Chatting About Chatham
(continued from page on€)
any old cedars in the woods. . The idea was tQ tod
out whe‘2ier the prolific growth of the present comes
from primitive trees or from those taken info the
hills ‘by settlers. The cedar in those hills spreads
rapidly. On the flats of eastern North Carolina the
seeds die where they fall.. But up there .the fains
wash them-down, the hills and.thus .they arp. carried
into the streams. The cedar is also easily scattered
f»y birds. The inquiries were not satisfactory; .yet
T have seen no evidence in the woods of such aged
• cedars as those at the- Jones, homestead. -
Prepdent Hooper of Wake Forest. •
• .William f Hooker;- a son1 of- the yhnng- couple ■ that
' -settled at- Chapel Hill becameoneofthe-earlyprest
dents of Wake i Forest College. The idea for:' th*
<esi*ldisteii»nt ‘ of* a Baptist college had! its inception
rftt a meeting' of i th§ 'Baptist State Contention- at
Jtires' Chapel church in western Chatham, just1 a
little over a hundred years ago. ' *
The Hoopers and Joneses were Episcopalians. 11 fa
;fact, Edward Jones was a: descendant of Bishop
■ Jeremy- Taj-lor, oneof the most. famOos and literary
of .all the English churchmen. Bnt the "younger
William Hooper had become dissatisfied with - the
doctrine : of infant ’ baptism and become a Baptist.
Thus Waken Forest College had as one of its earliest
-presidents, the second, I believe, a-descendant of the
-great 'English churchman. But when j I have. heard
Dr. Taylor and Dr. Win. Royall quote Jeremy - Tay
lor, I am wondering if they were aware that a
descendant of his had been a predecessor of Dr.
Taylor as president of the college.
~ After 'Hooper’s service at Wake Forest, he re
turned to Chapelt Hill. The mother of Louis Graves
-is his granddaughter; Louis his great-grandson.'It
Waswvitti- thear that I visited the site of the Edward
Jones home in the Chatham woods, conducted ■ there
by my friend Zeb Dark, whose family was a neighbor
- of the Jones family. Louis Graves thus has within1
his. veins strains of the blood of the great church-^
man Jeremy Taylor and of. the Signer, William
Hooper. And through the wife of Jeremy Taylor
he is of English royal descent. Is there any wonder
that heris making one of the most interesting- papers
in North Carolina and is one of the finest spirits in
r\ the States—even if lie is not: as saintly as his. bishop
ancestor? " . ... .
The Alstons Again.
. If I had known that I should have the pleasure
- oi spending a night the next week in the home of
Mr. Lacy Alston near Pittsboro, I would have re
frained from attempting a sketch of the Alstons in
the April 1 number of The Voice, in connection with
- ■ the name of Mr. Edward Alston of Warren county.
- By the way, I forgot, to mention the fact that that
gentleman prides himself upon being a member of: the
Sons of the American Revolution.
I had never before been a guest in. the home of
.Lacy Alston. I had stopped once or twice.and chat
ted with him and Walter Siler at Mr,. Siler’s rustic
. library building- and' office a few feet from the
Alston residence, I had talked , with, him scores of
times on Iflie street -of Biilsboro. But I had . never
realized that Lacy is* a walking histpry of Chatham
county. T was not aware of the rich store of heir
looms in that old home. There .are the oilpaint
' .ings of four ancestors, beginning with “Chatham
Jack.” .The-very cook that served the table, is the
sixth' in descent from Bokara, a slave whom $Ghat
•.iiapK ;Jack” bought from a slave ship . at Charleston
a* century «n(t 'a third ago.
In fact, I. learned so: many interesting things that
I cahuet refrain from again developing the Alston
theme. v *'
The -original; Halifax settler had moved! from one
of the' le%er counties. ,His home • of .- stone. ?with
plastering ##- h»?€F -.as flint still-stands, in ..western
Halifax. His -numerous sons ^settled in Halifax and
Warren. BlSffp, probably the1 eldest, moved to; the
Horse Shoe Bftid'ef* the Deep; in Jtoore county. It.
WTftS'hishoni^wMch'WflsattiaAetlby'Fanning. But
-1 am- eohritiag^upOnVbdtiug^ tha t spot -with Clerk of
' th#- Court Wilcox of ' Moore* one of these days' and
•'■writing an* article upoii the history of that' Horse
vBSoej‘JBelEid.‘ Sufiflee it to say here that Philip Alston
• Jateaf moved"away to Tennessee.-to a grant of 9;000
-dereSiof land which had been given him1 by; the Na
fiohal govern&eht. On that tract the City of Nash- •
ville stands and in the area the home of Philip
Alston'; i
' Auother of the sons of the Halifax patriarch had
settled: at Pittsboro or thereabouts. His descent, if
ahy', haS also disappeared. That is the-way of thfe
Alstons. In England on the estate of Odell Castle,
which was the home of'BarOn Alston, who attained
that-title in 3642, under Charles' T, there are left
justran old min of 85 and his daughter of 20d>dd.
Lacy is the only male of the line in Chatham, arid
BHss Hattie, his'1 cousin", the only' female;: except
Captain Alston antf M» ni|c|, fc O. £5*?!j£?g$
ham Miss Hattie’s brother lives elsewbeie. Tb
family Governor ■
seemingly disappeared alisO. Colonel ' ?**&*
whose possibly greatest of
tions lay on the .Waeeamaw, Riyer, on Its comse
from our Lak<rWaee*mttW: td Georgetown Bay, was
not only the father of Governor Thomas .. Alston,
who married the ill-fated Theodosia Burr, but. the
father-in-law. of .Senator Hayue^ tit-e. pi^tor who so
sufficiently, to the Southern mind; answered Daniel
Webster’s famous orations in the Webster-Hayne
^debate: '... - . ...
.. - HoW “CKafliam Jack” CaMe and Prospered.
“Chatham Jack” was a much younger brother, a
half-brother* I 'believe, of Colonel Philip of the; Horse
Shoe Bend. /LfipeyV best figuring has: fixed his; coin
ing to Chatham from Warren or Halifax in'1800.
Colonel Philip had probably gone' to Tennessee. at
that -date. Anyway, in: 1800 “Chatham Jack” listed
nothing in Chatham county except $20*000 in cash,
which was, presumably, the fnirds-received, for his
Warren .or; Halifax property. He was, however, ac
quainted in this section, having vvisited his brothers
and ■ made acquaintances among the elite of heigh
boring counties. . A letter is extant which was writ
ten by Colonbl Mebane lo Jack Alston, iu which the
Colonel told of his capture? by. Fanning and his im
prisonment at Wilmington. “Chatham Jack” imnst
have been a mature man when he-moved to Ghat-.
ham.
A 25,0®0-Aere Estate:
Thafi $20,00# went into lands and - slaves and a
home. The time came a comparatively few j’earis
•later when he listed 25,000 acres of land. He g6t
grants on the Pi ttsboro-Siler City road and bought
everything he conld between Idle tracts. Only the
Nettles and one other tract could not be added to
his domain and broke its ten-mile‘stretch’from* four-'
miles of1 Pitesboro to about the same distance from
the present Siler City.
Bladen andChatlmm Join‘Hands
I am writing upon the eve of the bicentennial
celebration of the founding of Bladen cQiihty and it
is ■ fitting to show how Chatham reached down' into
that county and brought some of its finest treas
ures back. The grandfather Of' Lacy Alston -and of .,
the deceased Mrs. Walter > I>..Siler went down'into
Bladen and: married a Miss Lloyd, who was’ a grande
-daughter of General Brown, of the Battle Of Eliaft*
bethtown and “Tory Hole” fame. On© of the most
notable features of hhe grand pageant preparing for
Ihe celebration at Elizabethtoii on April 27 features
the. Brown story. And yonder in that. Alston home
is tihe picture of the General and of his magnificent
home on the west bank of the Cape Fear in- the
lower tip end of Bladeij, for .which the'brick were
brought from England. And there stands a great
four-poster bedstead of mahogany which a century
-and : a: half ago stood in the1 Brown mansion. I was’
tempted to ask tcV lie let sleep in that bed. In the
dining room is found the very dining table that the
large family of Lloyds, daughter and grandehildreh
of Generali Brown, used‘in'their Bladen home.
