By 1718 Governor Spotswood had become disturbed by the reports of Blackbeard's attempted fortification of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. The Governor hired two sloops to track him down and Lieutenant Robert Maynard brought Blackbeard to his end.
Photojournalist Charles Brantley Aycock Brown has taken numerous photographs and written various articles pertaining to the Outer Banks. Known as North Carolina's number one reporter, Brown is renowned statewide for his efforts.
North Carolina's pioneer insurance company, the Pilot Life Insurance Company, got its modest start in Greensboro, North Carolina, but has built on the fortunes of tobacco and textiles.
In the concluding article on Pilot Insurance Company (previous in 12 December 1953, Vol. 21, No. 28, pp. 2-3, 16), Davis examines how Pilot survived the stock market crash to continue investing in the South.
In 1854, W. N. Hackney of Wilson gave a wagon wheel a push and that wheel is still rolling along. Over the past century the Hackney wheel has rolled under wagons, buggies, and today, school buses and refrigerated trucks.
Within a few years, one of the state's most valuable natural resources was utterly wiped out, but a new hybrid chestnut tree may partially replace the loss in forests.
In 1952, the Taylor Brothers Tobacco Company of Winston-Salem was sold to the American Snuff Company. This sale marks the end of small, independent tobacco manufacturers in the state.
Some of the finest channel bass fishermen in the world reside in North Carolina. Davis describes some of these men such as Grady Sheets, Captain B. R. Balance, J.T. Justice, David Smitherman, John Campbell, and Robah Dean.