DAVIS HOUSE Survival - Update

In an email written a few months ago, shortly after he finished his introduction to Porchscapes - The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina, architectural historian Tony P. Wrenn wrote his recollections of how The Davis House was saved from destruction,

“In 1970 the Duke University Marine Lab planned to tear down the three houses behind the Davis House thirteen-bay porch, Beaufort's longest and one of the state's most notable, and construct something to better house students and others who came to work in Dr. John Costlow's facility.

“Jean Kell felt, and she may well be right, that there are certain forces which control such things, and the force, one presumes the good one, had planned for me to be in Beaufort at just the time when the bulldozers were pulled into position to the rear of The Davis House to begin its destruction. This is the same force I assume that brought you to Beaufort to do what you are now doing.

“What Jean wrote is essentially true except that I don't think I was actually the savior of the houses and their porch, but rather the facilitator that led to their saving.

“I remember it in this way. Jean saw the dozers being moved into position, rushed to find out why they were there, then as speedily moved to find me and tell me I had to do something about it, that that porch should not be allowed to go. I went to find Costlow and found that he had already done whatever he could to stave off demolition but had come up short, since the property forces that control Duke, the University, were in control and not the Marine Laboratory, but he welcomed my getting involved if I could.

“I sought H.G.Jones [NC Dept. of Archives and History], told him of the situation and my feeling about the importance of those porches and told him Costlow felt he might be able to reach people at Duke, including Terry Sanford, then President of the University, and possibly get the demolition stopped. H.G. agreed that I could act as his agent and sell the value of the houses and their porch, so Costlow began his calls, ultimately reaching the final person he needed to reach, pitching the importance of the porches to Beaufort, and their historic and architectural value. I don't actually remember whether I talked or not, but believe that I did have a chance to talk about the porches, Waterman's feeling about them and my own, which H.G. supported. I also don't know whether or not Sanford called H.G., but we shortly got the word that the bulldozers would still do some work to the rear of the Davis House, but that the Front Street façade was saved.

“Waterman wrote of the Duncan House 107 Front: ‘Here a two-tiered porch covers the front of the house and is protected by a shed extension of the main roof. The posts are in the form of crudely-turned Doric columns, not unlike those seen in some of the Spanish Islands. In the Davis House [121-123-125] also on Front Street facing Beaufort Inlet, the great length of the house makes a rather similar two-story porch even more effective.....’

“In writing about the porch in my report, I note: "The Davis House porch, mentioned above by Waterman, actually covers three houses, one of them eighteenth century (125), one early (123) and the other (121) late nineteenth century. Before the porches were joined in their present manner, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, all three houses already had two-story porches. The entire composition, thirteen bays long, is, as Waterman says, 'effective.' Its length does not confuse the viewer, however. The builder has used two types of turned Doric posts, alternating top and bottom and has raised the second floor balustrade slightly in the center, thereby visually preserving the identity of the three structures while giving them a common porch.

"As you so beautifully show in your Porchscapes book, the porch is an integral part of the architectural, social and cultural lifestyle of the South and of North Carolina. Among all the memorable porches in the state, the Davis House porch is one of the great ones. That the powers at Duke University did not allow it to be destroyed 40 years ago indicates an awareness of the obligations that public institutions have to our past, and the lasting results of acting on that awareness." - Tony P. Wrenn

Ann Street Methodist Church - Mid-19th Century Memorabilia

Images and text from an 18-page brochure, History of Ann Street Methodist Church, published in 1966, on the occasion of the 188th anniversary of the organization of the Methodist Church in Beaufort. The brochure was edited by Miss Emily Loftin (1898-1985). Posted here are a few images and excerpts from that publication.

The Sunday school ticket to the left was issued to Irvin Fulford, born March 31, 1839, son of Absalom Fulford and Naomi Rumley. Fulford later served as a Lt. in the CSA, was captured and held as a POW. He was the officer in charge of the artillary defense of Fort Fisher in 1864; his accounts of those battles have been preserved. Fulford was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort. (Fulford data from Mark Green.) The ticket was signed by Sup't. J.C. Manson* and Sec'y. A.C. Davis, father of Nannie Fletcher Davis Thomas. Click to enlarge images.

"Still in existence is a Deacon's License of 1840 to John Jones and a Sacrament Ticket given to 'Miss Mary' Thomas. Interesting, indeed, are the requirements made upon the early members.

"Tickets were given quarterly to such members of the Church as were recommended by a class leader with whom they had met at least 6 months on trial. Those without tickets were regarded as 'strangers.' At every other meeting the Society in every place let no strangers be admitted. At other times they may, but the same person not above twice.

"Let no person who is not a member of our Society be admitted to the communion without a sacrament ticket which ticket must be changed every quarter.

"As to marrying, whoever marries an 'unawaken' person, defined as one we could not in conscience admit into the Society, will be expelled from the Society.

"Give no tickets to any that wear high heads, enormous bonnets, ruffles or rings."

*John C. Manson (Sup't. who signed the above certificate of admission) was a naval captain during the War of 1812 and, after being honorably discharged in 1815, became a prominent merchant. Manson operated a store at what is now the corner of Front and Turner streets.

Ann Street Methodist Church by E.O.Nielsen
(front of the 1966 brochure)

Model of Crissie Wright

Recently completed model of Crissie Wright by Jim Goodwin will be on display at the Beaufort North Carolina Maritime Museum in January 2010.

Model scale: 1" = 6.3'

Model Length Overall = 32", H = 19 3/4 ", Beam = 3 3/4 "

Click Images to Enlarge
EMAIL Jim Goodwin

Cast Iron and Stones

NORCOM PLOT - OLD BURYING GROUND

This iron, from Patch Company, Boston, is dated 1865

Stones in the Old Burying Ground date from 1756, burials from before 1724. More than seventeen varieties of undated cypress wooden markers survive, along with scores of graves topped with brick. Tony P. Wrenn . 1970.
The above will be included in Porchscapes, The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina.

Duncans, Davises and Mansons

MANSON HOUSE Porch - August 11, 1910
~

Front Row: 5-year-old Mattie King Hancock Davis
(Laura Davis Piner's mother - Mattie King Gallery named for her)

Row 2: Sallie Gertrude Davis Hancock (Mattie King Davis' mother),
Annie Duncan Gregory, Emma Manson, Della Bryan Duncan Smith

Row 3 : Etta Perry Davis Potter, Laura Gertrude Duncan Davis, John Averett
Duncan, Etta Manson, Ella Duncan Davis,
Minnie Rieger Davis Huntley and Lillian Duncan

Back Row: Nancy Fletcher Davis Thomas, William Benjamin Duncan

and Esther Purvis Duncan Manson

______________________________

Image and Photo ID Courtesy Lou Register and Tibbie Roberts

Only One Survivor

SIX OF THE CREW OF THE CRISSIE WRIGHT
DROWNED AND FROZEN TO DEATH

January 11, 1886 Newspaper Clippings

Click Images to Enlarge

These clippings, found in the Rickards family Bible, were sent by C.G. Rickards, whose g-g-grandfather perished on the Crissie Wright and was buried in the mass grave in Beaufort's old Burying Ground.

Benjamin Leecraft & Descendants

Mary "Polly" Fuller Leecraft with her son Benjamin Leecraft III

According to Ian Lucraft, who has been researching his ancestors for twenty-five years, "The Luckraft name appears first in the records in the small villages of the South Hams area of Devon, between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. The variants of the name arise from the differant phonetic spellings as the name was used and recorded. Most of the Luckrafts originate in families resident in the South Hams in the 1500s and 1600's The Lucraft variant originates from Nicholas Luccroft who was married at Farringdon, East of Exeter, in 1691 to Margaret Westcott. Where Nicholas came from is unknown to me, but he commenced a group of families in the villages near Farringdon of Woodbury, and Broadclyst."

Leecrafts are listed as members of the Virginia Company that helped colonize Virginia and Bermuda, as well as settlements north of Virginia on the Atlantic coast.

A Leecraft was Governor of Bermuda under George III when many became discouraged by their lack of independence. Some of the Leecrafts moved south to the Caribbean—Barbados, Antigua and Martinique, to continue commercial shipping using their fleet of ships to cargo to ports along mainland America.

Around 1780 several Leecraft brothers came to the colonies. It is believed that two settled in New York and one in Beaufort, South Carolina. The fourth brother, Captain Benjamin Leecraft I, born in 1753, arrived in the Beaufort, North Carolina area on his own ship and became one of the largest land owners in the province. He married Susannah Elizabeth Bell, daughter of Colonel Malachi Bell. During the Revolutionary War, Leecraft joined with a Captain Biddle of Philadelphia as mate in shipping on the brigantine Active. In 1784 Captain Leecraft was master of the schooner Sea Flower, trading out of Turk's Island for importer William Fisher. He was killed in 1799 in a sea battle off the coast of Bermuda and was buried at sea. Susannah Bell Leecraft died in 1818.

Benjamin Leecraft II, born circa 1793, was the only male heir. In 1816 he married Mary “Polly” Fuller, descendant of the Mayflower Fullers, and daughter of Belcher Fuller and Zilphia Guthrie. They had four sons—Benjamin III, William, Lafayette and Nathan Franklin—and four daughters, Susan Benjamin, Zilphia Ann, Mary and Julia Frances. In 1845 Benjamin Leecraft III married his first cousin Mary Elizabeth Arendell, daughter of Sarah Fisher and Bridges Arendell. Mary and Benjamin III had seven children; all died as infants or young children except for Benjamin Bridges and Carolus Arendell. Their mother, Mary Elizabeth, died in 1858. The 1860 census shows a widowed Benjamin Leecraft III with three small children; his real estate value was $50,500 and personal estate was $23,000.

By 1862 the Union provost marshal granted a Boston merchant “permission to occupy the store formerly occupied by Benjamin Leecraft, the owner having joined the CSA.” Leecraft served in the Confederate Army, 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Artillery.

Since Leecraft was not occupying his home at the corner of Ann and Orange Streets, it was taken by the Federals and used as officers’ quarters. Soldiers left axe marks in the floor of the room (now the dining room) where fire wood was stored.
Benjamin Leecraft III left Beaufort shortly after the war. It appears that Leecraft’s wealth and holdings diminished—or else he was discouraged by the results of the war and the Federal occupation. Leecraft married his second wife, Susan Elizabeth Stowe in 1866 Susan, who was half his age, was the daughter of Colonel Samuel Neel Stowe, M.D., who had served on the staff of General Robert E. Lee. Confederate swords carried by Captain Leecraft and Colonel Stowe became treasured possessions to Brigadier General Walter Alexander Dumas, son of Bessie Holland Leecraft and DeBerry Glenn Dumas and grandson of Benjamin Leecraft III. Leecraft’s sword was originally the property of a Masonic lodge and put into military service at a time when weapons were scarce.

Susan and Benjamin Leecraft III moved to Sherman, Texas in 1870. They had four children—Albert Stowe, Charles Fuller, Daisy Dean and Arthur Neel. Benjamin Leecraft III died in 1880 in Denison, Texas, when his oldest son Arthur was only about fourteen years old.

Arthur Neel Leecraft owned the first all-purpose store in Indian Territory--Leecraft Mercantile-- just north of Denison across the Red River by ferry. He married Lelah Maupin who was part Chickasaw. Arthur later became “Colonel” Leecraft and was very active in governmental and civic affairs in the state of Oklahoma.

Emails from Pat Fleury, Benjamin Leecraft's great-great granddaughter, gives us more insight into the family's life in Texas. Pat is the daughter of Marjorie Leecraft McMahon, daughter of Bertram Maupin Leecraft, son of Arthur Neel Leecraft.

Pat wrote, After Benjamin III left North Carolina, I couldn't find him in Texas. Finally, on a wild hunch, I found him in a California Gold Rush camp, living in a barracks with other men on the same quest. After he got that 'out of his system,' he came back to Texas. Even though genealogical records show the location as Sherman and Denison, back in those days they lived in the countryside. Even today, a person can easily get gored by a wild hog in the woods just outside of Denison,Texas.

When Arthur Neel Leecraft left to go into politics, he left my grandfather, Bertram Maupin Leecraft (b. 1894) behind to attend to Leecraft Mercantile. Back then, the only way across the Red River was by ferry boat. At first, the town was called Colbert's Ferry.

Lelah Maupin Leecraft's father, John Rice Maupin, rode with Quantrill's Raiders during the Civil War. Maupin married Helen Eastman. Through Helen Eastman, we are also cousins to the Eastman Kodak people. My grandfather Bertram Maupin Leecraft could tell stories about Jesse James and other outlaws because of the Quantrill's Raiders connection. Oklahoma in those post Civil War days was really a wild wild west.

Strangely enough, the Maupins were French Huguenots in 1700's Williamsburg, Virginia. Their 'ordinary' or inn in Williamsburg was first given a liquor license in 1711. Eventually they operated three inns. The last one is now called the Taliferro-Cole House, on Lot #352 in Williamsburg.

So, the Maupins started in Virginia and the Leecrafts in North Carolina and they all wound up in Oklahoma during and after the Civil War.

I am sending old photographs from the Bessie Holland Leecraft album that I inherited from my Mom. The photo of John Rice Maupin came from an issue of Chronicles of Oklahoma.

The Leecraft Houses on Ann Street

Leecraft House in March 1862. - 307 Ann Street - mounted orderly Lt. C.M. Duser. Benjamin Leecraft II (and/or Ben III) built this 1850 house and other Leecraft houses next door on Ann Street.

Leecraft House circa 1850

The three Greek revival-style homes have features taken from books on architecture by Asher Benjamin. His influence is seen in its wide hall, broad staircase, large rooms with high ceilings, and distinctive woodwork. Even though plaqued 1850, 1856 and 1857, the 1857 house, on the corner of Ann and Orange, due to its construction details, may have been the first built.

Contemporary photos of the Leecraft houses:

FRENCH HUGUENOTS

...how some made their way to Beaufort.

