Page Sixteen
LENOIR NEWS-TOPIC, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1919
LENOIR, N. C.
"PR1TI FMAM" IflllM DPDIflMQ
ULIHLLI'IHII JUllli I LlUUiiu
By W. W. SCOTT
(Continued from Last Week)
(3) Ephraim Perkins.
Judge MoCorkle, writing of the marriage of Ephraim Perkins and Eliza
beth Abernethy, says that they were married "about 1800." Ephraim
Perkins wa born Nov. 6, 1764, in South Carolina. Judge McCorkle thus
describes them :
"Ephraim Perkins was about six feet high, complexion somewhat light,
with blue eyes, fine chiseled nose, massive, forehead and an intellectual
countenance. ... Betsy Abernethy was said to be the handsomest woman
of her day. She was tall and handsomt and her form and carriage were
graceful and elegant. Her eyes were dark and sparkling and her hair as
black as the raven's wing; her cheeks were as the sunny side of the luscious
peach ; her lips somewhat pouting, challenging kisses. It was said that the
Abernethys received their dark complexion from their Pocahontas blood.
Whether this was said in envy or as a compliment I cannot tell. The
Scotch-Irish blood cannot be enriched by that of any people on earth, es
pecially not by the Indian race . . . Her father, David Abernethy, lived
in what is now Lincoln county, about six miles .southwest of Beatty'S Ford,
on a plantation now (1883) owned by Miss Sally Lucky. The maiden
nam eof her mother was Martha Turner. Her parents were from Vir
ginia, but originally from Aberdeen, Scotland. She had six brothers, Rob
ert, David, John, Turner, Moses and Miles, and two sisters, Nancy, who
married Gen. Peter Forney, and Martha, who married Robert Abernethy."
From the above it does not appear possible for any Indian blood to have
combined with Elizabeth Abernethy's Scotch-Irish blood. Judge McCorkle
then goes on to describe the settling down to married life of the young
married couple and to give some description of their children :
"Ephraim Perkins and his lovely bride spent their honeymoon visiting
ther friends. . . . After that they enter into a new life. They have to
swarm out of the old hive . . . They were settled on a plantation not far
from the home of their childhood, now owned by M. J. Cochran. In the
process of time they became the happy recipients of ten childrens five
sons and five daughters. The sons were Elisha, who married Linney Sher
rill, his neighbor, Enos Sherrill's, daughter; David and Daniel died unmar
ried; John marired Elizabeth Norris and Robert married Elizabeth Martin,
who died, and he maried her sister Matilda. The daughters were Adeline,
who married Abel A. Shuford; Caroline married Colin Campbell of Ten
nessee; Catherine married John Beard; Elizabeth married Dr. Robert Ad
ams and Martha, called Patsy, marriedi the Hon. Frank D. Reinhardt, who
represented old Lincoln from 1844 to1850 in the North Carolina Legis
lature. Patsy was the youngest daughter. She. was large, fine-looking,
dignified and of excellent manners. She was full of kindness and benevo
lence. . . . She was baptized by her uncle, Rev. R. J. Miller, and after
wards, through his administration, confirmed a member of the Episcopal
Church, the church of her father; but when she married she joined the
church of her husband, the Reformed. She regarded the Anglican, Lu
theran, German or Dutch Reformed and the Scotch Presbyterian churches
essentially the same in their main features justification by faith and sal
vation by grace."
(4) John Perkins, 2nd.
Judge McCorkle in describing the marriage of Ephraim Perkins and
Elizabeth Abernethy in 1800 says:
