FI iu-.w/i twill hid other? less. I c-ar\ o 1— — — — hink You Carolina? y/Tar Heel ( Junior \ Tar Heel Junior Historian \ Historian j North Carolina History for Students , Association, Fall 2008 Volume 48, Number 1

On the cover: Tom Haywood, of Croatan, demon¬ strates his kicking machine in June 1953. Leam more about the machine on page 27. linage courtesy Introduction: . . . And the of the North Carolina Museum of History. At right: Interior of James Adams Floating Theatre, Mysterious Mr. Ney L which took entertainment to audiences in towns tfn along waterways in North Carolina, Virginia, and /0y Hanged for Murder, Steam Power: Not Just for several other states for over twenty years. The Railroads boat—which survived hurricanes, fires, and more but Was She Guilty? 20 than one sinking—inspired Edna Ferber's 1926 THJH Essay Contest novel Show Boat (and its various theater and film Winner: Voices from versions). Ferber spent time on the boat in the Bath A Foreign Field That 21 area. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Is Forever England the Past Carolina Office of Archives and History. 5 // What’s Eating You, 22 State of North Carolina Lazybones? A Wagon with Michael F. Easley, Governor Beverly E. Perdue, Lieutenant Governor 23 a Story to Tell North Carolina’s Department of Cultural Resources Founding Fathers African American Political Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary 7 Staci T. Meyer, Chief Deputy Secretary 24 Pioneers The Stanly-Spaight Office of Archives and History y Duel Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary “The Duke” 26 of Asheville Division of State History Museums Shoot-out at Bond North Carolina Museum of History Kenneth B. Howard, Director 10 Schoolhouse One Kicker of a Contraption Heyward H. McKinney Jr., Chief Operations Officer R. Jackson Marshall HI, Associate Director Historical Hound 27 William J. McCrea, Associate Director /"■ Horse Racing in North Carolina Education Section B. J. Davis, Section Chief Mammoth Moving Pictures Roadside Fun Charlotte Sullivan, Curator of 30 Outreach Programs 13 Michelle L. Carr, Curator of Internal Programs 1 Surry County’s MThe Ups and Downs L Original Siamese Tar Heel Junior Historian Association of a Seafaring Man Jessica Humphries, Program Coordinator Twins Courtney Armstrong, Subscription Coordinator Mining for Mystery History Echoes Tar Heel Junior Historian 32 in the Uwharries Doris McLean Bates, Editor in Chief 16 through Oakdale Lisa Coston Hall, Editor/Designer 33 Secrets, Supplies, Tar Heel Junior Historian 3 South Dakota v. and a Big Skirt Association Advisory Board JL / North Carolina Annette Ayers, Mary Bonnett, Elaine Forman, Master of Round Peak Music Fay Gore, Vince Greene, Lisa Coston Hall, Jim The Wild Horses Hartsell, Jessica Humphries, Jackson Marshall, 35 Leslie Rivers, and Charlotte Sullivan 18 of Currituck The Ghost Train THJH Essay 36 of Bostian’s Bridge Ooyo.^,ocon„C,^W>'“‘»«f Contest Winner: The Legend at Gimghoul Castle 37

THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the history of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations. It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers. Members receive other benefits, as well. Individual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $8.00 per year. © 2008, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: North Carolina Museum of History photography is by Eric N. Blevins and D. Kent Thompson. EDITORIAL POLICY: Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the conceptual editor and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily rep¬ resent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. The text of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Services to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information, call 1-888-388-2460. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $5,585.00, or $0.62 a copy.

£ J Smithsonian Institution PRINTED vntSl SOYINK«Kj. Affiliations Proeram » NJ ■' w o lnU&oducteionz *2ou Know KoPfiK eorolind? And die Mysterious Mr. Ney by Jackson Marshall*

hen I was growing up, I listened that caused people to whisper. What was his to older folks talk about real background? Was he the man he claimed to Cherokee raids in our commu¬ be? French soldiers who escaped to America to nity. I heard about the time that live in the Carolinas said they recognized him. Yankee troops chased two They said he was really Marshal Michel Ney, wounded Confederate soldiers into the Yadkin one of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's River, where they hid and escaped capture dur¬ famous military commanders. Ney often moved ing the Civil War. I knew all about the local from place to place to avoid these soldiers and farmer killed by a train when he raced his the rumors they spread. wagon across the tracks, against the engineer's Was he Marshal Ney? How was warning whistles. People told these stories as if this possible? You see, Marshal they had happened the day before, but all of the Ney had been executed (shot events actually had taken place at least one hun¬ to death) after Napoleon dred years before. lost the battle of Waterloo None of those stories I heard as a student in 1815. So he was dead, appeared in school textbooks. Most of us know right? Or was he? Did about the mystery of the Lost Colony, the Marshal Ney escape to famous Wright brothers and their airplane, big the United States? Was Civil War battles, and key events in the Civil he hiding in North Rights movement. But what are we missing? Carolina under the name Today some of the most interesting things Peter Stuart Ney? about North Carolina are almost forgotten. For His students completely example, can you name the state's leaders believed he was Marshal during the Revolutionary War? Do you know Ney. Peter Ney often spoke in the story about Asheville displaying a dead man French, and, like Marshal Ney, he in a window for years? Why does Thomasville was an expert horse¬ This sketch depicts Marshal Michel Ney, of France, have a huge chair sitting in the middle of town? back rider and swords¬ b. 1770. Did Ney somehow flee to the United What is a Plott hound? Across the state, there man. Peter Ney also States, escaping execution? Image from Napoleon and His Marshals, Volume II, by J. T. Headley, pub¬ are unique and fascinating historical people, told people a lot about lished in 1847 by Baker and Scribner, New York, N.Y. places, and things to discover—funny or grue¬ Napoleon and all of the some, mysterious or inspirational. Sometimes battles Napoleon had fought. In fact, Ney wrote we are not sure what is completely true and notes inside books about Napoleon, correcting what is not. mistakes or adding detailed information One of North Carolina's most fascinating sto¬ unknown to others. In one book he drew a ries and greatest mysteries is the true identity of picture of a French officer and titled it "Marshal a teacher who went by the name Peter Stuart Ney, by himself." When news came that Ney. He arrived by ship in Charleston, South Napoleon had died on his island prison, Peter Carolina, in 1816 and moved to North Carolina Ney was so upset that he tried to kill himself. six years later to teach school in Mocksville. Later he said in despair that he could never go Ney later taught in Davie and Rowan counties, home to France to be with his wife and children. and at the new Davidson College. At Davidson, (He never married in North Carolina.) he designed the college seal that is still used Over the years, Peter Stuart Ney said and did today. Ney was well respected in the commu¬ enough to make people believe that the rumors nity. He was a very intelligent man—he could about his past rang true. Finally, in November speak at least five languages and was a poet 1846, when Ney was dying of pneumonia, his and an expert in mathematics—and he could doctor asked about his true identity. Rising up draw wonderful sketches. from his bed, he told the doctor that indeed he But Peter Stuart Ney seemed to have a past was Marshal Ney. After he died, his body was

*Jackson Marshall, author of Memories of World War I: North Carolina THJH, Fall 2008 Doughboys on the Western Front, is the associate director for programming for the North Carolina Division of State History Museums. examined. It was covered in scars, Murphey first wrote to a said by some to match known friend that he had hired wounds that Marshal Ney had "a French Gentleman ... received in battle. Former students a Nephew of Marshal and friends became convinced that Ney, who came to Peter Stuart Ney was Marshal America after the Battle Michel Ney. Many people attended of Waterloo" to assist him his funeral at Third Presbyterian with his writing. In his

Church in Cleveland, Rowan The Osborne Giles Foard home near Cleveland, second letter, Murphey County. where Peter Stuart Ney lived and died. Image wrote, "He is not a courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. In 1895 James Weston, a minister Frenchman, but a well- from Hickory, published a book educated, intelligent based on statements from everyone he could Scotsman by birth. . . . His name is Ney." A find who knew Peter Stuart Ney. Weston even record in the State Archives indicates that Peter traveled to Europe to visit Marshal Ney's home Stuart Ney was bom in "Sterling Shire, and learn more. He came to believe the two men Scotland." Other historians have offered other were one and the same. Other people have writ¬ evidence and have written detailed accounts of ten books trying to prove this theory. They Marshal Ney's execution, to prove he was claim that Marshal Ney escaped his execution, indeed dead and never came to North Carolina. perhaps with the help of fellow members of the There remain many questions about Peter Masonic Fraternity. Several experts have said Stuart Ney. Why did Murphey write two differ¬ that Peter Ney's handwriting matches Marshal ent things about his background? Did Ney say Ney's. Twice Peter Ney has been dug up from he was from Scotland to cover his tracks? How his grave so experts could examine his remains do we explain all of the other stories? To many for evidence. Nothing was found to help solve people he is still a mystery. And he ranks as one the mystery. of North Carolina's most interesting people, no Today most historians think Peter Stuart Ney matter what you believe. made up everything to fool his students. They Studying history is much about discovering do not believe he was Marshal Ney. This is the hidden past. Think you know North based in part on two letters written by North Carolina? In the following pages you will find Carolina historian Archibald Murphey in 1827. many more fascinating facts and stories about our state. There are countless other Tar Heel To read James Weston’s book about Peter Stuart Ney, access tales to leam about. See if you can discover http://books.google.com/books?id=0eB5AAAAI AAJ&prtntsec. some in your own family or community. =frontcover&dq=ney#PPPI,MI

Norm Carolina Legends

Ghost ship of Diamond Shoals •The death of Blackbeard Hurricane Hazel • World War II movies with Judaculla Rock North Carolina connections Influenza pandemic of 1918 • The Halifax Resolves Wreck of the Mountain Lily • Henry Berry Lowry Death of poor Naomi Wise • Korner's Folly, Kernersville Crash of plane carrying nuclear • North Carolina's long-lost copy bombs near Goldsboro, 1961 of the Bill of Rights Battle flag of the Eighteenth • Betsy Dowdy's ride Authors such as the late Manly Wade Wellman, Richard Walser, Charles Harry Whedbee, and others have written Regiment North Carolina Troops • The Greensboro Four many North Carolina tales that you might enjoy. Image The Walton War • Western floods of 1916 and 1940 courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. North Carolinians who rode • Legend of Lake Waccamaw with the outlaw Jesse James • Bill Tate and the Wright brothers Legend of Pin Hill • Inventions of Pepsi, Krispy Kreme, • Stede Bonnet, gentleman pirate Jonkonnu celebrations Vicks VapoRub, and finger painting • Mineral springs Venus flytraps • Music of Thelonious Monk • The lost town of Haywood

2 TH/H, Fall 2008 HAWED for d^RDER, Wt Was SHe fata? by Maxine McCall*

\eteen-year-old Charlie Silver courts! The case brought against her seemed had gone missing that winter impossible to prove, there being little evidence from his family's small cabin (especially in the days before DNA testing or near the Toe River in western other modern methods of investigation) and no North Carolina. "He lit out in the eyewitness to the crime except possibly the snow last night and never came home," his Silverses' year-old daughter. Only Frankie could young wife said. say what actually happened that night. But in When Charlie disappeared on December 22, 1832 the law (unchanged until 1881) did not 1831, heavy snow was falling. Did he slip allow defendants to testify in court. Frankie pled through the ice on the frozen river? Was he "not guilty," and her lawyer did not press for a wounded or killed by a bear or a mountain lion? confession. "They won't hang a woman," he said. Friends and neighbors searched the area for miles around. After several days, a wily trapper named Jake Collis looked for clues to Charlie's whereabouts at the Silver home. Collis dropped ashes from the fireplace into a bowl of water and found them "too greasy." When he and other men tore up the floor in front of the hearth, they saw a blotch of blood "as big as a hog's In a lonely mountain cabin in 1831, Frankie liver." Outside, they found bits Silver killed her husband, Charlie, with an axe and tried to hide the crime by burning his body of bone and a heel iron from in the fireplace. Was it murder or self-defense? one of Charlie's shoes buried in Stories of people who flocked to Morganton to witness Frankie Silver's hanging have been a hollow stump away from the handed down from generation to generation to house. Officials charged this day. Images courtesy of illustrator Jackie Deaton, of Valdese, from They Won't Hang a Charlie's pretty wife, Francis Woman (Heritage Edition) by Maxine McCall. "Frankie" Silver, with murder and carried her off to the Morganton jail. After her trial and conviction, more than two Her trial in March of 1832 drew large crowds hundred citizens begged two governors to par¬ and stirred much talk. Streets were abuzz with don Frankie. Among them were the clerk of courtroom tales of how petite Frankie (a teenage court, members of the jury that convicted her, wife and mother) had killed her husband with and even her jailor. Some believed that Judge an axe and then, to hide the crime, chopped up John R. Donnell should not have allowed the his body and burned the parts in the fireplace of jury—who at first stood 9 to 3 in favor of acquit¬ their home in Mitchell County (Burke County, tal—to reexamine witnesses who had discussed back then). Frankie's mother and brother had the case together after testifying. Some changed been arrested along with her but let go for lack their testimonies, but the judge did not allow the of evidence that they were involved in Charlie's lawyers to cross-examine them. Ruling on an death. Still, folks wondered if Frankie had help appeal, the N.C. Supreme Court upheld the from her family in disposing of the body. guilty verdict. And neither Governor Montfort But just as chilling as the crime is the fact that Stokes nor his successor. Governor David Lowry Frankie Silver may have been wronged by the Swain, granted Frankie Silver a pardon.

*Maxine McCall—educator, conference speaker, and award-winning author—has done extensive research on the facts THJH, Fall 2008 and folklore surrounding the case of Frankie Silver. Her resource book, They Won't Hang a Woman (Heritage Edition), is used in the Burke County Public Schools. Dramatizations of her original story about Frankie Silver have aired on public television and the History Channel. To learn more, access wivw.mccallsbooks.com. When the appeal failed, Swain, in spite of passionate petitions and let¬ Frankie's relatives made a desperate ters, granted no pardon. move to save her. In the dark of On July 12,1833, many in the large crowd night, they helped her escape from that witnessed her fate on the gallows believed jail disguised as a man. They cut off Frankie to be the first woman hanged in North her long hair and dressed her in Carolina. Records show that she was not. But male clothing. She practiced lower¬ today people still talk and write about her ing her voice and calling herself crime. The bloody violence of the tale repels, yet Tommy. But after eight days, Frankie attracts, like a chilling ghost story told on a was caught and back behind bars, dark, windy night. And in the telling and this time chained to the floor. She retelling, the story of Frankie Silver has become Judge John R. Donnell presided at Frankie Silver's lost all hope of saving her life. a North Carolina legend, y ^ trial. Witnesses testified to Several weeks before her execu¬ her good character. But pros¬ ecuting attorney William J. tion, Frankie made a full confession Alexander, of Charlotte, to her lawyer, Thomas Wilson. More painted a vivid picture of Did Frankiesing? Charlie innocently asleep by than forty people read her testimony the fire, his baby daughter in and signed petitions to Governor any tales told through the years about his arms—when his cold¬ Frankie are untrue. One is that she recited or blooded wife struck him in Swain saying that they believed she sang a poetic confession from the gallows. the head with an axe. Among was telling the truth. According to the evidence shown: a skull Apparently, lyrics to a ballad about her were handed with a deep cut in it and a them, Frankie killed Charlie in a out at the hanging.The moumfulsong was widely sung heel iron identified by the “fracas" (a heated argument or in the mountains of Morth Carolina well into the 1930s. smith who made it as belong¬ ing to one of Charlie's shoes. fight). In the heat of the moment, Frankie, however, did not write that song.It was writ¬ Image courtesy of the North Charlie had become so angry that he ten by a teacher named Thomas Scott, who changed Carolina Museum of History. the words of an old song, “Beacham’s Address,” to fit reached for his rifle. Frankie reacted the story of Frankie’s crime. by grabbing an axe to defend her¬ The song is not connected with the popular “Frankie self. She swung. And Charlie fell. and Johnny” ballad of later years, in which another Frankie may not have been guilty of first- Frankie “killed her man ’cause he done her wrong.” No degree murder, but the jailbreak made her a evidence in documents relating to Frankie Silver’s trial convicted felon. Perhaps that is why Governor suggests jealousy as a motive for Charlie’s death.

