Dora Stokes is my maternal great grandmother and wife of my great grandfather of R.C. Stokes. She was born Emma Dora Phillips on April 23, 1872. Not much is known about Great Granny Dora’s’ childhood and parents except that she almost certainly was very poor.
The marriage license for her and R.C. Stokes states she is the daughter of “Polly Ann Phillips” and “Cassander Shields.” Dora’s death certificate names Polly Ann Phillips as her mother and “Eli Shields” as her father. Census evidence points to Casander being the son of Archibald and Miriam Shields of Moore County, NC, and Polly Ann being the daughter of Richard and Martha Phillips of Chatham County, NC. Polly Ann is also referred to as “Mary Ann” on occasion.
There is no record of Polly Ann and Casander being married or living together. Polly Ann was a single mother living with Dora in her widowed mother Martha’s household according to the 1880 census. (Recorded as Mary Ann). Her sister and another child, perhaps her sister’s daughter, also lived with Martha. The youngest child’s name also appears to be “Mary A.,” so this needs more research.
Dora had four half siblings born to Polly Ann and Malcom “Make” Brady: Richard Avery (1884), Lonnie (1887), Geneva “Annie” (1890), and Ernest (1893). I’ll write more about Polly Ann and her relationships in a separate post.
Dora married R.C. Stokes on February 19, 1890 a few months shy of her 18th birthday. R.C., a Confederate veteran and farmer, was 44 years old and a widower, his first wife having died in 1883. Dora told a reporter in 1958 that she actually met R.C. when she was nine years old. In the years following his first wife’s death, R.C. said to a teenage Dora that he’d wait to marry her someday. No doubt young impoverished Dora, who was living with a mother busy having more out of wedlock babies, saw marriage as an opportunity to escape a bad situation.
RC and Dora had nine children together: Sarah (1891), Arthur (1894, died after 12 days), Orron (1895), Alma (1899, my maternal grandmother), Richard (1901), Rufus (1903), Ocia (1906), Causey (1908), and Thelma (1911). Rufus drowned in 1922 while fishing on Deep River. Causey also died young with Tuberculosis at age 24.
Dora lived her life as a housewife and mother. She frequently helped families with sick loved ones, and was a devout church member (Deep River Baptist Church and Ramseur First Christian Church). She lived her later years with youngest daughter Thelma and her husband Penn Stout. Great Granny Dora died on February 9, 1960.
Sources of note:
Forebears and Kinfolks 
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