Bertie County NcArchives Biographies.....Cales, Duncan  L 1817 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net May 31, 2020, 3:24 pm

Source: Research
Author: Gerald Thomas

DUNCAN L. CALE AND WIFE, HARRIET HOGGARD
by
Gerald W. Thomas
2019

Duncan L. Cale, the son of Charney C. Dundelow / Charney Cale Sr. and his wife,
Elizabeth Harmon, was born on February 8, 1817, in Bertie County. On February 24,
1840 – at the age of 23 – Duncan purchased his first parcel of real estate by
acquiring one-half of a 290-acre tract from his brother, Jesse Cale. Jesse had
purchased the land from John Thompson on September 10, 1834. The property adjoined
the lands of Thomas Pierce [Pearce] and the heirs of Benjamin Hardy. Jesse Cale died
prior to November 1849. On November 12, 1849, his lawful heirs – Duncan, Charney
Cale Jr., David Pierce and wife, Elizabeth Cale Pierce, Isaac Pierce and wife, Mary
Cale Pierce, Henry Baker and wife, Sarah Cale Baker, and Penelope Cale Mizell – sold
to Starkey Evans their interest in, and title to, the 290-acre tract which Jesse had
purchased from John Thompson.#
On March 21, 1841, Duncan (age 24) married Harriett Hoggard (age 21), the daughter
of Elisha Hoggard and Amilia White. Harriet was born in Bertie County on January 1,
1820.#2 Nine months after their marriage, Harriet gave birth to the couple’s first
child, a daughter they named Emeline. Duncan and Harriett had six children – four
sons and two daughters.
Children of Duncan L. Cale and wife, Harriett Hoggard#3
·	Emeline Cale – born December 21, 1841, married James Richard Conner in 1864, and
died June 1, 1908 (age 66).
·	William H. Cale – born October 8, 1843, married Mary E. Butler on October 13,
1864, and died December 4, 1871 (age 28).
·	John T. Cale – born January 18, 1845, never married, and died at the Confederate
States of America’s prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia in June 1864 (age 19).
·	Amilia Jane Cale – born May 1, 1850, married William David Thomas on May 8, 1866,
and died December 26, 1921 (age 71).
·	Dancy Cale – born May 3, 1852, married Martha C. Castellow on June 8, 1874,
married Minnie Jilcott on March 11, 1915, and died February 7, 1931 (age 78).
·	Franklin Pierce Cale – born February 21, 1854, married Roxanna Jane Castellow on
November 25, 1875, married Josephine Sanderlin on October 19, 1884, and died January
24, 1918 (age 63).

