An Exciting Discovery
In my earlier posts I have been covering the Gupton family and yesterday I did a google search for Kindred Gupton. I was actually looking into the Kindred Gupton that left Missouri and went to Texas. But you never know what you will discover when you do that kind of search.
Google found an article about Jacob Holt that mentioned Kindred Gupton and my 2 times great grandfather, John L. Neal.
Who was Jacob Holt???
Jacob Holt was a builder from Prince Edward County, Virginia. He came to Warren County, North Carolina in the 1840's where he established a workshop and contracting business. In the 1850 Federal Census he was living in Warrenton with a workforce of 13 Virginians and 5 North Carolinian carpenters. Kindred Gupton and John L. Neal were two of the carpenters from North Carolina.
The page is a bit faded but you should be able to see that John and Kindred are the last two listed.
It is said that when Jacob came to Warren County it was the wealthiest county of the state. Jacob was a carpenter - builder - architect that is credited with over twenty buildings in Virginia and North Carolina. Some are still standing today.
Jacob established one of the states largest antebellum building firms.
To learn more about Jacob and to see images of some of his building go to the link below.
Going through the list on the webpage above I discovered that he built for the Rodwell family. Could this be the way he met and married Ann Rodwell?
John L.'s son, John T. Neal moved to Centerville.. Jacob built at least two homes that are not far from the home of John T. Could this answer the question, why did he come to Centerville??
Of course, we will probably never know the answers to these questions, but it certainly gives us something to ponder.
One of his buildings can be found in the news:
In the Centerville area he is credited with:
The Archibald Taylor House in Wood
Dr. Samuel Perry House
Vine Hill
Cherry Hill in Warren County
Eaton Place in Warren County was one of the first homes he built
The Exchange Hotel in Oxford
What an exciting feeling it is to know that my great great grandfather was involved in the building of some of these beautiful homes many of which are still standing!
Just proves that not all of the records are on the traditional genealogy sites! Some genealogy gems are just waiting to be discovered!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Pattie
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