James Moody and Nancy Jane Fields are my 2nd great-grandparents. They weren’t in my immediate research plans, but I received a note recently from a member of the Chatham County Historical Association saying James is buried in the Tick Creek Cemetery that volunteers recently cleared. However, it turns out the Moody fella buried at Tick Creek is Charles Moody (1832-1898), a first cousin of James. (Both served in the Confederate Army hence the mix-up by the volunteer.)
James was born on November 5, 1846, to Elisha and Millie Thomason Moody in the Bear Creek area of Chatham County, NC. He was the ninth of twelve children. The Moodys lived on a small farm worked by family members rather than enslaved labor. The 1860 census shows that James was the oldest son still residing in the household, so a lot of the farm’s workload probably fell on his shoulders.
In May or June 1864, James enlisted in Company H, 70th Regiment of the Confederate Army Junior Reserves of the North Carolina. He was just 17. (The Confederate Congress had expanded the age for eligible service to include 17-year-olds just a few months earlier.) The Regiment skirmished with Union troops in the Roanoke River and Kinston areas, and saw action at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. (Another ancestor, my grandfather Richard C. Stokes, also served in the Junior Reserves.) A total of 102 Chatham County boys served in the Junior Reserves. None were killed in battle, but some were wounded and there were deaths due to disease.
On December 16, 1869, James married Nancy Jane Fields, the 19-year-old daughter of Alvis and Julia Ann Beal Fields. According to the 1860 census, the Moody and Fields families lived in the same area of Chatham County. I’m pretty sure that James and Nancy were acquainted in their youth as there are other marriages among the Moody, Fields, and Beal (Nancy’s mother’s maiden name) families. They married too late in 1869 for their household to be recorded in the 1870 census. However, the 1880 census recorded James and Nancy farming land adjacent to Nancy’s parents in Chatham’s Hickory Mountain area. The couple had four children: my great-grandfather Henry (1870-1920), William (1873-1940), James (1876-1950), Nannie (1879-1932), and John (1882-1952).
In the 1900 census, only Henry had left the household. Farming is listed as the occupation of James with the three sons recorded as “farm laborers, and it’s noted by the census taker that the farm is rented. Also, according to the census, he could not read or write. Only a few generations earlier, James’ grandfather, William Moody, had been one of the wealthiest farmers in the area. His grandfather, Benjamin Moody, was a respected school teacher. One can’t help but wonder if coming of age during the Civil War, and the subsequent economic hardships in a declining agricultural economy, was the tipping point driving the family to a meager existence as tenant farmers.
James died on March 25, 1910. My great-grandfather Henry was married and already with five kids of his own, so the next oldest son, William, assumed responsibility for operating the farm with the help of brothers James and John.
Nancy lived on the farm with William until around the time of his marriage to 16-year-old Retta Dunn in 1914. (William was 42, so there’s got to be a story in there somewhere). In November 1921, Nancy filed for and was approved to receive a “widow’s pension” with the State of North Carolina for James’ service in the Confederate army. Nancy then lived with my great-grandparents, Henry and Emma (Mitchell) Moody, until her death at age 74 on September 3, 1924.
James and Nancy are buried in the Meroney United Methodist Church Cemetery located in the Bear Creek area of Chatham County. Aside from James’ time in the Confederate army, it’s likely they never traveled beyond a few dozen miles of where they were born.
Resources of note:
Forebears and Kinfolks 
A wonderful story….and well written…I had not heard of ‘Junior Reserves’ previously….that must be a story in itself…