In collaboration with our partners at Wilkes Community College, 50 new recordings, which make up hours of audio history, are now available online! These records, previously carefully maintained on reel-to-reel tape, can now be listened to anywhere, anytime. The recordings, which include several fascinating oral histories, stretch as far back as 1953 and extend to 1980.
Many of these recordings are oral histories, where a longtime local of Wilkes County recounts their lived experience in relation to the area. Interviewers, often in collaboration with Wilkes Community College, would visit the homes of longtime locals and candidly record their stories. Because of this candid nature, some recordings include the natural ambience of birdsong, rustling leaves, or chairs moving — all of which make the listener feel closer and more present to the speaker. These speakers (born as early as 1861!) speak on a variety of subjects relating to life in Wilkes County: topics include Camp Jo Harris, the life of an optometrist, and books read (and enjoyed) by former North Carolina Poet Laureate James Larkin Pearson. Many reflect on the lumber and furniture industry which rose to prominence in the area during the early twentieth century. The opinions and subjects are as varied as the memories and lives of the speakers, which paint a colorful picture of Wilkes County’s past.
If you’re interested in learning even more about the history of the area, you’re in luck! Included in this collection are a series of forums held during the 1970s, which focus on Wilkes County’s previous centuries of histories. Though you may not find much contemporary history in these recordings, its fascinating (and perhaps recursive) to hear historical discussions of history. Several of these forums were held at local high schools, and include discussions between local historians and high school students. The candid recordings often pick up teachers hushing side conversations between students; a nice reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Besides oral histories, some recordings contain previous radio broadcasts from local stations. These broadcasts often contain advertisements for local businesses, and are about news relevant to the Wilkes County area. A particular standout is a program broadcast by the Lincoln Heights choir, where schoolchildren urge voters to support a bond that would finance underrepresented schools. The program is scored by classical piano music and includes a concert by the school choir, and is just an overall beautiful listen.
You can listen to that broadcast here, or find more of Wilkes County’s history on NC Digital here. Find out more about our partners at Wilkes Community College at their website here.
These oral histories all pertain to the history and citizens of Wilkes County. Topics discussed in the recordings include the history of mills, silvering mirrors, personal stories and family histories, moonshining, fur trading, education, medicine and pharmaceuticals, Fort Defiance restoration, racecar drivers, musicians, and more.
One particularly interesting recording is Cranor Kilby’s interview. In it, he discusses his early life including the first time he made money performing, his favorite instruments, music in his early years, and keeping community songs alive. According to Kilby, there are several songs which seemed to have disappeared over the years. Through his performance of these songs, he keeps them alive for the next generation of North Carolinians and Wilkes County citizens. In the second half of his interview he performs several songs, including “Groundhog,” “Sadie,” and “Turkey Buzzard.”
To learn more about Wilkes Community College, please visit their website.
To listen to more oral histories, please click here.
Wilson C. Daniel, c. 1863, who served in the 42nd Regiment (like Tom Dula).
Margaret Ann Wesson Tesh, 1868. An example of what white women might have looked like in the Reconstruction era.
We’ve got another batch of audio materials available thanks to our partner, Wilkes Community College. This set of 16 interviews and oral histories was originally recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, and they span from 1959 to 1979.
One of the recordings in this batch is a retelling of the legend of Tom Dula, popularized in 1959 by The Kingston Trio in their version of the folk song “Tom Dooley.” The general outline of the story is that Dula, upon returning home to Wilkes county after serving in the army of the Confederacy, had a relationship with at least two women, Laura (or Laurie) Foster and Ann Melton. It is suspected that this relationship triangle went bad and that Dula murdered Foster. He then attempted to flee into Tennessee. However, he was arrested and returned to North Carolina, where he was found guilty both by a jury in Iredell county and later by the North Carolina Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death in Statesville and hanged on May 1, 1868, which became the basis for the song.
The version of the story told in this recording (perhaps by Tom Ferguson, though the tape is unclear), also made in 1959, leans more into pastoral genre than other popular accounts. The speaker devotes a great deal of time to describing the home of Dula and his mother, which he says many in the area remember. He describes a lean-to on the side of the house (which he guesses was built around 1850) where Tom Dula stayed. He also describes the house as sitting among “a profusion of honeysuckle and roses.”
