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 15^th, 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.

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:

• The North Carolina Prohibitionist (Bush Hill, N.C.) – 1886-1888
• The Progress (Enfield, N.C.) – 1908-1922
• The North-Carolina Journal (Halifax, N.C.) – 1792-1810
• The News Reporter (Littleton, N.C.) – 1897-1923
• The Franklin Courier (Louisburg, N.C.) – 1872-1874
• The Madison Enterprise (Madison, N.C.) – 1873-1874
• The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.) – 1923
• The Iredell Gazette (Mooresville, N.C.) – 1880
• The Morganton Herald (Morganton, N.C.) – 1891-1901
• Surry Visitor (Mount Airy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
• Cherokee Herald (Murphy, N.C.) – 1874-1876
• Person County Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) – 1890-1892
• North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1848-1876
• Mecklenburg Times (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1889-1897
• The North Carolina Whig (Charlotte, N.C.) – 1863
• King’s Dollar Daily (Greenville, N.C.) – 1904
• King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.) – 1894-1909
• McDowell Democrat (Marion, N.C.) – 1905-1909
• Marion Progress (Marion, N.C.) – 1909-1922
• The Stanly Banner (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1876
• The Stanly Observer (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1884
• The Stanly News (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1892-1893
• The Caldwell Messenger (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1875-1876
• The Semi-Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900
• The Weekly News (Lenoir, N.C.) – 1900-1902
• The Magnolia Monitor (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1873-1876
• The Duplin Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1874-1875
• The Weekly Record (Magnolia, N.C.) – 1876-1877
• The Central (Lexington, N.C.) – 1876
• Lexington and Yadkin Flag (Lexington, N.C.) – 1855-1856
• The Lexington Herald (Lexington, N.C.) – 1915-1917
• The North State (Lexington, N.C.) – 1904-1908
• Murfreesboro Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1876-1878
• The Albemarle Enquirer (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1878-1881
• The Hornets’ Nest (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1812-1813
• Carolina Chronicle (Murfreesboro, N.C.) – 1827
• Milton Intelligencer (Milton, N.C.) – 1819
• Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1832-1839
• The Milton Chronicle (Milton, N.C.) – 1841-1888
• Milton Gazette & Roanoke Advertiser (Milton, N.C.) – 1824-1831
• The Milton Spectator (Milton, N.C.) – 1854
• The Lincoln Democrat (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1895-1896
• The Lincoln Journal (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1898-1901
• The Lincoln Courier (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1891
• Lincoln Transcript (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1836
• The Western Whig Banner (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1840
• Lincoln Progress (Lincolnton, N.C.) – 1873-1882
• Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903
• The Weekly Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1903-1905
• Daily Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1905-1907
• North Carolina Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1833
• The Intelligencer, and Nag’s Head Advocate (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1840-1841
• The Elizabeth-City Gazette, and Public Advertiser (Elizabeth City, N.C.) – 1808
• Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1833
• The Public Spirit (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1876
• The News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
• The Fayetteville Daily News (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865
• The Weekly Courier (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1860
• Fayetteville Examiner (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1880-1883
• Daily Telegraph (Fayetteville, N.C.) – 1865

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 34 newspaper titles up on DigitalNC, including four from Carthage, North Carolina: Former home to the Tyson & Jones Buggy Company.

The “Jones” of the Tyson & Jones Buggy Company was William T. Jones, who was born into slavery and became one of the most well-respected and wealthiest businessmen in Carthage. Born near Elizabethtown in 1833, his father was a plantation owner and his mother was an enslaved person. Prior to the Civil War, he was given his freedom and moved to Fayetteville to work as a painter for a carriage company. It was there that his work was noticed by Thomas Tyson, who convinced him to come to Carthage to work for his fledgling operation in 1857, and by 1859 Jones was made a partner in that company. In 1861, Jones joined the Confederate Army and was subsequently captured by Union forces. While imprisoned at Fort Delaware, Jones began making moonshine from potato peelings and bread crusts and selling it to the Union guards. After Sherman’s March left much of the area devastated, it was the Jones’ moonshine money that allowed the Tyson & Jones Buggy Company to restart production, employing many struggling locals and helping to restart the local economy.

Even though Jones was a captain of industry, North Carolina House of Representatives candidate, and Sunday School teacher with a legacy that lives on in Carthage, it was not widely acknowledged that he wasn’t White. It wasn’t until recently that him being a Black man was recognized as fact and his full story was told.

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 Central Times (Dunn, N.C.) – 1892-1894
• The Albemarle Chronicle (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1912
• The Chronicle (Albemarle, N.C.) – 1912-1915
• Daily Concord Standard (Concord, N.C.) – 1898-1899
• The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1899
• Moore Gazette (Carthage, N.C.) – 1881-1885
• The Carthaginian (Carthage, N.C.) – 1878
• Moore Index (Carthage, N.C.) – 1879-1880
• The Southern Protectionist (Carthage, N.C.) – 1888
• The Sampson Democrat (Clinton, N.C.) – 1920-1921
• The High Point Enterprise (High Point, N.C.) – 1893-1915
• Daily Enterprise (High Point, N.C.) – 1906-1908
• The Patriot and Times (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1869
• The Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1869-1918
• Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1880
• The Daily Evening Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1890
• The Watchman and Harbinger (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1863-1864
• The New North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1878
• The North State (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1878-1885
• The Beacon (Greensboro, N.C.) – 1880
• The Rowan Record (China Grove, N.C.) – 1909-1919
• China Grove Record (Salisbury, N.C.) – 1920-1925
• Jackson County Journal (Sylva, N.C.) – 1913-1919
• The Ansonian (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1907-1908
• The Pender Chronicle (Burgaw, N.C.) – 1912-1943
• Harnett County News (Lillington, N.C.) – 1919-1922
• Goldsboro’ News (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1867-1873
• Goldsboro Daily Messenger (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1869
• Goldsboro Daily Argus (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1911
• The Evening Review (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1875-1877
• The Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.) – 1881
• The Tribune (Henderson, N.C.) – 1873-1876
• The Henderson Pioneer (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1866-1867
• The Daily Herald (Hendersonville, N.C.) – 1911-1912

