snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

Among the treasures in the Historic Chatham County Courthouse are two safes built in to one of the original courthouse fireplaces. The safes have an interesting story. They came from the Bonlee Bank and Trust Company, which opened in 1917 with Isaac H. Dunlap as president and C.M. Andrews as cashier. Mr. Andrews became president in 1924.

The bank folded during the Great Depression and the county obtained the two safes and installed them in the courthouse where they were used to store cash payments until they could be deposited. The safes were used until the time of the fire in 2010. They were manufactured by the Mosler Safe Company in Hamilton, Ohio.

At one time Mosler was said to have safes in 80% of US banks. Some of their most famous contracts have been with the United States Government. In the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, Mosler safes were bought by the Federal Reserve to store massive gold reserves. When Fort Knox was constructed, it included vaults and emergency doors from Mosler Safe. The company supplied blast-proof doors that weighted over 20 tons, were made of torch and drill resistant materials and both doors were over 21 inches thick; the vault casing was also over 25 inches thick. Mosler also made the doors for nuclear missile silos, the vault that formerly held the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, and shielding doors for the Atomic Energy Commission’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

So, the Bonlee Bank and Chatham Courthouse appear to have had the very best available when it came to safes!

Thanks to CCHA volunteer Charles Thomas for the Courthouse safe info.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #courthousesafes #museum #BonleeNC #BonleeBankandTrust

Siler City's Feedwell Cafe was opened in 1918 by Ernest and Will Richardson. The cafe changed hands soon after and was owned by R. M. (Mack) Green, M. R. (Roy) Teague until the late 1920s. After that, the cafe changed hands numerous times. Does anyone know when it closed?

Advertisements over the years proclaimed the Feedwell Cafe to be "The Next Best Place to Home," and "Siler City's Foremost Dining Room." Rabbit dinners were a favorite at the cafe in the 1920s.

Info from Wade Hadley's The Town of Siler City: 1887 - 1987. Photo cropped from a 1939 photo contributed by Duane Hall.

Click on the image to enlarge.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamNC #SilerCityNC #FeedwellCafe #food #rabbit

This is the J.B. Mills House, which is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of 64 and 751. The house is currently obscured by trees, but many remember it from the days when it was easily visible from the roadway.

The earliest portion of the house is thought to have been built in the 1800s. Local tradition attaches the name of Dr. Cotton to that structure and his office is said to have been located in the woods west of the house. Ramsey's 1870 map shows "Cotton's Store" at this location.

The larger, 1910 house, shown here in a mid-1980s photograph, was owned by the Mills family, who are said to have been a prominent family in nearby Wake County. The house is described in The Architectural Heritage of Chatham County, a 1991 publication. CCHA volunteer, Kimberly Steiner, did not receive permission from the current owner to photograph the structure in 2021 as part of her update of the architectural history of the township.

#ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #ChathamNCHistory #JBMillsHouse #ArchitecturalHeritage #Preservation #NewHopeTownship

Meet the 1940 congregation of Rocky River Missionary Baptist Church (Silk Hope-Liberty Rd). Calvin Dark contributed this photo, which shows his Grandma Mabel Bowden in the black dress on the far left. His Uncle Marvin Bowden is the 10yr old in the front row center in the suit.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

CCHA volunteer Susan Mckean Hall photographed the markers in the church cemetery. You can see the record and photos here: http://cemeterycensus.com/nc/chat/cem011.htm

#ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #RockyRiverMissionaryBaptistChurch #churches #1940s #cemetery

Did you know that Chatham County once had a salt mine? This 1862 clipping shows that the operators were exempted from military service for six months. Salt, was, of course, important for preserving meat and in short supply during the Civil War.

The location of the mine is suggested by an ad posted in November 1862 from Carthage, NC, advertising "mineral lands for sale." In it, John Morison offers for sale his one-third interest in "a tract of 500 acres on the waters of Deep River, on which have been discovered a salt mine and pure saltpeter, and an oil of good quality for greasing leather, well worthy of geological investigation." From the Semi-Weekly Standard 28 Nov 1862.

