Miscellaneous Newspaper Abstracts
SCHOOL HOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING
The Albemarle Southron and Union Advocate [Elizabeth City, NC] -
October 19, 1860; pg. 3
Submitted by
Leah Sims
SCHOOL HOUSE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING - The Washington (N.C.) Dispatch, states that the barn of Mr. Bernard Carrowan, in which the common school was kept, was struck by lightning on the 28th ult. There were about 50 pupils in school. Two boys, Joseph, son of Hardy Leary, and William, son of Christopher Carrowan, were killed, and two others were knocked down. The rest were unhurt.
MARRIAGE OF MAGGIE BRIDGMAN TO DOANE HERRING
Washington Progress [Washington, NC] - Nov. 8, 1894
Submitted by Mary E. Baxter
SHIPPING NEWS FROM THE PORT OF WASHINGTON
Submitted by Mary E. Baxter
MARRIAGE OF HATTIE BRIDGMAN TO CHARLES LITTLE
Washington Progress [Washington, NC] - Feb. 13, 1902
Submitted by Mary E. Baxter
DROWNED
Kinston Free Press [Kinston, NC] - Sept. 19, 1905
Submitted by Taneya KoonceWashington, Sept. 28 -- A man by the name of William MOORE, was drowned from off the sloop Lucille, near Chocowinity Bay, last night. According to one of the crew Moore was called up from below by the captain and on coming on deck, walked to the edge of the rail, where he either fell or jumped overboard. A line was thrown to him, and he jerked this out of the thrower's hand. Before the sloop could tack and get back to him he sank and was seen no more.
MARRIAGE OF ANNIE BRIDGMAN TO FRED C. MALLISON
Washington Progress [Washington, NC] - June 17, 1915
Submitted by Mary E. Baxter
FROM GRAVEYARD TO CEMETERY
Through the years, headstones have separated from their graves in First Presbyterian Church’s graveyard. Until they were cemented altogether in one place several years ago, they rested against the back wall of the church. (WDN Photo/Vail Stewart Rumley)The ancestors are moving.
From the graveyard of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington to a designated area in Oakdale Cemetery, the remains of early members of the church will be disinterred in April to make room for new expansion of the church.
That process is governed by N.C. General Statute 65-106, which determines what organizations may move a grave, how they may move it and where it may be moved. According to the statute, “disinterment, removal, and reinterment of graves” may be conducted by “any church authority in order to erect a new church, parish house, parsonage, or any other facility owned and operated exclusively by such church; in order to expand or enlarge an existing church facility.”
For First Presbyterian Church, the reason is expansion.
“We’re landlocked. We have nowhere else to go,” said Bettie Bonner Bradshaw, a member of the church’s planning commission.
Hemmed in closely by West Second Street to the north, Gladden Street to the west, Mid Town Lane — the lane running behind West Main Street commercial buildings — to the south, the only room for new construction is eastward.
“We’re doing this obviously for the expansion of the building,” said William Lee Kinney, the church’s pastor. “We have no other option but to move out that way.”
With the highly state-regulated move, the church was required to notify all descendants of those being disinterred. To that end, a genealogist was hired to track down the living relatives of those in the 19th-century graves.
“The graves that are being moved — most of them are the Fowle family,” explained Bradshaw.
West Main Street resident and church member Sadie Fowle numbers among those descendants. Fowle and her three children received a letter of notification and a letter of invitation to an open forum and information session to be conducted April 3. Fowle had but one request before she granted her assent to move the remains to the planning commission.
“I said, ‘The headstone of the founder of the church had to stay,’” Fowle explained. “My children and I are all in agreement on this.”
The committee agreed to Fowle’s request to keep the monument in honor of the founder, as well as move it from its current location. Samuel Richardson Fowle’s grave is marked partially by a massive marble obelisk and partially by the last expansion of the church. In a less-politically correct time, new construction was simply built on top of existing graves. As it stands, Samuel Fowle’s gravestone faces the rear, brick wall of the church from a distance of less than a foot away.
“When it gets moved, it can actually be read again,” said Sadie Fowle.
According to Kinney, the church has received no complaints from either its members or the notified descendants.
“We’ve had a couple of calls, just mostly curiosity,” said Kinney. “Someone did call from Wisconsin because he didn’t even realize he had relatives out here.”
