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The Hill, Page 1
Partnering with the Hickory Public Library in Catawba County, NC, DigitalNC has published a copy of “The Hill,” a volume documenting the history and people from the Ridgeview Community in Hickory.
The Ridgeview Community, better known as “the Hill,” was once a bustling community full of close-knit families, active churches, and Black-owned businesses. The area was hub of activity in the late 1930’s, with many physicians’ offices, beauty and barber shops, restaurants, and entertainment. Most of the homes and business were demolished between 1950’s and the 1980’s, but the volume documents many of the photographs and memories that some Hickory residents still hold.
Drucella Sudderth Hartose, The Hill, page 8
The volume is comprised of the research and memories of Drucella Sudderth Hartsoe, a community leader in Catawba county who has steadily worked to make Hickory a better place. She was president of the Progressive Club and took the initiative to send her daughter to Hickory High School as the first African American student. Hartsoe moved to the hill in the 1940, a time when the area was thriving with activity and personally been a part of the history. Many of the photos and research come from her family history and direct experiences.
The volume also documents historical moments in the community, like participation in civil rights activities. One example is picture below, in which members of the Ridgeview Community traveled to Washington D.C. to march with Dr. Martin Luther King in August, 1963.
The Hill can also serve as a useful genealogical tool for those interested in families and property from the area. It contains many images, family names, and death dates of community members both old and young. This is especially true for those in the religious community, as the volume draws heavily on church records. It also documents the street addresses and locations of businesses that have long since been demolished. In addition, the volume contains many names and images of those who went to school in the Ridgeview Community, especially those who participated in extra curricular activities, like band and sports.
The Hill, page 81
The Hill, page 58
Information ranges from the community’s founding in 1903 through publication in 2001.
To learn more about the Hickory Public Library and its collection, please visit the contributor page or the homepage.
Photograph of Sybil Hyatt, from the Sybil Hyatt Papers
The Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library, one of our newest partners, holds the personal papers of Sybil Hyatt, genealogist and author. These papers are now digitized and published on DigitalNC.
Sybil Hyatt, a member of a notable Lenoir County family, was an outspoken writer and researcher in Eastern North Carolina. Many claimed that she knew more about the genealogy and history of Lenoir and Craven counties than anyone else. Her research focused primarily on Swiss and German settlers in NC, as well as histories of the well known families in the area.
Most of the files in this collection revolve around genealogy, particularly that of the Palatine colonists who settled the New Bern area of Craven County, but she was also interested in politics, education, and taxes. Hyatt was a staunch advocate for education and tax reform in North Carolina. You read more about her opinions and correspondences on these subjects, here.
There are many interesting highlights from this large collection, but several of particular interest to researchers might be Hyatt’s intensive work creating the North Carolina Society for the Descendants of the Palatines. She lead the society for many years:
Clipping from the Kinston Morning Herald, from the Sybil Hyatt Papers
Other useful resources for researchers could be the materials that Hyatt herself used. Included in the collection are several issues of the North Carolina Booklets, issued by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution of North Carolina and several issues of the Quarterly Review of the Eastern North Carolina Genealogical Society. These items offer a window into how Hyatt became so well versed and proficient in her research throughout her career. Several interesting items include:
You can see all of the new additions to the Sybil Hyatt papers, here. If you are interested in learning more about the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library please visit their contributor page or the website.
Members of the Woman’s Club in High Point, NC hold a groundbreaking for their new building.
A new scrapbook from Randolph County Public Library has been digitized and added to DigitalNC. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings from 1970 to 1978. The clippings are about Randolph County, including news articles and photographs about events, clubs, sports, arts, personality profiles, the woman’s club, a library opening, wedding announcements, anniversaries, and obituaries.
View more scrapbooks, as well as yearbooks and newspapers, from Randolph County Public Library on DigitalNC, and learn more about the library on 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.
From the 1922 Rattler, Raleigh High School’s yearbook. Part of a photo essay of Raleigh.
The Digital Heritage Center partnered for the first time with the Olivia Raney Local History Library in Raleigh to digitize nearly a hundred Wake County school yearbooks, catalogs, reunion books, and graduation programs. The materials, which span 1909-2008, are windows into the daily lives and times of North Carolinians throughout the century.
Some of these yearbooks come from schools no longer in operation. Here, we’ve provided a brief history of each former school (when available), and a link to the volumes from that school (see section “Closed Schools” below). We also digitized yearbooks from schools that still exist today (see “Current Schools” section at end).
