PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES
"NORTH CAROLINA DAY."
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18,
1903.
RALEIGH :
E. M. Uzzell & Co., State Printers and Binders,
1903.
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 Day/' 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.
PREFATORY.
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 failing to celebrate it. It is earnestly desired that
the same day may be celebrated in all the public schools of
the State.
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 Legislature 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 fill the children with a new pride in their
State, to thrill them with a new enthusiasm for the study of
her history, and to kindle upon the altars of their hearts new
fires of patriotic love of her and her people.
As many of the public schools are not in session as early as
October 12th, I have taken the liberty of naming Friday,
December 18th, as North Carolina Day for 1903, and of
fixing the date hereafter on the last Friday of the week before
Christmas.
The subject selected in 1901 was "The First Anglo-Saxon
| Settlement in America." Following the chronological order
of the State's history, the subject last year Avas fittingly "The
Albemarle Section/7 and the subject this year is "The Lower
Cape Fear 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.
I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Committee
of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association,
consisting of Mr. W, J. Peele, Mr. Marshall DeLancey Hay-wood,
Professor D. H. Hill, Professor E. P. Moses, and to
patriotic citizens of Wilmington, for valuable aid in the
preparation of the programme and in the collection of the
material. We are indebted to Professor Henry Jerome
Stochard for the poetical selections. The selection from his
own poems was made at my urgent request.
J. Y. JOYNER,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, November 19, 1903.
SUGGESTIONS.
It is suggested that the programme might be divided into
two parts—one part to be rendered in the morning and one in
the afternoon. If the programme is too long to be conven-iently
carried out by small schools, two or more of the schools
might unite in the celebration. Teachers may adapt or change
the programme to suit themselves. They are urged to make a
special effort to secure a large attendance 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 have 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 com-mitteemen,
the women of the community 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 to which it is entitled, and your school has not
secured one of these 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. The
five hundred libraries provided for by the special act of the
6
General Assembly of 1901 have been taken. As you know,
the General Assembly of 1903 made a special appropriation
of $5,000 for the establishment of five hundred new rural
libraries and $2,500 for supplementing the rural libraries
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
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.
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
warrant 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.
Only one hundred libraries and only fifteen supplementary
libraries have been applied for under the act of 1903. 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. Applications have been rapidly coming
in since the opening of the schools this fall. Thirty-six war-rants
for new rural libraries were recently sent from my
office in one day. The probabilities are that all the remaining
new libraries and supplementary libraries provided for by
the act of 1903 will be applied for before the close of this
school year.
Below is given a list of the counties that have not taken
their full number of libraries, and the number of such libra-ries
to which each county is now entitled
:
Alamance 4
Alexander 6
Alleghany 6
Anson 6
Ashe 6
Beaufort 4
Bladen 6
Brunswick 6
Burke 6
Cabarrus 6
Caldwell 6
Camden 6
Carteret 6
Caswell 6
Catawba 2
Chatham 3
Cherokee 6
Chowan 6
Clay 6
Cleveland 3
Columbus 5
Craven 6
Cumberland ... 6
Currituck 6
Dare 6
Davidson 5
Davie 6
Duplin 6
Durham 4
Edgecombe .... 2
Franklin 4
Gaston 6
Gates 6
Graham 6
Granville 4
Greene 4
Guilford 6
Halifax 6
Harnett 6
Haywood 6
Henderson 5
Hertford ...... 6
Hyde 6
Johnston 4
Jones 6
Lenoir 6
Lincoln 5
Macon 6
Madison 2
Martin 6
McDowell 6
Mitchell 3
Montgomery ... 6
Moore 5
Nash 3
New Hanover .
.
6
Northampton . . 3
Onslow 6
Orange 6
Pamlico 6
Pasquotank .... 3
Pender 6
Perquimans .... 6
Person 5
Pitt. 3
Polk 6
Richmond 5
Robeson 5
Rockingham ... 2
Rowan 5
Rutherford .... 6
Sampson 4
Stanly 5
Scotland 6
Stokes 6
Surry 6
Swain 6
Transylvania . . 6
Tyrrell 6
Vance 5
Wake 6
Warren 6
Washington .... 6
Watauga 6
Wilson 4
Yadkin G
Yancey 6
NORTH CAROLINA DAY.
Subject: THE LOWER CAPE FEAR SECTION.
PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES.
PRAYER.
1. Song—The Old North State William Gaston
2. Reading—The Early Explorers and Settlers of the Cape Fear
—
A. M. Waddell
3. Declamation—The Pride of the Cape Fear George Davis
4. Reading—Life Among the Early Cape Fear Settlers. .John BricJcell
5. Recitation—The American Eagle Henry Jerome Stockard
6. Reading—Mary Slocum's Ride.
Adapted from Mrs. Ellet.
7. Recitation—Moonlight in the Pines John Henry Boner
8. Reading—Reception of the Stamps on the Cape Fear. .George Davis
9. Recitation—Light'ood Fire John Henry Boner
10. Declamation—The Men of the Cape Fear George Davis
11. Reading—Rescue of Madame DeRosset James Sprunt
12. Recitation—Alamance /S. IF. Whiting
13. Reading—Blockading off the Cape Fear James Sprunt
14. Recitation—Regret Christian lleid (Mrs. F. G. Tiernan)
15. Resources of the Lower Cape Fear.
Adapted from "North Carolina and Its Resources," published
by State Board of Agriculture.
16. Questions and Answers.
17. Song—My Country, 'Tis of Thee.
Appendix.
THE OLD NORTH STATE.
Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her!
While we live Ave will cherish, protect and defend her;
Though the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her,
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her.
Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever!
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State !
v
Though she envies not others their merited glory,
Say, whose name stands foremost in Liberty's story
!
Though too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression,
Who can yield to just rule more loyal submission ?
Hurrah, etc.
Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster
At the knock of a stranger, or the tale of disaster ?
How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,
With rich ore in their bosoms and life in their fountains.
Hurrah, etc.
And her daughters, the Queen of the Forest resembling
—
So graceful, so constant, yet to gentlest breath trembling;
And true lightwood at heart, let the match be applied them,
How they kindle and flame ! Oh ! none know but who've
tried them.
Hurrah, etc.
Then let all who love us, love the land that we live in
(As happy a region as on this side of Heaven),
Where Plenty and Freedom, Love and Peace smile before us,
Raise aloud, raise together the heart-thrilling chorus!
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State
THE EARLY EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS OF
THE GAPE FEAR.
BY A. M. WADDELL.
"Most persons who have any knowledge of the subject are
aware of the fact that some Massachusetts adventurers came
here in 1660, bringing cattle and hogs with them, under the
impression that the lands near the mouth of the river were
fine grazing lands, but that, finding the locality entirely un-suited
to such purposes, they abandoned the country, leaving
their cattle and hogs to the Indians, and also leaving—stuck
up on a post—a warning to those who might come after them
against the barrenness and hopelessness of the region as a
possible field for colonial enterprise. However, there is
hardly to be found a more amusing specimen of "boom"
advertisement of the attractions of a new country than that
contained in the seductive papers issued three years later by
certain promoters, who did not even have a charter of any
kind, to induce immigrants to come here. One paragraph
from one of these "boom" advertisements, which has been
often quoted, was in these words
:
" 'If any maid or single woman have a desire to go over,
they will think themselves in the Golden Age, when men paid
a dowry for their wives ; for if they be but civil and under
fifty years of age, some honest man or other will purchase
them for wives.'
"But these advertisements were published chiefly in Eng-land
and did not cause the migration of the first colony that
came. That colony came chiefly from Barbadoes and was
therefore composed entirely of British subjects, it is true, but
they came upon the presentations made by the pioneers sent
11
out by Sir John Yeamans and others to explore this region,
and not because of the florid accounts given by the promoters
who had no charter but only hoped to be rewarded for their
zeal. These explorers anchored their vessel, The Adventurer,
in what they called "Cape Fair Road," Monday, October 12,
1663, and on Friday, the 16th, went up the river for some
distance, and thence forward, until December 4th, they made
their explorations on both sides of both branches of the river
for perhaps seventy-five miles, and set sail for Barbadoes on
that day, arriving there on the 6th of January following.
''They bought from the Indians for a few trinkets thirty-two
miles square of land, and those who sent out the expedi-tion
asked the Lords Proprietors to confirm the sale, which
was refused, but the Lords Proprietors did make a grant to
them which was satisfactory, and in January following ap-pointed
Sir John Yeamans Governor and Commander-in-
Chief of the proposed colony and of the new county of Claren-don,
which extended from the Cape Pear to Florida. Sir
John Yeamans, with a colony which numbered several hun-dred
persons, arrived and began the settlement on the 29th
day of May, 1664-'05. The place at which they landed and
built a town, which they called 'Charles Towne,' was at the
mouth of the creek on the west side of the river, about eight
miles above this place, which has for more than two hundred
years been called Old Towne Creek, or, more commonly,
ToAvne Creek.
"The colony is supposed to have numbered as many as six
hundred. No history of their life has been preserved. It is
stated in all the histories, previous to the publication of the
Colonial Records of North Carolina, that Sir John Yeamans
remained with the colony for six years, but this proved to be
an error. He remained a very short time and returned on his
vessel to Barbadoes. * * * The colony * * * ex-
12
isted only about two years, when it was broken up, its mem-bers
going in the fall of 1667 mostly to the northern settle-ments,
and thus for the second time the attempt at a perma-nent
settlement of the Cape Fear failed.
"In 1713, Colonel James Moore of South Carolina led a
body of troops into North Carolina to subdue the Indians.
With him came his younger brother, Maurice Moore. "To
this gentleman/' says Mr. George Davis, "the permanent set-tlement
and civilization of the Cape Fear are principally due.
He had been favorably impressed with the aspect of the
country in his expedition against the Indians, and perhaps
he cherished some pious regard for it as the first American
home of his grandfather, Sir John Yeamans. And soon after
his return to South Carolina he determined to remove to the
northern province. * * * He is supposed to have settled
upon the Cape Fear about the year 1723. His are the earliest
grants for land upon that river now extant, and the first of
them are dated in 1725. * * * To the brothers, Mau-rice
and Roger Moore, especially I would here render an
humble tribute of respect and veneration. * * * These
brothers were not cast in the common mould of men. They
were of 'the breed of noble bloods.' Of kingly descent and
proud of their name, which brave deeds had made illustrious,
they dwelt upon their magnificent estates of Rocky Point
and Orton, with much of the dignity, and something of the
state, of the ancient feudal barons, surrounded by their sons
and kinsmen, who looked up to them for counsel and were
devoted to their will. Proud and stately, somewhat haughty
and overbearing perhaps, but honorable, brave, high-minded
and generous, they lived for many years the fathers of the
Cape Fear, dispensing a noble hospitality to all the worthy,
and a terror to the mean and lawless. * * * * *
"Such were the pioneers of the Cape Fear. It is needless
to say how great is the reproach of the people who have let
their names die."
CORNELIUS HARNETT, THE PRIDE OF THE
GAPE FEAR.
BY HON. GEORGE DAVIS.
(Adapted from an Address Delivered at Chapel Hill, June 8, 1855).
"There was one who shone like a star in the early troubles
of the State, of pure and exalted character, of unsurpassed
influence with his countrymen, and the value of whose ser-vices
was only equaled by the extent of his sufferings and
sacrifices in the cause of liberty. And yet so little is he
known that I doubt not, gentlemen, many of you have not
even so much as heard his name. I speak of Cornelius Har-nett,
the pride of the Cape Fear
—
cthe Samuel Adams of the
Cape Fear.'* To the shame of the State, his birthplace has
not heretofore been even conjectured; and meagre as are the
accounts of his early history, they are full of errors. * * *
He was born in 1723. From 1765 to 1780 there was scarcely
a movement in the patriot cause in which Cornelius Harnett
did not bear a conspicuous part. And a bare enumeration of
the appointments which he filled, and of the men with whom
he was associated, would be sufficient to show the influence he
exercised and the estimation in which he was held. He was
one of the faithful representatives of the people, who, unawed
by power, so fearlessly resisted the government on the Attach-ment
Law. He was the first chairman of the Wilmington
Committee, f over which he long presided—its very center and
*Journal of Josiah Quincy.
f In 1774 the first Provincial Congress met in New Bern and one of the resolutions of
this Congress was that a committee of five be appointed for each county to see that all
the resolutions of this Congress should be carried out. Harnett was chairman of the
Wilmington committee.
14
soul and the life-breathing spirit of liberty among the people.
When the Provincial Congress, in 1775, assumed the govern-ment
and appointed a Council to administer the affairs of the
colony at their most critical juncture, he was chosen presi-dent
of the Council and virtual Governor* of the province—
a
noble tribute to his worth and abilities. But there is a
brighter jewel in his crown of glory. A member of the con-vention
which met at Halifax the 4th of April, 1776, he was
chairman of the committee appointed to consider the usurpa-tions
of the King and Parliament, and the author of their
celebrated report and resolution 'empowering the delegates
for this colony in the Continental Congress to concur with
the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence.
'
This resolution was unanimously adopted by the convention
on April 12, 1776, more than a month before the celebrated
resolution of Virginia on the same subject. * * * *
"Thus faithfully did Harnett serve the cause of liberty.
And the enemies of his country did not forget him for it. In
the spring of 1776, Sir Plenry Clinton arrived in the Cape
Pear, and his first public act was to issue to Cornelius Har-nett
and Robert Howe a patent of nobility. Here it is, writ-ten
in British ink and dated 5th of May, 1776:
" 'I have it in command to proceed forthwith against all
such men and bodies of men in arms and against all con-gresses
and committees thus unlawfully established as against
open enemies of the State. But, considering it a duty insepa-rable
from the principles of humanity first of all to warn the
deluded people of the miseries ever attendant upon civil war,
I do most earnestly entreat and exhort them, as they tender
their own happiness and that of their posterity, to appease
the vengeance of a justly incensed nation by a return to their
duty to our common sovereign and to the blessings of a free
* When Governor Martin fled from New Bern there was no officer of the Crown to ad-minister
affairs. Harnett as president of the Council was the chief officer in North
Carolina.
15
government established by law; hereby offering, in his Majes-ty's
name, free pardon to all such as will lay down their
arms and submit to the laws: excepting only from the benefits
of such pardon Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe!
"He little knew how he was immortalizing the names of
the men he was trying to render infamous ! Harnett con-tinued
active in the service of the State until 1781. In that
year a British force occupied Wilmington, and so dangerous
to the cause of the King was he esteemed that the first incur-sion
planned was for the purpose of taking him prisoner. In
attempting to escape from his enemies he was taken ill of the
gout at the home of his friend, Colonel Spicer, in Onslow,
and was captured there and carried in triumph to Wilming-ton.
Thus wrecked in health and fortune in the storms which
assailed his country, he died soon after in his imprisonment,
childless and forlorn, having first penned with his own hand
the epitaph which stands above his grave.
"In the northeast comer of the grave-yard of St. James'
Church in Wilmington lies the body of one than whom a
nobler and purer patriot never lived. The rank grass grows
over his grave and almost hides it from view, as if it would
conceal from the stranger the forgetfulness and ingratitude
of the town. Two simple brown stones, discolored by age,
mark the spot. On the largest, which is an upright slab, is
inscribed
—
" 'CORNELIUS HARNETT.
Died April 20, 1781.
Aged 58 Years.'
'Slave to no sect, he took no private road,
But looked through nature up to nature's God.'
"
LIFE AMONG THE EARLY CAPE FEAR, SETTLERS.
BY JOHN BRICKELL.
