Charles Washington COTTINGHAM

     Charles Washington COTTINGHAM, son of John H. COTTINGHAM and Obedience BROWN, was born in 1821 in Alabama.¹

Charles married Lucinda Francis Waldrop circa 1842 in Alabama.²

Charles Washington COTTINGHAM and Lucinda Francis Waldrop appeared as head of household on a census enumerated 15 November 1850 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The household was listed as C. W. Cottingham, age 29, a planter; Lucinda Cottingham, age 27; Thomas L. Cottingham, age 7; Levinia Cottingham, age 6; Alexander H. Cottingham, age 4; and Richard W. Cottingham, age 2. All were born in Alabama. Also in the household was William Churchwell, a 20-year-old planter born in North Carolina.³

Charles Washington COTTINGHAM and John H. COTTINGHAM appeared in an 1850 slave census in the Rocky Mount District, Lowndes County. John Cottingham had eight slaves and C. W. Cottingham had two.

Charles Washington COTTINGHAM appeared as head of household on a census enumerated 1 June 1860 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The household was listed as C. W. Cottingham, a 38-year-old planter, and his wife, Lucinda, age 36. Also in the household were the following Cottingham children: T. L. [Thomas], age 17; L. M. [Levinia], age 15; A. H. [Alexander], age 13; R. W. [Richard], age 11; M. E., age 9(f); J. W., age 6(m); L. F., age 4(f); and W. D., age 7 months(m).⁴

Charles was the sheriff of Lowndes County during the Civil War.

Charles married Amanda S. Colvin on 3 April 1866 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The service was conducted by the Rev. John A. Fonville. The bond was co-signed by John A. Robertson.⁵

John H. COTTINGHAM Jr.,Charles Washington COTTINGHAM and James Wesley COTTINGHAM were mentioned in a letter received by Arthur W. Bell, Sr. from his father Augustus Poole Bell in March 1929: "The name of your mother's father's family is Cottingham. I knew two of her uncles in 1868. Washington and Wesley. They were living on the old home place. Their father had died. The old man was well off, owned a medium sized plantation and slaves to cultivate it. He lived in a nice house. He gave your mother¹s father, John Cottingham, a good education and made a Methodist preacher out of him. The accomplished young John Cottingham met and married a Miss Caldwell, the first child was a son, Rufus. Four years later, in October 1858, the second child was born, a daughter Mary, destine to be your mother. Your mother and her brother Rufus were, in build, features and complexion purely Cottinghams. Their father, Their Uncle Wash, and his son Warner, were the same all alike. Wesley didn¹t look to be any kin to them. They were all honorable men. John, your mother¹s father, was poor; he barely made a living at preaching, and he wouldn¹t work. He had a little property. He died when your mother was three years old. Her grandfather gave her a Negro youth. Her mother married after the war was over, a young man five or six years her junior, after having the offer of a man who was tolerably well to do. But she chose Snead because she thought he would be good to her two children, which he was, and exception in that respect, but he was a poor worker and no manager. It was her management that kept soul and body together, she wore the breeches, she advised him and forced him too. Our Uncle Rufus died January 1875 from relapse of pneumonia in Dallas, Texas."⁶

Charles Washington COTTINGHAM and Amanda S. Colvin appeared as head of household on a census enumerated 13 August 1870 in Sandy Ridge, Lowndes County, Alabama. The household was listed as Wash Cottingham, a 49-year-old farmer, and his 32-year-old wife, Sivil. They had real estate valued at $1,565 and a personal estate of $600. Children were: Warner, 21, farm laborer; John, 16, and Fannie, 14, at school; Charles, 9, and Willie, 3, at home. Living with them was James Fluellen, an 18-year-old farm laborer from North Carolina.⁷