Closed Schools
Charles B. Aycock Junior High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Aycock Junior High School Cheerleaders, 1969.
History: Junior high school in operation from 1965-1979, when its campus was absorbed by William G. Enloe High School, which was built in 1962. The building was and still is known as the “East Building” on Enloe’s campus. Its original students were from the recently closed Hugh Morson Junior High School (formerly Hugh Morson High School).
Volumes: Aycock [1967]; Charles B. Aycock Junior High School [1974]; six of The Owl’s Nest [1968-1973]; two of Owl’s Nest [1975-1976]
Fuquay Springs High School (Fuquay-Varina, N.C.)
Students of Fuquay Springs High School at work, 1953.
History: Three elementary schools in the area joined together to open Fuquay Springs High School in 1918. The was renamed Fuquay Varina High School in 1963 and operated until fall 1970, when it combined with Fuquay Consolidated High School to form the new Fuquay-Varina High School. That school is still in operation today (history from Fuquay-Varina High School website).
Volumes: three of The Greenbriar [1953-64]
Hugh Morson High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Hugh Morson High School, 1928.
History: On September 2, 1925 the students of the overcrowded Raleigh High School moved into the brand new school called Hugh Morson. The school spanned the block of Morgan Street bounded by Person, Blount, and Hargett Streets. It was named for the long-time teacher and beloved first principal at Raleigh High School, Mr. Hugh Morson. Today, all that remains is a plaque and two gargoyles. The school newspaper was The Purple and Gold; its colors, purple and gold. These colors live on today as the colors of Needham B. Broughton High School (more details in this Good Night Raleigh post; history summarized from an excellent entry in Historical sketches of the Raleigh Public Schools by Mrs J. M. Barbee, 1943).
Hugh Morson High School was demoted to a junior high school in 1955 and operated until 1965, when it closed. Over winter break in 1965, the students were transferred to the new Charles B. Aycock Junior High School and the school was officially closed and demolished in 1966.
Volumes: 18 of The Oak Leaf [1927-1955]; Morson Memories [1962]; Hugh Morson High School Class of 1955 50th Year Reunion Memorial Directory [2005]
Hugh Morson Junior High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Volumes: PTA Year Book [1963]; Morson Junior High [1964]
Raleigh High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
The Raleigh High School building on W. Morgan St, 1923. The school closed in 1929 and was later demolished.
History: Raleigh High School, which preceded both Hugh Morson and Broughton High Schools, was built in 1909 next to “the Raleigh water tower, across the street from fire station #1, on W. Morgan Street” (Good Night Raleigh post). The city of Raleigh decided to build a high school in 1905, reported the News and Observer. The paper also reported that the school’s principal would be Professor Hugh Morson, who ran a successful and well-known boys’ school. The West Morgan Street location was selected for its proximity to both the State and Olivia Raney libraries (the school had no library of its own). The school was built to contain 250-300 students in 1907, but enrollment was soon up to 500. The school built a two-story brick annex during 1921-1922, just east of the city water tower. But schools were soon closed during an influenza pandemic, and the buildings of the high school were used to house patients. In, fact, the school never re-opened. By 1928-1929, the building closed for good, as Hugh Morson and Needham B. Broughton High Schools had both been built. Later the building was used by the Salvation Army, and then divvied up and sold. (Note: history summarized from an excellent entry in Historical sketches of the Raleigh Public Schools by Mrs J. M. Barbee, 1943)
Volumes: seven of The Rattler [1909-1923]; Rattler [1913]; Cylinder [1924]
Rolesville High School (Rolesville, N.C.)
Volumes:Blue Devils [1960]
James E. Shepard High School (Zebulon, N.C.)
Shepard High School boys’ basketball seniors, 1970.
History: African-American high school from 1933-1970.
Volumes: The Lion [1970]
Wakelon High School (Zebulon, N.C.)
Wakelon High School, side view, 1948.
History: Wakelon School opened in 1908 in an “eclectic brick building” in Italian/Neoclassical style (National Register of Historic Places; the building was added in 1976). It was designed by C. E. Hartage, a Raleigh architect, and features a prominent center octagonal tower. The school’s construction was a big boon for the town of Zebulon, which was incorporated just a year before the school’s construction. Its construction was a result of the 1907 General Assembly act that also established Cary High School. It operated until it was merged with the integrated Zebulon Elementary. The last of the students graduated in the 1980s, and the building was sold to GlaxoSmithKline. It has since been bought back and is now a town hall.