^lore Tar Hee! ^ Crimes to Investigate

The tale of Tom Dula The murder of Chicken Stephens The mysterious death of MellCropsey i '^1 V t^ t

The girl at the underpass The bride and groom ghosts of Pisgah mgfm The Brown Mountain Lights The Devil’s Tramping Ground

The little red man of Salem Because of heavy snow on the ground, not all of Charlie Silver's remains were found at Bladenboro’s vampire beast the same time. When more bones emerged as the snow melted, his family chose to dig new graves rather than reopen the previous one, so he is buried in three graves in Kona, Siren of the French Broad Mitchell County. Image courtesy of Don McCall. \ The portrait of Theodosia Burr /

4 THJH, Fall 2008 A Foreign Field let 1$ Forever England by Dr. Shepherd W. McKinley and Cynthia Risser McKinley*

hink you know North Carolina? Most recovered. The U.S. Navy's Aycock Brown, in charge people know that in 1776 the of identifying bodies recovered at sea, asked American colonies declared independ¬ Cunningham for four British flags—or "Union ence from Great Britain, but did you Jacks"—to drape over the coffins. Cunningham gave know that even today part of North him the four flags, plus two extras. Carolina is British soil? On May 11, U-boat 558 spotted the Bedfordshire In 1939 World War II began, with Allied nations patrolling the waters off Cape Lookout. The German such as Great Britain captain sank the ship and France fighting with his third torpedo. Axis nations that There was no call for included Germany and help, and there were no Japan. The United survivors. States lent ships and No British authorities supplies to Britain but or Americans knew did not officially join about the attack until the Allies until after two bodies washed Japan's bombing of ashore on Ocracoke Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Island three days later. in December 1941. When Brown arrived, he Germany soon targeted immediately recognized

American ships with its (Above) The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, and local Protestant and Catholic clergy, Cunningham's body. A U-boats. ("U-boat" held a memorial service in December 1942 for four British sailors buried in Ocracoke. family in the area (Top) Officer Thomas Cunningham. (Background) The four British graves in 1969. comes from the German Images courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. donated a plot of land word unterseeboot, next to its own cemetery, meaning "under sea boat" or submarine.) Adolf and the two men were laid to rest with Brown's Hitler, Germany's dictator, sent U-boats to sink mer¬ extra Union Jacks across their coffins. A week later, chant ships and disrupt important shipping lanes locals found two more bodies, wearing sweaters from New England to Florida. from the Bedfordshire. They were buried alongside In January 1942 German U-boats began several their shipmates. months of successful attacks. During two weeks of One Bedfordshire crewman did not die off the coast January alone, they sank forty ships in the North of North Carolina. On shore leave in Morehead City, Atlantic. The ships were so easy to destroy, the Sam Nutt was out late May 10 and missed the ship Germans called their mission the "American Turkey when it sailed the next morning. He boarded anoth¬ Shoot." Although their nation was at war, many er British vessel and chased after the Bedfordshire. Americans along the Atlantic coast continued life as But when he arrived at the rendezvous point, his usual. Few civilians turned off lights at night. Ship ship wasn't there. British officials did not list the crews talked openly over radios about routes and Bedfordshire as missing until May 16. Ocracoke's citi¬ patrols. U-boat captains just listened to the radio zens knew it had sunk before the British navy did. and shot at ships outlined by shore lights. Various American and British groups have cared By February 1942, the U.S. government realized for the graveyard over the years. Grateful Americans that it needed help with the U-boat problem. officially deeded the land to the British government. England lent twenty-four antisubmarine ships, one Today the U.S. Coast Guard maintains Ocracoke's of which was the HMS Bedfordshire. The Bedfordshire, British Cemetery, a small plot with four graves sur¬ 174 feet long with a crew of thirty-seven men, rounded by a white picket fence. The Union Jack arrived in Morehead City in April 1942. One of its flies overhead. A plaque reads: officers was Thomas Cunningham. Many locals soon knew him on sight because of his full, black beard. If I should die think only this of me: Britain's antisubmarine ships often put them¬ That there's some corner selves in danger. One, San Delfino, was lost near Of a foreign field that is forever England? , Cape Hatteras that April, and four bodies were

*Dr. Shepherd W. McKinley teaches North Carolina history and other American history courses at the THJH, Fall 2008 University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the coauthor o/North Carolina: New Directions for an Old Land (2006). Cynthia Risser McKinley is a children's author whose work has been published in Faces, Cobblestone, Appleseeds, and Highlights magazines. QAifiat’s Sating QJou, Sfagybones? by Mandy Foss*

early one hundred years ago, a battle person's body through the skin— was fought in North Carolina and ten usually the foot. This caused a rash « other southern states. From 1909 to called ground itch. The larvae then 1914, doctors, public health officials, traveled to the small intestine, and northern businessmen worked to where the cycle began again. destroy what they called the "germ of laziness." One historian estimated that They believed such a germ caused many of the between 1865 and 1910, 40 percent South's problems—poverty, a sickly population, of the South's population suffered and economic underdevelopment. But the germ from hookworms. Thousands of A sixteen-year-old Wake County boy poses to show that these people were attacking wasn't a germ worms could live in a person at weight gain after treatment at all. It was a worm—the hookworm. one time. All these parasites and for hookworms. From the Bulletin of the North Carolina Hookworm disease was one of three major dis¬ their constant bloodsucking made Board of Health, 1910. Image eases that had plagued the South since the early an infected person pale and tired. courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of 1800s. Along with malaria and yellow fever, hook¬ To northerners, southerners with Archives and History. worm disease came from Africa during the slave hookworm disease appeared lazy trade. Hookworms are parasites. Parasites survive and stupid. But hookworms caused serious health by feeding off a living host. Less than half an inch problems. They stunted growth in children and long, white adult hookworms attach themselves to weakened resistance to germs. Weakened bodies a person's small intestine and feed on blood. A could not fight off other—often fatal—diseases. female hookworm can lay thousands of eggs every Physician Charles Stiles believed that ridding the day. The eggs exit the host's body through feces. South of hookworm disease would solve many Once the eggs hatch, the larvae look for a new host. problems. He thought southerners, once cured, In the early 1900s, many North Carolinians did would become more-productive workers and citi¬ not have bathrooms inside or outside their homes. zens. In 1902, after doing infection surveys, Stiles People used the published research showing widespread hookworm great outdoors or infections. Based on this research, in 1909 northern chamber pots— philanthropist John D. Rockefeller donated $1 mil¬ containers kept lion to form the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission to under the bed Eradicate Hookworm Disease, or RSC. RSC's huge mainly for night¬ health campaign had three goals: to survey eleven time bathroom southern states to determine how many people had breaks and hookworms; to cure the infected; and to remove the dumped outside disease source by ending soil pollution. Doctors, THIS the next morn¬ educators, and public health inspectors went county- IHt STATE Of NORTH CAROLINA AND THE COUNTY Of HALIFAX. ing. People often by-county to test for and treat hookworms. Those \Viil give even-body in Halifax_County for a limited lime only, an oppor- tun-ty to be treatedTree by a~5tate Specialist for the Hook-Worm Disease did not wear infected were dosed with thymol pills to kill the or and other disease due to intestinal parasites. Examination, treatment. Medicines and all Furnished Absolutely Free. Nearly one-half the people, shoes because of worms and Epsom salts to flush them out of the both old and young have this disease, that is why the State and the County is giving you this chance to be cured. Remember it is for a limited time only the warm body. To prevent reinfection, people were encour¬ as at the end of Four Weeks these Free Medical Dispensaries will be moved to another County. climate and a aged to wear shoes and to build and use sanitary Al the following Poiits anti ho the follows? Dates yw will Hod Uk Dispensaries open: lack of money. outhouses (outdoor bathrooms similar to today's ENFIELD. July the 21A. 28th. Annual the 4th and lllh. TOWN HALL. ROANOKE RAPIDS. July the 22n6 29th. August the 5th mrd 12th. GRADED SCHOOL BUILDING. WELDON. July the 25th, August the lrt. 8th and 15th. GRADED SCHOOL BUILDING. When southern¬ portable toilets) that kept waste matter away from LITTLETON. July the 25th. Augu»t the 2nd. 9th *nd ISth. ACADEMY BUILDING. _"Ti-AV \ 1 - K Ju.;. the 27’h. lhe 3rd. 10th »j.J 18th. OPEKN _ ers walked bare¬ people, animals, insects, and nearby water supplies. Take advantage of this great opportunity . Come to ihe Dispensaries on th: op ning day. Bnng your wives and children with you. be examined footed through By 1915, RSC ended its campaign. Though and see if you have any of these diseases. If you have the medicines they wili give will cure every case and bnng about a wonderful change in your feces-contami- reformers had some success battling hookworms, feelings. All thu without any cost to you whatever. Dr. Covington, assisted by a State Labratory man. wul be in charge at each dispensary. Come and nated soil, they the South's poverty and underdeveloped economy ave ■» Pi» sftcw sou R Hook-worms and their eggs under the microscope (Above) Handbill advertising hookworm dispensaries might touch remained. The campaign did, however, make peo¬ in Halifax County, ca. 1911. Image courtesy of the State hookworm ple more aware of the link between cleanliness and Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. (Background) A closeup view oi the head of an adult larvae. The the spread of disease. And while the germ of lazi¬ hookworm. Image courtesy of the College of Veterinary threadlike larvae ness was never defeated outright, it has been on the Medicine, North Carolina State University. could enter a run ever since. 6 THJH, Fall 2008 *Mandy Foss works as the librarian at the North Carolina Museum of History. North Carolina’s Founding Fathers by B. J. Davis*

hances are you're familiar with the Congress, Hooper correspond¬ Cnames of some of America's found¬ ed with John Adams. He ing fathers: Benjamin Franklin, John worked alongside Benjamin Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. I'm Franklin and Robert sure you have read about James Livingston, two of the five Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George members of Congress asked to Washington. But who were North Carolina's write the Declaration of founding fathers? One was a scientist, doctor, Independence. In 1781, after and preacher. Another got thrown out of the General Charles Cornwallis U.S. Senate. And a third died from wounds suf¬ captured Wilmington, the fered in a duel. They were merchants, lawyers, British tried to capture Hooper. and soldiers—yet all of them shared a deep Unable to find him, they commitment to the values and promise of a destroyed his plantation. republic based on freedom, independence, and a Hooper and his family man¬ new type of government. aged to make their way to During the difficult times of the 1770s, the Hillsborough, where he later American colonies struggled with the issue of died and was buried. In 1894 independence from Great Britain. So starting in Hooper's remains were moved 1774, the thirteen colonies sent representatives to a monument honoring the to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a special declaration signers at Guilford meeting. They formed a group called the Courthouse National Military Continental Congress. After months of debating Park near Greensboro. and trying to resolve their differences with the Penn (1741-1788) was born English government and King George III, the in Virginia to a well-to-do fam¬ leaders of the colonies decided to declare their ily. Although he did not attend independence in July 1776. Joseph Hewes, university, he trained as a William Hooper, and John Penn represented lawyer. He moved to Granville North Carolina. The next month, they—along County in 1774 and was elect¬ with fifty-three other men—officially signed the ed to the Provincial Congress Declaration of Independence. in 1775 before the Continental A statue of Joseph Hewes was created for a 1926 Philadelphia exhibition observing the The three men worked closely with some of Congress. A tireless worker, anniversary of the signing of the American history's most famous names. There are Penn remained in the Declaration of Independence. Hewes lent his own ships to the colonies' struggling many interesting stories and facts that you proba¬ Continental Congress until military. Image courtesy of the North Carolina bly don't know about these Tar Heel patriots. 1780. He served on fourteen Museum of History. Hooper (1742-1790) was born in Boston, committees and eight standing Massachusetts. After attending Harvard Univer¬ boards. One story has it that Penn was chal¬ sity, he lenged to a duel, but while assisting his much moved to older challenger across a street to the dueling Wilmington site, convinced him that they should settle their and became differences. The duel never happened. After his successful in political career, Penn practiced law. His remains law and poli¬ also were later moved and reburied next to tics. In 1776, Hooper's at the declaration signers' monument. as a member Hewes (1730-1779) is known as one of the of the founders of the Continental Navy, along with Continental his colleague John Adams. Born in Princeton, William Hooper (left) resigned from the Continental Congress in 1776 New Jersey, Hewes attended Princeton College. because of health and financial problems, but he remained active in state politics. John Penn (right) is one of sixteen men who signed both He moved to North Carolina and had a success¬ the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence. ful shipping business in Wilmington before being Images courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. elected to the Continental Congress. While in

*B. J. Davis is the chief of the Education Section at the North Carolina Museum THJH, FaU 2008 of History. Congress, Hewes the military in 1781 after being elected to the legis¬ supported a ban on lature. In the years after the Constitutional importing British Convention, Spaight would become North goods, even though Carolina's governor and a congressman. He suf¬ he knew his business fered a fatal wound in a duel with John Stanly, a would suffer. One of political rival. His death shocked the state, and as his most important a result, the General Assembly outlawed dueling actions was support¬ in North Carolina. (See page 9 to learn more!) ing a little-known Williamson (1735-1819) was born in William Blount (left) is buried in Knoxville, sailor named John Pennsylvania. He entered the College of Tennessee. Hugh Williamson (right) was a bril¬ liant scholar whose studies and writings cov¬ Paul Jones to become Philadelphia at age sixteen and earned several ered a wide range of subjects. Images courtesy of a naval officer. Jones degrees. He became a licensed Presbyterian the North Carolina Museum of History. became one of preacher, a professor of mathematics, and a physi¬ America's most famous naval heroes during the cian following studies in England and Holland. Revolutionary War. Hewes served as secretary of After witnessing the Boston Tea Party in 1773 on the Naval Affairs Committee until his death. He his way back to Europe, Williamson warned mem¬ was buried in a church cemetery in Philadelphia, bers of the British government that the colonies although the exact site has been lost to history. would rebel if the English did not change their policies. In 1776 he returned to help support the Signeps op £Il@ Cons£2£zj£2on American colonies and eventually settled in North After the Revolutionary War some members of Carolina. As surgeon general of the state's militia, Congress, called Federalists, wanted a new consti¬ Williamson tended to American and British tution that created a strong central government. troops. He prevented the spread of disease using Others preferred a government in which individ¬ modern methods—carefully examining personal ual states were strong and independent. North hygiene, nutrition, clothing, and shelter. After the Carolinians played an active role in defining the Revolutionary War, he was elected to state office direction and future of the United States. before being chosen as a delegate to the Five Tar Heels—William Blount, Richard Dobbs Constitutional Convention. There, he proved to be Spaight, Hugh Williamson, William Richardson a skilled speaker and an important and dedicated Davie, and Alexander Martin—served as delegates participant, serving on five committees. He later to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, although worked toward the Constitution's approval in only three ended up signing the document. Davie North Carolina. In 1793, after his public sendee was called away on personal business and never career, Williamson moved to New York City and returned. Martin left Philadelphia in August 1787 published many writings about politics, educa¬ before the final draft was completed. Here are tion, economics, history, and science. some interesting facts about the North Carolinians I hope you'll continue to learn more about who did sign the U.S. Constitution: important documents like the Declaration of Blount (1749-1800) was the only founding Independence and the Constitution, and the father from a family with long ties to North fascinating personalities and motivations of that Carolina. His great-grandfather, Thomas Blount, defining time. came from England, settling in the state sometime CSOS^SjSCSCSCSSSCSOSuStjSrjSOSCSCSuSGSCSuSuSjSoSSSuSSSuSSSDSSSSSQSu^ after 1660. According to most accounts, William Blount did not actively participate in the conven¬ To Find Out More tion and signed the Constitution only reluctantly, The National Constitution Center to help ensure its adoption by all thirteen states. http://constitutioncenter.org/ After settling in Tennessee, he was elected to the The National Archives: Charters of Freedom U.S. Senate in 1796—only to be impeached by the http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/ House and dismissed by the Senate because he took part in a plot to help the British capture the Independence National Historic Park Spanish colonies of Florida and Louisiana. Blount http://www.nps.gov/inde later served as governor of Tennessee. The Avalon Project at Yale University Spaight (1758-1802) was born in New Bern but http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ orphaned at age eight. Sent to Ireland to be edu¬ cated, he returned to North Carolina in 1778 and The Declaration of Independence quickly became active in the state militia. He left http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/

I THJH, Fall 2008 A Deadly Contest: The Stanly-Spaight Duel

by Diana Bel I-Kite*

f a classmate called you an insulting name, a politician, you would not be reelected. To the pub¬ Iwhat would you do? Talk to the person? Tell lic, your name would be mud, and your life would a teacher? Not so long ago, some North be ruined. Carolinians settled their disagreements in a Therefore, when one man publicly insulted another, way that we may find shocking today—by it became deadly serious. With the help of a friend dueling to the death. called a second, the offended man could challenge the On August 8, 1802, Richard Dobbs Spaight, forty- other to a duel. The men would meet at a set time four-year-old former North Carolina governor and and place and—using either swords or pistols—try to candidate for the state senate, heard a report about a kill each other. While duels were violent, they were political rival that made him extremely angry. John carefully planned. Duelers followed strict rules— Stanly—a twenty-eight-year-old Federalist who had called the code duello—that spelled out how to beaten Spaight in a race for Congress two years conduct a duel. For example, some duels ended only before—had been seen on a when one contestant died; other busy New Bern street corner duelers felt satisfied if blood loudly criticizing Spaight's had been drawn or shots fired. political allegiance. (Spaight Between 1800 and 1860, North had recently switched parties Carolina politicians fought from the Federalists to the twenty-seven duels. Jeffersonian Republicans.) Stanly and Spaight preferred Furious, Spaight wrote Stanly death to public dishonor. At a letter, calling his comments five thirty in the evening, the an “absolute falsehood" and men and their seconds met “a direct attack upon my near New Bern's Masonic Flail character." on the edge of town. They Over the next month, the walked a planned number of two men wrote each other steps away from each other, repeatedly. Their letters soon took aim, and fired their flint¬ John Stanly. Image courtesy of the North Richard Dobbs Spaight. Image courtesy became public. Each man lock smoothbore pistols. They Carolina Museum of History. of the State Archives, North Carolina published his version of the missed. The men fired again. Office of Archives and History. incident for the whole town Spaight's ball grazed Stanly's to read, in newspaper articles and handbills. Stanly shirt collar, but still both men remained unharmed. proclaimed that Spaight had "a malicious, low and Their third shots missed, too. On the fourth round of unmanly spirit," and Spaight replied that Stanly was fire, Stanly's ball struck Spaight in the side. The "both a liar and a scoundrel." These words were too respected statesman crumpled to the ground. He died much for Stanly to bear. On September 5, 1802, he the next day. challenged Spaight to a duel later that day. Since Spaight had been a well-loved public figure, But how could two grown men get so upset about many people got upset. The General Assembly a little name-calling? Words can't hurt you, right? quickly passed an act "to Prevent the Vile Practice of Wrong. For upper-class white men living in the early Dueling within this state." But the act was not 1800s, words could be very dangerous. Men like enforced and did little to actually stop conflicts. Stanly and Spaight attached life-or-death importance Stanly continued his career in law and politics, living to their personal honor (their status in the commu¬ until 1833, when he died from complications of a nity based on other people's respect for them). Any stroke. Dueling, however, and the culture of honor insult to a man's character—especially being called a that encouraged it, would not die out in the South liar or a coward—threatened his reputation as an until the huge social and cultural changes of the Civil honorable man. If you were publicly dishonored, War era. . friends would leave you, and you would lose busi¬ ness connections. If, as many duelers were, you were

