Governor and School Superintendent Speak at Caswell County Fair, School Dedication, 1940

Caswell County school superintendent and Governor Hoey speak at the Caswell County Fair in Yanceyville. Governor Hoey also attended the dedication of the new building at Anderson School in September, 1940. The photos were taken by Marion Post Wolcott in October, 1940. Wolcott was taking publicity pictures for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. The photos are part of the collection in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

'Local Matters' in Wake County, 1910

“Local Matters” from The Caucasian and Raleigh Enterprise, Sept. 8, 1910

Monday being Labor Day, the Cen-Labor Union gave a most enjoyable barbecue at the Fair Grounds, which was largely attended.

--Mr. H.C. Reece, who was shot by Jim Staley about two years ago, was in the city Monday and visited the jail, where he recognized the prisoner.

--Governor Kitchin has offered a reward for the capture of Alma Rains, who shot and killed his wife near Apex last Saturday morning. Rains has not been seen since the shooting, though it is not believed that he has gone far.

--At the home of Mrs. Taylor on Martin Street, Mr. Thomas Braxton Creel and Miss Bessie Tutney, both of this city, were united in marriage Sunday night at 9 o’clock in the presence of a few intimate friends, Mrs. William H. Sawyer performing the ceremony.

--Anthony Rogers, colored, was brought to Raleigh from near Parker’s Store by Deputy Sheriff Harward. The deputy received a phone message that the colored man was disturbing the neighbors, he being crazy. He was lodged in the Wake County jail.

--Mr. Norfleet Stronach was arrested Saturday afternoon on a warrant charging him with having sold whiskey to Will Bryant, a colored man from the country. He gave bond in the sum of $100 for his appearance. When arrested, Mr. Stronach denied the charge.

--Frank Chappelle and William B. Chappelle of New Light Township were before United States Commissioner Nichols Tuesday charged with operating an illicit distillery. After hearing the evidence they were required to give bonds in the sum of $200 each for their appearance at the next term of court.

--The funeral of Mrs. R.M. Furman, who passed away in Washington Friday, was held in the Church of the Good Shepherd Saturday morning at 10 o’clock, conducted by the pastor, Rev. I. McK. Pittenger, D.D. The Pall bearers were Messrs. R.H. Battle, C.C. McDonald, R.C. Strong, F.T. Ward, Albert L. Cox, and Prof. Hugh Morson.

--Mr. M.S. Holt, a Chatham County farmer, sold 223 pounds of watermelon from a single vine.

--Edward S. Hodge, aged 64 years, and a well-known resident of St. Matthews Township, died Sunday night at his home after a brief illness. He was buried at the old family burying-ground on the old homestead Tuesday. He was a brave Confederate soldier and a member of the largest land-holding and former slave-owning families in the country. He was a generous, warm-hearted man and friend.

North Carolinian Reports on Strange Things He Saw in Philadelphia, 1905

From The Gold Leaf, Thursday, Sept. 7, 1905. I wondered about Girard College after reading the story below, so I looked it up. It is still in existence, but unlike most colleges, it also educates needy children through 12^th grade. The wall surrounding the college still exists. If you are also curious, see http://www.girardcollege.com/page.cfm?p=359.

Things Seen and Heard…On a Trip by One Who Travels With His Eyes and Ears Open

After some weeks at home it gives quite a novelty to life to go into other States and communities and notice how they do things. It is wonderful too to see the spirit of braggadocio that exists everywhere. O matter where one goes he can find “the best in the world,” “the largest in the world” and things galore that are “unparalleled.”

I was walking along on Chestnut street in Philadelphia on Tuesday when a patriotic Pennsylvanian said to me, “There is the largest store in the world.” I saw that it indeed was a very great building and that people passed in and out of its doors, and along the aisles and up the elevators, story after story, and down into its basements in such crowds and with such fervor, that to conclude that shopping must be done there or nowhere, was almost inevitable. Still I could not exactly repress a little doubt about its being the very largest in the world. I had not gone five squares from that place before I was shown another building, “the tallest in the world,” the famous Washing monument being just a little taller. The greatest of everything was there. Wm. Penn’s old home, just as he left it; Liberty Bell, crack and all; and the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The house, made of poles for Gen. Grant to live in near Richmond during a winter campaign in the Civil War, has been taken down and restored exactly, in that famous city of liberty lovers to be viewed by all who come as worthy of their most patriotic adoration! It is almost treasonable not to go to Willow Grove and see for yourself Valley Forge, and hear again recounted stories of the bravery of the Revolutionary Fathers.