	Duncan purchased between eighty and ninety acres of land from James E. Boswell on
April 18, 1857. The property was situated about two miles from Windsor along the
road leading to Salmon Creek (present day US Highway 17) and adjoined Ryan Butler’s
land.#4
	Duncan had become involved in Bertie County politics by the time he was in his
early thirties. In May 1848 he was appointed as a poll keeper. Relatedly, in 1852 he
served as a witness in a criminal case against Elijah Morris who was charged with
“illegal voting” during the August 1852 election. A decade later Duncan had become
affiliated with the Democratic Party in Bertie County. On May 28, 1859, the
Democratic Party of North Carolina’s First Congressional District (comprised of
Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, Northampton,
Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Tyrrell counties) held a convention in Edenton. Duncan,
who had been elected as a delegate at a prior meeting of Bertie County’s Democrats,
attended the convention. At that time, the United States was embroiled in the
pre-Civil War secession crisis which had been escalating for years. During the
gathering in Edenton, the delegates approved a number of resolutions expressing
their positions on critical issues of the day. One resolution expressed that they
“bitterly opposed … federalism, whigism, know nothingism, black republicanism, and
their mongrel offspring.” The delegates “cordially and heartily approve[d]” of the
performance of the district’s late representative to Congress, Henry M. Shaw, a
Democrat. Further, they endorsed the policies of Pres. James Buchanan and
“especially his course upon the slavery question.”#5
	During the 1852 fall term of Bertie County Superior Court, a jury indicted Duncan
for assault and battery against King White and Moses Todd. The incident occurred “on
a public street and highway” on September 1, 1852. After the assault, Duncan
reportedly behaved “in a warlike manner.” Witnesses were Simon Hughes, Henry Baker
(Duncan’s brother-in-law), Robert R. Tayloe (the county sheriff), and King White.
William Folk served as foreman of the jury. On November 10, the case was continued
until the March 1853 term of court.#6
	Duncan’s father, Charney, died on July 24, 1860. Charney, in his will dated April
30, 1858, designated Duncan to serve as his executor. The will was proved during the
August 1860 session of Bertie County court. Commissioners appointed by the court
divided Charney’s significant landholdings (1,859 acres) in two tracts (Goggoon and
Piney Woods) on October 13, 1860. Duncan received 264 acres in the Piney Woods
tract.#7 
	On August 12, 1861, Duncan sold a parcel of land to his sister, Penelope Cale
Hoggard, and her husband, Joseph E. Hoggard. The parcel contained 200 acres and was
located near Ross Baptist Church. Nine days later Penelope and Joseph sold to Duncan
a tract of undisclosed acreage which was situated on Beaverdam Swamp and adjoined
the lands of James Corbit, Henry Baker (Duncan and Penelope’s brother-in-law), David
Hoggard, and John Hoggard.#8
	The Civil War (1861-1865) dramatically impacted Duncan and Harriet’s family.
William, their oldest son, enlisted as a private in Company B, Third Battalion North
Carolina Light Artillery (Confederate) in January 1862 at the age of 18. However, he
was transferred to Company C, Eleventh Regiment North Carolina Troops before being
mustered into the Third Battalion. Company C was composed of men primarily from
Bertie County. Capt. Francis Wilder Bird (Byrd), a Windsor lawyer, commanded the
company which was assigned to the Eleventh Regiment in March 1862. A personal
business ledger and journal maintained by Duncan indicates that William was drafted
by the “Confederate Authority.” This entry appears to be untrue since the
Confederate Conscription Act – the first national draft in American history – was
not signed into law by Pres. Jefferson Davis until April 16, 1862, almost three
months after William signed up for military service.#9
	Private Cale served less than eight months in the Confederate Army – he deserted
on, or about, September 1, 1862, and went to Union military forces at Plymouth.
There, on September 6, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company C, First Regiment
North Carolina Union Volunteers.#10 
	Thirteen months later William’s younger brother, John T. Cale (who had reached the
age of 18 and was subject to Confederate conscription), also journeyed to Plymouth
and enlisted in the Union Army. He enlisted as a private in Company B, Second
Regiment North Carolina Union Volunteers on October 10, 1863. Pri. John T. Cale was
present or accounted for with his company at Plymouth until reported as missing in
action and captured at Plymouth, April 17-20, 1864. Cale was transported to the
hell-hole Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, where he died in June
1864.#11 
	Duncan L. Cale may also have fled from Bertie County into the Union lines. His
personal business ledger and journal contains an entry pertaining to Company C,
First Regiment North Carolina Union Troops. The entry – “Sick Report of Co C” –
listed Cpl. W. H. Cale, Pvt. John F. Todd, Pvt. Isaiah Castellow and Cpl. James R.
Conner. All of the named individuals were Bertie County residents. Presumably, such
information would have been recorded in Duncan’s personal records only if he had
