Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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for "Kammerer, Roger"
Record #:
23688
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Once known at various times as the Jarvis Light Infantry, the Pitt County Rifles and the Greenville Guards, this organized group of citizen soldiers has had a long history in Greenville. After the Civil War, these various guard groups of citizen soldiers formed in Greenville and eventually disbanded and reorganized a few years later. In 1917, a National Guard unit was formed in Greenville as a part of the 2nd NC Regiment. Capt. Lester Jones was the first commanding officer of Battery A (later Battery C) proudly representing Greenville in both World Wars. Battery A had its armory in the Long Building on Cotanche Street (where Chico’s sits) which burned in 1933. In 1937, Gov. Clyde R. Hoey dedicated a new armory at the corner of Evans and Second Streets. In 1956, Battery D was formed in Greenville and in 1970 moved into the new armory at the Pitt-Greenville Airport.
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Record #:
23689
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Animals are wonderful things, some are comforting while others put the fear of God in you. The author gives a variety of tales from Pitt County about animals. In the 1890s there were belled buzzards at the Court House and “Buzzards Roost,” about where Chico’s is now situated. There are stories of large turkeys, eagles and the capturing of “bull Robins” to eat. There were songbirds in Greenville that could whistle popular tunes. There were attacking minks, huge snakes, large hogs, and buzzards who sounded like bears and fooled hunters.
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Record #:
23690
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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 #:
23691
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Started in 1948 by fire-chief George Gardner, he started a public campaign to raise donations from individuals and area businesses for $4,500 worth of equipment. With this money he purchased a 1948 panel truck, iron lung, a hospital type oxygen tent and small tools. The rescue Squad was operated by the Fire Department and by donations only. As the calls grew, in 1955 the Junior Jaycees and Fire Department sponsored the formation of a Volunteer Rescue Squad composed of four firemen and 10 volunteers. In 1959, a Rescue Squad annex was dedicated beside the central Fire Station and was showered with gifts of equipment by area businesses. The Greenville Rescue Squad was recognized as the best in the State and was one of the best on the eastern seaboard.
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Record #:
23692
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Billy Taylor, a Pitt County native, was a jazz pianist and composer who became one of the music form’s most ardent advocates through radio, television and the landmark Jazzmobile arts venture. William E. (Billy) Taylor, Jr. died Dec. 28, 2010 in New York City. He was born July 24, 1921 in Greenville, NC, the son of William E. Taylor, a dentist, and Antoinette Bacon, a school teacher. Billy Taylor, Jr. spent his early childhood in the Ayden-Grifton area before his parents moved to Washington, DC. He performed with all the jazz greats in the 1940’s and 50’s and had the “Billy Taylor Trio.” In 1958, Taylor was named artistic director for NBC’s “The Subject Is Jazz,“ the first network TV series devoted to the genre. He worked as a disc jockey in New York and created the “Jazzmobile,” a traveling stage for free summer concerts in New York City. Taylor went on to host television and NPR radio shows. From 1994 until his death, Dr. Taylor held the position of artistic advisor on jazz for the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. In later years Dr. Taylor worked as a music professor at ECU and in 2002 gave his name to ECU’s long-running jazz festival.
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Record #:
23693
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People remember Gabriel Heater, the renowned radio broadcaster, who died in 1972, for being the voice of WWII. In WWII, Greenville had only one radio station, WGTC (World’s Greatest Tobacco Country) and it was Heater’s voice that brought people in the Greenville community through the war. There were blackout laws, rationing. In June 1942 the local gas ration was four gallons a week. There were WPA gardens, air raid drills, and airplane observation posts. Greenville was “liberty town” for thousands of Marines, sailors and soldiers who were stationed at the numerous bases in eastern North Carolina. There were so many men in town on weekends and they would stay at the Vines House (called Buckingham Palace) run by Mrs. John Horne on the corner of Fifth and Pitt Streets. It would have every room and floor space covered in sleeping bodies. There was also a Marine Corps Air Base stationed at the Greenville airport and their barracks were on the site of J. H. Rose High School on Elm Street. One of these pilots, Frank Lang, flew his dive bomber under the Greene Street Bridge in 1943
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Record #:
23694
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A tributary of the Neuse River, Contentnea Creek, called “Moccasin River,” divided Pitt and Greene Counties and the branch called Little Contentnea wanders through western Pitt County. It was Cicero M. A. Griffin (1828-1892) a merchant and mill man from Grifton, NC, who placed the first steamboat flat on the Contentnea Creek. The first steamboat was named “Contentnea.” Other steamboats on the Contentnea included the “Snow Hill,” “Robert E. Lee,” “Phillips,’ “Carolina,” “Blanche,” “Kinston,” “L. A. Cobb,” “Howard,” “Laura,” “Uncle Sam,” “Nellie W.,” “Pearlie May,” and “May Bell.”
