"Three Open Graves Remain Mystery"
Although he has hunted those woods for five or six years, Charles Lawson of rural Providence, N.C., had never run across the old graveyard before that eerie night. [Click image to see a larger version.]
Flat stones with no inscriptions, no names, no dates, mark about a dozen graves on the wooded hill.
Three of the graves had been exhumed to a depth of four or five feet. The open graves were nearly six feet long and two feet wide.
Two nights later, the moon was shining when Lawson showed the open pits to Det. Keith McKinney of the Caswell County, N.C., Sheriff's Department.
"It was an eerie feeling," McKinney said.
The defective took photographs but had been unable to find any record of the graves or any information that might explain their exhumation.
Who was buried there?
Why were they disinterred?
What did these unknown culprits find that would cause them to dig for so long and so deep?
Lawson, a dry wall mechanic, said, "I figured somebody was looking for treasure. The boy I was with was plenty mad about somebody coming along and disturbing the dead."
Landowners along N.C. SR 1558 [Gaddy Road], along which the old graveyard tract is located, said Helen Thomas White owns the property. A native of Milton, N.C., she grew up in Danville and now lives in South Carolina. Click map to see a larger image.
But the property reportedly was once part of a large tract owned by the Tom Lea family of "Roots" fame. Alex Haley wrote that Kizzy was sold as a slave to Tom lea when she was a young girl. Lea supposedly took her as his mistress.
Her son, "Chicken" George, was born there, and some people believe Kizzy may have been buried on the land.
Dr. Clifford Gaddy of Danville owns the property where the old Lea homeplace was located.
The Gaddys met Haley soon after the popular television series on "Roots" was aired. Mrs. Gaddy said Haley told them his cousin had verified the site as the old Lea homeplace.
"She told him her mother had taken her back there before she died," Mrs. Gaddy said.
Mrs. Gaddy and several other landowners along the road cite reports of an old slave graveyard in the area.
"Clifford and I went down there and walked all around but found nothing," Mrs. Gaddy said. They had been told the graveyard was closer to the house than is the one Lawson encountered while coon hunting.
While she was researching the Lea homeplace, Mrs. Gaddy said the old, white frame building on the land burned to the ground three or four years ago. Since then, she has abandoned the research because there was no historic building left to mark the site.
Haley himself reportedly visited the site and searched for graves.
When she met him, Mrs. Gaddy asked Haley whether all the dates and incidents in "Roots" were factual.
"He told me it is a story of people," she said. Some of the story reportedly was passed down from one generation to the next and cannot be verified by any record.
Perhaps the body snatchers who recently invaded Semora were looking for Kizzy.
Theories behind the grave robbing incident abound. The facts are as meager as the graves themselves.
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The Charles Lawson referenced in the above article probably is Charles Howard Lawson (1944-2007). A road in Providence, Caswell County, NC, is named "Lawson Road."
The Det. Keith McKinney of the Caswell County Sheriff's Office referenced in the above article most likely is Keith Calvin McKinney (1957-2015).
The Helen Thomas White referenced in the above article most likely is Helen Elise Thomas White, daughter of Charles Randolph Thomas and Sudie Elise Hayes. She married Bruce Benton White in 1947 and lived in Spartanburg, SC.
The Dr. and Mrs. Gaddy mentioned in the above article (and for whom Gaddy Road most likely is named) are Dr. Clifford Garland Gaddy, M.D. (1924-2017) and Inez Chapman Gaddy (1923-2016).
The Tom Lea referenced in the above article is Thomas Lea (1785-1845). Whether he is the father of "Chicken" George of "Roots" is not known. Thomas Lea is the son of Major Lea (1742-1843) and Betsy Slade (1763-1785). The Lea family owned extensive acreage all along Country Line Creek. "Major" is a given name and not a military rank.
"Chicken" George purportedly married Matilda McGregory Murray. There is a large Murray family in Alamance County, NC, that claims to descend from this couple. Alex Haley, author of "Roots" also claims to descend from "Chicken" George through the Murray family.
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