been present at, or in relatively close proximity to, Company C’s camp. Also,
Duncan’s daughter, Emeline, married Cpl. James Richard Conner (a Union soldier) in
1864. The marriage took place at the Union Army garrison at Washington, North
Carolina and was officiated by the Provost Marshal.#12 Emeline was twenty-three
years old and logically, would have needed a male family member (William or Duncan)
to travel with her into the Union lines. In less than five years after Duncan had
publicly participated with other Bertie County pro-slavery Democrats in a district
convention, his family was involved with Union military forces focused on defeating
the Confederate States of America and freeing tens of thousands of slaves in those
states. Duncan affiliated with Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party.
	If Duncan temporarily departed Bertie County, he would likely have done so after
July 1863 as several records place him in Bertie County prior to that time. In 1862
he was listed in the Durgan District tax list as owning 572 acres of land and one
slave. On December 5, 1862, he purchased land from William A. Ferguson. And on July
29, 1863, he sold sixty-six acres of land to Henry Rhea (Ray).#13
	Furthermore, Duncan quite possibly became the target of his pro-Southern neighbors.
Numerous Bertie County individuals whose relatives had left the jurisdiction and
fled into Union lines were severely persecuted by Confederate officials and
supporters. Duncan, with two sons serving in the Union Army, logically would have
attracted the ire of anti-Union persons in Bertie County.#14  
 	Following the Civil War, Duncan L. Cale was a proactive member of the Republican
Party which supported pro-black policies and positions. On May 10, 1870, a “public
meeting of the Republican party” of Bertie County was held in Colerain. The purpose
of the meeting was to nominate persons for county offices and candidates to
represent Bertie County in the next state Legislature. John W. Sessoms chaired the
meeting and appointed a committee of six individuals which nominated the party’s
members for county offices and candidates for the Legislature. Duncan L. Cale was
nominated as one of the Republican candidates for Bertie County commissioner. Cale
was elected and sworn in at a board meeting on September 5, 1870. He served as a
member of the Board of Commissioners at least through December 1877. He also
qualified as a justice of the peace in October 1868.# 15
	Minutes of the Board of Commissioners reveal that Duncan was paid from $10 to $12
every three or four months from March 1869 through October 1872 to support and care
for Mrs. Anna Todd. Anna, a blind and elderly lady, resided in the household of
Duncan and Harriet’s daughter, Amilia Jane Cale and her husband, William David
Thomas, in 1870.#16
	Throughout the 1870s and into the early 1880s, Duncan was involved in several real
estate transactions. His homestead and personal property tax exemption was recorded
on February 19, 1870. A little over eight months later he was involved in two
transactions on the same day, October 31, 1870. First, he sold 150 acres of land
situated on the road that ran from Ross Baptist Church to Colerain to his nephew,
William Dorsey Mizell, (son of Penelope Cale). Second, he sold a 307-acre tract to
his brother-in-law, Henry Baker. On May 17, 1873, he executed a mortgage deed for
$300 with M. V. Perry. (He subsequently satisfied the mortage.) Nine years later, on
June 24, 1882, Duncan, his wife, Harriet, and other heirs of Elisha Hoggard
(Harriet’s deceased father) sold the “Elisha Hoggard place” to Thomas W.
Castellow.#17
	Duncan L. Cale was a businessman and farmer. He fished, particularly during the
springtime when herring and shad by the millions came up the Cashie River and its
tributaries to spawn. He sold portions of his catches to neighbors and family
members. He also sold other products and commodities. He performed carpentry work,
occasionally repairing the “Windsor bridge” which spanned the Cashie River. And,
annually he farmed.#18
	On Friday, April 24, 1885, Duncan was “burning off” residual vegetation from the
previous growing season in an agricultural field in preparation for the upcoming
season. Burning grass, vegetation, and other debris to clear fields was a common
practice by farmers prior to planting crops. On April 24, something went horribly
wrong as Duncan was burning one of his fields. Reportedly, the fire overtook him and
he burned to death. However, the circumstance of his death, in the author’s opinion,
was suspicious. When his body was found, his skull was breached and his brain
exposed. An unidentified writer noted that Duncan, “in burning the grass from his
field, in some unexplained manner burned to death. The unfortunate man’s head … was
so badly burned as to leave the brain exposed when found.”#19 It seems inconceivable
that a grass fire, or a fire fueled by left-over vegetation from a prior year’s
crop, would generate a fire so intense as to disintegrate a portion of a human
skull. Duncan was an elderly man for that era (sixty-eight years old) and possibly,
he accidentally fell and his head slammed into the ground, fracturing his skull, He
also may have suffered a medical emergency, such as an acute heart attack,
precipitating his sudden collapse. 

