The Danville Register from Danville, Virginia • Page 13

'Second Station News THE DANVILLE REGISTER FOUNDED FEBRUARY 1847. DANVILLE, THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 25,1975 State News Second. Section NO. 30,871 Bibles Show Family Heritage, Ch FAMILY TRADITIONS. Three generations of Ihe Hubbard family, (from left) Carolyn Sue Pickeral, Mrs.

Mae L. Reynolds and Mrs Barbara Reynolds Pickeral, peruse the birth register in their 1758 King James Bible Carolyn Sue, a senior majoring in education at the University of Virginia, plans to follow in the school-teacher footsteps of the mother grandmother and great-grandmother Funeral Slated For Both CASCADE--A joint funeral for Bennie Clarence and Mary Cross, the victims of a double murder Tuesday night at their residence on Cascade Rt. 1, will be held Saturday at 2 p.m.' at Swicegood Chapel by the Rev. Billy Scearce and the Rev. Curtis Hall.

Burial will be in Danville Memorial Gardens. The 75-year-old Cross was found shot to death in his home. Mrs. Cross, who received wounds to her head, died yesterday at 12:15 a.m. in Danville Memorial Hospital.

The pair was discovered by an off-duty Danville police officer who had arrived for a visit. The Danville officer stood by the scene until Pittsylvania County Sheriff's deputies arrived. According to Sheriff Taylor McGregor, no weapon was found and there appeared to be nothing missing from the house. Cross's wallet, containing a substantial amount of money, was found on the floor. This led to speculation that the wallet might have been taken by the person who fired the shots, and then dropped the wallet in sudden flight to avoid discovery in the home.

The Sheriff's Department continued their investigation and reported no arrest had been made last night. Mr. Cross was born Sept. 10, 1900, in Pittsylvania County, a son of the late Benjamin Cross and Mollie Pyron Cross. Most of his life was spent in the Cascade community where he married Helen Hardy Cross 55 years ago.

Mrs. Cross was born June 1, ,1901, a daughter of the late Eugene Hardy and Mollie Hubbard Hardy. Most of her life had been spent in the Cascade community. The couple leaves two daughters, Mrs. Nell McDaniel, Cascade and Mrs.

Dorothy Haley Wilson, Dan- ville; seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He also leaves three sisters, Miss Pauline Cross and Mrs. Doug Ross, both 1 of Danville and Mrs. Viola Long, Maryland; and a half sister, Mrs. Ellen Anderson, Danville.

She leaves a sister, Mrs. Bessie Chumley, Blue Ridge- Nursing The bodies are at Swicegood Funeral Home where the family will receive friends tomorrow from 7:30 to 9 p.m.- At other times they will be at the home of Mrs. McDaniel. By BONNIE ROSS Register Staff Writer As the families of Mrs. Mae Lawrence.

Reynolds and Luther Payne gather to share in the yuletide tradition, their cherished records of the Christmas story evoke memories of forgotten forefathers. Family Bibles in these two Pittsylvania County clans date back to the 18th century. In their birth, marriage and death registers are names of Revolutionary War veterans, Civil War soldiers, teachers and farmers, the salt of Pitt- sylvania County history. Mrs. Reynolds was born in 1901, a daughter of the late William M.

Lawrence and Maude Hunter Hubbard Lawrence. Her mother's side of the family--the Hubbards-- is recorded in a 1758 publication of the King James version of the Bible. According to Mrs. Reynolds, the Hubbards were members of the Christian faith. Their common ancestor is John Hubbard, who was born in 1738, and whose name appears at the top of the birth register in the Hubbard Bible.

Members of three Hubbard generations gathered this week to peruse the aging pages of their family Bible. They assembled at the Chatham home of Ryland Warren, who is re-binding their book. Warren allowed that, although he is no authority on the antiquity of books, he has seen numerous old volumes belonging to county residents. "I can say most readily that this is the oldest Bible I ever have seen," he noted. Not only were three generations of Hubbard descendants represented at the gathering, but also nearly three generations of teachers.

Tradition Mrs. Reynolds, who taught at Callands School for 30 years before her retirement in 1970, is the mother of Mrs. Barbara Pickeral, a county school teacher for the past 25 years. Mrs. Pickerel's daughter, Carolyn Sue, is a senior majoring in elementary education at the University of Virginia.

However, the family line of teachers began before Mrs. Reynolds. Her mother also taught school for many years in Pitlsylvania County. On this Christmas day, Mrs. Reynolds recalls the family story of her mother's baptism.

