September 14,1995
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The Perquimans Weekly
350
Vol. 63, No. 37
The only newspaper for and about Perquimans County people
Hertford, North Carolina 27944
Belvidere Academy gets historical marker
Over 200
gather for
celebration
■f.
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
Over 200 people gathered
from as far away as
Connecticut and Georgia to
recognize the contributions
of Belvidere Academy to
legions of students.
Months of fundraising by
members of the Belvidere
Homemakers Club culminat
ed in the erection of a his
toric marker at the site
where Belvidere Academy
once stood on Highway 37.
The community building
now occupies that property.
Two former teachers
attended the ceremony, Mary
Chappell White of Belvidere
and Annie Smith Rohlader of
Greenbelt, Maryland.
White, who was teaching
at the school when it caught
fire and burned to the ground
in May 1935, went on to teach
for many years at Central
School in Winfall. She was
affectionately known as
“Miss Mary,” and under her
guidance, many elementary
students learned to read and
write.
A real surprise for White
at the ceremony was her por
trayal, appropriately enough,
by her granddaughter and
namesake, Mary White of
Fayetteville. Young Mary
borrowed one of her grand
mother’s vintage dresses a
while back “for a project.”
Little did the grandmother
know what Mary’s project
entailed.
“You should have seen the
look on her (White’s) face
when Mary got up there in
her dress to portray her,”
said Thelma Riddick, one of
the organizers of the move to
place a monument at the site.
In addition to the teachers,
former students and descen
dants of former students
attended the ceremony.
Mary Raper Butt present
ed the history of the school.
Belvidere Academy began
its long and notable history
in the Piney Woods Friends
Meetinghouse in 1833. The
first building was erected on
the site of what is now the
community building in 1835.
The academy eventually
became a boarding school,
with students coming from
all across Perquimans
County and even outside its
boundaries.
A new building was built
in 1903, a grand, two-story
structure. The cost of erect
ing the new building and pur
chasing desks and other
equipment was a whopping
$2,824.30. It cost another $100
to finish the upstairs later.
Piney Woods Monthly
Meeting sold the building to
the county in 1914. It served
as both an elementary and
high school until 1925. After
that, high school students
traveled to Hertford to attend
classes in the brand new
BELVIDERE ACADe®
A Oiwker InitHtthdta
IASS by m
Me«tln9. The Piney
Meeting became cole
prater of the
A larger boUdlng wm d/ecfeowll
The achool waa aold
ftjr a public achool Ini 1(114^1^%
tinned nnjm H
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PHOTO BY SUSAN HARRIS
Months of hard work by a handful of Belvidere women led
to the erection of this sign, marking the site of Belvidere
Academy. The Academy was known far and wide for its
excelience in education, and played a prominent role in
the history of the Perquimans County hamiet.
school there. Elementaiy stu
dents continued to attend at
Belvidere until it burned to
the ground in 1935. Legend
has it that papers being
burned in the school’s wood
stove created sparks that
caused the fire. Fortunately,
no one was injured in the
blaze.
The marker is a testament
to the dedication and deter
mination of the homemakers’
committee that spearheaded
the effort. They needed to
raise $1,000 in matching
funds in order for the state to
mark the site. 'They contacted
former teachers, students
and those interested in his
toric preservation and came
up with the funds.
Because of their efforts,
generations to come will note
the great significance of this
small Perquimans communi
ty in the history of local edu
cation.
State toughens
driving while
impaired laws
North Carolina’s driving
while impaired laws will get
tougher tomorrow.
Two new laws take effect,
strenghtening what are
already considered to the
among the toughest driving
while impaired laws in the
nation.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on
Sept. 15, it will be unlawful for
any person under age 21 to
drive a motor vehicle after
drinking any amount of alco
hol. A violation of this law will
result in a one-year revocation
of the person’s drivers license.
‘"This law means those who
are under the age of 21 and are
therefore not allowed to buy
alcohol will also not be
allowed to have any alcohol in
their system while driving,”
said Lt. Colonel C.R. Wilkins,
acting commander of the N.C.
Highway Patrol. “This ‘zero
tolerance’ of underage drink
ing is understandable when
you consider that the alcohol
fatality rate for drivers age 16-
17 is twice as high as for dri
vers 25 and older, and the rate
for 18-20 year old drivers is
nearly three times as high.”
'The second new law taking
effect regulates open contain
ers of alcohol in the car. It will
be unlawful as of tomorrow to
have any open container of
alcohol in the car if the driver
has been drinking. If the dri
ver has not been drinking,
such as in the case of a desig
nated driver or a bus driver,
passengers can drink beer and
unfortified wine (wine with no
more than 17 percent alcohol
content).
