ARBUTUS

When I first found my mom's first cousin on my tree, I was very curious about the name and where it came from.  I had found that she was interred at Rome Memorial Park (south), the same place as my dad. I did not search any further until I heard it mentioned on an episode of "The Walton's." I decided to further search this shrub since that is how it was described.

"Habit: evergreen shrub or tree up to 5(10) m tall; trunk with brown bark, flaking and peeling in thin plates.
Leaves: alternate, persistent, simple, petiolate, 8-10 cm long; blade oblanceolate-obovate to sub-elliptic, obtuse or acuminate at the apex, somewhat leathery with finely serrate margins.
Flowers: hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, hypogynous, c. 7 mm long, arranged in hanging terminal panicles; sepals 5, small; corolla 7-10 mm long, gamopetalous, urceolate, ending in 5 small teeth, greenish-white; stamens 10, free, with anthers with two reflex appendices; nectariferous disc at the base; gynoecium syncarpous, 5-carpellate, 5-locular, with a superior ovary.
Fruit: globose berry 1-2.5 cm in diam., reddish or orange, with a rough and finely verrucose surface."

I was so shocked that I could not contain myself until I could get in the yard to search my shrub. Sure enough, to my surprise, I have this very shrub growing at the edge of my yard. It has been here since before 1994. It was about 4' tall at the time of our buying this house in March of 1994. We have cut it down twice since being here because it gets so tall and obstructs the view of the road from our driveway. I have used it many times as decorations at Christmas because of the lovely berries and satiny leaves. Now it will hold a special place in my memory as the daughter of Sampson P. Jones was named for this very tree-shrub.

HENRY FOX III 6th great-grandfather

      Found some interesting facts about Henry Fox III, my 6th great-grandfather. He was born in 1698 in Brunswick, Virginia; son of Henry Fox II and Mary Kendrick. He married his first wife, Mary Goodwyn in 1721 and they had 4 children; Unity, Thomas Sr., Henry, and John Charles Fox. John Charles Fox married Mary Mollie O'Connor, a young girl who was kidnapped from Ireland and brought to America to be sold as an indentured servant. She almost died on the trip and would not try to return home. John and Mollie's granddaughter, Mary Catherine Fox would later marry Nathaniel Ellis, my 3rd great grandfather and the parents of John Milton Ellis.
      Now from the second child of Henry Fox III would result in the family of Mamie Fox, the grandmother of my first cousin, Brenda Nadine Jones. Thomas Fox Sr. was the grandfather of Michael Watson Fox Sr. Michael W Fox is the father of Pope Butler Fox, the grandfather of Beulah Garvin who married Charlie Jones. Henry Fox III is the 6th great grandfather of Beulah Garvin. How strange is that to live our lives and never know that we were related in another branch of the family tree. Miss Brenda has traced the Fox family all the way back to London, Middlesex, England. They were merchants, buying and selling with the Virginia Colony of New Kent, Virginia and later Brunswick, Virginia. Henry Fox III later moved to Craven, Richland, South Carolina and raised his family. Colonel Fox as he was later known was an eminent lawyer in Charles Town. A Cherokee War Document of July 30, 1761, mentions him as "our right trusty and well beloved Councilor, Henry Fox, Esquire" He died in 1770