Click the article to see a more-legible version.
Caswell County Quiz:
What is incorrect about this article, just focusing on the heading: "Yanceyville Dates to 1791"?*
The Daily Times-News (Burlington, North Carolina) · 11 Sep 1973, Tue · Page 15
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*Rick Frederick: HG Jones was a friend and mentor. Thus, I reluctantly call out his mistakes. However, I know that he would not hesitate to do the same for me -- and did many times! What else did he get wrong in this article?
Answer: This article contains at least four errors:
(1) Yanceyville dates to 1792, not 1791 (Caswell County was divided in 1792 when Person County was carved off);*
(2) Yanceyville was named for Bartlett Yancey, Jr., and not his family;
(3) John Walter (Chicken) Stephens was not lured from the Caswell County Courthouse, he was killed inside it; and
(4) John William Cosby did not design the Caswell County Courthouse. It was designed by William Percival.
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*Actually, the location of what became Yanceyville dates to 1792. The Town of Yanceyville was not established until the 1830s.
The Daily Times-News (Burlington, North Carolina) · 11 Sep 1973, Tue · Page 15
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Did HG Jones actually write an article with so many mistakes?
Given the errors, I would say no. However, there are word choices and stylistic clues that are pure HG. Examples: "miniaturized county"; not using "Chicken" to refer to John Walter Stephens; and the segue from "quiet country village" to "little quiet in 1870."
Of course the newspaper attributed the article to HG, and he signed the Yanceyville Historic District National Register of Historic Places application form.
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