Trip Report - June 2002
I left Mandeville, LA on June 11, 2002 for Wilmington, NC. This area, Bladen County, is the home of the Curries and Cromarties before our Catherine Cromartie and Alexander Currie came south to Mississippi. They were the parents of William Cromartie Currie, who was first married to Adeline Whitaker and second to Hester Ann Selser Richards. Specifically, I was looking for the grave of William Cromartie, Catherine's father, who was born in Scotland in 1731. (Wm Cromartie's Will). His grave is reported to be near the home of Dr. R.S. Cromartie in Garland, NC, a very small rural town. Here, I found an 85 year old lady, who knew Dr. Cromartie. He had delivered her. The Cromarties, she said, were affluent people in her day, but they don't seem to be there now. She directed me to the doctor's home, which she thought no longer occupied and said that I would find the graveyard near it. Well, not only was it not occupied, it had burned down. (I have since found out that I was in the wrong place. This was
another Cromartie home, not the doctor's.) The remnants were in a tangled woods, where I could find no graveyard.
This place was on .
Peter Cromartie Road
Peter Cromartie was our Catherine's brother and must have inherited the place, for he had a huge tombstone at the head of his road, about a hundred yards up from the burned remnants.
Earlier, I had found a small Cromartie graveyard on Hwy. 701, but all buried there were around 1900 and after. No William, who is reported to be buried between his first wife, Agnes Stewart, and his second wife, Ruhamah Doane.
I spent two days in the Wilmington area after driving 800 miles. My route was through Mobile, Biloxi, Pensacola, and Jacksonville. That took a couple of days. Although our ancestors probably took a more northerly route to Mississippi, it must have taken them 3 months to get there, what with wagons and washed out roads, etc. Imagine it! Maybe they knew people in Mississippi. Seems like one of Catherine's sisters, may have already been down here. (Margaret Nancy Cromartie - b. 2/1/1776, d. 5/5/1846 in Lorman, MS). Catherine and Alexander could have come by ship to New Orleans and then made their way up river to Vicksburg where everybody seems to have been before coming to Louisiana.
Next stop was Washington, D.C. I went to the National Archives Bldg. to get a copy of the 144 page Patrick Eugene Gilfoil claim against the Union for property which Union soldiers confiscated during the Civil War. Quite an ordeal getting anything done in the NCR; but, I knew that, from having worked there years ago. Nothing's changed. It's a beautiful city; but, I wouldn't want to live there, again.
Since it took two days to complete this task, I went over to Calvert County, MD to find the ancestral home of Robert Day, built prior to 1670. It is a historical site known as the
Morgan Hill Farm
or the Breeden-Day House. The Days were the ancestors of my grandmother,
Sallie Rebecker Day Gibbens.
From here, I went to upstate New York, just west of Albany and in the Catskills Mtns. to visit a Gilfoil cousin and just plain ole relax for a few days; which, we did in this beautiful setting.
I then drove straight south to home. My trip covered about 4,000 miles and took 16 days.
The End
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