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Bonnie and Allen Campbell, Jr. of Ridgeway are
shown above with their pet Labrador in their acre
and-a-half pumpkin patch on their farm, Poplar
Ridge. The dog is just one of many barnyard
creatures the Campbells hope will be enjoyed by
families visiting the farm to purchase pumpkins.
The couple expects to harvest about 1,000 pumpkins
for sale in the area. (Staff Photo)
Generals Lee, Jackson, Stuart
Are Paid Tribute In 1905 Speech
By BIGN ALL JONES ,
Anyone Interested in
the history of Warren
County may find in the
Warren County
Memorial Library a
copy of "Recollections
and Reflections," by
Col. Wharton Green.
Several years ago I
reviewed this book for
The Warren Record.
Since that time I have
received several letters
from Vaughan Hawkins,
of Bo* 1226, Daytona
Beach, Fla., concerning
incidents in the life of
his aunt, Miss Lucy
Hawkins and other
former residents of
Warren County.
In a letter, under date
of Sept. 12, 1984, he
writes of Col. Green's
reflections of L^e, Jack
son, Stuart and others in
an address delivered to
the United Daughters of
the Confedeacy of
Fayetteville, on Jan. 19,
1906. This letter is being
shared with our readers.
It follows:
Dear Mr. Jones:
Sometime ago in your
column, you wrote of
Col. Wharton Green.
Aunt Lucy Hawkins was
very close to the Green
family. In 1870 Aunt
Lucy went to Maryland
with Col. Green and his
.family. While in
Baltimore she ran a
private school out of the
Green home.
According to informa
tion that I have, Col.
Green was a great *
great-grandson of Phile
mon and Delia Hawkins.
He was wounded during
the Civil War in the
siege of Washington, N.
C. and was wounded and
tak«" prisoner at Get
tysburg. In later years
CoL Green resided at
the famous "Tokay
Vineyard" near Fayet
teville, N. C., where he
was elected to Congress.
A few weeks ago I
found, among some
papers of Aunt Lucy, the
text of • long speech
that Col. Green
delivered on the 19th of
January 1906 in Fayette
ville before the J.E.B.
Stuart Chapter, United
Daughters of the Con
federacy. The Green
family sent the contents
of the speech to Aunt
Lucy. Col. Green had
the ability of deeply
stirring the imagination
and emotions. Some ex
cerpts from the speech
are quoted here.
Col. Green votes for
Robert E. Lee: .
. .Quintette of the incar
nate gods of war; here
they are: Hannibal,
Caesar, Napoleon,
Churchill, Lee. But
grand as they are, and
as are the two-called
down, ye powers, how
they pale before the
courtly gentleman and
unpretentious school
master of Lexington.
Who would hesitate, in
the right of choice, as
between him and im
perial Caesar? Not I,
forsooth. And so by my
vote he stands the
foremost man of recor
ded time, Paul alone ex
cepted."
Green speaks of the
relationship between
Lee and Stonewall Jack
son: "...The two seemed
designed for each other,
and for the great oc
casion in which they
were to act in respective
role, so symmetrically
were they adjusted each
for his work. 'Better it
had been me than he,'
exclaims the great cap
tain when he heard of
the untimely fall of the
other. 'Not so,' quoth the
wounded hero, better a
hundred dead Jacksons
than one Lee. I would
have followed him blind
fold around the
world.*..."
Green on Stonewall
Jackson and his great
appetite for lemons:
"...He had an insatiate
appetite for that acrid
fruit and was always
sucking one, when
resting on a march, and
to supply himself with
that tropical delicacy,
the men were wont to
say that he kept the
commissary trains un
der constant contribu
tion..."
Green mentions
General Dick Taylor,
Stonewall Jackson,
President Davis,
General Grant and
President Lincoln:
"...But General Dick, In
his appetite for
epigrams or antithesis
must sometimes be
taken, 'cum grano' for
his intimates very
broadly in his
fascinating book that
'Old Jack' was a crazy
man. If so it be,
President Davis might
have plagiarized his
brother President
across the line of mark
when told that his new
and last appointee to
chief command was a
little too given to turning
the little finger above
his dexter. 'If I only
knew his brand of
whiskey' quote
Abraham, 'I'd send a
barrel to each of my
commanding Generals/
Mr. Davis might have
said to his illustrious
brother-in-law, on basis
insinuation, 'I wish I
knew the mandrake that
incites such mad
ness'..."
Col. Green tells of a
comment from Stone
wall Jackson after the
retreat from Kerns
town: "Pardon another
anecdote which my old
and honored friend,
Hunter McGuire, his
chief of the medical
staff, gave me during
one of our long talks
about his idolized com
mander. It is told simply
to illustrate his sublime
self-reliance, the pre
dominant trait of all the
greatest soldiers of all
time. Said the Doctor: 'I
was riding with him on
the retreat from Kerns
town, which I felt sure
had been decided on
against his approval.
Notwithstanding the
great disparity of odds
against us, both in hand
and within reach, I had
never seen his brow so
lowering and with every
indication of ill humor
and discontent. After
riding along in silence
for awhile, he
remarked: 'I have just
done a thing that I have
never done before, and
shall never do again. A
council of war leaves the
General in command
saddled with all of the
responsibility, but im
potent to follow his
matured convictions, if
a majority of the
tribunal prefer a coun
ter course, it was and is
my belief that at the
worst stage of the fight
we had at worst an even
chance and, if suc
cessful the results in our
favor would have been
incalculable'..."
