Black Sheep Sunday: Joe, the Lost Aldridge

Insanity, tragedy and general meaness seem to have been wrought through the Murray family tree, including the Aldridge, Whitaker and other family trees the female members of the family married into.

Joseph Benjamin Aldridge was the youngest son of Henry Garner Aldridge and his wife Priscilla Murray Aldridge, my third Great-Grandparents. I refer to him as "The Lost Aldridge" because most people descended from his siblings, have not included him in their family tree, and most people descended from him, stop with him, not knowing where to go from there.

Cotton Mill Sweeper, Getty Images, Frank Robinson

The reasons for these two dead ends were easily seen. First, Joe was born after the 1860 census, and shortly before his father died. He then escapes records until he marries in 1897 and shows up in his first census in 1900.

The reason his descendants have not connected him is because of errors in his marriage license and death certificate. In his marriage license, he has correctly listed his father as Henry Aldridge. his mother is listed by her nick name "Prissy", (most often seen as "Prucie" or "Prussia"), and the transcribers, whom most people follow instead of looking at the actual documents themselves, incorrectly transcribed her name as "Crissy".

On the Death Certificate, it gets worse. His father is listed as "Joana" Aldridge, which may have been some deviant form of "Garner" and his mother is listed as "Priscilla", which is correct, but her maiden name has been given as "Brooks", which comes from somewhere out of left field. The informant was "State Hospital Records", as Joe Aldridge died at Broughton, in Burke County, a State Mental Hospital. His malady given as "Mania".




But, he was their son. A few things cement that fact, but before I go into that, let's go back to the beginning, the twelve children of Henry Garner Aldridge and Priscilla Murray Aldridge. Priscilla actually had a thirteenth child, Matilda, whom I have written about previously.

Henry Garner Aldridge, the son of Caleb Aldridge, Jr. and Rebecca Cagle, was born about 1818 and Priscilla Murray Aldridge was born about 1822-1824. It is unknown exactly when they were married, as it was before Stanly became a separate county from Montgomery County, and the Montgomery County courthouse fires would have destroyed their marriage license. It was in all likelihood 1837, as oldest daughter Martha was born on October 5, 1840, when Priscilla was only 18 at the most, and I don't imagine her marrying much earlier than age 15, as some of her daughters did.

They were listed as a married couple in the document dated December 2, 1837, which was an indenture on the part of Priscilla's brother, Benjamin Murray, who bought the shares of some of his siblings interests in the property their deceased father, Jesse Murray, which was 170 acres on the west bank of Long Creek.

The 1850 census showed Garner and Prussia, as I best identify them, with 6 children.

Henry Allridge [Henry Aldridge]
Age:	32
Birth Year:	abt 1818
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Ross, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Gender:	Male
Family Number:	730
Household Members:	Name Age Henry Allridge 32 Prucey Allridge 28 Martha Allridge 9 Walker Allridge 8 Hampton Allridge 7 Emaline Allridge 5 Lucy Allridge 4 Henry Allridge 2

It is the only census which shows J. Walker Aldridge and Lucy Aldridge.

J. Walker Aldridge's tombstone still legibly stands in the Old  Rehobeth Church cemetery, which was located on the Old Winfield Road, on land purchased from Benjamin Murray, which means the church was built on Jesse Murray's old property. It is now on a dirt road off of Plank Road, which crosses a few times, the old Winfield road trace, and portions of the road still exists in Stanly and Anson counties, although now much abbreviated. Walker died as a teenager of unknown causes, possibly an accidental death, being the eldest son, great chores were possibly put upon him and work then was dangerous.

Little Lucy is shown as having been born between Emaline and Henry. As she doesn't show up in the 1860 census, she must have died as a small child, probably of some childhood malady. It is not known.

