Newspapers / The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) / Aug. 17, 1939, edition 1 / Page 12
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bVER SECTION HERTFORDI 1939 HISTORICAL EDITION -lertford County Herald Published Every Thursday ::t Ahoskie, N. C., by PAKKEfi BROTHERS Publishers 01 [leiiiB Ledger-Ad vance, Wmdsor. N. C.; The Jaclt- son Ncw.i, Jackson. N. C.; The Oau^ County Index, GatcsvJlle, N. J. MAYON PARKER Editor. Miss Edythe Smith Society Editor A. R, Bowen Circulation Manager SUBSCRIPTION R^TES One Year $2,00 Six Months $1.25 Outside 1st and 2nd N. C. Congressional Districts and in North Carolina and Va. One Year $2.25 Six Months _.$1.50 Outside North Carolina and Virginia One Year. $3.00 Six Months $1.75 Member: North Carolina Press Association and National Editorial Association. Entered as second-class mall matter February 25, 1910, at the Post CtRce at Ahoskie, N. C-, under Act 01 .March 3, 1878. ' EDITORIAL Faiiiare aiii trumpet blowing are not required announce that the Herald is presenting its ' Historical Edition this iveek. The size oC the paper will f suffice to do that. Quantitatively, the issue exceeds the ' puhlishers" expectancy; the quality of its text and l^pograpliy can better he judged b}- those whose per- Ipeclive is not dimmed by too close contact with the 'mechanics of producing the paper and, therefore, may 'Well he left with the 40,000 or more readers the issue ^will reach. The occasion that gave inception to the edition is the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of a postoffi.ee at 1 Ahoskie—on September 18, 1889. For thirty of those * years, the He? aid has been growing up with the town. Its present publishers >vill celebrate a (fuarter of a century with the paper one year hence. It will be time enough then to attempt to give an evaluation of that tecord, and the matter would not be mentioned here I except to give character and background to the hope, ' which we now make, that this edition, though bulky ^in size, may not symbolize the end of growth and ex- hiansion of the towii that gave life to this edition and |o all the others that have been published since W. 1 Ho^ald ill 1909. Sincere and profound thanks are due those volun teer authors who have contributed to this edition. To them must go the major share of credit for the textual matter of the paper, since they have lone all hut ten percent of the job. The publishers are in their debt lind tliey may anticipate more than their share oi ■reltecteu glory for the excellent material the authors ■have prepared and handed over lor pnhlication. Their pwn interest in each particular assignment has been leaded heiore the publishers fo|^fc£ra]^onths as fciiautJhe^work of asdfWBlpBfcliivi’itinj Material, and the spirit oi these volunteer contrib- ors has sustained and given added impetus to the linor share of writing done by the publishers. Acknowledgment is also made and appreciation Ipressed to all those who have eagerly cooperated in rnishing facts, documents, and pictures for the edi- |ou. But for their assistance, given to volunteer au- fs and to publishers, it would never have been Isible to gather together so much historical fact and ‘strations. ^ There is a sentimental side to this occasion, too. It Rcerns “the family.” This Historical Edition of some TCiages is the handiwork of the regular force of the I Ha/d family. There were no extra workers employed none has been needed, despite the publishers’ own J in the beginning that it would he necessary to Ire outside help to do a 50-page planned job. To nbers of the craft in other newspaper shops that should mean something. It certainly does to the pub lishers of this newspaper. ‘ /■ The commercial side of this undertaking was, of course, necessary and proper to exploit, for occasions I of fliis kind do not seldom present themselves. The publishers have sought not to paramount that end oi Ih, preferring to receive their pay-off in the knowledge Tliat they have partici])ated in an event promulgated to do honor lo their native town and county. Ho\vever, ; patronage has far exceeded what could pected and extends beyond the hounds Ihd hopes—and the major portion of l^ople of our own trade area. For III. jdiis edition, you are enter- Ive J)eJieve you will he, our 'onplete. It is yours. Take llh it. History Of The Early Life In )! he Town Of Ahoskie, N* C. (Continued from page 3) ; lude a commissary like tlie one in which lie had been tvork- Ing. lie interested his boss in the venture, and sold him on tile, idea of still funher expanding his chain organization. Thu.s, came the livsi outside capital to help git'e tlie town a .siaii conimci'cially—a practice that has continued until‘this day and one thatJuw largely built the present day town. The firm of Cockey fe Pmvell began operations in’the Fall of i888. .V