*Diana Bell-Kite is an associate curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. Her THJH, FaH 2008 specialties include the social and cultural history of the 1800s. To learn more about the 9 Stanly-Spaight duel, visit Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens in New Bern. A reenactment of the conflict is staged there each Labor Day. Shoot-out at Bond Schoolhouse A Little Civil War Skirmish That Had Big Repercussions by Frances H. Casstevens*

or over one hundred years, people places like Yadkin County) had different opin¬ Fin Yadkin County believed that ions about secession and the war. Many documents with important infor¬ believed it had been wrong for the state to leave mation about the February 12, 1863, the Union. Others, including the Quakers, did shoot-out at Bond Schoolhouse had not believe in fighting or in slavery. Opposition been destroyed. Recently, in a trunk owned by a to the war increased when the Confederate descendant of Jesse Dobbins, the original Congress enacted the conscription, or warrants for the arrest of Dobbins and t, law. The Congress thought this thirteen others were discovered. For ep was necessary to replace thou¬ the first time, the names of all the sands of soldiers who had died of men inside the schoolhouse that disease or been killed in battle. fateful day became known. After Men who were drafted often the shoot-out, Dobbins and sev¬ did not like being forced to eral other men had fled Yadkin serve in the Confederate County, crossing the moun¬ army. If a drafted man did tains in midwinter to join the not go willingly, he could be Union army. When he later arrested and sent to the army wrote about his life during the to fight or even sent to Civil War (1861-1865), I prison. If he deserted from Dobbins did not reveal who the army and got caught, he had shot two members of the could be executed. Over the county militia at the school- course of the war, desertion house. Had he been guilty of became a big problem. murder? That cold morning. West Accounts of the shoot-out go gathered a group of about fifteen something like this. An unnamed man men and started toward the school. rode into Yadkinville, the county seat, on (Some accounts say about fifty men. his horse early that February 12 Captam James West (1821_1863)< a militia officer, Names of all the militia mem¬ morning. At the courthouse, was the first casualty of the shoot-out at the Bond bers who were there remain Schoolhouse. Image courtesy of Frances H. Casstevens the man found Captain James unverified.) A light snow had West, leader of the county's blanketed the ground the night Confederate militia, and told him, "Captain before. As the group approached the home of West, those draft dodgers you've been looking Daniel Vestal, a Quaker, West called a halt for a for are hiding in the Bond Schoolhouse." This brief rest. He dismounted from his horse and local school was named for Johnny Bond, one of knocked on the front door, to ask whether his the founders of Deep Creek Friends (Quaker) men could get drinks of water. Church. Mrs. Vestal came to the door, looked at the Children took militia in her yard, and said that would be fine. classes in the lit¬ While one man drew a bucket of water from the SOL HINSHAW AGE 25 tle log building well, she asked, "Where are thee going this cold ' KILLED FEB 1863 IN A SCHOOL HOUSE BY CONFEDERATE ROME GUARD. near the church morning?" West replied, "Ma'am, we are going BECAUSE HE WAS A UNION SYMPATHH1 for three or four to arrest some draft dodgers hiding out in the months out of schoolhouse." Mrs. Vestal frowned and looked each year. West in the eye. "Yes," she said, "and thee will People in get thy head shot off thy shoulders, too." West Solomon Hinshaw's tombstone at Deep Creek Friends laughed, thanked her for the water, and rode on. Church. Hinshaw died inside the school that day. Image North Carolina courtesy of Frances H. Casstevens. (especially in As the men got closer to the school, they

THJH, Fall 2008 *Frances H. Casstevens has authored several books and articles about the Civil War, local history, and genealogy, as well as plays and poetry. Two of her books—Death in North Carolina’s Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown and The Civil War and Yadkin County, North Carolina—received the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians. She retired as a research assistant from Bounmn Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem. could see smoke rising soldiers, including a colonel. from the chimney. West The colonel asked the TOPICS motioned for them to load Yadkin County clerk of their muskets. Then court, "Don't you people / TOP he banged on the know the war is over?" / FURTHER door and He then ordered the RESEARCH shouted, clerk, "Get your old "Open up. records and burn You're all them." Confederate army, Union army under The clerk gath¬ Conscription during the Civil War arrest." He ered the court docket Draft dodgers, deserters took the sixteen books that contained Quakers (Friends) men in the school indictments for the by surprise. Not deaths at the school. • Militia, Home Guard • • • all of them were Before the clerk could A Firearms of the Civil War / • • Quakers, and most put the books in the fire¬ Reconstruction carried loaded rifles. place, though, the colonel One had escaped changed his mind. "Better save from the county jail. those books for future reference," he Another had said, "but you can cancel all the charges of mur¬ Jesse Virgil Dobbins (1830-1883) deserted from the der against Dobbins and the others." was indicted for killing Captain James West. Image courtesy of the Confederate army. The charges were dropped. Dobbins settled Yadkin County Historical Society. They planned to down with his wife and their family. He made a leave the county and good living—in farming, milling, and other cross the mountains into Tennessee as soon as businesses. He built a large frame house that the weather warmed up. stood until just a few years ago. He was one of When the door opened to reveal West, some¬ the founders of the Republican Party in Yadkin one inside fired a gun. Mrs. Vestal's words had County (and the county has remained almost come true—he was knocked backward Republican ever since). with a bullet in his head. The two sides All through his life, though, many local peo¬ exchanged more shots. When the firing stopped, ple blamed Dobbins for the deaths of West and four men lay dead: West and John Williams of Williams. Some folks said that one of the the militia, and Solomon Hinshaw and Eck Willard brothers—Benjamin, Lee, or William— Allgood, draft dodgers inside the school. might have fired the actual shots from inside the Several men on both sides were hurt. schoolhouse. (The Willards, who lived near the Dobbins and some of the other men climbed school, got caught after the incident. They were out a window, fleeing into the mountains. After confined in the Forsyth County Jail, from which twelve days, they reached Lexington, Kentucky. their sister helped them escape.) But Dobbins There, Jesse and his brother, William, joined the never got a chance to clear his name. No trial Union army. When William died in the fall of was held. When Dobbins was found dead at his 1864, Jesse blamed the hardships of mill in 1883, rumors went around that their flight across the mountains in he had been killed by someone who weather so cold that their clothes held a grudge over the shootings. But froze to their bodies. his doctor said that Dobbins probably After the war, Jesse returned to had a stroke. Yadkin County. One day when he In the spring of 2008, a North rode in to Yadkinville, the sheriff Carolina Civil War Trails marker was tried to arrest him for West's murder. placed at the Deep Creek Friends Dobbins pulled loose from the sher¬ Church, in remembrance of the shoot¬ iff's clutches, jumped on his horse, out at Bond School and those who and rode to Salisbury. Union soldiers died there. Were the men in the school

were stationed there to maintain John McIntosh Williams, a mem¬ right to resist the draft and use guns to order, under Federal Reconstruction ber of the militia, died in the defend themselves against the militia? Bond Schoolhouse shoot-out. plans for the South. Dobbins Image courtesy of Bobby Choplin. What would you have done? returned to Yadkinville with Federal

THJH, Fall 2008 11 Historical Hound by Ansley Herring Wegner*

ack in the mid- to late 1800s, people where he lived until moving to Lincoln County in from as far away as Georgia traveled 1784, raising a family and breeding dogs. His dogs regularly to Haywood County to get likely had much work to do in the forests and small puppies from the Plott family. They farms of the Tar Heel backcountry. would arrive with sacks on the backs of George Plott's son Henry kept improving the Plott their mules or horses to carry home the prized dogs. hound. He moved to Buncombe (now Haywood) The Plotts raised hardworking, tenacious, and County about 1800. Within a few years the area was loyal dogs that would hunt bear and wild boar with known as Plott Valley; the mountain, Plott Balsam; boundless courage. The and the waterway, Plott dogs—once black, brown, or Creek. The region is still brindle—are now usually home to many Plott brindle (which is a mix of descendants. Here the black, browns, and tans). family's dogs learned to They stand twenty to twenty- hunt bear in the wilder¬ five inches at the shoulder, ness, much as their weigh about forty-five to ancestors had hunted in fifty-five pounds, and are Germany's Black Forest. strong and fast. The Plott The Plott family did not hound, as this kind of dog is keep written records about known today, has a unique its dogs, but it was skilled high-pitched bark that alerts in raising them. By the hunters as it tracks and time Montraville Plott was corners prey. What's the rest born in 1850, Plott hounds of the story behind North were well established and Carolina's state dog? highly prized in western The Plott hound is the North Carolina. He contin¬ only officially recognized ued to improve the breed's breed of dog developed in (Above) Von Plott with several Plott hounds, probably ca. 1940s in the Lake temperament and perform¬ North Carolina. (It is one of Waccamaw area. Image by Hugh Morton, courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, ance. Word spread about University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill. (Top) Heavy, a Plott hound. only four dog breeds native Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolitw Office of Archives and History. their superior working and to the United States.) The hunting talents, courage, foundation stock (or ancestors) for the dogs that and tenacity. Montraville Plott was dedicated to his became Plott hounds came to America with Johannes dogs, passing along that devotion to his children and Plott in 1750. These five dogs had been a gift from many friends. Two of his sons, John A. Plott and Plott's father, Elias, a gamekeeper near Heidelberg, Henry Vaughn "Von" Plott, along with a few other Germany. Elias Plott bred canines to be multipurpose hunters, captured the interest of hunters nationwide workers—they needed to be exceptional big-game in the 1930s and 1940s with the dogs. hunters, as well as farm and herding dogs. He proba¬ In 1998 the American Kennel Club (AKC) recog¬ bly started with the Hanoverian hound in developing nized the Plott hound as a distinctive breed. The his dogs, hi the North Carolina Mountains, the Plott Plott has been North Carolina's state dog since 1989, family further refined the breed into the tracking and but having been bred for hunting and tracking, it is hunting Plott hound that we know today. not often seen walking on a leash around a suburban Little is known of the first nine years of Johannes neighborhood. People who love Plott hounds Plott's life in America. After his ship's record of his describe the dogs as gentle with people and loyal to travel, he does not appear in public records again their owners. But if you were walking a Plott hound until 1759, when he bought land in Bute (now on a trail, and the dog caught the scent of a wild ani¬ Warren) County. He had changed his name to the mal, it likely would want to take off on a hunt. Bold Anglicized, or translated to English, name of George and energetic, Plotts want to work, no doubt about it. Plott. Within a year, Plott moved to Cabarrus County,

THJH, Fall 2008 *Ansley Herring Wegner works as a research historian with the North Carolina 12 Office of Archives and History. Mammoth Moving

by Leslie M. Kesler*

n the theater, the music swelled. Special under the Ieffects dazzled. Scenes of hideous mon¬ special sters, bloody battles, and miraculous stage lights. escapes held the audience spellbound. A A few even "work of genius," newspapers gushed, had effects "worth double the price of admission." like real Think we're talking about the latest blockbuster smoke that at your local movie theater? Better think again. billowed This was a special kind of show called a panorama, up when created by Charlotte resident Arthur L. Butt more fire from Arthur Butt's portrayal of the Bible passage Revelation 12:1-3. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. than one hundred years ago. heaven Popular in the 1800s, panoramas were literally burned Elijah's sacrifice at Mt. Carmel. moving pictures. Dozens of huge fabric paintings Whether you live in Goldsboro or Gastonia, made up each show. The paintings were sewed Asheville or Edenton, Butt's panorama played in together at the edges to make a long row, and then your town in the 1880s. He traveled all wrapped around a big wooden spindle until they over the state showing it in opera looked like a giant roll of paper towels. During a houses, theaters, courthouses, and show the spindle turned, moving the scenes across churches. Often his father and wife the stage, before a second spindle wound them up traveled with him. His father narrated again. Each scene measured roughly ten by twelve and lectured on the different scenes. feet. If you stretched out all the scenes from one His wife played the organ and some¬ show, they would be the length of a football field times sang. or more. The show was so successful in Some panoramas retold famous stories from lit¬ North Carolina that the family took it Arthur L. Butt, of Charlotte. Image erature or portrayed journeys to faraway lands. on the road around the country. They courtesy of the North Butt—the son of a Methodist minister-—decided to played in places as far away as New Carolina Museum of History. base his panorama (which included several shows) Orleans and Kansas City. In late 1881 on the Bible. One show told stories from the Old they spent a whole month playing in St. Louis. Testament. Another depicted the book of Eventually, though. Butt retired the panorama. Revelation. According to newspaper accounts. Butt He rolled up the scenes on their wooden spindles spent three years painting the scenes. He designed and put them away. After the family donated them some himself and copied some from the work of to the North Carolina Museum of History in 2003, other artists. Each scene was vividly painted. Some the museum staff unrolled some scenes for the first had glued-on foil or glitter that made them sparkle time in more than one hundred years. Long hid¬ den, this old-fashioned picture show still had the power to entertain and amaze a new generation of North Carolinians.

r —— — —— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ——————— — —i — — — — — i Want to find out more about panoramas?

I Visit the Web sites listed below. I

I To see a digital re-creation of a panorama about the Civil War: jj http://americanhistory.si.edu/westpoint/discover_travis. html

n To see an animation of a panorama about the life of Italian hero I Guiseppe Garibaldi: | J http://dl. lib.brown. edu/garibaldi/panorama. php

North Carolina Museum of History staff members unroll and examine a [ To view scenes from a panorama of the book The Pilgrim's Progress: ] panorama scene showing the judgment of Solomon. Image courtesy of the I http: //www. sacomuseum. org/panorama/index. shtml North Carolina Museum of History.

*Leslie M. Kesler is historian and curator at the Charlotte Museum of History. She is THJH, Fall 2008 a former staff member of the North Carolina Museum of History. Surry County’s Original Siamese Twins

by Dr. Annette Ayers*

an you imagine how life would be and a friend. Captain Abel different if your body were perma¬ Coffin, offered the twins' mother nently attached to your brother's three thousand dollars for per¬ or sister's body? How would you mission to take the twins on tour. feel about never having one minute They paid her only five hundred of privacy? How would you feel if all your deci¬ dollars and would never return sions directly affected your sibling, and all of his Chang and Eng to Siam as they or her decisions directly affected you? I have promised to do. But since the just described the lives of twins Chang and Eng king liked Coffin, he finally gave Bunker, two of Surry County's most famous res¬ the man his permission to take idents of all time. the twins out of the country. The two men were born in 1811 in Siam, a The eighteen-year-old twins country in Asia now known as Thailand. These signed a contract with Coffin. twins were conjoined (bom with their bodies This written contract has been joined together)—-attached by a four-inch-wide passed down through the band of flesh they eventually stretched to five Bunker family and is preserved inches so they could stand beside each other. in Surry County today. In the Their names, Chang and Eng, meant left and United States and Europe, the right. They were given the label "original twins went on display for curios¬ Siamese twins" because they were the first con¬ ity seekers to view, in exchange joined twins to be described as for a fee. Chang and Eng toured "Siamese" and the first con¬ with Coffin for three years but joined twins ever seen by a lot did not get a fair share of the of people. Siamese twins profits. He paid them ten dollars remain rare today; they must a month plus expenses, then be identical and of the same later fifty dollars a month. The a gender, and only 30 percent tours, though, usually brought in one thousand SI are male. It is rare for con¬ dollars a month. SI joined twins to live to adult¬ The twins were very intelligent and quickly hood. Chang and Eng were learned to speak English, improved their educa¬ jar For i "«?/ unique because they lived to tion, and became more and more interested in I UNITED BROTBERS. CSAND'ENG, be more than sixty years old, the world. Chang and Eng never traveled as 1 "BOSTON it and they are the only Siamese part of a circus but held many exhibitions in ill rain nmw ■*“» IB N2Y THIRD twins known to have married public buildings—giving lectures, performing I receive^ VUtUar* at the and had children. acrobatic stunts, and demonstrating their physi¬ m j^yCeum o Thr Hour*o* ,U m'C'luT.r E,roln«. U The twins' father died cal strength. In 1832 the twins stopped touring

