Pamlico County 1896

Topic: Early Versions - Performers
In 1896, two years before Minnie Lee was born, Levi Branson published a business directory that included Pamlico County, North Carolina. African Americans represented one third of the population. [1] The percentage would be only fractionally higher in 1930, 33.9% versus 33.3%. [2]

The largest general population center was the county seat. Bayboro had 500 people, two saw mills, [3] Greenhill Missionary Baptist Church, and Saint Mark’s AME Zion Church. The first African-American congregation was mentioned in the post for 24 May 2020. The second began in 1892 as "a band of fifteen" who "went from home to home to conduct prayer services." [4]

The other towns with sizeable populations were Stonewall (250), Vandemere (150), Oriental (150), Grantsboro (100), and Pamlico (75). Stonewall had one lumber company [5] and one African-American Missionary Baptist church. [6] Vandemere had Delon Abbot’s sawmill [7] and two Baptist churches. [8] Joshua Dean’s Pamlico had two saw mills, [9] but no Black churches.

Oriental had two AME Zion chapels, [10] a sawmill, [11] and one lumber company. [12] There also were sawmills on two creeks that flowed down to Oriental, the Smith [13] and Kershaw. [14] In addition, W. A. Keys pastored Black Methodist congregations in Smith’s Creek and Goose Creek. He later headed a segregated high school in Beaufort County. [15]

In the northwestern part of the county, nearer New Bern, Grantsboro had an African-American Baptist church. [16] The nearest sawmills were in Alliance to the east [17] and Reelsboro to the west. [18] Each settlement had 50 people.

Arapahoe also had 50 people, two saw mills, [19] and an African-American Christian church. [20] When it organized in 1869, the North Carolina Conference of Disciples of Christ told members to establish a separate conference. [21] The congregation began with prayer meetings, then used a bush tent. [22] The earliest burials were for Warren Randall (1917), [23] and Philman Randolph Randall (1924), [24] suggesting its cemetery might have begun as a family burial plot.

The rest of the settlements in Pamlico County had 25 residents, usually with at least one general store.

Five of thirteen mill owners were born in Pamlico or Craven counties, [25] and another two were from North Carolina. [26] All but one of the local men also ran general stores. [27] One had a grist mill, [28] and one a cotton gin. [29] Four had enough land to be called farmers, [30] and four were buried in family cemeteries. [31] One was interred in a Disciples of Christ burial ground. [32]

They would have been general purpose merchants who probably took logs in payment for services or credit. Once they turned the logs into timber, they probably acted as middlemen selling the output to brokers.

Lumber brokers were in Stonewall, Pamlico, and Oriental. Pamlico Lumber of Stonewall was associated with Calvin Conard, [33] a Quaker lumber merchant in Philadelphia. [34] The company had been incorporated in Beaufort County in 1886. That business disintegrated after Conard’s Washington, North Carolina, partner died in 1891. [35] In 1896, Conard’s local agent in Stonewall was Samuel Ferebee. [36] Ferebee was running a general store there in 1888. [37]

Woodward and Sons of Pamlico were Richmond, Virginia, lumber merchants. The elder partner, John Pitt Lee Woodward, had moved from Virginia to Covington, Kentucky, were he opened a hardware business before the Civil War. [38] His lumber yards were an extension of the business: they provided all types of wood for interior finishing, lathe, bed slats, and wagon wood. [39] His son, Warner Minor Woodward, enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, was captured, and escaped to Toronto, where the family joined him. [40]

George Kugler [41] became active in Washington in 1881. He came from New Jersey through Maryland. He opened a second mill on Smith’s Creek, upstream from Oriental, before 1885 that was run by his sons. It employed 15 men to produce pine shingles. [42]

Oriental Lumber was controlled by people in Norfolk. [43] It probably bought or leased land from Lou or Robert Midyett. Lou was a seaman from the south side of Albemarle Sound who found the estuary in 1872. [44] A railroad connecting Elizabeth City, on the northern side of Albemarle Sound, with Norfolk had been chartered in 1870. [45] Midyett no doubt had heard speculation about Elizabeth City then becoming linked by steamer with New Bern. He convinced his Uncle Robert to buy land on the peninsula. [46]

A cost-effective direct land connection between Virginia and the north with timber lands in North Carolina was interrupted by the patterned areas on the above map that signified large swamps and sea-carved depressions filled with water and floating peat mats. [47] The Light Ground pocosin north of Oriental and east of Arapahoe was 5,930-acres. [48]

The economy crashed in 1873. That delayed the railroad’s completion until 1881. The next year, it signed a contract with the Old Dominion Steamship Company "to provide passenger and freight service between Elizabeth City and New Bern and Washington," North Carolina. The year after, 1883, the name was changed to Norfolk Southern. [49] Lou was granted a post office for Oriental in 1886. [50]

In 1896, Robert’s son, [51] Arthur, was in business with Paul Delamar, [52] and some Midyett was running a general store. [53] Delamars were Methodists descended from Huguenots. [54] The immigrant Midyett was from Normandy. The son who settled in the Albemarle Sound area, Lou’ ancestor, was a ship’s carpenter. [55] At some point they too became Methodists. [56]

Map
Selection from United States Department of the Interior. Geological Survey. "North Carolina." 1957; updated 1972.

