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| Jethro and Laurenda Howell census 1880 part 1 |
Next page lists the children of this family. Nellie is the oldest age 18, Fristus here is written as "Pristus" and he is 6 years old. His grandmother Sophia LNU Howell lives with them, probably because she's been a widow since 1858. Also living with them is an 18 year old servant/laborer John Britton. As far as I know he is unrelated.
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| Jethro and Laurenda Howell 1880 Census 2 |
They live in Boon Hill Township of Johnston County, North Carolina. Some names of their neighbors that I find in my corollary research are Raines, Sasser, and Creech. My great uncle told me once that the young men found their girls within walking distance of their home. Because they didn't have cars, then. They had to finish their farmwork, walk to the girls' home to visit for a while, then walk back home. This information is valuable when looking for your ancestors.
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| Boon Hill Twp from Mapclick Johnston Co NC |
This is the location of Boon Hill Twp as of 2017. This information was obtained from Mapclick Johnston Co. The link is below, and it is a fun site to play with.
There is no 1890 census due to a major fire. Easy enough to find this information, so I won't belabour the cause.
The 1900 census is below. He is living with his mother Laurenda, his sister Tilithia, and his nephew Millard G. Lane. The family starts line 4. This is a cool census because it provides the month and year each person was born. I have to point out that Millard is NOT a Howell child. He is listed here as Laurenda's grandson. Research shows that Tilithia married Millard Lane, and they had at least this son. Point of research -- find out why Millard Sr is no living with them right now. It is too early for WWI.
Their home is still in Boone Hill Township, but also in the Lower Boon Hill Precinct, all of Johnston County NC. Still a farming family. Fristus is still a farmer labourer, and he cannot read nor write.
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| Laurenda Howell 1900 Census |
His name is indexed as Faistus, but again, if you look carefully you can make out the "r" and see where it is closed at the bottom. But you have to squint your eyes and hold your nose to the left a bit. Well ... hmmm ... maybe not. I checked the other "r" words like Corra and Robert and Charley. The enumerator wrote in something like a Palmer method of handwriting, see the sample below --
So, perhaps his name really IS written down as "Faistus." Anyway, this is the last census we will find Fristus in as a single fellow. He marries Katie two years after this census was taken. Neighbors include Raines, Sasser, Daughtry, all corollary names.
This family, in the 1910 census, begins on Line 31, with Cain Nawell (according to Ancestry.com). However, if you look closely, you can see the proper spelling in the large handwriting, with the large tilted "H" and the cross-member. The first name "Cain" is actually London King. He went by his middle name (but of COURSE he did, because everyone in North Carolina did). I asked one of King's brothers why he got that name. Uncle said it was because his parents ran out of names by that time and they wanted something BIG.
Line 38 is Fristus. But -- his name looks like and is indexed as Cris. MAYbe Fris. The only way I knew this was Fristus is because of the other people in King's family. I missed this one for years because of the horrible misspelling.
Fristus is a 35 year old who is farming on his own account. I still wonder if this is where he was living when he met Katie? I think so, it almost looks like he has a portion of farmland that is his own, but he doesn't have a house of his own yet? This part is all imagination at this point.
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| Sample of Palmer Cursive http://writeanalog.com/learning-cursive-handwriting/ |
So, perhaps his name really IS written down as "Faistus." Anyway, this is the last census we will find Fristus in as a single fellow. He marries Katie two years after this census was taken. Neighbors include Raines, Sasser, Daughtry, all corollary names.
This family, in the 1910 census, begins on Line 31, with Cain Nawell (according to Ancestry.com). However, if you look closely, you can see the proper spelling in the large handwriting, with the large tilted "H" and the cross-member. The first name "Cain" is actually London King. He went by his middle name (but of COURSE he did, because everyone in North Carolina did). I asked one of King's brothers why he got that name. Uncle said it was because his parents ran out of names by that time and they wanted something BIG.
Line 38 is Fristus. But -- his name looks like and is indexed as Cris. MAYbe Fris. The only way I knew this was Fristus is because of the other people in King's family. I missed this one for years because of the horrible misspelling.
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| Fristus Howell 1910 Census |
Fristus is a 35 year old who is farming on his own account. I still wonder if this is where he was living when he met Katie? I think so, it almost looks like he has a portion of farmland that is his own, but he doesn't have a house of his own yet? This part is all imagination at this point.
I tried to find out what exactly Upper and Lower Boon Hill precincts looked like. All I could find was a newspaper article in 1898 where they divided Boon Hill into two voting districts. Same thing for Beulah, divided into voting districts.
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| Upper and Lower Boon Hill Precincts The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, North Carolina) Thu, Sep 24, 1896 · Page 2 Downloaded on Jun 9, 2017 |
- Johnston County North Carolina MapClick -- an interactive map of the county
