Editor Sandhill Citizen
Southern Pines, N.C.
Dear Sir:--
In looking over a recent issue of the Citizen and reading the suggestion for an old settlers club in “Our Town” my mind traveled back to the old days when the men mentioned are now resting in many different cemeteries were working and striving—building the foundation for the Southern Pines of today.
Other names not mentioned in that list come to mind, T.J. Ruggles, father of A.S. Ruggles, who ran a planing mill in the early days which furnished most of the finished lumber used in the older buildings, D.M. Lowell, who remodeled an old building and made it into a hotel, the old Central House which afterward burned. Rev. R.T. Thorne, who held regular divine services in the old Rockwell school and whose broad minded Christianity made it possible for other denominations to worship in the present Episcopal church which he worked so hard to build.
Rev. G.R. Ransom, whose unselfish earnest efforts and leadership could unite people of many sects into one united body to form a Congregational church and build what is now known as the Church of Wide Fellowship—Eugene Leavitt, who ran a large lumber mill out from Aberdeen until it was destroyed by fire, and who moved to Southern Pines and bought out the telephone system, and which his son B.W. Leavitt and he developed and built up, providing communication for all the Sandhill section.
My uncle, B.A. Goodridge, who published the “Pine Knot” away back in the earliest days. This paper was somewhat unique as a county newspaper and his previous experience as a magazine writer may have put some of his stuff “over the heads” of some of his readers. In those days the only hogs found in the Sandhills were the semi-wild piney rooters or razorbacks. Their snouts were so long that their ears were almost “amidship.” His grave instructions for telling when they were fat enough to kill were perhaps not received in the spirit in which they were sent—at least not by all his readers. Under the head of “Farm Notes” he suggested that the hog be picked up by the ears. If his hind parts overbalanced his snout, and tipped down, he was fat enough to kill, otherwise it was best to wait awhile.
My father, R.M. Couch, came south in 1886. We first lived at what is now Pine Bluff. It was then a part of a tract owned by John T. Patrick. Pine Bluff was laid out under my father’s supervision and was named by my mother. We soon moved to Southern Pines, where my mother still lives. My father formed a partnership with a Mr. Holt and they built the Ozone Hotel, which since being remodeled is known as the Southland. When J.W. Tufts came down from Boston looking for a site for a village, he stopped at the Ozone and my father drove with him to look at available tracts suitable for his purpose. He selected the present site of Pinehurst and the sale was negotiated with my father acting as his agent. He was also general manager at Pinehurst the first two years of its existence.
Some of these old settlers seem almost to be forgotten by the present active citizens of what is now a hustling prosperous section, but the strong faith, keen vision, and hard work of the old pioneers made the present prosperity possible, and I hope the old settlers club will be formed and keep their memory green.
Yours very truly,
E.G. Couch
From page 7 of The Sandhill Citizen, Southern Pines, N.C., Friday, February 27, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92061634/1925-02-27/ed-1/seq-7/#words=FEBRUARY+27%2C+1925
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