Local News from Lumberton, N.C., 1917

“Brief Items of Local News,” from The Robesonian, Lumberton, Monday, March 5, 1917

--Yesterday was like summer and today feels like winter.

--There was considerable excitement at the union station this morning when a colored man tried to hold a woman, whom he said was his wife, to keep her from boarding the eastbound Seaboard train. He was holding the woman by force and would have kept her from “getting off” had it not been for the fact that Chief of Police Alf H McLeod ordered him to turn her loose unless he had the proper papers to hold her. She then boarded the train and left. The husband was very angry and said it was his mother-in-law that caused it all.

--License has been issued for the marriage of Marvin Arnett and Ila Thompson; Jesse Shepherd and Eliza Ross.

--Mayor A.E. White married a colored couple on the court house square about 3 of the clock yesterday afternoon.

--Sheriff R.E. Lewis has turned the 1916 tax books over to the township collectors and those who have not paid will be looked after at once.

--Mr. Lester B. Townsend has accepted a position in the insurance department of the Planters Bank & Trust Co.

--Register of Deeds M.W. Floyd sold 44 marriage licenses during the month of February, which is considered a good month’s matrimonial business for this season.

--The Alfred Rowland chapter of the U.D.C. will meet Saturday afternoon, March 10^th, 3:30 with Miss Ruby Thompson. All members are urged to be present.

--“I never saw a town grow like Lumberton has grown during the last few years,” was the remark of a Lumberton visitor from another Robeson County town Friday.

--Mr. J. Blacker left yesterday for the North to buy spring stock for the firm of Blacker Bros.Mesdames J. and M. Blacker and Master Leonard Blacker accompanied him and will spend two weeks North visiting relatives.

--Miss Lola Mitchell of Baltimore, Md., arrived Saturday night and will be with Miss Amelia Linkhauer as trimmer in the Style Shop, the new millinery store opened up by Miss Linkhauer in the McNeill building, Elm Street.

--Ex-Senator Geo. B. McLeod returned Saturday night to Washington, D.C., after spending a few days here on business. Mr. McLeod says he is not holding any government position but is in Washington on other business.

--The local Western Union Telegraph Co.’s office here is soon to be remodeled and new fixtures put in. The work is expected to begin about April 1. The office of the Southern Bell Telephone Company has already been remodeled and enlarged.

--Mr. M.A. Odum has resigned the position he held at Farmville, Va., and returned last week to the home of his father, Mr. E. Odum of Rt. 1 from Buie. He will go the first of April to Atlantic City, where he has accepted a job at bookkeeping.

--Miss Josephine Breece returned Saturday evening from a 2-weeks’ trip to Baltimore and New York to purchase millinery for her store on Elm Street. Miss Reva Hamilton, who was with Miss Breece last season and who accompanied her to New York, arrived last night.

--Mr. C.W. Smith, who lives on Rt. 4 from Lumberton, was among the visitors in town Saturday. Mr. Smith says he served four years in the War Between the States and that he would like to go to war again and take a crack at the Germans, whose deeds have aroused his fighting blood.

--Pearl Suggs, colored, who works about the union station, left for parts unknown to the officers here Friday morning after it had been discovered that he had stolen a quart of “old familiar” from the express office. The quart was recovered, but not until Pearl had taken a drink from the bottle.

--Mr. W.H. Kinlaw received Thursday a check in full for insurance on his cottage in the eastern part of town which was practically destroyed by fire three weeks ago from Mr. S.H. Hamilton, local agent for the Atlas Insurance Company of London, England.

--Two large dray horses belonging to Messrs. R.D. Caldwell & Son proceeded to run away early this morning. They started from the Caldwell warehouse on town common and ran all about town. The back wheels of the wagon hitched to them were left on Water Street near the jail and the front wheels were left in the cemetery near the union station. The wagon and harness were torn up, but the horses were not hurt. The horses stopped on Chestnut Street of their own accord.

--Mr. T.S. Golden, who made Lumberton his home for 2 ½ years as special agent for the Metropolitan Life of New York, left yesterday morning for Pulaski, Va., where he has been promoted to the superintendency of a district for that company. Mr. Golden’s many friends in Lumberton congratulate him upon this recognition of his worth. Mr. Golden says he would rather live in Lumberton than in any other place he has ever lived and that only the fact that the new position is a promotion takes him away from this good town.