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120 results for "Pitt County--History"
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Record #:
23484
Author(s):
Abstract:
Mrs. T. E. Hooker and friends organized the \"First Friday Afternoon Musical Club\" for interested women in the town of Greenville, limiting it to 20 members. An elaborate German (dance) took place in Perkins Hall on a Friday night in December 1908. Lanterns and American flags from Ellsworth of New York decorated the hall. Walter Wilson, Jr. and Miss Nell Skinner, along with others led the German dance. Mr. W. H. Strum and Miss Ada Norris applied for a marriage license at the Register of Deeds office in Pitt County during October 1893. Ms. Norris's parents objected to the marriage, vowing to stop the wedding. Mr. Strum waited for his chance, and he and Ms. Norris were married within 30 feet of the bride's father, without him even knowing of the union.
Subject(s):
Record #:
22802
Author(s):
Abstract:
Named after the town's first merchant, Robert A. Fountain, this small town is located west of Greenville. In 1901, the East Carolina Railroad put a depot near Fountain’s store and called it “Reba.” This community became Fountain after the establishment of a post office there on January 15, 1902, with R. A. Fountain as postmaster. Fountain was incorporated as a town in 1903 and by 1910, was a bustling commercial center with 126 people. A fire in 1907 destroyed all the stores and they were rebuilt with brick. In 1912, a Presbyterian Church was organized. The first graded school for the town had 150 pupils in 1917. The Fountain Fire Department was organized in 1937 and the East Carolina Railroad closed in 1955.
Record #:
22872
Author(s):
Abstract:
Once called “Bell's Ferry,” the small town of Grifton is located on both sides of Contentnea Creek (known locally as Mocassin River). In 1889, the legislature changed the town's name to “Grifton” and made it official on January 1, 1890. Following the name change, the railroad came through Pitt County and directly through Grifton. The railroad transformed the town, which built new streets at a steady rate. The railroad also stimulated the development of businesses.
Record #:
22880
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Abstract:
Pactolus is a rather small town in eastern Pitt County. Named about 1770 by a school teacher named Lincoln, it was not until May 30, 1832, that Pactolus was granted a post office. Churchill Perkins the leading early merchant, served as the postmaster. The first business for the town was started in 1840. There were two early academies at Pactolus, the Jordan Plains Academy in 1831 and the Midway Male and Female academy in 1849. Kammerer gives the history of some of the leading citizens and merchants like Henry Irwin Toole, James R. Davenport and R. R. Fleming. In 1892, the rail road came through Pactolus and the depot burned several times. Prohibition caused a divide and the town of Maupin was created in 1905 until its charter was revoked in 1911.
Record #:
23043
Author(s):
Abstract:
Kammerer relates a letter from 1910 written by Robert Williams Smith (1869-1938) about a jug that had been in the Hancock family for 160 years. According to Smith, the story of the jug begins about 1719 when three Hancock brothers settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. William Hancock settled on Durham’s Creek, Beaufort County and married Bettie Durham. They had a son named Durham Hancock who married and moved to near New Bern. Their son was George Hancock who married and moved to Lenoir County where the site of the town of Grainger is now. George had a son named James Hancock who married and moved to Fork Swamp, Pitt County and raised a large family. The jug then fell into possession of his son Harman Hancock who married and lived near Hancock’s Church. The jug then passed down to his daughter Polly Hancock who was a root doctor and fortune teller. When she died the jug was sold at her estate sale to R. L. Cox for 35 cents. Kammerer gives additions and corrections to the story as found in a published history of the Hancock Family by Jeanette Cox St. Amand.
Subject(s):
Record #:
22973
Author(s):
Abstract:
Alfred Forbes (1829-1905) the son of Robert Forbes and Gracey Tyson, was a Greenville businessman in the late 1800s. He was married to Clara Jane Williams for thirty-four years and was the father of seven children. Alfred had numerous business interests and had various accomplishments related to the social, educational, business life of Greenville.
Record #:
22960
Author(s):
Abstract:
“Astrophobia” is the fear of lightning and tornadoes or more commonly the fear of the sky. In this collection of different odd occurrences, several strange rituals are described. For example, people used to shut windows and doors and pull down the shades during a lightning storm. In 1856, Richard Williams was killed by lightning in Greenville and the Presbyterian Church spire was struck by lightning several times. In 1901, black hail fell 18 inches deep below Ayden. A meteor passed over Greenville in 1857 making a shrill noise, a meteor fell near St. John’s Church in 1935 and an Aurora Borealis was witnessed in 1859. In 1903 a tornado struck the Swift Creek Schoolhouse while it was in session. Another memorable situation occurred when many Pitt County residents witnessed a UFO.
Record #:
23492
Author(s):
Abstract:
Kammerer recounts local stories, including those of a shooting at a church in Swift Creek township in October 1887 between Frank Moore and John Coward and an instance of hogs getting into the home of Simon Moye of Winterville. Other stories told are about Joe C. Boyd,a local farmer who walked 12,496 miles to and from his farm over a period of 45 years and a silver cup awarded to a local child with "perfect" teeth in 1926. The Greenville Cotillion Club held the first series of dances in 1902. And lastly, an old mule, claimed by his owner Charles Case to be over 30 years old, that was brought into town in 1901.
