Program of exercises for North Carolina Day

              PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES
NORTH CAROLINA DAY,
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23,
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1904.
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RALEIGH:
E. M. Uzzell & Co., State Printers and Binder^.
1904.
CHAPTER 164
OF THE PUBLIC LAWS OF 1901.
An Act to provide for the Celebration of North Carolina Day
in the Public Schools.
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:
Section 1. That the 12th day of October in each and
every year, to be called "North Carolina Da}^" may be de-voted,
by appropriate exercises in the public schools of the
State, to the consideration of some topic or topics of our State
history, to be selected by the Superintendent of Public In-struction
: Provided, that if the said day shall fall on Satur-day
or Sunday, then the celebration shall occur on the Mon-day
next following: Provided further, that if the said day
shall fall at a time when any such school may not be in ses-sion,
the celebration may be held within one month from the
beginning of the term, unless the Superintendent of Public
Instruction shall designate some other time.
Sec. 2. This act shall be in force from and after its ratifi-cation.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this
the 9th day of February, A. D. 1901.
^o%•V^%
THE WILEY MEMORIAL. ^
Every public school-teacher ought to count it a privilege
as veil as a sacred duty to co-operate heartily with the Wiley
Monument Committee in completing this year the fund for
the erection of a lasting memorial to Calvin H. Wiley. It
can be easily completed by a united effort. It will be little
less than an act of ingratitude to a great unselfish benefactor
of the children and the teachers if every public school does
not send a contribution for this worthy purpose.
J. Y. Joynek,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
To the Teacher
:
Three years ago the North Carolina Teachers' Assembly
appointed a committee to solicit funds for the erection, in
the city of Raleigh, of a suitable memorial to Calvin Hen-derson
Wiley, the organizer and the first State Superintend-ent
of the North Carolina Public Schools. At their annual
session held in November, 1903, the county superintendents
of the State unanimously endorsed the movement to erect
a Wiley memorial.
The appropriateness of this undertaking must be appar-ent
to all. It is especially fitting that the first contributions
should come from the educational forces of the State. The
movement which resulted in the erection of a beautiful mon-ument
in this city to the "Confederate Dead" received its
first impulse from Confederate veterans ; that which erected
the handsome statue of Governor Vance came from his
friends and contemporaries. Counties and towns in North
Carolina stand as everlasting memorials to Caswell, to Ire-dell,
to Nash, to Harnett, to Pender, to Davie, to Gaston,
to Graham, and other distinguished sons of the State ; while
such names as Clay, Columbus, Franklin, Gates, Greene,
Pitt, Chatham, Washington, Paleigh, Marion and others
show that we are not unmindful of the honor due great sons
of other States and nations. But it is noticeable that no-where
in this list does there appear the name of an educa-tional
leader. Is it because they do not deserve to be ranked
in such company ? Is it not rather due to the neglect of the
teachers themselves.
We believe that the name of Wiley is in every respect
worthy to be placed beside that of Vance and Gaston and
Pender, and we appeal to the teachers of North Carolina to
see that this honor is paid to the memory of our great educa-tional
pioneer.
There are enrolled in the public schools of North Carolina
more than 450,000 pupils. If, on North Carolina Day,
each of these pupils should contribute to this undertaking
as much as one cent, a fund sufficient for our purpose could
be raised. If the teachers will' enter heartily into the plan,
explain to the pupils before hand what is wanted, tell them
about this great and good man who gave his life's work for
them, the pupils will enter enthusiastically into the idea
and contributions will be gladly made. Urge each to con-tribute
at least one cent, but if any desire to make larger
contributions encourage them to do it. What a grand idea
this is—to make this the "Children's Memorial" to their
great benefactor!
We have already on hand a small sum collected in the
manner proposed. Other patriotic North Carolinians stand
ready to join in the work when the children and the educa-tors
have done their part. We shall not work unaided. Let
the teachers but do their share and the work will soon be
completed. Such a memorial will show to the world that
we are not unmindful of our great educational heroes. It
will serve as an eternal inspiration to the educators of the
State.
Information concerning the life and work of Dr. Wiley
will be furnished upon request. All communications should
be addressed to R. D. W. Connor, Raleigh, and funds re-mitted
to him.
J. Y. Joyner,
Chairman;
J. I. Foust,
Charles D. McIver,
R. D. W. Connor,
W. D. Carmichael,
Committee.
PREFATORY.
As many of the public schools are not in session as early
as October 12th, I have taken the liberty allowed under the
law of fixing the date of North Carolina Day this year and
hereafter on the last Friday before Christmas. It is ear-nestly
desired that all the public schools of the State shall
engage in this celebration on the same day. This pamphlet
has been prepared and sent out to aid busy teachers in the
proper celebration of the day and to leave no excuse for fail-ing
to celebrate it.
The consecration of at least one day in the year to the pub-lic
consideration of the history of the State in the public
schools, as directed by the act of the General Assembly
printed on the preceding page, is a beautiful idea. It is the
duty of every public school teacher to obey the letter of this
law. It will, I know, be the pleasure of every patriotic
teacher to obey the spirit of it by using the opportunity of
North Carolina Day to inspire the children with a new pride
in their State, a new enthusiasm for the study of her history,
and a new love of her and her people.
Following the chronological order of the State's history,
the subjects of the North Carolina Day programmes have
been as follows : In 1901, The First Anglo Saxon Settlement
in America; in 1902, The Albemarle Section; in 1903, The
Lower Cape Fear Section ; in 1904, The Pamlico Section.
In succeeding years the history of other sections of the State
will be studied somewhat in the order of their settlement and
development, until the entire period of the State's history
shall have been covered. It is hoped ultimately to stimulate
a study of local and county history.
These programmes have been arranged with a view of giv-
6
ing the children of the rising generation a knowledge of the
history of the resources, manners, customs and ways of mak-ing
a living of the different sections of the State. It is hoped
in this way to awaken a proper pride in the history of the
State, to inspire a proper confidence in its present and hope
in its future, and to give the people of the different sections
of the State a better acquaintance with each other.
I desire to return my sincere thanks to the public-spirited
citizens who, at my request, have so kindly contributed the
articles and poems contained in this pamphlet. I beg also to
acknowledge my indebtedness to the Executive Committee of
the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association and
to the North Carolina History Club of this city for valuable
assistance in the preparation of this programme.
Very truly yours,
J. Y. JOYNER,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C, November 7, 1904.
SUGGESTIONS.
It is suggested that this pamphlet be made the basis for a
study of North Carolina history by the entire school for some
time before North Carolina Day. The teacher will find a few
carefully arranged questions on the articles contained in the
pamphlet. One of these articles should be read carefully
each day to the entire school. The questions on the article
read and such other questions on that article as may occur to
the teacher should be placed on the blackboard and copied iu
note-books by all the children. Written and oral answers to
these questions should be required on the day succeeding the
reading of the article. The pamphlets should be placed in
the school-room where the children may have access to them.
Before North Carolina Day every one of these articles should
have been read and discussed in this way by the entire school.
Brief questions, fully covering each article in the pamphlet,
should be divided among two or more children for full and
careful preparation instead of reading the long articles on the
subjects. On North Carolina Day those children to whom
the different articles have been assigned should be called on to
give their answers to the questions assigned them. Some of
these answers may be oral and some written. The poems
should, of course, be read or memorized and recited.
The programme might be divided into two parts—one part
to be rendered in the morning and one in the afternoon. If
it is too long to be conveniently carried out by small schools,
I two or more schools might unite in the celebration. Teachers
i may adapt or change the programme to suit themselves. They
are urged to make a special effort to secure a large attend-ance
of the people of the district and to avail themselves of
this opportunity to interest parents and patrons in the school.
If practicable, it would be an excellent idea to bave a brief
address by some one in the county or the community. The
occasion can be used by a tactful teacher to secure the hearty
co-operation of the committeemen, the women of the commu-nity
and all other public-spirited citizens, and to make the
day "North Carolina Day" in truth, for the grown people
as well as for the children.
It is hoped that these pamphlets, issued from year to year
for the celebration of "North Carolina Day," will contain
much valuable and interesting information about the State
and its people, and much of its unwritten history. It is sug-gested,
therefore, that the pamphlets be preserved and that
some of them be filed in the library or among the records of
each school.
HOW TO GET A RURAL LIBRARY.
If your county has not applied for the full number of
libraries and supplementary libraries to which it is entitled,
and your school has not secured one of these libraries, or one
of these supplementary libraries, let me urge you to use the
excellent opportunity of "North Carolina Day" to raise the
ten dollars necessary to secure- a thirty-dollar library, or
the five dollars necessary to secure a supplementary library.
The five hundred libraries provided for by the special act of
the General Assembly of 1901 have been taken. As you
know, the General Assembly of 1903 made a special appro-priation
of $5,000 for the establishment of Hye hundred new
rural libraries and $2,500 for supplementing the rural libra-ries
heretofore established.
The conditions for securing one of these new libraries are
as follows : The community must raise ten dollars by private
subscription or otherwise; the Board of Education is then
required to appropriate ten dollars out of the district fund
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, upon notifica-tion
that the twenty dollars has been thus provided, must
9
•send a State warrant for ten dollars, making thirty dollars
for the library. The number of new libraries to which any
one county is entitled under this act is limited to six.
Only libraries established under the act of 1901 are enti-tled
to the supplementary libraries.
The conditions for securing a supplementary appropriation
for a library, heretofore established under the act of 1901,
are as follows : The community must raise, by private sub-scription
or otherwise, five dollars ; the County Board is then
required to appropriate five dollars out of the district fund,
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, upon notifica-tion
that ten dollars has been thus provided, must issue a State
Avarrant for five dollars, making fifteen dollars for the sup-plementary
library. The number of supplementary libraries
to which any one county is entitled is also limited to six.
These libraries have proved a great blessing and stimulus
to all schools in which they have been established. If you
desire one for your school I would advise you to apply at
once or you may 'be too late. Two hundred and twenty
libraries and four hundred and eight supplementary libraries
have not yet been taken. Unless these are applied for before
the session of the next General Assembly, in January, 1905,
the appropriation may be discontinued.
On the following page is given a list of the counties that
have not taken their full number of libraries and supple-mentary
libraries and the number of each to which each
county is now entitled :
10
COUNTIES. C 0)
Alamance 6
Alexander 2 2
Alleghany 4
Anson 6
Ashe 5 1
Beaufort 5
Bertie 6
Bladen 5 1
Brunswick 4 2
Burke 6 2
Cabarrus 2 5
Caldwell 4 6
Camden 2 3
Carteret . 1
Caswell 6 4
Catawba 1 6
Chatham 6
Cherokee 5 4
Chowan 3 5
Clay 6
Cleveland 5
Columbus 2
Craven 4 6
Cumberland 6
Currituck 5 3
Dare 5 2
Davidson 4 6
Davie 5 4
Duplin 3 5
Durham 3 2
Edgecombe 4
Forsyth 6
Franklin 4 6
Gaston 3 3
Gates 3 5
Graham 6 2
Granville 3 6
Greene 3 3
Guilford 2 6
Halifax 2 5
Harnett 5 5
Haywood 6 5
Henderson 3 6
Hertford 5
Hyde 3 5
Iredell 6
Jackson 2
Johnston 6
Jones . . 4
Lenoir 6
Lincoln 5
Macon 6
Madison 2
Martin 3
McDowell 5
Mecklenburg
Mitchell 3
Montgomery 3
Moore 1
Nash 2
New Hanover 6
Northampton
Onslow 6
Orange
Pamlico 2
Pasquotank 1
Pender 6
Perquimans 6
Person 3
Pitt
Polk 6
Randolph
Richmond 5
Robeson
Rockingham
Rowan
Rutherford 6
Sampson
Stanly 5
Scotland 4
Stokes 5
Surry 3
Swain 6
Transvlvania . 6
Tyrreil 5
Union
Vance
Wake
Warren 4
Washington 6
Watauga 5
Wayne
Wilkes
Wilson
Yadkin 2
Yancey 6
w>-3
6
6
1
5
3
4
4
6
,->
NORTH CAROLINA DAY.
Subject: The Pamlico Section.
PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES.
PRAYER.
1. Song—My Country, 'Tis of Thee .Rev. 8. F. Smith, D. D.
2. Reading—The Huguenot Settlements and De Graffenreid's
Colony Charles L. Coon.
3. Reading—Notes on Bath and Pamlico W. J. Peele.
4. Declamation—Carolina, Our Pride Thomas W. Harrington.
5. Recitation—On Hatteras Bar Henry Jerome Stockard.
6. Reading—The Gary Rebellion Thomas M. Pittman.
7. Recitation—October John Charles McNeill.
8. Reading—The Tuscarora War 8. A. Ashe.
9. Reading—Death of John Lawson John W. Moore.
10. Reading—Early New Bern Charles L. Coon.
11. Declamation—The Volunteers Dr. Alexander Gaston.
12. Reading—Washington and Its Early Inhabitants,
Lida Tunstall Rodman.
13. Declamation—Judge Gaston to Young Men William Gaston.
14. Reading—Early Education in the Albemarle and Pamlico
Sections Eugene C. Brooks.
15. Recitation—Mater Mea Carolina Pattie Williams Gee.
16. Reading—Mattamuskeet Lake 8. 8. Mann.
17. Recitation—How Freedom Came Benjamin Sledd.
18. Reading—Fishing in Eastern North Carolina . . . .W. L. Arendell.
19. Reading—Trucking R. D. W. Connor.
20. Reading—Shipping in Colonial and Ante-Bellum Times,
Lida T. Rodman.
