Here's an interesting little synopsis of Steve Dixon's recent trip to Greene County, NC, an area where some of his ancestors once lived. I hope many of you get the opportunity to walk the land of your ancestors, and I hope you enjoy Steve's account of his visit. Janice Tripp Gurganus ----- Original Message ----- From: <SWDixon@aol.com> To: <jtginnc@cox.net> Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 8:48 AM Subject: Re: Greene Co. visit > Hi Janice > > I had a great trip to Greene County. Thank you again for putting me in touch > with Ann Dixon Vernelson. She gave me some information, but mostly she put > me in touch with her aunt, Julia Carolyn Dixon Stout, who lives in > Wilmington. Julia travels up to Greene County about once a week and has done > a fair amount of genealogy work over the last few years. Anyway, she gave me > some good tips and sent me a better map than any I had; it had some of the > sites I wanted to visit highlighted. > > Below is a little summary of my visit that I wrote which you may find > interesting. > > Best regards, > Steve Dixon > > ************************** > > Early Saturday morning (June 15), I headed for Greene County. My first stops > were in the Shine community. I thought I had found the Henry Best (White) > House and took a picture of it. However, when I compared it to the picture > of it in Creech's book, I didn't get the right house. Next, I found the > Aldridge cemetery which was way out in the middle of a field, and the > cemetery itself looked to be overgrown, so I settled for a picture from the > road. Next, I found the Mewborn cemetery, which is nice, and I believe I saw > the clump of trees across from this cemetery where the Drewry Aldridge > cemetery is on the site of the old Myrtle Bluffs plantation. > > Next stop - Rainbow United Methodist Church. It is very pretty there, and I > took pictures of a number of the headstones. The area behind the church was > too overgrown and swampy to see the Rainbow, so I settled for a view of it > from the road. Then I went down Dixon Farm Road, and after riding into > Hookerton and then back out, I saw the Henry A. Dixon cemetery and drove > right out to it. The old house of Henry A. Dixon is in the field adjacent to > the cemetery; it is covered with vines. It took me a little while to see > it, but I went over to it and took a few pictures. > > After the cemetery, I rode through Hookerton and just rode around on the > north side of the Contentnea awhile where I think Murphrey Dixon owned land. > Then I headed in the general direction of Ormondsville. Then I figured I > better head back to Hookerton to make sure I got some barbecue. I went into > Morris BBQ and had an early lunch; it was great. I was asking someone in > there if it had been known as "Willie's BBQ" and they were explaining how he > died and passed it on. I then explained how I came to be in Greene County, > doing genealogy exploring on the Dixons, when the woman pointed to one of the > other women running the place and said, "She's a Dixon, too!" Turns out she > was Annie Dixon Morris. She knew her family history back to her (I think) > ggggrandfather or so as John Washington Dixon, but that was all she knew. I > told her I had seen his headstone at Rainbow that morning and I had my > documentation in my car so that I was able to tell her that John W. Dixon was > the son of Washington Dixon, who was the son of Obediah Dixon, who was the > son of Murphrey, etc. She also said there is a Dixon reunion at Rainbow the > 4th Sunday of every September. Anyway, I bought some BBQ and sauce to take > home and headed out again. I made it up to the Richard Dixon cemetery which > is east of Walstonburg. The stones are in good shape there. Then I headed > back south to the Murphy-Carraway cemetery located on the old Beargarden > plantation. This cemetery was located way out in the middle of a planted > field. It has a chain link fence around it, and the ground is covered with > gravel. I got permission from someone who lives next to it to drive out > there, so I basically went out and tried to imagine it as part of the huge > working plantations of Capt. Jack Murphrey. After this cemetery, I headed > further south, took some pictures of the Contentnea at Snow Hill and the > monuments at the courthouse. Then I drove on to Kinston and saw the CSS > Neuse. It was a great trip. >