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Obituaries, DAR Records and More from Rockingham County now Online

North Carolina Public School Register, Rockingham County

Example page from the Public School Register, showing list of students in attendance as well as general school information at the top.

We’ve just added a mixture of items from Rockingham County Public Library to DigitalNC. Of interest to genealogists will be an early public school register that lists students from 1891-1897, along with the names of their parents/guardians. At the top of each two-page spread is a list of textbooks used by the class, and the school teacher’s salary (usually around $22.00).

We’re also excited about providing full-text searchability to seven volumes of obituaries clipped from the Madison Messenger as well as other newspapers. See links to these items below.

Finally, this batch includes a number of ledgers documenting activity at Rockingham libraries, and records of a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

These items are all a part of the Rockingham County Legacy Project, which brings together resources from several institutions in that county.


Madison County Bookmobile Scrapbook now available on DigitalNC

Patrons visiting the Madison County Bookmobile

Patrons visiting the Madison County Bookmobile

A scrapbook compiled by Mrs. Peggy Dotterer covering the life of the Madison County Bookmobile through pictures and press clippings is now available on DigitalNC.  A former school teacher, Mrs. Peggy Dotterer started the Madison County Bookmobile in the 1950s and ran it for 15 years until her retirement in 1970.

Three days a week she traveled the mountain roads, serving 2000 regular customers. She drove 1000 miles a month, 12 months a year. The other two days she spent at Madison County Library in Marshall, 20 miles north of Asheville.

Entrance to the Madison County Public Library

Entrance to the Madison County Public Library

Weekly columns in the newspaper kept patrons up-to-date about the comings (or not comings) of the Bookmobile. In the following column Mrs. Dotterer mentions that the radio station WWNC announces her schedule every morning.

Newspaper clipping

These materials and more can be found in the scrapbook, which is available courtesy of Madison County Public Library.

Mrs. Peggy Dotterer

Mrs. Peggy Dotterer

 


Rockingham County Public Library Honor Roll and More on DigitalNC

Honor Roll of Rockingham County

Honor Roll of Rockingham County, page 46.

New items for the Rockingham County Legacy: A Digital Heritage Project exhibit, contributed by the Rockingham County Public Library, are now available on DigitalNC.

Of note is the Honor Roll of Rockingham County. This book is full of portraits of Rockingham county men and women who served during World War II. Beneath each portrait are details including the names of parents, hometown, and service dates. African American servicemen are included separately at the last few pages.

Also new are the following scrapbooks, ledgers, cards, and yearbook:


1980s Library Technology at the Rockingham County Public Libraries


Color slides featuring library technology from the 1980s are now available at DigitalNC.org. The slides come from the Rockingham County Public Library and feature an early version of a computerized card catalog as well as microfilm and microfiche readers. The slides also feature the audiovisual equipment  available for use in the library, some examples of patrons using the equipment in the Listening Room, and computer terminals available for patron use. 

Patron Terminals

 
Also available are color slides featuring other aspects of the Rockingham County Public Libraries in the 1970s and 1980s, including storytimes, library staff, and library spaces (such as Stoneville Library’s Genealogy Area, Reidsville Library’s card catalogs, and Madison Library’s circulation desk).

Twelve More Years of the News-Record Digitized

Happy New Years wishes from the News-Record as 1977 turned into 1978

Twelve years and over 7200 pages of the News-Record have been added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Madison County Public Library. The collection had previously covered from 1912 to 1976 sporadically – these new pages cover from 1976 to 1988, adding over 650 issues to our holdings. Based out of Marshall, the News-Record is a weekly newspaper that covers Marshall, Mars Hill, and the rest of Madison County.

Many news articles found in the News-Record dealt with local municipal issues, political events, or updates for local sports teams. In the snippet on the right, a September 1979 article announced to local residents how cable television would be coming to Marshall and Mars Hill later that fall. While the wiring and antennas were largely in place for the town, the Clearview Cable Company still required approval to lay wiring across railroad tracks in Marshall. At the time, the monthly charge for cable was $7.75, and that gave residents 12 channels.

To browse through other materials from the Madison County Public Library, check out their partner page, or visit the Madison County Public Library website.


Newspapers Selected for Digitization, 2017-2018

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.

Title Years Nominating Institution
Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.) 1927-1947 Alamance County Public Libraries
Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.) 1977-1995 UNC Chapel Hill
Carteret County News-Times (Morehead City, N.C.) 1948-1960 Carteret County Public Library
Charlotte Post 1971-1987 Johnson C. Smith University
The Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.) 1944-1988 Murphy Public Library
Duplin Times (Warsaw, N.C.) 1962-1985 Duplin County Library
Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) 1934-1942 Martin Memorial Library
Farmville Enterprise 1942-1947 Farmville Public Library
Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.) 1943-1960 Fontana Regional Library
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.) 1925-1944; 1963-1969 Louisburg College
Hertford County Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) 1914-1923 Chowan University
Journal-Patriot (North Wilkesboro, N.C.) 1947-1950 Wilkes County Public Library
Mount Airy News 1917-1929 Surry Community College
News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) 1976-1988 Madison County Public Library
Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.) 1944-1989 Perquimans County Library
Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C.) 1948-1965 Southern Pines Public Library
The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) 1927-1935 Person County Public Library
Smithfield Herald 1901-1911 Johnston County Heritage Center
Transylvania Times (Brevard, N.C.) 1933-1940 Transylvania County Library
Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) 1950-1963 Watauga County Public Library
Waynesville Mountaineer 1952-1956 Haywood County Public Library
Winston-Salem Chronicle 1997-2016 Forsyth County Public Library

Newspapers Selected for Digitization, 2014

The following newspapers were digitized from microfilm in 2014.

