OLD HALIFAX by ABMISTEAD C

1 ' ..' '> -> r : * . s\a y I \ wt v .."•':"-,' ., • . '=... •• y\f ; • '••> i .v;.'":' v. ... ;/^/4 ^m / ^ j ^k • • . 5 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA FROM THE LIBRARY OF W. Ltinsford Long UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00032761011 This book must be taken from Library building. {, : r OLD HALIFAX By ABMISTEAD C. GORDON, LL.D. Litt. !>., Staunton, Virginia Its county seat is Halifax town, In his recent book, "Sunlight on the situated on the west bank of the Roa- Southside," Mr. Landon C. Bell dis- noke; and the county and town in cusses the routes of emigrants from history are distinguished for Virginia into the Southwest, and calls their devotion to liberty and for the attention to "the tide of emigration their which flowed from Virginia into patriotism of their people. Halifax North Carolina and Tennessee, and was represented in the Newbern Con- thence into Kentucky and the west. vention of 1774 by two of its most Long before this Virginia "tide of eminent citizens, Nicholas Long and emigration" started Westward and X William Jones; and in the important Southwestward over the "Wilderness Hillsboro Convention, called to act Road" about the middle of the eight- upon the Federal Constitution adopt- the Tide- een century, people from ed at Philadelphia in 1787, Willie sections of the i water and Southside Jones was the leader and moving Colony of Virginia had begun to j spirit who, under Mr. Jefferson's in- South and to settle in the east- move spiration, prevented its ratification ern part of North Carolina; and the at that time fcian • because it was records of those eaastern Carolina without a Bill of Rights. counties give abundant evidence of Other distinguished citizens of Hal- the settlements of early Virginians in Revolutionary period were them who participated in this move- ifax in the Davie, a prominent offic- ment. ! William R. | armies and later Not far south of the "Dividing er in the Colonial John Baptista lline" betweenn the two Colonics lay ambassador to France; brother-in-law of Willie the county of Halifax, formed in Ahse, a to the adop- 1758 from Edgecombe County; and Jones, who was opposed and Colonel William Byrd, who left a his- tion of the Federal Constitution, fa- member of Congress tory of the establishment of that later became a v < mous "Line," and who was not very and Governor of the State; and Nich complimentary to North Carolina, olas Long, a son of Gabriel Long, of said of these neighbors: Virginia, and Commissary-General of_ if "The borderers laid it to heart North Carolina. their land was taken in Virginia; association with Willie Jones, wasL They chose much rather to belong to Connected with Halifax through his") pay no tribute Carolina, where they one of the most celebrated figures inj to God or Ceasar." Due, says Mr. Bell, to the fact the naval history of the Revolution. that this early migration of settlers Colonel Cadwallader Jones, in his from Tidewater and Southside Virgin- "Genealogical Histry," writing of the ia into North Carolina has been "in- two brothers General Allen Jones and adequately understood," and little Willie Jones, says: pains have been taken by the histo- Gen. Allen Jones resided at Mt rians and genealogists to group and Gallant in in Northampton Coun- record the facts concerning it, the ty at the head of Roanoke Falls. Carolina to specific debt of North Willie Jones lived at "The the older part of these sections of Grove," near Halifax. These old the has been little recog- Colony mansions, grand in their propor- nized. As an illustration of his state- tions, were the homes of abounding ment, he states that the Carolina his- hospitality. In this connection, I torians and genealogists "are yet ig- may ^mention that, when John Paul norant of the rate and place of birth Jones visited Halifax, then a young of one (and the same is doubtless true sailor and a stranger, he made the of others) of the mist distinguished acquaintance of those fine old pa- of men connected with the early his- triots, Allen and Willie Jones; he toryy of that Colony ond State." was a young man but an old tar This was Willie Jones, of Halifax, with a bold, frank sailor-bearing who he says "was born in Albemarle that attracted their attention. He Parish, Surry County, Virginia, May became a frequent visitor/at their 25, 1741." houiw*, where he was alwfeys wel- Halifax County, North Carolina, come. He soon grew fond of them, derives its name from the Earl of and a mark of esteem and admira- Halifax, who in 1758 was the first tion, he adopted their name, say- Lord of the Board of