- Title
- Our State
-
-
- Date
- February 2001
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Our State
Hits:
(0)
tar heel towns
by Susan I.. Comer
Snow Hill
From its vantage point along the Contentnea Creek,
this coastal plains town continues to bask in rich traditions, celebrating the glory days of baseball,
striking historic architecture, and the folklore surrounding a host of colorful characters.
I don't think people «hi the main
bypass roads really know how
beautiful it is downtown," says
Mary Betty Kearney as she
recounts the cornucopia of
architectural styles on display in
the historic district of her beloved
hamlet. Still, she allows, “it does¬
n't matter what your structures
look like or how appealing they
are to others if your people are
not warm and inviting."
Snow Hill, she says, is blessed
with both. While the Tuscan
columns. Gothic silhouettes, and
Queen Anne-stylc lattice windows
lend character to this sleepy town
of the coastal plain, the real char¬
acter of Snow Hill comes from its
people, past and present. And.
boy, does this town have some
characters!
Another famous beagle
“Ever heard of Happy Jack
Mange Medicine?" asks Frank
Warren. I’m forced to admit that I
haven't. “Well, my gosh, it's
known worldwide," he says,
laughing.
Happy Jack Mange Medicine
was the creation of the late James
Gooden Fxum {father, incidental¬
ly, of former N.C. Supreme Court
Chief Justice Jim Exum) in 1946.
"He made up this formula with
linseed oil and sulfur and other
secret ingredients in an old
Maytag washing machine out on
the old Mill Farm, which is on Highway
13 just out of town," says Warren. “So
they’re Snow 1 1 ill people."
Today, the younger Jim Exum's broth¬
ers, Joe and Ashe, market the entire line
of Happy Jack animal health products to
kennel owners and houndsmen far and
wide from their Snow Hill headquarters.
"If you go over there," offers Warren,
“Joe might lx- on the phone to 1 long
Kong or talking to somebody anywhere
in the world."
As for Happy Jack, he was a beagle, a
champion rabbit dog no less. “The last
time I saw ol* I lappy Jack,"
recalls Warren, "he was in a cage
out there. Jim and I were looking
at Happy Jack and he was nuz¬
zling us through the wire of the
fence. I scratched him on the
head. Then, as I turned around. I
felt something on my foot. 1
looked down and he had cocked
his leg and peed on my foot!” A
brush with the famous, one
might say.
History handed down
Long before Happy Jack scam¬
pered through the forests and
open farmland of Snow Hill, leg¬
end has it that a Revolutionary
War general marched his troops
along Contentnea Creek. Finding
the sandy banks difficult to
maneuver by foot, he exclaimed,
"Dam this Snow Hill!" (Well, his
language was a bit more potent,
but you get the idea.)
“That's just an old, old tale
that's been told all these years,"
says Linda Jones Jones (who was
born a Jones and also married
one). “The name stuck. It was
like a snowy hill. See, we're so
flat that the smallest incline is
like a hill.”
Greene County was originally
called Glasgow County, for
Secretary of State James Glasgow. But, in
1799, after Glasgow was revealed to
have issued fraudulent land grants, the
Built in 1 884, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church has
remained virtually unchanged. The 1928 prayer books
are still in the pews.
I 6 Our State February 200 1