neu’ boiler was installed and a cotton gin outfit added to lIic ulant. The commissary did business on what is now the lawn o.f the Ciarrett residence, at the East end of Church .itrect. Foreign capital b.ought in new blood from the surround ing country to help run the ljusiness. Powell sought the servi- le.s of his Bertie (k:>unty acquaintance, David L. Myer.s, as a salesman-in the mercaniile branch of Cockey R: Powell. Ycmng ■Mvers, then unmarried, took the job in December, 1889; and he has'remained in Ahoskie to help celebrate its Golden An- ni\ ersary, in the meantime marrying Miss Nellie Raynor, of Powells\'illc, and rearing his two children. Miss Ruby Myers, Raleigh, X. (J., and Mrs. C. L. McKeel, of Greensboro, N. C. i'xcej'-t for these yeais, 189^ and 1896, which were spent 111 the Aulander stoie of Cockey Sc Powell and in Colerain, respectively, Mr. Myers has spent all of the 50 years in mercan tile ciiierprises in Ahoskie; since 1897 conducting business under his otvn name, except for a few years that were spent in a partnership >viih the late Joseph (Jodie) T. Parker. He was the' toten’s first jeiveler and for many years did both a general mercantile business and ran a jetveler’s shop. For several years now he has engaged in the jeivelry business solely. In le.s.s than a year after Cockey & Powell started their business venture young Potvell, the resident manager, carried out more ambitious plans by renting a store nearer the rail road and within a block of the postoffice that had just been establi.shed here in Septeinlier. The sawmill and gin later became the property of |. R. Garrett, ivho purchased it from the Jenkins heirs, and moved the plant to Maple Street, in the I i : >#■ David Laurence and Nellie Raynor Myers A Former Postmaster Ik kSSfe-'- I. FINLEY SNIPES, member of a Menola family that played a large part in the early history of Hertford County, served as Ahos kie postmaster prior to the ap pointment of Roberts H. Jerni- gan, present incumbent. (More in book. The Ahoskie Era of Hertford County.) r-'c. Ws,.j Tt’h, t^irccisj-g. These are the homes that were on farms, which are today largely cut up into residential and busi ness lots for the Town of Ahoskie. They were built and occupied by members of the families of Jen kinses, Mitchells and Hayses, who furnished “The Makings of a Town.” (See Chapter III, History of .Khoskie.) will reveal. On .May 29, iSgu, two months after the first jiassenger train had run over the comjileted Norfolk Sc Carolina Railroad line, the railroad company jmvehased a tract of land from the Mitchell family and liegan clearing atvay the trees jireparatory to construction of a depot. Until that time, an improvised depot made from a box car had been in tise. Of the land pur chased for a depot site, it was said by tiie late John F. A^ann, of ^Vinton: “I knew Ahoskie before it tvas born . . . The town developed very rapidh' and I remember ivhere the old road from ^Vi>'lton to Ahoskie crossed the railroad . . . The first railroad depot in Ahoskie was a box car . . . The area required by the railroad company was in the tvoods and it used to be rabbit ground iviiere^ the depot stands." Mr. Vann, 'who was attorney for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad I'oi' many years, tvas testifying in a case being heard in Hertford County su perior court, involving the assessment for paving of part of this same property years later. Testifying in the same trial. Dr. ]. H. Mitchell, tvho otviied the property in question, describ ed it this way: "That part of the land now knotvn as Railroad Street in the toivn of Ahoskie was in the woods ... A gum .stood right in the corner of the warehouse when it was built . . . It wkts all woods in (1890).’’ The railroad company did not immediately build its netv. depot; btit the trees were cut down and an open s]>ace cleared away for the building, which was to come later and bring with it another cliapter in tlie history of Ahoskie. colored section of town. The netv Cockey R; Powell store was in a Imilding l^elonging to Thomas Fley, on the corner of Main and Catherine street.s—the same spot where Baker R: Baker now operate a store. Other mercantile operators in Ahoskie that year ivere: Freeman Sc Riddick, Church Street, Garrett (A. F..), Dotni (Doss), Sc Harrell, and the combination •store-postoflice of J. A. Copeland, the latter two on Main r^treet. Busiiiess'^IBfc^good in tlie new towTT.TB'xb tinctly a "modern” in his day -when it came to merchandising and trading, planned to keep ahead of it. His absentee partner, Cockey, went along with Powell Jii his ambitiotis plans, furn ishing the capital with -which to construct a 3-story frame store btiildiug that tvas to become the center of merchandising, re tail and wholesale, for an expanded trade area. Contract for erection of the store, located