AUTHOR: Bill Arthur Dunlap
Aunt Loudy Wright was the oldest sister of John Washington Dunlap, my grandpa’s daddy. She was born in 1822 and lived to 1920. Mr. Wright’s sister married my great-great-grandpa, thus becoming J. W. Dunlap’s mother. I.e., brother and sister Dunlap married brother and sister Wright. Aunt Loudy lived at the homeplace during the Civil War. In 1863 or maybe as late as 1864, word came that the outliers were coming (from the Sheffields). They were similar to Teague and his crew in Cold Mountain. Aunt Loudy put her silver in the well bucket and cut the rope, then sent the enslaved into the canebrakes along the creek with the mules and cows. The outliers were from the section over around Bensalem/Eagle Springs and were named Morgan and Richardson. They were antecedents of Richard Morgan who was in the State House and his wife Cindy Richardson (daughter of Preacher Fred). They raided the smokehouse, caught all the chickens they could, and turned toward the house. They plundered through the house taking what few things of value they could find. They came to a trunk and started to open it. Aunt Loudy said, “That trunk has my dead baby girl’s things in it. If you open it, I will lay you out with the fire shovel.” Well, one of them did break the lock open and the trunk, and she did lay him out with the fire shovel. Her word to Grandpa was: “So, whatever you do, don’t marry or have nothing to do with the Morgans or Richardsons; they robbed our house during the war.”