Pinkney Alford (1867 - abt. 1880)

Born 1867 in North Carolina

Ancestors

Died about Sep 1880 at about age 13 in Burke County, North Carolina

Biography

Pinkney was born in 1867.

What I have learned about Pinkney's short life is that he was born in 1867 acording to the 1880 Burke Co. NC census. He was being raised by his mother who was head of house and was listed as widowed. His mother Mary listed in this census that she had dropsy and had been unemployed for 12 months. There was a line drawn thru Pinkneys name and information on the census. Then in the death index for Burke Co. there is a listing that Pinkney died in in Sept of 1880 of Dropsy. I know at that time there was many people mining gold and silver in that area from Burke Co. up to what is now McDowell Co. NC. A large number of miners moved into the gold rich areas to get rich quick. Some of these men brought their slaves to do the work panning for gold while they sat and insured all the gold they found was taken to their masters. A common way of picking up flour gold from the sands was to put liquid mercury in the sand which amalgamated with the gold. They then recovered the bright silver mercury which remained in ball form in their gold pan and then put the ball of mercury inside a raw potato. The potato was baked usually in a fire built outdoors where the mercury vaporized into the air. The remaining baked potato was put back in the pan and mashed into pulp. The pulp was washed in a stream where it floated out of the pan leaving what they called a bud of gold. This was an easy way to recover flower gold but unknown to most of the miners the air that they were breathing around the fire contained the mercury vapor which went into their lungs where it returned to it;s liquid state causing what was diagnosed as dropsy and many miners died from the poison. I feel Pinkney may have been a casualty of this fate. I prospected for gold in several streams in this area when I was younger and found a pea sized blob of mercury on two different occasions. I wondered if I may have struck it rich on Mercury instead of Gold. I contacted a Geologist that I knew. He told me how the Mercury got into the streams where intensive gold panning had been done. His name was Mr. Burgess and he and I met often where he taught me a lot about minerals and his exploits all over the world hunting for and at times finding some gold. I remember his words of Wisdom. He said you are lucky if you find enough gold to pay for your trip, so do it as a pastime and nothing else. I imagine Pinkney Alford was working the gold field to help his mother feed the family.

Sources

• *BIRTH 1867

Source:

• CENSUS 1870

Source:

• CENSUS 1880

Name: Pinkney Alford Event Type: Census Event Date: 1880 Event Place: Brindletown, Burke, North Carolina, United States Gender: Male Age: 13 Marital Status: Single Race: White Race: W Relationship to Head of Household: Son Relationship to Head of Household: Son Birth Year (Estimated): 1867 Birthplace: North Carolina, United States Father's Birthplace: --- Mother's Birthplace: --- Sheet Letter: D Sheet Number: 363 Person Number: 2 Volume: 1 Household Role Sex Age Birthplace Mary Alford Self Female 47 North Carolina, United States Margarett Alford Daughter Female 18 North Carolina, United States Pinkney Alford Son Male 13 North Carolina, United States Sally Alford Daughter Female 6 North Carolina, United States Milley Alford Other Female 28 North Carolina, United States Lila Alford Daughter Female 8 North Carolina, United States Martha I Alford Daughter Female 5 North Carolina, United States Sarah Alford Other Female 0 North Carolina, United States

Source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YB4-7XY?i=3&cc=1417683

• DEATH 1880

Source: Death index for Burke Co. NC

• OBIT

Source:

• BURIAL

Place:

Source: Find A Grave Memorial #