Caswell County Genealogy
 

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Long, William

Long, William

Male 1801 - 1876  (75 years)

Personal Information    |    Media    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Long, William  [1
    Birth 7 Mar 1801  North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Gender Male 
    Reference Number 4399 
    Death 22 May 1876  [2
    Burial Family Cemetery, Hamer, Caswell County, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I4339  Caswell County
    Last Modified 13 Oct 2023 

    Family 1 Johnston, Sarah Donoho,   b. 12 Dec 1806, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 27 Apr 1851 (Age 44 years) 
    Marriage 21 Oct 1828 
    Reference Number 33413 
    Children 
    +1. Living
     2. Living
     3. Living
     4. Living
     5. Long, William Stephens,   b. 1831   d. 1870 (Age 39 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
    +6. Long, Frances E.,   b. 4 Dec 1837, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 24 Jun 1908, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 70 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
    +7. Long, Marion,   b. 13 Jan 1842   d. 18 Jan 1906 (Age 64 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
    +8. Long, James Monroe,   b. 6 Sep 1843, Caswell County, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 18 Dec 1919 (Age 76 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
    Family ID F1273  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 13 Oct 2023 

    Family 2 Richmond, Margaret Anna,   b. 1840   d. 25 Sep 1901, Caswell County, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 61 years) 
    Marriage 16 Jun 1872  Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Reference Number 33172 
    Children 
     1. Living
    +2. Long, Willie Elizabeth,   b. 29 May 1873, Milton Township, Caswell County, North Carolina Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 2 Feb 1950 (Age 76 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
    Family ID F2352  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 13 Oct 2023 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 7 Mar 1801 - North Carolina Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 16 Jun 1872 - Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos
    William Long
    'Cherry Hill'
    'Cherry Hill'
    'Cherry Hill' Parlor
    'Cherry Hill' Thomas Day Stair Detail

    Newspapers
    William Long Yellow Tobacco Letter to Editor. The Torchlight (Oxford, NC), 30 May 1876
    William Long Yellow Tobacco Letter to Editor. The Torchlight (Oxford, NC), 30 May 1876

  • Notes 
    • William Long (1801-1876)

      William Long (1801-1876)

      (for larger image, click on photograph)
      _______________

      His home, Cherry Hill, was in the Hamer Community of Caswell County. In 1856 William Long built the plantation house on Cherry Hill Farm. He used his own water-powered sawmill to generate the lumber needed. Free black cabinetmaker from Milton, Thomas Day, provided some of the architectural details and furnishings. This includes the hall balustrade and the mantel for the parlor fireplace. A bill from Thomas Day in the possession of the family shows that the balustrade and mantel were delivered late and the price reduced by Thomas Day.

      Source: The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina, Jeannine D. Whitlow, Editor (1985) at 362 (Article No. 452, "William Long, Sarah D. Johnston Long, and Margaret Anna Richmond Long" by Mrs. Currie Kerr Thompson).
      _______________

      The house at Cherry Hill Farm, the Long House, is shown at page 129 of An Inventory of Historic Architecture: Caswell County, North Carolina, Ruth Little-Stokes (1979) along with the following text:

      Photo 162. Long House. 1856. Unusual Boom Era type house with heavy Italianate details, including segmental-arched porch bays, paneled porch posts and corner posts, and bracketed eaves. Rest of structure is Greek Revival in style. Exterior end brick chimneys, one with a dated brick.
      _______________

      Also in the Ruth Little-Stokes book is a photograph of the William Long Grist Mill (page 130) and the following commentary:

      Photo 164. William Long Grist Mill. Late 19th century. Shell of a 2-story frame turbine powered grist mill on a stone foundation. The mill operated until ca. 1941. The turbine wheel and a mill stone are preserved at the nearby Long House.
      _______________

      "At the first North Carolina State Fair in 1853, Y. and E. P. Jones of Yanceyville won $5 and a diploma for the best specimen of manufactured chewing tobacco, while W. & J. D. Long of Caswell County received a diploma for a fine specimen of tobacco. At the second State Fair in 1854, C. H. Richmond was awarded $10 for a tobacco press." Source: The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina, Jeannine D. Whitlow, Editor (1985) at 70 ("Tobacco" by W. Ernest Blaylock).
      _______________

