No Snow in North Carolina

We made it to our first military base on this leg of our travels. I planned this trip, and most of our stops will be at military bases.

Smith Lake Recreation Area is on Ft. Bragg, not directly on base, but the outskirts, behind Simmons Army Airfield.

The helicopter traffic was very acceptable, even though they were landing about 1,000 yards away. Once and awhile we have the excitement of mortar/cannon explosions.

One day I took a short hike around the recreation area.

During the winter months the beach area of the lake is closed, I think they said it opens in April or May. On the side of the lake near the campground are water ski ramps, and the picture on the right is the is swimming area. On the other side of the parking lot are several pavilions, basketball and volleyball courts.

After my walk I returned home, Carol and I talked about a venture into the "city".

The first stop was to Museum of the Cape Fear, go to at:   (https://museumofthecapefear.ncdcr.gov). this was a 3 for 1 deal. the museum, fort grounds, and the Poe house. Our first stop was the museum, which provides a timeline of the events in this region. As I so often do, I will begin my tangent before we walk through the museum.

There actually is a Cape Fear, and this is how Sir Richard

Grenville would have seen it. It is a coastal plain and Tidewater region here in North Carolina, centered around the city of Wilmington. it take its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland and the Cape Fear River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The naming of the region came during Sir Richard Grenville's expedition in 1585. He was sailing to Roanoke Island, when his ship was trapped in the bay, and his men were afraid that they would become shipwrecked... it was their fear that gave the area the name "Cape Fear". This is what it looks like today.

Both of the photos are courtesy of wikipedia.com, and NASA.

Factoid: it is the 5th oldest surviving english place name in the U.S.

With a left turn, visitors begin with an exhibit highlighting the indigenous residents of the area. 

It is believed that the first humans to come into the area would have been around the "Paleo" era. On display are artifacts that were found in the region. They have a fair

collection of arrowheads dating back to the "Paleo" era, up to more modern times. There are several pots and bowls circa 1400 AD to 1800 AD. They also have a dugout canoe that was found in Grey's Creek. It was interesting to see how they preserved the canoe for transport, and future display.

NET IMPRESSED POT, ca 1400AD

CHECK STAMPED BOWL, ca 1800s

How about an english lesson of some of the words the English learned during their communications with the Native Indians.

- Seekanauk: a kind of shellfish that could be found in the salt-water, or on shore.

- Kewas: images that were setup in temples for worshipping.

- Rakiock: it was the "sweet" wood the Native Indians used for making their boats and canoes.

- Pomeiock: villages that were walled in by stakes covered in bark, or stakes set close together.

- Uppowoc: the plant the British would later call "tobacco", which was ground and smoked through clay pipes.

- Weroans: a chief that governed a single town, or multiple towns.

- Weir: a trapped used to catch fish.

Are you curious about how the canoe from Grey's Creek was preserved...well:

2. Cradle for the canoe. 3. Carbon dating... made sometime in the 6th century.

4. Preserving the canoe. The preservation compound was

poured into the canoe. 5. The canoe was soaked for an appropriate time, then allowed to air dry before it is put on exhibition.

Continuing to the right, we enter the history of the area. The area was not considered a "hot spot" for colonization. There had been numerous expedition to the "new world" by France, Spain, and Portugal. In 1524 the explorer Giovanni Da Verrazzano sailed the Carolina coast, thinking he found a short cut to the East, India, and China. He sent back to the King of France that he had found a "Forest of Laurels". The French tried to colonize the area in 1526, but were unsuccessful due to fever, and a less human tolerated condition known as... starvation. The Spanish were more interested in the gold of South America, and less interested in colonizing North America, but did colonize the area around what is now St. Augustine Florida. 

The "Johnny-come-lately" English decided to make a go at it in the late 1500s.

