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13 NPS FORM 10 -900 -A OMB Approval No. 1024 -0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 11 Captain John S. Pope Farm Orange County, North Carolina On May 8, 1859, Mary Jane McDade married John Saunders Pope. Born in 1836, Pope was the sixth child of Thomas P. and Mary Wheeley Pope, also listed as farmers in the Northwest Division of Orange County in the 1850 federal census. Shortly after their marriage, on October 6, 1861, Pope enlisted as a private with the North Carolina 31St Infantry Regiment and fought in the Civil War. He had reached the rank of captain when he mustered out of the military on April 26th, 1865, after the surrender at Bennett Place in Durham. Family legend holds that John and Mary Jane Pope began construction of their house shortly after their wedding on land given them by her father, but the construction was interrupted by the war. When John left for the war, Mary was seven months pregnant; she lived nearby with her father for the duration of the war. The couple legally acquired the land in 1869 when, after his death, John Alphonse McDade's 183 -acre tract of land was divided among his five children with each child receiving approximately 36.6 acres.' The house was likely still incomplete in 1870, as the federal census lists John S. Pope as a farm laborer living with Mary and their two eldest children (Thomas and Josephine) in Heightown Township, near Prospect Hill, in Caswell County. Mary's grandfather, William Woods, lived in the Corbett community just west of Prospect Hill and the family was likely living with him until the house on Efland -Cedar Grove Road was completed. The house was likely complete by 1874. That same year, Mary's brother Henry Lee McDade transferred his inherited portion of the land to Mary to create an approximately 72.8 -acre tract .z By 1880, the federal census lists John S. Pope as a farmer in Cedar Grove Township in Orange County. Pope is listed with his wife, his three children (Thomas, Josephine, and Carl), and an unrelated African American servant, William Thompson, occupying the property. According to family legend, shortly after the construction of the house, Pope learned that the house had actually been constructed on the west property line, the front of the house resting on a narrow strip of land between the Pope property and Efland -Cedar Grove Road that was owned by David and Mary Wells. An 1879 deed records the transfer of one -half acre of land along Efland -Cedar Grove Road (then Hillsborough Road), and adjoining John Pope's tract, from Wells to Pope, confirming this belief and creating the distinctly- shaped 73.05 -acre parcel that remains today. Pope's youngest son, Carl McDade Pope, married Lindia Lee Harris in 1892 and the couple initially lived on a farm on nearby Lees Chapel Road. Captain John S. Pope died in June 1895 just after the birth of Carl and Lindia's second child. In the 1900 census, Mary Jane Pope was sharing the house with her son Carl, and his growing family, which included daughters Lottie May, Jodie Ruffin, and Mary Lee. Carl did not sell his property on Lees Chapel Road until 1904, when Mary Jane completed ' William Woods McDade and his wife Frances Murphey McDade both died of illness in 1862, leaving a son, William H. McDade, who was raised by his uncle Henry L. McDade, to whom his father's portion of the inheritance passed. 2 It is unclear from deeds whether this was Henry Lee McDade's portion or the portion passed to William H. McDade when he became of age.