The Grove / Burgwin House / Josiah Turner Jr. House

The house was built circa 1830.[1] It was nicknamed "The Grove."[2] Home to George W. B. and Maria Burgwin (also spelled Burgwyn) in the early/mid-1800s. There seems to have been an auction or forced sale (owing to debts?) of the property to Samuel J. Johnston in 1843.[3] With the Burgwins (and other families who owned this property prior to 1865), enslaved people would have lived and worked on this property. For instance, in 1830 George Burgwin had eight slaves; in 1840 he had nine slaves.[4] 

Later this was the home of Josiah Turner, Jr. Turner likely purchased the property from Johnston after the Civil War ended. When Turner was arrested by Colonel Kirk's militia (by order of Governor Holden) on August 5, 1870, because of his pro-Ku Klux Klan activity, he was taken here from here to Company Shops (in Alamance County), then to the Caswell County courthouse in Yanceyville and held in jail.

Turner may have sold the property (or rented it out) in 1884 to E. C. Hackney.

By the mid-1900s the house and property was owned by the Kenion family; Alonzo Kenion's estate sold the property to a developer in 2003; there is now numerous tract houses built on the property, which has been named "Kenion Grove."[5] 

In November 1962, Mary Claire Engstrom visited the house and spoke with the Kenions. Engstrom described the house as having eight rooms with a central hallway (with two rooms on each side of the hallway). She described the house as "extremely derelict," with its sills rotting, and "probably no hope for the house."[6]

November 4, 1962 (photo by Mary C. Engstrom)

View south east, November 4, 1962 (photo by Mary C. Engstrom)

View west, November 4, 1962 (photo by Mary C. Engstrom)

View north, November 4, 1962 -- note the cat in front, its descendants might still prowl Hillsborough (photo by Mary C. Engstrom)

View east, November 4, 1962 (photo by Mary C. Engstrom)

View north west, 1976 (photo by the NC Division of Archives and History Survey and Planning Branch)

Excerpt of 1900 map "Turner vs. Town Commissioners"

Advertisement from the July 23, 1851 Hillsborough Recorder

1965 floorplan drawn by Mrs. Kenion (via MCE Papers/UNC)

ENDNOTES

[1] The house appears to be in the Federal Architectural style, and is definitely Antebellum. North Carolina's State Historic Preservation Office states it was built in the late 1840s. The Burgwins owned this property by 1838, and may have purchased it by 1820.

[2] Orange County Deed Book 34, page 390; Mary Claire Engstrom notes

[3] Orange County Deed Book 34, page 390

[4] United States Federal Census 1830, 1840; by 1850 the Burgwins were living in New Hanover County, NC

[5] Orange County Deed Book 361, page 591; Deed Book 383, page 311; Plat Book 92, page 117; Plat Book 98, page 111

[6] Mary Claire Engstrom papers #4684, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill