Along the side is written "Made by Col Sam Walkup". A year is attributed to the map: 1866. (none of this is seen on this image, which is only the center portion of the map)
To write about Col. Walkup would require another post (and yes, maybe I'll do that one day) but suffice it to say that Samuel Hoey Walkup (1818-1876) was a "Renaissance Man" - he played the flute, was a lawyer (graduate of Chapel Hill), statesman (elected to the State Legislature), soldier (a general in the State Militia, later a Colonel in the Confederate Army - 48th N.C.), a diarist and letter-writer of his day. But this post was to be about the map!
I once made an effort to find the real map and I contacted the wonderful folks at Chapel Hill, knowing that they had at least one of his diaries. I figured they had the map and that they would scan it and post it at their map site. They did their very best to find the map but it wasn't there. And then I remembered that one of the books that used the image (again, very poor quality) had noted it was from the State Archives. I apologized and then scoured the N. C. State Archives' catalog online and came up empty-handed.
In short, I gave up.
The image shown here was shared by researcher David McCorkle. He found it just inside a Union County Court Minutes book at the North Carolina State Archives. (CR 097.311.3 Union County Superior Court Minute Docket 1866-1877 - the map is drawn on the very first page)
Imagine the shouting (yes, of joy!) when he sent me a recent email saying, 'hey, look what I found drawn in an odd place!' (or something like that - sorry David, I do not have your email in front of me).
Long story short, I ordered a scanned image of the map for the Dickerson Room of the Union County Public Library. We hope to be able to print it out large enough for study.
We are, well, at least I am, excited!
And I continue to ponder about the 'why' of the map. If Col. Walkup were here today I would like to know was this for his own purpose? Did he just want to keep track of his neighbors? If you look at the image here, Walkup's home is drawn in blue and labeled with his initials "SHW". (he also takes the time to actually give his home a roof)
That alone has led me to believe that his home, later in the way of Belk's new building (built around 1904 but don't quote me on this - it would be the first time that Belk built a building for his store in Monroe though), was turned and moved to face Franklin Street.
Walkup would be long dead by that time but his half-sister, mother of [William] Henry Belk and married to a Simpson at the time, was probably living in the house. I say "probably" as I have no real proof of that. If you study the Sanborn Maps of Monroe, you will find that a house appears behind the Lee Department Store building in 1908 (who would deliberately build a house behind a department store???) - it is my belief that this was Col. Walkup's former home -- turned and moved. And there is proof that the house behind the Lee Building was Mrs. Sarah Walkup Belk Simpson's!
Walkup's home can be seen in Sanborn Maps for 1885, 1892, 1897, and 1902. Not to mention the 1882 Gray's New Map (see http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/ncmaps,1003) which has "S. H. Walkup" written over the house in question (I believe the exact same house seen here in McCorkle's image).
I have gone on long enough at this time - but suffice it to say that maps are fascinating and I look forward to having a high quality image of Walkup's map and finally knowing where the original truly is!
To learn more visit the Dickerson Room of the Union County Public Library (Monroe, NC) and ask for: Civil War file, Walkup, Locked File 3, Drawer 1. Within this file has been assembled images of the various maps for pondering over the home and articles/information found on Samuel Hoey Walkup.
A nice bio was written by Mike Elliott about Col. Walkup and his wife, Margaret Pamelia (Minnie) Reece Price. It can be found in "The Heritage of Union County, North Carolina" Volume I, pp 444-445.
You should also be able to find information about him on the Internet.
As of May 2018 a jpg image of this map is now at the library's web site at this link
-Patricia Poland, January 8, 2014 (tweaked a bit 1-9-14, revised 1-16-14 to clarify location of map in court minute book, give the year as 'attributed' and to not imply that the map was 'stuck' in the book)
