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The members of my Bridges-Hunter
family are descendants of William Hunter and Sarah
"Sallie" Ann Wynne Hunter. Through marriage, we have
received many last names including Alston, Alexander,
Barbee, Bridges, Coleman, Greene, Peace, Pinkney,
Richardson, Rogers, and others. William Hunter was born
a slave on the Jerman (also spelled Jermaine and German)
plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1828. In
1851 or 1857, Dr. Thomas Palmer Jerman (the slaveholder)
brought William to North Carolina. In 1866, after the
Civil War ended, William and Sarah Ann Wynne went to the
courthouse to register their slave marriage and stated
they had lived as man and wife since 1857. It is on this
marriage bond that William gives his name as William
Jerman and Sarah gives her name as Sarah Wynne because
Andrew J. Wynne of Warren County, North Carolina had
held her in bondage. The Hecht family of Warren County
now owns the Wynne farm. In the 1870 Federal Census of
Warren County, we find William and Sarah German living
with several of their children.
By 1872, William German had changed
his name to William Hunter and was a farmer and an
astute businessman. He saved his money and purchased
land in the Smith Creek District of Warren County. In
March 1884, William sold a small piece of land to the
Virginia and Carolina Railroad Company to enable them to
build a double track railroad through his land. It is
not certain when William died but in January 1897, his
descendants divided the land he had owned into equal
portions. Margaret Tibbs lives in Norlina on land
originally owned by William Hunter and the road beside
her house is named Hunter's Ridge. William's wife, Sarah
"Sallie" Ann, lived much longer than William. Older
residents remember her as "a tall woman with white
hair". She died between 1927 and 1937 and is buried
beside her husband in the Hunter family cemetery behind
Margaret Tibbs' house on Route One in Norlina, North
Carolina. William and Sally Ann had at least ten
children with eight living to adulthood. Only three of
their children had descendants and it is these three
branches that were represented at the Hunter-Bridges
Reunion held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in August 2000.
Born in December 1860, James Hunter
was the oldest son of William and Sarah "Sallie" Ann
Hunter. On May 15, 1895, he married Rebecca Wright and
lived on a farm near his parent's home. Their children
were James, Jerome, Archie Roy, John, Cornelius, and
Willis Hunter. The grandchildren of James and Rebecca
are the children of Archie Roy and Margaret Forney
Hunter (now Tibbs). (See Margaret Forney Hunter Tibbs
story). They are Cora Hunter Pinkney (of Richmond),
Leroy Hunter, and Ester Hunter Coleman (of Norlina).
Margaret married a second time and had James "J.C."
Tibbs. Leroy Hunter's children are Everett, Belinda, and
Shelton Hunter. Everett's children are Keijo, Ashley,
Kelsi, and Margaret Jaye Hunter. Robert "Palmer" Hunter
was the third son of William and Sarah. He was born in
May 1868 and married Millie M. Wortham in Warrenton,
North Carolina, on January 27, 1897. (See Palmer Robert
Hunter story.)
Taper, the fourth son is the progenitor of the
Hunter-Bridges branch of the family. Taper was born in
February 1871. He married Alice Hopson, later known as
"Grandma Burton", on January 30, 1895, in Durham, North
Carolina. Their children were: Sweetie, William Henry
Valentine, Alice Ruth "Mama Bridges" (who married John
"Papa" Bridges), Vera, and Ralph Hunter. Taper and
Alice's grandchildren from Alice Ruth Hunter a.k.a.
"Mama Bridges" are Naomi Bridges Rogers, Beulah Bridges
Williams, John R. Bridges, Helen Bridges Alston Crews,
Horace Bridges, Margaret Bridges Peace, Charles Bridges,
Oscar Lindsey Bridges, Leara Bridges Barbee, and Thurman
Bridges. The majority of the descendants of Mama Bridges
live in Durham, North Carolina.
Sources: Warren County marriage, deeds, birth and death
records, Microfilm of Warren County Cohabitation Records
at the North Carolina State Archives, interviews with
Margaret Forney Hunter Tibbs and John Bridges. |
