Tobytha Brantley Looking for Information About Her Mother Who Was a Slave in Pittsboro, Aug. 30, 1923

Colored Woman Asks Help. . . One of the Old Slavery-Time Women Seeking Relatives and Friends

The letter below as mailed to us by Col. Fred A. Olds from Raleigh in the hopes that we could help “aunt Tabitha” a bit. If anyone knows anything of the folks she wants to hear from, The Record will be glad to have it, or it can be mailed to Mr. Olds, or the writer of the letter. Here is the letter:

Col. Fred A. Olds,

Hon. Sir:--Your name has been given me for an assistance on obtaining all necessary information I am seeking for. Seventy-two years ago my mother was taken and brought to this state. She was living near a town called Pittsboro, a place called Chatham, I suppose a county. He was then 12 years of age; at the time she was living with a man named Joe Thomas, whose wife was named Christine. There were two children when she left them, George a boy and Annie, a little baby girl.

Her mother was taken away from her, Mahala was her name, 84 years of age. Mahala’s mother was named Lidda. She remembers her mother did live with a family by the name of Avings, but was sent away from there but not very far off, but she did not learn the name of her last owner. Mahala’s father was named Handy and he lived with a family named Cox.

There were four Thomas brothers—Joe, Baxter, Luther and John. Their neighbors at that time was a family named John Warmack, Alvis Avings and George Avings. If there were any more children borne by Lida after Mahala left her, I would be more than glad to trace them up, even if there is one in the state of North Carolina.

I have been informed that you are historical and are able to give account of many years passed.

I am not expecting to hear of Handy or either ?? to be living at this time but perhaps some of their descendants.

If by any cause you can not give me no information concerning them please consult some one that has lived in Chatham and Pittsboro, one that is passed 80 years.

Please remember I am seeking relatives of Mahala Walters who was brought from North Carolina about the year 1841.

Please see stamps for reply.

Yours eagerly waiting reply,

Tobytha Brantley

Wrightsville, Ga., Rt. 2, Box 57

P.S. Please give me some history of the Thomas brothers. What became of them and their children; also the Coxes, the Avings, the Warmacks.

From the front page of The Chatham Record, Pittsboro, N.C., Thursday, Aug. 30, 1923