Written by Mary E.C. Drew; Edited by Kobe M. Brown and Cheri Todd Molter
An Oral Tradition
On July 19, 2017, Georgianna Drew-McKnight, also known as “Cousin Galley,” provided information to me, Mary E.C. Drew, about her great-grandmother, Marge Jones.
At the time of the interview, Cousin Galley, born June 26, 1919, in Rich Square, North Carolina, was living in Washington D.C. She was 98 years old. Cousin Galley told me that her great-grandmother, Marge, had left Winton with two of her children and fled to Rich Square, North Carolina. I asked her, “Why did she have to leave Winton?” Cousin Galley told me the town burned down. Naturally, I asked her why the town burned down, and she told me that there were books written about her great-grandmother and what happened. In fact, she told me that one of the books was housed at Moorland Spingarn Library on Howard University campus.
Two years later, in the summer of 2019, early one Sunday morning while home visiting my family in Woodland, North Carolina, my sister and I decided to take an early morning drive. Starting from Woodland to Murfreesboro, then to Ahoskie, and, finally, to Winton. While riding along, I noticed a highway marker in Winton with the inscription “Burning of Winton” in bold print. I told my sister, “That’s it, that is what cousin Galley was talking about.” I immediately started googling the event on my cell phone. When I arrived back home, I began researching more about the burning of Winton and purchased a book by Dr. Thomas Parramore entitled, “The Burning of Winton in 1862.”
Cousin Galley, now 100 years old, told this story to me:
“My great-grandmother, Marge Jones, was told to get out of town before 7 p.m. Marge, with her two children, Tom, 1 ½ years old and her two-week-old infant daughter Georgianna, covered in blankets to keep warm, left on a horse and buggy, leaving all of their possessions behind. They settled in the town of Rich Square, N.C.”
Cousin Galley was named after her grandmother, Georgianna, the two-week-old infant of Marge Jones. Cousin Galley died on December 11, 2019, six months after she celebrated her 100th birthday.