The Carolina coast and native population were pretty much unmolested, until Walter Raleigh got the idea of "planting the English nation in the new world" around 1584. The colony did not survive at Roanoke Island... but was to be the beginning signs of England's interest in populating North America. You will remember that their first settlement was actually Jamestown.

Have you ever asked yourself how the Carolina's got there name, I hadn't. The way the story goes...in 1663, King Charles II rewarded eight of his best supporters with a "huge estate", stretching from Virginia to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This new colony was called Carolina, which was the Latin word for "Charles".

As kids, many of us wanted to be a glorious pirate sailing the seven seas, and making ourselves rich. Here on the coast of North Carolina, one such British Officer did just that, making himself richer than he was already; this officer's name was Stede Bonnet. He used Cape Fear as his haven for attacking merchant ships up and down the coast. You see England encouraged wartime "privateering" against its enemies, the problem was that "privateering" was one step short of illegal "pirating". As a pirate, Stede Bonnet served with Blackbeard, eventually going out and making a name for himself. His career came to an end in 1718 during a battle with Colonel William Rhett. Bonnet was taken to Charleston, and hung, along with 29 other pirates. Blackbeard met his demise off the coast of Carolina, in a battle near Ocracoke Inlet. That was the end of the "Golden Era" of pirates.

One of the first areas settled in Cape Fear was the town Brunswick, in 1725, by Maurice Moore. Brunswick would have been located near Wilmington, remnants of the original buildings can still be seen at the Brunswick Town Historical Site. The settlement opened the interior up for trade. 1732 saw 42 ships clear Brunswick, bringing settlers to the region, and taking on navel stores and lumber. In 1732 there were roughly 1,200 settlers, by 1740 there were almost 3,000, both Wilmington and Brunswick were thriving.

The Cape Fear region was the largest, and most numerous population of "Highlanders" between 1732 and the American Revolution. Many Scots came over after the skirmishes with the British in 1715 and 1745, where the Scots lost land, culture, and livelihood. This was typical highland attire. The tartan pictured here is from the Mac Neil clan.

The Scots were laughed at because of the dress, and feared by some for the ability to fight. There is a lot to be said about how we treat each other. The highlanders had a way of life and culture different from the British, and the Brits didn't like that. After the warring between the two countries, England instituted laws against the Scots wearing their "highlander clothing", and could not carry weapons. The punishment for violation of the laws was possible deportation to any British owned plantation "across the sea", for a period of seven years. After a few years the laws were repealed.

After the defeat in 1745, the Scots were required to take a loyalty oath that they would never take up arms against England again. They had to make a decision about their loyalty when taxation got overbearing in America. Some honored their families oath to support England, while others rebelled and fought against the British during the Revolutionary War.

By the Antebellum Period (1820-1860), North Carolina was pretty much an agricultural region. Poor transportation routes in the early days discouraged commerce, and promoted isolation. The southern region of North Carolina was their major producer of corn, hogs, and naval stores. The coastal region was a producer of rice. You noticed that I didn't mention tobacco, even though it was their cash crop, it was later replaced by cotton, which became the major crop. Though the plantations were small, they had power, and controlled the state.

it took several decades (into the 1850s) for North Carolina's economic situation to change, thanks to railroads, steamboats, and plank roads (roads made of wooden planks). With the increase of agriculture, came a need more cotton mills to process the cotton.

Like other southern states, there was slavery. Unlike other southern states, the plantations were not as large. As with other plantations, the wife was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the house, while in the field it may be a slave managing the other slaves, sometimes an outside overseer might have been hired. Production on the plantations greatly depended on how the workers were treated in the field; if they were beaten production was low, proper treatment produced better yielding crops. 

The slaves found outlets to the aggression and oppression, creating solidarity amongst the workers. They did this through music and story telling, and religion, which was a mixture of white religion and their African religious belief.

Not all slaves were uneducated, a good example is Omar ibn Said. 

