Crews Family Lineage

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Christopher Columbus Crews  b 4/1/1920   d 5/3/1983

                   Married 5/2/1947            Margret Louise Corriher  b 6/2/1918   d 8/6/2009

             Children              (1) Peggy Ann Crews Moore Pinyan  b 5/14/1948

                                             (2) Jerry Wayne Crews  b 3/30/1952

Christopher Columbus Crews was born in Forsyth County, North Carolina to Ernest Crews and Epsie McCollum Crews. He grew up living in Buck Shoals community in Yadkin County, North Carolina. The Crews Family is listed in the US Census as living on Barnard Road near Hamptonville, NC. This possibly could be the present-day Barnard Mill Road. His family were tobacco farmers and he left school after his first year in high school to work on the farm.

During his teenage years he, his brother, Vernon, and their uncle, Nelson McCollum, started a country music band called “The Yadkinville Ramblers.” Vernon and Nelson played guitars while Chris played the mandolin. His father, Ernest, told me Chris was the best mandolin player he had ever heard. The band would play wherever they could and especially at car dealerships. In those days it was a huge event to open a new dealership in a town and it was a daylong celebration. Chris told me they once drove to Winston-Salem, NC and played the entire day at an opening dealership. He said they were paid $15 (over $325 in 2023 money) and felt like they were on top of the world. Chris and the band’s goal was to eventually make it to Nashville, TN and to the Grand Ole Opry. Every Saturday night people in 30 states could tune in their radios to WSM (650 AM) out of Nashville to listen to the Opry and enjoy four hours of country music played by the top bands in the country.

In his early twenties he started associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses and was baptized into the faith. When the US joined World War II in 1941, he was drafted into military service. His religious beliefs moved him to refuse to join the army as a conscientious objector to war. He was charged with violation of the US Selective Service Act, convicted, and sent to federal prison. Chris spent a little under three years in the Federal Correctional Institute in Petersburg, VA and the Federal Prison in Mill Point, WV from 1942-1945. While there he was given the opportunity to complete his high school education and received the equivalent of today’s GED.

Sometime after being released from prison and after the end of the war he was introduced to Margaret Corriher by a mutual friend. A romance started, and they were married in 1947.

Margaret Louise Corriher was born in Salisbury, North Carolina to Jacob Sloan Corriher and Bessie Belle Hartman. She and Chris had two children, Peggy, and Jerry.

Chris worked at being a tobacco farmer, housing construction and repair, but spent most of his employment life at Mooresville Iron Works in Mooresville, NC. This was an iron foundry and machine shop devoted to casting textile machine parts. He eventually became foreman over the foundry. Chris was very active as a Jehovah’s Witness and became one of the leaders of the Salisbury congregations. He and M. B. Wood were instrumental in integrating the two congregations in Salisbury in the early 1970’s. At that time almost all churches and religious organizations in the area, including Charlotte and Greensboro, were segregated and did not allow whites and blacks to worship together in the same building.

Due to declining health in the early 1980’s, Chris was forced to retire early from work and collected disability income. In 1983 he suffered a massive heart attack and spent almost a month in the hospital in Charlotte, NC. While recovering there he was given a stress test on a walking treadmill. The test went longer than usual, and he complained of being tired and wanted to stop the test. A technician told him they were not receiving a good reading from the machine and wanted him to keep going. He did and had another heart attack. Days later a nurse came into his room and said he was scheduled for another stress test. He told her he did not want to take it as “that machine gave me a heart attack.” She replied, “Oh, Mr. Crews, that machine would never give you a heart attack.” A little while later the doctor came into the room and the nurse told him, “Guess what. Mr. Crews thinks the treadmill gave him a heart attack.” The doctor said, “It did.” Chris said the look on the nurse’s face was priceless.

He recovered enough that he was able to go home toward the end of April. Chris was home less than two weeks when his heart failed, and he died in his sleep in the early hours of May 3, 1983. He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Salisbury, NC. Margaret died in 2009 and is buried beside him.

