Harriet "Hattie" Davis
Harriet Frances Davis was born November 9, 1866 in Anson County, NC. She was the sixth child and second daughter in a family that would eventually include ten children who survived infancy. In 1866, her father, John Edward Davis was a 35 year old veteran of the Civil War. He had been a non-commissioned officer and now was two years returned to farming. Her mother, Emeline Catherine Staton, was 32, a homemaker with children 4, 6, 8, 10, and 13. Emeline had been educated at Carolina College, one of the first students there when it opened in 1850. She was an active member of the Methodist Church for over seventy years.
Harriet was educated at home and then attended a small school in the Red Hill district along with her sisters. Later, she attended Carolina College which had become a boarding high school after the war. According to the memoirs of her sister, Joanna, their mother would accompany the girls to the school in Ansonville and stay with them for the term.
Her father died in a tragic farm accident in February 1878 when she was only eleven. He was cutting tree limbs at Kendall's tan yard when one fell on him.
Hattie married William Henry Parker July 1, 1891 at the age of 24. She joined Randall Church that same year. As a child, she had attended Burnsville Methodist Church.
William, an only child, inherited his father's farm and mill in October 1890, upon the death of his father. Alpha Swearingen, William's grandfather, had purchased the farm and the Pee Dee Mill from John Randall.
Harriet and William had three daughters and three sons. The first three, Mary Emma 1893, Faye 1895, and Jimmie 1896 were under six when William Lawrence was born in March 1999. He died in September 1902. Thomas Henry was born in 1904 followed by William Henry in 1910, born five and a half months after the sudden death of his father from ptomaine poisoning.
Faye, Hattie and William Parker
Hattie and William lived for several years on their farm on the Pee Dee River, adjoining the Randall Church property. They grew wheat, corn, and cotton and operated a small farm store which sold simple supplies. They continued to operate the river mill. According to their granddaughter, Mary O'Neal Branch, the kitchen was in a building outside the house for a long time. The two springs that they used were some distance from the house. The springs were covered by a spring house where food was stored Sometime before 1805, a large barn fire destroyed several horses, mules, and some outbuildings. William and Harriet were devastated by the fire and soon built a home in Norwood and moved into town.
The Parker home, still a private residence on Pee Dee Avenue in Norwood, is a two-and-one-half story Colonial Revival structure with twin chimneys. It has Tuscan columns with plain capitals leading to the front entrance on an asymmetrical wrap-around front porch. The foundation has an open brick border.
Hattie and William only lived there a short while before his sudden death. The 1900 census lists three non-family members as boarders. One was the farm caretaker, another a cook and a third was a student. .
Family tradition has maintained the story that William ate fish for dinner and drank milk at the meal. It was believed that one or the other was tainted, or the combination was toxic. Successive generations were cautioned to never eat fish and drink milk at the same meal.
Hattie was left to provide for five minor children. Apparently, William left her with sufficient funds to maintain her home but she does not appear to have lived an affluent life after his death. My grandmother, Faye, often told us of the frugal habits that she learned at home, both at the farm in her early years and later in town. Hattie took in boarders for several years. In fact, her daughter, Joanna, met her future husband when he came to dinner at the boarding house.
Hattie , an accomplished pianist, supplemented her income by teaching piano. It is known that she taught her daughters to play the piano but it is unknown if she also taught this to her sons.
Hattie kept chickens and a cow or two on Pee Dee Avenue. She tended a scuppernong grape arbor at the rear of the house. There was a smoke house and corn crib on the property. She was remembered by her grandchildren as a wonderful cook.
There were no public schools in Stanly County at this time so Hattie educated her children at home in their early years. They may have received some education from their Aunt Joanna and her husband, John Kiker, in Wadesboro. Mary Emma later attended Sullin's College in Bristol, VA. Faye attended Carolina College.
Hattie lived to see her two oldest daughters married and give birth to their children. Mary Emma married Ernest Alexander Branch in June 1915 and Faye married Bernard Dunlap Hathcock in September 1919.
Shortly before Faye's wedding, in August 1919, Harriet married John Armeanous Beachum. This was a short lived marriage but divorce records have not been located. She resumed use of the name Parker and her death certificate lists her as widow of W. H. Parker.
Harriet died September 8, 1928 in Norwood, Stanly County, NC, 61 years of age, of a cerebral hemorrhage. She is buried in Norwood cemetery. She had suffered paralysis from a stroke about two weeks prior and was attended by her physician son-in-law, Thomas A. Hathcock.
