Newspapers / The Warren Record (Warrenton, … / March 27, 1985, edition 1 / Page 2
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je fflarrcn focorb Published Every Wednesday By Record Printing Company P O Box 70, Wanenton, N. C. 27589 BKiNALL JONES HOWARD F JONES KAY HORNER Editor Business Manager News Editor GRACE W JONES, President ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE IN WARRENTON, NORTH CAROLINA, UNDER THE LAWS OF CONGRESS Second Class Postage Paid At Warren ton, N. C. In Warren and SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $5 00 Six Months $6 00 Six Months Our Priceless Assets "Who can watch a tree being planted without being moved? It is a ceremony rather than a mere job. It has a gesture about it that is sacramental, for it im plies a faith in life and a continu ance of life. It is, in that aspect, also a thanksgiving for promises assured and accepted under that assurance." —Richard Church, The Christian Science Monitor. Hour by hour now, the beauty of Warrenton is enhanced as the end of each spring day reveals a budding and flowering of life that was not present at its dawn ing. While it is true that a goodly share of our town's charm may stake its claim in the National Register of Historic Places, credit is as surely due the branching miracles which line our streets and shelter our homes. The beautiful trees, many of which preceded our historic places, have become a Warrenton trademark; and their annual spring debut reminds us of the significance of concerted efforts to preserve and supple ment our plantings. Across the state, deserving towns have recently been dub bed "Tree City" by the National Arbor Day Foundation, ap plication for which is made through the N. C. Division of Forestry, and requirements for which include the appointment of a policy-making committee for maintenance of trees and the annual one-dollar-per-capita spending for tree care in the town. Warrenton, too, could well wear the title "Tree City," for the foundation has been firmly laid. The town has seen a num ber of champions of the trees, in both individuals and groups, and our community is more ap pealing and healthful today for their labors. At times against ex traordinary odds and in the face of insult, they have defended those monuments which require years to grow and moments to destroy. Let those of us who now receive physical and esthetic ad vantage from our trees assume responsibility for preserving them. Let us ensure that the removal of a tree be prompted by more than personal whim, remembering that we can replace a tree, but not its growth. And let us replant what we must take down, lest we con tribute to transition toward a "treeless city" and loss of a beautiful portion of our heritage. An Attractive Package The recent announcement that county officials are soliciting legislative funding for location of a branch of Vance-Granville Community College in Warren County is good news, especially for the county's unemployed and for those responsible for in dustrial recruitment. The community college con cept serves rural Warren Coun ty well, providing an opportuni ty for hands-on skills training for a largely unskilled workforce. The effectiveness of the col lege's efforts in this area have been evidenced most recently by training of employees of Owens Don't Throw The Rice In The Christian Science Monitor A wedding without rice? That would be like Damon without Pythias, or spring without baseball. But there's such a proposal in the Connecticut legislature: "An act prohibiting the use of uncooked rice at nuptial affairs." It demands that "no person shall throw, fling, cast, or hurl any uncooked rice at any time during the celebration of any marriage." The reason: Eating uncooked rice is not good for the birds in attend ance. Phooey. Throwing cooked rice is not so good, either, especially for the just marrieds. Besides, most couples don't invite birds to their wedding, other than penguinesque fathers-of-the-bride. Not birds with feathers, anyway. Of course, every guest list does in clude those other "birds" — charac ters with peculiar idiosyncrasies. But even they rarely stoop to eating uncooked rice off the ground. And never in formal dress. Illinois in the manufacture of corrugated boxes. Under the satellite concept, the county would provide the facility to house the branch and pay for telephone service, utilities, and maintenance, while the college would provide office staff and faculty. Vance-Granville President Ben Currin estimated recently that between nine and 11 percent of the college's student body on the main campus were from Warren County, and more than 100 students are enrolled in courses taught locally in Warren County Schools facilities. The county school administra tion has been cooperative and flexible in arranging classroom space for college use, but, as President Currin told county commissioners last month, nothing enhances local participa tion in a community college like the presence of a permanent facility. It is hoped that Owens-Illinois is only the first of several in dustries which will locate in Warren County in the next few years, and a local presence of the community college with its record for cooperation with in dustry in