LAY Family: And the work begins

John David "Big Valley"
Dave Lay (Nancy Lay's big brother)

Nancy Lay (abt. 1768-abt. 1860) is the daughter of Jesse Lay, Sr., who is one of several children of John Lay, who died when young leaving his wife Elizabeth alone. There is so much to the Lay family story and for the genealogists among us, trying to sort through the Lay family as various parts made their way through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There is an extemely short list of names each successive generation used, causing lots of confusion and consternation is sorting them all out. 

Then, I discovered the Lay Family Genealogical Association, Inc., a group who has been operating for many, many years and have several very serious genealogists who have unraveled much of the tree. Unfortunately, and this impression may not be 100% correct, it looks like the active pubhlished work of the organization died out in 2016. The leader of the group, a woman of great skill, died in 2017. Much of this research was published in Lay of the Land, a publication of the group. These are no longer in print. I got a copy from a very generous Wikiteer who also guided me to other sources, including some of his own scholarship.

I am sorting this Lay family information now, but I believe it will take some time to do so.  I also got a couple of resource names that are also out of print: Gilbert Lay's Lay Family Geneaology and Arlie Lay's Lay Family History.

If you have copies of any of these or know where to get them, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Clan William: Chester Case Lord and Julia Elizabeth Munson

Chester Case Lord

Today's Munson is Julia Elizabeth Munson "Elizabeth" of Montreat, North Carolina. Elizabeth and Chester lived the good life in a village founded specifically on religious principals in the beautiful Flat Creek Valley surrounded by mountains on three sides in Buncombe County, North Carolina.

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > William Munson II> Seba Munson > George Pardee Munson > Julia Elizabeth Munson m. Chester Case Lord

Chester Lord was born in Killingworth, CT, 09 Sep 1857, but lived with his family in Cheshire after his birth. He was the son of Benjmain and Antoinette Goodrich Case Lord. In 1883, he married Juline Louisa Atwater, daughter of Elizur Punderson and Julia Augusta Hemingway Atwater. Juline was five years Chester's senior. Chester farmed with Juline's father for several years. During this time, he was a fervent advocate of the Grange Movement and led the charge in Cheshire to institute The Grange in 1885 [1]. 

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. The financial crisis of 1873, along with falling crop prices, increases in railroad fees to ship crops, and Congress’s reduction of paper money in favor of gold and silver devastated farmers’ livelihoods and caused a surge in Grange membership in the mid-1870s. Both at the state and national level, Grangers gave their support to reform-minded groups such as the Greenback Party, the Populist Party, and, eventually, the Progressives.[2]

In 1889, he was a foreman at hardware manufacturer Sargent & Co. in New Haven. Lord's health was suffering, so he decided to move to a better climate in 1897. His wife, Juline, and young children, Robert Atwater Lord (1887-1972) and Margery Juline Lord (1891-1984) remained in New Haven while he scouted a new place to live in The Mountain Retreat, Buncombe County, North Carolina.

The Mountain Retreat sat nestled in between  mountains on three sides. It was selected by the evangelist Rev John C Collins, of New Haven who wanted to create a mountain retreat community and a health resort for rescue mission workers. The first program was held in July 1897.  Think annual tent camp religion. People would come and gather, sleep in platform tents and worship in large open areas, seated at benches in the great outdoors. The retreat grew and the village became Montreat. I  higly recommend reading the full story of the retreat here.

C C Lord and family became the first residents of Montreat and built the first house in the area.  The home was 18 x 24 and two stories. [5] After the house was built, the family, wife Juline, son Robert Atwater Lord (1887-1972) and Margery Lord (1891-1981) joined Chester in Montreat in 1898. The family hosted boarders who were missionaries who were looking for respite after serving their tours of duty. After just months in Montreat, Lord's health was improved and he put on twenty pounds, according to his Connecticut doctor who had visited the Lord's in North Carolina.

Photo: Preservation Society of Asheville Buncombe

Photo: Preservation Society of Asheville Buncombe

By 1899, the village continued to grow, particularly during the summer months. Montreat sported a school, post office, hotel, circulating library and a temporary bank. Housing was booming too and 20 new cottages were built. Montreat was on its way.

Elizabeth Munson Lord

The Lord's had brought Juline's mother down to Montreat in 1899 and she suddenly died of pneumonia. Months later, Juline Atwater Lord died  on September 28, 1900. She left now 12-year-old Robert and 8-year-old Margery.  Juline was just 48.  The children were left well-provided the inheritance Juline left and the money would even send Margery to medical school years later. 

Just a year later, on 11 Oct 1901, C C went to New Haven and married Julia Elizabeth Munson. Julia went by Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a first cousin to Juline. Julia's mother was sister to Juline's father. 

The lives of the Lords went on in Montreat. C C joined the board of the Mountain Retreat Association, which was in charge of all parts of development in Montreat. He became the Secretary/Recorder of the management committee. He also served in several other capacities, including as general manager in 1904. 

Housing was of foremost concern during the "tourist" months. Lord built a 2-story boarding house for the coming summer that was named, "Truda" on the Lord property. It became a very popular destination within Montreat.

Chester and Elizabeth Lord in front of their Truda Cottage
Photo: Preservation Society of Ashville Bumcombe

Lord had fingers in lots of pies in Montreat. In addition to running his boarding house and civic activities, he also became a bit of a real estate developer. He would take unimproved lots and improve them and sell them at a profit. 

Lord's religious interests continued as well, and in 1906, a small group of citizens got together to form a Presbyterian church. In 1908, Lord built a grocery store next to the post office. He sold the store to the Association in 1914. 

In 1922, Lord created a 10-room addition to his home and renovated much of the old property. He was also named Postmaster of Montreat. Lord remained post officer until 1932, when he was 75. 

Photo: Preservation Society of Ashevill Buncombe

Unfortunately, this is also the year that his wife Elizabeth died of breast cancer at age 60.  A service was held in Montreat and her body was taken for a funeral back in Cheshire. She was buried in Hillside Cemetery next to her cousin, Juline Atwater Lord, Chester's first wife.

In 1926, Lord bought into the reorganized Black Mountain Lumber Company and was one of two major owners. The same year, he joined two partners to start the Spruce Pine Lumber Company.  Seems he was never going to retire, but he did slow down. He lived his last years working with the Presbyterian church as an elder and attended to Association business. On May 8, 1942, he passed away at age 86. He left all of his holdings in Montreat to his daughter, Dr. Margery Lord, with whom he shared his home in his last years.

[1]The Connecticut Granges: An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the Patrons of Husbandry : Sketches of the State, Pomona, and Subordinate Granges of Connecticut, with Valuable Statistics, Notices of Prominent Members, Portraits, and Illustrations; New Haven Publishing Company, New Haven, Connecticut, 1900
[2] The Gilder Lehman Institute of American History, History Resources, The Grange Movement 1875; https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/grange-movement-1875
[3] Presbyterian Heritage Center, History, retrieved 7/10/22, https://phcmontreat.org/montreathistory-Collins-Gales.htm
[4] Preservation Society of Asheville, Buncombe, retrieved 7/10/22, https://psabc.org/chester-lord-of-lord-place-and-the-start-of-the-pretty-little-religious-village-of-montreat/
[5] The Alumnae Record by Salem College (Winston-Salem, N.C.), 1924

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.