Tombstone Tuesday: Martha Ledford, 1850 – 1920

Martha Ledford
June 6, 1850
July 4, 1920
Gone but not forgotten

Martha Ledford was the daughter of David and Sarah Matilda (Ballew) Carpenter and the wife of James Wesley Ledford. She was buried in the Coweeta Baptist Church Cemetery, Macon Co., NC, near her parents and husband.

Who Were the Parents of Margaret Carpenter, born about 1840?

A while back, I posted the joyful news that I’d found Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter’s year of death among her late husband’s estate records. Margaret has always been a bit of a mystery. Like many women of her era, her history remains hidden by a society that considered her to be an extension of her husband and not necessarily a person in her own right. Parts of her life can be pieced together from land, court, and census records, but parts remain unknown, and may always remain so.

One aspect of her life that I’ve always been curious about is her appearance in the 1850 U. S. census with, in addition to several of her younger children, a girl named Margaret Carpenter, who was born about 1840 in Macon Co., NC, where the family lived.¹ Many researchers believe the younger Margaret was the youngest child of William and Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter, but court records may paint a different story.

Amanuensis Monday: William McConnell, deceased, to David McConnell, 27 February 1837

Source: Macon County, North Carolina, Deed Book E: 66; Register of Deeds, Franklin.

This indenture made the 27^th February 1837 between William M^cConnell
Deceased of the one part Heirs of the state of North Carolina Macon County
and David M^cConnell one of the said heirs of the county and state
aforesaid of the other part Witnesseth that we the heirs of the above
bounden W^m M^cConnell for and in consideration of the sum of
two hundred and fifty Dollars to them in hand paid by the said
David M^cConnell the receipt whereof his heirs doth hereby acknowlege [sic]
hath given Granted bargained sold and delivered and confirmed by these
presents doth give grant bargain and sell alien and confirm
unto the said David M^cConnell his heirs and assigns forever
a part of the tract of No 3⁰ in the 15^th District lying and being
in the county of Macon Beginning on a Black Oak on the
West side of the Tennessee River running West to a white Oak
corner thence South to the branch thence down the meanders of the
Branch to the Tennessee River thence down the Tennessee River to
the Beginning containing forty acres more or less and the said David
M^cConnell is to have hold and enjoy all the woods [illegible] waters watercourses
mines minerals and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any
wise appertaining his heirs and assigns forever and the said
heirs of the said William M^cConnell Dec. do bind themselves
their heirs administrators and assigns Jointly and severally to
warrant and forever defend the said right and title unto the
said David M^cConnell and his heirs against the claims of them
selves their heirs administrators and assigns and against the
lawful claims of all other persons whatsoever as witness our hand
and seals the day and date above mentioned
Test Milas his mark M,sup>cConnell Jurat

Milas his x mark McConnell	Elizabeth Cabe	Sanford Carpenter
Martha her x mark McConnell	J. D. Dryman	Patience her x mark Carpenter
Enos Scroggs	Rachel her x mark Dryman	John McConnell
Jane Scroggs	Sarah her x mark McConnell	Mary her x mark McConnell
John Scroggs	Margaret her x mark Carpenter	William McConnell
Mary her x mark Scroggs	Jonathan Denton	Sarah her x mark McConnell
Wm Cabe	Agnes her x mark Denton	Charles Stiles
		Kesiah her x mark Stiles

State of North Carolina } Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions
Macon County } March Sessions 1846
The within Deed was duly proven in open court by the oath of Milas M^cConnel a
subscribing witness therto and is recorded in Book D Page 150 for registration

Witness J K Gray clk

Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter’s Date of Death

I’ve been working on an application to the Daughters of the American Revolution for several years now. The service of this particular patriot ancestor, Phillip McConnell, has already been proven (to the extent that the DAR requires such proof), as has his connection to his only son, William McConnell, as have the connections between William and most of his children.

I had already gathered most of the other evidence necessary to prove the lineage from myself to Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter, one of William’s children, lacking only a copy of my father’s birth certificate, which has gone mysteriously missing. While waiting for my father to locate that document, I happened across a petition for sale of the lands of William Carpenter, Margaret’s husband.¹ In it, William’s surviving sons and the heirs of his deceased sons petitioned the court to sell William’s lands so that the monies could be divided amongst all the heirs. In particular, I was delighted to find this:

[The petitioners] respectfully showeth unto your Honor that William Carpenter died many years since leaving a will which was duly admitted to probate and that in said will he devised the hereinafter described lands to his wife Margarett Carpenter for and during her actual life and at her death to his six sons in fee simple equally to be divided between them as tenants in common and that Margarett Carpenter died some time during the year 1866 […]

Margaret’s tombstone has not survived the ravages of time (if one was ever placed), and so this may be the only extant evidence of her date of death.

One thing to note is that William wrote his will in January 1836.² He was deceased by the time the 1840 US census was taken in Macon Co., NC.³ Yet his estate was not completely settled until the death of his wife in 1866, some 30 years later. This example amply illustrates the need to search for records related or pertaining to an ancestor for a time period well after he or she was deceased.

* * * * *

1. Petition for sale of lands for partition, 1867; William Carpenter, 1868, file folder; Record of Macon County Estates, 1831 – 1920; North Carolina State Archives micropublication G.061.2317261.

2. Last will and testament of William Carpenter, 1836; Will Book 1 Macon County: 14 – 16; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

3. William was not enumerated in the 1840 US census, while Margaret was. It is presumed, therefore, that William was deceased before that time. Margaret Carpenter household, 1840 US census, Macon County, North Carolina, page 152, line 22; NARA micropublication M704, roll 152.

Tombstone Tuesday: James Wesley Ledford, 1847 – 1940

James Wesley Ledford
May 6, 1847
May 3, 1940
We will meet again

James Wesley Ledford was my mother’s great-grandfather. He was buried in Coweeta Baptist Church Cemetery, Macon Co., NC, near his wife, Martha (Carpenter) Ledford, and her parents.