Name:	Henry G Aldridge
Age:	42
Birth Year:	abt 1818
Gender:	Male
Home in 1860:	Stanly, North Carolina
Post Office:	Albemarle
Family Number:	257
Value of real estate:	View image
Household Members:	Name Age Henry G Aldridge 42 Prusia Aldridge 38 Martha Aldridge 19 Hampton Aldridge 17 Emmaline Aldridge 16 Wm H Aldridge 10 Margaret Aldridge 7 Rosetta Aldridge 5 Julia Aldridge 4 Julina Aldridge 4 John Aldridge 2

The 1860 census shows another group of children having been born to the young couple. Martha is now 19 and Caleb Hampton is now 17. Emmaline is 16 and about to be a bride. "WM H" stands for William Henry, who is now ten. Added to the family in the past decade was Margaret, who actually had 4 initials, Rosetta, twins Julia and Julina and son John Adam, who many folks thougth was the youngest, yet who was not, and who plays an important part in proving Joseph Benjamin Aldridge was his brother.



Henry Garner Aldridge enlisted for duty in the Civil War on August 2, 1862. He joined as a substitute. The records of Green Wesley Simpson say he entered as a substitute, or a paid soldier, for his brother-in-law, Benjamin Murray, who would high-tail it to Arkansas with his immediate family that year, and not make it back alive. Others sources have him as a substitute for the son of a wealthy farmer in the area named "Green".


For whomever he entered for, at age 45, which was on the old side for a soldier, he did not make it very long. He fell ill in October of the same year and passed  away of measles shortly afterward at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Henry Garner Aldridge, Widow's Claim for Pension 1863

His widow, Priscilla, would file for a pension in 1863.




Prussia had to fight for the pension, obviously, because she was still fighting for it in 1887. Her nephew William Whitaker signed as a witness, son of her sister, Sophia.

Joseph Benjamin Aldridge was born on November 6, 1861. He was closing in on his first birthday when his father passed away, and was born after the 1860 census.

Priscilla Aldridge shows up in the 1870 census only with daughter Matilda. The youngest of her children with Henry Garner are dispersed through the community. I have not been able to find Joe Aldrdige at all. That does not mean he was not listed in someone else's household, albeit under a different surname, as that happened, especially with children. He could be featured in someone's family tree, as a child who passed away, but did not, and was not the child of that family at all, but a boarder, or a servant.

Rehobeth Church in Tyson Township, Stanly County, NC

Another of the Aldrige children, Julia, only exists in the 1860 census. This does not mean she was not alive in 1870, or even 1880. However, she was not one of the seven living children in the 1882 property settlement of the estate of H. G. Aldridge. I am not certain why it took so long to divide his property after his death, a full twenty years prior, but it may have had something to do with all of his children meeting the age of majority, as Joe, the youngest, would turn 21 that year.

Before I get into the property settlement, which is one proof of Joe's membership to the family, I need to cover the family between Garner's death and this 1882 document in a timeline.

On January 1, 1860, Emaline Aldridge, age 15, married John F. Floyd, son of Josiah Floyd II and wife Sarah Easley Floyd. Josiah Floyd II's parents had traveled from Southside Virginia in the 1790's with Job Davis, the namesake of this blog. The Floyd, Davis and Aldridge families were all very entangled. Emaline would not live long as a bride. She had passed away by 1867, when her husband would remarry Eva A. Eury. His oldest son, Josiah III, lists Eva as his mother, and not Emaline, so she had no children. It could have been as befell far too many young brides in those days, that complications of childbirth may have led to her demise. It is unknown. All is known is that she was deceased before reaching 21.

Joe was born in 1861 and his father died in 1862.

In 1865, oldest sister Martha, at 24, became the third wife of 57 year old Miller Woodson Easley. Miller Easley was from Surrey County, North Carolina and would return there. He would have 12 children by the time he married young Martha and together they would have 8 more. Amazingly though, even with the 33 year age difference, their marriage would last 27 years until Miller's death in 1892. Martha would pass away in 1900 and they lie next to each other peacefully,  in Mt. Airy, NC. Why such a young woman would marry such an aged man in the bleeding years of the Civil War is not a wonder. I've seen teenagers marry septuagenarians during this time. She needed a husband. He needed a wife, and at 24, she was becoming an old maid in those days.



The name Miller Woodson Easley was not a unique name either. I've seen others in Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Grainger County, Tennessee. It is likely they were all related. It is also likely that this recycled name began with Worham Easley who married Nancy Ann Woodson in Virginia, especially considering Miller also had a son named Warham.

