Duke City Roots

The story of Penelope Von Princis Stout is an amazing tale. The story begins when she and her husband came to America around 1643 from Holland (or possibly England). The ship wrecked on the shores near Sandy Hook in what is now New Jersey, and the passengers fled to New Amsterdam (now New York City) for safety, leaving Penelope and her sick husband behind. The Indians killed the husband and gravely wounded Penelope who hid in a hollow tree for a few days, and was rescued by two Indians – a younger one who wanted to kill her and an older one who wanted to save her. The older man nursed her back to health and she was traded to the settlers.

Later the older Indian saved her again by warning her of an imminent attack on the settlement.

This account has undergone many variations and no doubt has been embellished over the years. The truth of what happened is unknown – was it as stated or was there just a germ of truth in it? No one can say for sure. The article in Wikipedia is somewhat skeptical of many of the unsupported assertions. You can find lots of information about her on the internet.

She married Richard Stout in perhaps 1644, and had 10 children. He came from England and had apparently been a sailor for seven years before settling on Long Island. They first settled in Gravesend, Long Island, but later helped found the town of Middletown, New Jersey. Some accounts have her living to the age of 110, but this is unlikely. They were the great grandparents of Benjamin Merrill.

Penelope and Richard Stout

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Samuel , John, Andrew, William, Nancy, Penelope, Charles, Elijah, Jonathan, Ellen.

The people of the Jersey Settlement were strongly anti-British, and the Merrill family especially so after their father was killed. Many of the sons served in the Revolutionary War.

Samuel (1748-1818) was a child when his parents moved to North Carolina from New Jersey. After his mother’s death in 1802 he inherited the plantation and continued to work on it. He was also known as a master weaver. He served in the Revolutionary War and also provided provisions to the army. He was married to Susannah York and they had six children. His son Azariah’s daughter is Elizabeth Merrill Winkler.

John (1750-1838) was a blacksmith and farmer and was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. He served as drummer in 1776 and was a lieutenant under several different commanders through 1781. He married Mary Catherine Wiseman and they had nine children, and eventually moved to Mississippi.

Andrew Merrill (1752-1826) also apparently served in the war. He married Rachel Wiseman. They had three children and eventually moved to Tennessee.

William (1753-1803) also was apparently a drummer in the Revolutionary War. He married Sarah Haden, they had six children and eventually moved to Alabama.

Penelope (1760-1830) married Benjamin Merrill Jr., her first cousin. He was the son of her father Benjamin Merrill’s brother William. Benjamin served throughout the Revolutionary War. They had fifteen children and moved to Cane Creek, North Carolina.

Nancy (1760-1828) married Boyd McCreary and they had nine children. She eventually moved to Missouri.

Charles Merrill (1761-1822) served in the Salisbury District Brigade during the war, even though he must have been a teenager. After his father’s death, he was “bound” to his brother John to learn blacksmithing skills. He married Elizabeth Easley, they had seven children and wound up in South Carolina.

Elijah Merrill (1763-1807) was “bound” to his older brother Samuel to learn the weaver’s trade after their father’s death. Samuel was to give him a loom and a tackle. He also served in the army. The name of his wife is not known, he had one child and stayed in his hometown.

Jonathan Merrill (1765-1849) was “bound” to his brother-in-law Boyd McCreary after his father’s death. He married Nancy Elliott and had fourteen children, and moved to Tennessee.

Ellen Merrill (1770-1822) apparently didn’t marry.

Samuel and Susannah Merrill

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Godfrey Winkler married Elizabeth Merrill (1799-1857) in 1816, in Rowan North Carolina, and had one daughter, Sarah (1822-1900). We have no pictures of Godfrey or Elizabeth.

Sarah Winkler Frank 1822-1900

Then he married Leah Huddleston in 1823 in Madison, Indiana, and had ten additional children.

This wasn’t unusual, as often there is a second marriage after the death of the first spouse. But, Elizabeth didn’t die until 1857.

I believe divorce was unusual in those days – I’ve hardly ever seen a record of it back then. And there doesn’t appear to be one for Godfrey and Elizabeth. So that leaves us with the question of what happened?

There’s really no information to be had – just one line I saw in a family history done by Mabel Roper or Blanche Bratcher (Our grandmother and great aunt). When they came to Godfrey Winkler, their great-grandfather, they wrote “disappeared around 1823.” I guess that’s all they knew of him, not knowing he was still around and remarried with all those kids. There was no Ancestry back then to provide these details.

Godfrey and Elizabeth Winkler

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William and Sarah had nine children: Barbara, Noah, Isaac, Edward, Martha, Mary, Columbus, Sarah and Charles.

Only Barbara, Edward, Martha and Sarah lived past their twenties.

Isaac (1845-1863) drowned in a river the year after Noah died. We don’t have much information about him other than a letter to him written by a friend shortly before he died.

An entry from Minnie Lee’s journal about her uncle Isaac

Edward (1848-1902) married Martha Moorehead and had two children, Nonae and James. His obituary says “his early life was spent on the farm, and when he grew to manhood he followed blacksmithing, and then engaged in the undertaking business in Fargo. He was named after Edward Smith, a great opposer of slavery.

We don’t have any information on Martha (1853-1933) other than this picture. Likewise with Mary (1850-1874), Columbus (1855-1878) although we do have his picture with Sarah, or Charles (1861-1862).