Fifth Generation

518. Mary Jane Coffey was born on 19 October 1827 in Yadkin Valley, Caldwell Co., NC. Mary died by accident while grinding corn on 11 April 1859 at the age of 31 in Avery Co., NC and was buried at Pisgah Cemetery in Altamont, Avery Co., NC in April 1859 .^2122,2123
On April 11, 1859 Mary Jane was killed when her dress became caught in the cog of the wheel at her husband Reuben's mill.

Quoted from pg.193, Toe River Valley Heritage - North Carolina, Vol.1:

Kathy Gunter Sullivan writes that according to David Dellinger's," (sic) ( I believe "Bible" is the missing word) "his mother Mary Jane (Coffey) died on 4/11/1859. The circumstances of her death appear in a personal journal kept by Jacob ("Uncle Jake") Carpenter. Though Mr. Carpenter's recollection of the date differs from the Bible entry, the indelible horror of that day is easily imagined. Here is Mr. Carpenter's account: "1859. Mary Dilinger ag 49 was cilde in mill her tress was cot rond shaf and mashed flat gin trane she lay 3 ours in mill for was fond Jun 11 I holp pol out Jacob Carpenter." The version in modern spelling and punctuation, reads: "Mary Dellinger, aged 49 (actual age was 31), was killed in a mill; her dress was caught round the shaft and she was mashed flat by the gin (engine) in the trane (drain/channel). She lay three hours in the mill before she was found, June 11 (actually April). I helped pull her out. (signed) Jacob Carpenter."

"Mary Jane's broken body was laid to rest in the Methodist churchyard adjacent to the graves of Reuben's parents. One family tradition is that her tombstone was erected by son David Dellinger after he became an adult, and there it stands: "Mary J., wife of Reuben Dellinger, died April 11, 1859, aged 31 y, 5m, 12d."

"David Dellinger spoke of his mother to his grandchildren, who report: "Grandpa said he was only six years old when his Mother was killed in a mill, but he remembered how she would pick him up and carry him to the house when he would follow her to the mill barefooted" (Ruth Dellinger Lamkin). He recalled, too, how his Aunt Katherine (Dellinger) Carpenter had gathered Mary Jane's five bereft children into her own large brood and had mothered them along with her own."

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The Avery Journal

http://averyjournal.com/Centennial/story/Centennial_Spotlight%2C_3.17.11_id_008113

Originally published: 2011-03-16 13:03:59
Last modified: 2011-03-18 11:49:06

Centennial Spotlight, Mar. 17, 2011

Tragedy at the Mill

Remembering Avery’s Mary Jane Dellinger for Women’s History Month

Like many an early settler in the mountains of what is now Avery County, Mary Jane Coffey Dellinger was a woman who wore many hats. Those of us today who claim to “multi-task” would fall far short of the work accomplished by Mary Jane and her female counterparts.

Mary Jane was still in her teens living in the Grandfather Mountain vicinity, it is believed, with her parents, Jesse and Margeret Edmisten Coffey. Born in Caldwell County in October 1827, she married Reuben Dellinger, seven years her elder, in 1846.

Reuben Dellinger was a son of Henry and Katherine Setzer Dellinger born in Lincoln County, North Carolina in 1820. In 1829, Henry moved with his wife and children to Drowning Creek in present day Caldwell County before moving on in 1840 to the banks of Three Mile Creek. Again the village did not move but went from being in Yancey County to Watauga County to Mitchell County to Avery County today.

Henry was a miller and a millwright by trade and operated a water-powered sawmill and a gristmill on nearby Camp Creek at the point just before it flowed into Linville River. The site is currently reached from the community of Altamont. The mill was known as the Linville River Saw Mill. This mill offered Henry's sons, Matthias, Reuben and Elcanah the chance to learn the trade and become expert millers, millwrights and sawyers. At his father's death in 1851, Reuben inherited a portion of the land and operated the gristmill.

