Assertive And Endearing Abby House

In the state of North Carolina few women were as well known as the cantankerous, cussing Abby House, fondly referred to as "Aunt Abby." Born around 1797 in Franklin County, House showed her independence early during the War of 1812, when she received news that her sweetheart in Norfolk, Virginia, was sick. She immediately set out on foot, only to get there the day he was buried; so she walked home again.

At the onset of the Civil War, House went to her neighbors and gathered shoes, food, and clothes for the troops and delivered the supplies personally. She encouraged her eight nephews to serve the Confederacy, promising, "If any of you gits sick or wounded, you can depend on your old Aunt Abby to nuss and tend you." During the war she nursed five of her relatives and buried at least one. She also doted on any solder from her home county who was wounded or sick. The bold old woman in her faded poke bonnet, intimidated by no one, would march right up to the commanding officer and ask to care for the Franklin county soldier until he was well enough to return to duty.

During Reconstruction the aging House lost her property, but some Confederate veterans in Raleigh provided her with a cottage near the state government. There she offered liberal doses of advice to the Democrats in the political meetings she would attend, for no one dared to ask her to leave.

In 1876 House brazenly joined the Democratic State Convention, uninvited, to nominate Zebulon B. Vance for governor. When the presiding officer moved that House take the place of the only absent delegate, the motion was carried unanimously and House cast her vote for her beloved Vance. In asserting herself, House probably became the first woman to cast an official vote for a political office.

House died in 1881 and her crude grave marker deservedly read, "Angel of Mercy to Confederate Soldiers."

Fascinating Fact: House is said to have searched for 12 days on the gruesome battlefields of Fredericksburg, Va., to find one of her relatives.