Ernest Henry Crews  b 9/10/1897   d 12/6/1989

                   Married 2/22/1919         Epsie Lela McCollum  b 12/7/1899   b 4/5/1977

             Children              (1) Christopher Columbus Crews  b 4/1/1920   d 5/23/1983

                                                             Married 5/2/1947   Margaret Louise Corriher  b 6/2/1918   d 8/6/2009

                                                                             Children            Peggy Ann Crews Moore Pinyan  b 5/14/1948

                                                                                                       Jerry Wayne Crews  b 3/30/1952

                                             (2) Henry Vernon Crews  b 3/21/1923   d 7/29/1974

                                                             Married 3/24/1943      Minnie Lea Templeton  b 4/13/1920   d 9/10/2003

                                                                             Children             David Joel Crews  b 3/26/1944   d 6/15/1994

                                                                                                       Harold Timothy Crews  b 9/4/1948

                                                                                                       Rebecca (Becky) Elaine Crews  b 4/26/1951  d 8/24/1961

                                             (3) Dalphne Annie Crews  b 11/23/1931   d 2/18/1965

                                                                             Children              Rhonda Gail Crews Shough  b 1/31/1953   d 2/19/1999

Ernest “Papaw” Henry Crews was born in Rockford Township in Surry County, North Carolina to Abner Henry Crews and Jeanette Alice Peele. Rockford Township is located on the Yadkin River in Surry County on the border with Yadkin County and just northeast of Booneville. He grew up on a farm in Rockford, possibly a tobacco farm as these were common in that area and he eventually became owner of one.

Epsie Lela McCollum was born in Yadkin County, North Carolina to Alexander Green McCollum and Anna Lee Vestal. It is not now known how Ernest and she met but they were married in 1919 in Winston-Salem, NC. Soon after marriage they took up residence in the Buck Shoals community in Yadkin County. They were farmers and raised two sons and one daughter.

Sometime in the 1950’s Ernest moved his wife and daughter, Dalphne, to Old Salisbury Road in Winston-Salem, NC. He was joined by his son Vernon and his family and grew tobacco. At one time, his son Chris brought his family over to live on the farm. Ernest had started a side job of plastering walls in homes and Chris came to work with him. As drywall for homes became more popular the jobs for plastering dried up, so Chris moved his family back to their home in Salisbury but did come back occasionally to help on the farm.

Peggy and Jerry remember as children travelling with their parents to the farm on Old Salisbury Road to help gather the tobacco crop. Even though I was quite young, I do remember pulling the leaves off the stalks and having my fingers sticky and gooey from the tobacco juice. Also, the tobacco bugs were big and horrific. They weren’t poisonous but they were big.

Located on the farm was a tobacco barn used for curing the leaves. It was the farmer’s responsibility to cure, or dry, the tobacco before taking it to market for sale. This usually took 4-6 weeks and required having air flow through the barn for drying. The barn was heated around 200 degrees at times to help the process. I remember outside Grandpa Ernest’s barn was a fireplace and chimney. The heat was directed into the building and a thermometer hung from the ceiling in the middle of the barn that needed to be checked from time-to-time to make sure the heat was staying at 200 degrees. Ernest let me join him one time to walk in and look at the thermometer. It was 200 degrees. I was young but I’ll never forget how hot it felt in that barn. Of course, at that temperature you are starting to bake and would not last long in there. I never asked to go back.

In the late 1950’s Ernest, his, wife, daughter, and granddaughter, Rhonda, moved to 3205 Sides Road in Winston-Salem. Vernon and his family continued living on the farm. One time our family went to visit Ernest and Epsie after they had sold the year’s harvest of tobacco at the auction in Winston-Salem. Ernest pulled a $1,000 bill (over $10,100 in 2023 money) out of his pocket and let me hold it. It made me nervous having a single note worth that much in my hand. What a rush.

In 1961 tragedy struck Vernon’s family. One Thursday in August his daughter, Becky, went to the mailbox to get the day’s mail. The box was on the opposite side of the road, so she had to cross over Old Salisbury Road. A Trailways bus had pulled up and stopped just below the mailboxes. Trying to cross back over the road, Becky stepped out from behind the bus and was struck by a car driven by a young man who lived in the neighborhood. She was rushed to Baptist Hospital but was declared dead at 11:55 am. Becky was 10 years old. She is buried at Forsyth Memorial Park in Winston-Salem, NC. A few years later the farm was sold, and Vernon and his family moved to Statesville, NC to live near Minnie’s parents.

Here is some interesting family history: Vernon married Minnie who is the daughter of Clyde Templeton. Clyde is the brother of Albert Templeton who married Mary Corriher. Mary is the sister of Margaret Corriher who married Chris Crews. Chris is the brother of Vernon. All in the family.