I- ADMITTANCE. so cents l| when they were about eight with Coffin so they could make more money. years old. Young Chang and They began to manage their own affairs and Eng helped provide for their schedule their own tours throughout the United mother, brothers, and sisters States and Canada. Everywhere they traveled, by selling duck eggs in their local doctors examined Chang and Eng. These village. (Throughout their examinations satisfied the doctors' curiosity, lives, they would be known as successful busi¬ proved the twins' bodies were attached, and nessmen.) When they were thirteen, a Scottish provided publicity for their shows. merchant named Robert Hunter noticed the While touring in New York, the twins met unique twins and asked the king of Siam for and became friends with Dr. James Callaway permission to take them to Europe. The king from Wilkesboro. Callaway invited Chang and refused because he did not like Hunter. Hunter Eng to visit his North Carolina home and go

THJH, Fall 2008 'Dr. Annette Ayers is a part-time instructor at Surry Community College and an educational consultant. A member of the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Advisory Board, she is a retired history teacher and served as the director of education and programs at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History (2004-2007). hunting and to quarrel. Starting in 1852, Sarah and Adelaide fishing. Tired lived in separate houses. Chang and Eng agreed and needing a to reside in one house for three days, in which vacation in that brother made all the decisions without 1839, the twins question. They spent the next three days at the did just that. other twin's house, where he made all the deci¬ They liked the sions. The Bunkers faithfully held to this quiet and arrangement the rest of their lives. peaceful area, The twins returned to touring between 1849 and decided to and 1870 to support their large families. Chang purchase land and Adelaide had ten children, and Eng and nearby. They Sarah had eleven. The twins met many impor¬ moved to tant people, including President Andrew Wilkes County, Johnson and Queen Victoria of England. where they Throughout their lives, Chang and Eng con¬ became natural¬ sulted various surgeons in America, England, ized American and Scotland, to determine if they might be sep¬ citizens in arated. All the surgeons agreed the risk was too October 1839. great. Returning home from the 1870 tour, Naturalized cit¬ Chang suffered a stroke that left his right side izens had to partially paralyzed. As the brothers grew older, have a surname their health began to decline, they quarreled (last name), and more often, and they demanded that the local Chang and Eng doctor perform surgery to separate them. He had never had refused. Even today, doctors are one. They chose not sure Chang and Eng would the name of an have lived if separated. American Chang died suddenly in friend from January 1873, and Eng died New York: several hours later. Surgeons Bunker. in Philadelphia performed As wealthy autopsies. They discovered the

Chang and Eng Bunker. Image courtesy of the landowners, twins had connected livers. State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives the Bunkers Chang suffered a blood clot to and History. participated in the brain, but doctors could not local social events. They soon met Adelaide and determine Eng's cause of death. Sarah Yates, daughters of a wealthy farmer. It may have been shock. E2VO„,„l Cjllvi; Chang fell in love with seventeen-year-old Fearing someone would steal

Adelaide, and they wanted to marry. Eighteen- the bodies, the family buried (Above and left, facing page) A year-old Sarah eventually agreed to marry Eng. the twins in the basement of poster and advertisement designed to draw spectators to The sisters' parents and neighbors immediately Chang's house, and later, in exhibitions by the Bunkers. Images objected. Chang and Eng traveled to Phila¬ the front yard. When Adelaide courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and delphia, Pennsylvania, to consult a surgeon died in 1917, the twins were History. about being separated. The surgeon refused, reburied next to her at White describing such surgery as too dangerous. The Plains Baptist Church near Mount Airy. parents of Adelaide and Sarah finally agreed to Sarah is buried at Eng's farm, although her the marriages, which took place April 13,1843, name is included on the church tombstone. at the Yates family home in Wilkes County. The Philadelphia's Mutter Museum—which two couples began their married lives in a showcases medical rarities—has a display of house in the Trap Hill community. Chang's and Eng's connected livers, castings of The twins prospered and moved to Surry their joined torsos, and a special chair built for County, where they eventually owned more them. More than a thousand descendants of the than one thousand acres of land and twenty- Bunker twins live in Surry County, where the eight enslaved people. They lived together in family hosts a yearly reunion, and numerous one house for nine years, but their wives began descendants live across the country. >v.

THJH, Fall 2008 15 mu {(UHs mm omit. Wilmington’s Picturesque Rural Cemetery by Janet K. Seapker*

oung Nancy Martin—Nance, to her Yfamily—died May 25, 1857, on an ocean voyage with her father, and he did not want to bury her at sea. So the man sat his daughter's body on a chair and placed it in a cask of rum to preserve her until the ship returned home. Six months later, Nance was buried—cask, chair, and all. Her grave is just one of many remarkable ones at Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery, incor¬ porated in 1852. Others include the graves of Captain William Ellerbrock and the Reverend Robert Moran. Ellerbrock is buried with his dog. Boss. They both died in 1880, when Ellerbrock Governor Edward B. Dudley's grave marker at Oakdale Cemetery'. Dudley was the first governor elected by the people of the state. Image courtesy of Joe was helping fight a fire. Boss rushed into the George. (Background) Plan of Oakdale. Image courtesy of Janet K. Seapker. burning building and tried to drag out his mas¬ ter. The dog died with a scrap of Ellerbrock's areas or graveyards were on the grounds of a clothing in his mouth. The body of Moran, a church or a family's plantation or farm. They Methodist minister, was placed in Oakdale's followed an orderly and simple classical style, first mausoleum (a stone building with above¬ with graves placed neatly and close together. ground tombs), in 1892. The sarcophagus (a But burial grounds during the Victorian era got stone coffin) was rigged with a sliding stone a new name: cemetery, meaning "sleeping cham¬ that mourners could roll back to see the body ber." Rural cemeteries were located on the out¬ beneath a glass slab. skirts of towns and designed to be picturesque. In burying grounds across North Carolina, They had winding roads, footpaths, hills, and we find interesting stories about people, the streams. Some cemeteries looked like gardens, places where they lived, and the times in which and they became popular places for outings. they died. People would stroll, enjoy nature, and visit with Oakdale was built during the rural cemetery friends. Such a custom goes back to ancient movement that began in England and spread to Egypt, where tombs became a place for families the United States. Before the 1840s most burial to gather, picnic, and socialize—keeping alive shared memories of friends and familv members. J Wilmington was North Carolina's most popu¬ lous, sophisticated, and urban town in the mid- 1800s, so naturally, it would open the state's first rural cemetery. City graveyards had limited burial space, and people had concerns about the effects of inner-city burials on community health. In 1852 Wilmington leaders got a charter from the state and paid eleven hundred dollars for 65 acres of land east of the then town limits. The design included depressed roadways and raised burial plots behind masonry walls. Other cemeteries in the area, including Pine Forest and Bellevue, largely were patterned after Oakdale, The hilly terrain allowed the surveyor to plan depressed drives and which over the years grew to 128 acres. raised plots, adding to the visual interest and parklike setting of Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery. Image courtesy of Janet K. Seapker.

THJH, Fall 2008 *Janet K. Seapker zvas born and reared in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but headed south to escape the cold, liv¬ ing in Raleigh, and now Wilmington. She served for twenty-two years as director of what became Cape Fear Museum After thirty years, she retired from government service. She now operates Tours by Degrees group tour service and assists her husband, Edzoard F. Turberg, in his architectural history practice. To learn more about gravestone styles and symbolism, access www.oakdalecemetery.org/ funerary_ art_symbolism.asp.

The first person buried in Oakdale, on February 5,1855, was six-year-old Annie DeRosset. She was the daughter of Dr. Armand John DeRosset, first president of the cemetery corporation. The beauty and prestige of Oakdale led many South Dakota v. North Carolina families to move loved ones from other grave sites. (This is why there Supreme Court Showdown are markers with dates earlier than 1855. The old gravestones came by Johnny Joyner* along with the bodies.) Many famous people are buried n February 1904 nine men Carolina, and Daniel Russell, a former in Oakdale: Governor Edward I sat down in the grand cham¬ North Carolina governor, for help. Bishop Dudley (1789-1855), the ber of the Supreme Court Since Russell was a Republican who state's first governor elected by the of the United States. Facing was angry that the Democrats had people rather than the General them were lawyers from the recently destroyed his party in Assembly; Henry Bacon states of North Carolina and South North Carolina—and he wanted to (1866-1924), architect of the Lincoln Dakota. The lawyers waited anxiously make some money for himself—he Memorial in Washington, D.C.; for the verdict of a most unusual agreed to provide legal help. In Major General W. H. C. Whiting (and politically charged) case, first exchange, Russell would get a third (1824-1865), Civil War Confederate argued before the court several of any money collected above what commander of the District of the months earlier. The case had been North Carolina had been willing to Cape Fear, who early on planned brought about by greed and by the pay. Butler also contacted his fellow and supervised the building of double dealings of politicians angry Republican senator, Richard with the Democratic Party in power in Pettigrew, of South Dakota. Neither defenses including Fort Fisher; Rose both states. In the balance: a verdict had much to lose, because their time O'Neal Greenhow (1817-1864), that could bankrupt and cripple North in Congress was almost over; their Confederate spy who drowned at Carolina for generations to come. Democratic-controlled state legisla¬ Fort Fisher while running the block¬ This unique Supreme Court case tures were not going to reelect them. ade; and David Brinkley began in the 1860s in the aftermath Russell, Butler, and Pettigrew (1920-2003), television journalist. of the Civil War. During the came up with a complicated scheme Cemeteries reflect historic events. Reconstruction era. North Carolina's in which Schaffer and Brothers In 1862, for example, a horrible yel¬ government sold large numbers of would donate ten bonds to low fever epidemic spread through bonds (basically IOUs) to pay for Pettigrew's home state. According to Wilmington. Approximately four building the Western Carolina the U.S. Constitution, the New hundred victims of the disease are Railroad. This railroad would connect York-based company could not sue buried in a special section of the Mountains to the rest of the North Carolina in federal court with¬ Oakdale. Few of those graves have state. Crooked lawmakers took the out North Carolina's permission. But money, and the railroad was not fin¬ another state could sue North monuments. (Why not, do you ished at that time. The bonds Carolina in the U.S. Supreme Court think?) Cemeteries also can include became worthless. for full payment on the bonds. So sections for members of groups. In 1879 North Carolina offered to the State of South Dakota and Oakdale has sections for fraternal buy back the bonds for one-fourth Schaffer and Brothers took on groups like the Free Masons, the of what investors had paid, and most North Carolina together, hoping to Odd Fellows, and the Improved people accepted. But a New York force it to pay the full amount on all Order of Redmen. It also has a company, Schaffer and Brothers, the bonds plus interest. This was the special section for the area's Jewish still had over two hundred bonds in first time a state had sued another population: Hebrew Cemetery, dedi¬ 1901 and wanted to get back their state in the Supreme Court for pay¬ cated in 1855. full worth. Company officials asked ment of a debt. Graveyards and cemeteries are U.S. senator Marion Butler, of North If it lost the case, North Carolina like outdoor art and history muse¬ (Top) The U.S. Supreme Court in 1904 heard arguments in the case of South Dakota v. North ums. What can you learn from those Carolina. Image courtesy of Johnny Joyner. near you? y-N *Johnny Joyner works as a historic interpreter II at the Governor Charles B. Aycock THJH, Fall 2008 Birthplace State Historic Site in Fremont. 17 M0*€ tf.S. SUPREME n |CW TOPICS TO EXPLOREl Tfie cKorses of (Surrftuck

^ ! Bayard v. Singleton (1787): by Karen McCalpin* j North Carolina case that estab- ' lished authority of judicial review * ■ by courts. wild horses of was approved and funded by North Carolina's the country's king and queen, • Chisholm v. Georgia (1793): A I I- 7 Currituck Outer only the finest stallions and I landmark case responsible for the| Banks have sur- mares went along on those jour¬ J Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. J vived more than neys. By 1500 large breeding I Constitution, which forbade peo- I four centuries of hurricanes, ranches had been established to J pie who lived in a different state j fierce winter nor'easters, and produce the best horses of that • from suing states in the Supreme ' ■ Court. The dissenting vote came swarms of biting insects. Graced time—the horses of rulers and 1 from Justice James Iredell. with a strong, inner sense of nobility—with a mixture of ■ ■ self-preservation, the horses Spanish Barb, Arabian, and I James Iredell Sr.: One of the enjoy a rich and distinguished Andalusian blood. J original six U.S. Supreme Court J history. How did these particular I justices. This native of Edenton The Outer Banks consist of a horses end up on the Outer J served on the bench 1790-1799. j series of barrier islands made Banks of North Carolina? Three ■ Alfred Moore: A Supreme Court . entirely of sand. They stretch 175 main theories exist. | justice from Wilmington who miles south from the Virginia The Atlantic Ocean coast of served 1799-1804. He was the ■ border to Cape Lookout the Outer Banks is nicknamed | shortest justice in Supreme Court| National Seashore. Once a hide¬ the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." ■ history at four feet five inches. * out for pirates, the area now A treacherous stretch of ocean ! Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. attracts hundreds of thousands called Diamond Shoals extends I North Carolina Corporation of tourists. What has been good fourteen miles off the shoreline . (1907): A later case in which for the economy has taken a toll of Cape Hatteras. Since 1526, I former governor Charles B. on the wild horses. Expensive more than two thousand ships Aycock represented the NCC. ■ vacation homes have replaced have sunk off this coastline, secondary dunes once covered where the cold Labrador would owe a total of about $2 bil¬ by sea oats. Vast stretches of Current meets the warm waters lion (in 2008 dollars) to those who open land from the towns of of the Gulf Stream. Seafarers still had bonds. This was almost Duck to Corolla have disap¬ risked the danger to take advan¬ equal to the value of all personal peared. tage of the swift-flowing cur¬ property (everything except for land and buildings) in the state. According to National rents. Powerful winds blew The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, Geographic, five to six thousand ships too close to shore, and the that South Dakota would get wild horses lived up and down strong currents and hidden $664,000 (in 2008 dollars). the state's coast as recently as sandbars tore them apart. A few However, the court said that 1926. Now, only about 220 of the strongest and luckiest Schaffer and Brothers could not be remain. A herd of one hundred horses may have made it to land. part of the case because it was wild horses lives on the north Imagine it is 1520. The sleeping trying to use a loophole in the law beaches of Corolla, in Currituck stallion startles to attention as the to get money. County. The others live on ship’s dark hold begins to patch Governor Charles B. Aycock was Shackleford Banks—part of the wildly from side to side. He loses hit with this lawsuit just as he was Cape Lookout National his footing, crashing sideways into entering office. He felt that South Seashore—in Carteret County. the wooden slats of his stall. He Dakota had gotten the bonds ille¬ These horses descended from scrambles to his feet as the hot, gally, so he dragged his feet in pay¬ ing the settlement. But in 1905, the fine horses of Spanish con¬ humid air fills with the frightened after Aycock left office, North quistadors—Colonial Spanish cries of nineteen other Iberian stal¬ Carolina did pay South Dakota. Mustangs brought to the New lions and mares bound for the New Schaffer and Brothers finally gave World from Spain, as well as World, from the West Indies. up and accepted the smaller pay¬ from breeding farms in the West Suddenly the horse hears a thunder¬ ment that North Carolina had origi¬ Indies and South America. ous explosion, and cold sea water nally offered. Because Spanish exploration begins to rush in. Disoriented, he

THJH, Fall 2008 " Karen McCalpin is executive director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund Inc., whose mission is to protect, preserve, 18 and responsibly manage the herd of wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs roaming freely on the northernmost Currituck Outer Banks. The fund also promotes continued preservation of this land as a permanent sanctuary for horses defined as a cultural treasure by the State of North Carolina. Her work has been published in several national magazines. thrashes madly as he tastes bitter, the nearest settlement. Rebecca salty water. Instinctively, he carefully wraps clothing around her begins to swim. Using every ounce mother's teacup, placing it in the of strength, he bursts through to sack, along with her Bible, a doll for the surface of the ocean. her baby, bread, tea, sugar, flour, Mercifully, waves carry him for¬ jerky, and a few coins. As she ward to the shore. Weak and finishes, her husband hurries her exhausted, the stallion collapses in onto a horse. He opens the gate, the sand and sleeps. . . . allowing most of their livestock to Another explanation for the go free. The family joins other presence of wild horses on the colonists and rides north. . . . Outer Banks also relates to the Regardless of how the wild dangerous sandbars. When a horses of the Outer Banks ship ran aground and could not arrived, they are a true American move, no matter how strong icon and part of both North the winds, its crew and cargo Carolina's and America's her¬ were doomed, unless the sailors itage. The Shackleford and could lighten the load and Corolla herds are registered refloat the ship. Colonial Spanish Mustangs. Imagine it is 1585. The crew of Their small numbers have placed the English flagship Tyger has them on the critical breed list of sailed from Puerto Rico and traded the American Livestock Breed with the Spanish. There are cattle, Conservancy and the Equus hogs, sugarcane, fruit, and horses Survival Trust. Both national to take to the colony at Roanoke. groups work to save endangered The crew sails north along the breeds of livestock. The next cat¬ coast, acquiring even more Spanish egory is extinction. horses. On June 24 the ship begins The Shackleford horses enjoy to enter the harbor of what is federal protection from the believed to be present-day Shackleford Act written in 1997

Beaufort. The Tyger hits a sandbar (Above and left, background) About one hundred wild by U.S. congressman Walter B. and runs aground. Waves batter horses live on the north beaches of Corolla. Images Jones. The herd must be main¬ courtesy of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund Inc. the helpless ship. Fearing that the tained at a size of no less than ship may soon break apart, 120 to 130 horses to keep it Commander Ralph Lane orders the crew to push half genetically healthy. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund the cattle and horses overboard, to make the Tyger is working to find the same protection for the lighter. Forty horses go over the side. Swimming and Corolla herd. If you would like to learn more wading in the shallow) water, they make their way to about helping, access Web site www.corollawild shore. Once the ship is refloated, it sets sail, leaving horses.com. CQ the bewildered animals behind. . . . Finally, we know that settlers left Glossary Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar, and behind animals when they were Andalusian: Known for centuries a very small part of France. abandoning a colony (often fleeing as the Spanish horse, one of the Icon:5ymbol. from disputes with American oldest breeds and native to the Shoal:Underwater sandbank or Indians or the threat of devastating Iberian Peninsula. sandbar. illnesses). Conqufctadors.-Spanish adventur¬ West In dies: A group of islands Imagine it is 1589. Rebecca hastily ers or conquerors from the 1500s. that extends in an arc from near packs her most precious belongings. Extinction .-The gradual process southern Florida to the coast of Her husband says that she must be by which a group of related living Venezuela. ready to leave by daybreak. Conflicts things dies out. between colonists and American Iberian Peninsula (orlberia): Web Sites of Interest Indians have gotten worse, and it is not Located in the extreme south¬ www.corollawildhor5es.com safe to stay. She can only fill a small west of Europe, this peninsula wwwshacklefordhorses.org cloth sack, as the family will take just includes modern-day Spain, wwwhorseoftheamericas.com enough horses to make the journey to

THJH, Fall 2008 19 THJH Essay Contest Winner: THE LEGEND ftT GIMGHOUL CftSTLE by Sarah Duck*

n 1831 eighteen-year-old Peter Dromgoole had Ijust come to Chapel Hill to attend the University of North Carolina. But Peter often set aside his studies to drink and chase women. He fell in love with a woman named Miss Fanny, who had another man after her. The other man became very jealous and soon challenged Peter to a duel up on nearby Piney Prospect, the hill where Simghoul Castle now sits. Peter and the other man each could bring a witness for the duel. Unfortunately, Peter died from bleeding to death on a large rock, which was said to be where he and Fanny had met on several occasions. The other man, and the two witnesses, got very worried, so they dug a shallow grave and buried Peter. They placed the bloodstained rock on top of the grave. A painting by Dorothy Phillips that depicts the legend of Dromgoole Rock. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. In a desperate attempt to keep the duel a secret, the other man Although many people believe that they have seen and the witnesses made up a story these ghosts of Peter and Fanny, I believe that this is about Peter joining the army. When not true. I believe that some people who hear stories like Fanny heard about what [had] hap¬ this one want to believe them so badly that they convince pened, she could not believe it. She Sarah Duck, linage cour¬ themselves they have seen a ghost—even though it may tesy of the North Carolina would return to the rock every have been their eyes playing tricks on them. Museum of History. afternoon, just in case Peter ever A lot of people have taken time to research this leg¬ came back. end and tried to find the real explanation, but the truth Although she went every afternoon, Fanny still hadn't is that this legend always will be a mystery. C' L heard from Peter. Legend has it that she often would see Peter walking in the woods, but he would disappear before he got to the rock. That soon drove her mad, and she ended up dying. Peter's killer confessed about what happened on his deathbed sixty years later. Over the years, many people have said that they have seen the Pow^r—No ghosts of Peter and Fanny walking around the woods on by Larry K. Neal Jr. * Piney Prospect. This story has been told for years by different peo¬ lternative fuel sources are very popular today, ple, which means that it has probably changed from its Ain part because of high gasoline prices. Production original telling. Some say that Peter's uncle, not Peter, has increased for hybrid cars that use more than was in a duel. There are also several different endings one kind of power technology, and research contin¬ to the story. ues into electric and hydrogen fuel cells. Perhaps I believe that most of this story is fiction. It is true another fuel source from the automotive past might make a that Peter Dromgoole came to Chapel Hill to attend the comeback: steam. Unlike most modern cars that start with university, but it is not true that he joined the army. the turn of a key, steam cars took several steps to start Some people got curious one day and found out that and up to about forty-five minutes to drive away! Peter's name was not on the enrollment list. I believe Thomas H. White, founder of the White Sewing Machine that he failed his entrance exams and left for Europe Company of Cleveland, Ohio, developed early steam-powered (which is the explanation that most people have resorted cars. In 1900 his company began to build them. It chose a to). It seems like the most logical answer. As for the Stanhope design, based on a horse buggy with high seats and bloodstained rock and the grave, researchers have a closed back. The cars were two-seat convertibles, with a investigated Piney Prospect. There is not a body under semiflash steam boiler mounted under the seat. Power came the rock, and the researchers found that the “blood" is from a two-cylinder engine connected by chain to the rear simply from copper deposits.

THIH, Fall 2008 ‘Sarah Duck, of Wilson, won first place in the secondary division of the Tar Heel Junior Historian Essay Contest 2008. She was an eighth grader at Forest Hills Middle School and a member of the Forest Hills Tar Heel Junior Historians, Carol Brugh, adviser. THJH Essay Contest Winner: VoiGes fpoiR the Past by Zachary Clade* About twenty-five years after Hernando de Soto explored the area for Spain, the Spanish colonial gover¬ ost people think that the Lost Colony on nor sent Captain Juan Pardo to claim the area. Pardo's Roanoke Island was the first European set¬ primary mission was to make a new route from Santa tlement in North Carolina. But I recently Elena (now Parris Island, South Carolina) to the silver saw a public broadcasting show called and gold mines in Mexico. Pardo built six forts, the main Exploring North Carolina that showed the one being Fort San Juan. remains of Fort San Juan. Archaeologists Dr. David Archaeology work on the Berry site started in the Moore, Dr. Robin Beck, and Dr. Chris Rodning have summer of 2001. Student volunteers from Warren located Fort San Juan in the foothills of the Wilson College and Western Piedmont Community Appalachians. The team of scholars College have discovered altogether the remains of five has unearthed this Spanish outpost large burned buildings next to an Indian mound. They that predates the Lost Colony by also found artifacts such as firearms, lead shot, nails, roughly twenty years. fragments of olive jars, small brass clothing items, The American Indian town pieces of medicine jars from the 1500s, and glass Joara once stood on the Berry beads. Underneath burned roof beams, the team found archaeological site—which is on benches with cane seats still intact. Dr. Moore said, "It property owned by James Berry, will take years to uncover the other buildings, deter¬ near the tiny community of Worry mine the extent of the Indian town, and piece together Crossroads in the upper Catawba the intriguing story of the interactions between the Valley five miles north of Spanish and the Indians." The remains of the other Morganton. There, archaeologists Spanish forts that Pardo's men built may be lost forev¬ courtesy of the North discovered the burned remains of er. They may have been plowed under. Carolina Museum of the Spanish fort. The fort was History. The team planned to return this summer [2008] to built in 1567 and destroyed in 1568 continue excavating. It is very possible that the history by Indians. The Indians may have of European settlement in North America may be been angry with the Spanish for bringing diseases. rewritten as a result of their findings. Archaeologist According to Spanish documents, the Spanish liked to Stanley South said, "This stuff talks to us, and we tell build settlements near Native towns so they could get the children of today and tomorrow what it says. They food easily. are voices from the past." >. K ust for Railroads The North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer has this 1901 White ixle. A large tiller (like on a small sailboat) turned the front Steam Stanhope on permanent display /heels. The company built a total of 193 steam-powered in its Bumper to Bumper automotive exhibit. Transportation history offers lutomobiles in 1901. many interesting stories to discover. Operating a steam car took several steps. These included Image courtesy of the North Carolina hecking the water level in the boiler, priming and igniting Transportation Museum. he fuel source (usually kerosene), and waiting until the Another Early Alternative Fuel Automobile iressure allowed the engine to run. Since this process could uring the early 1900s, steam was not the only alternative ake more than a half hour, there was no running a quick fuel source. Electric cars also were built. At the time, rrand into town! people worried not about the price of gas but about crank¬ White continued to use steam power until 1909, when it ing the carl Ever wondered where the expression cranking came :hanged to gas-powered engines. The company's cars took on from? Early gas-powered automobiles had to be hand-cranked, nore of an ordinary design for the period as well, losing the which could be dangerous if the car did not start. The crank han¬ >uggy look. White eventually quit making automobiles com- dle could spin backward, possibly causing broken arms or fingers. iletely and began production of commercial vehicles, including The electric car was simple to operate: turn on the batteries, rucks. The Volvo Corporation bought out White in 1981 and place it in gear, and release the brakes. Electric cars ceased :ontinued to produce trucks under the White name. CQ production during the 1920s with the introduction of electric starter motors and a starting switch beside the gas pedal (later moved to the dashboard or steering column).

*Zachary Clade, of Garner, won first place in the elementary division of *Larry K. Neal Jr. is the manager of visitor services THJH, Fall 2008 the Tar Heel Junior Historian Essay Contest 2008. He was a fifth grader at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in in the Generations Homeschool Group in Raleigh and a member of the Spencer. To learn more about the museum and its Legacy Legends junior historian club, Rebecca Camplejohn, adviser. offerings, access its Web site at www.nctrans.org. When Johnny Couldn’t Come Marching Home Civil War Amputations by Ansley Herring Wegner*

any wounded soldiers during the Civil War (1861-1865), including B iVf :^K those from North Carolina, had an I :':K operation called an amputat ion. In amputation, a person has an arm or leg (or sometimes just a hand or foot) removed from their body because of a terrible injury or infection. Military advances before and during the Civil War meant more-powerful, destructive weapons, and more-devastating injuries, including shattered bones. Most American doctors, however, were unprepared to treat such terrible wounds. Their experience mostly included pulling teeth and lancing (Above) Civil War doctors used quick amputation as a way to increase the boils. They did not recognize the need for cleanliness chance that critically wounded soldiers would survive. Piles of amputated limbs were common at field hospitals. Image courtesy of National Museum of Health and and sanitation. Little was known about bacteria and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C., Photograph CP germs. For example, bandages were used over and 1043. (Top) Samuel Eller, of Rowan County, of the Twenty-third North Carolina Troops, took three gunshots in his left leg at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. over, and on different people, without being cleaned. The serious wounds led doctors to amputate. He received an artificial leg from With so many patients, doctors did not have time to North Carolina in July 1866. In this 1909 photo, Eller wears a different leg. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. do tedious surgical repairs, and many wounds that could be treated easily today became very infected. legs, or an equivalent sum of money (seventy dollars) So the army medics amputated lots of arms and to amputees who could not use them. Because artifi¬ legs, or limbs. About three-fourths of the operations cial arms were not considered very functional, the performed during the war were amputations. These state did not offer them, or equivalent money (fifty amputations were done by cutting off the limb dollars), until 1867. While North Carolina operated quickly—in a circular-cut sawing motion—to keep the its artificial limbs program, 1,550 Confederate veter¬ patient from dying of shock and pain. Remarkably, the ans contacted the government for help. resulting blood loss rarely caused death. One Tar Heel veteran, Robert For soldiers who survived amputation and infec¬ Alexander Hanna, had enlisted in the tion, it was natural to want an artificial, or fake, Confederate army on July 1, 1861. Two limb—both for looks and for function. An artificial years later at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, arm will not provide a firm handshake, and an artifi¬ Hanna suffered wounds in the head and cial leg will not get rid of a limp. But a prosthetic the left leg, just above the ankle joint. For (another word used for an artificial limb) helps an about a month, before an amputation was amputee be less noticeable in public and offers the done, the leg wound oozed pus. After the chance of a more regular daily life. Artificial limbs, war, Hanna received a wooden Jewett's especially legs, helped Civil War amputees get back Patent Leg from the state in January 1867. to work to support themselves and their families. According to family members, he saved Agriculture had declined with so many soldiers that leg for special occasions, having away from home. After the war ended, it was impor¬ made other artificial limbs to help him do Robert Hanna's Jewett’s Patent Leg. The leg is tant for men to return to their farms and increase his farmwork. (One homemade leg had a so well balanced that it production of food and money-making crops. bull's hoof for a foot!) The special care is standing alone in this photo. Image courtesy of Amputees were no different—they needed to be able helped the Jewett's Patent Leg last. When the State Archives, North to work on their farms, too. Hanna died in 1917, he had had the artifi¬ Carolina Office of Archives and History. North Carolina responded quickly to the needs of cial leg for fifty years. It is a remarkable its citizens. It became the first of the former artifact—the only state-issued artificial leg on display Confederate states to offer artificial limbs to today in North Carolina. You can see Hanna's wood¬ amputees. The General Assembly passed a resolution en leg, as well as Civil War surgical equipment, at in February 1866 to provide veterans with artificial Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site. 03

9 9 THJH, Fall 2008 *Ansley Herring Wegner is a research historian with the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. She is the author of Phantom Pain: North Carolina’s Artificial- Limbs Program for Confederate Veterans. A Wagon with a Story to by Rebecca Graham Lasley*

ppearances can be deceiving. At Stanleys were the original owners of the false- Afirst glance, the wagon looks like bottomed wagon. Their young foster sons, an ordinary farm vehicle of the Andrew Murrow and Isaac Stanley, served as early 1800s. It consists of a simple drivers. We don't know how many times the wooden box mounted on wheels wagon made its dangerous, suspenseful journey that are rimmed with iron tires. A single plank of to Ohio. We don't know the names or numbers wood serves as the driver's seat. But upon closer of people who hid inside its cramped secret inspection, this wagon turns out not to be so space. What little we do know of the wagon's ordinary, after all. Boards in its front and back history comes through family stories passed slide easily out of their slots to reveal a secret down by Joshua Edgar Murrow. He grew up lis¬ compartment. What could a farmer in early tening to tales told by his grandfather, Andrew. 1800s North Carolina need to hide? Some farmers of that time might have been concealing precious cargo indeed: African Americans in search of freedom. On their own or with help, many enslaved people escaped or tried to escape to states that did not allow slav¬ ery, like Ohio. Local networks (groups of volun¬ teers) sometimes helped them. The term Underground Railroad described these efforts, because the networks operated in secret and helped move people from place to place. Some networks came up with their own vocabulary, referring to the participating locations as "sta¬ tions," the vehicles as "trains," the drivers as "conductors," and the escaping fugitives as "precious cargo." Today few people know the story of the anti¬ slavery movement in North Carolina, even though one of the era's most famous activists The secret compartment in the wagon owned by the Stanley family measures came from the state. Levi Coffin (1798-1877)— roughly three feet wide by nine feet long and one foot high. What artifacts with a story to tell can you find? Images courtesy of the Historic Jamestown Society Inc. who became known as "the President of the Underground Railroad" for his determined and You can see the wagon in Jamestown at vocal campaign against slavery—grew up in the Mendenhall Plantation, a Quaker homeplace New Garden Quaker community of Guilford built in 1811 that is now preserved as a museum. County. Although Quakers—members of the Since the Mendenhall family participated in anti¬ Religious Society of Friends, a Christian group— slavery activities, the wagon's owners decided opposed slavery, people disagreed over the best the site would be a good place for this artifact. way to express that opposition and help those Historical research tells us that, by far, most who were enslaved. Helping runaway slaves people who escaped slavery made their way on was a criminal act with severe penalties. Many their own two feet. Although wagons such as Quakers drew the line at breaking the law. this one must have been fairly rare, they have Some Quakers, especially those with more- become significant symbols—and reminders—of radical views, left the Tar Heel State during the those difficult but important journeys. At its early 1800s, as political conflict over slavery present location, the wagon prompts many grew more heated. Coffin moved to Indiana in thoughtful conversations among visitors about 1826. Among those who stayed behind, Abigail conscience and courage, as well as thornier top¬ and Joshua Stanley made their home in the ics such as slavery and race relations. In that way, Centre Community of southern Guilford County you might say the wagon still serves its purpose, into a station on the Underground Railroad. The carrying us to freedom. C' y

*Rebecca Graham Lasley is the director of Mendenhall Plantation, a historic complex THJH, FaU 2008 maintained by the Historic Jamestown Society Inc. Access wwiv.mendenhallplantation.org 23 to learn more about the site and the organization. African American Political Pioneers by Earl Ijames* n 1857 twenty-year-old Abraham Heel politics. By 1835 state IjARPEK^WEE IGalloway had hired himself out as a brick- leaders called for a new OF GlYlLIZAllO^ l mason, paying his owner fifteen dollars a constitutional convention. month. He escaped from slavery by hiding One major issue was in a turpentine barrel on a ship bound whether to continue letting from Wilmington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. free people of color vote. A The son of an Irish seaman who captained a U.S. resolution to take away government vessel and an their voting rights passed, enslaved woman from New 66 to 61. Abolitionists domi¬ Hanover County, Galloway nated the national Whig would become an important Party. However, abolition¬ African American leader and ism was not a popular polit¬ hero. He reportedly visited the ical platform in many White House and was asked by places. By 1854 the Whigs President Abraham Lincoln to had lost power, and a new become a Union spy. He mysteri¬ national party formed: the ously orchestrated events at the Republicans.

