Chapter 11: Immigrants to the 4^th Generation of Hertford County Harrells

  

            One of the first things to keep in mind when thinking about the 4^th Generation immigrants to Hertford County is that some of them might have been returning to their county of birth—in some cases, there is simply not enough information to know. For others it is clear. For instance, in the cases of Joseph B. Harrell who was born in Gates County, and John P. Harrell who was born in Bertie County the trail is clear, but in the case of Lemuel C. Harrell, I have not been able to firmly anchor him in Northampton County, even though I can place him there from 1850 through 1870. I have included 4^th Generation immigrants in this survey because perhaps somewhere, one of their descendants may have information about the first three generations of Hertford County Harrells.

 

Joseph B. Harrell (b. 1826)from Gates County—4^th Generation

 

According to his diary, Joseph B. Harrell was born on June 19, 1826 in Gates County, as  the youngest in a large family.[1] His father was Rueben Harrell.

 

Rueben Harrell (b. 1781) of Gates County—3^rd Generation

 

Rueben Harrell was born in 1781, probably in Gates County. We know from various sources that Rueben was ordained a Methodist Minister in 1803 and was one of the organizers of the Methodist Church in Gatesville in 1828. He married Margaret Crosslin in Gates County on January 30, 1821.[2] The 1850 census provides a partial view of Rueben and Margaret Harrell’s family—Dempsey and Samuel were their sons; Emma Parker and Martha Brown were probably their daughters; Joseph B. and one other son had left Gates for Hertford County by the 1850 census.

 

Two of Rueben and Margaret Harrell’s sons are of interest for this study—Joseph B. and Dempsey K. Harrell. Joseph B. is our main concern because he moved to Hertford County at an early age and raised his family there. Dempsey K. becomes of interest because after Joseph B. died in 1864, Dempsey K. married his widow and spent his last few years helping to raise Joseph B.’s three children.

 [page 355] 

1850 census entry, Gates Co., N. C.

 

Joseph B. and Sarah A. Parker Harrell—4^th Generation

 

In his diary, Joseph B. wrote that he and one of his brothers left home and moved to Hertford County when he was 19 years old—that would have been around 1845. He also noted that he married Sarah Alice Parker of Hertford County when he was 25 years old—they were probably married in early 1850. They appeared together in that year’s census. Joseph B. and Sarah A. Harrell were living with the Nicholson family when the 1850 census was taken.

 

1850 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

 

            I have not found Joseph and Sarah in the 1860 census in North Carolina, but the 1870 census in which Sarah and their three children can be found indicates they were all born before 1860 and, thus, were all Joseph B. Harrell’s children. Joseph B. Harrell was in the C. S. A. military and died in 1864. Joseph B. Harrell’s widow, Sarah A. Parker, married his brother, Dempsey K. Harrell, of Gates County sometime between 1865 and 1868.

 

Dempsey K. and Sarah A. Parker Harrell

 

            Dempsey K. Harrell’s marriage to Sarah was probably his third. The Gates County records indicate Dempsey Harrell married Priscilla Parker on June 23, 1842, and then Jane Harrell on February 12, 1857. The 1850 census entry for Dempsey’s father, Rueben Harrell, included just above, shows that between his marriages Dempsey was living back on his father’s farm.

 

After the War, Joseph B. Harrell’s widow, Sarah, petitioned for support.[3] According to Joseph B.’s estate papers, she had married Joseph’s brother, Dempsey K. Harrell. They probably lived in Gates County. In 1868, Dempsey died. In his will, he named Sallie A. Harrell (Sarah A.), Edmond Cary Harrell, Ann A. Parker, and Martha E. Parker.[4]

 [page 356]

By 1870, Sarah Parker Harrell and Joseph B. Harrell’s children were back in Hertford County living with Sarah’s half-brother, William H. Parker.

 

1870 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

 

Joseph B. and Sarah A. Harrell’s Children

 

            Their children were listed in the 1870 census entry from Hertford County. I have only named their children in this section, because they have been described in greater detail in the section “Sarah Alice Parker Harrell Harrell (b. 1831)—4^th Generation,” in chapter 9 of this work. They are placed there because Sarah’s mother, Elizabeth Harrell Parker, was a 3^rd Generation Hertford County Harrell.

