Connecting My Roots To North Carolina And The Appalachian Mountains

My Great Great Grandparents

James Albert ~ November 21, 1885 Mattie ~ December 3, 1888 Whitney Egerton ~ January 9, 1891 Lucy Jane ~ October 22, 1892 Mary Louis ~ October 20, 1894 Frank Addison ~ November 18, 1896 Fannie ~ September 22, 1898 (My Great Grandmother) Simon Peter ~ January 28, 1901 They Had Eight Children Over Sixteen Years

Not Shown James Albert Mary Louis

Minnies Father, James Albert Egerton, was born on 2 Oct 1814 in Warren County, North Carolina. He died on 4 Aug 1898 in Warren County, North Carolina. He was buried in Fleming Cemetery, Warren Plains, North Carolina. They lived near Macon, North Carolina. Albert had a store on Front Street in Warrenton, North Carolina where he started in business in Just before the Civil War he remodeled the store making it one of the most attractive in town. The whole block burned in Many members of the family came to live with Albert and work in the store to learn the mercantile trade. When the War started most were quick to enlist and after the war was over they did not return to work for Albert.

Warrenton traces its origin to 1779, the year that Bute County was divided to form Warren and Franklin Counties. It became a busy center of commerce as rich tobacco and cotton fields converged with a railroad to make it reportedly the wealthiest town in North Carolina in the 1850s. This was where Minnie and Simon were born, grew up and met one another.

The railroad was the largest internal improvement effort in North Carolina during the antebellum era. It was chartered in 1849 and leased to the Richmond and Danville Railroad in People in the mountains and the coast realized the benefits of the North Carolina Railroad. They lobbied for connectors to be built in their regions to expand trade, urbanization, and economic growth. Future generations believed the railroad rescued the state from cultural isolation and economic depression.

The knot was tied on November 19, 1884 in Warren Plains, NC The ceremony was at Warren Plains Baptist Church

Both Simon and Rebecca were born in Warren County, NC They moved to Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC between 1888 and 1891

Simon moved from Warren County, NC to Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC after their second child between 1888 and 1892 Minnie followed after attending Louisburg College Simon obtained land to farm and raise a family on as well as began working as a travelling salesman for a local grocery store. This was the start of a connection to the Appalachian Mountains that remained in almost everyone of the following generations

Simon Peter Davis Sr. “He was strong and active until about three months before his death. He could work me down any day. Once when we were hoeing corn, we would always leave our hoe where we left off when we quit for lunch or whatever. He used to move my hoe back three rows and I would hoe them again and I didn’t know the difference” (Simon Jr.) His education was unknown but he was well read and kept up with the news. He also took an active role in the community and wrote to the Governor on several occasions. He was employed as a salesman for a wholesale grocery store and also had a little farm with a few cattle. He bought and sold timber land and had a great interest in mining mica, gold spar, etc. Simon was a Baptist Deacon. He, with one or two others began a mission, which became French Broad Ave. Baptist Church His favorite hobby was to look after his cattle on his small farm in the country.

Simon and Minnie had two houses in Asheville, NC that their children and future generations were raised in. 58 Park Ave. Asheville, NC

Simon died in April of 1924 followed by Rebecca in December of 1935 They were both buried on the family plot at the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, NC This is also the resting place of the famous author Thomas Wolfe

The Children of Simon and Minnie Davis prospered around Asheville, NC. My great grandmother Fannie Davis spent her whole life in Asheville, and was said to have never left North Carolina. She Married when she was 24 to Horace Brandle. My great grandfather Horace Lynwood Brandle was born in Golden Valley, Rutherford County, NC. He worked as an assistant manager at Sands and Co., an Asheville firm that sold a little bit of everything to railroad employees mainly. He served in the Navy during World War One onboard the USS Minnesota. They had two children; Mary Louise, and Edwin. My grandmother, Mary Louise, married Ralph Storie in They had three children; Michael, Melissa, and Beth. My mother Melissa married Charles Peller in They had four children; Joshua, Jeremy(THAT’S ME!!!), Joseph, and Jacob.

I believe that the railroad provided the means for my family to make a living as well as inspire migration to and from different places in North Carolina. Not only did it provide jobs directly for members of my family but it stimulated communities’ growth throughout North Carolina. This new form of communication and travel drastically changed North Carolina. Small communities and individuals could interact on a nationwide scale. Now in my lifetime, our nation and the individual can interact on a worldwide scale. Thanks to Minnie, Simon and so many hard working people before and after them in my family, I am able to enjoy life and have interesting roots that continue to grow!

North Carolina Birth and Death Index: Warren County, North Carolina 1800 to 2000; Roll: B_C100_68001 Page: 100 Volume: D-1 Web: Ancestry.com Year: 1900; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: 1184; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 141; FHL microfilm: Year: 1920; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: T625_1286; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 18; Image: 964. Year: 1910; Census Place: Asheville Ward 4, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1099; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0016; Image: 600; FHL microfilm: Year: 1880; Census Place: Hawtree, Warren, North Carolina; Roll: 985; Family History Film: ; Page: 48A; Enumeration District: 282; Image: Ancestry.com. Web: North Carolina, Find A Grave Index, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Original data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave.

Allen Trelease, The North Carolina Railroad, , and the Modernization of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1991) and Alan D. Watson, Internal Improvements in Antebellum North Carolina (Raleigh, 2002). The Davis Egerton Book Committee, “Davis Egerton A Genealogy: 1884 – 1989” “Sketches of old Warrenton” Warren County, North Carolina. Web: 24. April. 2012