![Hill's Albemarle (Stanly County, N.C.) City Directory [1965], page 19](https://www.digitalnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/stanly.png)
Hill’s Albemarle (Stanly County, N.C.) City Directory [1965], page 19
The new additions bring the count of Albemarle city directories to nine, documenting the business history of the city from 1910 to 1965. These directories, as well as all of those hosted on DigitalNC, are full-text searchable across the site. This makes it easy for researchers to find the names, locations, and dates of relevant information.
City Directories are useful for more than just research. They are also full of unique, local advertisements, like the one shown below. Ads like these demonstrate the creativity and style of business owners of the time period. They can also be a lot of fun!
The two directories are linked below:
To learn more about the Stanly County Museum, please visit the contributor page or the website. To view more city directories from your area, please browse the North Carolina City Directories Collection.
![Hill's Albemarle (Stanly County, N.C.) City Directory [1965], page 73](https://www.digitalnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/stanly2.png)
Hill’s Albemarle (Stanly County, N.C.) City Directory [1965], page 73
An excerpt from student Cora Belle Lee’s survey
New materials from Stanly County Museum are now up on DigitalNC. Included in this batch is a student survey from the 1920s, a 1944 ledger from the Albemarle Canteen, an attendance register from the Efird School, an Albemarle City Directory Supplement Edition from 1937, four issues of American and Efird Mills News & Views, and two scrapbooks.
The student survey from a girls boarding school in the 1920s gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the girls at the school, and includes information like each student’s favorite expression, flower, song, dish, and their “greatest desire”. Greatest desire responses ranged greatly from girl to girl and included, “to be a nurse”, “love and be loved”, “to see Europe”, “to get married”, “play a piano”, “go out west”, “to be a stage acteur”, “to be a missionary”, and “to go home (now)”. These questions also give us insight into the personalities of the individual girls. While some answered the questions dutifully, others had a bit of fun filling in their answers. In one survey, a girl responded that the color of her hair was white and that she was 8 ft tall. A few girls, in what must have been an inside joke, responded that their “first date with a boy” was in “1492”, with one girl responding “Aug. 9, 1922. (a real date)”. This fun notebook would be a good resource for investigating popular songs, slang, and dishes of the period, and it offers a wonderful personal connection to the girls at this school.
An excerpt from student Elva Jane Cathey’s survey
Candy recipes pasted directly onto the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918
Another unique object in this batch is an extensive scrapbook comprised of various news clippings pasted over the pages of the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1918. It includes recipes in the first few pages, and then newspaper articles about births, marriages, and deaths in and around Albemarle.
To see the new materials click the links below:
To learn more about the Stanly County Museum, take a look at their partner page, or visit their website.
Lions Club Scrapbook [1958], page 31
Lions Club Scrapbook [1958], page 32
The latest batch of material from the Stanly County Museum includes memorabilia from the Albemarle Lions Club as well as several yearbooks from Albemarle Senior High School.
The unique items from the Lions Club feature several members from their early activities with the club and follows them through leadership roles within the wider national organization. These items could be very useful for those interested in studying the history of Albemarle during the mid- to late twentieth century as the scrapbooks contain many newspaper clippings documenting the Lions’ activities in the area.
These new materials include additions to both the North Carolina Memory Collection, including scrapbooks and callings cards, as well as to the Images of North Carolina Collection, including photo albums and group composites.
Several of the highlights from this batch include:
In addition, five more yearbooks from Albemarle Senior High School are now available. DigitalNC has published 20 yearbooks from this school. They date from as early as 1927 and document many changes in fashion, culture, and education over the decades.
You can view all of the recently digitized yearbooks from Albemarle High School below:
To learn more about the Stanly County Museum please visit their contributor page or the website.
Map of Stanly County, published by Brevard Garrison Motor Company
We’ve added new items from the Stanly Count Museum to DigitalNC.
The latest additions to the Images of North Carolina Collection document several different decades of development in Stanly County.
Agriculture, especially cotton, was the primary economic source for the Ablemarle area during the early twentieth century. Wiscassett Mill is one of the oldest cotton and textile mills in the area, and employed many people from Stanly county. The large, panoramic images feature several of the mill’s buildings and some of the employees who kept the operation running.
Three of the four maps document new housing developments planned for the growing area during the late 1930s. The Map of Whispering Pines and Map of Forest Hills are good examples of middle class planned communities that were popping up throughout North Carolina during this period. Forest Hills was Stanly County’s first residential subdivision of this kind. The Map Showing Redivision and Additions Etc. to Forest Hills shows the growth and success of the community after only a short twelve years.
All of these images document the growth of Stanly County, especially in Albemarle, during the first half of the twentieth century. They could be of interest to anyone researching city planning and residential developments or those interested in the economic history of textiles in Stanly County and North Carolina.
In addition, the Museum was able to fill in some missing issues of The Full Moon, Albemarle High School’s student newspaper. This includes an early issue from 1929, which appears to simply be an invitation to a mock wedding upon graduation or some sort of inside joke (of which there are always many in student newspapers.
You can access all of the recent additions from the Stanly County Museum at the links below:
- Map Showing Redivision and Additions Etc. to Forest Hills, Albemarle, N.C.
