Thanks to our partners at the Chatham County Historical Association, DigitalNC now hosts nearly 100 new photos of Chatham County, as well as a profile of the Cape Fear and Deep River Slack Water Navigation from 1851 and the story of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company.
The Cape Fear and Deep River profile and its story are DigitalNC’s first additions to provide insight into North Carolina’s inland navigation system, though this information is complemented by several photos of the Cape Fear river on our site. The Deep River, along with the Haw River, is a tributary of the Cape Fear River. The two rivers meet just south of Jordan Lake in Chatham County, near Moncure and Haywood, North Carolina. The Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company was organized in 1849 in Pittsboro, NC, to enable steamboats to traverse the rivers. The company ensured navigation of the rivers by building dams and locks as a slack water system of navigation. To learn more about the company, visit Wade Hadley, Jr.’s history of the organization from 1980.
This batch of materials also includes nearly 100 new photographs of twentieth century Chatham County. Several showcase local high schools, activities at the Gilmore Hunting Lodge, dam construction, the Carolina Power and Light Company, churches in Mount Vernon, and other subjects.
To learn more about the Chatham County Historical Association, visit their contributor page here or their website here.
The cafeteria at Pittsboro High School in 1965
20 new yearbooks from Chatham County Public Library are now online here. The yearbooks come from Pittsboro High School, Chatham Central High School, Jordan-Matthews High School, and Goldston High School and cover the 1950s and 1960s. These yearbooks join the already 25 yearbooks from Chatham County schools on DigitalNC.
To learn more about our partner Chatham County Public Library, visit their partner page here and their website here. To see more yearbooks from across North Carolina, visit our yearbooks page here.
Cover of a ledger/scrapbook from the Cumberland County Public Library, 1873-1875
A trio of nineteenth-century business ledgers from the Cumberland County Public Library are now online at DigitalNC. The ledgers date from the 1830s, the 1850s, and the 1870s, respectively, and can help teach us more about the daily lives of North Carolinians during the nineteenth century. Particularly interesting is the first ledger, which dates from 1832-1834 and documents the business dealings of the merchants Womack and Goodwin in Pittsboro. Operating as general merchants, the firm served the local community with wares ranging from lace, to nails, to sugar, and everything in between.
Page From the Womack and Goodwin Business Ledger, 1832
The second ledger dates from 1852 to 1854 and documents the transactions of an unidentified merchant who conducted business in Cumberland County, Randolph County, and elsewhere. It includes transactions with several prominent Randolph County personalities, including Isaac Holt Faust (1818-1864), a wealthy estate owner who enslaved people, and Pinckney Davenport II (1811-1867), a local moonshine distiller. A selection of papers from the family of Foust’s daughter can be found in the Harris and Foust Family Papers, part of the Southern Historical collection at UNC’s Wilson Library.
Isaac Holt Foust Account in the 1852-1856 Ledger
The third ledger includes more account information, attributable either to one JB Hockaday or one NA Stedman Jr. of Fayetteville, and dates from 1873-1875. The first 21 pages of this ledge are pasted over with unidentified drawings and newspaper clippings, mainly consisting of prose and poetry.
For more materials from the Cumberland County Public Library, please visit their website or their contributor page here at DigitalNC.
The James J. Dallas home in Rockingham County.
The newest batch of materials from our partner, Rockingham County Public Library, includes two yearbooks, three books, a vertical file, several newspaper issues, and two short films. The yearbooks, from 1967 and 1968, were created by Madison-Mayodan Junior High School. The books cover the stories of Rockingham county notables John D. Robertson and James J. Dallas, as well as the Greensboro Telephone Exchange. The vertical file contains materials related to Smyrna Presbyterian Church’s centennial celebration, and the newspapers include more issues from the Fieldcrest Mill Whistle.
Lastly, video footage in this batch includes two films converted from 8mm format. The first shows the 1969 Madison Christmas Parade filmed in downtown Madison, NC. The second is a film created by Macfield Inc. that details their continuing education program for employees.
Serious student government officials seen in the 1968 Madison-Mayodan Junior High School yearbook.
To browse through the items in this batch, click the links below.
To see more materials from Rockingham County Public Library, check out their DigitalNC partner page, or take a look at their website.
