Perquimans People
History buff
Ray Winslow stands before what he thinks
;ht be the largest collection of local history
books in the county. Winslow is what you
might call a professional history buff.
Stokes offers mailing tips
Postmaster Henry C.
Stokes, Jr. is reminding
customers that for the best
service this Christmas season
they should use ZIP Codes,
place their return address in
Che upper left corner of the
envelope and use proper
postage.
"By following these
suggestions," Postmaster
Stokes says, "Customers will
be assured good mail service
this holiday season."
It is important, the Hertford
postmaster says, that families
"double check"envelopes and
cards to be certain that proper
postage is affixed. Envelopes
without postage will be
returned to senders, if
possible, or delayed by
postage-due procedures.
When the return address is
placed on envelopes bearing
holiday greetings, it also helps
remind friends of one's
current address.
And, if the family to whom a
holiday message is sent
moved more than a year ago,
it cannot be forwarded. With a
return address, Posmaster
Stokes says, such letters are
returned to the sender with a
notation that the following
"order" has expired.
Remodeled
Calvin Johnson, a postal employee, shows off the remodeled Hertford Post Office, now
equipped to handle 498 boxholders.
THE ABOVE SHOULD BE CLARIFIED. THE TAX RATE PER
$10Q VALUATION IS THE SAME, HOWEVER SEVERAL
YEARS AGO THERE WAS A REVALUATION OF REAL
PROPERTY WHICH INCREASED THE VALUE APPROX
IMATELY 40%. NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT THAT'S
A HEALTHY TAX INCREASE.
Winslowis fluent in area history
B? Mm Mclaughlin
Ray Winslow can spin yarns
about the Perquimans County
of by-gone days as well as any
pipe smoking old timer
toasting his toes by a wood
stove in a country store.
The difference is that
Winslow's stories are
ungarnished fact gleaned
from dusty old courthouse
records and age stained
documents.
Winslow is what you might
call a professional history
buff. He earns, his living by
doing genealogical research,
traveling by bus to speak at
various college seminars and
historical meetings, and
researching contracted
projects.
Winslow's passion, though,
is the history of Perquimans
County and its people.
In a sit down conversation
he can weave a rich record of
county life from colonial times
all the way into the present.
According to Winslow,
Perquimans County was the
center of activity for the entire
county in pre-revoloutionary
times.
What is now known as the
Newbold-White House was in
the seventeenth century
perhaps the finest home in the
colony.
"The general assembly, the
governor's council and the
highest courts all picked this
house to meet in," Winslow
said.
Court sessions were an
exciting happening in the none
too eventful colonial life and
nearly half the population
would show up for them.
"People came and did a
little bit of everything,"
Winslow said. "They swapped
horses, arranged marriages
for their children, got drunk
and even did a little fighting."
The practice of coming into
town for court week persisted
into the twentieth century and
as the years passed, the show
got wilder, particularly after
the railroad came to the
county in 1881.
"In later years entertainers
would come. Patent medicine
shows. Theaters. Anybody
expecting to make a buck off
the public would come around
during court week knowing
there would be a big
audience," Winslow said.
Generations of high school
students have traditionally
asked, "Why should we study
history?" Winslow would
answer "for the sheer fun of
it."
"You find out why things
are the way they ar^," he said,
"who people are and where
they come from."
"Sometimes it reads like a
'who done it?'," Winslow said.
Often it's no more than a
question of who married who,
but it might just as well be a
murder story.
Most of the county's records
are housed in the state
department of archives in
Raliegh, where Winslow does
a great deal of his research.
In his work he turns up tales of
intrigue and an occassional
scandal, along with the more
usual deeds, maps and birth
records.
One of the most tired plots in
cheap thrills literature is a
wife's conspiring to kill her
husband for money. Does it
really happen? Apparently so,
or at leapt it did here once.
In the eighteenth century a
prominent Perquimans
County merchant, high up in
government circles, was
poisoned by a laborer at his
wife's bequest. Court records
show the motive was money.
The laborer was was hung, but
the merchant's wife went
unpunished.
Perhaps the greatest public
scandal in the county's history
came about in the early
nineteenth century.
John Clary, float bridge
operator on the Perquimans
River and prominent local
politician, was convicted of
raping his stepdaughter and
received virtually no punish
ment for the deed, or at least
not from the proper
authorities.
The victim's brother and
Barber retirement celebrated
The Perquimans County
Health Department honored
Louise Barber with a surprise
retirement dinner last
Saturday night at Angler's
Cove. Mrs. Barber is retiring
after thirty years of service.
Working since 1949 has
afforded Mrs. Barber the
chance to see many changes
come about in public health
service, including the ex
pansion of child health ser
vices, and the deletion of
several previously necessary
immunizations such as
typhoid and smallpox.
