180 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

hiring day for the deeds of darkness done, still it was hardly to
be reckoned a day of sadness or of gloom. Uncertainty there
was, and with uncertainty a doubt akin to fear, yet over all and
above all the star of hope arose. There were some tears, but
there were many smiles. There was some gloom as one went to
a master always-reckoned hard, and there was also gladness as
another went to his or her chosen place of servitude. Owners
in general heard the complaints of their slaves, and in tender-
ness and sympathy as well as from self-interest provided for

them; they saw that they were fed and clothed or they would
know the reason why.

But, whether bright or dark, those days are gone, and who
would bring them back? And yet it is easier to call them wrong
than to prove them so.

In 1840, as has been said, Wilmington contained 4,268 souls.
Of these 1,004 were white males and 916 white females. Of
free colored people there were 356, of slaves 1,992. Mr. Alex-
ander Anderson was magistrate of police. At that date every
little town or village did not aspire to be governed by a mayor,
and despite the title of the chief officer, guardsmen were simply
town guards and not policemen or police. Mr. Anderson had
resided in Wilmington just forty years; he arrived here from
the North January 1, 1800. He was at the time president of
the Branch Bank of the State, and was occupying or had oceu-
pied every office of honor or trust the citizens could confer upon
him. He rises before our memory as very like his son, Dr.
Edwin A. Anderson, who was taken from us but a year or two
ago. Quite as venerable he was in appearance; indeed, for
years before his death he was known as “Old Mr. Sandy Ander-
son.” He died November 15, 1844, at the age of sixty.

James IF’, McRee, Armand J. DeRosset, sr., E. P. Hall, and
W. J. Harriss had been elected town commissioners in 1839 and,
save Dr. Harriss, who died in the spring of 1839, were still in

office. Senex, JR.

VI.

It might properly have been mentioned in connection with the
history of newspapers published in Wilmington, that the Chron-
icle in the opening days of 1840 was printed in a building stand-
ing where the shoe store of Peterson & Rulfs now stands, on the
west side of Front Street, a very few yards above Market. The

Early Years 181

building was destroyed by fire in January of that year, and dis-
continuance of the paper was enforced for eight or ten weeks.

When revived the printing and publishing quarters were in a
warehouse in the alley north of the Cape Fear Bank building
until June, 1840, when the office was reéstablished in a building
which had been erected on the old site. Here it continued
through the forties, and until it ceased to appear.

The Wilmington Journal, in the fall of 1844, was published
in the Bettencourt Building, corner Front and Princess Streets,
now occupied by I. H. Weil. The Journal Building, on Prin-
cess Street, was built for it when it launched out into publica-
tion of the daily edition, and there it remained for probably a
quarter of a century or more.

The Tri-Weekly Commercial was published by Stringer &
Whitaker—not Loring & Stringer as we stated—on the south-
west corner of Front and Market in what was long afterwards
known as the Commercial Building, and which is now occupied
by the confectionery establishment of Mrs. E. Warren & Son.
The offices and pressroom were in an upper story, the lower
being occupied as a dry-goods store by Kahnweiler Brothers.
For the convenience of the public, the arrivals of the mails then
being exceedingly irregular, there stood upon the roof of the
Commercial Building a flagstaff from which a flag floated at the
proper times, with the word “Steamboat” in white letters upon
a blue ground, or “Cars” in white upon a red ground, thus an-
nouncing that the mails had arrived and soon would be at the
disposal of the public.

Some information has come to hand relative to Mr. William
Soranzo Hasell, who edited the Wilmington Gazette: He was
born in Wilmington and here lived and died. Graduated from
Yale College in 1799, being then only eighteen years of age, he
studied for the profession of law, but soon abandoned it and for
a time kept a bookstore and circulating library, afterwards along
with this occupation editing the Gazette until 1815, when he
died, aged thirty-four. In 1840 there stood on the southwest
corner of Third and Ann Streets—set well back from either
street and fronting on Ann—a house showing decided marks of
the ravages of time, but still a building of massive proportions,
pink-stuccoed, and bearing indications otherwise, especially
taken along with the surroundings, of having been the residence
of people of wealth. It was known at the period of which we
write as the “Williams Castle,” but was understood to have been