Breadcrumbs: The Atkins Diet

 

While posting about my fourth Great Grandparents, it really bothered me that I knew almost nothing about my fourth Great Grandmother, Patsy Atkins, who married James Palmer. 

I knew she was born on December 20, 1784, due to well-kept Palmer Family Bibles. I know she died on July 18, 1879 and was buried at Kendall's Baptist Church, near New London, NC. 

I knew she was the mother of 9 children with her husband James Palmer:

1) Little Lucy Palmer, who died at age 6, born June 9, 1808 - Aug. 14, 1814).

2) Mary Palmer, born November 17, 1809 and married Bailey F. Smith.

3) William Pearson Palmer, born November 1, 1811 and died February 19, 1881, who married Hannah Bushrod Harris.

4) Martha Palmer, born June 1, 1817 and died March 27, 1863, who married Henry Davis - my line.

5) Elizabeth Palmer, born August 18, 1818 and died on November 20, 1827, at the age of 9.

6) Serlana Palmer, born March 31, 1819 and died March 16, 1823, at the age of 3.

7) Sarah Palmer, born April 21, 1821 and died August 2, 1854, who married Richmond Gage Davidson Pickler.

8) Margaret Tyson Palmer,  born April 8, 1834 and died February 24, 1879, who married Jonah Askew Love.

Page from Bible of W. P Palmer

I knew she appeared in three census records in Stanly County: 1850, where she and James are living the the "Albemarle Post Office" area, and have a 50 year old man in their home "Abia", who was labeled an idiot. The 1860, where James is 75 and Martha is 76 and they are living next to what appears to be a "Poor House", because everyone listed in it were Paupers. And the 1870, their last, where James is 85 and Martha is 86 and they are still in Albemarle Post Office and living near Kendalls and Calloways, and Laton's and Freemans, and surrounded by a bevy of Civil War Widows, Sarah Byrd, Amy Pennington, Elizabeth Smith, and Elizabeth Hinson. Also, in a separate house on the same property were Ralph Palmer, 58, and Adaline Palmer, 21. These two were African-American, signified by a "B" for race, and can be logically assumed to have been freed slaves of the Palmers, as they are shown in previous census records as being slave holders.

Page from Family Bible of W. P. Palmer

The Palmers lived long lives and had made it through the War. James, who had served in the War of 1812, lived to be 87 and passed away in 1873, and Martha, a year older than her husband, outlived him by 6 years and lived to be 94.

Kendall's Baptist Church, Kendall Valley area, Stanly County, NC

I have posted in this blog about her before in my 30 Mothers in 30 Days series, which I did for Mother's Day one year when I was stuck home recovering from an injury. 

30 Mothers in 30 Days: Patsy

But I can not tell you where she came from, except that the census recors indicate she was born in North Carolina, or who her parents were. It's time to fix that, or try.

Martha's last child, Margaret Tyson Palmer, was a menapause baby, born when her mother was 50 years old and 13 years after her closest sibling, Sarah. Some may argue that she was probably a grandchild, but her brother, William Pearson Palmer, the only son, faithfully recorded all of the births and deaths of his siblings, except for the death of Mary, and Margaret was recorded as sibling. 

Although she is not named, Martha can be regarded as the adult female in the older, dash-indicated census records, with her husband, James.

1830

Name	James Palmer
Home in 1830 (City, County, State)	West Side Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29	1 William would have been 19
Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49	1 James
Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9	2 Sarah and Serlana
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19	2  Mary and Martha
Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49	1 Martha
Slaves - Males - Under 10	1
Slaves - Males - 10 thru 23	1
Slaves - Males - 36 thru 54	1
Slaves - Females - 10 thru 23	1
Free White Persons - Under 20	4
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49	3
Total Free White Persons	7
Total Slaves	4
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored)	11

1840

Name	James Palmer
Residence Date	1840
Home in 1840 (City, County, State)	West Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49	1 Abia?
Free White Persons - Males - 50 thru 59	1 James
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19	1 Margaret or Sarah? Sarah would have been 18 or 19, Margaret only 7
Free White Persons - Females - 50 thru 59	1 Martha
Slaves - Males - 24 thru 35	1
Slaves - Females - Under 10	3
Slaves - Females - 10 thru 23	1
Slaves - Females - 24 thru 35	1
Persons Employed in Agriculture	4
Free White Persons - Under 20	1
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49	1
Total Free White Persons	4
Total Slaves	6
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves	10