The old law allowed passen
gers to have open beer and
unfortified wine regardless of
whether the driver had beem
drinking. 'The old law prohibit
ing the driver from drinking
while driving is still in efiSect.
“Enforcing North
Carolina’s D.W.L laws remains
the first priority of the
Highway Patrol,” said
Wilkins. “Our goal is to
improve highway safety, and
we will use every tool avail
able to us - including these
new laws - to remove impaired
drivers from the road.”
State funds mailed
The N.C. Department of
Revenue mailed intangibles
tax reimbursement distribu
tion checks totalling $128.9
million to municipalities and
counties recently.
The money is distributed to
counties adn municipalities
based on the amount of ad val
orem taxes each local govern
ment levies.
Perquimans County
received $74,485. The towns of
Hertford and Winfall got $5,634
and $1,061, respectively.
The intangible personal
property tax was repealed dur
ing teh 1995 session of the
General Assembly, effective
Jan. 1,1995 for personal taxes
filed in 1996; however, local
governments will continue to
receive reimbursement distri
bution checks paid from the
state’s General Fund.
Merchants group plans tour Telephone fraud up in North Carolina
Homes, shops to
open doors to
tourists for “Our
Town” on Oct. 21
The Downtown Merchants
Association is gearing up for
an October event.
Themed “Our Town,” the
group will sponsor a walking
tour of the downtown area,
including tours of several
homes and gardens in the
Church and Front street areas.
It is scheduled for Oct. 21.
The tour will include the
Perquimans County court
house, the oldest courthouse
stiH in use.
The homes of Mary Alice
Brinn, Andrew Toxey and Bill
Darrow will be on the tour.
The Brinn and Toxey homes
look out over the Perquimans
River. The Darrow home fea
tures newly-restored gardens
and a widow’s walk.
Hertford Hardware will fea
ture a tour of its facilities,
including antiques and the for
mer State Theater, now used
for storage. One the of the the
ater remain the embellish
ments of theaters of a by-gone
era.
Darden Department Store
will welcome people to Aunt
Arlene’s Attic and Merchant
Museum, a collection of good
ies set up in the store that has
been in the Darden family for
three generations.
Telephone fraud is on the
rise in North Carolina and
Attorney General Mike Easley
is leading a crusade to educate
the public about this crime.
In the past two years, 5.5
million Americans have pur
chased something by tele
phone that they now feel was a
definite rip-off.
Easley has contacted media
outlets, and even produced a
video which can be loaned to
civic and church groups to
warn about this rising prob
lem. The video discusses three
types of fraud - fraudulent
charities, recovery companies
and contests and promotions.
Recovery companies are the
newest type of telephone
fraud. Recovery companies
sound very legitimate. Some
have official sounding names
such as “Bureau of Consumer
Awareness “ or “Federal
Consumer Protection.” They
convince the victim that they
are legitimate because they
have details about money that
has been lost.
The companies claim that,
for an up-front fee, they can
recover all or part of the
money the consumer has lost.
According to Martha Drake at
the N.C. Consumers Council,
there is no such thing as a
legitimate recovery company
that charges for its services.
Some local government agen
cies will help people who have
lost money, but they will never
charge fees and will not guar
antee recovery.
Unfortunately, past victims
of fraudulent telemarketers
are perfect targets for the
recovery companies. Through
a practice known as “reload
ing,” names, addresses and
telephone numbers of victims
are placed on what is known
in the trade as “sucker lists”
and are sold from one fraudu
lent telemarketer to another.
Once a person has been a vic
tim of a scam, a “recovery
company” may call to help
them reclaim their funds.
There are legitimate tele
marketing firms and business
es that use telemarketing as a
means to reach potential cus
tomers. But people should be
careful about giving out their
credit card numbers or send
ing money to agencies about
which they have never heard.
If in doubt about a tele
phone deal, ask for a telephone
number and address, and
check with a Chamber of
Commerce or Better Business
Bureau to make sure a busi
ness or charity is legitimate.
Write Box 3401, Chapel HiU,
N.C. 27514 to borrow the video.
Week
SUBMITTED PHOTO
An antique bed in the Andrew Toxey home is reminiscent of
Hertford’s early days. It has provided a place of rest for the
weary for over 200 years. The Toxey home if one of five to be
on tour on Oct. 21 when the Downtown Merchants sponsor
“Our Town.”
Among the exhibits will be
Ben Hobbs demonstrating 18th
century carpentry and Mary
Danchise demonstrating the
art of caning. Hobbs is known
up and down the Eastern
Seaboard for his quality hand
made furniture.
Art exhibits, antiques
booths, displays and more are
planned for the day.
Our annual
Indian Summer
Festival section
wiilbe
published in the
Sept. 21
Perquimans
Weekiy
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