Iii an old volume published in Dublin, Ireland, in 1737,
we find the following reference by Dr. John Brickell, a
traveler, to the people and customs of the Cape Fear region
in North Carolina in his day:
"The planters, by the richness of the soil, live after the
most easy and pleasant manner of any people I have ever
met with, for you shall seldom hear them repine at any mis-fortunes
in life except the loss of friends, there being plenty
of all the necessaries convenient for life; poverty being an
entire stranger here and the planters the most hospitable peo-ple
that are to be met with, not only to strangers, but likewise
to those who by any misfortunes have lost the use of their
limbs or are incapable to Avork and have no visible way to
support themselves. To such objects as these the country
allows fifty pounds per annum for their support, So there
are no beggars or vagabonds to be met with, strolling from
place to place, as is common amongst us. The country in
general is adorned with large and beautiful rivers and creeks,
and the woods with lofty timber, which afford most delightful
and pleasant seats to the planters, and the lands very con-venient
and easy to be fenced in to secure their stocks of cat-tle
to more strict boundaries, whereby with small trouble with
fencing almost every man may enjoy to himself an entire
plantation. These, with many other advantages, such as
cheapness and fertility of the lands, plenty of fish, wild fowl
and venison and other necessaries that this country naturally
produces, had induced a great many families to leave the
more northerly plantations and come and settle in one of the
17
mildest governments in the world, in a country that, with
moderate industry, may be acquired all the necessaries con-venient
for life, so that yearly we have abundance of strangers
that come among us from Europe, New England, Pennsyl-vania,
Maryland and from many of the islands, such as
Antigua, Barbadoes and many others, to settle here, many of
whom, with small beginnings, are become very rich in a few
years. 7 '
THE AMERICAN EAGLE.
HENRY JEROME STOCKARD.
Brooded on the crags, his down the rocks,
He holds the skies for his domain
;
Serene he preens where thunder shocks,
And rides the hurricane.
The scream of shells is in his shriek
As swords, his wings whiz down the air;
His claws, as bayonets, gride; his beak,
As shrapnel-shards, doth tear.
Where Shasta shapes its mighty cone,
Where Mitchell heaves into the skies,
Silent he glares—austere, alone
—
With sun-outstaring eyes.
MARY SLOCUM'S RIDE.
(Adapted from Mrs. Ellet)
On February 27, 1776, the Whigs of the Cape Fear, under
the lead of General Richard Caswell and Colonel Alexander
Lillington, won a splendid victory over the Tories at Moore's
Creek Bridge,* a few miles from Wilmington. Nine hundred
prisoners, two thousand stands of arms, $75,000 and many
other articles of value to the Whigs were captured. Among
the heroes of this victory was Ezekiel Slocum, who, when he
rode away one quiet Sunday morning to fight for his country,
left behind in his little home his young wife, only eighteen
years of age, and their little baby.
It is easy to imagine what a lonely, long day the young
wife had at home that quiet Sabbath day; it is easy to
imagine where her thoughts were ; it is easy to imagine how
she concealed the anxiety of her heart under the assumed
cheerfulness of her face. "I slept soundly and quietly that
night/' she says, "and worked hard the next day ; but I kept
thinking where they had got to, how far, where and how
many of the regulars and Tories they would meet, and I could
not keep from that study."
Going to bed in this anxious state of mind, it was but
natural that her sleep should be disturbed by fearsome
dreams. She had tossed and tumbled from one side of the
bed to the other till far into the night. And then came a
terrible dream. She seemed to see lying on the ground, sur-rounded
by the dead and wounded, a body, motionless,
bloody, ghastly, wrapped in her husband's cloak. With a cry
* This battlefield is in the eastern part of Pender county, a few miles from the Bladen
county line.
19
of alarm, she sprang to her feet into the middle of the room.
So vivid was the impression, it remained with her even after
she awaked from sleep ; and in rushing forward to the place
where the vision appeared, she ran into the side of the house.
The light was dim ; all around was quiet and peace, but within
her breast her heart kept up a great commotion. "If ever I
felt fear," she says, "it was at that moment." The more she
reflected on the vision, the more vivid and the more fearful
it became, until at last she could bear the suspense no longer,
and, starting forward, she cried aloud : "I must go to him."
In the stable was her favorite and own particular horse,
as fleet and easy a nag as ever traveled. In an instant, leav-ing
her baby and the house in the care of the nurse, she
rushed out to the barn, saddled her mare, and in less time
than it takes to tell it, was flying down the road at full speed.
The night air was cool; the spirit of the race was in the
nag ; and mile after mile was quickly left behind as the sound
of her rapidly falling hoofs fell clear and distinct on the
quiet night air. All alone, urged onward by love and fear,
this brave little woman swept on through the dark night,
dashing over bridges, whirling through dark woods, flashing
past farm-houses, until, when the sun began to appear in the
east, thirty miles lay between her and her quiet home. * * *
The sun was well up when a new excitement was added to
the race. She heard a sound like thunder rolling and rum-bling
in the distance. She pulled up her mare suddenly.
What was it ? Though she had never heard the sound before,
she knew it must be the roar of the cannon ; and as she
thought of what it meant, the blood coursed more rapidly
than ever through her veins ; she was more than ever impa-tient
to be on the scene, and away she dashed again. * * *
As she drew nearer she could hear the roar of the deadly
muskets, the fatal rifles and the triumphant shouts of the vic-tors.
But from wmich side did they come ? Did those shouts
mean the defeat of her husband, or did they mean his tri-
20
umph ? This was the most trying moment of all—this terri-ble
suspense. If it was his victory, then he would rejoice to
have her share his glory ; if his defeat, then he would need
her to sooth his sufferings ; so on she pressed to share with
him weal or woe. Crossing the Wilmington road a few hun-dred
yards below the bridge, she saw a clump of trees, under
which were lying perhaps twenty wounded men. What was
this she saw ? Her blood froze in her veins ; her heart leapt
to her mouth, for there was the vision realized—the scene
before her; she knew it as well as if she had seen it a thou-sand
times—the spot, the trees, the position of the men, the
groans of the wounded ; and as her sight fell upon a body
lying in the midst of the group, her brain became dizzy and
the world seemed whirling around her at the rate of ten
thousand times a second. There lay a body, motionless,
bloody, ghastly, wrapped in her husband's cloak. Her whole
soul became centered in that one spot. "How I passed from
my saddle to this place I never knew," she said afterwards.
But in some way she succeeded in reaching the body and
mechanically uncovered the head. She saw before her an
unrecognizable face, crusted with dust and blood from a gash
across the temple. What a relief to her aching heart was the
strange voice that begged her for a drink of water. Her
senses came back to her at once, so she was able to minister
to the sufferer's wants. She gave him a swallow as she held
the drooping head in her lap, and with what remained of the
water bathed the dirt and gore from his face. From the
ghastly crust came the pale face of one of her neighbors,
Frank Cogdell. Under the gentle care of his nurse he re-vived
enough to speak, and when she attempted to dress the
wound on his head he managed to gasp out : "It's not that
;
it's the hole in my leg that's killing me."
Lifting the wounded leg from the puddle of blood in which
it lay, she gently cut away the trousers and stockings and
found a shot hole through the fleshy part of the limb. What
21
nerve it must have taken for this young girl, unused to such
work, alone, without help or advice, to go through with this
painful ordeal. But she was of the stuff of which JSTorth
Carolina moulds her heroes, and she did not flinch from her
duty. * * * No sooner had she completed this pressing
duty than she turned to others of the unfortunate men who
lay in pain and need, and, as she said, "dressed the wounds
of many a brave fellow who did good fighting long after that
day." * * * When she raised her head, there before her
stood her astonished husband, "as bloody as a butcher and as
muddy as a ditcher." "I was so happy," she says, "and so
were all. It was a glorious victory. I came just at the
height of the enjoyment. I knew my husband was surprised,
but I could see that he was not displeased with me."
It was, of course, long into the night before the excitement
subsided. The news spread like wild fire, and the Whigs all
over the country heard it with rejoicing and thanksgiving;
and everywhere the news of the victory was heard went also
the story of the heroine, her brave ride, her heaven-sent aid,
her soothing care of the wounded and suffering. Many a
soldier breathed a prayer of thanks for the vision which came
to her, and for her courageous response. But the prettiest
side of the story was the simple and unaffected way in which
she looked upon her act. Nothing of force or beauty can be
added to her own simple and touching words about her return
home. * * * "In the middle of the night," she says,
simply, * * * "I again mounted my mare and started
home. Caswell and my husband wanted me to stay until the
next morning and they would send a party with me. But
no! I wanted to see my child, and told them they could
send no party that could keep up with me. What a happy
ride I had back ! And with what joy did I embrace my child
as he ran to meet me !"*
*From the Ride of Mary Slocum, adapted from Mrs. Ellet's "Women of the Revolution."
