LEXINGTON, N.C. — Living in the Triad, we know Greensboro is named for General Nathanael Greene who led American revolutionary troops at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. But there are other people who helped organize that battle who we should also know. One of whom is the ancestor of Bob Timberlake, the famous artist from Lexington. Ahead of the Forth of July Bob sat down with WFMY News 2's Ben Briscoe to help honor the people who fought for our freedom in our neck of the woods.
At Bob’s art gallery in Lexington, three colors jump out: red, white and blue.
"Oh I love our country there's no question about that,” he said. “Just comes from my forefathers, the respect I have for them, what they did, what they sacrificed, especially right here in this area.”
One of his forefathers was Valentine Leonard, a tailor who at the age of 55 joined the revolutionary army. Along with his friend Woolrich Fritz, Lenard helped raise armies for General Nathaniel Green for the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
“They were willing to give up their lives for freedom,” Timberlake said. “They ended up raising about 1 ,200 to follow. They knew everybody. They knew all this area. They hunted. They were all over this place.”
The battle was a turning point in the war. Despite losing, the Revolutionaries took 25 percent of British General Cornwallis’s army forcing him North to Virginia for the final battle of the war. The Americans won that in October of 1781 clinching their freedom. But a month afterwards, British loyalists murdered the two men who recruited armies: Fritz and Leonard. 243 years later, you can still visit the graves of Fritz and Leonard at Pilgrim Church in Lexington.
"It’s important to know where we've been, to know where we're going, and to have faith in what we're going to be able to do," Timberlake said. His wife, Kay, has also been to the graves because her ancestor is Bob’s ancestor’s friend, Woolrich Fritz.
"We've been married 20 years before it really hit us. What a profound thing that we were involved with," Timberlake said. "The eulogy over the grave was that these two friends who have lived together, fought together, died together, we buried together as one soul, as is our nation.”
One intertwined soul that now lives on Bob and Kay’s children and grandchildren.
"The older I get, the more I appreciate it. I know what it meant for them to give up their lives like that. They believed in something so strong that it was worth everything to fight for it," Timberlake said. "I hope we don't forget that."