21. Some Short Colonial Biographies J. Bryan Grimes.
22. Questions.
23. Song—The Old North State William Gaston.
MY COUNTKY, 'TIS OF THEE.
REV. DR. S. F. SMITH.
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing
;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love ;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song
;
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers' God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
WESTERN
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THE HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS AND BE GRAF-FENREID'S
COLONY.
BY CHARLES L. COON.
The Pamlico country and the lands along the Neuse river
derived the larger part of their first settlers from the coun-ties
between the Albemarle sound and Virginia. But there
were some white people settled along the Neuse as early as
1690, who were not English and who did not come from the
Albemarle region. These early settlers were French Protest-ants,
or Huguenots, and came to the Neuse and Pamlico sec-tion
from the James river settlements of Virginia. In 1698
the inhabitants of the Albemarle counties began to settle in
the Pamlico and Neuse river country and to mingle with the
earlier Huguenots already on the ground.
In 1707 a second considerable body of French settlers
from the James river settlements of Virginia came to the
Pamlico region, drawn there by the good reports of those who
had come down in 1690. This band of settlers not only occu-pied
lands along the Pamlico sound, but they extended their
settlements as far as the Trent and the Neuse rivers and
some few went as far south as the present county of Onslow.
The French Protestant, or Huguenot, preacher Phillipe de
Richebourg, came with this second band of immigrants.
In the latter part of the year 1710 a considerable body of
Swiss and German settlers under Baron de Graffenreid came
to Carolina. These Germans were originally from Heidle-berg
and vicinity, a section of country called the Palatinate,
hence they were sometimes called the Palatines. Their Ger-man
ruler was a Romanist, who persecuted them on account
of their religion. The Queen of England, herself a Protest-ant,
had invited the Palatines to come to England to avoid
persecution. About 12,000 of the Palatines accepted this
kind invitation and had moved to London in the year 1708.
Here this large number of homeless and poor people soon
became a burden to the Queen.
About the same time Baron de GrafTenreid, a Swiss noble-man,
was in London with a number of his countrymen on
15
their way to America. The Queen being anxious to provide
a home for the Palatines, and the Lords Proprietors being
equally anxious to have their lands in America settled, began
negotiations with De GrafTenreid to induce him to settle in
Carolina and to bring with him 100 families of the Pala-tines
in addition to his Swiss colony. These negotiations
were successful, and De GrafTenreid and Ludwig Michel, a
Swiss friend of De Graffenreid's, bought from the Lords
Proprietors ten thousand acres of land, to be laid off in one
body between the Neuse and the Cape Fear rivers, or any
of their branches. For this land they paid twenty shillings
sterling for each 100 acres and agreed to pay a yearly quit-rent
of six pence for each 100 acres.
De GrafTenreid and Michel also agreed to transport the
100 poor Palatine families, about 650 persons, and to give
each family 250 acres of land for five years for nothing, and
after five years at a quitrent of two pence per acre. They
were also to furnish the Palatines with farming and building
tools free of cost, as well as to supply them with cattle, hogs,
and sheep, to be paid for seven years after receiving them.
In addition, the Palatines were to be supplied for twelve
months with the necessary food, to be paid for two years
after the settlement was established. The Queen and her
representatives agreed to pay De GrafTenreid and Michel
five and one-half pounds sterling per head for the transpor-tation
of each one of the Palatines, and also* to furnish each
colonist with 20 shillings Avorth of clothes.
In January, 1710, the Palatines set sail from England.
The winds were contrary and it took thirteen weeks for them
to cross the ocean. De GrafTenreid's account of the trip says
that nearly all of the people became sick, due to the salted
food and the lack of room on the ships. One-half of those
who left England died on that long journey, and many others
"died for drinking too much water and eating raw fruit to
excess after landing." One of the vessels, "loaded with the
best goods and most well-to-do colonists, had the misfortune to
be assailed and plundered by a French captain at the very
mouth of the James river, in sight of an English man of
war, which being anchored* and partly dismasted, could not
come to its help."
These Palatine and Swiss emigrants then landed in Vir-ginia
and maVched through the country to "the county of
16
Albemarle on the river Chowan, at the residence of a rich
settler, Col. Pollock, of the Council of North Carolina. He
took care of them, supplied them with all necessaries, for
money, and put them into great boats to cross the sound and
enter the county of Bath, where they were located by the
Surveyor-General on a tongue of land between the 'News'
and Trent rivers, called Chattawka, where afterwards was
founded the small city of New Bern."
De GrafTenreid and a small band of Bernese Swiss colo-nists
followed the Palatines, and other Swiss some months
later, landing in Virginia, coming overland to Colonel Pol-lock's,
thence by water to Chattawka. When De GrafTenreid
arrived at Chattawka in September, 1710, he found the first
comers in the greatest poverty, having been forced "to sell
nearly all their clothes and movables to the neighboring in-habitants,
in order to sustain their life."
De GrafTenreid at once began to relieve their distress with
new supplies of provisions which he had providently ordered
for the fall of 17 10, in case things should not go as well as he
had expected.
"In the meantime," he says, "I took steps to get the land
surveyed in distributing to every family its own portion of
it, so they should not lose time, and in order that they could
root up the trees, build their cabins, etc. At last the pro-visions
in grain, salt, butter, salt pork and several kinds of
vegetables were brought to me at heavy expense. As to
cattle, it was supplied with difficulty, since our people would
not go for it where it could be found, and I could not deliver
it to them at their very doors. However, some expedients
were found, and our colonists, within eighteen months, man-aged
to build homes and make themselves so comfortable
that they made more progress in that length of time than
the English inhabitants in several years. For instance, there
was, in the whole province, only one wretched water-mill;
the wealthiest people use hand-mills, and the poorer class are
obliged to pound their grain in mortars made of oak, or
rather tree-stocks, which are dug out, and, instead of sifting
it in a regular sieve, they shake it barely in a kind of bucket,
which operation, of course, occasions much loss of time. On
the contrary, our people found out brooklets, convenient to
build on them a kind of wheel works connected with pestles
which they put in motion, so by means of water-power they
17
pounded their grain. I had myself already begun the con-struction
of a very convenient water-mill." This enterprise
was interrupted by the Tuscarora Indian war, which almost
broke up the colony.
De GrafTenreid and Lawson, while exploring the country
on the Neuse river, were captured by the Tuscaroras and
Lawson was put to death. De GrafTenreid escaped by telling
the Indians that he was the king or landgrave of the Swiss
settlements. He also promised not to occupy any land with-out
paying for it. When De GrafTenreid finally came back to
New Bern, he found between sixty and seventy of his Pala-tines
and Swiss slaughtered by the Indians and many of the
others hiding in the woods for safety from further attacks.
But Louis Michel and his Swiss artillerymen from New Bern
rendered valuable service to Capt. John Barnwell in putting
down the Indian uprising, January 28, 1712.
Before the Indian troubles were finally settled De Graf-fenreid
left the colony, which then needed his services more
than ever before. However, he had spent his fortune and had
become discouraged. But the colony survived all its early
vexations and finally became the colonial capital of the
State.
NOTES ON BATH.
BY W. J. PEEEE.
In the early colonial times three counties were formed out
of the eastern part of the province of North Carolina, Albe-marle,
Bath and Clarendon. Clarendon, as it was originally
laid off, extended considerably into South Carolina. Albe-marle
extended from the Virginia line to a region a little
south of the Albemarle sound and south-west, at least, to the
Roanoke river. Bath extended from Albemarle to the Clar-endon
(now Cape Fear) river, which was the northern boun-dary
of Clarendon county. The boundaries of those coun-ties
were not very well defined, and toward the west there
was no territorial limit, unless, indeed, the shadowy and
shifting line which marked the advance of the white man
could be called a boundary line. Our State capital, now
for the first time about to be directly connected by rail with
Bath's great water system, the Pamlico sound and its tribu-taries,
may well have been embraced within the limits of that
old county, whose earliest settlement was in what is now
known as Beaufort county. The settlement was called the
Precinct of Pampticough, after the name of the beautiful
river Pamlico.
Bath was made a county in 1696, being named in honor
of the Earl of Bath, the head of the Lords Proprietors, and
selected from among their number to be Palatine of Caro-lina.
Territorially it was the very center and heart of the
colony. In 1705 Bath was divided into precincts as follows:
Wickham, embracing most of the country between the Albe-marle
and Pamlico sounds west of the JVLatchapungo (now
Pungo) river; Archdale, covering a small territory north of
the lower Neuse and south of it far enough to embrace
the settlements on the Neuse and Trent rivers. The early
maps also show a third precinct called Pampticough, which
was doubtless so much of the original one of that name as was
not included in Wickham. The precincts of Carteret and
Craven were formed later, during the administration of
Governor Eden.
ST. THOMAS' CHURCH, BATH.
20
The earliest formed precincts had no more clearly defined
boundaries than the first counties, but what boundaries there
were served in a general way to define the jurisdiction of
the local governments and were well enough recognized to
earn names on the maps of that day. Later, precincts were
formed, smaller in territory and with more clearly defined
boundaries. The precincts of Bath finally became Beaufort,
Hyde, Tyrrell, Craven, Carteret and New Hanover. The
latter precinct was formed in 1734. The greater part of the
territory of Tyrrell was taken from the territory of Albe-marle.
Within the limits of Bath county was probably the inlet
through which Amidas and Barlowe sailed in 1584. The
exact time the permanent settlement of Bath began is not
known with certainty ; but about thirty years after settlers
were found on the north shores of the Albemarle, it was
discovered that pioneers had begun to fix their homes along
the Pampticough river.
Sixteen miles east from what is now the town of Wash-ington,
and within the limits of what is now Beaufort county,
the river widens out into an arm of the Pamlico sound some
five or six miles from shore to shore, and sends northward
a short estuary into which flows Bath creek, known among
the earliest settlers as "Old Town creek," and also as Pamp-ticough
creek. In 1696 the homes of the settlers as they
increased in numbers converged toward a central village sit-uated
on the east bank of this creek, about a mile and a half
from its mouth. First the settlement and afterwards the
village was called Pampticough. In 1681 "a plantation or
plot of ground containing twelve thousand acres, more or
less," was conveyed to Seth Sothel. This plantation included
the village then "commonly called Pampticough Town."
On the opposite side of the estuary, or bay, and about a
half-mile farther down toward the river, stood the mansion
of Governor Eden. Across Bath creek, which is there nearly
a mile wide, and facing the Elden place, but a little farther
south, well situated for keeping watch over the river, either
toward the east or the west, stood the home of the pirate
Teach, or "Black-Beard." He had chosen a wooded bluff on
the banks of the bay where he could keep one eye on the gov-ernment
and the other on his prey.
On March 8, 1705, the village of Pampticough became the
miliar
H
35
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ffftrfAs' j/r\s£ory of
20
The earliest formed precincts had no more clearly defined
boundaries than the first counties, but what boundaries there
were served in a general way to define the jurisdiction of
the local governments and were well enough recognized to
earn names on the maps of that day. Later, precincts were
formed, smaller in territory and with more clearly defined
boundaries. The precincts of Bath finally became Beaufort,
Hyde, Tyrrell, Craven, Carteret and New Hanover. The
latter precinct was formed in 1734. The greater part of the
territory of Tyrrell was taken from the territory of Albe-marle.
Within the limits of Bath county was probably the inlet
through which Amidas and Barlowe sailed in 1584. The
exact time the permanent settlement of Bath began is not
known with certainty ; but about thirty years after settlers
were found on the north shores of the Albemarle, it was
discovered that pioneers had begun to fix their homes along
the Pampticough river.
Sixteen miles east from what is now the town of Wash-ington,
and within the limits of what is now Beaufort county,
the river widens out into an arm of the Pamlico sound some
five or six miles from shore to shore, and sends northward
a short estuary into which flows Bath creek, known among
the earliest settlers as
a01d Town creek," and also as Pamp-ticough
creek. In 1696 the homes of the settlers as they
increased in numbers converged toward a central village sit-uated
on the east bank of this creek, about a mile and a half
from its mouth. First the settlement and afterwards the
village was called Pampticough. In 1681 "a plantation or
plot of ground containing twelve thousand acres, more or
less," was conveyed to Seth Sothel. This plantation included
the village then "commonly called Pampticough Town."
On the opposite side of the estuary, or bay, and about a
half-mile farther down toward the river, stood the mansion
of Governor Eden. Across Bath creek, which is there nearly
a mile wide, and facing the Elden place, but a little farther
south, well situated for keeping watch over the river, either
toward the east or the west, stood the home of the pirate
Teach, or "Black-Beard." Pie had chosen a wooded bluff on
the banks of the bay where he could keep one eye on the gov-ernment
and the other on his prey.
On March 8, 1705, the village of Pampticough became the
tfa*Hs' jG****ytfjr-C VH-i„
tmj ay en*™'- 2>emuia™.*Si. WY.
21
first incorporated town in North Carolina, and was called
Bath. The corporate limits of the town embraced sixty
acres. On account of its being made the seat of government
and a port of entry, and especially on account of the depth
of Ocracoke inlet, Bath began to grow. Many prominent
people bought lots there; among them John Lawson, Chris-topher
Gale, Maurice Moore, John Porter, Thomas Gary,
Governor Charles Eden, John Lillington, Robert Palmer,
Col. Edward Salter, Edward Moseley, James Hogg, Richard
Everard, Thomas Sparrow, and others.
