Fort Defiance, Lenoir NC, April, 2023

Fort Defiance a 1700s house preserved with many of the original furnishings. I (Lanette) took a guided tour of the house. It was awesome! I love old historic houses. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the house. The Lenoir family for whom the town was named, lived here.

The graveyard is just for Lenoirs. They still have Lenoirs being buried there. The latest was in 2022. There is a Lenoir who lives just at the end of the road from the house and will be buried there as well.

Bessie and Loula were two little girls, sisters, who died in the house. They were extremely close. They were sick and were in separate rooms; one upstairs and one downstairs. The little girl upstairs died one night and the parents were trying to figure out how to tell her sister. The sister told her parents she knew her sister had died and gone to heaven because she had visited her in her dreams and told her. She said she would join her in heaven. And then she died too. Since they were so close, they buried them together in the same tomb. You can see in the photo, the tombstone says “ Laid down to sleep together”.