However, this account deserves a little bit of scrutiny, since it tends to romanticize and draw from the speaker’s imagination. The storyteller describes Dula as a musician who carried a violin around his neck and who only participated in the Civil War insofar as to entertain his fellow soldiers, though we know he was a member of the 42nd Regiment of the North Carolina Infantry. He also asserts that Dula was handsome and popular with the ladies, which, of course, makes it impossible that he was a “scoundrel” (Ferguson is not a Jane Austen fan, I take it).
Zebulon B. Vance c. 1875 (courtesy of the Library of Congress).
In addition to asserting Dula’s innocence, this version of the story describes Foster as an “innocent” girl with a talent for weaving, though author John Foster West asserts that Dula, Foster, and Melton were all infected with syphilis. Sadly, little is recorded about either Foster or Melton, and—perhaps tragically—Foster’s portrait now hangs beside Dula’s in the Tom Dooley Museum.
One final surprising detail about this story is that Dula was represented by none other than former North Carolina Governor and U.S. Senator Zebulon Baird Vance. Though biographer Clement Dowd mentions that Vance did not always prepare well for his cases, the storyteller in this version lauds Vance for coming to Dula’s rescue and attributes the two convictions to the “carpetbaggers” who made up the jury.
A September 1948 article about the success of the Farmer’s Day celebration.
Three more years and nearly 4000 pages of the Wilkes Journal-Patriot have been newly added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Wilkes County Public Library. While the collection previously held editions of the Journal-Patriot from 1933 to 1947, these new editions brings our holdings to the year 1950. Based out of North Wilkesboro in the northwest part of the state, the Journal-Patriot services Wilkes County.
Published three times a week, the Journal-Patriot covers local headlines, often local municipal developments or political events. The annual Farmer’s Day celebrations were always very popular, with the newspaper regularly advertising them to attract residents. In 1948, the celebration had a parade that was two miles long, and featured an address by former Governor (and later Senator) J.M. Broughton. These Farmers Day celebrations were famous throughout Wilkes County, with the 1949 celebration having a record crowd at that time, and a record of nearly 125 floats, units, or groups on the roster.
An October 1949 article about that year’s Farmers’ Day celebration
Having this new influx of pages from the Journal-Patriot helps us increase our representation of newspapers from the mountainous parts of the state. To browse through other materials from the Wilkes County Public Library, take a look at their partner page, or visit their website.
December 8, 1941 issue of the Wilkes Journal-Patriot newspaper.
The Wilkes Journal-Patriot, nominated for digitization by the Wilkes County Public Library, is one of our most recently added newspaper titles on DigitalNC. Wilkes county is located in the northwestern part of the state, and the Journal-Patriot comes out of North Wilkesboro, the county seat.
With the permission of the Journal-Patriot, we were able to digitize papers spanning 1933-1947. Some of the very first issues headline big national news, like Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration as President of the United States. The paper contains a good bit of local news, covering events held by local clubs, progress in developing businesses, the implementation of social services throughout the county and, of course, crime. The earliest issues frequently discuss prohibition, like officers shutting down local stills or the legalization of 3.2 beer.
Through the forties, much of the paper is taken up by war news from abroad and at home, describing local sentiment and civilian defense efforts. Sales of war bonds, collections of valuable rubber and other scrap, and other local contributions to winning the war abound. There’s a column entitled “Wilkes Men with the Colors” or “Wilkes Men in Service” that follows local citizens serving in the armed forces.
We’re pleased to welcome Wilkes County Public Library, a new partner. You can view more items about Wilkes County on our site, or browse additional newspapers from all parts of the state in the North Carolina Newspapers Collection.
In addition to the excellent music reviews and the hottest fashion tips of 1999, the recently uploaded student newspapers from Wilkes Community College offer an insider’s history of the annual music festival MerleFest. MerleFest began in 1988 and honors the memory of Eddy Merle Watson, son of music legend Doc Watson. What started out as a one-time event to fund a garden for people who are blind (Merle Watson Garden of the Senses) is now a huge source of income for the county and region. It is estimated that the “traditional plus” festival brings over $10 million to the region (source: Wilkes Journal-Patriot). Watch the festival grow through the years in these photographs and articles from the newly-digitized Cougar Cry student newspaper.