Newly digitized yearbooks from Wayne County Public Library are now available on DigitalNC.org. This batch features yearbooks from six high schools, dated 1955-1965. The high schools are from Wayne, Lenoir, Craven and Pitt counties:
- New Bern High School (New Bern, N.C.) – 1965
- New Hope High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1964
- Dillard High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1965
- Goldsboro High School (Goldsboro, N.C.) – 1965
- Bethel High School (Bethel, N.C.) – 1955, 1957–1958
- Grainger High School (Kinston, N.C.) – 1956-1959, 1961-164
In addition to this selection of yearbooks is a 1926 senior yearbook and scrapbook from Goldsboro High School called Just Seniors. The yearbook features portraits of the 66 seniors as well as mementos, newspaper clippings, postcards, pressed flowers, personal messages, and programs collected by the copy’s owner Louise Johnston Spoon.
From left to right, clockwise: Louise Johnston Spoon’s yearbook photo, page 12; 1925 Junior-Senior Banquet Program, p. 47; Postcards, p. 58; pressed flower and personal notes, p. 106.
To browse more yearbooks, click here. To explore more materials from Wayne County Public Library, click here.
Another North Carolina county now has high school yearbooks available in DigitalNC, thanks to the Chatham County Public Library. Yearbooks spanning 1949-1964 from Pittsboro High School in Chatham County are now online. Pittsboro High School opened in the early 1900s and closed in 1972 following the integration of Chatham County schools. During that time it served as the main school for grades 1-12 in Pittsboro, NC.
To view more materials from Chatham County Public Libraries, visit here.
An early 20th-century scrapbook from the Durham County Department of Health is now available at digitalnc.org. The scrapbook features a variety of forms, certificates, permits, and public notices from 1913-1950, including a quarantine warning sign and sanitation violation notices.
Also included are descriptions and signs for Grades “A” and “B” Raw Milk. One post lists dairy barn guidelines for Grade “A” Milk, including descriptions of acceptable lighting, floors, air space, toilets, and water supplies.
Another notable public notice is the “Stop That Spitting!” sign, which states that under Article II, Section 14, Sanitary Code, of the County and City of Durham it is “unlawful for any person to expectorate upon any paved sidewalk, or upon the floor of any public building, or any store, or upon the pavement adjacent to any public building…” Violators were fined $1.00.
More than 1,000 early issues of The Chatham Record, a weekly newspaper published in Pittsboro, are now available in the North Carolina Newspapers digital collection. The papers cover the years 1879 to 1901, a crucial period in North Carolina history as the state emerged from war and reconstruction and engaged in fierce political battles that would resonate throughout the twentieth century.
The Chatham Record covered local businesses and social news, but also had more of a literary bent than many of the papers we’ve worked on. Many issues include poetry and short stories, often featured on the front page.
Front page of The Farmville Enterprise from 1948.
Digital NC is happy to announce that another four years of The Farmville Enterprise are now available. Provided by our partner, Farmville Public Library, the new issues include the years 1948 – 1952. Established in 1910, The Farmville Enterprise is a local town newspaper located in Pitt County, NC, that published weekly for the community members of Farmville, North Carolina.
The “About Farmville People” section of the Farmville Enterprise started in 1951.
The new issues to DigitalNC discuss a wide range of local topics that included segments such as news from the state capital, Raleigh, as well as a short section called “About Farmville People” that discussed the lives of the local community. The collection joins previous additions from 1914 – 1947.
To learn more about the Farmville Public Library, please visit their website.
You can also browse our entire North Carolina newspaper collection here.
Headline from August 10, 1945
Headline from August 3, 1945
Five more years of The Farmville Enterprise, from 1942-1947 are now up on DigitalNC. These new additions were provided by our partner, Farmville Public Library, and join previously digitized issues dating from 1914-1941. The Farmville Enterprise was established in 1910, and was published on a weekly basis out of Farmville, North Carolina in Pitt County.
Every Friday, The Farmville Enterprise provided Farmville residents with national and local news. The paper’s headlines and front page tended to be dedicated to national news, while the interior reported local stories and contained local advertisements, information on town events, and news from surrounding towns and counties. During the newly digitized span covering the 1940s, many of the paper’s front page headlines featured updates on World War II and its aftermath.
To see more materials from our partner, Farmville Public Library, visit their DigitalNC partner page, or their website.
Advertisement from August 24, 1945
