Fifth Generation

18. Mack BOBBITT was born on 15 January 1873 in Halifax County, NC. We find Mack Bobbitt mentioned in only three documents: (1) a 1899 marriage to Arvey Simmons, where they are both listed as "white"; (2) a 1918 Draft Registration, where he is listed as a "Negro" farmer born in 1883, and he gives his closest relative as John Simmons; (3) his daughter Iola's 1979 death certificate. Arvie SIMMONS and Mack BOBBITT were married on 5 April 1899 in Halifax County, NC.

19. Arvie SIMMONS was born on 8 January 1882 in Halifax County, NC. This birthdate is as found in her marriage record and her death certificate. But, more likely she was born in 1888 and added the years to hide the fact that she married at age 12 ... which she acknowledged by her age in the 1910 census, and by giving her "age at first marriage" as 12 in the 1930 census. She died on 10 June 1951 at the age of 69 in Roanoke Rapids, NC. She was buried in the Tree Banner Church Cemetery on June 10. Her name is sometimes spelled Arvey or Ivie. How her marriage to Mack Bobbitt ended is indeterminate. In the 1910 US Census, she is identified as a widow who had given birth to six children, four of them surviving. In that census, Arvie and all her children are listed with the surname Simmons. But, Bobbitt was obviously still alive in 1917 when he registered for the WWI draft.

In 1910 she was living with her parents and her four children. The two oldest we hear of only once more ... they were living with their grandparents in 1920. Iola (born 1904) and James (born 1907) are found living with their mother in both the 1910 and 1920 censuses. Iola is presumably the son of Bobbitt. James is clearly the son of James Edmonds, who she married sometime after 1910.

Edmonds (born 1873 and died before 1930) was the grandson of Nelson Edmonds, creating an earlier link between the Pierce and Edmonds sides of the family. Their marriage was officially recorded in 1918, without indication of when it actually took place. In the 1920 census, the couple were living with two children ... Iola and James, Jr.

In the 1930 census, Arvie was identified as a widow, living with a niece and nephew.

Children were: