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LUM 231A H2 /oe/A,
MONOLOGUE: Adolph Dial, Miscellaneous Field Notes
DATE: July 14, 1971
D: Today is July 14, 1971. I was at the home of Mrs. Anna L. Lowry about
an hour ago, and had a conversation with Mrs. Lowry. Mrs. Lowry is
now age 84, her birthday on July 4. She is the widow of the late
James Oxendine, also Mr. Anderson Locklear, and Mr. Henry Lowry. Mr.
Henry Lowry is the nephew of Henry Barry Lowry. Mrs. Anna Lowry also,
is what we figured out to be fourth cousin to Henry Barry Lowry. In
the conversation with Mrs. Anna Lowry, I asked what happened to Henry
Barry Lowry. Mrs. Anna Lowry stated in her conversation that Mr. Henry
Lowry, the nephew of Henry Barry Lowry, and her husband at that time,
said that Henry -Barry Lowry was buried in the, in Back Swamp, in the
runs of a stream. She explained that Mr. Henry said that a deep hole
was dug, and he was buried very deep in this hole. They dammed the
stream,temporarily dammed the stream so they could dig the hole, and
then they covered the hole up, and let the water run through again,
and put everything back like it was, and camouflaged the position
where no one would ever know, or see any tracks and so forth. Someone
even covered up the tracks and so forth, so he would never be found.
So, according to her story, Henry Barry Lowry was buried in Back Swamp
canal, or Back Swamp, in the run of a stream, I should say. There is
a canal through Back Swamp today. In recording history, of course, we
always record all sides, and, no later than last night, the Reverend
D.F. Lowry, who is a brother to the late Henry Lowry, and who is also
a nephew of Henry Barry Lowry,...Reverend D.F. Lowry, speaking to the
Kiwanis Club, stated that he thought that Henry Barry Lowry went away,
and he told the story as is told in William McGhee Evans' book,
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To Die Again, and here, as the Lowrys told to Evans, as the story is
told to Evans by the Reverend D.F. Lowry, that Henry Barry Lowry was
talking with Marcus Dial on one occasion, who is my1grandfather, and
stated that he had a chance to go away with the army, and he wanted
to know what he felt about taking up the boys on this opportunity,
and Marcus said, "Well, if I were you, I believe I would go." And
Marcus stated to the Reverend D.F. Lowry, "Well, that's what I am
going to do. I am going away with them." I might add here, that
Mrs. Anna Lowry was married to two well-known Indians: Mr. Henry
Lowry, who was one of the outstanding ministers of his day, and
also to Mr. Anderson Locklear, who was one of the pioneer educators
in this community, and Pembroke State University today has a building
named for Mr. Locklear, called Locklear Hall. Mrs. Anna stated in her
conversation that if Mr. Henry, if he were living today, she wouldn't
tell this story, but now that he was deceased, she would say it. In
her conversation, talking about other things, in her young years, I
asked her what she remembered doing most in the way of working, and so
forth, and she said, "Working for white people." And I also asked her
what, how she felt about Henry Barry Lowry's contribution. She felt that
he did have a job to do, and he did his job well. She also related in
the conversation, that Henry Barry Lowry's mother, Polly, or sometimes
known as Polly Mary Lowry, was in the smokehouse with William and Allen,
at the time, well, on the day that they were taken to the grave, and
they dig their own grave and were shot. And that there was some talk of
burning the smokehouse down with them in there, and Mrs. Lowry was in
the smokehouse too. But last night, at Kiwanis Club, as Reverend D.T.
Lowry spoke to the Kiwanis Club, he spoke that some of the white people
on the outside, when they were, some were saying, "Well, let's burn the
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smokehouse down. Let's burn them up in the smokehouse." And some of
the white people said, "No, no. Don't burn that smokehouse. There's
a woman in there, let's not do this, and so forth." There are those
Lumbees who feel that Henry Barry Lowry was killed accidentally with
his own gun in the Burnt Swamp community at the home of Tom Lowry.
And of course, there are those who say that he went away, but I feel
that the significant point is that no one was ever able to collect
the reward for Henry Barry Lowry's body, although they sent in federal
troops to get this man dead or alive. No one was ever able to collect
a single penny for his body, and to me, this is outstanding. If
he had gone away, one could say, well, he deserted his people when they
were hot on his trail, and you could look at it and say, well, golly,
he was really brilliant to still live and no one was able to find him.