The site was a pond in western Pittsylvania. "Mother and three of her brothers and sisters were baptized at Christmas time," she said. "They said they broke the ice on the pond." Most of the Hubbards were farmers. Their Revolutionary War veteran was Joseph Hubbard. In addition to the fading lists of Hubbard generations in- scribed at the ends of various Old and New Testament Books, the BibJe also contans records of the-family's slaves.

Most of (he slaves are listed by their first names and with (heir mother's first names. At the end of Malachi is the following record of slave births: "Garrett of Suse was born July 31, 1857. Andrew of Suse was born. See BIBLES, Page 2-B Empty Stocking Fund Hite Goal The Danville Jaycees last night announced that they have exceeded their $15,000 goal in the Empty'Stocking Fund. At noon "yesterday, the pledges and donations reached "$15,007.93, according to Jim Cheek, head of the ESF drive this year.

BOOKER BOOKS. Luther Payne, of the Sharon community, is in the fifth generation of descendants of Richard E. Booker whose marriage is the first entry in the family register of (he 1790 "King James Bible (at left) The first marriage of Payne's great- grandmother, who was widowed by William Reynolds, is recorded in the Reynolds family Bible (at right). The widow Nancy Reynolds later married a Booker. Later Booker births marriages and deaths are listed in the religious' book (at back).

Book Celebrates Events Lt. James Monroe's Christma Of 1776 Was Bitter Fighting Bj PAMELA DENNEY Register Staff Writer The Glorious Hour of Lt. Atheneum $6.95 Monroe SANTA FANTASY. A highly imaginative Register photographer last night kept watch on all air traffic from the North. He came up with this composite photograph which reveals a flying object of many projections soaring over Dan- ville near midnight.

It was identified as a friendly vehicle and its famous driver, as well as its animal clearly visible in the light reflected from a three-quarter December moon. "Christmas, 6 p.m.--It is fearfully cold and raw and a snowstorm is setting in. It will be a terrible night for the soldiers who have no shoes. I have not heard a man complain. They are ready to suffer any hardship and die rather than give UD their liberty." Colonel Henry Knox of the Continental Army found time to scribble an entry in his dairy on a cold, winter's night almost 200 years ago today.

He was one of the few remaining soldiers in George Washington's' troops who fought the weather and the English throughout that famous winter of 1776. Safe At Home Young Dixon FamUy Crosses Arabian Desert To Safety MIKE McGOWAN oersonal hplnncrinoc nnH Lt. James Monroe, later to become the fifth president of the newly formed United States of America, also was an officer preparing for the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Day. Even at the tender age of 18, James Monroe had the qualities of- ficers were made of, according to a recently released history by author Richard Hanser. Hanser's book, "The Glorious Hour of Lt.

Monroe," focuses on Monroe's role as an officer in the Third Virginia Regiment during the Revolutionary War. The book recounts in detail Washington's plan to stage a surprise attack on the city of Trenton. It recalls the hardship of moving milita, arms and cannons across the frozen, stormy Delaware River. "The snow turned to sleet and the wind drove into the faces of the men like the slashing of knives," writes Hanser. "In their rags and tatters they were worse than naked; the wet cloth froze stiff against their skin and rubbed it whenever they moved." Lt.

Monroe was in the first boat that crossed the Delaware early Christmas morning. He was part of the scouting force dispatched by General Washington to seize travelers en route to Trenton. "The men were hunched in soaked and threadbare blankets, which gave even the most intrepid warriors amoung them the look of miserable old women," writes Hanser. "They crouched low in the seats, trying to find protection against the savage wind that howled across the river." The book continues with a more en- couraging account of the successful battle against the Tories--surprised in their Christmas merriment by the tattered, but SecJAMESMCWROE, Page 2-B ByMIKEMcGOWAN Register Staff Writer It might have been a movie. A young family, sent to Beirut so the husband and father could study Arabic for his job, is told to leave by its embassy officials.

As they prepare to drive out of the civil war-torn country, they are aided by neighbors and friends, and find themselves blessed with the presence of a fourth person--a writer who "showed up on our doorstep." This family, with the writer entertaining their small child much of the way, rides safely over a highway which just the day before had been the scene of various guerrilla encounters. They obtain fuel at the only filling station between them and the country's border, and make it into Jordan, where they are held up five days before they can obtain visas for their journey to Saudi Arabia, their destination. Then they drive for another four days across the desert, following first a track and then a road by an oil pipeline. It could have been a movie, but it wasn't. It was Danville native Walter Herbert Dixon his wife, Whitmell native Susie Phillips Dixon, and their daughter, Sonya Michelle, age three, trekking to safety across the desert.

