Jessie Belle Case Burns, 1896 - 1987

Photographed in her teens, around 16 years old, perhaps a wedding photo


b. 19 Feb 1896, Kingsport, Tennessee
d. 27 Sept 1987, Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina
m. Houston Griffin, 11 Feb 1922 (anulled)
m. Frank Davis "Pop" Burns
b. Guilford Memorial Park, Greensboro, North Carolina

daughter of Thomas I. Case and Permelia Case

Census: 20 Jun 1900
Hooper's Creek Twnp, Henderson Co, NC
age 4, daughter

Census: 22 Apr 1910
Greenville, Greenville County, SC
age 14, daughter, spinner, cotton mill, b. TN

Census: 1930
Greenwood Fire Station, Greenwood Co, SC
age 31, Jessie, homemaker, b. TN, parents NC

avid reader, though not much formal education ( liked Reader's Digest condensed books )

a hard tough woman, a bit lacerating, drank heavily

swore that her son Elbert weighed 15 pounds when he was born and she had to sleep on her back on a folding Army cot during the last stage of her pregnancy

never did the dishes after she ate because she'd always had to do them when she was a kid right after dinner and she told herself that when she grew up, she'd do the dishes the next day and not have to lift a finger but to rinse and soak them

disliked son Elbert's first wife Mazelle so much that she wouldn't let Elbert have the car to drive to SC to marry her unless his father Frank drove him there himself
***************************************************

Jessie Belle Case was a half-breed Cherokee girl living with her very hard-working family in the poor Blue Ridge county of Hawkins, TN. Her father, Thomas, born in the equally poor county of Henderson, NC, was an illiterate day laborer who was away from home months at a time. Her mother, Permelia, a full blood NC Cherokee Indian, held the reins of the family with an iron grip. There were reportedly over 10 children, so strict control was probably necessary.

Didn't seem to work one iota on Jessie Belle.

There was a dissolved marriage early in Jessie Belle's life, a dissolution allegedly forced by her mother. What I was able to dig up was a marriage record, dated 11 Feb 1922 in Tennessee, to a boy named Houston Griffin. According to lore, Jessie came home to her mother pregnant, to which her mother told her she'd either come home and live as her daughter or else go off and live with him, but he couldn't come live with them.

Jessie responded to this by having the baby (a girl named Clarabelle) and then letting the boy in through her window and getting pregnant again (another girl named Ruthie). I'm sure Permelia was pulling her own hair out.

Jessie was married to this boy, but the records tell another story. According to the records, those babies were illegitimate. THEN, Jesse eloped with Houston. THEN, her mother said, "Oh no you don't!" At any rate, the marriage license was issued, but never returned for ratification.

Permelia took both Clarabelle and Ruthie away from Jessie and raised them as her own children. They called her "Mother" and referred to Jessie Belle by name, like a sister. Jessie groused in later years that her mother would never let her have her girls back, but her other siblings told her that she coulda gotten them at any time.

The plot thickens.

If Jessie married Houston in February of 1922, the marriage must have been dissolved immediately, for her family turns up in South Carolina, where the cotton mills were in full steam, and all the girls went to work as spinners. She must have been in total rebellion mode by then, because, after a whirlwind courtship, she eloped with my great grandfather, Pop, and had my grandfather, Frank, less than a year after her dissolved marriage to Houston.

Also, according the records, Jessie was lying about her age. They all put her birth date around 1896. Pop was born in 1902. She told everyone she was born in 1907. I'm sure being 8 years older than one's husband at that time might have looked tacky. Pop's regal mother, Letha, was less than thrilled to have a salt-of-the-earth, heathen-behaving woman in her house.

Flash forward many years.

A family reunion. Permelia is there, demanding banana cream pie. "I don't care if it's my last day on earth, I want banana cream pie!"

"It musta worked her over because we were back in no time for the funeral," my Grandma said dryly.

Driving to the summer-time funeral was hell. Jessie was backseat driving like crazy, and her son Frank was repeating and repeating, "I'm doing the best I can, Mother...."

When they arrived, it was in a curious and ugly little town near a small airstrip called Conestee in South Carolina, a strange collection of houses built on stilts against the hillside, with red dirt yards that they combed clean and not a blade of grass to be seen anywhere. At the church, Permelia was apparently so well respected that the entire community showed up to say a word.

That "word" turned into 3 hours. No less than five preachers stood up to give a verbose eulogy.

Grandma said she could no longer feel her backside on the hard pews, but that she'd been taught not to squirm in church. The weather was hot, but they were in a shady glen, and the church windows were open, so it wasn't so bad, she said.

When the fifth preacher was speaking, a voice rang out. "GET ON WITH IT."

Frank was horrified. "Mama!" he hissed. "Be quiet!"

"Ain't no one worth 3 hours of talkin'!" Jessie snapped.