MOONKISE IN THE PINES.
JOHN HENRY BONER.
The sultry day is ending,
The clouds are fading away,
Orange with purple is blending
And purple is turning to gray
;
The gray grows darker and denser,
Till it and the earth are one;
A star swings out like a censer,
And the brief warm night is begun.
The brown moth floats and poises
Like a leaf in the windless air
;
Aroused by insect noises,
The gray toad leaves his lair
;
Sounding the dusk depth quickly,
The bull-bats fall and rise,
And out of the grasses thickly
Swarm glistening fire-flies.
Now darkness, heavy, oppressive
And silent completes the gloom,;
The breathless night is excessive
With fragrance of perfume,
For the land is enmeshed and ablaze
With vines that blossom and trail,
Embanking the traveled ways
And festooning the fences of rail.
23
Afar in the southern sky
Heat-lightning flares and glows,
Vividly tinting the clouds that lie
At rest with a shimmer of rose
—
Tremulous, flitting, uncertain,
As a mystical light might shine
From under an ebon curtain
Before a terrible shrine.
And the slumbrous night grows late.
The midnight hush is deep.
Under the pines I wait
For the moon ; and the pine-trees weep
Great drops of dew, that fall
Like footsteps here and there,
And they sadly whisper and call
To each other high in the air.
They rustle and whisper like ghosts,
They sigh like souls in pain,
Like the movement of stealthy hosts
They surge, and are silent again.
The midnight hush is deep,
But the pines—the spirits distrest
They move in somnambulant sleeps
They whisper and are not at rest.
Lo ! a light in the east, opalescent,
Softly suffuses the sky
Where flocculent clouds are quiescent,
Where like froth of the ocean, they lie-
Like foam on the beach they crimple
Where the wave has spent its swirl
—
Like the curve of a shell, they dimple
Into iridescent pearl.
:
24
And the light grows brighter and higher,
Till far through the trees I see
The rim of a globe of fire
That rolls through the darkness to me,
And the aisles of the forest gleam
With a splendor unearthly, that shines
Like the light of a lurid dream
Through the colonnaded pines.
Ife
RECEPTION OF THE STAMPS ON THE
CAPE FEAR.
BY HON. GEORGE DAVIS.
(From an Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. June 8. 1855).
When the Stamp Act was introduced into Parliament, they
[the men of the Cape Fear] watched its progress as men
watch the storm which they know is to burst in fury on their
heads ; but they watched without fear and with manly hearts.
When the news of its passage came across the water, their
Chevalier Bayard,* John Ashe, was Speaker of the House.
He boldly proclaimed to the Governor that he would resist it
unto death, and that his people would stand by him in the
sacred cause. Did he miscalculate the spirit of his people ?
Had he read them aright? Let us see.
In the first of the year 1766 the sloop of war Diligence
arrived in the Cape Fear, bringing the stamps. The procla-mation
of Governor Tryon, announcing her arrival and direct-ing
all persons authorized to distribute them to apply to her
commander, is dated the 6th of January in that year. Now,
look what shall happen. She floats as gaily up the river as
though she came upon an errand of grace, with sails all set
and the cross of St. George flaunting apeak, and her cannon
frown upon the rebellious little town of Brunswick as she
yaws to her anchor. People of the Cape Fear, the issue is
before you ! The paw of the lion is on your head—the terri-ble
lion of England ! Will ye crouch submissively, or redeem
* A celebrated knight of the middle ages.
26
the honor that was pledged for you ? Ye have spoken brave
words about the rights of the people. Have ye acts as brave ?
Ah, gentlemen, there were men in North Carolina in those
days
!
Scarcely had the stamp ship crossed the bar, when Colonel
Waddell was watching her from the land. He sent a message
to Wilmington to his friend, Colonel Ashe ; and as she
rounded to her anchor opposite the custom-house at Bruns-wick
they stood upon the shore with two companies of friends
and gallant yeomen at their backs. Beware, John Ashe!
Hugh Waddell, take heed ! Consider well, brave gentlemen,
the perilous issue that you dare. Remember that armed
resistance to the King's authority is treason. In his palace
at Wilmington, but a few miles off, the "Wolf of Carolina"*
is already chafing at you. And know you not that yonder
across the water England still keeps the Tower, the Traitor's
Gate, the scaffold and the axe ? Full well they know. But
"They have set their lives upon the cast,
And now must stand the hazard of the die."
By threats of violence they intimidate the commander of
the sloop, and he promises not to land the stamps. They
seize the vessel's boat, and, hoisting a mast and flag, mount it
upon a cart and march in triumph to Wilmington. Upon
their arrival the town is illuminated. Next day, with Colonel
Ashe at their head, the people go in crowds to the Governor's
house and demand of him William Houston, the Stamp-mas-ter.
Upon his refusal to deliver him up, forthwith they set
about to burn the house above his head. Terrified, the Gov-ernor
at length complies, and Houston is carried to the mar-ket-
house, where, in the presence of the assembled people, he
is made to take a solemn oath never to execute the duties of
his office. Three glad, hurrahs ring through the old market-
'Governor Tryon—name given to him by the Indians.
27
house, and the Stamp Act falls, still-born, in North Carolina.
And this was more than ten years before the Declaration of
Independence, and more than nine years before the battle of
Lexington, and nearly eight years before the Boston Tea
Party. The destruction of the tea was done in the night by
men in disguise. And history blazons it, and New England
boasts of it, and the fame of it is world-wide. But this other
act, more gallant and daring, done in open day by well-known
men with arms in their hands and under the King's flag
—
who remembers or who tells of it ? When will history do
justice to North Carolina? Never, until some faithful and
loving son of her own shall gird his loins to the task with
unwearied industry and unflinching devotion to the honor of
his dear old mother.
THE LIGHT'OOD FIRE.
JOHN" HENRY BONER.
The author of these two poems was born at Salem, N. C,
1845. A recent volume contains all the author considered
worth preserving, and is a book highly creditable to the State.
Mr. Boner held responsible editorial positions in New York
City and elsewhere, and was a frequent contributor to the
best periodical literature. The lines on Poe created an im-pression
when they appeared in The Century Magazine a few
years ago.
Declining health forced him to give up his duties in New
York and to seek restoration among his friends in his native
State. A winter was spent in Raleigh, with temporary relief
;
but soon after his return to work in the Government Printing
Office, Washington, he suddenly died of hemorrhage, March 6,
1903. The Author's Club of New York assisted in doing
honor to his memory. His grave is in the Congressional
Cemetery, Washington, D. C.
When w7intry days are dark and drear
And all the forest ways grow still,
When gray, snow-laden clouds appear
Along the bleak horizon hill,
When cattle all are snugly penned
And sheep go huddling close together,
When steady streams of smoke ascend
From farm-house chimneys—in such weather
Give me old Carolina's own,
A great log-house, a great hearth-stone,
A cheering pipe, of cob or briar,
And a red, leaping light'ood fire.
29
When dreary day draws to a close
And all the silent land is dark,
When Boreas down the chimney blows
And sparks fly from the crackling- bark,
When limbs are bent with snow or sleet
And owls hoot from the hollow tree,
With hounds asleep about your feet,
Then is the time for reverie.
Give me old Carolina's own,
A hospitable, wide hearth-stone,
A cheering pipe, of cob or briar,
And a red, rousing light'ood fire.
m
THE MEN" OF THE CAPE FEAR.
(Adapted from an Address by Hon. George Davis).
