Digital NC would like to thank our partner, the Person County Museum of History, for allowing us to help make available these new materials. To see more from Person County Museum of History, visit their website or their partner page!
One of the delights of the bicentennial edition of The Pilot is that it is full of little tidbits of Moore County history. One blurb celebrates the legacy of Flora Macdonald, the folk hero who helped Charles escape from Scotland after the Jacobite Rebellion. After she was imprisoned in the Tower of London and pardoned, she immigrated with her family to North Carolina (hence Flora Macdonald College, now St. Andrews University, in Laurinburg). According to this article, some residents of Moore County can claim her as an ancestor.
From The Pilot, June 27, 1984
Another legendary figure who makes a guest appearance in The Pilot (joke unintentional) is Amelia Earhart. Earhart visited the Moore County airport in 1931 in an autogyro, a precursor to the helicopter. Her visit was part of a long history of aviation in the area, which apparently tended to conflict with another hallmark activity: golf. One resident, hoping to get flights over the course banned, wrote, “I have long felt that the airoplane flying over the golf courses is a nuisance to the players. Today I was scared out of my wits, as well as others with me, when the plane shut off its engine and swooped down to a height of about 25 feet over our heads on the 16th hole, course 3… and coasted to the field amid laughter in the plane at our discomfort.”
Map of Cluster Springs, Virginia in Halifax County (1968)
Map of Ridgeville, North Carolina in Person County (1968)
Thanks to our partner, Person County Public Library, Digital NC has now digitized maps from several counties and communities in North Carolina and Virginia. Several maps in the collection include the Ridgeville Quadrangle taken in 1968 of the small community of Ridgeville in Person County, the Cluster Springs Quadrangle from 1968 representing the community of Cluster Springs, Virginia, located in Halifax County, and the Hurdle Mills Quadrangle map from 1980 representing the small community of Hurdle Mills in Person County. Along with these maps, the collection includes maps from the 1970s and 1980s of communities in Person County.
Special thanks again to our partner Person County Public Library for the chance to digitize these maps. If you want to see more items from Person County Public Library, visit their collection.
Visit here to see more items in our Images of North Carolina collection.
Thanks to our newest partner, Person County Museum of History, four new issues of The Roxboro Courier are now available on our website. This batch expands our current holdings of the newspaper to cover from 1919 to 1946. Many of the articles in this batch relate to the aftermath of World War I and President Woodrow Wilson’s negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference.
One of the issues features an article on the creation of “grenade banks.” Hand grenades manufactured in the United States for World War I were being taken and repurposed (after the careful removal of the explosives) into miniature saving banks. The saving banks were then lent to children by community banks as a way to fundraise through War Saving Stamps. After saving for a certain period of time, the children would bring their money-filled grenades to the bank to be counted. If the child had enough money to buy a War Savings Stamp, the grenade would belong to the child. If there was not enough money for the War Savings Stamp, the money had to be invested into Thrift Stamps and the child would have to try to save enough money to keep the grenade bank during the next cycle. To view a picture of a grenade bank or to read the entire article, please click here.
The Person County Museum of History is located in Roxboro, North Carolina in the home of former North Carolina governor W. W. Kitchin. The museum has several interesting exhibits related to Person County history which discuss topics such as Sappony heritage and baseball legend Enos Slaughter. The site also features seven other historic buildings which can also be toured. Currently, the museum is temporarily closed for exhibit renovations and inventory but plans to be opened again soon.
To learn more about the Person County Museum of History, please visit their website.
To view more issues of The Roxboro Courier, please click here.
To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.
Thanks to our partner, Person County Public Library, a batch of materials including a variety of North Carolina maps, a video of Bill Clinton’s visit to the state in 2008, pamphlets and books about North Carolina history, and more are now available on our website.
