The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-24
STATE HOUSE SQUARE WAS
FORMERLY CAMPING GROUND
Story of Raleigh Man Who Thought He Was Mar
rying the Daughter of Rich Citizen
of the CAPITAL.

In a conversation with gentleman not
long ago. he told me what his grand
father used to tell him about camping
ground, the old time people going to
and returning from market had at the
crossroads, about where the State House
stands. His grandfather said night
rarely ever passed when there would not
be crowd of market men at the cross
reads, some going north toward Peters
burg, some south toward CrossCreek-
Fayetteville, some going west toward
Hillsboro and further west, and some go
ing toward New Bern. Droves of cattle,
sheep and hogs often lay around in the
woods where now stand the Presbyterian,
Baptist and Episcopal churches, all uncon-
scious of the fact that they were resting
on the future site of the Capital of
great State And little did the hogs. that
rubbed themselves against the oak sap
lings. near the cross roads, think that
those saplings were in the future to be
the outrageous trees beneath whose
branches grave legislators Governors and
State officials would study statecraft; the
young men and women would stroll, at
night, as the soft rays of the moon light
would steal through the overspreadlng
foliage. while the balmy southern breeze
whispered of love and marriage; and that
little children were to find play ground
and the nurses a shady retreat for the
mothers darlings, in the days that were
to come. And as little did the market
men, who met at the cross roads coming
from the four quarters Of the globe,
strangers to each other, but friends for
hsx,1r no
they sat around the camp fire, smoking
and chewing, and talking of the news of
that day. that in the years to come, the
ground on which they rested for night,
would be the most noted spot in the State.
do not vouch for the truth of it, but
I have heard that the first Methodist
meeting house Raleigh ever had, stood
near the Heck residence, and was built
of logs. The Louisburg, or rather, the
Halifax road instead of going out Halifax
street, ram before the city was. laid off,
nearly a straight course fromfs5he cross
road, where the Capitol standE to the
Henry Mordecai residence, SO that the
church above referred to near the Heck
residence, was on the public road. There
is no living man who ever saw that meet
ing house. and 1 doubt if any other than
myself remembers ever to have heard OF
it. And l cannot now remember who
told me: but am sure that, in my boy
hood days / heard the old log meeting
house, that used to be place of note,
frequently spoken of by the older people.
IT don't look now much like place
for deer hunting; but, an old negro told
me. when was q boy, that there was
low place northeast of where Christ
Church stands, and that in ante-Revolu-
tionary times. it was a great place tor
deer, as the woods were not only heavily
timbered, but there was a highland
pond, or rather a mars1y place, some
where near the DR.. Dick Haywood corner,
known as the salt lick and that a deer
could be killed there at almost any time.
/ asked that old negro who told her the
deer story and she said: my daddy told
me-" I guess it was so: but to children
and grown people as well, who never saw
a live deer, it sounds very much like a
Munchausen. to say that Raleigh used to
be a good place for deer hunting.
It will soon go out of the minds of
our people that where the Governors
Mansion stands used to be called the Love-
Joy Academy Grove and that more young
men were prepared for college at that
Academy than at any other school in the
State, except perhaps the Bingham School
in Orange. "Old Jeff," as the boys called
him, was popular teacher, and filled a
big place, for many years in the City of
Oaks 1t seemed sacrilegious, indeed,
when to build the Governors Mansion the
workmen began to tear down the old
academy and the residence that had stood
so long on that square.
I received a letter the other day from
a gentleman whose ancestry once lived in
Raleigh and as it refers to many people
and incidents that may call UP In other
minds other incidents of the olden time,
1 will take the liberty of giving it, as /
received it to your readers. Here 1T Is:
"Sylva, Jackson County, N. c.
January 7, 1904.
"R H. Whitaker, ESQ:
Dear Sir: / am a longtime subscriber
to the News and Observer, and have been
very much interested in your old-time !
"reminiscences of men and things in Raj /
eigh and its vicinity, more so on account !
of the many things related by mother. who
was born in Raleigh on the 1st of July, |
1910. She was the daughter of James
Conan, who married Salhe Armstrong
Margaret Elizabeth Conan was my moth
er's maiden name and married John B.
Love in 1925, and came to this place, then
Haywood county, now Jackson county, and
lived in the house now occupied by my
self and brother sixty-seven years, and !
died in 1893. Her father. James Conan, |
died in the city of Raleigh on July End, |
1S41. From the time of her marriage IN
1926 until her father died in 1871, she
made frequent visits to her fathers home,
in a carriage with her children and negro
driver, a distance of over three hundred
miles, I have often heard her tell of her
experience on these trips to and fro, and
how her many friends would come to see
her when she got to Raleigh, and have
her to tell all she knew about the noun
tains and its people. The Haywoods, the
Folks, the Deverauxs, the Whitakers, the
Freemans etc., are all familiar names to
me as though I was to the manor born
as they were my mothers contemporaries.
"Dr. McPheeters was her teacher and
Gonaka her music teacher. l have heard
her speak of Betty Haywood-Betsey
John Haywood, and the May day parties
when she was crowned queen. and the