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- Martha McFarlane McGhee Bell DAR #A008762
Martha McFarlane was born 1735 in Alamance County, North Carolina, and died September 20, 1820 in Randolph County, North Carolina. She married (1) John McGee abt. 1759 in Randolph County, North Carolina. She married (2) William Bell on May 06, 177 9. (In 1735 there was no Alamance Co. It would have been Edgecombe Co. in 1741, then in 1746 Granville Co., then in 1752 Orange Co.. Alamance Co. was created in 1849)
MARTHA McFARLANE McGEE BELL, 1734-1820
Martha McFarlane was born in 1734 in Alamance County, North Carolina of Scottish Parents. At this time I do not have any information about her father or mother. Sometime around 1850 Martha Married John McGee who was born about 1716 and about 15 ye ars her senior. John McGee at his death in 1773 had seven plantations in North Carolina of 40,000 acres and seven children. Martha took over the managing of this large property at this time.
Robert McGee in his paper written in 1992 quoted an artical written about Martha but he did not say from whom.
Quoting:
" After the death of her husband (John McGee), being the richest widow anywhere in the region, she was much sought after. . . she was 'a little haughty' but this probably orginated with those who could not succeed in gaining her affections. . . ' a good looking woman'. There was nothing about her that could be regarded as masculine and nothing in her deportment, ordinarily, that was at all inconsistent with the modesty and delicacy of her sex but she was a woman of strong mind, ardent in h er temperment and remarkably resolute in whatever she undertook. . . Strong in her attachments, and equally so in her dislikes; there could be no better friend, and no more undesirable enemy; but there was no woman in the country who sustained a b etter character, or was respected by all the better part of the community. High minded, conscious of her integrity, and inflexable in her adherence to what she believed to be right, she seems to fear nothing except her Maker, and to desire nothin g so much as the universal perseverance of peace and freedom, truth and righteousness."
Even prior to the Revolutionary War Martha was noted for her courage and intelligence. Caruther's noted that she could instantly create appropriate responses to emergency situations. After John McGee died in the period before the Revolutionary Wa r Martha carried out his job. In one case she rode a horse, with only her memory of his talking of the places that he stopped along the way to guide her. Taking servents with wagons filled with deerskins, furs, flax-seed, and beeswax she set out t o trade for provisions for the plantations and supplies for the store. On the 400 mile winter journey to Petersburg and back she found her way through a heavy snow storm by relying on the knowledge that the largest, heaviedt limbs grew on the sout h side of the pines.
The Revolutionary War actually started many years before official hostilities in savage partisan rivalry. The american Revolution was part regular and part guerilla warfare, part revolution and part civil war and in this war the Scotch-Irish wer e largly pitted against the british and their supporters the Tories. It was a savage war, as all wars are. It was said that Martha could not stand the sight or the mention of the name of a Tory and refused to intercede on behalf of those condemne d to die.
During the war the widowed Martha associated with William Bell, a neighbor who lived near Sandy Creek. They were married on the 6th of May 1779 during the war and six years after John McGee's death. William Bell was a rich but childless widower wh o owned a grist mill on Deep River called Bell's Mill and 40,000 acres of land. Bell's Mill was located about a mile above the Deep River ford on the road from Greensburo to Ashburo at a point where Muddy Creek emptied into Deep River. It was situ ated just below a high beautiful knoll on which stood their house. In 1990 the chimney was still standing at the house site. Robert McGee stated in 1990 that Bell's mill was still standing a few years ago. The mill site in now under a lake and hig hway 220 crosses a new bridge over the area of the mill area, the State of North Carolina named the bridge 'Martha McGee Bell Bridge'.
During the war, Tories burned their barn, wounded one of her sons, wounded and drove William Bell into hiding, and threatened to shoot the entire family or burn the house down with them in it. One day when Martha's aged father was visiting her, To ries came with the intention to kill the old man, they draw their swords and started to advance on him but instantaneously, Martha seized a broad-ax and raised it over her head threatening to bring it down on the head of one of the swordsmen, spea king in her Scottish accent with a sternness which was irrestible, " if one of ye touches 'em I'll split ye down with this ax. touch 'em if ye dare." They dared not, sheathing their swords they left the house.
Martha McFarlane: Burial: September 1820, Welborn-Bell Cemitary.
Martha McFarlane and John McGee marriage: Abt. 1759, Randolph County, North Carolina.
Martha McFarlane and William Bell marriage: May 06, 1779
Children of Martha McFarlane and John McGee are:
+Jane (Jean) McGee, b. March 05, 1760, Guilford County, North Carolina, d. January 05, 1835, Randolph County, North Carolina.
Susanah McGee, b. March 23, 1761, Guilford County, North Carolina, d. April 26, 1843, Greensboro, Guilford Co., North Carolina.
Andrew McGee, b. 1762, Guilford Co., North Carolina, d. August 1819, Guilford Co., North Carolina.
+John McGee, b. June 09, 1763, Guilford Co., North Carolina, d. June 16, 1836, Dixion Springs, Smith County, Tennessee.
+William McGee, b. 1768, Orange County, North Carolina, d. September 20, 1817, 3 Forks of Duck, Bedford County, Tennessee.
Notes for Martha McFarlane:
This information copyed from information compiled by Robert McGee in 1992 at Greensburo, North Carolina. He went to the public library in Greensburo and found a book by Helen Bowling McKnight entitled " My McGEE and JOYNER Familys, Patroits, Preac hers and Pioners". Robert made a photo copy of of this information. He also copied information from a book by Dr. Caruther's "Interesting Revolutionary Incidentsand Sketches of Character, Chiefly in the Old North state" this work devotes 36 page s to Martha McGee. It was written 36 years after her death but much of the information was obtained years before from people in her neighborhood, some who had known her for most of her life, and some who had known her for a short timeafter the Rev olutionary war.
(http://ncpedia.org/biography/bell-martha & http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/c/d/Tammy-M-Mcdonald-CA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0645.html)
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1734 - 1820 (86 years)
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