Legend of the Whitaker House

By Mrs. Cora W Ramsaw and Mrs. Saratoga W. Brown 

G. F. C. Whitaker and his wife bought a farm from Will Brown. It was in Murfreesboro Township, Hertford County, about four miles beyond Mapleton. The farm was bordered on one side by Potecasi Creek and on the other side by the Meherrin River. Here the Whitakers built their home and established their family.

As time went on, Whitaker began looking for more and better farm land. As luck would have it, the Camp Manufacturing Co. was looking for timber and the Whitaker place had plenty of that. In 1930, Whitaker and Camp Manufacturing made a swap—the Whitaker place for what was known as Mis Sallie Warren's farm in Maney's Neck Township, Como, N. C.

Camp Manufacturing Co. had no use for the buildings on the Whitaker farm and G. F. C. Whitaker was given a year to tear down and remove all the buildings on the property. The Whitaker House was torn down and the materials were carried to the Meherrin River at the far end of the farm.

"The boards were put into a raft and floated down the river with Whitaker's top buggy on the raft in which he sat. His sons came along beside the raft in a canoe which he made, to see that the raft was guided to its destination, and tied up at the boat landing on the [new]Whitaker farm … ."

The salvaged building material was stored on the new site until the house was rebuilt in 1935.

The Whitaker family moved into the old/new house in January, 1936.

[This story by Mrs. Cora W Ramsaw and Mrs. Saratoga W. Brown, daughters of G. F. C. Whitaker, was first published in Heritage County Reflections in 1988. The book was compiled to commemorate America's 400th Anniversary.]