The gcnctol store of M. W.
Тоже»
no* occupies one of the obondoned schools in Comdcn County,
down neor Old Trop,
Anecdote & Incident
Pop Call
At least one president — Monroe —
visited Camden. With a large party, he
was on an inspection tour of the Dis¬
mal Canal. It was an impromptu visit
— the President was extended an in¬
vitation at Elizabeth City to stay over
one more night and be the guest of
Enoch Sawyer, brother of the Con¬
gressman. Monroe accepted on the
spot, and poor Mrs. Sawyer therefore
had just one day's notice that she was
to feed and bed the president and a
dozen others. Apparently she rose ade¬
quately and perhaps calmly to the chal¬
lenge. and the visit at the Sawyer home.
3 miles from Camden, was recorded as
a gala and successful affair.
The best known of this family is
Lemuel Sawyer, several times Con¬
gressman, and author of the first play
written by a North Carolinian, and the
first play with a North Carolina setting
and characters. The drama is titled
Blackbeurd, the scene is Currituck
County, and the events deal with con¬
temporary people and events.
Reservation
One of the earliest Indian reserva¬
tions in America was laid out in Cam¬
den County for the Ycopini (Yawpim)
Indians. Over 10,000 acres was in the
tract which included the area around
Sandy Hook and Indiantown. This was
in 1704, and Indians continued to live
there until they left the state in 1774
to join their kinsmen, the Iroquois, in
New York.
THE STATE. StOTIMPtu 26. 1964
Host to Assembly
The General Assembly met one time
in Camden, in 1725 at the home of
Robert Morgan, who represented Pas¬
quotank in the House.
Time Marches On
The following obituary appeared in
the Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald of
Monday, February 13, 1826:
Died, lately in Camden County
(N.C.), Mason Culpepper. Esq. This
melancholy event was preceded by
the death of one wife and his marriage
to another — all happening within the
lapse of six weeks. He lived a dis¬
consolate widower three weeks, and
a happy bridegroom three more.
Bloody Feud
Guion Johnson mentions a notable
feud between the Culpeppers and Fore¬
mans over the possession of a swamp,
which resulted in the murder of Henry
Culpepper in 1823 and the organiza¬
tion of a Foreman gang to protect them
in the ownership of the land. On being
pursued, the gang would take refuge
in Virginia and thus elude arrest.
Camden's Cad
Decorum was flexible in early Caro¬
lina. Lemuel Sawyer, widowed Con¬
gressman from Camden, and author,
was loathe, as he said, to wait "for
the usual tedious process of courtship."
He was informed by a Washington
acquaintance "that he knew of a good
opportunity of my being accommo¬
dated, as there were two sisters who
occupied a part of the same house
with his family. He offered to introduce
me. and I accordingly accompanied
him to the house. ... I called again
the next afternoon, and. observing the
younger sister busily employed in the
labor ol the house, approached her.
and after a few preliminary remarks,
opened at once the business of my
negotiation. ... I did not leave their
door." he went on. until her parents
had given approval to the match.
"Thus, within three days after I first
saw the young lady she became my
wife."
This fireball could not endure the
solitary life. After this second wife died
in childbirth. Sawyer determined (in
1828) to marry again, and set out for
a northern resort with that purpose in
view. Through some friends, he ob¬
tained an introduction to "a rich
widow."
"After three short visits, we pro¬
posed in form, and they conducted the
affair with such expedition that in three
weeks I became married a third time.
It was a desperate chance. I was poor
and growing old. but my congressional
dignity turned the scale in my favor."
But this frantic fortune-hunting did
The Scwycr Koine on Shipyord Rood
I»
wo»
built in the I7d0's, probobly by Thomos Relic, the
originol grantee. Below, the Gordon House wo*
erected m the 18404 by Williom Riley Abbott,
-ho told if shortly thereafter to Joseph P. Gordon
It wos used os
о
hospital oiler the bottle ol
Sawyer's Lone, April 1862.
