Last updated 11/28/2002

A brief history of some of the principal families in Chatham County, N. C., written by William J. Headen on the 29th day of March, 1864, transcribed from document at Siler City Library.
Remarks and comments added by Allan Goldston 8/31/2002. William J. Headen married Mary Decimus Goldston, Jan. 7, 1861. She was daughter of George Washington Goldston, granddaughter of the original William Goldston.

(From files collected by Fleet Reddish, Chatham County Register of Deeds)

Goldston:
The Goldstons are of English extraction, the first that ever lived in Chatham County came from Virginia and was named William Goldston.  He married Sarah Rosser in Chatham County, by whom he had the following children:

Mary, Thomas, Amy, William, George W. (Washington Goldston), Elizabeth and (Joseph) John.
Mary Goldston married Ethreldred Harris and left two children: William and Elizabeth.
Thomas Goldston married Lydia Waddell and left the following children: Mary, Sarah, Winney, William, Elizabeth, Lydia and John.

Amy Goldston married George Williamson and moved to the Western District of Tennessee. (Moved after father William died about 1808. George Williamson was one of the executors named in William Goldston’s Last Will and Testament. Also name as an executor was another son-in-law, Mial Ramsey, who must have married “Sallie” Goldston.) Their children were: Thomas, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, George, Anthony and James. The last two were twins.

William Goldston married Sarah Jackson and moved to Smith County, Tennessee.

George (Washington – see Descendants of George Washington Goldston) Goldston, born January 12, 1796, married Margaret Palmer, born Dec. 22, 1800, by whom he had the following children: Sarah Ann, Ann Palmer, Robert William, George Washington Irving, Mary Elizabeth, Margaret Elizabeth, Charles Carroll, Mary Decimus (married William J. Headen Jan. 7, 1861), Mariam Alston (age 9 years in 1850).

Elizabeth Goldston married Aaron Evans by whom she had one child, Eliza. Upon the death of Aaron Evans she married Timothy Brooks and moved to Choctaw County, Mississippi, where she is still living.  Remember, this was written in 1864.

(Joseph) John Goldston married Martha Rives by whom they had the following children: William, Edward, Joseph John, Jr., Thomas, Mary, Sarah Ann and Andrew Jackson, six in all. (He names seven children.)

The first mentioned, William Goldston, lived about one mile and a half west of Robert Green’s Mill and died about the year A. D. 1808. The name was originally spelled Gholson which is the proper way.

William Goldston, first mentioned, was a Colonel in the service of the Thirteen Colonies during the Revolution.