This etching shows how French Huguenots fled from Brittany and Normandy
in small boats across the English Channel to England.
Image from www.betheafamily.org

When Louis XIV began a policy of une foi, un loi, un roi - one faith, one law, one king - and revoked the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685, the large scale persecution of the Huguenots resumed. At least 250,000 French Huguenots fled to countries such as Switzerland, Germany, England, America, the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa, where they could enjoy religious freedom. Between 1618 and 1725, some 5000 to 7000 Huguenots reached the shores of America.

Besides those who settled in Florida in 1564 and South Carolina in 1679, about 1705 small colonies settled on the Pamlico River and on the Trent where Baron DeGraffenried’s colony found them in 1710 when he founded New Bern.

In 1708, the region, known today as Carteret County, began to attract settlers. A few families moved into the area about North River, known then as the “the Core Sound” settlement.

It is believed that Pivers and Shackelfords were among those first settlers. In later years these frontiersmen were followed by families with names of Paquinet, Noe, Manney, Delamar, Midyette and Geoffroy—all descendants of French Huguenots:

Shackelford: John and Francis Shackelford came to the coast of NC in the early 1700s and acquired what is now known as Shackleford Banks. Their father, Roger Shackelford , the immigrant (1629-1704) fled England about 1658, on a boat with Edward Palmer and his siblings, who had received a land grant in Virginia. The Palmers were French Huguenots. Roger married Mary Palmer about 1660.

Piver: Peter Piver circa 1690-1758 arrived in the area about 1708, perhaps on the west side of North River. Over the generations, he, son Peter and grandson Peter acquired various plots of land including acreage west of what is now Moore Street. Peter Piver, Jr. , born in 1717, served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter III was born about 1740. In 1795, Carteret County court minutes note that Peter Piver and wife Lydia sold half of Piver’s Island (seven acres) to Elijah Bell. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort.

Paquinet: The 1790 US Census shows Ann, James, Isaiah and John Paquinet in Carteret County. The 1772 Will of Michael Paquinet left his sons James, John and Isaiah his plantation, 100 acres on Cane Creek and 200 acres on Broad Creek. Third generation names were Belcher Fuller and Mary Severn—both Huguenot descendants through Michael Paquinet, born in Paris in 1690. The Paquinet House circa 1769 is on Front Street.

Rebecca Paquinet married John Mades, 16 Jun 1803.
Betsey Paquinet married Francis Dennis, 18 Jan 1804.
Elizabeth Paquinet married Jesse Piver, 19 June 1817.

Noe: In early 1800s there were two Noe families - James Noes and Peter Noes. James Noe, Jr. married Mary Polly Paquinet in 1829. In 1862 Thomas Noe married Frances Ann Mades, daughter of Rebecca and John Mades. The James Noe House circa 1828 is on Moore Street.

Manney: Jean Magny left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He first settled in Rhode Island in 1686. About 1691 most of the Huguenots were forced to leave. Jean Magny settled briefly in Oxford, Mass, but soon moved to New York City.

Magny, Manee, and Maney evolved to Manney. James Manney came to Beaufort from Poughkeepsie, NY. The Dr. James Manney House circa 1812 is at the corner of Craven and Ann Streets. In 1848, Dr. Manney's son, Dr. James Lente Manney, married William Fulford's daughter, Julia Ann.

Delamar: 1668 Francis De Lamar, or De la Mar, born in Boucre, Calais, France, died in 1713 in Pacquotank County, NC. Some of his descendants came to Beaufort from New Bern before 1850. The Gibble-Delamar House circa 1866 is on the corner of Turner and Broad Streets.

Midyett: Midyett families, originally from Normandy, France, were early inhabitants of Bodie Island and the Outer Banks in the late 1600s. "Many Midyett girls married sailors off Black Beard's three ships. The name was spelled different ways: Midyett, Midyette, Midgett, Midgette, but no matter how you spell it, they all came from Matthew Midyett who landed at Bodie Island, NC around 1600. He was a ship captain and was shipwrecked off the coast of the outer banks."--Donald Midyett. Midyetts helped start the US Coast Guard by establishing life-saving stations on the Outer Banks. Some of the family found their way to Beaufort by 1850.

Geffroy: Malachi R. Geffroy, husband of Nannie Pasteur Davis, had roots back to France then Canada. The M.R. Geffroy House circa 1885 is in the third block of Ann Street.

There are descendants of French Huguenots living in Beaufort today.

David DuBuisson is an indirect descendant of brothers Henry Martyn Baird and Charles Washington Baird - both Huguenot historians. In 1885 Charles W. Baird, D.D. (1828-1887), Presbyterian minister and historian, wrote the History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. The Baird brothers contributed perhaps two-thirds of the Huguenot scholarship in English that exist today. Their mother was Fermine Amaryllis Opheia DuBuisson Baird. Fermine was David DuBuisson's great-great aunt, the older sister of his great-great grandfather, George Washington DuBuisson.

David DuBuisson wrote: The Huguenots in the U.S. quickly dispersed and assimilated. Many of them had already assimilated in English or Dutch or German societies before crossing the Atlantic. As a religious denomination, the Huguenot church essentially disappeared under the relentless persecution of Rome. So, with a few exceptions, by the time they reached America Huguenots were generally affiliated with the Dutch Reformed (NY), Presbyterian or Anglican (VA, SC) churches. As they spread out through the colonies, they did not do so as a coherent group, but rather as individual families colonizing mainly with the English. This would explain why there would be no recognizable “Huguenot colonies” in, say, North Carolina, though there would be individual families.

Jimmy Piver and his children are descendants of Peter Piver through his son Peter Piver, Jr.

To add other Huguenot descendants in Beaufort, please email Mary Warshaw.
To email the link to this post, click envelope icon below.

Piver Family

Piver's Island - Late 1800s
Earliest photograph in existence showing the point at Duncan's Green looking westward
Image scanned from Beaufort, An Album of Memories by Jack Dudley

The Pivers are descendants of 16th and 17th centuries French Huguenots. Their civil rights in France were guaranteed to them by the Edict of Nantes. This official decree of religious tolerance was signed by King Henry IV of France on April 13, 1598.

In 1685, the intolerant King Louis XIV revoked this edict and issued a new one which withdrew all their civil and religious liberties. The Huguenots were faced with danger to both person and property, and thousands of them fled to new homes in England, Brandenburg and the Low Countries. From these European countries they then migrated to America and settled in the Carolinas, Virginia and New York. The Huguenots that did remain in France did not receive their religious and political freedom until the time of the French Revolution.

However, the ones that remained suffered, survived and become very prosperous tradesmen in Europe and exported their manufactured products to America. The L.T. Piver Cosmetic Company, Paris, France, is an example of a prosperous Piver firm. The cosmetic products were shipped to America in the early 1900s. Local persons remember the newspaper ads and used the cosmetics. I have living relatives who remember their mothers using L.T. Piver’s talcum powder and perfumes.

Peter Piver, Sr.* came from England to Carteret County, North Carolina in 1708 and helped settle the community known as Fishtowne, which is the western end of present-day Beaufort. He was given a land grant by Lord Proprietor which gave him title to many acres of land in Beaufort Township.

Edward Warren Piver – Clams, Loblollies, Jelly Rolls and a Model-T

Edward Warren Piver, born October 30, 1869, married Martha Duncan Longest. Edward Warren Piver’s jobs of life varied with the seasons of the year. During the spring and summer months he farmed and bought clams from clammers for 30 cents per bushel to re-bed in North River’s sandy reef opposite where he lived. Later, in the fall and winter months, the clams were removed, packaged 250 per grass bag and shipped by railroad freight and then in the late twenties by over-the-road highway truck to sell on the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. From 1910 and until the late 1920s, the clams were transported from North River by motor boat to freight depot in Beaufort for shipment.

On some of the boat trips Edward W. took his son, Edward Lee, with him. When a load of clams was placed in the freight car and he started back home, he would stop at the business section of Beaufort, go to Clawson’s Bakery, buy several dozen of different kinds of warm mid-afternoon baked goods to eat on the way home and also take some to the rest of the family. The warm jelly rolls were delicious.

He also enjoyed an after-supper smoke outside the house. His corncob pipe was so strong with nicotine; he agreed to leave it at a given place on the back porch. It and the can of Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco were always there for is use and enjoyment. Another luxury he enjoyed was a short nap after the midday meal. For this rest period a couch was place in the dining room for his use.

The farming operation was performed with a pair of mules. It provided food for family and for livestock. In addition to using the two mules for the farm operation, they were often hitched to the wagon or buggy and driven on a 5 to 8 mile journey rather than walk the muddy or sandy road.

After a devastating hurricane in the 1930s, Edward W. experimented with the fast-growing loblolly pine trees to re-forest his wood lots. The project was successful and he was invited to North Carolina State College to share his know-how with students in the Forestry Department. He was unable to accept the invitation.

After 1910, to provide a better education for his children than the one-room-one-teacher school, a 1914 Motel-T Ford was purchased in 1916 for his two daughters and one son to drive eight miles per day to attend St. Paul’s School in Beaufort—and later [to attend] the public school. The car was capable of traveling the hub-deep mud road which is currently Highway 70 East.

Throughout his life Edward W. Piver manifested his love and concern for his family.

Transcribed from an article written by:

Edward Lee Piver, Heritage of Carteret County 1982

*HISTORY NOTE: Peter Piver served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter and Lydia Piver’s son, Jesse, married Elizabeth Pasquonette June 19, 1817. It is believed that Jesse was the Piver who purchased, from the state of NC, what was then known as Still Island just opposite the western “Town’s End.” After dredging improvements to deepen the channel, the island became known as Piver’s Island. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort. Several Piver families and descendants still call Beaufort home.

Story - A Spanish Visitor - 1783

Francisco de Miranda

Self Portrait

On 13 July 1783 Beaufort was host to a most unusual visitor from Spain. Francisco de Miranda, then thirty-three years old and a fugitive from Spanish justice, had set sail from Havana, Cuba on the first day of June bound for Charleston, South Carolina. Throughout the year Miranda was to record his travels and observations of this new country.

Instead of putting in at Charleston the Captain of his vessel sailed to North Carolina waters and passed through Ocracoke Inlet on the eighth of June. Proceeding through the sound and up the Neuse River, Miranda arrived in New Bern. His description of that city is a contrast to what he has to say later about Beaufort. “The population of this city is composed of five hundred families of all classes. The houses are middling and small as a rule, but comfortable and clean; almost all are made of wood. The church and the assembly house are of brick and are suitable to the town. The finest building of all and one which really deserves the attention of an educated traveler is the so-called ‘Palace.'"

Remaining in New Bern until the twelfth, Miranda then departs, crossing the Trent River on a ferry and takes the road to Beaufort. He arrives at the Allways Inn at two o'clock in the afternoon. The diary states that this inn was twenty-five miles from New Bern. He describes his stay at the Allways as being refreshing in the following manner,". . . a moderate and clean meal and the company of Comfort and Constance, daughters of the innkeeper, fifteen and eighteen years old and very good looking, soon made me forget the excursion. That evening there was a good supper and better conversation with the girls; after all had retired for the night, one had no embarrassment in coming at my request to continue the conversation in my bed."

The next morning Miranda continued his journey and . . . “having gone twenty-one miles on roads similar to the one of the day before and crossed a swamp which must be more than a mile wide and had millions of mosquitoes. I arrived four hours later at Beaufort. I took lodging at the home of Mrs. Cheney, who treated me and took care of me grandly. Her gracious company mitigated to some extent the aridity and unsociableness of the town.”

In this section of the diary, Miranda describes his meeting with some French businessmen who had been shipwrecked on the shores of Cape Lookout, and goes on to tell of natives having, “. . .picked up whatever objects were floating about. (They even salvaged the copper sheathing and brought it to Beaufort.)”

As to Beaufort, the diary reports: “Beaufort is located on a sandy beach that, except for some sandbanks, which act as a barrier against the sea and form the sound, is quite unsheltered. It has about eighty inhabitants, and the houses are very miserable. Despite the fact that its location is much more advantageous than that of New Bern (even frigates can enter the sound), there is no commerce and, as a result, the inhabitants are poor. Mr. Parret and Mr. Dennis are the educated persons of the town and favored me with their company while I was here, waiting for a ship to take me to Charleston. The first is a surveyor general and gave me a good map of the state.”

The Miranda diary ends its tale of the Beaufort visit with this bit about the author’s excursion into the country-side: “ I made an excursion for a distance of twelve miles into the region, going up the little Newport River to the homes of two Quakers: one was rich and ignorant and the other, Mr. Williams, poor, educated and generous . . . Never before have I suffered similar discomfort from heat, bedbugs and mosquitoes to that which I went through in these two days of Quaker study. The agriculture one sees around here amounts to very little (mostly corn and potatoes), the earth being sandy and very poor. On the shores there are many windmills of very good construction and design. They are of wood and nevertheless last between twelve and twenty years. There are others on the creek which fall into the rivers; by means of a causeway and locks they collect water and generally form two mills; one to say wood and the other to grind grain. Of this type there are an infinity in this region, as lumber is one of the principal branches of commerce.”

On the twenty-second of June, Miranda took a ship for Charleston. So ends the tale of the Spanish visitor to Carteret County and Beaufort! -Charles O. Pitts, Jr., as transcribed from Heritage of Carteret of Carteret County, 1984

HISTORY NOTE: Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez (1750 - 1816) commonly known as Francisco de Miranda, was a Venezuelan revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spanish American colonies failed, he is regarded as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar, who during the Hispanic American wars of independence successfully liberated a vast portion of South America. Miranda led a romantic and adventurous life. An idealist, he developed a visionary plan to liberate and unify all of Spanish America but his own military initiatives on behalf of an independent Spanish America failed in 1812. He was handed over to his enemies and four years later, in 1816, died in a Spanish prison. (Above image is a painting showing Miranda in prison.) Within fourteen years of his death most of Spanish America was independent.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 1 - Farnifold Green's 1707 Grant

Part of 1676 Map - A New Description of Carolina
Map Courtesy George Howard

In 1653, over fifty years before Farnifold Green’s land grant, it appears that his grandfather, Reverend Roger Green, had been granted his one-thousand-acre choice of ten-thousand acres on the south side of the Chowan River. The 1676 “Description of Carolina” map notes land between the Pamlico and the Neuse Rivers as “Green’s Land.”