Ernest and Epsie’s daughter, Dalphine, was a fun-loving person. She was a passionate person, loved car racing and went to the track as much as she could. She fell in love with a married man, and he promised he would leave his wife for her but didn’t. Her daughter, Rhonda, was born from this romance.

I remember the cigarette cough Dalphine had as she was a chain smoker smoking unfiltered Camel cigarettes. This was quite common in the early 1960’s. Around 1964 she started having health issues. Eventually, she went to a doctor and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It spread to her cervix and in February of 1965 she fell into a coma while in a hospital in Statesville, NC. She died on the 18th at 33 years old. Her daughter, Rhonda, was 12 and continued to live with Ernest and Epsie. Dalphine is buried in Forsyth Memorial Park in Winston-Salem, NC near her niece Becky Crews.

In the early 1970’s Vernon’s health started deteriorating. He had been a heavy drinker over the years and developed cirrhosis of the liver. He died in 1974 in Iredell Memorial Hospital in Statesville, NC due to a respiratory infection. He was 51 years old and was cremated. So, Ernest and Epsie felt the heartbreak of losing another child.

Epsie had been a diabetic for many years and struggled with the effects. In her later years she suffered a stroke, which left her unable to walk, and she was confined to a wheelchair. In the spring of 1977, she died from a myocardial infarction at Forsyth Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. She was 77. Epsie was buried beside Dalphine and Becky in Forsyth Memorial Park in Winston-Salem.

Ernest and his granddaughter, Rhonda, continued living at his home on Sides Road until she married and moved to Madison, NC. He had suffered some small strokes, so he sold his home and moved in with Chris and Margaret in Salisbury.

Chris’ health took a turn for the worse and he died in 1983 at the age of 63. I remember seeing Ernest at the house that morning after returning from the hospital. He was sitting on his bed crying and said to me, “I don’t have any family left.”

Margaret was not comfortable with him living in the house with her without Chris, so Ernest moved to live with Rhonda in Madison, NC. We visited him a couple times and once I received a call from him telling me that Rhonda “was kicking him out and he had nowhere to go.” So, Diane and I took him back to Granite Quarry to live with us. On the way to our place, he told us Rhonda had threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave her house.

Ernest could be a kind and charitable person, but he was well known for being quick tempered and condescending to women. It didn’t happen all the time, but Peggy and I saw firsthand how he talked to and berated Epsie. He was very good with caring for her when she was confined to her wheelchair, but even then, he would criticize her and make everyone who heard him cringe. After Diane got to know him, she remarked, “I hated the way he talked to Granny.”

He lived in our house for two weeks. Since I was at work during the day, I didn’t realize how he was treating Diane and the boys. She finally told me he had to leave. When she told me how he had been acting and what he had been saying, I knew I either had to lose him or lose her. So, we moved him to a mobile home rental on East Lyerly Street in Granite Quarry. Eventually, we were able to move him into a nice retirement community on Dunns Mountain Road. There he lived in a single unit and really thrived interacting with people his own age.

In the later part of 1988, he suffered another stroke, and he was moved to live at a nursing home on Statesville Blvd. in Salisbury. After a year he became ill and was taken to Rowan Memorial Hospital. The doctor told me they had found prostate cancer and his kidneys had failed. All they could do was keep him as comfortable as possible. I was on a business trip in Greenville, NC two weeks later when the doctor called and told me he had died. He was 92 years old and was cremated.

Abner Henry Crews  b 5/26/1867   d 10/6/1937

                   Married 12/30/1892       Jeanette “Nettie” Alice Peele  b 7/30/1873   d 8/28/1942

             Children              (1) Addie Mae Crews  b 12/2/1893   d 4/25/1960

                                             (2) Earlie Cornelius Crews  b 9/23/1894  d 10/3/1962

                                             (3) Ernest Henry Crews  b 9/10/1897   d 12/6/1989

                                             (4) Charlie Thomas Crews  b 7/4/1899   d 4/28/1959

                                             (5) John Mallory Crews  b 4/22/1903   d 12/23/1972

                                             (6) Martha Alice Crews  b 8/26/1907   d 7/23/1998

                                             (7) Arthur Crews  b 1908   d ??

                                             (8) Luther Emory Crews  b 5/25/1908   d 9/6/1978

                                             (9) Harley Lee Crews  b 10/31/1915   d 6/14/1980

Abner Henry Crews was born in Forsyth County, North Carolina to Matthew J Crews and Martha Jane Caudle. In the 1870 US Census he and his parents are listed as living in Old Richmond Township in Forsyth County. Ten years later they are shown in Salem Chapel in Forsyth County. By 1910 he was living in the Fall Creek area in Yadkin County north of Yadkinville. The 1930 US Census shows him living in Buck Shoals, NC. This would put him near his son Ernest.

