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ECAFA Meeting Minutes
2/13/2003

ECAFA dues were due by January 31, 2003.  Those of you who have not paid yet, you know who you are.  Mail those dues payments in!  $10 per individual - $15 per couple.  Mail them to:

East Coast Allred Family Association
P.O. Box 1044
Pittsboro, NC 27312

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The ECAFA met last evening, February 13, 2003, at the Golden Corral in Asheboro.   19 members were present:

Linda Allred Cooper
Dedra Routh
Bob Bryan
Harlan Sexton
Becky Sexton
Wayne Ward
Mrs. Wayne Ward
Dot Allen
Lawrence Allen
James Eugene Allred
Blanche Allred
Franklin Allred
Wallace Allred
Hollis Allred
Sara Allred
Eddie Clay Allred
Carolyn Allred
Mildred Allred
Nancy Martin

ECAFA President, Linda Cooper, opened the meeting by telling everyone about the very successful research trip to Pennsylvania and Maryland.  Linda, along with fellow researchers Ruth Ann Jones, Nancy Martin, Alice Pottmyer, Dennis York and Hilda York, spend the last week of January looking for information and clues about some of the original Randolph County, NC settlers - most of whom came to North Carolina from southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Linda presented the 3 inch thick 3 ring binder full of documents copied during the research trip.  Among the documents copied were estate papers, land records, orphan court records, local tavern keeper records, tax lists, ship passenger records, family documents and family histories.  Information about William Penn and some of the first Quakers to arrive in America was also included.  Some of the family names we found were:  Mendenhall, Pugh, Feree, Culbertson, Morley/Marley, Brown, Dougin, Kirkpatrick, Eldridge, Swafford, Lewis, Spencer, York, Allred, Aldred, Pemberton, and Iler - all familiar names to anyone studying the first settlers in central North Carolina.  Copies of all of the documents will be presented to the Randolph Room within the next week.

Copies of all receipts were turned in to ECAFA Treasurer James Eugene Allred for the $150.00 that was donated to the researchers to cover the cost of document copies.  The total spent on copies was $145.67.  The remaining $4.33 was also turned in to James Eugene.

Each member present received a copy of the letter dated 1695 written by John Allred to Phineas Pemberton.  .  This letter was found on file in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in downtown Philadelphia.  John Allred was in Manchester, England at the time of writing the letter.  Phineas Pemberton was in Pennsylvania.  Linda explained that Phineas was the nephew of John Allred's first wife, Ellen Pemberton Allred.  Phineas had come to Pennsylvania as part of William Penn's Quaker movement.  John was writing to Phineas asking for money to pay for ship's passage for John, his 2nd wife, and three sons.  Linda gave a short history lesson, explaining the significance of this letter and the connection to William Penn and the early Quakers to the majority of Pennsylvania's earliest settlers.  Later, in the 1740's and 1750's, some of the descendants of those Quakers came to central North Carolina including the Mendenhall, Culbertson, York and possibly the Allred family.

Because of the new information and documents found, Linda explained that a sight-seeing trip had been planned to travel to Delaware and Pennsylvania to visit some of the historic sites associated with William Penn, the early Quakers, and the American Revolution.  This trip will take place May 4 - 9, 2003. 

The full ECAFA Activity Schedule was also passed out.  Activities planned for 2003 are:

March 8, 2003:  Work Day in the Allred-Trogdon and Lane-Foust Cemeteries

April 5, 2003:  One Day Trip to Alamance BattleGround and Hillsborough, NC; part of our educational goal of learning more about the Regulators and War of the Regulation

May 4 - 9, 2003: Bus Trip to Washington DC, Delaware and Pennsylvania to visit historic sites associated with William Penn, the early Quaker church, and the American Revolution.

August 9, 2003:  One Day Trip to Tryon Palace, New Bern, NC; part of our series on the Regulators and War of the Regulation.

September 12 & 13, 2003:  Reunion in Randolph County, NC

A short review of the ongoing DNA project was given.  Members of the Allred, York, Arledge and Aldridge families are participating.  Results can be seen on the AFO web site.

ECAFA Corporate Controller, Harlan Sexton, set up a meeting to discuss tax preparation for the ECAFA for Tuesday, February 18, 2003, at his house.  Treasurer James Eugene Allred and President Linda Allred Cooper will be present.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, 2003, at 6pm at America's Road House in Asheboro.  (Note, this meeting will be on Tuesday evening by request of some ECAFA members who had meeting conflicts on Thursday nights.)