"John Perkins, Jr., was there. For the first time he beheld Nancy Aber
nethy. She was not more than sweet sixteen, was well grown and had
blue eyes, and was fair as the lily. The winds of heaven had never been
permitted to blow upon her face too roughly. Her form was faultless, her
movements graceful, her conversational powers unsurpassed for one of her
age. Young as she was she sighed and felt no pain. John Perkins and
she gave each other unutterable looks. They shortly afterwards were hus
band and wife and are the ancestors of Susan, consort of the late Richard
V. Michaux of Burke."
Nancy was not there, for John Perkins, Jr., did not marry her until he
was about 50 years old in 1816. From what has been handed down by
tradition it is probable that all that Judge McCorkle says about this fair
lady of the olden days is true, even as to her age when she was married,
for it was a case of May and December mating. After the wedding John
Perkins, Jr., took his bride home to "Old Oaks," the plantation on John's
river given him by his father and namesake, which was the most valuable
farm in Burke county. Three children were born to them but only one
survived, Susan, who married Richard Venaible Michaux of Prince Edward
county, Virginia. Seldom is ever seen as handsome and distinguished look
ing a couple. She was tall, stately, shapely, beautiful, full of grace and
dignity and yet withal gentle and sweet of disposition, and to her dying
day, fifteen or twenty years ago, she looked the grande dame. Mr. Michaux
was a proper consort for so lovely a bride. He was six feet and four inches
tall, well-proportioned, easy of carriage and graceful. He belonged to
to a Huguenot family that tame to Virginia in the 17th century and had
the blood of the Venables and Macons in his veins, being a near relative
of our Nathaniel Macon. Mr. Michaux, although bred to the law and en
joying a lucrative practice, had a taste for agriculture and became one
of the leading and most successful tobacco planters and manufacturers of
the State in the days before the war. Mr. and Mrs. Michaux had three sons
and five daughters, tall and handsome the "tall .Michaux": John Michaux
joined the Confederate army at 17 years of age and died jn the service.
Richard Venable Michaux, Jr., was educated partly at Finley High School,
Lenoir, party at Mampdea-Sydney, Virginia, and partly at West Point.
He read law but never practiced. He is a bachelor and resides at the old
home built by his father and called "Valley Farm," dividing his time be
tween attention to his farm and devotion to his books. As his years accu
mulate he reminds his friends more and more of his distinguished-looking
father in appearance. (Upon the death of John Perkins, Jr., his widow
kept "Old Oaks" as part of her dower and Mr. Michaux built a modern
residence across the river and called it "Valley Farm.") William Macon
Michaux, educated at Finley High School, Lenoir, is a farmer and lumber
man, married Miss Carnelia Henderson and has a family of promising sons
and daughters. Beautiful Mary Macon Michaux graduated from St. Mary's
Hall, Burlington, N. J., the year the civil war began and married in 1862
Anderson Mitchell Miller of Caldwell, home from the war on furlough, who .
was a great-grandson of John Perkins through Parson Miller. He died i
within a year and his daughter, Mary Anderson Miller, is now the wife of
William Walter Scott of Caldwell, great-grandson of John Perkins through
Parson Miller. Mrs. Mary Macon Michaux Miller was married, in second
nuptials, to Moses N. Harshaw, a prominent lawyer, politician and farmer
of Caldwell. Mr. Harshaw has represented his county in the Legislature,
has been Solicitor, and is one of the most prominent of the Republican
politicians in the State. Two sons were born of this marriage: (1) Jacob,
deceased, who married Eliza P. Houck, daughter of John M. Houck; there
was one daughter, Johnsie, the wife of H. C. Martin, Jr., who traces back
to John Perkins through Joseph Perkins. (2) John M., who married Mary
Houck, sister of Jacob's wife, and they have several children, among them
Moses R. Harshaw, Jr., who ran away before he was 18 years old and en
listed in the regular army and joined the American forces in France during
the great war. Martha A. Michaux at the age of 16 married Chas. L.
Schiefflin Corpening, great-grandson of John Perkins through Joseph Per
kins, who was for years Clerk of the Superior Court in McDowell county
and a wealthy and influential man of affairs. They had three sons and two
daughters: Richard Venable Corpening married Miss Anna Forney of
Burke and died soon after arriving at his majority. Charles M. Corpening
graduated from Annapolis, served for ten years in navy, resigning as lieu
tenant to go into business, and is now living on his farm in McDowell; he
has a son. Max, who has graduated from West Point. Michaux Corpening
is a successful physician practicing in Oregon. Two daughters, Susan and
Patty, both married Connellys, of McDowell, and are residing, the former
in California and the latter in McDowell. Katherine Michaux married
David Laxton of Burke, a great-grandson of John Perkins through Joseph
Perkins. Virginia Michaux, one of the most beautiful and popular women
of Burke, died unmarried. She and her sister, Katherine, were graduates
of St. Mary's, Raleigh. Bettie Venable Michaux, the youngest daughter,
graduate of Kirkwood School, Lenoir, married Col. William S. Pearson of
Morganton. They have a family of fine sons and daughters; their two sons
are making good as business men.
