Philip had a daughter named Margaret, possibly his oldest child. When she was about 14 or 15, she ran away from home to marry Frederick Thomas Burnett, Sr. Tradition has it that Frederick and Margaret eloped (The marriage bond is in Rutherford Co., NC.) and her parents were so grieved that they disowned her and returned to Penn. It is suspected that Margaret was well educated. She could at least read and write. Frederick sealed all of his recorded transactions with an "X" indicating his inability to even write his own name. Young Margaret at age 15 had certainly married beneath her station. It is said that Margaret always grieved for her parents and named a child for each of them. (Margaret Burnett & Phillip Burnett). There was a great deal of bitterness involved, in some places it is recorded that Philip never even spoke of his time in NC. Not long after his daughter's marriage (1796), Phillip sold out all of his holdings and went to Rockingham Co., VA. to live with his in-laws, Jacob (Pierre) Bushong Beauchamp. Then they went back to Pennsylvania, this time settling near Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., PA. There are numerous land conveyances on record in the Lincoln County, North Carolina Courthouse for Philip Null. Frederick Burnett, Sr. bought land that was formerly occupied by Philip Null near the mouth of Cane Creek on the Second Broad River in Rutherford Co., NC. Apr. 2, 1805, Book 22-23 page 534 and Book 25 page 172. In THIS WAS MY VALLEY, Fred M. Burnett, Sr. wrote, "In our family my great-great grandmother was never referred to other than as 'Granny Else'. She treasured her Bible, which was printed in German and the flyleaf transcribed in German script. Years later strangers entering the Valley sometimes, because of her accent, referred to her as that 'Dutch woman'. Inasmuch as the German is called 'Deutsch' - and pronounced 'doich' it is easy to conclude that the pronunciation was confusing - thus the word Dutch. One of her treasured possessions was a conch shell, which she kept to remind her of the roar of the sea she had known in her childhood. Her conch shell played quite a role in the history of the Valley, especially in her own family. It was blown to call the workers to meals. When Granny Else blew it, the sound echoed throughout the entire valley. When sickness or accidents occurred, it was blown to summon help. Its sound became one to call the neighborhood together." There are scores of interesting reminiscences connected with "Granny Else", writes Fred M. Burnett, Sr. Here are but a few of them. "She must have been an intrepid woman, with the courage and resourcefulness necessary for a life in the wilderness, for Granny Else left to those who came after her a legend that she rode her white stallion alone to Kings Mountain seeking and finding her men, who had joined other long riflemen in that Revolutionary engagement. She did not know a battle had been fought until she met the hardy patriots returning from it. She only knew that her men had gone to drive the Red Coats out of the country and she felt they had been gone too long from home and needed food and fresh clothing. She was so sure she would find them alive she took food and clothing with her. She found them near Lincolnton - on their way home. 'Granny Else' who had enthusiastically adapted herself to pioneer conditions, and drove the 'spike team' consisting of five horses was riding the saddle horse and driving in the lead a magnificent, white stallion with flowing tail and mane. A stop was made at the old Indian fort - now Old Fort. It is interesting to note that 'Granny Else' refused what was then known as the 'Old Fort Plantation', comprising hundreds of valuable acres of the Catwaba River Valley lands, in exchange for her white stallion and side saddle" wrote Fred M. Burnett, Sr. in 1929. Some thirty years later, in THIS WAS MY VALLEY, he wrote, "While the men explored beyond the Blue Ridge, the women folk with the smaller children remained at the trading post at Old Fort. It was here, according to legend, that Frederick's wife, Granny Else, was offered 500 acres of Catawba Valley land for her white horse, which was a gift from her Pennsylvania parents. The offer was refused." "She held a torch while her husband went into the back yard and killed a panther with an axe." wrote Fred in 1929. In his book he wrote, "One night in the late fall, while the family was sitting in the front of the open fire, they heard a noise on the roof. Hogs had been killed, and the dressed