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Thursday, July 7, 1955 Goldsboro (N.C.) News-Argus
Recollections of J.M. Hollowell, resident of Wayne County NC for over 100 years...
I recall the following business houses:
Dibble Bros. at Waynesboro, agricultural implements;
J.H. Glass, portrait painter;
Wm. Bogart, contractor and builder;
D.G. Lougee, jeweler;
C.J. Nelson, dry goods and carriage making;
J.W. Ezzell, sash, doors and blinds;
J.E. Neal, mattress maker;
Wm. Puryear, carpenter;
Wm. Armstrong and B.C. Wood, shoemakers;
Wm. Privett & Sons, groceries;
S.D. Phillips, tailor;
B.D. Ford, marble works;
W.R. Bridgers, bar and coolerific depot;
Bradley & Hart, hardware;
Henry King and W. Seymour, jewelers;
S.B. and J.A. Evans, druggists;
Vaughn and Moore, druggist;
Griswold & Cobb, dry goods and groceries;
Edmundson & Borden, dry goods;
Henry Strouse, dry goods;
Anderson and Washington, dry goods and groceries;
Whitaker and Lawrence, stationers;
W.S. Bonner, dry goods and groceries;
James Griswold and Mrs. M.A. Borden, hotels;
Mrs. M.E. Castex, millinery;
W.F. Brown, bakery;
Parmelee & Bull, hardware;
D.L. Burbank, grist mill;
James Darby, spirits turpentine barrell maker;
E.P. Wood, saddles and harnesses.
In Mr. Wood's advertisement I remember a verse as follows:
If you wish to save a dollar,
From crupper even to the collar,
'Twill be to your interest, one and all,
At E.B. Wood's to make a call.
If I am not mistaken, the Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal
churches were built between 1854 and 1857. The Methodist church
(now the Primitive Baptist) must have been built directly after
the court house was built.
In those days there was no such facilities for getting an education
as there is now, particularly in the country. There was a free
school taught from two to three months each winter, and in some
neighborhoods, occasionally a paid school was run for a few months
in the year, but the school districts was large and the children
often had to walk from two to four miles to attend school. The old
Blue Back Speller was used, and I beleive now it was better than
the present system.
At a meeting held January 3rd, 1860 the following petition from
the Goldsboro Rifles was presented:
To the Commissioners of the Town of Goldsboro: The undersigned
officers and members of the Goldsboro Rifles represent to your
honorable body that they have at considerable personal expense
and with a sacrifice of much toil and trouble organized a volunteer
company for the security and protection of the lives and property
of the citizens of the town. They also represent that they were
furnished with arms by the Governor of the State, but no ammunition
that to insure efficiency they have been compelled to purchase a
quantity of cartridges at an expense of $35.00.
They also represent that in their opinion this expense should
be divided equally among the citizens of the place, as it was for
the common good that they were purchased; that the company should
be relieved by the Commissioners and an appropriation made from
the funds of the town to pay for the cartridges. We have left them
in charge of the Intendant of Police and we proposed that they be
left in his safe keeping, only to be used in cases of emergency,
at his discretion.
(Signed)
M.D. Craton, Captain
S.M. Hunt, Lieut.
W.S.G. Andrews, Lieut.
J.A. Washington, Sergt.
J.W. Gullick.
Upon the presentation and reading of this petition, the Commissioners
ordered that the sum of $35 be appropriated to pay for the cartridges
purchased by the Goldsboro Rifles and now in the care and keeping of
the Intendant of Police.
To the young reader it perhaps begins to look a little war-like and
to the old reader it brings back to memory a feeling of sadness.
On the 13th of April, 1861, the town was full of country people who
with the citizens of the town kept close to the telegraph office for
news of the firing that was going on upon Fort Sumter at Charleston,
S.C., but at sunset no news of its surrender had been received. The
result came sometime after nightfall.
There was no telegraph line then to New Bern. When the train for
that place left on Saturday the 13th at 3 o'clock p.m., the fort was
still holding out. That was the latest from there.
The people of New Bern could not wait until Monday to hear further
from Charleston. There being no train on the A. & N.C.R.R. on Sunday,
they besought the president, Col. J.D. Whitford, to send an extra
engine and coach to Goldsboro, which he did, and it came loaded with
the most prominent men of New Bern.
On Monday morning, Gov. Ellis wired Capt. Craton to proceed with his
company (the Goldsboro Rifles) to Fort Macon, and take possession
of that fortification. But Capt. Josiah Pender, of Beaufort, N.C.,
anticipated the Governor's desire and on Sunday, April 14th, with
a detachment of men from Beaufort went over to the fort and took
possession, there being only one man, Sgt. Alexander, in charge
of the place.
