This Indenture made this 18th day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred by and between William Ferrell Sr of Wake County and State of North Carolina and William Ferrell Jr of the County of Montgomery and State aforesaid Witnesseth that I the said William Ferrell Sr for and in Consideration of the Natural Love and affection which I have to my Son William Ferrell Jr besides other good Causes me hereunto moving in consideration whereof I have given granted deliver and by these presents … unto him the said William Ferrell Jr … one certain tract or parcel of land lying and being in said County of Wake Containing one hundred and twenty acres … and Bounded … beginning at a pine on the west side of the Flat Rock Branch Thos Ross Corner then ... to a black Jack in Wm Downs line then with said line ... to a pine in said Wm Ferrell's line.
Because Flat Rock Branch is unrecognizable today, I needed to cross reference Thomas Ross and/or William Downs to find the area where William Ferrell Sr lived. I needed to go no further than William Downs to find what I was looking for.
In a 1778 survey for William Downs for 200 acres on the south side of the Neuse River on both sides of Chunkopipe (Chunky Pipe) Creek beginning at a post oak on the north side of the creek at William Ferrell’s corner. William Ferrell was also the chain carrier for the survey.
A current day map shows Chunky Pipe Creek is in Durham County, North Carolina, and flows into Little Lick Creek. Durham County was formed from Wake County in 1881. Wake County was formed from Orange, Johnston, and Cumberland counties in 1771. The area where Chunky Pipe Creek is located would have been in Orange County prior to 1771.
In 1800, the same year that William Ferrell Sr wrote the deed, William Ferrell Jr lived in Montgomery County, North Carolina next door to Isaac Davis and Jordan Howell whose very names indicate that William Ferrell may have started his life in Montgomery County on the west side of the Yadkin / Pee Dee River.
William Ferrell’s uncle, Micajah Ferrell, had been in the area at least since 1793 as he had a land grant for 50 acres on both sides of the Yadkin River.
In 1790, John Nichols was directed by the court of equity in Orange County, North Carolina to take the deposition of Charles Wood concerning a suit brought forth by three sisters and their husbands, Rachel Veazey Ferrell Wheeler, Nancy Veazey Pearce, and Elizabeth Veazey Brundige against their brother, Elijah Veazey regarding the money paid to Thomas Ferrell, the deceased husband of Rachel, whether Elijah had purchased the interest in his and Rachel’s father, Edward Veazey’s land.
The deposition, along with several other court and deed documents, shows that Thomas Ferrell, the brother of Micajah and William Ferrell (Sr) was the husband of Rachel Veazey. Thomas died in 1780 while a prisoner of war during the Revolution. He was buried in a place called Gadson (maybe Gadsden) Garden in Charlestown, South Carolina after being removed from a British prison ship due to sickness and taken to a hospital where he died.
The documentation can be found online at Family Search (free) in the 1771 estate file for Edward Veazey in Granville County, North Carolina.
Micajah Ferrell also served in the Revolutionary War but died in 1833 Butts County, Georgia before he could complete his pension application. His children completed the application on behalf of their father, claiming that Micajah was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia (probably Halifax as Pittsylvania was not created until 1767, ten years after Micajah was born) and moved to Wake County (probably Orange County as Wake was not formed until 1771), North Carolina at the age of four, or in 1761.
Many deed records in Wake County, North Carolina show that William Ferrell Sr and his brother Micajah lived around Chunky Pipe Creek and Little Lick Creek in what is now Durham County, North Carolina (see above map).
The children of Micajah also showed that their father had provided a deposition for Charles Upchurch’s pension application. In the pension application for Charles Upchurch can be found the statement that Micajah Ferrell provided claiming that he was acquainted with Charles in Wake County, North Carolina before and after the war, that he served alongside him for two months in Charleston, South Carolina.
William Ferrell Jr married Susanna whose maiden name is not known. By 1840, William Ferrell lived on the east side of the Pee Dee River, his neighbors Samuel Hurley and Stephen Hurley.
In 1845, John Morris Jr applied for a marriage license to marry Martha Ferrell, who is possibly a daughter or granddaughter of William and Susannah Ferrell. John Morris Jr is the son of John Jacky and Amelia Morris, my third great grandparents.
The 1850 Census for Montgomery County, North Carolina shows John and Martha Ferrell Morris living just one page away from William Ferrell, age 71, a gold miner, and his wife, Susannah, age 67, his neighbors were Wiley Bell and Samuel Hurley.
William Ferrell, John Jacky Morris, and John Morris Jr are all working as miners in the gold mines of Montgomery County.
William and Susannah Ferrell are not found on the 1860 Census, and it is assumed that they died between Census years 1850 and 1860. John Morris Jr also died between Census years, he is not found in 1860, and Martha Ferrell Morris is found in 1870 with 19-year-old daughter, Eliza, the only child of John and Martha Ferrell Morris.
Three months after the 1870 Census was enumerated, Eliza Morris, the daughter of John and Martha Ferrell Morris, married Raymond Cutliff (R. C.) Clodfelter, the son of George and Christina Clodfelter.
Eliza Morris Clodfelter had three children with Raymond, Martha, 1871, Claude, 1876, and John Milton ‘Jacky’ Clodfelter in 1878.
Eliza died in 1878, the same year her son John, was born. She is buried at Pine Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery in Davidson County, North Carolina.