The act of incorporation has been lost, but in 1715 an act
was passed by the Colonial Assembly which recited a part of
the first, and in that way the fact stands recorded. A sec-tion
of it reads as follows: "Whereas, at the request of Mr.
John Lawson, Mr. Joel Martin and others, a certain tract of
land purchased by themselves, lying in [on] the Old Town
Creek in Pampticough and containing by estimation sixty
acres, * * * being part of a larger tract then belong-ing
to one David Perkins, but now in the tenure and posses-sion
and of right belonging to Col. Thomas Cary * * *
was incorporated and made a township by an act of the
General Assembly made and ratified at the house of Capt.
John Heeklefield the 8th day of March, 1705, * * *
which said land was therein and thereby invested in the same
John Lawson, Joel Martin and Nicholas Daw, to and for the
use aforesaid. * * * Be it enacted by His Excellency
the Palatine and the rest of the True and Absolute Lords
Proprietors of Carolina, by and with the advice and con-sent
of this Present General Assembly, now met at Little
River for the northeast part of the Province, and by the
authority of the same, that the said land be and is hereby
henceforward invested in Mr. John Porter, Mr. Joel Mar-tin,
Mr. Thomas Harding and Capt, John Drinkwater, or
any two of them, to and for the use aforesaid and declared
and confessed, and incorporated into a township by the name
of Bath Town with all the privileges and immunities here-after
expressed."
Bath enjoys the distinction of having had the first public
library in North Carolina. It was donated about the year
1700, through Dr. Thomas Bray, by the "Corporation for the
Establishing of the Christian Religion," and was valued at
500 pounds. It was not much appreciated by the colonists,
INTERIOR ST. THOMAS CHURCH, BATH,
23
and in a few years had become much scattered and abused.
When Governor Eden came in 1714, the care of the library
was made the subject of legislative enactment, and another
part of the act quoted above, after entrusting it to numerous
trustees, prescribed laws for the recovery and preservation of
the books. The trustees named were as follows: Governor
Charles Eden and the members of his council, Christopher
Gale, Col. Edward Moseley, Daniel Richardson, Capt. Ered
Jones, Mr. John Porter, Mr. Joel Martin, Capt. John Drink-water,
Mr. John Clark, Mr. Patrick Maule, Mr. Thomas
Worsley, Mr. Lionel Redding, Mr. James Lee, and Mr.
Thomas Harding.
Mrs. B. F. Mayhew, of Goldsboro, says: "In the town of
Bath is the oldest church in the State, built in 1734, of very
hard, durable brick. Deeply indented in one of the bricks
is the date of the building of the church. The walls are
quite thick, proving that the people of those days built for
future generations. I can remember, thirty-five or forty
years ago, the high box pulpit to which the minister gained
access by a flight of small steps. The 'sounding board' over
the pulpit was in the shape of a huge umbrella and painted
red. On the right-hand side of the chancel, and let in the
wall, is a stone or slate slab containing the following in-scription:
'Here lyes ye body of Mrs. Margaret Palmer,
wife of Robert Palmer, Esq., one of His Majesty's Coun-cil
and Surveyor General of ye lands of this Province, who
departed this life October 19, 1765, aged 44 years. After
laboring ten of them under ye severest Bodily Afflictions
brought on by Change of Climate, and though She went to
her Native land, received no relief, but returned and bore
them with uncommon Resolution and Resignation to the
last.' The old church has been well preserved, the walls and
floor being of tiled brick. Among some very old wooden
houses is one built many years back into the eighteenth
century ; it has belonged through several generations to a
family by the name of Marsh: quite a large building of
durable, massive timbers, the inside being of oak and mahog-any.
Eighteen or twenty years ago the mother of the pres-ent
proprietor, finding it necessary to repair some of the
weather-boarding, discovered that the sills, which were im-mense
in size, were solid lightwood, tarred, and wrapped in
canvas. The house and grounds are shaded by magnificent
24
live-oak trees, which may have shaded and sheltered the
quaintly costumed people of a remote past.
"Very near seventy years ago my grandfather, Joseph
Bonner, built a house near the 'apex' of the town and facing
the bay, a most delightful situation. In the pasture lot be-longing
to this place there used to be a fort to which the
whites of the entire surrounding country fled for safety when
menaced and attacked by the Indians. I have often, when a
child, played with my little colored companions in the ex-cavation,
all that was then left of the fort, and that has dis-appeared
now, the entire lot being alike even and level.
Among many attractions to .be found in the old town are
cold springs of fresh water in the side of the creek, eighteen
or twenty feet from the shore. They are surrounded by gum
curbs approached by little wharves or bridges. The side-walks
are lined by grand old elms, which shake hands over
the drive-way and form a beautiful arch of shade. I well
remember when there were no sidewalks, and this same drive-way
was a narrow foot-path bordered on either side up to the
yard fences with short, green grass, and tracked by every
pedestrian who went about the little town. Those were
primitive days, and the inhabitants lived their slow and
quiet lives very happily. On either side of the bay the land,
covered with a promiscuous growth of trees, slopes gently
down to the water's edge, and this beautiful sheet of water
is frequently, early in the day, as smooth as glass, upon the
shining surface of which appears painted the trees, with the
delicate, tender greens of spring-time or the deeper tints of
summer, or more beautiful still, the gorgeous reds, yellows
and greens of the autumn tide ; a delightfully restful pic-ture."
[It is proposed to celebrate the Bi-Centennial of the Found-ing
of Bath in March, 1905.]
CAROLINA, OUR PRIDE.
BY THOMAS W. HARRINGTON.
Carolina, the pride of my bosom,
Carolina, the land of the free,
Carolina, the land of my fathers,
Carolina, my song is of thee.
From Mitchell, the pride of the mountains,
To Hatteras, the dread of the sea,
The sunshine of liberty gladdens
And tyranny trembles at thee.
Her honor is high as the summit
Of Mitchell, her loftiest peak,
Her vigor is that of the Roman,
Her spirit is that of the Greek.
Her daughters are bright as the sunshine
That lightens the hills of the west,
And fair as the rose of the valley
That blushes and blooms on her breast.
Then forward and upward our motto,
And never look backward nor stop,
The base of the summit, tho' crowded,
Is never so full at the top.
Hurrah ! Carolina, forever,
A glorious destiny waits
Carolina, the cradle of freedom,
The noblest of all the great States.
ON HATTEKAS BAR
BY HENRY JEROME STOCKARD.
The night was wild, the breakers churned
;
In heaven's vast shone not a star
;
Alone the light, mist-haloed, burned
On Hatteras Bar.
From out the scabbard of the dark
There flashed a sudden blazing brand,
Which, grasped by some puissant hand,
Was thrust against a shrinking bark
With so dire, deadly, damning might
'Twas broke to fragments dazzling white.
Then denser sunk the lurid air,
And cries blent with the surges' jar,
And, stabbed, the ship clung reeling there
On Hatteras Bar.
The ocean massed its ancient strength,
And hoarser raved the savage gale
;
To shreds was rent each helpless sail;
The vessel trembled through its length
;
It lurched, and, ghost-like, through the gloom
Shivered, vanished to its doom.
The souls that in the sad winds moan,
Where lay at morn that shattered spar!
—
That sob where plangent seas intone
On Hatteras Bar!
THE GARY REBELLION.
BY THOMAS M. PITTMAN.
Two hundred years ago there was no newspaper in North
Carolina and no printing-press. There was one small town
of twelve houses and no post-office. In all, there was a
population of about five thousand people scattered along the
waters and water-courses of the low country. They needed
but little government and refused to submit to any rule
which impaired their liberty or burdened their estates. A
single volume contains the English and American records of
half a century concerning North Carolina.
The greatest controversy that disturbed the peace of the
infant colony of North Carolina occurred about the begin-ning
of the eighteenth century, and was called the Gary
Rebellion, probably because the other side did the writing
and calling of names. The facts seem to be as follows
:
The Quakers had religious scruples against taking oaths,
and the law provided that they might sign a declaration in-stead.
It was now proposed, however, to insist upon the
oaths. Upon the accession of Queen Anne new oaths of al-legiance
were required. As usual the Quakers refused them
and made their declarations, whereupon they were dismissed
from office in the Council, the Assembly and the courts. They
being so excluded, an act was passed that "none should have
any office or place of trust without taking such oaths."
The resentment against Governor Daniel was so great
as to induce his removal, and Col. Thomas Gary was sent
out from Charleston in his stead. He also dismissed the
Quakers upon their refusal to take the oaths as before. The
Quakers now sent John Porter to England to lay their
grievances before the English authorities. He was success-ful
in procuring a new commission, suspending the power of
Governor Johnson of South Carolina in North Carolina and
removing Governor Cary, his deputy. He was also fur-nished
several new deputations of councillors, who were au-thorized
to choose a president from their own number. Por-ter
has been called the cleverest politician then in North
Carolina. He now had power as well, and determined not
to be caught napping. He had an informal gathering of some
of the councillors, not a legal meeting, and chose William
Glover President of the Council. Glover, supposing him-
28
self firmly set in the orifice, adopted the policy of his predeces-sors.
Thereupon a formal and regular meeting of the coun-cil
was held, the election of Glover was declared illegal and
1 nomas Gary was elected President of the Council. Gary
had now learned the temper of the people, and had become
one of them. It was just possible that his father-in-law,
former Governor Archdale, of South Garolina, had influ-enced
his views. Glover refused to yield and for a time there
were two governments, but only one councillor sustained
Glover. Finally, in 1708, both parties agreed to submit
their claims to a new Assembly, to be called by both. The
result was overwhelmingly in Gary's favor. Only two pre-cincts
out of eight declared in favor of Glover. Edward
Moseley, who was later to succeed Porter as the great leader
of the colonists, was made speaker. Glover still refused to
yield and some difficulty resulted, after which he fled to
Virginia, whence he had come to Carolina,
Gary retained his place until 1710, but matters were not
entirely quieted, when Edward Hyde, a kinsman of Queen
Anne, came into the province and claimed to have been sent
out as deputy governor. He had no commission, but the
Council, hoping to end the confusion, elected him president,
notwithstanding he was ineligible to that office. All might
have gone well but for his taking up the quarrel. He called
an Assembly favorable to himself, having members who
wished to pay off old scores against the Cary payty. The
conflict was renewed. Both parties appealed to arms. Gary
was having the better of it, when Hyde appealed to Governor
Spottswood, of Virginia, for help. Spottswood had no au-thority
in E~orth Carolina, but, with the true spirit of a
sycophant, calling to mind Hyde's relationship to the Queen,
declared "so long as I have any power at hand I shall not
suffer him (Hyde) to be imprisoned by a Plebean route.''
His armed intervention ended the war.
Just at this time occurred the dreadful Tuscarora massacre.
The enemies of Porter and Cary charged that they incited
the outbreak. They were arrested and sent to England for
trial. The only witness sent against them was Mr. Tobias
Knight, afterwards accused of being an accomplice of the
pirate Teach. A year was allowed for proof to be sent
against them, when they were discharged because no proof
was sent and the colonial authorities were rebuked for send-ing
them.
OCTOBER.
BY JOHN CHARLES McNEILL.
The thought of old dear things is in thine eyes,
month of memories
!
Musing on days thine heart hath sorrow of,
Old joy, dead hope, dear love,
1 see thee stand where all thy sisters meet
To cast down at thy feet
The garnered largess of the fruitful year
—
Yet on thy cheek a tear.
Thy glory flames in every blade and leaf
To blind the eyes of grief;
Thy vineyards and thine orchards bend with fruit
That sorrow may be mute
;
A hectic glory lights thy clays to sleep
Ere the gray dusk may creep
Sober and sad along thy dusty ways,
Like a lone nun, who prays
;
High and faint-heard thy passing migrant calls
;
Thy lazy lizzard sprawls
On his gray stone, and many slow winds creep
About thy hedge, asleep
;
The sun swings farther toward his love, the South,
To kiss her glowing mouth
;
Yet, where Death steals among thy purpling bowers,
He hides himself in flowers.
Would that thy streams were Lethe, and might flow
Where lotus blooms might blow,
That all the sweets wherewith thy riches bless
Might hold no bitterness
;
30
That, in thy beauty, we might all forget
Dead days and vain regret,
And through thy realm might fare us forth to roam,
Having no thought for home!
And yet I feel, beneath thy queen's attire,
Woven of blood and fire,
Beneath the gorgeous glory of thy charm
Thy mother heart beats warm
;
That if, mayhap, a wandering child of thee,
Rudderless on the sea,
Should turn him homeward from a fruitless quest
To sob upon thy breast,
Thine arm would fold him tenderly, to prove
How thine eyes brimmed with love.
And thy dear hand, with all a mother's care,
Would rest upon his hair.
THE TUSCARORA WAR
BY CAPT. S. A. ASHE.
In the dissensions known as the Quaker War (Cary Re-bellion)
the Pamlico section adhered to Cary, and the In-dians
of that region were led to regard Governor Hyde as a
person to be detested by them, while the rapid extension of
the settlements to the southward and towards the Pamlico
and the Neuse raised fears lest they should be forced back
and entirely expelled from their old hunting grounds.
On the western frontier, beginning at Virginia and ex-tending
nearly to the Neuse, were the Tuscaroras, who occu-pied
fifteen towns and numbered altogether 1,200 fighting
men. Adjoining them were the Woccons, about one-tenth
their number ; and a few miles distant were the Pamlicos,
once an important tribe, but who had been swept away by a
fearful epidemic some fifteen years before, and now could
boast only fifty braves. The Neuse Indians and the Chattau-quas,
who occupied the region allotted to De Graffenreid's
Colony, were likewise weak; but the tribes to the eastward
on Bear river and Core sound were more numerous. Near
Bath was the small tribe of the Pungos, and on the sand
banks were the Corannines, while at Hatteras was the rem-nant
of a tribe now reduced to sixteen braves, who claimed
that some of their ancestors were whites, and valued them-selves
extremely on their kinship to the English, and were
very friendly.
