Phelps and Blackwell Connection in Person County During The 1800’s; Article 185

On July 11, 2001, I received a longhand letter from Mr. Robert Lowell Blackwell in Durham, N C outlining our families’ past ties in greater detail than what I had. Mr. Blackwell and I have talked via phone and exchanged e-mails over the past several weeks and he is 77 years old.

Four of the Phelps men married Blackwell women in Person County, N C during the above referenced period and information provided by Mr. Blackwell is as follows.

My grandfather, James Bowman Blackwell, joined the Confederate Army at age 18 in 1863 and served in two units, one in Kinston, N C and later in Greensboro, N C. He was furloughed in May of 1865. He returned to Person County, N C and married Roxi Moore. To this union three daughters were born, Martha and twins, Ora and Lula. Roxi died and James married Cattie Davis and to this union were three children, Otis, Lowell’s father, Bessie and Robert Lester: see below for more about Lester. Cattie died during a flu epidemic during the 1910-1912 period. Bessie married a Sykes in southern Orange County, N C.

Robert Lester Blackwell was killed in action thirty days before World War I ended on November 11, 1918. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the only N C native during the war, to receive this and other medals for bravery beyond the call of duty. Lowell’s grandfather and dad (Otis) rode a buggy from the Bushy Fork Community to Roxboro, N C and rode a train to Raleigh, N C, where Lowell’s grandfather accepted the medals. Today, a stature of Robert Lester Blackwell stands on Main street in Roxboro, N C, lawn of courthouse.

Upon Otis’ death in 1953, the medals were passed down to Lowell. Subsequently, they were transferred to the North Carolina Hall of History and may be seen there today.

James Bowman Blackwell died in 1928 and is buried in Mebane, N C at the Municipal Cemetery. His wives were buried in a field with no markers near Hurdle Mills, N C. Lowell said while young he looked without results, and was told others were buried at this location; two boys and James’ brother killed during the Civil War. However, there is no proof.

Lowell said the Phelps-Blackwell story as told to him and our communication has triggered some remembrance of the relationship. The three Blackwell women marrying into the Phelps family were his grandfather’s sisters. He knew of two more sisters, Dink who married an A. Albright and their son owned Albright Men Clothing Store in Burlington, N. C. and Lizzie who married a Spurgeon Blalock in Prospect Hill, N C Community in Caswell County.

Lowell married “Tootsi” Wrenn of Cedar Grove, N C in 1947 and they had four children, a boy now age 49, a girl now age 47 and twin boys now age 40. The twins entered the U. S. Coast Guard in 1982. Three years later in a “four-year hitch” were diagnosed as having muscular dystrophy and were medically discharged. His daughter became systematic at age 41. Lowell reports that the gene had been traced to the Davis branch by the Duke Medical Center in Durham, N C. Asa Davis, maternal grandmother had what was called an affliction.

Cattie Davis’ sister married a Parker and her brother Mac Davis had children. Lowell provided the Davis and Parker names to the Duke Medical Center. Through their computer they found that five (Davis/Parker) were treated for muscular dystrophy. Test at Duke indicate Lowell has the gene.

Now for linking Lowell’s family to mine is my grandfather’s first wife was Robenia (Beany) Blackwell. His brother’s first and second wives were (1) Sufronia Blackwell and (2) Susan P. Blackwell. My grandfather’s uncle, Richard Alvis Phelps married a Alice Blackwell. Robenia , Sufronia and Susan were sisters of Lowell’s grandfather, James Bowman Blackwell.

Written by: Wilford Latham Phelps