Letha turned around in the pew in front of them, said acidly, "Sinners can't stand being told anything."

Grandma said she wanted to melt into the floor from mortification.

Leah Matilda Roderick, wife of Warren Turner, b. 1842

[picture provided by cousin, name withheld]

24 June 1842 - 1 Jan 1919, Morganton, NC
*buried: Forest Hill Cemetery, Morganton

*nicknamed "Til"
*A charter member of the First Baptist Church of Morganton, North Carolina.

*appears in the 1850 census: Burke Co., NC, age 8
*appears in the 1870 census: Linville, Burke Co., NC
*appears in the 1900 census: Morganton, Burke Co., NC; age 57, wife
*appears in the 1910 census: Morganton, Burke Co., NC; age 67, wife

*The following is a transcription of a newspaper clipping, dated October 26, 1878 (sixty years old when found in the Bible of Leah M. Turner in October 1938) reads:

"RODERICK FAMILY REUNION

On the 26th of October last a reunion of Daniel Roderick's family was held at the old homestead in Linville Township, Burke County. There were forty-five relatives present. Daniel Roderick died in the year 1860, at the age of fifty-six years, leaving his wife, Elizabeth who is now living at the advanced age of seventy-eight years and was present at the above mentioned occasion. At the death of her husband, Mrs. Roderick was left with a large family to raise. She has three children dead, and eleven living, all of whom are married and are members of some branch of the Christian church.

She has sixty-four grandchildren, six of whom are married and fourteen great-grandchildren. Her descendants with their wives and husbands number one hundred and nine persons of whom ninety-seven are now living. All these descendants were possessed with good minds and none of them ever had a law suit or have been imprisoned for crime, thus fulfilling the passage by scripture: 'Train up a child in the way it should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.'"

Warren Gray Turner, CSA, b. 1837

[Photo courtesy of cousin, name withheld for privacy]

9 Jan 1837, Edgecombe Co, NC - 20 Jun 1913, at his home in Morganton, NC
*buried: Forest Hill Cemetery

Imagine my surprise to receive notification from a distant family member that a photograph of our great great grandfather, Warren Gray Turner, was in storage in the N.C. Museum of History, in Raleigh. It's not this portrait (which appears to be when he was mustered in for the Civil War) because it shows him tired-looking, covered in hair, beard to his chest like Grizzly Adams (most likely post war).

*first assignment: Company E, 6th Regiment, NC Troops - 20 June 1861 (Company E was formed in Charlotte, NC on the 28 May 1861); promoted to Corporal - 30 June 1861; promoted to 3rd Lt. - 17 June 1862; promoted to 2nd Lt. - 24 Dec 1862; promoted to 1st Lt. - 1 July 1863

*commanding officer: Col. R. F. Webb

*battles/engagements: 2nd Manassas - 30 Aug 1862; Chancellorsville, VA - 3 and 4 of May 1863; Gettysburg; Cemetery Hill - 2 July 1863; captured at Rappanhannock Station, VA - 7 Nov 1863

*wounds: wounded at 2nd Manassas - shot in the right leg, disabling it - 30 Aug 1862; admitted to general hospital #7 in Richmond, VA for "fever remit"; second wound was given as "a wound in the left thigh"

*confined at Old Capitol Prison, Washington, DC; transferred to Johnson Island, Ohio - 11 Nov 1863; exchanged at Cox's Wharf, James River, VA - 22 Mar 1865

* moved with his parents to Burke County, NC at age 12

* worked as a school teacher and farmer before the Civil War

* while imprisoned in Ohio, he met the spy Belle Boyd, and was so impressed by her that he named his first daughter Belle Boyd Turner

* after the war, he farmed as well as owned and operated the Shuffler Mill on Upper Creek

* lived on Valdese Avenue in Morganton, in a two story Victorian house on a large acreage of land

* he and his wife were members of the First Baptist Church in Morganton, North Carolina

* worked as Postmaster of Morganton during the second Cleveland administration



*His Obit from a book at the Family History Library:

W. G. Turner Dead
After a lingering illness, Mr W. G. Turner passed away at his
home on North North Morganton last Saturday morning.
Mr Turner was born in Edgecombe County 1837 and came to Burke
County when twelve years of age. His age was therefore 76 years. He
married May 21, 1871, to L. M. Roderick, of this county who survives,
and the surviving children are Mrs Charles Lane, Mrs J. L. Anderson,
Mr C. V. Turner, Morganton; M. W. Turner, Hartville, SC; F. G.
Turner, Greensboro; and Hardy Turner, Lenoir.
Mr Turner taught school in Burke for several years before
enlisting in the War Between the States. He was a 2nd Lieutenant of Co
E, 16th NC Regiment, and proved a gallant, brave soldier. At the
Battle of Gettysburg, he was taken prisoner and removed to Johnson's
Island, where he remained ten months. He was twice wounded.
Mr Turner was a merchant in Morganton for many years after the
war, and was postmaster here during the first Cleveland
administration. He leaves a name for honesty and uprightness of which
his family and friends feel justly proud.
The funeral was conducted from home Sunday morning at 10 o'clock
by Rev H. H. Jordan, and during the service, Mr Hardy Turner, a son,
led very sweetly on the piano the singing of "Nearer My God to Thee"
and "Asleep in Jesus." The remains were interned in Forest Hill
Cemetery.
---From The Morganton News-Herald. Jul 3, 1913. Reprinted in the
Journal of the Burke County Genealogical Society, Vol 10-2, p4.
(Another article in the Jounal in 15-5, p 15, mentions his
participation in the Civil War and veterans activities.)

