Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Chatham, North Carolina, United States
Surnames/tags: Alston DeGraffenried Slavery

Alston Plantations in North Carolina

The Alston-DeGraffenried Plantation

is located in Pittsboro, Chatham County, North Carolina, the central Piedmont area of the state. The original owner was Joseph John Alston II (1767-1841), who then passed it to his son, John Jones Alston (1792-1842), then to his granddaughter Delia, who married a DeGraffenried. The house, still standing, is now known as the Alston-DeGraffenried House.

History

The ALSTON Family of North Carolina were one of the most prosperous and well-known families of 18th and 19th centuries. Many of them had homes in Warren, Halifax and Chatham Counties. One of those, Joseph John Alston--more famously known as Chatham Jack Alston--was born March 15, 1767 in Halifax County, the ninth and last child of Joseph John Alston, Sr. (1702-1781) and his 2nd wife, Euphan Wilson. The elder Alston was one of the state's largest land owners. In the early 1770s, about the time Chatham County was formed from Orange County, he made dozens of land purchases in Chatham. At his death in 1781, Alston Sr. left his descendants an estimated 100,000 acres scattered over a number of counties. Chatham Jack" inherited land primarily in Chatham.

In an area dominated by small farms, Alston owned several plantations that he had built for himself, and for most of his sons. What is now called the Alston-Graffenried House, was one of the homes where his family originally lived, and was willed to his son, John Jones Alston (1792-1842) upon his death in 1841. Unfortunately, John Jones himself died of a stroke less than a year and a half after his father passed away. John Jones Alston died in his home, and was apparently too ill to write a will, but he was able to give a statement in front of 2 witnesses in which he left everything to his wife, which was accepted as his oral will. His widow, Adeline (Williams) Alston (abt.1805-1885), was also left with their 9 minor children, including the oldest daughter, Elizabeth, who had just married, and their youngest, Adeline Eugenia, who was yet to be born.

A lawsuit filed in 1848 by the guardian of Adeline Eugenia (Alston) Bryan (1843-1915), youngest child of John J. and Adeline Williams-Alston, resulted in the awarding to her of 1/10th of her father's personal estate, as settled in 1854. At the same time, Adeline Sr. was awarded the remainder of the Slaves.^[1]

One of nine children born to Adeline and her husband John Jones Alston (1792-1842), Delia (Alston) deGraffenried (1829-1914) inherited the estate upon the death of her mother in 1885.

Onsite there were many documents found, after the property's sale in 1972. ^[2]

References

1. ↑ Adeline Alston Chatham Plantation Owner In documents: ResearchArticles/AAlston/AdelineAlstonChathamPlantationOwner.pdf
2. ↑ DeGraffenried Family Papers Alston - DeGraffenried Family Papers, 1773-1970 Description Joseph John Alston, 1767-1841, moved to Chatham County about 1791, the year he married Martha Kearney. By 1810 the house, later known as the Alston-DeGraffenried Place a few miles west of Pittsboro, had been bricked and plastered, and ""Chatham Jack,"" as he was called, was one of the county's largest land and slave owners.

• Birth Records of the Slaves of Nathaniel J. Alston