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Perhaps some reader whose ancestor may be mentioned in these columns feels that the writer is endeavoring to throw off on those long dead or on living descendants, in writing some of the things that have happened in the long ago. Nothing is further from the truth than such an idea. We have no desire whatever to drag down any person, living or dead; but sometimes in giving facts of their lives, we may appear to have such a desire. We want to assure you that such is not true. We had in our last paper some thing about the life of our own great-great-grandfather, Bry Gregory, that might not have been to his credit. But surely no one would think that we want to throw off on “Old Daddy Bry,” or as he called himself, “Old Cuff.” We mean to give merely some of the highlights of the past and things that, we hope, will be of interest to our readers.
While we are writing of Bry, we might add that he was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, about 1762 or 1763, and that he entered the American Revolution at the age of 18 years, when he was a giant of a young man, weighing then 214 pounds. He left his home in Central North Carolina in 1791 and came to William Nixon Hollow, below Pleasant Shade. His wife’s given name was Elizabeth, but this is all we kn