This gentleman was born around 1770, and lived in Futa Toro, which is known as Senegal today. He was an educated African Muslim, who was captured and brought to Charleston South Carolina, and worked on a rice farm... for a short while... then escaped to North Carolina, where he was jailed as a fugitive. Being a faithful Muslim, prayers to Allah were found written on his cell walls... in Arabic. He was again sold to another plantation owner, this time in North Carolina. Faithful in his religion, he wrote Koranic passages in Arabic for Owen's visitors and friends. In 1831 he penned his autobiography, which interestingly contains a mixture of Muslim and Christian messages.

Some of the larger plantations were known to have skilled slave labor in the fields of: cabinetmaking, blacksmithing, brick layers, and coopers. Coopers, or barrel makers, were an essential trade for the shipping business. Many items traveling

by boat were stored in barrels, both liquid and dry. Coopers were made up of skilled free men (black and white), and slaves. During the 1850s, coopers were expected to produce six to seven barrels a day, at a wages of $1.50 to $2.00 a day... not barrel. A barrel consisted of the staves, hoops, and headers. The stave is the side-by-side slats, the hoop was made of wood or metal, and the header was the top and bottom of the barrel. 

These were the tools of a cooper: Topping Plane, Croze Plane, Howel Plane, Hoop Hammer, Hoop Driver, Cooper's Adze, and a Cooper's Drawknife. These tools, and the cooper's skill created two types of barrels, "tight" and "slack". "Tight" barrels were used for shipping liquids, and "slack" were used for shipping dry goods. 

A lot of the barrels made were used to ship navel stores to the various Navies. You ask... what was a navel store back in the day... good question. Navel stores referred to tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine, all used to waterproof and caulk ships. Navel stores were in a decline until the early 1830s, when it was found that turpentine could be used in lamps, and as a solvent for rubber. Let's take a step back for a moment.

Back in the 1700s, the vast forest of long-leaf pines were harvested for making rosin and tar. One of the processes was called "hacking". 

Hacking involved the removal of bark from the pine tree, so that the sap/resin, would bleed from the tree, and be captured in a container. The sap would be put in a cask, and shipped off to make turpentine and rosin. Unfortunately for the tree, it would only live for seven or eight years before dying. That brings us to the second method of harvesting product from these trees, it was the "tar kiln". 

That dead tree still had more to give... in the way of tar and pitch. The heartwood of the tree would be stacked, covered over with earth, and a fire set. The heat of the fire would cause the sap/resin to leak out of the wood and into a drain at the bottom of the kiln, and into a bucket. Working these kilns was a risky business, they required constant regulation to prevent gases from building and causing explosions, which did occur on occasions... quite frequently.

BREAK TIME... STRETCH, GET SOMETHING TO DRINK.

If you have followed this blog for awhile, you may remember the story in which Deadwood, South Dakota had a major fire, burning most of the city down, and Presho, Indiana, which was totally destroyed by fire... deja vu, it happened to Fayetteville in 1831. It was May 1831, when a fire broke out in the kitchen of the James Kyle residence. The conflagration was so great, it destroyed 600 buildings, much of the business, leaving hundreds of people homeless in Fayetteville. The fire raged for six hours, driven by high winds... the only way they stopped the fire from spreading... they blew up buildings. Like most towns that burned, they rebuilt using brick, and Fayetteville is no different, and is a thriving city today.

I spoke earlier of improved transportation routes, which increased commerce, well North Carolina can boast about having one of the longest plank roads in the United States.

The old roads before planking provided two options during travel... mud up to the axles during the rainy season, or ruts up to the axles during the dry seasons. The problem with the roads was due to a lack of any responsible state authority, for maintaining roads. 

In 1849 private company, Fayetteville and Western, was formed to take charge of the situation. While wooden roads had been previously experimented with in America and Europe, with little success, Fayetteville and Western had a different approach. They graded and elevated the bed, with drainage ditches on both side. The sills on each side were laid end to end, and covered with planks, three to four inches thick. Once the planks were laid, they were covered with sand.

