Thanks to our newest partner, Person County Museum of History, four new issues of The Roxboro Courier are now available on our website. This batch expands our current holdings of the newspaper to cover from 1919 to 1946. Many of the articles in this batch relate to the aftermath of World War I and President Woodrow Wilson’s negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference.
One of the issues features an article on the creation of “grenade banks.” Hand grenades manufactured in the United States for World War I were being taken and repurposed (after the careful removal of the explosives) into miniature saving banks. The saving banks were then lent to children by community banks as a way to fundraise through War Saving Stamps. After saving for a certain period of time, the children would bring their money-filled grenades to the bank to be counted. If the child had enough money to buy a War Savings Stamp, the grenade would belong to the child. If there was not enough money for the War Savings Stamp, the money had to be invested into Thrift Stamps and the child would have to try to save enough money to keep the grenade bank during the next cycle. To view a picture of a grenade bank or to read the entire article, please click here.
The Person County Museum of History is located in Roxboro, North Carolina in the home of former North Carolina governor W. W. Kitchin. The museum has several interesting exhibits related to Person County history which discuss topics such as Sappony heritage and baseball legend Enos Slaughter. The site also features seven other historic buildings which can also be toured. Currently, the museum is temporarily closed for exhibit renovations and inventory but plans to be opened again soon.
To learn more about the Person County Museum of History, please visit their website.
To view more issues of The Roxboro Courier, please click here.
To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.
