By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
This land talks to you.
And the Knox family has listened for 10 generations and 250 years.
It speaks of hard work and perseverance. It says family, church and education.
This corner of the world remembers every milking hour and the days spent behind mules or on tractors going back and forth over gently rolling acres.
A Knox finds comfort in walking over this land because he or she knows the sky, hills, fields, trees, livestock and winding farm road come together in their minds much like it did for kinfolks before them.
The generations of Knoxes represent the best of North Carolina and its connection to rural communities and farming, according to Dr. Richard Reich, a deputy commissioner of agriculture in the state.
“I know what it takes,” Reich said Saturday on the Knox farm. “So many people don’t have roots anymore.”
The Knox roots go deep.
Every fall, the many branches of the Knox family tree gather for a reunion. This year, by the handsome 1854 farmhouse, it was extra special and took three months worth of planning.
Back in 1758 ó 250 years ago ó John and Jean Gracy Knox paid 37 pounds, 10 shillings for 501 acres of land in western Rowan County and established an ownership that has remained unbroken ever since.
Today, the family still owns 1,090.5 acres in this Amity Hill area off Knox Road. The farm is on the National Register of Historic Places.
On the farm, Robert Knox III raises heifers to sell for dairy herds while his cousins Ben and Clark tend to high-yield soybean fields.
The longtime dairy operation has been phased out, and no one has lived in the farmhouse since Aunt Lois moved to a retirement home.
But the place holds millions of memories ó all celebrated Saturday during the reunion, which included horse-drawn rides in a covered wagon, old-fashioned games for the kids, plane rides from a homemade airstrip and tours through the historic farmhouse.
Everybody also went home Saturday with a commemorative red bandanna ó something three of the Knox men always had in their pockets while they worked on the farm ó and a cookbook of all the family recipes.
“The Knox women can cook like nobody’s business,” said Amanda Bunton, who is compiling a family history book full of photographs and anecdotes.
The stories recall how Granddaddy Knox ended every meal by eating molasses on bread.
“It makes you healthy,” he always said.
The family still talks about the 1943 fire that consumed the historic log cabin (behind the farmhouse) that had been built by William, son of the original John Knox.
Conversation also turns to Sugarfoot, the family’s awarding-winning Tennessee walking horse, or the prize dairy cow that set records for production.
Knox reunions recognize additions: new grandkids or newlyweds, such as Luke and Meredith.
Each reunion brings some tears. Ben Knox choked back emotions Saturday as he remembered how as a young boy he would play the game Simon Says near the farmhouse’s front steps with Anna, Mike and Lucretia.
Anna passed away since the last gathering.
On Saturday, a huge tent filled the front lawn of the farmhouse, and one whole side was devoted to table after table of homemade food.
Betty Knox and Pat Knox Weaver put together the cookbook, which features some of the family favorites such as persimmon pudding.
Weaver, associate director of food services at Appalachian State University, remembered always hearing that a persimmon wasn’t ripe until the first frost of the year. The Knox kids used to love to see their friends’ lips pucker if they bit into a persimmon too early.
Knox children always found brown sugar cookies in Grandma Mary Sloop Knox’s cookie jar. They never asked for anything else, they were that good, Weaver said.
Other family dessert favorites were a plain cake with caramel icing, coconut cake and chess pie ó all found in the cookbook.
Special guests at Saturday’s reunion were Robert, Lois and Catherine ó seventh generation Knoxes and the three surviving siblings (out of eight). Robert Knox, who many call “Uncle Bob,” turned a spry 94 today.
For visitors to the reunion, it takes a scorecard to keep up with all the names and how they’re connected.
“We know there are a lot of people related to us,” Robert Knox III apologized as the rest of the family laughed in agreement.
Robert III shared a slice of history he recently came across as to the family’s role in establishing Knox Chapel Methodist Church. In 1888 James W. Knox deeded 3 acres to the congregation for $50, and 12 giant pine trees were taken down to build the church in 1891-92.
It’s just one more story from this land, so closely tied to a family named Knox.