snippets ~ chatham history BLOG

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

Siler City Post Office, 1940.

This building was completed in 1940 on the site of the John Siler House around which Siler City developed. Mount Airy granite was used in the construction of the post office, which cost $57,490.

The mural inside the post office was commissioned by the WPA (although the building itself was not). The mural, which depicts nineteenth-century Matthews Crossroads (Siler City's precursor) and the John Siler House, was painted by artist Maxwell Starr of New York, who was paid $400 for the project.

From the Chatham County Historical Association collection.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #SilerCityNC #postoffice #1940s 

Pictured here is Amanda Jane Watson (Bynum) Headen, daughter of Sidney Bynum and Harriet Watson Bynum. Amanda was born into slavery in 1847, near Goldston (Chatham County). She was enslaved by the Watson family. Amanda, also known as Mandy Jane, married Zachariah (Zach) Headen on 8 October 1872. Zach had been enslaved by the Headen family.

A story about Amanda’s young life was related by her daughter Ida, who said her mother “had it better than most enslaved people” because she worked inside the house. However, when Mr. Watson’s daughter married, he gave Amanda to the couple as a wedding present. The couple lived in a big house across from the Sharpe Store on the Pittsboro-Goldston Road. Amanda spent most of her young life there. One day, the son-in-law became angry at Amanda and cut off all of her long black hair. When Mr. Watson heard about this event, he took Amanda back for good.

Zachariah grew corn and wheat from which the family made their own corn meal and flour. They ate year-round from their family’s garden and slaughtered all of their own meat. Zach was a well-known farmer who acquired land. Stories have been passed down through generations that he owned the land where Goldston’s present day JS Waters Elementary School and Mt. Herman AME Zion Church are located.

Zach and Amanda’s children included: Fisher, Hazy, Osker, George, Nina, Gertrude, Esther, Walter, and Ida. Zach gave all four of his daughters names of endearment--Nina was Miss, Gertrude was Babe, Esther (Easter) was Shug, and Ida was Honey. In a 1975 Chatham Record article about the life of 105-year-old George Headen, his sister Ida stated their parents taught their children “to do right, be truthful, don’t steal, and don’t meddle.”

Zachariah and Amanda made sure all of their children attended the one room school at Roberts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church where they learned to read and write and attended weekly services. The date of the photo included here of students at the school is unknown, but could include some of Zach and Mandy’s children.

The descendants of Zachariah and Amanda gather bi-annually during the third weekend in August. Five hundred descendants come to Chatham and Lee Counties from all across the United States. The Zachariah and Amanda Headen Mega Family Reunion has become the largest family gathering in the region.

Our thanks to Jace L. Cox for contributing this story about his great-great-grandmother's family.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #FamilyHistory #WomensHistory #HerStory #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #Headen #GoldstonNC #1800s #1900s

Martha Susan Johnson Burns was a well-known Pittsboro fixture--and an interesting character. For many years, Martha ran the Cross Hotel--which became known as the Burns Hotel. It was located across East Street from the Pittsboro Presbyterian Church. According to newspaper accounts, the hotel was a busy place, hosting visitors to Pittsboro, many hunting parties, weddings, and itinerant professionals and tradespeople such as dentists, veterinarians, and piano tuners. Martha's accommodations and cooking were praised widely. Many northerners who came to Chatham to hunt stayed in the hotel year after year.

Martha's great granddaughter, Edwina Eubanks, has shared Martha's story with us. You'll see that she preferred to travel by horseback and loved fishing--even at 83! You can read more about Martha's life on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../Martha%20Susan%20Johnson...

Edwina doesn't have a lot of information about her great great grandmother Eliza Ann Brantley Burns, but has written a short piece about her as well. You can read it here:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../Elizabeth%20Ann%20Brantley...

And we've already shared Edwina's article about her grandmother, Annie Thompson Burns:

https://chathamhistory.org/.../Annie%20Thompson%20Burns...

We're grateful to Edwina for sharing the stories and photos of these Chatham women, whose stories tell us much about Chatham County's past.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #WomensHistory #HerStory 

HALLIE BEAVERS ALLRED ~ CHATHAM COUNTY TEACHER AND ADVENTURER

Milli Hammer tells the story of her aunt, Hallie Beavers Allred, who was born in 1893 to an interesting and unusual Siler City family, and who went on to lead an unusually adventuresome life for a woman of her time.

Hallie was an accomplished pianist and athlete. She played field hockey during her four years of college. She was secretary of her sophomore class and treasurer of the Young Women’s Christian Association. Hallie was a teacher in Siler City and in the Panama Canal Zone. Later in life, she married Jesse Allred and had a rich family life.

Read Hallie's story here: https://chathamhistory.org/.../HallieBeaversAdventurer.pdf

You may remember Hallie's mother--Mattie Rogers Beavers--who was a rural mail carrier in Chatham. If you missed her story, there's a link at the bottom of Hallie's.

Thanks to Milli Hammer for sharing the stories of both of these remarkable Chatham County women!

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #HallieBeavers #SilerCityNC #WomensHistory #HerStory #teacher

In 2021, the Horton School was renamed to clearly honor George Moses Horton, the first Black man to publish a book in the South. Learn more about Horton, who was enslaved on a Chatham plantation, on our website:

https://chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/TheWorksofGeorgeMosesHorton.pdf

and on this YouTube video on the George Moses Horton Middle School home page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpCrv8xdZeo

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #GeorgeMosesHorton #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #EnslavedPeople #poet

What was it like to grow up "Colored" in Chatham County in the 1950s and 60s? Annie Taylor McCrimmon shares the story of her own family to provide one perspective on this question. Here's the link:

https://chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/GrowingUpColoredinChathamCountyAnnieMcCrimmon.pdf

Pictured here are Aubrey Bill and Beatrice Mae Goldston Taylor, Annie's parents.

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #ChathamHistory #ChathamNC #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #Segregation #JimCrow #1950s #1960s

This photo of an unidentified family was contributed to the Chatham County Historical Association in Duane Hall's Historic Siler City collection. Commenters on earlier posts have identified them as follows:

Sitting: William and Sally Ann Headen.

Their children: Left to right: Fannie, John Walker, LouAnna and Willie (Newby).

If you have any additional information, please share!

#ChathamNCHistory #ChathamCountyNC #SilerCityNC #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #family