snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

Connie McAdams writes about the discovery of an old cemetery and her research into the Alston and Hill families that lived on the Hailbron Plantation near Pittsboro. Her findings provide a glimpse into life in early Chatham County.

Read more on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../CemeteryMysteryatHailbron.pdf

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #HailbronPlantation #HillFamily #Alston #PittsboroNC #1800s

This is Sheep Rock in Chatham County. Where can you learn about Sheep Rock; Chatham gold mines, Chatham flatwoods and the Devil's Tramping Ground, soapstone, quartz, and more? On our website where retired professional geologist Chris Palmer has provided a document about Chatham Geology Facts and Oddities.

https://chathamhistory.org/.../ChathamGeologyFactsandOddi...

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #geology #SheepRock #rocks #minerals #mining #gold #hydrogeology

This photo shows participants at an early Juneteenth celebration in Texas. A quick search of the Chatham Record revealed no photos or reports of Juneteenth celebrations in Chatham County until recent years. Juneteenth celebrations in surrounding counties were mentioned in the early 2000s.

Chatham does, however, have a long history of celebrating emancipation, but on January 1--not June 19. There are many mentions of Emancipation Day (or Freedom Day or Jublilee Day) in old issues of the Chatham Record. We found mentions in the 1890s through the 1910s, and such celebrations could well pre-date the newspaper. According to the news articles, the day often involved parades and speakers.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #Juneteenth #Emancipation #FreedomDay #JubileeDay #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory

The Endor Iron Furnace is legendary in Chatham County--even though it "moved" to Lee County when that county was formed in 1907.

The Endor Iron Company was chartered in April, 1862. Two months later investors purchased the Deep River plantation of Alexander McIver and constructed a smelting furnace on it. The furnace is constructed of soft local reddish-gray stones and measures approximately 32 feet square at the base and rises to a height of about 35 feet.

It is likely that the furnace supplied the Confederate arsenal at Fayetteville in addition to small nearby arms factories. The ironworks changed hands twice before a Maryland manufacturer purchased Endor and, with a local partner, invested heavily in the operation. By 1872, their Cape Fear Iron and Steel Company was one of the South’s largest and best equipped iron furnaces.

Only two years later, it was determined that local mineral deposits were smaller than had first been thought and by 1876, the company had ceased operation. Though most of the machinery was dismantled and removed, the furnace continued operating until 1896 on a smaller scale, serving only local manufacturers.

Back in 1990, Robert Weisner wrote a detailed article about the furnace for CCHA's journal. He tracked down records and tried to sort out the furnace's story. He entitled his article "Wading through Error and Confusion: An Update of a Study of the Endor Iron Furnace." If you care to know more about the site, you can read it on our website (along with other, shorter articles in that issue): https://chathamhistory.org/.../PDFs/Journal/CHJvol3num1.pdf

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #EndorIronFurnace #DeepRiver #mining

The Bonlee and Western Railroad 1915.

This short line, home-owned and operating entirely within the county, was incorporated in 1908 for the transportation of freight and passengers. It extended from Bonlee in a southwesterly direction for about ten miles to Bennett. It was completed in 1910. The locomotive was a wood burner.

At Bonlee, the Bonlee and Western connected with the railway running between Greensboro and Sanford. The train made four round trips a day. The line primarily served the lumber business of John H. and Isaac H. Dunlap, who were also its principal stockholders. It also provided important freight and passenger service to the general public.

For several years, the Bonlee and Western ran a special on July 4 to take passengers to the celebration in Siler City.

The railway operated until the early 1930s. The principal station between terminals was at Wells, located three miles northeast of Bennett. There, a dilapidated building remained as late as 1971, when the county history, Chatham County 1771-1971, was written.

Folks from that part of the county have told us that they have found spikes from this line. If you have some, how about donating one for the Chatham County Historical collection?

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamNC #BonleeNC #BennettNC #BonleeandWestern #railroad #locomotive #July4 #1900s

This is the G. W. Blair Filling Station and Store, which was located on West St. in Pittsboro. It was built in the 1940s by G. W. Blair, who also built the Blair Hotel in Pittsboro and served as Chatham County Sheriff from 1920 to 1932.

Unlike earlier commercial architecture, this building had a more residential look that mirrored neighboring one-story homes built in the 1920s. The building also served as Whitaker's Tire Sales and West End Grocery, as well as the Greyhound Bus Stop. The exterior was altered in 1989. The building now (2024) houses Keepsakes Frame Shop.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #PittsboroNC #GWBlair #FillingStation #CommercialArchitecture #architecture #1940s

More than 100 years ago, Isaiah Cole visited the house in which his father was born, and reported that it was in good condition. The house was said to be 106 years old at the time. Reported in the 20 Mar 1919 Chatham Record.