The Land Patent

During the reign of Queen Anne, Farnifold Green, who came from Virginia in 1697, had a 1700-acre plantation on the north side of the Neuse River. In 1707/1708 Green obtained a land patent from the eight Lords Proprietors—780 acres. This choice land was described as "beginning at the mouth of Core River, running up the river and creek 245 poles to a pine, then east 345 poles to a gum, then north eighty degrees east 45 poles to a pine at North River, then down the river to the mouth 420 poles, then along the sound to the first station."

Part of Green's land grant, in the vicinity of Cape Lookout and present-day Beaufort, was home to the Coree (Coranine or Cwarewiock) Indians.

In 1709 Green established an outpost on his land grant. As an outpost, the few pioneers probably built small make-shift houses and began to fish and farm.

It is believed by many that Farnifold Green was the person who built the “White House” seen on early maps—the house now known as the Hammock House. After all, he owned the land, and had the resources to build such a structure—most likely as a place to stay while in the area and provide an inn for travelers.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 2- The Coree and Tuscarora Wars

The first few brave settlers, in what would become CarteretCounty, may have encountered a few Coranine or Coree Indians, a small tribe that had occupied the coastline south of the Neuse River. According to Al Pate in The Coree Are Not Extinct, the Coree, about five years earlier, had already begun to roam the coast “from the New River of Onslow…to Core Point and into their old homeland on the Pamlico south shore of Coree Tuck .”

Although Shackelford, Piver, Nelson and others were relatively safe in their isolation in the Core Sound area near Cape Lookout, the circumstances of the time were not conducive to more settlement. For several years those south of the Albemarle and north of the Neuse River faced a period of not only political strife but conflict with the lower Tuscarora and Coree Indians.

Al Pate described his Coree ancestors as a proud people who refused to return friendship “with every beating they took.” Pate wrote, “The Coree War is the Indian war that’s in the records, that history ignored and historians forgot.” The Coree War described by Pate as “a canoe warfare and pitiful delaying action,” started about eight years before the Tuscarora War and lasted another two years after the Tuscarora headed north.

The Tuscarora, outraged over enslavement , land encroachment and the deceitful practices of the white intruders, were angered at being pushed off their land--the area of present-day New Bern. King Hancock and his braves, full of resentment and hatred, murdered Deputy Surveyor John Lawson and decided to declare war. In September of 1711, according to historian William Powell, King Hancock's warriors, joined by other tribes, including the Coree, "launched an all-out attack along the Neuse and Pamlico, including the town of Bath." The unsuspecting and untrained colonists, also weak from a poor drought-caused harvest, were stunned and frightened. Farnifold Green and others made out their wills.

In 1712 Governor Thomas Pollock appointed Farnifold Green to help supply the army in Bath 
County and to garrison a small militia in the Core Sound area. Two years later Green’s
1700-acre Neuse River plantation at Greens Creek was the site of a brutal massacre that ended in
the death of forty-year-old Farnifold Green. According to a family historian, also killed were
“his son Thomas, a white servant and two Negroes. Another son was shot through the shoulder but
managed to escape.” With help from Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell, Colonel James
Moore and their South Carolina troops, including Indians from other tribes, the Tuscarora were
finally defeated at Nooherooka in early 1713. The majority of the Tuscarora survivors migrated
north and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Coree, as noted by Pate,
“grunted at the signing…and hunkered down in their hideaways, deep in the swamps…while their
menfolk harried the Albemarle, the women and children of the Corees made their way to rich dry
hammocks between the pocosins.”

The continuation of the Coree War went on until February 11, 1715, when the colonial government finally returned “a piece of old Pamtico” to the few remaining Coree. However, with names like Core Banks and Core Sound, the Coree left their mark on land south of the Neuse.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 3 - Beaufort Named and Plat Designed

First map of Beaufort 1713

In 1713, about a year before his untimely death, Farnifold Green, frightened and discouraged, assigned his land patent to Robert Turner, a merchant from Craven Precinct. Even though the Tuscarora War had delayed the establishment of the town, within months after the peace treaty was in force, a town was laid out on the southwest corner of the peninsula between the North River on the west and the Newport River on the east.

Robert Turner named the town Beaufort after his friend, Henry Somerset, the 2nd Duke of Beaufort, one of the Lords Proprietors, who in 1713 was Palatine of Carolina—the chief position among the Proprietors. Turner hired Deputy Surveyor Richard Graves to design the layout of the town.

Except for a few minor changes, the plan and the streets have never changed.

Two streets were named for the then reigning Queen Anne—Queen and Ann Streets. Orange Street was named for William III of Orange, who had occupied the throne before Queen Anne. Moore Street was named for Colonel James Moore, a hero in the Tuscarora War. Pollock Street was named for the Colonial Governor then in office. Craven Street was named for one of the Lords Proprietors, William Lord Craven. The only road into town was named Turner Street, after Robert Turner, the father of the town.

It wasn’t until after 1782 that Front Street got its name—before that, the irregular oyster-shell thoroughfare was known as Water Street.

Richard Graves

Deputy Surveyor Richard Graves, draftsman for the plat, had been born about 1673 in Old Rappahannock County, Virginia, to Francis Graves and Jane Davenport Maguffey. Somewhere between 1708 and 1714, Richard left Virginia and slogged south to Carolina. He and Francis Shackelford, also from Essex County, Virginia, bought a sloop—probably speculating on engaging in coastal trade.

In 1715 Richard Graves married Hannah Kent Smithwick Green, widow of Farnifold Green. Graves family, and Essex County, Virginia records show Richard Graves as a person of recognized ability, taking a prominent part in the affairs of Craven Precinct. In the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Richard Graves is noted in 1726 as representing Craven Precinct in the Lower House of the Assembly of North Carolina.

Richard Graves made out his will on April 30, 1730 and died that same year. After his death, his wife Hannah, who outlived three other husbands besides Graves, ran the ferry across a tributary of the Neuse River not far from Turkey Quarter on the Old Washington Post Road in what is now Craven County. Hannah’s fifth and last husband was George Linnington; they had no children. Hannah is thought to have died about 1742.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 4 - Queen's Anne's Revenge

This was the age of piracy - 1716-1720, when pirates like Blackbeard sailed the seas, often tucked into Cape Lookout bight and Beaufort Town - leaving their legacies and even artifacts for us to discover almost 300 years later.

The bronze bell reveals the letters IHS MARIA and the date 1709.

QAR mages below courtesy Jim Goodwin and Queen Anne's Revenge.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 5 - Turner Sells to Rustull

Richard Rustull's 1726 Home - Now known as the Ward-Hancock
Warshaw Painting

In his October 1970 account in The North Carolina Historical Review, Charles Paul documented Robert Turner’s encouraging but false start in lot sales. In the first three months of 1713, after the town was laid out, 28 lots were sold to 14 different investors. Nineteen of these were waterfront lots—about half of those then available with water view and access.

Realizing that few, if any, of these investors lived in the immediate area, in 1714, Turner added a provision in his sales contracts—a house of not less than 20 feet by 15 feet had to be constructed within one year of the sale. Only five lots were sold that year—all lapsed due to unfulfilled building stipulations.

In 1720, during the reign of King George I, a discouraged Turner sold his 780 acres to Richard Rustull for 150 pounds sterling and moved to the Pamlico River area.

Charles Johnson, in his History of the Pirates, described a 1718 visit by Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet where they spoke of a “poor little village at the upper end of the harbor…”

Though Richard Rustull owned the town of Beaufort for only five years, he played an important role in the development of the early town. He increased the size of the town from its original 100 acres to 200 acres. The lots were sold for 30 shillings each—20 shillings paid to Rustull, and the other 10 shillings went to purchasing guns to help protect the town. He helped established a church to be known as St. John’s Parish, gave land to be used for the courthouse, served as Justice of the Peace, Customs Officer and was one of the first town commissioners. One of his numerous responsibilities was collector of the King’s taxes.

Charles Paul’s Colonial Beaufort cites at least 39 lots were sold during this period, and in 1722, when Carteret Precinct was carved out of Craven Precinct, Beaufort was chosen to be the site of the area courthouse. That same year the Governor confirmed an order from the Lords Proprietors that appointed Beaufort as an official port.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 6 - Incorporated in 1723

Whaling License issued to Samuel Chadwick 1726

The license reads, "To Samuel Chadwick you are hereby permitted with three boats to fish for whale or Other Royall fish on ye Seay Coast of this Government and whatsoever you shall catch to convert to your own use paying to ye Hon, ye Governor one tenth parte of ye Oyls and bone Made by Vertue of this License. By ye Hon. y Govern. Ord."

Transcription and image from Seasoned by Salt by Rodney Barfield.

On November 23, 1723 Beaufort was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly. Contracts for lots sold were to keep the building provision established by Robert Turner in 1714, but increased the time limit to two years. Money received from the resale of lots was to be used for the building of a church and other uses decided upon by the church wardens and the vestry.

Guidelines also stipulated that all lots were to be cleared and all streets measure at least 66 feet wide. There would be no make-shift fences. Those fences built were required to be “paled in”—constructed with post and rails. Disturbing the peace would warrant a fine of ten shillings, 24 hours in jail, or two hours in a stockade. At the same time, liquor made in the precinct could be sold by anyone without a license.

In 1725, according to Charles Paul, two roads connected Beaufort with the surrounding area. One extended northeast to the west side of North River. The other ran north to Core Creek. The two roads merged in town at the courthouse. At that time a ferry became available across Core Creek and a bridge road was planned from the west side of the Newport River to the White Oak River area.

The growth of the town of Beaufort proceeded at a snail’s pace. In 1723, only five lot sales were recorded—all lapsed because the owners did not build on them. In December, 1725, Richard Rustull saved his investment by selling the Beaufort land to Nathaniel Taylor, a resident of Carteret Precinct, for 160 pounds sterling.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 7 - Nathaniel Taylor

Old Burial Grounds 1898 - 165 years after Nathaniel Taylor deeded land for a cemetery.
Image scanned from Rodney Barfield's Seasoned by Salt

Nathaniel Taylor, just as Robert Turner and Richard Rustull, once lived in Beaufort’s oldest house—the Hammock House. Since Taylor was justice of the peace, court was held at his house until a courthouse was built.

According to Charles Paul, 1728 marked a high point in lot sales, perhaps due to more awareness and better promotion of the town. Between 1728 and 1732, 21 new lots were sold, plus 16 were resold by the town due to a lapse in building requirement.

During his ownership, Taylor extended the town limits to include the Hammock House, and deeded land to the town for a cemetery—The Old Burial Ground. In 1731, Governor Burrington described the town as one of “...little success and scarce any inhabitants.” In 1733, even though there had been a marked increase in settlers and sales, Nathaniel Taylor sold his interest in the town to Thomas Martin. The Beaufort waterfront “creek” was named for Taylor.

As years passed, lots in Beaufort were transferred back and forth from one owner to another, but the town had little overall growth.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 8 - Pre-Revolutionary Times

1730 Owins-Bedford House
Warshaw Painting

In Colonial Beaufort, Charles Paul wrote of John Brickell, in his Natural History of North Carolina, describing Beaufort as a town with a pleasant prospect, but that it was “small and thinly inhabited.” Charles Paul also cited the list of taxables in 1748 as only 320 for the whole county, perhaps with only about 32 in Beaufort.

In 1741 and 1744 Spanish Privateers harassed the coastline, especially off of Ocracoke Inlet. In 1747 they entered Beaufort Harbor threatening the town. Militia troops were hurriedly gathered under the command of Major Enoch Ward and held the Spanish until August 26, when they captured the town. However, Colonel Thomas Lovick and Captain Charles Cogdell gathered enough troops to force the Spanish from the town by early September.

According to Charles Paul, at least 37 lots changed hands during the 12 years before the Revolutionary War. At least 9 of these lots showed some sort of structure.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 9 - Revolutionary War Times

During the Revolutionary War, ships were in and out of the harbor transporting needed supplies. Patriots built salt works to supply themselves, and others, with the salt that had previously been imported. Some helped form an artillery battery to help defend the town.

Below are brief biographies of a few Beaufort citizens who were part of that time period.

ROBERT WILLIAMS circa 1723-1790 purchased 75 acres along Taylor’s Creek from James Winwright including the Hammock House. Williams built a salt works facility on the east end of town. He had a grist mill and built the first brick house in Carteret County using bricks and ballast stone from England. In 1776, Williams was appointed by the Provincial Congress to produce salt – he purchased Galland's Point for that purpose. (Galland's Point and Galland's Channel were named for John Galland, clerk of court in Carteret County in the 1720s. The named evolved to Gallants.)

RICHARD COGDELL circa 1724-1787, grandson of John the immigrant, was born in Beaufort to George and Margaret Bell Cogdell. Richard married Lydia Duncan. Cogdell was an ensign during the 1747 Spanish invasion, Aide de Camp to Governor William Tryon, justice of the court, sheriff of Craven County in 1762, representative from Carteret County in the legislature of 1766, member of the Provincial Congress of 1774 and 1775, and Chairman of the Committee of Safety. During the Revolutionary War, he was Judge of the Admiralty Court for Port Beaufort in 1776. He was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army and led troops that drove the last British Governor out of New Bern. It is said that he entertained George Washington when he visited New Bern.

WILLIAM BORDEN, JR. circa 1731-1799 was a landowner, shipwright, and delegate to the Fifth Provincial Congress in 1776 when the Bill of Rights was adopted. His father, William Borden, Sr., was a ship builder from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who arrived in North Carolina in 1732 aboard his schooner. William Borden, Sr., son of John Borden, was one of two progenitors of the Borden family in America.

