Murder at the Holiday Flotilla (7 page)

“
But it wasn’t your fault a guest fell on our stairs,” Cam protested.

Melanie let her head fall onto his shoulder and let out a loud sigh. “That is precisely what I tried to explain. I’ve been warned, she said.”

Melanie lifted her chin defiantly. “I’m inviting every realtor I know, and most definitely everyone on the nominating committee, to my Christmas party. I’ll show them what Southern hospitality is all about. Then they’ll love me again.” She choked back a sob.

“
Here, here,” Binkie said.

“
That’s my girl,” Aunt Ruby said. “You’re a Chastain. From a fine old Savannah family. Who do they think they’re dealing with? We’ll show them. I’ll help. We’ll put on the best doggone party this town has ever seen.”

“
I’ve got a few chips to cash in,” Cam said. “Maybe I can get a big star to come.”

“
That’s so sweet, sugar, but you’re forgetting. Scarlett will be here. She’s our sister and she’s a huge star.”

“
Grand idea,” Binkie said. “Keep this in the family.”

It made me so happy to see how Binkie had gone from solitary bachelor to the proud patriarch of our family.

Aunt Ruby clapped her hands. “Splendid idea. We’ll have Scarlett perform for your guests. Oh, they’ll love her! And you.”

7

“
I’ve been studying Wilmington’s role in the Revolutionary War since I was a kid,” Roger Craighead told us. “Since my first visit to Moore’s Creek National Battlefield.”

Roger Craighead was our guest for dinner on Tuesday evening. Aunt Ruby had made her favorite chicken and rice casserole, Melanie brought a huge salad, and Cam had baked his famous four-layer chocolate cake. The babies were down for the night – fingers crossed – and we were finishing up dessert in my dining room.

My house is 150 years old and I restored it lovingly with Jon’s help. The dining room is one of my favorite rooms, papered in a red and white toile pattern with a richly colorful oriental rug placed under my mahogany double-pedestal table.

Roger continued, “Binkie said you wanted to know about the Wood family and I know a great deal about them. You think you might be related to them?”

“
We’re not sure,” Melanie said.

“
What makes you think you might be?” he asked.

“
A will we recently found among our parents’ possessions,” I said.

Roger’s eyes lit up with interest. “Ah, family wills offer a wealth of information. Children’s names, spouse’s names, where the deceased lived. And of course what he owned. Or she.”

Roger was in his early thirties, fair complected with sandy colored hair and wore prescription glasses. He was dressed in jeans and a striped shirt, sleeves rolled up to mid-forearm. A pleasant man, soft-spoken and composed. “May I see the will?”

“
Certainly,” Melanie said and handed him a large manila envelope across the dinner table.

Aunt Ruby got up and began removing plates and cutlery. I got up to help her. “No, you sit, Ashley. Benjamin will help. Besides you’ll want to hear what Roger can tell you about your ancestors.”

“
Why don’t we move into the library?” Jon suggested.

So we gathered up our coffee cups and napkins and moved down the hall into our spacious red library. Three years ago my house had been on the Candlelight Tour. I’d decorated five Christmas trees for my house. Was I going to regret not having even one this year?

Settled on one of the matching leather sofas, Roger opened the envelope eagerly and withdrew a single large folded sheet of paper. Quickly he scanned the sheet.

“
Is this all?” he asked. “Only one page?”

Melanie looked at the paper in his hand, looked into the envelope, and shook her head. “I don’t know where my mind is these days. There was another page that listed signatures of witnesses but somehow I left it at home.”

Roger gave her an odd look.

Cam gave her an odd look too, blinked, then got it.

I did too. Melanie had deliberately left out the page that referred to the Wilmington treasure. My sister is not just another pretty face.

“
And that was all?” Roger asked.

“
Yes,” Melanie replied. “The first page tells that he left his land to his son David.”

“
Let me have a quick read,” Roger said.