"When the Revolution broke upon the country there was
no section in North Carolina, no section in all the thirteen
colonies, which gave more royal support to the American
cause, was more willing to sacrifice for the common good,
was more ready to risk all for the public weal, than was the
Cape Fear section. The people of this section, under the
leadership of Harnett and Howe, Ashe and Hooper, and
other distinguished sons, were ever foremost in the fight, first
for liberty, then for independence. Here occurred the first
open resistance to the Stamp Act ; here it was that the people,
not disguised as Indians, not under the cover of darkness,
but in their own proper dress, in the open daylight and in
the presence of the Royal Governor, forcibly took William
Houston, the Stamp-master, from Tryon's palace and made
him swear in the open market-place never to perform the
duties of his office; here it was that an indignant people re-plied
to a tyrannical Governor's invitation to a public dinner
by dumping the repast into the river; here it was that in
July, 1774, the people declared 'the cause of Boston the
common cause of all' ; here it was that the people declared
themselves, in June, 1775, 'ready to go forth and be ready to
sacrifice their lives and fortunes to secure the freedom and
safety of the country' ; and here it was that in January,
1776, the Committees of Safety informed the Council of the
Colony, then on their way to meet with the Royal Governor
on board a British war-ship in the Cape Fear river, 'that the
committee could not, consistent with the safety of the country,
permit them to attend the Governor.'
31
"Tims nobly upon the Cape Fear closed the first act of the
drama. And when the curtain rose again, George, by the
grace of God, King, was King no longer; but the Constitu-tion
reigned and the free people of North Carolina governed
themselves."
RESCUE OF MADAME DeROSSET.
(From "Tales of the Cape Fear," by Mr. James Sprunt)
"We found in the ship-yard in Wilmington, while the
Lilian was undergoing repairs, the noted blockade runner,
Lynx, commanded by one of the most daring spirits in the
service, Captain Reid. * * * *
"A thrilling incident occurred in the destruction of the
Lynx, a few weeks after we left her at Wilmington, which
nearly terminated the life of a brave and charming little lady,
the wife of Mr. Louis H. DeRosset, and of her infant child,
who were passengers for Nassau. At half-past seven o'clock
on the evening of September 26, 1864, the Lynx attempted
to run the blockade at New Inlet, but was immediately dis-covered
in the Swash channel by the Federal cruiser NipJion,
which fired several broadsides into her at short range, nearly
«very shot striking her hull and seriously disabling her. Not-withstanding
this, Captain Reed continued his efforts to
escape, and for a short time was slipping away from his pur-suer;
but he was again intercepted by two Federal men-of-war,
the Ilowquah and the Governor Buckingham. Mrs.
DeRosset, describing the scene a few days afterwards, said:
" 'Immediately the sky wTas illuminated with rockets
;
broadside upon broadside, volley upon volley was poured
upon us. The Captain put me in the wheel-house for safety.
I had scarcely taken my seat when a ball passed three inches
above my head, wounding the man at the wheel next to me;
a large piece of the wheel-house knocked me on the head. I
flew to the cabin, took my baby in my arms and immediately
another ball passed through the cabin. We came so near one
33
of the enemy's boats that they fired a round of musketry and
demanded surrender. We passed them like lightning; our
vessel commenced sinking ! Eight shots went through and
through below the water-line. I stayed in the cabin until I
could no longer keep baby out of the water.'
"The Hoiuquah then engaged the Lynx at close quarters,
and her batteries tore away a large part of the paddle-boxes
and bridge deck. The Buckingham also attacked the plucky
blockade runner at so short a range that her commander fired
all the charges from his revolver at Captain Reed and his
pilot on the bridge. The continual flashing of the guns
brightly illuminated the chase, and, escape being impossible,
Captain Reed, much concerned for the safety of his passen-gers,
headed his sinking ship for the beach. In the mean-time
Fort Fisher was firing upon his pursuers with deadly
effect, killing and wounding Hve men on the Howquah and
disabling one of the guns. The sea was very rough that
night, and the treacherous breakers, with their deafening roar,
afforded little hope of landing a woman and her baby through
the surf; nevertheless, it was the only alternative, and right
bravely did the heroine meet it.
"Through the breakers the Lynx was driven to her destruc-tion,
the shock as her keel struck the bottom sending her
crew headlong to the deck. Boats were lowered with great
difficulty, the sea dashing over the bulwarks and drenching
the sailors to the point of strangulation. Madame DeRosset,
with the utmost coolness, watched her chance while the boat
lurched and pounded against the stranded ship, and jumped
gracefully to her place ; the baby, wrapped in a blanket, was
tossed from the deck to her mother ten feet below, and then
the fight for a landing began, while the whole crew, forgetful
of their own danger and inspired with courage by the brave
lady's example, joined in three hearty cheers as she dis-appeared
in the darkness towards the shore. Under the later
glare of the burning ship, which was set on fire when aban-
34
doned, a safe landing was effected, but with great suffering.
Soaking wet, without food or drink, they remained on the
beach until a message could reach Colonel Lamb at Fort
Fisher, five miles distant, whence an ambulance was sent to
carry the passengers twenty miles up to Wilmington. The
baby blockade runner, Gabrielle, survived this perilous adven-ture
; also an exciting run through the fleet in the Confederate
steamer Owl; and she is now the devoted wife of Colonel
Alfred Moore Waddell, Mayor of Wilmington."
ALAMANCE.
1771.
The following poem was written by Seymour Whiting.
When this poem was written no monument had been placed
on the old battle-ground. The monument which now marks
the spot was erected in 1880
:
No stately column marks the hallowed place
Where silent sleeps, unurn'd, their sacred dust
—
The first free martyrs of a glorious race,
Their fame a people's wealth, a nation's trust.
The rustic ploughman, at the early morn,
The yielding furrow turns with heedless tread,
Or tends with frugal care the springing corn
Where tyrants conquer'd and where heroes bled.
Above their rest the golden harvest waves,
The glorious stars stand sentinel on high
;
While in said requiem near their turfless graves,
The winding river murmurs mourning by.
No stern ambition nerved them to the deed,
In Freedom's cause they nobly dared to die
;
The first to conquer, or the first to bleed,
God, and their country's right, their battle-cry.
But holier watchers here their vigils keep,
Than storied urn or monumental stone
;
For Law and Justice guard their dreamless sleep,
And Plenty smiles above their bloody home.
Immortal youth shall crown their deathless fame,
And, as their country's glories still advance,
Shall brighter blaze o'er all the earth thy name,
The first-fought field of Freedom—Alamance.
BLOCKADING OFF THE CAPE FEAR.
(Selected from "Tales of the Cape Fear Blockade," by Mr. James
Sprunt of Wilmington).
During the war between the States, Wilmington was one of
the chief ports of the Confederacy. A vast amount of food,
clothing, munitions of war and other necessities were im-ported
into the South through this port, and the United States
Government soon recognized the advisability of stationing
upon Cape Fear a strong blockading fleet. Mr. J nines Sprunt,
in his delightful "Tales of the Cape Fear Blockade," says
:
"The first blockader placed upon the Cape Fear station was
one bearing the misnomer Daylight, which appeared July
20, 1861. Others soon followed, until the number of block-aders
off New Inlet and the main bar of Cape Fear river was
increased to about thirty or more ; these formed a cordon
every night in the shape of a crescent, the horns of which
were so close in shore that it was almost impossible for a
small boat to pass without discovery. Armed picket barges
also patroled the bars and sometimes crept close in upon the
forts."
In spite, however, of the vigilant blockade by the Fed-eral
fleet, vessels continued to slip out and in, carrying
on at great danger a commerce with the outside world, with-out
which the armies of the Confederacy must have suc-cumbed
months sooner than they did. Continuing, Mr.
Sprunt says:
aThe natural advantages of Wilmington at the time of
Avhich we write made it an ideal port for blockade runners,
there being two entrances to the river—JSTew Inlet on the
north, and the western or main bar on the south of Cape
37
Fear. 'This cape/ said Mr. George Davis, 'is the southern-most
point of Smith's Island, a naked, bleak elbow of sand
jutting far out into the ocean. Immediately in its front are
the Frying Pan Shoals, pushing out still farther twenty miles
to sea. Together they stand for warning and for woe; and
together they catch the long, majestic roll of the Atlantic as
it sweeps through a thousand miles of grandeur and power
from the Arctic toward the Gulf. It is the play-ground of
billows and tempests, the kingdom of silence and awe, dis-turbed
by no sound save the sea-gull's shriek and the breaker's
roar. Its whole aspect is suggestive, not of repose and beauty,
but of desolation and terror. Imagination cannot adorn it
;
romance cannot hallow it ; local pride cannot soften it. There
it stands to-day, bleak and threatening and pitiless as it stood
three hundred years ago, when Grenville* and Whitef came
near unto death upon its sands; and there it will stand, bleak
and threatening and pitiless, until the earth and sea shall give
up their dead. And as its nature, so its name is noAv, always
has been and always will be the 'Cape Fear.'
