Clayton - Person Sheet
Clayton - Person Sheet
NameSUGGS, Susanah , 6G Grandmother
Birth Date8 Feb 1746
Birth PlaceNorth Carolina
Death Dateabt 1840 Age: 93
Death PlaceMontgomery County, North Carolina
Misc. Notes
Hannah was probably a daughter of Thomas and Mary Suggs (Senior), early settlers in the northeastern area of Anson County.

About the year 1840, old Mrs. Spencer was still living and wanted to divide the land among her children. She asked her son Elijah Spencer to sign her name to the deed (she was very old and feeble) in order to have her wishes fulfilled. He signed the deeds - but this led to trouble. It seems that some type of forgery was alleged by the authorities.

Through the winter snow, Elijah and his son, Harbard, traveled to Lawrenceville (then the county seat of Montgomery County) and in their hasty search of the courthouse for the offending documents, dropped their oil lamp and set the courthouse on fire. Arson was a capital offense in those days, punishable by death. Elijah and Harbard fled to Tennessee and never came back.

That Spring in 1840, a man appeared with the title to the 100 acre Spencer tract named Bryant Riggins (a common name in that area where Harbard Spencer fled to in Tennessee) and he sold the tract to Pleasant Simmons, which included the mill, for $500.00. Sometime before Pleasant Simmons’ murder by Bill Owen's gang in 1864, he had sold 1/2 interest in the mill to William Auman.

Upon his return from the war, William Auman acquired the full interest in the land and mill. In 1869 Mr. Auman sold 1/2 interest to Isaac Allred of Richmond County, whom he had met during the war, for $1,100.00.

About 1875 Mr. Allred acquired the full title to the mill, and it was during this time that the mill and the community took on the name of "Allred's Mill". The mill flourished for several more years, but with the advent of steam power and the new "roller mills" becoming more common, the old grist mill at Allreds ceased operations, especially after the new Roller Mill at Ether was built.

The village of Allreds included the mill, several houses, a store and post office, and various blacksmiths and wheel wrights. The prominent families were the Simmons, Aumans, Spencers, Cornelisons, Allreds, Freemans, Henrys, Moores, Jordans, Cagles, Leaches, Needhams, and Gallimores. Pictured above is John Branson Gallimore and family in front of their store at Allreds, NC in 1916.

Today the village is a proverbial ghost town, with the exception of one home and two chicken houses. The old mill stands yet after nearly three centuries, keeping watch over the river like a sentinel. Occasionally a lone king fisher swoops down to snatch a catch from the river near the rotted wooden dam, the frogs croak in the warm evenings as the sun goes to bed below the forest tree line, and birds and foxes nest in the abandoned grinding gallery
Spouses
1SPENCER, William , 6G Grandfather
Birth Date15 Mar 1730
Birth PlaceShrewsbury Parish, Kent County, Maryland
Death Date6 Jul 1805 Age: 75
Death PlaceMontgomery County, North Carolina
FlagsMilitary
Misc. Notes
William Spencer served in the Revolutionary War under General Pinckney. Records show that he was a "copyist" for the 2nd North Carolina Battalion commissioned by Col. John Patten on 6 February 1778.

THE OLD MILL - A Brief History of Allred's Mill....

William Spencer came to the area now known as "Allreds" around the year 1760. The Suggs family had settled in the area earlier - one of the earliest families in these parts. Indeed, the nearby stream took on the name of 'Sugg's Creek' after this family. William's wife was Hannah Suggs, and he obtained his first 100 acres from the Suggs Family.

Sometime in the late 1700's, construction began on a grand grist mill on Little River to serve the needs of the people of the area, and was to be called "Spencer's Mill". The area was sparsely settled in those days, and the closest church Sugg's Creek Baptist Church would not be founded until 1851, some three miles to the north-west. At any rate, the mill was built, and, it was soon turning out flour and corn meal for the people of the community.

In 1781, there was a raid on the Patriots of this area in the northeastern section of what was then Anson County. The Loyalists rode up to the north-eastern part of the county and captured several patriots. There has been a confusion in men's minds as to the events that transpired at that place, but the only mill that would have been standing at that time was the "Spencer Mill".
Marr Date1765
Marr PlaceSt. George Parish, Anson County, North Carolina
Last Modified NewCreated 22 May 2023 by Robert Avent