Place Of Beauty—
Gause Landing Has History
By EUGENE FALLON
“Why ani I sorry, Chloe? Because
the moon is far
And, however I scheme and plot,
I cannot find a ferry to the land
where I am not.”
—Ernest Cristopher Dowson.
The story of Gause Landing is
the story of a family once numer
ous and rich; a family who came
to what is surely one of the most
fascinating parcels of real estate
anywhere along the South Atlan
tic coast, to flourish mightily for
two-hundred years, only to vanish
as mysteriously as they had ar
rived.
And if the Gauses built a two
story manor house atop a high
hill overlooking a channel separat
ed from the Atlantic only by a
few hundred feet of marshland,
and employed many slaves to cul
tivate their several thousand acres
of land, time laid its inexorable
hand upon the clan one-by-one,
until today not a single one of
the original Gause family walk
the earth.
As to the origins of this re
markable family, there is little
recorded. One story has it that
they migrated northward fro*n
the South Carolina Lowcountry;
another that they came to Bruns
wick County from the midlands of
Georgia. Exactly when the first
Gause arrived is also somewhat
dim. A manuscript at hand states:
“Gause Landing was settled by
William Gause, Sr., a former inn
keeper of Prince George Parish,
S. C. He is said to have purchased
land in Brunswick County in 1751.
There were five sons: William,
Junior. John, Needham, Charles
and Benjamin Gause. Charles set
tled in Smithville (now South
port) in the spring of 1790 and
was one of the founders of this
city. William Gause, Jr., John and
Charles Gause all fought in the
Revolutionary War in which Wil
liam lost a leg.”
A second manuscript studied by
BEAUTY—One of the most beautiful spots in all of Brunswick
County is to be found at Gause Landing, where moss-shrouded
live oaks provide a natural canopy for a view overlooking the
inland waterway with Ocean Isle Beach and the Atlantic Ocean
in the distance.
the writer generally agrees with
the above, except that it states:
“The Gause family, fairly well
to-do farmers, departed from
Woodbine in Central Georgia rath
er suddenly in 1749. So hurried
was their departure it was said
that they left some furniture and
household belongings in a barn on
the family farm and never re
claimed those possessions. No rea
son was ever given for the move,
although the family who settled
along the lower North Carolina j
Coast, were said to have “waxed
rich in their new surroundings.”
So much for the origins. Now
as to the disappearance of the
fine old family.
The writer spent two days down
on the Landing recently, during
which he probed, talked and wan
dered about the old empire of the
Gauses. This led eventually to a
rather pathetic and tangled wood
ONE OF WILMINGTON’S LARGEST AND MOST
MODERN FURNITURE STORES SERVING
BRUNSWICK COUNTY.
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“Your Credit Is Good”
713 N. 4th St. WILMINGTON, N. C.
land cemetery on sloping hills
leading down to Hales Swamp.
Escorted by a young native of
the vicinity, I stood finally in
front of a huge and rounded
crypt. It was a full 30-feet in
circumference, this bricked vault,
or tomb. Under it lay the dust of
many Gauses. There is no en
tranceway. The brick rises almost
three feet above the earth; and
there is a jagged hole torn
through the thick tomb, a hole
just large enough to admit a
grown person.
I lay on the ground and played
the beam of a flashlight through
the hole. The debris of a century
meSts the eye. The vault is per
haps seven feet below the earth
level. Once the floor too was
bricked, and although it was still
dry down there and the air quite
musty, vandalism had heaped
brick pell mell upon the flooring.
I did not venture through the
hole. Last year a man was said
to have killed several rattlesnakes
inside the tomb.
I walked about the crypt look
ing for some sort of inscription.
If ever there had been such it is
now gone. Near the back of the
ruined burial mound and situated
against what was said to be an
air vent—but what local residents
called a “chimney”—is a hole in
the earth to the depth of almost
two feet. What purpose are these
two holes—one through brick and
the other into earth—at this lone
ly forest vault?
My guide said that the earthen
hole had been dug many years
before; dug by unknown persons
hunting the gold and currency
tradition says was buried with the
early Gauses.
The hole blasted through the
brick itself is even a more sordid
story. Twice in fifty years the
vault has been violated by men
to whom human corpses are as
nothing compared to jewelry and
other valuables. Again tradition
says that the first grave-robbers
found and took away a quantity
of jewelry and money. These did
not, at least, bother the mortal
remains.
But the second nocturnal visi
tors, after blasting through the
thick walls of the tomb, entered
and tore crumbling skeletons
aside, searching perhaps for rings
on the finger-bones, and delving
like the human vampires they
were, beneath the bones for valu
ables. Enraged, perhaps, with the
scarcity of plunder, or maybe
frightened of apprehension, the
man or men snatched skulls and
skeletons along with them on
their flight, scattering the re
mains along the woods path.
Neither party of ghouls was ap
prehended. Relatives of the
Gauses came from a distant
point—some say Georgia, others,
Alabama—to mend the broken
vault following the first outrage.
No one has come to patch the last
violation. The Gauses, like all
things of flesh and blood, ap
proach dissolution swiftly.
Standing there in the soft win
ter afternoon I was reminded of
a. couple of lines penned long ago
by the incomparable Percy Bysshe
Shelley:
“Look on my works ye mighty,
And despair!”
Scattered through the thick
woods within a couple-of-hundred
yard radius of the vault are an
unnumbered legion of graves.
