SHAW, ASBURY

From his headstone we learn that Asbury Shaw was born July 19, 1888.¹Asbury Shaw headstone: Geer Cemetery (800 Colonial St, Durham, NC), photographed by Tim Foley, Jun 21, 2022. Used by permission. He was the son of Romulus Shaw and Agnes Smith Shaw, the middle of three children.²Shaw-Smith marriage license: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1277364:60548 : accessed 2 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

Older sister Mabel: 1900 US Census Durham: Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/68146818:7602 : accessed 2 Nov 2022. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

Younger sister Pensey: Pensey Mills death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1806075:1121 : accessed 2 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina. Romulus was born in Chapel Hill around the time of emancipation, a half-brother to John O’Daniel, who would become one of the earliest landowners and prominent citizens in Durham’s Hayti District.³Romulus’s mother: Romulus Shaw death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/68146818:7602 : accessed 2 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

John O’Daniel’s mother: “North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSC1-QJVL?cc=1726957 : 28 November 2018), > image 1 of 1; North Carolina State Archives Division of Archives and History.

Prominence: “Carr Family Pay Honor to a Servant,” Durham Morning Herald (Durham NC), 1 May 1917 p. 6. https://www.newspapers.com/image/787319960/?terms=Carr&match=1 : accessed 2 Nov 2022. The two shared the same mother (Winnie Rebecca Shaw), but it is uncertain who either of their fathers were. On various records, Romulus’ father is listed as Fred Story, Lewis Shaw, and Lawrence Shaw.⁴Fred Story: Romulus Shaw death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1275335:1121 : accessed 3 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Lewis Shaw: Shaw-Crittendon marriage license: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2531390:60548 : accessed 3 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

Lawrence Shaw: Shaw-Holdman marriage license: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1796999:60548 : accessed 3 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. Romulus, Winnie, John, and some of Romulus’s other siblings all appear to have come from Chapel Hill to Durham around 1880.⁵Various years of Durham City Directories. https://lib.digitalnc.org/search?p=location:[Durham+%28N.C.%29]%20AND%20collectioninformation:[North%20Carolina%20City%20Directories]&sf=year&so=a : accessed 3 Nov 2022.

Agnes was also born around the time of emancipation in Caswell County to James and Ann Smith.⁶1870 US Census Melton Township. Year: 1870; Census Place: Milton, Caswell, North Carolina; Roll: M593_1128; Page: 426A. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/22809610:7163 : accessed 5 Nov 2022. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. She came to Durham in the 1870’s, likely after her father died, where she lived in Hayti with her older sister Sarah and Sarah’s husband George Gattis.⁷1880 US Census Durham Township: Year: 1880; Census Place: Durham, Orange, North Carolina; Roll: 976; Page: 172D; Enumeration District: 196. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/43189280:6742 : accessed 5 Nov 2022. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Romulus and Agnes were wed in 1886 in Durham.⁸Shaw-Smith marriage license. City Directories show Romulus found work first at a tobacco factory and then as a porter and janitor at the First National Bank, owned by Julian Carr, while Agnes worked as a washwoman.⁹Durham city directories. The couple had three children between 1887 and 1891; Mabel in 1887, Asbury in 1888 and Pensey in 1891.¹⁰Mabel and Asbury: 1900 US Census Durham.

Pensey: Pensey Mills death certificate. Unfortunately Agnes died at some point in the early 1890’s when Asbury was a young boy, his father marrying Mary Crittenden in 1894.¹¹Shaw-Crittendon marriage license. Mary was from Savannah, GA, but it is not known how she came to be in North Carolina. Asbury’s tombstone inscription lists him as the son of Romulus and Mary, suggesting the important role his step-mother might have played in his upbringing.

In 1896 Romulus bought property at the north end of Hayti (Fayetteville and Pettigrew Streets), in a neighborhood known as Sugar Hill.¹²Register of Deeds, Durham County, NC, Book 16, p. 417. https://rodweb.dconc.gov/web/document/DOCCOPR-101522932-0 : accessed 3 Nov 2022. The family’s neighbors included such Durham luminaries as John Merrick and Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore. This is where Asbury lived until his death at the age of only 19.

All we know about his death is that he passed away at home at 11:30 on the morning of 30 September 1907. His funeral took place at St. Joseph’s AME. church only a few blocks to the south of his home, and his burial was in Geer Cemetery.¹³“Worthy Colored Man Dead.”

Asbury’s grandmother Winnie Rebecca Shaw would follow him in death and interment in Geer cemetery in 1914 (at the amazing age of 96), as would step-mother Mary in 1917, sister Pensie Shaw Mills in 1922 and Aunt Sarah Gattis in 1923.¹⁴Winnie Shaw death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Deaths, 1906-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/362297:60090 : accessed 4 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Mary Shaw death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Deaths, 1906-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/468167:60090 : accessed 4 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Pensey Mills death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1806075:1121 : accessed 4 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Sarah Gattis death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Deaths, 1906-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/541774:60090 : accessed 6 Nov 2022. Original data: North Carolina, Deaths, 1906-1930. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. Father Romulus passed away in 1942, interred not in Geer but in Violet Park Cemetery.¹⁵Romulus Shaw death certificate.

BORN: 19 July 1888.¹⁷Asbury Shaw headstone.

DIED: 30 September 1907.¹⁸“Worthy Colored Man Dead.”

BIRTH PLACE: Durham NC.¹⁹1900 US Census Durham.

DEATH PLACE: Durham NC.²⁰“Worthy Colored Man Dead.”

SPOUSE: N/A

PARENTS: Romulus Shaw and Agnes Smith Shaw.²¹Shaw-Smith marriage license.

CHILDREN: None.

OTHER FAMILY: Sister Mabel (b. 1887), sister Pensey (b. 1891), aunt Sarah Smith Gaddis, grandmother Winnie Rebecca Shaw, step-mother Mary Shaw.²²Mabel: 1900 US Census Durham; Pensey Mills death certificate; Sarah: 1870 US Census Melton Township; Winnie Shaw death certificate; Shaw-Crittendon marriage license.

FAMILY BURIED IN GEER CEMETERY: Grandmother Winnie Rebecca Shaw, step-mother Mary Shaw, aunt Sarah Gattis, sister Pensie Shaw.  Possibly mother Agnes Shaw.  Uncle John O’Daniel was buried in Geer but may have been removed to Beechwood.

OCCUPATION: Unknown.

CHURCH: St. Joseph’s AME Church.²³“Worthy Colored Man Dead.”

AFFILIATIONS: N/A

ADDRESS: 107 Fayetteville Street.²⁴1900 US Census Durham.

MILITARY SERVICE: N/A