| Bishop Francis Asbury, circuit-riding Methodist | | | | to verify that fact. The will of John Julius Gause |
| preacher who rode his way to fame up and down | | | | indicates the intent to have a new family vault built |
| the Coastal Carolinas for 50 years often stayed at | | | | at the old family ground on the Plantation late the |
| the Gause Manor. In his diary, he wrote that he had | | | | residence of Samuel Gause, dec. Estate. And have |
| preached at William Gause's manor house in 1801, | | | | everything moved there at some future date. That |
| The Bishop goes on to say: "At this great house, | | | | future date was never met. |
| most pleasantly situated on the Brunswick Coast at | | | | A 1962 article by Eugene Fallon printed in The State |
| Gause Town, where I had looked forward to again | | | | Port Pilot purported to tell the names of those who |
| greeting my once dear friend, William, death had | | | | were originally entombed there: William, Charles, |
| stolen a march on me." Several years later, the | | | | Benjamin, John and Needham Gause. Those buried |
| indefatigable Bishop came back to Gause Manor, | | | | nearby were also moved to the vault. Of the |
| where he writes: "I lodged at John Gause's. Our host | | | | adjacent graves, he said the oldest was that of |
| is a local minister, and, I trust, a dear child of God." | | | | Samuel Russ, "born in Charleston, S. C., on July 7, |
| What happened to Gause's Manor? The popular | | | | 1790, d. 1829. But both Gause's will and an |
| explanation is that fire destroyed the structure. | | | | eyewitness account of an area genealogist |
| There is no credible date for the fire. | | | | somewhat contradict Fallon's article. In a 1961 letter |
| THE GAUSE TOMB | | | | from one Gause researcher to another, area |
| One of the most unusual burial arrangements in the | | | | genealogical author Ida Brooks Kellam wrote C. B. |
| history of Brunswick County is the Gause tomb, | | | | Berry that she had taken the following information |
| which is located in the woods a few miles from the | | | | from the site of "the old Gause Cemetery where the |
| site of the old Gause Manor at Gause Landing. The | | | | big tomb is." There she had found two marble |
| burial vault is of masonry construction, with brick | | | | markers on the ground covered by leaves. The |
| walls 18 inches thick. The bricks were brought in from | | | | wording on one showed: Elizabeth Frierson, wif of |
| England by the Gauses for building the vault as well | | | | Daniel P. Russ, born in Charleston, SC on July, 7, 1799, |
| as other buildings and structures they owned. This is | | | | d. Aug. 13, 1829. The other stone nearby showed: |
| how Brick Landing got its name. The structure is | | | | Anson Randal, age 4 years, "so I presume he was a |
| about three feet high, but extends about that same | | | | Russ, she wrote. "A few partially burned wooden |
| depth below the ground. It is a full 30 feet in | | | | markers" still standing showed the following, she said, |
| circumference (15 feet X 15 feet). There is a jagged | | | | but the inscriptions were very hard to make out. |
| hole torn through the thick tomb, and is just enough | | | | "Thomas Frink (Gause), Aug. 27, 1802". "Duncan M. |
| to admit a grown person. Once the floor too was | | | | Gause, died-17, 1808, 10 years, "S, B. B. Gause, born |
| bricked but vandals have scattered the flooring bricks | | | | March 19, 1877m d, Ict, 26, 1885". "McN. Gause born |
| looking for valuables. Near the back of the burial | | | | March 10, 1863m died Sept., 15, 1863". |
| mound and situated against what is an air vent (looks | | | | RAVAGED BY TOMB ROBBERS, VANDALS & |
| like a chimney) is a 2 foot hole dug into the earth | | | | TIME |
| surrounding it. Vandals had dug it, looking for anything | | | | Since the 1830s, vandals and treasure hunters have |
| of value. | | | | desecrated the vault and the old burying ground |
| This tomb is one of the last vestiges of this | | | | surrounding it. Its contents have long since |
| prominent Brunswick County family. It lies nearly | | | | disappeared; gaping, oblong holes nearby bear silent |
| forgotten amidst a tangle of undergrowth. The old | | | | testimony to efforts to locate other graves. There |
| burying ground surrounds it. Scattered around the | | | | are local tales of pranksters scattering bones |
| tomb within a couple-of-hundred yard radius are | | | | throughout the old Gause burying grounds and |
| unnumbered, unmarked graves. The graves used to | | | | hanging skulls from tree limbs. The entry has been |
| bear markers, some of marble, some of cypress. | | | | cut open. The rounded corners of the vault have |
| The ground however has swallowed all remaining | | | | been chipped away and a hole has been cut into one |
| markers. | | | | corner. It is a wonder that the tomb still exists at all. |
| Whoes Tomb From the will of John Julius Gause, | | | | The first wave of vandals did or did not get some |
| signed May, 3, 1836: Item 9th, It is my request that | | | | buried valuables, depending on who is telling the story. |
| my body should be placed in the vault with my two | | | | The second nocturnal visitors, after blasting through |
| deceased wives until a new one can be built at the | | | | the thick walls of the tomb, entered and tore |
| old family grounds on the Plantation let the residence | | | | crumbling skeletons aside, searching perhaps for rings |
| of Samuel Gause, deceased Estate. Then, I request | | | | on the finger-bones and digging beneath the bones |
| my Executors to have my own remains interred | | | | for valuables. These ghouls allegedly are the ones |
| therein, those of my two wives. Mr. & Mrs. | | | | that spread the skeletons around and hung the skulls |
| Bruard's, my children that are within the vault or | | | | mbs. No grave robbers have ever been apprehended. |
| interred in the old burying ground. This I enjoin on my | | | | In an October 15, 1966 article in The State Magazine, |
| Executors to have carried into effect immediately | | | | writer Bill Sharp said a Gause ancestor had resealed |
| after my death. I direct that a sum be reserved | | | | the tomb and put over the door an inscribed stone. |
| from my estate, sufficient to build a family vault for | | | | He may have been referring to a visit in 1923 from |
| the interment of my remains and that of my families | | | | one Baldwin W. Gause of "somewhere in California". |
| as hereinafter directed. (Transcribed from the original | | | | Reportedly he was a great-great-grandson of one of |
| will). | | | | the Gauses buried in the tomb. This fellow hired |
| The Gause Tomb was built posthumously at the | | | | Claude Gore, then 17, to help him clean up the |
| direction of this John Julius Gause will. His last | | | | graveyard. Gause collected the bones of his |
| testament and other accounts differ on other points, | | | | ancestors and burned them to put an end to the |
| however, shrouding in perpetual mystery the | | | | vandalism. Gore told a Brunswick Beacon reporter in |
| identities of those buried in and around the vault. | | | | 1976 that he had used a mirror to reflect sunlight into |
| Some accounts say that his parents and others were | | | | the tomb so Gause could see to clean it. Sharp |
| posthumously placed within the vault, other accounts | | | | wrote that the tomb had been "built with racks to |
| refute that claim. One tale, handed down over the | | | | hold a number of coffins." |
| years, claims that a number of Gauses died at the | | | | Today, the land around the Tomb and Old Burying |
| same time of some "real contagious" disease and | | | | Ground remains hidden in the woods on private |
| were together buried in the vault. It has been | | | | property just off of Hale Swamp Road near the east |
| reported that William Gause Sr. was moved to the | | | | end of the Ocean Isle Beach airport. |
| vault, but modern researchers have never been able | | | | |