But Capt. Craton began to collect his men. Some of them lived
several miles in the country, and by 3 o'clock, when the New Bern
train left, he had them aboard.
During the foernoon, J.B. Whitaker called for volunteers for
another company and before train time the company was formed with
J.B. Whitaker as Captain and T.T. Hollowell and Bright Thompson
as Lieutenants, and, I think with some sixty odd privates, they also
went down on the same train with the Goldsboro Rifles.
Exciting Times
Bless you, those were exciting times. The people were stirred as
I never saw them before, nor since. That day I saw the first tears
of the war, as the wives, parents, sisters, brothers and friends
stood at the train to bid the soldier boys goodbye; but alas, the
tears that day were but the beginning of the floods of tears that
followed in the next four years.
I, of course, forty-eight years after, cannot recall the names of
all who left Goldsboro on that memorable 15th of April, but at this
late day I can call the names of over fifty, and believing it would
be interesting reading to the younger generation, I will give the
names as they now occur to me, viz:
M.D. Craton
J.B. Whitaker
S.M. Hunt
S.D. Phillips
W.S.G. Andrews
J.F. Devine
J.A. Washington
J.B. Baker
Bob McIntire
L.D. Giddens
H.H. Coor
H.C. Premport
W.S. Royall
R.B. Potts
J.D. Howard
R.J. Gooding
F.M. Harrison
John G. Parker
N.L. Whitley
W.A. Thompson
Crocket Moore
B.F. Hooks
B.B. Reeves
Nathan Byron Parker
Ballard Sasser
Thad Pitman
Ashe Knight
Henry Parker
Wiley Wright
Sandy Murdock
T.T. Hollowell
J.W. Gulick
Mike Wood
Bright Thompson
J.P. Cobb
Geo. J. Moore
Richard Bright Parker
R.P. Howell
J.B. Robinson
Joe Sauls
Alex Trumbro
James Bryan
Fritz Hummel
J.T. Kennedy
A.J. Farrell
Boaz Sasser
Tobias Snipes
Mike Heineman
W.F. Kornegay
Wm. Webb
Furney Harrell
Henry Procton
J.M. Hollowell
That Monday, the 15th day of April, 1861, was the stirringest (if I
may so express it) day that I ever saw in Goldsboro, and I have seen
some right stirring times here.
I remember the day when a small riot occurred in front of the old
Borden Hotel in '65, when Bryan Cox was shot and killed and Jim Jones
desperately wounded. Both were Negroes. I don't suppose it ever has
been known to a certainty who fired the shot that killed Cox.
The late J.D. Winslow told me on one occassion that he believed that
the late A.J. Galloway and himself were the only two men who saw the
shot fired, and upon my asking him who fired it he replied:
"I shall never tell, and I don't believe Mr. Galloway ever will;" and
so far as I know either one ever did.
Two paragraphs about the 1870's unused.
...During the summer of '61 the old town hall, market and guard house was
built in the centre of Ash street between East Centre and John. This
old building stood there for near forty years. I think it was torn down
about 1900.
J.J. Baker, Jno. Wright, Jno. Everett, D.C. Carrington and J.W. Davis
were elected Commissioners for 1862. E.B. Borden, Kedar Raiford and
W.C. Blount were appointed to assess the value of real estate for 1862.
For 1863, J.B. Whitaker, S.D. Phillips, T.T. Hollowell, Samuel J.
Lucus and John Crone were elected Commissioners. Matthew Albritton
was elected Clerk and T.T. Hollowell town Constable.
Goldsboro has always been a town of slow growth. It has never had
what might be called a boom, and yet I don't remember a time when there
was not some building going on.
Female College
The first female college opened was about 1853 or '54. It was in the
old Borden Hotel building and the president was Rev. J.H. Brent. My
recollection is that this school was run in that building for two or
three years and that the brick college, now the center graded school
building, was erected about '56 or '57, and I think that its first
president was Rev. S.M. Frost. He ran it until some time during the
war. The latter years of the war the building was used as a Confederate
hospital.
The N.C.R.R. (now the Southern) was not intended at its charter to run
into Goldsboro, but was to connect with boats on the Neuse river at
Waynesboro, and a track was run down to the river. It curved to the
right just after crossing Little river bridge, about where Well's
brick yard is and ran across the field now owned by Maj. Grant, coming
to the river near O'Berry's log boom, and a warehouse was built on the
river bank.