 

Elizabeth A. Harrell Copeland (b. 1854)—5^th Generation

William Joseph Harrell (b. 1857)—5^th Generation

Edward Cary Harrell (b. 1859)—5^th Generation

 

John P. Harrell’s Family (b. 1817) from Bertie County—4^th Generation

 

            John P. Harrell was from Bertie County. His family can be traced through Bertie County wills to one of the original settlers from Virginia. (See the section on Edward Harrell in chapter three.) The descent goes as follows:

 

Edward Harrell’s will of 1752 in which he names:

                Henry, son and executor

                Jausha, son

                Thomas, son

                Mary Andrews, daughter

                                Jesse, grandson

                                Rebecca Sharpe, granddaughter

Henry Harrell’s will of 1773 in which he names:

                Rachel, wife

                Rueben, son

                Benjamin, son

                Henry Jr., son

                Whitmell, son

                John Wimberly, son

                David, son

                Joseph, son

                Edward, son

                Pharaby Pulle, daughter

                Rachel, daughter

                Barbara, daughter

                Elizabeth, daughter

Benjamin Harrell’s will of 1809 in which he names:      

Jemima Powell, wife (also see his wife, Jemima Powell Harrell’s, will of 1822)

                George, son

                Henry, son

                Powell, son

                Rachel, daughter

                Celia Carney, daughter

                Winnefred Carney, daughter

Powell Harrell’s will of 1837 in which he names:

                Harriet, wife

                John P., son

                Ann P., daughter

                Children with Celia Willougby, wife

                Mary P., daughter and executor

                Powell A., son and executor

 [page 357]

John P. Harrell and family were not in Bertie County for the 1850 census. They were, however, in Hertford County for a few years, including 1850. (The census index has them as Harrill, but there was no such name in the county.)

 

1850 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

           

            On February 27, 1852, there was an item in the Biblical Recorder that was certainly a death notice; it reads: “In Hertford county, on the 30^th January last Hardy Murphy Harrell, infant of Cap. John P. Harrell and wife Margaret, age 12 days.”

 

There is no John P. Harrell, nor a John age 43 in the 1860 census. A John P. Harrell married a Sarah R. Garriss in Northampton County on May 17, 1858. The 1860 and 1870 Hertford census does not have John P. nor any of his sons.

 [page 358]

John P. Harrell’s will was recorded in Bertie County in April of 1885. He named Sarah R. Harrell, Paul Wade Harrell, and Sallie J. Baker.[5] John P. Harrell’s wife, Margaret, died after 1850 and before 1858. It is possible then that all of John P.’s children were with Margaret.

 

John P. and Margaret Harrell’s Children

 

Edwin Harrell (b. 1844)—5^th Generation

 

James Harrell (b. 1845)—5^th Generation

 

Ann R. Harrell (b. 1847)—5^th Generation

 

Brinton Harrell (b. 1848)—5^th Generation

 

Joseph Harrell (b. 1850)—5^th Generation

 

Paul Wade Harrell—5^th Generation

 

Sallie J. Harrell Baker—5^th Generation

 

John Harrell (b. 1813) from Gates County—4^th Generation

 

            John (b. 1813) was born in Gates County and was married there on September 26, 1838 to Margaret Spriggins. According to the 1860 census, all their children shown in 1850, except John, were also born in Gates County. John and Margaret moved to Hertford County between 1846 and early 1850.

 

John (b. 1813) and Margaret Harrell’s Family

 

As indicated above (see chapter 5), John (b. 1813)may have helped raise some of Isaac

and Delilah Harrell’s children in Hertford County, but in addition, he had children of his own

from his previous marriages who also became part of the 5^th Generation of Harrells in the county.

 [page 359] 

1850 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

        

            By 1850, not too far from the Isaac and Delilah Harrell household, John and his first wife, Margaret lived with their children.

 

John (b. 1813) and Mary Harrell’s Family

 

            By 1860, John had a new wife, Mary age 50. John and Margaret’s oldest son, James J., should have been around 19 or 20 years of age in 1860—that may have been the young man recorded as “G. J.” on the 1860 census. Margaret, Nancy (Martha), and John were also still around, as well as John and Margaret’s last daughter, Frances. All members of John’s household were listed as born in Gates County, except the youngest daughter, Frances, age ten. She was born in Hertford County.

 

1860 census entry, Hertford Co., . C.

 

            Apparently John (b. 1813) was gone by 1870.

 

John (b. 1813) and Margaret Harrell’s Children

 

            The children listed in this section were from John and his first wife, Margaret. If John had more children with his second wife, Mary, I do not know of them yet. By the time John and Delilah married, they were both well into their 50s and apparently had no children.

 

James J. Harrell (b. 1841)—5^th Generation

Margaret Harrell (b. 1842)—5^th Generation

Martha Harrell (b. 1844) (Nancy)—5^th Generation

John Harrell (b. 1846)—5^th Generation

[page 360]

Frances Harrell (b. 1850) (daughter)—5^th Generation

 

Lemuel C. Harrell (b. 1832)—4^th Generation

 

Lemuel Harrell came to Hertford County from Northampton County, but I have not been able to establish where he was born, or who his parents were. He may have been born in Hertford County, and moved to Northampton County as a youngster—he was in Northampton for the 1850 through the 1870 censuses. In any case, he did settle in Hertford County after 1870.

