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Browse Bookbags & Burial Records From Harnett County

Several local history materials have just been added to our site thanks to our partner, the Harnett County Public Library. This batch includes three sets of cemetery records, which may be of particular interest to family genealogists, and three decades of local library newsletters.

A black-and-white photo of graves askew after a storm. The tallest grave stone on the right says "Wade."

Graves after a storm, Harnett County

The three collections of cemetery records document are from the Colonial Dames of America in Wilmington. The Cemetery Records of Cumberland, Harnett, and Iredell Counties is a compilation of records from 1939; this copy of the Richmond County Graveyard Record is from 1969. The Cemetery Records of Mecklenburg County are undated, but the records seem to begin in the 17oos and extend into the late 1800s.

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). 

A black-and-white photo of Garfield the cat sitting in a Christmas wreath

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.

The full batch of materials is available here and under all of the materials from Harnett County Public Library. To see even more materials from Harnett County, check out their partner page and their website.


The Richmond Headlight Now Digitized and Online at DigitalNC

The front page of the July 1, 1904 Richmond Headlight

43 issues of the Richmond Headlight have been newly added to DigitalNC and are available now. These are the first issues of the Richmond Headlight to be digitized and uploaded to DigitalNC, covering from March 1901 to September 1906. It is also the first newspaper on DigitalNC from Richmond County. Published as a weekly newspaper in Rockingham, the Richmond Headlight advertised itself as the “only Democratic paper in the county” at the time. As the newspaper folded in late 1906, this batch may represent the entirety of the Richmond Headlight‘s circulation still in known existence, completing the collection.

The Headlight provided local news for Richmond County residents, as well as updates from throughout the state. Rather than specifically focusing on the county seat, the city of Rockingham, it made efforts to include news from all throughout the county, from towns both large and small. Looking through the articles now, it is remarkable to see what news the editors and reporters believed to be important to contemporary readers. The “Local Column” announced what had happened in the previous week; in one issue, it noted the election of Governor Robert B. Glenn in 1904, the creation of a lodge of the Junior Order United American Mechanics, and made mention of one resident spending Sunday with another.

Adding the Richmond Headlight to our collection represents an invaluable resource in helping us learn about the lives of North Carolina in the beginning of the 20th century.  To view more newspapers on DigitalNC, visit our newspaper page.


Partners Share Their Stories: Richmond Community College in Hamlet

Cover shows a group of men and women in casual clothing smiling at the camera. Text: Join us this fall at Richmond Tech!

Cover of the Fall 1986 College Connection.

We are one of 29 finalists for the Institute of Museum and Library Services 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Now through April 13, IMLS is asking the people who have been impacted by the Digital Heritage Center to share their stories. If you have a story you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact us or share via social media by tagging us on Facebook (@NC Digital Heritage Center) or on Twitter (@ncdhc).

Today’s story comes from Carolyn Bittle, Dean of Learning Resources at Richmond Community College in Hamlet. We have worked with RCC to digitize their yearbooks and other campus publications. Carolyn’s story is an example of digitization of print resources garnering attention and renewing interest in the college’s history.

I can say that since Richmond has been able to get some of our archival material digitized and online, it has increased interest from our administration.  

As a result of getting our older copies of the College Connection online, with your help, we are in the progress of “ rebirthing”  the College Connection [as RCC Connect]. The publication stopped in the spring of 2009, and now we are working on bringing it back into publication.  Hopefully, this will be available mid-March. The success stories, and class offerings were favored during its early printings, and it reached a lot of people in our two county area.  

So thank you for helping to get our publication back up! 


40 Titles added to DigitalNC this week!

Header for August 31, 1888 issue of Durham, N.C. paper The Daily Tobacco Plant

This week we have 40 more titles on DigitalNC from all across North Carolina! Most of these papers are from Raleigh (such as the long-running Raleigh Evening Times and the Methodist Episcopal paper Raleigh Christian Advocate) as well as many papers from smaller communities. We have Rich Square’s Roanoke-Chowan Times, The Warrenton Gazette from Warrenton, The Roanoke News from Weldon, and Richmond County’s Rockingham Rocket. Whether it’s marriage announcements, classifieds for lost pets, or local elections where the winner barely reaches 100 votes, these newspapers give a glimpse into what small town life in North Carolina was like over a hundred years ago.

