevins  (click to enlarge)

Susan (Susannah) Joines Blevins is buried in the Kell Cemetery in Smyth County, Virginia, where several of her children are also buried.

Susan Joines Blevins is my father-in-law's great-great-grandmother.

Gone a' Preaching

I received a copy of this picture from one of my husband's cousins, and I'm not certain who owns the original photo.  We were told that the picture was made in Smyth County, Virginia, when Rev. Calloway Blevins went to preach a revival at the church of one of his brothers, who was also a minister.

In Smyth County, Virginia  (click to enlarge)

Callie is near the center of the photo, with a long, full, white beard. And his mother, Susan Joines Blevins, is seated beside him with a dark scarf on her head.

The man seated on the other side of Callie is "probably" his brother, at whose church he had gone to preach. 

However, he had several brothers who were ministers. In the Heritage of Wilkes County, Volume 2, descendant Ursula Blevins Proffit stated that Calloway and his three brothers, Ezekiel, John and Linville, were all Baptist ministers.The History of the Stone Mountain Baptist Association states that three of his brothers, John, Ezekiel and Smithe, were "ministers who served many churches in the Cleghorn Valley of Virginia."

According to census data, Calloway had six brothers: John Andrew, Ezekiel, Linville, Squire, William Talmadge and Smith. Two of those brothers are identified in census data as ministers: Ezekiel and Squire.

Thus, reports and records indicate that Callie's minister-brothers were, variously, John, Ezekiel, Smith, Linville and Squire. This totals five brothers who were ministers, instead of three, as various reports state...  So, in the Smyth County photograph above, we were told that the man seated beside Callie was "probably" his brother, at whose church he had gone to preach. But he apparently had several brothers who were preachers, so we have no idea which brother this might be.

I would love to know the identities of any of the other people in this photograph. Please contact me if you can identify any of these folks.


UPDATE:  The wife of one of John Andrew Blevins's descendants contacted me with the following information:

The man in the middle of the picture with the white hair and beard is Calloway Blevins. Immediately behind and to the right of him is his brother Squire Blevins. Sitting beside Calloway is his mother Susannah. Beside her is another brother, John Andrew. Between John and Susannah is Ezekiel. To the left of Calloway is Linville. The man between Linville and Calloway is Daniel Smith Blevins. The seventh brother was in North Carolina when the picture was taken. This photo taken in 1912 was all of the Blevinses who attended a revival at the Cleghorn Baptist Church near Chilhowie. Calloway had come up from North Carolina to preach at the revival.

Thanks, Brenda!

Rev. Calloway Blevins

Calloway C. Blevins was born January 26, 1847 in the Whitehead community of Ashe County, North Carolina. (Alleghany was formed from Ashe in 1859, and Whitehead is now located in Alleghany County. This explains why sometimes his birthplace is given as Ashe and sometimes as Alleghany.)

Calloway was the son of Andrew F. Blevins and his wife, Susan Joines Blevins, the oldest child in a large family.

Rev. Calloway Blevins  (click to enlarge)

Calloway, also know as "Callie", married Lucinda Caudill, the daughter of Stephen Caudill and Huldah Adams in 1865.  Callie and Lucinda had eleven children together.  Following Lucinda's death in 1911, Callie married a second time to Fannie Emaline Adams, who was a widow.

Rev. Calloway Blevins was a well-known Baptist minister who preached in many churches in Wilkes, Ashe and Alleghany Counties in northwest North Carolina and beyond. He participated in the organization of many churches in the area, and was instrumental in forming the Stone Mountain Baptist Association in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1897.  The History of the Stone Mountain Baptist Association, 1897-1976, compiled by the Associational Historical Committee, with Paul W. Gregory as chairman, included this statement:

from History of the Stone Mountain Baptist Association   (click to enlarge)

An entry in the Heritage of Wilkes County, Volume 2, written by descendant Ursula Blevins Profitt, includes this information:

Written by descendant Ursula Blevins Proffit  (click to enlarge)

This undated newspaper clipping, in the possession of a descendant, refers to Rev. Blevins' service as Moderator of the Stone Mountain Baptist Association.

Callie and Lucinda  (click to enlarge)

The following obituary was published in a local newspaper following the death of Calloway Blevins on August 7, 1924:

Obituary  (click to enlarge)

Rev. Calloway Blevins and his wife, Lucinda Caudill Blevins, are buried in the church cemetery of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Hays, North Carolina. Their joint marker is located immediately behind the church sanctuary.

Rev. C. Blevins  (click to enlarge)

Lucinda Blevins  (click to enlarge)

This map shows the location of Calloway and Lucinda's homeplace in the Walnut Grove community (as identified by his great-grandson, my father-in-law) as well as the location of Walnut Grove Baptist Church, where Callie and Lucinda are buried.

Map from Google Earth  (click to enlarge)

Rev. Calloway Blevins was my father-in-law's great-grandfather. Callie Blevins died six years before my father-in-law was born.

Evaline Carter Blevins

Evaline Blevins is buried at Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Hays, NC. Her tombstone provides a birthdate of October 27, 1832, and a death date of June 23, 1914.

(click to enlarge)

Evaline is buried beside her daughter-in-law, Katherine, with Evaline's son Millard on the other side of Katherine. 

Evaline, whose name is sometimes spelled variously as Evoline (such as her tombstone) or Eveline, was married to John S. Blevins and the mother of three sons, William, John Floyd and Millard Monroe Blevins.