I don't know whether any business was ever done between the railroad
and steamboats or not. The warehouse got burned in April, '61. The first
steamboat I ever saw was tied up to the banks of Waynesboro. This must
have been about '49 or '50.
It was some years before the court house was removed. The boat line was
owned or operated by the Dibbles, who were northern men.
Steam Saw Mill
The first steam saw mill ever operated in Wayne was owned and run by
T.C. Garrison, of Petersburg, VA, and was located at Bolton Hill, on the
A.C.L. road, about four miles north of Goldsboro. This information I got
from the late Col. C.J. Nelson, and if I remember rightly, it was bout
1836, while the Wilmington & Weldon railroad (now the A.C.L.) was being
built.
A good deal of lumber that was used in those days for building was
sawed by what was called whip saws. I never saw but one of them work.
It was located just where the residence of Mr. L.D. Gulley now stands.
Two benches were erected seven or eight feet high, and the log was
placed on these benches. How they managed to get the log up there, I am
not going to tell, for I don't know. At the time I saw this one being
worked, the log was already in position.
A large saw like an ordinary cross-cut saw, with handles in each end,
the handles going through the round loop at the end of the saw, so that
the man at the handles could use an end in each hand; then one man
mounted the log and stood on it, while the other man stood on the
ground and the sawing was done by pulling the saw up and down. It was
a slow process.
There used to be one of these mills owned by Wm. Rouse, in Stoney
Creek township, across Stoney Creek, about one mile from Thompson's
Chapel. I used to go there to get grinding done; carried a bag of
corn containing two bushels thrown across the back of a horse.
I used to ride up to the mill house and the old Negro, Ned Rouse,
would start his saw in a sixteen foot log, then come take my bag
off my horse, carry it into the grinding room, measure it with a
half bushel, take out the toll, raise the gate and start the rocks
to running, step down to the meal chest, feel of the meal to see if
it was being ground fine enough, then go out to his saw, take a
chew of tobacco leisurely and be in ample time to throw his saw out
by the time it had cut through the sixteen foot line.
To think of this rate and then go down to the Enterprise Lumber
Co.'s mill and see how quick a band saw will cut the same line is
astonishing.
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
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for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the
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to store the file permanently for free access.
Recollections of J.M. Hollowell, resident of Wayne County NC for over 100 years...
I recall the following business houses:
Dibble Bros. at Waynesboro, agricultural implements;
J.H. Glass, portrait painter;
Wm. Bogart, contractor and builder;
D.G. Lougee, jeweler;
C.J. Nelson, dry goods and carriage making;
J.W. Ezzell, sash, doors and blinds;
J.E. Neal, mattress maker;
Wm. Puryear, carpenter;
Wm. Armstrong and B.C. Wood, shoemakers;
Wm. Privett & Sons, groceries;
S.D. Phillips, tailor;
B.D. Ford, marble works;
W.R. Bridgers, bar and coolerific depot;
Bradley & Hart, hardware;
Henry King and W. Seymour, jewelers;
S.B. and J.A. Evans, druggists;
Vaughn and Moore, druggist;
Griswold & Cobb, dry goods and groceries;
Edmundson & Borden, dry goods;
Henry Strouse, dry goods;
Anderson and Washington, dry goods and groceries;
Whitaker and Lawrence, stationers;
W.S. Bonner, dry goods and groceries;
James Griswold and Mrs. M.A. Borden, hotels;
Mrs. M.E. Castex, millinery;
W.F. Brown, bakery;
Parmelee & Bull, hardware;
D.L. Burbank, grist mill;
James Darby, spirits turpentine barrell maker;
E.P. Wood, saddles and harnesses.
In Mr. Wood's advertisement I remember a verse as follows:
If you wish to save a dollar,
From crupper even to the collar,
'Twill be to your interest, one and all,
At E.B. Wood's to make a call.
If I am not mistaken, the Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal
churches were built between 1854 and 1857. The Methodist church
(now the Primitive Baptist) must have been built directly after
the court house was built.
In those days there was no such facilities for getting an education
as there is now, particularly in the country. There was a free
school taught from two to three months each winter, and in some
neighborhoods, occasionally a paid school was run for a few months
in the year, but the school districts was large and the children
often had to walk from two to four miles to attend school. The old
Blue Back Speller was used, and I beleive now it was better than
the present system.