	



Newspaper accounts of Duncan L. Cale’s death. The Weekly Star (Raleigh), May 15,
1885 (left); The Danbury Reporter, May 21, 1885 (right). The Star article was
reprinted from the Falcon (Elizabeth City).

	On July 15, 1885, in compliance with a Bertie County Superior Court order, James
Mitchell (J.P.), William T. King, and William H. Vick allotted to Harriet Hoggard
Cale a year’s provisions from Duncan’s estate. Harriet outlived her husband by only
three years. She died on May 23, 1888; she, like Duncan, was sixty-eight years old
at her death.#20

NOTES

# 1 “Cale Ledger,” 45; Bertie County deeds EE-103, FF-51, and HH-406, Office of the
Bertie County Register of Deeds. 
	As noted in the author’s unpublished research paper, “Charney C. Dundelow / Charney
Cale, Sr.” (2019), Charney during his two stints in the nation’s military served
under commanding officers named “Duncan” – Capt. Duncan L. Clinch (Third Regiment
United States Infantry) and Lt. Col. Duncan McDonald (North Carolina detached
militia). The author theorizes that Charney and Elizabeth’s quite possibly named
Duncan L. in honor of one, or both, of Charney’s commanders named “Duncan.”

# 2 “Cale Ledger,” 45.

# 3 Dates of birth, marriage, and death for Duncan and Harriet’s children were
obtained from a number of sources, including, but not limited to, the “Cale Ledger,”
Bertie County marriage records and death certificates, select military and pension
documents.

# 4 Bertie County deed LL-24.

# 5 State vs. Elijah Morris, 1852, Bertie County Criminal Action Papers, CR.010.326,
folder 1850-1854, State Archives (hereafter cited as Criminal Action Papers); Weekly
Standard (Raleigh), June 8, 1859.
	Henry M. Shaw of Currituck County had represented that county in the North Carolina
Senate during the Assembly of 1852. He served as the Representative for North
Carolina’s First Congressional District in the Thirty-third (1853-1855) and
Thirty-fifth Congresses (1857-1859). The Thirty-fifth Congress had concluded on
March 3, 1859, less than three months prior to the Democrats’ meeting in Edenton.
John L. Cheney Jr., ed., North Carolina Government, 1585-1979, A Narrative and
Statistical History (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State,
1981), 319, 687, 689.
	President James Buchanan, elected in 1856 (in office from March 4, 1857 – March 4,
1861), served during a period when the nation’s secession crisis rapidly grew and
political and regional divisions in the nation deepened drastically. By 1859 the
nation’s divisiveness, particularly over the question of slavery, seemed
irreparable. Before Buchanan left office, Southern states began seceding from the
Union. Pres. Abraham Lincoln was left to deal with the emerging sectional crisis
which erupted into the Civil War less than two months following the end of
Buchanan’s presidency. While the Democrats of North Carolina’s First Congressional
District publicly espoused support for Buchanan, many persons across the nation
opposed his positions, terming him a “doughface” and blaming him for ineffectively
addressing issues between pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans, which largely led
to the outbreak of the Civil War. “James Buchanan,” Wikipedia.
Federalism is a type of government in which a central, or “federal government,” and
one or more regional governments (i.e., state governments) work cooperatively to
form a political system. Powers are divided between the levels of government and the
people are subject to the laws of each. Anti-federalists prefer strong state
governments with less influence from the central government. The Whig Party was
influential from the 1830s until its collapse in the mid-1850s. In North Carolina,
support for the Whig Party came mainly from the less-developed parts of the state,
especially the west and the northeast, where people wanted education and internal
improvements that would increase economic opportunity. Against them were the wealthy
planters of the east, who saw no need for reforms that would only benefit others and
reduce their power in the state.The American Party, also known as the “Know Nothing
Party,” was formed in North Carolina during the winter of 1854-1855 by Kenneth
Rayner, a former Congressman and North Carolina legislator with ties to Bertie
County. The party consisted primarily of Whigs whose national party had been
shattered by the slavery issue. The American Party sought to continue Whig
principles without aligning with the old party. Although the “Know Nothings” in
North Carolina won three congressional seats in 1855, the rising threat of the
anti-slavery Republican Party (“black Republicans”) in the next year’s presidential
election caused state voters to reject the American Party candidate, Millard
Fillmore, and rally behind Democrat James Buchanan as the better defender of
southern rights and slavery. Generally, Democrats (with whom Duncan L. Cale
affiliated) opposed the principles of the federalists, Whigs, Republicans, and “Know
Nothings.”

