Issues of The State’s Voice, published in Dunn, NC from 1933-1935, have been added to DigitalNC. Published by O. J. (Oscar J.) Peterson, this paper is much more of an editorial vehicle than many other papers at the time. The entire front page is devoted to his thoughts on one or more news items or topics of the day. His other interest was in writing informational essays about various parts of the state, like the one in this issue about Orange County and Hillsboro(ugh).
Over the years, Peterson managed a number of newspapers besides The State’s Voice including the Chatham Record, the Sampson Democrat, and the Lumberton Argus. Aligning with the Democratic platform of the time, Peterson expresses strong opinions in his paper about prohibition, public education, and economics. His editorials are so pointed that they are alternatively lauded or criticized in other papers.
In the final issue of the paper, Peterson says: “The publication of the State’s Voice has been an interesting experience, or experiment, in several respects.” The paper was intended to be read statewide, and was launched upon a “highly intellectual basis with a confessed non-public appeal.” He seems to attribute the demise of the paper in part to a lack of intellectuality amongst his subscribers, despite many of them being prominent in the state.
This paper was added on behalf of the Harnett County Public Library. You can view all of the materials contributed to DigitalNC from Harnett County Public Library on their contributor page.
One such happening is the unresolved story of Sheriff J.W. McArtan, who also served as the county tax collector in the early 1920s. McArtan ran several ads in the Harnett County News reminding people to pay their taxes on time. One short article in the March 3, 1921 edition warned that those who failed to pay would be put on the county’s “delinquent list.”
But what happened to that tax money? Apparently, it didn’t all make it to schools and roads. An article in the December 18. 1924 edition reads: “Former Sheriff and His Bondsmen to Contest Claim: J.W. McArtan and Bonding Company to Make Denial of Statement that He Is $54,000 Short.” It goes on to explain, “The News is informed that J.W. McArtan, former sheriff and tax collector of Harnett county, has employed counsel to defend him in the matter of settlement with the county for moneys alleged to be due to the county by the sheriff.” According to the rest of the article, McArtan’s attorney argued that several of the books keeping the tax records had been taken out of McArtan’s office, so it was impossible to tell “how much money has been collected on the tax books since they were taken away… that is, [the auditor] does not know to which account moneys turned over to him may be credited, nor does he know for what year they were due.”
$54,000 is certainly a lot of money to be missing, even by today’s standards. But to put things into perspective, converted to the value of today’s dollars, McArtan was on the hook for about $937,250.
What happened to former sheriff McArtan? His name brings up a lot of results in the Harnett County News and other nearby papers, so it’s up to you to look and find out.
For Lillington community members and library lovers, these issues of The Bookbag (from 1977-2007) are full of local stories and excellent library programming. One program that deserves a shoutout is the pet memorial project from 2002, where patrons could donate to the library in honor of a beloved pet and have their pet’s name inscribed on a bookplate. Of course, this raises the timeless issue of whether your pet shares your last name (looking specifically at Bee Bee Davis and Crook Tail Rosser here).
From the January-March 1984 issue of The Bookbag
The library newsletters also give a historic glance into popular technology over the last few decades, as evidenced by this article on the “New Microfiche Printer/Reader” from the January-March 1985 issue.
Homecoming Queen Mary Sue Godwin from the 1969 Echo
Even if you’re not a fan of cold weather, pumpkin-flavored treats, or changing leaves, you may still have a fondness for the fall football season. It’s the time of year again where students across the state celebrate their schools with the beloved tradition of homecoming.
Thanks to our partner, the Harnett County Public Library, we’ve added 23 more high school yearbooks and a few graduation programs to our digital collections. These yearbooks, which span five schools from 1948 to 1972, give us a look back to homecomings of years past.
One of the most common traditions in this set of yearbooks is honoring the homecoming court—the group of young women from whom the homecoming queen is chosen. The pageantry of the event takes on various levels at each school; in this 1972 spread from Lillington High School’s Footprints, a few people appear to be arriving on horseback.
Football players from the 1972 Footprints
Another popular tradition of homecoming is the big football game. Although homecoming queens tend to get a fancy portrait in the yearbook, each school seems to have a different way of celebrating its football team. In the case of Erwin High School’s The Hourglass from 1962, that celebration takes the form of action shots of each of the varsity players (plus a spread for the team photo and the coaches). Curiously, there isn’t much recorded about the actual games—who the schools played or who won.
Images from July 1977 in the Harnett County Public Library Children’s Outreach Program Scrapbook.
Thanks to the Harnett County Public Library, new scrapbooks are available on the Digital NC website. The collection includes memories from the Lillington High School Library Club, The Harnett County Public Library Children’s Outreach Program, the Harnett County School Board, and the Harnett County Library Scrapbooks (1967 – 1976 and 1982 – 1989). Included are newspaper clippings, photos of different activities and accomplishments, and much more!