Subject(s):
Record #:
23494
Author(s):
Abstract:
The author gives a series of varied stories from Pitt County such as the 1938 order from the Town Clerk, J. O. Duval warning “all persons owning turtles are requested to keep them from running at large on the streets of Greenville.” In 1937 seven Moore children from Fountain married into three families. There was an unusual missing dog advertisement from 1931 and in 1932, Loonis R. McGlohon, of Ayden, was a musical prodigy at eleven years old. In 1935, David L. (Jesse) James, of Wintervlle, NC, was an US Army soldier stationed in Hawaii. He was honored for making history when he pitched the first no-hit, no run game ever hurled in league competition in Honolulu. There is a funny poem from 1932 about gossiping and an episode from 1932 about a 15 year old boy captured for having a still and the judge sentencing him to a sound spanking. In 1937, Pitt County ABC officials poured 339 gallons of bootleg whisky down the sewer on 10th Street. The sewer probably went into Greene Mill Run which led to drunken critters. In 1937, Mrs. J. D. Copeland had a hen that adopted nine little puppies And lastly, in 1933 there was Court House pandemonium when Preston Pierce, City Tax Collector, was cleaning his gun in his office, when it discharged unexpectedly. The bullet went through his office door, through the corridor and lodged in the top of the door of the Register of Deeds office.
Subject(s):
Record #:
23495
Author(s):
Abstract:
Kammerer gives a number of interesting short tales such as the impatient couple, W. L. Butts and Cynthia A. Spain, who got married in R. H. Horne’s Millinery Shop and after tying the knot, the husband went straight to a bar. In 1886, G. W. Gay of Falkland township was a local thug and terror, sent to the penitentiary. Whiskey and evil associations brought him to ruin. In 1886, John Slaughter became demented and committed suicide. A beautiful crazy quilt made by Miss Sue McClure, was raffled off for the benefit of the Episcopal Church. The winner was Master Willie Arnheim and another boy said he rubbed his rabbit foot for all it was worth, but it failed to charm the dice. In 1892, Edgar Buck and W. B. James put on a big fish fry at the seine four miles down the river. In 1881 it was reported that H. F. Albritton of Greene County weighed 120 pounds and his wife weighed 120 pounds and had a ten year old daughter that weighed 60 pounds and an eight year old daughter that weighed only 27 pounds. There were other large families in Greene County and a man weighed 500 pounds.In 1902, a black man named Isaac McGowan, ran down and killed a 176 pound deer with his bare hands on Dickinson Avenue. A hail storm in 1915, left eight inches of hail on Greenville streets. In 1948, the John Flanagan Buggy Company became dealers for two English built cars made by the Ford Company of England. In 1901, hogs got into the home of Simon Moye and wrecked the place.In 1883, W. L. Blount of Grifton had a prize 16 year old Coon Dog. And finally in 1901, Charles Case had a 30 year old mule.
Subject(s):
Record #:
23510
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Abstract:
Historical articles of interest to Pitt County include recollections of Jesse Lillington Jackson (1871-1969) former Pitt County historian, remembering early trips to Reedy Branch Church, and the recollections of Mrs. Josie Joyner McArthur (1864-1958) of going to Farmville as a little girl in 1870. People mentioned include: Reddin Tripp, McCoy Tripp, Elias Braxton, Herbert Ellis, George Ellis, Felix Braxton, William Belcher, William McArthur, J. L. Ballard, Laurence Anderson, William G. Lang, Aaron Turnage, Moses Turnage, Albert Carr, Robert Turnage, Mrs. Betsy Dupree, William Flanagan, Mrs. Lucy Moore, Thomas Flanagan, William Joyner, William Smith, and Eli Williams.
Subject(s):
Record #:
23514
Author(s):
Abstract:
Newspaper articles in The Eastern Reflector, the Daily Reflector, Tarboro Southerner from the late 1800s and early 1900s contained stories about early families and hard-to-believe occurrences. Past articles, included Mrs. J. F. Briley's catching a 24-pound turtle with a fishing pole and line lead, and Mr. Charles Harris, a Pitt County's early settler, reported to be 122 years old upon his death in 1860.
Subject(s):
Record #:
23035
Author(s):
Abstract:
Kammerer relates an article from 1882 written by Jesse L. Smith (1813-1885) of the people and farms of Beaver Dam Township (now Bell Arthur Township). Jesse L. Smith was a farmer and Pitt County Commissioner, who married three times and had 20 children. According to Smith, in 1826 there were 38 white families in Beaver Dam Township, 24 of which lived in log houses and cabins, 12 in small buildings and only two, Archibald Adams and Benjamin Briley, lived in two-story plastered houses. Smith talks about courting and early amusements and games like “Cotton Picking” and “Selling the Thimble.” Smith relates that in 1882 there were 114 families, 84 white and 60 black, living in Beaver Dam Township, plus several good stores and steam sawmills. Cotton and wheat were the big agricultural products at the time.
Record #:
24765
Author(s):
Abstract:
Many buildings downtown in Greenville once contained a number of prominent retailers. A site on Fifth Street first held the Glascow Evans Livery stable in 1890. Other companies used the same site, but the first major company to lease the building was Montgomery Ward in 1928. In 1932, Quinn-Miller Furniture moved in, then Belk-Tyler in 1938. Today, the building houses Crossbones Tavern and apartments.
Source:
Greenville Times (NoCar Oversize F264 G72 G77), Vol. Issue , Winter 2015, p48-51, il
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