"The slope of our beach for many miles is very gradual
to deep water. The surroundings along the coast are
regular, and the floor of the ocean is remarkably even.
A steamer hard pressed by the enemy could run along the
outer edge of the breakers without great risk of grounding;
the pursuer, being usually of deeper draft, was obliged to
keep further off shore. The Confederate steamer Lilian, of
which I was then purser, was chased for nearly a hundred
miles from Cape Lookout by the United States steamer Shen-andoah,
which sailed a parallel course within half a mile of
her and forced the Lilian at times into the breakers. This
was probably the narrowest escape ever made by a blockade
runner in a chase. The Shenandoali began firing her broad-
* Sir Richard Grenville, an English Admiral, in 1585, with an English fleet, explored
Roanoke Island and the rivers that empty into Albemarle Sound.
t John White, the second Governor of Carolina, sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587,
and the grandfather of Virginia Dare.
38
side guns at 3 o'clock p. m., her gunners and commanding
officers of the batteries being distinctly visible to the Lilians
crew.
aA heavy sea was running, which deflected the aim of the
man-of-war and which alone saved the Lilian from destruc-tion.
A furious bombardment by the Shenandoah, aggravated
by the display of the Lillians Confederate flag, was continued
until nightfall, when, by a clever ruse, the Lilian, guided
by the flash of her pursuer's guns, stopped for a few minutes
;
then, putting her helm hard over, ran across the wake of the
war-ship straight out to sea, and on the following morning
passed the fleet off Fort Fisher in such a crippled condition
that several weeks were spent in Wilmington for repairs."
REGRET.
CHRISTIAN KEID.
If I had known, O loyal heart,
When hand to hand we said farewell,
How for all time our paths would part,
What shadow o'er our friendship fell,
I should have clasped your hand so close
In the warm pressure of my own,
That memory still might keep its grasp,
If I had known.
If I had known, when far and wide
We loitered through the summer land,
What Presence wandered by our side,
And o'er you stretched its awful hand,
I should have hushed my careless speech,
To listen well to every tone
That from your lips fell low and sweet,
If I had known.
If I had known, when your kind eyes
Met mine in parting, true and sad—
Eyes gravely tender, gently wise,
And earnest rather more than glad
—
How soon the lids would lie above,
As cold and white as sculptured stone,
I should have treasured every glance,
If I had known.
40
If I had known how, from the strife
Of fears, hopes, passions here below,
Unto a purer, higher life
That you were called, O friend, to go,
I should have stayed all foolish tears,
And hushed each idle sigh and moan,
To bid you a last, long God-speed,
If I had known.
If I had known to what strange place,
What mystic, distant, silent shore,
You calmly turned your steadfast face,
What time your footsteps left my door,
I should have forged a golden link
To bind the heart, so constant grown,
And keep it constant even there,
If I had known.
If I had known that, until death
Shall with his finger touch my brow,
And still the quickening of the breath
That stirs with life's full meaning now,
So long my feet must tread the way
Of our accustomed paths alone,
I should have prized your presence more,
If I had known.
If I had known how soon for you
Drew near the ending of the fight,
And on your vision, fair and new,
Eternal peace dawned into sight,
I should have begged, as love's last gift,
That you, before God's great, white throne,
Would pray for your poor friend on earth,
If I had known.
THE RESOURCES OF THE, LOWER CAPE FEAR.
(Adapted from "North Carolina and Its Resources," Published by
State Board of Agriculture).
The soil along* the lower Cape Fear is most admirably
adapted for truck farming, fruit cultivation, raising stock
and poultry, every kind of vegetable, all the small fruits;
pears, peaches, plums, etc., are here profitably grown. The
strawberry business alone engages the attention of many
farmers, and many car-loads of strawberries are shipped every
spring to Northern cities. Potatoes, asparagus, lettuce, toma-toes,
blackberries and whortleberries are some of the sources
of revenue of the truck farmer.
Wilmington, with 20,976 inhabitants, is the largest city in
North Carolina and the chief sea-port. The principal exports
are cotton, cotton goods, timber, lumber and naval stores. The
most valuable timber in this section is the long-leaf pine.
This is a tall and slender tree, with a long, clear stem, the
trees frequently being one hundred feet high, but rarely three
feet in diameter. The wood is even-grained and strong
—
stronger than that of any other American pine and nearly
twice as strong as that of the white pine. It is exceptionally
free from knots, wind-shakes, heart-cracks, red-heart and
other timber defects, takes a good polish and is particularly
suited for flooring, wainscoting and outside work. It is
found on the driest and most sandy soils, unmixed with other
trees, or on better soils, with a lower growth, beneath the pine,
of dogwood and small post and Spanish oaks, the oaks being
suitable for cross-ties. From, this pine, by boxing it—that is
:
removing a thin layer of the sap-wood so that the resin con-tained
in the tree may exude and be caught in a hole or "box"
42
cut in the trunk of the tree near its base—crude turpentine,
as the resin isi called, is obtained. By the distillation of the
crude turpentine, spirits of turpentine is gotten as the volatile
part, while rosin is the residue left in the retort. This industry
of tapping the pine for resin, and the distillation of the resin,
gives employment to several thousand men in this State, and
the annual value of the resinous products sold from this State
aggregated in 1890 over $1,500,000, being, in fact, about one-third
of the entire product of these commodities in the world.
Tar is obtained from this tree by slow combustion in a closed
kiln of pieces of its heart-wood impregnated with resin ; and
from tar, pitch is made by boiling it with a fixed proportion
of crude turpentine.
The turpentine industry was one of the principal occupa-tions
and sources of wealth in the southern and eastern sec-tions
of North Carolina before the war, and Wilmington be-came
the largest market in the world for naval stores, draw-ing
this trade also from a large section of South Carolina.
In those days naval stores were perhaps the chief articles of
export from this State, and naturally North Carolina became
widely known abroad for the production and exportation of
these stores. This probably accounts for the fact that about
the only production of North Carolina mentioned in the old
geographies were tar, pitch and turpentine; therefore, her
name became so identified with these products that she was
known abroad as the "Tar Heel State." While these products
constitute but a small part of our commercial wealth to-day,
it has taken many years to remove from the minds of the
people in our sister States this early impression and to inform
them of our other wonderful and varied resources.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Question 1 : What is meant by the "Lower Cape Fear Sec-tion"
?
Answer: The term "Lower Cape Fear Section" is given
to those counties in North Carolina which lie towards the
mouth of the Cape Fear river.
Question 2: Who were the first British citizens to visit the
Cape Fear region ?
Answer: On July 14, 1584, an English fleet sent out by
Sir Walter Raleigh and under the command of Philip Ama-das
and Arthur Barlowe appeared off the coast near the
mouth of the Cape Fear river.
Question 3: When and by whom was the first attempt to
settle the Cape Fear country made ?
Answer: In 1660 a party of Englishmen from Massachu-setts
came to the Cape Fear river seeking pasture lands for
their cattle. The region was unsuited for this purpose and
therefore was soon abandoned.
Question J^: When and by whom was the next attempt
made, and with what results ?
Answer: In May, 1665, Sir John Yeamans, an English
gentleman from Barbadoes, came into the Cape Fear country
with 600 colonists and founded a settlement which he named
Charles Towne. Sir John Yeamans was the Governor, but
remained only a short time with the colony. In 1667 the
settlement was abandoned.
Question 5: When and where was the first permanent set-tlement
made on the Cape Fear?
Answer: In 1723 Colonel Maurice Moore of South Caro-lina
and a few followers erected homes on the banks of the
Cape Fear river. Two years later, 1725, they laid off a town
44
nine miles below the present city of Wilmington and named
it "Brunswick." Colonists nocked there in considerable num-bers
until the settlement became a town of 400 inhabitants.
Question 6: What other early settlement was made on the
Cape Fear river?
Answer: In 1733 a town was laid off nine miles above
Brunswick and called New Liverpool. In 1739 the name
was changed to Wilmington.
