State

Four Veterans Left The number of Confederate veter¬ ans lias been gradually diminishing, and today there are only four left in North Carolina, together uitli a Negro liody-servant. REMEMBER when the Confed¬ erate soldiers in your county used to meet on May 10. hold their meetings and then march out in a body to the local cemetery to decorate graves of departed brethren-in-arms? When we first came to North Carolina (back in 1913) we used to attend such reunions down in Beaufort County. Back in those days there were around thirty or forty Confederate veterans in at¬ tendance. Most of them were around 65 to 70 years of age. With the passing of the years, the number gradually diminished. Fifteen — ten — five — and today there isn’t a single living Confed¬ erate veteran in Beaufort County. The same thing has taken place in practically every other county in the state. We talked a few days ago to Mrs. Norris, who is in charge of Confederate Veterans’ affairs, under the department of State Auditor, and asked her how many veterans there were left in North Carolina. We had an idea that there were nine or ten. "There are only four living vet¬ erans,” she informed us. "At the beginning of the year there were eight, but four have died, so that leaves only four who are with us at the present lime." Here are the four: R. V. Collie, of Franklin County Co. A, 1st Regt. NCST. He is the oldest of the four, being 103 years of age. We attended his birthday party in Franklin County several months ago and found him hale and hearty. G. W. Benson, of Mecklenburg County. Co. H. 36th Regt. NCST. A. S. Cockerham, of Surry Coun¬ ty. Со. I, 33rd Regt. NCST. S. M. Bennett, of Yancey Coun¬ ty. He was a member of the Black Mountain Regiment. NCST., dt. In addition to these four, there is also Alfred Blackburn, of Yad¬ kin County, a Negro body-servant. He served Capt. A. Blackburn during the four years of warfare and is 102 years of age. He. too. THE STATE. Octodcr 11. 1947 is entitled to a pension and receives it regularly. It is rather interesting to note that the four veterans are living in widely scattered areas of the state. Mr. Collie resides in the eastern part of the state. Mr. Ben¬ son lives in the south-central sec¬ tion. Mr. Cockerham lives in the north-western area, and Mr. Ben¬ nett lives up in the mountains. Four Confederate veterans, and one body-servant. And we feel confident that the people of North Carolina as a whole are glad that the state is being fairly liberal in its support of these grand old men. MEMORIAL BOOK 11% CABARRUS CO. Folks in Cabarrus County have done something new — something that ought to interest many other counties in North Carolina. Under the leadership of Mrs. Charles A. Cannon, Mrs. Joshua Goodman, Mrs. Anna Walker and a number of others, a Memorial Book has been published, which lists the names — in so far as ex¬ tensive research has disclosed them— of all Cabarrus County sol¬ diers of World War II. World War I, Spanish-Amorican War, War Be¬ tween the States, War of 1812 and Revolutionary War. Quite an extensive undertaking, but it has been successfully com¬ pleted. Lot of hard work was necessary to put it over. The book sells for S5.00. and it is needless to say that the people of Cabarrus are intensely inter¬ ested in it, due to its historical value. It will be a most valuable record. There has been some talk of similar projects in other counties, but thus far. so far as we know, none of them has gone into it. May¬ be if they’re interested they’d like to write Mrs. Cannon or some of the other folks in Concord and find out how they went about the proposition. This is a picture of Dry Falls, on the road between Franklin and Highlands. We’ve run several pic¬ tures of the same scene, but there’s a special reason why we are run¬ ning the one which appears above. On a recent trip to Highlands. Mr. R. E. McClure, of Asheville, passed by Dry Falls and proceeded to take a picture. He had only a small camera with him. The falls are located in the midst of a very shady spot, with tall trees all around. Not only that, but the day was somewhat cloudy. The aver¬ age individual would have given up the picture-taking job as being a hopeless task. An expert photog¬ rapher, armed with all the modern doo-dads, might have suceeded. but not an amateur, with a small cheap camera. However, just for fun, Mr. Mc¬ Clure set his little camera for time exposure. Then he snapped the shutter open and shut three times. Everything but the water was motionless. The three exposures gave a sense of movement to the falls, and the whole picture is just about as good as any professional photographer could have made. Dry Falls are located on U. S. 64. about five miles west of High¬ lands. You can walk directly underneath the falls without get¬ ting wet. 7