Volumes: two of The Wak-Igh-An [1941-1948]
Washington High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Washington High School building, 1945.
History: In 1869, a school for African-American students was built at West South Street in Raleigh by the American Missionary Society of New York. The school was bought in 1875 by the city of Raleigh and organized as a public elementary school. The school grew, but by 1918 Shaw University and St. Augustine’s College had both discontinued their high school programs, leaving Black students nowhere to pursue education beyond the elementary level. In the fall of 1924, Washington Elementary and High School opened (Historical sketches of the Raleigh Public Schools by Mrs J. M. Barbee, 1943). It was designed by C. A. Gadsen Sayre in the Jacobean style, a popular style for school architecture in in the 1920s, and continued as the only public high school for African Americans in Raleigh from its inception until 1953 (Raleigh Historic Development Commission). The building now holds Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary School.
Volumes: two of The Echo [1945-1950]
Current Schools
Cary High School (Cary, N.C.)
Volumes: three of Catalogue [1925-1927], a course catalog and campus publication with photographs of the classes and details of the curriculum; yearbooks: The Chsite [1920]; Chsite [1924], six of The Yrac [1952-1962]
St. Mary’s School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Volumes: The Muse [1917]; five of The Stage Coach [1927-1945]
North Carolina State School for the Blind and the Deaf (Raleigh, N.C.)
Now the Governor Morehead School for the Blind.
Volumes: four of The Reflector [1954-1960]
Needham B. Broughton High School (Raleigh, N.C.)
Volumes: 21 of The Latipac [1931-1964]; Needham Broughton High School Classes of 1939-1940 Reunion XXXXV [1984]; Perspectives: 50th Reunion, Class of 1958 [2008]; Journeys: NBBHS Class of 1959 50th Reunion [2009]
To view all of the new Wake County materials, click here. And click here to view all yearbooks from Wake County area high schools.
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.
There are a lot of historic buildings represented in the Images of North Carolina collection on DigitalNC, but it’s not often that you have a chance to buy one. I just saw through the Preservation North Carolina website that the Old Ashe County Hospital is up for sale.
For just under half a million dollars you could own the building that served as the community hospital for nearly 30 years. There are a
handful of historic photos of the building on DigitalNC, part of the large collection of images from the
Ashe County Public Library. Most of the photos show the exterior, including a couple of the dedication of the hospital, but there is one showing an
early operating room.
Ashe Memorial Hospital
Ashe Hospital interior
A December 1935 article about President FDR’s visit to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Eight more years and over 300 issues of the Roxboro Courier are now available, courtesy of our partner, the Person County Public Library. Previously, our collection only held issues dating from 1922-1927, but this expands our collection to include issues to 1935. The paper itself has a storied history, changing its name several times since it started as the Courier. Later on, in 1943, its name changed again, when it consolidated with the Person County-Times to become The Courier-Times, which still runs today.
The Courier has a large number of national and international headlines, reflecting its tagline of “Home First, Abroad Next”. Locally, the Courier mentions political developments and elections, bonds and public votes, and news about local residents, including birth and death announcements. Nationally, the Courier followed important stories, including news about Presidential elections and what politicians were doing, and what news was happening around the country. On occasion, international news also made the Courier, as in the example on the right, when Italy’s Premier Benito Mussolini invaded and occupied Ethopia.
To browse through other materials from the Person County Public Library, visit their partner page, or take a look at their website.
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 |
The following microfilmed newspapers have been selected for digitization in 2016-2017. Around 70 reels were chosen from over 1,100 nominated reels, according to our Criteria for Selecting Newspapers to Digitize from Microfilm.
| Title |
Years |
Nominating Institution |
| Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.) |
1996-2005 |
UNC-Chapel Hill |
| The Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.) |
1923-1943 |
Murphy Public Library |
| The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City, N.C.) |
1923-1927 |
Pasquotank County Public Library |
| Farmville Enterprise (Farmville, N.C.) |
1914-1941 |
Farmville Public Library |
| The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.) |
1909-1924 |
Louisburg College |
| The Future Outlook (Greensboro, N.C.) |
1941-1972 |
UNC-Greensboro |
| The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, N.C.) |
1922-1929 |
Person County Public Library |
| State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.) |
1935-1949 |
Margaret and James Harper Jr. Library |
| Washington Daily News (Washington, N.C.) |
1909-1916 |
George H. and Laura E. Brown Library |
