Years of 1822-30
Militia Musfet R.ollbook
Important Historical Find
Hertford countians. of the early
years of the 39th century lived a
rural, lonely life.
Nearly all the county’s people
lived on farms, scattered through
out the broad forests,and fields.
Only when they gathered for in
frequent public events did H e r t -
ford’s people get together in large
groups.
One of the most typical get - to-
gethers of this period was the mili
tia muster.
Many tales are told of these mus
ters of the citizen soldiers. It was
a time of much levity. Militia or
ganization was extremely loose. Of
ficers were elected by the men.
The muster w'as mainly a time for
socializing.
In general, there was a militia
regiment in each county. The regi
ment was composed of several
companies, and the county was di
vided into “captain’s districts.”
Every three months, all able-bodied
men were required to attend their
company’s muster.; Once each
year, the entire regiment mustered
at Winton.
Militiamen were r^uired to sup
ply their own weapons. Only a few
of the more interested officers and
men bothered to have uniforms.
Probably the most important part
of the muster was the pay period.
Soldiers received a small stipend
for attendance at muster.
Absenteeism was- high at the
musters, especially at routine com
pany get-togethers, trfeere was little
penalty attached to,.teihg absent. A
small fine was levied, against ab
sentees.
Significant Book
Ore of the most significant doc
uments from the early 19th century
in Hertford County is’a small ledg-
,.er book, owned by the Thomas
family of near Bethlehem Church,
listing absentees from a militia
company in that area..
- The little book covers a period
from 1822 to 1839. Nearly all Hert
ford public documents of that peri
od were destroyed in a courthouse
fire in 1830.
The entries in this document give
a picture of Hertford life in this
period, and are significant because
of the rarity of public documents
from the period.
Here, from this important his
torical document, are the places
musters were held -for a Hertford
militia company during 1322-30:
The company in' 1822 was com
manded by Michijah E. Newsom,
Captain. Nicolas-Barrow was lieu
tenant, Alfred Barrow was ensign
(junior lieutenant).
First muster recorded in the
book is a muster hold at Lemuel
Eley’s on July 20, 1822.
On the 5th of October, a muster
of the company was held at James
P. Jones. This was harvest time,
and nearly 20 men were listed as
County Muster
Two weeks later, the annual regi
mental muster was held at Winton,
and 13 men of the company were
absent.
On February 1, 1823, the com
pany mustered at busy Pitch Land
ing, the important village on Chink
apin Creek. Nine were absent.
Nine militiamen who were present
failed to bring guns.
A muster was held at James
Rawls’ “old place” on March 8,
1823. Another was held at Cornelius
Plolloman’s on May 17, 1823, and
again at Lemuel Eley’s on July 19.
Only eight men were absent for
this summertime get-together.
Not until December 13 was
another muster held, this one at
William Jones’. Fifteen were ab
sent.
Jesse Barnes was host to a mus
ter on February 7, 1821. James
Godwin’s was the scene of a ’ous
ter on May 8, 1824, again on June
19, still again on October 9.
On November 5, 1824, the .general
county muster was held at Winton,
and on January 8, 1825, the com
pany mustered again at Godwin’s.
The unit met again at Godwin’s on
May 14.
When the battalion mustered at
Pitch Landing on May 20, 1825,
only five men were absent from
Newsom’s company. However,
eight were listed as “without
The unit mustered at Godwin’s
again on October 8, on January 14
and March 4 in 1826.
A general county muster gather
ed at Winton on November 4, 1925.
Thomas In Command
At a muster held at Godwin’s on
May 5, 1825, Captain Abraham
Thomas was commanding the com
pany, and the report says he “took
horse.”
A battalion muster gathered at
Pitch Landing on May 19, and for
Wharf Rates
Indicated
Economy
The importance of waterways
in the commerce of the 19th cen
tury is indicated by the many
private docks and wharves which
served river traffic.
Most of the products of the soil
and forest were hauled by river
boat and barge.
In 1859, the Hertford County
Court published rates of wharfage
which could be charged in the
county.
It authorized John O. Askew of
Pitch Landing — the important
commercial center on Chinkapin
Creek—to charge the following
rates for use of his wharf:
For round barrels, per barrel—
one cent each (turpentine and tar
were loaded in barrels);- for
shingles—five cents per thousand:
for cotton—five cents per bale:
for sawed lumber—ten cents per
thousand feet; for barrel staves—
ten cents per thousand.