Trade. It is sit- ing that if he lived he would make uated in the northeastern part of the them proud of it. Thus John Paul State, and is bounded on the north became Paul Jones—it was his and east by the Roanoke River, which fancy. He named his ship the "Bon separates it from Northampton Coun- Homme Richard," in compliment to ty; on .the south by Martin, Edge- Franklin; he named himself Jones combe and Nash counties, and on the in compliment to Allen and Willie west by the county of Warren. Jones. When the first notes of war re- ' in person. Mrs. Ashe sounded he obtained letters from ungainly "Colonel Tarleton, you would these brothers to Joseph Hewes, plied: had that pleasure, if you had member of Congress from North have behind you at the battle of the Carolina, and through his influence looked ^ Cowpens!" 1 received his first commission in the 'Tarleton, enraged, involuntarily I navy. I am now the oldest living his sabre. General /descendant of Gen. Allen Jones. I grasped the hilt of entered the ' remember my aunt, Mrs. Willie Leslie at this moment the anger of the Jones, who survived her husband room, and observing the sudden agitation of many years, and when a boy I have officer and cause. She re- heard these facts spoken of in both the lady, inquired the conversation, and families." peated the brief "Say what In her "Women of the Revolution," Leslie said, with a smile: Mrs. Ashe, Colonel Tarle- ^J.Mrs. Ellett speaks of Mrs. Willie you please, than to insult a Jones ,and Mrs. Nicholas Long as ex- ton knows better hibiting a patriotic zeal, a noble lady in my presence." spirit and a devoton to ther country Colonel William R. Davie was long wheh llustrated the attachment of a resident of Halifax County. He was the women to the cause of the Revo- born in England and came to Ameri- luton. ca at the age of five years. He was a which he left Mrs. Willie Jones was a daughter student at Princeton, Continental Army of Colonel Joseph Montford, a strong in 1776 to enter the and returned to patriot, a prominent citizen of Hali- serving in the North, campaign, where hej fax, and a colonel of the Halifax college after the first honors of Militia before the outbreak of the graduated with the joining the army, war. He was distinguished as a Ma- the college. Again captain and was severely son; and died in 1776, just as the he became Stono, which Revolution was beginning. wounded in the battle of temporarily incapisitated him for Another of his daughters, as stated military service. Again, in 1780, he married John Baptista Ashe. answered the call to arms, and rais- Mrs. Willie Jones was famous for ed a troop of cavalry and two com- her personal beauty, her brilliant wit panies of infantry, equipping them and her sauvity of manners. She is out of his own private funds. He took said to have been "devotedly and an active part in the battle of Hang- enthusiastically loved by every hu- ing Rock, of which he wrote a vivid man being who knew her." account that is. published in Wheeler's It was her individual charm, even "History of North Carolina." more than the admiration which the He served successively as captain, young Scotch sailor, John Paul, had major, and colonel, and was at the for her as well as for her husband, battles of Guilford Court House and that caused at the evacuation him to add Jones to his i Hobkirk's Hill, and name, when he left Halifax and went of Camden and the seige of Ninety I into the American Navy. Six. in 1781, he became commissary When Cornwallis, in 1781, led his general of North Carolina; and at the army north from Wilmington to its the close of the war resumed anal surrender at Yorktown, he re- practice of law at Halifax, and mar- mained several days in Halifax, where ried Sarah Jones, daughter of General Jon es. > some of his officers were quartered Allen Jones, and niece of Willie among the families of the town. They; law- |hc was a brilliant and successful were treated courteously but coldly* at Iyer ,and was in his fifteen years by their reluctant hosts; and more* the bar employed in many of the has come down of the than one story most important criminal cases in the scars inflicted^ on the vanity of some State. ,f them by the wit of these patriotic He held many political offices. In women. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, 1787, he was a delegate to the Fed- Jornwallis' leader of cavalry, had eral Convention at Philadelphia, upon been wounded in the hand by a sabre which, though but thirty-one years cut in a personal encounter on the old, he made a decided impression by field with Colonel William Washing- his' knowledge and eloquence.

Load more