Footnotes
1. This designation of a date is a consequence of the adoption
by the English colonies of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. To
correct the calendar, the first day of each year was set as
January 1st instead of March 25th as was the case earlier.
The 84 days from January 1st to March 25th were dropped from
the calendar. The double designation, therefore, is used only
for events that happened between January 1st and March 25th.
The effect is as follows: if you are comparing a date with an
earlier date, you would use 1624; if with a later date, you
would use 1625.
2. It should not be assumed he was uneducated because he did
not correctly spell a word like "library." Spelling of common words did not become standardized in America until after
1800 when Noah Webster began working on his successive editions of an American dictionary.
3. In early North Carolina, many creeks were called swamps.
Because the channels were uncleared and the undergrowth was
so thick, they flooded and held water like swamps. In East
Texas where the Thomas descendants later lived, such creeks
were called bayous.
4. This account is grossly inaccurate, according to Hugh Johnston, a historian of the early Baptist Church as well as of
the Thomas family; he says the historians misinterpreted the old court records and confused the licensing of the Tosneot
Church with a genuine controversy that took place at the tolls of the Tar River Baptist Church in 1775.
5. The creek formerly called Tosneot is now called Toisnot. The Thomas Cemetery adjacent to the one-time location of the
Toisnot Baptist Church. (See Foreword and Acknowledgements, p. vi.)
6. This is the same Elisha Battle who was born in Nansemond County,
was converted to the Baptist Church at the same time as Theophilus's
father, and served as Clerk of the Kehukee Baptist Association.
7. This sale in 1812 was the first one to show the sale price in American dollars.
All earlier ones had given the price in pounds, shillings, and pence.
8. The trunk is now in the possession of Mrs. Katherine Bridges, a great-granddaughter of William R. Buford, and a second half-double-cousin of the writer.
9. In 1954 Hollingsworth Garage stood in this location; in 1976 the one-time garage was abandoned and ready for dismantling.
10. The tax-roll lists from 1847 to 1910 are in the Dallas Public Library. The records, however, are hand-written and the microfilm is so poorly lighted that many of the records are unusable.
11. In 1976, one cannot help comparing these events with the famous Watergate Scandals in Washington, D.C. In 1974 the Special Prosecutor got fired by the President who was under investigation. In 1909 the self-appointed special prosecutor got fired by the Senate which was under investigation.
12. As a boy of eight, I was in the crowd. I saw the crowd and saw the fire. I do not remember that I actually saw the Negroes on the fire. Perhaps I did, but have completely erased the horror from my memory. I often have wondered why I was permitted by my parents to witness such a spectacle. It says something about the mores of the time that I was not shielded from the event.
13. At the 1971 Annual Hopkins County Stew Cookoff, the following recipe (for two gallons of stew) won the prize: 3 lbs. of cut-up chicken, 1 pound of beef tallow, 2 cans of yellow-style cream corn, 2 cans of tomatoes, 2 pounds of diced Irish potatoes, 2 pounds of diced onions, 2 level tablespoons of sugar, 3 level tablespoons of chili powder, 1 level tablespoon of cheyenne pepper, 2 tablespoons of salt.
At the start you combine everything except the 2 cans of corn with one quart of water. Cook at a slow boil for 2 hours. Add a little hot water if needed. Then add corn and let cook for 5 additional minutes. The beef tallow is there only for flavor and should be spooned out before serving the stew.
14. All records for the city were destroyed by fire in 1920 — hence, there are no records of his first years of service.
15. Mr. Rogers is still hale and hearty, and is the source of some of this early information.
16. The spelling of Buford evolved, in America, from Beauford and other spellings, to its simplest form by the late 1700's.