Thus the importance of the
naval stores and lumber products
industry is shown strikingly in
the wharf rates charged at an
important Hertford landing.
Askew was also ordered
keep a 50-foot right-of-way open
to the Wiccacon River for use of
the public.
the first time, Captain Thomas’s,
little book lists a court martial held
lor
The clerk of Hertford’s courity
court reported that the men with
out guns at the muster were tried
on July 12, 1826, but that “no ex-
."icution has issued against those
.hat had no guns as the fines is not
enough and I cannot alter them.”
Kerr Montgomery was host t o
he company on September 9, 1826.
Twenty-four men were absent.
Twenty - seven men were absent
at the next general muster, held in
Winton on October 20, 1826.
On November 8, a “general re
view" of Hertford’s citizen soldiers,
wa.s held at Winton and 17 mem
bers of Thomas’s unit were listed
as absent.
In 1827. the first muster was
held at White Plains on the Wintoxj-.
Saint Johns road, and another at
Rawls’s Quarter in February. !
Luke McGlohon was host to a
muster on May 20, 1827, and sever
al men were court martialed for
being absent and for coming to the
muster without guns.
The next muster was held a t
Watson Lewis’s store at White
Plains on August 4, 1827, and again
absenteeism was high. Another
muster was held at Jesse Barnes’
on October 6 and the general coun
ty muster gathered at Winton on
(October 26.
Winton Meet Pushed for Good Roods
, THE HERALD. Ahosfcxe, N. C—MILESTONE YEAR 1959^PAGE 7
(Contifiucd from Page 6)
they.-hav.e no roads they are sav
ages.”
In,.. Ja^ary, 1921, ‘'corduroy”
roads such as the Romans found
when invading Germany and Hol
land centuries before were still
used in this state. They were
made, by laying logs lengthwise
along a trail, crossing them with
j small cuttings and sometimes add
ing sandy soil for surfacing.
But automobiles couldn’t navi
gate these “corduroy” roads, and
it was the automobile which revo
lutionized the 20th century.
An advocate of good roads said
that all that was needed was to
induce more people to buy auto-
theredf are beaten into the said
jfr^sh istream. by the winds coming
outward^ from the sea, that the
fresh water . . . grows salty and
brackish.”
The story was enough to convince
Thornas Hariot, tlio scientifically -
learned Master and investigator
who accompanied the Lane party,
that the Roanoke was a passage to
the Pacific—ran answer to a dream
that ail; 16th Century explorers
feverishly dreamed.
Said Lane, “ . . . this river
Maratico promises great things,
and by. the opinion of M. Hariot the
head of it by the description of the
country; either rises from the Bay
of Mexico, or else from very near
unto the same, that opens out into
the South Sea.”
mobiles. Once the state started
its 1921 road-building operation,
the “autoists” and supporters of
better road.=! were off to the races.
Such emphasis was placed on
roads that Guilford County won a
$1,000 prize offered by a New
York paper for the best stretch of-
road in the Atlantic states.
Gov. Angus McLean continued
the progressive spirit started ir.
Gov. Morrison’s regime, encourag
ing the legislature of 1927 to raise
total borrowing for roads to $lli
million. Most of the primary, road
building using funds from the two
bond issues had been completed
by 1929, when Chairman Page
resigned as head of the Highway
Commission.
In 1931, despite the depression.
the state voted to take over main
tenance of all roads built during
the 1920’s. To do this, 30 prison
camps were built throughout the
state, and $6 million was allocat
ed for road work. By 1935, how
ever the roads had grown so bad
again and the bridges were so
weakened that the General As
sembly voted an emergency allo
cation of S3 million to restore
them to good condition,
Road construction and mainte
nance then kept apace with the
needs from 1935 through 1948.
During this 13-year period, paved
road mileage in the state ro.se
from 58,000 to 64,000. But the
farmers and the citizens living on
the other unpaved “country
roads” were forgotten, and their
voices were heard loud and long
in the campaign for the govern
orship in 1948.
William Kerr Scott, who wa.', to
rise to fame as “the squire of Haw
River,” set his cap for the Gov
ernor’s mansion after a long ten
ure as the State Commissioner of
.Agriculture.