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Record #:
23695
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The remarkable three-story Montgomery-Ward-Belk Tyler building is located on Fifth Street and once held some of the most prestigious chain stores to ever come to Greenville. This unique building had the only polychrome terra cotta façade erected in Greenville. The first buildings on the site were livery stables owned by Glascow Evans and George King. In 1902, W. E. Hooker built a three story brick stable on the site. In 1928, Hooker tore down the stables and built the tall four-story building for the Montgomery-Ward Company. They opened on Aug. 31, 1929 with 80 clerks and 11,000 patrons. Montgomery-Ward closed in 1932 and then Quinn-Miller moved into the store building. Belk Tyler then leased the building and opened on Aug. 25, 1938 with 143 salespeople. Belk Tyler remained in this store until 1979, when it moved to Carolina East Mall. The building changed hands. In 1984, Don Edwards moved his bookstore, The Book Barn, into the building. The Book Barn closed in 1985. The building was renovated and was readapted for apartments and restaurant space. The first restaurant was Granddaddy Rosser’s; then Paul Gianino opened 5th Street Pasta Works; followed by Fillabuster’s and in 1994 by BW III’s; and in 2008 by The Armadillo Grill.
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Record #:
23696
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The old Great Swamp Primitive Baptist Church, at the northeast corner of Forbes and Tenth Streets, flew prey to the wrecking ball in May 2011 as a part of East Carolina University's future expansion. The church building was built in 1922 and anchored the once thriving neighborhood that surrounded Forbes Street. The Great Swamp Primitive Baptist Church was originally formed in 1795 about four miles north of the river at House Station. In 1921, Great Swamp Primitive Baptist Church congregation decided to move to Greenville and built their new church building on the corner of Forbes and Tenth Streets. The congregation ended in 1980 and from the 1990’s to after 2005 the church building was used by the Full Gospel Christian Church. When ECU took down the church building, the beautiful stained glass windows were put into storage.
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Record #:
23697
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In 1926 information came to light about John Henry Powell, a Pitt County native, sailor, soldier, railroader and adventurer who was a soldier for Queen Victoria in India. Powell was from Bell’s Ferry (Grifton) and ran away from home and worked on American and British ships for many years. He had many unique and frightening stories. Powell ended his globe-trotting in India following a mutiny aboard a British ship in the Indian Ocean. He joined the British Army in Calcutta and fought in several campaigns in the Himalayas and western Pakistan. He then worked as a railway engineer on lines across India. Powell then returned to North Carolina for a visit in July 1927 and went to Hopewell, VA to see his elderly mother and brother who were still alive. Powell was planning to move back to North Carolina from India with his children.
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Record #:
23698
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Herbert Augustus White (1877-1929) was a prominent business and insurance man in Greenville. He was a local representative of the Standard Oil Company ,director of the Greenville Bank & Trust Company; vice-president of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and first president of the Home Building & Loan Association.White was also president of the Pitt County Oil Company; first president of the Standard Realty Company; and was charter member and first chairman of the Greenville Country Club. It was said that H. A. White had the first electric lights, first indoor bathtub and first radio in Greenville. In 1903, White built a home on the corner of Fifth and Greene Streets for former Gov. T. J. Jarvis and wife to live rent free. On July 2, 1908, H. A. White and wife attended the now famous groundbreaking for the East Carolina Teachers Training School. In 1901, White built a story office building at 403 Evans Street, which would later become the office of the Home Building and Loan Association in 1906. His two-story office building is still located on Evans Street uptown and his great granddaughter owns an art shop next door.
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Record #:
23699
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As early as 1908, Ben Higgs got a 99 year lease of the Greenville riverfront for developing a waterway with a terminal at Greenville. Efforts were being made to transform Greenville into a port. The Tar River was dredged from Washington to Hardee’s Creek in 1939, 100 feet wide and 12 feet deep. The Port Terminal Commission acquired 45 acres on Hardee's Creek for a warehouse beside the landing. The first commercial freighter, The Eldora, from Savannah with sugar, landed at Port Terminal on October 12, 1940. Port Terminal operated until March 1942. The channel was re-dredged in 1949. In June 1969, the Port Terminal warehouse burned down with all the ECU Crew team’s equipment stored inside.
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Record #:
23700
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Most of Pitt County’s small towns like Ayden, Bethel, and Farmville, each boasted of having large movie houses in their heyday from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. Ayden once had two movie houses, “the Princess” built in 1920 by Henry H. Wrenn, and “The Myers,” built in 1945 by the Myers Theatre chain. In Bethel a theatre corporation was organized in 1935 and “The Charles” theatre was built in 1935-36. In Farmville, the “Rialto” theatre was built in 1920 by William C. Askew. In late 1920’s or early 1930’s, John I. Morgan bought the Rialto and leased it out in 1933 and the name changed to the “Paramount Theatre.” The Farmville Community Arts Council purchased the theatre for $1.00 and in March 1984 the Farmville Community Arts Center was dedicated.
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Record #:
23701
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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 #:
23702
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“A history of racing in Pitt County”
Since the mid 1950’s drag racing, Go-Kart racing and slot car racing had taken ahold the country and Pitt County. In 1955, there was Micro Midget racing around Guy Smith Stadium, then across from Pitt Memorial Hospital and then in the Pitt County Fair Grounds. In 1956 it was reported that 2,000 people would turn out every Sunday to see the races. In 1960, the first Go-Kart track built east of the Mississippi was built in Bethel. In 1961 a stock car racing track was built south of Tarboro and in 1962 L. T. Hardee built the “Greenville Drag Strip” three miles east of Greenville.in 1967, the “Pitt Stop Raceways,” for slot cars opened at 416 Cotanche Street.
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