Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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for "Kammerer, Roger"
Record #:
24814
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Since the 1840’s there has been a conflict between those cutting down and those planting trees in Greenville. Every time trees were planted, they were eventually cut down or damaged. In 1990, this problem was patched with the formation of ReLeaf. ReLeaf is a non-profit organization that plants and protects trees using donations from the community.
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Record #:
25689
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Pitt County has been visited by many United States presidents, including George Washington, Grover Cleveland, John F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter, and first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan. Their visits were connected to Greenville’s location on the Tar River, exports, and East Carolina University.
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Record #:
30275
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The stately Long House is located on the corner of Fourth and Cotanche Streets. The house was built in 1917/18 by William Henry Long (1866-1920) lawyer, businessman, real estate broker and mayor of Greenville. In 1915, W. H. Long’s brother died in New York after making millions in the silent film industry. William inherited a fourth of his brother’s estate and built this large house. The house was designed by noted architects, Benton & Benton, of Wilson, NC and hired William Bernard Baker, a Greenville building contractor, to build it. According to tradition, each of the four columns are solid stone and were brought up the river by steamboat and took 24 mules to haul each column by wagon up from the steamboat landing. The house stayed in the family many years and in 1979 the house was sold to the law firm of Howard, Vincent and Duffus. Through their efforts the house is now on the National Register.of Historic Places.
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30277
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Snow which is a rare event in eastern North Carolina, is a pleasure to some and an annoyance to others. In 1780 the Neuse River froze over and the year of 1816 was known as the “Year Without a Summer.” A terrible freeze in February 1857 froze the Tar River, Contentnea Creek and Neuse River, There were reports of eight foot icebergs in the Pamlico Sound. During Christmas 1876, snow fell in Pitt County to a depth of 18-20 inches. Other snows and freezes occurred in 1884, 1886, 1889, 1895, and 1899, The Tar River froze over again during the great freeze of 1917-1918 and numerous people drove their model T cars across the ice on the Tar River and Albemarle Sound. A blizzard in March 1927 covered Pitt County with 16 inches of snow and another in December 1958 left 12 to 15 inches over the county. The snow of Feb. 9-10, 1973 put down 15 inches across Greenville and the largest snow in recent memory occurred on Jan. 21-22, 1985 when Greenville got 24-30 inches.
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Record #:
30278
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[Photograph of Allen H. Taft and wife, Elizabeth Adelaide Hoover Taft] There once was a community known as “Taft’s Landing” located on Highway 33, seven miles from Greenville. Taft’s landing, which consisted of a wharf, large store, warehouse, house, tenant houses, outbuildings and steam cotton gin, was one of the most prominent landings on the Tar River. The landing began with brothers, Elias and Arnold Taft, who came here from Massachusetts and started a naval stores business.by 1811. A post office was established at Taft’s Store in January 1853 known as “Tarville,” with James Henry Taft as postmaster. During the Civil War, Taft’s landing was raided several times On Sept. 30, 1873, Taft’s Store was the site of a homicide when James H. Taft was shot and killed by the store clerk, Eugene Holliday. In 1879, a new Episcopal Church was established at Taft’s landing known as “Salem.” All the Taft family moved to Greenville and in March 1896 the store, dwelling house and warehouse burned at Taft’s landing. Taft’s landing soon faded from memory.
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Record #:
30279
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[illustration for Arthur Smith Show] There is no question that television changed the nature of life in America. In Pitt County, the same can be said. The drive that changed lives began in 1949. Two years later, in May 1951, Channel 9 (WNCT) was granted affiliation by the Federal Communications Commission to become Pitt County's first television station. A construction permit was granted in December 1953 and they built a tower. However, due to FCC rules and population problems, the first television broadcast did not take place until December 22, 1953 at 5:00 p.m. In October 1953, it was reported there were 3,437 TV sets in Pitt County and a total of 24,000 TV sets in eastern North Carolina.
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Record #:
30280
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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 #:
30284
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Very few people have heard of “Old Christmas” or “Little Christmas” which has been celebrated for over 250 years along the coastal regions from Swansboro to Currituck. “Old Christmas” began when Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 to replace the less accurate Julian Calendar. The new calendar made Christmas fall on December 25th instead of the old date of January 5th. The Outer Banks folks kept the old date to celebrate Christmas. The Outer Banks people are a superstitious lot and according to tradition a ship loaded with cattle sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras in the 1870s. The only survivor was a black and white bull which swam ashore at Rodanthe. Named “Old Buck,” the bull sired many cows and became much loved. Each year on January 5th he was led through the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo as a part of their Old Christmas celebration.
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Record #:
30285
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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 #:
30286
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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 #:
30287
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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 #:
30288
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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 #:
30292
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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 #:
30293
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The following is a history of three Perkins brothers: Curtis Fleming Perkins (1899-1977), James Vance Perkins (1901-1991) and Walter Reid Perkins (1904-1993). They were leading merchants, business and community leaders in Greenville.
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Record #:
30294
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Reuben Bland (1855-?) was a farmer from Martin Co., NC who married first to Julia E. Coburn and she bore him 15 children. After her death, he married Laura Boyette and she bore him 19 children, including one set of twins. Bland became famous--or infamous--for all his children. Bland moved to Pitt County and in 1927 even went to Washington, DC to meet the Congress and President Coolidge. Bland received hundreds of letters and the author gives one humorous example of one of the letters.
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