This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Dunn, Keen, Stanley, Thomas, Strickland Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/gVB.2ACI/2862 Message Board Post: As I was looking through stored letters and data of Geneology, I came across a letter that was sent to me by Charlie D. Thomas. It made me think of someone whom I have not communicated with for years. We had many phone calls and one visit to his home. He showed me the Dicy Dunn Cemetery. Charlie showed me a part of a charred log in a running stream that was the remains of a Grist Mill that belonged to Benjamin Dunn my ancestor. He said this mill was burnt down by Union Soldiers. He told me that the soldiers took Benjamin's corn, hogs, chickens, spent the night in a field, and burnt everything down to the ground as they left his farm. Mr. Thomas said there was a caben where the Dunns lived on the property when he was a child. As I lived in Alabama at the time of his communications, his thoughts and ideas kept me in track with the place of heritage of my ancestors in Johnston Co. As there were a lot of history of several differant famileys in this letter I thought I would ! share it with you. Nov. 21, 1978 Dear Sir: Just a few lines to let you know that I was at the meeting in Smithfield, N. C. last night when a lady presented a letter from a Mr. David B. Dunn in regards to a Dicey Dunn family of Johnston County, N.C. . I got the address from the lady so that I could write to you. It just so happens that I am living on the land that Dicey Dunn and her husband Benjamin Dunn owned. The Dicy Dunn Cemetary is in sight of mly house. There are no markers in the graveyard for Dicy or any of her family but I'm sure that some are buried there because when Benjamin and Dicy let Gideon and Sally A. Stanley Keen have this land the "Old Burring Ground" was written in the deed, as in fee simple, forever and contained 1/2 acre of land for public buring place. It has been set out as such in all the deeds since the one that Benjamin and Dicy Dunn made out to Gideon and Sally A. Stanley Dunn. After the Gideon Keen deed, came a deed to Gideon King's Daughter Sarah that married George E. King. George and Sarah King's children got the land next and Walter King (one of George and Sarah Kings children) sold said land to John Rufus Thomas (my Father). At the death of John Rufus Thomas the same land came down to us children (heirs of John Rufus and Mary Mae Strickland Thomas). That is why I am on this land today. So, this is just a little rundown on the Dicy Dunn land and the old burying ground. I would like to exchange this information for any that have that will hellp us get a better picture of that early family of this community. I have a census listing of the children of Benjamin and Dicy and there was a girl i n that family that was also named Dicy. This Dicy I"m sure must be the daughter of Benjamin and Dicy because of the age difference. I do not know who any of the children married. Can you help me there in any way? I will appreciate any information that I can get. We are trying to p ut together the history of this community and hope to get it into book form some day. Do you have an old Bible with Dunn information in it? We would like to get any xeroxed information that we can that will help us write a complete and correct history of the Dunns and related families of this and other counties. We have already spent about two years on this history and hope to find the rest of the missing links that will make our history and our book complete. Do you have any proof of who the first Dicy was before she married Mr. Benjamin Dunn? One papfer that I have says "the woman that came from Duplin Co. N.C." But I h aven't been able to follow it up so, if you can and will help that will just be fine. Be Sure and send a list of your family and children, birthdates and etc. and your parents and grandparents...on b! oth sides of the family. Also, any else that will help us. Hope to hear from you soon Charlie D. Thomas