Lawson, the Surveyor of the Colony, had projected an in-terior
road from the southern settlements to Virginia, and
with a view to locating it had made a journey through the
region inhabited by the Indians. He had also been con-spicuous
in locating the Palatines and the Swiss at New
Bern and in laying off plantations, and he thus became an
object of particular resentment among the discontented In-dians,
Such was the feeling early in September, 1711, some
two months after the dispersion of Gary's forces, when Law-son
and Christopher Gale and Baron de Graffenreid ar-ranged
for an expedition up the Neuse to make explorations
in connection with the proposed road. Gale was detained,
but the Baron and Lawson set out from New Bern by boat,
32
taking fifteen days' provisions with them. On the evening
of tjie second day, the Indians discovering them, and
alarmed at this exploration, and mistaking the Baron for
Governor Hyde, seized them and hurried them to their
king's town on the Cotechney, where a council of Indian
chiefs were speedily assembled, by whom both the Baron and
Lawson were condemned to instant death. The Baron,
however, saATed himself by asserting that he was not an Eng-lishman,
but Lawson was put to a horrible death. The day
following the trial and execution of Lawson, the Indian
chieftains informed the Baron that they had determined to
make war on the English, and that the particular object of
their enmity were the people on the Pamlico, the Neuse and
the Trent rivers and on Core sound, for settlers had already
established themselves in that locality. In these hostile de-signs
the upper towns of the Tuscaroras near Virginia de-clined
to participate, the Cotechneys, the Pamlicos, the Cores
and the Neuse Indians being the chief promoters of hos-tilities.
Five hundred warriors, consisting of Indians from every
tribe on the southern frontier, having congregated at Han-cock's
town on the Cotechney,* formed themselves into small
bands and dispersed as if in a friendly way throughout the
new settlement. On the morning of the 11th of September,
1711, they fell upon the unsuspecting colonists in their iso-lated
homes and began a fearful massacre. In two hours
130 persons fell beneath their bloody blows. On some plan-tations
all, men, women and children alike, were ruthlessly
and barbarously murdered ; on others the men only were
slain, and the women and children were spared that they
might be held as prisoners and slaves. In savage riot the
Indians slew and burnt and pillaged, and the entire region
south of the Albemarle was a, scene of horrid murder and
desolation. The French settlers on the Pamlico suffered
heavily ; eighty of De GrafTenreid's colony fell victims, and
the outlying districts were depopulated. In those hours of
fearful calamity, those who fortunately escaped the first fury
of the savages fled in dismay to convenient points of refuge.
They collected at Bath and at ten other places, where they
hurriedly fortified themselves against attack. Many inci-dents
of the butchery were heart-rending, and some of the
• Contentnea creek. Hancock's town was near Snow Hill, Greene county.
33
escapes heroic. At the house of John Porter, Jr., his wife,
Sarah Lillington, seeing an Indian in the act of dashing
her infant's brains out against a tree, rushed upon him and
wrested her child from his clutches. Dr. Patrick Maule be-ing
present, he and Col. Porter seized their guns and, cover-ing
the flight of the females, successfully beat off the sav-ages
until they had reached the landing, when, taking a
boat, they pushed out into the broad water and escaped, be-holding
in the distance their home enveloped in flames. For
two days the murderous bands glutted themselves with blood
and revelled in spoils, but on the third day, the plantations
being deserted, laden with booty and carrying eighty women
and children as captives, they returned to their fort on the
Cotechney.
The dead lay unburied in that hot September sun, food
for the vultures, the dogs and wolves. Many bodies were
most shockingly mutilated and others were fancifully ar-ranged
by the savages in their wild glee. Mr. Nevill, an old
gentleman, was laid on his floor with a clean pillow beneath
his head, which was ornamented with his wife's head dress,
and his body was decently covered over Avith new linen
;
while Mrs. Nevill was set upon her knees in the chimney
corner, her hands lifted up as if in prayer, and a son was laid
out in the yard with a pillow under his head and a bunch
of rosemary at his nose.
Governor Hyde and the leaders in Albemarle speedily took
all measures of safety open to them. Information was hur-riedly
dispatched to Governor Spottswood, who caused some
of the Virginia militia to collect near the Indian towns bor-dering
on the Virginia line and sought to enlist the upper
Tuscaroras in the suppression of the hostile Indians. As
an inducement to engage their assistance, he offered six
blankets for the head of every Indian they would bring in
and "the usual price for the women and children as slaves."
These towns, however, asked for a month to consider, and
then determined to remain neutral.
Christopher Gale having been sent to Charleston to solicit
aid, the South Carolina Assembly promptly responded with
assistance, which, hoAvever, it took some time to collect, Gale
hastened back on his return voyage with a considerable sup-ply
of ammunition, but on the way was taken prisoner by the
French, and was detained several months. In the interval
34
the North Carolina government, receiving no information
relative to him or the result of his mission, again sent a dis-patch
boat to Charleston, and the promised aid was hurried
forward. It was under the command of Col. John Barnwell,
and was largely composed of Indians of South Carolina.
Barnwell proceeded up the Santee and was joined by detach-ments
from the tribes on that stream, reaching the vicinity of
the present town of Charlotte. He turned east and came
to the Waxhaws, crossed the Peedee, and then struck the
Cape Fear above Fayetteville, and followed that river up to
near the Haw. Then he went northeast to an Indian town
called Torhunte on the Tar river, and finally, on the 28th of
January, 1712, ^came into the Pamlico country. He had
had a long journey through the wilderness, without any roads
and almost without provisions, and his force had suffered
severely from the inclemency of the weather. It consisted
of about fifty whites and some 800 friendly Indians. Barn-well
at once acted with great vigor, and immediately fell
upon the savages about twenty miles above New Bern, kill-ing
300 and taking more than 100 prisoners, but as soon
as the victory was won half of his force, satisfied with
their booty, deserted him and returned to South Carolina,
carrying their prisoners, who were shipped to the West
Indies to be sold into slavery. Notwithstanding his army
was now much reduced, Barnwell pursued the enemy until
they retired into a stronghold they had fortified on a high
and inaccessible bluff overlooking the Neuse, which could
not be attacked with advantage. Withdrawing from that sec-tion,
he led his friendly Indians about thirty miles east of
New Bern, where he encountered the Core Indians and
drove them from their towns, and carried the day with such
fury that a great many were slain. On his return he was
reinforced by 250 whites from Albemarle under Captains
Brice, Boyd and Mitchell, and together they assaulted Han-cock's
fort on the Cotechney, near the site of Snow Hill, but
were driven- off. Still the people were so relieved by his
presence that they made every effort to carry on the war, and
sent an earnest application to Virginia for 200 white sol-diers
from that province. Governor Spottswood undertook
to raise such a force, but ascertaining that the North Caro-lina
authorities had made no provision for their support,
and his Assembly being at enmity with him, he found it im-
35
practicable to proceed. In April, Barnwell proposed to
make another attack on Hancock's fort, and at the sugges-tion
of Baron de GrafTenreid, who had then been released
by the Indians, some cannon were carried through the for-ests,
borne on long shafts with a horse in front and one
behind, and those were well placed to bombard the strong-hold.
When all was in readiness for the assault, the cannon
were discharged and hand grenades were thrown into the
forts. These novel instruments of warfare so terrified the
Indians that they begged for a truce. A council of war was
held by Barnwell and his officers, and a truce was granted
upon condition that all the white prisoners should be at once
released and with the expectation that it would eventually
be followed by a lasting peace.
Barnwell's Indians were disappointed at the truce and
cessation of operations, as they hoped to take more prisoners
and profit by their sale, but he withdrew to New Bern,
where provisions could be had, and, after a few weeks, under
the pretense of a good peace, Barnwell lured the Eastern
Indians to the vicinity of Core village, where his force fell
upon them unawares and took many women and children
prisoners. The South Carolina Indians now hurried home
with their captives, leaving Barnwell and the white com-panies
raised in Albermarle to carry on the hostilities which
this breach of faith naturally engendered ; and on the 5th
of July, 1712, Barnwell himself was wounded, and then
taking shipping, he returned to Charleston, promising, how-ever,
to use his best endeavors to have other assistance sent.
As long as Barnwell's force was on the Pamlico the enemy
had been held in check, but now, as the country was clear, fu-rious
at the treacherous breach of the truce, the hostile In-dians
became very active, and again was the region south of
the Albemarle a scene of bitter warfare. The farms were de-serted,
the crops abandoned, and the inhabitants again as-sembled
in their garrisons for mutual protection, while
around those places of refuge hostile bands incessantly
prowled, scalping all who fell into their hands. A small
number of Yamasees, however, had remained, and under
Captain Mackey did good service near Bath. But the sav-ages
roamed at will throughout the country at large, devasta-ting
the plantations and confining the people to their forts.
And so another summer passed with no crops made, and the
36
Pamlico and Neuse settlements in a state of siege. Fully
aroused, the Assembly now made a draft of the entire fight-ing
population to subdue the enemy, and in addition to the
garrisoned plantations two considerable forts were erected,
one at Core Point and the other at Reading's plantation on
the Tar, near the present town of Washington. In order to
fill the ranks, all who did not enroll themselves as soldiers
were to forfeit five pounds for the maintenance of the strug-gle.
But although the emergency was so great, many were
discontented at the strenuous measures of the administration,
and some of the inhabitants left their homes and fled to
Virginia. In the midst of these difficulties yellow fever
broke out in the colony, and among others Col. Hyde, who
had received his commission as Governor only that May,
fell a victim to it and died on the 8th of September, 1712,
after a week's illness. Fortunately, Col. Pollock was ready
to continue the administration as President of the Council.
Governor Craven, of South Carolina, agreed to send
another force of friendly Indians, the charges to be paid in
^sTorth Carolina bills. The new army from South Carolina,
consisting of thirty-three whites under Col. James Moore,
finally arrived on the Neuse. Col. Moore pursued the same
general course in his journey as Col. Barnwell. And some-what
later his brother, Col. Maurice Moore, brought rein-forcements
of South Carolina Indians. The South Carolina
Indians were led to the Chowan for convenience in supplying
them with provisions, and remained there until January,
1713. Towards the middle of that month preparations were
made to attack the savages. Supplies were sent around by
water, and on the 1 7th of January Col. Moore inarched from
Chowan, but a heavy snow-fall obliged him to remain inac-tive
at Fort. Reading, on the Tar, until February. In the
meantime, the Indians had fortified themselves in two
strongholds, one at Cohunche and the other at Fort Nohoroco
on the Cotechney.
At length, all being in readiness, and his army being rein-forced
by a considerable number of whites, on the 20th of
March Col. Moore surrounded Fort Nohoroeo, and after
three days' hot fighting took it. His loss was forty-six
whites and ninety-one friendly Indians. He took 392 pris-oners
and 192 scalps, and reported 200 others killed and
burnt within the fort and 166 killed and taken outside the
37
fort. In all, the Indian loss was about 800. This was per-haps
the severest battle ever fought with the Indians up to
that time. It broke the power of the Tusearoras. They now
made peace, surrendering all their prisoners and delivering
up twenty of their chief men to Col. Moore. Soon after-wards
the greater part of this powerful tribe, including those
in Fort Cohunche, retired up the Roanoke and removed to
New York and became the sixth nation there.
<?
DEATH OF JOHN LAWSON.
BY JOHN W. MOORE.
A few days before the bloody Tuscarora Indian outbreak
of September 22, 1711, Christopher1 de GrafTenreid and
John Lawson, the Surveyor-General of North Carolina, set
out from New Bern to examine the waters of Neuse river,
with the hope of finding a new and better route to Virginia
than the long one then in use. They sailed up the stream
until late in the evening. They then landed to encamp for
the night. Here they were seized by the Indians and, after
considerable suspense, a council of the chiefs alleged that
Lawson was the principal cause of the lands of the Indians
being taken by the white people.
The Indians then filled Lawson's flesh and that of his
negro servant full of lightwood splinters, and thus by slow
torture put them both to death. Lawson was a man of genius
and wide culture. His great love of nature and passion for
travel and adventure did not leave him time for more elabo-rate
literary work, but his book on North Carolina is full of
valuable information touching its people and physical fea-tures.
EARLY NEW BERN.
BY CHARLES L. COON.
New Bern, the second town established in North Carolina,
was founded by German and Swiss colonists under the leader-ship
of Baron de Graffenreid and Ludwig Michel during the
summer and fall of 1710. The German Palatines arrived in
Carolina the latter part of May, 1710, and the Swiss in Sep-tember
of that year. The Palatines •numbered about 350
persons and the Swiss were a considerably smaller body. All
perhaps spoke the German language. The Palatines had
fled from Germany to England to be rid of religious perse-cution,
and had soon become a burden to Queen Anne, who
had invited them to her country, as well as a source of com
plaint on the part of the poor people of London. The poor
English Londoners, seeing the German Palatines provided
with food and tents to live in free of cost, began to clamor for
the same treatment. Under such circumstances Queen Anne
and her advisers were glad enough to make a trade with
De Graffenreid and Michel, the Swiss adventurers who were
about to bring a Swiss colony to America, to bring with
them some of the poor Palatines.
