Carolina comments

              Historic Sites Commemorate 140th Anniversary of
Linda A. Carlisle Named Secretary of Cultural Resources
Gov. Beverly Eaves Perdue appointed Linda A. Carlisle as secretary of the Department
of Cultural Resources on January 5, 2009. Carlisle is an experienced corporate executive,
entrepreneur, and community activist. In each role, she has excelled and shown extraordi-nary
leadership and professional competence. After earning a bachelor’s degree in speech
pathology from the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro in 1972, she
went to work for what is now Bank of
America. She rapidly progressed
through a broad range of positions to
eventually become a vice-president/
metropolitan director in Charlotte. In
1979, she left the bank to start her own
business, Copier Consultants, Inc., with
headquarters in Greensboro. Four years
later, she received a master’s degree in
business administration from Wake
Forest University. After developing a
multimillion dollar operation with
several offices in the Triad and western
North Carolina, she and her husband
sold the business in 1989. Carlisle
remained president of the wholly
owned subsidiary until 1997, when
she retired to focus on her community
and educational interests.
Secretary Carlisle has been exten-sively
involved in leadership roles in the
nonprofit sector, providing strategic
planning, financial expertise, and key
resource development for such organi-zations
as the Greensboro Chamber of
Carolina
Comments
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Linda A. Carlisle, secretary of the Department of
Cultural Resources. Image courtesy of Informa-tion
and Marketing Services, Department of
Cultural Resources. All other images courtesy of
the Office of Archives and History, unless
otherwise indicated.
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For the Record
The Office of Archives and History, as the rest of state
government, is facing a budgetary crisis. We have been
asked to identify 9 percent in budget cuts, and more may
be in the offing. Juggling the many programs and services
provided by this agency will be challenging. So far the
public history programs in North Carolina have not suf-fered
as extensively as those in other states, but the prog-nosis
remains grim and the budget reductions painful.
Each program is receiving close scrutiny. Does it deliver the
services provided in the authorizing legislation? Does it per-form
effectively and efficiently? Does it contribute to the eco-nomic
vitality of the state? The annual appropriation to the
Department of Cultural Resources constitutes less than one-half of 1 percent of the
state’s entire budget. Nonetheless, the department’s impact is broad and deep, touch-ing
millions of citizens each year. For the department one might add another measure
of usefulness: intrinsic value.
One program that repeatedly has proved its worth historically and economically is
the historic rehabilitation tax credit. In 2008 Rebecca Holton of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill prepared a study titled, “A Profitable Past, A Priceless
Future: The Economic Impact of North Carolina’s Historic Tax Credit.” She con-ferred
with historic preservationists and economists in North Carolina and elsewhere,
including Preservation North Carolina, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the
North Carolina Department of Commerce. For those in the field of historic preserva-tion,
her findings did not come as a surprise, but they deserve emphasis and weight in
any discussion of the importance of history.
Using data provided by the State Historic Preservation Office, Holton found that
between 1998 and 2007 the state historic tax credit stimulated the completion of
1,324 projects with a total expenditure of $830 million. Her analysis estimated that
those expenditures in turn generated $1.4 billion in statewide economic activity,
directly created 8,630 jobs, and through multiplier effects realized a total of 14,100
jobs in other industrial sectors. From those statistics Holton posited a total of $438
million in additional household income. She calculated that for each $1 million spent
in qualified rehabilitation expenditures, $1.74 million in economic activity occurred,
creating 17 jobs and $530,000 in employee compensation.
At first glance the fiscal impact on the state’s revenues might appear to be
negative. Between 1998 and 2007 the state distributed an estimated $179 million in
historic tax credits and received approximately $55 million in tax revenues from
historic rehabilitation projects. But as Holton demonstrates, for every $3.6 million in
revenue that the state lost, the historic tax credit generated $160 million in economic
activity.
None of these statistics speaks to environmental and economic sustainability, the
rebirth of downtowns, the preservation of significant historic properties, a sense of
place and time, and so-called “quality of life” issues. Yet they remind us that history is
a living presence in our lives. In times of economic distress, we should neither ignore
that presence nor neglect it.
Jeffrey J. Crow
Commerce, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro Board of Trustees, the United Way, the United Arts Council,
Piedmont Craftsmen, and the Girl Scouts of America. She served as co-chair of her alma
mater’s Students First Capital Campaign, surpassing the goal of $100 million one year
early. Carlisle has been a strong supporter of various community arts organizations, includ-ing
Triad Stage, the Community Theater of Greensboro, and the Greensboro Symphony.
She is a strong proponent of the arts as an economic development driver, downtown reju-venator,
and small-town catalyst. Her awards and honors include the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro Distinguished Alumni Service Award (2001); the Outstanding
Volunteer Fund-raiser from the North Carolina Triad Chapter of the Association of
Fund-raising Professionals (2003); the Athena Award from the Greensboro Chamber of
Commerce (2004); the Women in Business Award from the Business Journal (2006); and
recognition as one of “The Triad’s Most Influential People” in both 2007 and 2008.
On February 17, Secretary Carlisle addressed an open letter to “Dear Friend of History”:
This is a challenging and exciting time for the Department of Cultural
Resources, and I am honored to have the new opportunity to work with Gov. Bev
Perdue, who values and respects the importance of Cultural Resources.
We are fortunate to have strong supporters like you who appreciate that
knowledge of the past is fundamental to understanding who we are and where
we are going. You know almost better than anyone how vital arts, culture, and
history are to the well-being, quality of life, and economic health of our state. It
is gratifying that during the past year nineteen million people participated in
Cultural Resources programs—from the State Library, Archives and History,
Museums, Historic Sites, the North Carolina Symphony, and the North Carolina
Arts Council.
There are challenging financial issues facing North Carolina . . . and Cultural
Resources. We need to be thoughtful as we navigate our way. This economy will
turn around, and, when it does, our cultural community needs to be healthy and
robust, with fresh ideas and new ways to reach children, adults, residents, and visi-tors.
Now, more than ever, we will depend on the private sector and friends like
you for help.
We have a great story to tell about the positive impact of the creative industry
on the vitality and growth of our state. More than 159,000 people in the creative
sector earn wages of $3.9 billion, contributing financially to their communities.
The creative industry accounts for 4 percent of the state’s workforce—more than
the biotech industry—and helps recruit and retain business, and grow jobs.
Strengthening K-12 history education is one of Cultural Resources’ foremost
goals. We cannot afford to lose this focus or allow our important work to be
depleted, but instead raise the cry to stay strong as North Carolina works through
these tough times.
Working together, we can make Cultural Resources stronger than ever. Let’s
insure that our story is one that our governor can be proud to tell, our legislators
can value, and our citizens can appreciate. I am proud to be a part of Cultural
Resources, and I hope to make you proud as well.
Sincerely,
Linda A. Carlisle, Secretary
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African American Heritage Commission Sworn In
The initial board of the African American Heritage Commission, established within
the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) by the General Assembly in its 2007-2008
session, was sworn into office during a ceremony at the State Government and Heritage
Library in Raleigh on February 27. The purpose of the commission is to advise and assist
the secretary of DCR in the “preservation, interpretation, and promotion of African
American history, arts, and culture.” The commission consists of ten members, four
appointed by the governor (at least one of whom must be a member of the North
Carolina Historical Commission) and six by the General Assembly, three each on the
recommendation of the president pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House. The chair of the commission is designated by the governor from among four
appointees.
The original commission is composed of Dr. Jean G. Spaulding of Cary, chair;
Mrs. Sterlin Benson-Webber of Charlotte; the Honorable Donald A. Bonner of Rowland;
Andrena Coleman of Greensboro; Frankie Day of Graham; Henry Harrison of Asheville;
Mrs. Annie McCoy of Raleigh; Dr. E. B. Palmer Sr. of Raleigh; Dr. Freddie L. Parker of
Durham; and Darin Waters of Raleigh. Dr. Parker, professor of history at North Carolina
Central University, is also a member of the North Carolina Historical Commission.
Andrena Coleman is the former site manager of the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum
who resigned in August 2008 to accept the position of chief administrative officer at
Bennett College.
At the swearing-in ceremony, Linda A. Carlisle, the newly appointed secretary of
DCR; Dr. Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History;
Rep. Alma Adams of Greensboro, who sponsored the legislation that created the commis-sion;
and Dr. Spaulding made brief remarks. Dr. Spaulding acknowledged the assistance
of Michelle Lanier, curator of cultural history in the Division of State Historic Sites and
Properties, in compiling a list of some notable black North Carolinians whom she
mentioned in her speech. North Carolina Supreme Court justice Patricia Timmons-
Goodson administered the oath of office to the commissioners, who then held their first
meeting.
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Rep. Alma Adams (left) addresses the organizational meeting of the African American Heritage
Commission on February 27. Linda A. Carlisle (standing), secretary of the Department of Cultural
Resources, and Jean G. Spaulding (seated), chair of the commission, also made remarks at the
swearing-in ceremony.
Scholars Commemorate Bicentennial of Lincoln’s Birth
The Office of Archives and History participated in the nationwide commemoration of
the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln by hosting a symposium of scholarly lec-tures
at the North Carolina Museum of History on February 12. A crowd of 235 inter-ested
citizens and employees of the agency heard six prominent North Carolina historians
discuss various aspects of the far-ranging Lincoln historiography. Jeffrey J. Crow, who pre-sided
over the daylong conference and presented each of the speakers, opened the sympo-sium
by introducing the new secretary of the department, Linda A. Carlisle.
