Hertford County Herald
HERTFORD COUNTY'S ONLY NEWSPAPER " A PAPER WORTH WHILE BEST ADVERTISING MEPIUMINEAJT
Volume XM. Tea Page? Ahotkie, North Carolina, Friday, September 2,1921 One S-t^n No. 18
SEME IEIS11 era COMPILED
Ftt OEM OF I HERALD
?Contracts for the State printing, ?
which have been held up for some!
time owing to the results of the prin
ters' strike in Raleigh, were awarded
to five Raleigh printing houses on the '
29th day of this month.
?F. H. Jeter, formerly editor of .the
Farm Extension News of this State,
while in Raleigh last week, stated that
he found farming conditions improv
ing throughout the South, and he al'
so predicted that the cooperative mar
keting associations now in process of
flrial oganization, would be of great
benefit to the southern farmers.
?Chairman Frank Page, of the State
Highway Commission, is seeking to ;
prevent the pilgrimage of troops and i
heavy trucks over the State roads, en
route from Camp Jackson in South.
Carolina, to Camp Eustis of Virgin
ia. Chairman Page sayk the trucks will
greatly damage the roads over which
they travel.
?New Bern defeated Greenville on
Monday, in the deciding game of the
JSdatern Carolina baseball champion
ship, and thus won the pennant in that
league. The score was 2 and 1.
?Judge F. A. Danuiels, speaking to
a Durham County jury this week, sta
ted that he believed two-thirde of ll>c
crime committed today was due to the
influence of liquor.
?W. H. Gallup, Sr., of Cnrrituck cou
nty, reports that the sweet potato in
dustry is a profitable ?n<< for the peo
ple of his county. The farmers of his
county substituted sweet potato crops
for cotton this year.
?The cities of Raleigh and Kinston
are seriously threatened with e short
age of Municipal water. In the former
city the situation has become so acute
that an ordinance was passed making
it illegal to use water for washing au
tomobiles or spraying lawns.
?The first bale of 1921 co+on sold in I
Harnett County brought 1" 1-2 cents
per pound. Farmers are elated over
the prospect of better cotton prices. <
?Chapel Hill will soon have another i
railroad, the Southren Railway now.
extending their line from Carrsboro
to that town. ? ' *N j
?Over 11,000 textile employees, of
the Charlotte sod Rock Hill mills re~
sumed their work on Mondey morning
after having been out on a strike for
several weeks.
?A watermelon weighing ninety six
pounds was produced in Iredell coun
ty this ?c?son.
?Dr. Rankin, State Health Officer,
has issued a statement rebuking Sur
geon General Cummings for the,atti
, tude.he has taken relative to the no
ted report on pellagra in the South.
?Te town of Bath?oldest town in
the State?has recently completed the
construction of a new school building
costing $26,000. The building was con
structed by one of the town's public
spirited citizens, at actual cost.
?The Federal Department 'of Reve
nue, according to Collector Bailey,
has ruled that donations made to tho
Red Cross cannot be exempted from
the final returns of corporations hav
ing to pay excess taxes.
?Judge Cramner, of the Superior
Coprt, refuses consistently to lighten
the burden of road sentences which
he has been imposing upon all viola
tors of the prohibition laws.
?The State of Maryland has ordered
that no more tick cattle be received
into the stockyards of that State, and
as a result the stock raisers of north
eastern Carolina are having consider
able difficulty in disposing of their
tick-ridden stock, apropos the state
wide stock law which becomes effec
tive next January first.
?The boll weevil is reported as hav
ing done great damage in Rolbeson
County this-season.
?The average net income reported
for this state, under the income tax
law, was $4,846.20. W v
t ? ; - I
r ?The Cranberry Mines Corporat
ion of Avery County has had its asses
bed valuation reduced by Comissioner
Watts, from $600,000 to $800,000.
'
gathered in Raleigh this week to at
tend the annual convention which is
being held in the State College there.
?Coaches of the several Carolina col
leges are issuing calls (or candidates
for the footbaM teams. The 1921 sea
son is expected to be a spirited one
among the colleges of this state.
