North Carolina: Day 3

So I had my lunch with the Mayor of Hope Mills, North Carolina today. If this man does not win reelection in November, there are problems in the galaxy, the likes of which we have never even contemplated. Mayor Eddie Dees is probably the nicest man I've ever met. If he's 1/1,000,000 as attentive to his town as he was to me in the two days I've know him, he should be immediately elevated to Vice President of these United States of America. Sorry, Joe. He doesn't know me from Adam, or Eve, for that matter, yet he spent his entire afternoon driving me around Cumberland County in search of my elusive kinfolk. He made many phone calls to many people in an attempt to get that one tidbit of information that would put us in the right track. The man is a god. That's it. Plain and simple.

I arrived in Hope Mills around noon and met the Mayor at Bruce and Mickey's for lunch. The point was for me to buy Mr. Dees lunch as a small repayment for his kindness. Instead, the owner told us it was on the house. Thus, I was thwarted. I was, however, to buy the man a 16 ounce Coke later in the day. Yeah, a 16 ounce Coke, down from the 20 ounce bottle. What gives?

He took me to meet Stanley Johnson, who is 87 and in MUCH better physical shape than I. He sickened me actually. We interrupted him as he mowed his property (notice I did not say "lawn")...at 87 years old. He was pretty cool, but alas, apparently not of my Johnson clan. Rats...foiled again! He did, however, know of a story of a Johnson, who was murdered by his brother over a land dispute (just like my great grandfather, John Henry Johnson and his brother, Charles). When I asked if he knew where that had taken place, he pointed across the road from his house, about 50 yards away for the intersection below!He couldn't swear on his 87 year-old full head of polar bear-white hair, but he knew the story. He said that the man was murdered about where the car is located in the photo below. Could it be? I'd like to think so. Once I shared the article about the land sale after JHJ's death in 1918, Mr. Mayor said that the land mentioned was located behind the plot above on Big Rockfish Creek. That's another tiny shred of proof, huh? Did I find my kinfolk's land and the murder scene?! While I have no physical proof, the circumstantial evidence is mounting!

Now, off in search of JHJ's grave...

We left there in search of an abandoned cemetery that could, maybe, possibly, probably not be the cemetery where John Henry Johnson was buried. I just can't find the man. Mr. Dees found out from someone about the abandoned cemetery that's in an area that was cleared for a subdivision, but never built. The streets were laid out and paved, but nothing else ever happened. The entrances were barricaded with a steel wire and a 55 gallon drum. The Mayor told me to get out and see if I could lift the wire over the truck so that we could drive in. I said, "Are you serious?" "It would be wrong to come all this way and not try," he said. I got out and lifted the wire over the top of the truck and he drove under and we were in! Most of the streets were blocked in the same manner, but only better, except for one where someone had broken the chain and we were able to get back further into the subdivision. I had my eyes peeled and finally saw this:See the two thicker trees close together to the right of center? Can you see the gravestones to the left of the tree? I have no idea how I was able to see that, but it was quite an exciting discovery. We got out to see who was buried there and found that none of them were Johnsons. Still pretty cool though. We headed back to the entrance and I lifted up the wire again. This time, it didn't work out so well. I couldn't lift it as high as I had the first time and I figured out later it was because I was lifting right next to the barrel this time and that impeded my lifting. It caught on the top of the truck and pulled out of the pole. I got in the truck and we split at which point, Mr. Dees said, "I can just see you having to call your girlfriend to come get you out of jail for trespassing and destruction of property with the Mayor." Funny man, that Mayor.
We visited another cemetery and then went back to the Mayor's house where he made copies of old town maps for me, which included probable references to my kinfolk. He also gave me several other gifts including a 1979 Hope Mills license plate, a Hope Mills golf shirt, a program from the Hope Mills Old Mill Days Lake Festival and an autographed photo of Cal Koonce of the 1969 "miracle" Mets. These in addition to the previous gifts of the Hope Mills history book he wrote and a Hope Mills centennial pin. I think he may very well be related to Santa. He's taken a keen interest in finding my kin and took all of my information and made it his personal goal to find JHJ's grave. I love this man.

Mr. Dees also teaches at South View High School and was going to the football game at 6:30, so I thanked him profusely and made the return trip to my hotel in Raleigh. On the way home, I stopped at "Bojangles Famous Chicken and Biscuits" for dinner. I had a tasty cajun chicken sandwich in case you were wondering.

On tap for tomorrow: Driving to Concord, NC for one final cemetery visit and possibly meeting up with my new-found cousins for the monster trucks at the fair. We'll see how that goes.