The first page of the will named Samuel Wood, his daughters by name, and his son David by name. Sufficient for genealogical purposes.

Roger read the single page slowly. “Yes, here he bequeaths his land to his son. You know, this is a real find. This document is a copy of the original will that was made at the same time the will was signed. Not having copy machines or computers, those folks had scribes to hand-copy important documents. And it is lucky that you have this copy because a fire in the basement of the old county courthouse in Southport destroyed many documents of this era. Yes, you are very lucky.”

“
What can you tell Melanie and Ashley about the will?” Cam asked. “Do you know if there is a connection between the Wood family and the Wilkeses?”

Roger pulled a folded sheet of lined paper from his shirt pocket. “I did some research this afternoon.” He smiled at me and Melanie. “I can tell you exactly how you are related to the old Wood family. And it’s a family to be proud of. I’ll fill you in on that later.

“
But first I’ll tell you exactly how you are related. This isn’t hard to find out if you know where to look.”

“
I wouldn’t begin to know where to look,” I said.

“
Neither would I,” Melanie added.

“
Your father was Peter Wilkes.” He smiled. “As, of course, you are well aware. Peter’s mother was born Ella Humphreys. Now Ella was the daughter of a man named Albert Humphreys. Albert was the son of John Humphreys, a Civil War veteran. But Albert’s mother was a Wood. Margaret Wood.

“
Margaret was the son of Samuel Wood who died rather mysteriously. This Samuel was the grandson of the original Samuel Wood. It was the custom at that time for the first son to be named for his paternal grandfather. The second son would be named for his maternal grandfather. And the third son was named for his father. Unlike today, when first sons are named for their fathers with Jr. added.

“
This Samuel – he would be your great-great-great-grandfather – or g3 as we like to say – was the son of David Wood. You saw that David Wood is named in the will as the primary heir of his father, of the first Samuel Wood’s estate.”

“
It’s amazing that you were able to find this information,” I said.

“
And you found this all out in one afternoon. I’m impressed,” Melanie said.

Roger smiled with pleasure.

“
Quite a bit is known about the original Samuel Wood. Much information has come to light only recently. With the advent of the internet and the digitalization of many old history books and chronicles, newspaper articles, plus state and federal archives now available online, the internet has become a treasure trove of information for researchers like me. But there are also legends that have not been confirmed.”

“
That is certainly true,” Binkie said, coming into the library with Aunt Ruby. They settled into armchairs just as a whimper sounded from the baby monitor. We all listened intently, praying the whimper would not escalate into full-blown bawling. It did not, and we let out our breaths.

Roger seemed bemused. He was a single man consumed by his love of history.

“
This is a direct quote from Lord Cornwallis: ‘North Carolina is of all the provinces in America the most difficult to attack . . . on account of its great extent, of the numberless rivers and creeks, and the total want of interior navigation.’”

He went on, “If you recall your North Carolina history, after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in modern-day Greensboro, Lord Cornwallis marched his troops south to Wilmington. Technically, Cornwallis won that battle against General Nathanael Greene but he lost a quarter of his soldiers. Cornwallis took no prisoners with him from Guilford Courthouse because they would have been too great a burden. He was already burdened with the transport of ammunitions wagons he’d captured, artillery, cannon balls, and gunpowder – supplies he badly needed.

“
Colonel Tarleton’s cavalry rode ahead of the main army which numbered about fifteen hundred British and German soldiers. When they reached present-day Sanford, they were ambushed by an American militia. The militia men rode directly into their ranks, thus causing them to scatter. Even so, the militia was greatly outnumbered and they suffered defeat. Some managed to escape. Many were taken prisoner and marched to Wilmington.”

Binkie smiled. “I told you he was good.”

“
I had a good teacher,” Roger said.

