On 20 October 1869, a Wilson County Probate Court judge ordered three year-old Sovid Applewhite bound as an apprentice to Lewis Ellis until he reached 21 years of age.

[The spelling of this unusual name is difficult to decipher. Though “Lovid,” as in Lovett, seems more logical, the capital letter does not match the consistently double-looped L in “Lewis.”]

Sovid Applewhite (or no one with any approximation of his name) is not listed in the household of Lewis and Milly Ellis in the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.