Bertie County, N.C. to Haywood County, Tenn. Migration

Click to Enlarge Mules and Wagons, Mule Day 2011, Columbia, Tenn.

As I continue to climb my family tree, one question continues to come up. Why did so many of my Bertie County, N.C. ancestors load up their wagons in the early 1830s and head west to Haywood County, Tenn.?

Settling a new area was certainly not new to them. Many had parents and grandparents who fought in the Revolutionary War and I suspect they heard stories about traveling to Eastern North Carolina, building the churches and schools, clearing the trees and starting the farms and plantations that could, by the 1830s, be seen all over Bertie County.

Click to Enlarge The Capeharts Baptist Church, Merry Hill, N.C. in Bertie County. The present building was completed in 1918.

The Williams, Cobb, Steele, Dempsey, Castellaw, Capehart and Butterton families, all in my ancestry line, joined with a few other Bertie County families to found the Capeharts Baptist Church in Merry Hill, North Carolina in 1824, so they certainly all knew each other well.

Most of my ancestors owned a small number of slaves and they farmed cotton, corn and tobacco.

By the 1830s, cotton had replaced tobacco as the crop of choice and for that they needed lots of land. As each father divided the land for his children, the farms had begun getting smaller rather than larger.

Click to Enlarge Marker located on the Court Square in Brownsville, TN

No doubt they were aware of how well two of their own had done in Haywood County.

Just ten years earlier, Colonel Richard Nixon migrated to the area to settle 3,600 acres his father Thomas Nixon received for his service in the Revolutionary War.

Nixon, born in Hanover County, North Carolina, migrated to Bertie County around 1811 where he lived until migrating to Tennessee in 1821. According to “The Life and Times of Elder Rueben Ross,” published in 1882, while in Bertie County, Nixon sent his son, Richard W. Nixon, to West Point Military Academy. More about Richard Nixon and Haywood County

Colonel Nixon settled in an area that would be named Nixon’s Creek in his honor.

“Colonel Richard Nixon blazed out his course and cut his own road from the settled vanity of Jackson, to where he pitched his tent, on the creek which took his name (Nixon’s creek), three miles east of Brownsville. The red men of the woods were encamped on the same creek – the noble Chickasaws – with whom he cultivated kindly relations, and for many weeks shared with them the hospitalities of their camp.”
Williams, James S. (1873) Old Times in West Tennessee. Memphis, Tenn: W.G. Cheeney

Nixon quickly convinced his nephew, Jonathan T. Jacocks, to join him there where they both prospered and no doubt sent word to their friends and family back in Bertie County.

Click to Enlarge Brownsville Courthouse built in 1844. Source

I believe it certainly makes sense that Colonel Nixon worked with his friends back in North Carolina to help populate the new community he was helping to build. Colonel Nixon died in 1831.

Colonel Nixon’s son, Richard W. Nixon joined his father and opened a store in Brownsville, Tennessee. He later moved to Montgomery County, Tennessee, made a “profession of religion,” became an ordained minister and was the pastor of various churches until his death in March of 1881 at the age of 72.

Below are ten “heads of households” in my direct ancestral line who made the journey from Bertie County to Haywood County in the early 1830s:

John D. Castellaw

John D. Castellaw, my fourth great-grandfather, was 55 when he settled in Haywood County.

Castellaw married Zilpha Spruill in North Carolina on Jan. 21, 1804. She was the daughter of Simeon Spruill, a planter from Tyrrell County, North Carolina.

Me at Capeharts Baptist Church during my 50th Birthday Genealogy Road Trip

John and Zilpha Castellaw were among the original members of Capeharts Baptist Church. There were 74 charter members of the original church who had received “letters of dismissal” from the Windsor and the Wiccacon (Colerain) Baptist Churches of Colerain, North Carolina, so they could begin the new church at the Capeharts Meeting House. They had their first service on December 10, 1824. John appears frequently in the minutes of the church.

According to family history, at some point, Castellaw began leading wagon trains to Haywood County. In 1834, he finally stayed in the area along with his wife, children, Harriet Warren Castellaw and Thomas Jefferson Castellaw, and their families.

According to Neil Baker of Windsor, North Carolina, the Capehart Baptist Church minutes refer to the Castellaws’ final move:

“February, 1834 Prayer by Bro Castellaw – Brother and Sister Castellaw petitioned for letter of dismissal.”

When Zilpha died in Haywood County on 27 April 1842, it is thought she was the first person buried in the Cobb Family Cemetery.

More about the Castellaw family

William Steele Jr.

Among the first to load his wagons and head west was William Steele, my fifth great-grandfather. He married his second wife, Frances Cobb, on 12 December 1822 at Eden House in Bertie County. William, Frances and their 4-year-old son Andrew Patterson Steele were living in Haywood County by 1831.

