Not only will the bronzed hands of Halifax County veterans be displayed at the North Carolina Veterans Park in Fayetteville next year, soil from the county will be used in the exhibit.

“They wanted soil from each county,” Commissioner Rives Manning said, “which will go into the monument the hands go into.”

The soil will be used to make the concrete columns which will feature the bronzed right hand of a designated veteran and those of four support people.

The county decided the logical soil would be that from the Twisdale Farm, significant because the site off Highway 561 is going to be home to Empire Foods.

John Paul Jones

The land, however, has even deeper significance, Manning said, as the five veterans were having their hands plastered, because it is believed John Paul Jones, the father of the United States Navy, most likely walked on that land.

Jones, whose name when he came to America was John Paul, was befriended by Willie Jones — pronounced Wiley — and stayed in Halifax for several years, probably from age 14 to 19 or 20, Manning said.

Willie Jones

According to the North Carolina History Project website, Willie Jones was an influential Jeffersonian states’ righter and patriot during the Revolutionary War and Federalist periods. He is remembered mostly for opposing the ratification of the United States Constitution. His political philosophy has had a lasting influence.

The son of a large landholder, Willie Jones was tutored at home and traveled to England for an education.

The website says he was the quintessential aristocratic planter. His Halifax County plantation consisted of approximately 9,900 acres and 120 slaves.

Manning said the Twisdale Farm and the Willie Jones property fronted one another across Quankey Creek.

“We chose this soil because Halifax County owns the property and we didn’t have to ask anyone,” Manning said later today. “It’s a historic piece of property and the house dates to the 1740s. We know a farm was there in the 1740s before Halifax County became Halifax County.”

Historians also know the Jones and Twisdale families were friends and visited  each other, going back and forth. “It’s a very important historic farm, a historic time period near Historic Halifax,” Manning said. “It was there when the Halifax Resolves were signed, John Paul Jones was there and Willie Jones was there. There’s a good possibility John Paul Jones walked on that soil.”