job training would give a book to industrial recruitment. It would also go a long way to solve the dilemma faced by those who stand to benefit the most from the community college cur riculum but can least afford the expense and time involved in the 50-mile round trip to the college's main campus. The Legislature has in the past looked favorably oil funding re quests for community college satellites, and county officials are to be commended for their efforts to put together a package that couM bring Vance4ranville Community College to Warren County on a permanent basis. The Warren County Scene » This Warren County native, who would later become personnel manager for Peck Manufacturing Co. and also serve as Warrenton town clerk, had little on his mind on a fall day more than 70 years ago but catch ing one of the family cats. R. Edward Hunter and his feline friend are shown above as captured by Hunter's father, Joseph, on the porch of the family home, Dalkeith, in Areola. The younger Hunter was a little more than a year old when the snapshot, which family members recollect was later published in the Progressive Farmer, was taken. Mostly Personal A Little Red Field For the next few weeks, Bignall Jones, editor and publisher of The Warren Record, will take a much-deserved leave of absence from the writing of his "Mostly Per sonal" column. During this time, a sampling of columns written by him over the past 50 years wiP be published. The following column appeared on March 21, 1952. By BIGNALL JONES In Washington City there is a beautiful tomb under which sleeps the "unknown Soldier." Here each year appro priate exercises are held and high govern ment dignitaries lay wreaths upon the slabs honoring all the dead of World War I who sleep in unknown graves on the battlefields of Europe. But in the vicinity of Buggs Island reservoir in new cemeteries there lie hundreds of unsung and unhonored dead whose graves are marked with small headstones containing the word, "Unknown." On the metal plate fastened to these markers is a number. Nothing else is there to show that these people once walked upon this earth, that they loved as we loved, that they perhaps hoped as we hope. In life they carried on their daily task in ob scurity, hardly more than mere numbers, and in death they rest in ob scurity — unknown. From the modern highway being built upon the approaches to Kerr Dam there leads a dirt road to Palmer Springs, Va., leading by Jerusalem Christian Church, where the colored people of that section worship. Ad joining the church ground is a cemetery where markers of some pretension note the names and the suc cesses in some cases of former members of this church. Across the road in a barren, red field bordered by brambles little stones peep from the.ground, like wild flowers, in row after row. Here one sees marker after marker containing the word, "Unknown," and if curious, stoops to read the numbers on the plates. In the midst of these graves there is one whose marker rises about two feet from the ground. On the perpen dicular slab one reads that here lies Lucy Read who died at the age of 63. Who she was, where she lived, what she did, when she died, is not told. Her only distinc tion is that she has a name where the others have numbers. "From the dust they came and unto the dust they returned." That is all that is certain. Yet the explanation of so many unknown graves is simple. The bodies were no doubt removed from the graves of a slave cemetery. Remains of this type cemetery are to be found in many sec tions of the county near the seats of slavehold ing families. One sees a group of sunken places in the ground and at each end of these a small rock tells its story. The bodies of those whose accomplishments were such as to win a marker with names and dated have been removed to other cemeteries where tomb st°nes tell their stories and in government ar chives their registra tions are preserved where they will probably remain after the elements have nmdg the inscriptions in the church yard illegible. Some of these have been reinterred at Mount Alban, some at St. John's and others in the scores of surrounding church cemeteries. But these at Jerusalem Christian Church lie in a barren field, not even in the shadow of the church. If in life they lived apart, a connection but not an articulate part of the life of the old South; in death they form a con nection with the church and yet even here they are set apart. That they lived as we live there can be little question. If they hoped as we hope it was because hope springs eternal in the human breast; it would seem that their lot was pretty hopeless. Their sweat, their tears led to an unknown grave. Even Lucy Read who was loved was not count ed as much. Her tomb stone tells that much. She received recogni tion to the extent that her grave was marked by a slab and her age was given. But even her recognition was limited. Not even "here lies one who was faithful.'' Yet we know that she must have been faithful to have won even this much award. One stands in the midst of these unknown graves and reflects that here a preacher might find a topic for a ser mon, or a poet might write an elegy even more poignant than that written in a country churchyard. Looking