January 9 marks the anniversary of the death of my great-great grandmother, Rosa Tuten Whitford.
Rosa Keul (sometimes Kewell) Tuten was born on 1 May 1849 at Durhams Creek, Beaufort County, North Carolina. This is speculation, but Rosa Tuten could possibly be named after Rosa Stewart Kewell, daughter of Rev. Alexander Stewart and wife of John Kewell of Beaufort County, or their daughter Rose Kewell Robason, wife of Jesse Robason, as there is a connection between the Robason and Jones families of Beaufort County. The family of Rosa K. Tuten in Craven County spells her middle name Keul. In fact her son, Ira, used the name Keul as a middle name for one of his sons. Most other sources, including the family Bible, spell Rosa’s name as Kewell. [Birth from Tuten Family Bible, available online at US GenWeb Archives, visited 2 January 2015.]
Rosa married Lewis David Whitford, son of John Martin Whitford and Mary A. Outlaw, on 29 April 1875 in Beaufort County, North Carolina. [Marriage from Louise Cowell, Brides Index for Beaufort County, NC: Vol. 1: 1847-1909 (Washington, NC: Beaufort County Genealogical Society, 1994), p. 183.] On 31 January 1891, Rosa’s husband Lewis died, leaving her with six children ranging in ages from 2 to 15. The children were John Malcolm (b. 1876), Rosebud (b. 1880), Mary Martha (b. 1881), Lewis Robinson “Rob” (b. 1883), Cora Eugenia (b. 1885), and Ira Edgar (b. 1889). Another son, Thomas (b. 1878), died earlier as a young child. Rosebud would die about eight months after her father, on 8 September 1891.
While Lewis was living, the family lived at the edge of the Great Pocosin up the Griffin Road (also currently known locally as the Isaac Road), which is a pulp wood road off of Hills Neck Road. Family lore states that after the death Lewis, Rosa was so afraid that a bear would get the children that she bought the Dunn place on High Bridge road and moved there to be closer to neighbors. Not long after moving into the new home a bear was seen in the garden. There may be some truth to the lore, as The Daily Journal (New Bern) on 14 March 1895, reported that “On Tuesday, the 8th inst., a medium sized bear was killed in the Methodist church yard at Little Swift Creek. The dogs got after the bear in the swamp nearby and the bear ran to the church yard, which is on the main road, and climbed one of the trees, and there Mr. Toler of the neighborhood shot him.” The Methodist Church (Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church, South) was next door to Rosa’s house and directly across from High Bridge Cemetery on High Bridge Road (then known as the Pamlico Road–more on that in a later post).
Rosa served as the postmistress for Zorah beginning in October 1895, when she replaced Amariah Toler, who had resigned his office and moved to Blount’s Creek. She resigned in 1899, being replaced by Silas Fulcher. According to the Official Register of the United States for 1897, she was paid $13.14 for her services as postmistress. [Appointment date from Daily Charlotte Observer, 8 October 1895; resignation from The Daily Journal (New Bern), 13 December 1899.]
In August 1902, Rosa served as secretary for the newly formed Zorah chapter of the Woman’s Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses in North Carolina. According to Miss Leah Jones, “one of the supervising teachers in the practice school of the North Carolina State Normal College” and a leader in the statewide campaign to better school houses, the “school-house in Zorah does not look any better than the one at Kit Swamp, but the people seemed intelligent and well-to-do. They had built a kind of arbor, or pavillion, covered with branches, for dancing, and around this the people gathered while Mr. Brinson [Craven County’s School Superintendent] talked to them of the importance and necessity of education…and I told them of the helpfulness of a comfortable and attractive school-house and pictures, and how they might improve and beautify the school-house by a little effort.” [R.D.W. Connor, The Woman’s Association for the Betterment of Public School Houses in North Carolina (Raleigh: State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1906), quotes from p. 33 and p. 43; available online at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/betterment/betterment.html, visited 2 January 2015.]
Rosa died on 9 January 1907 in the Zorah community and is buried in the Whitford Cemetery in the present day Caton Community. [Death notice from the New Berne Weekly Journal, 15 January 1907, p.3; from Newspapers.com, visited 2 Janaury 2015]