?16,000 Virginia growers have sig
ned the contracts for the cooperative
marketing associations.
?A storm that swept over Lenoir
County last Sunday did considerable
damage to buildings on the farm of
former Superintendent of Education,
Mr. A. J. Joiner.
?North Carolina Cavalrymen of the
State Guard are camping at Morehead
City.
?According to> Farmer Millsape. ot
the Thomasviiie orphanage, "a good
old nag, wagon and harness was sto
len from the institution one night last
week."
?The North Carolina State Highway
announced last week that the cost of
bulding roads in this State had declin
ed fifty per cent within the past year.
?The Grand Ball held last Thursday
night ended the State Reunion of Con
federate Veterans which was hell in
Durham last week. Here is the picture
of the ball as contained in the Raleigh
News and Observer: "Southern beau
ties in evening gowns, sparkling with
jthe freshness and vivacity of youth,
veterans, gray clad, and living once
more in the age of youth, jazz, two
pavilions flaming with multi -colored
lights, stretches of Lakewood Pagk un
der a starlit sky, a multitude of on
lookers, color, shadow, music and mu
sical laughter?the grand bail."
?The 1921 tax rate for Henderson
has been set at 80 centB by recent ac
tion of the city council.
?Governor Morrison has announced
his intention of caling a special ses
sion of the State Legislature, notwith
standing the fact that the cities that
asked for the special session are re
ducing their expenses for the current
year.
?M. E. Smith, proprietor of the Cap
itol Hotel at Raleigh was given a 12
months road sentence for allowing
immoral persons to ply- their trade in
his hotel.
?Dr. M. Bolton, prominent citizen of
Rich Square and for the past four
years Representative for Northampt
on County in the General Assembly,
died last Wednesday.
?Commissioner of Revenue A ustin
Watts has turned down the plea of
seven of the leading railroads in the|
State, for a redaction in the assessed
valuation for taxes.
?;?*o
GOOD NEWS ABOUT COUNTY
FAIR COMING IN WEEKLY
The HERALD is informed that- the
coming fair will be bigger and better
in every department, which we feel
is nothing short of what is due the
good people of HERTFORD and ad
joining counties.
Visitors at the Fair this year are
invited to come to the Milk Booth to
learn more about nutrition and to
sample the numerous milk dishes that
will be exhibited there. In addition,
such demonstrations as weaving rugs,
making home made soap, basketry,
cooking in the Steam Pressure Cook
er, the Fireless Cooker and many oth
er home devices will be given each
day. A display of home made fall hats
will be exhibited, alsd flowers and oth
er hat accessories shown. Made over
furniture and draperies for the home
will be given a' place in the above
booth.
The officers of the Fair Association
are also inviting outside exhibitors to
freely use space for any and ev.
ery article that will lighten the bur
den of our good women. They are out
looking for demonstrations and facts,
and they offer space in the above bo
oth for those purposes. Suppose you
consult with the Secretary of Hie Fair
or the superintendents of the various
departments, and, in some way, have
a direct part in the 19X1 fair, which
will by far eclipse any previous oe
rnatrtn PjMintw
?Uwunvy.
ILLITERACY IN THIS
COUNTY GREATER
THAN THE STATE
SIXTY-ONE PER CENT IN
COUNTY ARE NEGROES
_____ ? * js
1920* Census Figures Reveals
:?lafewnalioM About Hertford
County, Showing That Only
Seven Other Counties Have
So Many Illiterates as Hert
ford. Negro Population in
County Outgrew Whites The
Last Ten Years
_____ *
The HERALD is in receipt
of official 1920 census figures,
which will probably interest
Hertford County people. One
of the facts noticeable in these
figures relates to the percent
age of illiteracy in Hertford
County, as compared with oth
er counties of the State. This
report places Hertford in the
eighth place from the top in
percentage of illiteracy, "illit
eracy here heing the number of
persons above ten years of age
who can write neither english
nor any other language. Out of,
this county's total population,'
18.8 per cent are classed as il
literates. jOne of the reasons
for this rather high percentage
is no doubt due to the predom
inance of negroes in the county.