On January 29, 1866, Caleb Hampton, who had followed his father into the Civil War as an 18 year old, married his first wife, C. Sophia Floyd. Sophia was also a daughter of Josiah Floyd II and a sister to the above mentioned John F. Floyd. These would not be the only Floyds to marry into the Aldridge family.

Sophia would bear one son for Hamp, George G. Aldridge, and pass away. He would then marry her sister, Elizabeth P. Floyd  known as Betty, a young widow. Betty had married Hamp's friend, John Calloway McSwain, who had died during the war, and came into the marriage with a young daughter, Martha Ella.

Priscilla's last daughter, Matilda, was born in 1867. She appears with her mother in the 1870 census. She marries in 1864.

November 25, 1868, the sister with the 4 initials, Margaret Ann Mary Jane Aldridge marries another Floyd sibling, James Pinkston Floyd, brother to John F., C. Sophia and Elizabeth P. Again, the transcribers have Prussey mispelled and Sally as "Salb", really?

ame:	M A M J Aldridge
Gender:	Female
Marriage Date:	25 Nov 1868
Marriage Place:	Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Henry G Aldridge
Mother:	Pressly Aldridge
Spouse:	James P Floyd
Spouse Gender:	Male
Spouse Father:	Josiah Floyd
Spouse Mother:	Salb Floyd
Event Type:	Marriage

Luckily, Margaret survives her youth and lives to be 73, dying in 1926.

On August 22, 1869, brother William Henry Aldridge marries his first cousin, Rebecca Ann Murray Hudson, a young widow. He is  her junior  by about 6 years. "Becca Ann" as she is known, accompanied her parents, brother Jesse and his wife Jenny Poplin Murray, and cousins James Washington Turner and Wesley Murray, to Arkansas. By 1870, only her mother Martha and the children of Jesse and Jenny had returned alive to Stanly County, along with Becca and her daughter Mary, who was born in Arkansas. Rebecca's first husband, Henry H. Hudson, enlisted in the War in Troy, NC in 1861 under W. D. Barringer. In October of that year, he is present during the muster, but listed as "sick in tent". By September of 1862, he is listed as absent and had went to the hospital in August. He is listed in military records as having died on October 25, 1862 of illness in Richmond, Virginia. The disease is named in the records as "More bund", which I take as meaning moribund, or near death.



On October 10, of 1869, C. H. "Hamp" Aldridge married his second wife, the afore mentioned Betty.

On May 6, 1872, Seventeen year old Rosetta Aldridge married George Lindsey Whitley, son of Benjamin Lindsey Whitley, in Anson County. Oddly, Elizabeth Rosetta Aldridge shows up in Cabarrus County living with a Foil family in 1870. Her younger sister Julina, had her oldest two children, and possibly a few more, by another son of B. L. Whitley, Ephraim, during the 1870's.

Like her sister Emaline before her, marriage does not do the young Rosetta any favors. Her husband George has married 4 years later, in 1876, to Susan E. Whitley, in Stanly County. His oldest son, Jacob, is born in 1877, so it appears he and Rosetta had no surviving children, although he did name his oldest daughter, Rosetta, born in 1878, apparently in her honor.

When Julina marries Horton Hampton Davis, (my ancestors), on September 10, 1889, she lists her mother as still living.

When Joseph Benjamin Aldridge marries Alice Misenheimer in Cabarrus County, on November 17, 1897, he lists his mother as dead, so Priscilla passed away sometime between those dates. She is buried in a clump of trees beside an old shed or barn off of Aldridge Road in Tyson Township, Stanly County.

And now to the Division of Property.

On November 23, 1882, Caleb Hampton Aldridge, the oldest living son of H. G. Aldridge, did the same thing his Uncle Benjamin Murray did some 50 years prior. He bought out his siblings of the property that had belonged to their father, on the waters of Coopers Creek. The main document is listed in Book 13, page 328, but there is a second one involving only the Easley's who had moved to Surry County.