The house, pictured here in 1983, when the county's architectural survey was conducted, was in "very dilapidated condition." It was said to be one of the most important early houses in Chatham County. It is believed to be the homeplace of Methodist minister Isaiah Cole (1778-circa 1850), who bought the land on which it stands from his father, William Cole, in 1811.

According to the Architectural Heritage of Chatham County NC, the original house was a south-facing saddle-notch log cabin, probably one room in size, constructed circa 1800. The beautifully crafted chimney can be seen in our photo. Subsequently, in the mid-1800s, a frame addition with pegged joints was built on the western elevation of the cabin and given a Federal era treatment that included flush sheathing in the hall-parlor interior, an enclosed stair, and "a notable mantle with reeded pilasters and a two-part frieze." I wish we had photos of those features!

The house no longer stands today. Click on the image to enlarge.

Chatham's architectural heritage has recently been updated, at least in part, by a project undertaken by volunteer Kimberly Steiner, to photograph older houses in four of Chatham's townships. You can find her results to date on our website: https://chathamhistory.org/Architectural-Update-2019-2021

If there's an old house or outbuilding in the county that you think is worth preserving in photos, send us some photos along with whatever information you have.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamNC #ChathamHistory #OldHouse #IsaiahColeHouse #LogCabin #architecture

The home places of early Siler City residents, like those of the residents of Pittsboro, resembled, on a reduced scale, the family farms from which most had recently migrated. On the premises, a horse, cow, pigs and chickens might be kept--necessitating a barn, hog-pen and chicken house. Many homesteads had a vegetable garden and a few had a smokehouse. All had a privy.

Water was most often from a hand-dug well located in the back yard or under the back porch. Dead horses and cows were dragged through the streets behind a wagon to the local boneyard, which was located in the area where Jordan Matthews High School now stands.

In 1914 a town ordinance required that excrement be removed from all privies and pigpens at least once a month. The man who carried out this job used a one-horse wagon with a wooden box with hinged cover in the wagon bed. A bucket and shovel were used to move the material from the privy or pigpen to the wagon. He was said to always be smoking a pipe with strong tobacco.

Information from Wade Hadley's The Town of Siler City: 1887 - 1987. Photo is the John Siler, or Siler-Matthews house from The Architectural Heritage of Chatham County, North Carolina. Both books are available in CCHA's online store https://chathamhistory.org/Shop

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SilerCityNC #EarlyTownLife #privies #SilerMatthewsHouse

A few yards south of The Arbor section of the Galloway Ridge Retirement Community in north Chatham, inside an old stone wall, nine tombstones rise starkly above the barren ground. They tell the story of the Smith and Jones families, who lived on this land and whose legacy is an important part of American history up to this day. All the complexities and contradictions of the southern slave-owning society of the 19th century influenced the lives of the eight family members and one friend buried in the cemetery. Mike Zbailey tells the story of the former Jones Grove plantation and the families associated with it. An associated paper by Sy Robbins traces the deed history of the various parcels that were once part of this former plantation.

Jones Grove The Land and the People

https://chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/Jones%20Grove%20Mike%20Zbailey.pdf

Jones Grove Deed History

https://chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/Jones%20Grove%20Deed%20History%20Sy%20Robbins.pdf

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #JonesGrove #plantation #slavery #cemetery

Adcock Family of Chatham County ca 1908

This photo of the Adcock family is part of the Historic Siler City Collection donated to the Chatham County Historical Association by Duane Hall.

In the 1900 census, the family lived in Matthews Township, where Joseph J. was a farmer, age 55. His wife, Louiza, was 25 (note that ages were often estimated by the census taker and can be inconsistent from one census to the next). Children in the household at that time were Sanky, 8; Mildred, 4; Arizona, 2; and Fada, 1. [Fada in the census and Fobie on the photo, must be Foda, according to the grave marker in Love's Creek Church cemetery. Foda died at age 13.]

In the 1910 census, closer to when this photo was taken, the family is listed as Joseph J. age 60; Lou, age 30; Sankie, 17; Mildred, 13; Arizona, 12; Foda, 9; Joseph [Broadway], 7; Pickard [Plackard], 6; Hazel, 5; Decie, 4; Laura, 1. (We think Laura might be Margaret, who was born in 1908. Margaret named her daughter Laura, so perhaps that was a middle name?)

Ancestry lists more children, including Franklin, Jessie, and Fannie, born after this photo was taken.

According to a newspaper article that included this photo, the family members are identified as Foda, father Joseph J. [or Joshua Joseph], baby Laura/Margaret held by mother Louiza, Sankie, Mildred, Arizona. And the front row with smaller children shows Joseph Broadway, Plackard, Hazel, and Decie.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #SilerCityNC #SilerFamily #Genealogy