"It has been an ac
complishment to see many
diseases become practically
eradicated," said Mrs. Bar
ber.
Although Mrs. Barber does
not have any definite plans for
her retirement, she wants to
become more involved in
community and church work.
Mrs. Barber
MORE DUCKS FOR NORTH CAROLINA.
JOIN DUCKS UNLIMITED.
1ST ANNUAL PERQUIMANS COUNTY D.U. BANQUET
TUESDAY, NOV. 13, ANGLER'S COVE RESTAURANT
DINNER: 7:30 P.M. ? P RE-DINNER SOCIAL: 6 7:30 P.M.
TICKETS AVAILABLE:
WOODARD'S PHARMACY, J & N SUPPLY OF WINFALL,
OR SEE PARKER NEWBERN (ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE)
friends, however, waylaid
Clary and tarred and
feathered him. They were
apprehended and punished
severely for the offense, and
Clary was re-elected to the
state house of commons by the
voters of Perquimans County.
The house of commons was
indignant about accepting a
man of such repute into its
midst, and refused Clary his
seat. Perquimans County was
forced to hold another election
and again Clary came out on
top.
A phamplet war developed
denouncing Clary for his
dastardly deeds but he was
allowed to take his seat in the
house of commons.
Winslow has also uncovered
some popular misconceptions
about the history of the area in
his studies. One is the date of
the construction of the
Perquimans County Cour
thouse. The original cour
thouse was a wooden frame
building that was torn down
when the present courthouse
opened its doors in the 1920s. A
widely held notion is that the
present structure dates back
to 1732.
Another misconception is
the belief that George
Washington personally sur
veyed the Great Dismal
Swamp. Washington did,
however, visit the county,
probably on more than one
occassion, and bought a large
chunk of the swamp with
hopes of draining it and tur
ning a profit.
Agriculture has always
played a role in Perquimans
County History, though corn
and soybeans haven't always
been the preferred crop.
Originally, the cash crop
was tobacco, and farmers not
only grew it but used it for
money. Cotton, corn and
wheat were important before
the Civil War, and toward the
end of the century, peanuts,
and even rice came into
prominence.
Gradually, though, the
soybean stole into the picture
and now it shares the spotlight
with corn as the county's
primary crop.
Time and patient study have
made Ray Winslow one of the
foremost experts on the
history of Perquimans
County.
He has published numerous
articles and books on the
subject and is the president of
the Perquimans County
Historical Society.
His latest project is one that
will help spread his knowledge
of historic research methods
to others. It is a textbook for
the state community college
system entitled HOW TO DO
HISTORICAL AND
GENEALOGICAL
RESEARCH IN NORTH
CAROLINA.
For all his achievements,
though, Winslow's research
takes a huge chunk out of his
life. At 43 he is single, and
lives with his parents in a
white frame house on Edenton
Road.
His library is crammed full
of books on local history. His
own microfilm reader sits on a
table cluttered with pham
plets and papers.
One might conclude that
Winslow has given up the
present for life in the past. The
self-made historian would
argue, however, that all life is
to some degree lived after the
fact.
"The past is all we have
because the future doesn't
exist, and the present, what is
it but the immediately
remembered past," Winslow
said.
Your Pharmacist!
Charles Woodard
Says ? *
^ Woodard's Pharmacy, 101 N. Church Street,
^ Hertford. NC. Tel 526 2366
Aids for allergy
Allergic sneezing and bron
chial distress can be trouble
some. Here are several sug
gestions I'd like to pass along
for possible relief.
1 ) Elevate head at night for
easier breathing; 2) Sleep with
small pillow to support back
and to serve as a "ramp" be
tween head and waist to aid
easier ventilation. 3) use a
harder cushion for your pil
low to prevent head sinking
into soft pillow and over
heating; 4) Walk to improve
respiration; 5) Sooth itching1
eyelids with wet washcloth, ice
cube, or even the frosty rim of
a glass or bottle containing a
cold drink.
Remember, don't underes
timate the value of your "per
sonal" pharmacist.
145 miles on one gallon of fuel How
far could a truck carry ?t,on the same
amount of fuel9 Well, the railroad is
four times more efficient than trucks.
60 times more efficient than planes,
and even more efficient than barges
So it s easy to see that trucks can't
carry freight anywhere near as far as
railroads can per gallon of fuel
What does this mean for the future?
be used less and less for long nauls
More and more products will ride on
the Southern, and trucks will be used
for distribution at the other end of the
line Because, in the coming years
only the railroad will have the energy
efficiency for long hauls
We have the energy tor the long haul