The division lists 7 heirs of H. G. Aldridge, this means 5 children had passed, Walker, Lucy, Emaline, Rosetta and Julia. The living heirs are listed as "J. A. and Wilmartha Aldridge, W. H. and wife R. A. Aldridge, James Floyd and wife Mary, J. B. Aldridge and F. J. Aldridge, along with "C. H."and later, Miller W. Easley and wife Martha.

J. A. is John Adam. W. H. is William Henry and wife Rebecca Ann. Mary Floyd is Margaret Ann Mary Jane Aldridge Floyd. J. B. is Joseph Benjamin and F. J. is Francis Julina, along with C. H. is being Caleb Hampton Aldridge.

John Adam Aldridge is a key in the second proof of Joe Aldridge being his brother.

Besides the 1882 document, where all of the siblings, excluding Martha Aldridge Easley, are listed, there is another dated November 6, 1887, between Hamp and Joe Aldridge.

Book 15 Page 73 (skipping all of the legal mumbo-jumbo, heirs, assigns and etc.)

This deed made the 6th day of November 1887, by J. B. Aldridge of the County of Stanly and state of North Carolina to C. H. Aldridge (of the same area), in consideration of $75.00 ....... a tract of land...on the waters of Cooper's Creek adjoining E. W. Davis, J. W. Biles and others, being the one seventh interest in the lands of  H. G. Aldridge's land decd. and being the entire interest of the said J. B. Aldridge in said lands. 


I don't know why the 1882 document did not cover the same thing, and why they had to do another. Perhaps J. B. could not legally sign at the time or perhaps he did not relinquish all of his interest five years prior, but it puts him in Stanly County in 1887.

There is also a deed dated 1882, wherein their mother Priscilla, relinquishes her right to the land she was left as a part of her dower, excluding the  house she lived in and one acre tract surrounding it, to her son C. H. Aldridge for $25.00. It appears Hampton bought back the entirety of his father's farm. It would be located on Aldridge Road and adjoining the Davis property on Old Davis Road today. I have been shown the dirt road that ran off of Aldridge Road to Hamp's house, so know the general location of the property.

I have not yet discovered where and with whom Joe Aldridge grew up, and these two documents are the only ones that showed he was in Stanly County during the 1880's.

John Adam Aldridge

For a moment, I need to move over to the family of John Adam Aldridge. John Adam was the brother closest in age to Joe. His tombstone gives his birthdate as December 4, 1853, but he is shown as a two year old in the 1860 census. I wonder if again, the engraver read a number wrong, and the "3" was supposed to have been an "8".

John Adam is never missing from the census.

1860 He is shown in the household of his parents as the youngest child, aged 2.
1870 He is listed as a 12 year old living in the household of his uncle, Josiah Aldridge, a brother of
         Henry Garner Aldridge

Household Members:	Name Age Josiah Aldridge 46 Martha Aldridge 32 Cordelia Aldridge 9 Abigail Aldridge 4 Eliza Aldridge 2 John Aldridge 12 George Cramp 25

He married in 1875, in Cabarrus County, where her family had moved to, to his first cousin, Glannie Wilmartha Whitaker, daughter of Samuel Nelson Whitaker and Sophia Murray Whitaker. Wilmoth, or Wilmartha, was a name passed through the Murray family and makes me believe the surname of Wilmoth must exist somewhere back in the family line, although I have not yet discovered it.

1880  John and "Welmerth" are living with their two oldest children in Tyson Township, Stanly County, where he grew up.

1900, Twenty years later, they have moved to Anson County near Ansonville, where John is farming.           They've been married 25 years and Wilmartha has given birth to 10 children with 10 living,
          which was a phenomenal thing in those days. They also have a grandson living with them, a
          toddler named George. Oldest daughter, Frances, aka "Fannie", is shown as having given birth
          to one child, with one living. This is George Atlas Aldridge, who was raised by his                               grandparents. Most family trees have him pegged as the youngest child of John and Wilmarth,
          and in a way he was, but biologically, he was their Grandson and son of Francis.


Now, we move back to Joseph Benjamin Aldridge. He has grown up. He has sold his interest in the land of the father he never knew, but as an infant, to his oldest living brother, Caleb Hampton Aldridge. He was living in Stanly County, at least up until 1887.

