He Only Came Out at Night

I came across this short biographical sketch this morning, the subject of which I now want to read a whole novel about—if anyone would like to volunteer writing it. It tells the story of one Samuel Hix of Wautauga County, North Carolina, and can be found in John Newton Harmon Sr.’s Harmon Genealogy (Southern Branch) with Biographical Sketches, 1700–1924 (1925).

Samuel Hix, Loyalist. Samuel Hix was first of name to settle in Watauga Co.—owned all of Valle Crucis & was there during the Revolution. Concealed himself in his shanty—still pointed out as his “Improvement”. Later he sold Valle Crucis “for a rifle, a dog and sheepskin to Benjamin Ward” who sold it to Reuben Mast. Hix then got land at mouth of Cove Creek but Ward also got this & sold it to a man named Summers, who with his wife and five children drowned one night in a freshet of Wautauga River called the “Summer Fresh”. In 1816 Samuel Hix obtained 126 acres & his gravestone is below St Judes Post office a quarter of a mile below Antioch Baptist Church. He seemed not to become reconciled to the American Government and continued to hide during the day only going home at dark for supplies. His five sons were mischievous and delighted in frightening him—they were: Golder, David, Samuel, Harmon and William. His daughters were Sally (md. Barney Oaks); Sabra (md. Andrew Harmon).

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Image: Hicks Cabin, built ca. 1890, Chatham County, North Carolin; photograph by Rachel Osborn, ca. 1985 (Chatham County Historical Association)