Newspapers / The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) / Aug. 17, 1939, edition 1 / Page 15
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1939 HISTORICAL EDITION HERTFORD COUNTY HERALD. AHOSKIE. N. C. PAGE 7—COVER Si History Of The Early Life In The Town Of Ahoskie, North Carolina (Continued from gage 6) U‘.us iniiiR'iIiately alter l1;£ town's bi.vlh as a municipality extended one block oi tlie railroad cros.sinr and included wli.ii is today the iir.st iilock of North Railroad Street atid block No, 1 ol W'est .Main Street. Ainon^' the hiM coujiies to be married and .setile in the new toivn. after the jio.stollice was e.sialilislied and before th-.- period of w!iih this eliapcer will tell, tvere .Miss Nettie Ilaye.s and A. lb (.arreti, t(ie former a daughtttr of Tom Hayes and the latter one ol' the earlv nierdtanis and a native ol 'j't'tme.ssee. Thev were married .Ajiril 17. 1S89. He later was elected sheriff o'i Henlord Couiitv. 'I'he (hirretts added a "first " by purchase of' tlie first residentiaj lot ottered for salt in the yctir from which this (ioldeu Anniversary is dated, thi' bargain being made and the lot liouglit April i, 1889; and then, on September tlie iirst diilcl was bor:i in otticia'l ^.Ahoskie, sun of Mr. and .Mi's. (hirreti. The (birreti residencial fis now owned and occtqiied by \\'. H. r>asnight .S; Tompaiiy ^id the old home still stands on a corner of the lot. Twentv-three years after tlic- fust real estate sul)di\ision ; made bv the Mitchells. C'.. Cl. iloggai'd, purchaser of tiw Fvery first lot sold and builder of the first stoi e on the west side of tlie railroad, was descriliing and reciting tlie things that liappened in in the legal language to follow in the next jiaragraph. The language is that of his lawyers in ilie famous ■'.No .Man's Laud ’ suit and is quoted as given under oath in the superior court of Hertford (lotmty. The follotviog are excerpts from the complaint filed in the suit, in which Mr. Hoggard was seeking to declare the open land between Nortli Railroad Street and .A, (1. 1.. Railroad jirojierty as public projieriy, because of its use as a street over a number c't years: At the time said town (Ahoskie) was incorporated there were but a few people and a small number of buildings there and a-rail- road was,in contemplation by capitalists who were eager to putr chase the valuable timber in that section; and the owners of the land in which the-town had been laid out were anxious to sell all the lots in the said town and near and ai'ound the depot site of the saici railroad, and in order to develop their prooerty and induce persons to purchase the same and, thereby, to induce other persons to become buyers of the rest of their valuable holdings in the. said town, the defendant (Dr. Mitchell) and his.father (Geo. H. Mitchell} and his brother (J. A. Mitchell) had a large portion of their said farm cut up into lots and streets’ and a depot site had ^ been laid out and'sold . . . and they had a plat made of same, showing the same divided into streets and avenues and certain vacant spaces . . . and the said survey and map thereof was ex hibited to prospective customers and by which and according to the boundaries set out in same they sold off a large number of lots. (1. (1. and R. J. Hoggard bought ihe lor. on the corner of North Railroad and Main .streets, on which The Bank of .Ahoskie now stands. They paid .875.00 for the property wliicii is descrilied in Book S page ‘.53 of the Hertford County Register )f Deeds otticc. The I-Ioggards built tlieir store on the corner in 1894 and C. C. Hoggard came to tow'ti from the Bethlehem ‘section to operate tlie business. He later became sole otvner JERNTGAN.TO-Lo^AYES TRANSFER OF ORIGINAL AHOSKIE DIRT , J y ■ . ■ Jx-xyx- tliUS' xA-Zx.y ■'^Cx_ A^Xx-x, ZZ'-XZ'X-IAZ.XXX^ xS^r. ,.^Zx,.^ /f £■ xx^xx>.xx.-./ £ZxlX zCix-i-xxtC xiZc-i-^. Z. ysjs ..X r^/v. y/i a xij/ax J x>/ A-y jZx. //xyxjyxxj j ji/ y^xy J T5 ^ 4, ‘... /AiN.- x,y,r,frx. C’.iy,-0 xJ. yl.kjz. j.XLZ/.S, y Hxi. -/. xJhj'.A-y u/-., eJx/^ yysyy Reproduction of a deed of gift made by Miles H. Jernigan to his daughter, Nancy J. Hayes, wife of Rev. Thos. Wright Hayes Property conveyed herein includes all of the original Hayes tract, which was later divided between Thomas and Richard Hayes, the acreages being about ICO acres, and including all of that part of the 1939 Ahoskie north of North Street and west of the A. C. L. Railroad, except the lots facing south on North Street. Tracts of this land are now owned by Ernest Hayes, J. Hayes Brett, direct descendants of Thos. Wright Hayes and Nancy J. Hayes, the grantee in this paper. ■•THE BIG MILL” COMMISSARY It served as storehouse and office for the Branning Company when it first began operatidns in Ahoskie, 1899. Among those seated in front of the place’ is E. J. Gerock, who came to Ahoskie with the company and was their mercantile sales manager. (More in book, The Ahoskie Era cf Hertford County.) ' ^ •■cT-ihi;^ and otlicr