Does anyone want Gay Neale's e-mail address? I see her once a month. We're working together on writing the history of Fort Christanna signage at the Fort. Crystal -----Original Message----- From: Lyn Baird <coriakin@charter.net> Sent: Nov 29, 2005 9:51 PM To: POYTHRESS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Brunswick, VA, court records / Koutz's raid / Masonic connection Mostly correct, Maynard, except not my ancestry so far as I know. For those interested, one may find an account of this in Gay Neale's "Brunswick County, Virginia, 1720-1975", p. 175. The evacuee was the clerk of the court, E. R. Turnbull. Years later his son recounts the tale: "MY FATHER, Edward Randolph Turnbull, was county clerk at the time Koutz's (1864) raid came through this section. I was a small boy at the time, about 12 or 13 years old, and was in the office of my father when he left it just before the raiders came into our town, and he took a Masonic* flag that was in the office and spread it out on the office table before he left. I helped do this. About twenty minutes after the raiders came into town a guard was sent to my father's house, who gave him the flag. After the raiders left we went back to the office and it looked as if all the records were destroyed, or a great part of them, as the floor of the office was about a foot deep in papers, but upon careful examination we found nothing was injured that was of any value. We had a case in the office that was filled with old blanks and they threw these all over the floor. They tore the leaves out of a lot of blank books, and scatttered these over the floor and then put ink over the top of this stuff they had thrown on the floor; otherwise nothing was injured, and the records are still intact beginning with 1732 and down to the present time." "*Masons insist that this was actually Turnbull's Masonic apron, as there is no Masonic flag." This list owes much of our shared knowledge about progenitors Lewis, Meredith and Thomas Poythress to the actions of Turnbull and the unnamed Union officer. Thank God for the cleverness of the one and the compassion of the other. For me - who was born in Brunswick, and who started my research in the Clerk's Office, handling what were in many cases these original records - the story is quite dear. As an aside, when I started my research in the 1970's, a Turnbull decendant of E.R.T. was clerk of the Brunswick court. -----Original Message----- From: John M. Poythress [mailto:brerfox@bellsouth.net] Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 11:06 AM To: POYTHRESS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Lyn Baird...your phone's ringing Lyn, I recall your recounting the piece of history about the Union army coming to the Brunswick County Court House where the evacuating Sheriff (or whatever) had put a Masonic flag over the records and they were left untouched, presumably because the Union officer was also a Mason. And I seem to remember that the Brunswick County native was one of your ancestors. If so, you may be interested in the article in this month's Virginia Genealogical Society newsletter with about 3+ pages of an article by a Kathryn Parker on tracing Virginia masons via Masonic Libraries in VA who have made their records accessible through the VGS and the LVA. If you (or anyone else) is interested just let me know....and give me your email. I'll scan these pages and send them to you as an attachment. Maynard ==== POYTHRESS Mailing List ==== Poythress Genealogy Research Web www.poythress.net ==== POYTHRESS Mailing List ==== Visit www.poythress.net o learn more about Rootsweb please visit http://www.rootsweb.com/