Eleanor York Julian (Aldridge)

ELEANOR ALDRIDGE YORK (1769-1849)

Eleanor Aldridge born on November 17, 1769 as the second child of eleven children to Nathaniel Benjamin and Hannah (Madden) Aldridge, in colonial Orange (now Randolph) County, North Carolina. She at age 21 married Isaac Henry York, in 1790 and they had six children. He died suddenly at age 40 of unknown causes on 7 Nov 1806 just 19 months after his last daughter Sylvania York was born on 29 Apr 1805. Then widow Eleanor Aldridge York with six children of less than 13 years needed help and a husband to support the young family.

Neighbor friend Jesse Julian and fellow member of the Shiloh United Methodist Church had also experienced a similar tragedy in his marriage. After the death of his wife Sarah Fields in 1817, Jesse Julian had a family of ten children that he needed help with. The older children of Jesse had already married and he had just lost a young son Albert in 1818. Jesse needed a wife and mother to help care for the four youngest children. So widower Jesse Julian and widow Eleanor Aldridge married in 1818. Eleanor at age 49 took on the courageousness role of joining their two families and being their dedicated mother for the next 31 years.

Eleanor Aldridge and Jesse Julian were life long members of the Shiloh United Methodist Church near Liberty, Randolph County, North Carolina. She invested her life in six children of her first marriage and nine step children of her second marriage. She passed away February 26, 1849 and was buried in Shiloh United Methodist Church Cemetery, Liberty, Randolph, North Carolina. Jesse Julian passed away 15 Mar 1846 and was buried next to his first wife Sarah Fields in Shiloh United Methodist Church Cemetery. Eleanor Aldridge is buried in the next row behind Jesse.

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