There is a question as to who Abner’s mother was. All the evidence points to Martha Jane Caudle except on his death certificate his mother is listed as “Miss McCollins.” Is this a different person? One source list his mother as Martha Jane McCollins, but research shows this person was born and died in Tennessee. Also, a source for this person shows her married to someone in Tennessee. I wish I had known and could have asked my grandfather Ernest about this. So, unless more convincing evidence is found I believe Abner’s mother to be Martha Jane Caudle.

Abner married Nettie Peele in 1892 in Surry County, NC. Jeanette “Nettie” Alice Peele was born in 1873 to Exmer A Peele and E J Peele. They had 9 children together.

On the different census reports he is listed as a farmer with his death certificate listing “minister” as the most recent occupation. He died in 1937 at the age of 70 and is buried in the Prospect United Methodist Church cemetery in East Bend, NC.

Jeanette “Nettie” Alice Peele was born in Surry County, NC in 1873. Sometime, after Abner’s death she moved to Roanoke, VA to live with her son, Charlie. She died there in 1942 at 69 years old and is buried with her husband in East Bend.

Matthew J Crews  b 4/?/1837   d ?/?/1928

                   Married 12/13/1856       Martha J Caudle  b ?/?/1839   d ?/?/1910

             Children              (1) Nancy Jane Crews  b 3/10/1861   d 6/2/1932

                                             (2) Abner Henry Crews  b 5/26/1867   d 10/6/1937

                                             (3) Emily Crews  b 1869   d ??

                                             (4) Mollie Crews  b 1873

                                             (5) Hester Martha Crews  b 12/10/1878   d 3/31/1948

Matthew J Crews was born in Surry County, North Carolina to James Crews and Anna Pryor. Not much is presently known about Matthew, but he is listed in the US Census as being a farmer. He married Martha J Caudle in 1856 and they had five children. There is little information found about Martha. (Please see above under Abner Crews about the confusion presented on his death certificate about his mother.)

It is interesting that on many documents both Matthew and Martha are listed as M J Crews. That makes sense as both have the same initials.

Peggy and Jerry were born and raised during segregation in the South. The 1896 US Supreme Court decision in Plessy v Ferguson ruled that races could be equal but separate. This allowed for state-sponsored segregation which was enforced in most southern states. Whites and blacks could not be seated beside each other in theaters, nor mix in social gatherings. Public buses would have a section for blacks to sit, usually in the back of the bus, away from the white passengers. Schools were segregated with each race having their own school buildings. Many restaurants would either not serve blacks or would make them come to the back of the building to pick up food. Blacks were not allowed to use the same water fountains, swimming pools, nor the same bathrooms as the whites. Of course, such restrictions allowed businesses to only hire white people for the better paying jobs to avoid breaking with local laws and customs. Black people were basically left working the jobs that white people didn’t want and at a lower wage than a white person would receive. A strong Ku Klux Klan presence in the county helped make sure segregation was a way of life.

In 1948 President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order integrating the US military. This order and the anti-segregation platform adopted by the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that year led to a revolt from the Democratic party by white southern Democrats. This was led by Governor Strom Thurmond from South Carolina who was instrumental in forming the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats). He was the party’s choice to run for President against Truman and Republican Governor Thomas Dewey of New York.

In one speech Governor Thurmond stated, “I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.” He received over 1,175,000 popular votes and 39 electoral votes making President Truman’s election win over Governor Dewey closer than it would have been if the southern states had supported him.

Strom Thurmond went on to be elected to the US Senate in 1954 by write-in vote. In 1964 he switched to the Republican Party and served as a Senator until January 2003. He died in June of that year at 100 years old. After his death, Essie Washington-Williams, revealed she was his daughter by Carrie “Tunch” Butler, who was black, and who had worked for the Thurmond’s parents. Butler was 15 or 16 years old when she became pregnant with Strom Thurmond’s child.

I remember as a young man going to the movies, and we would enter in one door and the blacks another. The blacks would need to seat themselves in the balcony or in a separate section in the theater.

