The Trivettes of Western North Carolina

This website is copyrighted 2004

||||| Introduction ||||| The Earliest Trivettes ||||| North Carolina Political Boundaries ||||| Whose Child Is Whose? |||||

||||| How Do You Spell Trivette? ||||| Sorting Out the William Trivettes ||||| Trivettes in the Civil War |||||

||||| Descendants of John and Richard Trivette ||||| What Was It Like As An Early Trivette? |||||

|||| What Happened To Nathaniel C. Tribet? |||| Works Cited ||||

What Was It Like As An Early Trivette?

Unfortunately most of genealogy is facts and figures; there seldom is any information on what the person was like, his life, and his community. So when some is found it’s something special, although it often regards illicit procreation or felonious behavior. I’m including here just such information from three sources. The first is from the minutes of the South Fork Baptist Church in Todd, North Carolina, which were microfilmed by the North Carolina Division of Archives and History in 1980. When I quote a passage, any undecipherable words are shown as underscore. The second document is a personal letter from a Trivette descendant to her great grand daughter. The third recounts the events of a secret love affair that ended in tragedy.

South Fork Baptist Church

South Fork Baptist Church is located in Todd, Watauga County, North Carolina close to the Ashe County line and just north of the South Fork of the New River. Todd remains largely rural, about 10 miles northeast of Boone, North Carolina, although a few elegant homes of city dwellers have appeared along the South Fork. Todd and South Fork Church were mentioned prominently in the 1999 National Geographic article, “Deep Soul of the New River.” (36)

The church was founded in 1833 and remains active today. A few Trivettes joined the church in the inaugural year. John Trivette himself and wife Elizabeth later became members. Some of his children and their families also were members at one time or another. These are my personal transcription of selected portions of the church minutes beginning in 1833.

Nora Trivette Smith

I transcribed this letter from the original provided to me to scan by Madelyn Smith Osborne, a daughter of the letter’s author, Nora Trivette Smith. Nora was a great grand daughter of Owen Trivette. She probably never set foot in North Carolina, having been born in Pike County, Kentucky in 1906. But southeastern Kentucky and northwestern North Carolina weren’t all that different, and Nora provides a glimpse of the life of a mountain subsistence farm family. Nora died May 24, 1997 in Pike County.

The Murder of Elisha Trivett

This story was originally provided to me by Terry Harmon, a descendant of Ephraim Harmon. The story was published in the March, 2002 edition of Watauga Ancestry as a transcription of several newspaper articles on the subject. The Trivette involved was Elisha Trivette, the son of Solomon Trivette. The Camilla Trivette in the story was the daughter of Samuel Trivette, a younger brother of Solomon Trivette. The text in italics was provided by Terry Harmon.