Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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for "Kammerer, Roger"
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23363
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The village of Oakley, also referred to as the depot of “Leens,” was part of the Carolina township and an important lumber shipping point on the Washington Brach Rail Road, which was built in 1892 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The community was named by C. E. Leens, a train engineer for the line. Leens began as a platform and a lumber shipping point, where in 1892 a post office was established there called “Oakley.” Around this grew other stores and buildings, and the town of Oakley was incorporated in 1903, welcoming teachers, merchants, and businesses. Despite is growth, in 1910 Oakley began to fade as the population dwindled to 27 persons in 1940. Along with the decay of the railroad system came the disintegration of the township of Oakley.
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Record #:
23364
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An 1881 blurb in The New York Times claimed the people in Greenville, N.C. threw their watermelon rinds in the street for the pigs to eat. Even the Saturday Evening Post had noticed Greenville’s long struggle with how to dispose of its rubbish, refuse, and trash. In olden days, everything was recycled or reused, from the food and flour sacks to the rags, glass, and tin cans. Dumping became a problem, as well as the odor and congregation of buzzards, cattle herding in the streets, and trash accumulation on the river where ferries landed and parishioners were baptized. It was not until 1926 that the Greenville Town Ordinance regulated garbage disposal, and in 1958 the City began turning the dump placed behind Greenwood Cemetery into a landfill. This dump was originally home to an 82 year old hermit, Henry Daniel Bennett.
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23365
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Greenville once enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most beautiful small towns in the South, especially during the holiday season. Early decorations were handmade and Christmas trees were put up on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Candles were only lit on the tree when there was a gathering of people to watch it. Electric Christmas lights started being used about 1916 and the Merchants Association made sure the downtown had decorations. In 1928, the Merchants Association began placing a 30 foot Christmas tree attached to wires over top the traffic island in the center of Five Points. Fire crackers, Roman candles and other fireworks turned the downtown into a battle zone and kept the fire department busy putting out fires on store awnings. There were “Mummers,” carolers, and choirs. In the early 1960’s, there was a nationwide Christmas radio broadcast from Greenville, NC, issuing a Tar Heel Christmas greeting to the country. There were always special Christmas programs at the County Home and the Prison unit north of the river.
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Record #:
23366
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The Forbes Mill Pond, once located on the ground of what is now the Greenville Country Club, was a Pitt County landmark for 130 years. Reverend Noah Tyson owned Forbes Mill Pond’s and Robert Forbes bought it after 1805. The mill was the site of numerous baptisms, local gatherings, and disputes. The land became the Amuzu Amusement Park and land disputes and financial troubles put the mill in the hands of the Greenville Country Club in 1923; they eventually took down the mill dam. The only remnant of the landmark’s memory is the Tyson-Forbes cemetery which sits on the rise above the former mill site.
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23367
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January 30th, Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday, became a day dedicated to raising money for polio research and treatment. In 1934, nearly 5,000 communities, including Greenville, held their first ball, raising over one million dollars for the Warm Springs Foundation and Rehabilitation Institute. Balls, shows, benefits, and auctions continued in Greenville until 1948.
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Record #:
23368
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David Barnhill was a right-handed pitcher with a unique style and immense control born October 30, 1914 in Greenville, NC. Barnhill signed with the Miami Giants in 1936 and joined the New York Cubans in 1941. Though never given the opportunity, Barnhill hoped to be the first black player to try out for a major league team. He led the Cubans to win the Negro World Series, and led the New York Giants Triple-A team to the 1950 pennant.
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23369
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The Ficklen family of Greenville traces back to James Ficklen of Virginia, a merchant, legislator, and commissioner to the Paris Exposition. Ficklen and his wife had nine children, several of which were noted citizens of Greenville. They individually and collectively have been involved with the East Carolina Teachers Training School, real estate and insurance businesses, cotton, tobacco, and the development of Greenville as a city. James Skinner Ficklen was a close friend of the college, for which the James Skinner Ficklen Memorial Stadium was dedicated.
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Record #:
23370
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In the 1880s, Greenville held lavish festivities to celebrate the Fourth of July and by 1889, this included boat races. Four local crews joined in the First Annual regatta, and spectators gathered along the river to see the Dixie win her first cup. In 1890, the regatta continued with locals providing prizes to the participants, and the Dixie again won the Championship Cup of the Tar River Boat Club. In 1891, a flood cancelled the annual boat race.
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Record #:
23371
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On November 13, 1833, the Leonid meteor shower occurred over North Carolina and was reportedly one of the most spectacular meteor showers in history. Eyewitnesses claimed it appeared all of the stars were falling from the sky, and some people thought that the phenomenon meant it was Judgment Day. The author gives the newspaper accounts from the newspapers from New Bern, Tarboro, and Raleigh. People were superstitious and went on their roofs and to tombstones in cemeteries with brushes and a jar to gather “star dust.”
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Record #:
23372
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Born in Tekamah, NE, Edmund Richard Gibson learned how to ride a horse at a young age. Because of his interest in hunting owls, he was nicknamed "Hoot." He joined the circus at age thirteen and was stranded in Colorado. He worked as a cowpuncher until 1910, when a film director hired him for a short silent film. He competed in rodeos while he appeared in two other films. In 1912 he won the World’s All-Around Champion Cowboy award. He then began to appear as a stunt double for such stars as Harry Carey. He did a short stint in the Army during WWI but returned in 1919 to become a major western movie star. He went on to appear in more westerns than any other Hollywood movie star and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hoot Gibson came to Greenville on October 3, 1937, with the Hagenbeck-Wallace railroad circus. He died of cancer in 1965.
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Record #:
23373
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In 1880, Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and as a nineteen month old child, she contracted a disease that left her deaf and blind. Her parents hired Miss Anne Sullivan in 1887, and she taught Helen to finger spell. Helen graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904. Miss Keller and Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy spoke at East Carolina Teachers Training School on May 1, 1916. Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy began by telling about Helen’s life. Helen then spoke to the crowd, and at one point, catching the smell of a lily, had Mrs. Macy find it for her and caressed it. The audience asked Helen questions after her speech. She won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and was elected to the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1965. She also raised money for the American Foundation for the Blind and campaigned to improve the living and working conditions for the blind. “The Unconquered,” a documentary film about Helen Keller’s life, was created in 1953. In 1957, a live drama television play about her life entitled “The Miracle Worker,” was first performed.
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Record #:
23374
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Bennett Williamson Moseley and Alfred McDowell Moseley were born in Bedford Co., VA in 1874 and 1879 respectively, to Rev. Bennett Williamson Moseley and Louise Jane Venable. B. W. started a cotton buyer and shipping business in Greenville in 1899, and was joined by his brother in 1902. B. W. was a director of the Home Building and Loan Association, and served as chairman of the Street Committee and Water and Light Commission and member of the board of alderman. A. M. Moseley was a director of the Greenville Bank and Trust company, and was vice-president of E. B. Ficklen Tobacco Company. The brothers opened Moseley Brothers Insurance in 1907. They represented many notable companies including the Royal Exchange Assurance of London and the Security Life and Annuity Company. They were also involved in real estate, handling both city and farm properties. Their office was moved to the Old National Bank building on Aug. 1, 1915. B. W. Moseley’s son, Bancroft Ficklen Moseley, joined Moseley Brothers Insurance in 1938. He later became president and manager of the company. In 1965, the company employed six individuals, and owned apartment rentals and a washerette operation.
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Record #:
23375
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Because there were Catholic congregations in Washington, NC by 1824 and in New Bern before then, Catholic missionaries probably visited Pitt County during this time. The first reference to Catholics in Greenville is from March 1, 1828. Rev. J. F. O’Neill, a Catholic priest, preached in Greenville at the Greenville Academy on March 21, 1829, and held mass in Thomas Hanrahan’s house the following day. Rev. Richard S. Baker preached in Greenville and held mass in May 1831. Several other Catholic priests visited Greenville. St. Peter’s parish was organized in Greenville in 1884 in the old Episcopal Church. The congregation consisted of about 45 families in 1917. In 1927, the new St. Peter’s Catholic Church was built. The congregation outgrew the building in 1954, and then held services in the St. Raphael’s Parochial School until the completion of a new church in 1991.
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Record #:
23376
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Sheriff William May King and his wife, Dicie Almeta Peebles King, opened the ”King House Hotel” on Evans Street in 1886. Mrs. King sold the Hotel to J. A. Andrews in 1898.Charles Carson Vines and his wife, Mattie Mayo Vines, leased and eventually owned the Hotel in 1899. The Hotel burned down on May 4, 1899. Mrs. Hiram Bentley Harris opened another King House on Dickinson Avenue in December 1899. Benjamin F. Patrick built the Hotel Bertha in 1900, where Starlight Café is today. B. F. Nunn purchased the Hotel in July 1915. It became the New Bertha Hotel in 1916 and the Princeton Hotel in October 1917. In December 1925 the Hotel burned. In early 1926 the New Princeton Hotel was rebuilt on the corner of Dickinson and Greene Streets. After it was a hotel, the Hotel Bertha became a grocery store, a department store, and finally the Starlight Cafe. In 1913, Charles Vines and his wife, Mattie, built the Vines House, which served as a boarding house. The House was bought by the City of Greenville about 1920 after C. C. Vines’ death in 1917. The City turned it into a teacherage for unmarried teachers. Mr. and Mrs. W. I. Wooten purchased the House at an auction in 1942, and soon leased it to the Salvation Army as a serviceman’s hotel. In 1950, the Patient’s Circle of the King’s Daughters bought it with the intention of opening an old folk’s home, but the building was ruled as unsafe and sold back to Mrs. Wooten. She used it for a room-rental house until it was torn down in 1970.
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Record #:
23377
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Notable clubs that opened in Greenville in the 1960s includes The Rathskeller, The Purple and Gold Club, The Tortugas Club, The Tavern, Castaway Club, Coach and Four Restaurant and Nightclub, Bob's Barn, The Ruins, The Buccaneer Club, Ye Old Jail Tavern, The Music Factory, The Elbo Room, Bel-Air Club, and PGI. Other popular nightspots included Ruby's Circle Y Restaurant and Drive-In, The Country Place, and Candlewick Inn. Greenville motion picture theaters in the area were The Meadowbrook Picture Theatre, The Pitt, The State, and the Tice Drive-In. There were two billiard halls in Greenville: Happy's Pool Room and Pop's Billiards. Church-sponsored nightspots included The Catacombs, and The Den. Popular restaurants and dance halls were The Varsity, The Bohemian, Fiddlers III, and The ID.
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