Mixing of the races was considered as against “the laws of nature.” A white person could face jail and/or street justice from neighbors. At the least, a white person would be ostracized by the white community. A black person could be killed. All southern USA states had anti-miscegenation laws that made it a crime for white and black to marry. Both guilty parties could be sent to prison. The USA Supreme Court in 1967 in Loving v Virginia ruled the laws to be unconstitutional which allowed for mixed marriages throughout the nation. North Carolina did not remove its anti-miscegenation law until 1971 although it was unenforceable after the court ruling in 1967.

One study by Charles Seguin and David Rigby shows 4,467 lynchings took place in the southern USA between 1883 to 1941. The term “lynching” is generic for racial killing as death was handed out in many forms: Thrown from a bridge, beaten to death, dragged to death, and of course, the actual hanging of a person. One of the most infamous was the killing of Emmett Till in 1955 in Mississippi. He was from Chicago and had gone to visit relatives in the town of Money. He was accused of “whistling” at Carolyn Bryant, a young white woman, and was brutally mutilated, shot in the head, and thrown in the Tallahatchie River. Two white men were accused of the murder and were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Numerous attempts by the US House of Representatives over the years to make lynching a federal offense were stalled in the US Senate, usually by filibuster by southern Senators. In 2005 the US Senate issued an apology for its failure to pass such laws.

Schuford Memorial Elementary School was opened in 1933 in Granite Quarry on Dunn’s Mountain Road and was where black students could attend. Peggy and I attended Granite Quarry Elementary School on Walnut Street. In 1954 the US Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education ruled segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional. This decision was met with great and sometimes violent resistance in the South. Four years later in Cooper v Aaron the court upheld the earlier ruling and integration slowly came to the southern states.

I was attending the elementary school when Rowan County decided they would “experiment” with having some of the students at Schuford start attending the white school. It all looked normal to me. I do remember on one occasion being warned by a white student to not drink from a certain water fountain as “a-you-know-what just drank there.”

“A slave entered the world in a one-room, dirt-floored shack. Drafty in winter, reeking in summer, slave cabins bred pneumonia, typhus, cholera, lockjaw, tuberculosis. The child who survived to be sent to the fields at 12 was likely to have rotten teeth, worms, dysentery, malaria. Fewer than 4 out of 100 lived to be 60. Work began at sunrise and continued as long as there was light – 14 hours sometimes, unless there was a full moon, when it went on still longer.

On the auction block, blacks were made to jump and dance to demonstrate their sprightliness and stripped to show how little whipping they needed. Buyers poked and prodded them, examined their feet, eyes, and teeth… ‘Precisely,’ one ex-slave recalled, ‘As a jockey examines a horse.’

A slave could expect to be sold at least once in his lifetime, maybe two times, maybe more. Since slave marriages had no legal status, preachers changed the wedding vows to read, ‘Until death or distance do you part.’”

– The Civil War by Ken Burns, Episode 1 – The Cause (1861)

Even if a slave lived a life better than described by Ken Burns, they were still a slave. There was no freedom. They were property and their lives were controlled by their owner.

“The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United Status will have to be attributed to slavery. For some years before the war began it was a trite saying among some politicians that ‘A state half slave and half free cannot exist.’ All must become slave or all free, or the state will go down. I took no part myself in any such view of the case at the time, but since the war is over, reviewing the whole question, I have come to the conclusion that the saying is quite true.”—Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant Vol. 2 by Ulysses S. Grant.

“The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution…Our new government is founded upon…its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.”—The Cornerstone Speech by Vice President of the Confederate States of America,

Alexander Hamilton Stephens, March 21, 1861, in Savannah, GA as reported in the Savannah Republic newspaper.

The 1850 US Census (Slave Schedule) has Matthew Crews as the owner of 2 slaves, one male and one female. Ten years later in the 1860 Census he is shown the owner of 9 slaves, four males and five females. Matthew died in 1928 at the age of about of 91. Martha died in 1920 at about 81 years old. It is not known where they are buried.

James W Crews  b ?/?/1814   d ?/?/1900

                   Married 5/28/1834         Anna Eliza Pryor  b ?/?/1815   d ?/?/1870

             Children              (1) Abner H Crews  b ?/?/1836   d 12/26/1854

                                             (2) Matthew J Crews  b 4/?/1837   d ?/?/1928

                                             (3) Montford “Monk” Stokes Crews  b 6/27/1839  d 1/1/1920

                                             (4) William Allison Crews  b 6/12/1842   d 10/26/1919

                                             (5) Ephriam W Crews  b 10/?/1845   d 1911

                                             (6) George O Crews  b 1848   d 1860

                           (7) Emily Crews  b 1834   d ?

