SOUTHERNS IN NORTH CAROLINA IN THE 1820 FEDERAL CENSUS:
STOKES AND ROCKINGHAM COUNTIES, N.C.
Of the original Southern family that came to NC from Buckingham VA in 1775, three sons of William I remain: Reuben, William II, and Ford. Youngest son John and wife Elizabeth Duncan moved their family to Giles County, VA before 1820. Others this year are four sons of old Reuben: Joshua, Stephen, Daniel, and Reuben Jr. (in Rockingham County), and Ford's son William III. Buckner Southern (in Rockingham County) is believed to have come from a different but related branch of the family that lived in Mecklenburg County VA in the late 1700s.
Stokes County White
Males
White
Females
Slaves
Male
Slaves
Female
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Under 14
26-44
Ford 1 1 2 2 - 1 1 1 1 - 1
William J. (III)
2 - - 1 - - 1 - 1 - -
William (II) - - - - -
1
- - - - 1 2
1
Reuben - - - - - 1 1 1 2 2 1
Joshua 4 - - - 1 - 2 - - 2 -
Stephen 1 - - - 1 - 4 1 - 1 -
Daniel 1 - - - 1 - 2 - 2 - -
Rockingham County White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44
Reuben (Jr.)
- - - - 1 - - - - 1 -
Buckner 3 2 - - - 1 3 2 - 1 -
Descriptions:
Stokes County
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Ford 1 1 2 2 - 1 1 1 1 - 1
Ford now 55. An 1817 marriage bond for Ford Southern and Nancy Glenn apparently mean that Catherine has died and Ford has a second (or third) wife. It is possible that Ford and Nancy are the parents of all these children if Nancy, now over 45, brought some children from a previous marriage. Or, the younger children could belong to the young woman and one of the younger men. This is Ford's last N.C. census; he sold his 199 acres on Blackey's Branch three years later and disappeared. He was still alive in 1839, the year he signed an affidavit for Rachel Vernon Ward's application for a survivor's pension; that document sets his birth date at 1765. It is not clear where he was living between 1823-1839; he may have been in the household of an unidentified son-in-law. One of the young men in the 16-17 or 18-25 column is Reuben; another is believed to be Overton Southern, born about 1803 and married to Nancy Heath in 1822 in Guilford County NC. By 1834 Overton and Nancy had taken their growing family to Indiana.
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44
William J. 2 - - 1 - - 1 - 1 - -
William J (William III). The census taker's scribbled "J." is perhaps a middle initial, but more likely stands for Junior to distinguish him from the older William (II) the veteran, below, who was living in the same general neighborhood. This must be Ford's son who married Frances (Fanny) Banks in 1815, now on the 25 acres his father gave him this year on Blackeys Branch. William and Fanny are both under 26 (William b. 1797, married at about age 18 in 1815, and age 23 this year; Frances appears to have been a little older than William); two sons and a daughter 0-5; Thomas Simpson (b. 1816) and John H. (b. 1820) are likely the two sons here; the oldest known daughter is Jane, born 1821, so the older daughter shown here is not yet identified.
White
Males
White
Females
Slaves
Male
Slaves
Female
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Under 14
26-44
William (II) - - - - -
1
- - - - 1 2
1
William (II) the veteran on Snow Creek, now in his early 60s, with wife over 45. No children in this census; daughters have married or died. As in the 1810 census, William is shown with three slaves, and this year the census specifies sex and age group. It appears that the slave woman 26-44 is mother of two boys under 14. If this is the same family group that appears in 1810, the boys would have been very young, under 4, in 1810.
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Reuben - - - - - 1 1 1 2 2 1
The aging Reuben (I), son of William (I), now mid-60s-70 (born by 1757), apparently with wife (never identified) and six younger women; none of Reubin's daughters are yet positively identified with the possible exception of Anny (not counted here), for whom Reuben was bondsman in her 1807 marriage to John Brown.
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Joshua 4 - - - 1 - 2 - - 2 -
Reuben's son Joshua, now around 40-46, married to Mary Carter since 1809, with their first six children, all under 10, with another 26-45 woman in the household. (Need to recheck deeds to determine where he was living at this point; Reuben sold him 100 Hewins Creek acres in 1804 but Joshua sold a big part, if not all, of his farm on "Uins Creek" in 1818 to James Larimore; in the 1830s he bought land on Snow Creek). The first four sons were John C. (born 1810 but still in the under 10 column here); Landon H. (b. 1812); Reuben V. (b. 1814); and William C. (b. 1819); not sure who the daughters are here.
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Stephen 1 - - - 1 - 4 1 - 1 -
Daniel 1 - - - 1 - 2 - 2 - -
Stephen, Reuben's known son to whom Reuben sold 150 acres in 1810, now in his 30s and in his second census, with wife Rachel his first girl now over 10 and 4 more daughters -- perhaps Mary, Martha, Sarah, and Eliza --and a son, possibly William, in the brew. The younger Daniel is probably Reuben's son; Reuben sold him 100 acres in 1816. Though the deed doesn't name the relationship, Reuben had a pattern of selling, not giving, land to each of his sons. Daniel married Patsy Mitchell in 1815.
Rockingham County
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Reuben - - - - 1 - - - - 1 -
This appears to be Reuben Jr., son of old Reuben, probably in his 30s, recently married and no children yet. His wife was named Dosia.
White
Males
White
Females
Name 0-9 10-15 16-17 18-25 26-44 Over 44 0-9 10-15 16-25 26-44 Over 44 Buckner 3 2 - - - 1 3 2 - 1 -
This Buckner Southern is apparently the Buckner who appears as the son of William Southern of Mecklenburg County, VA in the 1795 Mecklenburg tax list. The relationship of William of Mecklenburg VA to the N.C. Southerns is not yet known. Buckner's brothers included John, Robert, William Jr., and Jesse. In the early 19th century William Sr. and Jesse migrated to Lee County, VA, in the western toe of the state, and Robert settled in Claiborne County, TN, across the state line from Lee. This Buckner is also likely the Buckner "Southerd" who appears in an 1807 Rockingham County marriage bond with Sally King. There were several Southard families in Rockingham County, some of them neighbors to Southerns who moved to southwestern Rockingham, and the similarity of the surnames caused confusion in census and other public records.