The "townlet of New Bern," as De Graffenreid called it
in 1711, was hardly a year old when the Baron and John
Lawson planned an exploring expedition up the Neuse river
in the hope of finding a better and a nearer route to Virginia
than the one then known. Taking two slaves and provisions
for fifteen days, Lawson and De Graffenreid set out in a boat
one September morning in 1711. They were all captured
by the Indians that same night and Lawson and one of the
slaves were put to death. De Graffenreid was detained six
weeks as a captive and then permitted to return to his home
in New Bern, only to find sixty or seventy of the Palatines
and Swiss slaughtered by the Indians, many others hiding
in the woods, still others persuaded away to help the English
garrison, a fort in the neighborhood of Bath, and as many
as fifteen held prisoners by the Indians. Thus the colony
and the little town was much reduced in numbers, only about
40
"forty men able to fight and a crowd of women and children"
being left. But the infant town survived the dark days of
October, 1711, and the still darker days of 1712 and 1713,
while the Tuscarora Indian war continued.
The Palatines and the Swiss, no doubt, felt that they were
not responsible for the quarrel between the English and the
Indians, which had caused the terrible Indian war. But
they heartily joined with the English in defending their
new home from the bloody savages. Ludwig Michel and his
New Bern artillerymen were present with Capt. John Barn-well
at the surrender of Hancock's Indian Fort in April,
1712. It was the firing of cannon balls into the fort more
than anything else that caused the Indians to beg for peace on
that occasion.
It was during the Indian troubles of 1712 that Baron de
Graffenreid left his little "townlet" and went back to his
Swiss mountain home, leaving the Palatines and his Swiss
countrymen to struggle as best they could to maintain them-selves
in a new and wild country. For eleven years this
struggle for existence was kept up with varying fortune. It
was not until 1723 that success finally came. In that year
New Bern was laid off into streets and town lots, as much
as two hundred and fifty acres of land being included in the
township or town. It was also about this time that the coun-try
to the south and west of the town began to be somewhat
thickly settled. Trade and commerce grew up as a conse-quence,
and New Bern became the center for that trade.
Immigrants continued to come from the north, and
another body of Swiss-German colonists came in 1732 and
settled in what is now the territory of Jones and Onslow
counties, a few of them doubtless remaining at New Bern,
where they first landed. Among those who came in 1732
were John Martin Francke, now spelled Franck, Philip Mil-ler,
or Mueller, and James Blackshear.
It was less than fifteen years after the founding of New
Bern that the Palatines and Swiss began to change their
names to conform to English ways of spelling. In 1723
Mohr had become Moor, Eibach had become Eybock or
Hypock, Grum had become Croom, Eisler had become Eslar
and was soon to be Isler, Mueller had become Miller, Coxe-daile
was soon to become Cogdell; Francke had became
Franke and Franck. Simon, Slaver, Easenober, Dipp, Perk,
41
Resabel and Wixedell are other names of Palatines and Swiss
that have now disappeared or lost their original German
spelling.
In March, 1738, the Colonial Legislature met at New Bern
for the first time, New Bern being then a much more central
point for the members than any other place in the colony.
Two years later the first recorded attempts were made to
establish churches in the town. The Palatines petitioned
the county court for permission to build a chapel on the Trent
river. The permission was granted, but for some reason the
chapel was not built. About the same time, 1740, John
James, William Fulcher, Francis Ayres, Lemuel Harvey,
Nicholas Purify, John Brooks, and Thomas Fulcher asked
and obtained the permission of the county court to build a
Baptist church in New Bern. But it seems their efforts
were not successful. An act of the Colonial Assembly of 1740
provided for the building of an Episcopal church in New
Bern, it being recited in that act that the vestry had made
100,000 bricks the previous year1 with which to build the
house. In 1741 the county of Craven was made a parish
and called Christ Church Parish. The Episcopal church
was completed within the next few years and in 1754 the
Assembly passed an act confirming an agreement between the
Christ Church vestry of Neiv Bern and Rev. James Reed,
by which agreement Rev. James Reed became the pastor of
the church. In 1760 it was said that Mr. Reed was not only
pastor of Christ Church in New Bern, but that he had charge
of eight chapels in the surrounding country.
In 1739, Rev. George Whitefield, the great Methodist
preacher, visited New Bern and preached in the court-house
on Christmas eve. He says most of the congregation were
melted to tears. But he was grieved "to see the minister
encouraging dancing and to find a dancing-master in every
little town."
In 1749, James Davis, a Virginia printer, came to New
Bern and set up the first printing-press ever brought to the
colony. All the laws of North Carolina up to that time were
preserved in writing only, and there was much trouble for
the people to find out what laws really had been passed by
the Assembly. In 1752 all the laws then in force were col-lected
and printed by Davis and bound in yellow leather.
This law book was sometimes called the "Yellow Jacket,"
42
and was the first book ever printed in North Carolina. On
the first day of June, 1764, Davis began to print a news-paper
at New Bern. He called his paper "The North Car-olina
Magazine, or Universal Intelligencer." In 1777 the
name of this paper had become "The North Carolina Ga-zette,"
and had for its motto : "Always for liberty and the
public good."
In 1764, the same year that James Davis began to print
the first North Carolina newspaper, the first really effective
school law was passed by the Colonial Assembly. By that
act a school was established in New Bern. Two years later
this school was incorporated, being the first incorporated
academy in North Carolina. In that school William Gas-ton,
George EL Badger, John Stanly, Richard Dobbs Spaight,
Francis L. Hawks and many other famous North Carolinians
were educated. In 1765 William Tryon became Governor
of the colony. He at once asked the Colonial Assembly to
build a suitable house in which the Assembly might meet
and that at the same time the Governor could use as a home.
The result was that an appropriation was voted for that pur-pose
by the Assembly and the so-called "palace" was begun
at New Bern on January 9, 1767. In October, 1770, the
palace was completed. This building was planned by John
Hawks, a Moor from the island of Malta, and is said to
have cost about $80,000. Governor Tryon has been much
abused for the part he took in the erection of this colonial
capital building. But perhaps it would be well not to abuse
Governor Tryon for erecting this building, unless we are
willing also to include in the abuse the many patriotic North
Carolinians who were members of the several Assemblies
which voted all the necessary funds. The palace is thus de-scribed
in Morse's Geography, printed in 1789 : "The palace
was erected by the province before the Revolution, and was
formerly the residence of the governors. It is large and
elegant, two stories high, with two wings for offices, a little
advanced in front towards the town ; these wings are con-nected
with the principal building by a circular arcade. It
is much out of repair; and the only use to which this once
handsome and well-furnished building is now applied is for
schools. One of the halls is used for a school and another for
a dancing-room. The arms of Great Britain still appear in
a pediment in front of the building."
43
In 1795 the New Bern Academy was burned and the Leg-islature
permitted the use of the palace for school purposes,
Rev. Thomas P. Irvine being principal. Mr. Irvine kept
wood and hay in the cellar of the palace and lived in the
upper part. In 1798 a negro woman servant of Mr. Irvine
went to look for eggs in the hay, carrying a lightwood torch.
The hay caught from a spark and the palace was burned to
the ground.
New Bern, when it became the residence of the colonial
governors, became also the usual place for holding one of the
district courts. In the early days theft was punished by means
of the whipping post. Women thieves were given the same
punishment as men—a number of lashes on the bare back.
As early as 1724 three rogues stole the following goods from
Caleb Metcalfe "of Newbern Town" : "One certain gun, ten
pounds weight of gun powder, ten pounds of shott, six
pounds of muskett bulletts, two pieces of gold, seven suits
of lased and plain dinners, two plain capps, three silk hand-kerchiefs,
three white handkerchiefs, one silver buckell, three
gowns and three pettycoats, four yards broad lace, one payr
stays, three linen aprons, two blew aprons, one muslin head,
two small Holland shirts, two dimety jacketts, one pack of
cards, two pair cheque linen britches
? one pair ozenbriggs
britches, one white jackett, three garlix shirts, one cheque
lining shirt, two knives and fforks, a silk apron, bound with
silver iace, some ribbands, one ivory comb, three bonnets,
half a yard of calico, some wollen yarn, some buttons of
spunn cotten, half thousand needles, one thousand pins."*
This interesting court record shows some of the goods sold
by one of the first merchants of New Bern, and also gives
us a glimpse at the dress of that day.
In 1778 it is said that New Bern was the metropolis of
North Carolina and contained one hundred and fifty houses.
North Carolina towns did not grow very fast in the early
days. Guthrie's Geography, printed about 1815, says that
"New Bern is the largest town in North Carolina, and was
formerly the residence of the governors, one of whom (Gov-ernor
Tryon) built a splendid palace on the banks of the
Trent river, which has been burned. There are several brick
dwellings, some of which have claims to elegance, but the
principal part of the houses are of wood. There is a brick
church for the Episcopalians, and two of wood for the Meth-
* Colonial Records, Vol. II, page 588.
44
odists and Baptists. The other public buildings are, an
academy, court-house and Masonic hall. The latter com-bines
-under its roof a theatre, assembly room and lodge
room. The theatre is handsome, but has no company, and
itinerants receive but little encouragement to visit it. The
court-house is a new building, three stories high, with a
handsome spire. New Bern has about 3,600 inhabitants."
THE VOLUNTEERS.
BY ALEXANDER GASTON.
They are gathering, they are gathering
I rom the cabin and the hall
;
The rifle leaves its bracket
The steed must quit his stall
;
The country sends its thousands,
And the city pours its throng,
To resent their country's insult,
To avenge their country's wrong.
They are gathering, they are gathering
From mountain and from plain,
Resolved in heart, of purpose high,
A bold and fearless train.
No forceful mandate calls them out,
No despot bids them go;
They obey the freeman's impulse,
But to strike the freeman's blow.
Note.—Dr. Alexander Gaston was the father of Judge William Gaston.
JfortTx (Carolina
j3ia£e library.
x i
h
WASHINGTON AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS.
BY LIDA TUNSTALL, RODMAN.
Beaufort county, of which Washington is the chief town
and present county-seat, was named for Henry, Duke of
Beaufort, one of the Lords Proprietors. It was formed, in
1741, from a portion of the original county of Bath. In
1757 part of the county of Beaufort was added to Craven,
and in 1785 part of the county of Pitt was annexed to Beau-fort,
the dividing lines between those counties being settled
in the years mentioned.
Washington is located at a point where the winding Tar
river broadens into the beautiful Pamlico, or Pamptico, as
spelled on old maps. The fertile shores of this river were
eagerly sought by the early settlers in Carolina. On either
side were many large plantations, one on the south side be-ing
that of Lionel and Churchill Reading, which in 1711,
at the time of the Indian War, was converted into a rude
but strong defense known as Fort Reading.
Some miles above this on the north side of the river, a
grant of land, from the Lords Proprietors, on which the town
of Washington is located, was made to Christopher Dudley
in 1726; it is known as the Dudley patent and contained
337 acres, all rights being yielded except the gold and silver
mines. We are wont in these latter days to smile at the
ever fruitless search of the first explorers for gold. In 1727
Dudley transferred this land to Edward Salter, he in turn
conveying it to John Worley, who in his deed of conveyance
to Thomas Bonner, October 15, 1729, describes it as "the
plantation whereon I now dwell." It then became the plan-tation
of Thomas Bonner, and some years later, in 1776,
Colonel James Bonner created a town on a portion of this
tract of land, laying it off in sixty lots, which he disposed of
by lottery. In the same year he conveyed by deed to John
Cowper, Henry Bonner, Robert Salter and Joseph Blount,
the commissioners appointed by the purchasers of lots, full
title to the streets for public use; also lot No, 21, on which
was built the court-house, jail and pillory. Lot No. 50 was
46
given for the building of a church, which was used at first by
all denominations, as was the burying-ground attached
thereto. Many old and quaint stones are in this grave-yard,
where, cornered by Main and Bonner streets, repose the re-mains
of James Bonner, one of the original owners.
All denominations except the Episcopalian early erected
other houses of worship in different parts of the town, the old
spot being thus left to their use; they formed a permanent
parish and St. Peter's Church was consecrated about 1825 by
Bishop Ravenscroft, Parson Blount, who had to go to Eng-land
to be ordained; was a native of this county and a noted
divine of his day. He traveled through all the eastern sec-tion
of the State and at times ministered to the Episcopalians
in Washington.
The Methodist Church was organized and built by Balph
Potts and Covington Simpkins, being dedicated in 1803 by
Bishop Asbury. A Mr. Giles and Elder Avent were two of
the earliest ministers. The first Baptist minister was the
Rev. Mr. Mastin. The Presbyterian Church was organized
in 1824 with Rev. James Weatherby as pastor. Two of its
most zealous elders were Samuel R, Fowle and Joseph Potts.
The Roman Catholic Church was established in 1823, John
Gallagher and Louis Leroy being influential members.
The formal act incorporating the town was passed April
13, 1782, at a session of the Assembly held in Hillsborough.
The following year an act was passed to encourage John and
James Bonner to clear and make a road through the great
swamp on the south side of Pamlico river. James Bonner
was Colonel of the Beaufort County Regiment in 1775 and
several times a member of the Assembly. Other officers of
the Revolution from this county were Colonel John Patton
and Major Reading Blount. These troops were raised for
the New Bern district, of which Bieaufort county was a part.