Col. Green speaks of
his friend and class
mate: "Daughters of
the Confederacy, I
rejoice exceedingly that
the Chapter of my home
town bears the name
and emblazon of a much
loved friend and class
mate of my early
manhood, J.E.B. Stuart,
or as he was lovingly
dubbed by his intimates
and associates, 'Old
Beauty,' abbreviated in
to 'Bute Stuart,' was a
man of opposites, but of
singularly lovable
character...And yet,
withal he was so full of
exuberance of spirits
that he would fain at
times break forth into a
loud whoop, a lively
song, or a mad dash on
flirtation walk..."
Col. Green praises the
U.D.C.: "...No wonder
you are proud of your
paternity, and of their
unsullied escutcheon in
the noblest, purest,
sublimest of earthly
struggles. No wonder
you exalt in the
soubriquet you wear,
'Daughters of the Con
federacy; and of Con
federate heroes. I doff
my cap and salute you in
all deference and
humility for trying to
keep alive the spark of
sacred memories, which
others of the sterner sex
seem equally anxious to
extinguish with
frivolities, (suggest
ing)."
Green ends his ad
dress: "I will close by
requesting my friend,
Mrs. Dr. MacRae, to
give us in her own
inimitable style that
glorious camp song
which, owing to salt in
the eye and frog in the
throat, I have never
been able to read aloud
myself. It was Stonewall
Jackson's way."
Cordially yours,
VAUGHAN
"Mon«y make* a man
laugh." John SaMan
I
Young Couple Tries New Crop
Jack-O-Lantern Paradise
Found On Ridgeway Farm
ByKAYHORNER
News Editor
This past June, when soaring temperatures sent
most Southerners in search of frosty refreshment
and cool shade trees, a Ridgeway couple turned
their thoughts to October, the month of ghosts,
goblins and that most familiar sight of the season,
theJack-o'-Lantern.
Bonnie and Allen Campbell, Jr. sowed an acre
and a half of their 88-acre farm, Poplar Ridge, in
pumpkin seeds, a venture undertaken for both
pleasure and profit.
During a recent interview, the two walked
through their pumpkin patch lifting the large,
trailing vines to reveal the fruit of their labors, a
variety of pumpkins including sugar pie, princess,
mammoth gold, and albino specimens.
Sugar pies are ideal for baking, Bonnie explained,
while the larger varieties lend themselves to Hallo
ween decorations.
Although some of the pumpkins, cousins of the
squash, appeared to weigh in easily at 20 pounds,
Allen lamented that the really big ones — the Big
Macs — had drowned during the unseasonal rains of
early summer.
The Campbells, who are both Warren County
natives, bought the farm near St. Paul's Lutheran
Church last year from the Nau family.
The farm today is a menagerie of 19 cows, two
quarter horses and a lively assortment of chickens,
ducks, turkeys and goats.
Bonnie was the family's first pumpkin enthusiast.
She caught the fever from her employer at Jackson
Enterprises, a camper distributor in Henderson,
who cultivates 25 acres of pumpkins each year.
Bonnie convinced Allen, who works for her father,
Joe Greer, in his logging operation, that the pump
kin business was just what they needed to round out
their farm.
Tending the pumpkin field and the farm has taken
every moment of the Campbell's spare time this
summer, and an unexpected chore, keeping their
black angus calves out of the pumpkin patch, was
added.
The calves acquired a taste for the forbidden
vegetable that necessitated stronger fencing around
the pasture and a more watchful eye by Bonnie and
Allen.
Actually the calves and their fellow barnyard
creatures are one of the tools the Campbells are
using in marketing their pumpkin crop.
"We want people to stop by the farm for their
pumpkins and to bring their children to see the
animals," Bonnie explained. "If they buy a pump
kin, they can look around all they want.''
The Campbells decided to retail the pumpkins
themselves rather than sell to wholesalers. Pump
kin shoppers can find the Campbells at home week
nights after six and during the day and early
evenings on weekends.
In addition, pumpkins will also be sold from a
stand on U. S. 1 near Ridgeway.
Bonnie said this week that a harvest of about 1,000
pumpkins is expected, and prices could vary,
depending on the size and variety, from 50 cents to
$10.
The Campbells are expecting their first child in
December, but the prospects of parenthood don't
seem to have diminished the Campbell's plans for
an even bigger pumpkin patch next year, if there is
a demand.
A well-cultivated patch of an acre could produce
as many as 2,500 pumpkins, Allen noted, and Bonnie
chimed in that they were already planning to dry
some of the seeds in anticipation of next summer's
planting.
On the couple's dining room table is a variety of
pumpkins arranged in a harvest motif along with
Turk's turban, acorn, butternut, golden nugget and
hubbard squash. In the yard is a flatbed wagon
loaded with bales of hay and several varieties of
pumpkin.
There seems little doubt that for now, pumpkins
are center stage at Poplar Ridge.
MUSTIAN'S ELECTRIC CO.
Warrenton, N. C.
QUALITY WIRING
Residential-New and Remodeling
Additions, Light Commercial, Mobile Homes, Bull
Barns, Air Conditioners. Service Upgrade, Repair;
Phone Day Or Night
257-2888
Joseph A. Mustlan
State License No. 9314-L