Person Page 3,796

Obituary (findagrave.com):

The Mount Airy News - Mount Airy, North Carolina - Thursday, March 24, 1910

Page 7

Wilkes Patriot, 17th.

Mrs. Jarvis, wife of Mr. L. A. Jarvis, died at her home in North Wilkesboro, early Tuesday morning, after about nine days illness with pneumonia. Up until the last her condition, while serious was not thought to be dangerous, barring the fact, of course pneumonia is always treacherous.

Mrs. Jarvis' maiden name was Miss Delphia Isabella Dacons. She was born at New Hope in Iredell county, March 22, 1855, nearly 55 years ago. On October 8, 1876, she was united in marriage to Mr. Jarvis and to this union were born ten children, seven of whom survive. The surviving children are Mrs. L. N. Hickerson, of Reidsville, Misses Florence, Tois and Helen, and Messers. Cleve D. and Chester, and Master George.

At an early age, Mrs. Jarvis professed faith in Christ and allied herself with the Baptist church, holding her membership first at Grassy Knob and later at North Wilkesboro. She was in every way a noble hearted Christian woman, whose exemplary life was an inspiration to those with whom she came in contact.

At the end, she expressed her preparedness to pass, and left to the stricken family nothing but solicting hope and comfort.

The funeral was conducted this morning at the home, by Rev. C. M. Rock, after which the body was laid to rest at the Baptist cemetery, in North Wilkesboro.

(Mrs. Jarvis lived in this town a year or more and made many friends among our peopla during her stay here. Editor The News.)

NOTE -- (Tracy DeVault''s research):

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Comet; Johnson City, Tennessee; June 16, 1904; Page 3 (Newspapers.com):

Deed Held to Be Valid

In the chancery court at Blountville in the case of J. M. DeVault and others against Charles P. Faw, the deed made to Charles P. Faw by the late Isaac DeVault, conveying to said defendant a farm of 400 acres, situated in Sullivan County, was held to be valid. Mr. Faw will now have undisputed title to the farm but pays to each of the other heirs $1,750.

A note about the Massengills: Henry Massengill, Jr. had gained possession of the Cobb property from William Cobb, his uncle and father-in-law. The Cobb property, known as Rocky Mount, is located across the road (now the Bristol Highway) from the Isaac DeVault house. Rocky Mount remained in the possession of the Massengill family until 1959 when it was restored as a historic site. The Massengill family regained possession of the Isaac DeVault farm in 1938 when John M. Masengill purchased the house and farm for $19,250.00. When John Masengill died, the property was inherited by his daughter, Sarah Lou "Sally" (Masengill) Bell. Sally undertook a major restoration of the home and farm. Sally Masengill died in 2016 and the property was sold by Sally's heirs to a son of Gary and Virginia Lewis. (The Lewises had earlier purchased the 1840 Valentine Davault home.)

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Masengill Farm by Sarah Lou Masengill-Bell

More than a year before Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, Henry Masengill, Sr. and his wife, Mary Cobb, established a farm in what was then a distant part of the British colony of North Carolina. Their acreage was part of the Watauga Purchase, lands bought from the Cherokees in March of 1775. Among the earliest families to settle west of the Appalachian mountains, the Masengills and Cobbs participated in the history of Tennessee from the very beginning. Mary was the sister of William Cobb, whose house, Rocky Mount (ca. 1770), served as the first capitol of the region, known as the southwest territory. The Masengill’s had six children, and their son Henry, Sr. (Hal), who fought in the Revolutionary War, became the next owner of the farm. Henry Masengill was married first to Penelope Cobb with whom he had six children and then to Elizabeth Emmert who gave birth to three children. As local, state, and national history unfolded in the nineteenth century, succeeding generations of Masengills farmed their growing acreage and were active in the political and social life of Sullivan County and beyond.

By the mid-twentieth century, John Michael Masengill, the great great grandson of the founders, and his wife, Annie Lee, were operating a farm of over 700 acres. They raised Polled Herefords, mules, grains, tobacco, and the white plank fences surrounding the farmstead were “a beauty to behold!” writes their daughter and current owner Sara Lou Masengill-Bell. Annie Lee Masengill inherited the property in 1958 after her husband’s death. During her ownership she installed a silo and feeder system to care for the cow and calf operations. In 1959, the Cobb and Masengill descendents agreed to sell a portion of the farm, which included a two-story log house and outbuildings, to the State of Tennessee to operate and interpret as Rocky Mount -- a museum of early settlement, political history, and farm life.

On the Masengill Century Farm, the late eighteenth century brick residence, known as the Davault-Masengill Home, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mrs. Masengill-Bell is an active manager on the family farm, also known as Mary Lou Farms, which is worked by brothers Osler and J. D. Feathers. Wild turkeys as well as deer are abundant on the farm today just as they were when the first Masengill and Cobb settlers began farming this land that would become part of a new nation in 1776 and a new state in 1796.

Note: Accompaning the article is a photo of the home originally built by Isaac DeVault. Some of the historical facts have been disputed.