wheye the present day J. N. Vann Sc Company building stands, was awarded to Sam Woodard, a Mcnola contractor, who employed J. R. Garrett to assist,him in its construction. When the building had been raised and shut in, a violent tvind storm bleiv its timbers apart and top pled it to the ground. It was quickly rebuilt, this time two stories in height, and having a floor space of 6200 square feet. It was occupied in the Fall of 1891. From that time until 1895, Cockey Sc Powell were big lime operators in their field. Fletcher Powell was the daddy of several "firsts” during the time he managed the rm, among them being the introduction of a printing press and printed advertising matter as a disseminator of merchandising npvs. The press also turned out the first newspaper for Ahoskie. It is recalled by Mr. Myers, who continued to -work with the linn in its successive moves to larger .quarters, that salesman- printer Belch, who had come over )rom Bertie County to work in the “Big Store”, did some expert work in advertising- layouts and printing; handling the sm.ill newspaper (of hand bill size) during his odd moments. One of the most success ful sales events ever held in the entire country around was Cockey R: Powell's One Day Sale, rv'hich ^vas advertised for miles around, particularly “down in Bertie”. Belch did the printing and Myers distributed the liandbills. "The folks look ed at me like I ivas crazy going around Lacking up those signs,” says -Mr. \hcis. "But, we solcl more ihan $700 -worth of goods on that day.” Other similar sales daj’S -were held and the busi ness lioLirished until Po-well, flushed by his success at trading, ventured into the business of cotton buying and selling. It "broke” tiie firm and S. B. Harrell, a Norfolk, Va., cotton fac tor, look over the licpiidation of the business. B. G. Williams moved in as Harrell’s sales manager and liquidator; and in 1896 its affairs tvere ivouiid uppnd the store rented to Thomas II. Overton, Powell, after a biftef stay at otlicr towns, returned later and rented one side ojf the store for his own business venture, later building his own store as a subsequent chapter , Chapter V AHOSKIE GETS A CHARTER AHOSKIE had its railroad, jiostollice, large thain dcparl- ment stcjre, saw mill and gin, and a school and Baptist church; but there was no such thing as a corporate toivn un til January 24, 1893, when the General Assembly enacted into the law the bill of Representative W. P. Taylor, incorporating the town. It was Flouse bill n.umber 167, and read as fol lows: The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: Section 1. That the town of Alioskie, in the county of Hert- and the same is hereby incorporated by . '’style of the'towirof'A'?!&$ifJ^,'WfTfi’sKa'Ab^w^tfe%J3esfefit of and be subject to all the provisions of law existing in reference to incor porate towns not inconsistent with this act. Section 2. The corporate limits of said town shall be as fol lows, namely: Beginning at the crossing of Main street by the Norfolk and Carolina railroad and extend six hundred yards each way from said crossing. Section 3. That the officers of said town shall consist of a mayor and three commissioners and a,constable, to be elected in accordance with the general laws regulating elections in cities and towns. Section 4. That until their successors are elected and quali fied, the following persons shall be the officers of said to-vvn: Mayor J. H. Mitchell; Commissioners, F. Powell, W. S. Dukes, and A. J. Parker; constable, J. H. Downs. Section 5. That this act shall be in force from and after its •ratification. Ratified the 24th day of January, A. D., 1893. The first three years of the 1890’s prepared the way and set the pace for the future jihysical development of the town. It witnessed the first mass migration-of outsiders into town, most of them coming from nearby farms in Hertford and Bertie counties. The three plantations—Mitchell, Jenkins, and Hayes—were on tlie way out as strictly farm lands. A few spots had already been sold oil' and oifiers -were to feel the effects of the first real estate boom that came simultaneously with the town’s incorporation. The Mitchell property, being located most ad\'anLageously by reason of the railroad and highway junctions, was the first to reap the benefits of rising prices. Dr. f. II. Mitchell received the munificent sum of 325.00 per acre for the first sale of his properly—a site for schoolhouse. In t-wo to three years, the price had risen to .550.00 per acre, sometimes 3100 if the parKd -was most favor ably located with reference to railroads and county roads. Coming to town during this period irere other families who have remained through the years to contribute their share to .