The company was a forward thinking company, because they essentially came up with the first toll road. Toll booths were built roughly every 11 miles. Wagons were charged a 1/2 cent per rider, one cent for a one horse wagon, two cents for a two horse wagon, and four cents for a six horse team.  Because the plank road made travel easier, 20,000 wagons were using the 129 mile highway by 1854, which is considered the longest wood road in the world.

Even with the crops and industry within North Carolina, many items were still imported, things like coffee, sugar, salt, writing paper, pens, shoes, nails, even medical supplies. The Civil War blockades created a shortage of imported products, and what was available had hefty price tags. The war created extremely inflated prices:

- Bacon: 1861 cost 10 1/2 to 13 cents a pound, by March of 1865... $6.00 a pound.

- Coffee: 1861 cost 15 to 16 cents a pound; March 1865... $50.00 a pound.

- Flour: 1861 cost $7.25 to $7.35 a pound; March 1865...$500.00 a pound.

During the four years of the war, inflation rose 7,000%, and a Confederate private was only bringing home $11.00 a month. I look at our inflation rate, and it isn't near what they had to endure. With most of the men either volunteering to enlist, or drafted, the farm work fell on the shoulders of the women. What really made it miserable for the families back home, was what livestock and food they did manage to raise, was confiscated by the Confederate government.  The folks back home were very creative with what was available though. If you remember your history, salt was used to preserve meats. Due to the cost of salt, they found a different way to preserve their meat... wood ashes and gun powder. What about coffee... they tried many things, and found that acorns were the best substitute for real coffee. Then realize at the end of the war, most of the soldiers had nothing to go home to, it was pretty much all destroyed.

Amongst all the responsibilities the women had running the farms, they created knitting parties, which supplied socks to the Confederate soldiers; they also provided clothing and medical supplies. Most of the women making Confederate uniforms, did so by hand, some of the women were lucky enough to have sewing machines. Back in the day a sewing machine went for about $125.00, which equates to about $3,000.00 in today's currency.

In the early 19th century, if you lived in North Carolina, your clothes were probably made at home, from raw material, to wearable garment. By the 1830s, cotton mills began popping up, which allowed for processing cotton, which could be turned into clothing, but were local to a community because of poor transportation. As time went on, transportation got better, and the mills grew. I mentioned earlier that the war took a toll on the farmers, many losing their farms, some able to get loans to start again. There was one stipulation the banks had if they approved a loan... the farmer had to produce a cash crop that could pay back the loan... hence the beginning of large cotton plantations.

I was intrigued with machinery of the time.

This piece of machinery which was belt driven, made socks. Obviously before the socks could be made, the cotton needed to be processed... and boy was it... by other machines. The process began when raw cotton was brought in. The raw cotton was opened and cleaned, fed into a blender which sorted fiber lengths. From the blender it went to the picker machine, which removed seeds and dirt. When the product emerged from the picker machine, it formed laps resembling rolls of absorbent cotton. These laps then made their way to the carding machine, where the fibers were straightened and arranged in parallel rows. At this point the product is a wide, thin web of cotton that was gathered into a rope or strand, known as a sliver. From the Carding Room, the slivers made their way to the Spinning Room. in the Spinning Room, the slivers were strengthened , the weak spots were corrected by pulling the sliver into a tighter group of fibers.

The sliver was then run through a roving frame, that twisted and improved the fiber strength, and was called roving. The roving was put on spools to be used on the spinning machine. The spinning process twisted the roving into a tight, thin thread for the weaving. The thread would now go to a high speed loom to be made into clothing material.

The museum has a lot to see, I have only shown you a portion of what is on exhibition. While we waited for our guided tour of the next portion of the complex, we headed over to the remnants of the the Fayetteville arsenal.

