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Some African-American Outlaw relatives:
Dr. Benjamin Speller
- great grandson of James Outlaw
former Dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences at NCCU
I am a tenured Research Professor but I am about to retire from that position in
a few months after 35 or 36 years. I also teach Management and Systems
Analysis in the School of Business here at NCCU and on the Internet for San Jose
State University in California through California State
University System at Fullerton Click
here to learn more about Dr. Benjamin F. Speller Jr.
Ben Speller's retirement dinner
photo by the NCCU Public Relations Department Photographer
"From left to right my brother, Dr. Leslie C. Speller, Sr. Ph.D.
(Physics); my close cousin through the Outlaws, Bonds and Spellers,
Dempsey Bond, Jr. and his wife, Mary Kay; and of course, me. We
really enjoyed ourselves. The Bonds and Outlaws were represented in large
numbers at the dinner. My dad's only brother, late John T. Speller's son,
John Jr. was the surprise relative since he is very reclusive (like some of the
Outlaws) and usually only comes to a family funeral. We had not seen him
in about 8 years. Everyone said that I have now won hands down as the
favorite relative on all sides of these families because quite a few hard core
"no shows" at reunions and other family events came to this
dinner."
"David Standley Outlaw, 1806-1868 (the guardian and uncle of Edward Ralph
Outlaw) is Dempsey Bond's gggrandfather. His ggrandfather, George Outlaw,
was the mulatto overseer of his father's, David Outlaw, Plantation and also the
Plantation Estate of Edward Ralph Outlaw. Dempsey's mother is Lula Outlaw.
She and some of her brothers have red hair and bad eyesight as did David Outlaw.
He is also the ggrandson of Cullen Capehart Speller and gggrandson of James
Bond, all plantation owners that links us to the slaves in northeastern Bertie
County where we all now own land that comprised the Speller, Bond, and Outlaw
Plantations."
http://www.williamstonhomecoming.com/Bond/
James Outlaw 1858 - 1925
Evidently Edward Cherry Outlaw and his wife who was a
Miller both died and left Edward Ralph Outlaw an underage heir. His cousin
David Outlaw, the lawyer and political leader in Bertie, was his guardian.
I assumed
that he lived with his uncle, Walter Miller who never married. At age
eighteen 1858, Edward Ralph fathered my
great grandfather, James Outlaw, who also lived with Walter Miller. I
assume that the slave woman who we have not been able to identify also lived in
Walter Miller's house.
There were conflicting opinions about the paternity of James Outlaw
because many thought that David Outlaw, Edward Ralph's guardian and cousin, was
my great grandfather's father but we knew different, because he had a son and
other children that he recognized who l grew up with. They had his genetic
markers, red hair and very bad eye sight.
When, my great grandfather married, Edward Ralph deeded him 500 acres of
land down the road from Walter Miller's Plantation. Everyone thought that
Walt Miller had made the gift so that make the case stronger so to speak.
By the time my great grand father died in 1925, he had 2,500 acres of land in
Bertie and surrounding counties that we know about. - Ben Speller
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