Note from Annie Lee Wightman of Staten Island New York dated Feb. 1, 2005 :  "....My cousin Betty Lou Tillett Henley's son, David, lives in the old Theocanus Tillett house now and has carried on his grandfather Melvin's restoration of the old house where he was born. It is nicely finished inside, too, and his wife has added lovely plantings at the side.  It looked nothing like that when I was a child,  as Betty's grandfather Canus had changed it quite a bit from the original, although it is now pretty much what it must have looked like when it was built.  Except  the kitchen part in the back with the screened in porch was on the other side of the house.  That porch did exist, though not screened, and was attached to the kitchen which was detached from the house.   The family and guests usually walked around to the back and went into the Tillett  kitchen through the porch facing the rear of the property.  That part of the house also contained the dining room.  But like most two story houses built in Kitty Hawk in that period (my Beacham grandparents were nearby and their house was built in 1896), the larger two-story building was separated from the kitchen by a covered breezeway.  When Mr. Canus and Miss Florence were old,  someone in his family had closed the breezeway and there was a door in the outside wall into what had become a passageway dividing the living room from the dining room.  And there was no front porch on that side.  I remember it well because it looked so odd to me...."

Submitted by Kay Midgett Sheppard.  No part of this document may be used for any commercial purposes. However, please feel free to copy any of this material for your own personal use and family research.