jirojierly belonging to the brother pavtner- .shi{): and today'Ck C. Hoggard i.s still a partner in a mercantile lirm rviili his brother-in-huv, Henry AV. Stokes, a native of Pasciuotauk County ■who t\'as soon to migrate (o ihe developing Ahoskie. Other circuinslances surrounding the sale of the Mitchell ])ro])ci'tv and the layout of the Ahoskie of tliat day are given in the following excerpts (quoted from the testimony of a number of the totvn’s early residents, who were called in court as witnes.ses in the "No Man's Land" suit: When the first building was constructed on the ieft side of the railroad, it had recently been plowed up and leveled down . . . Parker (A. J.) built the second store, Tillery the third.,These were frame buildings . . . Dr. Sears (of ’Qnion) built south of the Parker building, then Fletcher Powell built a store, which he used for a residence and a store, and it was later burned . . . Later Mr. New- some built another store . . . and still later C. C. Hoggard built a warehouse in 1902 and Mr. Godwin (J. W.) later on built a stable there . . . Two successive fires, in 1901 and 1902, destroyed most of the 'block of buildings . . . Sales of lots on North Railroad Street, opposite the new depot, were made as follows: (1) C. W. 'Vinson, April 14, 1898; (2) Lucy Copeland, June 3, 1893; (3) W. P. New- some, December 18, 1893; and (4) W. E. Powell, March 25, 1893. riiis lii'sL map of the Alkchcll jirupcily was made by .V. J. Paiker, Avho came to Ahoskie from Speed, N. C., to become agent for the Norfolk N Carolina Railroad, later the i-A. Ci. L. He arri\cd ill the town in )une, 1890, and remained here tiiilil November. i8(}7. Me tvas ;i busy man during lii sojourn in town: being station agent, merchaiit, jiroinoter ol kind sale.Y, real e.stale :igein, and, according to hi^ associates of those days, an all-ionnd good citi/en, /ealou.s for the young town’s growth anti eager to share in wiiaicwer jirogress was made, both (or hiinscK and lor his cniplo\ing r;iilroad coin- jiaiiv. .Not only ditl he act a.s agent for the .Mitchells in Uie.sale of ihcir choice business‘blocks, but he also purchased the Clark tract of laud in the uortheni section ol' town and .began a rcsideinial d'et elopmetit in the vicinity of the Negro Baptist C.ihurt ii. Incomplete descriptions ol lots sold off and the laihue to pro{)erly register an official plat ol' the Mitchell property in\()i\ed in this first real estate lioom lay at the bottom of the fntiiie cpuurel o\ei whether llic unused jioriion of the old WiiiLou toad was tiic property of the original owners or was pulilic projserty by dedication and use. iAside from the cpiestion of ownership of the triangle cut off by the straightening of the street, the little piece of land has helped to make Ahoskie history and even today occupies a pre-eminent place in all jilans lor ci\ ic improvement and development. It perhaps has beeti tlie cause of more cpiarrels, discussions, demonstrations, gatherings, lowji planning, and what not,' than any and all other plots of laud in .Ahoskie. j. Leonard Bell, ivlio succeeded Parker as railroad agent in late 1894, still recalls horv his attempts to make a flower garden and beauty spot out of the triangle was frustrated by unknoivn objectors. AVriting from his home in Norfolk, A'ij'ginia, Mr. Bell says: ‘‘As the freight and passenger sta tion Yvas combined in a small building, I decided to beautify the grounds in front of the building by laying out a flow er graden, planting some trees and set a row of posts to keep vehicles from cutting diagon ally across the small area in front of the station; but some others did not agree ivitli my plans and the lirst night after I had linished some one got a jiair of logging cart wlieels, jmiled up the posts and trees. That was tlie last of my lieau- lificatiou project. I guess that Rob Roy (Copeland) remem- J. LEONARD BELL liers it; if not, Bingham tvilk’ Lurther revealing information about the projierty that was being developed at that time is given in paragraphs from a letter ivritteii by Mr. Bell: When I went to Ahoskie, it was then a small town laid off in a marsh and it can dlmost be said that it had its beginning in a mud hole. The whole area in front of the station "was a marshy thicket, with all the refuse from the clearing of the right-of-way and space for the small station, freight and passenger combined, in huge piles on the edge of the woods in front of the station . . . Practically the entire site of the town at that time was in this low space. Later, when the road (The Wellington & Ppwellsville Ra.ilroad) was built to Windsor, all that marshy woods was cleared 'up . . . After the building of the railroad the town soon outstripp^ Aulander, took on another spurt when the road' to Windso.r was opened up . . . but I understand that the real growth took place after I left there, in about 1901 . . . When I was in Ahoskie, there was only one church in the place and that was the Baptist, near where