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More Nash County Yearbooks from Braswell Memorial Library Now Available on DigitalNC

An exterior nighttime photo of Southern Nash High School in Bailey, N.C., 1968.

A new batch of yearbooks from Nash County are now available on DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, N.C. In this collection are over half a dozen yearbooks from the 1940s through the 1960s from across Nash County, including Spring Hope and Bailey, North Carolina.

These yearbooks include individual portraits, class portraits and more. They also include photographs of student activities, clubs, student proms, and school sports teams. These yearbooks highlight different parts of the student bodies including student council, bus drivers, second language studies, homecoming courts, and more.

Follow the links below to browse the yearbooks from the schools included in this batch:

These yearbooks from Nash County give us fascinating insights into what life was like for high school students in the middle of the 20th century. To see more materials from the Braswell Memorial Library, visit their partner page or check out their website.


Rare Newspapers from Nash County Now Available Online

As we chip away at newspaper digitization with the North Carolina Newspapers digital project, we often marvel at the amount of work left to be done. We’ve made great progress so far — digitizing well over 60,000 pages in the past year and a half — but there are many millions more to go.  However, we sometimes come across especially rare titles that remind us that we should be grateful for those papers that we do have: there are many historic papers from North Carolina that simply have not survived.

We recently worked on some rare, early papers from Nash County from the collections of the Braswell Memorial Library (Rocky Mount, N.C.) and the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Nash County News (2 issues, 1934 and 1939)
The Spring Hope Journal (1 issue, 1913)
Spring Hope Leader (1 issue, 1909)
Spring Hope Messenger (1 issue, 1899)
The Rattler (Whitakers, N.C.: 1 issue, 1892)
For each of these titles, the issues available online now represent the only known copies of these papers.  This was a period when newspapers came and went with great frequency, but it’s clear that there were definitely more than one or two issues printed for each of these titles.  For example, the issue of The Rattler we put online is labeled as Volume 1, Number 40, meaning that at least 39 issues of this important Populist Party paper are either hidden away in private collections or lost to history.

Additional Items from Granville County Public Library now Online

Yearbook photo 1956 Pep PacGranville County Public Library has contributed yearbooks and some manuscript volumes to DigitalNC, including the first yearbook on the site from Warren county.

Yearbooks

  • The Warrentonian [1949] John Graham High School, Warrenton, N.C.
  • Pep-Pac [1948] [1956] Henderson High School, Henderson, N.C.
  • Nahiscoan [1954] Nashville High School, Nashville, N.C.

Other Items

You can view all of Granville County Public Library’s content on DigitalNC.


Church and County Histories from Edgecombe Community College

A set of church, family, and county histories from the library at Edgecombe Community College are now available on DigitalNC. These papers were written primarily by students at the college at include several family histories and histories of churches in and around Tarboro.

My favorite is “We Recollect. . . .” An Anecdotal History of Nash County, which was compiled by seventh and eighth grade students at Southern Nash Junior High. The history contains excerpts from oral history interviews with older residents of Nash County. The interviews contain great anecdotes about life in mill villages, schools, and professions. One passage caught my eye when I was paging through:

Q: How do you kill hogs the old way?

A: First, you shoot them between the eyes.

It’s from an interview with Sherwood Smith, whose store at Dortches was renowned for its traditionally-processed fresh meat. The interview starts on page 10 and includes Smith’s method for curing ham and the recipe for his famous sausage.Image


The Immortal Nick Arrington is now on Digital NC

Black and white photo of a house's front entrance and columns, with most of the house obscured by trees
Nick Arrington’s home known as “The Cedars”

Written by Glenn H. Todd in 1965, Digital NC has made available The Immortal Nick Arrington with the help of our partner Braswell Memory Library. Born on December 25th, 1806, Nicholas Williams Arrington would be appointed to the office of Chief Deputy Sheriff of Nash County at the age of 21. He would inherit a vast amount of wealth in money, land, and property after the deaths of his father and brothers. The book written by Todd does a deep dive into the life of Arrington and his many adventures throughout the South before the Civil War in America.

To see more from Braswell Memorial Library, visit them here. To see other items in our memorabilia collection, visit us here.


New School Records and Church Minutes from Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount Added to DigitalNC

Handwritten list of names under the heading "females"

An excerpt from the 1888-1905 volume from Philadelphia Baptist Church including female members.

Today on the blog we’re announcing some additions from Braswell Memorial Library, our long-time partner in Rocky Mount (Nash County). They’ve shared a number of church and school records for digitization.

Now online are church records and minutes from Philadelphia Baptist Church in Nashville, N. C. Dating from 1888-1905 and 1920-1954, these three volumes of photocopied records include the church’s member lists, minutes, and articles of faith. The minutes include a record of members invited, those excluded from membership due to various infractions, and a record of activities like services and baptisms. The originals are held and maintained by the church.

