Location: Bennett Place, Durham, NC

Speaker: Stewart Dunaway

Topic: The McCulloh Great Tracts – Their Impact on Genealogical Research

Meeting Minutes taken by Ginger R. Smith, D-OGS Secretary

The President Fred Mowry opened the meeting at 7:03 with a welcome. John Goss, the site coordinator of Bennett Place, said a few words of welcome to us since it is our first visit. He said they have a great library at Bennett Place containing 1500+ books including NC and GA troop books and they are working on getting Union books. Apr 28-29^th is the 50^th anniversary of Bennett Place as a State historic site. The surrender will be recreated here. He is looking for a contact within the 82^nd airborne band for the recreation.

Fred asked for visitors to come forward. Stewart introduced David Southern as a visitor tonight. Ellen Weig is also a visitor interested in several names including the Women of the Lady’s Sewing society at St. Matthews. Bob Bailey lives nearby and is visiting. Rodney Watson was introduced as someone who keeps coming because he loves genealogy.

MJ, our program coordinator/VP introduced Stewart Dunaway as our speaker tonight. He is from Florida. He has spoken to us before.

Henry McCulloh is the subject of Dunaway’s research. He was an 18^th Century Entrepreneur. Dunaway discussed his book Pyles’ Defeat. Which has caused 2 new historical markers to be erected – John Butler in Swepsonville and another marker which was incorrect – 1^st ever to be pulled down since 1935 – for the first paper mill which is not in Hillsborough. Stewart’s books can be found at www.LULU.com/sedunaway

Land Grants Overview:

Pre-1740 settled land was on the Eastern coast; first grants were from the King, then Lord Proprietor, then Granville Grants, then McCulloh Grants; then State Land Grants.

Stewart showed us some grants from the King, Granville, the Lord Proprietor; only 1 original McCulloch grant he’s ever found (preprinted form probably copied from Granville grant)

The McCulloch Family:

Often misspelled: the H and Ks were interchanged

Divided family – loyal for the rebellion; the loyal members resided in England and are buried in England.

3 different McCulloch “sects”

1. James Iredell descended from McCulloch family
2. Alexander McCulloch – daughter married Thomas Frohock a surveyor and one who collected money, allowed to sign grants in Henry’s name
3. Henry McCulloch – married into the Houston family, supported the Revolution; 1 son, James McColloch; remarried to Penelope Eustace who died. They had a daughter who died, leaving him with their son, Henry Eustace McColloch who’s girlfriend has a son out of wedlock – George McColloch who is raised by James Iredell – totally estranged from father Henry E McColloch

Granville District:

26,000 SQ miles including the top half of the State all the way to the western border of the State. Some tracts of

land were surveyed and given to McColloch even though they were in Granville territory.

Tract design:

The McColloch line doesn’t necessarily mean the boundary line.

A “tract” probably contains several “subtracts” and individual surveys

A “tract” of 100,000 acres might contain up to 96 subtracts

There are errors in these great tracts, so have some elasticity when viewing and/or mapping these tracts

Many errors probably due to the Gunter’s chains used to measure which were dragged for miles.

Time Line of Events:

McColloch’s reputation was that he was a crook and that he never sold his land.

Henry McColloch received his grants in 1737

Henry dislikes the locations based on the surveys in 1744

They were supposed to be 12 tracts of 100,000 acres each, supposed to be contiguous (but they were not)

He accepts them and Matthew Rouan enters them into the patent book in 1745 (took 8 years)

Granville discovers the overlap and enters into an agreement in 1755 (10 years of discussion over this overlap of tracts 12, 11, 10, 9 and part of 8 )

Henry never sold land until he could begin in 1755

A second agreement established in 1761 – that says they can’t accept (in addition to sell land in overlapping territory)

Then Lord Granville dies in Jan 1763 and Granville’s land office is closed in April 1763

McColloch surrenders the overlap land in Oct 1763 to Granville’s heirs – he had to surrender all of the bill of sales, grants, etc to these heirs

McColloch surrenders the remaining unsold land to the King – 1767

The McColloch’s purchase (from themselves) 67,000 acres of land – from all 13 tracts – this is confiscated (not the 1-12 because they already gave that back).