Girard College and the Girard estates can be seen everywhere, for as rich as he was it is richer now because he could not take it with him into the grave. Stephen Girard was called a philanthropist because he gave his money to buy him a reputation and yet he gave the college with the condition that “no ecclesiastic, missionary or minister of any sect whatever is permitted to hold or exercise any station or duty in the college, or to be admitted as a visitor within the premises.” There it stands with his high walls looking as forbidding as a penitentiary.

A short walk from the tallest building, I came to “the finest theatre in the world,” and so on until I was about to decide that I was in the superlative city; but I took a sleeper that night and slept across the State and awoke in Pittsburg. I had scarcely arrived before I was informed that a circle around that place with a radius of 25 miles would enclose “the richest place in the world” of any size. Just a few squares away I was suddenly called upon to stop and behold “the largest store in the world!” I was bound to call a halt by saying to my informant, who wanted me to go in and see the wonders, that I had been to New York and Philadelphia and to the big store in Henderson. I suppose they all told the truth, but truth is very much like some good old tunes I used to know. They are still played but they are played nowadays with variations. Imagine my feelings after I had been tired of turning up my nose at the bragging Yankees and had let it down again to its normal position after getting in Vance county, before I could get home I saw in big letters “the best on earth,” and said by a Southern man.

Lest what I shall not relate may seem to be personal, if it should come under the observation of whom it concerns, I will say that, as I passed through Kamschatka a very masculine looking woman came into the car. Her eyes, in color and gleam were very much like highly polished knife-blades. Her jaws hanging down beside her ears warned one of danger. Her mouth shut together like a steel trap except that it seemed to be tilted up at the corners at an angle of about 45 degrees. She seemed to be physically as cool as a cucumber, but I dare say her disposition stood at 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit. I saw no sorrow in her face or manner, though I am sure from the signs of mourning on her that that her husband, poor man, had gone to a better country, though I know nothing of his life here, nor would I change the expression if I knew he had been a bad man. The word “better,” you know, represents no absolute quality but is a relative or comparative word. The lady in question, as soon as she came in, seated herself occupying an entire seat. A man and his wife and two children came in at the same time and the four sat opposite our heroine in one seat. With a great effort at commiseration, she finally suggested that one of her little ones might sit with her. It was a very hot, sultry day and nearly every window in the car was open, as the heat was almost unendurable. A gentleman came in at the next station and took a seat in front of her and began to raise his window; but she soon squelched him, much to the amusement of the passengers. Finally she moved her seat and got in front of me and wanted my window down, but I explained to her that I was suffering from asthma and that fresh air was an absolute essential to my happiness, and she must excuse me; so stabbing me with her knife-like eyes she yielded the point, but first inquired with an insinuating tone if I had ever travelled much? I replied that my opportunities in that particular had been somewhat limited. I fear there was some sarcasm in the reply. In a few minutes we rolled into the great station at ---- let us say Cairo. 

There coffee and sandwiches were brought in for sale. I took a sandwich and coffee. She took a sandwich and coffee. As soon as the odor of her sandwich penetrated her olfactory nerve her nose turned up like the nether end of a wasp preparing for battle and she said to me, “Mister, may I throw this out of your window?” I said, “Certainly, Madam, as far as I am concerned; but I think it would be a violation of the law to.” By that time she seemed to have warmed to 96.9 degrees and threw the whole thing through my window diagonally, half her sandwich landing in my coffee. To be thus deprived, when there was no chance of getting another, somewhat spoiled my very affable disposition, and I could not help telling her of my travels in several states of American, and some little in Canada; but I had never hoped to see as much as I had seen that day—that my experience with her was a new one and that I was glad of it. She left the train in Borneo, which helps America that much. The last I saw of her she was striding along with an air of “I can take care of myself, sir,” and I hope she will confine her efforts to that direction.

One thing I have learned: No matter where one is, it is the best place. I am reminded too that “Truth is stranger than fiction.” I am beginning to believe that in the multiplication of novels and novelettes, it is becoming more and more a stranger.

Nash Jarrell Bitten by Rabid Dog, 1922

From the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, September 7, 1922

Nash Jarrell, 23-year-old son of Mr. W.C. Jarrell of Roberdel No. 2, was bitten by a dog Tuesday. The dog was killed and its head sent to Raleigh for examination. The report received was that the animal had rabies. Dr. McIntosh is treating the young man at home, and no bad effects are anticipated.

