Cash and Fox Women

Photograph courtesy Clark Oakley and described as "Cash and Fox Women" (most likely of Person County, North Carolina).

Believed in the photograph are Roberta Whitt Fox and Ula Harris Cash (halfsister and sister, respectively, of Mary Ella Harris Oakley). Whether Mary Ella Harris Oakley is in the photograph has not been established.


Roberta Whitt Fox (1891-1981), wife of William Wise Fox (1891-1962), and mother of Nellie Wise Fox and Merritt Whitt Fox. Other children are possible but not known. Roberta Whitt Fox is a daughter of D. Clifton (Dink) Whitt and Mary Ellen Mitchell.

W. H. Hooper & Son

W. H. Hooper & Son (Yanceyville, North Carolina)

                      (click on photographs for larger image)

In her Caswell Messenger newspaper "The Literary Chef" column (25 January 2012), Dr. Lucindy Willis focused on vegetable gardens, including obtaining seeds. She stated:

"After making your selections, your next move is to see if you can purchase the seeds locally. Opened since 1895, W. H. Hooper & Son, located in downtown Yanceyville, is the largest seed purveyor in the area. It is also the best place to purchase bulk seed for microgreens. If Mike [Hooper] doesn’t have the seeds I am looking for, I order online."

"Rose Hill" (Locust Hill, Caswell County, North Carolina)

"The County at Home: A Visit to a History House in Locust Hill . . . Bedford Brown's Home -- Rose Hill"

By Frank G. Carter, Jr.

Rose Hill ... the thought itself is elegant. Imagine, if you will, a late summer evening. The type of weather conducive to early evening conversations after a hearty meal. Porches with swings that creak ever so rhythmically. The familiar smell of tobacco curing in a wood-burning barn. Or, go back a few years before Bright Leaf and think of an old stage coach road and a horse-drawn carriage. It stops and down steps a young woman, soon to be married to the plantation owner she has come to visit. She is Lucy Williamson. Her fiance is Jethro Brown. Lucy Williamson is accompanied by a member of her Caswell County pioneer family.

The house is huge and the hill all covered with flowering rose bushes, tall cedars, sprigs of English Boxwood and other beautiful trees. Ten thousand acres of Caswell County land carried the name of Brown, and much of it surrounded the newly built colonial mansion. Jethro Brown built the house and married Lucy Williamson. Later, the 1802 structure had added a parlor and numerous outbuildings. The home is healthy and strong to this day and has housed five generations of Browns including the most famous, U.S. Senator and State Legislator, Bedford Brown.

Broadnax House (Pittsylvania County, Virginia)

Woods Reveal Ruins of Landmark
By Bernard (Staff Writer)
The Bee (Danville, Virginia)
May 19, 1993
(click on photograph for larger image)

A walk in the woods near the Wood Fiber Industries plant reveals what remains of one of Danville's landmark homes. Local historian Danny Ricketts called a few weeks ago and said he had found something I would really like. I took the bait. Don't get me wrong. I love history, but it's a walk in the woods this time of year that improves other sensory skills.

When Danny calls, I know it's not going to be a wild-goose chase. Danny spends a lot of his time in the courthouse in Chatham looking up information about old families in the area. Danny's not going to say he discovered that Jimmy Hoffa is buried at Whitmell, and he knows where. No, when Danny calls, it's certain he's done his homework. So, he takes me out to the spot off Gypsum Road to take a look at the old Broadnax House. The first part of the hike is easy. A utility road makes for easy walking. Then, the woods get thick. The briars are like machetes, cutting through clothes and skin. It's snaky. The ruffle of an occasional shotgun blast can be heard in the air. I feel like Ronny Cox to his Jon Voight -- and we're not 500 years from the road.