I didn’t write this one… it was in “The Journal of Currituck County Historical Society, Vol. 1 No. 3”.  Really interesting history of Dr. Marchant and the area surrounding Indiantown Creek.  If you know the person who wrote this article, please let me know so I can attribute credit.

Dr. Gideon Marchant – From The Journal of Currituck County Historical Society, Vol. 1 No. 3

Many interesting things have been told about Indiantown and its people, from way back when it was one of North Carolina’s first ports of entry and had a shipyard there.  The shipyard was operated by Thomas McKnight.  Mr. McKnight was a colorful character having to deal with the Indians who lived at Indiantown.  Indian relics that remind us of the first settlers that lived along this quiet and scenic creek that enters the North River, can still be found nearby.

The plantation where Dr. Marchant lived was, in its day, one of the finest in the Albemarle area.  Colonel Draper described it when he camped there as looking like a complete village with around twenty or more buildings with brick walks connecting many of them.  The house caught fire and burned down.  Mr. Seth Forbes saved the Masonic papers that were upstairs before the house burned.  This was where the Masons were having their meetings.  The Indiantown Academy which was founded in 1789 had been their meeting place until it was burned December, 1864, by the Yankee Troops.

Dr. Marchant had somewhat a hectic romance.  His fiancee’s parents wanted her to marry someone else.  He was way, probably at Medical School, when he received word that his fiancee was to marry someone else.  He hurried home and arrived the day she was to be married.  The guests were arriving.  Dr. Marchant sent word in the house by a maid to tell his fiancee he had come for her.  She went out the back door, jumped on the horse with him, and rode away to get married.  They left the guests and bridegroom in shock.  They lived an interesting and happy life together.

Indians that were killed in Colonial Days as well as troops that were killed in the War Between the States at Indiantown Bridge are buried in the back yard of Dr. Marchant’s home.

Bill Hutchins was fiddling for a square dance at Indiantown when news came that troops were coming down Trotman Road.  The ladies were sent home and the men went to take up the bridge that crossed Indiantown Creek.  Several troops were killed there and were carried to Dr. Marchant’s yard to be buried.

Colonel Draper and his staff rode back to a Mr. Williams’ home and asked him to get his cart and go bury the men the Rebels had killed.  He asked the wrong man for he was a Confederate soldier on leave home.  He was sick with arthritis and was bent over so he had to turn his head sideways to look up at Colonel Draper who then drew his pistol, pointed it at Mr. Williams, and demanded he obey his orders.  Mr. Williams looked him in the eye and told him, “You don’t have the guts to shoot me.” Mr. Williams lived to tell this story, and is remembered as a man who said what he meant and meant what he said.

Saw Mill at Indiantown Creek

Mr. Pent Gibson ran a saw mill at Indiantown.  During slack seasons, he would get up sunken logs but would often strike something with his barge that mystified him.  He hooked on to it at low tide with grappling hooks and almost sinking his barge, began to raise the sunken object slowly.  What came up looked like Noah’s Ark.  The old men of the area said it was Dr. Marchant’s rail barge.  The barge was sunk by Dr. Marchant to save it from the enemy during the war.  It was around thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and six feet feep and built of juniper two inches thick, with a two inch copper band fastened with screws around the top.

Mr. Gibson sold the barge to a man from Baltimore who wanted to put it in a museum.  It was carried to Shawboro and loaded on a flat rail car to be shipped to Baltimore.  This was around 1910.  Efforts have been made to locate the barge but to no avail as yet.

We are fortunate to have in Currituck County, the medical chest of Dr. Gideon C. Marchant which was given to us by Dr. Pool’s family of Elizabeth City.  This is very interesting to see, and if it could talk, what interesting things it could relate of that tragic era!