Would Samuel ever come home? Is he hurt? These were the questions asked by the family of Samuel who was far off in Virginia fighting with North Carolina troops during the Civil War. Samuel left home at age seventeen to join up with some of his friends that lived in the Log Pond area. Before the town of Apex was established in 1873, the area around the railroad was called Log Pond. Samuel’s father was a farmer and owned a small sawmill near the pond. Timber was one of the chief products of the area even before the Civil War.
Samuel not only left his family to fight for the Confederate States, he left behind his sweetheart, Mary. They had made plans to wed, but Samuel thought it his duty to join the army and do his part for the family. Mary and Samuel exchanged letters to each other when they could. By the Spring of 1865 it appeared that the war was drawing to an end. The family was getting news of the great Battle at Bentonville in Johnston County where over 4,000 soldiers were killed or seriously wounded, an event that would be known as the greatest human tragedy in North Carolina history.
“Glory to God!” cried Mary as she looked out her kitchen window and saw Samuel walking down the road toward home. You can bet when the two families saw him they joined in a great day of shouting and prayer. The war was over and Samuel was home! Now, wedding plans could be made.
As the plans for the wedding were underway, the neighbors joined forces and built the couple a small cottage on Samuel’s farm. This would be their home. Mary could become a teacher in Professor Johnson’s school at Log Pond and Samuel could take care of the farm. He arrived home just at the right time as the tobacco crop was now ready for barning.
Everything was set in motion and the big day was approaching. Excitement was in the air. The two families took the couple to their new cottage and showed them some of the furnishings that they would have. One was a grandfather clock that Mary’s family was giving them as a gift. It was a beautiful clock that was purchased in England.
Well, the long-awaited day arrived and everything was in place. Mary looked so beautiful in her wedding gown as she walked down the aisle of the church. It was simply a perfect day for a wedding. That evening there was a large dinner party and about 150 people attended. There was music, dancing and plenty of spirits. During the evening, Samuel’s father presented him with the gold pocket watch that had been in the family and handed down through five generations.
Late in the evening the party came to a close and all of the guests went home. Samuel and Mary were left in their beautiful little cottage. After retiring, they laid in the bed recapping the day’s events. All of a sudden, the grandfather clock downstairs struck twelve. At the end of the twelfth strike, Mary got up from the bed, walked over to a chair, and got out of her skin before disappearing through the keyhole of the door.
“No!” screamed Samuel, “I have married a witch!” Through the night, Samuel laid awake wondering what he should do. Just at daybreak he heard a noise at the door and saw Mary returning, going to the chair, and getting in her skin. Then she laid down beside him in the bed and fell asleep.
Samuel was beyond his wits. Who could he tell? She was a beautiful girl from a wealthy family. No one would believe that he had married a witch. He was at a loss as to what he should do.
On the second night, the same act of witchcraft was played out. However, while Mary was gone, Samuel went downstairs and brought back a large canister of red hot pepper and sprinkled it inside her skin. At dawn, when Mary returned and got back in her skin, that pepper burnt her flesh so bad that she had a fit and died. She died in the form of a horrible witch.
Young Samuel dressed at once and went into the village to seek help, knowing he had proof that he had married a witch. When the men with him arrived at the cottage, they immediately went upstairs to the bedroom. There was no Mary, and the bed was made as though no one had slept in it. In Samuel’s fright and dismay, he threw back the covers and in the middle of the bed was a small pile of red hot pepper. The men with him were not convinced.
The next day, the same men went back to the cottage to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Either Samuel was playing a trick or he had done some evil deed to beautiful Mary. When they arrived, there was no one to answer the door, so they let themselves in and went upstairs. As one of the men later explained the event, he pulled back the covers and there in the middle of the bed was a pile of red hot pepper and a gold pocket watch.
To this day, there has never been any explanation of what happened to the young couple of Log Pond.
Suburban Living wishes to thank Pam and Mack Thorpe, owners of The Rusty Bucket in downtown Apex, for the custom-made “Log Pond” sign. We went looking for just such a sign to photograph for this story and when one couldn’t be found, Pam and Mack created one for us within a matter of hours. Thank you so much!