When a crisis happens, we tend to react to that crisis. For example, the arsenal at Fayetteville was Congress appropriated because of how defensively unprepared the United States was during the War of 1812. The arsenal was to produce arms for future defense. Because the city of Fayetteville had a problem attracting a railroad, the U.S. government relegated the arsenal to a depository. The southern politicians pushed for the completion of phase 2, even with the completion, it lacked the machinery to build arms. When the Civil

War broke out, the arsenal was surrendered and turned over to the Confederacy. When Harper's Ferry Arsenal and Armory fell to Virginia, some of the machinery and artisans moved to Fayetteville, and the arsenal was quickly making ammunition, repairing rifles, and modernizing muskets. The Confederate government expanded the arsenal, and produced the Fayetteville Rifle. 

Because of the scarcity of raw materials, only 10,000 rifles were produced. The real contribution of the arsenal to the Civil War was the millions of rounds of ammunition produced to fight the Union Army. After the Civil War was over, the union forces destroyed the arsenal. In 1874 the U.S. government put the property on the auction block, however, before it was sold, the public absconded with all the usable material, including most of the stones used to build other structures. The land became residential in 1890, and stayed that way until the 1960s. Unfortunately progress marched on, and thanks to public concern, part of an arsenal wall was preserved for future history buffs. This is what the arsenal would have looked like in its day. 

Time to march back to the museum for the guided tour portion.

Once the arsenal was sold off, the land went up for sale as well, and many affluent (rich) people bought and built their homes. One of those folks was Edgar Allen Poe... not the one your thinking of. This Poe preferred to go by E.A. Poe, a brick manufacturer who also made pottery. E.A. Poe's bricks were different from the others made, he fired his, just like the pottery he manufactured. Bricks were a big business after the big fire in 1831.

Entering the Poe property visitors can see an example of his brick versus other manufactured brick. The brick on the left in the photo is conventional brick, the right are Poe bricks. One could always tell a "Poe" brick, it was stamped E.A. Poe. The house was still decorated when we visited, it looked very festive.

Like many homes in the South, it had a large porch providing shade for the front rooms, and offering a place to enjoy the evenings, with a gentle cool breeze blowing across the porch. This house was built with three entrances from the front porch, one specifically for Mr. Poe, one for the rest of the family and friends, and the main entrance for guests. Mr. Poe's entrance was off the master bedroom, and the family/friends was off the everyday parlor. We were considered guests, so they let us in the front door.  Coming in the front door, this would have been your initial view of the Poe residence.

The Victorian era had its peculiarities, one of which was presenting a card, much like a business card today. The servant would inform the owners of the house, and the owners and guest would meet in the "formal parlor".

The formal parlor was also used for entertainment, in the Poe home it would have contained a piano, and a "Victrola" record player. You would also know that you were in the formal parlor, by the table in the room. The formal parlor had a round table for entertaining, the family parlor would have had a square table.

As you can see here in this picture, if you were in this room, you were either family or friend, because this room was generally closed off to visitors. You may be wondering way the rooms are so dark looking, part of it is because the museum is trying to care for the exhibits by keeping the lights low, part of it is because of all the dark wood in the rooms. Let me show you what I am talking about:

these ceilings were found throughout the house, but not all rooms. The first room off the family parlor was the master bedroom. You will notice how much brighter the room is, even with the slat wood ceiling. In the bedroom the ceiling was painted white. As you look through the room you will notice a fireplace... like all the fireplaces in the house, was coal burning. Next to the fireplace was a closet that wasn't big enough to store a weeks worth of clothes, the armoire was for daily clothes.

There are many doors in this room, and they all lead to various areas of the house. The door with the transom leads to the hallway, the center door leads to the family parlor, and the yellow door is Mr. Poe's to the front porch.

The wall across from all the doors is where the armoire is located... and a door to the nursery. Mr. Poe was not a man to just throw money around because he had it, he would have possibly been considered frugal, because his home had no indoor plumbing. When this house was built in 1897, it was built was lighting that was gas/electric, which is evident by the fixture in the bedroom. The one pointing up was gas, and the one pointing down was electric. The door seen in the lower portion of the photo is to the nursery.

