This week we’ve added another 60 titles to DigitalNC. Included in this batch is the possible origin of a classic North Carolina ghost story!

The Maco Light story tells of a train conductor name Joe Baldwin who was decapitated in a tragic railway accident near the small community of Maco, North Carolina. Legend has it that the ghost of Mr. Baldwin could be seen walking the tracks at night, carrying a lantern and searching for his misplaced head, but once the railroad was removed in the 1970s he was never seen again.

The Southerner, January 12, 1856

As is the case with most folk tales, the story is passed down and embellished over the years and the origin becomes a little fuzzy. There is no record of a “Joe” Baldwin being involved in a wreck, but the January 12^th, 1856 issue of The Southerner has an article detailing a train accident that took place just outside of Wilmington a week earlier. The deceased in this incident is Charles Baldwin, who suffered a fatal head injury during the crash. Given the similarities in these stories, it seems our ghost might have actually stayed in one piece.

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:

Elizabeth City

• Daily Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1905

Greensboro

• The Way of the World (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1862-1864
• The Weekly Tar Heel (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1905-1906
• The Twice-A-Week Tar Heel (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1907

Hendersonville

• The Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1916-1918
• The Hendersonville Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1918
• The News of Henderson County (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1918-1919

Oxford

• The Tattler (Oxford, N.C.) – 1921-1922
• The Oxford Leader (Oxford, N.C.) – 1876
• The Torch-Light (Oxford, N.C.) – 1874-1880
• The Oxford Torchlight (Oxford, N.C.) – 1880-1886
• The Torchlight (Oxford, N.C.) – 1886-1888

Rutherfordton

• The Rutherfordton Tribune (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1901-1904
• The Western Vindicator (Rutherfordton, N.C.) – 1868-1899

Salem

• Weekly Chronicle and Farmers’ Register (Salem, N.C.) – 1836-1837
• The Little Typo (Salem, N.C.) – 1885-1889
• The News (Salem, N.C.) – 1883-1885

Salisbury

• The Salisbury Truth (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1887-1899

Southern Pines

• The Pine Knot (Southern Pines, N.C.) – 1886-1888

Southport

• The Southport Leader (Southport, N.C.) – 1895-1896

Tarboro

• Tarboro’ Mercury (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1859-1861
• The Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1856-1858
• The North Carolinian (Tarboro, N.C.) – 1869

Taylorsville

• The Taylorsville Index (Taylorsville, N.C.) – 1890-1891

Warrenton

• The Warrenton Courier (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1868
• The Living Present (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1869
• The Warrenton News (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1878-1882
• Home Journal (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1885
• Warrenton (North-Carolina) Reporter (Warrenton, N.C.) – 1824-1841

Washington

• The Republican (Washington, N.C.) – 1839
• Rough and Ready (Washington, N.C.) – 1848
• The Statesman, and Third Congressional District Advertiser (Washington, N.C.) – 1834-1835
• North Carolina Times (Washington, N.C.) – 1856-1860
• The Union Advance Picket (Washington, N.C.) – 1862
• The Eastern Intelligencer (Washington, N.C.) – 1869
• The Union (Washington, N.C.) – 1832
• What Next (Washington, N.C.) – 1876
• Washington Dispatch (Washington, N.C.) – 1857-1861
• Washington Herald (Washington, N.C.) – 1827
• Washington Index (Washington, N.C.) – 1867
• The Washington Gazette (Washington, N.C.) – 1884-1898

Williamston

• Democratic Banner (Williamston, N.C.) – 1856-1857
• Williamston Expositor (Williamston, N.C.) – 1866-1867
• Williamston Mercury (Williamston, N.C.) – 1859

Wilson

• The North Carolinian (Wilson, N.C.) – 1867-1868
• The Daily News (Wilson, N.C.) – 1900-1901
• The Wilson Ledger (Wilson, N.C.) – 1858-1861
• The Flag of the South (Wilson, N.C.) – 1861
• The Advertiser (Wilson, N.C.) – 1888
• The Advance (Wilson, N.C.) – 1874-1876
• The Wilson News (Wilson, N.C.) – 1899
• The Daily Topic (Wilson, N.C.) – 1873
• Southern Sentinel (Wilson, N.C.) – 1856
• The Little Jewel (Wilson, N.C.) – 1875

Winston

• The Piedmont Advertiser (Winston, N.C.) – 1890
• The Winston Leader (Winston, N.C.) – 1879-1885
• The Daily Pilot (Winston, N.C.) – 1883-1884

Winston-Salem

• The Twin-City Daily Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1892-1914
• Elite (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1900
• The North Carolina Enterprise (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1885-1915
• The Enterprise (Winston-Salem, N.C.) – 1915

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.

This week we have another 38 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch, we have issues spanning 33 years from Oxford, N.C. paper Oxford Public Ledger. In addition to being the county seat for Granville County, Oxford is also home to the first female parachutist and inventor of the ripcord: Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick.

Georgia was born April 8, 1893 and weighed only three pounds at birth, earning her the nickname “Tiny.” She was married at age 12, had a child at 13, and was widowed before she was 15. In 1907, her life changed forever when she saw The Broadwicks and their Famous French Aeronauts perform aerial stunts at the North Carolina State Fair. She left home, joined the Broadwicks travelling show, and was legally adopted by the show owner, Charles Broadwick, making her “Tiny” Broadwick.

