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Martha “Patsy” Gauldin (1829 – before 1882)

The Interwoven Lives of Martha “Patsy” Gauldin, Joshua Monroe Childress, and Elvira Taylor

Martha “Patsy” Gauldin entered the world around 1829 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, born into the sprawling and deeply rooted Gauldin–Walker family. Her parents, Thomas D. Gauldin (1784–1871) and Margaret “Peggy” Walker, raised their children in the Callands and Swansonville communities—areas where Gauldins had lived for generations and where kinship networks shaped daily life. Patsy grew up surrounded by siblings who formed a tight web of family support: William D., Thomas J., Susan, Margaret “Peggy”, and Mildred “Milly”. Decades later, her father would father two more children—Carrie W. and Earnest L.—making them her half‑siblings.

 

Life in the Gauldin Household

The 1850 census (1) captures Patsy at age 21, living at home in the Southern District of Pittsylvania County. The household was typical of rural Virginia families: aging parents supported by multiple adult daughters who contributed to domestic labor, farm work, and the maintenance of a household economy built on cooperation. The census lists:

  • Thomas Gauldin, 51

  • Peggy Gauldin, 50

  • Susan Gauldin, 30

  • Mildred Gauldin, 26

  • Patsy Gauldin, 21

  • Peggy Gauldin, 18

 

This snapshot reveals a household anchored by women—sisters who lived, worked, and aged together, forming a stable domestic unit in a region where extended family was often the primary source of security.

By 1860, Patsy—now 27—was still living in Pittsylvania County. Like many women of her era, she remained in her parents’ home until marriage, contributing to the household and participating in the rhythms of rural life.

 

Marriage and Adulthood

On 27 November 1867, at about 38 years old, Patsy married Joshua Monroe Childress, (2) a man fourteen years her junior. Their marriage (3) joined two long‑established Pittsylvania families and took place during the Reconstruction era, when communities were rebuilding farms, livelihoods, and social structures disrupted by the Civil War.

 

Patsy’s marriage to Joshua appears to have been brief. She died before 1882, the year Joshua remarried. No death record or burial site has been found, but her absence from later censuses and Joshua’s remarriage confirm that she passed away sometime between 1867 and 1882, likely in Pittsylvania County. She left no known children.

 

Joshua Monroe Childress: A Life Shaped by War and Change

Joshua Monroe Childress was born in January 1843 in Pittsylvania County, the son of James Henry Childress and Mary Ann Petty. (3) His childhood unfolded in a large, multigenerational household typical of antebellum Virginia. The 1850 census shows seven‑year‑old Joshua living with his parents, siblings, and extended kin in the Northern District of Pittsylvania County. He attended school, a sign that his family valued basic education despite limited rural resources.

By 1860, Joshua—now 17—was living in Hillsville, Carroll County, where his parents had relocated. The household had grown, with younger siblings joining the family. Joshua worked on the farm, preparing for adulthood in a community shaped by agriculture and the rising tensions of the Civil War.

 

The Civil War Service of Joshua M. Childress

In March 1862, at age nineteen, Joshua enlisted in the Confederate Army, serving as a Private in Company C, 24th Virginia Infantry Regiment. (3) As the Civil War intensified across Virginia, Joshua M. Childress, a young man from Hillsville, answered the Confederate call to arms. On March 1, 1862, at just nineteen years old, he enlisted as a Private in Company C, 24th Virginia Infantry, a regiment that would see some of the hardest fighting in the Army of Northern Virginia. His muster records show that he entered service the same day he enlisted, indicating he was immediately absorbed into active duty.


US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Confederate - Virginia, 1861-1865
US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Confederate - Virginia, 1861-1865

The 24th Virginia Infantry fought in numerous engagements, and Joshua’s service record reflects the dangers he faced.[i] Early in his enlistment, he was listed as “Left, (Leesburg, VA)” on September 5, 1862, a notation often used for soldiers who were temporarily detached, ill, or recovering. Later, he suffered a serious injury: on May 16, 1864, during the fighting at Drewry’s Bluff, he received a gunshot wound. This battle—part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign—was a chaotic and brutal engagement in which Confederate forces attempted to halt Union advances toward Richmond.  Joshua’s wound was severe enough that he was sent to Chimborazo Hospital #5 in Richmond, one of the largest military hospitals in the Confederacy. His record lists him as a casualty on September 25, 1864, hospitalized for the gunshot injury he had sustained months earlier. Chimborazo treated tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, and Joshua became one of the many young men whose war experience included long periods of recovery in its wards.  Despite his injury, Joshua eventually returned to duty. His record notes “Returned – 1864‑10‑19,” showing that he rejoined his regiment in the fall of 1864, even as the Confederacy was weakening and the war entering its final, desperate phase.  Joshua served on the Confederate side throughout his enlistment, and his entire record is preserved in The Virginia Regimental Histories Series, which documents the service of men in Virginia’s Civil War units. (3)