Speaking of the nursery, let's stroll through that door. The nursery was not only for an infant, but for the next younger child as well. The servant responsible for caring for the young children had a room of her own off the nursery. Her room became the "birthing room" whenever a child was arriving into the world. As the years rolled on, and the daughters that continued living in the house, are said to have the room into a "bathing room", when a bath tub was moved in.

The servant that lived in this room had her own entrance into her living quarters.

Upstairs are the many bedrooms. When touring this home, visitors will notice two staircases, one facing toward the front door, one facing to the rear of the house. The staircase facing to the rear of the house was for the servants, it was just off the servants rear entrance. The stairs on the right are for family and friends, the left is for servants. I am standing at the back door the servants would enter. Continuing upstairs visitors will find a room on the left that has modern amenities, because the house is used for weddings. The room provides the bride and crew an opportunity to get ready. It is also evidence of the last daughter standing... renting out space. The room has the only space with indoor plumbing.

You will also notice carpet. Just outside in the beautiful hallway is where the weddings happen. The rest of the rooms were either bedrooms or servant quarters. The servant that was allowed to live upstairs was only allowed to while she was single, and once she had a boyfriend she was required to find other living accommodations. She was still employed by the Poe's.

Servant living quarters at the top of the stairs, maybe six feet by eight feet, your basic prison cell size. It is located to the right at the far end of the hallway. Beside the servant, there was a bedroom for the girls, and one for their son.

Girls Room

Son's Room

Back downstairs we find ourselves in the dining room. The table was always formally set.

The china cabinet always displayed the latest and greatest china the family owned. You look at the streamers coming down from the light, and wonder how they survived the children... the answer was... one look from the lady of the house (mom). Off the dining room was a butler's pantry and the exit to the outdoor kitchen. The butler's pantry contained the everyday china, for daily use.

This guided tour through the house was great fun... because of the tour guide, with her knowledge of the house, and the fact that she knew the family. Our day is over, back home we go, tomorrow is another day.

TAKE A BREAK, WE ARE NOT DONE YET.

Our last stop for the area was to the

Fayetteville History Museum (https://www.fcpr.us/facilities/museums/fayetteville-area-transportation-and-local-history-museum). This guy is made of scrap metal, and guards the

entrance. The building, built in 1890, is an old train station and annex. The museum is a tale of Fayetteville. Again, this is another museum that operates on donations, not a set admission fee. The Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad (CF&YVR) building was once an important connection between Wilmington and Greensboro. Can you guess who supplied the bricks for construction of this magnificent depot... that's right, E.A. Poe. While it was a functioning train depot, the first floor housed the ticket booth, and passenger waiting area, which were heated by wood burning stoves. The second floor housed office spaces. Under the second floor was a concrete slab to support the CF&YVR safe. While passengers were outside waiting for the train, the could stand under a 192 foot covered platform.

The train depot had a short life because of the 1893 financial panic, and by 1898 CF&YVR was forced in to foreclosure, going on the public auction block.

As visitors enter the museum, there is the story of Edgar Allen Poe. E.A. Poe made his money making bricks, and from the sideline pottery business. There was a ridge of clay that ran approximately through the center of Fayetteville, along the First Presbyterian Church on Ann street, and Dick and Cool streets, and E.A. Poe, owned 79 acres of that ridge. His pottery and bricks were made from this clay. Mr. Poe was not a potter himself, he had hired skilled turners to made the unitarian pottery, and became well known on the region. Mr. Poe became known as "The Clay Merchant".

We walk his home on on the westside of Fayetteville, let's learn a little more about the man and his family. E.A. Poe was born in

Fayetteville, in 1858, one of 16 children. 1880 was a busy year for E.A., he married his wife Josephine, and started his brick business, and sideline utilitarian pottery manufacturing. He and Josephine had 10 children, two of which died in childbirth. The family lived in a cottage before they moved to the new home built in 1897. Elizabeth Winslow Poe, the last remaining relative, died in the home in 1988. Mr. Poe was active in his church, business, and politics. He was a generous man, but ran a strict and moral household. in 1934 Mr. Poe died after being bed ridden for 13 months due to a stroke.

Some folks say that we today mourn our deceased loved ones in odd ways, I personally don't think we are any different than our ancestors in the 1800s. A good example would be products made from the hair of the deceased. I have seen it framed as a picture, but

not as jewelry. The hair for the jewelry is prepared in the same manner as it would have been for a picture, and the mourning piece made at home, or taken to a professional. These decorative items came in the form of brooches, rings, bracelets, earrings, watch chains and fobs. The mourning person could even order mourning jewelry from a catalog.

The museum celebrates the rich history of Fayetteville's past. The Catholic church made its way there in 1821, opening the doors of Saint Patrick's Church. St. Patrick's Church is still operating today. In 1825 Fayetteville had a visit from Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, better known to us as General Lafayette. He was a good friend of General Washington, and supported our desires for freedom. In 1825 President Monroe invited him to tour the 24 states, as a "guest of the nation".

There is a small, but powerful section exhibiting education in the Fayetteville area. The wall has many photos, all with numbers. There

is a binder next to the photos; this binder tells the story for each photo. This wall of photos is a display to inequality that was present in our country, though we touted that we were the land of the free, and those wanting to better themselves. Black and Native Indian children did not go to schools with the white children.

Thanks to Booker T. Washington and his Tuskegee Institute staff, they conceived the Rosenwald program in 1910. The Rosenwald program was a massive effort to improve education for rural African-Americans. This was achieved through a public-private partnership. This schoolhouse was the Savannah Colored School, one of 800 Rosenwald buildings throughout the state. By 1930, Cumberland county, where Fayetteville is located, had seven of these schools. For those not familiar with the name Rosenwald, he was the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, who was president of Sears, Roebuck and Company. He would match grants for anyone willing to build a colored school.

Even through the Native American Indian lived here for thousands of years, white man thought it was their responsibility to educate all cultures. 1887 saw the introduction of the Coatan Normal School. The Coatan Normal School would later become University of North Carolina, Pembroke. In 1920, the Cade Hill Indian School (shown in photo) was built on the east side of the Cape Fear River, with many Indian populations attending.

Let's take a look at one of influential folks in Fayetteville, E.E. Smith. Mr. Smith spent much of his life in Fayetteville

as a student, or educator. He attended a Freedmen's Bureau school at night, and made barrels staves by day. in 1878 he was one of the first to graduate from  Shaw Colligate Institute, in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1883 he was appointed the principal of State Normal Colored School, serving in that position for 50 years. He was a major factor in relocating the school and expanding its prestige in the state. During that time he only took two leaves of absence during his tenure, one to serve his country as Minister Resident Council General to Liberia, and second was to serve in the Spanish American War. On his death in 1933, A.B. Caldwell had this to say, "on of the most useful citizens, brilliant teachers, successful diplomats, loyal and gallant soldiers, popular, liberal and broad-minded Christian gentlemen, successful pastor and businessman that North Carolina has produced".

This gentleman was Robert Harris, born in Fayetteville in 1840, and his family was part of the free African-American community in Fayetteville. When his father died, his mother moved the family to Ohio, where completed high school and college. He became a teacher for the American Missionary Association, he and his brother returned to Fayetteville in 1866. Back in Fayetteville, he created a model school for the education of African-American students that was free, public, and graded. This school was unrivaled by any white school. The school actually started as two schools, Phillips and Sumner, moved to a new location and named Howard School. Eventually the school would be renamed again, to State Colored Normal School.