That, .table is a treasure in itself. It is divided
into three-sections, totaling 15 or 18 feet in length.
Only one of, lihe sections serve as a diningxtable for
.the Alston home at present. {The other sections sit >
in other quarters of the dining hall. Headers, the
mahogany boards, of that table measure two-fee| ur*
breadth ! I measured them. „ *
That bedstead and table should lie on exhibit at
■ Elizabethtown on April 27.
.But all the rreaspres ape not of Bladen origin.
See this sitting room furniture—bought by Laeyig «.
grandfather in 1826 in Philadelphia. Imagine; id*,
if you want to contrast, these days with those of a
hundred years ago, see Young! Alston driven down to
Fayetteville in his carriage or riding down horse
haek; and- there taking a boat for Wilmingtdn- -In
Wilmington he must find shipping to Philadelphia. -
There; having bought the furniture, the finest of ma/-.,~
hogahy, alid a tail glass vase-like concern in wlifeh"'
to set lighted candles when used in the wind, the
pnrchases are hilled to Fayetteville by boat. 'Home”
by the. same route- those things are conveyed 'by
wagon from Fayetteville to the Chatham" 'hoi**, ~'
’There ts the mahogany and there the candle v'ase—^
a fragile thing of glass that has endured 108 years
without a shiver.
Gtfteral' Cotteh.
A little to the south of the present Alston home
stood the residence of General Cotteh. Even some
of the' Pititsbord folk' locate the home of the General
at the Carney Cotteh place, two miles, north of
Pittsboro. Carney Cotten was a son oYthe ftfeneral,
who got his titl’e from being adjutant-geheriil of the
State. lie served as a colohel in the Mexican war.
The late Mfs. 'Williams was. the general^ grand
daughter. Fred C. Williams and sisters, Mrs. dreg
Otf and5 Mts. Duncan, ate -his' great-grainlchiidren.
General. Cptten. married rffsister pf Lacy AlsV,
jO^f ather,; a.
■ in theKsanife- comnniihity, lived the DieGraflVim hp,.
JUst When they eam<W*o Chatham and how they are
connected with the piaron - Who settled New Boni(.,
I > haven’t learned. The Baron left, no children J
North Carolina, I believe. Probably all the
Graffenrieidts in. this cqhhtpr are of the Chatham
stock... The , ed$or ot the-Shreveport morning
when I lived iit Louisiana was a DeGraffenremt ail(|
lie told me ' thaV hisaneesfry lived back in \m.t!l
Carolina.- 4?ter the extinction of^g Chatham fam.
il£ there haS-Ctffiiie from'afidth^ State on? to ry.
'skJefan the old hornet through marrying Mrs. .Jordan,
Ohb-of the Pe^y sisters,, whose father came up froi,’
gouMi Carolina and bought the old ^DefJra rtV11rd.1t
home. ... , _... „
' lire ri&iiW of’ Sifohfr I^aMmjrs. ' ’
But, after Jfll; the wealthy families of Chatham,
as in ' all piarts ,,of.the Sfruth,* Were' far, g-Ufntnnhcr(d
by-th.epoof. Chatham has-l>eeu and is the home of
.sMir fariners. /They* have caught;-zip in recent
ye ars, but the old: county- is' tlie fiatutal habitat- 0f
thb stttali fannbr and hbre omrwffi find a'pit M.;t rou?
peopld, on a sihali scale,' When ' other sections have
problems we know'n'ot-qof as yet, as"many as are the
present ones.,.. Chhtham^lf^urrouhded by thriving'
towns. itaieigh, Dufhaiii,ot3hhpel Itill, Burlington,
Graham, GreahWj^,; Afiheborof Sanford- a re ali
Avithin''ah tbeyJis;Hdrive^-frem^he heart of the conntj.
One hundred and flftyi thousands of urban- population
will afford a mdrket-fqr^+h^ poultrjq- dairy pro;] nets,
and other produce of; the,';'e&Ufety
. Other 10ld" (ftawam: Names.