Events Continue

McColloch sales continue

Regulator Movement 1768-1771 (citizens fighting citizens = Civil War)

Committees of Correspondence 1774-1775 – the 13 colonies started talking to each other

1777 NC Confiscation Act: 1. If I catch you assisting the British, I will confiscate your land 2. If you live outside the area, you must come back and claim it or I take it

All land is lost – McColloch, Granville, King

1778 – State land grants began – it started in 78 and not 76 because they confiscated it first. The McColloch tracts were prime real estate!

Loyalist Claims:

England allowed these to be made and they would pay you for your land lost

Henry McColloch died before the war ended 1779

Granville heirs and H E McColloch file for their loss in 1783

McColloch claim awarded 1789 18,038 pounds (filed for 54kpounds) – about 64-67,000 acres lost

Granville claim awarded 1789 – about 60k pounds – 365k acres lost out of 16.6 million

Loyalist Claims # 2:  (debt due)

Jay Treaty 1794 – our treaty with England to deal with this in which America agreed that we should pay the debt due to England – make sure you research this at the NC State Archives – might be why families moved from Eastern part of state to western part of state – to avoid paying debt owed

Henry McColloch files his claim in 1795, nothing but issues, delays and problems

He had lots of mortgage bonds for lands he no longer owned

H E McColloch blows a fuse – enters an insane asylum (for the wealthy) in 1808

H E McColloch dies in 1812 and his wife in 1842. His family cemetery is in Chiswick, England, but he is not buried there. They were not poor, but not elite like Lord Granville.

Issues:

The land granted in these 12 tracts are difficult to follow – especially the overlap tracts

Tract 11 was in old Orange Co – The deeds were lost

The are NO “McColloch Grant” records in the State Archives like SLG or Granville grants etc.

Surrender records are the best source for finding the purchases/grants

Microfilm of original surrender records

Records of the Executive Council – vol 8 (Cain) – use this over the microfilm. Stewart said it matched up well with the films

NCGS Vol 4, issue 2 (1978) – Early Settlers in the NC Piedmond on lands sold by Henry McColloch – Davenport (be wary of this article it has some errors, including that the grants went to a mistress, it was actually a relative)

Loyalist Claims and Confiscation Records (Archives)

Eva Weeks – Register of Orange Co. (State Archives, Orange Co. Deed office, etc.) – contains hand written notes by clerks about the deeds that were destroyed.

Richard asked to please sign the card being passed around for member who died, Homer Tapp.

Fred Mowry opened the Business Meeting:

Secretary’s Report: Fred asked if there were any corrections to last month’s meeting minutes that were posted in the newsletter. Karen said there were some people who came in late and their names were not capture in the minutes. Minutes were accepted.

Treasurer’s report: (Ginny) The beginning balance as of 1/31/12 was $4085.89. Expenses were $157 and deposits were $500 for an ending balance of $4428.89.

Membership: Peg Edwards said there were 156 members, 23 complimentary members who don’t pay; we are members of 3 genealogical societies.

Website committee: (Ginger) no announcements

Trading Path: (Fred) the Elias’s need some help and need a new Editor. They are willing to continue printing and assisting the editor. Richard suggested we recruit non-local members as well.

Highlights from newsletter (Richard):

Stagville Sun Feb 12, Sat Feb 18^th a couple of events; Feb 5^th: Tom Magnunson from Trading Path is leading a walk at Stagville from 2-4. Alamance Co Gen society meeting Feb 13^th, Carol Troxler to talk about her book, Farming Dissenters about the Regulator Movement and the Piedmont; Hillsborough, a living history recreation at Alex. Dixon house with a British Encampment with firing of muskets; Feb 19^th, CH Historical society presentation on Bayard Wooten by Jerry Cotten in basement of Chapel Hill museum; Chatham Co Historical Association, Feb 19^th at 2pm at Central Carolina Community College – rebuilding of historic Chatam County Courthouse; NCGS Spring meeting at Rocky Mount.

Civil War Workshop at Duke Homestead: Feb 25^th how to trace CW ancestors and do research, has a subcommittee with Elias’s and Fred. Will have handouts. And Slave Records. Richard asked for volunteers to sit at table with journals and membership applications and/or answer questions about genealogy. They should contact Richard

Program Updates (MJ Hall): Next meeting in March will be by Mark Chilton, mayor of Carrboro who will talk about tracts. Meeting will be at the Methodist Church meeting room in Southern Village. We plan to rotate 2012 meetings between Southern Village, Bennett Place, and at Duke Homestead.

Karen: The Rebecca Wall Genealogy corner has the maps we donated to them (from Jim Richmond and his wife) hung on the wall. Richard says they’ve been hung a couple of months now.

