Notes
Alice married into the Person family, a prominent North Carolina family. The homes of members of that family were featured in a series of articles in The Franklin Times in the mid 1980s, among them the one in which Alice lived when she began her ventures into the patent medicine trade.

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McGhee-Person House

By Joseph E. Elmore

Person Place Historian

(Previous articles in this series, entitled "Places Associated with the Person place," have focused on owners of the Person Place property prior to the Person family occupying the house. Remaining articles in this series will associate the Person family of the Person Place with other houses in Franklin County in which members of the family or close relatives lived.)

Thomas A. Person, first of the Person family to own the Person Place, obtained the property in 1858.

He was the son of Presley Carter Person. Presley, a longtime sheriff of Franklin County, had lived in northern Franklin County at a place known in more recent times as the Sam Person place close to Laurel Mill.

In actuality, this old Person home more correctly should be called the old homeplace of Presley Person. It was occupied by Thomas A. Person after Presley moved to a new home, north of present-day Franklinton. Most of Thomas' children spent their childhood at the old place in Sandy Creek Township before moving to the Person Place in Louisburg.

After the Civil War, the old homeplace passed into the hands of one of Thomas' sons, Sam Person. Therefore, three houses were quite closely connected with the Person Place family. These were the old place near Sandy Creek, Presley Person's mansion house north of Franklinton, and the Person Place in Louisburg.

Still another Person "place" associated with the family is a house more familiarly known today as the McGhee House on U. S. Highway #1 north of Franklinton.

When Presley C. Person left the Sandy Creek area about 1830, he moved across the county into perhaps the most elaborate and finest Federal styled house ever built in Franklin County. The house stood just a few yards east of the railroad underpass opposite the present-day Pines Restaurant north of Franklinton.

According to tradition, its previous owner, Benjamin Hawkins, killed himself because of the debt incurred in constructing it. Presley Person acquired 1893¾ acres with the huge mansion. In 1837, he purchased another large tract of land containing 1153 acres which adjoined his new homeplace.

The latter tract was obtained from Robert Taylor. Elongated in shape, it stretched along the southern bank of the Tar River from Taylor's Creek to Billy's Creek. This tract, along with other properties, including the old place on Sandy Creek, increased Presley's land holdings to over 6,000 acres.

At his death in 1845, Presley Person left a portion of the old place to Thomas A. Person. The huge tract north of Franklinton was divided among Thomas' brothers and sisters, Dr. Willie Person, Mary Person Montgomery, Joseph A. Person, Levin Person, Mourning Person Harris and Presley Person Jr.

Dr. Willie Person inherited the grand mansion house. Joseph A. Person inherited a portion of the 1153 acre Taylor tract. On Joseph's tract, containing 466 acres, stood the old section of the present-day McGhee House.

In the division of Presley C. Person's estate, Joseph's portion was described as "being the Yellow House place, on Tar River at Chavis Bridge ...on both sides of the railroad." Its western boundary was Taylor's Creek.

The "Yellow House," so called because its color was the familiar ocher color which most Georgian houses in the area shared, probably had been in the Taylor family for many years. Its early history is vague, but the fact that Taylor's Creek runs immediately behind the house implies that the house and property had been an original Taylor homestead.

The two-story Georgian "Yellow House" with its surrounding property remained in the possession of Joseph A. Person and his family until the early 1880's.

Two individuals in Joseph A. Person's household attained notoriety. They were his wife, Alice Person, and a son, Willie M. Person. They became two of Franklin County's most colorful personalities, or unforgettable characters.

Because of ill health, Joseph was not able to care for the farm. Alice, a strong-willed individual, developed a patent medicine which was advertised and sold across the county, state and country as "Mrs. Joe Person's Remedy." It was a "blue[sic] purifier" and cureall.

Alice claimed the recipe was given to her father by an old Indian woman. The present owner of the McGhee House, W. Lemuel McGhee, has remarked about the burnt places on the floor where Alice's concoction was "brewed." Judges, doctors, druggists and even Governor William W. Holden of North Carolina praised the medicine's effectiveness. Alice traveled about the county as a sort of one woman medicine show. She died in 1929 on her way to California.

Joseph A. and Alice Person's son, Willie M. Person, who became an attorney, was well-known in fairly recent times. He read law in the office of Judge Charles Mather Cooke, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. Having served as mayor of Louisburg, he was twice elected to represent Frankin County in the State Senate, in 1917 and in 1929.

Willie (pronounced "Wiley") was a huge man. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, he served on its board of trustees from 1913 until his death in 1932. His corpulent figure was accented by a flaming red tie or vest which became his personal trademark. He was well-known for his flamboyant speeches.