Header for the August 14, 1875 issue of Raleigh, N.C. paper Southern Illustrated Age

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


Pie vs. Cake

Cake v Pie montageAs we at the Digital Heritage Center have pondered the question Our State has lain before us – Pie or Cake? Cake or Pie? – we decided to don our fedoras, flip open our notebooks, and delve back into our collection of North Carolina newspapers to see when and how these dueling desserts have turned up in press history. So, what did our decisively unscientific survey* turn up?

First Mention in the Papers

Winner: Pie, 1853

Pumpkin Pie, to be specific. It was mentioned as being on the menu in the December 1, 1853 (p.2/col.2) issue of the Fayetteville Observer, when describing a dinner of “Eighteen States” to be held in Albany, NY in honor of Connecticut. However, you may be arguing that you want to know about mentions in a NORTH CAROLINA context. Then we present to you:

First Mention in the Papers, Related to a North Carolina Event

Winner: Cake, 1855

The best Pound Cake, Fruit Cake, or Sponge Cake could each win you a premium of $0.25  at the Robeson Agricultural Fair of 1855, which is the earliest mention of pies or cakes we can find in relation to a North Carolina event. The Richmond County Fair of 1857 gave out prizes for the best Pound, Fruit, and Sponge Cakes, as well as the best Potato, Whortleberry, or Green Apple Pie. Our state fair only began asking for entries for cakes in 1870, with Sponge, Fruit, or Plain Cake.

Earliest Recipe Found

Winner: Cake, 1878

Cold Water Cake Recipe, Chatham Record, 10-10-1878

Cold Water Cake Recipe, Chatham Record, 10-10-1878

The Chatham Record, October 10, 1878 (p.4/col.2) lists “receipts” for a few cakes, although none of them are battling it out in the Our State contest. You’ll see Cold-Water Cake (right), Currant Cake, and a Lemon Meringue, the latter of which we took at first glance to be a pie but the bottom is lined with sponge cake so we counted it as cake. This is the earliest actual recipe we could locate in the collection.

Pie isn’t far behind, though. The January 2, 1879 (p.4/col.1) issue of The Chatham Record lists a receipt for Sweet Potato Pie, another North Carolina favorite.

Most Difficult / Largest Dessert

Fruit Cake Recipe, Asheboro Courier June 1, 1911

Shopping list for a 13 lb Fruit Cake, Asheboro Courier, 06-01-1911

Winner: Recipe for a 13-lb Fruit Cake from 1911

“Do not attempt to make the cake yourself unless you are experienced in this line; for this is the test of cake making…” Six months before Christmas, The Courier of Asheboro, June 1, 1911 (p.3/col.5), posted an examination of the making of Fruit Cake, complete with a recipe for a 13-pound version that would set you back $2.73 at prevailing prices. However, the author (Dorothy Avery Howard) warns you that Fruit Cake is no task for a young bride, as it is “called one of the most difficult to undertake.” Luckily, she provides a tried and true recipe which you can find in the paper.

Is North Carolina an Angel or a Devil’s Food Cake state?

Winner: Angel

Between mentions in social columns or posted recipes, North Carolina is an Angel Food Cake state by a margin of 6:1. Either we truly side with the Angels, or we keep our Devil’s Food Cake consumption under wraps…

Mrs. Marie Fogle, Firestone News, 07-25-1953

Mrs. Marie Fogle, Firestone News, 07-25-1953

Best Photograph of a Chef with Her Dessert

Winner: Mrs. Fogle and “Mary’s Pound Cake”

In the Firestone News, July 25, 1953 (p.6) we find Mrs. Marie Fogle who produces “a wide assortment of tempting, eye-appealing cakes.” The recipe for her favorite pound cake is included in the article. She is called an artist with a spatula, and from the looks of the cake in the photo we’d take one right now.