Special thanks to our partner Harnett County Public Library. To view more from Harnett County, visit their partner page here.
To view our entire North Carolina Memorabilia collection, visit here.
Peggy Altman and Judy Elliott taking out a barn of tobacco
Working closely with staff at Harnett County Public Library, we’re pleased to announce migration of over 1100 images from their Digital Database to DigitalNC.
This collection shows a wealth of activities, events, people, and places in Harnett County. North Carolinians of note can be found in this collection–Governors Kerr Scott and Luther Hodges, Paul Green, Susie Sharp–however more striking are the number of identified general citizens of Harnett County. Portraits are an overwhelming part of this collection, with photos of school sports groups, community groups, individuals, wedding portraits, and groups of folks posing at all manner of local events.
Many of these photos were taken by Talbott McNeill Stewart. The Harnett County Public Library obtained around 800 Stewart photographs in a 1978 donation from the Town of Lillington. The Library has preserved these photographs and, more recently, scanned, cataloged, and given broader access to them through their website. Stewart was Harnett County’s first full-time press photographer, working for the Harnett County Daily Record from the paper’s establishment in 1950 until his retirement. He documented weddings, sports teams, and more through his work.*
Womanless Wedding
This was the first migration of this type for us, and we were glad to work with our partners to move their content to a new home. We’re also pleased that this well-documented collection of Harnett County’s history can now be searched alongside the thousands of other images available through the Images of North Carolina collection on DigitalNC.
*Information provided by Harnett County Public Library.
Yearbooks from three different high schools in Harnett County are now available on DigitalNC. The schools include Lillington High School, whose Footprints yearbooks cover 1948 through 1963, Angier High School, whose Old Acquaintances yearbooks available are from 1959 and 1960, and a 1963 Seniorogue yearbook from Broadway High School.
The yearbooks are available courtesy of Harnett County Public Library. To view more North Carolina High School yearbooks, visit here.
Sometimes, it’s easy to feel like the problems of today are unique to our time and place, but this latest batch of the Carteret County News-Times (1960-1963) demonstrates that people have been working through similar problems for at least 50 years. One issue, from March 16, 1962, somehow touches on big storms flooding the area (and the difficulty of insuring coastal property), U.S. House elections, and redistricting—almost as if it were printed in 2022.
Luckily, no one died in the nor’easter that hit Morehead City and the rest of the coast in March 1962, but the storm did cause quite a bit of damage. A paper from the preceding week (March 2, 1962) pictures flooding along some of the commercial streets and describes buildings that were not up to code to withstand the storm. One commissioner reported that an insurance firm in New York abstained from insuring the area because of the building code problems. A week later, a headline reads (perhaps unsurprisingly): “Red Cross Says Best Way to Help Dare Is Give to Local Red Cross.”
Another front page story describes a bid for the 3rd Congressional District by Morehead City resident S.A. Chalk Jr. Chalk Jr. ran against incumbent David Henderson in the Democratic primary (though in a much different Democratic party than we think of today). He accused Henderson of voting for “policies that are bound to cause even further trouble,” saying, “He claims he’s conservative, but his voting records do not bear this out.” Chalk Jr. still lost the primary, apparently, as Henderson went on to represent the district until 1977.
Aside from the familiar arguments of House elections, the article also mentions that Harnett County was added to the district in 1960. And while the headlines haven’t changed much over the last 50 years, the list of counties included in the 3rd District certainly has. In 1962, the district included 10 counties: Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Harnett, Jones, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Sampson, and Wayne. In 2023, the district will expand and morph to contain parts of 15 counties: Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Pitt (partly), Sampson, and Wayne (partly). For visual thinkers, an interactive map of NC’s congressional districts can be found here.
Thanks to our partners at Campbell University, DigitalNC is proud to announce that four new yearbooks are now available! These issues of Pine Burr are some of the most recent publications from Campbell’s past, spanning from 2016 to 2023. They will join a collection of over one hundred Campbell yearbooks currently hosted on DigitalNC, some of which reach back into the first decade of the twentieth century.
The new yearbooks reflect student and faculty life immediately before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the ways in which university systems adapted both instruction and education to protect the health of its student body. They could prove to be a vital resource for future researchers, which makes their preservation all the more important. Further, the recency of the publications are a useful comparison to Campbell’s older materials, reflecting over a century of growth and change within Harnett County.
You can read new issues of The Pine Burr online at DigitalNC here. Interested in learning more about Campbell University history? Find more resources online at DigitalNC here, or visit Campbell University’s digital archives online here.
Thanks to our partners at Campbell University, you can now explore Buie’s Creek High School yearbooks on DigitalNC’s website. This batch has materials from 1948- 1977, that’s almost thirty years worth of memories. These high school yearbooks are a great way to see what school was like for students in Harnett County. Yearbooks are popular because of they contain so many photographs, and have a level of organization and labeling that is helpful in identifying folks. Not to mention, flipping through an old yearbook is nostalgic.
This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.
