Lanoir County, NC - Letters - Charles R. Holloman to Marion Parrott, 1971 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Department of Community Colleges State Board of Education Raleigh, North Carolina February 16, 1971 Mr. Marion Parrott Attorney Kinston, North Carolina Dear Marion: Referring to our recent communication, I am summarizing in this letter the information which you may like to see or have knowledge of in connection with the eighteenth century cemetery on Grainger Hill which is proposed for removal. Contrary to the statement made in the published notice in the Kinston daily Free Press addressed to the heirs of John C. Washington, the cemetery area has been reserved in a deed still in existence. I cite a deed in Lenoir County Deed Book No. 14, Page 526 and following: and, for the specific words of execption, see the bottom of Page 527 where it is specifically stated "it is understood and agreed that the burying ground in the garden is excepted." This deed was made by the children (and their spouses) of Mrs. Eliza H. Knox. Eliza Knox was the daughter of John Washington and sister to John C. Washington. Eliza married first Richard Grist and by him had one child, a son named Franklin R. Grist. After the death of Richard Grist, her first husband, she married Dr. Reuben Knox, a Kinston Physician whose wife had died. Eliza outlived her second husband by many years and died in 1891 in Raleigh where she had come to live just a year or so before, due to her declining health. By her second husband, Dr. Reuben Knox, she had Augustus Knox who became a prominent physician in Raleigh, and Betty W. Hughes, wife of James B. Hughes of New Bern. Vernon Plantation belonged - not to John C. Washington but to his sister, Eliza Heritage Washington Knox. [Vernon belonged to John C. Washington, subject to his sister's mortgage, at the time of his death there in 1888. It was not his at the time it was sold out of the Washington family in 1891 when it was sold to three men to wit; Jesse S. Grainger, Lemuel Harvey, and Wm. C. Fields, CRH] John C. Washington gave his sister, Eliza Knox, a mortgage on Vernon Plantation (consisting at the time of 1,400 acres approximately) in or about 1875. That deed is of record in Lenoir County, having been re-recorded after the fire. It also is in the case papers sent up to the Supreme Court of North Carolina in the case of William A. Blount versus Julia Washington and others in 1890. The case is recorded in the printed North Carolina reports, volume 108 at page (231) and the case papers are No. 16,620 on the microfilm records of Supreme Court case papers in the North Carolina Archives. It will be seen in the case papers that Eliza Knox lent her brother, John C. Washington, $17,000 and took a mortgage on Vernon Plantation. John C. Washington, as you know, was a very prominent man. He was the major contractor for the railroad from Raleigh to New Bern when it was built. In or about 1861, he developed severe rheumatoid arthritis and suffered terribly from it for the rest of his life until he died in 1887. During that time a considerable part of his very large estate, much of it accumulated by himself in earlier years but the larger part received from his father John Washington when the latter died in August 1837, was dissipated due to his inability to look after it during the reconstruction era troubles. As I was saying, following the death of John Cobb Washington in 1887, there was litigation because a brother-in-law, William A. Blount, who married John C. Washington's sister, Mary, also had a document which purported to be a mortgage which he thought included the Vernon lands. He brought suit against the widow and heirs of John C. Washington. The widow was John C. Washington's last wife, Julia Washington. The case was tried in Lenoir County and came on up to the Supreme Court and it is the papers in that case to which I am making reference. Mr. Blount lost in the suit. The widow Julia retained a life estate with the remainder to Eliza Knox and her heirs. Julia gave Eliza Knox a quit claim deed. [Descendants are mentioned here but will be excluded from this post] The cemetery area was first reserved in the will of Governor Richard Caswell who owned the premises when he died. The Plantation, later called Vernon, was called The Hill in those days. It was later named Vernon by John Washington when he became owner in 1806. John Washington obtained the land by deed from General William Croom who had purchased it from John Gatlin and wife, Susanna Caswell. General Croom held it for a short time, it appears; and then conveyed it to John Washington. General Croom also bought Newington Plantation, the last residence of Governor Caswell, which lay immediately to the Northwest of Vernon Plantation. Governor Caswell got the original land grant to The Hill Plantation (later Vernon Plantation) in 1747 and built there his first residence in the Kinston area. He lived for several years until he built his Red House Home on the Red House Plantation near the present Caswell Park Cemetery. His mother and father lived on The Hill Plantation (Vernon) until his father's death in 1755. His mother died in 1787, only two years before Governor Caswell himself died. She had continued to live on The Hill (Vernon) and his youngest brother, Samuel, and family, lived with the widowed mother. In Governor Caswell's will he mentions the fact that his mother and father and brother Samuel are buried at the cemetery on The Hill; and he reserves forever the acre of grounds centered on their graves. While it may not be possible to determine the exact bounds of the acre that was reserved by Governor Caswell and may not be possible to determine the exact bounds of the cemetery plot reserved in the Knox deed in 1891, it will be apparent that the grave sites in fact show the area covered by the cemetery. Practically all of these grave sites are not the ordinary kind of grave but are vaulted brick tombs underground. The removal of this cemetery would involve destroying these vaulted tombs of brick. Certainly, no removal should be undertaken merely as a matter of course by some person not an experienced archaeoligist. These tombs go back to the eighteenth century and as early as 1755 when Governor Caswell's father was buried on the premises. It is quite likely that Governor Caswell's brother-in-law, Dr. Francis Stringer, was buried on this site in 1753. We know positively that the Governor's father was buried there (Richard Caswell, Sr.) in 1755, and his mother and brother Samuel were later. Samuel Caswell was the Commander of the State Regiment (bodyguard of the Governor and the government offices and officials during most of the period of the Revolution). East Carolina University has experienced archaeoligists on its staff and I suggest they might be much interested in examining the site and in participating in the removal of the graves if, indeed, they are removed. It is my opinion that the land comprising these grave sites has not been conveyed to the present owners of Vernon or the Clinic or to any other owners, inasmuch as the reservation made by Governor Caswell has never been revoked in any way, shape, or form; but, even if it is found deficient, the reservation by the heirs of Eliza Heritage Washington Knox in Deed Book 14, page 527, is effective and subsisting. Very truly yours, Charles R. Holloman __________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Charles R. Holloman ___________________________________________________________________