The three are spending Christmas in Danville--far from the strife in Lebanon which they left first in October and again about a month ago. The Dixons had the benefit of Paule Lunde, a writer who has specialized in the Mideast. "He was great with Sonya," Dixon said. "He told her fantastic laies of wombats When word came to the Dixons that they must leave Beirut, they obtained permission to drive out. They were living in Shemlan, a "lovely village in the moun- tains," where they could see the explosive exchanges in down- town Beirut during the night.

Dixon said they chose to drive out because the airport was in an "area that was contested," Besides, the Dixons were able to take most of their personal effects with them. They loaded down their Chevrolet station wagon with clothing, personal belongings and anything they could pack in. Left behind were friends who had become surprisingly close during the months the Dixons had lived in Shemlan. Those people, who were to stay in their homeland, nonetheless did everything in their power to assure the Dixons a safe jour- ney. They helped arrange for food, for fuel and for as many other niceties as they could.

The things which the Dixons couldn't stow away in the Chevy were stored at a friend's home. Obtaining food and fuel seemed a simple task at first--until it became apparent that there was no money to be had. All the banks had closed during the fighting, and the Dixons, like most Other in irtliT 1 1 1 policemen saw them and told them not to go. "There is fighting on the road," he told them. The Dixons decided to travel anyway because of what the em- bassy people had said.

"We followed a British convoy about an hour behind," Dixon explained. "There were very few cars. There were so few people because there had been trouble the day before. "We could see if things were going normally in the villages and if they were the road was okay ahead." Once they arrived in Jordan, they found "every possible place to stay booked solid," Mrs. Dixon said.

Meanwhile, they were realizing the limitations of their food the banks closed. "From our home in the mountains," said Mrs. Dixon, "we had an excellent view of the city. We could see the exchanges, the rockets, and could hear the boom, boom, boom. "We were aware of what was happening and disturbed by the situation.

It was an awful thing to see. It touched people all around us." At this point, the Dixons had been in Lebanon for nine months. "We had come to really love the country," she said. "We knew lots of people really well in the area." Dixon said Lebanon is "an incredibly beautiful country. You breakdowns," said Dixon, "if we had been able to foresee the trip." "You could call us refugees," he said.

"We were in the most literal sense." "We were assisted at various points by people who were in a position to help us," he noted. "The day after we left and the day before, they were shooting people on the road," Dixon added. "We didn't know from hour to hour what the situation was," he wife added. I to take a gamble on gas," he said. "We passed one pealing countryside.

"It's an interesting mixture of east and west-a mosaic of cultures. You could see things going back to the Greeks and the Phoenicians." He said the people were "always extremely friendly and generous. Even to the end our relationships were more than cor- dial." According to Dixon, "Friends in Lebanon helped us even when their own lives were in danger. There were shortages of everything, and they helped us get fuel and food," Once they had decided tn leave by ear, thpy had to pick a time to Jravel. They called the embassies to find out whether the road they needed to take was clear--and finally found out it was.

But just as they were ready to depart, one of the local 1 I hadn't gotten gas there, we would have gotten to Syria, the first place there was gas. "But gas in Lebanon is generally high quality and in Syria generally not." Had they bought gasoline in Syria he said, they would have been taking more chance that the car would have broken down. "Traditionally not a lot of Americans go to Syria. It's not like driving through Canada," Dixon asserted. "But they were very good to us.

"When we got to the Jordanian border, Sonya woke up and got upset at all the noise. All the guards were around trying to give Sonya candy, do something to amuse her. They couldn't bear to see her cry." In Jordan, officials finally obtained proper visas so the Dixons DIXON FAMILY. Walter Herbert Dixon his wife Susie Phillips Dixon and daughter Sonya Michelle are in Danville for Christmas after safely leaving Beirut area where civil strife continues. could go on to Saudi Arabia.

But a day out of Amman Sonya injured her eye and they had to retrace their path to see a doctor. am Iy and 5heir writer friend cr the border into Saudi Arabia. At those customs, Mrs. Dixon and Sonya were See DIXON FAMILY, Puge 2-B.