WILLIAM THOMPSON circa 1732-1803 was a naval deputy for the port of Beaufort and delegate to the Provincial Congress. As a colonel during the Revolution, he was the highest ranking officer from Beaufort. In 1776 he was commissioned to establish a salt works, and was justice as well as county treasurer – serving the town and county for thirty years. His Last Will and Testament provided land to an orphan and money for the schooling of four of the town’s poorest boys.

JOHN MARSHALL circa 1744-1807, born in London, served in the Revolutionary War, moved to Beaufort and purchased 100 acres. He was appointed by the General Assembly of North Carolina as commissioner of the town of Beaufort.

CAPTAIN CHARLES BIDDLE circa 1745-1821 designed and helped build the town's artillery battery after realizing the vulnerability of Beaufort to British attack. Biddle was not in Beaufort for long, but was elected to the General Assembly of North Carolina. For a short time, he owned the Gibble House on Marsh Street. until returning to Philadelphia in 1780. He and wife Hannah Shepard of Beaufort, had many children including Nicolas Biddle--child prodigy and famous American financier.

NATHAN FULLER circa 1750-1800, father of Belcher Fuller, was a Revolutionary War ensign in the Carteret County Militia. He was a navigator and ship owner who sailed from Beaufort to England and the West Indies, bringing supplies into Beaufort harbor prior to the Revolution.

COLONEL JOHN EASTON circa 1750-1850 was a man of great influence in Carteret County. He settled in Beaufort about 1770 and reared four daughters, who married local men. He served during the Revolutionary War, was a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, Congress of 1776—which framed the state constitution, and was on the Committee of Safety in the New Bern district. He lived in what became known as the Easton House - actually built for Jacob Henry in 1800.

After the Revolution, Beaufort experienced a real period of growth. Most of the citizens made their living as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, mariners, coopers, shipwrights and fishermen. They also manufactured salt, processed forest by-products and shipped these products to other areas. There were also ministers, attorneys and a school master. More investors actually lived in, and took an active part in the building of the town. Ordinary citizens also became town leaders, some going on to represent the town in the North Carolina Legislature. Mail delivery was improving. Though still by horseback from New Bern, it was being delivered every two weeks.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 10 -18th Century

Image scanned from Seasoned by Salt by Rodney Barfield

It was a poor little village from the beginning, with only a handful of makeshift houses. The first streets were merely sandy clearings, probably with hand-marked wooden stakes. There was a wharf on the natural shoreline that witnessed a few small boats and tall ships arriving from the northern colonies, the West Indies or from England.

Early inhabitants were fishermen, tailors, carpenters, shipwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. The inhabitants did what they had to do to survive.

One of the most vivid accounts of Colonial Beaufort was given by a French traveler who visited the town in 1765. It has been written that the Frenchman arrived at Cape Lookout and walked down the beach to a whalers’ camp. There he persuaded some of the whalers to take him over to Beaufort. A short visit left him with a very unfavorable impression of the town. He described it as “a Small vilage not above 12 houses, the inhabitants seem miserable, they are very lazy and Indolent, they live mostly on fish and oisters, which they have in great plenty.”

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 11 -19th Century

Scene in Beaufort during the bombardment of Fort Macon

April 25, 1862 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

The beginning of the nineteenth century found a one-hundred-year-old town—still very isolated and struggling. Records from 1812 show there were 600 residents and some 75 houses.

The Civil War had a huge impact on mid-19th century Beaufort. However, Amy Muse, in The History of the Methodist Church, gives an interesting account of day-to-day life in Beaufort in the 1800s.

“There were no paved streets, no shell roads, only a wilderness of scrubby bushes and deep sand with marshy places here and there where at high tide or during storms the water came in and stood. The most frequent outlays of town funds were for 'causewaying' or laying 'trunks' over the low places, repairing the foot bridges on Ann Street, deepening the ditches, or 'grubbing' Ann Street and making it 'passable.' Sandy paths radiated out from the church, through trees and undergrowth and back lots, to the homes—all without benefit of street lights.

Pigs and cows and horses and geese roamed at large and when encountered on the way from church on a dark night were a common source of fright. An ordinance said, ‘All hogs running at large shall be liable to be destroyed by any person or persons feeling themselves aggrieved,' but those who unexpectedly stumbled on one and heard the movement of other life in the darkness just hurried home. In spite of all this, by early candlelight whole families finished their chores and ploughed through drifted sand to meeting. Mothers brought babies in their arms who learned to sleep through hours of preaching and singing and shouting. Others went home at intervals to nurse theirs returning again to slip into service. The colored listened from the gallery and, under the influence of the same terror-arousing pleas, cried out in conviction of sin or rejoiced aloud over forgiveness. The more emotional ran in an out among the graves of the old cemetery shouting aloud.

Mail began [1855] to come to Beaufort by stage and three times a week! One of the old folks in writing of it said: ‘The coming of the mail was the chief event of the day, and notice was given of its arrival by a horn blown by the stage driver as he came through town.’ By the time he arrived at the old Post Office on the southwest corner of Ann and Turner Streets, the town was assembled to meet him.

Beaufort was then a struggling town, stretching along for the space of a mile upon the edge of the water. The Methodist was the only denomination that had a house of worship in the town.

Half dozen schooners—more or less—were laying at anchor at irregular distances from the shore—wharves there were none, or next to none. The fact is, Beaufort in those days, was as nearly out of the world as a town could well be. Communication with New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore was more direct and frequent than with New Bern.

But, no better people lived than the good people of Beaufort. It was a seaport town without any of the vices that generally prevail in seaports.

The coasting vessels that came into port were generally owned by residents of the town, and the sailors were young men, for the most part, whose parents lived in Beaufort. It was an exceedingly rare thing for a foreign vessel ever to anchor in Beaufort harbor.

It was a quiet, moral, and religious community. Everybody went to church on Sunday. Church members were orderly and pious. Hospitality prevailed under every roof. Nobody was rich, none so poor as to be dependent upon charity. The means of subsistence was in the reach of all that could get to the water.

…The year of 1854…A railroad was being talked. In fact, there was a possibility of its coming to Beaufort. There were those who wanted it, but some were uninterested. Things were pretty good as they were. A railroad would smoke up the town, kill the cows and chickens, run over the children, fill the town with tramps. Nevertheless, it was built to Sheppard’s Point which in 1858 was incorporated as Morehead City. When it was completed, Steve Turner and Palmer Davis sailed over early week-day mornings with mail and passengers, and at night met the train and brought the incoming mail and passengers to the expectant group gathered at the dock, around dark, to meet them.

…the barque Louisa Bliss [ventured out in search of gold] in 1850. With A. M. Fales as master and Brian Rumley, S. S. Duffy, William Penn Hellen, LeRoy M. Piver, James Gillikin, David William Noe, William F. Hatsel, J. L. Manney, Charles Whitehurst, and James Busk as crew, she sailed around Cape Horn for San Francisco with a cargo of lumber from William C. Bell and Company.

...The Atlantic House and The Ocean House carried advertisements in The Journal: Rooms at '$2.00 per diem' with 'bathing in ocean or surf, in the sound, or in bathing houses immediately contiguous to the hotel…Probably no hotel short of our large cities can make such a display of splendid silverware for dinner service…splendid magic wine stands, magic casters, cups lined with gold, egg spoons, pickle stands, fruit baskets...’ T. Duncan and Sons advertised stores 'one in the extreme west end of town the other on the corner of Front and Craven Streets'…'Dr. J. L. Manney respectfully tenders his professional services to the citizens of Beaufort'… Beaufort Female Seminary with Stephen D. Pool as Principal and Beaufort Male Academy with R. W. Chadwick as Principal were soliciting pupils…Windmills stood on Front Street.

…A notice of A. C. Davis, City Clerk, reflects some of the municipal problems of the day: Warning irrelative to horses and dogs running at large; running or draying horses at such a rate as to endanger the safety of pedestrians; removing sand from the streets; obstructing the streets and sidewalks, washing clothes near the pump, remain in full force and will be strictly enforced.

…the 1880s were peaceful happy days of autograph albums, dominoes, croquet, cisterns, feather beds, mosquito nets and ice cream festivals. They were the days when courting couples gathered down on Whitford’s wharf and when at dusk everyone went to meet the mailboat…when funeral notices were neatly written on letter paper, a piece of dull black ribbon inserted between the sheets and sent from door to door; and, without the ribbon, party notices were sent in the same manner with the names of all invited guests on the sheet.”

19th Century Ships
Otway Burns' Snap Dragon (1812), Confederate Steamer Nashville (1860)
and the Schooner Crissie Wright (1888)
Models by Jim Goodwin

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 12 - 20th Century

Residents Gather to Celebrate the First Train - June 8, 1907

Again, Amy Muse, in her History of the Methodist in Beaufort, gives us a good snapshot of life around town . . .

“At some elusive period early in this century, Beaufort changed considerably.

Banker ponies were prohibited on the Town Marsh and Bird Shoal, so they were no longer able to swim across the channel at low tide to graze along the sidewalks or run up and down the streets at night.

Artesian wells took the place of the town pumps. A factory was built to manufacture our own ice.

Sheds overhanging the sidewalks were removed, the picket fence around the cemetery was replaced with a wall, Dr. Maxwell came out with his Maxwell automobile in 1911, and from then on the familiar two-wheeled carts drawn by banker ponies began to disappear from the streets.

The old ordinance prohibiting travel at more than ten miles an hour on straight roads or six around corners soon seemed foolish and later was repealed.

The old fence around the town and the town gates were kept in condition until after 1910 then gradually people stopped closing the gates and no longer kept in repair, they disappeared.

The picturesque net reels that stood on Bird Shoal fell into disuse and one by one disappeared the last going just about the time the board walk went.

Somewhere along these years, too, women dropped their widows' bonnets with the narrow white rushing about the face and the heavy black veils falling sometimes all around the head; sometimes from the back only. Days of the bonnets were days when a woman mourned for life. A dress for a second wedding was supposed to be at least 'light mourning.'

The railroad had something to do with the change, the light and water plants in 1909, the Inland Waterway in 1911, the World War, the radios that began to come around 1918—everything that tended to put us in closer touch with a larger world.”

_____________

Although Beaufort was affected directly by and took part in our country’s major events over the centuries, it remained very isolated for the most of its history. Today, residents and visitors remain thankful that Beaufort, this little village by-the-sea, has not only maintained its historic appearance, but also remains small, quaint, and unspoiled.

During the 20th century, these boats were used for fishing,
hauling, as mailboats and general transportation.

Carolina Sharpie, Shad Boat and Shrimper
Models by Jim Goodwin

Methodist Episcopal Church and Purvis Chapel A.M.E.Zion Church 1820

Old Purvis Chapel circa 1820

Image found in History of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, published 1941

Date of Photo Unknown

In The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, Amy Muse wrote, "On the lot between the burial ground and the colored church stood 'the house appointed for a Court House.' It had been deeded to the Wardens of the Parish of St. Johns by Richard Rustell in 1724. In it during the middle years of the seventeen hundreds, the service of the Anglican Church was read.

A church building was erected on the same lot some time after 1774 so was practically new when the Methodists began using it. L.A. Potter, born in 1844, remembered the old church which, he said, stood until a short time before the Civil War. Robah F. Bumpas said this building was purchased by John White who moved it to the lot on which his residence stood on Water Street, now Front, and used it as a storehouse and shop. It was blown down by the storm of 1879 when the Atlantic Hotel went to pieces.

Purvis Chapel circa 1900 and 1999

Image from Beaufort's Old Burying Ground by

Mamré Marsh Wilson, Diane Hardy and Marilyn Collins

According to the 1820 deed registered in the Court House one half acre, lot 101, corner of Craven and Broad Streets, was purchased from the town 'to be erected and built thereon a house of worship for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America.' The trustees to whom it was deeded were: James Chadwick, Samuel Chadwick, Elijah Canaday, Culpepper Pigott, Freeman Ellis, Peter Noe, Dillins Ellis, Jechonia Pigott and Anson Chadwick. Those who filed into the new church on Sundays were the Bells, Forlaws, Reads, Arendells, Halls, Lovetts, Rumleys, Murrays, Whitehursts, Barnes, Manneys, Perrys, Mansons, Leecrafts, Dills, Merrits, Fullers, Davises, Pivers, Thomases, Canadays, Langdons, Fulfords, Buckmans, Gabriels and many whose names are lost to us.

In 1821 when Robert Wilkinson was here the church was dedicated by Lewis Skidmore who was one of the leading ministers of the Conference. Even then it was neither completed nor paid for. Still incomplete, January 2, 1830, 'It has never been plastered consequently is decaying fast.' It was repaired in 1836, not out of debt until 1840!

When the white Methodists built a new church in 1854, Black Methodists were deeded the old Methodist church building, known as Purvis Chapel, in which to worship independently. (According to Mamre Wilson, the old church was named after a poplular revivialist minister, Reverend James Purvis, who visited in 1834.)

In 1863, A.M.E. Zion missionary James Walker Hood established the first permanent A.M.E. Zion congregation in the South in New Bern. Several weeks later, he journeyed to Beaufort and enrolled Purvis Chapel in the A.M.E. Zion denomination, making it the second oldest church of the denomination in the South. During the Civil War, Purvis Chapel saw considerable usage for church, school and community purposes under the supervision of the Union Troops."

The two-story, gable-front building is five bays wide and was originally four bays deep, with two additional bays added. The chapel has a three-stage corner tower and a front pediment supported by two tapering Doric posts. Three entrances are recessed beneath the pediment. At the south front corner wall, surfaces project out to enclose an interior stair to the balcony. The tower also contains a balcony stair. The church has Gothic stained glass windows and some rectangular windows with Queen Anne colored glass lights.

The original 1820s church was apparently enlarged about 1900 with front additions to create the present appearance. The patterned shingles in the pediment and upper stage of the tower, as well as sawnwork kingpost ornament in the gables, relate the church stylistically to the Queen Anne/Gothic Revival style of the nearby 1854 Ann Street Methodist Church.

