Graves Lockett

Click to See Larger Image

The following story was handed down to Dorothy Lea (Dottie) Sutton Pickett and told by her to me:

The gold locket (see photograph) that Dorothy Lea (Dottie) Sutton Pickett inherited from her mother (see photograph), Mary Aldridge Sutton (1906-1967), by way of her mother, Mary (Mamie) Lea Aldridge (1879-1931), and grandmother, Harriet Rebecca (Hattie) Graves (1856-1894), has daguerreotype  pictures of William Blair (Billy Hickory) Graves (1827-1894) and Mary Elizabeth Shuford Graves (1835-1861).

This locket was buried in Caswell County behind the house of Captain Jeremiah Alexander Lea (1841-1916) (husband of Harriet Rebecca (Hattie) Graves) by one of his slaves. After the Civil War ended, the slave returned to the house and retrieved all of the items he had buried for the family.
_______________

Note that William Blair (Billy Hickory) Graves (man in locket) and his second wife, Sarah H. Lea (1844-1907) once owned "Clarendon Hall" in Yanceyville, North Carolina.

Dottie Pickett's Graves Ancestry

John Graves m. Unknown
Thomas Graves m. Mary Perkins
John Graves m. Isabella Lea
Barzillai Graves m. Ursula Wright
Jeremiah Graves m. Delilah S. Lea
William Blair (Billy Hickory) Graves m. Mary Elizabeth Shuford
Harriet Rebecca Graves m. Jeremiah Alexander Lea
Mary Lea m. John Nathaniel Aldridge
Mary Aldridge m. Roy Clifton Sutton
Dorothy Lea Sutton m. Jack Wilson Pickett

Dottie Pickett's Lea Ancestry

John Lea m. Ann Unknown
James (Country Line) Lea m. Ann Unknown
John (Country Line) Lea m. Winifred Kavanaugh
Benjamin J. Lea m. Nancy Kerr
Alvis Graves Lea m. Nancy Kerr
Jeremiah Alexander Lea m. Harriet Rebecca Graves
Mary Lea m. John Nathaniel Aldridge
Mary Aldridge m. Roy Clifton Sutton
Dorothy Lea Sutton m. Jack Wilson Pickett

Dottie Pickett's Aldridge Ancestry

William Harrison Aldridge m. Nancy Benton Crawford
John Nathaniel Aldridge m. Mary Lea
Mary Aldridge m. Roy Clifton Sutton
Dorothy Lea Sutton m. Jack Wilson Pickett

Note that the woman whose photograph is in the locket, Mary Elizabeth Shuford Graves (1835-1861) was born in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Moreover, she married Yanceyville's William Blair (Billy Hickory) Graves (1827-1894) August 30, 1853, in Buncombe County, North Carolina (probably in Asheville). This is another example of the not-fully-understood relationship between the Graves family of Yanceyville and several families of Asheville.

Note that a sister of William Blair (Billy Hickory) Graves, Margaret Isabella Graves (1831-1911), married Asheville's Jesse Siler Smith (1821-1870). However, she (or her father) made Jesse Siler Smith come to Yanceyville for the wedding, March 15, 1853, at "Dongola."