(5) Joseph Perkins.
The family of Joseph Perkins was the most prolific of any derived from
John Perkins and, next to it, the family of Parson Miller and his wife, Mary
Perkins. Col. Walton says:
"Joseph Perkins married Melissa Lavender, a relative and protegee of
Col. Waigghstill Avery, Sr. She was of French descent, probably Hugue
not. (The name La' Vender has possible been Anglicized from La Vendee,
a maritime province of France.) By her Joseph Perkins had three sons,
Dr. Joseph Harvey, Osborne and William, and four daughters, Elizabeth,
who married Allen Connelly of McDowell; Myra, who married his brother,
George. Connelly of Caldwell; Mary, who married David Corpening of
Burke; Selina, who married Levi Laxton of Burke. James Harvey and
William died unmarried."
John Perkins gave his son Joseph a splendid farm adjacent to and south
of "Old Oaks" and "Valley Farm," but Joseph divided it up among his
children and some of the divisions were sold out of the family, so that it is
not easy to give the metes and bounds of the old place. The share of
Osborne Perkkins. who married Marv Averv. is intact and nwnpd hv his
son, John T. Perkins of Morganton, an only child, who is one of the ablest
lawyers in tne state. (Mr. j. r. rerKins has sold his farm to Wallace
Estes. ) Harvey Perkins was sent to the North Carolina Legislature fre
quently from Burke.
Allen and Elizabeth Perkins Connelly.
Their children were:
Col. Avery Connelly, a wealthy and influential business man, farmer and
politician in ivicuoweu.
Laura Connelly, whose husband was Dr. Joseph C. Newland of Caldwell.
Mrs. Newland, like her kinswoman, Mrs. Michaux, was noted for her many
1 charms of mind and person and closed her earthly pilgrimage through a
j beautiful old age. Dr. Newland was a man of wealth and one of the prom
inent men in western North Carolina and had the management and control
'of large affairs in financial, mercantile and farming lines; as a young man
he was Clerk of the Court of Caldwell and from time to time represented
the county and the district in the House and Senate of the General Assem-
bly. Their talented son, William Calhoun Newland, after graduating from
Finley High School, Lenoir, had training at West Point and afterwards . .
studied law with the beloved preceptor of so many North Carolina lawyers,
CoL Clinton A.vCilley. Soon after coming to the bar he was elected Solie
itor for his district, which, besides being a remunerative office, was a splen
did school for grounding him in the knowledge of his profession. He is
very popular and has, whenever .he would permit it, been sent to represent
the county in the General Assembly. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor
of the. State when Governor Kitchin was made Governor and the Senate
has never had a more efficient presiding officer. Governor Newland is one
of the most influential politicians in the west and the western people see
a long perspective to his political career. He married Miss Jessie Hendry,
a charming lady, and they have an interesting family of three daughters
and one son Jessie, who is married to Rev.-J. H. Day, formerly a Nor- '
folk, Va., lawyer, who is now a prominent Baptist minister at x onkers,
N. Y.; Josephine, wife of Capt H. H. Etheridge of the A. E. F. in France;
Mary, married to Wilmar Mason Allen on Sept 18, 1919; Mr. Allen is son .
of a prominent planter in Prince George county; Maryland, and will soon .
graduate as a physician from Johns Hopkins University; Benjamin, married
to Miss Burleson of Mitchell. The late Benjamin Newland, the genial rail- ,
road man who was for so many years a popular conductor on the Western
North Carolina railroad, was a son of Dr. Newland, and by his first wife, a :
Miss Hallyburton of Salisbury, had two daughters,' who married, the on
A. H. Eller, a prominent lawyer and politician pf Forsyth, and the other s
a Mr. Greene, a railroad man; and a soifthe very able and popular Solici- .
tor for the judicial distric tin which Caldwell is located, the late Thomas M.
