Squire Alfred Moore Veazey

(13JUL1818-25JUL1895)

Squire Alfred Moore Veazey

Margaret Frances Umstead Veazey

(Estimated that these pictures were made about 1870.)

(Based on Dot Curl's Memories in the Descendants of John Veazey)

Dot Curl wrote of her Mother's memories of her own grandfather, and Dot's great-grandfather (also my great-grandfather), Alfred Moore Veazey, in her "Memories" that she left in written form for her family.

Squire Alfred's son, Logan Alvis Veazey, Dot's grandfather, died at the age of 29 from typhoid fever, leaving his wife, Mary Elizabeth "Aunt Polly" or "Granny Polly" Roycroft Veazey, and six children. Aunt Polly was expecting her last child when her husband died, Margaret "Maggie" Veazey (Clark) was born six months after her father's death. Aunt Polly's then youngest son, Lonza Edwin, died a few short months after her husband, and before this last little girl was born. Can we imagine the heartache that this dear young woman endured during these trying months.

Aunt Polly was encouraged and supported, at least emotionally, during these days by her in-laws, Squire Alfred Moore Veazey, and his wife Margaret Frances Umstead (Veazey). Her eldest daughter, Dot's grandmother, spoke often of how her grandfather came on Sunday mornings and took her (on horseback) to Knap Of Reeds Baptist Church for services. He would take her again in the afternoon to Concord Baptist Church for Sunday School. She often spoke of how good her grandmother and grandfather were to all her family after loosing their father. Her grandmother would cook all the week to have food for them on Sunday.

Until I read my Second Cousin's notes after her death, my paternal great-grandfather had only been a name on a tombstone in the Veazey cemetery in Butner. Somehow reading about how attentive he was to the young family of his deceased son, made him a sensitive, caring man to me. I had never heard these stories in my own family, but then my grandfather did not die, thus he was there to take care of his own brood.

Dot was told that Squire Alfred owned all of Veazey Ridge before the Civil War and gave all of his six sons a home. He was a Justice of the Peace and a very prominent man in Granville County. He signed many documents that are on record today in Granville County. It was his distinctive signature that led me to recognize the little book that he sent to his first cousin, once removed, Jemima F. Gooch.

Squire Alfred was considered quite well off financially and family tradition says that he was approached by old Wash Duke about a partnership in the fledgling new tobacco business. Squire Alfred was asked to furnish the wagons for transportation of the tobacco and products. Somehow this offer did not appeal to Squire Alfred and he declined the partnership offer.