The program was divided into three sessions of two lectures. William C. Harris, emer-itus
professor of history at North Carolina State University and a leading authority on Lin-coln,
opened the conference with an appraisal of the sixteenth president as a political
leader. He weighed the essential qualities of leadership—intelligence, honesty, sound judg-ment,
caution, tolerance, compassion, and a sense of humor—all of which Lincoln pos-sessed
in abundance. Harris concluded that Lincoln was “the finest political leader the
country has ever produced.” By way of contrast, Paul D. Escott of Wake Forest Univer-sity
examined the presidency of Jefferson Davis. He noted that history has not been partic-ularly
kind to the leader of the defeated Confederacy, as is generally the case for the losers
of military and political contests. Escott conceded that Davis had blatant defects of charac-ter
and made a number of calamitous decisions but suggested that the president grew into
the job and developed both flexibility and innovation during his four years in office.
Escott averred that the Confederacy would not have survived until 1865 had not Davis
been at the helm.
After lunch, Joseph Glatthaar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
opened a lively afternoon session with a critical examination of Lincoln as a military
leader. While the president was an able director of national strategy, wisely using diplo-macy
to keep France and England out of the war, he was markedly less successful at purely
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Five of the speakers at the Abraham Lincoln symposium sponsored by the Office of Archives and
History pose with Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of the office and master of ceremonies for the
program: (front row, left to right) Paul D. Escott, John David Smith, Heather A. Williams; and (back
row, left to right) Crow, Loren Schweninger, and William C. Harris.
military strategy. In Glatthaar’s estimate, Lincoln was a conventional thinker in military
matters who tended to favor those advisers, such as Henry W. Halleck and Edwin M.
Stanton, who thought in like terms. He could never relinquish the conventional head-on
approach in order to embrace the “raiding strategy” propounded by the modern thinkers,
U. S. Grant and William T. Sherman. John David Smith, professor of history at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, discussed the mobilization of 179,000 African
American soldiers by the Union. He traced the gradual process of emancipation and the
integration of former slaves into the federal armies through the dictates of the first and
second compensation acts and the Militia Act of 1862. Smith suggested that Lincoln’s sup-posed
shift of attitudes toward emancipation over the course of the war was more apparent
than real: the president was merely waiting for propitious events and circumstances to
announce the new policy that would radically alter the tenor of the conflict.
The final session of the symposium continued the discussion of Lincoln as the Great
Emancipator. Loren Schweninger of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
developed the course of the president’s relationship with Frederick Douglass in light of
Lincoln’s changing views regarding slavery, emancipation, and race. Schweninger noted
that the two leaders were quite different in terms of personality, style, and favored solu-tions
to racial issues, but that both were dramatically altered by the Civil War. In the final
lecture of the day, Heather A. Williams of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill examined the evolution of Lincoln’s legacy to African Americans over the past cen-tury
and a half. Even before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the president was
regarded by blacks as the Moses who would lead them out of slavery and into the Prom-ised
Land. Many feared that his assassination was part of a wider conspiracy to return them
to bondage. Lincoln’s death elevated him to the status of martyr and the Great Overseer,
the omniscient conscience of a reunited nation.
Three historical documents relating to Lincoln, on loan from the North Carolina State
Archives, were displayed in the museum lobby during the week of the symposium. Two
of the manuscripts were letters bearing the president’s signature: the cover letter to the
so-called “Ghost Amendment,” the proposed thirteenth amendment to the Constitution
that would have prevented Congress from interfering with slavery where it existed, sent to
the states for ratification on March 13, 1861; and an April 8, 1862, letter to the czar
announcing the recall of Cassius Clay of Kentucky as minister to Russia. The third record
on display was the letter book of Gov. John W. Ellis containing a transcription of his
famous telegram to Secretary of War Simon Cameron in response to Lincoln’s request of
April 15, 1861, for two regiments of North Carolina troops to assist in putting down the
secession of the lower South: “You can get no troops from North Carolina.”
War of 1812 Bicentennial Planning Begins
The charter meeting of the War of 1812 Bicentennial Project Committee of the Office
of Archives and History was held on January 28, 2009. Chaired by Dr. David Brook,
director of the Division of Historical Resources, the committee commenced its planning
of events and activities leading up to and during the war’s bicentennial years, 2012 to
2015. The committee’s goal is to educate the public about “America’s Second War for
Independence” and the role of North Carolina and North Carolinians in the war. During
its first meeting, the committee established subcommittees for exhibits; events and pro-grams;
publications and research; publicity; and reenactors and living history. Members of
the committee include Sion H. Harrington III, military collection archivist at the North
Carolina State Archives, assistant chair; Thomas Belton, curator of military history, North
Carolina Museum of History; Dr. Lindley S. Butler, historian, Reidsville; Charlotte R.
Carrere, state council president and president of the Johnston Blakeley Chapter of the
United States Daughters of 1812; Bruce Daws, historic properties manager of the City of
Fayetteville and curator of the Fayetteville Area Transportation and Local History
Museum; Maryanne Friend, director of development and marketing communications for
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the Department of Cultural Resources; Jim Greathouse, historic interpreter at the
Fayetteville Area Transportation and Local History Museum; Keith Hardison, director of
the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties; Elizabeth “Beth” Hayden, demograph-ics
and reference librarian in the State Library of North Carolina; Joshua Howard, research
historian, Research Branch; Earl Ijames, curator of African American culture, North
Carolina Museum of History; Dr. Joseph Porter, chief curator, North Carolina Museum
of History; and Jo Ann Williford, education supervisor of the Office of Archives and His-tory.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of Archives and History; Ken Howard, director
of the North Carolina Museum of History; and Jesse R. “Dick” Lankford, state archivist
of North Carolina, serve as ex-officio members of the committee.
North Caroliniana Society Publishes Imprint about Gov. Bob Scott
The North Caroliniana Society has recently published number 45 in its series of limited-edition
imprints. The thirty-six-page booklet, titled Robert W. Scott and the Preservation of
North Carolina History, contains an expanded version of the remarks delivered by Dr. H. G.
Jones, secretary and founder of the society and general editor of the imprint series, at
Alamance Community College on June 29, 2008. The occasion was the presentation of
the North Caroliniana Society Award to the former governor and his wife, Jessie Rae
Scott, in honor of their “extraordinary contributions to North Carolina’s art, history, and
culture.” The slim soft-cover volume includes ten pages of photographs of Scott family
members, friends, and former colleagues of the governor and First Lady taken at the
reception by Jerry W. Cotten, retired iconographic archivist at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jan G. Hensley, a Greensboro photographer. The booklet
also contains an appendix titled, “Protecting Professionalism in History: The Challenges of
Governmental Reorganization,” in which Dr. Jones reflects from the remove of nearly
forty years upon the revolutionary days of the early 1970s when the State Department of
Archives and History, of which Dr. Jones was then director, was deprived of its depart-mental
status during two thorough reorganizations of state government.
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Members of the War of 1812 Bicentennial Project Committee of the Office of Archives and History
at the group’s organizational meeting on January 28: (seated, left to right) Jim Greathouse, chairman
David Brook, Lindley S. Butler; and (standing, left to right) Joshua Howard, Sion H. Harrington III,
Elizabeth Hayden, Thomas Belton, Joseph Porter, Keith Hardison, and Charlotte R. Carrere.
In Dr. Jones’s estimation, his friend Bob Scott, who died on January 23 at the age of
seventy-nine, was one of only two of the ninety-nine men who have served as chief
executives of North Carolina—the other being David Lowry Swain—who merited the
title, “Gubernatorial Friend of History.” Among his many other accomplishments in the
various fields of public history, Scott oversaw the launching of the state’s historic preserva-tion
program; initiated the restoration of the State Capitol and the renovation of the
Executive Mansion; pushed for the legislative appropriation that funded the construction
of a state records center; accepted Reed Gold Mine and Duke Homestead as state historic
sites; acquired the workshop of David Marshall “Carbine” Williams for the North
Carolina Museum of History; and established the precedent of treating the office files of
the lieutenant governor as public records. As Dr. Jones concluded, “Every historian,
archivist, archaeologist, museologist, and historic preservationist owes special gratitude to
Bob Scott, in whose administration North Carolina accelerated its leadership in archival
and historic preservation in the nation.”
Robert W. Scott and the Preservation of North Carolina History may be purchased from the
society for $25.00, which includes shipping and handling. Only five hundred copies were
printed, each bearing a distinct number. To obtain a copy, write to the North Caroliniana
Society, P.O. Box 127, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0127.
East Carolina University Acquires Papers of Poet
The Special Collections Department of East Carolina University’s J. Y. Joyner Library
announces the acquisition and availability of a significant collection of the papers, publica-tions,
and original watercolors of poet A. R. Ammons (1926–2001). The papers are open
for research, and a finding aid is available on the department’s Web site,
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/spclcoll/index.cfm. A major exhibit, A. R. Ammons’s Poetry
and Art: A Documentary Exhibit, will be on view in the Special Collections Department
through June 30, 2009. A full-color catalog of the exhibition is available at no charge.
Copies may be requested by contacting Ms. Nanette Hardison at hardisonn@ecu.edu or at
(252) 328-0404.
News from Historical Resources
Archives and Records Section
The annual inventory of holdings of the State Archives was held on January 12-14,
and the Search Room was closed to the public in order to accomplish this important
work. The yearly inventory provides the Archives staff the opportunity to find improperly
shelved records, compile information concerning any missing records, update finding aids
and the stack guide, identify records in need of conservation, and perform other essential
maintenance to the collections in the Archives’ custody. This year’s inventory focused on
the map collection and the microfilm room. The records are in remarkably good order
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considering that all thirty-five thousand cubic feet were removed and returned by the sec-tion
staff to accommodate renovation of the building, which included the installation of a
sprinkler system in the Archives stacks.
The Outer Banks History Center (OBHC) has received an $11,285 grant from the
Outer Banks Community Foundation for the purchase of audiovisual equipment and to
support an exhibit and other activities celebrating the center’s twentieth anniversary. An
array of special programming is planned in commemoration of this milestone. The exhibit,
Preserving Timeless Treasures: The Outer Banks History Center Turns 20, will follow the
development of the OBHC as it grew from an idea into a world-class research facility.
