Preservation Greensboro Incorporated
Below are footnotes for the article written for the Summer 2007 issue of Landmarks, written by L. McKay Whatley of Franklinville, NC.
i The biographical sketch by his grandson Thomas H. Tate for Bettie Caldwell about 1908 is the primary source for details of his life, and in it Tate admitted that “only vague traditions enable us to trace our forebears.” Humphreys’ only named relative, his brother John or “Jack,” died before 1860 in Vancouver, B.C., “after a life partially spent on the sea.” Bettie D. Caldwell, ed., Founders and Builders of Greensboro, 1808-1908; Greensboro: Jos. J. Stone and Co., 1925, p. 33. A William Humphreys is listed adjacent to Henry Humphreys in the 1820 Guilford County census, and may have been a relative. A James P. Humphreys of Lexington deeded property to Henry Humphreys in 1836, and may also have been a relative.
ii Id.
iii Id., p. 36.
iv Guilford Genealogist, Vol 24, No. 1, page 19: “William, aged about 15, son of John Baldwin, deceased, is bound to Henry Humphreys.” The relationship of John and William Baldwin to Humphrey’s wife Mary Baldwin is undetermined.
v Robinson/ Stoessen, page 69, quoting Ethel Stephens Arnett. The other commissioners were David Gillespie, Dr. David Caldwell, Jr., Simeon Green, Joseph Davis, and Abraham Geren.
vi NC Department of Archives and History, Guilford County Records, Muster Rolls 1812-1814.
vii NC Department of Archives and History, Guilford County records.
viii Robinson/Stoessen, op.cit., p. 70. Of course, Morehead did own considerably more property in his native Rockingham County.
ix Caldwell, op.cit. p. 34. “Chairman” of the town council would be considered “Mayor” today.
x The Patriot, 6-23-32.
xi The Patriot, March 29, 1833, page 2, Col. 3.
xii Samuel M. Rankin, The History of Buffalo Presbyterian Church and Her People (Greensboro: Joseph Stone and Co., 1925), p.98. Dr. David Caldwell was the first pastor of Buffalo Church, which was organized in 1756. Humphreys would be buried there in 1840.
xiii Cadwell, op.cit., p.37.
xiv Id. Ann L Humphreys, commonly called “Nancy,” was born about 1817 and married Thomas R. Tate of Caswell County. Another daughter by Mary Baldwin, Louisa, died young.
xv Letitia was the daughter of Col. Jeduthan Harper, former Register of Deeds of Randolph County, and builder of a house in the Trinity area now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
xvi Thomas H. Tate says “two Humphreys children grew to maturity,” Henry, another son, died in childhood. Absalom T., Humphreys’ surviving son, was born in 1822; a daughter Sarah Letitia (a/k/a “Sallie”) was born about the year 1828. Letitia Harper Lindsay Humphreys died on July 15, 1835.
xvii Guilford County Deed Book 18, Page 115; Deed from Thomas Caldwell to Henry Humphreys, Feb. 1, 1822.
xviii Guilford County Deed Book 18, Page 131, dated August 15, 1827.
xix Humphreys acquired “Lot 1, Southwest” April 12, 1821. Guilford Deed Book 15, Page 261, paying $3,800. A previous deed dated July 14, 1817, cited the tract as “being the Lott whereon the Tavern House now stands and whereon the said [Robert A.] Carson now lives.” Deed Book 12, Page 545. It appears that the four corner lots facing the courthouse square in Greensboro were the most valuable in Town. Lot 1, Northwest was purchased by Humphreys in 1829 for $4,000 from his former partner Abraham Geren (Deed Book 18, Page 384); Lot 1 Southeast was purchased by Humphreys from Jacob Hubbard for $3,000 in 1830 (Deed Book 19, Page 412). This was at a time when other lots were selling for less than $100.
xx Older members of the Greensboro preservation community may recall faint echoes of protest when the remnants of Humphrey’s second home, then known as the Guilford Drug Store at 100 South Elm Street (the southeast corner of Elm and Market) were demolished in the 1970s for the construction of First Citizens bank.
xxi “ I give to my son Absalom T. Humphreys, my large brick dwelling house in the Town of Greensborough, together with the lot on which it stands and the other houses thereto attached… I also give unto the said Absalom my house clock and all the furniture belonging to my hall room, and I also direct the store room, counting room and cellar to be rented out…” Will of “Henry Humphrey” [sic], NC State Archives, C.R. 046.801.102 (Guilford County Wills, 1771-1968; Will Book C, Page 55, dated Feb. 18, 1840; Probated May Term 1840.
xxii Thomas D. Clark, The Southern Country Store. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944, p. 60.
xxiii The Patriot, 4-7-1830.
xxiv The Patriot, Greensborough, 10-11-1826; 11-1-1826.
xxv The inventory of the property of Henry Humphreys, filed with the clerk of superior court in August, 1840. See NC State Archives CR 046.501.6, “Guilford County Estate Book X-10, 1835-1842,” p. 350.
xxvi See deed books 12, pages 412 and 546; 14, page 240; 15, pages 7, 107 and 135.
xxvii The Patriot, 12-29-1829. “NOTICE. HUMPHREYS & LONG, wishing to close their books for the present year, request their customers to call and settle, by cash or notes;-- those failing to comply with this request, may expect to find their accounts in the hands of officers for collection.”
xxviii James P. Humphreys, a cousin or brother, evidently ran the Lexington store for Humphreys. Another cousin or brother, William Humphreys, may have run the second Greensboro shop. See Guilford Deed Book 13, Page 48.
xxix The Statesville partnership was called “Humphreys and Stockton” in an inventory dated April 25, 1831. Caldwell, p. 34.
xxx The Patriot, 4-7-1830.
xxxi NC State Archives, CR 046.501.6, “Guilford County Estate Book X-10, 1835-1842.
xxxii John Motley Morehead and his partner William Barnett advertised in September 1833 that “Our great Saw and Oil Mills are all in exceeding fine, and in full operation. So also are our Carding Machines, Cotton Gin and Blacksmith Shop, ready to dispatch all kind of work daily.” See The Patriot, Greensborough, 3-26-1834. Their extensive operation on the Smith River in Rockingham County grew into Morehead’s Leaksville Factory.
xxxiii Guilford County Deed Book 18, Page 115- a 10.75 acre tract adjoining “the lot where Humphreys cotton machine now stands… adjoining the tract where Humphreys now lives.” Cotton gins at the time were wooden boxes no more than four feet square, and usually run by horse power. Humphreys’ gin followed him from dwelling to dwelling until it was finally located near the factory. In 1829 adjoined the residence of Robert A. Carson, “on the lot which Humphreys’ machine and stables now stands.” Guilford Deed Book 18, Page 491, December 21, 1829.
xxxiv Guilford County Deed Book 18, Page 384, March 10, 1829.
xxxv Diffee W. Standard and Richard W. Griffin, “The Cotton Textile Industry in Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Part 1: “Origin and Growth to 1830.” The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (January, 1957), p. 21.
xxxvi Id., p. 23.
xxxvii Id., p. 24.
xxxviii Id., p. 26, citing the Raleigh Register of 9-23-34.
xxxix By 1850, Petersburg had nine cotton factories, and Fayetteville had eight, the largest concentration of manufacturing in each state.
xl Id., p. 27, citing the popular Baltimore magazine Niles Weekly Register XXX (July 1, 1826), 321, while in turn was citing The Newbern Spectator and Literary Journal.
xli A review of his purchases shows he owned property on Deep River, Mears Fork and Reedy Fork of Haw River, North and South Buffalo Creek, and “Bull Run”.
xlii In 1836 Colonel Benjamin Elliott and his son Henry chose the same entry route into manufacturing. Colonel Elliott, the Randolph County Clerk of Court, ran a store on the Asheboro courthouse square and operated a grist mill on Deep River at Cedar Falls. Henry Elliott installed spinning frames in that mill that were in “successful operation” by 1837.
xliii Acts passed by the GA, 1828-29, 78; Charles Fisher, “A Report on the Establishment of Cotton and Woolen Manufactures and on the Growing of Wool,” Legislative Papers, 1828.
xliv Standard and Griffin, Part 1, page 32.
xlv Belfort Cotton Mfg. Co. (W.A. Blount, John Myers, William Ellison organizing a new Fayetteville factory); Egdecombe Mfg. Co. (Joel Battle reorganizing and expanding his original factory); Fayetteville Mfg. Co. (Henry Donaldson reorganizing his initial factory); Randolph Mfg. Co. (incorporated by Hugh McCain, Jesse Walker, Benjamin Elliott, Jonathan Worth, but never accumulating sufficient capital to open); and Rockingham (proposed by the members of the Leak and Crawford families, but not a direct ancestor of the Leaksville factory.)
xlvi The Patriot, 10-25-1828, Page 3, col. 4. “P.S. They have also purchased the Cotton Gin formerly owned by Henry Humphreys, Esq.”
xlvii The Patriot, 10-25-1828, Page 3, col. 4: See the advertisement of “Lindsay, Hoskins & Gorrell” who “would inform their friends and inhabitants of Guilford generally, that in addition to the very extensive assortment of GOODS which they recently received from the cities of New York and Philadelphia, that they have purchased from Henry Humphreys Esq. All his Stock of GOODS, which added to their former stock makes it very heavy and full, embracing almost every variety of Goods usually called for. They will keep up business at their old stand on the North East Corner in Greensborough; and on the South East Corner where Henry Humphreys done business.”
xlviii Bettie Caldwell, op.cit., p.35.
xlix Stockard, History of Guilford, p. 63.
l The first use of industrial steam was to power boats. The “Henrietta Steamboat Company” began operations on the Cape Fear from Fayetteville to Wilmington in July 1834, and it was not the first steam navigation company on the river at that. (See The Patriot, September 3, 1834). I’m not aware of any study tracing the introduction of steam power into North Carolina, and my research has uncovered no earlier use than at Mt. Hecla.
li Mount Hekla is surrounded by geysers and unique black sand and black lava and was called “the Gateway to Hell” by the Vikings. It did not erupt in Humphrey’s lifetime, but was possibly known from William Blake’s poem “To Winter,” published in 1783 in his first book Poetical Sketches: “--till heaven smiles, and the monster/ Is driv'n yelling to his caves beneath mount Hecla.”
lii Standard and Griffin, Part 2, page 132.
liii “Inventory and Account of the Cotton Factory Stock,” circa June 1840; N.C. State Archives CR 046.501.6: “Guilford County Estate Book X-10, 1835-1842,” pages 355 et. seq.
liv The exact location of the factory building has been lost, but archeological investigation under the parking lots of 301 Battleground and Preservation Greensboro’s architectural salvage store at 300 Bellemeade would undoubtedly uncover evidence of the foundations of the structure.
lv The Patriot, November 20, 1847; the legal notice of J.A. Mebane, Clerk and Master in Equity, advertised for sale “the large and extensive brick building…sufficient for the accommodation of eighty-five hundred spindles…”
lvi Deed Book 30, Page 696, James T. Morehead to Thomas R. Tate, dated November 22, 1849.
lvii Standard and Griffin, Part 2, Page 132, quoting the Raleigh Register of July 18, 1838. The identity of just one of the Rogers, Ketcham & Growner employees is known: James Danforth. Charles Danforth invented and patented several important textile innovations, such as the “ring” spinning frame, and in 1852 founded his own “Danforth, Cooke & Company.” James Danforth was obviously a relative. James evidently spent years in North Carolina, and was probably the “Danforth” who advised both Francis Fries and Edwin Holt about fitting out their factories. He was probably also a member of the “Danforth and McCuiston” partnership that founded the first factory in Alamance County, the High Falls (now Hopedale) factory (see Raleigh Register, 11-22-1836). On September 10, 1835, the Rev. Eli Caruthers married James M. Danforth and “Ellen Humphrey” in Guilford County. Her relationship to Henry Humphreys is unknown, but intriguing. See Guilford County Genealogical Society, Guilford Marriage Bonds, 1771-1868 (Greensboro, 1981).
lviii The Patriot, 11-28-1832, page 2, column 5.
lix In the 1810 census he is listed with no slaves; in 1820 with one older black woman. US Federal Census Records.
lx According to the inventories made of Humphreys’ estate he owned 29 slaves at the time of his death, the largest number he is ever shown to own. Sixteen were male and more than half appear to be children. They appear to be members of four or five large families, and Humphreys’ will asks that all family members be transferred together. (Nineteen were awarded to Thomas and Nancy Tate and ten to Sarah Humphreys.) It is unclear whether all of these individuals lived in Greensborough, or whether some of them lived on some of his numerous agricultural properties. There is no indication which of them worked in the homes of Humphreys and his children, and which of them may have worked in the factory. N.C. State Archives, CR 046.508.126, Estate file of Henry Humphreys, 1840.
lxi Sallie Stockard, in the 1890s, asserted that “The hands were white people from the neighborhood.” History of Guilford, p. 63.
lxii The Patriot, September 30, 1843. There is at least one record of a boy being apprenticed to Humphreys “to live with him in the manner of a Servant Boy about his Cotton Factory.” Robinson/Stoessen, op.cit., p. 75.
lxiii The whole area of Humphreys’ currency bears further exploration. Tom Brawner, writing in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer 1999, Issue No. 86, uncovered the North Carolina Supreme Court case “State of North Carolina v. Henry Humphreys,” 19 N.C. 555 (Dec. term, 1837), where “On 10 Oct.1837, Henry Humphreys, Guilford County resident and proprietor of the Mount HeclaSteam Millsin Guilford County, issued to an unnamed person a promissory note for 25 cents, payableto "thebearer on demand." The state charged him with a criminal violation (essentially counterfeiting), and he was found guilty. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction, finding no evidencethat the note “was part of a series, was made from a plate impression or otherwisewas intendedto substitute for money.” Yet fifty-cent, Dollar, and Three Dollar denominations of the printed bills are known to exist, and in 1908 grandson Thomas R. Tate stated that “These steel [printing] plates are still in possession of the family.” Caldwell, p. 36.
lxiv “Inventory and Account of the Cotton Factory Stock,” op.cit.
lxv The Patriot, August 2, 1834, page 4, column 4.
lxvi Caldwell, p. 36.
lxvii Standard and Griffin, Part 2, page 132.
lxviii Fries, One Hundred Years of Textiles in Salem, p. 11
lxix Id.
lxx Fries, op. cit. “Spindles were put into operation as fast as the workers could be taught the art of machine spinning. There was such a good market for yarn that it was some time before enough could be spared to supply the thirty-six looms.”
lxxi Bess Beatty, Lowells of the South, p. 50, citing the Francis Fries Letterbook , Oct. 11, 1838.
lxxii Beatty, op. cit., p. 42.
lxxiii Sarah Letitia Humphreys, a/k/a “Sallie,” ultimately married Thomas Brown at Carthage, Tenn. See The Patriot, May 12, 1849, page 3, col. 6.
lxxiv Thomas and Anne Tate would ultimately have 9 children. At the time of her father’s death they had six, with her oldest aged 13 and the youngest, 2. U.S. Census of 1860, Gaston County, NC.
lxxv CR 046.801.102: Guilford County Wills, 1771-1968; Will of Henry Humphrey [sic]; Shuck #0790; Will Book C, Page 55 (1840); Prob. May Term 1840
lxxvi “Married: Absalom T. Humphreys, son of the late Henry Humphreys, to Susan Dick, daughter of John M. Dick. The Patriot, 1842.
lxxvii The Patriot, 9 November 1844: “DIED. In this place on Wednesday the 6th inst., Absalom T. Humphreys, in the 22dyear of hisage.”His will is dated September 24, 1844. N.C. State Archives, CR 046.801.102: Will of Absalom T. Humphreys; Shuck #0877, Will Book C, P. 200 (1844).
lxxviii The Patriot, October 18, 1845: “Married, on Thursday evening last, Dr. David P. Weir to Mrs. Susan Humphreys.”
lxxix N.C. State Archives CR 046.508.126: Estate of Absalom T. Humphreys, 1844. “Petition for Widow’s Yearly Allowance, Feb. 1845 by Susan T. Humphreys. John A. Mebane, J.A. McLean, Wm. T. Rankin, Wm. L. Gilmer, appointed Commissioners and they approve an Order to pay $300 to the widow.
lxxx See, for example, the Patriot legal ad in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 29, No. 1, Winter 2002, Issue No. 96, p.17: “State of North Carolina, Guilford County. Order- October Term, 1846. D.P. Weir & wife & others, vs. Thomas R. Tate, Ex'r & others. In pursuance of anorder made in theabove case at October Term, 1846, I shall expose to public sale...six likely slaves. J.A.Mebane, C.M.E.7 November 1846.” Or, the Patriot ad in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 29, No.4, Fall 2002, Issue No. 99, p. 196: “18 March 1848Notice. I will sell in Greensboro' on the 18th day of April next, being Tuesday of AprilCourt, thefollowing property, viz: 1 Tract of land of 100 acres, called the Phil Mitchell place;1 Negro girl...Thos. Tate, Exr. of H. Humphreys, dec'd. At the same time and place I will sell the balanceof the personalproperty of A.T.H. Humphreys, dec'd, viz:...Thos R. Tate, Exr. of A.T.H. Humphreys,dec'd.”
lxxxi See The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 29, No.3, Summer 2002, Issue No. 98, p. 148: “13 November 1847State of North Carolina- Guilford County. Court of Equity, October Term 1847. Thos. R.Tate and others vs. David P. Weir and others. Petition to sell Real Estate. By virtueof a Decree,made in the above case, I shall expose to public Sale in the Town of Greensborough,N.C. onMonday the 21st day of February, 1848, upon a credit of one, two and three years, theLot ofand on which the Cotton Factory Stands, erected by the late Henry Humphries... Atthe sametime and place I shall sell the following tracts of and belonging to said estate, towit: One tract of30 acres, adjoining Crowson and others, bought of Washington Adams; One tract of 60acresjoining John Morehead and others... The handsome Lot and Grove west of the Factory,improved by Thomas R. Tate. J.A. Mebane, C.M.E.”
lxxxii Guilford County Deed Book 30, Page 696. The Tate family continued to own the factory property even after the removal of the factory to Gaston County. There is some evidence that it was used during and after the Civil War as a tobacco factory or warehouse. The date of its destruction is unknown. After the death of Thomas R. Tate in 1872, his son and executor deeded the cotton factory and “the brick building and lot known as the Tate Building” (i.e., the Humphreys Townhouse) to H.H. Tate and his wife Harriett Eliza Tate, for $8,000 (Deed Book 61, Page 80). The “Tate Building”, a/k/a “Humphreys’ Folly,” was deeded to W.H. Ragan and J.H. Millis on March 1, 1887. (Deed Book 72, Page 109). Ragan and Millis were High Point merchants, but veterans of the textile industry through early training in the factory in Franklinsville.
lxxxiii Final Report of J.A. Mebane, Clerk and Master in Equity, 1850. N.C. State Archives, Humphreys estate file.
lxxxiv Gaston County was formed in December 1846 from Lincoln County.
lxxxv Standard and Griffin, part 2, page 152, citing the Charlotte Journal, 3-23-49 and the Carolina Watchman, 3-29-1849.
lxxxvi www.carolinastamps.com/mountainisland.html .
lxxxvii The Woodlawn Company, opened by members of the Lineberger and Rhyne families in 1852, was second. It was located on the South Fork of the Catawba near what is now McAdenville. Id.
lxxxviii “The shortage of wood around Greensborough and the excellent water power available at the new location led Tate to select Mountain Island as a superior mill site.” Id.
lxxxix Standard and Griffin, Part 2, page 132.
xc The Carolina Republican, Lincolnton, June 22, 1849: “The machinery is propelled by a Steam Engine, of 50 Horse-power, which consumes from 5 to 6 loads of wood per day… The expenses of the propelling power alone, over and above the wear and tear of Machinery, cannot, at present, be less than from $10 to $15 a day, amounting, in a year, to a large sum, not less than $3,000-4,000, no inconsiderable item in the annual expenses.”
xci Id. In fact, the Salisbury factory had closed in bankruptcy by the time of the Civil War, when the factory building was transformed by the Confederate government into the Salisbury military prison.
xcii Fries, op.cit., p. 12.
xciii Id., p.13.
xciv Id.
xcv Stockard, History of Alamance County, p. --- (Chapter 17).
xcvi Their tiny factory on Alamance Creek opened in 1837, beginning with just six 88-spindle spinning frames in a wooden grist mill-type structure. Following the Humphreys pattern, the Paterson, New Jersey machinery manufacturer sent a mechanic to Alamance to set up the factory, and he stayed for 18 months. The mill ran twelve hours a day, and between the cotton factory, “thegrist-mill and saw-mill exhausted all the power of Alamance creek.” Stockard, op.cit. The firm of Holt and Carrigan operated the Alamance mill until the death of Holt’s wife and Carrigan’s sister Nancy Holt in 1851, after which Carrigan sold out to Edwin Holt and moved his family to Arkansas. Walter Whitaker, Centennial History of Alamance County 1849 – 1949." Charlotte, NC : The Dowd Press, Inc., 1949; pp. 100-101.
xcvii Lindley Butler, Rockingham County, p. 31.
xcviii Id., p. 32.
xcix Id., p. 43.
c Id., p.43. In 1860 the factory was valued at $70,000 [id., p. 42] and employed 25 men and 80 women and converted 350,000 lbs. of raw cotton into 120,000 yards of osnaburg, 150,000 yards of sheeting, and 240 pounds of bundle yarn. [id.] In 1845, 40 bunches of Morehead’s cotton yarn were valued at $31.38. [id., p. 43.]
ci Id., p. 42, which shows a photograph of the factory published in the State Magazine, Vol. XVI, p. 4 (November 6, 1948).
cii Standard and Griffin, part 2, page 140.
ciii Charter issued January 3, 1839. Davidson County, North Carolina: Pathfinders Past and Present, p. 288.
civ James P. Humphreys sold a lot on the Lexington Courthouse Square to Henry Humphreys on November 7, 1836. Davidson County Deed Book 5, Page 502.
cv Davidson County, op.cit., p.289. The property was advertised for sale in The Patriot, December 28, 1844: “The main Factory building, the walls of which stand almost as perfect as before the fire, with all the houses occupied by the hands, Store houses and Cotton House, &c.; a large 30 or 40 horse power Engine, with the pumps attached; 15 or 20 tons of Cast Metal, several tons of shafting iron, a quantity of Steel, an iron slide Lathe and a cutting Engine (both valuable Machines) with all the other Machines and parts of machinery, saved from the fire.”
cvi Standard and Griffin, part 2, p. 149.
cvii The Carolina Republican, Lincolnton, NC, June 22, 1849. “Not less than 60 barrels of Flour are used in Starch; and 1000 Bales of Cotton are worked up in a year. The Cloth which weighs 3 yards to the pound, and appears to be of an excellent quality, is made of No. 14 and 15 Yarn; it is called 4-4 Sheetings. Besides supplying the home demand, there were shipped, in five months, to the Northern market, 249,000 yards of Cloth, and 6,400 pounds of Batts. A spinning frame in the Factory, made by the Mattewan Company of New York, produces nine skeins per spindle per day. Another article from the same newspaper, dated November 30, 1849, reported that “The Spinning ‘Mules,’ extending from one end of the lengthy building to another, were driven by steam and attended only by a few little boys and girls to mend the broken threads.” Semi-automated mules were designed to spin the finest counts of yarn, and this appears to be the first North Carolina factory known to have installed them.