               Married 7/5/1877             Catherine Hall  b 6/?/1835   d ??

James W Crews was born in Halifax County, VA to John Matthews Crews and Susannah Reeves. Anna Eliza Pryor was born in 1815 in North Carolina to Abner S. Pryor and Sarah Banner. At the age of 20 in 1834 James and Anna married. Together they had seven children. The US Census shows they lived in Forsyth County, NC in 1850 and then in Yadkin County, NC in 1860. He is listed as a farmer on both censuses.

Anna died in 1870 at the age of around 55. James remarried in 1877 to Catherine Hall. Catherine was born in 1835 in Surry County, NC to Ezekial Web and Rebecca Forbes (these are listed as her parents on the marriage certificate). They had no children. James died in 1900 at the age of around 86. It is not known when Catherine died or where she or James are buried.

In A History of Halifax County (Virginia) by Writ Johnson Carrington published in 1924 the early description of the county is: “The surf ace is moderately hilly, and the soil good. Halifax is among the most populous and wealthy counties of the State. Tobacco, Indian corn, wheat, oats, cattle, and swine are the staples. By the census of 1850, it produces more tobacco and oats than any other county in Virginia.”

Speaking of what life was like Mr. Carrington writes, “People went to bed early in those days, because there were no newspapers, no books, (few could read) and no lights but tallow candles. Can we who have but to ‘touch the button’ comprehend those evenings of darkness, and nights of silence. broken only by the chirp of the cricket, the whir of the katydid, and the call of the whippoorwill to his mate? There were no automobiles to whisk the tired farmer across the county and into another state before you could say ‘scat.’ The horses were either beasts of burden, or sporting racers, a few gigs were in use, and a few carriages among the wealthy, but ‘four wheels’ were too heavily taxed to be used ‘ranting around in pleasure's ring’ save by the rich. The one stable production was the rolling hogshead, for carrying tobacco to market.”

Writing about the families of Halifax County, he continues, “Among the earliest and most prominent citizens of Halifax were the Crews, Sydnors, Andersons, Adkinsons, Adkissons, Bennetts, Baileys, Carters, Dickinsons, Tuckers, Manns, Sims, Marables, Vaughans, Wests, Ryburns, Harrises, Harrisons, Wilsons, Hundleys, Hankins, Holts, Hills, Hancocks, Woodings, Waltons, Halls, Echols, Robertsons, Nicholds. There were many others too numerous to attempt to search out for this volume. These were people of affairs, people who owned land and slaves (a great consideration in that day) and left the impress of their characters on succeeding generations.”

In the 1850 US Census James and his family is listed. Also, Mahala Moab is listed as 20 years old, and John Moab is listed as 1 year old. In the census these two are listed as “Mulatto.” This is an old term to describe someone of mixed African and European ancestry. Today the word is considered offensive. In the 1860 US Census Halifax County had more slaves recorded than any other county In Virginia.

John Matthew Crews  b ?/?/1786  d 1/14/1857

                   Married 2/12/1814         Susannah Reeves  b ?/?/1794   d 8/19/1856

             Children            (1) James W Crews  b 1815   d 1900

                                             (2) Martha Jane Crews  b 1815   d ??

                                             (3) William A Crews  b 1817   d 1917

                                             (4) Charles Edward Crews  b 8/29/1819   d 7/5/1900

                                             (5) Matthew John Crews  b 11/25/1823   d 6/9/1897

                                             (6) Joseph Lafayette Crews   b 1824   d 1894

Matthew Crews was born in 1786 in Halifax County, Virginia to Ephraim W. Crews and Rachel McHaney. Susannah Reeves was born in 1794 in Orange, North Carolina to Charles Reeves and Obedience Tucker.

It is known that Matthew married Susannah Reeves in Halifax County in 1814. They had at least six children and moved to Forsyth County, North Carolina by 1850.

Matthew died in 1857 in Forsyth County, NC at the age of 71. Susannah died in 1856 at 62 years old in Forsyth County. It is not known where they are buried.

Ephraim W Crews  b 1760   d 8/?/1837

                   Married 1780                   Rachel McHaney  b 1760   d ??

             Children              (1) John Matthew Crews  b ?/?/1786   d 1/14/1857

                                             (2) Elizabeth “Betsy” Crews  b 1788   d 1819

                                             (3) Ephraim Crews, Jr  b 1790   d ??

