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Church Profile: Skewarkey Church

Skewarkey Church Skewarkey Baptist Church was founded around 1780 in Martin County. Originally a branch of Flat Swamp Church, Skewarkey Church constituted a separate congregation in 1787, with Martin Ross ordained as the first minister. Some of the church’s members were dismissed in 1791 to form a distinct church at Morattock, in Washington County, and other members left to join nearby established congregations. In 1803 thirty-four members of Skewarkey left to establish a church at Smithwick’s Creek and another twenty members formed a church at Tranters Creek.

The congregation remained stable for several years until, in 1827, about fifty members were dismissed to form a new church at Picot meetinghouse and still another twenty members founded a congregation at Bear Grass, also in Martin County. Thus Skewarkey Church became the parent church to many congregations in the vicinity, several of which aligned with the Primitive Baptist movement of the 1830s and shared fellowship in the Kehukee Association.

The present building, the church’s third, was constructed near Williamston in 1853. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Elder Cushing Biggs Hassell served as pastor of Skewarkey Church from 1844 until his death in 1880. His son, Sylvester, assumed the pastoral duties in 1881. The younger Hassell also served Skewarkey until his death, in 1828. The Hassells’ association with Skewarkey Church and the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Asssociation is extensive and remarkable. Cushing Hassell wrote a history of the faith, which was revised and completed by Sylvester Hassell. The volume, History of the Church of God, From the Creation to A.D. 1885; Including Especially The History of the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Association, was published in 1886 and remains a fundamental resource.

 

Additional Resources

HUNTER, Jno. B. (d. 1810)

Star Newspaper of Raleigh, NC – August 23, 1810

The following tribute of respect was received in time for our last paper, but was mislaid.

Communication

Died, in Edenton, On Monday, 31st ult. Mr. Jno. B. Hunter, of Williamston.

While those, on whose minds the recollection of his many virtues are yet strongly impress’d, feel soliticitous to revere the memory, and regret the premature death of this worthy character, let the veil which covers human frailty, rest o’er those foibles, which alas! are inseperable from the nature of man.  Enriched by the inheritance of superior intellect, with a magnanimity of soul, that spurn’d the idea of every goveling and fradulent deed; happily blended with humility, whos calm influence can reconsile us to the calamities of time, nor suffer us to repine at the inscrutiable mandates of Heaven – Laden with the sighs of the affluent, and the tears of the indigent, (whose grateful heats can testify, that benificence was not wanting to complete the fulness of his character, ) did the affectionate husband, the faithful friend, the indulgent master and honest citizen, embark for that Haven, where the hand that writes will become motionless, and the eyes that read will be dimmed.

Source: GenealogyBank.com

POOLE, Theodore W. (d. 1890)

As located in GenalogyBank.com, from the 6 Mar 1890 issue of the Charlotte News:

“Mr. T.W. Poole, a prominent citizen of Martin county, died suddenly in his room at the Yarboro house yesterday, of heart disease.”

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DIED — Theodore W. POOLE, Esq., at the Yarborough House in Raleigh, on Tuesday, March 4th, 1890.  Mr. POOLE was a resident of Williamston, NC, and in his death the State loses one of its most talented sons.  In 1883-5 Mr. POOLE represented the second District in the Senate, which position he filled with credit to himself and advantage to the Democratic party.  We comingle our sympathies with those of the people of the entire State in the afflictions that has befallen them.

Source: Roanoke Beacon, 7 March 1890, pg 3. Available online at digitalnc.org.

Williams Sykes: former slave

The Library of Congress hosts the fulltext documents of the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938.  I decided to search for Martin County, and I located a slave narrative from William Sykes.

William was interviewed while in state prison at the age of 78 years old. He tells that he and his mother Martha  belonged to Joshua & Catherine Long of Martin County and his father Henry belonged to Squire Ben Sykes of Tyrell County.  It seems that Squire Sikes lived in Gum Neck and owned more than 100 slaves.  William had several siblings: Henry, Benjamin, Columbus, Hester, Margaret, Lucy & Susan.

During the war, he and his family were sent to Mitchell county to the home of Judge Clayton Moore and his father Jim, and stayed there after the war. William was in jail for manslaughter.

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I located William and his family in the 1870 census. The family is living in Jamesville. Henry is 33, Martha is 34 years old. They have 6 children at this time – Lucy (14), Susan (15), Margaret (13), Hester (9), William (3), and Isadora(sp?) is age 1.  Given that in William’s narratives he talks as if he were actually part of the family during the war, I wonder if he was not in fact, older than 3 in 1870.  The family lives next door to a family of black Moore’s, which goes along with his stated family’s relationship with the Moores in Mitchell county.

sykeshenry1870 Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Jamesville, Martin, North Carolina;                                               Roll: M593_1147; Page: 529; Image: 365.

Stop the Felon

Carolina Sentinel
6 Sep 1823

Stop the Felon! Twenty-five dollars reward will be given for apprehending and delivering to me, in this place, James Clements,  who escaped from the jail of Martin County, in the town of Williamston on the night of the 25th inst.  He is about fourty-eight years old, five-feet eight or ten inches high, face long, thin and rather flushed, very talkative, and fond of ardent sprits; professes to be a physician, and when walking,  his toes turn up very much.  — Said Clements was taken by virtue of capins issued from the county of Currituck, charged with the stealing of slaves, etc.  — Edward Griffin, Sheriff. 

-Williamston,  July 31, 1823

Source: GenealogyBank.com

Death of William F. Cherry

From the Kinston Free Press, newspaper of Kinston, NC
25 Nov 1898

Tuesday evening, about 6 o’clock, at Williamston, William F. Cherry was shot and killed from ambush.  It was a horrible and brutal murder.  The young man was a volunteer in the second regiment and had received his pay and discharge the day before.

Update: November 30, 2008

An death notice for him also appeared in the Novemer 26, 1898 issue of the Raleigh News & Observer.  

“A special to the Raleigh News and Observer says that at Williamston, Martin county, Tuesday evening, Wm. F. Cherry was shot in the house of James Bonds, where he was stopping, and instantly killed, by some unknown person.  His body was found lying across the bed and he is supposed to have been shot through an open door.  Cherry had been a member of the Second North Carolina Regiment Capt. Cotten’s company, was paid off last week, when mustered out, and had been drinking hard ever since. The affair is clothed in mystery.”

Death notice courtesy of GenealogyBank.com.

Historical Marker of Josiah Martin

Martin County was named after Josiah Martin and recently in a Flickr group for posting pictures of historical markers, someone posted Josiah’s. 

martinjosiah_histmarker

The marker is located in Brunswick County.  Seeing this reminded me that I’d wanted to do a post about Historical Markers as they can add context to your family genealogy work.  The Flickr group that this was posted in is called NC Historical Markers Pool and can be monitored via RSS feed.

Other good sources include: