Morgan M. & Nancy Day Mays

Morgan M. Mays was born c1819 in North Carolina and died in that state c1849.  His spouse, Nancy Day, was born there in Mar., 1818  and died there c1900.  In 1880 and 1900 she lived with her children; first with daughter Sarah and her husband, James Bartlett Robbins in the Blue Ridge Twp., and later with her daughter Martha, widow of Wiley Hamby.

Nancy and Morgan were parents of at least five children (per 1900 census) but I have only three:  Martha J., John Larkin and Sarah.

Martha married Wiley Hamby, born c1836 in NC and had at least one child, a daughter named Lucinda, born c1859 in Caldwell Co.  In 1860¹, Wiley and his family lived at Fort Defiance in the Buffalo District of Caldwell Co.  He apparently died during the Civil War because he never appears again in any census.

John Larkin was born in Caldwell Co. in 1843² and married Nancy Jane Cozart on May 23, 1866³ in that county.  Nancy was born Dec. 7, 1843 and died Feb. 17, 1915 in Yadkin Valley, Caldwell Co.  Both she and John are buried at the now abandoned Mays Cemetery at Buffalo Cove.†

Their children were:

William M., born c1866
John Larkin, Jr., born May 22, 1869, died Feb. 29, 1936 at Neva in Johnson Co., TN
Columbus F., born c May 1870, at Patterson, Buffalo Twp.
Sarah C., born there c1873
Mary J., also born there in c1876; Julia, born there c1878, and
Burton, born Jun., 1881

John, Jr. is the only one for whom I have descendants.  He married Margaret V. (Virginia?) "Maggie" Coffey in Caldwell Co. in 1891‡.  Maggie was a daughter of Smith W. and Charity Elizabeth Redmond.

Laurence Coffey in his book gave her name as Elizabeth Baker Redmond.  However, in an e-mail to me in 2007, Carolyn Curtis wrote:

Elizabeth was born 6/25/1836 and died 5/20/1912. She was not married prior to her marriage to Smith Coffey on June 25, 1854 (that was her 18th Birthday). According to the Caldwell County Court of Pleas and Quarter Session, Volume II – January Term 1848, Elizabeth, an orphan child of 11 years of age, was bound to Lucinda Baker (that is where the Baker name originated) until age 18, at which time she was give her freedom, $6.00, a new suit of clothes, a bible and she was to be taught to read and write.

So, we still do not know where the Redmond surname came from, but I have "heard" speculation that she could have been Indian, hence "Red man."  In any event, Maggie was their fifth child and third daughter.

Maggie and John Larkin had at least six children:

Nancy E., born Oct., 1892
James Thomas, born Apr. 29, 1894, died Nov. 17, 1961 in Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC
An unnamed child born Dec. 21, 1897, died Dec. 25, 1897
Winford John, born Dec., 1898
Pearl M., born c1901
Oscar L., born c1904

John Thomas married Waudie Brazil Brewer, a daughter of Emanuel (or Manuel, found both ways) Brewer and Lydia A. "Liddy" Shook.  They were married in Watauga Co. on Dec. 22, 1917.  James Died Nov. 17, 1961 in Asheville and Waudie died there on Oct. 12, 1989.  They are buried at the Mars Hill cemetery in Madison Co., NC.  I know of one child, a daughter Helen Bonita, born Jul. 23, 1922.

John and Maggie are buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Shulls Mill, Watauga Co.   Coffey Cemeteries in NC and especially in Caldwell Co. are numerous.  I believe this one is located on the Old Turnpike Road (State Road 1568) near the present day Hounds Ears Club.

I would be interested in learning who the other children of John and Maggie married.

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¹1860 Caldwell Co., Buffalo Dist., Fort Defiance PO, Page 138, dwelling 1049, family 979, W. A. Hamby, age 24, male, farmer, $20, born NC; Jane, age 19, female, born NC; Lucinda, age 1, female, born NC
²Caldwell Co. Birth Register, Book 13, Page 252
³Caldwell Co. Marriage Register, Book 3, Page 169
†Copies of death certificates in my possession
‡Caldwell Co. Marriage Register, Book 9, Page 57
Other sources: Headstone photographs and census records