The settling of the town was successful from the first, and
April 19, 1784, an act of Assembly was passed annexing cer-tain
lands laid off by Thomas Respass, Esq., to the town of
Washington ; also empowering the commissioners to levy a
tax on the inhabitants of said town. Union alley was the
dividing or rather uniting line between the Bonner lands and
those owned severally by Thomas Respass, John Gladden
and Hadrianus Van Norden ; their past ownership is com-memorated
in the streets bearing those names.
47
November 19, ITS 5, in response to a petition signed by
Nathan Keais, John Gray Blount and Kichard Blackledge,
commissioners at that time, an act of Assembly was passed
transferring the seat of county government from Bath, the
first incorporated town in the State, to Washington, giving
power to erect a new court-house, prison, pillory and stocks.
Commodious warehouses for storage were then built, and a
large trade was carried on with the ports of Europe, West
Indies, New England, New York and Philadelphia. Tar,
pitch, tobacco, pork, corn, lumber, white-oak staves, skins of
wild animals, honey and beeswax were some of the articles
transported from the surrounding country on flat-boats to
Washington ; from there by larger vessels or in lighters to
Ocracoke, Portsmouth and Shell Castle, near by, where the
largest-sized vessels and brigs awaited their cargoes. After
the lapse of weeks, sometimes months, these ships would re-turn
laden with such commodities as salt, sugar, coffee, molas-ses,
rum, nails, cutlery, linen and other manufactured arti-cles.
Trade through the port of Ocracoke was large enough to
call forth the complaint of Governor Martin, "that the con-temptible
port of Ocracoke has become a great channel of
supply to the rebels, while the more considerable ports have
been watched by the King's ships," intimating further that it
was to be closed by the British ships.
In 1794 a bill was introduced in Congress for erecting a
light-house on the headland of Cape Hatteras and a lighted
beacon on Shell Castle Island. Many years later, during the
Civil War, the expensive glass of the lantern of Hatteras
light was removed by order of the Confederates and placed in
the care of John Myers & Sons of Washington. It then
became the object of an exciting chase by the Federals, who,
however, failed to capture' it.
John Gray Blount was one of the earliest merchants and
shippers, conducting an extensive trade with home and foreign
ports ; he was the owner of Shell Castle Island, the value of
which, at that time, may be estimated by the offer of a
Spanish captain to purchase it at the cost of covering the sur-face
with gold coin. It was a small island, near Ocracoke,
formed of shell-rock, and upon it was located the custom-house
and other buildings ; to-day scarce a trace of it is visi-ble
above water.
48
The inhabitants of Washington and of the entire county
were distinguished for patriotism and zeal in the cause of
American independence ; delegates were sent to the Provincial
Congress in 1774 and in 1775. An honorable record was
made by Beaufort county soldiers in the War of the Kevolu-tion.
The people were of good English stock, with a few
French refugees. Thus a refined and intelligent community
existed from the first, and has ever been characterized by
generous hospitality, good living and a peculiarly happy
social life. President Monroe, during his administration,
visited Washington and was royally entertained, a grand ball
and other festivities being given in his honor.
Alderson Ellison and James Ellison were prominent pa-triots
of the old time, who, though loyal to American inde-pendence,
could not forget their old allegiance to the Crown,
and one of them would on occasions visit a neighbor, asking
her to close the doors and windows and play the music of
"God Save the King," for he "did love his King!"
<F^^|g££a
JUDGE GASTON TO YOUNG MEN.
BY WILLIAM GASTON.
/
, "As jour country grows in years, you must also cause it to
grow in science, literature, arts, and refinement. It will be
for you to develop and multiply its resources, to check the
faults of manners as they rise, and to advance the cause of
industry, temperance, moderation, justice, morals, and re-ligion
all around you. /
"If it must be so, let parties and party men continue to
quarrel, with little or no regard to the public good. They
may mystify themselves and others with disputations on
political economy, proving the most opposite doctrines to their
own satisfaction, and perhaps to the conviction of no one else
on earth. They may deserve reprobation for their selfishness,
their violence, their errors, or their wickedness. They may
do our country much harm. They may retard its growth,
destroy its harmony, impair its character, render its institu-tions
unstable, pervert the public mind, and deprave the
public morals. These are indeed evils, and sore evils, but the
principle of life remains, and will yet struggle with assured
success over these temporary maladies.
"Still we are great, glorious, united, and free; still we
have a name that is revered abroad and loved at home1—
a
name which is a tower of strength to us against foreign wrong
and a bond of internal union and harmony, a name which no
enemy pronounces but with respect, and which no citizen
hears but with a throb of exultation. Still we have that
blessed Constitution which, with all its pretended defects and
all its alleged violations, has conferred more benefit on man
than ever yet flowed from any other human institution
—
which has established justice, insured domestic tranquillity,
provided for the common defense, promoted the general wel-fare,
and which, under God, if we be true to ourselves, will
insure the blessings of liberty to us and to our posterity."
[William Gaston, son of Dr. Alexander Gaston and his
wife, Margaret Sharpe, was born in New Bern on September
19, 1778. He graduated at Princeton in 1796, studied law,
50
became a member of the North Carolina General Assembly
in 1808. He was elected as a Federalist member of Con-gress
in 1813 and in 1815. In 1833 he was made a Justice
of the- North Carolina Supreme Court and held that office
till his death, in 1814. The above is an extract from an
address delivered at the University of North Carolina.]
EARLY EDUCATION IN THE ALBEMARLE AND
PAMLICO SECTIONS.
BY E. C. BROOKS.
Governor Berkeley of Virginia, -who was one of the Lords
Proprietors of North Carolina, said in 1671, in answer to the
home government's inquiry into the educational system of
the colonies over which he had supervision: ''The same course
that is taken in England out of the town—every man accord-ing
to his ability instructing his children." This statement
was followed by the oft-repeated quotation from the frac-tious
Governor : "I thank God there are no free schools and
no printing here, and I hope we shall have none of them
these hundred years."
The first settlers in North Carolina—1650 to 1657—came
largely from Virginia, and they naturally brought with them
the customs of Virginia. Education at this time was the
duty of the family and the church, for the object was prima-rily
to prepare the child for church worship. As the first
settlers were doubtless members of, or bore some allegiance to,
the Established Church, the training of the children was to
prepare them to read the Prayer-book and the Bible. In
North Carolina the church was not organized until 1701.
Before that time what training the children received Avas
under the direction of the family. There were wealthy
planters living in North Carolina prior to 1701, who came
from Virginia, and doubtless trained their children after the
manner of the Virginia planters.
In the early years of the colony it was customary for the
settlers to own white servants as well as negro or Indian ser-vants.
These white servants were either convicts who were
sold into slavery for a term of years for some crime, or they
were passengers from the old country who were sold to pay
for their passage to America, or they were kidnapped women
and children taken from the streets of London and other
cities. Some of these white servants possessed good educa-tion,
and they were frequently used as school-teachers in the
families they were serving. A writer in later years says
52
"Not a ship arrives with either redemptioners or convicts
in which school-masters are not as regularly advertised for
sale as weavers, tailors, or any other trade. With little other
difference that I can hear of, except perhaps that the former
do not usually fetch so good a price as the latter."
It frequently happened that these white servants ran away
from their masters, and it was customary in such cases for
the masters to advertise for them, as the following will show
:
"Ran away: A servant man * * * who had fol-lowed
the occupation of school-master. Much given to drink
and gambling.
"
When the servant acting in the capacity of a school-master
had carried the children as far as he was qualified to teach
them, it was customary to advertise him for sale, as the fol-lowing
will show
:
"To be sold: A school-master, an indentured servant who
has got two years to serve.
"N. B.—He is sold for no fault, any more than we are
done with him. He can learn book-keeping and is an excel-lent
scholar."
In 1701 a society was formed in London under the direc-tion
of the Established Church for the purpose of propaga-ting
the gospel in foreign parts. In the same year the vestry
for Chowan was established by an act of the Assembly, and
it was ordered "that the church wardens provide a lay read-er."
The church organization was a great help to the intel-lectual
life. Its missionaries brought with them the first
parish or public library, and its ministers and lay readers
were the first teachers who conducted schools for the public.
Heretofore all opportunity for education in North Carolina
was given by the heads of the family or possibly by the white
servants of the family. Before the establishment of the
Church in North Carolina it is shown by the court records
that when any child was apprenticed it was made a part
of the contract that such a child should be taught to read.
The ministers and lay leaders, after the establishment of
the Church, began to take active interest in the education
of the children, for it was necessary for the children to be
able to read in order that they might join in the Church wor-ship.
Perhaps the first professional teacher in North Carolina
was Charles Griffin, who came from some part of the West
53
Indies about 1705 and settled in Pasquotank. He was a
lay reader appointed by the Church, and shortly after his
arrival he opened a school. He taught in Pasquotank about
three years, and later, being called to Chowan, opened a school
there. In this last precinct it is said that "few of the justices
and vestrymen can read and write, many of them being ready
to embrace all opportunity of being instructed."
In 1712 there was a school kept by a Mr. Marshburn at
Sarum, "in the frontier of Virginia, between the two govern-ments."
(It is very probable that this school was located on
Chowan river, near Bandon, or Holley's Wharf, in Chowan
County). Rev. Giles Rainsford says of his work:
"What children he has under his care can both read and
write very distinctly, and gave before me such an account of
the ground and principles of the Christian religion that
strangely surprised me to hear it." Mr. Rainsford recom-mended
that Marshburn should be allowed a salary by the
"Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," in order that he
might be able to teach the Indians and the poorer children
free.
This Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent to
North Carolina many religious tracts, Bibles and Prayer-books
for free distribution, and it was customary for the
reader or the minister to go from house to house, examine the
children on the catechism and Prayer-book, and distribute
free the literature sent over by the society. These were the
first text-books used. One writer says : "I learned to spell
through the short catechism the Proverbs and the New Testa-ment
Then I entered upon a higher form of reading as a
member of the Bible class." In this way many children were
given instruction, taught to read and examined as to their
progress. It is said that "the reader in Pasquotank precinct,
by his decent behavior and by apt discussions from house to
house, according to the capacities of an ignorant people,
gained many to the church."
Dr. John Brickell, a physician and a naturalist, who
lived in Edenton about 1731, says in his Natural History of
North Carolina : "The want of Protestant clergymen is gen-erally
supplied by school-masters who read the liturgy and
then a sermon of some good, practical divine every Sunday.
These are most numerous and are dispersed throughout the
whole province." These readers were spread over the entire
54
colony. Sometimes they were mere adventurers ; sometimes
they were missionaries, either sent over from London or com-missioned
from some adjoining State. They became so
numerous and at times so aggressive that the fractious Mr.
IJrmstone, a missionary clergyman sent over by the society,
writes: "I humbly pray that the society would send some
directions to the Governor or to me about these readers ; for
if suffered they'll be of ill-consequence." This was written
incident to the visit of a Frenchman who was serving in the
Bath section in the capacity of reader.
It has been stated before that the object of establishing
schools was for the purpose of preparing the children for
church worship. Notwithstanding the fact that the religious
and educational standing of the colonists had been greatly
neglected and were in consequence in a very low state, the
chief aim of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
was for the purpose of teaching the Indians and negro slaves
in the principles of the Christian religion. Since education
was the hand-maid of the church, the larger efforts at educa-tion
were directed toward the Indians and negro slaves, and
the first free school was endowed by the society and estab-lished
at Bath about 1720 for the purpose of teaching Indians
and negroes. It has been noted above that Mr. Bainsford,
the missionary, urged the home society to pay Mr. Marshburn
a salary in order that he might be able to teach the Indians
free. The school established at Bath, like that established
in New York by the same society, was not a success, and the
attempt was soon abandoned.
Governor Gabriel Johnston, in his message to the Legisla-ture
in 1736, urged the establishment of schools. The Legis-lature
made a very favorable and encouraging reply, but
nothing was done, The first act concerning education was
passed in 1745, empowering the commissioners of Edenton
to erect and build a school-house. In 1754, George Vaughn,
a London merchant, made a proposition to the Legislature to
donate "one thousand pounds yearly forever" to the propaga-tion
of the gospel among the Indians in and near North Caro-lina.
This offer was met by a counter-proposition from the
Assembly, that if the gift "was not confined to the Indians
only, but made to extend as an academy or seminary for
religion and learning to all his Majesty's subjects in North
Carolina," they would increase the amount "by a reasonable
tax on each negro" in the province. The Legislature, in the
same year, had already appropriated six thousand pounds for
the endowment of a public school, and it was agreed that this
money should he added to Vaughn's bequest, provided he
would accept the proposition of the Legislature. The money
was never used for education, but to pay the expenses of the
French and Indian War and to garrison Fort Johnston and
Fort Granville. The result was the Vaughn bequest never
materialized.
While the Established Church made continued efforts
through its ministers and readers to promote education, the
work was naturally handicapped because of the Schism Act
passed by the home government and extended over North
Carolina in 1730. Under this act no one could keep either
a public or private school, nor could act as tutor or usher
unless he had obtained a license from the Bishop of London,
had engaged to conform to the Anglican Liturgy, and had
received the sacrament in some Anglican church within a
year. The penalty for a violation of this act was three
months' imprisonment. It was further provided that a
teacher who attended any other form of worship was to suffer
the full term of imprisonment and to be forever incapacitated
from acting as tutor or school-master. Notwithstanding this
serious check to intellectual advancement, the ministers and
lay readers preached and urged the necessity of making better
opportunity for the training of the children.
The most successful school of the ante Revolutionary period
was that established at New Bern by Thomas Tomlinson, an
English school-master, who came well recommended. He
opened his school in January, 1764. By laboring among his
people they were persuaded to contribute money sufficient to
erect a suitable school-house. In the same year the Legisla-ture
authorized the erection of the school building, and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel settled a salary
upon Mr. Tomlinson. It was not until two years later that
funds sufficient for completing the building were paid in.
