AUTHOR: Shannon Burton (edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter)
My great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Lee Phillips, born on June 17, 1805, was swept off his horse while attempting to cross the Yadkin River while it was flooding. Phillips was the Sheriff of Ashe County, North Carolina, and was on his way to Raleigh to pay the county’s taxes when the incident occurred. He died in September 1843, leaving behind his wife, Rachel Louisa Councill Phillips, and their two children. I wonder, did someone see him as it happened, or did his family have to worry for days before he was found?