Newland, who married Miss Mary Wilcox, daugghter of the late Dr. J. Orrin
Wilcox of Ashe. Mr. Newland died while in office. Another son of Dr. :
Newland is H. Theodore Newland every calls him Fritz lone of the big
business and financial men of Lenoir, who married Miss Bettie Tuttle qt
Richmond county. And still another son was the late Augustus M. New-
land, a successful lawyer in Newton, whose daughter married C. M. Mc
Corkle, a prominent Newton attorney, son of the late Judge M. L. McCorkle,
a connection and historian of the Perkins family. John H. Newland was
a son who died unmarried. A daughter, Kate Newland, married Robert T.
Claywell, a leading business man in Morganton; died in August, 1919. .
The youngest daughter, Alma Newland, was the first wife of Jacob C.
Seale, a prominent business man of Lenoir; she left a sweet young daugh- -ter,
Alma Newland Seagle.
Mary Perkins married Bergner Forney, a wealthy Burke county farmer.
They had one son, John Perkins Forney, prho died unmarried, and six beau
tiful and accomplished daughters, twfcrof?whom died unmarried and the
remaining four of whom married respectively Pleasant G. Moore, one of
the leading citizens of Caldwell, at the head of large manufacturing inter-,
ests; John Bohannon and Edward Shuford-of Hickory, Catawba county, of
which city they were leading citizens andbusiness men, and Samuel Mc
Dowell, a Burke county farmer and business man:
George and Myra Perkins Connelly.
George Connelly was a brother of AHen Connelly, and Judge McCorkle'
thus refers to him and his wife: "Myra was the elegant and accomplished ,
daughter of Joseph and Melissa Lavender Perkins, who married George
Connelly, late of Caldwell county; they were the parents of Mortimer Con
nelly, Esq., of Caldwell, and grandparents of Judge James Connelly of Ire
dell." They had two daughters noted for their remarkable beauty, Adelaide
and Jane, and four sons, Momtimer, Harvey Perkins, Julius and Caleb.
Adelaide Connelly married Major Robert B. Bogle of Caldwell and had two :
children, William Gaither and Adelaide, both of whom inherited their
mother's great beauty, the son having been accounted one of the handsomest '
men and the daughter one of the most beautiful women of their day in that
section. William G. Bogle died childless. Adelaide married Dr. Little of
Watauga, where they , now reside, surrounded by a family of interseting
sons and daughters.
(To be Continued Next Week.)
HARD TIMES
(Nevada, Ark., Picayune)
Yes, these are hard times. We
throw away ashes and buy soap. We
raise dogs and buy hogs. We grow
weeds and buy vegetables and
brooms. We catch fish with a $10
rod. We build schoolhouses and
send our children to be educated
away from home. And, at last, we
send our boys out with a $40 and a
$19 dog to hunt 10-cent game.
fwOST CURIOUS "BIBLE"
'Tie most curious "Bible" ever
made by devout believers is to be
: found near Mandalay, in Burmah. It
consisted of about 700 temples, each
containing a single slab of white.
marble. On these slabs has been en
graved the whole text of the Bud
dhist "bible," containing more than
eight million syllables.
Football claimed five victims dur
ing the 1919 season, the lowest in
years.
So far as ascertainable, from con
sular reports only seven American
soldiers in North Russia have taken
Russian war brides.
YOUTH WILL HAVE ITS FLING
Ctty Visitor Your son at college
is quite an athlet, I understand.
Great at throwing the hammer.
Farmer Hawbuck Yes, gol durn
it! Last time he was daown I give
him a hammer to fix the barn an he
throwed it so fur I hain't seen it
since.
The News-Topic $1.50 the year.
I JrIlI1Sr"1
. , , . ,
EBHKEflH -p 1 1 -' "
IWffl
The Officers and Directors of the
LENOIR, North Carolina
take this opportunity of thanking our friends and patrons for
the liberal patronage given us during the year just closing
and to solicit those who are not already our customers; for a
share of their business in 1920.
OUIKL AO Ml
is to extend to. all alike, whether large or small customers, the same efficient
service and courteous treatment. ,
HE
TEA
wmml immi
A., A. KENT, President
W. J; LENOIR, Vice-President
RESOURCES OVER HALF MILLION DOLLARS
E F. ALLEN, Cashier
L. F. STINE, Asst. Cashier, -v
L. A. DYSART, Asst: Casr ' :
We are giving out our 1920 Calendars and our friends end patrons are asked to call and get one.