- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1936 : October]
-
-
- Date
- October 1936
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
North Carolina historical review [1936 : October]
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The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume XIII October, 1936
Humber 4
INDUSTRIES OF COLONIAL GRANVILLE
COUNTY
By Hankie May Tilley
Though farming was the most important industry in Gran¬
ville County during the colonial period,1 trapping and hunting
earlier engaged the attention of the settlers. The bounteous
supply of animal life was waiting for immediate use when the
pioneers arrived, while the pursuit of agriculture required ex¬
pensive preparation. The game of the county furnished a source
of daily food supply, besides affording a means of barter or a
source of money. The facilities for hunting and trapping were
so widespread that both continued to be important in the
county’s economic life throughout the colonial period. Eighteen
years before the establishment of the county as a political unit
there were frontiersmen within its borders who earned their
living in the woods as guides and hunters. These men’s mode
of life resulted in their being well versed in forest lore.2 After
the launching of the county as a political entity, the very same
type of character is found in the person of Henry Day. Day
was recommended to Bishop Spangenberg as a hunter who was
an excellent guide; and evidently he gave splendid service, be¬
cause the cautious bishop in turn recommended him to his
brethren as one who could help them find the tracts of land
which Spangenberg had taken up.3 Somewhat later a tract of
land on the Tar River was sold for a much higher price than
surrounding tracts because it included a beaver house which
presumably was a storage house or bartering place for beaver
1 Granville County Deed Books, A - L. (All other references to the Granville County Deed
Books will be by letter and page,
аз
B, 367.)
2 Boyd, W. K., Byrd’s Dividing Line Histories, p. 167.
3 Saunders, William L. (compiler). The Colonial Records of North Carolina, V, 4. (Here¬
after this series will be cited as C. R.)
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