Trigleth Family of Holmes County, Mississippi

Beginning today, I plan to write a series of posts about the Trigleth family of Holmes County, Mississippi, beginning with my maternal great-grandmother, Lucy Lula Trigleth Pettus and working back in time. I already know the Trigleth family migrated to Mississippi from Nash County, North Carolina, with other family members later living in Onslow and Cartaret Counties there. But when and why did the family leave North Carolina, and why did members of this family migrate to Mississippi?

Here is what I know today. According to the U. S. Census of 1920, Lula (Trigleth) Petties (Pettus), 37 years old, was living in Beat 3 of Holmes County, Mississippi with four minor children, Mattie, age 16, William, 13, Rosa, 11, and Eloise, age 8. Her eleven-year old daughter, Rosa, was my maternal grandmother. William Elza Pettus, my maternal great-grandfather and Lula's husband, was absent from the household. Hopefully, further research will determine why he was absent when the census was recorded: was he working elsewhere, had the couple separated for other reasons, or had he died while he was still fairly young?


Living next door to the Pettus family was Lula's brother, Walter, his wife, Mollie, and their ten children. According to the census, Walter was born in Mississippi, was 44 years old, and he owned the home in which the family lived. Mollie was shown to be 43. Although Mollie's place of birth was shown as Mississippi, according to the census, her mother was born in Ireland. The names and ages of the Trigleth children were: Manuel, age 17, Maude, 15, Ollie, 13, Estelle, 12, Cordell, 10, Leona, 7, Flossy, 7, Claudie, 5, Cecil, 3, and Hattie, 18 months old.

Please join me while I search for answers about the Trigleth family, and if you have information to add, please contact me.

Baldridge Family in Mississippi

Francis Baldridge was born circa 1751 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of John and Rebecca Clark Baldridge. He married Elizabeth Turrentine, born circa 1759 in western Pennsylvania, the daughter of Alexander Turrentine. The Turrentine family, like the Baldridge family and numerous other Scotch-Irish families, immigrated to Pennsylvania in the early-mid 1700's and later migrated to North Carolina, as land opened up for settlement there.

Many of the Scotch-Irish families living in Orange County, NC belonged to the Little River Presbyterian Church, and it is likely the Turrentine and Baldridge families attended church there, as well. Francis served as a private in the North Carolina Continental Army and fought in the Revolutionary War. According to records available, Francis earned 24 specie, plus interest, for his service in the war.

Francis and Elizabeth, according to "Methodism in Mississippi," had ten children, five boys and five girls, between 1777 and 1801, with several children being born after they migrated to the Mississippi Territory. Other accounts indicate they may have had eleven or twelve children, with possibly one who remained behind in North Carolina or one or more dying during early childhood. The actual number of children remains somewhat unclear, but the names below are documented in North Carolina and early Mississippi Territory records:

John, b. February 8, 1780, Orange County, NC
Alexander, b. circa 1782, Orange County, NC
Mary, b. circa 1784, Orange County, NC
Deborah Spence, b. circa 1788, Orange County, NC
James, b. circa 1791, Orange County, NC
Francis, b. 1793, Orange Co., NC
Daniel, b. 1797, place of birth is uncertain
Sarah Jane, b. 1799, Jefferson County, MS
Samuel, b. circa 1800

Alexander and Samuel are believed to have served in the War of 1812, possibly in the Mississippi Territory Militia.

Available records indicate that Sarah Jane, Deborah Spence, and James all died in Jefferson County, Mississippi. John Baldridge died in Carroll County, Mississippi and is buried in Enon Chruch Cemetery, near Carrollton, Mississippi.

Daniel Baldridge was married, first, to Sibbell Forman, on December 19, 1822, in Jefferson County, Mississippi. She was born circa 1800. It is possible that Sibbell died early in the marriage. On March 15, 1832, in Madison County, Mississippi, Daniel married his second wife, Harriett Atwood, born circa 1815. Daniel Baldridge and Harriett Atwood Baldridge had six children. One of their children, Martin Van Buren Baldridge, married Huldy Catherine Smith, born in North Carolina. Martin and Catherine had several children, one of them a daughter named Claudia Mae Baldridge. She married Ed Branch on December 21, 1896, and their only son, Clark Commander Branch, was born on August 9, 1899. Clark Commander Branch was my paternal grandfather. "Granny Claudie," as we called my great-grandmother Branch, died in Goodman, Mississippi and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery.

More than two hundred years had gone by since the Baldrige/Baldridge family first emigrated from Ireland to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The Baldrige/Baldridge Family Moves to NC

Some of the children of William and Janette Holmes Baldridge, when they reached adulthood, moved to western Pennsylvania. One of the sons, Daniel, married someone from the Lancaster area and moved with his wife from Lancaster County to Orange County, North Carolina, about 1770. Daniel later served in the Revolutionary War and was listed in the First Census of the United States in 1790. After John Baldridge died, Rebecca Clark Baldridge, left the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania area with several children who were still considered minors, and joined the Baldridge relatives in Orange County, NC. She later re-married and died about 1823 when she was said to have been been 103 years old, perhaps the mother of 21 children.

Several books have been written that chronicle the Scotch-Irish Baldrige/Baldridge family and their descendants. One particular book, "Our Baldridge Forbears" written by Dr. Chester C. Kennedy, himself a Baldridge descendant, specifically traces the entire ancestry of William Baldridge and Janette Holmes and their descendants from Ireland to Pennsylvania, and their migration into the Carolinas, and on to Tennessee and beyond.

Another of Dr. Kennedy's books is entitled "Francis Baldridge, His Wife, Turrentine In-Laws and Their Families." This book details the lives of Daniel Baldridge and Francis, one of his brothers, and their migration from North Carolina to Nashville, and on to the Mississippi Territory.

Francis Baldridge is shown on original land grand records in the Mississippi Territory dated 1799. The location of the land was near Cole's Creek, near the Natchez Trace, north of what is now part of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. Francis Baldridge would become the ancestor of many Baldridge family members who would be born later in the State of Mississippi.