- Map of Whispering Pines, Stanly Co., N.C.
- Map of Forest Hills, Albemarle, N.C.
- Wiscassett Mills, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 Mills Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 Not Shown
- Wiscassett Mills Co. 1923, Card Room No. 8 and Spin Room No. 8
Here are the new issues of The Full Moon:
To see more from the Stanly County Museum, check out their contributor page or visit the website.
The Stanly County Museum has provided a number of additional high school yearbooks and directories for the city of Albemarle to be added to DigitalNC. The yearbooks come from Albemarle High School, Norwood High School (now South Stanly High), New London High School (now North Stanly High), Endy High School, West Stanly High School, and Stanfield High School.
Sports page from the 1960 Cross Roads yearbook, “Then and Now”
Future Homemakers of America, West Stanly High School 1965
Future Farmers of America, West Stanly High School 1965
These yearbooks provide an intriguing look into the lives of students. They showcase the fashions, clubs and activities of North Carolina students, some that will be familiar to students today and some that have been abandoned over time (Did your class have child mascots? How about a superlative for Best Looking?).
For more information about the Stanly County Museum and their materials, visit their contributor page on DigitalNC or their home website.
From photos and papers documenting Albemarle schools to ledgers and scrapbooks of local citizens, we’ve uploaded more materials from the Stanly County Museum. One of our favorite items is the Marvin R. Stokes scrapbook, which has photographs related to his military service as well as action shots of motorcycle and car racing in Charlotte, like the one at right (page 9).
Yearbooks and School-Related Materials:
Scrapbooks:
Ledgers:
Ephemera:
There were also a number of photos added to those already available in the Images of North Carolina collection. You can also view all items from the Stanly County Museum.
One of the more recent items we’ve digitized from the Stanly County Museum is the “Copy of Robert E. Lee’s Farewell Address and Parole Slip of Confederate Soldier E. S. Swaringen, 1865.” It’s a self-explanatory title, and despite the historic nature of Lee’s address the Parole was probably of equal or more import to Swaringen. The well-worn parole pass is pictured below.
Dated April 10, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Va., the pass reads: “The Bearer, Sargt E. S. Swaringen of Co. “I” 52nd Regt. of N. C. D., a Paroled Prisoner of the Army of Northern Virginia, has permission to go to his home, and there remain undisturbed.” It is signed S[amuel]. Lilly.
After Lee’s surrender, over 28,000 parole passes like this one were given out to Confederate soldiers who agreed not to fight — who would give up their arms and proceed home. The blank passes were printed in the field, the operation being directed by Major General John Gibbon who recalled the difficulty of producing so many in such a short period of time. It’s interesting to think about printing logistics compared with an event as momentous as the end of a war. Printing and filling out those passes would be like supplying every person in the city of Sanford NC with a small form within 24 hours.
E. S. Swaringen, the bearer of the pass, was Eli Shankle Swaringen or Swearingen (1836-1913) of Stanly County, North Carolina. The Swaringen family was and is prominent in Stanly County; William Swaringen was one of the first justices of the peace. During the Civil War, the 52nd Regiment, of which Eli was a part, was organized on 22 April 1862 near Raleigh. You can read a more extensive description of the Regiment’s activities in Volume 3 of the Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina, in the Great War 1861-’65, p. 223 [271 online].
Swaringen and family are buried at Randall United Methodist Church in Norwood, North Carolina, and his tombstone, albeit slightly hard to read, is pictured here.
You can see more Stanly County Museum items at digitalnc.org.
We’ve added a number of newly scanned items from the Stanly County Museum to DigitalNC.org. It’s a wide variety of content:
- Archer’s BBQ Restaurant scrapbook, 1956-1959
- Delta Kappa Gamma Society minutes, booklets, and histories, 1951-1979
- Minute books and ledgers from the Blackmer Masonic Lodge, 1850-1928
- The Stanly Mason newspaper, several issues from 1955, 1959, 1960
- The Full Moon, Albemarle High School’s student newspaper, issues dating from 1931-1990
- Sketch of Hydrants and Hose Houses, Badin, NC, 1924
- Commencement Exercises from Millingport High School, 1939-1940
- Copy of Robert E. Lee’s Farewell Address and Parole Slip of Confederate Soldier E. S. Swaringen, 1865
You can see all of Stanly County Museum’s items in DigitalNC.
Scrapbooks featuring newspaper clippings of Stanly County and Albemarle men and women in World War II are now available at DigitalNC.org. When families received letters or news of their soldiers, The Stanly Observer helped share the updates with the whole community. The majority of stories discuss promotions, furloughs, and training. Some highlights include news of men from the area in North Africa and reuniting with familiar faces and enjoying free cigarettes courtesy of a public program sponsored by Walter B. Hill Post of the American Legion. These scrapbooks are from the collections of the Stanly County Museum.
World War II scrapbooks from Stokes County and Wilson County are also available at DigitalNC.org.
We’ve recently completed digitization of more materials from the Stanly County Museum in Albemarle, N.C. New materials include historic photos, more notebooks and ledgers from 19th-century doctor F. J. Kron, and a few new scrapbooks. One of our favorites was the scrapbook from the “Stanly Squares” a square dancing club in the 1970s and 1980s.