“
This happened in 1781 and at that time, Wilmington was controlled by the Loyalists under the command of Major Craig. Lord Cornwallis commandeered the Burgwin-Wright house and set up a temporary headquarters in it. The prisoners he’d captured at Sanford were rowed out to a prison ship, the Forby, that was anchored in the Cape Fear River.

“
Now here’s where the legend comes in. For some reason that is unknown – and as I say, I have no proof that this is true – some prisoners were imprisoned in the old jail under the Burgwin-Wright house. It was no more than a dungeon. One of those prisoners was supposedly your ancestor, Samuel Wood, along with his brother-in-law James Hughes.

“
Cornwallis remained at the Burgwin-Wright house for eleven days in April, from the 13th through the 24th. During that time his soldiers were outfitted with better clothing and shoes and generally used their time to rest and prepare for another march. Cornwallis used the time to correspond with Major General Phillips in Virginia. Should he follow General Greene into South Carolina and engage him there? Or should he march his Cavalry and Infantry into Virginia? He decided on Virginia.”

Roger laughed. “And the rest as they say ‘is history’ for in October of that year he surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown.”

Roger sipped his coffee. “However, according to the legend, an incident occurred at the Burgwin-Wright house before Cornwallis departed. The legendary incident involves your g5 grandfather, that would be Samuel Wood, and your g5 uncle, James Hughes.”

I noticed that we all were scooching forward on our seats.

“
On April 24th, the army made preparations to depart. There was much commotion as they assembled, packed supplies, prepared the wagons and the horses, and tended to everything that had to be done to march an army north across the state of North Carolina and into Virginia.

“
Somehow Samuel and James managed to overcome a guard. They exchanged articles of his clothing for their own so that they could mingle undetected with the soldiers milling about Market Street.

“
When darkness fell, and the soldiers were catching some shut eye in preparation for an early departure the next morning, Samuel and James managed to hitch a horse to a supply wagon. And they rode off with it. Their intent was to find and join up with General Greene and deliver the supplies to him. Once outside of town, they found a secluded place and looked through the supplies they were carrying.”

“
This is so exciting,” I couldn’t refrain from saying.

Roger continued. “If you go on the internet you will find numerous websites devoted to the belief that Lord Cornwallis left a fortune in gold in North Carolina when he marched off to Virginia.”

Melanie rubbed her hands enthusiastically. “Oh goody, gold.”

Roger smiled indulgently. “To continue, Samuel and James searched the supply wagon. Imagine their astonishment when they discovered a barrel containing gold. That made them even more determined to get the supplies and the gold to General Greene.

“
When they stopped at villages they thought might be safe, they made inquiries about General Greene’s next campaign. Remember, that while Greene was marching to South Carolina, they were prisoners of Cornwallis and on their forced march to Wilmington so they had no way of knowing that Greene was headed for Camden.

“
Unfortunately, James had been wounded during the skirmish at Sanford. And his wounds only got worse so that on their journey in search of Greene and the American army, James became fevered and delirious. Then he died.”

“
Mercy,” Aunt Ruby uttered. Binkie took her hand.

“
Samuel was grief-stricken. They were like real brothers. They’d fought side by side since 1775, joining one militia after another. He was determined to bury James in the Hughes family plot in Sanford and he managed to find his way back there and to bury James in secrecy with only members of the Hughes family in attendance. Then Samuel took his young wife Elizabeth and the barrel of gold, and made his way to Brunswick County. Using some of the gold he bought himself a huge longleaf pine forest, so remote he hoped not to be found by either the Loyalists or the Americans. With James’ death, he had had enough of war and simply wanted to live in peace. And in fact the war was just about over.

“
Thus he settled in Brunswick County and raised a family there. This we know. He was able to make a living by supplying the naval stores industry with pitch, tar, turpentine, and lumber. But according to the legend, he did not spend any more of the gold for fear of arousing suspicions. His descendants survived and thrived. Whether they knew of the gold is unknown. The family home never changed hands. It is occupied by a Wood even now.”