Back Into The Warren Record March N, IMS Numbers of young Warrenton girls visit Camp Butner Hospital each Sunday morning when transportation can be found and carry various gifts to the patients, Miss Diane Gamble said yesterday. A national drive for 150,000,000 pounds of used clothing will get underway next month and the clothes collected will be shipped to war victims as a free gift from the American people. On the day victory is declared in Europe, there will be services in Emmanuel Episcopal Church each hour, the Rev. A. P. Chambliss announced yesterday. March 25, I960 Warren ton has attracted a new business establish ment. Mrs. J. M. Overby of Kittrell will open a modern flower shop here on Monday in the store in the Gibbs-Woodhouse Building next to the Polk-a-Dot Gift Shop. Mrs. Cora H. Hawkins of Warrenton has been selected as a participant in the Summer Institute for High School Science Teachers at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, Greensboro. • ___ Miss Rosa Beckwith of St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock, Va. was here for the weekend. March 27,1975 Kerr Dam received the stiffest test in its 23-year history this week as flood waters pushed its reser voir level to a record high of more than 316 feet. Officials at Soul City remain confident about achieving both immediate and long-range goals for the completion of industrial jobs, Floyd B. McKissick, founder of Soul City, told a packed news conference at the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in Henderson Thursday morning of last week. Nathaniel M. Hilliard, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. N. M. Hilliard of Warrenton, has been named a recipient of a George Foster Hankins Scholarship at Wake Forest University. Notes From The Senate Committee Work Is On Increase By SEN. JAMES E. EZZELL, JR. This week has seen an increase in the committee work being done by the General Assembly, but very few bills have reached the Senate floor for action. Part of the delay has been caused by the fact that Governor Martin has not sent over his budget suggestions for us to review. As soon as this hap pens, the pace will quicken. A bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Royall and me, and in the House by Representative Watkins, that almost does away with the Inherit ance Tax in North Carolina. Because the bill allows for a tax credit paid to the federal government and for tax set-offs in estates, the net effect will be that about 99 percent of the estates in North Carolina will be tax exempt. The other one percent are extremely large estates that have federal tax problems that cannot use all of the tax credit. R is estimated that this will cost the state about $60 million in revenue. Frankly, this is a fair bill. It has always bothered me that while you try to accumulate assets, you continue to pay taxes. Then, when you die, these assets are taxed again. I hope you agree with my position. A bill has been introduced to repeal the six hun dred thousand Comparable Worth Study which was authorized by the 1984 General Assembly. The com parable worth concept created a lot of furor in other states as well as in North Carolina. Some of the members of the General Assembly say that it was enacted in error and that they thought they were approving a study of pay equity and not comparable worth. This is likely to cause a great deal of discussion in this body. The contract for the study has already been entered into and some money has already been spent and this bill would terminate the contract immediately after ratification and allow the state to pay for the completed portion of the study. A lot of interest is being generated over several other issues. One of these issues has to do with deleting phosphates from household detergents. There are studies on both sides of the issue on whether phosphates cause pollution. A lot of lobby ing is occuring here on both sides. This issue will lead into other ecological issues such as the issue of leaking underground storage tanks. It's estimated that in North Carolina we have approximately 120,000 leaking underground tanks. Something needs to be done about this problem. Also, you will hear more and more about the disposal of hazar dous waste in our state, particularly since we have been selected by the federal government as a likely spot for the disposal of some hazardous waste. More about this at a later time. The Dare County tax bill was approved by the Senate the other day and is on its way to the House. As previously mentioned to you, this will allow the Dare County Board of Commissioners to tax land transfers up to $300 per hundred dollar value. Frankly, I voted against this bill because I fear it sets a bad precedent I am not trying to deprive Dare County of revenue, but I think it should look at other sources. Already, a similar bill has been en tered for Currituck County and you can look for similar bills all the way down our coast and to other reaort areas within our state. More later from the General Assembly
The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.)
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March 27, 1985, edition 1
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