      The following is from When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777-1977, William S. Powell (1977) at 476:

      "The Farmer's Journal, closely associated with the State Agricultural Society, published a paper in its April, 1854, number that had been read before the Caswell County Agricultural Society. In the paper, prepared by a committee composed of John A. Graves, N. M. Roan, E. P. Jones, Thos. D. Johnston, Thos. Bigalow, and S. P. Hill, a comparison was made between agricultural conditions in Caswell County and those in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The superiority of the Pennsylvania county in value of land, value of farm equipment, and in other areas, was credited to the good work of an agricultural society. A clear call was made for scientific study and improvement at home. Reading the Farmer's Journal was recommended to planters and farmers in Caswell and E. C. (probably E. P.) and Y. Jones, A. Willis, and William Long were agents to receive subscriptions."
      _______________

      The following is from Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (2010) (various pages and footnotes):

      In 1856 William Long paid [Thomas] Day $32 for two rocking chairs ($16 each), an indication that rocking chairs that Day priced at more than $10 were upholstered. See William Long Papers, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, State Archives, Raleigh.
      _______________

      The owners of the homes in which Thomas Day's architectural woodwork is found constituted some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in the Dan River region: physician John Tab Garland, M.D., at one time the richest man in Caswell County (1850s and 1860s); banker and civic leader Thomas Donoho Johnston; machine shop, foundry, and sawmill owner Caleb Richmond; state senator James Kerr; merchant and tobacco factory owner John Wilson; planters William Long (also the owner of a sawmill and gristmill), Sidney Lea, George Williamson, Haywood Williams, Thomas Mumford McGehee, and William H. Holderness.

      Family relationships among the planters enhanced the demand for Thomas-Day-made architectural trimwork. Thomas Donoho Johnston built Clarendon Hall in 1842 and tapped Day to embellish the interior; when his sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and William Long, built the Long House in 1856, they, too, turned to Day. Day provided the architectural woodwork for the house of Captain Carter Powell around 1848 and that of his son Henry Alexander Powell less than a decade later. Thomas L. Lea and his siblings Sidney S. Lea and Rebecca Lea (Mrs. George Williamson), his niece Elizabeth Lea (Mrs. Calvin Graves), and his daughter Ann Lea (Mrs. William Griffin Graves) provided Day the opportunity to do the woodwork on a law office and four of their five houses between 1840 and 1850.

      The woodwork suggests the Carter Powell house was built around 1848 rather than the more often cited 1850. Day's machine-cut newels with tendrils date Henry Powell's house to 1853-1855. Day's work for Elizabeth Lea and Calvin Graves was not on their house, as it was built several years earlier, but on Calvin's law office, for which Day supplied the mantel. For a discussion of this family, see Whitlow, "Thomas L. Lea," in Heritage of Caswell County, 354.

      Source: Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (2010) at 134-135 and 246 (footnote 10).
      _______________

      Beyond the letters documenting Thomas Day's work for the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies at the University of North Carolina, few written records link Day to his architectural woodwork. A single reference to the deduction of $4 for "not finish of fire piece" in Day's account sheet for William Long directly connects Day to the woodwork at the Long House, but even this sparse record is unusual.

      Source: Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color, Patricia Phillips Marshall and Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (2010) at 248 (footnote 32).
      _______________

      "Hi Rick. I visit old grave yards and repair broken gravestones. Tomorrow I am replacing the stone of William Long my great great Uncle. Hwy 62 between Milton and Yanceyville. (1801-1876)." Source: Lee Brandon 23 October 2021 Post to RSF Facebook Page.
      _______________

      Bright Leaf Tobacco Discovery Controversy

      That bright leaf tobacco was discovered in 1839 by enslaved person Steven on the Blanch farm of Abisha Slade generally has been accepted as "history." See the North Carolina historical marker on the subject.