Chatham deed 292/147, tract 3 also mentions a 1.38 acre "Old Salt Mine Tract." Names mentioned in the deed are D.C. Holler, S.O. Dudley, and Jenks.

Clipping from 8 Mar 1862 Semi-Weekly State Journal.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SaltMine

Tucked into woods along busy Highway 64 between Pittsboro and Siler City lies the grave marker of Dr. James McCarroll, whose story is written on the slab. The original thick, flat marble slab, 3 feet by 6 feet, is one of the oldest inscribed grave markers in the county. It has the following inscription:

"Here lies interred the body of Doctor James McCarroll.
He was born in the County of [Aramagh-sic] Armagh in the Kingdom of
Ireland in the year 1734 and departed this life on the 93rd day
of the year 1777, the 43rd year of his age. He was remarkable for his
knowledge in the arts and science. This monument erected by
Elizabeth McCarroll his widow on the 16th day of 1778."

A new monument was erected by Rachel Whithead, April 2000:
"Dr. James McCarroll
Born in Ireland 1734
Died 3 April 1777
Married to
Elizabeth St. Lawrence"

The Chatham Record published an article "An Old Grave," about the McCarroll gravestone on 15 Nov 1883, noting that it was even then believed to be one of the oldest marked graves in the county. That article incorrectly indicates that Dr. McCarroll's daughter married Patrick St. Lawrence. It was Dr. McCarroll's widow, Elizabeth, who married Mr. St. Lawrence. The error has been carried forward to some more recent histories of the county.

Thanks to Duane Hall for photos taken in 2011 and 2018.

These markers are on private property. Please do not visit without permission.

Harvey Newlin, was born 19 July 1888, the 6th child of James Nathaniel “Jim” and Martha Elizabeth Guthrie Newlin. His birthplace was a sharecropper cabin in Hickory Mountain Township between Pittsboro and Siler City in Chatham County, NC.

Harvey is probably best remembered for the barns he built in Alamance, Chatham, and adjoining counties. The first barn was built on his own farm in southern Alamance in the late 1920’s. It has a gambrel roof and is built on a hillside, so a horse-drawn wagon could be driven into the hayloft through a large door in the side of the barn. It is still a beautiful building after standing for more than 80 years. He and a crew of farmer-carpenters built dozens of gambrel-roofed barns, several Gothic-roofed barns, pole barns as well as several dwelling houses. There were 153 barns built by Harvey and his crew before his retirement.

Read more about Harvey Newlin and his barns on our website:
https://chathamhistory.org/…/HarveyNewlinsBarnsDavidHobson.…

Harvey's story is told by David K. Hobson, a member and past president of Silk Hope Ruritan Club and Pastor of the Rocky River Friends Meeting. Helen Newlin Bowers, Harvey's granddaughter, provided information. We thank Helen, David, and the Silk Hope Ruritan for allowing us to share this story.

Historic Columbus Lodge #102 AF & AM in Pittsboro. Built in 1838, modified in 1849, it has many interesting features, including a "lean" of about nine inches. All that is explained on the Columbus Lodge website! Learn more here: http://columbuslodge102.org/our-historic-building/

The site also includes photos of the Lodge's collection of antique Masonic aprons.

Downtown Pittsboro 1964, from the Pittsboro High School yearbook.

Elder Theater, Siler City, early 1950s. 

The Elder Theater opened March 27, 1939. It was on the north side of East Raleigh between street numbers 109 and 117. The first film shown was "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Admission as 25 cents -- 10 cents for kids under 13. The building was removed after being seriously damaged in a fire in March of 1963. From Wade Hadley's The Town of Siler City: 1887-1987.

The segregated balcony is a sign of the times and a part of our history that is not often documented.

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