Where is Harrison Macon? Or perhaps the better question is where is this Revolutionary War veteran buried? Harrison Macon was the brother of the famous Nathaniel Macon and while Nathaniel may be more well known, Harrison also had quite a significant life. He was captured at Camden, South Carolina in 1780 during the Revolution and was a captain during the war. He was born circa 1745 and was dead by 1790. He married Hannah Glenn, daughter of Gideon Glenn who lived in present day Rocky Ford. The Glenn’s owned over a thousand acres of land and Harrison Macon lived close by, just “across the creek” from the Glenn’s. This was likely Lynch’s Creek.

The Glenn’s, as was the custom in that time, had a family burial ground on their property and legend has it that Harrison, being the husband of Hannah Glenn, was buried in the Glenn family cemetery. But just where is that?

On the Around Old Granville segment of the Local Skinny on Monday, WIZS’ Bill Harris and North Carolina Room Specialist at Thornton Library in Oxford, discussed the mystery of Macon’s place of burial. The search began four or five years ago when the Halifax Rifles chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution got curious about it. The search has continued with local historians from Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin Counties attempting to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

One of the documents unearthed is an application for a headstone made to the U.S. War Department in 1931 by Dr. Daniel T. Smithwick of Franklin Co. Dr. Smithwick was a local historian who had married Evelyn Macon, a great granddaughter of Harrison Macon. According to the application, Smithwick place the the headstone at the “Old Home Place”, near Louisburg. Was it a Macon home place, the Glenn homeplace? No one really knows for certain. Macons lived all around the area from Ingleside (which was once known as Macon) all the way to the Bobbitt area.

The Glenn Home place is still standing and occupied. It has been heavily remodeled many times and if there is a Glenn family burial ground then this is the likely site of Macon’s resting place. Just down the road from present day Rocky Ford are the remains of a once thriving community called Letha which was situated near a ford on Lynch’s Creek. The remains of an old dam can be found there along with a building or two. The land was likely part of what was once Glenn property and there is a cemetery with a number of unmarked graves inclucingh one burial situated on top of a hill overlooking the creek it is this grave that has caught the attention of local historians. This particular grave is covered in stones, somewhat reminiscent of Nathaniel Macon’s grave site in Warren Co. but nowhere near as elaborate. Could this be the site of Harrison Macon? Many historians certainly think this is a possibility. So far no headstone has been found at the site but further investigation is needed.

So the question remains “Where is Harrison Macon?”