                                             (4) Sarah “Sally” Crews  b 1791   d ??

                                             (5) Rebekah Crews  b 1793  d ??   *Twins

                                             (6) Sarah “Patsy” Crews  b 1793   d ??   **Twins

                                             (7) Joseph McHaney Crews  b 1794   d 1845

                                             (8) Rachel Crews  b 1800   d ??

Ephraim W. Crews was born in Colonial Virginia in 1760 to James Crews and Judith Harris. He married Rachel McHaney in 1780 in York, VA. They had at least 8 children and eventually came to Halifax County. He died in August of 1837 at about the age of 77. Rachel McHaney was born in 1760 in Halifax. There is little information available about her parents and when she died. It is believed they were both buried in Halifax County, Virginia. All their children left Halifax after they died.

James Crews  b 1740   d 1831

                   Married  1759                  Judith Harris  b ??   d ??

             Children              (1) Ephraim W Crews  b 1760   d 1837

                                             (2) Judith Crews  b 1772   d 1851

             Married 1765                   Emelia Mary  b 1750   d 1831

             Children              (3) Thomas Crews  b 1765   d 1846

                                             (4) Amelia Massey Crews  b 1768   d 1818

                                             (5) Mary Crews  b 1770   d ??

                                             (6) Matthew Reuben Crews  b 1773   d 1857

                                             (7) James Crews, Jr  b 1775   d 1857

                                             (8) Mildred Millie Crews  b 1778   d 1843

                                             (9) William Crews  b 1778   d 1834

                                             (10) Elizabeth Crews  b 1784   d ??

James Crews was born in 1740 in Hanover County, VA to Joseph L. Crews and Massie Johnson. It is believed he married Judith Harris in 1759 and they had two children. There is very little information about Judith Harris and who she was.

Hanover County is located in the eastern Tidewater of Virginia. It was created in 1719. In the early days it was an agriculture center as the colonists moved further from the coast.

James moved to Stokes County, NC and was married to Emelia Mary in 1765. They had eight children together. Emelia Mary was born in 1750. James died in 1831 at 91 years old and Emelia is shown dying the same year at 81. It is believed they were initially buried in the Crews Family Cemetery but were later moved to Garden of Memory in Walkertown, NC.

Here is the biography from the website Find A Grave: “James Crews was married to (1) Judith Harris (not proved), and (2) Emelia/Amelia unknown. James and Amelia came from Hanover Co. VA to Stokes Co. NC. They had at least 9 know children, where were: Thomas Crews who married Mary Whicker 1st, and Elizabeth Longworth 2nd; Amelia Massey Crews who married Thomas Whicker and wen to Ohio; Mary Crews who married Matthew Snipes; Reuben Crews who married Constance Whicker; James Crews who married Mary (Polly) Fessler; William Crews who married Dorothy Fair; Mildred (Milly) Crews who married Francis Tucker and moved to Iowa; and Elizabeth Crews who married Ashely Johnson.

James Crews’ son Ephraim Crews would be a half-brother to all of the above. Ephraim’s mother was most likely Judith Harris. Ephraim stayed in Halifax Co., Virginia, but his sons left Halifax Co. and came to Stokes/Forsyth NC around the time their father Ephraim died.

(Note: James was most likely moved to this cemetery with his wife and some other family members from the Crews Family cemetery—some of whose graves were unmarked.)”

This may be a good time to note that Justin Crews submitted DNA for MyHeritage DNA. The results showed 79.1% to be North and Western European, 10.1% is Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, 9.0% English and Iberian with 1.8% being of Nigerian and North African origins. It is believed the 1.8% came from a female member of the Crews family. Who this person was is unknown at this time.

Nigeria, a country in West Africa, became the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade with the port of Calabar on the historical Bight of Biafra (now referred to as the Bight of Bonny) becoming one of the largest slave-trading posts in West Africa. Most of the slaves traded had been captured in raids or wars. They were forcibly removed from their homes and sometimes families to be sold as property and shipped thousands of miles away to endure a life of servitude. Many families were separated to never see each other again.

There is on record that James Crews applied for a military pension for service in the Revolutionary War.

Joseph L Crews  b 3/1/1698   d 4/7/1759

                   Married 6/12/1725         Massie Johnson  b 1705   d 1750

             Children              (1) Thomas Crews  b 1725   d 1841

                                             (2) Abigail Crews  b 1726   d 1818

                                             (3) Elizabeth Crews  b 1727   d 1759

                                             (4) Gideon Crews  b 1730  d 1815

                                             (5) Joseph Crews  b 1733   d ??