Purvis Chapel's bell was cast in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1797. It originally hung in the north tower, but now resides inside the church.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1998 the Purvis Chapel was recognized with a second Kathryn Cloud Historical Preservation Award. In 1963, the building was one of Beaufort’s first twenty historic buildings to display a plaque.

This post was compiled from various sources, including Ruth Little’s 1997 Beaufort National Register Historic District Survey, Amy Muse's The Story of the Methodist in the Port of Beaufort and Mamré Wilson's Story of North Carolina's Historic Beaufort.

Clapper Rail Nest

"The number of eggs deposited varies; I never found more than seven in one nest, though I have been assured that eight or nine may be laid; six or seven is the average number, however. The laying season commences (here in North Carolina, at any rate) the last week in April, and continues until the middle of June, or late, as two broods are frequently raised. I found perfectly fresh eggs June 12^th, and have seen barely fledged birds in August. But the second and third weeks in May are great times for laying. Then, when the season is at its height, some idea of the countless numbers of rails in the marshes may be gained from the fact that baskets full of the eggs are gathered by the boys (and men too) and brought to the Beaufort market, where they sell for about five cents a dozen. When perfectly fresh they are very good to eat." Dr. Elliott Coues, American Naturalist. - 1869

Dr. Elliott Coues, Naturalist and Army Surgeon at Fort Macon, was assigned to the fort for 20 months beginning February of 1869. (Above information from Friends of Fort Macon)

This secretive bird is often best seen during high tides, when the bird is forced out of the thick marsh vegetation. Preferring to run, the bird rarely flies. They are opportunistic feeders, but prefer crabs and crayfish. Image from: bird-friends.com

Bear Island and Huggins Island

Bogue Inlet

Bear Island and Huggins Island, Beaufort "neighbors" off the west end of Bogue Banks, are located near Swansboro - at the mouth of the White Oak River. Below is a brief history of this area and links to more information.

Dugout canoes once traveled the vast coastal waterways as woodland Native Americans journeyed between the mainland and surrounding islands. These Native Americans participated in the Tuscarora wars against colonists in 1711 and 1713. Hostilities continued from hideouts around Bear Island until the middle of the 18th century when the Native Americans migrated northward.

Dugout canoes soon gave way to pirate ships. The inlets along the coast and the shallow waterways behind the barrier islands were havens for pirates. Here they could prey upon merchant vessels and hide while repairing their ships. Among the pirates who frequented the area was the notorious Blackbeard. Spanish privateers also terrorized the colonists. For protection, the colonists built several forts, including one near Bear Inlet, which was erected in 1749 and has since disappeared.

Due to its location, Bear Island has often played a role in the protection of the mainland. During the Civil War, Confederate troops on the island defended it against Union forces occupying Bogue Banks. The island again assumed military importance nearly a century later when, during World War II, the Coast Guard used it to secure the coast and monitor German U-boat activity.

Early in the 20th century, Dr. William Sharpe, a neurosurgeon of New York, came to Bear Island to hunt. His love of the island prompted him to acquire it for his retirement. Sharpe intended to will the property to John Hurst, his longtime hunting guide and friend, but Hurst persuaded him to donate it to the North Carolina Teachers Association, an organization of African American teachers. In 1950, the group assumed the deed to Bear Island and attempted to develop the property. Limited funds and the island's remoteness rendered their efforts unsuccessful. In 1961, the association donated the island to the state of North Carolina for a park. Initially planned as a park for minorities, Hammocks Beach State Park opened for all people following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Be sure to check out the above link for some great photos.)

Huggins Island, located just east of Bear Island in the mouth of Bogue Inlet, is a 225-acre island visible from downtown Swansboro. The island consists of 115 acres of upland area surrounded by 96 acres of lowland marsh. The island's varied natural habitats and cultural resources contributed to the its inclusion in the state parks system.

Huggins Island is home to a maritime swamp forest, which is listed as a Globally Rare and Significant Area. Huggins Island has a rich history, from Native American fishing and hunting grounds, to being home to a Confederate six-cannon battery in 1861-62.

Information and images gathered from: North Carolina State Parks and Hammock Beach State Park

See also: Images from NC Museum of Natural Science

Swansboro History

Ann Street United Methodist Church

These images were scanned from The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort by Amy Muse, Published by Owen G. Dunn Co., Printers, 1941

Painting by Stephen Sebastian, presented Christmas 1976 by Integon Corporation Winston-Salem, NC.

"Judge" Julius F. Duncan, Sr.

"One of the memorable men who taught Sunday School at Ann Street for years was "Judge" Julius F. Duncan, Sr. Here he is pictured in a characteristic pose in the Court House. The calendar on the wall reads 1938. The class he taught was named in his honor and is still quite active. His granddaughter, Lou Willis, says that he was offered judgeship but he said he could not judge his fellowman. However, the title stuck anyway." - Caption as included in the 1941 book.

Miss Charlotte "Lottie" Sanders

"Miss Charlotte Sanders (better known as "Miss Lottie") is standing in front of her home on Front Street waiting to go to church where she spent most of her time. Her home was the Sloo House (now owned by Mrs. Harvey Smith) built in 1768. Miss Lottie is buried in the Old Burying Ground adjacent to the church." - Caption as included in the 1941 book.

Be sure to click images to enlarge...

Roosevelt On the Outer Banks

Franklin Roosevelt in an oxcart driven by Alvin T. Mason

This photo of F.D.R. appeared in the Jan. 26, 1949 issue of Life Magazine- part of a collection of photographs from the life of F.D.R. The photograph was taken about 1918 on Core Banks at the Pilantary Club near Portmouth Island.

In 1984 William Monroe Mason wrote in The Heritage of Carteret County, Vol. II, "My father, Alvin Thomas Mason, was born October 8, 1879. My father was keeper of the clubhouse on the outer banks in the early days of their marriage [to Amelia Newton 1898].

There was no law in those days against shooting birds. There were plenty of ducks and geese for the killing. Many were shipped to companies in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago for food and plumage.

The clubhouse was owned by the Mott family of New York. My mother told me one time that the Motts invited Franklin Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy [1913-1920], to the clubhouse to hunt. My dad took Mr. Roosevelt out and fitted him in a duck blind.

In those days, Dad used an ox cart to carry all the decoys, everyone, and their equipment. He would drive the cart out into the water to the blind, put all the decoys and equipment out and return to shore. Mr. Roosevelt enjoyed his hunt very much and planned to come back but never did."

The Battle of Beaufort - 1782

Aquatint from original painting by D. Serres from a

sketch by Sir James Wallace; Published, 1778.

National Archives and Records Administration.

This image is not the "Battle of Beaufort." It is the British Phoenix and the Rose engaged by American fire ships and galleys on August 16, 1776-Fort Lee, on the Hudson River. It is posted here as a visual in imagining a typical attack by sea during the Revolutionary War.
______________________

When Fort Hancock, built on the Outer Banks of North Carolina at Cape Lookout in 1778, was disbanded in June of 1780, Beaufort had little defense. All Beaufort had was a small battery mounting four 6-pounders which townspeople had erected to defend the small port between the North and Newport Rivers. The harbor was thus open to any ship that could pass through the inlet.

The surrender of Cornwallis in 1781 essentially ended the active campaign of the R evolutionary War, but the British still held Savannah, Charleston and New York. Until the Continental Government and Great Britain negotiated a settlement, the war was still in progress.

In April, 1782, North Carolina Governor Thomas Burke received warning of vessels, guns and 250 men heading toward Beaufort – where the British had been informed there was a large quantity of supplies - public and private stores. The warning did not arrive in time.

On April 4, 1782, the British privateer Peacock and two other vessels appeared off Old Topsail Inlet. Posing as friendly ships, they forced the locals to guide them into the harbor. Inhabitants became curious when the men who went out to the ships did not return – realizing the strangers were British.

Colonel John Easton, the militia commander, gathered a handful of men – posting them along shore to watch for landing parties during the night. On the second attempt to sneak ashore, the British drove back the militia to the town battery. Beaufort was in British hands as Easton took position outside the town to await arrival of more militia summoned from the area.

For the next five days the British plundered and skirmished with the militia. Easton held off an attack – since the British had threatened to burn the town.

On April 10 the British retired back to their ships after spiking the cannons in the town battery. An exchange of prisoners was made, although the British refused to release pilots needed to guide them out of the harbor.

British ships remained in the harbor for several more days, fired at the town and burned a sloop. In order to obtain water for troops, they also tried to land troops on Shackleford and Bogue Banks, but were repelled by the local militia.

On the night of April 15, the militia and townspeople tried a new approach. They set two fire rafts adrift on the outgoing tide hoping that they would drift into the British fleet. The plan failed but the British were alarmed enough to depart the harbor two days later – with a few parting shots by the local militia. Once out in the ocean, the remaining prisoners were released and the fleet departed with their prizes and plunder. Thus ended the battle of Beaufort.

In November of 1782, initial peace treaties were signed, followed by the formal treaty of peace on September 3, 1783 that recognized American independence.

The above text was summarized from text written by Paul Branch for The Encyclopedia of NC and Fort Macon.

Spanish Invasion 1747

Illustration by Ann H. Hauman from Beaufort North Carolina by Mamré Wilson

During the 18th century Beaufort and the North Carolina coast were very vulnerable to attack. Blackbeard and other pirates passed through Beaufort Inlet at will.

Local historian Mamré Wilson wrote, “In the 1740s, Spanish privateers began roaming the coastal waters of North Carolina. At one point in 1741 they took possession of Ocracoke Inlet, seized ships coming into port, and were even so bold as to go ashore and take cattle from the inhabitants. They were eventually driven away, but the alarm was out to the government. The coastal towns were not set up to defend themselves. Yet nothing was done to fortify the various entrances to the state until later, after more incidents.”

On June 14 of 1747 several Spanish privateers from St. Augustine entered Beaufort harbor and made off with several small ships. At the time a militia of only thirteen men was posted in the town to protect the area.

Led by Major Enoch Ward, the militia held them off until August 26 when the Spanish took possession of the town. In early September Colonel Thomas Lovick and Captain Charles Cogdell gathered more men to finally rid the town of these invaders. It is said that without the help of close to 100 farmers and locals, the militia may not have prevailed.

48 Years Ago...Beaufort firemen play pirate in a reenactment - July 9, 1960. Jesse Chaplain sent names of men in this photo taken by Roy Eubanks.
First row: L to R - Norwood Gaskin, Bud Taylor, Gerald Woolard, Freddy Snooks, Bobby Hudgins and Elmond Rhue. Second row: L to R - Bud Smith, Jackie Chaplain (Jesse's fahter), Neal Willis (Linda Sadler's father), Allen Willis, Bryan Loftin, Joe Long and Frank Langdale. Click image to enlarge.

The Train

Train coming into Beaufort for June 8, 1907 grand celebration*

(Second block of Broad St. - Louis James Noe House 1902 - on the right)

Prior to train service Beaufort, visitors who came by train were met at the railroad terminus in Morehead City and brought to town by boat. After the railroad bridge was built across the channel, tracks were laid down the middle of Broad Street - bringing the outside world to Beaufort. For a short period, before the Norfolk & Southern Railway wye** (turnaround) was completed, the first trains had to back into Beaufort.

In those early years, as the train lumbered into town on Broad Street, passengers would have seen sundries shops – like Noe’s, Dave Williams’ Grocery, and Richard Rice’s Fabric Shop - that sold everything from penny candy to 5-cent pickles. Until the 1920s, when the first automobiles came to town, passengers were met at the Beaufort Depot, at Broad and Pollock, and transported by horse-and-buggy to inns or family cottages.

Eighty-six years after the first train backed into town, the train made its last official run to Beaufort in 1992. After that, an engine with one car would often make trips into town, stopping to wait for cars temporarily straddling the track. The removal of the tracks began in the first block of Broad in 1994.

Ginny Welton, longtime resident of Broad Street has written, “it was a sad day when the tracks of the railroad were taken up from Broad Street. How many generations of pennies, nails, and even quarters were flattened as the train rolled over them…as the economy of Beaufort grew? The train had brought to 211 Broad Street some of the outside world…as logs from other countries went past…from the port at Morehead City to the Atlantic Veneer Company on the east end of Beaufort.”

**The new WYE neighborhood embraces the history of Beaufort—from the architecture of the bungalow-style homes, to its namesake—the train junction that was situated on the site in the early 20^th century.

*Old black and white photos were scanned from Jack Dudley's book,

Beaufort - An Album of Memories - available at local bookstore including Rocking Chair Books and the BHA Giftshop in Beaufort. If you haven't done so already, be sure to go back to click on images to enlarge.

Beaufort-Morehead Railroad Diesel Locomotive

Post Office Murals

The four murals in the Beaufort Post Office were painted in 1939 by Simka Simkhovitch. These murals are now a national treasure! They were commissioned by the United States government under Roosevelt’s New Deal Federal Arts Program which gave work to American artists during the Depression years from 1933-1943.

The artist, Simka Simkhovitch, was born in Chernigov, Russia in 1893. He studied at the Royal Academy in St. Petersburg and was awarded a first prize by the First Soviet Government in 1918. But by 1924 the new Russian government had become repressive and Simka fled to the United States where he became a citizen. He had his first American exhibition in New York City in 1927.

After receiving a telegram from Postmaster W.H. Taylor, Simkhovitch accepted the offer to paint the four murals for the Beaufort Post Office. The artist spent only a few days in Beaufort and returned to his Greenwich, Connecticut studio to paint the four large oil paintings on canvas. He was paid $1900 for his work.

Simkhovitch’s description of the four murals, as noted in the above 1939 letter, included:

“The main one tells a local incident that occurred over fifty years ago, of the three-masted schooner Crissy Wright. One stormy, bitterly cold day this schooner was driven on one of their shoals, with a crew of six, whom it was impossible to rescue until the storm subsided. To keep up the spirit of the two men who showed signs of life on board, bonfires were built on the shore, while the rescuers waited until they could go out to the schooner. When they got to them the next day, four members were found frozen to death, and two were brought ashore still living, but subsequently died. Today, amongst the natives of Beaufort and its vicinity, very bad weather is proverbially known as a ‘Crissy Wright day.’

