Connecting My Roots To North Carolina And The Appalachian Mountains

A Family History:

Simon Peter Davis Sr. and Rebecca “Minnie” Judkins Egerton Davis

The Family TreeThe Davis Line

The Family TreeThe Davis Line

Simon and Minnie Davis

My Great Great Grandparents

Simon and Minnie Davis

James Albert ~ November 21, 1885Mattie ~ December 3, 1888Whitney Egerton ~ January 9, 1891Lucy Jane ~ October 22, 1892Mary Louis ~ October 20, 1894Frank Addison ~ November 18, 1896Fannie ~ September 22, 1898 (My Great

Grandmother)Simon Peter ~ January 28, 1901

Children Of Simon & Minnie

They Had Eight Children Over Sixteen Years

Not ShownJames AlbertMary Louis

Minnies Father, James Albert Egerton, was born on 2 Oct 1814 in Warren County, North Carolina. He died on 4 Aug 1898 in Warren County, North Carolina. He was buried in Fleming Cemetery, Warren Plains, North Carolina. They lived near Macon, North Carolina. Albert had a store on Front Street in Warrenton, North Carolina where he started in business in 1845.

Just before the Civil War he remodeled the store making it one of the most attractive in town. The whole block burned in 1878.

Many members of the family came to live with Albert and work in the store to learn the mercantile trade. When the War started most were quick to enlist and after the war was over

they did not return to work for Albert.

Movement Through Life

Warrenton traces its origin to 1779, the year that Bute County was divided to form Warren

and Franklin Counties. It became a busy center of commerce as rich tobacco and cotton fields converged with a railroad to make it reportedly the wealthiest town in

North Carolina in the 1850s.

This was where Minnie and Simon were born, grew up and met one another.

The Start

The Railroad

The railroad was the largest internal improvement effort in North Carolina during the antebellum era. It was chartered in 1849 and leased to the Richmond and Danville Railroad in 1871.

People in the mountains and the coast realized the benefits of the North Carolina Railroad. They lobbied for connectors to be built in their regions to expand trade, urbanization, and economic growth. Future generations believed the railroad rescued the state from cultural isolation and economic depression.

The Railroad

The knot was tied on November 19, 1884 in Warren Plains, NC

The ceremony was at Warren Plains Baptist Church

Marriage

Both Simon and Rebecca were born in Warren County, NC

They moved to Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC between 1888 and 1891

Patterns In Movement

Simon moved from Warren County, NC to Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC after their

second child between 1888 and 1892Minnie followed after attending Louisburg

CollegeSimon obtained land to farm and raise a

family on as well as began working as a travelling salesman for a local grocery store.This was the start of a connection to the

Appalachian Mountains that remained in almost everyone of the following generations

The Appalachian Connection

• Simon Peter Davis Sr.• “He was strong and active until about three months before

his death. He could work me down any day. Once when we were hoeing corn, we would always leave our hoe where

we left off when we quit for lunch or whatever. He used to move my hoe back three rows and I would hoe them again

and I didn’t know the difference” (Simon Jr.)• His education was unknown but he was well read and kept

up with the news. He also took an active role in the community and wrote to the Governor on several

occasions.• He was employed as a salesman for a wholesale grocery

store and also had a little farm with a few cattle. He bought and sold timber land and had a great interest in mining

mica, gold spar, etc.• Simon was a Baptist Deacon. He, with one or two others

began a mission, which became French Broad Ave. Baptist Church

• His favorite hobby was to look after his cattle on his small farm in the country.

Work, Home, & Hobbies

Work, Home, & Hobbies

Simon and Minnie had two houses in Asheville, NC that their children and future generations were raised in.

Life In Asheville, NC

58 Park Ave. Asheville, NC

Simon died in April of 1924 followed by Rebecca in December of 1935 They were both buried on the family plot at the Riverside Cemetery in

Asheville, NC This is also the resting place of the famous author Thomas Wolfe

Where One Story Ends Another Begins

Pictures Of The Past

The Children of Simon and Minnie Davis prospered around Asheville, NC. My great grandmother Fannie Davis spent her whole life in Asheville, and was said to have never left North Carolina. She Married when she was 24 to Horace Brandle. My great grandfather Horace Lynwood Brandle was born in

Golden Valley, Rutherford County, NC. He worked as an assistant manager at Sands and Co., an Asheville firm that sold a little bit of everything to railroad employees mainly. He served in the Navy during World War One onboard the USS Minnesota. They had two children; Mary Louise, and

Edwin. My grandmother, Mary Louise, married Ralph Storie in 1949. They had three children; Michael, Melissa, and

Beth. My mother Melissa married Charles Peller in 1980. They had four children; Joshua, Jeremy(THAT’S ME!!!),

Joseph, and Jacob.

Connections

I believe that the railroad provided the means for my family to make a living as well as inspire migration to and from different places in North Carolina. Not only did it provide jobs directly for members of my family but it stimulated

communities’ growth throughout North Carolina. This new form of communication and travel drastically changed

North Carolina. Small communities and individuals could interact on a nationwide scale. Now in my lifetime, our

nation and the individual can interact on a worldwide scale. Thanks to Minnie, Simon and so many hard working people before and after them in my family, I am able to enjoy life

and have interesting roots that continue to grow!

Conclusions

North Carolina Birth and Death Index: Warren County, North Carolina 1800 to 2000; Roll: B_C100_68001 Page: 100 Volume: D-1 Web: Ancestry.com

Year: 1900; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: 1184; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 141; FHL microfilm: 1241184.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: T625_1286; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 18; Image: 964.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1099; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0016; Image: 600; FHL microfilm: 1375112.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Hawtree, Warren, North Carolina; Roll: 985; Family History Film: 1254985; Page: 48A; Enumeration District: 282; Image: 0464.

Ancestry.com. Web: North Carolina, Find A Grave Index, 1729-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi

Primary Sources

Allen Trelease, The North Carolina Railroad, 1849-1871, and the Modernization of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1991) and Alan D. Watson, Internal Improvements in Antebellum North Carolina (Raleigh, 2002).

The Davis Egerton Book Committee, “Davis Egerton A Genealogy: 1884 – 1989”

“Sketches of old Warrenton” Warren County, North Carolina. Web: 24. April. 2012

< http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncwarren/warrenton/toc.htm>

Secondary Sources