In the 1840 census, Margaret should have been around 7, and this is not found in the dashes, so there could have been other circumstances, but who was the other teenaged girl, if not Margaret and where did Margaret come from then? There have been mistakes in census records and ages, particularly among females. I've seen women buried with a year of  birth 7 or 8 years younger than a census they show up in as a child. One in particular that I am thinking of, claimed a birth year of 1862, when she clearly showed up as a 5 year old in 1860 and a 14 year old in 1870.

Page from Bible of W. P. Palmer showing death dates of sisters.

In the early records of Montgomery County, NC, there were several records of Atkins, primarily James, John and Lewis. John, in particular, is mentioned in a large number of land records. But for the most part, they all disapear. Almost. By 1830, there are three others, George, John C. and Mary. The 1830 census is divided into East Pee Dee and West Pee Dee, depending upon which side of the Yadkin - Pee Dee River they lived upon. East Pee Dee was what would remain as Montgomery after the 1841 split and West Pee Dee would become Stanly. 

George was in Stanly, living near Drury and Mark Morgan, who lived along the Rocky River below Oakboro and Stanfield. He was in his 50's, his wife in her 40's and they appeared to have 4 sons and 4 daughters.

Mary Atkins was in East Pee Dee, near James Hurley Sr., Thomas Ragsdale and Green Hardister. I know Thomas Ragsdale lived in "Lovejoy". Probably a widow, the oldest female in the home was in her 50's, probably Mary. Two boys, one under 5 and one between 5 and 10, a female between 10 and 15 and another between 15 and 20 lived with her. She also was counted with two very elderly slaves, a man and a woman, between 90 and 100, in her home. She also lived next to a widow Davis.

John C. Atkins was also in East Pee Dee, listed between Edmund Deberry and William Davis, or the Pee Dee area. He was in his 30's with a female 10 to 20, (perhaps a teenaged wife, and a teenaged boy as well, perhaps a farm hand.

All of them were gone by 1840. No Atkins (or Adkins as it was sometimes spelled), in Montgomery .

As there are really no (or few) records of Atkins in Stanly County, I've had to look in the Palmer family records for any mention.

Of interest, on October 17, 1844, Barbara Pickler swore out a warrant for the arrest of Ralph, a slave of James Palmer, for breaking into her barn and taking a bushel of wheat. Barbara (or Barbary) Pickler was the mother of Richmond Gates (or Gage) Davidson Pickler, who married James Palmer's daughter Sarah. The Picklers were somehow related to and entangled with the Davis family. For one, Henry Davis married Sarah's sister Martha. Henry's younger brother, Marriott Freeman Davis, would marry R.G.D. Pickler's sister, Mary, after she was widowed by the death  Henry and M. F.'s first cousin, Milton Winfield. Yet, oddest of all, the four Davis brothers recieved an inheritance from R. D. G. Pickler's grandmother, Jane Davis Pickler, mother of his father, John Davis Pickler. That one I've not figured out yet, except for the Davis name. 

In the above snippet from the 1830 census, you can see Barbary Pickler lived pretty close to George Atkins.

In another interesting court case, on May 10, 1852, James Palmer to become the guardians of Abia and James Atkins, both called idiots. the archaeic term for mentally incapacitated individuals.

In the 1850 Stanly County census, its first, James and Martha Atkins Palmer are in their 60's and shown with a 50 year old "Abia" in the home. 

Name	James Palmer
Gender	Male
Race	White
Residence Age	64
Birth Date	abt 1786
Birthplace	North Carolina
Residence Date	1850
Home in 1850	Albemarle, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Occupation	Farmer
Industry	Agriculture
Real Estate	300
Line Number	29
Dwelling Number	863
Family Number	868
Inferred Spouse	Martha Palmer

Household members

Name	Age
James Palmer	64
Martha Palmer	65
Abia Palmer	50

As far out to the left, Abia was noted as an 'idiot' in the last column, this must have been Abia Atkins, not Palmer. But where was James?