But you could look at it another way too, and say that he stayed right
here till the very end, so I think that this is part of the romance
of the story is that if we knew that he went away, of if we knew that
he died here, this would take part of the romance out. I do have the
Lowry story, written in his own handwriting on what happened
to Henry Barry Lowry, and of course, his story is that he died at the
home of his brother Tom. By the way, Mrs. Lowry related,Mrs. Anna Lowry
related to me that it was about two o'clock at night when he was
carried into Back Swamp and buried. Thinking along this line of Lumbee
history, and thinking of the Burnt Swamp community, I am reminded of a
story that was told by Judge Early Bullard, age 83, or 84, a couple of
weeks ago, and in conversation on one Sunday afternoon, with my mother
and Judge Bullard, and his son Clement Bullard, they all told me the
story of my grandfather, no my great-grandfather, Huey Oxendine in the
Burnt Swamp community, who always made lots of wine and he would have
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lots of white people visiting his home, drinking wine, and so forth, and
naturally this caused some disturbance among the white women of the
community, and the Burnt Swamp community. So, they told me and
I've always heard this story since a boy, since my boyhood days, they
told me that the women, that the white women of the __' community
met together and prayed for my great-grandfather Huey Qxendine, who
was a Lumbee Indian, prayed for his grapevines to die. I think this
is rather interesting. This is not the only story that I've known
about people praying for bootleggers and so forth, to something to
happen where they wouldn't be able to sell anymore wine, or wouldn't
be able to sell anymore whiskey, or whatever they happened to be
selling in the alcoholic beverage line. Speaking of grapevines, my
grandfather's farm, a lady lives on this farm by the name of Mrs.
Julie Locklear, who still is living today, and the widow 6f Mr.
Frank Locklear. Mrs. Julie Locklear moved from the farm, and before
she left, she didn't want to move, and before she left, she cut the
grapevines down, and my grandfather Marcus Dial, and I might say that
in this way, she acted more effective on grapevines than prayer.
Speaking of humor today, I am reminded of a story told by Professor
Oxendine, a former professor of history at Pembroke State University.
I shared an office with him for some twelve years, and he was quite an
authority, and still is, on Lumbee history. And he tells about the time
that some of the local Lumbee boys went down to Camp Jackson, North
Carolina, ...Camp Jackson, South Carolina during the First World War,
World War I. And there were, as well as I recall, less than a dozen
of these boys, and there was such men as Chalie Bullard, and Luther
Moore, and Rodney Locklear, and John Locklear, and others. The
first sergeant at reveille one morning was calling the roll, and he
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says, "Locklear, John!" And John Locklear says, "Sergeant, you've
called my name backwards!" And the sergeant says, "We'll have no
more wisecracks out of you!" The thing was, the thing about it is
that Locklear had never been away from home too much, as many of the
boys of the area,prior to World War I the boys had spent most of
their entire lives, as most of the Lumbee people, in the Lumbee
community, so going to the war was something, something very unusual
in a way, and it was something that, there was, it carried a lot of
anxiety, no one knew exactly what was going to happen. Among these
boys that I spoke of, L.W. Moore stated to me once, the late L.W.
Moore, in a conversation that the captain of the company at the end
of the training session said, and he called the Indian boys whose
names were Charlie Bullard, John Locklear, Luther Moore, and
others, he says, "I'd rather go overseas with a half-dozen of these
Indian boys, than a whole damn company of you white fellas." I began
my career at Pembroke State University in the fall of 1958. In the
first year, or maybe the second year at Pembroke State University,
I went down to Fairmont, North Carolina, about twenty, twenty-two
miles from Pembroke State. In this crowd was two 6 the first white
students to enroll at what was then Pembroke State College. My wife,
myself, James Arnold Jacobs, uh, Miss Sarah Bell, as she was known
Miss Sarah Sampson, and Miss Doris Hammonds, and some others.
We decided after a program at Pembroke State University to go down
to the Twin State Warehouse to a square dance. So we were all well-
dressed and looking our best, and I was standing at the head of the line,
and I was going to pick up all the tickets, and all the others were in
line behind me. And I noticed a cop leaning against the warehouse, and
he kept eyeing us, and he kindly walked over, and he said to me, I was
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in the head of the line, so I guess he decided he would talk with
me, he said, "Are you from Pembroke?" I said, "Yes." He says, "Are
you Indian?" I replied, "Yes." "Well," he says, "you can't go in."
So I saidV "Okay" and we all walked away, and no one mentioned the
conversation on the way back. I think the significant point here is
that he wanted to know if we were from Pembroke, and then he was not
sure if we were Indian or not, as he thought maybe were white. But
since we were Indian, and since we:,were from Pembroke, we couldn't
attend the dance. My mother always enjoyed telling the story going
over to Red Springs, North Carolina and going into the drugstore
or into the restaurant, and they didn't know she was Indian, she
would fool them. So finally they discovered that she was Indian, and
they wouldn't serve her after they discovered that she was Indian.Before
I entered World War II, I went to the barbershop and got a haircut.
As far as I know, I was one of the few Indians ever to get a haircut
up to that time in the Red Springs Barbershop.I had my mind made up
that day. I knew I was going overseas soon. As a matter of fact, I was
home from basic training, it was. And I knew I was going overseas soon,
and I had my mind made up, that if he gave me any trouble, we would
have a good little fight, right in his own barbershop, because I knew
there wouldn't be much difference in serving time and going overseas
fighting for somewhat, at that particular time, a white man's cause.
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