meat hung from the rafters above the fireplace. In those days, there were no nails in the wilderness. The thick oak shingles were held in place by slender poles extending the width of the roof. These in turn were weighed down by rocks at each end and sometimes near the center. Of course every eye turned toward the roof. A shingle shifted and a dark brown paw appeared. My great- great grandfather climbed on the cross poles and seized the paw. Granny Else clamored up and grabbed the paw also. Together they were able to pull it down several inches. Frederick turned loose and got down his rifle and went outside while Granny Else continued to hold on tightly. He killed the panther, which had been attracted to the house by the smell of fresh pork." These are interesting stories which were undoubtedly handed down through the generations, and obviously enlarged upon with the repeated tellings. In a sketch of Marcus Lafayette Burnett written in June 1929 and on file in the Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC., Fred M. Burnett, Sr. wrote, " Granny Else was born Peggy Warren Else. She met Frederic Burnet II while en route across the Atlantic Ocean and subsequently married. She was an attractive Dutch maiden of splendid Dutch family connections and possessed a liberal and classical education." To date, I have located nothing on this elusive couple, who may have been the ancestors of our Burnett line. The great-great grandmother of Fred M. Burnett, Sr. could have been Peggy Warren Else. Margaret Null would have been his great grandmother. Our Margaret Null was not born until after the American Revolutionary War, thus negating the facts of the Battle of Kings Mountain story. Our Margaret was born in Rutherford Co., NC. - inland - She would have had no childhood recollection of the sea or a conch shell. Yet the conch shell did exist for Fred M. Burnett, Sr. says, "The conch shell came into the wilderness with her and is, so far as I know, the only piece of memorabilia we now have of her time." In May 1930, Mrs Jessie Brevard Reid of Shelby, NC. reported to Fred M. Burnett, Sr. that she had been told that her grandmother's grandmother ((Margaret Null Burnett) rode behind her mother to the Battle of Ramseur's Mill. She was also told that Margaret Null Burnett used to drive a wagon of provisions to Old Fort. She said this could have happened during the Indian Uprising after the Revolutionary War or during the War of 1812. (This is more within the time frame of Margaret Null Burnett's life.) Mildred Fossett in "A HISTORY OF MCDOWELL COUNTY" page 206 relates: " Mrs. Gasperson, who learned that her husband had been killed in the Battle of Ramseur's Mill, immediately mounted her horse and rode to the battleground, near Lincolnton, where she searched among the dead and found her husband's body. In the rain and with little more than her bare hands, a few sticks and sharp rocks, she dug a shallow grave and buried him beside Clarke's Creek." Is this the basis of this story? Jessie Brevard Reid said that her own grandmother, Margaret Eliza Shope Porter, reported her grandmother, Margaret Null Burnett, lived to be so old and deaf that she was hard to talk to. Her eyes were clear but people could not make her understand their questions. Fred M. Burnett, Sr. wrote, "Granny Else lived to the age of 95 and up to that age her eyes never dimmed - she could see without spectacles to thread her needle and read in her favorite Dutch Bible; her hair, although snow white, was beautifully long and luxuriant." He goes on to say, "To trace the story of the Burnet family from the arrival of the first in America, migration to North Carolina, settling in what is now Buncombe County, and the progress of the generations, would be to write a partial history of this mountain section and would require the talents of both novelist and historian. Needless to say the picture would be a kaleidoscope of adventure, romance, and hardy living." Margaret Null Burnett died Sept. 28, 1875, on the North Fork of the Swannanoa River. She was buried in the old, and now abandoned Ingram Cemetery on the property of Darius Patton near the town of Swannanoa, Buncombe Co., NC. The graves were marked with field stones and other natural materials. Most were not engraved and many of the "markers" have vanished so it is impossible now to find exact locations of most graves. There is a monument to Margaret Null Burnett in the Mountain View Baptist Cemetery in the community of North Fork in Black Mountain, Buncombe Co., NC.