The next census, in 1860 shows James and Martha, now in their 70's, living next to a "home" headed by 75 year old Polly Yates, among the persons in her household was 55 year old James Atkins. Out to the left, all of these individuals were listes as "Paupers". This must have been the Poor House. It has been passed down in the family that James and Martha's farm was on the Salisbury Road, Old Salisbury Road now, on the hill where the old County Home was. The Poor House was a precursor to the County Home. Abia was not in the 1860 census and neither was in the 1870. It's unknown where James Atkins was in 1850. 

So who were James and Abia in relation to Martha Atkins Palmer?

There was another Abia, an older Abia, who, like most of the other Atkins from early Montgomery and Anson, who had moved to Tennessee. The name ran in the family. 

Speaking of names, there's other possible hints among the names. Howell Parker (Jr.), who is listed next to the Palmers, had a son named "Dr. Franklin". The name was passed down as his son Arnold, also had a Dr. Franklin. Sarah Palmer and her husband R. G. D. Pickler also named a son Dr. Franklin. Margaret Palmer and husband Jonah Love also had a son named Dr. Franklin. They also had a son named Mumford Parker Love. 

Who was Dr. Franklin, the original? Were they referring to Ben? Was there a familial relationship between the Parkers and the Palmers, or the Parkers and the Atkins? And Margaret's middle name, Tyson, that's an odd middle name for a female, could Tyson be a family name up the line? And not knowing if Margaret was actually a daughter, or a grandchild raised by ther grandparents, could she have been a Tyson on her other parents side if she were?

Another odd middle name for females in this family was Baldwin. I've often wondered why Henry and Martha Palmer Davis had named a daughter Nancy Baldwin Davis. I know it runs in the Palmer side, because there are other females in that line with the middle name Baldwin. Was this a female ancestor up the line somewhere?

But the ultimate name that made me wonder is the one Atkins who stayed in Stanly County, the Rev. Athur Freeman Atkins. Not only has the "Arthur Freeman" plagued me for years, but also, he was an Atkins. Arthur Freeman of Virginia, is my 6th Great Grandfather, father of Charlotte Freeman Winfield and Great Grandfather of Henry Davis who married Martha Palmer daughter of Patsy Atkins Palmer. 

There were several "Arthur Freeman" (insert surnames) among his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Was A.F. Atkins among them? I mean, in my years of digging, I've noticed these groups of connected families were more apt to marry within their own group and even own family, than they were to marry a stranger.

Among the tidbits in the Palmer files is this one, from a letter of a granddaughter of William Pearson Palmer, James and Patsy's only son. Her statement was "Grandpa Billie and Arthur were first cousins". She stated that Cousin Arthur Atkins was related and that Martha Palmer Atkins was a sister to Rev. Atkins father.

So now we can start a small tree.

Martha Atkins Palmer ----- Brother Atkins 

                                                         |

                                                          √

                                           Arthur F. Atkins 

Names from the past, more so than today, are like a trail of breadcrumbs leading through the woods. These old Virginia families, in particular, were fond of naming children for ancestors that came before. First sons were often given the names of their maternal grandfathers as given names. Juniors often came later down the line. 

Abia..Dr Franklin... Arthur Freeman... Baldwin.. Tyson were these among the trail of breadcrumbs in the Atkins family?

To add fuel to the fire, recall my pondering about the Howell Parker family, listed right next to the Palmers, with, the son named Dr. Franklin, also a common Palmer given name. Come to find out (with minimal effort), that Howell Jr. had a brother named William Parker, both sons of Howell Sr. and wife, who was a Loflin before marriage. William had married a woman named Mary Baldwin Atkins, some also insert a Catherine in her name. There's the Baldwin again, and the Atkins, too. Mary Baldwin Atkins was close in age, only one or two years, from Martha Atkins Palmer. Add that to the closeness in location, and the question arises, could they be sisters? 

Hmmm. Let's follow the trail of breadcrumbs.