I am ‘taking- up too much -space with Mm past ot
the old county, = but one cannot get the flavor «,t
Chatham without knowing that, here at I’ittsbovo
UEpse-the: history-making family of Maiilys: the
■giedmansy the Mannings, the- Londous, Jacksons,
■Toomets, Hanghtons,: Ihries, and MIllls. Mrs. E.
PoU-Wfts aii Mhttie. ,Mrs. ?H. A; London a Jackson,
her .mother a daughter, of Governor Wortl;. flint
ham is said to have been1 the residence of Captain
Blakfty, of nai-aD fame, wihosev fate and that of his
vessel is one offthe unsolved problems of the r. iS,_
Navy.
Chatham as County, ,of Diversified ■ Indus' r4es.
Chatham Ms no i.large' town.. Conse«tnen l.y one*
.cannot readily conceive., the variety of iij Inslries
harbored .in the, county. It wag ChathamV co.il that.
: raili’Dftd north froiiitl.Pgyett^ille during
thewar of the sixties to. oktEgJlA hbw. Cuiunhek.
However, that mine and village are now in Lee.
After the war of the sixties the railroad was pushed'
across the Deep to Gulf, and that village became a
depot of supplies for a large area. Among the
prosperous merchants Of that' heydey of Gnlf was
joung John M, Mclver. About 40 years ago. lie,
then classed' as'an old bachelor, married Mis,; Lois
Anderson, a teacher of the writer, who was n sistet
of <*e Rev. Neill A; Andersoii, orte of the South's
mutable Presbyterian ‘ ministers before his death
three or four years ago. When I went to Chatham
it was a pleasure to meet John M, Mclver. Jr., who
succeeded his father as merchant and planter at
Gulf. During my residence in' Chatham both Mrs.
Mclver and Dr. Aifdersoh died. The latter gave mo
niy first. ’ lesson 1 in-' Latin fifty -years ago next fall*
Gtxlf is still a high-toned community. It is about the
must distinctly S&te'h jii 'tli^; COunty. Here live the
Milrehisuns, Hills, Devereux, -Knights/ Oldhams, Itev.
GeSrge L. Merrill, who was a dignified senior when
l ehtered Wake Ko^estMU13 D. Y Tyner, a na
tive” of ItoteesbtiV ‘;*nd Palmers. ■ Gulf ; bus-the
Ifest ratlroaa^fa-oHtties of-any. town, ini Chatham, he
ing the-i ju«ction.pe«iti of, the-Nurfolk Southern an.i
\C:. F.,St Y. V. . Goalj is,:at hand and a great
brick and- t,ile • plant, but 1 both • theinin<?§ ‘and • the
plant a*£ out oCit'*ominission. »ut one day Gulf
Would he |be site of factories^ 11. ^
On: the southwest corner : is .another ..great hr'mk
idaut, at Brrefcharen. Nearby , fcffwers ■ the highest
•s»tt)l«i 8tar-k in.ithe-St*te)i.:^itiahf"the greafc anxiliary
rsteam planl?r<jfltiBs
pnny,.erected' at a eost of eawifeons before that <oni;
pany .had .a/surplus of' water power. Only iu very
dry •; seasons! can.. it bt^ worth .a cent,^-but• Chaihain
gathers ?! big.■-.ta»e»^-|B«aa :ifc ..’jlbsee'-'water i*rtV’fr
•plants'; produce. electric current, bu^rliko 1 he steam
plant,. the company ;<|oes not need’ 'them since the
erection • of , the Yadkin . Itiver tplant. Up a ■> r
City as fine bedroom and parlor'fUrniture as any
of us. nOed is prbdnced in quantity* and chairs, ami
office equipment^ galore, wastF boards, brooms, amt
cotton yarns in abundance!. ”xtt’ Bynum also is ll"
jath mill that has lost as little:time in the last tea
years as any cotton' mill in tlfe 'Btate, I believe. This
is under the oversight of lit.lX ll! London, with Mr.
George Moore as superintehdefit. Af PUtslmro a
label plant prodtiices millions of clothing labels, h"r
another stops' for that plaht. Chatham
reproduces titribhr fefeter t)ian any other section I
<^afi^ued oft page.four);
• ■ - '■ -