Title Years Nominating Institution
The Carolina Mountaineer 1925 Haywood County Public Library
The Duplin Times (Warsaw, N.C.) 1935-1964 Duplin County Library
Franklin Observer 1860 Fontana Regional Library
The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian 1889-1942 Fontana Regional Library
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) 1912-1975 Madison County Public Library
The Waynesville Mountaineer 1925-1951 Haywood County Public Library

6 More Newspaper Titles Added to Our Collections

Three people standing together. The person on the left is wearing a black dress and hat; the person in the middle is wearing a suit and tie; the person on the right is in a white dress and hat.

Three textile workers pictured in the August 10, 1923 issue of The Charlotte Herald.

Six newspaper titles from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have recently come out of copyright, meaning that they are now available digitally in our Newspapers of North Carolina collection. Geographically spanning the whole state, these titles come from as far east as Fairfield, west as Hayesville, north as Leaksville and Madison, and south as Maxton

In the United States, copyright expires for some types of published materials a certain time period after their publication. In 2022, many materials published in the U. S. before 1927 are now out of copyright. Each year that boundary year moves forward by 1; in 2023 the boundary will be “published before 1928.” This is one of the reasons many sites like ours share a lot more materials published before that moving target. In addition, we have a workflow where certain types of publications from 1927-1963 undergo copyright review where we determine if they are likely to be out of copyright and low risk to publish online.

Because of the forward movement of the copyright boundary year and some other reasons related to fair use, we’ve been able to add the newspapers listed below to DigitalNC. These titles were also selected to help bolster representation of certain geographic areas on our site. In content, these issues feature many highlights, including descriptions of prohibition-era beer busts in Hayesville and a comical column of national news from Maxton.

The full list of titles includes:

You can browse all of our digital newspapers by location, type, and date in our North Carolina Newspapers collection. To learn more about UNC Chapel Hill’s collections, you can visit their partner page or their libraries’ website.


60 Newspaper titles from Fayetteville, Lincolnton, Elizabeth City, and more!

Header from the November 4, 1813 issue of The Hornets' Nest from Murfreesboro, N.C.

This week we have another 60 titles from all over the state up on DigitalNC, including a little piece of North Carolina railroad history!

On the second page of the January 15th, 1833 issue of the Fayetteville Observer, you’ll find a list of all the legislation enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly during the 1832-1833 session. One of these acts is the incorporation of the company that built North Carolina’s first functional railroad: The Experimental Rail Road Company of Raleigh.

Clipping detailing the incorporation of the Experimental Rail Road Company in Raleigh from January 15, 1833 issue of the Fayetteville Observer

Fayetteville Observer, January 15, 1833

The one and one-quarter mile rail line extended from the Capitol Building, which had burned in 1831, to a quarry just east of Raleigh. When the horse-drawn rail carts weren’t transporting the stone used to rebuild the Capitol, people could ride the line in “pleasure cars” for a 25 cent fare. The line cost $2,700 to construct, which would be roughly $91,000 in 2022.

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:

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.

 


2017’s Most Popular Items on DigitalNC.org

We’ve taken a look back at this year’s top 5 most viewed items on DigitalNC, and they may not be what you expect! Here they are in order of popularity.

#1 Madison Beach

Contributing Institution: Rockingham Community College

The most viewed single item on DigitalNC was this photo:

View through trees of swimmers 

Want to know more about Madison Beach? We did, and found this page in a Rockingham County Public Library volume by local author John T. Dallas to help us out.

Clippings about Madison Beach from the Madison Messenger newspaper

 

#2 Newspaper Clippings about the Hibriten Company

Contributing Institution: Hickory Public Library

Hickory Public Library has shared a variety of files related to local businesses, and this one on Hibriten Furniture was the second most popular item.

Hibriten Furniture newspaper clipping

#3 Jim Thornton Band

Contributing Institution: Harnett County Public Library

This picture of Jim Thornton and his band includes Congressman Harold D. Cooley and singer Mozelle Phillips. The band played at dances and events, as well as on the radio and a live country music television show out of Raleigh entitled “Saturday Night Country Style.”

Five band members holding instruments stranding with man in a suit

#4 Wiggins Mill Bridge Postcard

Contributing Institution: Wilson County Public Library

From the 1880s, this postcard shows the bridge spanning Contentnea Creek in Wilson County, with “Wiggin’s Mill” and the reservoir waterfall in the background. Wiggin’s Mill was a sawmill, and can be found in newspapers of that era as a local landmark both on land and on the creek. The Wilson Advance describes the Wiggin’s Mill bridge floating away in a “freshet” in June 1891.

Colored postcard with bridge over river

#5 1976 Yackety Yack Yearbook

Contributing Institution: UNC-Chapel Hill

Taken together, yearbooks are the most popular items available on our site. It’s not surprising that one made the top 5 list. This 1976 Yackety Yack has spectacular photographs with 1970s style.

Title page of the 1976 Yack, with Chapel Hill metal plate

For the curious, here are some overall numbers for DigitalNC for 2017. Here’s looking forward as we work with partners to share even more of North Carolina’s cultural heritage in 2018!

Pageviews 3,510,047
Users 390,667
Scans Added 567,315

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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.

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