From Mecklenburg to Moore: Four North Carolina Families

The Children of J.D. and Arabella McDonald Richardson
John Lee Richardson was born September 28, 1889 in Moore County,1 where he and sisters Loula and Pearl attended Caldonia School in the Crains Creek community.2 He married Mary Harriett (Mamie) Cagle, born June 25, 1888 in Moore. She was the sister of Rosa Cagle Alexander. They lived in Hamlet, N. C. where he was a conductor on the Seaboard Railroad. They had two children. He died November 12, 1946 in Hamlet. She died February 18, 1970 in Richmond, Virginia.3

Loula Richardson Loula Isabella Richardson was born April 21, 1891 in Vass and died February 26, 1943. She married William Franklin (Frank) Alexander of Moore County, and had nine children. She raised chickens and sold the meat and eggs at the farmers' market in Southern Pines. Her husband farmed and worked at various trades. He was born October 20, 1880 and died August 4, 1945. By clicking on their names, you can find more pictures and information about them and their children.

 

John Reuben Morgan, Pearl Richardson Morgan, Loula Richardson Alexander and daughters

Pearl Richardson is pictured on the left side of this photograph, about 1913, with John Reuben Richardson, the first of her four children, and sister Loula and children. She was born June 17, 1893 and married George Quimberley Morgan (on the left in the photograph below.) One of the Richardson family stories is that Pearl's father, J. D., objected to her marriage. Some of the McDonald girls who lived nearby helped Pearl sneak a suitcase out of the house and run away with George. They drove his buggy to Virginia to see a preacher who had agreed to marry them. He came out to the road and married them right there.4

George Morgan and Frank Alexander

George was in the lumber business with his brother-in-law Frank Alexander, who is standing beside him in the photograph, and Frank's brother Oswald. Pearl and George also farmed. He was born December 14, 1886. She died January 22, 1954 in Moore County and he died August 28, 1966, in Sanford. Both were buried at Johnson Grove.5

William Dolphus (Will) Richardson was born May 17, 1895. On April 14, 1918 he was married to Sadie Myrtle Peele, who was born January 18, 1898. Her parents were Pleasant and Ida Hyatt Peele of Surry County. They farmed near Vass. He served in the U.S. Army as a private during World War I. They had nine children. He died April 24, 1973, and Sadie died December 16, 1978. They were buried at Johnson Grove.6 By clicking on their names, you can see more photographs of Will and Sadie.


Hattie Belle Richardson was born August 13, 1896 and died September 26, 1898 in Moore County. She was buried in the McDonald family cemetery.7

Private William Dolphus Richardson in World War I uniform
Patsy Richardson and son Roland


 Lydia Margaret (Patsy) Richardson was born October 26, 1898 in Moore County, where she attended Crains Creek School. A photograph of her class in the 1915-1916 term appears in a book called Gone And Almost Forgotten: Crain's Creek Community, by James Vann Comer.8 She married Thomas Clyde Gaddy, Jr. on February 18, 1917. They had three children. She is pictured here with son Roland about 1919. She died on May 24, 1922 and was buried at Johnson Grove. Her husband remarried, and upon his death on April 12, 1975 was buried at Buffaloe Church, near Sanford.9

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Footnotes:

1. Alex M. Patterson, Highland Scots Pattersons of North Carolina and Related Families, (Raleigh: Contemporary Lithographers, Inc., 1979), pp. 159-194.

2. James Vann Comer, Gone and Almost Forgotten: Crain's Creek Community, (Sanford: James Vann Comer, 1986), p. 104.

3. Patterson, cited above.

4. Interview with nieces of Pearl Morgan by the author in 2003.

5. Patterson, cited above; Gravestones at Johnson Grove cemetery in Vass, N.C.

6. Patterson, cited above; interview with daughters Sallie Thomas and Johnsie Douglas by the author in 2003.

7. Patterson, cited above; Gravestone at McDonald-Ferguson cemetery at Crains Creek, Cameron, N.C.

8. Comer, cited above, p. 98.

9. Patterson, cited above; Gravestones at Johnson Grove cemetery in Vass, N.C.

Additional Sources:

Population Schedule of the Twelfth Census of the United States: 1900, North Carolina, Moore County, Enumeration District 75, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Sheet 9.

Population Schedule of the Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910, North Carolina, Moore County, Enumeration District 69, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Sheet 9A.

Population Schedule of the Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920, North Carolina, Moore County, Enumeration District 91, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Sheet 10A.

Population Schedule of the Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, North Carolina, Moore County, Enumeration District 12, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Family #321.

Obituary of J. D. Richardson, Raleigh News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 29, 1936.

James Vann Comer, Old Moore County, N.C. Vital Statistics (1784-1890), (Sanford: James Vann Comer, 1999), pp. 96-98.


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From Mecklenburg to Moore: Four North Carolina Families/The Children of J.D.& Arabella McDonald Richardson
© 2001 by Glenda Alexander, updated April 2007   Standard copyright restrictions apply.

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