Elizabeth City Editorial Encourages Parents to Send Children to School, Help with Homework, 1905

Editorial from the Elizabeth City Tar Heel, September, 1905. School attendance was not compulsory. It also was not free. Some children went for a couple of months of the year; others not at all.

Send Your Children to School…And Having Done This Assist Them With Their Lessons…Don’t Leave the Teacher to Do It All

Parents, this is for you. We do not know whether you are accustomed to reading the editorials of this newspaper or not. If you have not made it a practice to read our editorials we want you to read this one.

The month of September is a school month, the month that children in this city blessed with nine months school terms, get their books together and go to school. Are your children among the number who will enter one of the several good schools in Elizabeth City this fall? If they are not, whose fault is it?

This newspaper wants to impress upon those few of its readers who may not too seriously consider the matter of education the necessity of keeping their children in school and at their studies just as many months in the year as they can.

The time is when the world demands educated workers in every branch of industry. Without education a man is handicapped worse than he who has no legs or no arms. You who in an advanced age, hair white, shoulders stooped, working at hard labor for a dollar a day may appreciate this fact. Send your children to school.

When you have had them enrolled in some good school, see to it that they study. Don’t trust to their teachers to see that they learn their lessons. Lessons must be learned out of school hours. A teacher has no control over the pupil out of school. See that your children prepare the lessons nights. Help them, take an interest in them and try each night to impress upon them how much the little things they learn each day will count in after years when they must get out from under the parental roof and work for their own bread each day. Send your children to school.

By all means send your children to some school. Don’t count the cost. Remember that you are responsible for these little ones’ existence and responsible for their future welfare. If the cost of schooling looks large, look to other expenses and see if some of them might not be reasonably cut. Send your children to school.

Football Season, Liberty Magazine Cover, 1941

Liberty, a general interest weekly magazine, was second in popularity only to the Saturday Evening Post magazine. Liberty was first published in 1924 and folded in 1950. 

http://www.libertyproject.com/culture/eileen-ford-covers-liberty-magazine/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Wall%20Post&utm_term=Pop%20Culture&utm_content=Model%20Woman%3A%20A%20look%20back%20at%20Liberty%20cover%20girl%2C%20the%20late%2C%20great%20Eileen%20Ford&utm_campaign=Culture

Model Eileen Ford and a Cornell Big Red football player. After World War II Eileen Ford formed the Ford Modeling Agency. Click on the link to read about the Fords and their ground-breaking agency. 

Susie Pruett Baptized at Age 105 and Entire Church Worships Sunday at Her Home, 1922

From the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, Richmond County, September 7, 1922

One of the most unique baptisms that every took place in America was that of a Cleveland county woman, Mrs. Susie Pruett, aged 105 years, who at the advanced age professed religion for the first time and although crippled and unable to walk as a result of a fall sustained four months ago, was baptized a few days ago by her friend, Rev. J.F. Weathers, who is pastor of the Pisgah and other Baptist churches.

Around a thousand people were present at the unique event, which took place in Cascar.

The baptizing itself was a most remarkable scene and required unusual preparations. The aged convert, having professed religion, stated that she wanted to be baptized by immersion. Her son, Mr. Joe Pruett, with whom she lives, and other relatives and friends protested that it might mean her death, as she was confined to her bed with a broken leg, badly swollen, following her fall of a few months ago.

Mrs. Pruitt said she wanted to be baptized, even if it meant her death and she should be taken from the pool a corpse. Rev. Weathers was in quandary at her request, but determined to carry out her wishes.

Workmen constructed a square wooden vat. This was placed on a truck and carried to Peeler’s mill pond, where the vat was filled with water. When the vat was brought to the front steps of the Pruett home, hot water was procured in pots and used to warm up the baptismal fount.

Then six strong men picked up Mrs. Pruitt in a sheet and slowly lowered her into the pool. When her head was almost submerged, Mr. Weathers performed the ceremony of baptism and the aged lady came out of the water smiling and rejoicing at her experience, and none the worse for her ordeal.

“Aunt” Susie Pruett was born in August, 1817. She is four years older than Mr. Enoch Parkey, the county’s oldest man. She was married at 18, lived with her husband, David Pruett, over 43 years, and he has been dead something over 43 years. Figure her age up for yourself.

She lived 105 years without joining any church, but after her conversion and baptism last week, she was on Sunday afternoon admitted to membership in Pisgah church, which adjourned to her home and admitted her into full fellowship there.