At a meeting held January 3rd, 1860 the following petition from
the Goldsboro Rifles was presented:
To the Commissioners of the Town of Goldsboro: The undersigned
officers and members of the Goldsboro Rifles represent to your
honorable body that they have at considerable personal expense
and with a sacrifice of much toil and trouble organized a volunteer
company for the security and protection of the lives and property
of the citizens of the town. They also represent that they were
furnished with arms by the Governor of the State, but no ammunition
that to insure efficiency they have been compelled to purchase a
quantity of cartridges at an expense of $35.00.
They also represent that in their opinion this expense should
be divided equally among the citizens of the place, as it was for
the common good that they were purchased; that the company should
be relieved by the Commissioners and an appropriation made from
the funds of the town to pay for the cartridges. We have left them
in charge of the Intendant of Police and we proposed that they be
left in his safe keeping, only to be used in cases of emergency,
at his discretion.
(Signed)
M.D. Craton, Captain
S.M. Hunt, Lieut.
W.S.G. Andrews, Lieut.
J.A. Washington, Sergt.
J.W. Gullick.
Upon the presentation and reading of this petition, the Commissioners
ordered that the sum of $35 be appropriated to pay for the cartridges
purchased by the Goldsboro Rifles and now in the care and keeping of
the Intendant of Police.
To the young reader it perhaps begins to look a little war-like and
to the old reader it brings back to memory a feeling of sadness.
On the 13th of April, 1861, the town was full of country people who
with the citizens of the town kept close to the telegraph office for
news of the firing that was going on upon Fort Sumter at Charleston,
S.C., but at sunset no news of its surrender had been received. The
result came sometime after nightfall.
There was no telegraph line then to New Bern. When the train for
that place left on Saturday the 13th at 3 o'clock p.m., the fort was
still holding out. That was the latest from there.
The people of New Bern could not wait until Monday to hear further
from Charleston. There being no train on the A. & N.C.R.R. on Sunday,
they besought the president, Col. J.D. Whitford, to send an extra
engine and coach to Goldsboro, which he did, and it came loaded with
the most prominent men of New Bern.
On Monday morning, Gov. Ellis wired Capt. Craton to proceed with his
company (the Goldsboro Rifles) to Fort Macon, and take possession
of that fortification. But Capt. Josiah Pender, of Beaufort, N.C.,
anticipated the Governor's desire and on Sunday, April 14th, with
a detachment of men from Beaufort went over to the fort and took
possession, there being only one man, Sgt. Alexander, in charge
of the place.
But Capt. Craton began to collect his men. Some of them lived
several miles in the country, and by 3 o'clock, when the New Bern
train left, he had them aboard.
During the foernoon, J.B. Whitaker called for volunteers for
another company and before train time the company was formed with
J.B. Whitaker as Captain and T.T. Hollowell and Bright Thompson
as Lieutenants, and, I think with some sixty odd privates, they also
went down on the same train with the Goldsboro Rifles.
Exciting Times
Bless you, those were exciting times. The people were stirred as
I never saw them before, nor since. That day I saw the first tears
of the war, as the wives, parents, sisters, brothers and friends
stood at the train to bid the soldier boys goodbye; but alas, the
tears that day were but the beginning of the floods of tears that
followed in the next four years.
I, of course, forty-eight years after, cannot recall the names of
all who left Goldsboro on that memorable 15th of April, but at this
late day I can call the names of over fifty, and believing it would
be interesting reading to the younger generation, I will give the
names as they now occur to me, viz:
M.D. Craton
J.B. Whitaker
S.M. Hunt
S.D. Phillips
W.S.G. Andrews
J.F. Devine
J.A. Washington
J.B. Baker
Bob McIntire
L.D. Giddens
H.H. Coor
H.C. Premport
W.S. Royall
R.B. Potts
J.D. Howard
R.J. Gooding
F.M. Harrison
John G. Parker
N.L. Whitley
W.A. Thompson
Crocket Moore
B.F. Hooks
B.B. Reeves
Nathan Byron Parker
Ballard Sasser
Thad Pitman
Ashe Knight
Henry Parker
Wiley Wright
Sandy Murdock
T.T. Hollowell
J.W. Gulick
Mike Wood
Bright Thompson
J.P. Cobb
Geo. J. Moore
Richard Bright Parker
R.P. Howell
J.B. Robinson
Joe Sauls
Alex Trumbro
James Bryan
Fritz Hummel
J.T. Kennedy
A.J. Farrell
Boaz Sasser
Tobias Snipes
Mike Heineman
W.F. Kornegay
Wm. Webb
Furney Harrell
Henry Procton
J.M. Hollowell
That Monday, the 15th day of April, 1861, was the stirringest (if I
may so express it) day that I ever saw in Goldsboro, and I have seen
some right stirring times here.
