Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.
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for "Greenville Times / Pitt's Past"
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22869
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This group of local stories talks about a unique court held in 1902 when W. F. Harding went to the country and was a witness in a case held in the middle of the road with a stump for a desk. In 1903, Bryan Ives beat up his wife and daughter. The next night a masked group of eight men dragged him out of his house and gave him 50 lashes with a buggy trace and five with a horse whip. He was sent a note to leave the State in 10 days. In 1901, W. A Garris witnessed a fight between a rooster and a hawk and in 1903 Frank Hines killed a six foot moccasin stealing his eggs that weighed over 50 pounds. There is the story of a runaway mule running through Greenville in 1902 tearing up everything in its path. E. B. Ficklen told a funny story in 1903 of how a hen stole five puppies from its mother and cared for them. In 1902, a group of young businessmen in Greenville organized a club called the “Big Six Club.” And in 1901, D. E. Whichard told a tale about killing a deer while in a canoe duck hunting.
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Record #:
22870
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Alfred Moye was born on January 19, 1793, about five miles east of Farmville, to Joel and Sarah Moye. He seemed destined to greatness. He married Oprah Tyson (1802-1845), the daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Joyner) Tyson, in 1818. Moye's public life included careers as legislator, trustee, postmaster, county commissioner, and examiner of teachers. Moye was a Unionist who is said to have treated his slaves fairly, Moye died on February 26, 1863.
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Record #:
22871
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Kammerer discusses how the redevelopment of the 1960s and expansion of 1970s and 80s have swept away most of the historical buildings and fabric of Greenville’s past. The face of the whole town through its different periods of history, have been lost because of money, greed, indifference and the so called “dubious advantages of modernity.” We need our past to enrich our lives and to look to the future. As Carl Sandburg once wrote: “When men forget what they have done and where they came from, they have lost the foundation for going forward.” To maintain the character of Greenville, the future will have to be concerned with the city’s past. Kammerer talks about tnumerous old stores and landmarks now gone. He talks about the Boyd Store (Jesse and Elsie's grocery store), once located in the Forbestown section of Greenville at the corner of Evans and Eleventh streets and torn down in 1989. This store is pictured in The Architectural Heritage of Greenville, North Carolina, published in 1988 by the Greenville Area Preservation Association. Kammerer discusses two preservation groups, The Evergreen Corporation and GAPA (Greenville Area Preservation Association).
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Record #:
22872
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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.
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Record #:
22873
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This group of local stories include the story of how R. L. Humber moved his father’s house by himself in 1900. He moved the house down to First Street. In 1897, the Sanctificationists of Washington, NC would come by boat to Greenville to hold their church services in the coffin room of the John Flanagan Buggy Company. In 1901, a little girl accidently baked her doll in a child’s oven. In 1900, the son of Alfred Worthington killed a three foot moccasin with 32 pikes in his belly. In 1897, two small sons of Fred Phillips of near Falkland dug a 22 foot well with only a part of a shovel and a tin bucket. In 1897, Mrs. M. H. Quinerly gave a dinner for her father Alfred Forbes and his friends over the age of 65. And finally a story from 1901, of a raid on a watermelon patch and the aftermath.
Local stories dating from the 20th century include \"Lightning Freak,\" \"House Mover,\" \"Two Smart Boys,\" and \"Watermelon Raid.\"
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Record #:
22874
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A landmark of Greenville's religious history, the Memorial Baptist Church has served its members for over one hundred and fifty years. This church was constituted on July 2, 1827. By October of 1827, it had twenty-three members. The church started the Baptist Benevolent Society to raise money for traveling ministers. Thomas D. Mason was this church's first pastor. The church experienced sporadic, irregular growth throughout the 1850s. Later, the Reverend Thomas Carrick became the church's pastor. He helped to construct a new church on Greene Street (the church that residents refer to as the Old Memorial Baptist Church). It was dedicated on October 12, 1890. This building was demolished as a new one was completed in 1973 on Greenville Boulevard.
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Record #:
22875
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During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, steamboats piled the Tar River. The first ship to use the Tar River was a sidewheel called the "Edmund D. McNair." It operated on the Tar from 1836 until 1839. Other early steamboats were the Oregon, Amidas, Red Skull and the Gov. Morehead. By the 1870s, steamboats were quite common in the Tar River. The Clyde Line, Old Dominion Line, and Shiloh Oil Mills companies all constructed or put boats on the Tar. Twenty-three different boats traveled up and down the Tar River until 1915, when the railroad ended the steamboat era.
