Anderson Cousins

M.B. (managed by Douglas Hunter)

M.C. (managed by Douglas Hunter)

Johannes was the son of Louris Jansen Opdyck and Christina,
whose maiden name is unknown. His surname was also spelled
Opdyke, Opdike and Updike.

He married Catherine Trintye, whose maiden name is unknown.

They had nine children: Lawrence about 1675,
Albert about 1685,
Tryntje,
Engeltje,
Annetje,
William about 1704,
Johannes in 1708,
Bartholomew and Tunis.

[4]

The headstone reads birth date as 1828 and death date as 1924,
but we have proof (below) that she did die in 1922.
Follow your heart for the date you prefer.

North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1975 about Mrs M E Andeson
Name: Mrs M E Andeson
Gender: Female
Race: White
Age: 96
Birth Date: abt 1826
Birth Place: Henderson, North Carolina, United States
Death Date: 1 Jun 1922
Death Location: Hendersonville 45, Henderson
Spouse's Name: John Andeson
Father's Name: Mr Reed
Mother's Name: M
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1975 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682,
1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
----------------------------------------------
sandrafender49 originally found this document 18 Jul 2007
Transcribed from a copy of an article that appeared in the Times News,
Hendersonville, N.C. in the year 1922. The copy was found in the library of
the Henderson County Genealogical Society in Hendersonville, NC.

LONG YEARS OF HISTORY CONNECTED BY LIFE OF MRS. JOHN REID ANDERSON

On June 1, 1922, died Mrs. John Anderson, who was perhaps the oldest woman in Henderson County.
She was born June 20, 1826, thus lacking about 20 days of being 96 years old, in what, was then
Buncombe, now Henderson County, N.C. Her maiden name was Margaret Elvira Reid. Of her father
she had no recollection, he having, as was supposed, been lost on a boat of which he was captain,
plying between Savannah and Augusta on Savannah River. Her mother was of the families of
Davidson and Williamson, distinguished in the early colonial history of North Carolina as the founders
and first president of Davidson college. She was married in 1842 to John Anderson and was the
mother of 12 children, all of whom except one which died in infancy, lived to be more than 30 years old.

Her husband died in 1889, there never having been a death in their family during his lifetime. Except
that of the infant above referred to. She was a member of the Holly springs Baptist Church and had
been for more than half a century at the time of her death. Among her children were three ministers
of the gospel, one is a lawyer, two were members of the North Carolina legislature, one in the house,
one in the senate, and all were teachers in their young days. Of those children, five are living, the
others are dead. The dead are Rev. E. M. Anderson[Enoch], Rev. J.W.[John Wesley] Anderson,
Rev. W. L.[William Larkin] Anderson, Mrs. B.M. Shipman[Martha Louisa] and Mrs. N.S. Anderson.

The living are T.C.[Thomas Columbus] Anderson, Mrs. W.S. Trammel[Lorena Ann], Mrs. V.C.V.
Hamilton[Jane], H. S. [Henry Sherman] Anderson and Joel M. Anderson. She has living about 70
grandchildren and a number of great-grand children living, so far as can be ascertained in the
following States and Countries: North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Georgia, California, and Washington;
British Columbia, Australia, Mexico and Cuba. She had, as far as can be ascertained, between
18 and 20 grandchildren and great grand children in the world war in various capacities, both in
the Army and Navy, two of them were wounded, one for a long time supposed to have been killed.

It is hard to realize what an important period of time such a long life covered. She might be said to
have lived in two ages. The age of slow travel and the age of steam and electricity. At the time of
her birth there was not a steam railroad in the world, no telegraph, and of course none of the later
inventions that have revolutionized trade, travel and industry. She well remembered the time when
deer were plentiful where flourishing towns now stand, where wolves howled at night when Kentucky,
Ohio, and Alabama were frontier states, long before the city of Chicago was founded.

When she was born Henderson was part of Buncombe County. She remembered well when there
was hardly a house where Hendersonville now stands, and the excitement that arose over the
location of the County Seat when Henderson County was made a separate county. In 1840 she
made what was then a long and adventurous journey across the mountains in a wagon with her
step father to Greenville, Tennessee passing through Asheville, which was then a village containing
about thirty houses in all.

There being a great political gathering when she was in Greenville she saw some of the famous
men in the early history of Tennessee and the Republic. She remembered well seeing the great
shower of meteors that fell in November 1833, spoken of by old people as the "Time when the
stars fell". The log cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840 remained fresh in her memory.

She also remembered when Andrew Jackson was President. She was grown, married and had
children when the war with Mexico came on. Remembered seeing, and telling good-by to soldiers
leaving for that war. She talked with Revolutionary soldiers who served under Washington and Greene,
had a vivid impression of those commanders from descriptions of them given by soldiers.

She was born fourteen days before the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, remembered
when Victoria ascended the Throne of Great Britain and many other Historical events that now
seem in the remote past.

How such a long life connects us with the past. How it brings the reality of old times and old
people home to us. Two such lives following each other would cover almost the entire span
of our countries history, would go back to the year of 1730, two years before the birth of George
Washington, Forty-six years before the Declaration of Independence. long before the seven year
war that covered Europe much as the world war has done in our day, long before the French
Revolution, the Napolionic wars, the next great convulsion.

She retained her health and spirits in a remarkable way to the last. She had few of the infirmities
of age, hair retained to the last threads of its raven blackness, Her eyes were still bright, her
mind clear and she walked with a lively step. Except for defective hearing she seemed younger
than many women of sixty. She was a simple, unostentatious Christian and though she often
spoke with sorrow of evil practices and tendencies, she never gossiped or spoke evil of individuals.

[5]

S.D. (managed by breezee631)

[6]

The following is quoted from "The Opdyck Genealogy" (1889):

Born 1753, died 1838; married Susan Elizabeth Ira; was a farmer in Loudoun Co., Va.
Rufus, by hard work and strict economy, accumulated money to buy 500 acres in
Loudoun Co., built a house, and married Elizabeth Ira whose parents were English
and were able to give her only a cow, a few dishes, two quilts, and a tow-linen bed-tick
which was filled with oak leaves by four negro servants for the couch of Rufus and his
bride.

Rufus lived to the age of 86, his wife to the age of 70. By industry and frugality
they amassed a handsome fortune, each striving to rival the other in quiet and
unostentatious ways, and studying each other's happiness and comfort. Not an
outbuilding was erected without the approval of Elizabeth, not a wooden tray was
dug out without the sanction of Rufus as to its size and style.

Afraid to trust the State banks, the old-time beams of their house were their
bank-safe, their youngest daughter Nancy was their treasurer; on one occasion,
in counting $1,300 in silver coin of many kinds, it puzzled the appraisers to ascertain
the American value. Their eight children grew to 21 years of age without having cost
their parents fifteen shillings in doctor's bills, and seven of them lived to a good old age.
The grandchildren are now proud to recall the simple and happy life of their grandparents.

The following is what the above book said in regard to Rufus' children:

All these were large and robust men and women. Their descendants have all been
remarkable for muscular strength and great endurance; they have been supporters
of various churches, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Campbellite; all those now
living are thrifty, well-to-do, owning real estate, not one a day laborer, and only one on a salary.

[7]

Ronnah Lanning (managed by Sheri Copley)