Question 7: For what were these people noted?
Answer: They were noted for their intelligence, their cul-ture,
their hospitality, their love of liberty, their patriotism
and devotion to religion.
Question 8: How did the settlement prosper?
Answer: It grew rapidly in size and importance. Wil-mington
soon became the largest and most important town in
the colony and was made one of the capitals of the province.
The Governor of the colony had a residence there.
Question 9: What important act did the British Parlia-ment
pass in 1765 ?
Answer: The Stamp Act. This act required the Ameri-cans
to use stamps, to be sold by the British Government, on
all newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements in newspapers,
almanacs, deeds, all court records and many other docu-ments.
Question 10: Wh'at did the Americans think of this law?
Answer: They were very angry, because they said the
British Parliament had no right to lay taxes on them without
their consent.
Question 11: How was the Stamp Act received in the
Cape Fear section ?
Answer: The people declared that they would resist it to
death. When the vessels bringing the stamps arrived in the
Cape Fear river the people seized the stamp officer and forced
him to resign his office and agree not to sell the stamps. They
45
refused to let the stamps be landed and no stamps were ever
sold in North Carolina. The act was soon repealed.
Question 12: Did the repeal of the Stamp Act put an end
to the troubles with the King?
Answer: No; the foolish King and his Governors con-tinued
to oppress the people until finally the people of New
Bern drove the Governor out of the province, and he took
refuge in Fort Johnston at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.
Question 13: Did the people of the Cape Fear permit him
to stay there ?
Answer: No; they rebelled against his oppressive acts;
so he fled for refuge to a British war vessel in the river. Five
hundred men from Brunswick and Wilmington, led by Colo-nel
John Ashe and Cornelius Harnett, marched to Fort John-ston
and destroyed the detested place.
Question 11±: Did the Cape Fear people sympathize with
the other American colonists in their troubles with the King ?
Answer: Yes; in July, 1774, when the King tried to
starve the people of Boston into submission to his will, the
people of New Hanover declared that the
a
cause of Boston
was the common cause of all" ; and in August they sent to
Boston a ship-load of provisions costing £800 or $4,000.
Qucstio?i 15: Were the people of the Cape Fear section
ready to support their cause by arms ?
A ?is wer: In June, 1775, the citizens of New Hanover,
Brunswick, Bladen, Duplin and Onslow counties formed an
association, agreeing to resist to the death all unjust acts of
the King and Parliament, and declared themselves "ready to
go forth and be ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to
secure the freedom and safety of the country."
Question 16: How did they redeem this pledge when war
begun ? ,
Answer: In February, 1776, when the Scotch Tories col-lected
an army to fight the Americans, the men of the Cape
Fear took their guns and met the Scotch at Moore's Creek
46
Bridge. A battle was fought there, February 27, 1776, and
the Americans gained a splendid victory, the first victory in
the open field gained by the Americans during the Revolu-tion.
Hundreds of the Cape Fear men joined the American
army and fought bravely through the war.
Question 17 : Was there any other battle fought during the
Revolution in the Lower Cape Fear section %
Answer: Yes ; in September, 1781, a battle was fought at
Elizabethtown in Bladen county, and the Americans, under
Colonel Thomas Brown, gained an important victory. It
destroyed the power of the Tories in that section of the
country.
Question IS: What forts were on the banks of the Cape
Fear river during the Civil War ?
Answer: Fort Fisher, Fort Anderson and Fort Caswell.
Question 19: Were these forts of much importance to the
State and to the Confederacy ?
Answer: Yes ; because they protected the river from the
fleets of the United States. It was through the Cape Fear
river that much of the food and clothing for the armies of the
Confederacy was brought.
Question 20: Did the Union troops try to take these forts ?
Answer: Yes, and after a most, terrific bombardment from
a powerful Union fleet, Fort Fisher fell, January 15, 1865.
Soon afterwards Wilmington was captured.
Question 21: What effect did this have on the war?
Answer: It was of much importance, for after the capture
of Wilmington no other port in the Confederacy was open
and no food and clothing could be brought in.
i
MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE.
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 wroods 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
!
APPENDIX
THE RALEIGH STATUE AND THE WILEY
MONUMENT.
I wish to call special attention to the letter of General
Julian S. Carr, in the appendix of this pamphlet, relative to
a penny collection from the public school-children of North
Carolina for the erection of a statue to Sir Walter Raleigh.
This letter reached most of the schools last year too late for
North Carolina Day. At the October (1901) meeting of the
State Literary and Historical Association, an organization
that is doing much for the promotion of literature, the preser-vation
of history and the upbuilding of the public schools, a
resolution offered by General Carr was adopted, requesting
this collection for this purpose from the school-children of the
State, on whose soil Sir Walter Raleigh planted the first Eng-lish
colony in America, which resulted in Avresting this con-tinent
from the Spaniards. I most heartily endorse this idea,
and feel that such a collection for such a purpose from our
children would be a fitting expression of gratitude to this
great maker of the first chapter of our history.
By a resolution adopted at the recent meeting of the State
Association of County Superintendents, Mr. R. D. W. Con-nor,
who read a valuable and inspiring paper on the life and
character of Calvin H. Wiley, was requested to prepare for
North Carolina Day*a short declamation on this first Super-intendent
of Public Instruction and great organizer of our
public school system, and I was instructed to request that a
collection be taken in the public schools of the State on this
day for the erection of a monument to him. To no man in all
our history do the people of the State, and especially the cliil-
49
dren of the public schools, owe so great a debt of gratitude
for the successful establishment of a great system of public
education as to Calvin IT. Wiley. It is eminently fitting
that the children of these schools should erect by their con-tributions
a lasting memorial to him who gave the best years
of a life of unselfish devotion to them and to their schools.
I suggest that every school in the State take a collection
on ^orth Carolina Day for the Raleigh statue or the Wiley
monument, or for both. Each school may direct to which of
these purposes its collection shall be applied, or may divide
the collection between the two. All collections for the Raleigh
statue should be sent to Mr. Joseph G. Brown, Raleigh, N, C,
Treasurer of this fund. All collections for the Wiley monu-ment
should be sent to Mr. R. D. W. Connor, Wilmington,
^s
T
. C, Treasurer of this fund.
Very truly yours,
J. Y. JoYNER,
Superintendent of Public Instruction.
THE SIR, WALTER RALEIGH STATUE.
UTILITY OF ITS ERECTION IN NASH SQUARE, RALEIGH,
To Hie School-children, School Officers and Teachers vn,
North Carolina:
Nash Square, as doubtless many of you know, is the open
square or park just in front of Union Depot in the city of
Raleigh. It is in the centre of this square, in this our capital
city, named so fitly in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh, that it
is proposed to erect a statue to commemorate his services to
the English-speaking people. His efforts to colonize Roanoke
Island connect the history of North Carolina with that of
America at a most vital point. It was in North Carolina,
and through Raleigh's efforts, that English colonization was
begun. He is therefore the father of it ; and it was on our
own coast that he began the operations whose results have
changed the current of human affairs. Any one familiar
with our coast and the history of that time can see at a glance
the wisdom of his choice. In 1584, the time of the landing of
his first colony, Spain was the mistress of the seas, as well as
of the land. Her great ships, as well as her great armies,
were the terror of all nations. She had destroyed every ves-tige
of French colonization begun or attempted on the Atlan-tic
coast from North Carolina to Florida. Only one good
thing was obtained by French exploration, and that was in-formation
of the only part of that coast that was not suscepti-ble
to attacks by large ships; that is the coast of North Caro-lina,
the best protected in the world ; and of this information,
England, through Raleigh, and not France, was destined to
get the benefit. So it was not without design and far-reach-ing
purpose that he sent his little caravels to the shores of
51
North Carolina. It was behind the protection of her ever-lasting
barriers of sand that Barlowe wrote his famous pros-pectus,
and Lane made his surveys which electrified the Eng-lish-
speaking people and sowed the seed in the minds of the
rising generation which made the colony of Jamestown, Vir-ginia,
twenty-three years later, and the colony of Plymouth,
Massachusetts, thirty-six years later, practicable. Raleigh's
colonies were, in effect, the parents of all the English settle-ments
in North America. His effort to effect permanent
settlements in North Carolina from 1584 to 1590 was, there-fore,
no failure, and should not be so regarded by any rightly
instructed student of history. To emphasize his zeal and
devotion, his faith and his courage, this man, of whom the
world was not worthy, was allowed a martyr's last privilege
of laying down his life and his fortune for his cause.