Name:	Joseph B Aldridge
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Age:	36
Birth Year:	abt 1861
Marriage Date:	17 Nov 1897
Marriage Place:	Cabarrus, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Henry Aldridge
Mother:	Crissey Aldridge
Spouse:	Alice F Misenheimer
Spouse Gender:	Female
Spouse Race:	White
Spouse Age:	24
Spouse Father:	Lawson Misenheimer
Spouse Mother:	Jane Misenheimer
Event Type:	Marriage

On November 17, 1897 Joe Aldridge married Alice Jenny Misenheimer in Cabarrus County. He was 36 and she was 24. He was living in Number One Township and she was a resident of Number Two Township. Both of his parents were deceased, while her mother, Jane Krimminger Misenheimer, was still alive. Jenny was the daughter of Lawson Misenheimer, and came to the marriage with a 3 year old daughter named Ollie, father unknown. Ollie took the name of Aldridge.

By 1900, Joe and Alice are shown in the census as farmers in the Poplar Tent area. Ollie has been transcribed as "Alie" and they have given birth to their firstborn, a son, whose nickname is illegible. This was Theodore and it could have been "Theo", but was transcribed "Chas".

Name:	Joe Aldrige [Joe Aldridge]  [Jae Aldridge]
Age:	38
Birth Date:	Nov 1861
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1900:	Poplar Tent, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Head
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse's Name:	Alice Aldrige
Marriage Year:	1897
Years Married:	3
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Occupation:	View on Image
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Joe Aldrige 38 Alice Aldrige 26 Alie Aldrige 6 Chas Aldrige 1

By 1910, the entire dynamic of the family had changed, due to events that ocured between 1900 and 1910.

Joe and Alice would have 4 children together:

Oct. 23, 1898  Theodore Jennings Aldridge - whose birth date corresponds with the Oct 1898 given
                         for "Chas" in the 1900 census, so this was not a son Charles that died, but T. J.

Feb 8, 1901   Della Ida Aldridge

Apr 2, 1903  Ethel Alice Aldridge

Apr 10, 1905 Bertha Bellzorra Aldridge

In November of 1908, the will of Alice's mother, Jane Krimminger Misenheimer, was probated. Mentioned in the estate papers were "the Aldridge children", referring to Alice's children. It is not known when exactly Alice died or where she is buried, but she passed away between Bertha's birth in 1905 and her mother's death in 1907/1908.

In 1908, Joe Aldridge would have been a widower with a 10 year old son, and daughters 7, 5 and 3 and a 14 year old stepdaughter, Ollie.

What would happen next was a tragedy and what lands him in the blogging prompt "Black Sheep".
Joe followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Caleb Hampton Aldridge in more ways than one.
Hamp had fathered a daughter by his stepdaughter, Martha Ella McSwain in the 1870's. The little girl, named Inezzie, would have 4 daughters of her own, the oldest who would marry back into the Davis family, by marrying John Teeter Davis, son of Edward Winfield Davis, and grandson of Job Davis. Inezzie would also marry into the other side of my family tree. She would marry William T. Hooks, the illegitimate son of my Great Great Grandfather, William Mathew Hill, with his wife's sister, Emmaline Hooks.

The Concord Daily Tribune
(Concord, North Carolina)26 Jan 1909, Tue • Page 1


F. and A. in those early years stood for "Fornication and Adultery".  Joe had put upon his young teen-aged stepdaughter, not only the burden of childcare and housekeeping, in the absence of her mother, but also the criminal act of acting as his wife in other ways. It had produced a child.

It is unknown who brought this atrocious and heinous event to the eyes of the authorities, but Joe was arrested and charged and spent two years on the chain gang. Ollie was no more than 14 or 15. This day and time, the charges would have been more severe, and rightly so.



The Concord Times
(Concord, North Carolina)28 Jan 1909, Thu • Page 5


Ollie Aldridge was listed in the papers as having received a small penance for her appearance in court. Afterwards, she would have to find work as a servant or housekeeper to support herself and her daughter.


The Concord Times
(Concord, North Carolina)22 Dec 1910, Thu • Page 5


The 1910 census tells the sad story of a family ripped apart by the father's awful deed.