The second panel shows the Cape Lookout Lighthouse erected after this accident; and the mailboat now employed to carry necessary supplies to the keeper and crew.

The two other panels represent local colour. One of the Candian geese used as decoys during the duck hunting season, with a fish net drying in the background. The other, of the legendary Sir Walter Raleigh wild sand ponies, who still roam the sand dunes and marshes of Beaufort in great numbers.”

Beaufort, NC Post Office - 1937

The 1997 Ruth Little Survey describes the 1937 Post Office: A Colonial Revival building has brick veneer in Flemish bond, sash with concrete sills and lintels and a cupola with Doric pilasters and arched louvers. The handsome front entrance has a double-leaf door with transom and segmentally arched hood on which is mounted a golden eagle statuette. The entrance is flanked by fluted Doric pilasters. The interior features marble wainscot.

The US Post Office at 701-703 Front Street was built in 1937. Federal employees Louis A. Simon and Neal A. Melick were supervising architects.

Included here are photographs obtained from the US Post Office historian's office in Washington, DC. Click each for high resolution images.

In the first image, the Dr. Charles Duncan house, on the right, was moved from the corner of Front and Pollock to make room for the new Post Office.

On the left side of the middle image is the Old Inlet Inn to the west in the 600 block of Front Street - now the site of BB&T. Note the old water tower in the background.

The last photograph was taken from the west corner of Front and Pollock Streets showing

the west side of the building. The south front side of the building faces Front Street on Taylors Creek.

The Mail

This April 24, 1813 letter, to Beaufort Postmaster Thomas Cooke from the Postmaster General in Washington, DC, gave permission to contract mail service once a week. - National Archives -

Post Office Department records indicate that the Beaufort Post Office was established October 2, 1797, with David Hall as the first Postmaster. In 1800 Brian Hellen was the second Postmaster, followed by Thomas Cooke in 1813 and Bridges Arendell in 1814.

The records indicate that from 1797 through 1833 service to the Beaufort office was by horseback. It began to be served by two-horse coaches in 1834 and by sulkies in 1847. The route was from New Bern, by Beaufort and Swansboro. The service continued from New Bern through 1855.

Service was once every two weeks in 1805, but increased to once a week about 1814. About 1855 the Beaufort office, at the corner of Ann and Turner Streets, received mail by stage coach three times a week.

On October 3, 1853 Jesse H. Davis performed the first water service, once a week, on route No. 3000 from Beaufort to Smyrna in an open sail boat.

Compensation to the postmaster was $47.08 for the fiscal year 1825. By 1830 it was $296.46 and by 1911 annual compensation increased to $1600.

Domestic money order business was established at Beaufort on July 6, 1874. Rural delivery service was established in 1903 with one carrier at $600 per annum. City delivery began in 1926.

Sterling Price Hancock

Nov. 7, 1861-Nov.7, 1926

Laura Duncan Davis was the daughter of Mattie King (Hancock) Davis and Ernest J. Davis, thus making her the granddaughter of Sterling Price Hancock and Sallie Gertrude Davis. Below is the entire text of a very interesting article written by Laura Duncan Davis Piner for the 1982 Heritage of Carteret County, Vol. I.

From The Coaster Morehead City, Nov. 23, 1904, Editor: R.T. Wade

“It being rumored last night that S.P. Hancock would, without force of arms and malice aforethought feloniously take and carry away from her home Miss Sallie Gertrude Davis, contrary to the wishes of her many admirers, and against the peace and dignity of love-lorn gallants, this editor went over to Beaufort to be an accomplice of the gallant sheriff.

Long before the appointed hour friends of both parties came laden with presents and by 9 o’clock, standing room in the large hallway and porch at 301 Ann St. was taken up.

301 Ann St. just beyond 305 Ann St. in Foreground - about 1910 Postcard Courtesy Linda Sadler - Carteret County Postcard Book

One corner of the parlor was made into a bower of chrysanthemums and under and under a floral horseshoe stood Sterling P. Hancock and Sallie Gertrude Davis while the Rev. T.P. Noe made them man and wife.

Sterling by name has proven his sterling qualities that our people admire, as is attested by his continuance in office as sheriff of Carteret County.

On one side of the floor was piled up and displayed on tables about 200 presents. It looked like opening day in a jewelry store, and these tributes from friends made glad the hearts of Sterling and his bonnie bride.

The bride is the daughter of Mrs. James Chadwick Davis of Beaufort. She was daintily attired in white silk and allover lace. Her pretty cheeks aglow from new sensations awakened with seductive smiles, animated with the newborn joy, she was a picture worthy the winning of any man, and well may he feel proud of his prize.

That we wish them all the joy attainable goes without saying, and long may they live to demonstrate to the world that marriage is not a failure.”

Sterling Price Hancock was born on Nov. 7, 1861, just outside of Beaufort in the Ward-Hancock house, which was then located in Simpson Field, where Hancock Park is. The house built about 1760, was one of the few types of Dutch-Colonial structures built in this county. His parents, Martha G. Ward and Robert Hancock, lived there, and it was last occupied by Sterling’s older brother James. The house was moved in the 1940’s and is the property of Jack Ricks, Highland Park.

The office of Sheriff of Carteret County was held by S.P. Hancock for about 20 years until the Republican landslide of 1916, which removed the Democrats from office. During this period the duties of the sheriff included the responsibilities of being county tax collector. Sheriff Hancock also was a successful merchant and farmer all through these years. In 1893 he opened a grocery business at 421 Front St. which is now occupied by the Sea Bag and Omar Sail Loft. The letter head is repeated below.

HANCOCK & COMPANY

Staple and Fancy Groceries

Fresh and Salt Meats a Specialty

Fruits...Grain and Hay...Wire Fencing

After numerous other owners, the building now belongs to his granddaughter Laura Davis Piner. Sheriff Hancock also ran a wholesale and feed business in Davis Hall, on the south side of Front St. where the Gulf Station is now. The location on Taylor’s Creek made his varied merchandise easily accessable to the boat trade. Later after World War I when George W. Huntley stayed on in Beaufort and married Mrs. Hancock’s sister, Miss Minnie Davis, the businesses merged into the Hancock-Huntley Co. with offices and store on the corner block of Live Oak St. and the Lennoxville Road.

Behind the original store was a livery stable where horses, wagons and mules were tended for personal use as well as rental and sale. A small white mule named “Little Jenny” is still remembered by Garfield “Blue” Suggs and Lucian Johnson, who worked for Mr. Hancock for years. He had a great love of horses, and bred and sold Banker ponies, wit sometimes as many as 75 to 100 on his lands Down East. He owned also a special black stallion named “King Mont” who won many races throughout the county and state. It is told that “King Mont” broke his previous speed record when returning to town transporting a large black bear that Sheriff Hancock had killed at Back Creek. During this period the popular style of horse racing was with the two wheel surry or cart. One of the special events in Beaufort on the 4^th of July and other holidays was the trotting race down Ann St. from the oyster factory on the west to the cemetery at the east end. Although horses were his first love, Sterling Hancock was a man of progress, and he and Dr. C.S. Maxwell owned cars in this county long before others. The Sheriff bought two blue Mitchells – one to drive and the other to provide ready parts as any repairs were needed.

It is reliably reported that Sheriff Hancock had a deed for Bogue Banks property (now Atlantic Beach and environs) written as “nine miles from sea to sound.” The land was sold to the Royal and Hoffman-Roosevelt families, but he continued to be involved and interested in the area. He often hunted on the Hoffman estate and stayed at the “tea house” on the ocean side. This site was renowned for the lovely rose gardens amidst the sand. Alice Hoffman often consulted Sterling Hancock concerning the development of her livestock and property on the banks.

It was through Mrs. Hoffman also that he obtained the Perkins Place on North River near the present Oak Acres development. The house was built by Caroline Perkins – both she and Alice Hoffman had come to this area from Rochester, N.Y. – and was locally known as “The Mansion” because of its size and spaciousness and the fact that it was the first in the county with Delco electric light and central heating, all designed and furnished by a New York architect. Mr. Hancock acquired the property from the Perkins estate following her death and lived there for several years. The house burned in the early 1930’s.

Sterling Hancock died Nov. 7, 1926, on his 65^th birthday. Though there is little record of any formal education, he was an insatiable reader and widely respected for his intellect and literary knowledge. Poetry was a great favorite and he liked to recite Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake.” He also excelled in county boxing matches, without gloves, until the years and younger men took over. A gentleman of many talents, interests and abilities, he was loved and respected by people in all facets of county and state life. There are still some among us who can recall him as a very special person of his time.

Sources: recollections and records of family and friends, old newspaper articles and mainly based on his own business and personal correspondence. - Laura Duncan Davis Piner

LAURA DUNCAN DAVIS PINER, 1931-2002, was a valued artist and teacher. She was instrumental in converting the 1732 Richard Rustull, Jr. House into a gallery named after her mother Mattie King Hancock Davis – now on the Beaufort Historic Site.

Early Fire Department

Beaufort's Robert E. Lee Fire Company in 1907.
Courtesy Beaufort Fire Department

Beaufort, Carteret County December 1913

One chief, two companies. Two stations.

-First company (white) next to 406 Craven Street: 20 volunteers. One paid driver. One partly paid engineer. One horse with drop harness, used on street work during day. One Howe triplex gasoline engine. One hose cart with 800-feet 2 1/2-inch hose. 1,000-feet 2 1/2-inch hose in reserve.
-Second Company (colored) next to Town Hall at 305 Broad Street: 20 volunteers. One hose reel with 800-feet 2 1/2-inch hose. One hand engine. Fire alarm by whistle. Population 3,200.

1933 Beaufort Fire Department

History by Mike Legeros from early twentieth-century summaries of North Carolina fire departments as recorded by the Sanborn Map Company for their fire insurance maps.

Duncan House

This old gabled roof Caribbean-style home, with its unique position on the west end of Front Street facing Taylor’s Creek and Beaufort Inlet to the south and Gallant’s Channel and Piver’s Island to the west, has had a front-row seat to centuries of Beaufort history.

From the upper porch owners had a birds-eye view of the shelling at Ft. Macon during the Civil War. When the Union troops occupied the town, the Duncan family, as well as other families in town, was allowed to “go behind the lines.” The Duncans stashed some valuables and most likely went to Garbacon Creek Plantation in South River. (The name “Garbacon” was derived from the fact that gar, a small bony fish, when hung out to dry, looked like strips of bacon.)

The Duncan House was the first house to be plaqued. In 1962 Elizabeth Merwin (who lived in what was then known as the Jennie Bell House on Ann Street—now the re-named The Guy Buckman House) designed the plaque. John Costlow, local preservation enthusiast, painted and hung it. They chose circa 1790 as the building date.

This Duncan House photograph was taken in 1940 by Thomas T. Waterman for the Historic American Buildings Survey. This survey noted the house as being built circa 1800.

Duncan House today

Lou Register was the last Duncan descendant to occupy the house. Before she moved to Texas a few years ago she had the plaque date changed from 1790 to 1728. This was due to finding a scrap of paper in her "Grandpapa" Julius Duncan's desk; the desk originally belonged to Thomas Duncan IV. The paper read, "Thomas Duncan was born in 1700. In 1728 he acquired lot 33 on the condition he build a habitable house within two years." But, no structure was built and the lot, like most, reverted back to the town.

Further research by Thomas S. Howland, Jr., G-G-G Grandson of Capt. Benjamin Tucker Howland, shows the taxes on lot 111 were low prior to 1817 indicating no structures of note. Around January of 1820, James Davis sold lot 111 to Capt. Benjamin Tucker Howland for $1000. Since the taxes on lot 111 were low prior to 1817, indicating no structures of note, and given that James Davis was a builder of many houses in Beaufort, it stands to reason that he built, sometime between 1817 and 1820, the original east four-bay center-hall plan half of the house known today.

Twelve years later, Howland sold the property to his daughter and son-in-law Thomas Duncan IV (1806-1880). Thomas and Elicia had thirteen children and added the western part of the house.

I recently found an 1854 court record, Commissioners of Beaufort vs.Thomas Duncan, in debating the status of the lot 111 property line at the end of Front Street, stated that Joel H. Davis’ father James Davis, owned the property prior to 1820, “Joel H. Davis, who is the son of the foregoing witness [James Davis], that he lived with his father on the lot No. 111; that his father built a house on it and that the ordinary high water would come up to the edge of the piazza of the house on this lot; and that, West of the house, there was a dry sand shoal for fifty yards; that a storm had cut open the channel, and that the same gave away and cut away the shore, and that the water ebbed fifty feet West of his father's piling. "

Duncan House today showing its position on Gallants Channel

Other interesting notations in the court record include, "The defendant offered in evidence an ordinance of the Commissioners of the town of Beaufort, dated May 1816, that Jonathan Price should survey the town of Beaufort, and make a plat thereof. Also, he offered in evidence a private act of Assembly, entitled "an act to confirm an accurate survey of the town of Beaufort, in the county of Carteret, and for other purposes," which act recites that, "whereas, disputes have arisen concerning the true lines of the streets and lots of the town of Beaufort, in consequence of which the inhabitants have employed Jonathan Price to survey and make an accurate plan of the said town."

The record goes on to read, "The defendant proved by James Davis, that, in the year 1817, he was the owner of lot 111, and that the water then encroached upon his lot, and that he then drove down piling along what he conceived to be his Western line, to keep it out, and filled it in. That he had been informed by old citizens of Beaufort, that the channel between Piver's island and the land in controversy, used to be dry at low tides, and that a log was put across the same, for persons to walk over, and that the dogs used to cross the same in going to hunt on the island, and that, in his day, a pilot-boat could not turn about in the channel; but that, at this time, the channel was between fifty and a hundred yards wide, with a sufficient depth of water to admit vessels and steamboats of the largest size to navigate."

