My Odell ancestor is Nehemiah Odell. He lived in Randolph County, North Carolina. Nehemiah Odell has a headstone that reads died July 1783 aged 40 years. Now for the story line: This Nehemiah Odell is claimed in published books to have come from Ireland by way of Nova Scotia, then to Portland Maine, then to North Carolina. When I first heard this, my reaction was WOW!! how did this man accomplish all these things? My next approach was to to prove all these published accounts...which prove more difficult than what I had envisioned. *************** Facts on Nehemiah Odell: 1. He spoke his LW&T, 8 November 1790 2. He turned over his Revolutionary War vouchers in 1790. 3. He was listed on the First census of the United States in 1790. 4. He was called to be a Juror in Randolph Co. NC. in 1789. 5. He was on the Petition Listing those that wanted the county seat moved to a more central location....County Commissioners Petition dated 1785. 6. He was a soldier during the Rev. War with John Allred. 7. He is listed on the first County Tax List of Randolph County. 8. He was listed as Regulator in March 1768. 9. His grandson, James Odell, told in 1880 that his father was born in North Carolina. 10. The father of James was Isaac and the father of Isaac was Nehemiah Odell. 11. Isaac Odell, son of Nehemiah Odell, was born in 1765. 12. This places Nehemiah Odell in North Carolina in 1765. ********* Back to the Headstone that reflects a death date of 1783 for Nehemiah Odell. This Headstone, with Isaac Odells, Solomon Trogdon, Abigail Julian Trogdon, and Mary Julian Odell were identical stones. The death range on these 5 Headstones were from 1783 through 1860. I had to ask my self...how could this be? I did some more research and found that during those days, Headstones were chiseled out and then written on by a Stone Mason. I also found out that all Stone Masons work did not all look a like? Suggesting that these 5 identical Headstones were in truth cut by the same Stone Mason, and that his works was completed after the last death in 1860. I had to ask my self WHY, did this all come about? I then asked for Profession help. ******* I was told that this cemetery is written about in many letters that are stored in the Hall of Records in Annapolis Maryland, in the Rebecca Downey White Collections. One letter tell that people whom lived nearby this cemetery ask a young man to go and clean the headstones. This young man went to the cemetery and cleaned a few, but decided to remove the stones for a day or so to clean them at his folks home. Bad weather came and removed all recollections of where the stone had been. These OLD stone were taken back to the home and placed behind the barn. These Old stones were eventually sold for footings in barns and under homes of the area. The people of this neighborhood wanted to replace the Old stones with new ones in respect to their buried ancestors, but even that proved to costly. ******* That is how this cemetery was missed up. That is why the Headstone of Nehemiah Odell reads: Died 1783. ******* Another letter found in the Hall of Records, tells this story: Nehemiah Odell was kicked in the head by a horse on 8 November 1790 and died 3 days later. ******* That is why his Non-Cupative LW&T has the date of 8 November 1790. (non-cupative) means spoken....Nehemiah spoke his LW&T to Isacc Julian Jr. his brother-in-law. ******* More to come, if you would like to read about him?
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:37:26 +0000
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