Then the Legislature appointed a board of trustees, settled
upon the teacher twenty pounds "toward enabling him to
keep an assistant" ; and being "desirous that the benefits aris-ing
from said school may be as extensive as possible, and that
the poor who may be unable to educate their children there
may enjoy the benefits there," it was provided that a duty of
56
one penny per gallon was to be levied on all rum and other
spirituous liquors imported into Neuse river for seven years.
In return for this duty the board of trustees was to permit
ten poor children to attend school free.
In 1770-'71 the Legislature chartered the Edenton Acad-emy,
the terms of which were in all essentials like those of
the New Bern Academy. After the Revolution the follow-ing
academies were established in the Albemarle and Pamlico
sections prior to 1800: 1785, Dobbs Academy at Kinston,
Grove Academy in Duplin county; 1786, Pitt Academy at
Greenville; 1789, Currituck Seminary of Learning, Curri-tuck
county; 1797, Murfreesboro Academy, Hertford county;
1798, Adams Creek Academy, Craven county.
The academies continued to grow in popular favor, and
in 1825, when the first step for a public school system by pro-viding
an endowment fund was made, the Legislature had
chartered 191 academies, located in every section of the State.
MATER MEA CAROLINA.*
BY MISS PATTIE WILLIAMS GEE.
Mater Mea Carolina,
my Mother, Carolina,
I have seen the world's confines
And grown weary with its visions
;
Soothe me with thy sighing pines.
Shield me with thy mighty mountains
While I lean upon that breast
Where the prodigal and heart-sick
Ever find a welcome rest.
Then, in accents low and tender,
Lead my soul to regions vast
;
Open wide those gates of splendor
Where the great Confederate passed
!
Ah, I know, though late seceding,
Thou wast foremost of them all;
That his veins thy blood was coursing,
Who was first to bleed and fall.
When Fate's thrilling bugle summoned,
Leaving homes and youthful joys,
Up rose a hundred thousand men
And twenty thousand beardless boys.
Not in all the ancient ages,
'Not in modern wars' alarms,
Has a patriot state or nation
Answered thus a call to arms!
1 can see them as they gathered
From the west and from the coast,
Pressing on to Bethel's triumph,
Vanguard of the Southern host
!
"From Miss Gee's forthcoming1 volume of poems entitled "The Palace of the Heart
and Other Poems of Love." Miss Gee is a native of Halifax county, but now a resident
of New Jersey.
58
For thy honor and the hearth-stones
Of the loved and the revered,
These, my Mother, calm, reluctant,
Dared to fight and no man feared.
'Twas thy son, O Carolina,
Who that matchless flag unfurled,
Sailing out upon the ocean,
Wrapt a glory round the world
!
And at Gettysburg, undaunted
By its blood and booming shell,
Pettigrew and his immortals
Plunged into the mouth of hell
Once alone I felt thee falter,
Once I mutely turned my head,
Lest I see thee bowed in anguish
Over forty thousand, dead
!
Yet at mournful Appomattox
Thou didst take thy last sad stand,
Thou, a mater dolorosa
Unto half that haggard band
!
And since that dark day in spring-time,
When a nation's sun went down,
Mater Mea Carolina,
O my Mother, Carolina,
Thou hast borne a noble patience,
Greater than thy war's renown !
Note.—Henry Lawson Wyatt of North Carolina, killed at Big Bethel, was the first
Confederate soldier to fall in pitched battle. With a voting population of 112,000, North
Carolina sent 125,000 men to the Confederate army, or one-fifth of the entire Southern
forces. A North Carolinian, James Iredell Waddell, floated the Confederate flag around
the world.
MATTAMUSKEET LAKE,
BY S. S. MANN.
Mattamuskeet lake lies a little east of the centre of Hyde
county, and its general direction is north-east and south-west.
Its greatest width is said to be seven miles and its greatest
length between fifteen and twenty miles, Its average depth
is from two and a half to three feet. This lake is surrounded
by a ridge, known as the "lake ridge/' which was its original
shore and which is considerably higher than the surrounding
country. This ridge slopes away toward the savannah lands
and the basin of the Alligator river on the north, toward the
wooded swamps and marshes which border Pamlico sound on
the east and south, and toward Broad Creek swamp and the
basin of the Pungo river on the west. The lake bottom in
places is sandy, but it is generally covered with a thick black
mud, beneath which lies a stratum of brown deposit resem-bling
granulated cork, commonly termed "coffee grounds."
This deposit is the partially decomposed remains of charred
cypress and juniper trees and roots. The basin of the lake
was originally hollowed out by fire burning away the dry,
spongy ground during an extended drought.
About seventy years ago the water in the deepest part of
the lake was from eight to eleven feet deep ; about forty years
ago it was only six feet deep. The first canals are said to
have been cut about the year 1835. Drainage and evapora-tion
have gradually lessened the mean depth of the water since
that date.
The heavy storms, owing to the shallow depth of the lake,
sometimes disturb the bottom and bring the cork-like grains,
or deposit called "coffee grounds/7 from beneath the covering
of mud and cast them in long, irregular lines around the
southern shore. The recession of the waters after the abate-ment
of a storm leaves this deposit to mark a new "wash," or
shore. At least half a dozen distinctly marked shores, or
"washes/7 can now be seen.
The climate along the southern shore is very mild. The
winds from the north are much tempered in passing over this
expanse of water, and the farmers in that locality ship pota-
60
toes from five to ten days earlier than from any other point
in eastern North Carolina.
The recession of the waters on the western shore has left
bare several islands that are covered with a thick under-growth
of alder and myrtle and a low growth of pine and
cypress. One of these islands is a favorite roosting place for
ducks, geese, swan and brant, which feed along the lake shore
in the winter, and for that reason is called "Bird Island."
Another, called "Great Island," was formerly used by the
owner of one of the farms lying along the adjacent shore as
a pasture for sheep. A portion of this island was once cleared
and cultivated in rice by the same farmer, but the whole
island is now uninhabited and uncultivated.
Mattamuskeet lake has no natural tributaries and no out-let.
Its greatest feeder in the past has been the pressure of
water from what is known as Broad Creek swamp, a pressure
that has been greatly relieved in the past few years by the
fact that a large portion of this swamp has been cleared of a
heavy growth of pine and cypress and much of the water that
formerly found its way to the lake is now taken up by evapo-ration.
The encroachment of the lake on its northern shore,
and the problem of keeping its waters at such level as will
enable the farmers whose lands border it to make good crops,
has been one that has occasioned much thought and serious
effort on the part of the inhabitants of Hyde county, whose
lands have been threatened with overflow or have been grad-ually
washed into its now nearly level bottom.
The shallowness of the water, together with the constant
stirring of the lake bottom and the constant washing in of the
black soil on its northern shore, renders the water thick and
muddy and unfavorable as a habitation for fish, except the
kinds which naturally thrive in muddy and tepid waters.
There is an abundance of fresh-water catfish, some white and
sand perch and some German carp. The intense heat and
rapid evaporation caused by the long drought during the sum-mer
of 1900 was fatal to a great many fish. Alligators, tur-tles,
gar, grinnell, or blaekfish, and a few small eels are now
sometimes seen.
One of the heavy storms eighteen or twenty years ago not
only washed around the south shore of the lake vast quanti-ties
of "coffee grounds" from its bottom, but also disturbed
and threw well upon the shore quantities of the charred re-
61
mains of the original growth of juniper and cypress that had
not before been exposed to the light of day since the forest
which originally covered the present area of the lake was
destroyed by fire. This wood was gathered in quantities for
fuel and burned fairly well after it had dried.
Mattamuskeet lake is said to be the largest within the bor-ders
of any State which has an Atlantic shore line, from
Maine to Florida. Around its shores once lived a portion of
the Mattamuskeet tribe of Indians, from whom has descended
to us the tradition that the lake basin was thirteen moons in
burning. The soil must have been of that peaty nature that
to-day characterizes much of Hyde county soil, and the season
when it burned a peculiarly dry one. The probability is
that the fire originated at the beginning of a season of drouth,
followed by an exceedingly dry and late fall and winter, or
else the present bed of the lake was burned out in a much
shorter time than this tradition would indicate ; otherwise the
great press of water from Broad Creek swamp and the usual
natural downfall of rain would have speedily quenched this
fire, tremendous though it must have been.
In many of the old deeds made by the Lords Proprietors to
the Indians, and by the Indians to later purchasers, this lake
is mentioned as "Arrowmuskeet lake," and the Indian tribe
as the "Arrowmuskeet Indians." Two creeks—Middle creek
and Far creek—which empty into Pamlico sound, are spoken
of in some of the old land deeds as "Great Arrowmuskeet"
and "Little Arrowmuskeet" creeks. So it would seem that
the name Mattamuskeet has been substituted for the old name
"Arrowmuskeet." But the English meaning of Arrowmus-keet
and Mattamuskeet are unknown.
HOW FBEEDOM CAME—1865.*
That fateful spring-time morn, how fair it dawned
!
Yet all things seemed amiss. Across the bars,
Old Bess and Rose, the last of goodly herds,
Saved by their cunning from the spoiler's hand,
Lowed for the tardy maid ; and from the swamp
Poor, lonely Don, in weary "hiding-out,
Would neigh and neigh again.
Silent and dark,
To hungry little eyes, the kitchen stood.
The crane hung grimly by the mighty hearth,
In patient waiting for the faithful hand
Which year in year had swung it back and forth.
Was Mary ill ? How strange to miss her song,
Which, low and sweet, ceased not from dawn to dark.
Her song had changed of late ; vengeful and stern
At times it grew, awing the listening child
;
Then sung with whispered breath, as if she feared
Her lips might tell the rapture of her heart.
Wondering and half afraid, the child stole in,
Then tiptoed out, over the creaking floor,
Like one who leaves at night a dead man's room,
And, shuddering, crouched down on the sunny stile,
In heart-sick longing for he knew not what.
His dusky playmates heeded not his signs,
But round the cabin corners furtive peeped
With looks of mingled sorrow, craft and fear.
And even Isaac, dearest, best of slaves,
Comrade and comforter, strode muttering past,
With bended head, and feigned to see him not.
He could have wept for very loneliness.
What ailed the negroes all ? Beside her door
Sat aged Martha—stolid, dumb—but now
With kerchiefed head and bundle on her knee,
In patient-eager waiting, like a child
Selected from Mr. Sledd's forthcoming volume, "Idyls of the Old South.
63
Arrayed for its first journey. In and out
Went Isaac, shepherd of the expectant flock,
Which, huddling round, stayed but some promised sign.
Galloping round the bend, a soldier came,
Paused, waved a flag, and shouted to the slaves.
Then in the deep, tense stillness, wild and sweet,
Fierce and exultant as the cry of beasts,
Their voices rose in mighty unison
Of rapturous song ; and Isaac led them forth
In solemn march down freedom's unknown way,
Trustful, unthinking, as the tribes of yore.
And they were gone, without one farewell word,
One motion of regret for the old life.
Far off their singing faint and fainter grew,
Then died away, and in the death-like hush
Only the low, deep sobbing of a child.
Day after day the desolate cabins stood
With doors wide flung—the master willed it so,
In hope to lure the flock back to their fold.
Still in its corner waited Mary's bed,
White and untouched ; and Isaac's faithful clock
Ticked placidly away with none to heed.
The gourd hung dry and thirsty by the door.
Would they return ? A long, long week had gone,
And creeping up to- bed a lonely child
Peeped wistful out into the misty night
—
To see a light gleam from its well-known place
By Isaac's hearth. If only it could be
!
Out at the back hall-door and down the path
The white-robed figure, went with flying feet,
And paused half-frightened at the cabin door.
'Twas he indeed ; but older grown he seemed,
His eyes fixed mournfully upon the fire.
"Isaac!" and at the breathless cry of joy
The old man started up, as round his neck
Soft little arms were flung ; and to his heart
He clasped the child, and rocked him tenderly,
Mumbling and sobbing out endearing names.
64
And she, the wise, good mistress, only smiled
And stole noiseless away with tear-dimmed eyes,
When late at night, as in the time now gone,
She found old Isaac fallen fast asleep
Beside the trundle-bed, his great black hand
Clasped to the bosom of the sleeping child.
How like a dream it was, when Isaac's horn
Wakened the child at daybreak, as of old
;
And from the kitchen came once more the sound
Of Mary's voice ! And yet something was gone.
And cowering down beneath the covers, the young heart
Sobbed in the bitterness of nameless grief.
One after one the fugitives crept back,
Like children from a stolen holiday,
Half sheepish, half defiant in their looks
;
And Isaac's master hand imposed again
The interrupted task. A little while
Seemed all as it had been ; and then once more
Vacant and desolate the cabins stood
;
And one by one yielding to swift decay,
Their roof-beams tottered in.
That faithful heart>—
Faithful unto the end—long since in dust,
Sleeps in the garden at the master's feet.
But still his cabin stands—lone, voiceless ghost
Of all that was. And never do I pass
Its threshold but with bowed, uncovered head.
FISHING IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
BY W. L. AEENDELL.
