Posted in History, On This Day, tagged new hanover county nc, president john adams, supreme court justice alfred moore, supreme court justice james iredell on April 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1800: Alfred Moore of New Hanover County, who fought the British as soldier and saboteur during the Revolutionary War, is sworn in as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. President John Adams has appointed Moore to replace the late James Iredell, the only other North Carolinian ever to serve on [...]
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged davidson county nc, donner party, donner pass, george donner on April 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1846: George Donner, born in the part of Rowan County that would become Davidson County, leads a California-bound wagon train out of Springfield, Illinois. The Donner Party will be caught in a weeks-long snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. Many will die, and some resort to cannibalism. In what is later known [...]
Posted in On This Day, tagged charlotte nc, coca-cola, j luther snyder, prohibition, soda fountains, soft drink bottling on April 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1902: In Charlotte, J. Luther Snyder dispenses the first Coca-Cola bottled in the Carolinas. Until now Coke had been available only at soda fountains. Snyder will recall that business is mediocre until the arrival of Prohibition in Charlotte in 1905: “Eighteen saloons, two breweries. . . . I had a terrible [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, On This Day, Postcards, Tar Heelia on March 29, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Friends and family of Earl Scruggs say they’re disappointed that the legendary banjo player didn’t live to see the opening of the Earl Scruggs Center in the old Cleveland County courthouse (point of clarification: the building was new when the above postcard was printed some 100 years ago). The Cleveland County native died in Nashville [...]
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged george w nichols, goldsboro nc, sherman's march on March 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1865: George W. Nichols, a major in Sherman’s army, writes in his journal in Goldsboro: “Our army [needs] not only to be reclothed, but to gain the repose it needs. Mind, as well as body, requires rest after the fatigues of rapid campaigns like these. These ragged, bareheaded, shoeless, brave, jolly [...]
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged duplin county nc, slavery in nc, slaves darby and peter on March 15, 2012 | 2 Comments »
On this day in 1787: Darby and Peter, Duplin County slaves, are convicted of murdering their master with an ax. Darby is sentenced to be “tied to a stake on the courthouse lot and there burned to death and his ashes strewd upon the ground.” Peter, less severely punished because of his youth, is sentenced [...]
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged nc confederate veterans, nc hospitals, nc jury duty on March 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1915: The N.C. legislature passes bills exempting Confederate veterans from jury duty and prohibiting white nurses from attending to black patients in hospitals.
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged robert frost on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1943: The Charlotte Observer editorializes about poetry and war: “One would hardly expect a poet to deliver himself of hard-headed statesmanlike utterances. A poet is often busy elsewhere. He’s gazing in the brook or at the stars, busy with sonnet, ballad and roundelay. But Robert Frost, an American poet, speaking at [...]
Posted in History, On This Day, tagged carville louisiana, federal leprosarium, john early, leprosy, tryon nc, weaverville nc on February 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1938: John Early, referred to in newspapers as “the nation’s most famous leper,” dies at the federal leprosarium in Carville, La. Early, 64, was born near Weaverville. He contracted leprosy (later known as Hansen’s disease) while serving in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. On his return he was captured and [...]
Posted in History, Memorabilia Moment, On This Day, tagged airline mergers, charlotte nc, cincinnati, dc-3, piedmont airlines, us airways, usair, wilmington nc, Winston-Salem on February 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
On this day in 1948: Piedmont Airlines, headquartered in Winston-Salem, inaugurates passenger service with a DC-3 flight from Wilmington to Charlotte to Cincinnati. Over the next four decades Piedmont will grow from what competitors dismiss as a “puddle jumper” to the nation’s eighth largest airline. In 1987 Piedmont is bought by Washington-based USAir [later US [...]