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Record #:
22876
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Shipbuilding always has been a minor industry in Eastern North Carolina compared to agriculture. The first vessel, built in 1776, was a twenty-five-ton sloop named "Peggy." Thirty years later, in 1807, Yankee Hall became Pitt County's center for shipbuilding. That year, the ninety-nine-ton brig "Minerva" was built there, followed in 1810 by the 153-ton-brig called the "Charleston Packet." It would not be until the Civil War that the next ship would be built at Pillsboro in 1860. The final ship apparently built in Pitt County was the fifteen-ton gas screw steamboat called the "Lillian" in 1904 constructed by the J.L. Fountain and Company. When this boat was finished, Pitt County lost one of its main supplementary industries.
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Record #:
22877
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[Illustration of Penny Hill Doctor’s Office] Driving on Highway 33 near the Pitt/Edgecombe County line, a driver might see the remains of the small community known as Penny Hill. Once called “Winona” and later simply “Hill,” this community was the ancestral home of the Thigpen family. The doctors James Thigpen III and IV and James Thigpen V and VI all raised the families in Penny Hill. After this, the land and house changed hands to become the possessions of Dr. Phesanton S. Sugg and Dr. George C. Sugg. Their land totaled over 2,500 acres. These two gentlemen sold the land to Charles W. Smith who in time sold it back to a Thigpen. Captain James R. Thigpen bought the land and house from Mr. Smith in January 1873. In 1894, after finally reclaiming their ancestral home, the Thigpen’s lost their land and house again. Dr. James R. Thigpen was forced to sell it because of debts. The land thereafter was divided up, and this ended the Thigpen legacy in Penny Hill.
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Record #:
22878
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This group of local stories tell of an umbrella catching fire in the window of Pender’s Hardware Store in Greenville and the strange tale of Thomas J. Sheppard of Sheppard’s Mill Pond. In 1895, Mayor Ola Forbes got into “a scrap” with R. L. Belcher about a liquor license and the Mayor had to pay the Court costs. From 1895 is a tale about a conjured rooster in Falkland, a midget named Bryant Gardner in Grifton and a large snake getting caught up in a wagon wheel in 1896. Also from 1895, Sheriff R. W. King owned a smart horse named “Frank.”
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Record #:
22879
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Christmas seems to have timeless celebrations. However, Christmas in 1890 was much different than it is today. Most of the celebrations occurred on December 23 and Christmas Eve while many businesses were very busy with plenty of customers getting items needed to have a joyful celebration. One local business firm called Young and Priddy cut a pumpkin. From six o'clock to eleven o'clock p.m., Evans Street was dazzled with a fireworks celebration. On Christmas Day only the Episcopal Church had services.
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Record #:
22880
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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.
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Record #:
22881
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This group of local stories includes tale of Adam Corbett, the noted miser of Falkland twsp., and his hidden gold. In 1881, Walter Pollard, age 12 and Johnnie Nance, age 11, eloped because of ideas from paperback novels. In 1898, there is a story of a turkey loose in C. T. Munford’s Store in Greenville. Also in 1898, O. R. Simpkins had a “possum” dog that bagged 39 of them in one week. In 1897 a no-smoking law was instituted in Bethel. In 1893, there was a strange cloud phenomenon which caused many to be believe it was judgement day. Kammerer also gives a funny story from 1923 of the pranks of the Ayden Masonic Lodge.
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Record #:
22882
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This group of local stories includes J. W. Page had a smart mule in 1892, P. J. Bynum had an encounter with a mad dog in 1897 and how W. C. Haddock was attacked by six large minks in 1894. There is a funny story from 1895 of a little girl asking her mother “Who is Procrastination?” In 1895, there was a runaway marriage of W. B. Bullock and Zilva Highsmith and Asa Garris killed a moccasin with 20 frogs in it. In 1899, S. T. Nobles, a barber, was fined one cent and court costs for working after midnight in Greenville. In 1897, John Strickland gave out invitations to his funeral and went home and killed himself. In 1923, Jesse Tedock Hart was killed when a train hit a cow and it flew and landed on him. In 1899, Mrs. J. F. Briley caught a 24 pound turtle. She had also killed a deer with a club when she was young.
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15.History of Ayden by Kammerer, Roger Greenville Times / Pitt's Past Vol. Issue , Oct 26-Nov 8 1988
Record #:
22883
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Located south of Greenville, Ayden was first known as Arthertown or Artertown, named for Arthur McLawhorn. Later Ayden became a boomtown and was incorporated in 1891. In 1895, William H. Harris petitioned to change the town's name from Ayden to Harriston. His petition won out and the name was changed. The people of Harriston vehemently protested, to no avail. The town was renamed Harriston but the name of the post office and depot remained Ayden. In 1903, it was the second largest town in Pitt County and by far the largest in Contentnea Township. At that same time, it was a dry town with many businesses.
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