FULL-TEXT SEARCH CHANGED 

WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW

ABOUT MY THIRD GREAT GRANDFATHER 

GRANDISON PHILPOTT

I was surprised by what I found.

I have spent close to thirty years learning everything I could about my 3-times great grandfather, Grandison Philpott who lived in North Carolina. I wrote a story about him. I felt I knew him. Then, I found a court case using Full-text Search on FamilySearch. The testimonies of his two grandsons and of himself were enlightening.

First, some background information:

Grandison had two daughters—Isabella and Elizabeth Jemima. I descend from Elizabeth Jemima who moved west with her husband Umpstead Rencher. (Yes, I know. Strange names!) Isabella stayed in North Carolina with her husband Calvin Rogers. Per census records, I knew Grandison lived with Isabella and Calvin in Wake County, rather than in Granville County where he had originally lived. But, I thought Isabella took him in to live with her in his old age. Instead, his testimony in this court case proved it was the other way around. The home in Wake County where they lived, I discovered, had belonged to Grandison’s second wife, Mrs. Mary Ann Nichols. (His first wife, my grandmother Elizabeth Clements, had died a few days after the birth of her second daughter Elizabeth Jemima.) When his wife Mary Ann became ill, Grandison invited Isabella and Calvin to live with them. This fact was in Grandison’s deposition in this same court case described below. I had not known that.

Here is part of what I found in the Wake County, NC, deposition of C. J. Rogers Jr on the 8^th of March 1876:

Question 1.  

What is your name, occupation & residence and age? 

Answer: 

Name is C. J. Rogers Jr.  I have been Staying in Polk County for the last 3 months. My 

home is in Wake County. I will be nineteen the 8th day of July next. My occupation 

is guarding convicts. 

Question 2: 

Did you at any time hear any conversation between Calvin J. Rogers & Grandison 

Philpot respecting the land in controversy in this action, if so State when & where & the 

substance of the said conversation. 

Answer: 

 I did hear a conversation, I heard it in the Kitchen, I do not remember the exact day nor 

the month I heard it, but it was in the fall of 1873. My father Calvin J. Rogers, 

came in with a bundle of papers in his hand and asked my Grandfather Grandison Philpot for his two third interest, to give him a deed for his two third interest in the tract of land 

that he was then living upon, & my Grandfather got up & cursed him with his mouth 

quivery & told him he would see him in hell as far as the cows could run in three weeks 

before he would give him a deed. My father turned Sorter(?) pale & got up & left. My 

grandfather was raving sooter(?)

Question 3: 

Did you at any time hear a conversation between your mother, Isabella A. Rogers, and 

your Grandfather Grandison Philpot, respecting the land in controversy 

in this action, if so state when & where & the substance of said conversation. 

Answer: 
I did hear such a conversation, I don’t remember the date, the day nor month, 
but I think it was in 1873, in the kitchen. As I went in the Kitchen by a side door I heard 
mother ask grand pop for a deed for his two thirds interest in the land that she was 
then living on, and she said that she was afraid to trust this Rogers blood for you see 
how he, Calvin J. Rogers, has treated me. He told her that he did not care How he (C. J. Rogers),  had treated her. He knew how they both had treated him, that he 
would give theland to his grandchildren & he did not care if they turned them 
both out of doors. ...

. . .

Now, please imagine this is your family. Imagine you are discovering these details from 
150 years ago. Imagine how this deposition would change what you thought you knew.

Obviously, I have not included the entire deposition, nor the court case which followed. 
This is not the entire story. However, the brief portion contained here paints a very 
different picture than what I originally had known.

-----------------

Source:

Estate Records: Wake. Probate Case Files 1663-1978. "Wake, North Carolina, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GP5D-99D9?view=explore : Jul 1, 2026), images 1119 to 1121; North Carolina. Division of Archives and History. Image Group Number: 004852037