Abraham Galloway. Image Battle of New Bern in March In 1860 more than one A magazine cover portray¬ courtesy of the State Archives, 1862. The next year, he recruited million people lived in the Tar ing North Carolina's 1868 North Carolina Office of constitutional convention. Archives and History. enslaved men and free people of Heel State, including about Image courtesy of Earl Ijames. color in North Carolina for the 330,000 slaves and more than new "African Brigade," which became part of the 30,000 free people of color. When the Civ il War U.S. Colored Troops. began in 1861, North Carolina was the last south¬ Galloway is just one of thirteen African ern state to secede. By the end of the war, the Americans who served as delegates to the Tar Heel Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution State's important 1868 constitutional convention. gave its male freedmen the right to vote. Congress There is probably a lot about these political pio¬ ordered North Carolina to draw up a new state neers, and the times they lived in, that you don't constitution. The General Assembly decided to know. During the antebellum era—the years lead¬ hold a referendum in November 1867 to choose ing up to the Civil War—North Carolina's popula¬ delegates to a constitutional convention to be held tion of free people of color blossomed. This group in early 1868. Many former Confederate leaders included American Indians, African Americans, had not been pardoned by the president and were and Americans of mixed race who were not not eligible to serve. Chosen were 107 Republicans enslaved. Many North Carolina politicians at the and 13 Democrats. Thirteen black Republicans time favored universal suffrage (or voting rights) represented nineteen majority black counties. for free males of every race. The members of this "Black Caucus" were not Along with most of the state's enslaved popula¬ legislators, exactly. But they came together at the tion, most free people of color lived in the eastern State Capitol in January 1868 to take part in an counties. These "colored" people, as they were important process, helping open one of the most called then, tended to vote for eastern politicians, spirited and contentious eras in North Carolina's usually Democrats. The Piedmont and western history. Despite opposition, the 1868 delegates counties tended to vote for the Whig Party. Along passed resolutions prohibiting slavery. A uniform with pushing for better schools and internal public school system was established, along with improvements—like better roads, canals, and universal male suffrage. These men helped lay the bridges—Whigs wanted more political power for groundwork for all Tar Heel citizens' liberties and the state's west. Many backcountry farmers prosperity. Their service inspired many others, thought that the growing numbers of free people especially formerly enslaved people, to seek a of color contributed to eastern domination of Tar better life. Between the 1868 constitutional conven-

THjH, Fall 2008 *Earl Ijames is the curator of African American history at the North Carolina 24 Museum of History. tion and 1901, when George H. White left Congress Democrats regained control. By 1901 black Tar (ending the Reconstruction era), 97 black Heels had been disenfranchised—again. Republican state legislators and 27 black congress¬ Let's meet these pioneers from 1868: men served North Carolina. During the late 1890s,

Bishop James Walker Hood was born prosperous communities of free people of while still enslaved. After the convention, along the Delaware-Pennsylvania state line. color: Harlowe, established in the 1600s; however, Hayes served only in the General Slave patrols once captured him and sold him James City, named for Union General Horace Assembly of 1869. After the defeat of an into slavery. He escaped and returned home, James in 1862; and especially the colonial integration and equal facilities bill for educa¬ becoming a third-generation minister. After capital of New Bern. tion, he proposed flying the flags at the the Civil War, Hood moved to North Carolina. Henry C. Cherry, of Edgecombe County, State Capitol at half-mast to signal the He served as chairman of the Freedmen’s was born a slave about 1836. He was trained "death of all weak-kneed Republicans." Convention held in Raleigh in September as a carpenter and learned math, reading, John Adams Hyman (1840-1891) was born 1865. He led efforts for universal education and writing. Cherry is said to have worked on enslaved in Warren County, the center of the during Reconstruction. Governor William some of Tarboro's finest antebellum homes. state's “black belt." After the convention, Holden appointed him assistant The citizens of Edgecombe Hyman served four terms as a state senator. superintendent of the State reelected him twice to the state He is most noted, however, as the Tar Heel Board of Education, in charge of house. By 1870 Cherry owned State's first black congressman, serving in Negro schools. Hood founded twelve hundred dollars in real the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875 two historically black colleges: and personal property. His two and 1876. Disillusioned with the rapid return Livingstone College and daughters were rumored to be to power of ex-Confederates, especially Fayetteville State University. among the most beautiful women after the state's 1875 constitutional conven¬ Parker David Robbins of the day. One married tion, Hyman moved to Washington, D.C. (1834-1917) grew up in a commu¬ Congressman Henry Plummer Abraham Galloway, known by the nity of free people of color Cheatham, of Granville County, Democrats as a “radical" Republican—and called the Winton Triangle, along founder of the Oxford Colored considered "uppity" by many ex-Confederate the Chowan River in Hertford Orphanage. The other married leaders because he carried a pistol and {Above) J. W. Hood, from his and Bertie counties. The 1850 book The Negro in the George White, a lawyer, state demanded that they not address formerly census listed Robbins—part Christian Pulpit, 1884. legislator, and the South's last enslaved people in derogatory terms—wanted Chowanoke American Indian and {Below) Parker D. Robbins. black Republican congressman. In “owners of large estates taxed at one dollar Images courtesy of the State mulatto—as a mechanic. He Archives, North Carolina 1894 Cheatham and White vied per acre in order that the land might be sold served with the U.S. Colored Office of Archives and for the same congressional seat. by sheriffs and the opportunity given the Troops, Second Colored Cavalry, History. John Hendrick Williamson- Negroes to buy land." He favored giving during the war. After represent¬ born a slave in Covington, women the vote. Galloway mysteriously died a ing Bertie County at the 1868 Georgia, in 1844—moved to young man in 1870, shortly after his second convention, Robbins served three Louisburg in 1858. He served as term as a state senator. According to the terms in the state house. He a delegate to the Republican Christian Recorder newspaper, more than six patented two inventions, built National Conventions of 1872, thousand mourners attended his funeral. and operated one of Duplin 1884, and 1888. As secretary of James Henry Harris (1832-1891), of County's first modern sawmills, the N.C. Industrial Association Wake County, seems to be known as the most built many houses in Magnolia, during the 1880s, Williamson prominent black Republican at the convention. and owned and piloted a Cape founded and edited two newspa¬ Born free near Creedmoor, he worked as a Fear River steamboat. pers: the Raleigh Banner and the furniture upholsterer while a teenager. Briant Lee is perhaps least North Carolina Gazette. Harris operated shops on Raleigh's Fayette¬ known of the group. He got as Cuffie Mayo (1803-1896) ville Street and up the plank road in Warren many votes as Robbins from Bertie County was born free in Virginia. He moved across County. When laws governing free persons of but was never elected to the General the state line to Granville County and worked color became more stringent, he moved to Assembly or Congress. as a blacksmith and a painter. He was the Oberlin, Ohio, and later to Liberia and Sierra Wilson Carey (b. 1831), a free black only black Republican to represent the Leone in western Africa, where he taught farmer born in Virginia, represented Caswell state's largest slaveholding county at the school. During the Civil War, Harris migrated County. He had moved to Caswell County in convention. Later elected to two legislative to Terre Haute, Indiana—where many Tar 1855 and taught school. During the conven¬ sessions, Mayo had eight hundred dollars in Heel free blacks moved—and raised a compa¬ tion, he spoke against proposals to attract property by 1870. ny of U.S. Colored Troops. After the war, he white immigrants to North Carolina: “The Henry Eppes (1830-1917) was born returned to North Carolina and was a go- Negro planted the wilderness, built up the enslaved in Halifax County. He was literate between for Governor Holden and the freed- state to what it was; therefore, if anything and worked as a brickmason and plasterer. men. Harris served on Raleigh's city council, was to be given, the Negro was entitled to After serving in the 1868 convention, Eppes was a leader for the School for the Deaf and it." Carey served in the 1875 constitutional represented his county for six terms as a the 1865 Freedmen's Convention, and served convention dominated by Democrats. Elected state senator. He also served as a delegate four terms in the legislature. By 1870 he had to seven legislative terms, he left the county to the 1872 Republican National Convention more than four thousand dollars in property. after 1889 due to Ku Klux Klan violence. and became an ordained Methodist minister. He later started and edited a prominent Clinton D. Pierson represented Craven W. T. J. Hayes also represented newspaper, the North Carolina Republican, County. Craven included some of the most Halifax County. Like Eppes, he was literate whose slogan was “Firm in the Right." £v THJH, Fall 2008 25 “Tie VM" if Ad&rM* by Chris Morton* Rumored to be a wealthy Englishman, he was the Square and returned to Noland-Brown. When not life of the town—except for one detail. He was being chauffeured up and down the streets. The actually dead. Duke lay quietly in a box in one corner of an upstairs room of the mortuary. He also became an inactive e was a man of mystery, this fellow participant in several gruesome practical jokes. Hwho arrived in Asheville in the fall of Once, for example, when an unsuspecting man 1902. An Englishman with a persistent came to the funeral home to apply for a job, he was cough, he was obviously in poor sent up to see "the boss." "He doesn't talk much," health. He was attended by a nurse said one of the attendants. "Just go upstairs and tell who knew very little about him. Despite his thin, him what you want." After a period of silence, the frail posture, he presented a dashing spectacle as he snickering funeral home workers heard a loud yell stepped from the train in a well-pressed upstairs, followed by heavy footsteps and suit, bowler hat, and pointed Vandyke- a head-over-heels tumble down the stairs style beard. He took a room at one of and out the front door. Sometimes the Asheville's more-exclusive boarding¬ mortician would display The Duke in the houses on Montford Avenue, registering glass front window, as evidence of the under the name of Mr. Charles J. Asquith. superior quality of the embalming done at He Claimed to Be a Lord—Has Bttnj In this resort town of nearly fifteen In Undertaking Establishment j Noland-Brown. thousand people, rumors began to spread Here Eight Yean. Finally, one spring day in 1910, a lady that the stranger was connected to the presenting herself as Mrs. T. J. j DELIVERED TO FIRST WIFE English nobility—a man of great wealth. WHOSE NAHEIS NOT KNOWN Summerfield arrived at Noland-Brown Asquith lived but three weeks before Funeral Home. She was equally shrouded dying suddenly. Doctors suspected tuber¬ Hundreds Hate Viewed and Attempt¬ in mystery. Mrs. Summerfield explained ed Co Identify Him and Clear culosis. After he died, it was discovered Tp die MrMcrj. that she had come to claim the remains on that—far from being wealthy—Asquith behalf of her sister—his wife—who lived , The remain* of Charles J. Asquith. jU has Lord lleresford, uhsss Sldnc> had only five dollars to his name, not even l.Aacelle. have at loot been i lalmcd. in Baltimore, Maryland. She said that his [The body of Asquith or (jit-cllc. the enough to pay his nurse. His body was man who died here in OcU»l*cr. I JO!. real name was not Asquith but Sidney |inva which has remained In n hn*«l j undcrtakJnp establishment c\er since. given over to the care of a local mortician, this afternoon shlppod to Halil- j Lascelles. He went by other names as i more on affidavit of wife No 1 that i Claude Holder, at Noland-Brown Funeral i the body was that of her husband I well, including "Lord Beresford," she • and the remain* will he cremated In | Home on Church Street. Telegrams were • that city. said. He had been a sort of con man who Th«- name or the w ife No. 1 Is | withheld. Negotiations for the 1*k1v j sent to England in search of Asquith's were conducted throurh a friend. * roamed the world, gambling and losing Mrs. T. J. Summerfield of New J.t- \ family. But no one seemed to know of a icy, who made affidavit **n behalf «*f * money in phony business scams and ■wife No. 1 that the body wn« that of :hrr huslwiml. The undertaker* l**tuK Charles Asquith traveling in the ' ant lulled u* to the afTldaxH turned horse racing ventures. It was even • over the l*ody upon payment of c«*r- Americas—certainly no one connected to i in in coat* Incident to cnilwdmlnir. etc.. rumored that he had been married to sev¬ nod this afternoon the t*nrtv went P. •Ualtlmore fur cremation on train No the nobility. So the mayor of Asheville !lS.__- eral women at the same time, she added. 7" MarrUal 15 or 16 Tlnto-v. ordered that the body be embalmed and That Asquith or l^ncelle or l«nrd His family had been unaware of his held until someone came forward to claim (Above) A May 19, 1910, article in whereabouts for several years. Mrs. the Asheville Gazette News report¬ it and pay the dead man's bills. ed on the remains of "The Duke" Summerfield planned to take the body Days turned into weeks, weeks into being put on a train out of town. back north, for cremation and burial. (Background) Pack Square in months, and months into years. Eventually, Asheville as it appeared around So, after signing an affidavit—a sworn more than seven years would pass as the the time that the mysterious man statement made under oath—affirming mummified corpse waited in the mortuary. arrived. Images courtesy of Chris her story, posting a two-thousand-dollar Morton. The townspeople now jokingly called the bond (no small sum in 1910), and paying man "The Duke." Occasionally, he would be loaded one hundred and fifty dollars for the embalming, into a surrey and paraded around town, to the Mrs. Summerfield had The Duke loaded onto a train. delight or horror of the assembled masses that were Several townspeople gathered on the station platform often caught off guard. Jaws dropped, and children and waved a solemn farewell. Many were sad to see giggled, as the horse-drawn surrey carrying the life¬ The Duke go. It was like saying a final good-bye to less "Duke" clip-clopped ceremoniously around Pack an old friend.

r\r TH]H, Fall 2008 * Chris Morton is the assistant site manager of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site in Asheville. But as time passed, new questions began to ike “The Duke,” many people came to Asheville in emerge. Dr. McPherson Crichton—a doctor from the the early 1900s to enjoy the perceived health bene¬ Washington, D.C., area that Mrs. Summerfield had fits of the mountainous climate.Some came seek¬ said would cremate the mummified corpse—later ing relief of symptoms from, or a cure for, such ailments as tuberculosis (TB), rheumatism, or “nervous disorders.” stated that he had no knowledge of such an arrange¬ 5anitariums—hospitals that housed the sick—began to ment, nor did he know of a Mrs. Summerfield. In fact, open to care for the growing number of patients.In 1871 a it appeared that the mysterious Mrs. Summerfield German physician studying the effects of climate on had never arrived in Baltimore with the remains. health opened the nation’s first TB sanitarium (The Villa) in Asheville. By the early 1900s, the town had become known There was no cremation, and presumably no burial, in as the outstanding TB center east of the Rocky Mountains. Washington or Baltimore. So what had happened to Asheville still hosts a number of people seeking alterna¬ The Duke? The mystery surrounding Asheville's tive approaches to health and healing or seeking to mystery man seemed only to deepen. ‘ | ’ experience the mountains’ rej uvenating effects upon the mind, body, and spirit.

Owe Kiefeei? o? et Cenf*i?cip1»I©w by RoAnn Bishop*

ver do something so dumb that decades. Several North Carolina governors are E you just wanted to kick yourself? said to have used the machine, along with the Tom Haywood, of Croatan, knew baron and baroness of Bern, Switzerland. Local that feeling and figured other folks people say that popular television comedian might sometimes feel that way, Lucille Ball once got a kick out of the machine. too. So during the summer of 1937, he and local And President Harry S. Truman inspected it handyman Wilber Herring built a contraption while visiting the nearby Marine Corps Air that would deliver a good, swift kick to the seat Station at Cherry Point. of the pants of any willing recipient. Pictures of the kicking machine appeared in The simple machine consisted of a hand- newspapers and magazines across the United operated crank connected by a belt and pulleys States and in other countries. In October 1937 to a wheel. Four spokes, each with an old shoe Haywood demonstrated its proper use in a attached, jutted out from the wheel. To get the Universal Newsreel (a short news film shown in boot, the operator just bent over and turned theaters before the main movie, in the years the crank. before television). That same year, just for fun, A Craven County commissioner, Haywood he formed the Self-Kicking Club of America "to said he intended the kicking machine for his preserve our sense of humor" and "to remind personal use "to perform the needed rebuke to us that, 'If we kick ourselves more, my conscience." He kept it behind his house. we will kick others less.'" But so many folks heard about the machine and Haywood died in 1955, but his wanted to use it that Haywood finally moved it niece and her husband continued to a shelter in front of his general store. The to run his store and the kicking shelter stood at the roadside on U.S. 70, about machine until the 1980s. By then, ten miles east of New Bern. U.S. 70 had become a busy four- According to old newspaper accounts, the lane highway, and the kicking kicking machine got a good workout on Sunday machine got little attention. In afternoons from motorists going home from the 1993 the family donated the beach. But at nighttime, the machine really got beloved contraption to the North cranking. "A lot of folks don't want people to Carolina Museum of History. his Ticki^ma^e Tatan' demonstl-ates know they need a kick, so they wait until I close These days a replica of the N°rth Museum of °fthe up at night and then come around/' Haywood original kicking machine stands in said. "Late at night I can hear the machine just a front of Haywood's old store, now an antiques squeaking outside." shop. Heading east toward the coast, it's on the Haywood's kicking machine soon became a right side of U.S. 70 just before its intersection local tourist attraction and, eventually, a national with Catfish Lake Road in Croatan. So if you curiosity. It booted behinds free of charge for ever want to get a kick out of it, stop by.

