The coastland times., 1951-09-14

soundside was filed with cottages
and had its pretentious hotel that
was the social summertime center
of all eastern North Carolina, an
old woman by the name of Mrs.
Mann, was stricken i'll in her cot
tage in the hills.
Neighbors sent down to the re-
sort on the soundside and sought
a doctor. The famous old Doctor
Pool of Elizabeth City, went to the
old woman's bedside. She had no
money, but willingly gave the Doc
tor, the well executed painting Of
a beautiful woman that hung on
the wall, and which the cultured
eye of the doctor had quickly
espied.
Years later art experts discov-
cred it was a painting of the beau
tiful Theodosia Burr, daughter Of
Aaron Burr, wife of the Governo:
of South Carolina, who set sail
from her home in the Palmetto
State on December 80, 1912, for a
visit to her father in New York.
She was lost at sea, and the story
is one of the unsolved mysteries
of the age.
But old Mrs. Mann, who was one
time a wife of one of the old time
Tilletts of Nags Head, who be,
longed to the early aristocracy OF
the coast, told the story of how
she came by the picture. She said
during the war of 1912 and when
she was a very young girl, and
while Mr.. Tillett was counting her
! pilot boat came ashore at Kitty
Hawk in a storm. AS was customar!
in time of wreck, and seeking ricf
prizes, the men had gone out tC
her. They returned to report the
vessel a nameless, empty one, witt
all sails set, the helm tied dowr
and no creature on board save 6
little black and tan dog. The cabir
:. was in great confusion, trunks
broken open and ladies' garment!
and other feminine effects streweC
over the floor.
The portrait of the beautiful
woman hung on the wall, and
when the boys divided the spoils,
Tillett claimed the picture which
he gave his sweetheart, as well as
a number of feminine objects
which the old lady had kept secret
ly in her trunk.
DR.. Pool took the picture to
Elizabeth City where it was kept
for several years, and later his
widow sold it to the Macbeth Art
Gallery of New York where it now
may be seen.
Pirate Had Confessed
In 1850, an old man named Frank
Burdick, who claimed to have been
one of crew of pirates, insisted
upon his death bed, that he had
been one of the crew that captured
the ship Patriot, on which Mrs.
Alston sailed. He said he held the
plank, while the beautiful lady
was forced to walk over the side,
very calm and dressed in white,
altho she had begged them to send
word to her father and husband.
Calm, impass with eyes
closed, she waved farewell, crossed
her hands upon her breast and
walked into eternity. Once they
saw her face again, when she
came to the surface and then sank
with piteous outstretched hands.
Then the pirates plundered the
good ship Patriot and left her go
ing under full sail. Old Frank told
there was a picture of beautiful
woman in the cabin, and a little
black and tan dog. And this story
seems to bear out the story told
by old Mrs. Mann at Nags Head.
1t was also told that the Patriot
was captured by celebrated West
n d a n pirate named Dominique
You, alias Babe" The entire crew
had walked the plank. There were
numerous confessions some 25
years afterward, and two sailors
in Norfolk, who claimed to have
been members of gang of wreck
ers on Kitty Hawk, said they
killed the crew and looted the
ship, after she had landed on the
beach.
Tragedy seems to have marked
the life Of the Burr family. Back
in 1855, Aaron Burr and Alexander
Hamilton, were wealthy and prom
inent lawyers in New York city.
Little Theodosia Burr was then
two years old. Her mother died and
left her when she was ten or eleven
years old, and she and her father
were drawn more closely together.
They lived in the greatest STYLE,
and entertained the most wealthy
and notable personages Of the day.
At the age Of II, Theodosia had
many suitors. but young Joseph