[AT] funny..

[John Hall]

Yep, Camp Butner alright. Don't know when they abandoned it after the war 
but it wasn't long after to the best of my understanding. All the original 
roads in that town still carry their military names. There are still several 
bunkers in the woods. And lots of unexploded ordinance remaining----the army 
is still fighting that problem. To this day most of the families who were 
displaced still get hot under the collar when talking about it. It's not so 
much of having to give up your farm to help the good of the country but it 
is how they were treated. My grandfather was more sawmiller than farmer. If 
he wasn't in the field then he was in the woods logging. Upon receiving his 
eviction notice one of the stipulations was that he was not to cut down 
another tree effective immedialtely. The house they were living in was 4 
years old---it became an officers club. My dad, who was 12 yrs old, pulled 
every bit of wiring out of the house. Every screen was pulled off the 
windows. Anything they could take with them they did. Trying to move a 
farming operation and working on 2 farms a considerable distance apart took 
its toll healthwise on my grandfather. He died the same year they moved 
here. Afterwards dad quit school to help his mother farm. Fortunatley they 
had several tennants. Then again this cost them when the allotment for 
tobacco progarm began since most of the tennants were not high yield 
producers. Supposedly the feds were going to allow them the chance to buy 
back their land but never did. The state got first crack at it. They bought 
it and then proceeded to cut the timber. Talk about adding insult to 
injury!!!  The area my dad's family was from was known as Veazey Ridge. The 
newspaper headline in '42 read "For the first time in 200 years there are no 
Veazey's on Veazey ridge". Well, we've been here for the past 60 years 
although the farm is down from 600 to just 60 acres. To the best of my 
knowledge most of the Veazeys are out of farming. Not exactly genealogy, but 
its my way of tracking part of my family.

John


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "charlie hill" <chill8 at cox.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] funny..


> I'd bet John is talking about Camp Butner.  That's near his stomping 
> grounds.
>
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Al Jones" <aljones at ncfreedom.net>
> To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 2:44 PM
> Subject: RE: [AT] funny..
>
>
>> John, What base was that?
>>
>> Down here at the coast, some of my wife's family was displaced when they
>> built Camp Davis at Holly Ridge.  TRACTOR CONTENT: A history instructor
>> at Cape Fear Community College has just written a good book about the
>> history of the base.  His father was Wilbur Tyndall, who owned the JD
>> museum in Pink Hill.  Small world.
>>
>> My Granddaddy and great-Granddaddy got jobs as carpenters constructing
>> the base.  Not much is left today, the base was closed after the war.
>> Camp Lejune owns most of the land now but the air strip is still back
>> there in the woods, I am told, and you can still spy a brick chimney
>> here and there from the base.
>>
>> Al
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of John Hall
>> Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 5:14 PM
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] funny..
>>
>> Come to think of it I believe I have an uncle buried on what used to be
>> his
>> family's farm. His wife however was buried in a church cemetery.
>>
>> WWII dislodged all of my grandmothers family. Uncle Sam needed the land
>> for
>> a military base/POW camp. Anyhow there were several old cemetery's
>> there.
>> They didn't move them but didn't do a whole lot to upkeep them either.
>>
>> Some of which are now on property owned by the state.
>>
>> John
>>
>>