The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-13
IN HANGMAN'S WOODS
To This Day Kind of Superstition
Awe Connected With the Place.
THE HOME COUNTY0f NATHANIEL MACON
In His Day, The Last Of the Romans, Was Ac-
customed 10 be Addressed as "Mr.
Meekins." A Visit TO War
ren's Patriarch.
To the Editor.

rens Patriarch.
To the Editor.
Whoever visits Warren county or
its capital Warrenton, cannot fail to
be impressed with the many monu-
ments of past and, happier civiliza-
ton. Nowhere in North Carolina is
a more representative section of old
North Carolina. of '''Fo' de war times
than is to be seen in Southern Warren
or the country about Warrenton itself
At the beginning of the century the
old county of Warren was ilourishing.
1t was TO that section of the State
what Hillsborc was TO Orange and
neighboring counties. This relative
importance did not last. \ rapd
growth. such as characterized North
ern towns before the war or Southern
towns since was unknown in North
Carolina before 1860 Warrenton, like
all other towns Of the State. was a
country place. Il residence town of
some three or four hundred white
people and perhaps two thousand ne
gro slaves. From 1910 10 1860 was the
golden era of the patriarchal civli-
zation of North Carolina before the
war, and Warrenton certainly was no
exception TO this general rule. All the
prominent houses of the old town to-
day were built during that period, at
tRaSt. with few exceptions. 1t is sell
dom that one sees place of the same
size that can boast 50 many handsome
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. built by past
generation, it's true: yet beautiful.
spacious and surrounded by lordly
oaks and broad lawns. And the peo-
pie of the town and surrounding
country too are the kind to dwell in
these proud. ariStocratic old buildings.
They have not and cannot forget the
past and like that generous, chival-
rous generation. they are chivalroiis.
cultured and hospitable to Il fault.
The very houses with their broad
piazzas and wide. open doors: their
shady groves and gravelly winding
walks and promenadeS tempt the
to go in and enjoy boun-
teous hospitality.
The most striking thing though is
the living presence of departed age
that one feels and sees on every hand
in Warren. county as we'll as town.
The homesteads of the Eatons. the
| Alstons and others hardly less known
to North Carolina, history tell us OF
| their builders and proud masters.
\ trip in the country in any direc-
ton is for the same reason interest
ing in the extreme.
| 1t was the writer's privilege to take
a trip to the Southern part of the
county in company with the present
| sheriff. of Warren, Nathaniel Macon
Jones. the son and brother of sheriffs
| Of Warren county. We travelled along
the old Louisburg rOad-the old stage
road from the North to the South. q
road along which the Virginia troops
came to North Caroina's S assistance in
| the Revolution, the same too that ire
| del and John Marshall. Supreme court
| Judges used to 90 TO Raleigh. Column
| ba and Savannah: and it does not re-
quire very lively imagination in trav-
cling such a road to have before ones
mind the dignited, courtly old gen
tlemen Of a century ago
There was old Butte court house to
locate and the hangman's wood to
point out-the little forest on a pret-
ty steep declivity where criminals.
guilty Of horse-stealfng or carrying
off too many hams from a neighbor's
smoke house, were hanged. No man
has been willing to make the place a
| part Of his field-a kind of Supersti-
| tious awe seems to connect itself with
| the place.
Only two miles away is the old Gid
con Macon place-now large fields
that have been in steady cultivation
for a hundred years. \ large half
dead pear tree marks the spot whera
the house used to stand-the house
in which Nathaniel Macon was born,
Nat. Macon" or mfr. Meekins" as
the more illiterate people in Warren
call him. a little further away is the
old Philemon Hawkins homestead
the place where Ben iamin Hawkins.
one of North Carolina's first Senators
| in Congress was born and reared.
| The two boys went to school together
to the first bishop of the Episcopal
| Church of North Carolina. The school
| house was about halfway between the
| homes of the two families. and not
| far from the old court house. The
| neighbor- afterwards went to
the same college-Princeton the great
institution for sons of ''dissenters'
| all over the South at that time. A
mile or two to the left and just across
| the Shocco creek are the famous Sui
phur Springs where the elite of a for
mer day used to spend the summer.
! There Annie Custis Lee. daughter of
| the famous general, died in 1862. and
| there in the family cemetery of the
| Jones, she was buried. Warren coun-
! ty buried the remains of the noble
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