Alamance county genealogical society – February 13 2012 – retired Elon University professor Carole Troxler will be talking about her new book, Farming Dissenters – The Regulator Movement in the Piedmont.

The Alamance County Genealogical Society meets the second Monday of each month except June, July and August, at 7:00 p.m., at the Western Steak House, 142 N. Graham-Hopedale Road Burlington, NC 27215, 336-227-1448

Stagville state historic site – Sunday, February 12, 2012 -2:00pm to 4:00pm. Stagville welcomes Dr. Sydney Nathans, Professor Emeritus of History with Duke University. His most recent publication, To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker is available February 2012. This book explores the story of Mary Walker, an enslaved woman at Stagville plantation who in August 1848 fled the Bennehan/Cameron family for refuge in the North and spent the next seventeen years trying to recover her family. Mary Walker was not reunited with her family until the end of the Civil War. Mary Walker’s journey, To Free a Family brings an often untold story of the Civil War era to life. This program is free and open to the public.

February Newsletter

Please review these posts periodically because they might contain names of your ancestors or questions on how or where to research persons, places, or records. You can respond to a query by clicking on the “Comments” link at the top of the query post. Or if you cannot get that to work, then send me an email and I will post a reply for you.

I receive quite a few queries and could use some help getting them posted to the website and coordinating with Richard to get them posted in the Newsletter (or the Journal). If you are interested in helping me post queries to the website and/or acting as a liason between people who leave queries and our membership, please let me know. You do not have to live in North Carolina to do this. And you do not have to know how to create webpages either – posting queries is very easy and would be a great learning opportunity for anyone interested in writing a blog!

Ginger

NBC Announces The Celebrities Tracing Their Family Trees On Season Three Of ’Who Do You Think You Are?’ Premiering February 3

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.– January 6, 2012– Viewers can take an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities when NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” returns for its third season on Friday, February 3 (8-9 p.m. ET).

The celebrities who star in the series are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

Stewart Dunaway

Date: February 1, 2012

Time: 7:00pm-9:00pm

Topic: The McCulloh Great Tracts – Their Impact on Genealogy Research

Speaker: Stewart Dunaway

Location: Bennett Place located at 4409 Bennett Memorial Road, Durham,
NC 27705-2307 - (919) 383-4345 - http://www.nchistoricsites.org/bennett/

*Note*  Stewart will sell and sign books at the end of the meeting.

About the topic: 

The McCulloh Great Tracts – and their impact on
genealogy research

Henry McCulloh was a typical adventurer in the realm of colonial
politics and economics. He is said to have been a merchant of London,
and his home was at Turnham Green, Middlesex County. He probably became
interested in North Carolina through his relations with Gabriel
Johnston, to whom he advanced considerable sums of money between 1726
and 1733.  McCulloh’s deepest interest in the New World was that of a
land speculator. In 1737, the Crown delivered to Murray Crymble and
James Huey, trustees for McCulloh, warrants for 1,200,000 acres in North
Carolina, on condition that 6,000 foreign Protestants should be colonized.

Related information about the topic:
http://piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2010/01/settlers-in-tract-11.html
http://piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2010/01/great-tract-11-and-haw-river.html
http://www.carolana.com/NC/Royal_Colony/nc_royal_colony_henry_mcculloch.html

About the speaker:

Stewart Dunaway, formerly an executive of Siemens Telecom (FL), is
retired and now spends time researching colonial and revolutionary war
history in North Carolina. He has published myriad historical books as
well as genealogy-related material from the State Archives. He has
transcribed over 19,000 records from the Archives, now provided in book
form. His books can be found on the internet at:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/sedunaway.
Stewart, his wife Maryellen, and daughter Sarah reside in Hillsborough.

Monday, January 30,  6:00 PM– 

Get Organized: GO Month – Truths and Myths About Being Organized:

Ever wondered how to get that organized look out of a magazine? Lori Bruhns, time management consultant and professional organizer, will share the truths and myths about being organized and what is real and realistic about getting and staying organized. January is Get Organized Month, so kick off the year with some great tips from Lori. Find out more or register online at the Orange County Public Library.

Bennett place – Durham Civil War Roundtable – 19 January, 2012 from 6:30 PM until 9:00 PM.

The Durham Civil War Roundtable is open to the public with an annual membership fee of $15.00 to cover the cost of guest speakers, refreshments, and administrative costs.

Click for map