Overall Winner?

Heck if we know. We love them both and now we’re pretty sure North Carolina chefs have been mastering them all for years. If you can beat our findings using newspapers on DigitalNC.org, get in touch and we’ll dub you master chef.

* margin of error +/- 3.14159


30 Additional Newspaper Titles up on DigitalNC!

Headmast for August 1, 1866 issue of Pittsboro's Semi-Monthly Record of the Pittsboro' Scientific Academy

This week we have another 30 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC! In the September 3, 1891 issue of Boone’s Watauga Democrat we have an article describing the terrible train wreck of Bostian’s Bridge in Statesville. This fatal accident sparked a legendary North Carolina ghost story, but perhaps even scarier are the boogeymen railroad companies would often create to avoid accountability: train wreckers.

By 1891 the railroad system in America had exploded, allowing for easier cross-country travel and bringing with it fresh new paranoia about disasters and scary strangers coming to your town. Blaming a wreck on some shady character was a lot easier than paying a fortune on settlements due to negligence. Almost immediately after the August 27, 1891 accident, the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company put out ads offering a $10,000 reward for the apprehension of the perpetrator, leading to many being accused and arrested (conveniently with the help of a railroad detective).

The editor at Statesville’s Landmark provides us with an incredibly detailed account of the accident and the recovery effort, complete with interviews from survivors and witnesses where they describe rotten cross-ties and rail workers throwing this evidence into the creek below the bridge. Many of those interviewed make a point to mention that there were no signs of robbery after the crash, which doesn’t exactly support the idea of this being some dastardly deed by a bandit.

Over the next year, we’ll be adding millions of newspaper images to DigitalNC. These images were originally digitized a number of years ago in a partnership with Newspapers.com. That project focused on scanning microfilmed papers published before 1923 held by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library. While you can currently search all of those pre-1923 issues on Newspapers.com, over the next year we will also make them available in our newspaper database as well. This will allow you to search that content alongside the 2 million pages already on our site – all completely open access and free to use.

This week’s additions include:

Asheville

Boone

Burlington

Chapel Hill

Durham

Fayetteville

Fairfield

Gastonia

Holly Springs

Jackson

Kinston

Lexington

Lincolnton

Pittsboro

Raleigh

Salisbury

Tarboro

Winston

If you want to see all of the newspapers we have available on DigitalNC, you can find them here. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries for permission to and support for adding all of this content as well as the content to come. We also thank the North Caroliniana Society for providing funding to support staff working on this project.


1958 Was a Big Year for Chapel Hillians, According to Added Issues of the Chapel Hill News Leader

Masthead of the Chapel Hill News Leader

You may be surprised to learn what was worrying the citizens of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 1958. Our most recent additions from the Chapel Hill News Leader, supplied by our partner, the Chapel Hill Historical Society, touch on everything from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, civil rights, alcohol laws, and policing to some new technologies arriving the city.

A newspaper article from the Chapel Hill News Leader

July 31, 1958

One of the first big stories breaks about midway through the year: the parking meter debacle. Apparently, the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen had been tossing around the idea of installing parking meters for a couple of years, and the decision to finally do it happened in 1958. Local businessmen immediately pushed back, arguing that instituting paid parking would hurt their businesses. 

Apparently, everyone could agree on the fact that the parking meters were ugly, but the author of the article, Roland Giduz, speculated that complaints about the meters would die down once everyone realized how much they improve traffic (spoiler alert: that doesn’t really happen based on the coverage that follows). 

Just below the meter gripes article is another big story of the year: school integration. It describes two issues for an upcoming school merger election: first, whether Black students would attend Carrboro Elementary School, and second, whether the Chapel Hill School Board would charge $30 tuition for students from Carrboro. (Note: more materials about Carrboro Elementary School were also uploaded in this batch, including architectural plans and a document of education specifications). 