To view all items from Wilkes Community College, including yearbooks from 1968-1995, click here.
Today we’re taking a look at the most-viewed items on DigitalNC.org for 2018. Yearbooks and newspapers are the most populous and popular items on our site, so it’s no surprise that they took four of the five slots. What rose to the top and why? Take a look below.
This year our most viewed single item on DigitalNC was the 1981 Pertelote yearbook from Brevard College.
The Pertelote was popular due to the apprehension of a mailbombing suspect in October of this year and his ties to several North Carolina schools. Cesar Sayoc was a student at Brevard College in the 1980s and his photograph can be found in several locations within the 1981 yearbook, including this club photo from page 134.
On a lighter note, the second most popular item on our site was a film from the early 1980s entitled “The Outer Banks Fisherman.” It features Freshwater Bass Champion Roland Martin fishing on the Outer Banks. This film had a few particular days of internet popularity when it was mentioned on a couple of North Carolina hunting and fishing forums.
#3 North Wilkesboro Journal-Patriot Newspaper, December 8, 1941
The third most popular single item on DigitalNC was the December 8, 1941 issue of the North Wilkesboro Journal-Patriot newspaper. You can tell from this striking headline that it was published the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. This paper generally received referrals via Google all year, but we’re not sure which search terms were leading users to this page so consistently.
#4 The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian Newspaper, April 23, 1953, page 9
Many of our referrals come from Facebook, and that was the case with this fourth most popular item. It was featured in the Facebook Group “You May Be From Franklin NC If…” The original poster stated that Group members had looked for photos of the Old County Home over the years, and that they had recently uncovered this newspaper page which includes pictures of the Home’s state in 1953.
#5 The Daily Tar Heel Newspaper, September 2, 1986
Facebook sharing also boosted this item’s rating, after the UNC-Chapel Hill University Archives asked for memories of the legal drinking age being raised to 21 in 1986 and the “send-0ff” on Franklin Street before the law came into effect. They shared a quote from a police officer as well as a link to the article below, which documents the damage and disgruntlement caused by the downtown party.
Thanks for coming on our tour of the top DigitalNC items from this year. For the curious, we topped 4 million pageviews and 400K users in 2018! We’re looking forward to working with partners to share even more of North Carolina’s cultural heritage in 2019.
The following microfilmed newspapers were selected for digitization in 2017-2018. Thanks to supplemental funding from the State Library of North Carolina, we were able to complete more reels than in previous years. Reels were chosen from nominations according to our Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm.
I was poking around in the newspapers on our site looking for mentions of “Mickey Mouse” (it’s his birthday today) and did a double-take when I noticed the headline above. Dance marathons? Yes. Running marathons? Of course. Rocking chair marathons? Do tell.
Elkin, NC (Wilkes County) held a rocking chair marathon in June of 1933, billed as the “second of its kind” in one issue and the “first of its kind” in another*. Contestants had to keep their chairs rocking 50 minutes out of every hour, 24 hours per day, for as long as possible. The last person standing (swaying?) and the runner-up would each receive a portion of the gross receipts from the minimal admission price charged to spectators.
This event featured a new entertainment each evening, including Garley Foster “the human bird,” a “Mickey Mouse” circus on a tiny stage, a baby bathing beauty contest, and all sorts of exhibits. Master of ceremonies was Lippincott the Magician. Area businesses capitalized on the festivities, offering specials like the one mentioned at right (a free cheese sandwich with each bottle of beer)!
The rockers (mostly men and boys, along with a single woman) were still going strong after more than 48 hours, and the organizers decided to extend the festivities until all but one were eliminated. I really regret to inform you that I couldn’t find out who won the contest. I didn’t see any follow-up in any of the adjacent Elkin newspaper issues. If anyone has any ideas regarding where I might dig up such a small detail about 1930s Elkin, please let me know!
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.