Topics explored in the display include the development of the David Stick Library as the
center’s core collection; “Staff Picks,” highlighting some of the premier but lesser-known
items among the holdings; genealogical resources; and the ways in which the OBHC
preserves its materials. The exhibit opened in the OBHC gallery on February 28 and will
run through the end of the year. Scheduled commemorative activities include hosting a
roundtable discussion titled, “Storytelling as an Avocation: An Author’s and Producer’s
View,” during the Land of Beginnings Festival at the Wright Brothers National Memorial
on April 1. Presenters will include Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics at the
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and the author of The Bishop’s
Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright; Ken Mann of Wanchese, host of My Heart Will
Always Be in Carolina on UNC-TV; and Allan Smith of DreamQuest Productions, pro-ducer
of Rescue Men, a new documentary about the Pea Island Lifesavers. The Outer
Banks History Center Associates will hold a third annual antiques appraisal fair as a fund-raiser
for the OBHC on April 25. The Associates will also host a celebratory luncheon at
Kelly’s Outer Banks Restaurant in Nags Head on May 7, the actual anniversary date. For
details concerning the twentieth-anniversary schedule of events, contact the OBHC in
Manteo at (252) 473-2655 or visit www.obhistorycenter.ncdcr.gov.
The Department of Cultural Resources and especially the Archives and Records Sec-tion
will be directly impacted by the provisions of Executive Order 150, issued in January
by Gov. Michael F. Easley as he was leaving office. New responsibilities for the agency
will include the provision of mandatory online training to all state employees who handle
public records. Much of this training will focus on teaching employees to manage e-mail
as a public record. Archives staff members will also participate in a planning group to iden-tify
a software package to be used by all state agencies. Such a package will need to have
the capacity to archive e-mail messages and attachments and to migrate them to future for-mats
for accessibility. Another duty will involve conducting random audits of state agen-cies
within the Executive Branch to ensure that employees are in compliance with their
records retention and disposition schedules. Such audits, which will include inspections of
backup tapes, will occur during the records analysts’ review sessions with the agencies.
The North Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB), in collabora-tion
with the State Archives, has requested $33,223 in National Historical Publications
Records Commission (NHPRC) supplemental funds to implement an eighteen-month
pilot Traveling Archivist Program to educate, train, and provide direct technical assistance
to cultural institutions that house archival collections. The SHRAB will collaborate with
the North Carolina State Archives to provide an in-kind match of $33,232, for a total
project budget of $66,455. The proposed Traveling Archivist Program would address one
of the four goals espoused in the SHRAB’s November 2006 strategic plan:
To serve as an advocate for historical records in North Carolina, promoting and develop-ing
programs to raise public awareness of the importance, value, and condition of the state’s
recorded heritage.
Our shared vision is that we have strengthened our relationship with archival and histori-cal
institutions statewide through our field services support program for all North Carolina
archives.
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Correspondence archivist and Civil War historian Chris Meekins was the featured
speaker at two Civil War Trails marker dedication programs in late 2008. On November 6
he spoke during the unveiling of markers at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth
City. Meekins was involved with the six markers from concept to dedication and worked
with museum staff members and city officials to complete the project. The text of the
markers was based on his recent book, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and the Civil War:
A History of Battle and Occupation, which detailed aspects of guerrilla warfare in the region.
Mitch Bowman, director of the Civil War Trails marker program, indicated that these
markers were unique in the subject matter that they explored. In his remarks, Meekins
stressed the importance of telling our stories and the educational opportunities offered by
the marker program. On December 15 Meekins was the featured speaker at the dedication
of the Civil War Trails markers in Currituck County. Barbara Snowden, a member of the
North Carolina Historical Commission, invited him to attend the ceremony. She noted
that most of the seven markers in the county were also based on his recent publication.
Meekins again discussed the importance of telling our stories. Both dedication ceremonies
drew small crowds, who expressed their appreciation for the speakers and the markers.
Historical Publications Section
In an effort to carry North Carolina’s recently recovered copy of the Bill of Rights to
the people, the Office of Archives and History exhibited the invaluable document at seven
locations throughout the state during 2007. At each stop on the tour, historians and legal
scholars delivered keynote addresses concerning one or more of the rights protected by the
first ten amendments to the Constitution. The Historical
Publications Section has published seven of these lectures as
Liberty and Freedom: North Carolina’s Tour of the Bill of Rights
(left), edited by Kenrick N. Simpson, head of the General
Publications and Periodicals Branch.
Charlene Bangs Bickford, director of the First Federal
Congress Project at George Washington University, wrote
about the events surrounding the creation and ratification of
the Bill of Rights. Attorneys W. Dale Talbert and Karen A.
Blum of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office dis-cussed
the history of the state’s copy of the Bill of Rights,
especially the legal efforts to prove ownership of the docu-ment.
Historians William S. Price Jr., Alan D. Watson, and
Freddie L. Parker examined freedom of the press, freedom of
religion, and freedom of speech, respectively. Attorney and
civil rights advocate Julius L. Chambers discussed freedom of
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Archivist Chris Meekins speaks
at the Civil War Trails marker
dedication program in
Currituck County on
December 15. Image courtesy
of Barbara Snowden, Currituck.
assembly and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances. Justice
Willis P. Whichard analyzed the history of the dual rights of trial by jury and due process
of law.
Liberty and Freedom (121 pages, illustrated, index, paperback) costs $24.00, which
includes tax and shipping charges. Order from the Historical Publications Section (CC),
Office of Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. For
credit card orders, call (919) 733-7442, ext. 0, or access the section’s secure online store at
http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/. Liberty and Freedom is also available
from Amazon.com.
Two other publications have been printed or reprinted. The 1775 Mouzon map was
reprinted, and the cumulative index to the 2008 issues of Carolina Comments is now avail-able
for $6.00 (includes shipping). The Historical Publications Section offers more than
190 books, maps, and document facsimiles. For a free catalog, write to the address above,
call (919) 733-7442, ext. 0, or e-mail trudy.rayfield@ncdcr.gov.
During the past quarter of the current fiscal year (December 2008-February 2009),
operations within the section have been hampered by budget cuts. As a result, several
policies have had to be revised. Complimentary copies of Carolina Comments and the North
Carolina Historical Review can no longer be provided to libraries or other repositories. The
contracts for both periodicals were rewritten so that fewer copies are being printed. In
addition, subscription prices have been modified. Individual subscriptions to the North
Carolina Historical Review, which also includes receipt of Carolina Comments, remain at
$30.00 per year, but those for institutions and libraries were increased to $45.00 and
foreign subscriptions to $60.00. Individual subscriptions to Carolina Comments are still
$10.00, with back issues available for $3.00 each.
In other activities, numerous book proposals have come into the section for
consideration by senior staff members. Donna Kelly, as section administrator, has
proofread material for the State Archives, the State Historical Records Advisory Board,
the Outer Banks History Center, and the State Records Center. Bill Owens attended
the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies Conference in Winston-Salem on
February 11-13 and sold $714 worth of books. The section will be exhibiting and taking
orders for books at the National Genealogical Society’s annual meeting to be held on
May 12-16 in Raleigh. Documentary editor Lang Baradell was appointed to the World
War I Centennial Committee of the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR). Ms. Kelly
was named to the Association for Documentary Editing program committee for the 2009
meeting in Indianapolis. She attended meetings of the Civil War Sesquicentennial
Committee on January 26 and the DCR Project Green Task Force on February 26.
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News from State Historic Sites and Properties
East Historic Sites Region
Historic Bath hosted a lecture in February for Black History Month titled, “Slave Ship
Archaeology: A Comparative Look at the English Slave Ship, Henrietta Marie, and
Blackbeard’s Flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.” David Moore, curator of nautical archaeol-ogy
at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, provided a brief examination of
the history of the two vessels and archaeological efforts undertaken on the wreckage of
each. The Queen Anne’s Revenge was originally the French slave ship La Concorde, bound
for Martinique when Blackbeard commandeered it. Seventy people attended the lecture
and especially enjoyed the question-and-answer segment following the formal presenta-tion.
Historic Bath’s newest acquisition, the early-twentieth-century Carson Cottage,
received a new roof in early February. This building provides office, meeting, and storage
space, as well as accommodations for interns and guest lecturers.
Bentonville Battlefield staff members accompanied their three-inch ordnance rifle to
Roanoke Island Festival Park on February 28 and March 1 to participate in that site’s
annual Civil War living history program. On March 21-22, Bentonville commemorated
the 144th anniversary of the largest battle ever fought on North Carolina soil with its own
living history event, School of the Soldier: Confederate Army Camp of Instruction. More
than one hundred reenactors, both military and civilian, descended on Bentonville for the
annual commemoration of the 1865 clash. Participants re-created a Confederate camp of
instruction, where novice soldiers would have learned how to drill properly, fire their
muskets quickly, and, most importantly, maintain the discipline needed in battle. Division
staff members and volunteers demonstrated the loading and firing of Bentonville’s
three-inch ordnance rifle. Civilian reenactors cooked in the Harper House kitchen and
presented activities and discussions concerning the hardships of the home front. Staff
members from Fort Fisher State Historic Site, the Education Branch of the Museum and
Visitor Services Section, and the eastern Civil War office of the Department of Cultural
Resources contributed to the program’s success.
In conjunction with the living history program, Bentonville unveiled Remnants of War,
the inaugural exhibit in a large new display case, which includes several letters, a tintype
photograph, medical tools, muskets, a sword, and an artillery shell encased in a tree trunk.
The letters and photograph belonged to Pvt. John Curtis, who was a cadet at a
Hillsborough military academy when the war began. He immediately joined the Thir-teenth
North Carolina Light Artillery Battalion and fought in this unit throughout the
war. His often jovial but sometimes somber letters offer a rare glimpse at the life of the
average North Carolina Confederate soldier. The last of the letters was written on the eve
of the fighting at Bentonville, where Curtis was killed on March 20, 1865, the second day
of the battle.
Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson is anticipating a summer archaeology research project
to be conducted in conjunction with the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties,
the Friends of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, Peace College, Wake Technical College,
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archaeologist Thom Beaman, and the Office of State Archaeology. This partnership will
resume active archaeological field investigations at the site that Dr. Stanley South began
excavating in the late 1950s. The bid process for the new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant
trail at the site closed on February 20, and construction of the new paved
boardwalk/walkway began on March 9. It is anticipated that the work will be completed
well before the opening of the summer tourist season.
A living history program commemorating the 144th anniversary of the fall of Fort
Anderson was held on February 14-15. Fifty reenactors portraying infantry, artillerymen,
and sailors were joined by a number of sutlers and civilian presenters to interpret the Civil
War for nearly two thousand visitors. Dr. Chris Fonvielle and Dr. Max Williams were the
guest speakers, the Cape Fear Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy put on
a period fashion show each day, and new lantern tours of the fort were offered on Satur-day
evening. Plans have already been made for next year’s 145th anniversary program,
which will include the fall of Fort Anderson and the Battle of Town Creek scenarios.
Following years of planning that began after Hurricane Floyd wrecked the property at
the CSS Neuse/Governor Richard Caswell Memorial in Kinston, the Queen Street Pro-ject
to move and better preserve the Civil War gunboat is off and running. Three million
dollars were appropriated at the last session of the General Assembly to go along with the
$530,000 that had been allocated in previous sessions. These funds will cover the cost of
moving the ship and building a climate-controlled facility. Dunn and Dalton Architects of
Kinston have been awarded the contract to design the facility and have hired PH Group
Industries of California to plan the exhibits. The PH Group designed the displays at the
National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia. At a meeting on February 9,
personnel from several state government entities, Dunn and Dalton, and the PH Group
discussed the plans. The two firms will submit their designs in June.
Before Gov. Michael F. Easley left office in January, he had included this project in his
economic development plan, which put it on a fast track for completion. The project will
be conducted in phases, with the first and most important being preservation of the boat
in a climate-controlled environment. The Golden LEAF Foundation provided a $100,000
grant for design of the facility, and the Kinston-Lenoir County Tourism Development
Authority has pledged an equal amount toward exhibits. The property on which the CSS
Neuse will be situated was accepted by the State in a letter from the State Property Office
dated February 5, 2009. The governor and the Council of State approved the acquisition
by deed of gift from the Pride of Kinston. The City of Kinston and Lenoir County also
contributed funds with which to prepare the property for State acceptance. It is located
next door to the 100 North Queen Street property that was donated to the State by the
CSS Neuse Gunboat Association on September 31, 2003. This ambitious project has truly
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Reenactors portraying Union troops
raise the flag over the captured
works of Fort Anderson during the
living history commemoration of
the 144th anniversary of the battle.
been a group effort involving many concerned citizens and groups in the Kinston/Lenoir
County area.
Historic Edenton and the James Iredell Historical Association celebrated the sixtieth
anniversary of incorporation of the association on March 17 by unveiling an appreciation
plaque that recognizes nine major donations to the site and association over the years. Site
manager Linda Jordan Eure introduced an exhibit that she had developed to showcase
association activities since its founding in 1949. Attendees of the ceremony and a reception
that followed included descendants of contributors named on the plaque, family of charter
members of the association, Historic Edenton site staff, current association board members,
and community representatives.
On Saturday, January 17, Fort Fisher State Historic Site presented Fort Fisher Then
and Now, a program commemorating the 144th anniversary of the capture of the fort. An
estimated 3,500 visitors braved icy weather to explore the history of Fort Fisher through
the lens of Civil War photography, particularly the work of Timothy O’Sullivan at the
fort in 1865. The site opened a new temporary exhibit, Civil War Photography, during the
week before the event. Shannon SanCartier, a part-time Fort Fisher employee and
full-time graduate student in the public history program at the University of North
Carolina at Wilmington, researched and designed the exhibit as an internship project. She
was assisted by staff members of Fort Fisher and the division office. On the day of the
event, visitors also enjoyed Bob Zellar’s show, The Civil War in 3-D. An expert on nine-teenth-
century photography, Zellar lectured and projected stereoscopic images of Fort
Fisher and other Civil War battlefields that, when viewed through special glasses, came to
life in three dimensions. Many of O’Sullivan’s images of the fort, enlarged to a striking
four by eight feet, were installed in the vicinity of the historic features that they depicted,
giving visitors an amazing “then and now” perspective of the scenes before them. No Fort
Fisher anniversary program is complete without soldiers, cannons, and music. Staff mem-bers
and volunteer reenactors in Confederate costume demonstrated field artillery at the
River Road sally port and the tremendous thirty-two-pound seacoast gun in Shepherd’s
Battery. Reenactors from the First, Eighteenth, and Twenty-seventh North Carolina
Troops donned blue uniforms and demonstrated the infantry tactics and weaponry of the
fort’s Union adversaries. The Huckleberry Brothers and John Golden added to the nine-teenth-
century ambience with period music, and the Federal Point Historic Preservation
Society served delicious sausage dogs.
Historic Halifax has two new wayside exhibits and two more planned. The newly
installed exhibits at Eagle Tavern focus on the history of the tavern itself and early Ameri-can
ordinaries in general. Two more waysides, one interpreting Market Square and the
other the Halifax Courthouse site, are in progress and will likely be installed later in the
year. Funding from the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of North Carolina made
some of these exhibits possible. The site also hosted a sheep shearing and wool spinning
workshop sponsored by the Halifax County Agricultural Extension Service’s 4-H Program
on March 21.
At Somerset Place, several buildings, including the original kitchen/laundry, kitchen
storehouse, smokehouse, dairy, and the Colony House, received new wooden-shingled
roofs. The Colony House was formerly used as a boarding school for the plantation
owner’s six sons and presently serves as the site’s visitor center. Damage to the rake and
fascia boards on the smokehouse and kitchen storehouse caused by pileated woodpeckers,
frequent visitors to the site, was also repaired.
North Carolina Transportation Museum
The North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer closed out 2008 and began
2009 with a number of events indicating continued success in the face of tough economic
times. The new year started with a program that challenges traditional North Carolina
maritime history. Kevin Duffus presented his lecture, “The Last Days of Black Beard the
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Pirate,” which featured excerpts from his recently published book of the same name.
Duffus questioned the accepted account of the state’s most famous historical outlaw, con-tending
that the pirate was actually born in the colonies, not in England, as historians have
long believed. Duffus weighed other alleged misconceptions, such as Blackbeard’s real
name and the true extent of his exploits. He also claimed that some members of the
pirate’s crew were not executed, as many think, but lived long and profitable lives after
their careers as brigands.
A new permanent exhibit that focuses on a little-known facet of the history of African
American workers on North Carolina railroads has been added to the museum. North
Carolina Lining Bar Gangs recalls the labor and music of African American railroad workers.
Lining bar gangs consisted of ten to thirty laborers and a foreman who laid railroad track
onto rail ties. They were also known as gandy dancers, because they employed a gandy, or
lining bar, to align the tracks. The workers used rail tongs to pick up a rail, placed it on tie
plates, and spiked it down to the ties. The work was backbreaking and generally took
place in the heat of summer. To maintain a fluid motion, crews sang blues and ragtime
tunes, along with spirituals dating back to slavery days. The songs helped keep the workers
synchronized and also expressed their feelings about the hard job they were doing. North
Carolina Lining Bar Gangs is on display in the Bob Julian Roundhouse at the museum.
The museum has also seen improvements to the tracks and in the look and functional-ity
of walkways at the site. New sidewalks have been installed alongside the Flue Shop,
replacing a dated and cracked walkway that collected rainwater and left puddles for guests
to wade through. Less obvious to the visitor experience, but every bit as important, is
recent track work at the museum. Paid for by the North Carolina Transportation Museum
Foundation and a matching federal grant, the improvements will keep the trains running
at the museum and provide more track area on which to display locomotives, rail cars, and
visiting trains.
Piedmont Historic Sites Region
At Alamance Battleground, thirteen members of the Alamance Long Rifles held their
monthly meeting on January 8 and enjoyed a presentation concerning the making of
Damascus shotgun barrels. During the weekend of January 23-25, nineteen members of
the Iron Grey Mess, a group of Civil War reenactors, camped and practiced their drills at
the site. Staff members conducted a thorough cleaning of the upstairs of the Allen House
on January 28.
A new season of living history events opened at Bennett Place on March 28. The
Planting the Fields program demonstrated farming as practiced in the 1850s by the Bennett
family. Costumed interpreters conducted hands-on activities with visitors and planted corn
and other vegetables that would have been grown on the farm. Subsequent programs will
examine the construction of split rail fencing, farm chores, and other domestic activities.
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A half-foot-deep blanket of snow enveloped
Bennett Place and other state historic sites in
the Piedmont Region on January 20.
On March 1, the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum presented Dr. Willi Coleman as
the initial speaker in the spring 2009 edition of the Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown Legacy
Lecture Series. Dr. Coleman’s lecture was titled, “On the Road to Miss Rosa: Black
Women’s Resistance to Segregated Public Transportation before Rosa Parks,” a topic that
relates directly to the legacy of Dr. Brown, who is remembered for her legal suits against
interstate railroads in the 1920s. Dr. Coleman has written on the topic of African Ameri-can
women who were involved in protests against segregated public transportation in the
1990 book, Black Women in United States History from Colonial Times to the Present. Cur-rently
an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she has a
passion for merging African American history and women’s history, and has long been at
the forefront of that movement. Her lecture, therefore, provided a fitting closure for
African American History Month and the opening of Women’s History Month. The next
lecture in the series, scheduled for April 5, will feature a program concerning African
American philanthropy presented by NC Gives, an emerging statewide initiative that
focuses on the generosity of communities of color, women, and young people.