The process of disinterment and reinterment will begin with the removal of an oak tree that’s grown up in the midst of the graves, the roots of which likely have already interfered with the existing graves and, at times, the church’s plumbing, according to Bradshaw. Licensed by the state of North Carolina, R. Ward Sutton, a cemetery services specialist from Rocky Mount, has been contracted by the church to do the exhumation.
How many remains there are to be moved will continue to be a mystery until the day of disinterment. The number could fall anywhere between 15 and 35, according to Kinney, because in nearly two centuries, a number of headstones have migrated away from the graves they once marked.
“What remains of the remains will be very limited,” said Kinney. “There’s also the possibility that graves have collapsed, doubled up.”
Regardless of the state of the remains, Kinney says that both spiritually and lawfully, the handling of them must be respectful.
“We’ll be doing it in a way that is religiously sensitive. We’ll have a service and prayers with each removal,” Kinney described. “It’s an extremely dignified process.”
The remains will be reinterred in Oakdale Cemetery on a hill beneath the oaks there.
(Washington Daily News - Tuesday, March 6, 2012)
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ODEN'S STORE STILL SPRY AFTER 124 YEARS We’ve added another centenarian to our list of Beaufort County businesses that are more than 100 years old. This visit is to Oden’s Store, which first opened its doors in 1896. “Wow,” “good grief” and “holy cow!” are some of the exclamations Lynda Oden has heard from customers when they step into her antiques store on the north side of U.S. Highway 264 East on the way to Belhaven. They have to tread carefully because one false move will more than likely start a domino effect of cascading merchandise that could last 30 minutes. There’s no wall space left anywhere around the building that measures more than 2,700 square feet. Items are stacked floor to ceiling and while there are aisles, space between various pieces of antique furniture can be treacherous to navigate. Sensory overload surely has afflicted more than one customer over the years as he or she tried to take it all in. Bottles more than100 years old dug from nearby Tankard’s Creek, along with bullets scavenged from who knows where, line the shelves behind the counter. Countless metal signs bearing the logos of Texaco, Coca-Cola, Gulf Oil, Sunbeam Bread, Esso gasoline and other bygone and still operating companies occupy two more walls. Row after row of china, crystal and pressed glassware line the wall opposite the counter. One could spend hours here and still miss something. “I’ve been in here quite a bit over the last 70 years or so, and I still see things I haven’t seen before,” Oden said with a laugh. “We have something for everybody.” John Henry Oden was 22 years old when he opened his namesake general store in 1896 in another building 300 yards southeast on the other side of what is now U.S. 264 East. He built the current store in 1904 and included a sawmill, a cotton gin and a meat market. A vintage photo reveals that he also sold Battle Axe Shoes. Customers arrived by boat from the creek or used a mule and a cart to begin their Saturday morning trading “Granddaddy told me stories about this store being part of the Hunter’s Bridge community,” Oden said. “We were one of several stores, there was a barber shop, a restaurant and a post office. We stocked everything, and he had six clerks working with him on Saturdays. I remember he always wore a white shirt with overalls and a bow tie. He truly loved this place.” Lynda Oden grew up across the road from her grandfather’s store and visited often. Her parents were not interested in the business, but Lynda helped out after school and on weekends from an early age. However, she never saw herself as next in line. “I used to dust and mess around and get in the way when I was young,” she laughed. “Granddaddy ran the store until he couldn’t and died while I was in high school (1961). We let other people run it for us while my brothers and sister were doing other things, but we always kept an eye on it. ”Oden tried her hand at farming, then traveled the East Coast to buy antiques for the store. She took over as the full-time shopkeeper in 1994 and, along with 40-year employee Sherry Modlin, kept the place open six days a week until COVID-19 invaded in mid-March. “It’s (the virus) is by far the biggest challenge we’ve faced, but we are starting to pull out of it,” Oden said. “We reopened in September and are Saturdays-only, for now. I’d like to get back to three days a week at some point. ”At 75, Oden plans to hang around for a few more years, but the line of succession is still to be determined. “It’s a terrible way to make a living, but it’s a great way to live,” she chuckled. “It would be great if the state would turn this place into a general store museum. I’m fine if I fall out right here.” (Washington Daily News - Tuesday, October 27, 2020)
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© 2020 Kay Midgett Sheppard