Inspired by these things and by the fact that there is no-where
on earth a monument to Sir Walter Raleigh, and there
is nowhere a place so fitting to erect it as the soil of North
Carolina and the city she has named to commemorate his
virtues, a motion was made at the last meeting of the State
Literary and Historical Association in 1902 to erect this
statue in the most effective wray possible—that is, by pe?my
contributions from the school-children of North Carolina;
and in order to emphasize the utility as well as the adapta-tion
of this method, at the same meeting of the Association a
bag of pennies, one for every white child in Durham county,
was brought forward and presented as the first contribution
to the statue.
So the movement may be said to have been practically
inaugurated by the public school-children of one of the most
progressive and enlightened counties in the State. Since that
time many schools and colleges have sent in their contribu-tions.
It is desired that every child of school age in our State
should be given an opportunity to contribute his penny.
It should be further added that the committee having in
52
charge the erection of this statue have prepared a calendar
for the school-children of North Carolina, containing a synop-sis
of the principal events in the life of Sir Walter Raleigh,
and the same will be shortly hung upon the walls of the
school-houses of North Carolina. It is requested that the
collections for this statue be made on North Carolina Day,
and that they be sent through the County Superintendents to
Mr. Joseph G. Brown, Raleigh, N. C.
To the school-children of North Carolina and their teachers
and officers is commended the study of North Carolina his-tory,
beginning with the man who was its very source and
greatest, exemplar—the man who, with Columbus and the
other great explorers and navigators of that time, gave to the
world two continents with all their wealth and fullness, homes
for the teeming millions which now enjoy them. As you
consider him he will loom up and stand conspicuous in that
grandeur which requires the distance of centuries to truly
appreciate.
With distinguished consideration, I beg to subscribe my-self,
Your most obedient servant,
Julian S. Carr.
CALVIN HENDERSON WILEY.
(Prepared by R. D. W. Connor, at the Request of the North Caro-lina
County Superintendents' Association).
Calvin Henderson Wiley was born the third day of Feb-ruary
in the year 1819, in Guilford county, North Carolina.
In 1S40 he was graduated from the University of the State.
One year later he was admitted to the bar and settled at
Oxford, where a brilliant future seemed open to him. From
the noble college at which he was educated he sucked into his
life that spirit of devotion to his native State so characteristic
of the sons of the State University ; and no sooner did he per-ceive
that the State needed his talents than he abandoned his
career of personal ambition and wealth and dedicated them
to the service of North Carolina. It seemed to Dr. Wiley
that the future of the State was bound together with the
future of her common schools, and that the efficiency of the
common schools depended upon the establishment over them
of a single executive head. Accordingly, returning to his
native county, he presented himself to the people as a candi-date
for the General Assembly and was elected. His sole
object in doing this was to introduce a bill providing for a
general superintendent of the common schools. The bill
was introduced and defeated, though Wiley made in support
of it one of the most powerfully eloquent and logical speeches
ever delivered in the North Carolina Legislature. Beaten,
but not dismayed, he returned at the next session, 1852, re-introduced
his bill and succeeded in getting it passed. Though
he was of a different political party from the majority of the
Assembly, yet the members, recognizing his eminent fitness
for the work, rose above party fealty and elected him the first
Superintendent of Common Schools.
54
At the time that he assumed charge of the school system
the schools were in a wretched condition ; the houses generally
were mere log hovels; the teachers were ignorant and cared
little for their work; the schools were poorly attended. As
a result of this, thousands of parents were yearly leaving the
State and going to other States where their children could
be educated; and tens of thousands of children in North
Carolina were growing up to manhood and womanhood in
ignorance and illiteracy. Dr. Wiley saw that if this condi-tion
continued the State would be ruined, for no State can
prosper if its people are uneducated. He therefore deter-mined
to devote his life to improving the schools, so that
every boy and every girl in North Carolina could be educated
and become a useful man or woman. In order to do this he
was compelled to give up a large law practice which would
doubtless have brought him wealth and fame. But he was so
devoted to North Carolina and her children that he did not
hesitate to make any sacrifice for their good.
No other one of the great men who have helped to make
North Carolina what it is had less to guide and help him, or
more and greater difficulties to overcome in his work, than
did Dr. Wiley. There were a thousand little springs, invisi-ble
to the eye, to be delicately touched, a thousand nameless
duties to be performed, a thousand crosses and difficulties
unknown to the world at large to be met and disposed of. He
had everything to do and everybody to instruct. He was
like a lonely traveler upon the bosom of a hostile and un-known
sea. The compass of experience from which he could
learn the channels where to steer his course and avoid the
thousand dangers encircling him was lacking to him. But he
did not flinch from his task. His hand firmly grasped the
helm and the old State swung into the safe channel, under
the control of a pilot whose steady hand, guided by a pene-trating
insight into the cloudy conditions facing him, was
55
supported by a heart, strong through faith in his cause, in his
people and in Divine guidance.
In doing the great work which lay before him, Wiley had
first of all to teach the people of the State the value and
character of public schools. Newspapers and circulars, hun-dreds
of public and private letters, public communications to
the Governor, eloquent and ringing speeches and a thousand
personal interviews, all were brought to his use in educating
the public. It was a tremendous, almost a superhuman, task
;
but the unconquerable spirit, the tireless energy and the fiery
enthusiasm of the Superintendent were catching, and others
were soon eager to enroll themselves under his banner and
tight by his side.
And what was the result of it all ? The work was slow,
discouraging and tedious, but the results were far beyond
Dr. Wiley's greatest hopes. Old friends were discovered and
aroused to renewed efforts, new ones made and interested in
the work ; incompetent officers were found out and removed
;
numerous errors were corrected ; unity was gradually intro-duced
into the system and school-men in all parts of the State
were taught to see that the interests of all were bound together
in one great and ever-widening circle. The number of
teachers in the public schools increased from less than 2,000
to more than 3,500; the number of schools increased from
less than 2,000 to more than 3,000 ; the number of children
enrolled increased from 85,000 to 116,000; the money ex-pended
on the schools increased from $130,000 to more than
$400,000. The school-houses were greatly improved, the
teachers were better trained and educated, better books were
used in the classes, and children all over the State became
more interested in their wTork.
Whatever of success was attained was admitted by all to be
due to Dr. Wiley. He had found the minds of the people
filled with errors ; he turned on them the light of knowledge
and they vanished like mist before the sun; he found them
56
indifferent to the schools; he aroused their enthusiastic sup-port
; he found a vineyard without laborers ; he created an
army of skilled and devoted workers. But just as he reached
the point where his work began to show on the development
of the State the storm of civil war swept across the country
and the schools soon became involved in the general ruin. At
the time when the war began, Dr. Wiley had built up in
North Carolina the best system of public schools to be found
in any of the Southern States. In doing this great work, Dr.
Wiley was compelled to make great sacrifices of personal
ambition and wealth. Although for some time his salary
was not large enough to pay for the board of his horse, yet
he clung to his work because he loved the State and loved her
boys and girls.
Ought not the people of North Carolina to honor the
memory of this great and patriotic man ? Ought not the
school-children, for whose sake he did so much, to try to
erect a fitting memorial to him in our capital city, so they
may show to the world that they are not ungrateful for the
great sacrifices he made for them ? Let us all determine here
and now that Ave will contribute whatever we can for this
noble purpose. If the strength of a State lies in the virtue
and intelligence of her citizens, then surely no other man
more deserves the gratitude of our hearts than Calvin H.
Wiley. This gratitude demands that we engrave his name
forever upon the tablets of our hearts, and that in our capital
city, right in the heart of his beloved State, there shall be
erected a monument which shall endure as long as the soil on
which it stands, forever bearing testimony of the honor in
which his name is held by those for whom he labored without
hope of reward. A foresighted statesman, a loyal citizen, a
devoted patriot, he labored not for self, but for his fellows.