Peninsula In Passage

“Hurricane Isabel took down five tall old trees that crashed onto the wrought iron fence and some of the monuments,” Virginia Harlow said. “John replaced the fence and had the monuments repaired.” She grew accustomed to people occasionally stopping by to visit the cemetery, usually trying to trace a long gone relative. Harlow walked among the graves, talking about those buried there as she would about dear friends. One larger monument lists the names of James and Dollner Lee Gray. Harlow said that James Gray was a meteorologist of some kind and, local lore adds, was on duty in Norfolk to receive the message that the Wright brothers had made their famous flight on the Outer Banks. The Wright family has a well-tended cemetery on its former farm property that fronts Bennett’s Creek. The cemetery, with 14 marked graves, sits not far from where the barn used to be. The property, no longer in the family, is now the site of a new community of 177 homes, The Waterfront at Parkside. Fortunately The Waterfront was planned to work with the idyllic setting and each new home has a water or marsh view. Developer and custom builder Eric Sasser honored the site’s heritage as well and now, freshly graveled, landscaped and surrounded by an iron fence, the family cemetery is secure and preserved. Appropriately, perhaps, there may be a ghost on the land. John Wright tells the story of his ancestor, William Joseph Wright (1820 – 1876), a tall man who walked the farm wearing a top hat and using a cane. Years after he died the hired hands begged the foremen to let them leave before dark because that’s when, they were sure, Wright’s ghost could be seen walking the property.

John H. Sheally II

John H. Sheally II

John H. Sheally II

John H. Sheally II

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