Catherine Westray
Catherine
Westray was listed in the 1850 census of Nash County, North Carolina, as being
19 years old and living in her father's household. She was listed in the 1860
census of Nash County as being 26 years old and living with her husband, John
R. Strickland. John died during the Civil War, and according to John L.
Strickland's book, "A Buggy Ride With Pa," Catherine's farm was
burned and devastated by General William Tecumseh Sherman's northern army in
early 1865. I have not found any evidence to back up that story, but old-timers
in Nash County remember hearing stories about their families hiding from the
troops. Sherman's famous march laid waste to a forty mile wide path from
Savannah, Georgia, to Goldsboro, North Carolina. From there the northern army
went to Raleigh, and Nash County may have been on the path. The southern army
in North Carolina under General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman in
April, 1865, at the Bennett home a few miles west of Durham.
After the war, Catherine married Burkley Cone, "a kind and considerate man
who worked hard to restore the house and other buildings and to run the farm."
They had a son, Daniel, who became Alsey's "close friend and
playmate."
There is a record in Nash County of a petition of Catherine Cone, wife of
Burkley Cone, for a year's provisions. She was the widow of John R. Strickland,
who died intestate about two years previously and she had since married Burkley
Cone, who had been appointed as administrator of the estate. No date.