Beneath the Lake
Do you remember Allenlon? The
l>romise«I canal never came, but
the lake dill, and covered the town
forever.
By C. It. It OSS
It was in the early eighties that I
first came to know about Allenton.
My father had moved to the Jimmy
Turner plantation which lay along the
Yadkin River in lower Stanly County,
a plantation that contained a thou¬
sand acres, and it was on this planta¬
tion that the now forgotten town of
Allenton had once stood.
Though the town had long ceased
to exist when wc moved to the Turner
plantation there were still a few evi¬
dences of the town on the old town-
site. These were two cemeteries that
were covered with honeysuckle vines
and sassafras bushes and the town’s
old two-story hotel building known as
the Red Mouse because it was painted
red. The grave stones in the ceme¬
teries were all fallen down and moss
covered, and nearly all the graves had
caved in. The old hotel building was
just a hull of its former self and was
used as a storage house for horse feed
and cow feed, and the small boys on
the plantation used it as a play house
on rainy days.
But there were a few old cx-slaves
living on the plantation and they re¬
membered well the town and its peo¬
ple and it was from them that I learned
about the town and its people. For they
loved to talk about the town and its
people and its big occasions. Aiso there
were a few elderly white people living
in adjoining neighborhoods who re¬
membered the town and told me about
it.
The thing that caused the town to
be built was the promise of a canal
that was to come up the Yadkin River
from Cheraw to a point near Swift
Island which is some seven or eight
miles from Albemarle. And freight
boats were to come up the canal from
Cheraw and bring storekeepers along
the Yadkin their supplies of merchan¬
dise and farmers their fertilizer; and
they were to carry back the farmers'
cotton and other produce. It looked as
if the days of long wagon trips to and
from South Carolina railroad towns
were over.
The people along both sides of the
Yadkin hailed the promised canal’s
coming with great joy, and forward
looking business men went to work to
establish on the banks of the Yadkin a
town to do business with the boats that
were to run up and down the canal.
The site selected for the town was an
elevation on the Turner Plantation
that overlooked the river.
Among the leaders who founded the
town were several men by the name
of Allen and the town was named
Allenton in their honor.
The town must have been quite a
town for that day judged by the size
of the cemeteries and the old hotel
which was capable of holding a large
number of guests at one time. And the
town had a school for its children.
While wc were living on the Turner
plantation, of which my father was
overseer, an elderly man by the name
of Allen came from South Carolina to
visit the old town site where he had
lived as a boy. His father had owned
and lived in the house, known as the
Big House on the plantation, in which
wc were living, and he wanted to sec
the old house and old town site once
before he died. He pointed out to my
mother many places of the old town
that had interested him as a boy, and
showed us the place where the school,
which he attended as a boy, was lo¬
cated. He showed us the tree out by
the woodyard where his father used
to keep his saddle horse tied. The old
ring that held the horse’s bridle reins
was still there.
The town had a short existence and
tragic end. The prontised canal never
came. The company that was or¬
ganized to build it went into bank¬
ruptcy. This failure of the canal to
come blasted the town's hopes of ever
amounting to anything, and the peo¬
ple started moving away. Then came
an epidemic of typhoid fever that
killed nearly half of its population.
And the people who survived the epi¬
demic were afraid to live there any
longer, and moved away as quickly as
they could and the town was soon
deserted.
HOW M/tiYV CAY
YOU ANSWER?
Our list of questions this week has
to do with numerals — how many this
or how many that. If you get 17, 18,
19 or all of the answers correct, give
yourself a grade of excellent. If you
get 14, 15 or 16 right, you're good.
If you answer II. 12 or 13 correctly,
you’re fair.
1, How many sons did Noah have?
2, How many signs of the Zodiac?
3, How- many "Fates” were there in
Greek and Roman mythology?
4, How many individuals arc asso¬
ciated with Ali Baba?
5, How many miles in a league?
6, How many outs in each inning
of a baseball game?
7, How- many hills in Rome?
8, How many counties in North
Carolina?
9, How many were present at The
Last Supper?
10, In college racing, how many
men are in the varsity rowing shell?
11, How many Arabian Nights?
12, How many dollars in an eagle?
13, How many leagues under the
sea should you think of in connection
with Jules Verne?
14, How many people were in New
York City’s famous social set?
15, How many "guns" arc fired in
a salute to the President of the U.S.A.?
16, How many eyes did Cyclops
have?
17, how many members on the
United States Supreme Court?
18, How many items in a "baker's
dozen"?
19, How many years does an alien
have to be a resident of the United
Stales before he can get his final
citizenship papers?
20, How many "points" are asso¬
ciated with President Woodrow Wil¬
son?
(Answers on page 28)
After the town’s death the Allenton
ferry which set travelers across the
Yadkin to and from Stanly County re¬
mained in operation till the 20th cen¬
tury. People who once used the ferry
still live in Stanly. The old town site is
now under the waters of Hydro Lake
near Norwood.
THE STATE, January 19. 1952