Joe is a convict on the Public Roads.

Name:	Jae Aldridge [Joe Aldridge]
Age in 1910:	58
Birth Year:	abt 1852
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Township 5, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Convict (Prisoner)
Marital Status:	Widowed
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Native Tongue:	English
Occupation:	Convict
Industry:	Public Roads
Employer, Employee or Other:	Wage Earner

His children have gone to live with his brother, John Adam Aldridge.

Name:	Theadore Aldridge [Theadore Aldredge]
Age in 1910:	12
Birth Year:	abt 1898
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Township 11, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Nephew
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Native Tongue:	English
Attended School:	Yes
Able to Read:	Yes
Able to Write:	Yes
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age John Aldredge 55 Nancy W Aldridge 56 Charley Aldridge 16 George Aldridge 11 Theadore Aldridge 12 Della I Aldridge 10 Berthie B Aldridge 6

I believe the next to the youngest daughter, Ethel Alice Aldridge, was living with some of her mother's family.  John was John Adam Aldridge. Nancy was in complete error for Glannie Wilmoth.
Charley was their youngest son, George, their grandson/adopted son. Theodore, Della I. and Berthie B. were nieces and nephew, children of Joseph Benjamin Aldridge.

This census is how John Adam Aldridge becomes the second proof that Joseph Benjamin Aldridge is the "J. B." in the land records and the youngest son of Henry Garner Aldridge and Priscilla Murray Aldridge. His children are listed as the nephew and nieces of John Adam.

Name:	Ollie Aldridge
Age in 1910:	17
Birth Year:	abt 1893
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1910:	Township 2, Cabarrus, North Carolina
Race:	White
Gender:	Female
Relation to Head of House:	Boarder
Marital Status:	Single
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Native Tongue:	English
Occupation:	Farm Laborer
Industry:	Home Farm
Employer, Employee or Other:	Wage Earner
Able to Read:	Yes
Able to Write:	Yes
Out of Work:	N
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Adam Furr 53 Allice Furr 34 Ollie Aldridge 17 Evie Aldridge 1

As for poor Ollie, she, at only 17, with her little girl, Evie, the youngest child of Joseph Benjamin Aldridge, are living with Adam Furr and his wife.

And the tragedy gets even worse. Little Evie Jane Aldridge does not live very long.

Name:	Evie Jane Aldrige
Gender:	Female
Race:	White
Age:	5
Birth Date:	15 Jul 1908
Birth Place:	Cabarrus
Death Date:	10 Feb 1914
Death Place:	# 2, Cabarrus, North Carolina, USA
Father:	Joe Aldrige
Mother:	Ollie Aldrige

Evie's death certificate lists her parents as Joe and Ollie Aldridge. She was 5 years, 4 months and 23 days old. She died of acute pulminary consumption, or the effects of tuberculosis, which was rampant at the time. This day and time she would have been in kindergarten. Evie Jane Aldridge was buried at Rocky Ridge cemetery in Cabarrus County.

Little Girl in Corner by John G. Winner

As for Ollie, the 1910 census is the last one I can find her in. She was alive when her daughter died in 1914. She is not buried under the name of Aldridge in Cabarrus County. She falls off the face of the earth.

Joe, however, does not. He gets out of jail and in 1920 is living in Rowan County with his son, Theodore. He was working as a sweeper in a Cotton Mill.

Name:	Joseph Aldridge
Age:	60
Birth Year:	abt 1860
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1920:	Salisbury, Rowan, North Carolina
Street:	North Main Street
Race:	White
Gender:	Male
Relation to Head of House:	Father
Marital Status:	Widowed [Widow]
Father's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:	North Carolina
Able to Speak English:	Yes
Occupation:	Sweeper
Industry:	Cotton Mill
Employment Field:	Wage or Salary
Neighbors:	View others on page
Household Members:	Name Age Theaodore Aldridge 21 Carrie Aldridge 25 Marvin Welch 5 Myrtie Misenheimer 18 Minnie Misenheimer 14 Joseph Aldridge 60

Joseph Benjamin Aldridge ends up being committed to Broughton State Hospital in Morganton.