The earlier articles that this one refers to (from May 22, 1958) don’t mention race until the very last line: “As to the general pupil assignment policy for next year, [Mr. Culbreth] said that he anticipated that the Board would re-adopt the existing regulations, whereby racial segregation has been maintained.” As the July article notes, this is four years after the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

A partial page from the Chapel Hill News Leader, 1958

September 11, 1958

The issue gets a more personal focus in the September 11, 1958 issue, when the Orange County School Board denied Lee and Lattice Vickers’ child admittance to the then all-white Carrboro Elementary School. The Vickers’ case was set against the backdrop of ongoing school assignment problems, with neighboring school systems fighting each other over pupil placement and resources. 

The fight to racially integrate schools in Chapel Hill (and throughout North Carolina) continued well into the 1960s, and, sadly, none of the community papers that we have from the area extend past 1963. One of the latest articles available, from The Chapel Hill Weekly, reports a survey of Southern business leaders and how their perspective on industry shaped their views on the matter.

But, in 1958, public school integration was still competing for front page space with—you guessed it—parking meters. 

Another major debate in the community during this time was over the sale of alcohol. North Carolina was ahead of the curve of prohibition, outlawing the sale and manufacture of alcohol in 1909 (a decade before the national amendment). And, even after the repeal of prohibition in 1933, the Alcoholic Beverage Control system wasn’t created until 1937. (Graham County remained a “dry” county until just recently). In 1958, there was still a lot of resistance to the ABC setting up shop.

Newspaper article from the Chapel Hill News Leader

November 17, 1958

In this case, efforts were headed by a citizens group concerned about the effects of the ABC stores in the area. Meetings were held at the University Baptist Church, though Carolyn Noell, a spokesperson for the group, noted that local churches were only providing contacts and spaces (not serving as official sponsors). 

Not long before this, the News Leader reprinted an article from the Durham Morning Herald about how lucrative the ABC stores were. Apparently, the Durham ABC stores sold almost $58 million of alcohol from June 30, 1957, to September 1958 (enough to pay for Durham’s entire share of the Raleigh-Durham airport, plus some for Lincoln Hospital, local schools, warehouse equipment, public libraries, garbage disposal services, and a rabies inspection program, among other things). To put these sales into proportion, a fifth of whiskey (from a “popular brand”) cost $3.95 back then. Certainly, money was at the heart of the argument for the Orange County Citizens for Legal Control in their ad in the January 29, 1959 issue.

An article from the Chapel Hill News Leader Of course, in a college town like Chapel Hill, there’s also frequent news about the University. One article, from October 2, 1958, warned that student enrollment may swell to between 12,000 and 14,000 in 1970 (today, total enrollment exceeds 30,000). And—surprise!—much of the concern about the growing student population is related to parking.

One of the funnier articles about UNC-CH is about Rameses, the live mascot (not to be confused with costumed cheerleader Rameses, former bodybuilder). Rameses VIII, then in power, was “the most aggressive ram I’ve handled,” according to Glen Hogan, his boarder. He was also one of the biggest up until then, clocking in at 250 pounds. These two facts, Hogan hoped, would dissuade rival Duke students from stealing the mascot. 

The reigning Rameses ( Otis) ascended in 2020 as the twenty-second mascot. His handler, James Hogan, is part of the same family that has been caring for the mascots since the 1920s. Rameses XXII has “come a long way” in getting used to people and is (presumably) a bit sweeter than his “big and mean” predecessor—though he is still well-guarded.

A partial page of the Chapel Hill News Leader

December 4, 1958

One final story from 1958 is the opening of the Chapel Hill Public Library, which was originally opened in the Hill House on West Franklin Street. The goal, according to Mrs. Richmond Bond, chairman of the board, was to “supplement” the University’s library by focusing on children’s and popular books that were generally unavailable at UNC. 

Bond argued that Chapel Hill was the only town of its size in North Carolina without a public library and that the University library had “almost more than it can do” with the increase of UNC students. This led the Board of Aldermen to approve a $4,600 grant for the local library. Somebody even donated over 300 books before the library opened its doors.

