Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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for "Arthur, Billy"
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8175
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Francis P. Venable began teaching chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1880. He modified the Bunsen burner so the supply of gas could be gradually and accurately regulated, making it invaluable to the university and to chemistry in general. Venable's other contribution was his discovery of calcium carbide and acetylene gas, while working for the Willson Aluminum Co. of Spray, NC. The company's co-owner, Thomas Willson, took credit for the discovery by applying for a patent and then fled to Canada. Venable was president of UNC Chapel Hill from 1900 to 1914, and when he resigned, the trustees established the Francis P. Venable Chair of Chemistry, which Venable himself filled until retiring in 1930.
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8216
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Lieutenant Roy Wilder, Jr., became a missionary of the North Carolina chitlin faith during World War II. While stationed in London, Wilder received a jar of chitlins from home. With a group of fellow North Carolinians, Wilder cooked the chitlins, creating a unusual smell in the London air. Future N.C. House of Representatives speaker pro tem Allen Barbee, Greenville lawyer William W. Speight, and future Asheville Citizen editor John A. Paris were all present at the chitlin dinner. Following the Normandy invasion, Wilder made a promise to Lindsey Nelson, a future CBS sports reporter, and Don Whitehead, a future Pulitzer Prize reporter, to meet in Germany on Thanksgiving for a chitlin dinner. This did not occur, but Wilder kept his jar of chitlins and met up with the two in March 1945 in Remagen, Germany. There, the trio cooked up a southern meal complemented with champagne, donated by fellow servicemen. Newspapers, Time magazine, the comic strip Pogo, and the Air Force Diary and Magazine reported the chitlin dinner for readers in America. Wilder later sent chitlins to fellow correspondents in Korea and Vietnam.
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8225
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Born near Scotland Neck, Halifax County, in 1829, Peter Evans Smith became an ingenious inventor. He developed a new drill bit that decreased the time it took to cut through iron, a new cotton planter, a spark arrestor for wood-burning locomotives, and a railcar switching device. His most famous invention was a lighted buoy which was patented in 1876. Smith placed lighted buoys in New York's harbor but never received the one hundred thousand dollars promised to him. Throughout his life, Smith always kept the Sabbath and never worked on projects on Sundays. Because of his Christian beliefs, he did not sue the state of New York over unpaid royalties.
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8278
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Montfort Stokes once gave up an opportunity to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat in 1805, citing family obligations. Stokes was later elected to the senate seat in 1816, and he held that position till 1823. Stokes was a Virginia native but lived in Salisbury and Wilkes County. Stokes assisted in the settlement of the North Carolina – South Carolina and the North Carolina – Tennessee boundaries while serving as boundary commissioner. Stokes remained active in state politics as a member of the state senate, the state house of commons, and as North Carolina governor from 1830-1832. Stokes died in 1842 while serving President Andrew Jackson in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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8400
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Junius L. Clemmons, a native of Clemmonsville, developed a system of dots and dashes that could be sent through copper wire. Clemmons developed his communications device in 1833 and sent the design to a Mr. Page, who was a professional electrician in Washington, D.C. Clemmons never heard back from Page. In 1837, Clemmons read a newspaper article that told of Samuel Morse and Page creating a telegraph system. Clemmons then discovered that Page worked in the U.S. Patent Office and could not issue a patent to himself. Page, therefore, used his friend, Samuel Morse, and earned a patent to the telegraph. Clemmons wrote an article in the Washington Globe claiming that he was the true inventor of the telegraph. Page admitted receiving Clemmons design, but he denied copying it. Clemmons forgave Page for his betrayal and enjoyed a successful law firm in Kentucky, becoming the oldest practicing lawyer in the nation before his death.
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Record #:
8551
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Born in Surry County July 27, 1812, Thomas L. Clingman attended law school at UNC-Chapel Hill and served as a general in the Confederate Army. After being thrown from a horse and later shot in the leg, Clingman applied wet tobacco leaves to his injuries and discovered that this treatment lessened both the pain and swelling within a day. Clingman published a pamphlet in1885 titled “The Tobacco Remedies – The Greatest Medical Discovery.†Prominent Tar Heels including several doctors provided testimonials as to the efficacy and various cures that tobacco offered. Clingman later sold a tobacco leaf cake which could be taken apart and made into a poultice or ointment. Tobacco's healing properties were never definitive or fully accepted when Clingman died in 1897.
