March 9, 2012
The old Robbins-Holton Mill and Miller’s House on Dillon Road in Jamestown is on the market and will be sold at auction before the end of March. I have no financial interest in the property but plenty of hopeful expectation that it will be sold to...
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January 6, 2012
Some of us with special interest in the Mendenhall House in Jamestown were talking recently about whether or not Richard had a gold mine. I said I had never heard of it. Others said, yes, they were sure he did. We left it at that, but I’ve since rea...
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October 14, 2011
I regret that the rain kept me and a lot of other folks away from the Jamestown Alumni Association Barbecue on Sept. 24. As always, it was held at the Jamestown Public Library, also known as The Old School.
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October 7, 2011
American Protestants have always excelled at starting new religious organizations. All it takes is a charismatic individual with a vision and a willingness to convince others of the rightness of that vision.
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August 26, 2011
One of the interesting results of my plea for recollections of the Richard Mendenhall House came from Joanne Mann of Jamestown. Mann, as it turns out, has been collecting newspaper clippings and other memorabilia since the late 1970s when the old Mendenha...
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July 15, 2011
Among the items included in my Jamestown Scrapbook, mentioned in my last column, is information from the work diary kept by George L. Hodgin when he was the engineer at Oakdale Cotton Mills.
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May 6, 2011
In 1909, Jamestown was very proud of its high school. Part of the pride came from winning over the Guilford College community in 1907 to be one of only two places in the county to have a public, tax-supported rural high school. It didn’t hurt Jamest...
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January 9, 2011
Second of two parts about the 1856 murder of Martha Penix in the Deep River area. At the time of her murder, 20-year-old Martha Penix was about six months pregnant. She was found with her throat slashed and a shotgun blast to her head in October 1856.
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January 2, 2011
Part one of two. About three years ago , I wrote about the 1856 murder of Martha Penix in the Deep River area. It brought a lot of response from readers, including a descendant of one of the principals. There was definitely more to the story.
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November 24, 2010
The directions to Trinity Cemetery were exact. From South Main Street (aka U.S. 311) in Archdale, “get on 62 and turn right at the first road after you cross the railroad tracks. And it comes up pretty quick.”
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November 14, 2010
By the reckoning of their descendants, the first family of settlers in what is now Jamestown was here about 1755. So, let’s say that the community is, in round numbers, 250 years old.
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October 17, 2010
As new construction eats away at the once beautiful rolling lawns at GTCC, the old white Iddings House remains. It has to do so by terms of the sale to the college of the property it stands on. It receives regular coats of white paint, which now seems to...
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September 5, 2010
My Aug. 22 column shared memories of Camp Uhwarrie, and, unfortunately, incorrectly identified Bunn Hackney, according to Dorothy “Dot” Hackney Hicks, his daughter. His full name was Bunn Washington Hackney, and he was “Chief” Hack...
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July 25, 2010
Jamestown is small but mighty. At about 3 square miles and having fewer than 3,500 residents, it still commands attention. For instance, Cedarwood has tried for years to get Jamestown to annex it. Of course, Jamestown expands in that direction little...
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June 20, 2010
The pond is still there, but the dock, tower and swimmers are long gone from this remnant of old Camp Uhwarrie near where Akela Trail dead-ends at Camp Ranger Lane. Some of the other neighborhood street names invoke the old camp, too — Campfire Cour...
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May 30, 2010
Johnson Bros. & Co. of Jamestown Depot was incorporated in 1897 by officers of the corporation: John F. Cook, president; Andrew F. Johnson, vice-president; and George W. Johnson, secretary and treasurer.
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May 9, 2010
There’s another big event coming up Saturday , and all your favorites are going to be there. By favorites I mean Glenn Chavis and me, as we represent the local-history angle published in the Southwest Record. If you have never heard of either of us......
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May 2, 2010
Every now and again, I decide that I need to get rid of some of the paper in my file drawers. So, I pick a random spot and pull out two or three folders to see if there’s anything I can throw out or give away. I nearly always notice something new.
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April 18, 2010
The Jamestown Public Library attracts an unusually potent brand of affection and loyalty from its patrons, probably because many of them went to school in this venerable building back in the day and they just love the old place. Yep, before it was Jamesto...
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March 28, 2010
The last meeting of the Jamestown planning board was orderly, as it always is, but plenty of steam rose from the rows of town residents waiting for their chances to speak. That is often the case when at public hearings for zoning proposals. Almost any zon...
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February 28, 2010
Second of two parts on the Erick Oates Whitworth Family Papers In the last column, we left George P. Oates in 1865 living near Jamestown, superintending one of the copper or gold mines. He had just married Martitia R. Coffin, daughter of Abner Coffin whos...
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February 14, 2010
Part one of two Richard G. Whitworth inherited a great treasure from his ancestor George P. Oates. Oates was a mining man, but the treasure is not mineral. It’s paper and documents that illuminate the life and times of Oates and the local family tha...
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December 20, 2009
Recently while browsing the late Fred Hughes’ invaluable book “Guilford County, N.C., a Map Supplement,” I noted that Hughes had signed the title page in this way: “Press Proof 100/25” at the top.
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November 22, 2009
Second of two parts. My first article about Deep River Lodge told how Clarence H. Mackay, multimillionaire head of Postal Telegraph Co., bought his first piece of land in Guilford County in 1903 and by 1905 had built Deep River Lodge, using plans drawn f...
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November 1, 2009
The North Carolina Collection, which is housed in the Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, seeks to document the history, literature and culture of the state by actively collecting, organizing and providing access to publications, photos and arti...
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