-Vioskic's growth. Among them Tvcrc: J. R. Garrett, "The Builder”, from Bertie; A. F. Garretl, later sheriff of Flertford County, from Tennessee; A. J. (Jack) Parker, railroad agent, real estate developer and salesman, from Speed; Will and Claude Dukes, coachmakers and shopkeepers, from Union; Richard and Ella Baker, parents of Percy and George Baker (merchants in later years), and Misses Emma, Rosa, Addie, Eunice, ISIinnie and Nelie; J. H. and J. D. Downs, brothers who tverc early stoi-ckcc[xT.s and sawmill operators, fiom Cofieid. “Uncle” Graham Holloman, colored, was counted among the population in the town’s early days and before it was in- rorjjoraied. Tiiere were other Negro families, one of them Isaac Newsome, whose family still occupies a foremost place in the activities of the race. One of the early residences in the ne-w totvn ^vas that of “Uncle Gram”, who was a painstaking carpenter and builder -within his own right. It stood on the lot notv occupied by the J. O. Carter home. It was later mov ed; and Jus second residence (on the corner of Church and Maple streeus), -which tvas under construction and never com pleted over a period of 8 or 10 years, was demolished and carried a-way ivhen the area In which it was located became the town’s main tvltite residential section. The house was a three- slory frame structure, tvith many gables, a steeple, and a liber al su])ply of ornamental devices that set it apart as the town’s most ])retentious home project of the early days. The build er of that house still lives in Ahoskie, and is the owner of a modern residence in the colored section. “Uncle” Isaac, whose son, John H. Newsome, was Ahoskie’s first rural letter car rier, died several years ago. Other early Negro settlers, who contributed much lo the jrrogress of the race and whose off spring still live in and around the town, were: Press New- some, who ran a shop and store near the first railroad depot, and v.'as the father of W^hid, Brode, Rome, and Carey New- some; Chas. and Margaret Jenkins, parents of Hunter Jen kins; John Jenkins, wlio li\'ed near the first school building: and Charles Trummell, who was the town’s first butcher and market man. TrUmmell, a jolly, good-natured soul, was famed for liis jjack of vicious bulldogs that ran down and iiclp butcher the cattle he bought from the countryside. They were feared by men, beasts, and other dogs of the town and neighborhood, but were vigilant guardians of their master and his meat products day and night. His shop was located in the colored section of town, but he conducted a delivery to all homes of the town, his cart Avith bulldogs trotting un derneath it making house-to-house rounds when tliere -tvas -beef to sell. About the time Jack Parker began plotting the Mitchell property and f)efore he liad sold any of the West Main Street lots, Charlie Trummell, the butcher and market man with I he vicious bulldogs, carried on an extensnve business in l)uying and butchering cattle on the block that lies next to irre.-7%\Vn:)7itY.'^e,maintained a cattle corral, dog pen, slaugh ter pen, and all the’btVA’: jn^ciLionTintidehl te tbej _ ])oly he had set up for himself. All of the block, bounded by Railroad, Church, Mitchell and Main streets, was enclosed by a worm rail fence, except the corner on which the Mit chell hotel now stands; and cows, steers, some hogs and other saleable livestock were impounded for slaughter. Trummell lived in a small shack near the center of his reservation. The slaughter victims were purchased and brought in from farms for miles around. The industry was shunted a-way from this .spot and Trummell moved to colored town, after the real estate boom got up steam and there was demand for business lots next to the railroad. “I remember sitting on the steps of Cockey R: Powell one evening with a friend, and we counted the population of Ahoskie. Black and white, large and small, there were exact ly seventy-two souls.” Such is the testimony of Thomas R. Belch, the young Bertie man who had accepted the position of advertising manager and clerk in the "largest retail mercantile business in the two counties”, as lie writes the publishers of this historical sketch. He had just complet ed his apprenticeship under Josephus Daniels at Raleigh, N. C., working periods at Greensboro, Henderson, and Aulander, before taking his position at Ahoskie in the early nineties. After two years in Ahoskie, he accepted a posi tion on a daily neivspaper. The Daily Ticket, in Netv> port News, Va.; and, in 1897, he and W. J. Bright, Si es tablished their otvn printing firm. The Franklin Printing T. R. BELCH Company, -which operates to day as a 3100,000 concern in Newport News. Of his early recollections, Mr. Belch writes: (Contfimecl on ua|fe 6)
The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.)
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Aug. 17, 1939, edition 1
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