One of the joys, and challenges, of “old
house” rehabilitation is what lies beneath the surface. Once layers are peeled
back, surprises, good and bad, can emerge. One such surprise, a good one, was
revealed in the rehabilitation of the historic Ivey-Ellington House in Cary,
NC. The house has long been an icon in Cary, but due to downtown Cary
redevelopment, it was moved from its original site to a prominent position on
the “showcase” Academy Street across from the new Downtown Cary Park.
Rehabilitation started as soon as the house arrived at its new home, with
exterior work starting first. Once rehabilitation moved inside, and layers
stripped away, work within a closet halted while a series of strange letters
and numbers emerged from plaster that had long been hidden from view by drywall.
Untangling this mystery in the lath and plaster of this historic home revealed
far more information than we dreamed.
Kris Carmichael, Operations & Program
Supervisor -- Historical Resources for the Town of Cary, called on researchers
on the Friends of Page Walker board of directors, Barbara Wetmore and Carla
Michaels, to help make sense of the cryptic inscription. The research began
with a simple query and a photograph:
“Hi,
I have a mystery for you. While working on the
Ivey-Ellington workers discovered a large inscription in a section of plaster
wall (see attached photo.) It looks like first initial “C” last name “Alored”
dated July 17th 1882. Who could it be. Would love your ideas!
Kris”
Barb immediately sprang into action. Barb served
as the project manager for a large transcription project of letters of one of
the oldest families in Cary which had just wrapped up, and she called in
volunteers to give their thoughts.
“We have an exciting mystery to try to
solve! See forwarded email from Kris Carmichael. With all of us
working on this, maybe we can figure it out. Please share whatever you
might find. How cool is this? Someone left us a remnant of his existence!”
As the discussion bounced around between transcribers,
Barb, and Carla, a few suggestions of different spellings of the name, thoughts
about a craftsman working on the house, and whether plasterers worked as
brick masons, based on brick making in the region. The theory emerged that the letters
were a “signature,”, but there was no clear identity of C Alored, Alford,
Allard, Allred, Aldred, C A Lores, etc, etc!
At the time that this mystery popped up, Barb
and Carla were knee-deep in research to identify all the owners and residents
of this historic house, but none seemed to be related to this mysterious
inscription. Further, the date of the plaster inscription did not line up with
the long-accepted date of construction, circa 1871. We were stumped.
Barb mulled over the J T & Bettie H Pool
family, known owners of the property and earliest confirmed residents found by
chain of title research on the parcel of land. A T Mial, a prominent and
wealthy landowner in Eastern Wake County, the previous owner, sold the property
to the Pools and the deed was recorded in April 1882. There was no indication
that Mial lived, worked or constructed a house in Cary. The date in the plaster
was July 17th, 1882. The mystery persisted.
Sometimes, “eureka moments” come when one’s
brain is well-rested, or exhausted, or when a chance “let’s give this a try” happens.
Such was the case late one evening for Carla who read Barb’s latest musings one
more time, this time on her phone. The tiny phone image, seen through bleary
eyes and late at night after a long day, popped out in a different way. The
name magically appeared as “C A Creel.” Carla’s heart skipped a beat because she
knew from her personal local history research that a Creel family lived
around Cary and wondered if they lived here in the 1880s. Free research tip: enlarging
images can help a lot, but minimizing images can have advantages as well.
Carla searched on Ancestry with: C
A Creel, born 1850 plus or minus 10 years (a guess), lived in Cary 1880.
She didn't get a reasonable hit, so she tried an
1860 birth date plus or minus 10, and bingo, The family of John Creel
popped up, with a son Charles A Creel, age 9 in the household, rendering a birth date for Charles of
around 1861. In 1870, the family was in Orange County. Charles’ handwriting in
the plaster was very neat, especially since it had been scribed in wet plaster.
He must have had good schooling, probably in Orange County, to form his letters
so carefully and beautifully.
1870 U S Federal Census excerpt,
Orange County, Chapel Hill Township
In 1880 the family was in Cary, so the move
happened in between the censuses. The father was listed as a brick mason in
1870 in Orange County, and both the father and son were listed as brick
masons in 1880, which picked up on the idea that Barb had about brick
masons also doing plaster.
1880 U S Federal Census, Wake County,
Cary Township
The dual skill of plasterer and brick mason
was confirmed by a newspaper article about the father John Creel and his work
on the Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro, NC, in 1882. An excerpt:
Chatham Record (newspaper), June 17,
1882
Back to the story of our plasterer. Charles A Creel
was married on Nov 21, 1881, to Nora Haithcock of Chatham County, NC shortly
before he autographed his work in wet plaster. The image below is difficult to
read, but it shows Charles M Creel marrying Nora M Haithcock. We have confirmed
by other documents that this is the correct marriage certificate for Charles A
Creel.
North Carolina, Marriage Records,
1741-2011, Chatham County, Marriage Register (1851-1977)
The first child of Charles and Nora arrived under
a year later in September of 1882. The couple had another child on the way when
tragedy struck on July 25, 1884.
The Wilmington Morning Star, Tuesday, July
29, 1884
The above newspaper clipping stated that he
had heart disease. Charles A Creel is buried at the historic Hillcrest Cemetery in Cary, NC.
Although little else is known from public
records about Charles A Creel, many newspaper clippings and other sources
provide information about John W Creel, the father. Creel became
a stockholder in Cary High School when the Jones family sold the private
institution.
Cary High School Catalog for the year
1906-1907
Another newspaper clipping shows Cary citizen
Capt. Harrison P Guess going around town drumming up subscriptions to a
newspaper. This snapshot of some Cary citizens includes the name of C A Creel. T
B Creel was Teasley/Tinsley Brantlett Creel, Charles A Creel’s older brother.
The Farmer and Mechanic, Wednesday, October
25, 1882
Barb was amused by the above newspaper
clipping about Capt. Guess rounding up subscriptions. In it, the reporter
refers to Cary as:
"The clever little town that is
destined to grow."
Carla was intrigued by the follow-on phrase:
“and wear seven-league boots, one of these days.” Seven-league boots harken
back to European folklore, and the phrase means a pair of boots enabling
the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride, enabling great
progress with great speed. Oh, if the townspeople of the 1880s could see their
little town now Cary’s recent development spurt, they would agree we are indeed
fulfilling the prognostication made almost 150 years ago!
Further research shows that the baby who was
unborn at the time of its father’s death was a little girl, named Charles “Charlie”
Elizabeth Creel in memory of the father she would never know. An Ancestry.com
public family tree, jenclem0791, posted this lovely photo of Charlie. She was a
classic "Gibson Girl."
Charlie’s mother later remarried and lived in
Pittsboro, Chatham County, NC, and Charlie lived in the household with her
mother and step-father until she married George R Stallings in 1908. She died in
May 1983 at the remarkable age of 98 and was buried in Pittsboro. One of her
sons, Godfrey Charles Stallings had a long life as well. He was a resident of
Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary at the time of his death at age 97 in 2012 and
may or may not have known about his family's roots in Cary, certainly not the
signature in plaster.
So, the mystery encased in plaster has been
resolved, but some mystery surrounding the Ivey-Ellington House remains. Stay
informed of future mysteries uncovered by subscribing to the Friends of the
Page Walker, Cary’s Historical Society’s newsletter, The Innkeeper, here:
https://www.friendsofpagewalker.org/Mailing-List
