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- Elihu Eastridge, son of David Eastridge and Nancy Williams Eastridge, married Mariann Calhoun, daughter of Porter Calhoun and Harriet Wright Calhoun on December 10, 1882 in Ashe County, North Carolina. Mariann was born March 24, 1864 in Ashe County, North Carolina and died during childbirth on January 13, 1896 in Ashe County, North Carolina. Note: There is a conflict with the spelling of her name in Elihu's Family Bible, Mariann Calhoun, and her tombstone, Mary Ann Calhoun. Children of Elihu and Mariann were: 1) Binar Rolner Eastridge Wood (1883-1969); 2) James David Eastridge (1885-1911); 3) Millard Columbus Eastridge (1887-1946); 5) Laura Lutishe Eastridge (1889-1889); 6) Lillard Franklin Eastridge (1890-1896); 7) William "Henry" Eastridge (1892-1969); and 8) Arthur "Wells" Eastridge (1895-1917)
After Mariann's death, Elihu married Cordelia E. Toone, daughter of Christopher Columbus Toone and Emilia Wyatt Toone, on August 13, 1897 in Thaxton, Ashe County, North Carolina. The children of Elihu and Cordelia were: 1) John "Sanders" Eastridge (1899-1969); 2) Milton "Everett" Eastridge (1901-1981); 3) Wiley Thomas Eastridge (1903-1903); 4) Infant Eastridge (1905-1905); 5) Avery Andrew Eastridge (1908-1987); 6) Infant Eastridge (1909-1909); 7) Nancy Emilia Eastridge (1911-2004); 8) Lydia Eastridge (1914-1914); 9) Samuel Eastridge (1916-1916; and 10) Jonathan Eastridge (1919-1919).
Elihu and Cordelia left Ashe County, North Carolina and moved to Adair County, Kentucky. The following is a newspaper article about their adventurous move.
From N. C. to Taylor County In Covered Wagon published in Central Kentucky News Journal, 1943
The following is characteristic of the habits and customs of people who lived in the past generation, and many of the early settlers of this section had similar experience getting started in the occupation of farming which was the most productive method of earning a living. They frequently found water cold and inviting tor themselves and their livestock.
Following is the story of Mrs. Cordelia Eastridge, of near Casey Creek, Ky.
My name is Cordelia Toone Eastridge. I was born in Ashe County, North Carolina, in 1874. When I was 8 years old, my father went to the Pond Mountain in North Carolina bought a farm all in the woods. He cut some large popular logs and built a house; there was just enough cleared land for a house and a yard. He located two covered wagons and we started to our new home. We did not get there the first day, but drove in early the next day. We could not see any fields at all; the forests were mostly laurel ivy and hemlock pine. There were some black bears and some wild hogs in the mountains.
I shall never forget that first day. My mother was so happy to have a home that she could call her own. While the shades of night came on, the owls began to hoot. Since there were no locks on the doors, we children began to feel shaky. We would say, "Mother, are you afraid?" She would say in her jolly way, "no, I'm not afraid." We would say "How are going to fasten the doors?" She replied, "I'll tend to that."
When she got ready to retire, she slipped the dining table against one door and set a jar of sorghum against the other. We went to bed feeling safe. I lived there until I was twenty-three years old.
At that age, I married Elihu Eastridge, a widower with five children. After about one year in that community, we loaded our personal belongings, four children and a driver on covered wagons and started for Kentucky. It was fine the first few days. As we drove through the villages of Tennessee we were warned to watch out when we came to the Cumberland Mountains. We at last reached the gap and to our surprise we found one of the finest views we had ever seen. Then we started down the Kentucky side of the mountain. Rough looking miners would ask us where we were moving to, and then would tell us to be careful where we stayed at night. Some would say that travelers had been killed on Yellow Creek; some would say that it was dangerous to cross Log Mountain. At times our hair fairly raised our hats from our heads, but everybody treated us fine.
The thirteenth day we came to what was then known as Callahan Ridge, near Casey Creek. It was mostly woodland and the cattle and hogs lived in the woods. There was not much pasture and not many buildings.
We sold one wagon and team and bought a little home, where we have lived since our first year in the state. The first years were hard, but as the years passed, our hardships grew fewer, and we never regretted making the change to our new home.
On the 16th of January, 1942, my husband made his last move, he went to rest with his loved ones.
I am now sixty-nine years old and I am expecting to make my last move soon. It won't be in a covered wagon, it will be with the angels.
Bio by Ruth A. Collins
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1862 - 1942 (80 years)
