This message is in response to these two messages from Margaret Overton: Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 08:33:14 -0700 From: Margaret Overton <maggieo@vcu.org> To: NCJOHNST-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <200010151533.e9FFXEG01441@cgi.rootsweb.com> Subject: [NCJOHNST] Newton Grove and Bentonville Families Posted on: Johnston Co. NC Queries Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/NC/Johnston/1857 Surname: CREECH, CREACH, WARD, THORNTON, MASSENGILL ------------------------- Trying to find information on families of James W Creech or Creach, Mary Massengill, his wife; children Josephine, Sarah, Charley, Herring, Willis and Mary Creach or Creech (Mary, we think, married Gaston Williamson); Benajah Ward, who married Milly Thornton, daughter of Nathaniel and Milly Thornton; Benajah's first wife, Ferraby last name unknown; Milly Thornton, Nathaniel Thornton and children; Mary Polly Massengill and her family. Any information would be most appreciated. We have very little but will certainly share what we have. We do have photos of Sarah Creech, Thomas Ward, son of Benajah; and of Milly Thornton. Would love to share and be in touch with descendants. These are our great and great-great grandparents. Thanks so much. AND Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 22:18:42 -0400 From: Margaret Overton <maggieo@vcu.org> Subject: Mary Massengill To: nicojak@FTC-I.NET Reply-to: maggieo@vcu.org Organization: Maggie's Magic X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en]C-NECCK (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en Original-recipient: rfc822;nicojak@ftc-i.net Our Mary "Polly" was married to James Willis Creech or Creach. She was mother to Josephine, Sarah, Charley, Herring, Willis, Mary and Minnie Mae. We don't have dates but Sarah was born October 22, 1859 so that gives us some timeframe--I'm guessing around 1839 or so??? If you find anything on her, I'd be so very grateful. We have nothing but her name. thanks so much for posting a response. Maggie Overton, Richmond, VA Hi Margaret! This is a WILD SHOT IN THE dARK, so if it works out don't credit me. credit my long-suffering husband who does not bother me when I am knee-deep in a project. Of course, the projects I'm SUPPOSED to be knee-deep involve accounting, legal research, and play-writing. Bless his heart, he hasn't opened his mouth. Now, this is a combination of Roberta Butler's "Massengills of Johnston County" and the pages my mother had copied from S.E. Massengill's book -- she only copied the pages on which my uncle George Wilson Massengill had made notes. These are random pages, but fortunately I can almost read enough of the first inch of p.449 which is beside page 448. First, I noticed that Roberta's family chart shows George Massengill (whose last name is spelled variously as Maringill, Mashinggill, Massengale, etc.,) had a sister named Mary, who does not appear in Roberta's book. This George took up land in Edgecombe, which became Nash County NC, near Rocky Mount on the Tar River. This Mary is NOT your Mary, but like the curious cat, I started digging in to find out about her. Came up dry! THEN I see that she credits information on Aaron Massengill (p. 23) to Bryan CREECH and Hubert Massengill of Four Oaks. You might follow up on that. It was the missing Mary that bugged me. True, there is a Polly, age 5 and a Mary age 10 in the 1850 Census; and earlier, Henry Massengill and Lucy Temple (m. 1801) have a daughter named Polly (P. 25). There is NO INFO at all on any other girls. But as Peggy is still a common nickname for Margaret and Molly for Martha, so Polly used to be the nickname for Mary. This may have been about the time the counties split; Mary's records may be in Edgecombe, Nash, Wilson or any other county. But on page 25, in the listing of children of Robert Massengill II (1765- ca.1809), she refers to the lack of information on the other son, George Washington [Massengill] who married Mary Cotton and moved to Jasper County, Miss. Then I remembered my uncle's exasperated note in the margin of the SEM book: "There are too many George, Henrys and Roberts...." I DON'T THINK THIS IS AT ALL RELEVANT, BUT by the purest chance, I picked up those papers and the bunch fell open to page 447, and Uncle wilson's checkmark beside a notation of Civil and Personal Records of Conway County Arkansas. "E.M. (Elijah Martin) Masingill of Hattiesville, Ark., a descendant of George Washington Masingill of Johnston County, N.C., gave an unsually complete history of his branch of the family." (This book was published in the early 1930s I think.) His grandfather George Washington Masingill was born June 6, 1790, in Johnston County, N.C., and married Mary Cotton. (In Roberta's book, p. 123, BEFORE 2-18-1858 a George Massengill married Polly Cotton.) He says they had six boys and four girls. Of those, only JMWM survives with children. BUT, the listing shows only four girls and five boys, indicating another son is not accounted for. Mary, daughter of G.W. and Mary, was born in North Carolina and died in (can't read the name, but it starts with an L and could be Lawrence County. Other children died in Lawrence County, Miss.) Suppose she DID NOT die, but was sent back to other relatives to keep her from being killed by whatever plague was apparently going around. She may have been taken in by another family. I'm going to bed. Good night!