      However, in 1876 Caswell County's William Long (1801-1876) took exception to this in his letter to the editor of "The Torchlight" newspaper (Oxford, NC):

      Caswell Co., N.C., April 7, 1876

      Dear Sir -- I delayed answering your inquiry as to who was the first man that cured yellow tobacco in Caswell, and I see you have learned that Mr. Abishai [sic] Slade was considered to be that man and more that it occurred in the year 1756. This is a great mistake.

      I cured yellow tobacco myself as early as 1826, and I do not by any means claim to be the first man. Who the first man was I really do not know; but of this I am not mistaken as to the time. I married in 1828, and before I married (as above stated, in 1826), I cured yellow tobacco. The third curing I made after I was settled, namely, in 1831. I met W. N. Thomas of Pittsylvania County, Va., in the streets of Milton, and we both fell to bragging about our yellow. He went home with me, and as I had to cure my leaf that night, he went with me, and we cured it as handsomely as any I have ever seen.

      The effort to produce this sort of tobacco was general among our planters at that time. The Slade family were the most prominent; they had very fine land, and their names were at the head of the list. I do not pretend for a moment to take away from those enterprising men the credit that is so justly their due, but write merely to set you right in the way of dates. If you could have recourse to the old warehouse books you would find that between 1830 and 1820 this fine yellow tobacco sold at figures as high as from $70 to $200 per hundred pounds.

      William Long

      Source: "The Torchlight" (Oxford, NC), 30 May 1876.
      _______________

      On October 21, 1828, William Long (1801-1876) married Sarah Donoho Johnston (1806-1851).
      _______________

      1850 United States Federal Census
      Name: William Long
      Age: 49
      Birth Year: abt 1801
      Birthplace: North Carolina
      Home in 1850: Caswell, North Carolina
      Gender: Male
      Family Number: 79
      Household Members: Name Age
      William Long 49
      Sallie D Long 43
      Dixon Long 20
      William Long 18
      David Long 16
      Thos Long 14
      Francis Long 12
      Mary A Long 8
      Manroe Long 6

      1860 United States Federal Census (unconfirmed record)
      Name: Wm Long
      Age in 1860: 59
      Birth Year: abt 1801
      Birthplace: North Carolina
      Home in 1860: Caswell, North Carolina
      Gender: Male
      Post Office: Leasburg
      Household Members: Name Age
      Wm Long 59
      F E Long 22
      M A Long 18
      J M Long 16

      1870 United States Federal Census
      Name: William Long
      Age in 1870: 69
      Birth Year: abt 1801
      Birthplace: North Carolina
      Home in 1870: Milton, Caswell, North Carolina
      Race: White
      Gender: Male
      Post Office: Milton
      Household Members: Name Age
      William Long 69
      Fannie Long 25
      Monroe Long 26
      James Long 21
      Flora Long 12
      William Long 7
      Lilliam Long 6
      Nancy Johnson 67
      _______________

      1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules
      Home in 1860: Caswell, North Carolina
      Name of Slave Owner: William Long
      All Slaves Owned: Age Gender
      60 Male
      58 Male
      53 Male
      52 Male
      49 Male
      48 Female
      43 Male
      42 Male
      40 Male
      38 Female
      33 Female
      33 Female
      31 Female
      39 Female
      35 Female
      31 Female
      23 Male
      23 Male
      21 Male
      20 Male
      17 Female
      17 Female
      15 Male
      15 Male
      15 Male
      15 Female
      14 Male
      13 Female
      12 Female
      13 Male
      12 Male
      12 Male
      12 Male
      9 Female
      9 Female
      10 Female
      12 Female
      8 Female
      7 Male
      7 Male
      7 Male
      6 Male
      6 Male
      6 Female
      5 Female
      5 Female
      11 Female
      4 Male
      4 Male
      4 Female
      _______________

  • Sources 
    1. Details: The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina, Jeannine D. Whitlow, Editor (1985) at 532-533 (Article #723 "Currie Kerr Thompson I, and Willie Elizabeth Long Thompson" by Hattie Mae Winstead Thompson).

    2. Details: The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina, Jeannine D. Whitlow, Editor (1985) at 362 (Article #452 "William Long, Sarah D. Johnston Long, and Margaret Anna Richmond Long" by Mrs. C. K. Thompson).