Jennie Eulara Farley Hall, b. 1888, Jackson's Crossing, NC

Born 24 May 1888, Jackson's Crossing, Columbus Co., NC; died Apr 1974, Hallsboro, NC.

This photo was one of three discovered recently in an old chest belonging to my grandmother, Virginia Florence Hall, eldest daughter of Jennie. She's holding Virginia in the picture (c. 1908).

She was born in an area called Jacksons Crossing, a tiny place between Hallsboro and Whiteville, NC. She completed high school in Hallsboro, NC, held Sunday dinners and bridge parties all the time (Mom remembers seeing and hearing her laugh a lot in company which was a strong juxtaposition of the tough, "my way or the highway" everyday woman she was.)

Jennie died after both siblings (James and Chester), her husband and her daughters; Mom said that she was devastated to lose Elsie and when Virginia died, it seemed to finally break her. She came up to Raleigh for the memorial service at 1st Presbyterian Church (the church I grew up in where my grandfather, Fred Turner worked as custodian). Jennie spoke of her dead brother Chester frequently and very sadly, as if she had had a particularly strong attachment to him.

She never learned to drive and spent almost her entire life on the Hall farm.

John William Hall II, b. 1879, Hallsboro, NC

Born 23 Dec 1879, died Sept 1955, Hallsboro, NC.

This photo was recently discovered in an old cedar chest belonging to my grandmother, Virginia Hall Turner. This is her father as a young man, c. 1900. Loving the ears. Manly chin, too.

He is listed in 1880 census as " J. W. Hall, 5 months old."

John was Postmaster at Hallsboro, and ran a general store, a blacksmith shop and a grist mill
(his general store was the only store in Hallsboro that sold coffins - Mom remembers playing in the store and being creeped out by the coffins.)

He was also a farmer, sheriff of Columbus County, NC, from 1923 to 1936, a staunch Presbyterian who helped found the Hallsboro Presbyterian Church in 1916, where he served as an elder until his death. He was also the superintendent of Sunday School.

John studied at Horner Military Academy at Oxford, North Carolina, before he married. He refrained from drinking because alcohol ruined his father's health.

Margaret Hall Merritt's house, Hallsboro, NC

Yes, I know. Another crummy photo. (I'll replace it soon).

This is W. E. and Margaret Jane Hall Merritt's house, built to his orders across the way from the Hall farm, c. 1910. I was also present for the clearing of this house upon Margaret's death. Among other things, I remember a big spinning wheel on the stair landing and dead mice in odd places. My grandmother Virginia Hall had her wedding photos taken in this house, before a fireplace in the dining room.

Margaret Jane Hall was my great grand aunt, daughter of William Thomas Hall (b. 1846) the first temporary mayor of Hallsboro, and his wife, Florence Eugenia Meares (b. 1859).

The Hall Farm, Hallsboro, NC

A crummy photo, I know.

This is a painting of the house that hangs in our kitchen, done by a Maud Wyche, not sure when but it's always been hanging up, at least 40 years.

This is the farm that my family owned for generations. It's presently on the register of historic places. It passed from our possession in the 1980s. I remember going there at one point to help move furniture and empty the house after the last owner died, my great uncle, John Formy-Duval, husband of my grandmother Virginia's sister, Elsie. The oldest parts of the house are said to date to the 18th century.

My mother, her brother, her cousins and parents spent a lot of time here, visiting with Jennie Farley Hall and her husband John William Hall II (my great grandparents).

It was a fully running farm - tobacco, potatoes, peanuts, etc. My mother said there was a large pulling mule named Lil that was used to plow the rows.

This is my grandmother Virginia Florence Hall, c. 1920s, as a girl on the farm.


This is my grandmother outside the Hall farm with my uncle John Hall Turner, c. early 1940s. (I remember surviving the summer by parking under trees a lot, too. )

This is also John playing around in a goat cart with one of the farm hands, c. 1940s. That's the house behind them.

And here we have just a random floppy-eared pig on the farm getting some good eats. Fatten up, pig! We're gonna eat you!