The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-08

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Leaving Raleigh by the usual zig
rag railway route TO Eastern Caro-
lima soon found myself at Goldsboro.
There l took another train and after
running North about 80 miles arrived
at Rocky Mount. nearly 100 miles
from Raleigh by rail but less than 80
as the crow fles. After three hours
delay | again took up my journey
toward the southeast for some 80
miles and came To Il stop at a small
town called Parmele, where / was
told / must change cars for Green
Vile, or Washington. | was not sur
prised al all. though l presently OBJ
served that / was being Whirled in Il
southwesterly direction at rate that
would have soon had me back in the
neghborhood of Raleigh. and Bath
might still have remained for me q
town on paper. but my career was
cut short about sunset, for l. had de-
cided TO stop at the thriving town
of GreenYifle, the centre of one of
the finest bright tobacco sections in
the State. Lodged in one of it's hos
pitable homes. l soon forgot to be
worried over the fact that had come
150 miles to reach a point only 30
miles from the capital by direct
line. our friends TO the North have
found out that those people down
there have a good thing in their coun-
try and have taken the trouble to
reach ii by more direct lines and less
painful pauses along the routes. /
could have taken at Parmele. another
railroad. from the North of course.
directly to Washington, which would
have put me a few miles nearer my
destination. but | wanted TO see the
country. SO the next morning | accept
ed the private conveyance of Il friend
and soon found myself on the road
connected for more than a century
and a half with the history of the
section. A mile or two out from
Greenville stood quaint old house
built some time in the 18th century.
one end of it fortified with chimney
about eighteen feet wide which spread
upward beyond its shoulders into two
stacks. The next day l noticed one
like il. only wider i'm the town Of
Bath, projecting one side of the old
Marsh House; but the purpose Of
their style and shape l could not d.
vine unless they contained secret
chambers for the preservation of rec
ords or other things of value against
the savage incendiaries. The letters
/. II. s. burnt into the first might in
dictate the piety or calling of its
builder.
a little further on toward Wash
ington and about three miles from
the site of the old town of Martin
DOtDs WdS lltE VI NFCti. JOtii
simpson of more than local reputation
Isl evil and military affairs. AS Col
onei Of the militia and representative
OF his county at Hillsboro in ITS and
at Halifax in 177e he was thought
worthy of being excepted by Governor
Martin from his prOfessed amnesty 20
the RevolutioniSts. During the ReVo-
luton he was General OF the New
Bern District. He was buried in the
family graveyard on the plantation
and not far away on the other side
Of the road rests the remains of Col
onel John Hardy prominent in local
colonial circles.
We were on the South side of the
Tar and going parallel with its gen
eral direction. To our left and to-
ward the river stretched several of the
great plantations them that
of General Bryan Grimes. Some miles
beyond II we crossed the branch or
small creek where he was murdered.
a little further on i'm the Trinity
churchyard l saw that loving hands
had erected on the spot fit to be the
last resting place of his body a hand
some monument. whereon was appro-
priateiy Inscribed the twenty-nine bat
ties in which he bore a conspicuous
part. \ few weeks ago | saw his last
battle field and the sky above it over
flooded with the glory of mountain
his old soldiers on the field of Appo-
mattox. With the aid of memorys
glass | could also see the little church,
yard by the road side and the half
encircling woods. and the quiet house
on the Tar. with its wide grove of
oaks among which the evening shad-
ows creDt and the insect world droned
in the advance of the summer night.
And while we watched and rememb-
cred. the shadows of the twilight sur
rounded US like the columns of an en-
veloping host-we were on the hill of
the last charge-and the soldier un-
der whose command it was made was
sleeping a soldiers sleep under the
wide spreading trees beyond the
'echoless murmur" of the Tar
On the morning of August 10, 1904,
rain crow, or some water fowl with
more discordant note. broke the
stiffness of a forty acre grove to an
nounee to his mate the first grey
streaks of dawn. Before daybreak the
insects had fiddled themselves to sleep
and the silence from the face of the
river had spread UP through the woods
and settled down on the grove and
The plantation which surrounded it.
on the place of the old Indian Fort "
on the secret resort of Blackboard on
the home of his sister nearby-on the
hollow cypress by the river side. from