Mary Autry
 Somehow
Mary's father, Henry Johnson was owned by the slavemaster Daniel
Johnson who lived in the Turnbull township of Bladen County NC
and her mother was owned by some of the Carlton
slave owners of Duplin County. I don't really know how Henry met
and married Mary's mother Nancy Carlton but I know that slavery ended
in 1865. Information from 1870 Duplin County shows that by then Henry
and Nancy were married and had two children, Donnie being born sometime
around 1858 and Toney Troy being born sometime around 1864. I have
never heard any of Henry's Johnson or Autry descendants say, admit
or agree that Henry lived in Duplin County for such a long period
of time, that his wife's name was Nancy Carlton or that there was
a son named Donnie. Click here
to view that information in some records of 1870 Warsaw NC.
I found Mary Carlton Johnson living with her parent's Henry and Nancy
Carlton-Johnson in the Township of Warsaw NC in 1870. Her brother's
Donnie, Toney Troy and George W Johnson's were also living in the
same household at the time. This same information from Duplin County
shows that the family was still living in the same place in 1880 with
an exception of Nancy Carlton-Johnson and Donnie Johnson. They must
have died. By simply doing the math, Mary had to move to Bladen County
and get married to Ned shortly after 1880 because their oldest son,
William was born sometime around 1882.
The Story has been told many times by Leroy Autry (one of Mary's elder
grandchildren) of how Mary and some of her younger children would
sometimes walk from Bladen County to Duplin County to visit her relatives.
Leroy said that she would stop and spend the night in the Delway area
with the Murphy's, Daniel, Dora and sons Daniel, Jacob and Willie.
The Murphy's were a white family that had moved from the Colly township
earlier. The next morning Mary would continue her journey on to Duplin
County.
Mary's Carlton relatives were found in the Warsaw, Magnolia and the
Keanansville areas of Duplin County. I assume after such a journey
Mary's trip would more than likely end close to or in Magnolia. I
have heard from my uncle Leroy Autry who is Mary's grandson, that
most of her immediate relatives (uncles, aunts and cousins) once lived
somewhere on or about the present day Carlton Chapel road which runs
from almost Magnolia to Warsaw.
I also found Amos Johnson living in the Warsaw township in 1870 a
few houses from where Henry and the Carltons were living. I don't
know if Amos was Henry's brother or not but he was also one of The
slaves owned by Daniel Johnson here in the Turnbull township of Bladen
County. Amos like Henry returned to Bladen County sometime around
1880.
I have heard some of the family elders speak of Amos down through
the years. It has been said that he was a firm believer in the mother
religion and could do many strange and mysterious things. I heard
the story of how they put his home up for auction at the courthouse
in Elizabethtown. They say Amos got up many hours before the sun came
up that day and walked to Fayetteville on one side of the Cape Fear
then back to Elizabethtown on the other side. When he arrived in Elizabethtown
just before the auctioning of his home he told everyone to go home
that his place would never be auctioned off. Later on that day news
came that the judge who was to preside over the auction had somehow
accidentally met his death enroute to Elizabethtown. Just like Amos
said his home was never auctioned off. I also heard that he met his
death when he cursed God Almighty in a lightning storm one day while
working.
Note:The mother religion Vodoun ("Voodoo") was an African
religion and is one of the oldest on earth. Please do not confuse
it with what the Euro-Anglo slave establishment forced parts of it
to turn into (American
Hoodoo) and then label it as black magic (witch craft). Know this!
because the Euro-Anglo slave establishment feared it, could not understand
and control it, they campaigned against, condemned and literally eliminated
the religion and anyone that practiced or believed in it. Read
here for more on what happened to slaves that believed in and/or
sought inner peace by relying on their native and/or ancestral religion |
