Mono]
I I
ents of Carolina
Mr. Lawrence tells of some of the interest¬
ing monuments which have been erected
from the coast country to the mountains in
memory
ONLY one event has occurred
within our borders which
has changed the course of
world history, and that has been
monumented in a manner befitting
the epochal event. For it was from
the heights of the great sand dunes
at Kitty Hawk that man first
demonstrated his mastery of the
air, first mounted the wings of the
morning, and solved the riddle
which was such a puzzle to the
wisdom of Solomon— “the way of
an eagle in the air.” Hither Wilbur
and Orville Wright brought their
fragile plane and proved that the
concept of their brains was not an
idle phantasy but a practical re¬
ality. From the tiny plane of that
day to the Titans which crowd the
airways today is a far cry. but they
translated into actuality the great¬
est idea the mind of man has ever
conceived. Wilbur was later to
give his life for the cause of the
flag and meet heroic death in the
air above the fields of France.
A grateful Government years
later anchored on the shifting
sands, an imposing monument
which rears its stately head into
the skies, fitting symbol of an
epoch-making event in world his¬
tory, and perpetually testifying to
the undying fame of the inventors
of the mightiest instrument in the
hands of man.
The Grave of Bill Nyc
At the other end of the State
there is a modest monument mark¬
ing the grave of another man
known to national fame. Bill Nye,
internationally known humorist,
came to the Carolina hills in search
of health, and when the Pale Horse¬
man finally claimed him, he ex¬
pressed the wish that his body
should rest in the Land of the Sky.
In the quiet churchyard at Fletch¬
er’s the body of the beloved humor¬
ist rests, and after the lapse of all
these years, hundreds of people
still repair thither to stand with
bared head before the tomb of the
Will Rogers of his day.
Unique among Carolina monu¬
ments is one in Oakwood cemetery
in Raleigh. Rachael Blythe was a
beautiful Indian maiden of whom
of various individuals.
I*;/ R. C. LAWRENCE
A. G. Bauer, a prominent archi¬
tect, became enamored. Difference
of race prevented their marriage,
but their love persisted and when
she died Bauer mourned her loss
as fervently as did Edgar Allen
Poe that of his lost Lenore. The
architect exerted the talent of his
genius to produce a monument
worthy of its object, and he de¬
signed for her a memorial as clas¬
sic in design as any produced by
the great artisans of ancient
Greece. It is unique in that there
is incorporated within it a portrait
of the Indian maiden, true to life
in every detail, as exact a repre¬
sentation as even the art of the
photographer could afford. Bauer
mourned her loss to such an extent
that it finally unsettled his reason,
and he filled a suicide’s grave.
Odd is the inscription in a Wake
County churchyard, for its lan¬
guage when read one way has a
lofty meaning, but read in another
way excites boisterous laughter:
“Gone before me. Oh! my idol.
To the promised land,
Vainly look I for another,
In thy place to stand!"
Identical Monuments
Queer are the monuments in
Robeson County, where there are
two, exactly alike in design, stand¬
ing twenty feet apart, and bearing
exactly the same inscription! It
is inconceivable that two men, in
a small community, could have
been born on the same day. have
had identical names, and have died
at the same time. Yet if these
monuments are to be credited such
was the case.
Not so mysterious is the one of
marble in a country churchyard
which bears upon its top the figure
of a mule! The deceased requested
that as he had been associated with
this animal all his life, in death
they should not be divided!
Memorials to two cabinet offi¬
cers of the Confederacy commemo¬
rate the valor of the sons of the
South. On a principal street in
our City by the Sea, stands an im¬
posing monument erected at public
expense, in honor of George Davis,
Attorney General in the Confed¬
erate cabinet. At the other end of
the State at Flat Rock in the
county of Henderson, a private
monument marks the last resting
place of Charles G. Meminger,
Confederate Secretary of the Treas¬
ury, a South Carolinian who died
at his country summer home in the
North Carolina mountains, and
whose body rests within our bor¬
ders.
Most imposing of Carolina monu¬
ments is the great chapel of Duke
University — a chapel in name, but
a monument in fact, for it rears
its classic shape far above the
cripts in which are interred the
remains of the South’s greatest
philanthropists — James Buchanan
Duke, his brother Benjamin N.
Duke, and his father Washington
Duke. John Ruskin declared that
architecture was “frozen music,"
and if you cannot visualize this
concept, visit the chapel at Duke
and be convinced, for it possesses
all the classic form and cold beauty
of the world famous Taj Mahal at
Agra in India. From its lofty
tower, one of the greatest carillon
in the South chimes forth its mel¬
ody of music, which is heard by
thousands throughout the country¬
side. The architects who designed
it possessed all the genius which
shown forth in the work of the
designers of the Acropolis at Ath¬
ens, or the Colliseum at Rome.
I know of but one man in whose
memory two public monuments
have been built within our bor¬
ders, but on Pack square at Ashe¬
ville, in the county of his birth,
and on capitol square at Raleigh
where his mighty work was done,
imposing monuments express the
Satitude of a Commonwealth to
ebulon Baird Vance. These monu¬
ments but miniature his deeds,
which have built for him in the
hearts of Carolinians a "monument
more lasting than brass and more
enduring than marble.”
Famous is the great cenotauph
( Continued on page 21 )
THE STATE. December 8. 1945
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