GEORGE W AUTRY
Here is a white family that I have been
looking at for the longest. George W. Autry and his family were neighbors to Owen
Johnson and most of Ned Edmund's sisters and brother's. I first found George living
in that neighborhood in 1880. I have not had a chance to research this yet but
I think George or his wife Mary was related to Owen Johnson.
I also
found another George W. Autry that was born in 1820 and lived in the McDaniels
township of Sampson county. To my surprise he and his family were found living
in the next household to Ned Edward Autry and his family. Ned Edward is mentioned
on the bottom of the home page.
George W. of Bladen must have passed
away by 1900. His wife Mary and two of his daughters continued to live in the
same neighborhood untill sometime after 1920. Just to give you and Idea of what
families made their community up, I have listed the families and their household
numbers below.
Household 62 George W. Johnson and family (Ned married his
sister Mary) Household 63 Owen Johnson and family (Owen was the son of the
slave owner Joel Jr. Johnson. Owen also freely gave Ned and his siblings quite
a bit of land) Household 64 Thomas Johnson and family (Owen's son) Household
65 Dora Lucas-Herring (Ned's uncle Archie's wife) Household 66 Julian Johnson
and family (Owen's son) Household 67 Alexander Bordeux and his Wife Lucinda
(Alexander Garfield Bordeux and Amelia Bordeux-Johnson's parents) Household
68 William Henry Johnson and wife amelia (Ned's brother and Alexander Garfield
Bordeux's brother-in-law) Household 69 Richard Johnson and family (Ned's
brother) Household 70 Alexander Garfield Bordeux and family (Alex married
Ned's sister Rose's daughter, Stella) Household 71 Mary Autry and family.
(George W. Autry's wife) Household 72 Phillip Melvin and family (Phillip
married Ned's sister Lydia) Household 73 Abel Carroll and family (Abe married
Ned's sister Rose) All of these people lived somewhere on or about the
Susie Sandhill. I think most of the household's were just south of the Susie Sandhill
somewhere between the present day locations of the Susie SandHill and the Barnes
and Carter families bluberry farms.
I am still trying to piece together
Ned Edward Autry's early life. I am very sure that the slave owner George W. Autry
was his last slave master. George was the only slave owner living in the Southern
Division of Sampson County with the surname of Autry in 1850 and then Little Coharie
in 1860.
I found George in 1850 at the age of 30 living with Mary
Autry who was 32 at the time in the Southern Division of Sampson County NC. By
1860 he was found living with and married to a 17 year old female named Sarah
Ann Herring-Autry in the township of Little Coharie. Their home at this time could
have been located in the same place. From my research I am beginning to see that
parts of the Southern Division of Sampson County later became known as the Little
Coharie township. Click here to view some of Sarah's Herring heritage.
In 1850 George was listed with six slaves.
60 Male Black
54
Female Black
24 Female Black
22 Male Black
14 Male Black
3 Male Black
By 1860 his slave total had increased to 13 and they
were living in 4 slave homes.
73 Male Black
67 Female Black
48 Male Black
30 Male Black
26 Female Black
22 Male Black
19 Female Black
18 Female Black
13 Male Black
12 Female
Black
8 Male Black
3 Female Black
1 Male Black
Note:
I am willing to bet that the two older slaves in 1850 and 1860 are the same man
and woman but notice how their ages advances 13 years in almost 10 years. This
tells me that George guessed their ages in both listings of this information.
I am also willing to bet that since George W. Autry was the only slave owner with
the surname of Autry that was living in the Little Coharie township in 1860, Julia
Autry and her son Frank who also lived in the Little Coharie township in 1870
are some of those slaves listed above. Julia and Frank had moved to the Dismal
township of Sampson County by 1880.
Note: It is very possible that
Julia is also Ned's mother and that none of the slaves listed above are Ned's
wife or children. In my slave research I have found that many men that were slaves
cohabited (a state of marriage for slaves) with women that were slaves of another
slave owner and any children that resulted from these unions belonged to the woman's
slave owner. Here is a page that gives some insight on the state of marriage for
slaves in the ante-bellum south and here is a list of other slave owners that
lived in the southern district of Sampson County in 1860.
By 1870
George and his family had moved from the Little Coharie township to the McDaniels
township of Sampson County. This move could have been within a very short distance
since Little Coharie bordered McDaniels.
His family during this time
was listed as
George W. Autry 50
Sarah A. Autry 27
Missouria
Jackson Autry 6
Emma Lee Autry 5 (died of chicken pox in 1880)
Laura
Hill Autry 3
Owen Herring Autry 9 months
Surprisingly his next door
neighbor was found to be Ned Edward Autry and his family. I am assuming that Ned
Edward came to the McDaniels area with George sometime between 1860 and 1870.
George died sometime around 1873. In 1880 Sarah was found listed as
a widow with all of the children that her and George were listed with in 1870
with an addition of one daughter Ada Jane Autry who was born in 1872. They were
still found living in the McDaniels township with Ned's sons Richard and Isaac
as some of their closest neighbors.
In 1890 Sarah testified at Ned Edward's
pension hearing. She testified that she had known Ned during slavery when he was
her slave and before then when he was a slave owned by her family. I found Sarah
again in 1920 living in the Little Coharie township with her daughter Ada Jane
and her husband who's name was J A Martins?. I was very surprised not to find
George, Sarah or any of their children listed in the Autry Culbreth book. I have
viewed that information about four times but I guess it is possible that I could
have overlooked George and his family.
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