 

Lemuel Harrell in Northampton County

 

One of my reasons for suspecting Lemuel was not born in Northampton County is based on the finding that there were no Harrell households in Northampton County in 1820 nor in 1840 according to the censuses. By 1850, however, Lemuel Harrell, his probable mother, Mary, and two of his siblings were there.

 

1850 census entry, Northampton Co., N. C.

 

Lemuel and Mary Boone Harrell

 

The Northampton Marriage Register shows that “Lemul Harrall” married Mary Boon on February 20, 1856. In 1860, Lemuel and Mary were still in Northampton County. Lemuel and Mary had at least two children: Joseph (b. 1857), and Ellen B. (b. 1860).

 

1860 census entry, Northampton Co., N. C.

 

Lemuel Harrell served in the C. S. A. military—he was in Company E, 56^th Regiment, N. C. Infantry. His rank was sergeant, and his service was from 1862 to 1865—during the course of which he was wounded twice and taken prisoner. He is listed as from Northampton County.[6]

 [page 361]

In 1865, Lemuel C. Harrell appeared for the first time in a Hertford County document—Susana Harrell’s will in Hertford County.[7] This further suggests Lemuel had ties to Harrells in Hertford County. (Lemuel and G. C. Harrell were the only Harrells named in the will, and I have not been able to discover the relationships among them.)

 

            I did not find Lemuel’s probable mother, Mary, in the 1860 census, but there was a Mary Harrell in Northampton in 1870 of the appropriate age.

 

1870 census entry, Northampton Co., N. C.

 

If Lemuel’s wife, Mary, survived the War, it was not by much, because he married Josephine Brewer in Northampton County on November 6, 1865.

 

Lemuel and Josephine Harrell

 

            Lemuel and Josephine were still in Northampton for the 1870 census. Lemuel’s first two children shown in the 1860 census were with his first wife, Mary. His daughter, Esther Harrell, born in 1868, was his first child with Josephine.

 

1870 census entry, Northampton Co., N. C.

 

Lemuel and Josephine were in Roanoke Township, Northampton County in 1870. He next appeared on the list of Civil War veterans who became residents of Hertford County after the War—“1873 here in this Co.” “From Northampton to Hertford County.”[8]

 

            Lemuel and Josephine bought a 330 acre farm from John Wilson and Mary E. S. Harrell in Hertford County on the road to Pitch Landing to Harrellsville in March of 1872.[9] That move made Lemuel next-door neighbors to John Wilson Harrell and Nicholas J. Harrell—they remained neighbors for 10 to 15 years. I do not know if the three Harrell families were related. I suspect Lemuel and Nicholas were at least very good friends. They had similar war experiences, and on at least one occasion, Lemuel participated in one of Nicholas’ family functions—he was a witness, along with Nicholas, at Nicholas’ sister-in-law’s wedding (Fruzie Taylor) in 1874.

 [page 362]

1880 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

           

By 1880, all of Lemuel’s children were accounted for, and Sarah A. had been added in 1871.

 

Lemuel C. Harrell’s Children

 

Lemuel’s children with Mary Boone were:

                Joseph Harrell                       born 1857

                Ellen B. Harrell                      born 1860

Lemuel’s children with Josephine Brewer were:

                Easter C. Harrell                    born 1868

                Sarah A. Harrell                    born 1871

 

Joseph Harrell (b. 1857)—5^th Generation

 

            Joseph was probably about 15 years old when his parents moved to Hertford County, so there is a pretty good probability he went with them. Lemuel’s Joseph had a birth year of 1857 when he was living with his father in 1870. At the time of the 1880 census, there was a Joseph Harrell age 23, who carries a birth year of 1857 also—the 1880 entry was probably Lemuel’s son. He was working on James T. Wynns’ farm in Hertford County.

 

1880 census entry, Hertford Co., N. C.

           

There is also a very good probability that the J. P. Harrell, age 26, who  married H. S. Vann, age 30, on January 31, 1883 in Hertford County, was Lemuel’s son.[10] J. P. Harrell also had a birth year of 1857. They had at least two children—Mary (b. 1883) and Hollie (b. 1884). Mary and Hollie were still living with Joseph and his second wife in 1910.

 

            The J. P. Harrell (b. 1857) who married H. S. Vann in 1883 was probably also the Joseph P. Harrell (b. 1857) age 38, who married Ella J. Griffith age 23 in Ahoskie in August 1895. They were both of Hertford County.[11] (The 1880 census has an Ellen Griffith age 9 living with her parents Lewis and Martha.)