Also included in this most recent batch are two volumes related to the history of Spring Hope High School. One is a class reunion book, which dates from a 1990 reunion held for the class of 1947. The other is the Parent Teacher Association’s Secretary’s record book from 1955-1977. Both of these offer a lot of names for genealogical and local history research: those who either attended the school, their parents, or various school staff members.

You can view all of the materials we’ve scanned for Braswell Memorial Library on their contributor page


General Store Accounting Ledgers and More Now Online at DigitalNC

A snapshot from the 1929 Malachi Bissette General Store ledger

A new batch of materials from Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, N.C. is now online and available on DigitalNC. This collection contains several day books and ledgers, as well as a school yearbook and a school assignment dating back to 1913.

The four day books are all accounting ledgers from the Malachi Bissette General Store run by I. H. Eatman in Bailey, N.C. in Nash County. Looking through them, it is easy to see regular customers visiting the store for the things they need, giving us a glimpse of what life was like in Nash County at that time. Dating from 1928 to 1932, these ledgers were extremely well kept and exact. They include information about who came into the store, what they purchased, and how much items cost. For example, in 1929, a notebook and paper cost 15 cents, and a shirt cost 2 dollars.

The other documents in this batch include a school assignment from 1913. Completed by Leonard Morton, he wrote about where he lived, the date, and the weather. Also included is Morton’s yearbook for the year 1919-1920 from Rocky Mount High School, as well as assorted documents, like copies of dues payments to local organizations. These present a very interesting look at what schooling was like around a hundred years ago.

Follow the links below to browse the items included in this batch:

To learn more about the Braswell Memorial Library, check out their partner page or take a look at their website.


Scrapbooks From New Partner, Harold D. Cooley Library, Now Online

An event flier from the 1974-1975 scrapbook

Six scrapbooks from our newest partner, Harold D. Cooley Library in Nashville, North Carolina, are now online on DigitalNC. One scrapbook includes news clippings from Nash County from 1944-1945. Most articles in this scrapbook cover World War II with an emphasis on clippings that mention soldiers serving from Nash County.

The other 5 scrapbooks in this batch document the activities of the Nashville Business and Professional Women’s Club from the late 1940s through the 1990s. Included in the scrapbook are event fliers and invitations, photographs, charter and administrative information, and articles and news clippings pertaining to topics relevant to the club.

Follow the links below to view these scrapbooks:

To learn more about Harold D. Cooley Library, take a look at their DigitalNC partner page, or visit their website.


Hurricane Hazel Photographs From Braswell Memorial Library Now Online

 

New photographs of damage from 1954’s Hurricane Hazel, provided by Braswell Memorial Library, are now online at DigitalNC. These photos show some of the damage from the Category 4 storm in Dortches, North Carolina, just northwest of Rocky Mount in Nash County. Most of the photos are of the house belonging to Sidney H. Shearin, and you can even see before and after photos of his home.

Hazel brought wind gusts of around 120 mph to cities like Goldsboro and it caused heavy tree damage throughout the state. The NOAA says that in North Carolina alone, around 39,000 buildings were damaged, and a few are shown in this collection. To this day, it is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit the state.

To check out the new photos, click here. To learn more about Braswell Memorial Library, visit their partner page or take a look at their website.

 

 


New Exhibit: Constance Matthews Collection; Items from Braswell Memorial Library

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Constance Matthews, age 14

braswell_constance_matthews_photos_046

Constance Matthews and Winks the cat, 1925

The Constance Matthews Collection exhibit from the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount is now available on DigitalNC!

Constance Matthews (1912-1940) was an interesting young woman who grew up in Spring Hope, North Carolina and was an active member of the Nash County Community. Matthews was the only child of Mattie Lou Bolton Matthews and John C. Matthews, a prominent postmaster and businessman. A graduate of the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro (now UNC-Greensboro), she was also the founder of the Spring Hope Alumnae Club.

Matthews was most notably known for being an active writer and the editor of the Nash County News in Spring Hope. She was one of the first female newspaper editors in the area during the early twentieth century. You can view some of Constance Matthew’s editing work on DigitalNC. Several issues of the Nash County News are available in the North Carolina Newspapers Collection.

Tragically, Matthews died at the young age of 28 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while riding her horse in Rocky Mount. You can view an obituary on page 22 of the July 1940 issue of the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina’s Alumnae News.

The genealogist Annie Pearl Brantley of Spring Hope acquired the Matthew family photos and gave them to the Braswell Memorial Library (Rocky Mount, N.C.). A selection of photographs of Constance, her friends and family, and her activities are now available on DigitalNC, capturing a glimpse into the short life of a remarkable woman.

braswell_blackboard_0041

The Blackboard [January 1908]

Also now available from Braswell are several issues of The Blackboard, a monthly newsletter from High School Department of Rocky Mount Graded Schools. In addition to these items, there is also a church dedication of the First Methodist Episcopal Church South of Rocky Mount. You can view these items at the links below:

To learn more about Constance Matthews and see the full collection, please visit the exhibit page. To learn more about the Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount, please visit the contributor page or the website.


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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.

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