NCBERTIE-L Archives

From: Crilley <>
Subject: [NCBERTIE] Halifax Resolves
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:38:11 -0500

A friend sent this to me, and I wanted to share it with our Bertie List
since we've been talking so much about Rev. Days in Bertie...

>Today was a pretty important day in 1776. This event occured in
>northeastern NC in the town of Halifax. It's close to I-95 at the border
>with Virginia. It is still a small town and proud of its history. There
>are tours there year round and about 6 or 7 old homes still preserved
>and on the tour.
>
>Below is an address of a short story about the Resolves. Below that, a
>story of an old home there that played an important role in the
>Revoluntionary War. Don't know if it survives to today.
>
>Guy
>
>*****
>
>http://www.tarheelconfederate.com/ncdocs/halifax.htm
>
>*****
>
>"The Grove House"
>
>The following story was written by my grandmother Mollie Carraway
>Parker, and I have two copies in her handwriting. However, for
>some reason, it was written in such a manner as to indicate that
>I wrote it, but such was not the case.
>
>In the summer of 1885 she visited Captain Henry James Carraway
>and his wife, Sue, in Halifax, and it was there that she had this
>experience. Captain Carraway's daughter, Minnie Carraway Hale,
>wrote my mother that she had written a story about the Grove
>House and that it had been published in the "Atlanta
>Constitution". I have been unable to get a copy of it.
>
>The Grove House was the home of Willie Jones, and it was here
>that John Paul Jones got his commission in the Navy and,
>therefore, it is a historic place.
>
>*****
>
>"The Grove House"
>
>In the summer of 1885 my grandmother visited the town of Halifax,
>NC, and I have more than once heard her speak of a fine old house
>that stood in a splendid grove of oaks on the southern edge of
>the town. This grove gave name to the fine old building, for it
>was known far and wide as the Grove House, and with its marks of
>former beauty and grandeur well deserved its reputation of having
>been at one time a very fine specimen of Colonial architecture.
>
>Every particle of the building material had been brought from
>England. Even the gravestones in the nearby burying ground were
>English tho at the time of my grandmother's visit these
>unfortunately had been so defaced by time and vandalism that it
>was impossible to decipher any of the inscriptions except the
>word Johnston on two of the headstones. The steps to the house
>were three immense semi-circles of stone one upon the other and
>all bearing the English quarry mark, and they led up to a large
>double door, with the usual fan shaped transom above it. Upon
>entering one found himself in a splendid hall, with oak wainscot
>and panels and ceiling all beautifully carved, but especially
>would he be struck by an immense fireplace fronting him, with a
>grand old oaken mantel reaching to the ceiling with its lovely
>carvings of acorns and leaves. On the right of the fireplace was
>what looked to be a solid wall of panels, but really was the
>hiding place of a secret stairway utterly unheard of until a few
>months prior to my grandmother's visit, after the house had
>fallen into decay and was uninhabited except by vagrants and
>ne'er-do-wells.
>
>It seems that some boys were idling there one Sunday afternoon
>and with the thoughtless vandalism or young hoodlums, were
>beating on the panels to the right of the fireplace, when
>suddenly the spring door with its secret lock flew open, as
>several of the panels crashed in, and to their surpise there was
>a narrow staircase leading down, they knew not where. Being of an
>adventurous turn, they followed the leadings and came out finally
>into the open air, some half a mile from the house in a ravine
>that led away to the north.
>
>This find of the boys was soon noised abroad and very many went
>to see if it could really be true, and after a few months there
>was found an old, old couple living some miles away who knew of
>the existence of this secret passageway and told the following
>remarkable story of the use to which it had once been put.
>
>After the Battle of Guilford Court House, Cornwallis went to
>Wilmington for his army to rest and recuperate. In a short while
>he resumed his march going northward, intending to reach
>Petersburg and form a junction with the British troops of the
>north.
>
>When he reached Halifax on this route he halted his staff and
>attendants at this Grove House, demanding entertainment for his
>large retinue of officers and servants.
>
>Now the gentleman of the house had a very beautiful daughter who
>was engaged to be married to a young officer, a Lieutenant in
>Washington's army. Hearing of the approach of the British, he
>felt anxious about the safety of his ladylove, so knowing of the
>secret approach to the house, he rode thru the ravine to the
>mouth of the cave, where concealing his horse in the nearby
>woods, he made his way up the hidden passage and was actually in
>the house when the advance guard of Cornwallis' army rode up. His
>sweetheart simply bade him goodbye and shut him in the secret
>place, thinking he would go away as soon as possible. Not so,
>however, as the sequel shows.
>
>Just behind the huge fireplace and running parallel with the
>front wall is a cross hall some four or five feet wide with two
>doors, one opposite the left hand corner of the fireplace,
>leading into the grand banquet hall, a room large enough to seat
>easily a hundred guests, and the other exactly opposite this
>secret chamber we have been talking about, and leading into the
>wine room.
>
>While dinner was being prepared, Cornwallis and his staff sat in
>this wine room, and while they drank the fine wines and brandies,
>thinking themselves quite safe from all listeners or spies, they
>freely discussed all their plans of the coming campaign, and when
>called into the banquet hall, they went quite satisfied that
>everything was settled to their liking. Little did they dream
>that an ear had been glued to the opposite thin wall of panels,
>hearing every word, storing up everything discussed, to be
>repeated to General Washington as soon as possible. When the
>conference was broken up, and Cornwallis and his officers went in
>to partake of the feast prepared for them, the young officer
>hurried thru the secret passage to the open air, mounted his
>horse and rode at full speed to the headquarters of the American
>troops. Here be disclosed to Washington all that he had heard
>from the council of war held in the Grove House. So valuable was
>this information, that Washington acting upon it, so planned the
>movement of his troops that Cornwallis was brought to bay and
>finally compelled to surrender at Yorktown, thus virtually ending
>the long, hard fought Revolutionary War.
>
>>From this incident we see how great things can be the outcome of
>little ones. But for the coming of the young Continental officer
>to visit his ladylove, there would have been no listener to the
>plans of Cornwallis and thus Washington could not have known how
>to thwart his plans, and thus the war might have been prolonged
>for weary months.
>
>
>
Virginia

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