Yin/Yang: The Bandy's in a Minute

The Bandy family is a long and storied family in North Carolina, reportedly of Irish-Scottish descent. Our brush with them is really distant. One of Johannes "John" Holler's children from his first marriage married John Bandy, linking the families. I don't plan to spend a lot of time on this family, but I did run  across a couple of things of interest all within the same family.

Lincoln and Iredell Counties were the home of most of the Holler Clan
Lincoln was split up to create Catawba County in 1842

Christeaner Holler was born about 1784 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. She married John Bandy on 04 Nov 1817 in Lincoln County. They had at least six children, among them, twins James Marcus Bandy and John Wesley Bandy, born in 1824.

James Marcus' story ends relatively soon and sadly. He was a private in Company I, 12th US Infantry Regiment and was on his way by sea to Mexico to fight in the war, when he contracted the measles and died aboard ship on 15 Jul 1847.

His twin, John Wesley married Harriet Ramsey, born 08 Feb 1823 in North Carolina. They had three children: James Marcus "Mark" and Jane Elizabeth, also twins, and Luther Henderson Bandy. Harriet died in 1871 and John Wesley remarried to Mary Weaver in 1873.

Daughter Jane married Samuel Gregory 21 Apr 1866. Her husband died before 1880. She died 29 Oct 1920 of  breast cancer complicated by Bright's Disease.

The two sons of the Bandy/Ramsey union could not have been more different from one another.

Son, Luther, the baby, was born in November 1850 and according to one family chronicler, was living with the family of Elizabeth Matilda "Til" Probst in Catawba County in 1870. He and "Til," had two children who retained the Probst name, Cora and Ched. Ched probably died as an infant.

Whether he was in common law marriage with Til is not known, but he moved on some time later and found himself charged with "bastardy" after it became apparent Elmina Canipe was having an out of wedlock child. A bastardy bond was taken out by others who then went after Luther. Jane, the daughter, was born in 1876. Luther was sent to jail and reportedly used his inherited land to get himself out of jail. There are reports that they married and that they didn't marry, but I have yet to find a marriage record. Doesn't mean there isn't one.

Finally, Luther reportedly married Nancy Aiken on 07 Feb 1887 - there is a marriage record, it's just not 100% that it was this Luther. However, by the 1920 census, he is living in Gaston County and is without wife and is listed on his death certificate as widowed when he died 07 Nov 1930 in Lincoln County. He spent his life as a common laborer and didn't manage to do a lot other than making babies outside the bonds of legal matrimony.

Confederate Drummer Boy

In contrast, his older brother, James Marcus "Mark" Bandy, from an early age was driven. He reportedly fervently believed in the Rebel cause and became a drummer boy for his North Carolina infantry unit at age 13. He enlisted 21 May 1864 in the 72nd North Carolina Regiment, Company E. The battalion was made up primarily of boys in the 16-17 year old range in the "junior reserves." He worked his way up by war's end to Lieutenant of Co B, 8th Battalion Junior Reserves, Co E 72nd NC Regt. During the battle of Bentonville, one of the war's last battles, he was made a Captain at the age of 18 (young men were being recruited to lead as replacement healthy adult males were in short supply after years of attrition). He was with his unit when it surrendered to the North.

In 1865, he married Martha Jane Leonard of Lincoln County. They had 13 children, nine of whom survived at his death. Mark was cited in his obituary as "one of the most brilliant minds our State has ever known." He graduated from Rutherford College with a teaching certificate and taught at local high school academies and later at Shelby, NC and King's Mountain Military School. He took a bachelor of arts at Trinity College, part of Duke University located in Randolph County, and was offered the position as chair of the mathematics and engineering department at Trinity, where he remained for many years and further earned his master's degree. Bandy also organized the Scientific Society at Trinity in 1889 and became its president. He was co-author of a book on mathematics as well. Professor Bandy would move to Durham when Trinity College finally joined Duke at Durham for the 1892 school year.

The Dukes would employ Prof Bandy to build a road from Durham to Duke and he was also hired by the Page Brothers to build a railroad from Ashboro to Aberdeen. His civil engineering work led to him becoming the city engineer for Greensboro. He designed the city's water system that would remain in place until 1960. His wife would die in 1905. According to this family chronicler, he met his next wife in a most charming manner:

"Mark went to a girls school in Rock Hill, SC to make a speech. While at the Faculty dinner table, he asked for the bowl of sugar in Latin. Sallie M Joyner, a widow with two children was the only one who responded. Mark married Sallie whose maiden name was Murphy. She lived to be 96 and is buried adjacent to Mark in the Bandy Plot in Green Hill Cemetery, Greensboro, NC."

