Villages That Vanished
Al one time they were thriving and pros¬
perous communities. Then along came
business and transportation changes, willi
the result that many towns had to fold up.
By
МЛС'К ПК1Ш
VERYONE is familiar with
the story of the Lost Colony
Of Roanoke Island, but few
►le are aware that North Caro¬
lina has its other “lost” communi¬
ties. which once thrived briefly and
then disappeared into oblivion.
How many, for instance, have
heard of Gaston. Buffalo City.
Williamsboro. Waynesboro, Bruns¬
wick. Sncedsboro, Parkewood, or
Tuckcrtown? All once were bus¬
tling communities; now all that is
left of them arc a few ruins, over¬
grown with weeds.
Typical of these "ghost" towns
is Gaston, of which big things once
were expected. As the terminus
of the old Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad, this once -busy com¬
munity was located near what is
now Roanoke Rapids. It had a
large hotel and the business and
commerce of a railroad center.
Now there is nothing.
Buffalo City
BufTalo City, a once prosperous
community of some 200 or more
souls in the East Lake section near
Fort Landing, at one time engaged
in profitable commerce with the
West Indies, ships entering Alliga¬
tor River to a point on Milltail
Creek which was connected with
Buffalo City by a two-mile canal.
Sometime before 1860 it was de¬
serted completely by its inhab¬
itants. The story has it that it was
abandoned after a sailor brought
cholera to the town. Many citizens
died; all the rest fled, and never
went back.
Chartered in 1785. Williamsboro
was a gay and colorful community
near Henderson in what formerly
was part of Granville County. All
that is left now is a church, and
even that long since has been in
disuse.
Another once-flourishing town
which has passed from the scene
was Waynesboro, once the county
seat of Wayne County. Located
on the Neuse River, it was built
in 1782 and prospered for nearly
70 years. But it couldn’t keep up
with the thriving railroad village
of Goldsboro only a mile away,
where the courthouse eventually
was moved in 1847. It finally
folded up completely, houses and
stores being torn down and re¬
built at Goldsboro. Now all that
marks Waynesboro are a few
gravestones peeping up from the
weeds.
Ancient Brunswick
Brunswick, perhaps, is better
known; but it. too, has vanished
from the map. Founded in 1725 on
the South bank of the Cape Fear
River below Wilmington, it led
a brief existence in the face of
many trials and tribulations. In
1748 it was attacked, captured and
partially destroyed by the Spanish.
Although it soon was retaken and
rebuilt, it was exposed to pirates,
its harbor was unsafe in stormy
weather, and swarms of mosqui¬
toes made life miserable for its
inhabitants in Summer. As the
port city of Wilmington grew in
importance. Brunswick dwindled,
and finally was abandoned after
Carolina's Authority
on
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the Revolutionary War. All that
is left now are a few ruins.
The town of Parkewood has
been written up in The State on
a previous occasion. Located near
Carthage, it was once a flourishing
village. Mill-stones were manufac¬
tured and shipped to various points
in the country. There were several
stores and about forty homes. Then
the bottom dropped out of the
mill-stone business, and Parke¬
wood folded up after a brief strug¬
gle.
Sneedsboro. on the Yadkin River
in Anson County, was promoted
by a stock company as a trading
center in the early 19th century.
Founded in 1818, it struggled along
until around 1832, when it gave
up the ghost and disappeared.
A More Recent Demise
"But." some might say. “all of
these things happened a century
or so ago. Nothing like that could
happen these days.” But that’s
where they would be wrong: one
of North Carolina's vanished vil¬
lages. Tuckcrtown, has been aban¬
doned within the past 35 years.
A textile mill community of 300
persons and dating back to the
Civil War. Tuckcrtown was located
on the Yadkin River in Mont¬
gomery County. It had stores, a
depot, churches, a school, a post-
office. But in the early 1900's the
cotton mill which provided Tucker-
town’s bread and butter suspended
operations. As the mill was their
main source of support, most of
the citizens moved away to get
jobs elsewhere. The mill ma¬
chinery was sold, the buildings
were torn down and the bricks
were hauled away, the houses
were razed and the materials sold.
The few structures that were left
fell into decay until all that re¬
mained of Tuckertown were a
depot and a church. Then came a
tornado, taking away the church
and leaving only the depot — which
hasn't been used in years.
TH«r STATE. Septcmoer 22. 1945
II
