Bathsheba Barrett Oxford Kuykendall
BIRTH 4 Jan 1741
North Carolina, USA
DEATH 1816 (aged 74–75)
Lincoln County, North Carolina, USA
BURIAL
Mud Creek Baptist Church Cemetery
Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina, USA
Bathsheba was a mystery woman.
It is told that she married Abraham Kuykendall about 1803. Although not very many records have been found so far, especially on her death, she was memorialized on the monument at Mud Creek Baptist Church Cemetery along with Abraham, his first wife Elizabeth, and their children.
Thanks for Betty Marsicek for providing this further information:
Bathsheba Barrett was the daughter of Jonathan Barrett who was one of only a few white men living along the Catawba River in the 1750s in what was then Rowan County. He was a hunter and a surveyor who laid out the road across the mountain which was his home and which lies on the north side of the Catawba near present day Taylorsville in Alexander County. Bathsheba was born either in Virginia or at this mountain home in North Carolina on 4 January 1741. The name of her mother is unknown.
Bathsheba married Samuel Oxford, a neighbor who lived on the south side of the Catawba. The legends of the area tell many romantic stories of their courtship. Samuel's family operated a ferry across the Catawa river and it is said that when the water was low, Samuel would use a long pole to jump from stone to stone to cross the river while he was courting Bathsheba.
Samuel and Bathsheba had twelve children and all are believed to have been born at the same place. The different locations of their births reflect boundary changes as the counties of western North Carolina developed. The site of Samuel's home is now in Catawba County and is probably submerged somewhere under Lake Hickory.
Al though no record of a divorce has been found, census records show Samuel and Bathsheba together in Lincoln County in 1790 along with those children who were still living at home. By 1800 Bathsheba is living in Buncombe County where her oldest son had moved and Samuel is still in Lincoln County. His household includes a woman who is several years younger than he is and a boy of less than 10 years. By 1810, still in Lincoln County, Samuel's household includes the woman and child now listed as 10 to 15 years old and four younger children.
Samuel died in 1811, leaving a will leaving $50 to each of his children by Bathsheba except his son Samuel Oxford and his daughter Bathsheba Byler who were each left ten shillings. The money for these bequests was to be raised from the sale of his goods, chattels, lands and tenements. The will was recorded in April 1811 in Lincoln County. Shortly before that time, on February 14, 1810, a document was recorded [Lincoln County Deed Book 25, p.46] in which Samuel Oxford sold to Molly Fox for 50 pounds a black horse, all his stock of horned cattle, all his household furniture and dresser furniture in pewter, iron pots, all the furniture belonging to the dresser, all his beds and bedsteads, and furniture, all his plantation tools, all Indian corn on the place, and all rent on his plantation for 4 years. Samuel was to enjoy the property during his natural life and Molly to have it when Samuel died. This bill of sale sounds more like a will than a simple sale.
It appears that after Samuel and Bathsheba parted ways he remarried (or lived with) Molly Fox and had two children with her and Bathsheba remarried to Abraham Kuykendall.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117571808/bathsheba-oxford_kuykendall
