A Most Worth-while Project
It was carried out by members of the Eighth
Grade of the School at Aurora, Beaufort
County, anil something similar should he
done in every school in the state.
WE have just finished looking
over a copy of “Richland
Township," and have found
it to be one of the most interesting
pieces of literature that has come
to our desk in many a day.
The finest thing that could hap¬
pen in the schools of North Caro¬
lina would be for each of them to
undertake a project similar to
"Richland Township." and it’s be¬
cause of this that we want to tell
you about it.
In the first place, it consists of
twenty pages, size 8V6xll. It is
mimeographed in its entirety; one
side of each page — the other side
is blank. The cover is yellow paper;
the other pages are white. The
mimeographing is in deep red.
There also is an attractive illustra¬
tion on the cover.
It was put out by the eighth
grade of the school at Aurora. And
Aurora, in case you don’t know, is
located in Richland Township,
Beaufort County.
The first inside page
shows a map of the
township, with all oi
the towns, creeks, etc.,
listed. The second page
contains a list of the
"Surnames Common
to Richland Township
— Allen. Alfred,
Thompson. Litchfield,
Bonner, Broome. Guil¬
ford. etc." Then comes
"Bits of Family Histo¬
ries." telling of the
origin of some of the
leading families and
also of some of their
achievements. This is
followed by a most in¬
teresting history of the
various communities
in Richland Towship —
Aurora, South Creek.
Edward. Core Point,
Bonnerton, etc.
Next are some little
items of general inter¬
est. and among them
is one about Paul
Lincke which we be¬
lieve will come as a
surprise to most of our
THE STATE. May I, 1948
readers: it certainly was to us.
Paul Lincke. a German, moved
with his family in 1885 to the
old Noah Guilford farm near
Aurora. He was supervisor of the
farm of Colonel Shaffer, of Ra¬
leigh. His family consisted of a
wife and three sons: Paul, Clar¬
ence, and Morris. Lincke was pas¬
sionately fond of music, and it was
he who wrote the music for a com¬
position that is known to all of
us:
"Shine little glowworm, glimmer,
glimmer."
We never knew, until we looked
over "Richland Township" that this
famous song originated at Aurora.
And here's another item that
caught our attention:
TARKLE BEDS
The ground was leveled and a
trough made out of a green tree.
This was covered by a plank. The
ground was then built up in a circle
so that the center of the circle was
placed directly over one side of the
trough. Then the lightwood strips
were placed side by side around the
hole and filled in with lightwood
knots and shorter strips. Finally it
was banked with broom-grass, turf,
and dirt. A fire was started in the
top. and as the fire advanced into
the hole, the tar was driven into the
trough and out into a tar hole — a
deep hole at the end of the trough.
It was then dipped into hogsheads
to be shipped. Care had to be taken
to prevent the bed from receiving
too much air. the result of which
would be blowing: that is, fire
would come out the side. Then the
side had to be banked again. If the
fire burned too fast in the top, it
was smothered by turf or honey¬
suckle vines.
Then "Richland Township" gives
a list of all the "Businesses and In¬
dustries” within the
borders of the town¬
ship. The final pages
are taken up by an
agricultural survey,
showing t h e leading
crops that are pro¬
duced.
And that’s all. But
here, ladies and gen¬
tlemen. is a project
that is extremely
worth-while and — as
we said at the outset —
the reason we are giv¬
ing it this publicity is
because we hope that
other schools in North
Carolina will be inter¬
ested in doing some¬
thing of the same
nature.
We don't know how
long it took the eighth
grade of the Aurora
School to get out this
little booklet, but they
undoubtedly put a lot
of time and research
work into it. What’s
more, we are confident
that once they got
(Cont. on page 22)
Main Street. Aurora. Beaufort County
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