snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

Luttrell’s Barracks ~ A Chatham County Revolutionary War Landmark

Don’t miss this fascinating new paper on our website! While researching the Revolutionary War record of his 6th great grandfather, Thomas Mattocks came across a reference to a Revolutionary War barracks in Chatham County. His curiosity led him to look for more information and to eventually document the precise location of the landmark, as well as numerous other references to it in the pension records of veterans of the North Carolina State Militia. His research sheds light on little-known local events occurring during what would become known as the Tory War in Central North Carolina. From 1780 until his death in 1781 in the Battle of Lindley's Mill, Luttrell commanded a regiment of mounted rangers from Chatham and neighboring counties to help suppress the Loyalists who began organizing under a charismatic former Patriot named David Fanning.

The paper lists more than 50 Chatham men who served in the State Militia who applied for pensions. Maybe you'll find an ancestor among them!

Here’s the link:

https://chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/Luttrells%20Barracks%20Rev%20War%20Landmark.pdf

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #RevolutionaryWar #Luttrell #1780s

View at Mt. Vernon Springs, NC circa 1908.

"View at Mt. Vernon Springs, N.C." in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (P077), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #MtVernonSprings #postcard #1900s

Gulf Depot 1966

Photo from the North Carolina Railroad Station Photograph Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #railroads #railwaystations #GulfNC #depot #1960s

December 7 -- On this day in 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Among the hundreds of casualties was William Teasdale Durham of Chatham County. Born 25 Apr 1919 to Edward Watson and Jennie Florence Herndon Durham, he enlisted in the US Navy on 5 Mar 1940 and reported aboard the USS Arizona on 30 Sep 1940. His remains were identified from his Pittsboro High School ring.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #WWII #PearlHarbor #USSArizona #USNavy

Thank you, Chatham County Veterans!

More than 225 Chatham County Veterans are honored in the Chatham Historical Museum's Tribute to Valor Exhibit. You can see a list of included veterans on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../ChathamCountyVeteransHonor...

If your family's Chatham County veterans are not yet included, here's the information you need:

Who is eligible? Veterans of any armed forces service branch (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard) who have a strong connection to Chatham County. The connection may include being born in Chatham, living here for most of one’s life, enlisting or serving while a Chatham resident.

What to submit: Digital photos of the veteran in uniform and without others in the photo are preferred, if possible. Photos should be scanned at high resolution and saved in jpg format. Please include the following information with the photo: veteran’s name, service branch, rank, your name, email address. By submitting the photo, you agree that CCHA has your permission to use the photograph in its exhibits and for other educational purposes.

How to submit: If your email program will not reduce the size of the digital photograph, you may email it as an attachment to history@chathamhistory.org. Receipt of the photo will be acknowledged. If you have any difficulty submitting the photo by email, contact us at history@chathamhistory.org for instructions on how to get the digital file to us.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #veterans #TributetoValor #ChathamHistoricalMuseum

We posted this photo of the Jourdan Store, Moncure previously, and asked for any information about it. Thanks to Wincie Jane Hinnant, we now know a lot more!

Wincie Jane notes that some of her ancestors are in the photo. Her grandmother, Wincie Ann Bridges Johnson, had a sister named Camilla Bridges (1867-1922), who married Edmond Jourdan (1862-1942). Edmond and his family were from Combourg, France. They came to America by ship in the 1860's.

Here's the rest of Wincie Jane's account:

"Camilla and Edmond had children and the family lived in the southern part of Chatham County. One of their daughters was Mary Jourdan Cotten (1895-1973). She and my father were first cousins. Mary lived in the Deep River Community out of Moncure. I remember visiting her as a child."

"Now, the Jourdans were good at starting businesses. One of Edmond's brothers, Stanislaus Jourdan moved to Durham, NC. He owned S Jourdan Transfer Company. 'Stan' received the granite for the Chatham County Confederate statue from Mt. Airy by train. He transported the granite by horse and wagons to Pittsboro from Durham. It took several days."

"Some of the brothers had businesses in Durham and did well. Over the years, I lost contact. Most of the family no longer live in this area. I believe some even changed their last name from Jourdan to Jordan."

"I don't know which Jourdan owned the store in Moncure -- only that they were kin to my father. My father didn't leave me all the history on the Jourdans....only Edmond and his aunt Camilla."

Thanks, Wincie Jane, for filling in the history of this interesting photo! If you learn more, we hope you'll share it with us!

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #MoncureNC #JourdanStore #stores #early1900s

Harvey Newlin (1888-1970) was a Quaker, renowned barn builder, and restorer of mills. His granddaughter, Katherine Newlin Hadley, has written about her grandfather in a paper shared on the Chatham County Historical Association website. The stories Katherine shares provide a rich history of an aspect of Chatham's (and surrounding counties') past that is not covered elsewhere.

You can read it on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../Resear.../Harvey%20Newlin.pdf

For more--We've previously posted David Hobson's article about Harvey and his barns:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../HarveyNewlinsBarnsDavidHob...

Click on the images to enlarge. Barn photos by Gary Simpson.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #HarveyNewlin #barns #mills #Quaker

Hurricane Hazel made landfall near the North Carolina/South Carolina border as a Category 4 hurricane on October 15, 1954, causing widespread destruction, including a storm surge of up to 18 feet on the coast. Inland, winds over 150 mph and rainfall amounts over 10 inches caused significant damage. The storm killed 19 people in North Carolina and destroyed thousands of homes.

In Chatham, flooding and other damage was significant. Mark Ellington has contributed this photo of flood waters crossing Ellington Road at Bloodrun Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Hazel, 1954.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #storms #HurricaneHazel #1950s

Several photos of the remains of Farish's lock and dam on the Deep River were shared with us by Bryan Garland.

Farish's lock and dam is one of several described in The Story of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company, by Wade Hadley. According to that publication, Farish's was located on the Deep River below the mouth of Big Buffalo Creek and about seven miles above the next dam (Cleggs). The dam was nine feet high and created a pond that extended up-river about nine miles to Haughton's mill at Gulf.

The site took its name from Thomas Farrish, who had a fish-trap dam nearby. It is also sometimes called 'The Coal Fields Lock' because the ponds at its upper end extended past the mines at Farmville and Egypt. More details in the attached clipping and map showing the locations of dams and locks from the book.

The entire publication, The Story of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company, is available on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../CapeFearDeepRiverNavigatio...

Thanks to Bryan Garland for sharing this info with us!

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #CapeFearDeepRiverNavigationCo #DeepRiver #dam #lock #Farish

The opening of Chatham Hospital in Siler City was celebrated on 11 June 1950.

The original Chatham Hospital opened in a two-story brick house in 1937 (behind the new hospital in the photo below). A new multi-story building was constructed in 1950 with a major addition and patient wing completed in 1968. The last addition was a new emergency department built in 1997. Much of the financing through the decades came from generous donations from corporations and citizens within the community, as well as more than 60 years of support by the Siler City Rotary Club. Chatham Hospital affiliated with the UNC Health Care System in 2008 and the new Chatham Hospital opened on Progress Boulevard, in the Central Carolina Business Campus in Siler City.

The 1950 hospital building was vacant from 2008 to 2018, when it was sold and demolished to make way for 52 new townhomes.

Thanks to Duane Hall for this photos from his Siler City collection.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #ChathamHospital #SilerCityNC #hospital #medicine #1930s #1950s #2000s