Morse Gardner
An interesting work from this batch is the book, Let me tell you ’bout … when I was growing up. It contains transcribed interviews with older members of the Person County community which were conducted by elementary school students using tape recorders. The recordings were later transcribed and published into this book. The interviewees in this book were quite a diverse and exciting group. The interview with Morse Gardner (pictured above) being one of the most gripping. In her interview, Morse Gardner goes into great detail about her education and family, old medicinal remedies, her thoughts on segregation, and her community growing up.
To learn more about Person County Public Library, please visit their website.
To listen to oral histories available on our website, please click here.
Most interesting in this batch is the handmade school workbook from the 1830s. The workbook belonged to Thomas H. Briggs (born December 24, 1814). It contains sections on various math skills including compound multiplication, compound division, the single rule of three, inverse proportions, geometry (see how neat the geometry shapes are below!) and more. In addition to instructing the student on how to do complete problems, each section includes several problem examples.
Geometrical Problems
To learn more about Person County Public Library, please visit their website.
For more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbook collection.
A gap in newspaper issues available from Roxboro, N.C. has now been filled thanks to our partners at Person County Public Library. Over 600 new additions of the Person County Times, spanning the years 1936 to 1943, are ready to view online.
Previously titled The Roxboro Courier and later known as The Courier-Times, the Person County Times was published every Thursday and, from April 4th, 1937 onward, every Sunday. Bringing local news to Person and adjoining counties, topics frequently reported by the newspaper include personals, society, sports, and both home and abroad political headlines.
These additions of the Person County Times also cover the majority of World War II, introducing a North Carolinian perspective to this well documented moment in history. Issues printed during the ’40s frequently advertised war bonds and defense bond stamps as well as keeping Person county informed on ongoing war trends overseas and how to assist stateside efforts.
Advertisement highlighting the female workforce, January 31, 1943.
To learn more about Person County Public Library, visit their website, or take a look that their DigitalNC partner page. To view more of The Roxboro Courier over the years, click here.
An announcement from the September 28, 1927 issue, urging Roxboro farmers to attend a meeting about plans to grow many varieties of soybeans side by side to help determine which variety grows best.
More than 200 issues of The Roxboro Courier are now available from our newest partner, the Person County Public Library. These issues, dating from 1922-1927 were published on a weekly basis. They contain stories pertaining to life in Roxboro, North Carolina, the county seat of Person County, as well as national news. In fact, the newspaper’s tagline “home first, abroad next” indicates interest in both local and national stories. Local news includes birth and death announcements, descriptions and predictions of the economic climate in and around Pearson County, information on local elections and legislation, event announcements, and more. National news stories recount all sorts of national happenings, large and small, from statements by President Coolidge, to a story about a New England champion turkey raiser.
An image from a November 23, 1927 news story about a New England champion turkey raiser.
Although the issues up on DigitalNC are from a 6 year span, The Roxboro Courier has a long history. The paper changed it’s name three times, starting out as The Courier in 1896. In 1910 it changed to The Roxboro Courier, then in 1929 to Pearson County Times, and again in 1943 to The Courier-Times, which is still running today with both an online and print version.
To learn more about the Person County Public Library, visit their website, or take a look that their DigitalNC partner page.
One fun thing from the 1961 Phantomaire from Jordan-Matthews is a slight twist on a yearbook feature that has lasted until the present day: senior quotes. While many yearbooks ask seniors to give a line or two of reflection on their time in school, the Phantomaire staff decided to preserve some of the famous words of their teachers.
It’s clear that these quotes were picked (mostly) out of love based on what teachers were known for. For example, there’s Mr. Poindexter, who was apparently known for starting sentences with the phrase, “Now, it seems to me…” Perhaps appropriately, Ms. Lane the librarian seemed to be more concerned about the volume of conversation.
Some of the other teacher quotes are a bit more cryptic, such as the one word attributed to Ms. Brewer: “Throw!”
In contrast, P.E. teacher Mr. Charlton decided to stick with a classic.
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.
