The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-24

rs.
OUT and built their plantation residences.
ana then provided themselves with a
comfortable summer house on the sound.
Evidences of this method are still to be
seen in the many sound roads which
converge into the old thoroughfare at
the east landing of the Brunswick ferry,
near Big Sugar Loaf and opposite the
site of Old Brunswick. George MoOre's
summer place was a tract on the north
side of the creek at Masonboro, now
owned by the McKoy family. He was
twice married, and his wives, with re-
markable fidelity and amazing fortitude,
presented him every spring with a new
baby, until the number reached twenty
eight. An interesting relic of this ex-
traordinary family is preserved by Mr..
Junius Davis. 1t is a book Of common
prayer, on the leaf of which is inscribed
the names and dates of birth of the en-
tire family of twenty-eight children.
In common with the titled class in
England, the Cape Fear planters held
trade and tradespeople in adherence,
and kept themselves aloof from the
commercial centres. They preferred to
live on their plantations, and their So
cial life betrayed a class distinction
not at all in keeping with the demo-
cratic ideas of their descendants. in
one respect, however, they greatly diff
fered from the aristocracy of the old
country-a generous and refined hospl-
tally being universal and proverbial. and
this excellent trait is till a striking
characteristic of their successors on the
river to the present day.
For personal reasons, to avoid the
public parade of his numerous family
through the town of Wilmington, it
suited George Moore to cut a private
road for his own use, from his planta-
tion on Rocky Point to Masonboro
sound by which his faithful wife and
her remarkable progeny Travelled on
horseback in their yearly journeys from
the country plantations to the sea
shore.
Mr.. Moore's method of transporting
his household effects was unique, by
which he employed the services of a large
retinue of slaves: upon the head of one
was placed a table; upon another mat
tress; a third chair, and so on, until
fifty or more bearers were in line, when
the cavalcade proceeded on foot to-
wards Masonboro-an extraordinary and
moving spectacle.
When corn was wanted at the summer
place, 100 negro fellows would be start|
ed, each with bushel bag on his head
There is, said the late DIR. John III. dill,l
quite deep ditch leading from someI
large bay swamps lying to the west of
the George Moore road 1t used to bel
called the Devils ditch, and there was
some mystery and idle tradition as to
why and how the ditch was cut there.
1t was doubtless made to drain the water
from those bays, to flood some lands cul-
tivated in rice. which were too low to
be drained for corn.
Kendall and I.illiput have been owned
and cultivated for years past by Mr.
Fred Kidder, a type Of the old school,
one of the most prominent and indus
trious planters on the river, a worthy
and honored successor of the distin-
gnished settlers of the Cape Fear, de-
scribed as gentlemen of birth and edu-
cation, bred in the refinement of polish
ed society and bringing with them am
pie fortunes. gentle manners and culti-
waited minds
ORION AN HISTORIC AND BEAU
TIFUL PLANTATION.
Among the venerable relics of colonial
days in North Carolina there is proba-
bly, none richer in legendary lore, nor
more worthy of historic distinction than
the old colonial plantation of Orion, on
the Cape Fear. The name is doubtless
taken from the old town or village Of
Orion, near Kendall in the beautiful lake
district Of England, from whence the
ancestors of the Moore family on the
Yeamans side may have come to Barba-
does: the line of the Moore family being
of Scotch Irish origin, as there is Ken
dial Point, and it is said an 0rton planta-
ton on that island, which was the home
of Sir John Yeamans, who afterwards
settled upon the Cape Fear, and was
governor of Clarendon.
Orion plantation was owned origin
ally by Maurice Moore, the grandson
of Governor Sir John Yeamans, and
the son Of Governor James Moore, Of
South Carolina, who came with his
brother, Colonel james Moore, to sup
press the Tuscarora Indian outbreaks
in the Province of North Carolina in
It'll. From him it passed to his brother,
Roger Moore, known ever afterwards
lordly and distinguished bearing and
owned immense bodies of land i'll this
part of the country, and was for many
years member of Governor Gabriel
Johnston's council. During his absence
from home, in the early days of the set
Element, his house Mt Orion was attack
ed, pillaged and burned by the Cree In
dams, who lived ON the Cape Fear oppo-
site his plantation. Some days after
wards king Roger, with a small force
of neighbors and servants, seeing the
Indians at play and bathing, out of sight,
crossed over, and taking the savages by
surprise, exterminated the whole tribe.
His tomb. a brick mound, is still in a
good state Of preservation in the old
family burying ground at Orion. The
spot, which has unfortunately in recent
years been partly cleared, is described
by the author of Roanoke" as follows:
Il found myself in one of those spots
which nature herself seems to have con-
secrated for her most holy rites. There
was not shrub, nor blade of grass,
within this sacred temple; there the gar
ish beams of the sun never penetrated,
but even at MONDAY Il deep, solemn twi-
light reigns. The oaks, whose multitu-
dinous branches form a thick canopy
abnro nc Ionlynd oc if thav had witnessed