A more complete history and stories will be included in my upcoming book Porchscapes, The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina, to include paintings and histories of Beaufort's historic homes - along with other information I've compiled.

Buckman House - Inside Out

Above is a view from the inside of the 1848 Buckman House. The ceramic-knobbed window latch is of note because it is original to the house. The view itself is distorted due to the seedy wavy panes.

It was recently discovered that Sophia Dill Merwin, who lived in the house for many years, was the stepdaughter to Benjamin J. Bell. Nathan Merwin married Sophia Dill in 1916. They retired to Beaufort after living in Washington, DC where Nathan was an accountant with the US Government. After the death of Sophia's mother (Jennie Dill Bell) in 1942 and Nathan Merwin in 1948, Sophia and her daughter Elizabeth Merwin lived in what had become known as the Jennie Bell House. Sophia, born in 1891, lived to be 101.

Gabriel House ca.1880

This small painting was done six years ago because I was fascinated with the window. I had not planned to include the Gabriel House in my upcoming book because I knew zilch about its history. But, not knowing the fate of this still ramshackled house, I wanted to document it. Someone gave me a tiny clue and I started to dig.

I've discovered the following. If anyone knows more, please email me. I would appreciate the additions or corrections:

The 1997 Ruth Little Survey noted this house as a rare Beaufort example of the Italianate Revival style. The two-story gable and wing house was built perpendicular to Ann Street. It has boxed eaves with returns, ornate cornice brackets, six-over-six single and four-over-four paired sash with segmentally arched openings with decorative lintels and caps.

Samuel W. Gabriel, son of 1787 Emanuel Gabriel, was born in 1848, on Core Sound in Carteret County. Samuel married Sarah Haskitt in 1875. In 1880, Samuel, a dry goods merchant, lived in this house on Ann Street with his wife and four-year old daughter Minnie. Neighbors were the Charles A. Clawsons and the Samuel Howlands.

By 1900 Charles S. Carrow and wife Mary Bell Carrow lived in the house with Mary’s parents, Eugene and Emma Julia Bell. Eugene Bell, born in 1849, was the son of Josiah Fisher Bell and Susan Benjamin Leecraft. Charles was the son of Nathan L. Carrow, the old Civil War soldier that Neal Willis remembered sitting on the porch of the former 1796 courthouse, then the home of “Nat” Carrow’s daughter, “Miss Delight” and her husband Samuel Thomas.

Charles Carrow was noted in the 1910 census as a seaman on a merchant vessel. By 1930 he was a boatman on a pleasure boat and lived alone in the house.I don't know any more at the moment, except that Morgan Stewart, and perhaps his brother, inherited the house.

Note: In the early 1980s the Samuel Howland family Bible was found in the Gabriel House.

THE DAVIS HOUSE

This image is included in Linda Sadler's postcard book of Carteret County.

According to Jean Bruyere Kell in The Old Port Town Beaufort, North Carolina, three houses on the west end of Front Street were separate homes until acquired by “Miss Sarah” Davis in 1882. She joined them under one roof to become the Davis House. From 1882 until World War II it was one of the most popular boarding houses in Beaufort. Ms. Kell noted that G.I. Stanton wrote in City by the Sea, 1901:

The Davis House established many years ago is comfortable and homelike, only a white shell road separating it from the water—and from its long verandas one can look through Old Topsail Inlet to the sea.

The hotel closed in the 1930s. In 1970, the property was acquired by Duke University. By offering affordable housing, the Duke University Laboratory on Piver's Island was able to encourage a large number of scientists and graduate students from around the world to come to Beaufort at various times in the year to work with Duke colleagues on a variety of endeavors.

Fortunately architectural historian Tony P. Wrenn was in Beaufort in 1970 doing a survey for the NC Department of Archives and History, and was able to save the building from destruction. It was agreed that the façade of the buildings would remain intact. The apartments became known as the Colonial Apartments.

At the time Wrenn wrote in part: “125 Front Street (Warner House) includes part of a house built ca.1769 and retains Federal interiors. The Pigot House at 123 Front Street, was built before 1839. 121 Front Street was built in 1880 by the Donnell family and purchased by Sarah Davis in 1882. Apparently Mrs. Davis joined the three houses and three porches together in the 1880s to create her well-known hotel.”

The 1997 Ruth Little Survey recorded the Davis House (119-125 Front Street) as "three 2-story gable houses connected by an attached 2-story front porch, originally used as a hotel/apartment house. The porch is the longest in Beaufort with a total of thirteen bays, and has an exterior staircase, slender Doric columns, plain railing, and paneled and glazed early 20th century doors. The houses have been altered and exhibit various sash types, including 9/6, 6/6, 4/4 and 2/2."

The structure was neglected and eventually fell into a state of disrepair. It was, however, rescued in the last few years and converted into private residences. Today the Front Street Davis House "houses" are designated as follows:

119 is now the Davis House Dining Annex ca. 1836.

121 (previously 1880 Donnell-Davis House) is now the Thomas Duncan House circa1849.

123 (previously 1839 Pigot House) is now the William Jones House circa 1813.

125 remains the Warner House circa 1769.

Carteret County Courthouses - A History

1796 Courthouse - Painting by Mary Warshaw

The building is on the Beaufort Historic Grounds.

The Carteret County Courthouse of 1796, built at the intersection of Ann and Turner Streets, was the third Beaufort courthouse. The first was built in 1724 after Beaufort had become the "county seat" of Carteret Precinct. The second courthouse was built in 1728 by William Davis of Davis Island.

In his 1965 essay, Colonial Beaufort, historian Charles Paul noted Carteret deed books and court minutes that referenced the first courthouses. “In June, 1724, the church wardens bought from the town commissioners a ‘Lott of land ... together with the house now erected thereon ... being at present the house appointed for a Court House....Only three months later, though, a hurricane rendered it unusable by destroying its roof, and in the next year it was completely destroyed by fire. When the next courthouse was completed in 1728, the church started holding its services there and did so throughout the Colonial period.^”

According to research by Mamré Wilson, Colonel William Thomson was in charge of building the 1796 courthouse. Thomson was a Beaufort landowner and town official. As treasurer for the county and of public buildings, Col. Thomson was able to acquire the funds.

About 1837, after the decision was made to build a new courthouse, the 1796 courthouse, setting of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for 40 years, was moved to the northeast corner of the same streets. The building was first sold to George Denby in 1843 for $170. A year later it was sold to Dr. James Hunt. When Dr. William Cramer, of Portsmouth Island, came to Beaufort in 1850 to help staff the new US Government Hospital, he purchased the old 1796 courthouse and made it his home.

Beaufort native Neal Willis, born in 1917, remembered that the building became the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Thomas after Dr. Cramer died in 1864. Mrs. Thomas, “Miss Delight”, was the daughter of Mr. Nate Carrow, a civil war veteran. Neal Willis remembered seeing the old soldier “sitting on the front porch while I was passing with my father in the late twenties.”

Acquired in 1976 and moved to the Beaufort Historic Site in 1977, the building, having been sectioned off as a private home, was completely restored in 2001, as a one-room courthouse and returned to its original color. Today it proudly displays an original 13-star American flag.

The 1796 courthouse is the oldest surviving wooden courthouse in North Carolina and also the oldest remaining public building in Carteret County. Today it serves as a museum and hosts an interactive dramatization program that allows school children to conduct mock trials and reenactments.

The 1837 courthouse at the corner of Turner and Broad was built for $4400 by James Ward. Ward most likely hired brick masons who had come to Beaufort and stayed after finishing Fort Macon in 1834.

The building was 50 by 60 feet with two stories and walls fifteen inches thick. One entrance faced south on Broad Street and the other faced west on Turner Street. A brick-paved area separated the street from the west side of the courthouse. Inside the west door were the stairs to the second-floor courtroom, which occupied the entire space. The judge's bench was at the north end and there was space for lawyers and witnesses, all enclosed by a rail, similar to the interior of the 1796 courthouse. Long benches were available for spectators. On the first floor in the southeast corner was the register of deeds office. Two rooms at the north end of the first floor were occupied by the clerk of court and the library.

There was no room for the sheriff in this building, so his office was the second floor of the "old marketplace" at the northeast corner of Turner and Front Street. Nearly sixty years after the courthouse and the new jail were built, the mortar began crumbling and the fear that the building would collapse resulted in hiring people to stucco the exterior of both.

In a 1900 letter, Thomas Carrow wrote about helping with this stucco work in 1895 and being paid 75 cents for ten hours of work. From 1894-1898 he helped his father in the register of deeds office as a clerk. In 1903, the county commissioners made plans to build a new, larger fireproof courthouse. This courthouse was built in 1907 at a cost $32,000 in the center of Courthouse Square. The old courthouse was used for a time as a public school and later as a library. In 1914 the court ordered the building sold and removed. When it was demolished, many of the old books and papers were still in the building.

The current active courthouse, built in 1907, designed by noted New Bern architect Herbert Woodley Simpson, is a monumental brick Classic Revival building occupying the center of the 400 block of Broad Street. Corinthian porticos face Broad and Turner streets and a tall octagonal cupola dominates the Beaufort skyline.

"Norcom House" and the Old Inlet Inn

"Norcom House" on Front Street (before 1911)

The original Inlet Inn, built in the 1850’s by the owners of a dry goods store in Beaufort, was first a private residence known as the Lowenberg House. The 1880 census recorded Charles W. Lowenberg as a hotel proprietor.

In the early 1900’s the home was sold to the Morris family who used it as a summer home. After a couple years the Morris’s turned the home into a boarding house and named it the Morris House.

In the Heritage of Carteret County, Joyce Norcom Tolson wrote, "'Miss Cad' [Carrie Dill married Henry D. Norcom in 1878 and lived on Craven Street in the Norcom family home.] took over and operated the Inlet Inn which had been known as the Morris House....at that time [the inn was] known as the Norcom House and stood where the Branch Bank is today."

In 1911, the house was sold to Congressman Charles Abernathy who greatly expanded its size with rambling additions and named it the New Inlet Inn. (1900 census notes Charles Abernathy, lawyer, living with his wife on Ann Street. The 1910 census recorded Charles S. Abernathy, 38, solicitor-third judicial district, was living within the first two blocks of west Front Street.)

According to the history on the current Inlet Inn website: there was a ball room on the second floor and music was provided by a small orchestra comprised of the four children of the inn operator, Mrs. Worth, and two other local Beaufort boys. There was even a dance instructor. Fresh water was pumped to the Inn by windmills.

At this time a beautiful swimming beach was right at the front steps of the Inn and a very popular half-mile long boardwalk, extending from the 500 block of Front Street to Gordon Street, passed in front of the Inn. Dredging of Taylor’s Creek and the resulting unsightly piles of sand on the south side of the channel combined with the Depression following World War I lead to the closing of the Inn in the early 20s. Several comebacks were attempted but never very successfully. Eventually the beach in front of the Inn was filled and Front Street was extended and paved.

Finally, in 1967 at the age of 110, most of the building was torn down to make way for construction of the BB&T bank building just east of the current Inlet Inn. One wing of the original Inlet Inn was salvaged and is now at the edge of the parking lot of the current Inlet Inn and again is used as a private residence.

Drummond's Pictorial Atlas of North Carolina, published 1924, shows the Inlet Inn as one of the resort hotels in North Carolina. Part of Drummond's description:

"Beaufort has just installed a sewer and water system which covers the whole town. It has paved sidewalks and is now paving the principal streets. A fine seawall lies in front of the town. The city owns her own water and electric plants. Beaufort has good public schools and a large private school. Baptist, Congregational, Methodist and Episcopal churches are here. Investigation of Beaufort's numerous advantages is welcomed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Beaufort's fishing industry is one of the largest in the State. Approximately one million dollars is invested in boats, nets and factories. Lumber is also one of the big industries here."

Old Inlet Inn circa 1933
The inn was then under the supervision of Mr. & Mrs. W.J. Willmott

Two Unique Civil War Graphics

General Burnside on the Road from New Berne to Beaufort, North Carolina

From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

“Log Fort near New Berne” from the James Wells Champney Sketchbook, ca. 1862

Champney was born in 1843 and died in 1903 in a tragic fall down an elevator shaft at the Camera Club in New York, where he had gone to develop a couple of images.

He was a noted painter and illustrator who studied with Edouard Frere and at the Antwerp Academy in 1868.

Whaling Images

...to help us imagine what it was like for the whalers off of Beaufort
and Shackleford Banks beginning in the early 18th century.

New England Whaler 1856 Walfang Zwischen
Published by Currier & Ives

"Dangers of the Whale Fishery" 1820 W.Scoresby
NOAA Photo Library

Links to more of Beaufort's Maritime Heritage:
A Whale of a Story

Outer Banks Windmills

Windmill at Beaufort, circa 1890, corner of present-day Live Oak and Front

Photo from NC Division of Archives and History

"The Outer Banks of coastal North Carolina was devoid of the running water that powered gristmills in the Piedmont and mountain regions of the state. Instead, maritime communities turned to the most obvious natural resource at hand - wind.

Windmills dotted the landscape of coastal North Carolina from the eighteenth century until the twentieth. Eighteenth-century mills are documented at Nixonton in Pasquotank County (Old Windmill Point); Swansboro, Marshallberg and Beaufort in Carteret County; and on Portsmouth Island.

Swansboro historian Tucker Littleton made a survey of the state's windmills in the 1970s and documented 155 structures.

North Carolina windmills were of the 'post mill' type--framed rectangular sheds built atop a single post some twenty or thirty feet off the ground. The entire structure revolved on the post and was manipulated by a tail post that reached from the building to the ground some seventy feet away. A wheel attached at the ground end of the tail pole ran in a track. Thus, the mill could be positioned to catch the prevailing winds.

The rotation of the fans turned a huge assembly of wooden gears inside the structure, which in turn moved the stone that crushed the grain.