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Record #:
8589
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Paul James “Hardrock†Simpson was born on September 2, 1904, in Guilford County. During his lifetime he ran over 160,000 miles and became a running icon. Hardrock began running as a high-school athlete in 1927. By 1934, he had run across the United States twice and had won the $1,000 Montreal-Quebec and return race. A graduate of Elon College, Hardrock worked as a postal carrier. He ran his entire life and spent each birthday running as many miles as he was old.
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Record #:
8602
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North Carolina's seal has undergone changes up to a dozen times since its inception in the early 18th-century. The Lords Proprietors provided the first seal, depicting two Indians, one supporting two crossed cornucopias and the other holding an arrow. The Liberty figure first appeared on the seal in 1730, and the Plenty figure appeared in 1778. Between 1834 and 1882, the seal underwent many changes, and, in 1882, was criticized for Liberty and Plenty being too provocatively dressed. Because no official description of the seal existed, worn seals were replaced with inaccurate copies, resulting in this “too sexy†seal. In 1883, the first official description of the state seal was adopted, and both “May 20, 1775†and “Esse Quam Videri†were added in 1893.
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Record #:
8636
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Sarah Decrow of Perquimans County was recognized as the first woman postmaster in the United States. Although not much is known about her life, records show that she married twice and inherited land and an inn upon the deaths of her husbands. She was often in court disputing tenants' debts. She was appointed postmaster at Hertford in 1792 and held the position until at least the beginning of 1795. The date of her death is unknown but her will was filed for probate in May 1795.
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Record #:
8777
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Squire W.O. Bailes' estate lay partly in North Carolina and partly in South Carolina. He owned and operated a farm and cotton gin in the North Carolina part of the estate, but found it to not be as profitable as he would have liked. Because South Carolina marriage laws were so lax, Bailes was able to perform marriages easily in order to supplement his income. Between 1897 and 1902, he performed 527 ceremonies, at varying prices depending on income.
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Record #:
8807
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As a child, Billy Arthur spent his summers with family members in Cabarrus County. Saturdays took the appearance of small holidays as the whole family took baths throughout the day so that all would be clean for Sunday morning church. Bathing was done in order from youngest to oldest and ended when the oldest male finished his bath. During the summer months rural families usually used an outdoor tin wash tub, but some were lucky enough to have a porcelain tub. In the cold winter months, however, bathers stood in a wash bowl and sponged themselves in front of a fire. While progress has made the bathing process much easier, it has also taken away the simple pleasures that the weekly Saturday bath created.
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8815
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North Carolina has long been a pioneer in the movie industry. The state was the site of the first all-cartoon show, the first double feature, and showed the first “talkies†in the South. Charlotte served as a movie distribution center during the 1920s and was considered a “second Hollywood.†The first movies seen by North Carolinians were shown by George Bailey and Fox Howard in 1906. The two men showed a movie in New Bern's Masonic Theatre. The movie was a success and the men took their movie to Wilmington's Bijou Theatre on December 24, 1906. The Bijou was the state's first theatre built exclusively to show movie pictures. In 1921, North Carolina produced a film on the Lost Colony which was shown all over the state. It was America's first educational film. Today, the movie industry is still thriving in North Carolina. In 1980 the N.C. Commerce Department created the N.C. Film Office, who predicts that the film industry will boost the state's economy $75 million to $100 million annually.
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Record #:
8936
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During the Civil War, North Carolinians found substitutes for items they could no longer buy. North Carolina produced impressive amounts of tobacco and cotton, but beyond those two products, the state relied on imported goods. These goods were cut off during the war by the Union blockade. North Carolinians made do with what they had. Billy Arthur describes some of these efforts such as boiling the dirt from smoke house floors for the salt and carving wooden shoe soles for a leather substitute.
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Record #:
9039
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In the 1850s, wealthy women of Wilmington wore fire beetles on their clothes for formal evening occasions. Emitting a beautiful greenish light at the base and reddish light at the abdomen, fire beetles were sold at about twenty-five cents a dozen. The beetles required food, twice daily baths, and were kept in tiny cages. The bugs are native to tropical North and South America.
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Record #:
12028
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Zebulon Baird Vance, served as Governor of North Carolina intermittently between 1862 through 1879. This article offers small snippets of information describing public opinion as well as the admiration held for him on behalf of his citizens.
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