Mill Prong House, Hoke County, NC; photo taken 1967 by J.S. Edgerton, Jr.
Mill Prong House was built about 1795 by John Gilchrist, Sr., an educated Scottish immigrant who settled in Bladen (now Hoke) County and who became a state senator, a position from which he was impeached for his Tory activities during the Revolution. Mill Prong House survived the decades due largely to the good care and watchful eye of Mr. W.R. Bullock, Sr., of Red Springs, a descendant of one of its early owners, Col. Archibald McEachern. Amazingly, neither electricity nor plumbing ever were installed, and chandelier hooks remained in the ceilings up to the date of restoration. The house is now restored and open to the public and is well worth the visit. I recall a tour of the house with some of the Bullock family just prior to its restoration in the early 1980s during which Mrs. George Paris noted that their aunt, Miss Mary McEachern, had been born there in the 1880s. Mrs. Paris added that Miss Mary claimed that a major structural change to the second story was made "the year of the night the stars fell in Charleston." See an earlier picture of the house taken probably in the 1920s.

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