*RoAnn Bishop is the curator of agriculture, industry, and economic life at the North THJH, Fall 2008 Carolina Museum of History. 27 “With All the Speed Imaginable”: Horse Racing in North Carolina by R Neil Fulghum’

t was the afternoon of May 27,1823, in gun could be heard. Around the track ILong Island, New York. Over sixty the horses charged. Henry, guided by a thousand people—more than the entire replacement jockey, fell behind on the population of New York City at the first lap. On the second and third laps, lime—gathered around the Union Race he slowly gained, closing the gap until Course. They were there to watch what many he nearly bumped his opponent's back¬ historians today call the greatest sporting event side. Gradually, though, American of the 1800s: the race between the Eclipse pulled away again, crossing the North's fastest horse, American finish line ahead by three lengths. By Eclipse, and the South's entry, a the end of their grueling competition, North Carolina thoroughbred Henry and American Eclipse had run a named Henry. total of twelve miles, a staggering distance by :i,::ksciT jcczs? sltj* At the starting line, the two sleek modern racing standards. It was like running SPB1N« RACES, 1S3». horses shuffled as they prepared to the Kentucky Derby more than nine times!

proprieioii - run the final "heat" in their nation¬ The North-versus-South contest of 1823 is one ally publicized three-race contest. of many exciting stories in the history of ticket issued by the Jackson Jockey A race Each race included four laps American horse racing—a history in which Northampton Countv' in 183.. Club of around the one-mile dirt track. North Carolinians have played major roles, Henry, a four-year-old chestnut especially before the Civil War. In fact, long Library at Chapel Hill stallion trained by Lemuel Long, before Kentucky was recognized as the top state of Halifax County, had won the for breeding and racing horses, some of the first race in record time, becoming the only chal¬ country's most skilled trainers and jockeys and lenger ever to beat the nine-year-old northern swiftest mounts came from the Carolinas and champion. American Eclipse, however, had Virginia. bounced back in the second race for a close win. Races in North Carolina in the 1700s usually Now—rising above the crowd's thunderous did not involve a group, or field, of horses. chants and cheers—the crack of the starter's Instead, races were head-to-head competitions pitting one horse and rider against another horse and rider. These events were run on short, narrow, straight courses. A quarter mile was the preferred distance for races in the South, so spe¬ cial horses called quarter horses were bred for acceleration and top speed. John Brickell—an Irish doctor living in Edenton in the early 1730s—provides the earliest published reference to quarter racing in North Carolina. In his book The Natural History of North Carolina, Brickell writes:

Horse-Racing they are fond of, for which they have Race-Paths, near each Town, and in many parts of the Country. Those Sir Archie (1805-1833), a celebrated quarter horse owned by former North Carolina governor William R. Davie. Sir Archie was the father, or Paths seldom exceed a Quarter of a Mile in "sire," of Henry, the horse that represented the South in the famous 1823 length, and only two Horses start at a time. race. Image courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill. .. . These Courses being so very short, they

TH]H, Fall 2008 *R. Neil Fulghum retired in August as the keeper of the North Carolina Collection 28 Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. R. Davie, and William Ransom Johnson. None of those "gentle¬ men of the turf" showed a greater dedication to racing than Willie Jones, of Halifax County. One of Jones's favorite race sites was Tucker's Path, a quarter-mile course located along North Carolina's border with Virginia. There, on May 2, 1778, another legendary race took place. Jones's horse, Trick- em, ran against Mud Colt, an impressive Virginia thorough¬ bred that North Carolina planter Atherton had rented. Trick-em won handily, ridden trf by Austin Curtis, an enslaved man whom many experts at the -'-A-. time called North America's Racing in Moore County, ca. 1920s. Image courtesy of the North Carolina finest rider and trainer. More than a century and Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill. a half before Jackie Robinson broke the color use no manner of Art, but push on with all barrier in major-league baseball, enslaved and the speed imaginable. . . . free blacks filled many winner's circles at south¬ ern and northern racetracks. Later, such courses began to lengthen. They North Carolinians continued to be major also changed shape. Oval courses let spectators players in racing until the late 1800s. The loss of watch races from start to finish. Maps from the important breeding stock during the Civil War late 1760s show elaborate oval tracks in towns was one cause for the Now that you know a little such as Hillsborough and New Bern. Distances sport's decline in the state. about Tar Heel horse racing, also became much longer. By 1800 the standard A greater cause was new race—like the one between American Eclipse local and state laws what can you learn about . and Henry—included three four-mile heats. The against gambling on rac¬ Emerald mining ability to withstand long, hard racing therefore ing. Those laws, for the The Dixie Classic became an important trait in Tar Heel horses. most part, ended the sport Rosenwald schools Many North Carolina planters and politicians professionally in North Portsmouth Village became famous in this period as national lead¬ Carolina by the 1940s. But Textile mill towns ers in breeding and fielding outstanding horses. the passion that North The Fayetteville Arsenal These included Richard Ellis, Willie Jones, Carolinians have for horses Biltmore Estate Jeptha Atherton, Marmaduke Johnson, William did not end. Thousands of Chanteymen Tar Heels still enjoy riding The Edenton Tea Party for fun, participating in The Lumina Pavilion Leonard Medical School horse shows, and going to Naval stores races held as charity Gristmills events. All of these on¬ Iron furnaces going "equine" activities Bennett Place should remind us of a time Plank roads when North Carolinians James City often numbered among the Shad boats front-runners in American Hogsheads Images of horses often can be found on old paper money. The short, thoroughbred racing. muscular animal depicted on this 1824 North Carolina currency resem¬ bles early specimens of the so-called Chickasaw breed, which American Indians developed from horses brought to this continent by the Spanish in the 1500s. The Chickasaw is often called the "grandfather of the quar¬ ter horse." Image courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.

THJH, FaU 2008 29 You Can’t Miss It: ROADSIDE FUN by Mandy Foss*

orth Carolina is home to many weird and Ramsey nwonderful landmarks with historical decided his tales to tell. Next time you travel, be on hometown the lookout for the following sites that needed an help make our state's landscape unique. even bigger pan for local Highway construction at the Salem coffeepot, March Giant Chest of Drawers, High Point events and 1956, in an image from the Forsyth County Public High Point, internationally known as the "Home festivals. So Library. Image courtesy of the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Furnishings Capital of the World," is also home to he had his some pretty big furniture celebrating that industry's employees build one. Six months later they unveiled a Tar Heel heritage. In the 1920s the High Point two-ton frying pan, fifteen feet in diameter with a six- Chamber of Commerce built a giant chest of drawers foot handle. The pan, which today sits beneath a spe¬ to serve as a "bureau of information." The thirty- cial shelter, was made of quarter-inch steel, with eight eight-foot-high building was home to the High Point pie-shaped wedges so it could be moved easily. Forty Jaycees for many years. In the 1990s the chest of draw¬ gas burners fired the pan. It could fry (and still does ers got a new look. Two huge socks, representing the on occasion) 365 chickens at once! area's textile industry, also were added, hanging out of a partially open drawer. dig Coffeepot, Winston-Salem In 1853 Julius Mickey opened a tinsmith shop in Giant Duncan Phyfe Chair, Thomasville Salem. Mickey's tinware proved very popular. But Built in 1922 by the Thomasville Chair Company to some customers complained that they could not find call attention to the town's main industry, the original his shop. Mickey's solution? He built and mounted a wooden version of the famous chair began to decay 740-gallon tin coffeepot on a post outside his Main during the 1930s. Construction of a more durable Street building. The huge coffeepot quickly became a steel-and-concrete replacement began in 1951. The community symbol. It remains a source of civic pride. current eighteen-foot-high chair sits on a twelve-foot base and is patterned after the work of Duncan Phyfe, Futuro House, Frisco a famous furniture maker active in the United States What at first glance appears to be proof of an alien in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The chair has hosted invasion was originally meant to be the modem house a number of famous visitors, including vice-presiden¬ of tomorrow. Finnish architect Matti Suuronen tial hopeful Lyndon Baines Johnson during his 1960 designed the first experimental plastic Futuro house in whistle-stop campaign. 1968 as a friend's vacation home. Created to be easily moved and set up, Futuro houses measured eleven Shell Service Station, Winston-Salem feet high and twenty-six feet round. Each had a hatch Quality Oil Company built eight clamshell-shaped gas door with steps that lowered to allow entry. Inside stations around Winston-Salem in the 1930s. Officials were bed-and-chair combinations, a fireplace, a small designed the bright yellow and red buildings to high¬ kitchen, and a bathroom. But rising plastic prices made light the company's Shell Oil products. Today only the homes too expensive for mass production. Only a one remains standing. Restored in 1997, it houses a hundred or so were built between 1968 and 1978. satellite office for Preservation North Carolina. The Fewer remain today. Frisco's at one time was a diner. building is the only individual service station listed on Does your community have its own not-to-be- the National Register of Historic Places. missed roadside attraction? Why was it created? How does it celebrate your hometown's special history? If World’s Largest Frying Pan, Rose Hill you don't know, find out. You might have your own On a trip to Maryland in 1963, Rose Hill feed com¬ "landmark" North Carolina story to share! 00 pany owner Dennis Ramsey met a group of poultry producers who boasted of having the world's largest Check the Internet to see all frying pan. Their pan was ten feet in diameter. of these unusual Tar Heel attractions!

30 TH/H, Fall 2008 *Mandy Foss works as the librarian at the North Carolina Museum of History. Up* D0wn5

ike the sea he loved, Otway Burns's life problems. H was full of ups and downs. The swash- Having A i buckling sea captain became North stressed his Carolina's first naval hero during the War financial 1812. Later he built one of the state's resources by first steamboats and served in the legislature. Yet he investing in died poor and unnoticed, living his last years as a too many lonely lightboat keeper on the Pamlico Sound. businesses, he Born about 1775 in Swansboro on Onslow had to sell County's White Oak River, Burns mastered seaman¬ most of his ship skills at an early age and became a merchant property to captain. When the War of 1812 broke out, he and pay his An oil painting of Otway Bums by F. Mahler, ca. 1875-1895. Image courtesy of the North Carolina some business partners bought a fast Baltimore clip¬ debts. In Museum of History. per ship and renamed it the Snap Dragon. They got a 1836 license to operate the Snap Dragon as a privateer—an President Andrew Jackson, another hero of the War armed, privately owned ship authorized by the gov¬ of 1812, came to the aid of the near-destitute Bums. ernment to attack enemy shipping. Jackson appointed him keeper of the Brant Island Snap Dragon measured more than eighty-five feet Shoal Lightboat near Portsmouth. Burns died there long and twenty-two feet wide, and weighed 147 on October 25,1850—having outlived his three tons. It carried a crew of eighty to one hundred men wives—and was buried in the Old Burying Ground and as many as eight cannons. Between 1812 and in Beaufort. A cannon from the Snap Dragon now 1814, Burns commanded the ship on three wartime rests atop his tomb. cruises. It sailed from Newfoundland, Canada, to Two North Carolina towns—Burnsville in Yancey South America, capturing more than forty British County and Otway in Carteret County—were named ships and their cargoes worth more than $4 million. for Burns, as were two U.S. Navy destroyers during After the war. Burns used part of his privateering the first half of the 1900s. And there are two places in profits to open a shipyard in Swansboro. There, in the state where statues still preserve the likeness of 1818, on waterfront lot number six, he built one of the scrappy—if somewhat delicate-looking—captain: North Carolina's first steamboats, Prometheus. The one in Burnsville's town square and one in paddle-wheeler traveled the Cape Fear River Swansboro that overlooks the sea. Burnsville was between Wilmington and Smithville (now Southport) named for Burns because, in 1835, he supported for seven years, even carrying President James western North Carolina's efforts to get more repre¬ Monroe in April 1819 on a visit to sentation in the General Assembly. As a inspect Fort Johnson. The vessel result, the easterners that he represented was abandoned in 1825, probably voted him out of office. because its engine wasn't as powerful as those of newer steamboats. More Fascinating Tar Heels to Learn About After trying his hand at ship¬ I Henry Lawson Wyatt Nancy Ward building, Burns moved to Ava Gardner William Holland Thomas Beaufort and dabbled in other Ray Hicks Tiny Broadwick businesses. But politics next Josiah Martin Fabius J. Haywood grabbed his interest. A Democrat, Tsali Nathaniel Batts he represented Carteret County Gabriel Rains Estelle Lawson Page Helen Gray Edmonds Elizabeth Keckly in the state legislature from 1821 A cannon from his ship, the Snap Dragon, rests to 1835 (seven terms in the house atop the grave of Otway Bums in Beaufort. George Preddy John Coltrane The monument was unveiled on July 4,1901. Dolley Madison Walter Hines Page and four in the senate). Image by M. B. Gowdy, of Beaufort, courtesy of William Gaston Thomas Wolfe Near the end of his political the State Archives, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Golden Frinks George Moses Horton career. Burns suffered money

*RoAnn Bishop is the curator of agriculture, industry, and economic life at the North THJH, FaU 2008 Carolina Museum of History. 31 32 Hole In t»lte Gt?oundl Mining forMysteryintheUwharries John Reed'sfarminCabarrusCounty,several back away.Butwithinafewyards,you by yourfeetdropsmorethaneighty by KennethW.Robinson’ Tar Heelgoldhadfirstbeenfoundin1799on your breathaway. building. Thesizeofthisholetakes come acrossanevenlargerhole— peer down,andhearthedistantecho mining. NorthCarolinaexperiencedagoldrush as otherstriedtomaketheirfortunesthrough making Reedawealthyman.Goldfeversetin, gold wasrecoveredfromtheReedGoldMine, miles westoftheUwharrieMountains.Alot call attractedprospectors,investors,andminers. ern Piedmontexplodedwithactivity:Gold!The mine begantobeworkedbeforetheCivilWar. Mountains ofsouth-centralNorthCarolina.This the historicRussellGoldMineinUwharrie rabbit hole.Youhavestumbledupon field andasdeepathree-story about one-fourththesizeofafootball feet. Fearfuloffalling,youcarefully of splashingwater,asgravelloosened Imagine walkingthroughthe This isnotAliceinWonderland's In theearlydecadesof1800s,south¬ walk uptotheedgeofhole, you cannotseethebottom.You woods andfindingamysterious twenty-foot-wide holesodeep THjH, Fall2008 before thegreatCalifornia becoming thenation's had movedintothe prospectors andminers gold rushof1849. largest producerofgold in the1820sand1830s, Companies formedto and panningthestreams. region, searchingthehills Uwharrie Mountain Civil War.Theseincluded mines, includingthe finance miningopera¬ placer mines, where the Uwharriesbefore the Russell Mine,opened in tions. Atleastfifteen By the1830s,gold explored andbegantodocumentthehistoricsite.ImagescourtesyofKennethRobinson. Archaeologists fromWakeForestUniversityandtheUwharrieNationalrecently of theopenpit.(Below,left)Thebottompitisnowgrownoverwithtreesandbrush. (Above) RemnantsoftheRussellGoldMineincludethislateralminingshaftatbottom years ofexperience inNorth Carolinaarchaeology. Hehasexcavated andstudied manyprehis¬ toric- and historic-erasites buthasaspecial interest inthearchaeology oftheJ700s andearly 1800s, industrial archaeology, and prehistoric cultures of the Woodland period. *Kenneth W.Robinson, directorofpublicarchaeology atWakeForestUniversity,hasthirty earth) tosearchthesandsofUwharrieRiver. ers evenuseddredges(machinesthatremove hillsides; shaftminesdugintoand pressurized waterwasusedtowashgoldfrom large, openpitmines.Laterinthecentury,min¬ higher thansometreesnowgrowinginthebot¬ pit coversaboutanacre.Itswallsreachmuch Carolina wasnamedforhim. One personinvolvedwithmanagementof Montgomery County,itisnearacrossroads by companysupervisors, alsohavebeenfound began theprocessofbreakingrockand get¬ the war.FortFisheroncoastofNorth the NorthCarolinaRailroad.Afterhisdeathin F. Fisher,awell-knownindustrialistandheadof Russell MinepriortotheCivilWarwasCharles gold thatearlySpanishexplorerssearchedfor. aptly namedElDoradoforthemythicalcityof mines intheUwharries.Locatednorthern Archaeological remains ofhomes,probablyused brick stampmillcanstill beseentoday. the openpit. separate verticalshaftalsowasexcavatednear large tunnelsextendsidewaysintothewalls. A tom ofthemine.Nearbottompit, the crushersandseparators. Theruinsofthe ting goldfromtheore. Steamenginespowered stamp millnexttoacreek.There,crushers from themineandcarteditdownhillto a The RussellMinewasoneofthelargestgold Workers dugquartzrockcontaininggold Russell Minewasanopenpitmine.Thehuge on nearby ridgetops. Only fireplaces remain The clanging of An Ancient History visible above the ground. ore crushers and The Uwharrie (pronounced you-whar-ee) Miners were rugged and strong. They had to mining tools no Mountains are in the south-central load rocks and ore into mining carts, operate longer resounds Piedmont about fifty miles northeast of Charlotte. The name comes from American hoists, keep steam engines stoked with wood, through the forests Indians who once lived along the Yadkin-Pee and—once gold was separated from rock—dis¬ of the Uwharries. bee River and its tributaries. Rich in history pose of the rock (called spoil). They did much of But prospecting pits, and natural resources, the Uwharries occupy the work by hand. For example, miners used open mines, and the much of Montgomery County, spilling into sledgehammers to pound iron rods to bore small ruins of mining Randolph, Davidson, Stanly, Richmond, and Moore counties. holes into the rock, which were then filled with operations can be For more than ten thousand years, dynamite used to blast rock loose. found in many American Indians alone occupied the Despite the hard work of many miners and places. These old Uwharries. Some of the state's earliest known the support of a well-financed mining company, and mysterious sites prehistoric sites are there, and archaeolo¬ the Russell Mine—like other mines in the remind us of the gists have excavated several. Indians often used the fine-grained volcanic rock of the Uwharrie Mountains—proved to be only some¬ time when gold min- area, not found in most other parts of the what successful. Though the mine operated off ing, now an essential state, to make spear-points, arrowheads, and and on into the late 1800s, the gold-bearing rock part of the state's other stone tools. They traded the stone strata eventually played out. The mine had to history, was an throughout present-day North Carolina. Late close. The amount of gold present in the hard important industry. in the prehistoric period, Indians in the southern Uwharries placed settlements and rock was simply not enough to make mining The Russell Mine farms along major rivers and streams. In one profitable, long-term. Several other older gold is located on the of the largest villages, they built a large cer¬ mines in the Uwharries survived into the early present-day lands of emonial mound. This unusual site is preserved 1900s, and newer mines opened in the area in the Uwharrie at Town Creek Indian Mound State Historic Site near Mount Gilead. the late 1800s and early 1900s. There even have National Forest. The been attempts to restart some mines within the mine has been desig¬ last fifty years. However, few people have nated as a site with special historic significance, struck it rich mining gold in the Uwharries. No and the forest staff plans to document, preserve, mines operate there today. and interpret it. 1

by The History Place in Morehead City*

ere's a North Carolina story that you cause. Emeline H might not know. It includes combs, pins, nursed the sick and two pairs of men's pants, a shirt, five wounded. Her fami¬ pounds of sugar, and some army ly entertained Con¬ boots—a total of about thirty pounds of federate soldiers supplies, all found hidden in a woman's skirt. The who were camped woman was Emeline Pigott, and her story is one of nearby in its home, courage, strength, and love. Why did she have so feeding them and many things in her skirt? What made this country giving them a place girl become so well known? to relax for a while. Pigott was born December 15, 1836, in the One of the sol¬ Harlowe area of Carteret County. She moved with diers, Stokes McRae, her family to a farm on Calico Creek, in what is now Emeline Pigott. Image courtesy of the State Archives, fell in love with part of Morehead City, when she was about twenty- North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Emeline, and she fell five years old. This was her home when Confederate in love with him. But soldiers arrived in the area to defend coastal North they decided not to marry until after the war. When Carolina from the Union army during the Civil War. McRae returned to the battlefield, he took along a The Pigotts did what they could to help the South's special Confederate flag that Emeline had made just

