Papers (1900-1918, 1944) including birthing records, genealogical records, copies of estate settlement, financial records, deeds of sale for parcel of land.
Mary Elizabeth Weston (nee Cox) of Beaufort Co., N.C., was born September 15, 1842. She married William Cayton (1834-1869) on January 15, 1865. They had two children. After William's death she married John Watson Weston and they had five children before her death on April 28, 1920.
Mary Weston kept a notebook of the births she attended as midwife in the Blounts Creek area covering the years 1900 through 1917. Entries are brief, listing only the date, name of the mother, and sex of her child. She notes that prior to keeping this notebook she had attended twenty-eight babies. Also found in Mrs. Weston's notebook--at the beginning and end--are records of personal farm activities and purchases including the pedigree of and prices paid for cows, hen setting dates, and the price of eggs, onion sets, and manure. A final entry notes hens and the number of biddies they had with dates given. A transcription of the notebook accompanied by a spreadsheet version of it, which contains additional information gathered by Mr. Durwood Weston including the child's name and the name of subsequent spouse, are also included.
The collection contains genealogical material on the Rowe, Weston, Cayton, and Tuten families of Beaufort Co., N.C. Interspersed among the genealogical statistics are vignettes of country life. Also of interest are two biographies written by Anna Cayton Rowe of her mother, Amanda Rebecca Tuten Cayton (1872-1957), and her father, Lenier Griffin Cayton (1871-1933). These reflect Mrs. Rowe's childhood memories of farm life in the early twentieth century, and include descriptions of cooking, canning, milking, plucking geese, hunting, quilting, and home remedies. Memories of her father include hisjobs with the Whaley Timber Company, selling real estate, running a store, farming, and bee-keeping.
Financial records include the transcript of accounts in the settlement of the estate of Jesse H. Rowe, 1944, and copies of two deeds of sale for parcels of land in Beaufort County, N.C. (1904-1905).
Gift of Johnnie Bryan Weston
Gift of Mrs. Annie Alura Jones
Gift of Mrs. Mary Lillian Mills
Gift of Durwood Weston
Gift of Mrs. Jesse Irene White
Processed by J. Smalley, March 1994
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.