These are only a few of the photos on display, each with great stories about the opportunities for education in Fayetteville. From education we moved to the exhibition on the Cape Fear River.

There was a lot goin' on in the Cape Fear region. The Cape Fear River was a "super highway" in its day, transporting merchandise between Wilmington, on the coast, and Fayetteville, inland. 

Let's back track just a bit before we continue with the story of Cape Fear River. Fayetteville was not always Fayetteville. 

First there were two villages, Cross Creek and Campbelton, which merged to become Fayetteville in 1783. My guess is that they came together because they were growing communities, and needed to pool their finances together.

The Cape Fear River starts where the Deep and Haw Rivers converge, north of Fayetteville. Now there was two way traffic, and this was what made Fayetteville a bustling trade point. From the back woods, produce and raw materials would arrive by covered wagons to Fayetteville, for transport south. The steamboats traveling upstream brought merchandise from the North, West Indies, and Europe, for trade in the out lying regions.

Riverboats didn't just move merchandise, they moved passengers too. One of the exhibits gives visitors the opportunity to play riverboat captain.

 You need to remember, these boats didn't travel at high speeds, if they got to 10 knots, they were speeding. The biggest reason for the slow speeds was the shifting river bottom, which could create hidden sandbars that could ground the riverboat. 

 Around the corner from the wheelhouse is a setup of what cabins may have looked like on the riverboat. Most of the cabins would have been no frills, sleeps as many as possible, but there were some designed to accommodate the wealthier passengers.

Here is an account from a passenger riding from Fayetteville to Wilmington, "As we stood on the upper deck viewing the scene and enjoying the surroundings, the bell sounded from somewhere near the pilothouse above, the gangplank was withdrawn, there was a sudden blowing off of steam, a whizzing, hissing sound of escaping vapor, and the revolutions of the stern wheel began slowly to thrash the still waters into a whirling, dancing vortex of tumbling waves and white foam; like a thing of life the vessel yanked her nose out of the mud bank, by courtesy called a wharf, and, in circling to glide to midstream started on her journey to the port of Wilmington".

Keep in mind that were several styles of riverboats, those that you see in the movies, with big paddle wheels, fancy dressed passengers, and gambling.

Then there were the working riverboats that were more like barges. What would most likely be hauled on these barges? With agriculture their main income, cotton would have been the major source crop shipped via riverboat barges. If there was a large load to be hauled there would be smaller barges attached to the big one.

During the steamboat era, roughly from 1818 to the early 1900s, there were several tragedies, where steamboats were lost. These losses could have been caused by any number of things, such as collisions, fire, hitting a snag, or personal loss falling overboard. Unless the person well known, the steamboat didn't stop. Ed Williams was a prime example. Mr. Williams, a passenger on the C.W. Lyon, was a Fayetteville fireman returning to Fayetteville, when he fell overboard and drowned. His body was found several days later, and buried by the river near where he was found (tradition of the times). Crews feared fire the most, because of their cargo, generally, cotton, turpentine, and rosin, all of which burned quickly. Over pressurized boilers were another issue, and very common. on the Cape Fear there were three such incidences, the Magnolia, Kate McLaurin, and the Robert E. Lee, claiming 23 lives in all.

Fayetteville played a roll during the Civil War. One of the exhibits is artifacts from a Confederate Blockade Runner ship, Modern Greece. 

The purpose of a blockade runner was to get supplies past the Union blockades, to the Confederate forces. Long story short. While running from a Union blockader's fire, the Modern Greece ran aground hard. There will be more on this story in another episode.

The second floor of this museum contains exhibits and artifacts pertaining to authors from the area, more Civil War artifacts, exhibits on the bases located in the area, a mock-up of a typical train Station Agent's office, and an exhibit dedicated to the men and women in law enforcement.

I am not even going to tease you with photos of the second floor exhibits, but rather encourage you to visit Fayetteville, and its museums.