Most of my friends don’t think of me as southern, and frankly, neither do I. But I can’t ignore the undeniable heritage I have tying me to the South. With the help of some knowledgeable family members as well as a freshly minted ancestry.com membership, I have set out on a quest to learn more about my roots.
My father was born and raised in North Carolina and our roots deep into the early 1700’s in the Tar Heel State. With the online research I’ve done via ancestry.com, I’ve revealed an intriguing array of family members. People that share my genes but were alive when Lincoln was President, or Washington, or even before the Declaration of Independence.
James Reid Cochran was born in Rutherford County on the 5th of November, 1839. He lived a very rural farmer’s life in Camp Creek, NC until the age of 22. James enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a Corporal on March 24th, 1862. For a frame of reference, a short month prior to this, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States of America. A month later, on April 21st, James was at Camp Mangum, outside of Raleigh, where he joined up with the North Carolina 50th Infantry Regiment, company G.
James fought with the North Carolina 50th in the Battle of New Bern, against General Tecumseh Sherman’s Union forces in both the Battle of Averasborough, and the Battle of Bentonville. His regiment surrendered to Union forces on April 26th, 1865.
James found his way back to Rutherford County and on the 17th of May, 1874 he married Eliza Catherine Moss. The two of them had six children (his daughter Elizabeth is my great-grandmother) until Eliza passed away at the age of 50 in 1888. He remarried a couple years later, had three more children and then died at the age of 60 on the 11th of January, 1900. William McKinley was President and the house that I now own and reside in was just being built.
James Reid Cochran, my great-great-grandfather.