Most of these bear markers, some
of marble, some of cypress. The
markers sag and some have rotted
through at the ground and lie
flat. All the marble, too, are
flat upon the ground. This, com
‘saAuar uajpsj aqt ipiM pautq
branches, moss and earth, make
TOMB—One of the most unusual burial arrangements in the
history of Brunswick county is the Gause Tomb, which is located
in the woods about a mile from the site of the old Gause Manor
at Gause Landing. The burial vault is of masonry construction,
with brick walls 18-inches thick. The structure is about three
feet high, but extends about that same depth below the ground.
It is 15xl5-feet, and is well preserved, except for a hole blasted
at one corner by vandals.
:hem very hard to discover. Had
t not been for my young guide,
[ might never have found the first
>ne.
Three families have used the
secluded graveyard — situated
some two miles from Gause Land
ng proper, and a good one-eighth
nile from a dirt road in the
voods—to bury their dead. They
ire the Gauses, the Randalls and
die Russ families. The oldest
?rave uncovered with inscribed
late proved to be that of one
Samuel Russ, who was born in
Charleston, S. C., July 7, 1790,
md who died, presumably at
Cause Landing, on August 13,
L829.
Other graves discovered were
those of Anson Randall, "aged
four years”. No date was to be
found on the cypress marker. The
graves of S. B. B. Gause, “born
A.ugust 1877, died October 1885”
ind that of “Mon Gause, born
1865, died 1868,” were all that
■vere discovered still bearing in
scriptions upon the markers.
Presumably the remains of Wil
iam, Charles, Benjamin, John and
Needham Gause were interred in
:he great bricked vault. So much
for the Gauses in death; now to
'he thin ribbons of information
vhich link them to life on the
Landing named for them.
Bishop Francis Asbury, circuit
riding Methodist preacher who
wrote his way to fame in the
sages of diary kept, wrote that
le had “preached at William
Cause’s manor house in 1801.”
The Bishop goes on to say: “at
the great house, most pleasantly
situated on the Brunswick coast
at Gause Town, where I had
looked forward to again greeting
my once dear friend, William,
death had stolen a march on me.”
Several years later the indefati
gable Bishop came back to "Gause
Manor” where he writes: “I
lodged at John Gause’s. Our host
is a local minister, and, X trust,
a dear child of God.”
In yet another reference to the
Clan Gause, the good Bishop
wrote: “We came off to Town
Creek and housed with Charles
Gause.”
But even before those visits,
another great figure was sleeping
at the manor house on the Land
ing. This time it was George
Washington, surely one of the
greatest sleepers in early Ameri
can history. George also kept a
diary. In it he records: “Break
fasted at Wm. Gause’s, a little
out of the direct road 14 miles.”
This entry was dated “Wednesday,
April 27, 1791" and was written
on one of Washington’s Southern
tours via horseback.
Gause Landing is located some
six miles east of Shallotte. A
paved road runs between some
of the largest and most beautiful
•Xnunoo am ur saam m^o
Moss falls like a benediction from
the great branches of these trees
and trails almost to the ground.
At the first house one reaches
lives the Porter Parkers. Porter,
Continued On Page 3
Waterfront
. Jd
EDITOR’S NOTE: South
port was featured in Jane
Hall’s “Names In N. C.”
column in Sunday’s News
and Observer. Not only is
Jane one of the better news
paper reporters, she happens
to be fond of our town. We
are pleased to reproduce her
Sunday article today in Wa
terfront:
"There’s an air of timelessness
about Southport, seat of Bruns
wick County, a feeling that it
has always been there and will
always be there, no matter what.
“Location, climate and history
combine to produce this pleasant
quality.
“Situated at the mouth of the
Cape Fear River, almost within
earshot of the Atlantic Ocean,
Southport has a mild climate tem
pered by the Gulf Stream. Its
people live and work with river
and sea, sand and sky. Daily
aware they are part of nature’s
cycle, they move accordingly and
are not likely to be hurried when
they know hurry is useless.
“History has known Southport
at least since August, 1526, when
the first Christian service on the
Eastern seaboard of the United
States was conducted there by
three Dominican priests with the
A.yllon Expedition. The town real
ly had its beginning around Fort
Johnston, which was built on a
bluff overlooking the river and
•vas completed in 1764.
“Chartered in 1792, the town
originally was named Smithville
in honor of Benjamin Smith,
Glovernor of North Carolina in'
1810-11. Smith, a wealthy and col
orful character, fought two duels
and was the first benefactor of
the University of North Carolina.
He died in debtor’s prison.
“In 1889, the name waa changed
to Southport because the town is
the most southerly seaport in
North Carolina. Some say the
change was suggested by railroad
men who wanted a southern ter
minal with a more sophisticated
name, but the railroad never
came.
“Southport derives its livelihood
from commercial and sport fish
ing, traffic from the Inland Wa
terway, tourists and various occu
pations connected with the sea.”
Mrs. Preston Phelps
SHALLOTTE — Mrs. Rebecca
Jane Phelps, 69, wife of Preston
Phelps of Supply, died early Fri
day in Raleigh. Final rites were
held Sunday at 3 p. m. at Sharon
Methodist Church by the Rev.
Harold Pickett.
Survivors include her husband;
five daughters, Mrs. A. E. Callen
der of Shallotte, Mrs. Clossie Lee
Mooney of the home, Mrs. New
man Caison and Mrs. Larry Rob
inson, both of Supply and Mrs.
Lester Winters, Carolina Beach;
two brothers, George C. Lewis
and O. B. Lewis, both of Wil
mington; and 22 grandchildren.
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