Staff members and volunteers from the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum and
Historic Stagville represented their sites at the annual African American Cultural
Celebration at the North Carolina Museum of History on January 31. Duke Homestead
also participated in the event, hosting a tobacco-tying exhibit that proved very popular
with attendees.
Town Creek Indian Mound held its first Astronomy Night of 2009 on January 3.
Several additional evenings of star gazing are scheduled throughout the year. Murray
Roofing of Swansboro completed the roof replacement project at the visitor center.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
After the customary winter’s respite, the park reopened for the 2009 season with a
weekend of eclectic musical performances. The Freedmen’s Colony Blues Jam was held in
the Film Theater on Friday, February 20, with legendary blues guitarists Hubert Sumlin,
Bob Margolin, and Matt Walsh as the featured artists. The internationally acclaimed
Hesperus Crossover Quartet, billed as “History’s Soundtrack,” then delivered a pair of
memorable performances. On Saturday night, the ensemble presented the musical score
from Buster Keaton’s classic 1925 movie, The General. Nineteenth-century ballads,
marches, breakdowns, jigs, and topical songs were performed on period folk instruments.
On Sunday afternoon, the quartet offered The Unknown Lincoln: A Portrait in Song, a selec-tion
of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite tunes interspersed with quotations from the sixteenth
president, his family, and friends.
The following weekend, the historic site commemorated the 147th anniversary of the
Battle of Roanoke Island with the ninth annual Civil War Living History Weekend.
More than sixty reenactors por-traying
Union and Confederate
soldiers and civilians supported
Division of State Historic Sites
and Properties personnel in
demonstrations of artillery fire,
speed musket firing, camp life,
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Gary Riggs (right) demonstrates
battlefield surgery during the ninth
annual Civil War Living History
Weekend at Roanoke Island Festival
Park.
and a Civil War-era enlistment station. On Saturday, Gary Riggs of Vanceboro gave a
presentation concerning battlefield surgery. The play, Heroes of the Underground Railroad,
produced by the Bright Star Children’s Theatre of Asheville and currently in its fourth
year of touring the country, was presented in the park’s Film Theater on Sunday.
Roanoke Island Festival Park (RIFP) was invited to participate in the historic inaugural
parade of Governor-elect Beverly Perdue in Raleigh on January 10. Costumed interpret-ers
from the park joined
staff members from sev-eral
other state historic
sites, including Fort
Dobbs and the North
Carolina Transportation
Museum; members of
Elizabeth R and Com-pany,
the park’s resident
professional theater
company; the Guilde of
St. Andrew of Raleigh,
frequent participants in
RIFP programming; and
the Oakwood Waits
singing group of
Raleigh. The theme of
the inaugural parade for
the state’s first female
chief executive was
“North Carolina: The
Future Starts Now.”
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
Hats off to the Dreamers: Rebuilding and Furnishing Tryon Palace, a new exhibit in two
galleries celebrating fifty years of Tryon Palace history, will officially open on April 24.
The Tryon Palace Commission will welcome present and former commissioners in com-memoration
of the fiftieth anniversary. The galleries inside the palace will exhibit antique
furniture, paintings, and objects d’art from the original Maude Moore Latham Collection
and items bought to furnish the palace for its opening on April 8, 1959. Many of these
objects have not been on view for decades. Eighteenth-century archaeological evidence
found during restoration of the palace will also be on display. Visitors will be able to see
the interpretation of the palace evolve over time—from the furnishings of the 1950s to
today’s more historically accurate portrayal of eighteenth-century interiors. Admission to
the exhibit is included in the purchase of an all-inclusive Governor’s Pass ticket ($15 for
adults and $6 for students). Special discounts are available to groups. Contact
www.tryonpalace.org for further information.
Maude Moore Latham and her daughter, May Gordon Latham Kellenberger, were
natives of New Bern. Both were prominent in various civic, cultural, and patriotic
organizations and together left a legacy that is treasured not only in New Bern but also
throughout the state. Even after the Latham family moved to Greensboro in 1904, they
continued to promote the significance of the colonial history of New Bern and North
Carolina. When an opportunity arose for the State to acquire the Carolina Charter, issued
on March 24, 1663, by King Charles II of England to the Lords Proprietors, Mrs. Latham
was the first and largest donor toward its purchase.
Mrs. Latham was particularly interested in the restoration of historic buildings, and it
was her dream that the government house, or palace, designed by John Hawks and
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Players in Elizabeth R and Company, a professional theater company
from Manteo, joined costumed staff members from Roanoke Island
Festival Park to march in the historic inaugural parade of Governor-elect
Beverly Perdue on January 10.
constructed in New Bern during the tenure of royal governor William Tryon, be restored.
The building, once described as “the finest capital building on the continent of North
America,” served as both the first permanent capitol of the colony and the first capitol of
the state after the American Revolution. A dream that was once referred to as “impossible,
impractical, and undesirable” had not then encountered the dedication and commitment
of two determined and remarkable ladies, Maude Moore Latham and May Gordon Latham
Kellenberger. While many individuals were involved in research and promotion of the pro-ject
to restore the palace, it was not until 1944, when Mrs. Latham established the Maude
Moore Latham Trust Fund for the explicit purpose of raising money for the restoration of
the palace, that the project gained momentum. Mrs. Latham contributed more than
$3,000,000 to the State, as well as a gift of antiques with which to furnish the palace.
Mrs. Latham did not live to see her dream realized, but her legacy was nurtured and
expanded through the efforts of her daughter. Mrs. Kellenberger succeeded her mother as
chair of the Tryon Palace Commission, a board established to accept gifts, acquire prop-erty,
and restore Governor Tryon’s Palace. Under the guidance of Mrs. Kellenberger, the
commission restored not only the palace, but also the John Wright Stanly House and the
Dixon House, museum houses that are important to the site’s interpretation of the
historical heritage of New Bern and North Carolina.
Like her mother, Mrs. Kellenberger donated much of her personal fortune toward
preserving the heritage of New Bern. At her death, she left exclusively for the Town of
New Bern the legacy of the Kellenberger Historical Foundation for preservation-related
projects. Beneficiaries of this trust and stewardship include the New Bern Historical
Society, the New Bern Preservation Foundation, Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens,
the New Bern Academy Museum, the New Bern Civic Theatre, and Habitat for
Humanity. Expansion of the New Bern-Craven County Public Library and the creation
of the Kellenberger Room, a repository of state and local history, were results of her
legacy. Many publications documenting the history of New Bern were also made possible
through Mrs. Kellenberger’s beneficence, a generous gift that will continue to serve future
generations.
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Maude Moore Latham (left) and her daughter, May Gordon Latham Kellenberger (right) provided
much of the leadership and funding to restore Tryon Palace, which opened to the public fifty years
ago. Both of the portraits were painted by Joseph Wallace King, ca. 1963–1964: Mrs. Latham’s was
done posthumously.
West Historic Sites Region
West Region sites and personnel were honored with five awards by the North Carolina
Museums Council at its annual meeting, held in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on March 5.
Steve A. Hill, veteran site manager of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, received the Career
Professional Service Award for his many years of outstanding service to the division. The
preservation and restoration of the Old Kentucky Home is a testament to his nearly thirty
years of daily efforts. Sharon E. Robinson, in her second year as site manager of Reed
Gold Mine, was honored with the Early Career Professional Service Award for her efforts
to tell North Carolina’s gold-mining history. The Ledger, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial’s
black-and-white newsletter, was cited as best in its class. Fort Dobbs received the award
for the top Web site (www.fortdobbs.org). Finally, the President James K. Polk State
Historic Site was named one of two recipients of $500 awards with which to fund an
internship during the coming year.
The West Region enjoyed good weather on weekends during January, resulting in
increased visitation at all sites. While some sites are experiencing increases in local school-children
visitation, others are having cancellations of field trips because of school system
budgetary cutbacks.
In February the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) unveiled an interactive
component of its Web site, www.ncculture.com/interactive, that highlights North
Carolina’s role in the French and Indian War. “This online project combines traditional
and experiential learning,” said DCR secretary Linda A. Carlisle. “It’s a fun and engaging
way for teachers and students of all ages to learn about an important part of North Carolina’s
story.” The project features battle reenactments; frontier and Indian life; historic photo-graphs
of the archaeological dig at Fort Dobbs; and interviews with historic interpreters,
archaeologists, and a high school student volunteer. Also included on the Web site are a
guide for educators, a suggested reading list for all ages, a “Guess the Artifact” puzzle, and
recipes for Cherokee bean bread and colonial stew. DCR educators showcased the inter-active
at the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies conference in Greensboro.
The North Carolina Provincial Frontier Company, Fort Dobbs State Historic Site’s
garrison, participated in Gov. Beverly Perdue’s inaugural parade in Raleigh on January 10.
Staff members and seventeen
volunteers from throughout
the state represented the fort
on the historic occasion. Site
planning continued with the
implementation of a
$150,000 Museums for
America grant from the Insti-tute
for Museum and Library
Services. The grant will fund
long-range interpretive plan-ning,
a conceptual plan for
the fort, and exhibit designs.
As a part of the project,
architectural design of the
7,800-square-foot fortified
barracks is under way. In
addition to Division of State
Historic Sites and Properties
and DCR Capital Projects
staff members, a team of
consultants that includes
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The North Carolina Provincial Frontier Company, the resident
garrison at Fort Dobbs State Historic Site, also marched in the
governor’s inaugural parade in Raleigh.
Dr. Lawrence Babits, archaeologist; Russell Steele, an expert on eighteenth-century
construction; Al Anderson, a specialist in heavy timber frame construction; and Ray
Cannetti, an authority on eighteenth-century masonry, have provided significant input
on the architectural and interpretive features of the structure. The architectural design is
expected to be completed by July.