The speed of the four fans was controlled by sails that covered their surface. The sails were furled to accommodate wind velocity, in much the same way that sails are used on boats. Regulation of the fan revolutions was important to the quality of meal produced. Too much speed on the stones scorched the grain and ruined it.

Mills were used for grinding wheat and corn and for pumping water. The former type were primarily located north of Onslow County and the latter south of Pender County. The mills of New Hanover and Brunswick Counties were often employed in the production of salt.

Post mills were simple and straightforward structures that could be easily built from available material. If a location proved unprofitable, they were frequently loaded onto wagons and hauled to new sites.

Ironically, the greatest threat to coastal windmills was its source of power. Severe storms and hurricanes toppled many mills and lightning destroyed others. These testimonials to North Carolina's maritime heritage eventually became outdated derelicts made useless by the advent of electricity and gasoline engines, and one by one, they were destroyed."

Quoted from Seasoned By Salt: A Historical Album of the Outer Banks by Rodney Barfield

Origins of the Marine Lab

The "Seaside Laboratory" (Gibbs House) of John Hopkins University
Sketch by Henry F. Osborne published November 20, 1880
in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

Although many scientist and naturalists visited and documented the Beaufort, North Carolina area from the mid to late 1800s, Dr. Elliot Coues, an army physician stationed at Fort Macon in 1869-70, provided the greatest publicity for the potential of the Beaufort region for natural history research. The area became a significant place for scientist to gather information.

In the May 5, 1899 issue of Science magazine, the assistant Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Hugh McCormick Smith, announced that the US Fish Commission would maintain a marine biological laboratory at Beaufort, NC. The only other station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, had been established in 1885.

Joseph Austin Holmes, North Carolina State Geologist and head of Natural History Survey from 1891-1905, was primarily responsible for gaining support of the federal government for establishing the fisheries laboratory at Beaufort. Professor Henry Van Peters Wilson, professor and chairman of zoology at the University of North Carolina from 1891-1935, pressed for the establishment of the laboratory at Beaufort.

Dr. Henry Van Peters Wilson had spent several seasons in Beaufort as a Johns Hopkins graduate student. In 1899, Wilson, who had continued conducting research in Beaufort during the summers, was placed in charge of the new laboratory, which was for the study of questions pertaining to fish-culture, fisheries and marine biology. Professor Wilson was granted $300 with which he rented a "commodius building" on the waterfront and provided it with suitable laboratory equipment and a small working library. This building was the Gibbs house, built around 1850.

A steam launch was assigned and on June 1, 1899 the laboratory was opened for its first season. At this time Beaufort was reached by boat from Morehead City. Twelve men, faculty and students from various universities, had come to Beaufort by September - to use the laboratory for various projects. Even though these men conducted various research projects, all contributed in the effort to determine the animals and plants in and near Beaufort Harbor, including their abundance, local distribution, breeding times, habits, etc. The foundation was laid for a museum collection and a record book was opened.

Before the Laboratory reopened for its second season, President Theodore Roosevelt had signed an act of Congress authorizing the establishment of a permanent biological station on the coast of North Carolina. Land was acquired with the help of Alonzo Thomas and others - the laboratory on Pivers Island was officially opened on May 26, 1902.

Information and photos for this post were gathered from
History of the Federal Biological Laboratory at Beaufort, North Carolina and
History of the Federal Fisheries

1930-31 Beaufort Football Squad

An original photo found on eBay with ID notes on back.

Inez Gaynelle Felton's name is also included on the back of the photo.
She was born 13 Feb 1914 and died 25 Mar 1996 - daughter of John and Ruby Felton - granddaughter of John F. and Effie Sabistion.

Bogue Banks Lighthouse 1855-1862

The following is an abbreviated version of an article written in 2004 by Fort Ranger/Historian Paul Branch for Fort Macon Ramparts. Link to the full article is at the bottom of this post.

“Although many people today are familiar with the lighthouses that dot the coast of North Carolina, few are aware that one of them once stood outside the walls of Fort Macon at the eastern end of Bogue Banks. Its existence was only a brief seven years. Its end was untimely – a casualty of war. Nevertheless, the story of the Bogue Banks Lighthouse remains an interesting part of the history of coastal North Carolina.

…August 31, 1852 Congress appropriated a sum of $5000 to erect a small harbor lighthouse on the eastern point of Bogue Banks to assist vessels entering Beaufort Inlet…The work was under the superintendence of Captain Daniel P. Woodbury of the Army Corps of Engineers...

To build the Bogue Banks Lighthouse, Woodbury selected a site back from the shifting beach on a large spit of stable, dry land adjacent to the marsh about 200 yards northwest of Fort Macon. Construction began in the summer of 1854 … Plans called for a brick lighthouse tower with a two-story building attached to be used for storage of supplies. The plans originally depicted the tower as being circular. When constructed, however, the tower was built in an octagon. Also included in the lighthouse plans was a small, two-story keepers house, although it is unclear if this was ever built.

The Bogue Banks Lighthouse was given a fixed fourth order Fresnel lens… stood fifty feet above the sea. The light was visible 12-1/2 nautical miles out to sea…The two lights were put into operation for the first time on May 20, 1855.

For the next several years the lights operated successfully, guiding mariners through Beaufort Harbor. The 1860 census lists Thomas Delamar* as the Lighthouse Keeper. One year later, the War Between the States began in April, 1861.

…the lights in the Cape Lookout and Bogue Banks Lighhouses and the Bogue Banks beacon were all extinguished for wartime security…By June, 1861, it was decided the very valuable Fresnel lenses should be removed from these lighthouses and the beacon in order to safeguard them from any war danger. Beaufort Collector of Customs, Josiah F. Bell,** who was appointed Superintendent of Lights for the Beaufort District of the Confederate Lighthouse Bureau, had the lenses carefully taken down and placed in storage in a warehouse in Beaufort at a cost of $5 per month. He also spent $19.25 for the purchase of blanket in which to wrap the lenses.

Knowing that some manner of attack was only a matter of time, Colonel White and his men made what preparations they could to defend the fort. One of the key considerations for defense, of course, was that the fort’s cannons must have a clear field of fire in all directions. Tall structures outside the fort that in any way masked the guns, such as the Bogue Banks Lighthouse and beacon, had to go. On the evening of March 27, the fort garrison toppled the lighthouse over onto the ground. It broke apart into sections and lay in a crumpled heap in the sand. On the following morning the beacon was also pulled down.

Such was the brief existence of the Bogue Banks Lighthouse. Although the foundations of the lighthouse were mentioned as still being present in 1871, no artifacts or remains have ever been found of it. The site is now occupied by the United States Coast Guard base adjacent to Fort Macon…the Fresnel lens from the lighthouse was reused by the Lighthouse Board in another lighthouse. It probably still exists today in one of the many lighthouses that still remain guarding the coast of the United States.”

*Thomas Delamar's listing in the June 1860 Carteret County census shows Delamar, age 66 with Abigail (Pearce) Delamar 50 (married 1855), a domestic and John Delamar, age 10 - Post Office-Shepherdsville. The 1850 Beaufort census lists Thomas Delamar, age 56, ship carpenter, with Hannah Delamar 55, Nancy D. Delamar 25, James Delamar 18, Rebecca Smith 10 and William Mosely 13.

**Josiah Fisher Bell 1820-1890 also served as an agent in the Confederate Secret Service during the Civil War. Read full article...

Front Street Houses

Front Street Houses – left to right:

J.D. Davis, [Moore Street], Nelson, Jule Duncan,
Sloo, Morse, Thomas-Humphrey

J.D. Davis House circa 1812 – This house is shown on Gray’s 1882 map. It is said that the house was raised to 2 stories about 1843.

John Hancock Nelson House circa 1790 - Capt. John Nelson ca. 1675-1759 owned large tracts of land north and south of the Neuse River including Garbacon Creek plantation. Nelson signed a petition in 1712 asking that the court be held in the area. He was on the first vestry of St. John’s Parish. Capt. Nelson’s son John Hancock Nelson owned the 1790 Nelson House on Front Street.

18^th Century Benjamin Perry/J.Duncan House 1920 - Benjamin Leecraft Perry married Elizabeth Manney in 1835. He was involved in coastal trading and was one of the wealthiest men in Beaufort before the Civil War—buying and selling land from 1832 to 1869. Many visitors in the early days boarded with Capt. Perry. The 18^th century Perry House that stood on this lot was demolished in the early 1920s to make way for this house built by Judge Jule Duncan.

Sloo House circa 1768 – Two-story, 5-bay side gable house includes a two-story portico with Doric posts. Notable residents have included Capt. Sloo and Miss Hannah Shepard.

Joseph B. Morse House circa 1771 – This large 2-story, side gable house is 5 bays wide with a transomed 2^nd-story entrance. A 3-bay, 2-story pedimented portico has Doric posts.

Thomas-Humphrey House circa 1907 – This is a traditional 4-bay Queen Anne/Colonial Revival house. James Manney had a house on this lot. It was razed before 1907 when Thomas Thomas built the current house with a widow's walk. It was occupied by the Humphrey family for many years.

Images and Brief Histories of other Beaufort Houses

Paul Jones House circa 1913

Warshaw Painting

Canelium Clarence (C.C.) Guthrie was born in 1875 to Canelium Hines Guthrie and Susan Jane Roberson; both had deep roots in Beaufort and Carteret County. According to what has been written by family, C.C. yearned to become a carpenter and began his apprenticeship at a very young age.

Guthrie went on to become a skilled carpenter and craftsman, building this and other houses including that of his brother – the 1910 Ernest R.Guthrie House on the southwest corner of Ann and Pollock - and the Hatsell-Clawson House on Orange Street. While building the old Coast Guard Station at Fort Macon, he was known to pack his lunch and row to work each day. In 1929 Guthrie, assisted by his son Claude, built the director’s house at the Federal Biological Lab on Piver’s Island. C.C. was still doing occasional carpentry work for the laboratory in the early 1950’s.

Paul Sylvester Jones (1904-2001) owned the home the second half of the 20^th century. Paul was the son of Christopher Delamar “Kit” Jones and Mary Luzina “Lutie” Carrow Jones*. He attended the University of North Carolina 1922-1924 until his father died. In 1933 Paul Jones married Ruth Killingsworth from Yatesville, North Carolina. Ruth, besides being a professional nurse, was mother to Paula Jones, Thomas Carrow Jones and Robert Killingsworth Jones. Jones taught school and then worked at C.D. Jones Company – a grocery on Front Street. He took over management in 1931 and ran the business, assisted by many of his siblings,** until it closed in 1960. Jones then worked at the commissary at Cherry Point until he retired in 1974. Paul Jones was one of the founders of the Beaufort Historical Association.

In 2001 the Paul Jones House was totally renovated and an upper porch was added to reflect the Bahamian-influenced double porches of old Beaufort.

*In The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, Amy Muse, in describing the fate of the Chrissie Wright that went down off the coast: "1884...'Miss Lutie' Jones tells of the feeling of awe that came over her when as a child she ran into the cemetery and saw so many graves open at the same time."

**A tragic accident - New York Times, March 11 1912, Beaufort NC - March 10 - "Fifteen-year-old John Forlaw, son of a banker, was accidentally shot and killed today by his playmate, John [Gladwell] Jones, 13, the son of C.D. Jones, Collector of Customs at this port. The lads were [target] practicing with an automatic revolver."

Miss Annie Morton

"On July 5, 1893 in Beaufort, North Carolina, in a house on Front Street, a school teacher was born. She was given the name Ann Leone. Her parents were David William and Minnie Stanton Morton. She had two older brothers, William Simmons Morton and James Austin Morton. The name Ann Leone gave way to Annie Lee, but the teacher was known as Miss Annie.

Since there was no public school in Beaufort at that time, Annie was taught by her mother, who had been a schoolteacher. Later she attended Beaufort school, and on May 9, 1911, she was one of four in the first class to graduate after Beaufort High School became public. (The other three members of the class were Lessie Arrington, Gladys Chadwick and Sally Duncan.) Annie Morton graduated from North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina and she also took courses in education at Columbia University in New York.

Her first teaching was at Newport, NC. Then she came back to Beaufort where she taught second grade until 1925. That year the principal of Beaufort High School, C.W.E. Pittman, took a position in Marion, NC. Miss Morton decided to teach in Marion also. A short time after her move to Marion she was asked by Mr. Wright, president of East Carolina Teachers College in Greenville, NC, to be Dean of Women at that institution. She accepted and remained in that office twenty-five years. Following her retirement from ECTC in 1950, she returned to Beaufort and continued to teach, this time fourth grade, for another ten years.

After her retirement, Miss Morton continued to live in her house on Orange Street, where she kept up a voluminous correspondence with friends and maintained an active interest in the schools. She remembered all of her pupils and was always interested in what they were doing with their lives. She was an active member of The Friends of the Library. She had been instrumental in helping to establish the very first public library in the town of Beaufort.

Although Miss Morton spent many years of her career in an institution of higher learning, her first love was young children and second grade. She didn’t give her students long homework assignments. Her belief was that short assignments, representative of the work the class was doing, would be sufficient to indicate if the student had grasped the method.

Annie L. Morton died February 3, 1976, a few hours after suffering a stroke, at the age of 82. She was buried in the Morton family plot in Ocean View Cemetery in Beaufort.

"I have written about my second grade teacher. She was my cousin, her mother being my father’s sister. She would talk to me about our grandmother Stanton, whom I never knew. One of her happy memories was that of receiving a treat of brown sugar each time she visited our grandmother’s house (the little house in which I grew up). The brown sugar was kept on hand in a special container, always in the same place. Those were the days before candy became a household staple." - Minnie Stanton Simpson

Miss Annie Morton's pet was a Boston Terrier named Beans. Miss Elizabeth Merwin, who designed the Beaufort plaque, lived around the corner on Ann Street. She created this coat of arms for Miss Annie. Miss Merwin's home was then known as the Jennie Bell House- now the Guy Buckman House.

Photo shows Beans at 9 weeks.

Restoration of the Hatsell-Clawson House across the street

A special site has been created for Miss Annie Morton