James William Dockery Born in 1768, Died in 1855 (Cherokee,NC)
He had six children all living around the county of Buncombe. James married a woman by the name of Nancy, he is the oldest Dockery mentioned in the "Dockerys of Dixie" book, and is the ultimate Dockery patriarch in the county of Buncombie, North Carolina. He was buried at Hanging Dog Baptist Church, Cherokee Co, North Carolina. William moved to the Big Sandy Mush community in Buncombe County, North Carolina around 1810. 1810-1843 The Dockery's owned several large farms (1200ac) in Northern Co. per records of Flat Creek Church and Hanging Dog Baptist Church. During the mass removal of Cherokee natives to Oklahoma a large protion of land was opened up to which the Dockery family took full advantage. 25 Apr 1855 Church records reports old age fee of 5 dollars was donated by William at the age of 87. He probably died later that year, there is no legible marker.His grandchildren erected a memorial stone
in 1988 at Hanging Dog Cemetary. For a complete history of ancestors & family see pg
xxv of Dockerys of Dixie by William Allen 1991
The children are Nancy,James William Jr.,Thomas,Lorany,George, and Nelly.

AlfredDockery; was born 25th of February in 1870 and died in 1939 in Cherokee county. I know hardly anything about this man except that nobody knows who his father was hence he took on the last name of his mother Sarah Dockery. In most censuses he is listed as a farmer in North Carolina where the rest of the family is from, and where most of them still reside. Alfreds roots have been traced back to members of the Lunsford family (which is one of the typical familys that intermixed with most Dockerys in that area.) All of the Lunsfords in Cherokkee and Buncombe are related to Nimrod Lunsford who had multiple wifes and dozens of children. it is speculated that they are related to the famed Sir Thomas Lunsford.

Jonathan Prichard Dockery had a passion for working on cars. One night while John and his sons, Steve and Frank were working on a car, an electrical storm passed through the area. The three of them quickly made their way into the barn, but were all struck by lightning. Steve and Frank survived the shock but their father was knocked unconsious. The brothers put John into the car, picked up their mother and they all went to the hospital. John died in the back seat but Cora didn't tell them until after they arrived at the hospital because Steve was panicked and driving wildly.

Cora Ethel Franklin was a woman of Cherokee descnedency, and an avid Pentecostal. The Church that she and her Husband built was later sold by her Grand son Randy, and turned into a Baptist church. My mother always tells Randy that when he gets to Heaven Gramma is gonna slap him.

In those days it was the tradition for a man to ask the oldest living family relative for permission to mary a woman. Because the oldest family member lived deep in the Mountains, John and Cora had to ride a Muel until they came to a point where it was too steep to take the animal any further. They then tied the Muel to a tree and hiked the rest of the way up the hill to her great uncle's house.

Before this happened the rest of the family was obligated to tell the uncle everything he or she knew about John. When John and Cora entered the house, the uncle dismissed Cora with the choice of washing dishes with his wife, or feeding the animals while he sat alone with John and interviewed him. He asked john three questions. He wanted to know if his intentions were honorable, He asked to see how much money he had, and finally he asked how much land John possessed.

John easily passed the test, his intentions were honorable as he intended to mary Cora. John then opened his little black book to reveal a record of his meager life's savings, which was a less important issue. He needed to have a sufficient ammount of land to inherrit for the future, which he did. Owning property was very important to the Franklin family because having large ammounts of land was one of the factors which kept the family alive after General Sherman came through and burnt up their belongings.

Members of of Cora's family fought as rebles in the Civil war, Her great geandfather Jacob Franklin was attached to the 39th Cherokee division and lost his leg at the Battle_of_Chickamauga.

"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6

Lena Dockery was a member of the Army Air Core. During World War two her job was to refuel aircraft, because of their small frames the refulers would typically use petite women to crawl into the fueling compartment of the aircraft to draw a hose into the gas tank. The women would lay there for hours untill the tank was full, often times passing out from exposure to the fumes. They would then drag them out by their feet.

Later she was given the task to be a jeep driver for various officers. Her training consisted of being driven out into the desert and told to make her way back when she and another woman figured out how to use a clutch. She Then had to drive a Captain and a group of other officers from the airport back to the unit to check in. The Captain however felt that he needed a sedan to ride in and sent her to retreve one, however she never returned and the Captain had to walk home. Lena hid from her superior officer for three days.

Lena has over the years searched for most of her relatives through records in an era when people learned geneology through bits and pieces of information sent through the mail. On April fools day of 1965 A man by the name of Rufus "Bill" Owens took her hand in marriage. In the twilight years of their lives the two toured around the country in an RV, a viehicle which they eventually parked in Arizona, and lived there until the death of her beloved husband.

My mother grew up in several areas of the United States, She for the most part lived in North Carolina and Arizona. For a large portion of their lives she and her sister experienced much poverty. My mother recalled living in a basement with a Cement floor and one small window in the upper area of the room. Her first dress was sewed by my Grandmother, the materials were pieced together out of a flour sack. One day missionaries knocked on their door and changed their lives. It must have had quite the impact on her as she took my brother and I to church every Sunday of our childhood without deviation. Despite my protests she pressed forward every Sunday, sometimes even having to resort to bribery. I love her for that.

Patricia began as an assistant teacher for physically and mentally challenged children in the late 1980's. She worked with the older kids for a while until one of them attacked her. All of the other teachers just stood around watching as she yelled for help. the school was extremely uncooperative with her medical issues that resulted from the attack, it seems that the boy bit her on the leg and she had to undergo extensive testing for any diseases the boy might have been carrying, and due to privacy laws they wouldn't disclose any medical history.

A little after the family moved to the state of Washington, Patricia began teaching English as a second language and became involved with the "Read Right" program at the local Junior high school.