A living history weekend, With the Greatest Attention to Command, was held at Fort
Dobbs on March 21-22. The event featured the fort’s garrison of provincial soldiers as
they practiced military drills in preparation for a new campaign season. Musketry and
cannon-firing demonstrations, as well as eighteenth-century camp life, were presented
throughout the weekend. The Friends of Fort Dobbs have undertaken a feasibility study
that will provide significant information to the site staff as it prepares for future funding.
Horne Creek Living Historical Farm will witness the completion of its new visitor
center during April. The 2,300-square-foot structure will include approximately 700
square feet of exhibit space, 800 square feet of office and program preparation areas, and
300 square feet for visitor orientation and the gift shop. The building, designed by Cherry
Huffman Architects of Raleigh, will have cedar siding and a “tin” roof. The broad front
porch will provide a place for visitors to gather and perhaps enjoy a breeze in rocking
chairs. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is being planned, and a major grand opening celebra-tion
will be held after exhibits have been installed later this year. Winter means pruning
time at the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard, and horticulturist Jason Bowen has been
busily preparing the trees for this year’s crop.
A President’s Day program celebrating the contributions of the First Ladies of
Carolina-born presidents was held at the President James K. Polk State Historic Site. The
roles of Rachel Donelson Jackson, Eliza McCardle Johnson, and Sarah Childress Polk
were discussed by scholars before an overflow crowd. With assistance from members of
the Polk Memorial Support Group, the lobby, auditorium, and offices at the site received
fresh coats of paint. New carpet has been installed in offices and the auditorium. Staff
members from Reed Gold Mine assisted in the removal of dead trees in preparation for a
trail workday sponsored by REI, sports outfitters.
Reed Gold Mine spent part of February without heat in the visitor center while a new
HVAC system was being installed to replace the original 1977 furnace. The new system is
designed to better regulate temperature and humidity levels. Much of the original duct work
was also replaced, and new ceilings were installed in the upstairs rooms and in the lobby area.
David Tate, site manager at Vance Birthplace, attended a public hearing in Morganton
for the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution National Heritage Area. The
Vance exhibits are being updated, and soon new paint and graphics will enhance a visitor’s
understanding of the life of Zebulon Vance and his contributions to North Carolina.
An inventory of donations from Ted Mitchell’s Thomas Wolfe collection has been
completed by the staff at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Mitchell was a former staff mem-ber
and a Wolfe scholar who passed away in December. A volunteer information and ori-entation
day was held at the site on January 31. Individuals interested in learning more
about volunteer opportunities at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial were treated to a guided
tour of the boardinghouse and participated in a question-and-answer session with the vol-unteer
coordinator and current docents. The site has been the beneficiary of a substantial
increase in volunteerism, which has helped to satisfy staffing needs during peak visitation
periods and special programs. The successful Student Writing Camps continued as the
spring sessions began in February. Students in fourth through eighth grades are enrolled in
the four-month camps, which meet weekly. Summer camps will also be offered, with
shorter sessions of one week each. Each class is facilitated by Janet Hurley, a free-lance
writer with a master’s degree in creative writing. In February, Asheville City and
Buncombe County teachers participated in a focus group session at the Thomas Wolfe
Memorial as part of an ongoing effort to enhance the site’s educational programming.
Teachers provided input for shaping future programs and offered advice on ways to make
such opportunities available to more educators.
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News from State History Museums
Museum of the Albemarle
In February the Museum of the Albemarle hosted a successful family program, Civil
War Living History Days. The event commemorated the 1862 Battle of Elizabeth City
and included civilian and military reenactors, encampments, displays, and the always-popular
artillery firings. Chris Meekins, Civil War historian and correspondence archivist
with the Archives and Records Section, presented a lecture titled, “Lincoln and North
Carolina: Possibilities.” The weekend’s activities not only filled the museum but also
overflowed onto the Museum Green and Waterfront Park. Recent changes in the family-friendly
Discovery Room reflect the theme, “Life on a Farm in the 1930s and 1940s.”
Visitors can try on period clothing, play games, and experience how farm families lived
and worked.
The exhibit, ArtDuckO: Waterfowl Culture in North Carolina, opened a yearlong run at
the museum on March 8. This display is located in the new expansion gallery behind the
Our Story exhibit and features an outstanding collection of decoys by noted carvers. Other
highlights of the display include feathered fashions and interactive activities, such as a
shooting gallery, camouflaged clothing to try on, and a Quack Facts Quiz to test what
visitors have learned from the exhibit. ArtDuckO will hang until March 28, 2010.
Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex
The standard for modern detective fiction, replete with a tough gumshoe, an intrigu-ing
plotline, and a femme fatale, was established in 1929, when Dashiell Hammett wrote
his masterpiece, The Maltese Falcon. The author and this important book in popular culture
were highlighted in a temporary exhibit, The Maltese Falcon: A Big Read Exhibit, which
opened at the museum on February 21. The display of Hammett memorabilia and artifacts
relating to his best-known novel was presented in conjunction with the Big Read, an ini-tiative
of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) that encourages reading by pro-moting
the community-wide reading of a particular book. For the third consecutive year,
Fayetteville was selected as a Big Read city, and The Maltese Falcon was the year’s featured
book. The historical complex, a participating organization in the Big Read program, col-laborated
with the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center to present
the exhibit. The NEA sponsors the Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum
and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Friends of the Cumber-land
County Public Library and Information Center received grants from the NEA, the
Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, and the William C. Powell, M.D.,
Advised Fund to support the project.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the historical complex presented several relevant pro-grams.
On March 10, Dr. Richard Layman, curator of the exhibit and author of numerous
books on Dashiell Hammett, discussed the author of The Maltese Falcon. On Saturday,
March 14, Chip Gentry, a member of the North Carolina Falconers Guild, hosted a pro-gram
that included a film, a brief talk about raptors, and flight demonstrations with live
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 5 3
birds of prey in Arsenal Park. On Saturday, March 28, Kathryn Beach, the museum’s
research historian, examined pop culture of the 1930s. On two other Saturdays of the
exhibit’s brief run (March 28 and April 5), the museum offered an afternoon film series.
North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort
The restoration of an LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel), or “Higgins
Boat,” was completed by volunteers at the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center of the
North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort, concluding a seven-month project. The
boat was returned to the protective care of its owner, the First Division Museum in
Wheaton, Illinois, in a hand-off ceremony at the center on March 6. The landing craft is
approximately 10½ feet wide and 36 feet long. “It’s probably the biggest single object we
ever restored at the museum,” observed curator Paul Fontenoy, “but we overcame the
challenges.” Although more than twenty-three thousand LCVPs were manufactured dur-ing
World War II, only about twelve survive in the United States. Landing crafts carried
troops from transport vessels right onto shore, including the First Infantry Division at
North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy. The LCVP has been a draw for veterans to visit the
museum and observe restoration of the vessel. “It was just great to meet all the astonished
veterans who showed up,” Fontenoy continued. “It was great to hear their life stories.”
North Carolina Museum of History
Gov. Beverly Eaves Perdue selected a garnet red formal gown for her historic inaugu-ral
ball, which took place on January 10 in Raleigh. The governor has donated the silk
gown, matching shoes, and earrings to the North Carolina Museum of History, where they
are on view in the exhibit, Elected to Serve: North Carolina’s Governors. Traditionally, the
museum acquires inaugural gowns from the state’s First Ladies. This year marks the first
time that a governor’s inaugural gown will be added to the collection. Governor Perdue
selected Lynda Narron Bunn of Bailey to design her gown of double-layered, beaded silk
chiffon that is complemented by a sheer organza yoke and straight sleeves. The gown fea-tures
a unique skirt: the back apron panel is lined with satin, which is revealed when walk-ing.
In addition to the inaugural gown, the museum acquired another first: the tuxedo that
North Carolina’s first First Gentleman wore to the inaugural ball. Governor Perdue’s hus-band,
Robert W. “Bob” Eaves Jr., donated his black tuxedo with black satin lapels, which
is also on display in Elected to Serve.
5 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Gov. Beverly Perdue and the red silk gown that she wore to her inaugural ball and donated to the
North Carolina Museum of History, where it is displayed in the Elected to Serve exhibit. Also pictured
are the First Gentleman, Robert W. “Bob” Eaves Jr. (far left), who donated the tuxedo that he wore
to the ball, and Linda A. Carlisle, secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources (center left).
Approximately 4,500 people attended the Eighth Annual African American Cultural
Celebration on January 31. The family event included musical performances, storytelling,
craft demonstrations, and hands-on activities. Blues guitarist Boo Hanks, sweet grass basket
maker Kisha Rawlinson, and children’s authors Miles and William Rabun were among the
more than seventy presenters and exhibitors at the free daylong program. “The celebration
featured a variety of presentations, so visitors had many firsthand opportunities to explore
African American history and present-day culture,” said Emily Grant, youth programs
coordinator at the museum. New presentations this year included scenes from the Burning
Coal Theatre Company’s new play, 1960, and vignettes from “Greensboro Then and
Now,” a commissioned work by the Greensboro modern dance group, Cyrus Art
Production. Special guest Sana Butler, author and Newsweek correspondent, discussed her
book, Sugar of the Crop: My Journey to Find the Children of Slaves, about an unprecedented
quest to locate the last surviving children of enslaved people. At noon, visitors watched a
Jonkonnu procession with masked dancers in colorful costumes who played drums and
sang. The performance resembled part of the Jonkonnu celebrations that were observed by
enslaved African Americans in eastern North Carolina in the 1800s. Other notable pre-senters
included Jaki Shelton Green, recently named poet laureate of the Piedmont; jazz
saxophonist Ron Baxter; the trombone shout band Mangum and Company; the Gospel
Jubilators; legendary harness horseman Charles “Red Eye” Williams; basket maker Neal
Thomas; doll maker Marilyn Griffin; furniture maker Jerome Bias; and woodcarver Frank
Barrow.