Although within the past 10
years the percentage of negro
population in the State as a
whole has declined from 31.6
per cent in 1910 to 29.8 per
cent in 1920, the negro popula
tion has outgrown the whites
in Hertford County during the
same period. In 1910 58.9 per
cent of Hertford's population
was colored, while last year it
had grown to 61.1 per cent of
the county's total population.
Only one other county in North
Carolina has such,a large per
centage of negroes, Warren
County having 6,4 per cent ne
groes. However, the percentage
of negroes in Warren decreas
ed during the past decade. Our
two neighboring counties have
the following percentage of ne
gro population: Bertie, 56.8,
Northampton. 59.6. ?
Of Hertford County' negro
population, 26 out of every 100
can not write and are classed
"as illiterates; 8.6 per cent of
the whites are illiterate. Com
bining these totals, on the ba
sis of percentage of population
of each, Hertford County has
18.8 per cent illiterates as not
ed in the paragraph above. Ac
cording to this report, Hertford
County does not rank up with
the State Average in the educa
tional qualification. The percen
tage of illiteracy in the State
is 13.1 per cent; whites 8.2 per
cent; negroes, 24.6 per cent.
The report a* it affect* illiteracy,
?ays in part:
"According to the census of 1920
there are 241,445 illiterate person*
10 years of age and over in the state
of North Carolina, "illiterate" mean*
ing unable to write. Of this number i
104,673 are native whites of native
parentage, 171 are of foreign birth
or mixed percentage and 474 are of
foreign birth. The number of illit
erate negroes is 133,616. In the total
population ten years of age and over
the percentage of illiteracy is 13.1,
which, it is gratifying to note, shows
a dimunition since 1910, when it was
13.5. In the caae of^negroes, the per
centage declined from 31.9 to 34.6,
Campaign now in
progress in the
flounty this week
MEETING CALLED HERE
FOR SATURDAY, 2:30 P. M
/
Representative of Cotton 1 Co
operative Marketing Apscia
tipn Will Be Present. Seeking
Signers of Contract In Order
That Cotton Storage Ware
house May Re Built Here?
Northampton County Goes
80 Per Cent Strong
Co-operative Marketing has arrived
in Hertford County and a force of
men headed by D. J. McMillan will
open the campaign in this county
with a meeting in Ahoskie Saturday
afternoon at two o'clock. On Monday
they will go to Windsor for a meet
ing St two o'clock and will then swing
back into Hertford for the balance of
the week. Meetings have been arrang
ed in the following towns by County
Ageqt, H. L. Miller, who will have gen
eral charge of the campaign in this
CouAty: St. Johns, Tuesday morning,
at 10 o'clock; Menoia at three; Win
ton, Wednesday at 3 o'clock in the
I afternoon and at Harrellsville at 10
jin the morning; Murfreeaboro in the
. morning and Como lit the afternoon
' Thursday.
Mr. MacMillan said today: "we
hjjve just closed the campaign in Nor
thampton County and eighty two per
, tent of the growers of cotton in that
county have signed the contract. The
farmers are solid on Cooperative Mar
keting; they are tired of dumping the
cotton on the market and taking the
other fellow's price, his weight and
grade, regardless of what that price
may be. There is no reason inv the
world why the farmer should not sell
his cotton like any other merchandise
is sold. The price to be based on the
cost of production plus the cost of
selling. There is hot a, cotton grower
in Hertford who ever sold h bale of
cotton in his life. He has dumped it
on the market and taken what cotton
speculators have been pleased to give
him and wa all know that to be true.
"Next year the farmer is going to
make the price of cotton through the
ir Association. And the cotton specu
lator knows it. The handwriting is on
the wall for the dishonest cotton bro
ker; the 1922 crop will be controlled
by an association of farmers who will
demand and receive a price based
on what it cost him to "produce that
crop, and not subject to the whims of
a few men comprising the Liverpool
Cotton Exchange 3,000 miles away.
''They lost 12,000 bales of cotton
"last year through o versampling alone;
that will be eliminated; they lost $12.
