Masthead from the April 12, 1940 issue of The Pinehurst Outlook
Thanks to funding from the Moore County Genealogical Society a variety of Moore County newspapers dating from 1923-1939 have just been added to DigitalNC. The titles include:
The Pinehurst Outlook is more like a magazine. It almost exclusively covers golf and news from other sports. It’s a handsome paper with custom mastheads and covers and a lot of photos, all reflective of the wealth brought to Pinehurst as a renowned golf destination and resort town. The Pinehurst Daily Press (which continues as the Sandhills News-Press) also heavily features sports news. Articles about PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) tournaments, a listing of daily golf tee times, and updates on local golfers’ careers are some of the news items frequently included. The Moore County News is a paper covering broader local topics and a lot of syndicated content. There’s agriculture news like the “Annual Dewberry Special” issue. (A dewberry is similar to a blackberry.) Social and business news from Aberdeen, Carthage, and Cameron can be found as well.
One fun find was an article about a Moore County pastor named Rev. Wade C. Smith who created simple comics to illustrate Christian principles to his pupils. Dubbed “Litte Jetts,” the figures in the comics look a lot like Screen Beans, ubiquitous stick figures found in Microsoft clip art from the mid 1990s to around 2014. This article from the March 12, 1931 issue of The Moore County News talks about Smith’s work and its popularity, and includes the comic below.
The Moore County News March 12, 1931
Here’s another comic I could locate, from March 19, 1931. I’ve added a Screen Bean to the right for comparison.
The Moore County News March 19, 1931
To view more Moore County newspapers as well as other materials documenting that area visit the county page.
The Alamance Gleaner’s News Snapshots of the Week for July 9, 1914 included details of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.
The notice of the Archduke’s assassination published by The Enterprise, The Hickory Democrat, and The Roanoke Beacon.
One hundred years ago, on June 28, 1914, the Archduke of Austria and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the nationalist group Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia). Many historians cite this incident as one of the first of several events which led to World War I. In commemoration of the war’s centennial, the staff at the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center will post occasional blog entries which examine the way in which the conflict was covered by newspapers across the state. Blog posts will focus in particular on how the war affected communities in North Carolina. Of the newspapers made available online by Digital NC, ten were in print during the war, each published once per week:
July 2 notice of the Archduke’s assassination from The Courier (Asheboro).
The Archduke’s assassination received mention in several of these papers. The Enterprise, The Hickory Democrat, and The Roanoke Beacon all printed the same column, shown above. Since the assassination occurred on a Sunday, the news had time to cross the ocean and reach editors before the weekly editions were published on Thursday and Friday. However, The Alamance Gleaner did not alert their readers to the event until the following week when it was included in the syndicated News Snapshots of the week (see top of post).
Throughout July, tensions in Europe continued to escalate. By the end of the month, Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia and in early August, Germany declared war on Russia, France, and Belgium. This led to Britain’s August 4 declaration of war against Germany.
Headline from the July 31 edition of The Carolina Home and Farm and the Eastern Reflector.
With the beginning of open hostilities, the conflict began to receive more attention in North Carolina newspapers. In the edition of July 30, The Alamance Gleaner ran a short column headlined “The War Dogs Aloose in Europe,” asserting, “It is now imminent that all Europe will be involved in a bloody conflict.” On the same day, The Mebane Leader published a column originally printed in The Charlotte Observer in which Serbia is compared to a copperhead snake. The average American may have been unaware of Europe’s rising tensions only a month ago. By the first week of August 1914, the tensions had boiled over into full-blown war, making the situation newsworthy to the citizens of North Carolina.
Much of the coverage of this year’s men’s and women’s U.S. Open golf tournaments in Pinehurst mentions the long history of golf in the community. DigitalNC includes many resources that document and illustrate the history of golf in Pinehurst, including early issues of The Pinehurst Outlook, a weekly newspaper published for the town’s winter residents who had left their homes in the northeast in search of recreation and a more temperate climate.
Here are a small selection of clippings from the paper, including some of the first mentions of golf in the late 1890s, news about course designer Donald Ross, an announcement of the opening of the famous No. 2 course, and news of well-known golfers in Pinehurst.
Donald Ross in Pinehurst, 1935 [Tufts Archives (Pinehurst, N.C.)]
As the sporting world descends on Pinehurst for the U.S. Open this week, I thought it would be a good time to look at some of the terrific resources available on DigitalNC.
At the center of all research on Pinehurst history is the Tufts Archives. Located in the Givens Memorial Library in the village of Pinehurst, the Tufts Archives is home to photographs, manuscripts, and artifacts related to the history of the town of Pinehurst. It is especially strong in the establishment of golf in the region, with papers of the legendary course designer Donald Ross. Yesterday’s New York Times had a feature on the renovation of the famed Pinehurst No. 2 golf course and talked about the importance of the Tufts Archives in determining the original condition of the course.
The Digital Heritage Center has worked with the Tufts Archives to digitize and share online a small selection of historic photos from the collection. These include images of prominent golfers in Pinehurst, including Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, and a young Jack Nicklaus.
The Center has also digitized early issues of The Pinehurst Outlook, a weekly paper that started publication in 1897, just as the town was being developed as a resort community. One of the earliest mentions I found of golf in the paper was an article from February 18, 1898, announcing the completion of the first golf course in Pinehurst, a nine-hole course modeled after the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland. The course included “a thick growth of rye” which was kept short by a flock of sheep.
These early issues of the Outlook also include many mentions of Donald Ross, who was at the time not known as a designer but simply as an accomplished golfer available for lessons. The paper reported on Ross’s ongoing improvements to the courses and the steadily growing interest in golf in Pinehurst.
Also available on DigitalNC are more than 20 years of issues of The Pilot, from the neighboring community of Southern Pines. The Pilot has always done a terrific job covering the local community and these early issues include many articles about golf in the region.
Keep up with the Digital Heritage Center on Twitter where we’ll share more highlights from Pinehurst history this week and next.
The Outlook covers Pinehurst during an era of rapid development in the early twentieth century, which saw it grow from a small resort town to a nationally-known vacation spot renowned for its golf and equestrian facilities. One of the early issues describes the town in 1900:
“Pinehurst, the famous winter resort owned by Mr. James Tufts of Boston, Mass., is a village of fifty houses, elegantly furnished hotels, boarding houses, public casino, fine hall for church services and entertainments, school house, museum, library, deer park, stores, bowling alley, and 18-hole golf links the finest in the South.”
The Pinehurst Outlook was published by James Tufts in order to promote the village and its activities and to foster a sense of community among visitors. The paper differs from many of the others published during the period in its nearly exclusive focus on local news and events and also for its clean, orderly layout and printing.
Readers interested in the history of golf in the United States will be especially interested in the Outlook’s coverage of the development of many of Pinehurst’s most famous courses by designer Donald Ross, as well as coverage of early tournaments.
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.
he Center has also digitized early issues of 