# 6 State vs. Duncan Cale, Criminal Action Papers, folder 1850-1854.

# 7 Bertie County will H-95 (Charney Cale), Office of the Clerk of Court of Bertie
County; “Cale Ledger,” 115; Bertie County deed MM-200 (Charney Cale’s land
division).

# 8 Bertie County deeds MM-306 and MM-308.

# 9 Manarin, Louis H., and Weymouth T. Jordan Jr., comps., North Carolina Troops,
1861-1865: A Roster (Raleigh: State Division of Archives and History, 1966–), 5:32,
34 (hereafter cited as North Carolina Troops); “Cale Ledger; Gerald W. Thomas,
Divided Allegiances: Bertie County during the Civil War (Raleigh: Division or
Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1996), 44, 45
(hereafter cited as Thomas, Divided Allegiances); “Cale Ledger,” 34.

#10  North Carolina Troops, 5:34; Gerald W. Thomas, Bertie in Blue: Experiences of
Bertie County’s Union Servicemen during the Civil War (Plymouth: Beacon Printing,
Inc., 1998), 85 (hereafter cited as Bertie in Blue).

#11  Bertie in Blue, 104.

#12  “Cale Ledger,” 46: James R. Conner responses to Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Pensions questionnaire, April 2, 1915, Union military pension file for
James R. Conner, Pension Case Files of Bureau of Pensions and Veterans
Administration, 1861-1942, Record Group 15, National, Archives.

#13  United States History Class 1975-1976, comp., “Confederate Tax Census” for
Bertie County, North Carolina, 1862 (publication facts missing), Durgan District, 2;
Bertie County deeds RR-54 and 166-279.

#14  For accounts of persecution of pro-Union citizens in Bertie County, see Thomas,
Divided Allegiances, 89-92, 106-107, 123-124.

#15  “Cale Ledger, 150; The Weekly Standard (Raleigh), June 1, 1870; The Albemarle
Times (Windsor), September 29, 1876; Record of Deeds, P Orders Comm., Bertie County,
Office of the Bertie County Register of Deeds (hereafter cited as Minutes of the
Board of Commissioners). This volume contains minutes of the meetings of the Board
of Commissioners of Bertie County from September 1, 1868, through December 1877.

#16  Minutes of the Board of Commissioners, entries for March, June, and October
1869, January, June, and October 1870, March, May, and November 1871, April and
August 1872; Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Bertie County population
schedule, enumeration for William Thomas’s household.

#17  Bertie County deeds NN-426, OO-461, YY-491, 61-437, and 54-322.

#18  “Cale Ledger,” 45, 102; Minutes of the Board of Commissioners, entries for
September and November 1873, August 1874, January 1875, and November 1877.

#19  The Weekly Star (Raleigh), May 15, 1885; The Landmark (Statesville) May 15,
1885; The Danbury Reporter, May 21, 1885. 
An entry in the “Cale Ledger” indicates that Duncan died on April 23, 1885. “Cale
Ledger,” 102.

#20  Record of year’s provisions allotted to Harriet Cale, July 15, 1885, estate
file for Duncan L. Cale, Bertie County Estate Files, State Archives; “Cale Ledger,”
102.






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