Record #:

8098

Author(s):

Moore, Claude Hunter

Abstract:

The local legend of the White Fawn began over a century ago in the Turkey Swamp area of Sampson County. In 1839 a baby girl, named Susan Theodosia Burr, was born to Thomas I. Faison and his wife. Little Theodosia's beauty was so angelic that people traveled from afar to see her, and a painter who did a portrait of her when she was one year old used the portrait to advertise his work. Six months later, Theodosia succumbed to a fever and died. On the night of her death, two house servants spotted a white fawn nearby and believed it was the girl's spirit. Other tales of the white fawn arose over the years. In one, a slave boy sleeping in the woods awoke to find the white fawn in the tree he was sleeping against. In another, the fawn appeared to an old miller just before his accidental death. Another tale told of the passengers and driver of a stagecoach who said they were late because the white fawn had frightened the horses.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 53 Issue 5, Oct 1985, p13-14, il

Subject(s):

Legends--Sampson County