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Chatham County Historical Association

Preserving and sharing the history of Chatham County North Carolina

snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

Little Bits of Chatham History


  • 30 Nov 2023 10:05 PM | Anonymous


    This 1946 photo of Pittsboro shows a taxi on the right, as well as other interesting features of the town in an earlier time -- cute cars, Ford dealership right downtown, front-of-the-courthouse parking. Note--no clock in the courthouse cupola. That wasn't added until 2000.

    Click on the photo to enlarge.

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #taxi #pittsboronc #1940s


  • 30 Nov 2023 9:59 PM | Anonymous

    The history of the Cartersville area and Gilmore Lodge was shared by the late Dr. Brooks Gilmore in a Chatham Historical Journal article that is available on the CCHA website.

    A lot of interesting Chatham history is associated with this area--daring escapes from windows to avoid Tories, visits from Revolutionary War generals, the location where many of Chatham's Confederate soldiers were mustered in, and decades of hunting.

    Learn more about the photos in the article: https://chathamhistory.org/.../PDFs/Journal/CHJvol16num1.pdf

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #GilmoreLodge #hunting #JohnBrooks #TickCreek #Cartersville


  • 30 Oct 2023 10:07 PM | Anonymous


    Jordan Lake didn't exist before 1970--and wasn't full until about 12 years later. Before the project began an extensive exploration of the archaeology of the area was required.

    Today most of us are familiar with the lake, beaches, trails, and woodlands at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area, but the area was not always a recreational space. After a devastating tropical storm in 1945, the government began to look at methods of flood control for the Cape Fear River basin. In 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers submitted a plan that recommended building three reservoirs. Ultimately only Jordan Lake was constructed.

    A thorough archaeological investigation of the area to be flooded was required. The project’s archaeological surveys determined that there were about 350 sites in the area; two were the focus of extensive excavations. Archaeologists verified that Native Americans had inhabited the vicinity as far back as the Early Archaic period—or about 10,000 years ago. To this day the work stands as one of the largest salvage archaeology programs carried out in the state.

    In addition to the investigation of Native American artifacts, several dozen cemeteries were identified and moved before the lake was flooded. Information about these is included in CCHA's Cemetery Survey on CemeteryCensus.com.

    The Chatham Community Library has made available online three volumes about the archaeology of the lake area -- a study of the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area before the lake was built, digitized by the Internet Archive with funding from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Open any of the three volumes by opening the link that says "CLICK TO ACCESS THIS TITLE ONLINE" next to the volume you wish to view. Connect to the library record for the document here: https://bit.ly/3jbhitn

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #Jordan Lake #archaeology #NativeAmericanArtifacts

  • 30 Oct 2023 9:59 PM | Anonymous


    This salt-glazed stoneware jug was made by Chatham County potter Nicholas Fox between 1830 and 1850. The jug is stamped with both the potter’s name “N. FOX” and Masonic symbols. Fox's pottery was characterized by the inscribed bands seen on this jug, as well as a thumb or finger print at the handle.

    Salt glazing was a technique used by stoneware potters to create a glassy surface. Salt glazing required firing the pottery at a high temperature that resulted in the clay becoming non-porous. This, combined with the salt glazing, meant that potters did not have to apply a glaze to the interior of the vessel. It could hold liquids and not seep, unlike earthenware storage vessels.

    Nicholas Fox (1797-1858) and his family migrated from Pennsylvania to Chatham County, North Carolina, in the late 18th century. Fox and other family members became established potters in the area and trained other potters, most notably Nathaniel H. Dixon and John and Henry Vestal.

    The jug is in the collection of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem. You can find additional photos and information on the Museum's website. https://mesda.org/item/collections/jug/1705/

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #pottery #NicholasFox #MESDA 


  • 30 Oct 2023 9:54 PM | Anonymous


    Chicken processing in Chatham County. 1950s?

    Believed to be Siler City. Look at those skinny chickens!

    From Duane Hall's Historic Siler City collection. Thanks for sharing, Duane!

