James Belk, 22 Children Later!
When Mecklenburg County celebrated its Centennial on 20 May 1775, James Belk of Union County (formerly a part of Mecklenburg), attended. He was one hundred and ten years old! As recorded in a family Bible, printed in Edinburg in 1720, Belk was born on the 4th of February, 1765. He resided on the same tract of land upon which he was born and raised, his father being one of the original settlers of the country. Belk recollected the death of his father who was mortally wounded in the Revolutionary war, near the North Carolina Line, and knows that his mother, fearing the mournful result, visited the place of conflict, and finding him lying in the woods near th road-side, severely wounded. She assisted him to their home, but soon afterward had him transferred to the residence of his grandfather for better attention, where he died. James Belk was twice married, having ten children by the first, and twelve by the last wife. He was accompanied to the centennial meeting by one of his younger sons, a lad forty-one years of age. His oldest child, a daughter, was eighty-eight years of age! He named one of his sons Julius Alexander, after an intimate friend and junior schoolmate. As he and Alexander grew up, they frequently heard the two meetings of the 20th and 31st of May, 1775, spoken of as being separate and distinct. -Note: James Belk died one year after the Centennial Celebration in Union County on 9 May 1876 at the extreme old age of one hundred and eleven years three months and five days! Index to North Carolina Wills and Estates
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