For example, in haranguing a contingent of black draftees during World War I, he said, "I am not going to war because I am too old to fight and too fat to run, but I want you men who are going to fight until

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h___ freezes over and then fight them on the ice." Willie married an older first cousin, Prudence Person, daughter of Thomas A. Person of the Person Place. The marriage ceremony was performed in the Person Place.

The McGhee-Person House was associated with the Person Place in many ways. Naturally, family members in the two houses visited each other frequently.

Another daughter of Thomas A. Person made the McGhee-Person House a sort of second home. This was his daughter, Mary Temperance Person, nicknamed Tempie. Tempie had attended the Louisburg Female Seminary (Academy) and became a music teacher. After the Civil War, she lived part-time at the McGhee-Person House and taught music there.

Her sister, Harriet, kept a diary during 1869 and 1870, and there are several entries relating visits to "Uncle Joe's" north of Franklinton. For example, there are the following entries:

Aug. 4th, [1869]... I went with Tempie to Uncle Joe's [for her] to teach again for them...

Dec. 6th, [1869]... Billie Montgomery came and spent the day & carried Tempie back to Uncle Joe's.

Jan. 24th, [1870] Tempie returned to Uncle Joe's to teach music for them again ....

Eventually, Tempie married Billie Montgomery, who lived nearby the McGhee-Person house. The present day Montgomery Road north of Franklinton gets its name from Billie Montgomery. The couple later owned the huge Presley Person mansion.

Joseph A. Person's "Yellow House" passed into the hands of Wyatt L. McGhee about 1882. His wife, Alice, bought back from McGhee the graveyard at the back of the house. Here, Joseph A. Person is buried.

There is an interesting statement in the graveyard deed which mentions "Mrs. Taylor's grave." This statement reinforces the belief that the "Yellow House" was an old, if not original, Taylor homestead.

The "Yellow House" section of the McGhee-Person House is a slender two-story building. Georgian in style, it is flanked by two massive double-shouldered chimneys. Beneath its eaves are handsomely executed dentils. Its hand-hewn foundation stills can readily be seen from the cellar. The interior still claims some of the original Georgian features.

When Wyatt L. McGhee became its owner, he did not wait long in changing the appearance of the house. About 1892, he began to construct one of the finest Victorian houses in the county. This new section was built in front of and adjacent to the "Yellow House." In it, McGhee incorporated features he had seen in hotels up north. There are exquisitely engraved window panes in the house.

McGhee was an enterprising merchant in Franklinton. His Franklinton home was a solid brick house, better known today as the Dr. Newell House.

At one time, he had a tobacco factory and manufactured plug tobacco. His mercantile business was on the site of the present-day L. A. Thompson store. Bricks for both his house and store were made on South Main Street near the post office. His mercantile enterprise made him a leading businessman in Franklinton.

One incident, which happened in 1893, brought McGhee into the limelight. He served as Lieut. W. L. McGhee in the "James City War." (For a detailed account, see an interesting article by Thilbert H. Pearce in The State magazine, October 1983.)

McGhee's acquisition of the old Joe Person farm and house led to a general improvement of the property. Not only did he renovate the house, he set about to improve the farmlands.

According to its present owner, W. Lemuel McGhee, the elder McGhee installed running water in the house by constructing a ram and water tank. A generating plant was installed for electric lights. All this was done long before electricity was commonplace.

The farm itself was in a run-down condition, so he built innovative "step" terraces for soil conservation. All types of fruit trees were planted, including apple, peach, plum, and mulberry trees. He built an extensive vineyard.

In later years, his son, Claude L. McGhee, tore down the "step" terraces and constructed new ones so that the land could be cultivated more rapidly. The McGhees found it difficult to live on the farm full-time, for their families were reluctant to live out of town.

Claude McGhee had Joe Conyers help cultivate the land. The Conyers family occupied the house for many years. Harvey Strother of Louisburg has in his possession a picture of the Conyers family posing in front of the house at a reunion. (The house was the childhood home of Strother's wife.)

About 1939, the present owner of the property, W. Lemuel McGhee, grandson of Wyatt L. McGhee, moved into the house. He had become fee simple owner of the property in the mid-1930's, shortly after his marriage in 1932. He has been most gracious in sharing his knowledge of the McGhee-Person home with this writer. Today, the house and farm are a "showplace" of Franklin County.

Thanks to the McGhee family, the old McGhee-Person House remains one of the most beautiful sites in the county. Like the Person Place, the house is a study in two dominant styles of architecture. The Person Place has Georgian and Federal styles side by side; the McGhee-Person House is a study in Georgian and Victorian styles.

Their histories are linked by two sons of Presley C. Person, whose families, like the McGhees, made an enduring mark on the history of Franklin County.

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