 

After the war, Joshua returned to Pittsylvania County and married Martha “Patsy” Gauldin in 1867. Their marriage lasted until her death sometime before 1882.

 

Joshua’s Second Marriage: Life With Elvira Taylor

In 1882, Joshua married Elvira Taylor, a woman more than twenty years his senior. Their marriage appears to have been one of companionship and mutual support in their later years.


1900 United States Federal Census (3)  Elvira Taylor was the second wife of Monroe Childress
1900 United States Federal Census (3)  Elvira Taylor was the second wife of Monroe Childress

Elvira’s life before Joshua was marked by marriage, motherhood, and loss. Born between 1820 and 1835, she first appears in the 1860 census as Elvira Wilson, age 25, married to Thomas N. Wilson and mother to three young children:

  • Lessa A. Wilson

  • Lusinda J. Wilson, age 2

  • Legrand Wilson, 7 months

 

She could not read or write, a common circumstance for rural women of her era. Sometime between 1860 and 1882, her first husband died, leaving her a widow.

 

By the time she married Joshua in 1882, Elvira had raised six children, five of whom were living by 1900. She and Joshua lived in Pelham, Caswell County, North Carolina, where Joshua worked as a farm laborer. Their household reflected the mobility of many postwar families who moved across state lines seeking work and stability.

By 1910, the couple had returned to Virginia, living in the Tunstall District of Pittsylvania County on Axton Road. Elvira—now in her seventies—was still unable to read or write, but she and Joshua lived quietly in familiar surroundings.

 

The End of Their Lives

Joshua Monroe Childress died in 1917 in Brosville, Pittsylvania County (4), returning in his final years to the community where he had been born.  Elvira Taylor Childress died two years later, on 15 June 1919, in Greensville County, Virginia, (10) at the remarkable age of 86 (some records suggest she may have been even older). Her life spanned nearly a century—from the antebellum era through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and into the modern age.

 

Legacy

Together, the intertwined lives of Martha “Patsy” Gauldin, Joshua Monroe Childress, and Elvira Taylor reveal a story of rural Virginia families navigating profound social and historical change. Patsy’s life reflects the quiet endurance of women whose stories survive primarily through census entries and marriage records. Joshua’s life embodies the arc of a generation shaped by war, migration, and resilience. Elvira’s long life illustrates the strength of women who raised families, endured loss, and adapted to shifting circumstances across nearly a century.

 

Works Cited

1. 1850 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] Virginia, Pittsylvania, Southern District. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4206390_00165?pId=15427343.

6. US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Confederate - Virginia, 1861-1865. Fold 3. [Online] https://www.fold3.com/image/10722935/childress-joshua-m-page-3-us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-confederate-virginia-1861-1865?xid=6794.

8. 1900 United States Federal Census. ancestry.com. [Online] North Carolina, Caswell, Pelham. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4117812_00208?pId=50055323.

9. Global, Find a Grave® Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current . ancestry.com. [Online] https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60541/records/182590264?tid=163174124&pid=422121231326&ssrc=pt.


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[i] Joshua Childress was wounded multiple times in battle.

"J.M. Childers, Pvt, Co C, 24 Reg't, Va Vol appears on an official copy of a REPORT of killed, wounded and missing in the 24th Reg't, Virginia Vols in action near Williamsburg, Va. May 5, 1862... Remark: Wounded"

".. wounded near Richmond..July 1, 1862.."

".. Dec. 31, 1862..Absent (at muster).  Remarks: Left at Leesburg Sept. 5, 1862 by order of surgeon."

"..sent to Hospital July 1, 1863.."

".. Capt. Woods..absent from muster..Wounded May 16, 1864.  Sent to Hospital.."

He was at Chimborazo Hospital #5.

 
 
 

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