J. R. Garrett lived and, as there was nothing else to do nor anywhere to go but to church on Sundays and prayer meetings Wednesdays, all turned out and the biggest task was to' stay on the improvised sidewalk and not get in the ditch, as there were no lights, but some one in the crowd would have a lantern to show the way. Larly in iis odicial life, in fact, during the four years iiuerveiiing bcLwccii establisliment of a posLulIk:c and its incorporation. Ahoskie began the jiereunial argument over 'he sale ol legal wliiskey tvithin its limits. The voting drys .ia\c prevailed until (his day, despite the jieriodic efforts to shatter tradition. It tvas dining the pastorale of ilic laic Rev. Braxton Craig, and ividi liim as sponsor and leader, that a local \otc determined (hat there should be no li{[uors sold u'itliin a mile of tlie Baptist Church. AVith the coming of the railroad mid the settlement around it and the new postollice. the church people forecast the coming of the larger toivn and they were fearful lest the complexion of the population be so changed by the incoming of new residents that iliere might be an overturn in the. predominant sentiment of the natives. Therefore, they requested a vote under the prevailing local option laws, wJiich provided machinery for v’ofing dry or wet areas. .An election tvas held, at which the churcii people and native iandowneis cast majority ballots lor outlawing liquor sales witliiii one mile of the Baptist Church. AN EARLY AHOSKIE AUTOMOBILE ''ihij i.u-L-liuding and recording newspaper edition does not at- am'pi to aeuie upon tiie .lirst automobile to have been owned , in -Mioskie. Tills is one of the first, and it was owned by J. H. Robertson ut the wlieeli. Th4 background for the picture was some of the dry kilns of the Branning Manufacturing Company. (More about the first automobiles in book. The Aheskie Era cf Hertj'crd County.) Tiiat huY lias never liccii changed by any action of the voters within tlie area affected and today is the law insofar it is not in coiiffict witli repeated changes of statewide laws enacted since then. Fear that tlie law would be repealed i town was inc:oi poraied generated a campaign of opposition against the 1893 act itf incorporation, and .Mr. Craig, still pastor ol the church, led the light against the plan to incoi'iio- rate the town of .Ahoskie. Though it developed ihai lie and ids supporters were wrong in their inicrpreiation of the effects ol incorporation, iliey were taking no chances of having their new law overturned. Ii had been less three,years since the territory had voted against legal liejuor sales. If anything, according to older residents, this camjiaign over incorporation aroused the countryside and the little settlement of Ahoskie more than flie prior election. There were the same arguments and the identical alleged line-ups in .that fight that every subsequent campaign over sale of liquor has produced. Among the issues, of course, was tlie charge that the "preacher and the bootlegger had lined up together." and the charge was made, whether founded on truth or not, that some of the local storekeepers were joining up against sale of liquors because they wanted to continue to sell and make I'olk.s drunk and giddy off their potent spirits, a concoction manufactured. • packaged and advertised as a |)atenr medicine—.S'c/n’/'c/ciw- Sclnuij)j)s. The suggestion was made ;md the argument c ployed ihai, IT a town.were incorporated,and IF by the act ;I iiu'oi'jiovaiion the local option law were repealed, tlieu and in that event it would be legal to .sell liquors in Ahoskie and, that being so, the sale of' -liicidani-ScIniajjlis would i mediately slump, because folks would prefer to buy and drink the.more poteiu legal whiskey.s, gins, brandies, and other li[uors. It^was the same then as it lias been ever .since: that is. (he arguments wtre the same. The figlu to prevent Ahoskie’s incorporation was lost, hut it turned out that the local option law coiuimted in force desjiite it, and so. it w'as that both .sides won the argument. Fined up witli Pastor Ch'aig against the incorporation was J. 1). (l)o5^) Downs,, a storekeeper wlio did business on the corner of Main aiid Maple streets. It is said of him by those who knew him as a young man that he was an expert marks man and spent iiours each day in the practice of his skilJ, as he lolled around the hack lot of his place Avaitiiig for the trade —most ol ii made u]) of persons working in logging camjrs and on the ncu’ railroad—tevt^ome by for their bottles of Sclieidam- Schnapps. Between rounds 6f shot from his rifle', merchantman Downs campaigned vigorously against the proposal to incorpo rate, and d::y:; iijion day^ luivaugued his audiences around the store on ihe evils of legal whiskey, iiredieting disaster for the new (own’s deveiojnneiil should the forces of evil prevail and I put over the act of incorporation. - „ m Jack (.A. J.) Parker, who initiated the > movement to 1 iucorpo'iaie I)ecause ol hi.s interest in real e.stale generated liy ‘ j his rei'cn; purduisc ol' die (Jai k properly in ihc colored section jol die pi's'seni-dav lown, was as .strongly in favor oi the incor- ! poration as his Iriciid Downs was opposed to it. He became j mildly alarmed at the Downs opposition and, conspiring with ! others wiio were with him on the proposition, a board of I strategy was set up to plan ways and means of stiffing tiie I Downs opposition. 