Benjamin Hines Jr. (1807-1867)

Benjamin Jr. born September 13, 1807 in Virginia. He was the sixth child of Benjamin (1776) and Elizabeth Hines. He married Lucy Ruffin Simmons (1805-1865) in Southampton County, Virginia on December 2, 1829.

Southampton's fertile uplands produced an abundance of cotton and tobacco, rice and corn, and other food crops including hay for the animals. The bottomlands were good for keeping pigs and grazing cattle, sheep, oxen, mules, and horses - work horses most of them, but also some bred for hunting or for racing. The later was re-emerging as a popular gambling sport, not without severe critics among the more righteous people of Southampton.

Turner Farm

Many farmers also cultivated apple and peach orchards, and operated stills for the manufacture of cider and brandy - especially the apple brandy whose fine reputation extended far beyond the county, making it a major cash-earning export. The county's plentiful loblolly pines provided lumber, shingles, turpentine and barrel staves for domestic use, plus lumber and tar for naval construction. Houses and cabins, most of plain design and simple construction, were made more pleasing to the eyes by colorful patches of lovingly tended flowers - also more pleasing to the nose, amid the strongly competing odors of the privies and pastures, sties and stables. Wild animal life abounded. The Nottoway teemed with fish, great snapping turtles, quickly slithering water moccasins, hovering dragonflies, and jitterbus skittering across the water's surface. The forests and swamps were alive with deer, squirrels, rabbits, beavers, and possums. Jerusalem, the only town of any size or consequence in Southampton, had been created by the General Assembly in 1791 on 10 acres of land along the Nottoway - created partly because the county courthouse was already there, partly to provide a central marketing place, to improve Southampton's economy. The town's 25 dwellings accommodated four general mercantile stores, two inns (one of which the stage-coaches to elsewhere paused), two taverns, a carriage-maker's shop, the offices of two resident doctors, three resident lawyers, plus the Masonic hall and of course, the courthouse and the jail, near the bridge. Jerusalem's population of approximately 175 increased significantly on days when court was in session.

In August 1831 a slave rebellion led by Nat Turner occurred within miles of the Plantation owned by Benjamin Jr. This event must have influenced the lives of Benjamin who was 24, his wife Lucy was 5 months pregnant, and their family included a 2 year old girl. On August 21st in the woods on the plantation of Joseph Travis six slaves met with Nat Turner and the rebellion began. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white people they found using knives, hatchets, axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms.

Within three miles of Jerusalem, 50 or 60 slaves were effectively stopped at the Plantation of Mr. Parker when they were met by their armed planters. The Rebellion resulted in at least 50 white men, women, and children being killed. Over 100 blacks were killed, the number of black victims far exceeded the number of rebels which ultimately numbered about 70 enslaved and free blacks. The rebellion was suppressed within 48 hours, but Turner eluded capture for months. Rumors went flying throughout the state. Some accounts put the negroes at three hundred, all well mounted and armed, with two or three white men as leaders. On Sunday October 30th Nat Turner surrendered near Francis Plantation.

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/natturner/a/turnerrebellion.htm

Benjamin Jr. and his wife migrated to North Carolina around 1832. They probably lived near the lines of Hertford and Northampton, near Murfreesboro. They had at least 12 children. Henrietta (September 30, 1830-October 11,1831). Arland Parker (1831-1901) born on December 19, 1831 in Southampton County Virginia. He appears as head of household in the 1860 census of Herford County, where he is listed as a Master Carriage Maker. He was married in November 1855 to Frances Thomas Spiers (1837-1895), daughter of Thomas Spiers. Also in the household was brother George W., as an apprentice to the coach maker. Arland and his brothers owned and operated the Hines Buggy Works in Murfreesboro, North Carolina in the latter part of the 19th Century. He died in 1901 in Hertford County North Carolina.

James T. (1833) their 3rd child, he is a direct descendant of the family line researched here (of whom more below). Catherine born in 1834. Caroline (1836). John Henry(1837-1918). Tristam (1839-1842). William (1840-1842). George W born in 1842 in Hertford County North Carolina. He died in Herford County in 1869, his wife Roxanna listed him as a maker of vehicles and had at least one daughter. Elizabeth J. (1846-1935). Henrietta E born in 1847. Lucy born in 1849.

On December 8, 1838, Benjamin Hines and his wife Lucy of Northampton County, North Carolina sold to Henry Pettway, for $ 50.00 our portion of the lands of Benjamin Hines dec'd, now in the possession of Sarah Hines, widow. (Southampton Deeds, 24:291). In the 1840 Census, Hertford County NC, town of Murfreesboro shows Benjamin, his wife, 5 sons, 2 daughters, no slaves. On March 20, 1844 Benjamin and his wife Lucy sold land in Southampton County, Virginia (located on the east side of the road leading from Jerusalem to Petersburg bounded by the lands of Charles B. Urquhart, Jesse Little and William J. Tewberry) for the sum of $ 100.00 to William Beale.

The above handwritten note was included in the family bible of Benjamin Hines Jr. (Courtesy of Brett Liverman, transcribed by Warren Simmons)

What is to follow this dream

On Friday night the 24 of March I dreamt that I had preached to a congregation and after preaching a man came to me Cald me brother Hines and stated to me that he could not be a preaching at Brother Arnold’s next appointment which was the next Tuesday and he wished me to make an appointment that day to preach a final sermon over his child. The next Sunday week 12 months it being the first Sunday in April that he wished me to say to the people that he wished his child buried in Masonic order the above is a dream which I had the 24^th night of March 1854. The appointment was to be made for preaching to be on the first Sunday in April 1855. B. Hines

Benjamin Jr. Hines family appears in the 1860 census of Bertie County, North Carolina, Benjamin, his wife Lucy and their daughters. He is working as an overseer on a local plantation with a post office address of Hotel, which later became Woodville (which is now known as Lewiston-Woodville.

Three of Benjamin Jr.(1807) sons (James, John, and George) fought in the same unit during the Civil War. Their company C, 3rd Battalion, N.C. Light Artillery was stationed near Wilmington N.C. Benjamin Jr. wife. Lucy, died February 15, 1865. After Lucy died, Benjamin Jr. remarried December 17, 1866 to Anna Pritchard in Bertie County, North Carolina. Benjamin Jr. died September 11, 1867 in Woodland, Northampton County, North Carolina (or near Woodville, Bertie County).