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Note: Z. W. is my great grandpa. On his tomb stone his name is Z.W. Wheeler. He was a preacher. Viola said he was mean in word and deed. He brought ladies to his house to entertain, while his wife was there. His wife, Nancy, liked Viola and kept Z.W. from whipping her. There are Wheelers buried at Grissom's Cross roads and Mary's Chapel Church. The church is a short distance down the road from the corner known as Grissom's Cross roads. The area around here is known as The Harricanes. My uncle Elwood Wheeler told me a hurricane came through around the turn of the century. The area was pretty much wiped out. The dialect of the local people was such that hurricane become harricane. This area was one that did not and to my understanding does not to this day accept outsiders. My mother Viola Green said, that her dad James Elvis Wheeler was not accepted in the community. I have never gotten a good reasoning for this. She told me that her dad wanted to plant a different crop than had been the usual one. I don't know which crop he wanted. The two crops in question are tobacco and cotton. If this is factual it very clearly shows the closed mindness of these people. I have had this verified by one other person. I am trying to find a series of articles that were in the Durham paper in the mid to late 80's. Elwood stated that the articles quoted the local Sheriff as saying, he would not go into this area unless it was for a capital offense. If some one was wanted for a lesser offense, he put out the word and that individual would come out. My relatives had been a way from this area for years, sometime in the late 60's or early 70's Elwood returned to this area to try and make connections. He went to a store at the cross roads. He asked where he might find a certain person that he remembered from his youth. The person he was talking to did not know where this individual was. He later learned the person he wanted was the person he was talking to. There is a discrepancy in the family name of Wheelous and Wheeler. I do not know yet why this is. Elwood thought it might be because Wheeler is easier to say and spell. I wonder if there is a dispute between Jospeh and Z.W.. Z.W. is the first one I know with the spelling of Wheeler. Since I have started this research, I have come to the conclusion that the name was spelled according to who was mad at who on any particular day. September 15, 1999 I talked to my mamma about the Harricanes. She said that the Harricanes were due East of where she was raised, she thought. I had always under stood that the Harricanes were where she was raised. I found out that there used to be a town called Hurricane in Wake County. The area was noted for Distillers(moonshiners). Z.W. and Joesph are brothers, their dad, and grandfather fought in the Civil War. The grand dad and dad died in battle. I talked to Charlie Wheelous and received from him some information. Joseph and Z.W.'s dad and granddad died in The Civil War. Their mother, lived with or married and kept her maiden name, Arthur Grissom. She had six kids by Arthur.
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