Name:	Joe B Aldridge
Gender:	Male
Race:	White
Age:	63
Birth Date:	6 Nov 1861
Birth Place:	Stanly, North Carolina, United States
Death Date:	13 Jun 1925
Death Place:	Morganton # 2, Burke, North Carolina, USA

He passed away on June 13, 1925 in Burke County, North Carolina of "Exhaustion of Mania". This archaic term means he was probably suffering from a bi-polar disorder and research into it suggests it may have also been tied in to tuberculosis.


Joe Aldridge was returned to his family in Salisbury, North Carolina to be buried and was laid to rest at Chestnut Hill cemetery.



Despite being a "Black Sheep", the story of Joseph Benjamin Aldridge does not end there. He had surviving children, grandchildren and so on. His was only one of a massive amount of his generation that were adversely affected by the Civil War. Orphaned, and often abandoned and abused, the War left a residual grunge on these children that was felt for generations.

His descendants deserve to know who he was and what family he came from. The four children of his marriage to Alice Jennie Misenheimer grew up, married and had children.

1) Theodore Jennings Aldridge 1898 - 1952 moved from Cabarrus to Rowan County, where he remained. He married Carrie L. A. Misenheimer Welch, a young widow with a son, Marvin Welch.

Together they had 3 children: Twins: Clarence Henderson Aldridge (1923 - 1996) and Clara Mayetta Aldridge Irby (1923 - 2011). And Barbara Ann Aldridge (1933-1954).

        Clarence married Lizzie Burleson, passed away in Stanly County, and is buried in Pensacola, Florida.

Clarence Aldridge

          Clara married Jimmie Calvin Irby, spent most of her life in Kannapolis, and her last days, retired to Port Charlotte, Florida and ended up living with her daughter, Patricia, in Punta Gorda, California, where she passed away in 2011.

Barbara Ann Aldridge

Barbara Ann Aldridge died young. She was 20 years old when she died in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1954.

2) Della Ida Aldridge (1901 - 1985) married first, Floyd W. Pigg ( 1903 - 1934), in 1919 and second, Roy L. McGee in 1935, She raised her family in Cabarrus County, but also retired to Florida and is buried in Broward County, Florida.

              She had 5 children with her first husband: Roy Lee Pigg (1916-1998), Isaac Elmore Pigg (1919-1986) , Mary Louise Pigg Ferrell Tucker Stowe (1922 - 2001), Floyd Dearwood Pigg ( 1927 - 1988) and Rosa Jewell Pigg Brumbelow Reed (1930 - 2013). She had one child with her second husband: Mildred Irene McGee McRae Carter (1939 - 2003).                          

Della Aldridge McGee and husband Roy

3) Ethel Alice Aldridge (1903 - 1968) Married Brown Alexander Foil (1898 - 1988). Spent most of her life in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina and raised her family there. She and Mr. Brown Foil were the parents of 8 children: Thomas Alexander Foil (1921 - 1987), Brown Edward Foil ( 1922 - 1993), Alice Janolia Foil Page ( 1925 ), Catherine Oneda Foil (1927 - 1928), Bobby Lee Foil (1930), Nellie Bly Foil Loflin (1932 - 1974), Franklin Delano Foil (1936) and George Irving Foil (1938).

4) Bertha Bellzorra Aldridge (1905 - 1947) Married John Henry Murray in Cabarrus County on December 6, 1919 at the age of 14. Spent most of her life in Washington, D. C. Some time in Boston and some in Maryland. They were the parents of 3 children: Joseph Benjamin Murray (1921 - 1991), Margaret Aileen Murray Ballard (1923 ), and Jenny Bertha  Murray (1926).



The Concord Times
(Concord, North Carolina)11 Dec 1919, Thu • Page 6

As for Ollie Aldridge, my only hope is that the reason she can not be located is that she hopped a train for somewhere different and better than the place she had found herself in after the death of her daughter. I hope she changed her name due to a happy marriage. I can see her spending her last days watching soap operas, tending to the climbing roses on her trellis, with a lap dog at her feet and surrounded by the happy babbling and squeals of great-grandchildren.