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Note: Founded Concord Methodist Church From "WILEY BUCK" by Henry McGilbert Wagstaff: Grandy Winstead, the finest-grained of a large family of brothers, for years kept a store at Olive Hill, an old trade center that had seen better days in pre-war times. He owned a large and hilly farm through which ran both the South Hyco and the Little Duck before they met below. His home crowned the highest knoll on the ridge between these streams. The site of his home was well chosen. The architecture of his house (not large) was simple and graceful. Its grounds were spacious, with good trees, and heavily planted to large English boxwood in walks and circles. Below the house, at the juncture of roads, stood his store, an oblong structure with a full-length porch in front under the continuing roof. At one end was an annex, with a double chimney, which served the store as well. This annex "Uncle Grandy" generously placed at the disposal of the community for its three or four months public school. Across from the store in an angle formed by the roads was the chief community blacksmith shop, where people brought horses and mules to be shod and. wheels to be re-tired. The smith was a Negro named Daniel Howertown, and all the children, at "big" and "little" recess, found its activities a source of perennial interest. "Uncle" Jerry Medley, a Negro, was the mail carrier. He brought one mail a day, on horseback, the mail in a locked leather pouch, fitted to balance on either side when placed under the rider's seat. Uncle Grandy kept the key to the pouch. Often, not too busy in the store, he sat in contemplative mood on the porch and watched across the long hill beyond the Little Duck for Uncle Jerry to come in sight. Sometimes he would remark, "Well, yon comes Jerry," or, "Well, Jerry is late today." Uncle Grandy possessed a serene and gentle spirit, though quite befogged by the changing order of his time. He found much comfort in religion and its services. He conducted the Sunday School at Concord Church for many years and gave it the atmosphere of religious worship. His wife, "Miss Bettie" (to all younger generations), was a gracious lady who preserved to her death the manners and customs of an earlier day. I learned at least one profitable lesson at school here at the old store, though some might call it clever graft. At "big" recess I would listen for the cackle of hens at the granary and barn, down the slope from the house on the hill. If these cackles had a certain joyous and exultant sound I would slip away from play, mosey about in the barn, gather up the fresh-laid egg, or eggs, and take them up the hill to Miss Bettie. My reward was uniformly a little square of golden pound-cake, a delicacy for which I have always had a very keen tooth. My own mother's cakes at home, of this my favorite kind, were never excelled anywhere, by anybody; but the distance between them there seemed much too' long. Hence these gleanings from the hands of Miss Bettie for gathering up her eggs seemed all to the good. Besides, those eggs were laid by the foolish hens in the horse-troughs and so would have been promptly destroyed but for my foresight, a foresight sharpened by the lure of pound-cake. Of a number of brothers of Uncle Grandy Winstead two stood out sufficiently to leave distinctive impressions. The first, Colonel C. S. Winstead, was not strictly of the Concord community. His home was in the Lea's Chapel neighborhood and he was affiliated with that church. He became a lawyer about the Civil War period, represented Person County for a time in the state legislature, and had had some appointive post under the Confederate Government. He was shrewd in business management as in his law practice and, in this double role, built up a considerable estate, mostly in land scattered widely over the northwestern section of the county. He never married and therefore left no legitimate descendants. But without doubt he left a more lasting influence upon the lives of a numerous body of younger relatives in or of the Concord community than any other man. His material success, resulting from his shrewd business acumen, became a sort of tradition which has not been neglected by imitators in his family connection. Another brother of Uncle Grandy's, Uncle Jack Winstead, illustrated still different characteristics. He, the father of a large family of sons and daughters, was a Puritan fundamentalist and emphasized in his life the stern doctrine of personal toil. He accepted literally the biblical maxim that "by the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." He was a quiet and reserved man, keeping his own counsel, locking the door to all emotional outlets save one-he could be stirred to loosening his iron self-control by emotional religious appeals from the pulpit. My clearest memory-picture of him is of a rather tall old gentleman, with a long white beard, unobtrusively clapping his hands in his pew while the tears flowed down his face during the climax of a revival service. Indeed Uncle Jack's release of emotion was the climax itself. His wife, Aunt Mary, was an older sister of my father, and, though I remember her but vaguely, my picture is that of a portly, handsome, and sweet spirited woman, given to much care about her large family. ----------- The Stained Glass Windows of Concord United Methodist Church Person County, NC By James L. Winstead Aug 27, 1990 I believe the windows were put in at three different times. The three in the back were put in first. Then the three on the right were added. The rest were put in probably in fifties and are the only ones I remember being installed or having any part in. Thirty or forty years ago, Concord's membership was perhaps seventy five percent made up of Winsteads, Wagstaffs, and Hesters. Now we have new names, new blood and new faces, which makes for a much healthier situation. Getting back to the windows - the double center window in the back of the church showing Christ blessing the little children (my favorite) is in memory of my great grandfather, William Granderson (Grandy) Winstead and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Bradsher Winstead. Uncle Grandy, as everyone called him, lived where Mrs. Helen Keyser now lives and owned the surrounding farm. I am told he was a man of small stature, but stood tall in his love for his God, his church, and his fellow man. He never accumulated much in worldly goods but managed to be the founder of the present Concord Church. He, in my opinion, earned the most prominent window we have. Uncle Grandy's descendants still belonging to Concord Church are the following: James Long Winstead; Michael Jennings Winstead; David Wagstaff Winstead and his daughter Jill Suzanne Winstead; Victor Lee Winstead, Jr.; Yvonne Winstead Suitt and daughter, Cynthia Suitt Teague; Lamar Burton Winstead; Roberta Winstead Hanna; Joseph Selden Daniel and children, Mary Jo Daniel, David Jason Daniel, and Suzanne Carol Daniel; Mauice Jackson Daniel, Jr. and daughter, Susan Loraine Daniel; and Arthur Wiley Winstead.
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