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #chickenprocessing #SilerCityNC #chicken #1950s

  • 30 Sep 2023 8:29 PM | Anonymous



    Charlie Daniels was a North Carolina musician who found national success with hits such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” However, Daniels’ teen years were spent in Gulf, Chatham County where he founded his first band, The Misty Mountain Boys, at Goldston High School. Daniels passed away at 83 on July 6, 2020 in Tennessee leaving behind a music legacy combining many different genres such as bluegrass, country, rock and jazz with ties to Chatham County and North Carolina as a whole.

    Learn more in a podcast about Daniels that was produced by Ella Sullivan for a Girl Scout Gold Award. You can listen and read it here:

    https://chathamspast.wixsite.com/alookinto/charlie-daniels

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHIstory #ChathamNC #CharlieDaniels #GulfNC #GoldstonNC


  • 30 Sep 2023 8:26 PM | Anonymous



    Chatham County school bus number 39. Year unknown, but this was back in the day when students were bus drivers.

    Thanks to Larry Pickard for the photo from his Goldston Studio collection!

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #schoolbus #goldstonstudio


  • 30 Sep 2023 8:22 PM | Anonymous


    Crutchfield's Taxi Cab Service, Siler City, 1947.

    Thanks to Larry Pickard for contributing this photo to the CCHA collection!


    #ChathamNCHistory#ChathamCountyNC#ChathamHistory#ChathamNC#SilerCityNC#CrutchfieldTaxiService#taxi


  • 30 Aug 2023 11:17 AM | Anonymous


    Few travelers have passed this stately house on 15-501 between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill without noticing and admiring it. Bill Sharpe has provided a brief description of its history and his own boyhood memories of the house and its early occupants.

    Read it here on our website:

    https://chathamhistory.org/.../White%20House%20on%2015...

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChapelHill #WilliamBrooksCheekHouse #architecture


  • 30 Aug 2023 11:11 AM | Anonymous


    This photograph is of "Kentucky," the Chatham County home of Frederick Jones Hill, one of several Cape Fear planters who made their summer homes in Pittsboro in the early 1800s. Kentucky was located on the 99-acre parcel that is now occupied by the Chatham County Agriculture and Convention Center.

    The land on which Chatham County’s new Agricultural Center was built has an interesting history. The earliest owner shown in Chatham County records is Mary Watters, daughter of Continental Army General James Moore, and wife of Colonel William Watters, who also served in the Continental Army. In 1825 Mary Watters sold the 99-acre property to her son-in-law, Frederick Jones Hill. The deed (Z/460) indicates that the property was her former residence. The Old Stage Road formed the southern boundary of the parcel and then turned north for some distance within the parcel before joining Old Salisbury Road which continued northwest.

    Frederick Jones Hill was a physician, planter and enslaver, and legislator known for his early legislation to establish public schools in the state. Raised in New Hanover County, he, like several other wealthy Wilmington families of the period, had ties to Pittsboro. Hill, his father, and three uncles owned elaborate summer homes in and around Pittsboro. Hill and his uncle, Dr. Nathaniel Hill, were instrumental in building St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in 1831 in Pittsboro.

    The records are unclear whether Frederick Jones Hill built his summer home, “Kentucky,” on the parcel he purchased from his mother-in-law Mary Watters, or whether it was built prior to his purchase of the property. Hill and his wife, Anne Ivey Watters, were third cousins, once removed. They married in 1812 and had no children. The Kentucky property was eventually inherited (in 1874) by William H. Moore, a presiding elder of the Methodist Church, and to whom both Hill and wife Anne had family connections.

    Until the property was purchased by Chatham County in 2012, it had been handed down in the Moore family through several generations.

    Remarkably, some features and artifacts from the property’s early history survived, and the Chatham County Historical Association sought to document those and to learn whatever possible about that history prior to its development as the county’s long-awaited Agricultural Center. Volunteers wrote a detailed report about the property and surviving structures and artifacts. You can read it on the Chatham County Historical Association website: https://chathamhistory.org/.../CCHADocumentsAgCenterPrope...

    #ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #FrederickJonesHill #Kentucky #HillFamily #PittsboroNC #ChathamCountyAgricultureandConventionCenter #CapeFearPlanters


Chatham County Historical Association

https://chathamhistory.org  ~  history@chathamhistory.org   ~  PO Box 93  ~  Pittsboro NC 27312  ~  919-542-6222  ~  


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