'Fliey decided on a publicity campaign, I with Parker in charge. 'Flie same age-old strategy of attacking I the leader was employed: Parker wrote a poem iuipngning. Downs’ motives lor ojiposing the incorporation,'and it was publi.shed liy word oi mouth througii the village and even into the hinterlands. Whether the verses to follow pulled tlie trick or not, tlie I'ccord was that tlie act of incor|x>ration went- througli as scheduled. Flere is the poem: A great discoveiy has been made, A mpnster man been found Who is all the time shooting And shoots to hear the sound. He 'bought a pistol with vyhich He hopes to reach the goal, So he sets and shoots for hours At a little piece of coal. He, too, will dance a jig While so’me poor fellow claps. Then hie himself away to the store And fill himself on snaps. The boys they made a plot . To have a corporation. The monster stopped now on the spot And made a short oration. He said, “Boys, to do this thing I think would be a sin; Why can’t you come around my way And fill yourselves on gin? But when you come, don’t call for gin, But call for Scheidam-Schnapps; I’ll bet my gin will make you grin* And dance while someone claps. ■My gin is not the very best, But tastes a little bad; But it will cure you for I've made the test When my kidneys hurt like mad.” 1 lie truth of the matter, say tliose who remember the incidents and the poem, was that Mr. Downs was courting Mi,ss Nannie AVilson, a school teacher wlio boarded in the home of P:»..stor Ch'aig, and that his sustained show of opposition to the incoviioration and for strict prohibition was just one part of his love straicgcm. He was courting teacher and preaclici, and to make sure Mr. Craig learned of his fervent attachment tor) AMONG AHOSKIE’S FIRST FAMILIES _ ROBERT AND MARTHA VANN HOLLOMAN, both members of leading Hertford County families, moved to Ahoskie in the early i890’s and helped to make the town by spreading its fame at home and abroad through the first commercial hotel and boarding-house. The Holloman children still own and reside in the old home, East Church Street. Mr. Holloman came to Ahoskie as a representative of the Farmers Alliance, from his 'home near Union. He was prominent in the early life of the town, in municipal affairs and as churchman. Airs. Holloman was the sister, of Dr. Richard T. Vann, Raleigh, N. Ci prohibition, Downs was daily preaching the cause of temper ance and against the evils of whiskey. It must have worked— a jHd'i.eei campaign and faultless strategy! Miss Wilson became the bride of Downs and they liuiJt a, home in the block next to jireacher Craig’s. It is the home now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J. L. MiicJielJ, next door to the Holloiiian residence. Lven alter t.iie iiicorjioration, continued efforts were made to provide lor legal sale of liquor in (lie town, and during the period between 1893 and 1899 there were repeated niovemeius to upset the local option law but, according to a citiiseii of that day who no longer lives in tlie town, "whenever there was a' movement 011 foot to allow it, there would lie lengthy jietiiion.s from the cluirch'people and a longer one from the colored thurch.’’ Lven alter Pastor Craig had left, the liquor light continued and Rev. J. K. Faiit, the next pastor, also had to lead bis church folks in campaigns against rising sentiment fur legal .sale. Of illegal sales ol whiskey in Ahoskie during (he eail^ days, tlie lollowing lestimoiiy is given by a former re.sident: Ahoskie was a dry town, ’ -with saloons in 'Winton, Union, Aulander, Powellsville, Colerain, Windsor and Harrellsville. This law (forbidding sales within 1 mile of the Baptist Church) was found to be analagous with the National Prohibition law, for old Ell Williamson, with his market basket, would always furnish pints of Old Henry Whiskey for 30, cents when the saloons in Union were charging 25 cents, and would always oblige the ’teen age boys with any quantity they wanted; but there never was an bpen saloon in Ahoskie. Another Ahoskie native who moved away to a distant state several years ago adds another name to that of AVilliam- soii. He say.s Bud Bynum was the tovv'u's leading bootleoucr and (hat he went about making sales unmolested by the law ami was winked at by many ol the leading ciii/.en.s, wiio were (Continued on page 1, Section I)
The News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.)
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Aug. 17, 1939, edition 1
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