*Based on an article from Morehead City's Centennial Jubilee, edited by Ben R. Alford, and on other THJH, Fall 2008 historical documents from the jack Spencer Goodwin Research Library. Submitted by The History Place in 33 Morehead City, which has an exhibit on Emeline Pigott that includes a trunk of her personal belongings and the carriage she was riding in at the time of her arrest. Access www.thehistoryplace.org to learn more. for him. He survived the battle of New Bern but wore a hoop skirt filled with all the supplies lost the flag. McRae was killed at Gettysburg, listed at the beginning of this article. Women of Pennsylvania, in July 1863. Devastated by the the Civil War era wore big skirts supported by news, Emeline rededicated herself to helping an undergarment similar to a hula hoop, covered the Southern cause in any way she could. in cloth and fastened at the waist. Pigott's hoop That way would turn out to include spying. skirt also had lots of pockets where she could Who would ever suspect a pretty, friendly young keep things out of sight. She and her brother-in- woman of being a spy? How did it happen? law, Rufus Bell, got into his carriage and headed The Confederate army left coastal North out to deliver all that they had collected. Along Carolina and moved on to New Bern. Pigott the way, however, they were stopped, arrested, traveled there to continue nursing sick and and sent to jail. Emeline Pigott was about to be wounded soldiers. When New Bern fell to the searched! Union, soldiers were transferred by flatcars on a Thinking quickly, she insisted that she be train to Kinston, and she went along. Pigott searched by a suitable woman. It would be most traveled as far west as Concord to care for them. improper for a man to check her skirt! While the She met and charmed a Union soldiers left to variety of people who get a woman to com¬ would later help her, as plete the search, Pigott she would help them. stuck her note in her Some were strangers who mouth, chewed it, and had come from the North swallowed it. She tore to profit from the difficult some mail she was car¬ conditions. rying into bits. When Pigott teamed with one the soldiers returned, woman she met—the there were no papers— widow of a Union sol¬ just an amazingly full dier—to pass through skirt. both Confederate and Federal officials Union lines. By the time imprisoned Pigott in she got back to Carteret New Bern. She and a The carriage that Emeline Pigott was riding in at the time of her arrest County, the Union army by Union soldiers. Image courtesy of Carteret County Historical Society Inc. female cousin (allowed had taken over the area. to go with her to keep Her family now entertained Union officers. It her company) were shut in the basement of a was the perfect time for her to join in the enter¬ local house. (This house now serves as a gift taining and learn as much as she could from the shop for Tryon Palace Historic Sites and enemy about their plans. Gardens. Look for the historical marker on the How did she get important information and sidewalk there to learn more about Emeline supplies to Confederates nearby? There were Pigott's stay.) The women later told people that several ways. One way was to leave mail, medi¬ someone tried to kill them by dropping chloro¬ cines, food, or other things next to a certain tree form into their room. They poked holes in the or under logs specially marked in the woods. window to get fresh air and recovered from the We're not sure how these places were marked, scare, they said. Was the information that Pigott but rocks probably were placed in a certain way, had been gathering so valuable that someone or perhaps string was tied to branches in ways felt she should die? We may never know. not obvious to most people walking by. Another Emeline Pigott knew some influential people way was to carry mail and supplies personally. on the Northern side and was released without This was far more risky, since most travelers ever going to trial. She returned to her family's could be searched by Union soldiers. Pigott's farm. She never married. Her heart was always most famous adventure involved this second with Stokes McRae. She remained active in the way of delivering information to her community until her death on May 26, 1919. Confederate friends. The family cemetery is open to the public and is That day in early 1865, not only did Pigott appropriately located on Emeline Place in have what she believed to be valuable informa¬ Morehead City. tion about the Union army written in a note— tucked into her blouse next to her heart—she

34 TH/H, Fall 2008 Jj) Master of Round Peak Music ^ 6 by Linda Blue Stanfield*

ave you ever heard of could be fast for dancing, or slow ballads HTommy Jarrell, Round Peak that related all types of stories: happy, silly, music, or the Tommy Jarrell sad, or tall tales, to name a few. One song Festival? Did you know that has many versions, "Cotton-Eyed that the fiddle Jarrell Joe," tells a short rhyming story: played starting at age fourteen (a fiddle that is more than one hundred and Cotton-Eyed Joe fifty years old) is part of the Way down yonder a long time ago Smithsonian Institution's collection in Daddy had a man called Cotton-Eyed Joe Washington, D.C.? Well, Jarrell (1901-1985) was born Made him a fiddle and made him a bow Thomas Jefferson Jarrell, one of And they made a little tune called eleven children of Benjamin Franklin "Cotton-Eyed Joe." and Susan Letisha Amburn Jarrell. The family lived in a community Would have been married long time ago called Round Peak in Surry County. Hadn't a been for Cotton-Eyed Joe Like most of their neighbors, they were of Scottish heritage. Tommy Tommy Jarrell became well known as a musician in I fell down and stubbed my toe attended Ivy Green School through the late 1960s. A documentary called Sprout Wings and Call for the doctor, Cotton-Eyed Joe Fly features Jarrell and his music. Image courtesy of the the seventh grade. Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. Folks in the community of Round Fourteen feet of ice and snow Peak had a wonderful musical tradition. They passed The roof caved in on Cotton-Eyed Joe the songs, tunes, and words to songs brought from the old country down from one generation to the Chicken in the bread pan peckin' out the dough next. Often, these "old-time" songs were learned by Grannie will your dog bite? No, child, no heart, or memorized, because many of the people could neither read nor write. A field hand on the Chorus Jarrell farm, Baugus Cockerham, taught eight-year-old Where did you come from, Where did you go Tommy Jarrell to play the banjo. A few years later, Where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe Jarrell fell in love with playing the fiddle. He learned well, from his father, uncle, and other area musicians. People played old folk songs like "Cotton-Eyed He had memorized and could play more than one Joe," "Cumberland Gap," "Sally Ann," and "Cindy" hundred songs by the time he was eighteen. after a long, hard workday. Families in the community So many musicians in Jarrell's community could might share a neighbor's harvest chores, like peeling play music from the old country that the music and and drying apples or shucking corn. Wood choppings sound came to be called Round Peak music. The tunes and bean stringings became fun because of what every¬ were played on stringed instruments—usually a gui¬ one knew would follow once the work was done: a tar, a fiddle, and a banjo were all that were needed. good meal, drinking, making music, and dancing. The musicians played in what is called clawhammer Jarrell became famous for his music late in life and style. It differs from other styles because of the direc¬ traveled across the United States to play. In 1982 he tion in which instruments are picked. In traditional was chosen as one of fifteen master folk artists for the styles like folk, bluegrass, or classical, there is an up- first National Heritage Fellowships of the National picking motion by the fingers and a down-picking Endowment for the Arts. Jarrell's style remains as motion by the thumb. In clawhammer-picking style, popular as ever—played, listened to, enjoyed, and the hand forms a clawlike shape and the musician preserved by young and old. A wonderful documen¬ keeps the strumming finger fairly stiff, striking strings tary called Sprout Wings and Fly features Jarrell and by the motion of the hand at the wrist or elbow, his music. Every February, a festival in Mount Airy rather than a flicking motion by the finger. honors them. You can attend and join the next genera¬ Round Peak songs told of everyday life. They tion of "old-time" Round Peak players.

*Linda Blue Stanfield serves as the director of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. TH]H, Fall 2008 She is a graduate of Salem College and the Jekyll Island (Georgia) Museum Institute. She recom¬ 35 mends the book Strings of Life—Conversations with Old-Time Musicians from Virginia KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK and North Carolina by Kevin Donleavy as a great resource for more information on the subject. J' J J J ^ J J ' J J ’ J' J J ^ J' J' J' J' J' J J \ r More Famous North The Ghost Train oi Bostian's Bridge Carolina Railroad Ghosts by Tony Reevy* ❖The Cowee T unnel, Great 5moky Mountains Railroad. Dillsboro ou may have heard of the ghost light cross it, she ❖The Maco Light, Maco Yof Maco, but have you heard about the heard a ❖The Ghost of Mud Cut, near ghost train of Bostian's Bridge? horrible 5wannanoa Bostian's Bridge is a sixty-foot-high crash. She ❖The Vander Ghost Light, Vander arch bridge made of brick and stone. saw the ❖The Warsaw Ghost Train, Warsaw Built for the Western North Carolina Railroad in train 1858, it crosses Third Creek just west of plunge off V Statesville. the bridge, its old-fashioned wooden passenger On August 27,1891, a passenger train left cars splintering into pieces. They piled into a Salisbury for Asheville on the Western North jagged mound below. Carolina Railroad (by then part of a railroad Screams and groans of wounded people filled known as the Richmond and Danville). When the the air. The woman ran across the road and train got to Bostian's Bridge, it was 3:00 a.m. through a field to the side of the creek. Up close, Most of the passengers were asleep. As the train the sight was even more terrible. The engine, its crossed the bridge, it left the tracks and plunged tender (the car attached to the engine carrying its off the bridge into the creek. Twenty-two people water and coal), and passenger cars formed a died from the fall or from drowning. The cause of twisted mass of wreckage being flooded by the the wreck remains unknown. waters of Third Creek. A legend surrounds the wreck, though. The Hearing a car pull up on the road behind her, story people tell goes like this: Fifty years later, the woman ran back across the field, screaming very early in the morning of August 27, 1941, a that a terrible train wreck had just happened. Her woman was waiting along the road that ran husband was in the car with a stranger, the man beside the railroad tracks near Statesville. Her who owned the country store just down the road. husband had gone to get help after their car had The three of them headed back across the field a flat tire. and looked down into the quiet waters of Third The woman heard a train whistle in the dis¬ Creek. No wreck was there. tance. A headlight appeared down the tracks, Of course, the men thought that the woman sweeping through the trees as the engine had fallen asleep and dreamed up the whole approached. The woman noticed the huge bridge thing. But when they continued their trip, she in front of the train. As the engine began to made her husband stop by the Statesville train station to find out if there had been a wreck. When the couple asked at the ticket window, the station agent looked up from his work. "Funny you should ask," he said. "There was no wreck on the railroad last night. But, fifty years ago today, there was a horrible wreck out there at Bostian's Bridge." As he said this, the woman screamed and fainted. She knew that she had seen a ghost train. Even today, people say that if you go to Bostian's Bridge at about 3:00 a.m. on August 27, you will see the ghost train. These days, riding a train is one of the safest ways to travel. But passenger trains do not run across Bostian's Bridge, only freight trains. The last passenger train on the line, the Asheville Special, stopped running in 1975. A new passen¬ ger train from Salisbury to Asheville is being Bridge. Image courtesy of the North The aftermath of the 1891 train wreck at Bostian's planned and would cross Bostian's Bridge. If you Carolina Museum of History- get to ride it, look for the ghost train! |

THjH, Fall 2008 *Tony Reevy—senior associate director of the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 36 Hill is a David P. Morgan Award winner (2006) and a Pushcart Prize nominee with publications in several genres. His books and chapbooks include Ghost Train!: American Railroad Ghost Legends; A Directory of North Carolina's Railroad Structures (with Art Peterson and Sonny Dowdy); Green Cove Stop; Magdalena; and Lightning in Wartime. A THANKSGIVING DAY DISASTER by Scotti Cohn*

y 1890 the North Carolina Piedmont On Thanksgiving Day 1892, the Hotel Zinzen¬ town of Winston had become as modem dorf's chefs rose early to prepare a splendid feast. as anyone would want it to be. Its resi¬ Reynolds and several other hunters went into the for¬ dents enjoyed electric streetlights, paved est and shot wild turkeys and quail to complement streets, railroad service, telephones, and delicious side dishes made by the staff. streetcars. Many Americans were thinking big in the By 11:00 a.m. the aromas of fresh-baked bread and Gilded Age—an era of relative prosperity and rapid roasted turkey with all the trimmings filled the halls. advances in technology. A group of leading citizens Hotel guests gathered outside the dining room, in Winston decided to turn a part of town called the expecting someone to announce, “Dinner is served." West End into a fine resort community. The focal Instead, they heard a shout from the laundry room: point would be a lavish, or fancy, hotel built atop a “Fire! Fire!" knoll at the head of Fourth Street. The hotel would Flames shot out from the rear of the grand hotel. have elevators, electric lights, and hot and cold water People grabbed furniture, fixtures, and personal pos¬ in public and private baths on every floor. Rich peo¬ sessions as they ran out the doors. Cadets from Davis ple from all over the world would come to stay, the School plunged into the burning building to rescue planners thought. guests and property. With its wooden frame and The group planning the resort community included cedar shingles, the Hotel Zinzendorf stood no chance tobacco king R. J. Reynolds, a wealthy and progres¬ against the hungry fire. Neither did the two firefight¬ sive businessman whose family played a big part in ing companies called to subdue the blaze. "With the development of Winston and its neighboring wonderful rapidity, the flames sped on with wild, town of Salem. Winston and Salem were then called fantastic leaps," a newspaper reported. "One minia¬ the Twin Cities. Reynolds and the others knew that a ture cyclone after another swirled out of the mass . . . fancy hotel in Winston would bring fame and fortune hurtling viciously across the lawn." to Salem, too. They decided to name the hotel after No one was seriously hurt, but by 1:00 p.m. the Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the leader hotel lay in ruins. Onlookers and firemen organized of the Moravian colonists who had originally laid out an impromptu Thanksgiving Day "picnic on the the town of Salem. grounds," sharing food salvaged from the fire. The Historical sources disagree on the Hotel feast did not include the turkey and quail bagged by Zinzendorf's opening date, but it was probably com¬ Reynolds and the other hunters. "They were cooked pleted sometime in 1891. The hotel stood four stories all right," said one man, "but never served." high and was as long as a football field. Ten towers Winston's dreams of becoming a famous resort of different sizes and shapes made it look like a cas¬ town went up in smoke that day. The exact cause of tle. Hardwood furnishings added to the elegant the fire was never determined. Insurance covered feeling. Through hotel windows, guests gazed out part of the loss, but no one seemed willing or able to over a huge forest and enjoyed a panoramic view of rebuild the Hotel Zinzendorf in its glory. One reason: distant mountains. In the evenings, they waltzed to In 1893 the United States entered a serious economic the music of a twelve-piece orchestra in the ballroom. depression. The Gilded Age had ended. 3 ■ k

(From left) A work crew poses during the building of the Hotel Zinzendorf. People watch the hotel bum. Images courtesy of the Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.

*Scotti Cohn has lurittenfive books published by Globe Pequot Press: Disasters and Heroic Rescues of North THJH, Fall 2008 Carolina; It Happened in North Carolina; More than Petticoats: Remarkable North Carolina Women; 37 Liberty's Children: Stories of Eleven Revolutionary War Children; and Beyond Their Years: Stories of Sixteen Civil War Children. She lives in Illinois and is working on a sixth book for Globe: It Happened in Chicago. ■u > ?o Os z o. £L Ln o E* £— >n •■n 2. O l-l a era’ C/3 C/3 tr 2 e o n> C/5 p ft Z n C/5 o o ft et <—i o' K> »n 3 c rt Si S. 3 Os o • sO ft ?o 2 O ft sO c i n (/) >-t c 4- ft n ft Os 3 C C/3 Ln rt ft rt> O ►n 3 So O £ -h O T1 '"t

o 3 > C/5 C/5 o **o • sa O 3

ft