This is the first post using content from my recent genealogy road trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., It features one of the many letters I found in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
This letter was in the “Jonathan Jacocks Papers, 1732-1908” collection. The collection includes letters to members of the Jacocks family in Bertie County, N.C., from their relatives in Haywood County, Tenn.
This particular two-page letter was never completed. It does not include a signature and the greeting says only, “Dear Brother,” so the author was difficult to identify.
I transcribed the letter below. I corrected some punctuation and spelling to make the meaning easier to follow.
Page 1
Page 2
| Nov. 16, 1854 Haywood County, Tenn. Dear Brother, We received your letter some few weeks since. I feel truly thankful to learn you are all in good health, and from the tone and way of jesting, you must have been in fine spirits. A cheerful heart; what a blessing. Ah, that your sister could once more feel cheerful. For several months, I mourned with a sad, aching heart, in a strait between hope and fear. Trouble comes not single-handed. The fears and uneasiness of mind that I experienced, none but an affectionate and loving sister and mother can form any idea. While watching my poor afflicted child, I was fearful that you were sore afflicted or gone to your long home. Daily I prayed if you still lived that you might be restored to health. Our heavenly Father required a sacrifice of the twain. Elder brother was taken. We are yet in a gospel land. O let us improve the golden moments. The 3rd of last November, Charles Blount was taken with a chill. On the 15th, he came home. On his way home, his horse fell and threw him on the abutment of a bridge. He told me he lay a considerable time. He thought he was nearly killed. Three times the horse fell with him on his way home, owing to the stepping on the heel of the fore shoulder. He was much plagued with night sweats, the return of chills and a cough. He inquired several times if I had received a letter from any of your family. Learning we had not, he was much concerned and said he was fearful something serious had taken place. No doubt he thought you dead. About the 24th or 25th of November, we were sitting alone after the family retired to bed. I am much afflicted with rheumatism in my left hand and am frequently rubbing and elevating it for relief. He was sitting near me and commenced rubbing his right thumb and said it appeared like a thousand needles were sticking in it. He began to run his fingers and remarked that the same was running up his arm, rubbing with the left hand to the shoulder. He clapped his hand on the right jaw and said it appeared like wringing out his teeth. He was so sensitive that I flattered myself it was only sympathy for me and told him he felt too much for me. Ah, little did I think what would follow. The same feelings came on the next night and the evening after. Then he had from three to six spells. In a few days, his speech was much altered. He could scarcely raise his right hand or foot. A few days before, his speech failed. He saw me shedding tears and looked at me so inquiringly. I told him I could not help weeping to see him suffer … |
The letter was never completed.
From several of the clues in the letter, I am fairly certain it was written by Margaret Stevenson Clayton Jacocks (c. 1798-1874) of Haywood County, Tenn., to a brother or brother-in-law back in North Carolina.
Margaret was the wife of Jonathan Thomas Jacocks (1799-1863), who was a son of Charles Worth Jacocks (1767-1803) of Bertie County, N.C.
Jonathan was a coachmaker who was persuaded by his uncle, Col. Richard Nixon (1769-1831), one of the earliest settlers of Haywood County, Tenn., to move his family to West Tennessee in 1823. Nixon was married to Jonathan’s late aunt, Ann Worth Jacocks Nixon (1775-1810).
Jonathan and Margaret had six children. One was Charles Worth Blount Jacocks (c. 1824-1854), who died Jan. 4, 1854, in Haywood County.
In the 1850 census for Haywood County, Jonathan Jacocks is listed as 54 and Margaret is 52. Living with them are Charles B., 26; Mary, 22; Joseph, 20; John, 19; and Jonathan, 15.
The author of the letter refers to her son as “Charles Blount.” She also refers to him as “elder brother,” which further supports the theory because Charles B. Jacocks appears to have been the oldest Jacocks child still living in the household in 1850.
The Jacocks and Blount families had been connected for generations. An earlier Jonathan Jacocks (1686-1735) married Mary Blount (1696-1735) in Bertie County. They were Jonathan Thomas Jacocks’ great-grandparents, so it is reasonable that one of his sons would have “Blount” included in his name.
The Charles Blount in the letter suffered a serious fall from his horse on Nov. 15, 1853, and within days began having symptoms that sound very much like the symptoms of a stroke.
Charles Worth Blount Jacocks died Jan. 4, 1854, just weeks after the accident described in the letter.
All the facts seem to confirm Margaret wrote the letter about the death of her son, Charles Jacocks. However, Margaret appears to have been an only child and Jonathan does not appear to have had brothers, so I am still stumped by the “Dear Brother” in the greeting.
I have a couple of connections to this Jacocks family in my family tree.
Left to right: My great-grandparents Robert Edward “Bob” Castellaw (1868-1954) and Zula Zera Watridge Castellaw (1875-1940); John T. Hilburn (1869-1939); Nora Castellaw Hilburn (1878-1941); Zach Fletcher Castellaw (1876-1951); James Alonzo Jacocks (1864-1941); and Mary Jennie Castellaw Jacocks (1866-1946). Bob, Nora, Zach and Mary Jennie were siblings.
Another of Jonathan and Margaret’s six children was John Hill Jacocks (1831-1902). He had a son named James Alonzo Jacocks (1864-1941). James was married to Mary Jennie Castellaw Jacocks (1866-1946), who was a sister of my great-grandfather, Robert Edward “Bob” Castellaw. I included them in a blog entry last year.
Guy Lovelace (1916-1997) and Jesse Theodore “J.T.” Jacocks (1919-1988), around 1939.
Another of John Hill Jacocks’ sons was Joseph Theodore Jacocks (1867-1952), who was the father of Arthur Wayland Jacocks (1891-1979). Arthur was the father of Jesse Theodore “J.T.” Jacocks (1919-1988), who was my great-uncle. Uncle J.T. was married to Dorothy Cordelia Brantley Jacocks (1919-2005), the sister of Virginia Brantley Lovelace (1917-2007), my maternal grandmother.
You can find more about Uncle J. T. and Aunt Cordilia in this blog post.
Thankfully, when Margaret Jacocks was grieving for her son Charles, she wrote down enough information that nearly 160 years later, we can identify him and remember him as more than just a name and a date on a chart.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
Leave a Reply