Unfortunately, William died only three years later. His son, Andrew Patterson Steele, later married Sarah Elizabeth Butterton and they became active members of Zion Baptist Church. Their daughter, Margaret Rebecca Steele later married Henry Day Brantley, the son of Augustus Brantley, referenced below (they are my third great-grandparents).

Nowell’s grandfather, Martin Nowell was one of the original settlers of Bertie County having arrived there and purchased land by 1736. Nowell, my fourth great-grandfather was 31 when he and his wife, Elizabeth Rawls, migrated from Bertie/Hertford County to Haywood County by March 7, 1833.

The Nowells had five children when they headed west and their sixth was born soon after they arrived.

Nowell was ordained a deacon at Zion Baptist Church in March 1839. Zion was still a very new church at the time, having begun in Nov 1836. The first pastor was George Williams. Five years after Nowell was ordained a deacon, his daughter, Catherion Nowell, married George Williams’ son, Solomon Williams.

More about the Nowell family

George, another fourth great-grandfather, is first mentioned as a minister at Holly Grove Baptist Church in Bertie County in the church minutes of Dec. 13, 1828. He is included many other times until 1836 when he was chosen to be the first minister of the newly-formed Zion Baptist Church in Haywood County.

George and his wife Nancy headed for Haywood County with their son, George Solomon “Sol” who was 16 and Harriett Ann who was three. Harriett would later marry Andrew Jackson “Jack” Outlaw who is referenced below. Sol would marry the daughter of Dempsey Nowell, above.

More about the Williams family

John Hardy Cobb, my third great-grandfather, was 36 on April 22, 1834 when he arrived in Haywood County. Jacky, as he was called, is remembered as being short and very “round.” Cobb’s family had lived in Bertie County since the mid-1700s when his grandparents migrated from Isle of Wight, Virginia and he and his relatives are mentioned in many legal documents.

Jacky Cobb had married Harriett Warren Castellaw, the daughter of John D. Castellaw on April 28, 1820 and they already had six children when they headed to Haywood County with her parents. According to a family Bible, the journey took 50 days in a covered wagon. John and Harriet Cobb did well and he became a town constable and later a school commissioner and magistrate.

More about the Cobb family

My third great-grandfather, William Watridge, was 38 in 1836 when he migrated from Bertie to Haywood County. He had married Millie Thompson on March 31, 1821. Millie’s parents, James and Rachael Thompson, are buried on the land on which Millie grew up on the Bertie/Hertford County line.

William and Millie traveled to Haywood County with their sons 13-year-old James and 1-year-old Daniel. In 1840, they had their third son Dorsey. In 1886, Dorsey Watridge donated the land for the Holly Grove Baptist Church in Haywood County.

When William and Millie moved to Haywood County, they became very active members of Zion Baptist Church.

More about the Watridge family

Augustus Brantley, another fourth great-grandfather, was 26 in 1837 around the time he loaded up his wagon in Bertie County and headed to Haywood County. Augustus’ father, Edward Brantley had been born in Bertie County in 1760 and had died there around the time Augustus moved.

Augustus’ wife, Martha White was the daughter of Solomon White and Martha Ann Outlaw. Martha White Brantley’s brother was John Bemberry White.

The Brantley’s oldest son, Daniel, was born in Bertie County but their remaining children, Robert, Mary, Julius, Henry Day and Solomon Norman were all born in Haywood County.

They became active members of Zion Baptist Church and their son, Henry Day Brantley, married Margaret Rebecca Steele referenced above.

More about the Brantley family

My fourth great uncle was 32 around the time he traveled the road from Bertie to Haywood. It’s likely he was part of the reason his sister, Martha White Brantley, and her husband Augustus Brantley headed to Haywood County a few years later.

Bemberry had married Penelope Trotman in Bertie County and they had two young sons and two young daughters when they migrated. One of their daughters, Penelope Trottman White married John Charles Warren Cobb, one of the sons of Jacky Cobb, referenced above.

Another fourth great-grandfather, Outlaw was around 30 when he and his wife, Luday Perry left Bertie County and headed for Haywood County. They had a son and two daughters and by the time their third daughter (my third great-grandmother), Elizabeth Temperance Outlaw, was born on Nov. 3, 1833, they were in Haywood County.

Sadly, not everyone who started out on the road from Bertie to Haywood made it. George’s father, Jacob Outlaw. died during the journey and was buried in Knoxville, Tennessee.

George and Luday were very active at Zion Baptist Church and when the new church voted to elect George Williams as the new pastor, it was George Outlaw who wrote the letter letting him know.

George and Luday’s oldest son, Andrew Jackson “Jack” Outlaw was 8 tears old when he migrated with his family to Haywood County. He later married Harriet Ann Williams, George Williams’ daughter.

You can find out more about each of my specific family lines at HaywoodCountyLine.com or read more blogs posts about the history of West Tennessee on my blog page.