My visit with cousin Josie, age 105

Last year I found out that a first cousin of my maternal great grandmother was still alive at the age of 105 and called her daughter to arrange a visit. Josie is legally blind and cannot hear very well but she is still living independently in her house in Rowan County, NC. She was very curious as to why I was so interested in hearing about her life but was very eager to tell me her memories of our family. I had hoped she could help me identify people in some old family photos from a reunion the the 1920's but she couldn't see well enough. She showed me her old photo album and because the photos hadn't been labeled she could no longer tell me who they were. Label your photos! She told me she owes her longevity to a good, clean life. "I never smoke or drank, and I never went to those dancing parties on the side of the road."

Her memories of her granddad (my 3rd great grandfather Jacob Correll):
Granddad owned 30 slaves and had five houses for them on his property. The females never had to work outside the house. The slaves loved Granddad but said Grandmother was strict. We were told she was part Indian (not documented). When they were freed they wanted to stay there and Granddad told them they could keep living in their houses but they had to find employment elsewhere. I worked with some of the descendants of these slaves in the cotton mill and they would come up and tell me they always heard how good my granddad was to their grandparents. Granddad had a mill on his property and he also built and sold furniture. He built the pews for Mt. Zion Church but it burned a long time ago. I always heard he gave them the land to build the church on. Granddad was a very prominent and influential citizen and he had paid employees working for him.

Josie then told me that the old house is haunted by a cousin named "Pinkston" that her grandparents took in because she had mental problems and no one wanted her. She said Pinkston is the only person buried on the property and they used to hear her dragging things down the stairs at night. Interestingly, there is an M.L. (Mary) Pinkston buried on the family plot at the cemetery right next to my grandparents. So much for that ghost story!

Josie doesn't remember ever meeting my great or 2nd great (her aunt) grandmothers but was able to tell me some things about a few other people in the family.