Georgia ‘Tiny’ Broadwick, 1911. Via Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

In an exhibition in Chicago the week of September 16, 1912, Broadwick became the first woman to parachute from a plane. In 1914, jumped into Lake Michigan, making her the first woman to parachute into a body of water. Also in 1914, she debuted the ripcord in a parachuting demonstration for the U.S. Army, performing the first planned free-fall jump from an airplane. By the end of her career she is said to have performed over 1,100 jumps.

Wilmington Star, January 10, 1914

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:

• Toisnot Transcript (Toisnot, N.C.) – 1876
• Rocky Mount Progress (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – 1880
• The Warsaw Brief Mention (Warsaw, N.C.) – 1880
• The Albemarle Observer (Edenton, N.C.) – 1914-1915
• The Messenger (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Times-Herald (Littleton, N.C.) – 1906-1909
• The Maxton Union (Maxton, N.C.) – 1889-1891
• Waynesville Courier (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1888-1911
• The Waynesville News (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1888
• Siler City Leader (Siler City, N.C.) – 1892
• The Troy Times (Troy, N.C.) – 1888
• The Daily News (Waynesville, N.C.) – 1886
• The Farmer’s Friend (Morganton, N.C.) – 1898
• The Norlina Headlight (Norlina, N.C.) – 1914-1924
• The Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.) – 1889-1901
• Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.) – 1901-1911
• Public Ledger and Oxford Banner (Oxford, N.C.) – 1912-1913
• Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.) – 1913-1919
• Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.) – 1919-1922
• The Tri-Weekly Examiner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1869-1872
• The Weekly Examiner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1871-1872
• The Salisbury Examiner (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1881-1883
• The Great Sunny South (Snow Hill, N.C.) – 1898
• The Stovall Courier (Stovall, N.C.) – 1898
• The People’s Paper (Warren Plains, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• Washington Weekly Progress (Washington, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• Washington Progress (Washington, N.C.) – 1888-1891
• The Roxboro Herald (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1881
• The Person County News (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1882-1883
• Person County Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1893-1896
• The Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1896-1910
• The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1911-1917
• The Argonaut (Rocky Mount, N.C.) – 1894
• The Selma News (Selma, N.C.) – 1887
• The Messenger (Siler City, N.C.) – 1898-1900
• The Woman’s Right (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1874
• The Sunny Home (Toisnot, N.C.) – 1881-1883
• The People’s Press (Salem, N.C.) – 1851-1892

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.

This week we have another 40 titles up on DigitalNC! In this batch we have special editions of Morganton’s The News-Herald that detail the destruction caused to Western North Carolina by “The Great Flood of 1916.”

In July of 1916, two hurricanes hit Western Carolina within a week of each other. The first one came from the Gulf Coast and stalled over the region from the 8^th until the 10^th, and the second made landfall in South Carolina, reached the mountains on the 15^th, and dumped an astounding 22 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.

Asheville Grocery, 1916. Image via ourstate.com

After the storms had passed, the Swannanoa River was a mile wide, the French Broad was four times its normal width, there were over 300 landslides, and the town of Hendersonville was surrounded by a lake. At least 80 people died in the flooding, but since so many people lived in rural areas, the exact number is unknown.

July 18, 1916

July 19, 1916

July 20, 1916

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:

• The Liberty Register (Liberty, N.C.) – 1899-1900
• The Kernersville News (Kernersville, N.C.) – 1883-1888
• Jonesboro Leader (Jonesboro, N.C.) – 1888-1892
• Daily Progress (New Bern, N.C.) – 1860
• The Graphic (Nashville, N.C.) – 1899-1925
• The Constitution (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1880
• The Union Labor Record (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1922-1937
• The Cottage Visitor (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1869
• Carolina Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1831-1832
• The Second Century (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1881
• The News-Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1902-1922
• The Greenville Index (Greenville, N.C.) – 1894
• Goldsboro Weekly Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1914-1915
• The Albemarle Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1886
• Murfreesboro Index (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1887-1896
• Piedmont Press (Hickory, N.C.) – 1873-1887
• The Hickory Press (Hickory, N.C.) – 1897-1900
• Randolph Regulator (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1876-1879
• The Randolph Sun (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1878
• North Carolina Bulletin (Asheboro, N.C.) – 1856-1857
• The New North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1871-1877
• Greensboro North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1886-1891
• The Daily Workman (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1885-1889
• Greensboro Telegram (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1910-1911
• The Weekly Index (Henderson, N.C.) – 1868-1869
• The Henderson Index (Henderson, N.C.) – 1870
• The Hustler (Henderson, N.C.) – 1899
• Evening Herald (Henderson, N.C.) – 1900
• The Henderson News (Henderson, N.C.) – 1887-1888
• The Vance Farmer (Henderson, N.C.) – 1892
• Henderson Daily Dispatch (Henderson, N.C.) – 1916-1923
• Albemarle Sentinel (Edenton, N.C.) – 1839-1840
• Carolina Miscellany (Edenton, N.C.) – 1832
• North-Carolina Miscellany (Edenton, N.C.) – 1833
• The Edenton Clarion (Edenton, N.C.) – 1880-1881
• Edenton Sentinel, and Albemarle Intelligencer (Edenton, N.C.) – 1841
• Albemarle Bulletin (Edenton, N.C.) – 1850-1851
• American Banner (Edenton, N.C.) – 1856
• The Express (Edenton, N.C.) – 1859
• Eastern Courier (Edenton, N.C.) – 1900

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.