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.

Another 32 newspaper titles are up on DigitalNC this week! Three of these titles are from North Carolina towns that either changed their names or just don’t exist anymore.

First, we have the North Carolina National from Company Shops, North Carolina. Company Shops was a community formed around the railroad car construction and maintenance industry in Alamance County, between Graham and Gibsonville. Due to growing anti-railroad sentiments, the community of Company Shops decided to appoint a committee to change the name of the town in 1887. This committee decided on the name ‘Burlington.’

Next up is Our Home from Beaver Dam, North Carolina. It’s hard to determine exactly where Beaver Dam would have been, but knowing that the paper is from Union County, it seems possible that it was located near Beaverdam Creek, just south of Wingate and Marshville, North Carolina.

Lastly, we have The Hokeville Express from what was once known as Hokeville, or ‘Lincoln Factory,’ North Carolina. It seems likely that the community was named after the affluent Hoke family of Lincolnton. Col. John Hoke was one of the owners of the profitable Lincoln Cotton Mills. Col. Hoke died in 1845 and passed ownership on to his son, also named John Hoke. The factory burned down in 1862, and the following year the Confederate Army began constructing a laboratory on the site to manufacture medicines, such as ether, chloroform, and opiates. Since then the community has gone by the name ‘Laboratory.’

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 Daily Standard (Concord, N.C.) – 1893-1895
• Daily Concord Standard (Concord, N.C.) – 1895-1902
• Southern Voice (Bethel, N.C.) – 1890
• Berea Gazette (Berea, N.C.) – 1877-1878
• North Carolina National (Company Shops, N.C.) – 1882
• The Alliance Weekly (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1896
• Hillsborough Plaindealer (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1861
• North Carolina Democrat (Hillsborough, N.C.) – 1849-1850
• The Naked Truth (High Point, N.C.) – 1896
• Farm and Fireside (High Point, N.C.) – 1883
• High Point Reporter (High Point, N.C.) – 1860
• Our Home (Beaver Dam, N.C.) – 1893
• The Progressive Reformer (Kings Mountain, N.C.) – 1896
• The Ashe Reporter (Jefferson, N.C.) – 1892
• The Southern Home (Kernersville, N.C.) – 1887
• The Hokeville Express (Hokeville, N.C.) – 1855
• Gazette (Kinston, N.C.) – 1873
• The Mountaineer (Morganton, N.C.) – 1883
• The Carolina Mountaineer (Morganton, N.C.) – 1883-1884
• The Anglo-Saxon (Rockingham, N.C.) – 1902-1908
• The Ansonian (Polkton, N.C.) – 1874-1876
• Jonesville Enterprise (Jonesville, N.C.) – 1858
• The Rubicon (Yanceyville, N.C.) – 1840
• The Concord Daily Tribune (Concord, N.C.) – 1910-1918
• The Burlington News (Burlington, N.C.) – 1900
• New Berne Weekly Journal (New Bern, N.C.) – 1908-1910
• The Anson Times (Wadesboro, N.C.) – 1881-1886
• The Moore County News (Carthage, N.C.) – 1920-1922
• The Canton Enterprise (Canton, N.C.) – 1920-1942
• The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.) – 1904-1922
• The Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1885-1894
• The Concord Times (Concord, N.C.) – 1894-1922

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.

16 years and over 800 issues of The Pilot have been added to DigitalNC, courtesy of our partner, the Southern Pines Public Library. While we previously held issues of the Pilot from its inception in 1920 to 1948, we now have issues dating to 1965, nearly doubling our collection. Based out of Southern Pines, this newspaper services Moore County.

Taken from an article about the graduating class of Southern Pines High School of 1950, the largest up to that point

A December 1963 retrospective on the biggest local stories from that year

Published twice a week, The Pilot covers breaking news, local developments, politics, business, and sports. For example, the newspaper detailed the major stories and events in 1963 in the retrospective on the right. One reporter wrote glowingly of a bond being secured to improve the local community college and county schools, while they said that the next biggest story was an April fire that destroyed over 25,000 acres in the town of Pinebluff.

Another mentioned the creation of the Moore County Mental Health Clinic and an expansion of the Moore Memorial Hospital. Others mentioned new real-estate developments, a new golf course, and new manufacturing industries that came to the county. All of these help paint a bigger picture of what life was like in Moore County in the middle of the 20th century.

To browse through other materials from Southern Pines Public Library take a look at their partner page, or check out their website.