The museum celebrated Black History Month with special programming in February
that featured gospel singing, scholarly lectures, and topical tours. Four generations of the
Landis family of Granville County, who perform as the gospel group, the Golden Echoes,
took center stage in the museum auditorium on Saturday, February 8. The program also
included clips from the film, A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle, which documents
this remarkable family. PineCone cosponsored the event as part of the museum’s Music of
the Carolinas series. The lunchtime History à la Carte segment for the month, titled
“Breaking the Silence and Healing the Soul,” was presented on February 11 by Sharon D.
Raynor, director of the honors program at Johnson C. Smith University. Inspired by a
diary that her father kept while serving in Vietnam, Raynor interviewed African American
veterans about their service in Southeast Asia. In her presentation, she shared excerpts
from these oral histories, photographs, newspaper accounts, and soldiers’ memorabilia. A
grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council’s Road Scholars Speakers Bureau
helped to fund the program.
The initial lecture in the museum’s new series, Perspectives on History, presented by
fellows from the National Humanities Center, also addressed a topic appropriate to Black
History Month. Daina Ramey Berry, professor of history at Michigan State University,
discussed “Appraised, Bartered, and Sold: The Value of Human Chattels” on February 19.
A reception followed the evening lecture, which was sponsored by the North Carolina
Museum of History Associates. Finally, on each Saturday afternoon during February, Afri-can
American History Tours focused on the exhibit, Bearing Witness: Civil Rights Photo-graphs
of Alexander Rivera. Individual items in other galleries with relevance to African
American history, such as the Thomas Day furniture in the Pleasing to the Eye: The Decora-tive
Arts of North Carolina exhibit, were also highlighted. At the end of each tour, actor
Holmes Morrison portrayed a black doctor reflecting on the travails of his grandmother, a
domestic laborer with “doctoring” skills, during the years of segregation.
Pirates have wreaked havoc on the high seas since maritime travel began. These seafar-ing
scoundrels receive attention in Knights of the Black Flag, a major new exhibit that
opened at the museum on March 6. The exhibit explores the legacy of pirates from
ancient times to the present, through intriguing artifacts, legends, and historical facts.
Knights of the Black Flag includes the largest collection of artifacts, including cannons,
tobacco pipes, and a ship’s bell, yet to be exhibited from the shipwreck in Beaufort Inlet
that is believed to be Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. Legends surround
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 5 5
another unusual artifact, on loan from the
Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massa-chusetts:
the alleged skull of Blackbeard.
The exhibit also features works of art, such
as paintings of pirates by Don Maitz, which
illustrate the continuing mystique of piracy
in popular culture. The interactive exhibit
is an exciting experience for all ages: young
visitors can handle reproduction pirate
weapons and try on sailors’ clothing. The
Museum of History partnered with the
North Carolina Maritime Museum at
Beaufort and the Queen Anne’s Revenge
Shipwreck Project of the Underwater
Archaeology Branch of the Office of State
Archaeology to create the exhibit. Admis-sion
is free for ages eighteen and under,
and for adults who accompany school or
youth groups of ten or more. The fee is $5
for ages nineteen and up; $4 for senior citi-zens,
active military personnel, and mem-bers
of adult groups of ten or more. Tickets
may be purchased at the Museum Shop,
located in the lobby. The exhibit will run
through January 3, 2010.
Staff Notes
In the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, Capt. David Scheu retired as site
manager at the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial and was succeeded by Capt. Terry
Bragg on March 1. Myra Shapiro, a 1968 graduate of Palmer Memorial Institute who
retired after twenty-two years as an educator and school administrator in New York City,
was hired as historic site manager III at the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum. At Tryon
Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, Rebecca Reimer joined the staff as curator of education,
and Nancy Montague began work as an accounting clerk III. Kerri Clavette, historic
interpreter II, transferred from the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum to Alamance
Battleground. Jeff Fritzinger joined the staff at Bentonville after many years as a farm
interpreter at Charles B. Aycock Birthplace. Wayne Steelman transferred from Horne
Creek Living Historical Farm to serve as maintenance mechanic at Fort Dobbs. Matt
Vernon joined Bennett Place as a historic interpreter. Jesse Cox, office assistant III at the
Thomas Wolfe Memorial, resigned. Courtney Rounds, historic interpreter II at the
President James K. Polk State Historic Site, completed the Leadership Development
Program courses in January. Christian Dwight, collection manager at the Thomas Wolfe
Memorial, participated as an instructor in the MACREN (Mountain Area Cultural
Resource Emergency Network)-sponsored workshop, When It Counts: Handling
Material in a Disaster, on March 23.
In the Division of State History Museums, Dr. Jeanne Marie Warzeski, curator of
colonial and antebellum history at the North Carolina Museum of History, was one of
three individuals nationwide to be awarded a fellowship by the Smithsonian Affiliations
Visiting Professionals Program. In April, she will conduct research and study collections at
the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the NMAI Cultural Resources
Center, and the National Museum of American History.
5 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Don Maitz’s colorful painting, Blackbeard’s
Revenge, is among several works of art in the
exhibit, Knights of the Black Flag, which illustrate
the continuing mystique of piracy in popular
culture.
Obituary
William Samuel “Sam” Tarlton, the first superintendent of the Division of Historic
Sites who directed the development of a statewide system of historic properties, died in
Raleigh on March 12, 2009, aged 87. A native of Union County, Sam Tarlton gradu-ated
from Wingate Junior College and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from
Wake Forest College around a stint of active duty in the U.S. Navy. He served in both
the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II. After a brief sojourn as a teacher
at Cumberland University in Tennessee, Tarlton joined the State Department of
Archives and History on August 1, 1954, in the dual capacity of researcher for the high-way
historical marker program and editor of Carolina Comments. He helped to compile
the fourth edition of the guide to the highway markers. On October 1, 1955, he was
named superintendent of the Division of Historic Sites, newly established within the
department. At that time, administration of state-owned historic properties was divided
among various state agencies and commissions. By the end of Tarlton’s thirteen-year
tenure, thirteen sites were operated by the division, and many had progressed beyond
the initial phase of archaeological investigations and historical research to the interpre-tive
phase, characterized by visitor centers in the nature of small museums. In fact, a year
after his departure in December 1968, the Division of Historic Sites was merged with
the Division of Museums. On March 18, 1969, the executive board of the department
adopted a resolution praising the excellence of his superintendency and his enviable
national reputation. Tarlton served as an officer of the American Association for State
and Local History, the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Association of Historic
Sites Administrators, and the North American Association of Historic Sites Public Offi-cials.
He was also a member of the Historic Murfreesboro Commission and the Raleigh
Historic Sites Commission. He won the Cannon Cup Award from the North Carolina
Society for the Preservation of Antiquities in 1959 and an Anthemion Award from
Capital Area Preservation in 2003 for the restoration of a house in Raleigh. After
leaving state service, Tarlton formed a partnership with former colleague James Craig
and for the next forty years conducted a high-end antiques business in the capital city.
Tarlton was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. He is survived by a son, William S.
Tarlton Jr., and a daughter, Meribeth McKenzie, both of Raleigh.
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 5 7
Was Abraham Lincoln a Tar Heel?
Ansley H. Wegner
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ansley Herring Wegner has been a research historian in the Research Branch of
the Office of Archives and History since 2000. Previously, she worked in the Search Room of the
North Carolina State Archives for six years. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985 and a master’s degree from North Carolina State University in
2000. She is the author of History for All the People: One Hundred Years of Public History in North Carolina
(2003) and Phantom Pain: North Carolina’s Artificial-Limbs Program for Confederate Veterans (2004), and
contributed several essays to The Governors of North Carolina (2007), all published by the Historical
Publications Section.
North Carolina has been so foolish in laying claim to everything in sight and on every
occasion that I am sick unto death of claims that cannot be proved. When we can prove claims
then we may boast.
Stephen B. Weeks to R. D. W. Connor
25 July 1905
When Chicago newspaperman John Locke Scripps offered to write Abraham Lincoln’s
campaign biography in 1860, Lincoln responded,
Why Scripps . . . it is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of
my early life. It can be condensed into a single sentence, and that sentence you will
find in Gray’s Elegy, “The short and simple annals of the poor.” That’s my life and
that’s all you or any one else can make of it.
Lincoln knew little about his family and apparently did not wish to pursue a genealogical
investigation. He always said that his parents were originally from Virginia—that his
mother was Nancy Hanks, and his father, Thomas Lincoln, was the son of Abraham
Lincoln, but that they were not connected to the wealthy New England Lincolns.
Lincoln’s cousin Dennis Hanks, who, being of an age between Nancy and Abraham, grew
up as friend to both, provided a few more details concerning the Hanks family. From
Dennis Hanks Americans learned that Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Lucy, who was
the sister of Dennis’s mother, also named Nancy. The proclivity for Hankses to name their
daughters Nancy plays a significant role in the confusion.
Despite Lincoln’s own disregard for his genealogy, the general public, it seems,
remained keenly interested in Lincoln’s family tree. The paucity of information, unfortu-nately,
left room for fabrication. What likely began as an attempt to discredit the president
during the Civil War has snowballed over the years. In 1861 a woman in Nelson County,
5 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
New Leaves
Kentucky, told a newspaper reporter that Abraham Lincoln’s real name was Abraham
Enlow, and that he was a thief who ran off to Illinois and changed his name. She said that
old Abe Enlow “has become a traitor president, under the stolen name Abe Lincoln. But
we all said that [he] would never come to any good end.”
The supposed connection between Abraham Lincoln and Abraham Enlow/Enloe/Inlow
(the name and its variations were common in the early 1800s) would flourish. In March
1863 an article appeared in the Wilmington Journal stating that Lincoln was the son of Abra-ham
Inlow of Hardin County, Kentucky. Later that year, a man wrote to Secretary of
State William H. Seward to expose the president as “the illegitimate son by a man named
Inlow.” The story of Lincoln’s illegitimacy found seed in many communities, especially
those with Enloes and Hankses. About a dozen stories arose claiming to expose Lincoln’s
true father, and of those, four were men named Abraham Enloe (or Enlow/Inlow).