The Pamlico section is an interesting- as well as an instruc-tive
portion of the United States, its sounds and rivers being,
if not the home, at least the stopping place of nearly every
species of fish known to natural history. Fish are like migra-tory
birds. They spend their summers in the north and their
winters in the south. On these migratory trips every nook
and corner of the waters of eastern North Carolina are visited
by them—some of them hunting for food, others to get a
fresh-water bath. Nature has furnished these inhabitants of
the sea with an astonishing knowledge of what is good for
their health. The salt water is full of parasites, or what the
learned doctor of the present day would call microbes or
germs, that kill the fish which remain in it too long at a time.
But a salt-water fish knows that a fresh-water bath is death
to these parasites, hence they seek the fresh water for relief.
The fresh-water fish take a, salt-water bath occasionally for
the same purpose. This was not known at the National
Museum until a few years ago. Now, whenever a salt-water
fish begins to show signs of weakness it is treated to a fresh-water
bath. The bath oftentimes nearly kills the fish, but it
comes out a new creature, with its scales all clean and bright.
It will be impossible to tell you about all the different kinds
of fish and sea animals that coast along the North Carolina
bays and enter our sounds and rivers. Only a few can be
mentioned. The right whale, the largest whale, comes across
from the Bermudas sometime in March or April, strikes the
coast somewhere near Charleston, South Carolina, and later
seeks its Arctic home. The fishing whale, the next largest, is
nearly always on our coast. This animal is fit for nothing
except to prey upon the smaller species of fish. Immense
schools of blue-fish, Spanish mackerel and Menhaden also
come up the coast. The blue-fish are known as the pirates of
the sea. They hibernate in winter and make their first ap-pearance
on the North Carolina coast. When they go into
winter quarters they are fat, and a nicer table fish cannot be
66
founds unless it be the Spanish mackerel and the pompano.
When they come out they are gaunt and ravenous, and woe
be unto anything edible that gets in their way. Spanish
mackerel start from the southern coast of Florida and make
their way as far to the north as the Chesapeake bay. When
they first appear in May they are poor and not fit to eat.
When they return from their northern trip they are fat and
plump and are the finest table fish known, unless it be the
pompano, which is a species of mackerel. The white shad
and the herring are the best-known edible fish. Where our
North Carolina shad spends the winter is not known. The
Florida shad is much smaller, and so is the Savannah shad,
and does not bring half as much money as the North Carolina
shad. The shad does not live far from the mouth of the river,
which it ascends to spawn. The shad of the Albemarle, Pam-lico,
Neuse and Cape Fear live near the edge of the gulf-stream,
nearest to the place of their birth. The coast fish of
America have been divided into four classes—the in-shore
fish, the off-shore fish, the pelagic or wandering fish, and the
deep-sea fish. The herring is classed as a wanderer. It is a
surface swimmer, and for the most part a regular migrant
from south to north in spring, and from north to south in
autumn. It spawns in the spring and summer, and then it is
that it fills our rivers and sounds. The sturgeon, like the
shad and the herring, is now a valuable fish on account of its
roe. When it is prepared it is called caviar. But one of the
most numerous and important species of fish that visits the
North Carolina coast is called by our people fat-back ; by the
people of Maine, bunker ; by New Yorkers, menhaden ; and
by Virginians, alewife. It is used for oil, and as a basis for
ammonia and phosphate in nearly all commercial fertilizers.
Some of the North Carolina fish not yet mentioned are
sheephead, weak fish or gray trout, cero, bonito, horse mack-erel,
striped bass or rock, sea bass or black-fish, red bass or
drum, flounder, king-fish or sea mullet, spots, hog-fish, jump-ing
mullet, croaker, soup or porgy, pin-fish or robin, eel, cat-fish,
black bass or chub, porpoise, skate, stingray, toad, perch,
red horse, mullet, tarpon or silver king, red snapper, grouper,
shrimp, shark, and sailor's choice. The turtle, terrapin, all
kinds of crabs except the lobster, scallops, clams, oysters,
conchs, and perriwinkle abound.
The principal fisheries are near the junction of the Roanoke
and Chowan rivers, at the head of the Albemarle sound and
67
in the Neuse and Tar rivers. In herring fisheries the State
ranks first, with a catch of 15,520,000 pounds a year, netting
the fishermen $142,784. The shad taken in 1880 was
3,221,263 pounds, netting $329,569, being a little below
the Maryland catch, but the price realized is so much greater
that the value of the catch is more than double that of the
Maryland fisheries. The mullet fisheries of the State are
second only to those of Florida. In 1880 the catch of mul-lets
amounted to 3,368,000 pounds, valued at $80,500. In
that year 1,120 men were engaged in catching oysters. The
capital invested in that industry was $68,500, and the value
of the oysters taken $60,000. In 1880 there were 7,124 men
employed in fishing and oystering in North Carolina, and
ninety-nine vessels, 3,824 boats, 117 pound-nets, 460 baskets,
19,646 gill-nets, 522 dip-nets, 1,471 drag-seines and one
purse-seine. The value of all this apparatus was $689,361.
To-day these figures can be multiplied by -Q.Ye for the rivers,
and ten for the coast.
The total value of river and sound products in 1880 was
$564,950 ; sea products, $280,745. Since that time there has
been an immense increase in the products of the sea. The
crab interest alone has become so large that it would seem
like a Munchausen story to attempt to give the figures as
compared with 1880. The annual catch of fish and the use of
all fish products has increased enormously since 1880. While
there was but one purse-seine in 1880, there are to-day be-tween
twenty and twenty-five used in the catch of menhaden
in Carteret county alone. Morehead City is now the largest
fish market in the United States except Gloucester, Massa-chusetts.
The United States Government has a fish hatchery at Eden-ton
for the purpose of stocking the rivers and sounds of this
and other States. The Government has also a fine laboratory
for the study of seal-life, near Beaufort, and the specimens of
marine animals collected and placed there are extensive, in-structive,
and curious. It would pay any boy or girl in North
Carolina who would like to get some idea of the different ani-mals
of the sea to visit that laboratory.
TRUCKING IN EASTERN CAROLINA.
BY R. D. W. CONNOR.
The great trucking section in North Carolina is the coast
region. Nature has supplied this region with every con-dition
necessary to successful truck-farming. Here are found
low ridges of clayey texture on which the early cabbage
thrives best; fertile flats of light, mellow sand suited to a
great variety of crops from the early potato to the melon;
and black peaty lands reclaimed from swamps on which lux-uriant
crop© of late celery nourish. Here, too, the climate,
mellowed by the genial rays of the sun and by gentle breezes
from the sea, is mild the year round. Labor also is present
in abundance and wages are good. Finally, every facility
for cheap and rapid transportation both by land and by
water is at hand.
The leading trucking sections in North Carolina are on
the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad from Chadbourn and Wil-mington
northward to Goldsboro, and on the Atlantic and
North Carolina Railroad from Goldsboro to Morehead City.
In this section within, recent years truck-farming has de-veloped
into an immense industry and each year shows an
astonishing growth over the preceding year. Thousands
of acres are cultivated in vegetables, tens of thousands of
laborers are employed, and hundreds of thousands of dollars
invested. How rapid the growth of the industry has been
is revealed by the fact that in 1879 the vegetable crop in
North Carolina was valued at $135,435 ; while twenty years
later the value reached $1,657,087. These figures mean
much more than is represented by mere dollars. They mean
that thousands of acres of waste lands have been converted
into garden spots ; that work has been given to hundreds and
thousands of laborers ; that better houses have been built
;
and more and better schools and churches have been erected
that better standards of living have been introduced, and a
general improvement in all the concerns of life has been and
is uplifting the people of this section. An agency which has
wrought so much good to so many people cannot fail to be
of interest to all.
The great importance of vegetables in the agriculture of
the country is revealed by the fact that in 1899, although
the acreage in vegetables was only 2.0 per cent, of the acreage
of all crops, yet the value of the vegetable crop was 8.3 per
cent, of the whole. In North Carolina during the same year
the acreage in vegetables was 2.7 per cent, but the value was
9.6 per cent, of the whole. The principal vegetables raised
in this state for the market are peas, beans, lettuce, Irish
potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, canteloupes, and strawber-ries.
Such others as the beet, the asparagus, the dewberry,
the radish, etc., are raised in smaller quantities.
In 1899 North Carolina led all the States in the United
States in the number of farms producing vegetables for the
market. Of her 224,637 farms, 46,776, or 20.8 per cent,
were devoted to this purpose, located principally in eastern
Carolina. The acreage so cultivated was 31,921, and the
value of the vegetables sold, exclusive of small fruits, was
$1,657,087. Add to this sum the $686,560 produced by the
sale of small fruits and we have a total value of the vegetable
crop of 1899 of $2,343,647, an increase over the crop of
1889 of more than $2,000,000, or 589.2 per cent. If sta-tistics
for 1904 were available, it would be seen that this
rapid progress has continued from 1899 until to-day.
Some particular instances of the extent of the trucking
industry in eastern Carolina will give a more forcible idea
of its growth than can be obtained from these general
statements. The great demand for lettuce on the Northern
markets has created an immense development in the culti-vation
of this plant. It is cultivated the year round in small
beds, protected in winter by cloth or glass coverings. It is
a pretty sight on a cold winter day to see dozens of these
beds with their snow-white coverings stretching away side
by side across acres of bare fields; but if the day is warm
the white coverings are removed and the bright green leaves
of the delicate plant stand out in sharp delightful contrast
to the dullness of the dead vegetation on all sides. During
the spring of 1904 no less than 80,000 packages of this
refreshing delicacy were •shipped to the North from eastern
Carolina although the largest shipments are not made dur-ing
the spring months. The cultivation of this crop is a
most profitable industry. Numerous instances are reported
where the profits have been more than $3,000 per acre. The
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greatest care and closest attention are demanded for its such
cessful cultivation but the reward is ample. The cultivation
of canteloupes, too, has been developed into a profitable in-dustry.
During the spring of 1904 no less than 90,916
packages of these delicious melons were shipped from east-ern
Carolina to the northern markets, from which were
realized $136,370. Along with these were sent 126,570
packages of beans and peas, producing at one dollar per pack-age
$126,570. But these are among the minor crops. The
most extensively raised vegetable in. the United States is
the Irish potato. How this industry has grown in North
Carolina will be seen by a comparison of the crop reports
from the eleven counties of Beaufort, Pamlico, Currituck,
Wayne, Pasquotank, Pitt, Lenoir, Perquimans, Martin, Pen-der
and Duplin in 1889 and 1899. In 1889 these counties
planted 1,602 acres of Irish potatoes; by the year 1899 this
had increased no less than 315 per cent, or to a total acre-age
of 6,641. In that year the county of Beaufort alone
planted more potatoes than the eleven counties mentioned
in 1889. From this acreage were produced 586,758 bushels
of potatoes. Although exact reports for the year 1900-1904
are not available, yet enough is known to warrant the state-ment
that the rate of increase shown during the years 1889-
1899 has not since been diminished. One day's shipment
alone from the city of New Bern in the spring of 1904
amounted to sixty solid car-loads, each containing 200 bar-rels
of potatoes and selling at from $1.25 to $2.75 per barrel.
But however great may be the Irish potato crop in North
Carolina, it must yield ground to the sweet potato. In the
production of this vegetable eastern North Carolina leads
the world both as to quality and quantity. Wherever this deli-cious
vegetable is known the eastern Carolina product is the
favorite. In 1899, of the twenty-five counties in the United
States leading in the production of the potato, eight were in
eastern Carolina. These eight counties planted 19,924 acres,
from which were produced 1,776,975 bushels of potatoes.
In that year the production for the entire State was 5,781,-
587 bushels, which were valued at $2,119,956. It will be
seen, therefore, that these eight counties in eastern Carolina
produced more than 30.7 per cent, of the total crop of the
State.
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As the Irish potato yields in importance to the sweet
potato, so the sweet potato must in turn give way to the
strawberry. The proportions reached in the development
of this crop are simply marvelous, and yet, so vast are the
opportunities, scarcely a beginning has been made. Writ-ing
of trucking in eastern North Carolina, William R. Mer-riam,
Director of the United States Census, says: "Some
idea of the exceeding rapidity of its development may be
gained from the strawberry shipments, which doubled in the
three years 1897 to 1900." Since 1900 the development
has been still more striking. Of the strawberry shipments
during the spring of 1901, the "Carolina Fruit and Truck
Growers' Journal" says: "Its proportions are absolutely as-tounding.
The daily movement by refrigerator and express
is so great as to require train-load after train-load, ranging
in length and size from nine car-loads by express to forty
car-loads by refrigrator, the refrigerator trains having to
be moved in five or six sections." This is not an exaggerated
statement. On May 10, 1904, no less than 214 car-loads of
strawberries from eastern Carolina passed through South
Eocky Mount to the North. Of these forty went to New
York City, twenty-nine to Boston, twenty-one to Philadel-phia,
twenty to Pittsburg, and smaller quantities to various
other northern cities. On seven other days car-load ship-ments
ranged all the way from 100 to 213. During last
spring it required a train of 2,217 refrigerator cars to move
the strawberry crop from eastern North Carolina, and this
does not include the 71,000 crates carried by express.
The total number of crates shipped was 608,369. Of
these 420 car-loads went to New York City, 281 to Boston,
219 to Pittsburg, 209 to Philadelphia, and smaller quanti-ties
to other cities. This enormous crop was produced from
6,835 acres, and sold for $2,216,738, an average per acre of
of more than $178.
It is safe to say that there is no more inviting field for
the investment of capital than the trucking industry in
eastern North Carolina. A farm near Chadbourn, which
was bought ten years ago for $250, sold five years later for
$1,600, and again during the past summer for $4,100. Re-ports
from another strawberry farm in the same vicinity
show that one day's picking during last May