I remember the day when a small riot occurred in front of the old
Borden Hotel in '65, when Bryan Cox was shot and killed and Jim Jones
desperately wounded. Both were Negroes. I don't suppose it ever has
been known to a certainty who fired the shot that killed Cox.
The late J.D. Winslow told me on one occassion that he believed that
the late A.J. Galloway and himself were the only two men who saw the
shot fired, and upon my asking him who fired it he replied:
"I shall never tell, and I don't believe Mr. Galloway ever will;" and
so far as I know either one ever did.
Two paragraphs about the 1870's unused.
...During the summer of '61 the old town hall, market and guard house was
built in the centre of Ash street between East Centre and John. This
old building stood there for near forty years. I think it was torn down
about 1900.
J.J. Baker, Jno. Wright, Jno. Everett, D.C. Carrington and J.W. Davis
were elected Commissioners for 1862. E.B. Borden, Kedar Raiford and
W.C. Blount were appointed to assess the value of real estate for 1862.
For 1863, J.B. Whitaker, S.D. Phillips, T.T. Hollowell, Samuel J.
Lucus and John Crone were elected Commissioners. Matthew Albritton
was elected Clerk and T.T. Hollowell town Constable.
Goldsboro has always been a town of slow growth. It has never had
what might be called a boom, and yet I don't remember a time when there
was not some building going on.
Female College
The first female college opened was about 1853 or '54. It was in the
old Borden Hotel building and the president was Rev. J.H. Brent. My
recollection is that this school was run in that building for two or
three years and that the brick college, now the center graded school
building, was erected about '56 or '57, and I think that its first
president was Rev. S.M. Frost. He ran it until some time during the
war. The latter years of the war the building was used as a Confederate
hospital.
The N.C.R.R. (now the Southern) was not intended at its charter to run
into Goldsboro, but was to connect with boats on the Neuse river at
Waynesboro, and a track was run down to the river. It curved to the
right just after crossing Little river bridge, about where Well's
brick yard is and ran across the field now owned by Maj. Grant, coming
to the river near O'Berry's log boom, and a warehouse was built on the
river bank.
I don't know whether any business was ever done between the railroad
and steamboats or not. The warehouse got burned in April, '61. The first
steamboat I ever saw was tied up to the banks of Waynesboro. This must
have been about '49 or '50.
It was some years before the court house was removed. The boat line was
owned or operated by the Dibbles, who were northern men.
Steam Saw Mill
The first steam saw mill ever operated in Wayne was owned and run by
T.C. Garrison, of Petersburg, VA, and was located at Bolton Hill, on the
A.C.L. road, about four miles north of Goldsboro. This information I got
from the late Col. C.J. Nelson, and if I remember rightly, it was bout
1836, while the Wilmington & Weldon railroad (now the A.C.L.) was being
built.
A good deal of lumber that was used in those days for building was
sawed by what was called whip saws. I never saw but one of them work.
It was located just where the residence of Mr. L.D. Gulley now stands.
Two benches were erected seven or eight feet high, and the log was
placed on these benches. How they managed to get the log up there, I am
not going to tell, for I don't know. At the time I saw this one being
worked, the log was already in position.
A large saw like an ordinary cross-cut saw, with handles in each end,
the handles going through the round loop at the end of the saw, so that
the man at the handles could use an end in each hand; then one man
mounted the log and stood on it, while the other man stood on the
ground and the sawing was done by pulling the saw up and down. It was
a slow process.
There used to be one of these mills owned by Wm. Rouse, in Stoney
Creek township, across Stoney Creek, about one mile from Thompson's
Chapel. I used to go there to get grinding done; carried a bag of
corn containing two bushels thrown across the back of a horse.
I used to ride up to the mill house and the old Negro, Ned Rouse,
would start his saw in a sixteen foot log, then come take my bag
off my horse, carry it into the grinding room, measure it with a
half bushel, take out the toll, raise the gate and start the rocks
to running, step down to the meal chest, feel of the meal to see if
it was being ground fine enough, then go out to his saw, take a
chew of tobacco leisurely and be in ample time to throw his saw out
by the time it had cut through the sixteen foot line.
To think of this rate and then go down to the Enterprise Lumber
Co.'s mill and see how quick a band saw will cut the same line is
astonishing.
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as
this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT
be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons
or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material
for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the
file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.