. Scott was not the politicians’
man, and no one gave him much
chance to win against Charles
Johnson. Johnson, in his campaign
speeches, advocated a $100 million
bond issue to finance construction
of secondai’y roads throughout the
state. Scott scoffed at Johnson’s
idea of such a large bond issue
during tho campaign, but became
dear to the hearts of the farm
voters with his proposals on
“farm-to-market” roads.
After Scott became Governor,
he exceeded Johnson’s estimate
by having a bill introduced “by
request” in the Assembly, asking
for a $200 million bond issue.
The Assembly, most of whom
were not in sympathy with Scott,
expected to defeat his bill by
passing it. This odd quirk could
have doomed the bond issue, for
the legislature tacked a one-cent
increase on gasoline gallons onto
the bill before approving it, The
legislators expected that since the
bond issue had to be submitted to
public referendum, the voters
would vote it down because of the
increase in the price of gasoline.
But they were fooled, for the
voters gave Kerr Scott the .sup
port he wanted. In turn, many
sections of tho state which had
mostly secondary roads finally
got ‘‘out of the mud” with the all-
weather roads constructed by the
Scott Administration.
The succeeding administration
of Gov. .William B. Urastead con
tinued the road construction, con
centrating primarily on several
new bridges to span eastern
waters and open tourist areas to
easy access.
Not until the administration of
Gov. Luther H. Hodges, who ad
vanced at the death of Umstead
in 1954, did the State Highway
Commission undergo a house
cleaning.
Hodges proposed to rid the
group of sectional interests by ap
pointing a new 14-man commis
sion to operate on a statewide
basis. A traffic engineer was em
ployed as active head of the de
partment, which in turn was di
vided into primary and secondary
phases. Large interstate federal
roads projecti have been a major
concern of the Hodges reorganized
commission.
“Court Marshal”
Absenteeism was so bad that on
December 15, a “court marshal”
was held at Cornelius Knight’s to
try absentees who did not attend
the White Plains’ muster.
Captain Thomas, Lieutenant W.
W. Scssoms and J. Jenkins, ensign,
were the company officers sitting
as court martial.
Another muster was held a t
Knight’s on the same day, and
another court martial was assem
bled at James H. Godwin’s to try
absentees from this muster.
From this time on, it was routine
to hold a court martial at each
muster, to try absenteeism from
the previous muster.
During 1828, musters were held
at Miles H. Jernigan’s, White
Plains, and Godwin’s. A general
muster was held at Winton on Oc
tober 24.
By this time, Ed. H. Newsome
was serving as ensign of the com
pany commanded by Captain
Thomas.
During 1830, all musters of the
company were held at God
win’s and there were less than ten
absentees at each muster. i v
EXPLORERS
(Continued from Page 2)
Indian village, marked on John
White’s map somewhere along the
lower reaches of the Roanoke in
present-day Bertie County) it is
thirty days as some of them say,
and some say forty days’ voyage
to the head . . . which head they
say springs out of a main rock in
that abundance, that forthwith it
makes a most violent stream; and
furthermore that this huge rock
stands so near unto a sea, that
many times in storms the waves
1930-1959
As You Sow, So Shall You Reap
Good people, working hard makes a fine community. We are grate
ful to those who have patronized our store for the past years, without
them our growth would not have been possible. You, the people
of the Roanoke-Chowan area and the surrounding counties have
made us glad to have such good customers. For the past 29 years
this has been your seed store. Any success, we have had during
these years we know that you have had a part in it. Accept our
thanks and best wishes. We trust that His blessings will continue
with us all through many more years.
HARRELL'S
SEED
STORE
Quality Seed Since 1930
PHONE 2739
AHOSKIE, N. C.
Every HOUR
of every DAY
of every WEEK
of every YEAR
WE STAND READY, WILLING
AND ABLE TO HELP
Guard Your Health
Family health is precious. When your family doctor gives
us a prescription we carefully compound it. . . exactly as
he orders it. You are guarded by the professional skill and
experience of our pharmacists. When you bring your pre
scription to our store and BE SURE.
For Your Shopping Pleasure...
Whether you want a soft
drink or first aid needs
you will find a cordial
welcome in our store. We
carry a complete line of
cosmetics for the ladies
and toiletries for men.
Come in anytime . . . you
are always welcome.
Boooes Pharmacy
■ aa ahoskie, north Carolina