                                             (6) David Crews  b 1734   d ??

                                             (7) Martha Crews  b 1736   d ??

                                             (8) Caleb Crews  b 1738   d 1813

                                             (9) John Crews  b 1739   d 1823

                                             (10) James Crews  b 1740   d 1831

Joseph L. Crews was born in 1698 in Charles City County, VA to John James Crews, Jr and Sarah Osborn Gatley. He married Massie Johnson in 1725 and they had at least 10 children together.

Charles City County, VA is situated just west of Jamestown, VA. It was established in 1619 by the Virginia Company, which was an English Trading company chartered by King James I in 1606. Today it is still one of the smaller counties in the state and parsley populated.

Sometime after marrying, Joseph moved his family to Hanover County, VA. There his wife Massie died in 1750 at around the age of 45. Joseph died later in 1759 at 61 years of age. It is not known where they are buried.

John James Crews, Jr  b 3/1/1660   d 10/?/1727

                   Married 4/18/1688         Sarah Osborn Gatley  b 1670   d 1760

             Children              (1) Sarah Crews  b 1694   d 5/?/1772

                                             (2) Joseph L Crews  b 3/1/1698   d 4/7/1759

                                                (3) William W Crews  b 1702   d 7/8/1771

                           (4) Elizabeth Crews  b 1704   d 1755

                           (5) David Crews  b 1706   d 1766

John James Crews, Jr was born in 1660 in Charles City County, Virginia to John James Crews, Sr, and Elizabeth Renshaw Williams. He appears to be the first in Peggy and Jerry’s Crews lineage to be born in North America.

John married Sarah Osborn Gatley in 1688 and they had 5 children together. Sarah was born in 1670 and died in 1760 at about 90 years old. John died in 1727 in New Kent County, VA at the age of 67. It is believed they both were buried there.

New Kent County, Virginia was established in 1654. The Chickahominy and Pamunkey Native Americans frequented the area.

John James Crews, Sr  b 12/9/1625   d 8/29/1660

                   Married 8/29/1650         Elizabeth Renshaw Williams  b 1625   d ??

             Children              (1) Anne Crews  b 1655   d 1688

                                             (2) Mary Crews  b 1656  d 1691

                                             (3) Elizabeth Crews  b 1657   d 1672

                                             (4) Andrew Crews  b 1658   d ??

                                             (5) John James Crews, Jr  b 3/1/1660   d 10/?/1727

John James Crews Sr was born in Crewe Green, Cheshire, England in 1625 to Robart (Crews) Crues (1581-1625) and Joan Reed (1596-1662). Both parents died in the London, England area. John Crews was around 16 years old when he arrived in 1641 on the eastern shore of Virginia.

Crewe Green is a small village in the county of Cheshire, England near Liverpool. Its history goes back to the 13th year of the reign of King Edward I and was the seat of the de Crewe family. According to House of Names: “Today, Crewe is a township, in the parish of Barthomley, union and hundred of Nantwich in Cheshire. It has been the inheritance of the Crewe family from a very early period. The Hall, the seat of Lord Crewe, exhibits a good specimen of the more enriched style of architecture which prevailed in the early part of the 17th century: it was begun in 1615, and completed in 1636, and the ceilings and wainscots of many of the rooms, and the principal staircase, retain their original decorations. The gallery, a hundred feet in length, is fitted up as a library, and contains a number of family portraits, and fine pictures: the mansion has also a private chapel, where divine service is performed every Sunday morning, and where is a large painting of the Last Supper, with two beautiful specimens of ancient stained glass.”

John Crews married Elizabeth Renshaw Williams in 1650. They had at least five children together. Elizabeth was born around 1632 and it is not known when she died. John died in 1660 at the young age of 36 years old and is buried in Hangar’s Parrish, Northampton County, VA.

The spelling of the surname “Crews” has shown variations of the centuries as names were recorded as they sounded, and the printing press and dictionaries were not common. One person could have their name recorded with different spellings. There is “Crewe,” “Crew,” “Croux,” “Crewes,” “Creuse,” and others but the most common is “Crews.” The motto from the family coat of arms is: “Sequor nec inferior,” or “I follow, but am not inferior.”

Northampton County, Virginia was one of the first six shires (counties) created in the state after Jamestown which was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

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