Besides Enloe, it was also said that Senator John C. Calhoun fathered Lincoln with Nancy
Hanks, a South Carolina tavern keeper’s daughter. Some even said that Lincoln and Jeffer-son
Davis shared a father. North Carolina boasted three alleged fathers of the president—
an Enloe, a Martin, and a Springs. However, the rumors that began as libel intended to
discredit the Great Emancipator have become legends steeped in civic pride.
The North Carolina Abraham Enloe story, first published in book form in 1899 by
James H. Cathey as The Genesis of Lincoln, is based on circumstantial evidence and oral tra-dition.
In short, it is as follows: A young Nancy Hanks arrived in the state through various
means, depending on the version, and ended up in the household of Abraham Enloe of
Rutherford County. Abraham Enloe got Hanks pregnant and was forced by embarrass-ment
to move westward. Most versions of the story have Hanks giving birth in
Rutherford County after the Enloe family had moved on to Haywood County. Enloe
then sent her to Kentucky and paid Thomas Lincoln, either a wandering horse trader or
an itinerant farm laborer, to marry her. The birth took place, depending on the account,
between 1804 and 1806, in order to fit the time frame of Enloe’s life. The legend also
requires that Lincoln be born before his older sister, as Enloe would not have waited for a
second child before sending Nancy Hanks away. Lincoln’s ability to pass for three years
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 5 9
Daguerreotype of Abraham Lincoln, aged about thirty-seven, ca. 1846–1847. Image courtesy of the
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
younger, even as a small child, was explained by people’s accepting that he was simply
“tall for his age.”
Documents related to Abraham Enloe can be found in the North Carolina State
Archives, but records that support his fathering of Abraham Lincoln do not exist. A 2005
publication on the subject included several abstracted census records that are not true to
the originals. For example, in presenting evidence from the 1800 federal census for
Rutherford County, the author records a Nancy Hanks, aged sixteen, living in the house-hold
of Abraham Enloe. Not only does the 1800 census not provide names for anyone
other than the head of household, but the author’s ages of the various household members
do not match those on the original document. The author also merged at least two or
three Abraham Enloes in an attempt to prove the legend.
A 2003 book about Lincoln’s supposed North Carolina roots includes copious
footnotes; however, they merely lead the reader to secondary sources and oral traditions.
The only original document mentioned in the book is the marriage bond between
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Yet the authors discounted the veracity of the paper,
saying that even though it “was found in a courthouse,” there is no reason to believe that
it is authentic. North Carolina’s Enloe is described by most proponents of the tale as a
large slaveholder and slave trader and a man who made peace with the Cherokee. Records
in the State Archives, however, show a man who owned at various times no more than
four slaves (none in 1800), and a man who was involved in a lawsuit brought by the
Cherokee chief, Yonaguska.
The North Carolina story often described Nancy as living with her drunken “Uncle
Dickey” (Richard) Hanks. The “Uncle Dickey” story seems to be an attempt to establish a
Hanks connection whereby Nancy Hanks can be placed in North Carolina. The story
goes that he could not take care of her, that he was an alcoholic who was often in jail,
and, as a consequence, she was sent to live with the Enloes. However, records show
Richard Hanks, who lived in Lincoln County and later Gaston County, to be a man of
responsibility and property. Court minutes do not indicate that he was a public nuisance.
A Revolutionary War veteran, Hanks was supported in his claim for a pension by his
clergyman. Finally, Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, did not have an uncle
named Richard Hanks.
The entire effort to defend the legend is based on undocumented oral tradition and
misinterpretation of the few available primary sources. Yet North Carolina’s Abraham
Enloe legend endures and is, in fact, the focus of the Bostic Lincoln Center in Rutherford
6 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Marriage bond of Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks, June 10, 1806,
filed in the courthouse of Wash-ington
County, Kentucky. A recent
book alleging Abraham Lincoln’s
North Carolina roots questioned the
authenticity of the document.
County. The mission of the center, www.bosticlincolncenter.com, is to research, docu-ment,
and preserve the “generational lore” of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in North Carolina.
The Abraham Enloe link to Abraham Lincoln is a fascinating piece of folklore. The
stories that connect the two men are widely varied, but none is substantiated. For exam-ple,
a number of writers describe a fight in which Thomas Lincoln bit off the end of
Enloe’s nose, and some attribute the Lincoln family’s move to Indiana to the fight (as
opposed to documented problems related to land claims). People who knew the various
Abraham Enloe/Enlows do not recall any of them having such a deformity of the face.
Wesley Enloe, the youngest son of North Carolina’s Abraham Enloe, was quoted in
the Charlotte Observer in 1893 as saying that he had not heard of the connection between
his father and Abraham Lincoln until he read the story in an Asheville newspaper in 1871.
However, by 1909, likely having grown fond of being considered Lincoln’s half-brother,
Wesley Enloe stated unequivocally that Nancy Hanks lived with his family, and that his
father sent her to Kentucky because she had borne him a son.
Lincoln scholars have no reservations in accepting the traditional Abraham Lincoln
genealogy. Although there is no paper trail for his mother prior to her marriage license in
Kentucky, that is not unusual for a young woman in that time period. William Barton
published two books on Lincoln’s genealogy in the 1920s. The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln
and The Lineage of Lincoln are thorough and leave no doubt that Lincoln was born to
Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln about three years after they were married.
Benjamin P. Thomas, in his 1952 standard work, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, lauded
Barton’s “exhaustive critical analysis” of Lincoln’s legitimacy. Barton further proved that
there were many Hanks families in the United States, and that Nancy was a popular name
among them. He accepted that Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was likely illegitimate.
But Thomas Lincoln came from respectable stock, and, had Lincoln the desire or opportu-nity
to investigate his ancestors, he would have found, as historian and Lincoln biographer
David H. Donald wrote, “instead of being the unique blossom on an otherwise barren
family tree, [Lincoln] belonged to the seventh generation of a family with competent
means, a reputation for integrity, and a modest record of public service.”
With Lincoln’s reluctance to speak of his family, the appearance of the name Abraham
Enloe was like a dandelion, spreading seeds of Abraham Lincoln’s illegitimacy to the wind.
Some of the seeds flourished and have become legend.
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 6 1
Thomas Lincoln, father of Abraham, was born in Rockingham
County, Virginia, in 1778. He moved with his family to
Kentucky in the 1780s; his father, also named Abraham, was
murdered by Indians in 1786. Thomas married Nancy Hanks
in 1806 and their first child, daughter Sarah, was born a year
later. Abraham followed on February 12, 1809. Image courtesy
of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum, Lincoln
Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee.
6 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Additions to the National Register of Historic Places
(Administered by the State Historic Preservation Office)
The Enfield Graded School in
Halifax County was among the last
public schools in the state to be
built on the campus plan. The
Colonial Revival-style main
building, designed by architect
Frank B. Simpson of Raleigh, was
constructed in 1950, and a separate
gymnasium (1951) and agricultural
building (1952) followed soon
thereafter. The facility closed in
December 2007.
The Bishop John C. Kilgo House,
which faces The Plaza, the grand
boulevard of the upscale
neighborhood of Charlotte that was
developed in the early twentieth
century as Chatham Estates, is an
attractive blend of the Colonial
Revival and Craftsman styles. The
house was built in 1915 by the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
for its bishop, John Carlisle Kilgo.
President of Trinity College (later
Duke University) from 1894 to
1910, Kilgo settled in Charlotte after
leaving Durham. His home was
designed by Louis Humbert Asbury,
one of Charlotte’s leading architects.
Crossnore School opened in Avery
County in 1913 as a school for
under-privileged mountain children,
the creation of an altruistic husband-and-
wife team of doctors, Eustace
Henry and Mary Martin Sloop. The
six contributing historic structures in
the Crossnore School Historic
District, which consists of less than a
tenth of the eighty-acre campus, date
from 1928 to 1960, and include a
hospital, chapel, bell tower (pictured),
dormitory, chapter house, and the
1936 Homespun House/Weaving
Room, which was entered on the
National Register individually in
2001.
V O L U M E 5 7 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9 6 3
Additions to the National Register of Historic Places
(Administered by the State Historic Preservation Office)
The first of three public schools to
be constructed at the main crossroads
in Tobaccoville in northern Forsyth
County, the ca. 1914 two-room
Old Richmond Schoolhouse was
operational only until replaced in
1922. The building was remodeled
to serve first as apartments for school-teachers
and later as the residence of
the principal and his family. The
school was restored in 1980 for use as
a museum. The school’s gymnasium
was constructed with Works Progress
Administration funding in 1940.
Richard Sharp Smith, an English-born
architect, arrived in Asheville in
1889 as the supervising architect for
the construction of Biltmore Estates.
He would settle in the area and
become its most prominent and
prolific architect during the first two
decades of the twentieth century,
designing numerous courthouses,
churches, schools, hotels, and
mansions in western North Carolina.
Smith built his residence, known as
Stoneybrook, east of downtown
Asheville, in 1902–1903, using local
stone for the foundation, exterior
walls, fireplaces, and chimneys.
The eighty-five-acre McAdenville
Historic District encompasses 102
contributing resources, including
fifteen original mill village houses
built of brick in the 1880s. The
picturesque town in eastern Gaston
County developed around the
McAden Mills along the South Fork
of the Catawba River. The historic
district also includes three large
frame houses constructed for the
mill owners and operators, two mid-twentieth-
century churches, and the
R. Y. McAden Memorial Hall
(pictured), a community library and
assembly hall built in 1907.
Historical Publications Section
Office of Archives and History
4622 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4622
Telephone (919) 733-7442
Fax (919) 733-1439
www.ncpublications.com
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Permit No. 187
Carolina Comments Jeffrey J. Crow, Editor in Chief
(ISSN 0576-808X) Kenrick N. Simpson, Editor