No information has been found about the marriage of John and Evaline among North Carolina Marriage Records. New River Notes, a web site of historical and genealogical resources for the Upper New River Valley of North Carolina and Virginia, provides the only information obtained thus far concerning the marriage of John Blevins and Evaline Carter. Their marriage date is listed as October 15, 1869, and the source is "other material, pension applications, family Bibles, etc."

Evaline appears to be the daughter of Isaac Carter and wife Sarah, who were in Ashe County in 1860, and in Surry County in 1850.

Multiple online family trees state that Evalin Carter married Bartlett Blevins in December 1865. However, this was definitely a different Evalin Carter, not a previous marriage for Evaline.

Evaline was the second wife of John S. Blevins, a man about thirty years her senior. John was first married to Nancy Pruitt, with whom he had seven children, including five daughters and two sons. One of those sons, Ralph, was listed on the 1870 census as "insane" and the 1880 census as "idiotic" and "insane".  As painful as we find that terminology today, the Supplemental Schedules for the Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes of the 1880 census provide the information that Ralph had typhus fever at the age of four.

How old was Evaline's husband? He was listed as age 65 in 1870, and 84 in 1880, a difference of 19 years in a decade. The 1850 and 1860 census suggests a birthdate of 1800-1801, indicating that he was several years older than stated in 1870, and several years younger than stated in 1880. 

Evaline's first child was born in August of 1870. The date of the 1870 census was July, with John Blevins, age 65; Evaline Blevins, age 38; and Ralph, age 32. Evaline must have been about seven months pregnant when the census-taker visited.

Click to enlarge

By the 1880 census, John, age 84; his wife "Elvira",  age 48; and John's four sons were living in the household - Ralph, age 42; William, age 9; John F., age 7; and Millard M., age 5. (Based upon a birthdate of around 1800, John was 65, 67, and 70 when his last three sons were born.)

Click to enlarge

In February 1882, John Blevins wrote a will naming his wife Evaline as executrix. He left his real estate and personal property to Evaline for her lifetime, and after her death, to his three infant children, William, John and Millard. (In legal terms, "infants" means minor children.) He stated that no part of his estate should go to his children with his first wife whose name was Nancy, for the reason that he had already given them as much of his property and estate as he intended them to have.

(click to enlarge)

No mention was made about provisions for Ralph. North Carolina did not keep death records until 1909, and no death record has been found for Ralph. No tombstone, either.

In May 1891, the will of John Blevins was submitted for probate. At age 58, Evaline was a widow. The burial location of John Blevins is unknown. He died before Walnut Grove Baptist Church was built in its current location, and is not buried with his second wife, Evaline. The burial location is not known for his first wife, Nancy, so he may be buried beside her.

With no extant 1890 census, in 1900 Evaline was living with her son Millard and his wife Katherine (and beside whom she is buried.) Evaline has not been located in the 1910 census, although her three boys are listed as living side by side. If her tombstone gives the correct date for her death, she was 81 at her death.

Evaline Carter Blevins was the mother of "Granddaddy John", who was my mother-in-law's grandfather.

Blevins research

I've been doing some research on the Blevins family recently. Not distant research on early Blevins ancestors in my husband's line...no, I've been trying to sort out his THREE different lines that lived in the same community. There were a LOT of Blevins families in the Walnut Grove area of Wilkes County and in Ashe and Alleghany.

And yes, I called them different lines. But, according to other researchers and y-DNA testing, they are really all related. No wonder I'm confused!

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.

J. Harvey Blevins

James Harvey Blevins is buried at Walnut Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in Hays, North Carolina, beside his wife, Phoebe Holloway Blevins.

Although it's difficult to read, Harvey's grave marker indicates that he was born April 1, 1849, and died January 4, 1922. There is no way of knowing how quickly after his passing that the marker was placed, but it looks quite similar to other tombstones in the cemetery that are dated around that same time.

(click to enlarge)

So, Harvey's birth and death dates are "written in stone". The question remains - when was he born, and when did he die?

Harvey was born long before North Carolina required birth certificates. His family were most likely Baptists, who did not record births as some denominations do. His North Carolina Death Certificate indicates that he was born in April 1854, not April 1849.

He does not appear in the 1850 census, and in fact, his parents married in January 1854. In 1860 the census lists Harvey as a five-year old.  In 1870, he's 14 years old. In 1880,  he's a married man of 25. According to the 1900 census information, over the next 20 years, he got 25 years older - in 1900 he is listed as 50.  In 1910, he's listed as 56 years old.  In 1920, he's 64.  Except for the 1900 census, all of these ages would be about right for a birthdate of 1854 or 1855. My conclusion is that the birthdate on the tombstone is in error.

The other question is, when did he die?

(click to enlarge)

This death certificate was located at the Wilkes County Courthouse, but I am still unable to locate it on Ancestry.com. Harvey's death certificate lists his death as occurring on January 20, 1920.  Not January 4, 1922, as indicated on his tombstone.  And the membership roll of Walnut Grove church indicates that he "Died January 1921".  So I'm pretty sure that he died in January, but not sure which year.

Harvey was listed in the 1860 census as "James H. Blevins" and as Harvey on the other censuses, and on his death certificate as "John Harvy Blevins". Since he went by his middle name, this conflict really doesn't bother me.

His great-grandson, (my father-in-law) who was born nine or ten or eleven years after his great-grandfather died, remembers hearing that Harvey wore red wool socks and that he groaned a lot, presumably because he was "old and had rheumatism."

But perhaps he wasn't as old as his tombstone indicates.

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.