Along with tending to their five children, growing, preparing and preserving food, weaving and spinning and sewing, educating the young ones, etc., Mary Jane was expected as the miller’s wife to be able to grind corn for those who came by “carrying a tote” to the mill. Cornmeal was a staple for mountain families and Mary Jane would have been conscious of the need to get this job done.

Although the exact date was not recorded, it was likely a warm, spring day when Mary Jane headed to the mill to perform this task as her husband was away – perhaps handling business in the county seat or trading sawn lumber for a farm animal or doing one of the jobs that would have kept him from home. One might imagine a beautiful warm morning with blue skies and the pleasant sound of the water as it made its round in the water wheel. Oh, that the day had been such that Reuben had stayed close to home or the neighbor with corn left to be ground had decided to wait for another day or Mary Jane had been persuaded to complete some other task. However beautiful or peaceful the day had been, all was changed as Mary Jane went about the task that would be her last.

In 1859, at age 49, with five young children, Mary Jane lost her life when her dress got caught in the shaft as it turned. She was pulled into the machine and was crushed by the engine. She lay in the machine three hours before she was discovered, by whom now unknown.

Jacob Carpenter, who lived near the family on Three Mile Creek, recorded the gruesome scene. Jake recorded the passing of his friends and neighbors for his own purposes on scraps of paper or whatever he found to write on. Years later, the pieces of paper in family possession were transcribe into a collection known as “Uncle Jake’s Anthology of Death,” the transcriber's term, not Mr. Carpenter’s. The obits were terse and in the unique mountain vernacular of the people of the day. They were often very personal to Jacob as most of the people were his close friends and neighbors. The recording of Mary Jane's death had to be one of the most difficult:

“1859 – Mary Diling-ag 49 was cilde when her tress was cot rond shaf and mashed flat gin trane she lay 3 ours for was fond June 11 I holp pol her out.”

Mary Jane’s mangled body was laid to rest in Pisgah Cemetery between Three Mile Creek where Mary lived and Camp Creek where she died. Her children remembered little of her but her kindness and sweetness to them remained somewhere in memory. Reuben could no longer bear to live and work the mill with such horrific pictures in his mind’s eye. He disassembled the mill and carried it across the mountain to the headwaters of Cane Creek in Mitchell County. There he re-established his craft, remarried, raised his family and lived out his life. Descendants of Reuben Dellinger continued to mill for several generations. After floods destroyed parts of the mill, it fell idle. In the late 1900s and early 2000s, descendant Jack David Dellinger, a NASA scientist, began the huge project of restoring the mill. Today, the mill is in operation and may be visited by anyone interested in mountain culture and history. How much if any of the original mill that took the life of Mary Jane Coffey Dellinger is part of this mill is unknown. However, the story of Mary Jane and her love for her husband and children, her work ethic and her tragic death as well as the determined effort of her husband to raise a decent, hardworking family are a tribute to them. The water that continues to run the mill is a metaphor for the lifeblood of this couple that continues to flow through their descendants. Many Dellingers from the sons of Henry and Katherine populate Avery County and our neighboring counties. Others have gone to become valuable citizens all over this country. They are Mountain People.

Information on the Mary Jane Dellinger story may be read in detail in the book, “Dellinger Grist Mill on Cane Creek.” Also, information on the Dellinger family in total may be found in the book “Sweet Rivers” by Maggie Palmer Lauterer.

Mary Jane Coffey and Reuben Dellinger were married. They appeared in the census on 28 September 1850 in Watauga Twp., Watauga Co., NC.²¹²⁴ Reuben Dellinger, son of Henry Dellinger and Katherine Setzer, was born on 20 October 1820 in Lincoln Co., NC. He appeared in the census on 26 July 1860 in Mountain Home Dist., Watauga Co., NC.²¹²⁵ Reuben died in Mitchell Co., NC on 20 November 1895.

Mary Jane Coffey and Reuben Dellinger had the following children: