We’ve met Nicey Caroline Hall Lynch, the free woman of color whose refusal to kowtow to his wife so irked Confederate soldier Ruffin Barnes. What of her siblings though?
In the 1850 census of North Side of Neuse, Wayne County, Lucy Hall, 45, appears with her children Sarah, 16, George, 15, Nathan, 13, Nicy, 10, Samuel, 3, and Esther Hall, 6, plus Alford, 15, John, 14, Rhoda, 13, Julia, 12, and Rheuben Artis, 10, and Rufus Lane, 22. (Read here of Lucy Hall’s legal battle to have her children apprenticed as she saw fit.)
Lucy Hall apparently died before 1860. I have not been able to trace Sarah, George, or Nathan Hall. However,
In the 1860 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farm laborer Noah Walker, 25; wife Polly, 21; and Samuel Hall, 13. [Samuel had likely been apprenticed to the Walkers by a Wilson County judge.]
In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: brick maker Samuel Hall, 22; wife Caroline, 20; and children Donas, 3, and John, 2 months [next door to Wyatt and Niecy Lynch.]
In the 1880 census of Speights Bridge township, Greene County, N.C.: laborer Sam Hall, 32; wife Caroline, 32; and children John W., 10, Jane E., 8, Sam, 6, and Baby, 1.
In the 1900 census of Bulloch County, Georgia: woodcutter Sam Hall, 50; wife Caroline, 50, washerwoman; children Sam Jr., 24, George, 21, Emma, 19, and Minnie, 10; and daughter-in-law Fannie, 23, washerwoman. All but Fannie were born in North Carolina.
In the 1910 census of Bulloch County, Georgia: farmer Sam Hall, 65; wife Caroline, 63; son-in-law John Kennedey, 31; daughter Maria, 19; and their children Pearl, 2, and John, 3 months.
In the 1860 census of Davis district, Wayne County, James Yelverton [Jr.], 40, shared a household with Hester Hall, 20, and her children Fanny, 7, and Puss, 5. [Yelverton was the father of Esther’s sister Nicey Caroline’s first child, Susianna Frances Hall, alias Yelverton.]
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As to the children Lucy Hall sheltered other than her own, Alford, John, Rhoda, Julia, and Reuben were the children of Julia Artis and Reuben Pettiford. The couple apparently did not marry until after they had had about ten children together, exposing the children to involuntary apprenticeship as “baseborn,” i.e. born out of wedlock. In 1850, they, like Lucy Hall’s children the following year, were apprenticed to William J. Exum, the white man on whose farm they lived. Curiously, in the 1850 census, the children are also listed with their parents and siblings 70 miles away in Warren County, North Carolina: stonemason Reuben Pettiford, 30; wife Judy A., 37; children Eliza, 21, Alfred, 15, Jack, 13, Rhody, 12, Reuben Jr., 10, Julian, 9, and Mary Artis, 7, and Elizabeth J., 5, and Virginia Pettiford, 3; [Julia’s mother] Middy Artis, 60; and Isah Artis, 4 months.
In 1860, the family — by then all using the surname Pettiford — was intact in Halifax County. Per Freedmen’s Bureau records, Alfred and Jack Pettiford were in Plymouth, Washington County, during the Civil War, and other family members followed.
Note that the Alford Artis who appears in Wilson County records by 1880 is not the same man as Alford Artis alias Pettiford:
In the 1880 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm worker Alford Artis, 45; wife Eliza, 40; and children Luvinia, 18, John, 16, Edwin, 14, Lee, 10, George, 9, Lila, 8, Frank, 5, Delia, 2, Marcellus, 10 months, and Annie, 2.
In the 1900 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Alfred Artis, 69; wife Liza, 68; son Patrick, 16; and grandchildren Jennie E. Artis, 14, and Luther Best, 13.
In the 1910 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: laborer Alfred Artis, 80, widower.
William Frank Artis died 27 November 1949 in Black Creek township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 May 1876 in Wilson County to Alfred Artis and Eliza Artis; was married; and was a farmer. [Note that his Social Security application listed his parents as Alford Artis and Eliza Felton.]
Lila Reid died 22 April 1953 in Fremont, Wayne County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 March 1870 in Greene County, N.C., to Alfred Artis and Liza Artis; was the widow of Frank Reid; and was buried in Hooks Grove Cemetery.
Of Rufus Lane, we know only that he was bound out multiple times in Wayne County — to James Forehand in 1837, to Joel Lane in 1836, and to William Exum in 1837.
