In late March, 2012, I traveled from Greensboro, North Carolina, down U.S.Highway 421 to the Tick Creek area of Chatham County, near the small town of Bonlee.Here I spent a few days with my in-laws, Dr. Brooks Gilmore and his wife Dawn, at their ancestral home, a reconstruction of the 1755 John Brooks house, which was ChathamCounty's first framed house with glass windows. The Gilmores' reconstruction rests on the foundation of the original house and is located just south of Tick Creek on land granted in the mid-18th century by England's King George II. I have visited here many times with my wife Dora, the Gilmores' eldest daughter. However, my purpose on this occasion was to spend a few focused days talking with Dr. Gilmore about history, exploring cemeteries with him, and filling in as best I could some of the gaps in the historical notes I have been making since my first visit to Chatham County more than twenty years ago. Much of the following account is drawn from our conversations recorded on March 23-24, 2012. In the essay that follows, I have retained Dr. Gilmore's own words wherever possible, as they reveal so clearly his lifelong engagement with this place and its people.
