Greene County, NC - Merimon Ginn Family

                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     This is information that I found in the Wm. L. Murphy Collection. 
I don't know if it is written in his hand or written by the person who 
gives the information. It is not clear and it isn't signed. It appears 
to be a great grandchild of MERIMON GINN. I think it was DELIA GLADY 
TAYLOR, the daughter of WILLIAM FRANKLIN TAYLOR, child of MARY ANN GINN 
and JESSE TAYLOR. MARY ANN TAYLOR died in the early 1880's when WILLIAM 
FRANKLIN was still a small child.

     Papa's mama was MARY ANN GINN who was always called "PUSS." She 
died when Papa was still a boy and his Papa married old Miss Tabitha 
Tyndall. She was a tall red-headed woman who practiced folk medicine. 
All the darkies on our farm and round about were scared of her because 
she was a "cunjer woman." She was torn apart by a drove of hogs while 
she was hunting roots in the woods over by Davis Chapel Church. But 
that was later on when she was an old woman.
     Papa couldn't remember much about his mama's people. He knew them 
all- they being raised mostly round Jerusalem and Peanuts - but never 
spoke much about her and never asked much about her people. I guess 
they were all to busy trying to make a living. I did ask him about them 
once and he told me what he knew but his memory was faulty on a lot of 
it or so he said. I know one of Grandma's sisters, Aunt Betsy, who 
married a Turner and moved to Bush Bay, Va. She had two daughters 
Bettie and Ada. I only met Aunt Betsey once when she came down to visit 
all the kin people. I remember her going with us up to the little house 
at KENTUCKY QUARTER because that's the house her mother (AVA) died in. 
I can remember her walking from room to room crying. All her people 
were buried back of the house by the lane that leads to John Mooring's 
place. Papa says that besides Grandma and Aunt Betsey, there were a 
whole slorys (sic) of brothers DAWSON, BURRELL, PINKNEY, JOHN and 
BENNETT
     All these were children of MERIMAN GINN who was born over by 
Saulston and later moved to KENTUCKY QUARTER. He fought in the 
Confederacy and was paroled at the hospital in Greensboro. Papa said 
that the old gentleman had a watch fob made out of a minnie (sic) ball 
that had rochoted (sic) off a pine tree and lodged just under the skin 
in his buttock. The wound was only superficial and when he took the 
bullet out kept it as a souvenier. 
      MERIMAN GINN'S wife was called AVA. I don't know as I ever heard 
tell of who her people were. But Papa had an older gentleman friend who 
was called Uncle Dick Grimsley. Both Papa and we children called him 
Uncle and AVA may have been some of Uncle Dick's people. I don't know 
of any other Grimsleys in our family or what other relation he could be 
to us. Uncle Dick did not have a real home of his own but visited 
amongst (sic) his kin for months at a time.
     He always wore high polished boots and kept the jacks hanging over 
the end of the bed. Whenever Mama wasn't looking, Uncle Dick used to 
snitch biscuits for me and stick a hole in them with his finger and 
fill it with sugar. Papa says that DAWSON and BURRELL were family names 
amongst (sic) the GINN family. He did not know where the DAWSON name 
came in but that way back some one in the GINN line married a woman 
named BURRELL who was from Virginia. She was a real high roller and 
came from a well off family. Her father was called ROBIN and lived in a 
large brick house on the James River. He was a captain or colonel for 
his county and one of his sons was the county clerk. From what he could 
remem-ber her father had not been pleased with her choice in husbands 
feeling that she had married beneath herself and so she and her husband 
came to North Carolina with her brother to escape his wrath. Despite 
being high born this woman died poor and in late years was seen 
barefooted walking the county roads.

 William L. Murphy Collection
 Joyner Library E.C.U.
 Greenville, NC

  I have since learned that MERIMON GINN'S grandmother, LEWSAY LANE, 
was the daughter of WILLIAM DAWSON, so that would be the logical reason 
for the name Dawson.
  
______________________________________________________________________

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Judy Ginn - judy_ginn@aol.com
______________________________________________________________________