Mark died of complications of a stroke at his home on State Street in Greensboro at the age of 64. He had a very large turnout at his funeral held at Market Street Methodist Church. 

The Confederate Hollers: Sidney & F Cicero Sipe

ZACHARIAH HOLLER > JOHANNES HOLLER m (1) Sally Shue > JOHN JR > LAVINIA m Joseph SIPE

North Anna River Crossing 1864

You can read about John Holler here. He was married twice. The children of his first marriage remained in his adopted North Carolina while his second wife and children of that marriage went on to pioneer in Washington County in Indiana. John's descendants fought on both sides of the war - those who remained in North Carolina, for the South.

John's son, John Jr. was born in 1783 in Catawba County, North Carolina. He was the eldest of the four known children of Johnannes (John Sr) and first wife Sally Shue. John Jr. married Sarah "Sally" Sigsmon about 1805 in North Carolina. They had at least 12 children. Among those was Lavinia.

Lavinia was born 27 May 1814 in Lincoln County. She married Joseph Sipe, Jr. on 29 Jan 1833 in North Carolina. They also had a large family, of which eight have thus far been identified. Among those were two boys, Franklin Cicero "Cicero" Sipe, born 15 Oct 1835 and Sidney Sipe, born about 1844. By the time of the War of the Rebellion, Cicero was already married to Ann Carpenter and had their first child.

The Sipe boys joined the Confederate Army 04 Jul 1862. They were assigned to Company E, 57th North Carolina Infantry.The unit saw quite a bit of action and the one most impactful to this family came during May of 1864, when Gen Grant's Army met Gen Lee's in Virginia. Rather than meet the Army head-on, Grant engaged in a series of skirmishes, willing to fight a war of attrition. The overland campaign culminated in a battle at North Anna in Central Virginia from May 23-26, 1864.

During this time, Sidney Sipe was taken prisoner, he would be sent to Camp Lookout, the largest

Point Lookout POW Camp, Maryland

northern POW camp. There were no buildings at the camp, so the prisoners slept in tents and had no clean water or steady rations. Communicable disease was the biggest killer. Here, he would die on 30 May 1865.

"Point Lookout, Maryland, located in Saint Mary's County, Maryland on the southern tip of the peninsula was deemed the largest and worst Northern POW camp. Point Lookout was constructed of fourteen foot high wooden walls. These walls surrounded an area of about 40 acres. A walkway surrounded the top of the walls where negro guards walked day and night. It is reported the guards were brutal in their treatment of prisoners. Prisoner, John R. King said; "Two days out of every three we were guarded by a gang of ignorant and cruelsome negroes. Please do not think that I dislike the negroes as a race. Many of them are my friends, but the negroes authority over the white people and the defenceless prisoners suffered at their hands. Numbers of scars were left on the frame work of the closets made by negroes firing at the prisoners. The negro guard was very insolent and delighted in tantalizing the prisoners, for some trifle affair, we were often accused of disobedience and they would say, "Look out, white man, the bottom rail is on top now, so you had better be careful for my gun has been wanting to smoke at you all day!" 

F. Cicero & Ann Carpenter Sipe

"Estimates report that over 14,000 prisoners died while imprisoned at Point Lookout but the cemetery is known to hold 3,384 soldiers in a mass grave with no evidence to back up this massive figure. According to history data received from Point Lookout State Park, " Of the 50,000 men held at the Point between 1863 and 1865, nearly 4,000 died. Ironically, however, this death rate of 8 percent was less than half the death rate among soldiers who were in the field with their own armies." As you can see, there seems to be some controversy over the number of deaths at this prison. The Confederate soldiers' bodies have been moved twice and have found their final resting place in Point Lookout Cemetery."

http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_ptlookout.html 

Sidney's brother, Private Cicero Sipe, survived the war and returned to North Carolina, where he became a stellar citizen, active in community affairs and being well-like by his peers. He lived to the ripe age of 81, in 1917, leaving behind a large family and wife of nearly 60 years. He was also a founding member of the Cherryville Lutheran Church.