In the very last uploaded issue of the Chapel Hill News Leader, from January 29, 1959, the top headline reads, “Death of a Newspaper.” Due to internal litigation, the paper had to stop running. 

You can see all of our issues of the Chapel Hill News Leader here and more materials from the Chapel Hill Historical Society on their partner page. You can also visit their website for more information.


A view into school segregation: Durham City Schools Slide Collection now online

classphoto

Elementary school class portrait on steps of an unidentified building

The William Franklin Warren Durham City School Slide Collection, featuring almost 600 lantern and Kodachrome slides, is now available on DigitalNC. This collection is from Durham County Library, and show images of Durham city schools, both White and African-American, from the 1930s and 1940s. The slides include images of classroom scenes, school celebrations, exterior shots of school buildings, a high school class trip to Williamsburg and Richmond, VA, group portraits of sports teams, portraits of teachers and school administrators, and more.  Schools highlighted include Hillside High School and Durham High School, as well as many elementary and junior high schools that no longer exist.  Rosenwald schools are also featured in the images.  In addition there are slides from various school presentations that report district valuations and statistics, and images of other locations in Durham such Duke University, downtown Durham, mills and factories, the Durham Athletic Park, and residential neighborhoods, including Hope Valley. These slides provide rich documentation of segregated Durham school life through the Great Depression and World War II.

classpet

Elementary school students taking care of class rabbits

The slides were most likely taken by William Franklin “Frank” Warren (1887-1979), the superintendent of Durham city schools from 1933-1947. In the early twentieth century, Durham’s schools were organized in two separate systems, the county schools and the city schools. Durham city schools originated with the establishment of a graded school system in 1882, with the first white graded school opening in 1882 followed by the first Black graded school in 1885. As elsewhere in the South, the schools at this time were segregated.

gymclass

Durham High School girls’ gym class

Click here to browse all of the slides in this collection, and here to take a look at Durham County Library’s finding aid. Learn more about Durham County Library by visiting their partner page or website.

libraryscene

Students studying at the library


“Roanoke Rapids…where life may be lived enjoyably”

This week our colleagues at the North Carolina State Library are focusing on Halifax County as their county of the week.  We are taking the opportunity to again dive a bit deeper into some of our city directories from that county.  Two cities from Halifax County have directories in DigitalNC: Roanoke Rapids and Scotland Neck.

Graphic from Roanoke Rapids City Directory, 1958

The directories from Roanoke Rapids, which cover 1938 until 1963, were all published by the Southern Directory Company, which was based in Asheville, NC, and are all Miller’s Directories.  Roanoke Rapids, which is Halifax County’s county seat, was a rapidly growing town during the period the directories were published.  In addition to the expected listings of businesses and addresses of citizens of Roanoke Rapids, the directories all include detailed descriptions of facilities in the town, including public works, churches, schools, and amusements.  There are also descriptions of the population of the town and all the counties in NC, and the tax rates in the town and county at the time.

Directory of local facilities in town from the 1938 Roanoke Rapids City Directory

Directory of local facilities in town from the 1938 Roanoke Rapids City Directory

 

Information about facilities in town from the 1958 city directory

Information about facilities in town from the 1958 city directory

Taxes in Roanoke Rapids from the 1958 city directory

Taxes in Roanoke Rapids from the 1958 city directory

There are two directories from Scotland Neck, which cover 1960-1962.  Scotland Neck’s directories were published by Hill Directory Co., Inc., based out of Richmond, VA.  These directories do not included detailed descriptions of the town, just the basic ads, telephone directory and address directory for Scotland Neck and the surrounding area.  The ads in the Scotland Neck directories all include well done drawings by the publication company, making that section more appealing for consumers compared to the Miller directories for Roanoke Rapids.

Supermarket ad from Scotland Neck City directoryAd for Home Furniture Co. from Scotland Neck City Directory

To learn more about city directories, check out past blog posts here.  And to view more city directories from across North Carolina, visit the City Directories Collection on DigitalNC.


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