<$0 on every bale of cotton raised in
this county from country damage;
that will be done away with;
they were cheated out of $11.60 on
every bale of cotton they raised last
year because their cotton was. not
graded fairly. Is at any wonder with
these and many other injustices and
abuses in the prdsent system of selling
cotton?a system instituted by the
buyers for the buyers, without giving
the growers any consideration whatev
er?is it any wonder they are signing
these contracts when they are shown
how Cooperative Marketing will elim
' *
1 and in the case of native whites of
native parentage from 12.8 to 8.2.
?"There is more illiteracy in the ru
ral districts of the state than in the
cities, the percentage being 14.1 for
the rural population and 9.8 for the
urban. For the native white population
of native parentage the urban pencen
tage of illiteracy is 4.6, while the ru
ral is 9.2. In the case of theNegro
population the percentage is 20.3 in
the urban population as against 26.7
in the rural.
"By counties the percentage of li
teracy ranges from 22.4 in Bdsgcco
mbe County to 4.4 in Buncombe coun
ty."
I ? ?m v;- ? , v . ? ; /; *
KNOWING NORTH CAROLINA
_
, - ?>
A little Journey Through Hertford County
By H. M. BERRY, Sect'y., North Carolina Good Roada AaaSa.
A County of farmers Toting a |
half million dollar bond iiaua to build 1
a system of county roads; an annotm?
cement which aooms almost an anach
ronism in those days of calamity howl
ing and business depression, with or- j
eryone proclaiming the farmer headed 1
straight for benhruptcy. Pessimism,
however, does not predominate in the
county of Hegtford where "hog and
hominy" grow in abundance and such
a variety of other crops as to insure
plenty of food.?enough to ward off
all fear of starvation and pellagra.
The people of this county have been
suddenly awakened from their centu- i
ry-old nap by Young Blood who has)
reached its majority and realised the |
handicap under which he is laboring
because of poor transportation facil
ities. Direct descendants of North Ca
rolina's earliest settlers, these people
of Hertford, in a most trying time,
have exhibited a foresight and cour
age worthy of the ancestors who bra
ved the terrors of the unknown, sail
ed on a frail craft over a trackless
ocean to seek new homes where free
dom might abide, and settled in the
dense forests along the Chowan and
Meherrin?a land whose fulfillment
* <7 ? i
has been far beyond the most san
guine dreams of the original settlers.
The children of these corageous pio
neers are the indust^ous and cultured
people who now own many qf the
large plantations of their forbears,
graced with old colonial houses, of
beautiful design and construction, a
people of gracious hospitality, with
prosperity and contentment.
Few people in other sections of the
State think of Hertford even in terms
of a county and yet it nurtures one
of our oldest civilizations and is ode
of our most inteasely developed agri
cultural areas.
Nestling on the banks of the Cho
wan and Meherrin rivers are two of
the State's oldest and most picture
sque towns. Winton, the county seat,
with its broad streets, shaded by an
cient elms, and the quaint old-fash
ioned homes set in large yards with
flower-bordered lawns, reminds one
of an old English town of bygone
days. The mighty Chowan sweeps its
syow majestic way at the feet of lit
tle Winton, shutting off most effec
tually from the State the "Lost Pro
vinces" of the Northeast. With the
building of the geat bridge across the
river, which will form one of the big
projects of the State Highway Sys
tem and be the gateway of the North- <
eastern counties into the State, sleepy ,
little Winton will become an on-look
er and soon a participant in the fast
moving procession of .modern life.
Twin to Winton in point'of age, beau
ty and general air of old-world cul
ture is Murfreesboro, mother of'ed
ucation in the Chowan region, for lo
cated here is Chowan College which
has educated most of the mothers and
many of the grandmothers of this and
other sections of the State. Murfrees
boro enjoys the proud distinction of
having been host to Lafayette in by
? ? v '?
inate these very items on which they
have been losing money ever. since
they have been trying to raise and
market cotton. And, if there is one
reason why men who grow cotton
should sign this contract there are ten
why they who are raising tobacco also
should sign. There is no more compe
tition in buying tobacco that there is
between members of the same Arm
buying goods for that Arm. The Ave
big tgbacco companies absolutely con <
trol and agree on the price to be paid
for tobacco before the market opens,
and their little dummy buyers have
about as much authority to make the
price as the average clerk In a store.
Ifs a joke, or would be If it wore not
a tragedy. But these conditions will
continue to exist until the farmer,
through organisation compel a change
and maris my words that change b
~ . . m
<one days when men were willing and
eager to sacrifice life and fortade for
greater libertJL_aHii - opiioitjnity fee
themselves and their children. Tradi
tion has it thdt Captain Kidd sailed
op the Chowan and secreted treasure
possibly in or near the great ravines
and "canyons" which indent the high
cliffs along the rivers. Many homee
are now inhabited which were bailt
of brick brought over from the moth
er country in the days of the Revolu
tionary Georges. Indeed, far from the
noise and bustle of any railroad, with
only the weekly call of a steamboat
bringing barter from the outside
world up the Chowan to Win top and
on up the Meherrin to Murfreesboro,
the visitor might well imagine himself
living in the age of Queen Bess in one
of England's most remote hamlets.
The only modern notes are the occa
sional honk of a ? motor car and the
very rare sound of the telephone. But
Hertford has other towns with all the
trappings of modern life. Through her
southern border the Atlantic Coast
Line Railroad has given birth to Ah
oskie and other shipping points where
lumber plants make the welkin ring,
where city conveniences have been in
stalled and where the peanuts, cotton
and tobacco output of the county be
gin their commercial career. Ahoakle
has all the earmarkn of the modern
town?noise, bustle, dust, movies, bun
galows.
Hertford constitutes one of the tier
of counties between the Chowan and
Roanoke rivers, along its northern
border are found all the varied geo
logical and topographical conditions
common to the Piedmont; in the sou
thern portion, the very fiat and swam
py areas characteristic of the coastal
plain. Abundantly watered, with a soil
of rich sandy loam and good clay sub
soil, the county stands well up in the
agricultural column. The principal mo
ney crops are peanuts, cotton and to
bacco; corn yields large returns and
sorghum, sweet potatoes, Irish pota
toes, melons, vegetables, soy beans,
grasses and alfalfa can be raised with
ease and abundance. With the pas
sage of the state-wide stock law and
the elimnation of the cattle tick, cat
tle-raising 'should become an increas
ingly important industry. Lumbering
has attained considerable proportions
and there still are some large bounda
ries of orignal growth, owned mostly
by foreign corporations. One beauti
ful, body of long-leaf pine near Mur4
boro reminds one of the "birthright
we have sold for a mess of pottage".
Praeticallv all of the rot-over land
in this county is under cultivation,
but many of the southeastern counties
have thousands of acres of idle land
which might be yielding a return of
millions if the long-leaf had not been '
devastated by the lumber shark, the
greedy tprpentiner, the scrub cattle
and razor backs* which were allowed
to roam at large?all permitted by
reckless generations which took no
"thought of the morrow". Now the
farmers of Eastern Carolina are pay
ing high tribute to Virginia, West Vir
ginia and other states and heavy fre
ght rates for coal with which to cure
their tobacco. Very soon we wiH be'
buying from, the West the materials
with which to build our homes.
One's first impression in driving
through Hertford County is the ex
tremely high percentage of land that
is under cultivation; the very careful
manner in which most of it is culti
vated; the refreshing breezes which
come up the river, and temper the ex*
cessive heat which one expects to find
in the east; and the very few mosqui
toes. Vast fields of peanuts and corn,
whose straight rows stretch into the
distant horisen, give one a sense of
infinite plenty. The beautiful coun
try homes, with their well-kept yards
and carefully nurtured flowers, capa
cious gardens filled with an baundance
of fruits and vegetables, create an
impression of happy rural life, in stri
king contrast to the fevered existence
of the average city dweller.
The needs of Hertford are not ae
many nor so difficult of attainment.
A railroad connection would be a ben
efit and encouragement to the people
of the northern and central sections;
the system of good reads wMsh the
(Continued on page ton)