End Notes
Unless otherwise noted, the source for information on demographics, saw mills, general stores, grist mills, cotton gins, and farmers for 1896, was Levi Branson. Branson’s North Carolina Business Directory. Raleigh: Levi Branson, 1896 edition. Craven County manufacturers, 206–207; Pamlico County, 473–476. He only listed churches with "ministers resident" and generalized denominations.

Find a Grave was the source for cemeteries and the primary source for biographical data.

1. Branson’s total population number in 1896 was the same as the 1890 census.

2. John T. Miller and Arthur E. Taylor. United States Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. Soil Survey of Pamlico County, North Carolina. Washington: Government Printing Office, August 1937. 3.

3. A. B. Campen was Albin Brinson Campen. [57] W. H. Sawyer was William Hugh Sawyer. [58]

4. Ray Credle. "From Hyde County To Pamlico County." Ancestry website. "Churches" page.
5. Pamlico Lumber.

6. Mount Sinai with F. Long the minster. The African-American congregation was mentioned in the post for 2 February 2020.

7. Abbott & Co. He was discussed in the post for 24 May 2020.

8. Jerusalem with S. Foscue and Maja’s Chapel with A. F. Bryan. They could not be identified.

9. Dean Lumber Company and Woodward and Son. Joshua Dean was discussed in the post for 24 May 2020.

10. Pierce’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was organized in 1869. [59] Holt’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Oriental was organized in 1890. [60] They were not mentioned by Branson.

11. Midyett and Delamar.
12. Oriental Lumber Company.
13. Kughle & Bro.

14. R. D. Hodges could not be identified. Kershaw was the other settlement with 50 people.

15. J. Henry Highsmith. High Schools of North Carolina. Raleigh: State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1927. 54. Pantego High School.

16. Mt. Maria with J. C. Blackman. They could not be identified.
17. Sam Campen. Samuel Campen was Albin Brinson Campen’s brother. [61]
18. J. B. Reel was John Benton Reel. [62]

19. Vendrick and Company probably was owned by James V. Vendrick. [63] Hardison and Bowden most likely were Robert B. Hardison and Bob Bowden. They were credited with naming Araphoe, [64] and Hardison was the first post master. [65] Hardison married Susan Bowden, who had joined the Disciples of Christ before becoming a Methodist. [66] Beyond that I know nothing more about the men.

20. Diane Gardner. "Taking a Step Back in Time." [New Bern] Sun Journal website. 15 March 2019. Small’s Chapel was not mentioned by Branson. After the consolidations of the middle twentieth century, it became a United Church of Christ congregation. It began as Disciples of Christ, and probably took that denomination’s Christian Church designation early.

21. Disciples of Christ of North Carolina. Proceedings. 1969. Ridgeway, North Carolina: Thos. M. Hughes, 1869. 3. The conference "agreed, that the colored brethren be advised to form a separate Conference, and that [names of elders] be appointed to confer with and assist them in their organization."

22. Gardner.
23. J.D. Larimore. "Warren Randall." Find a Grave website. 26 November 2016.

24. Doug Williams. "Philman Randolph Randall." Find a Grave website. 27 November 2016. Updated by J.D. Larimore.

25. The Campens, Delamar, Hardsion and Bowden, Reel, Vendrick.
26. Sawyer, Midyett.

27. The Campens, Hardison and Bowden, Hodges, Midyett, Reel, and Sawyer kept general stores. Vendrick did not.

28. Samuel Campen. Abbott also had a corn mill.
29. Reel.
30. Samuel Campen, Hardison and Bowden, Midyette, Sawyer.
31. The Campens, Reel, Sawyer.
32. Vendrick.

33. Louis G. May. "The Story of Beaufort County’s Lumber Industry." 329–352 in Washington and the Pamlico. Edited by Ursula Fogleman Loy and Pauline Marion Worthy. Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1976. 332.

34. Jayne Ellsworth Larion. "Walter Moss Conard." Find a Grave website. 2 August 2007.
35. May. 332.

36. Mike Weeks identified "Samuel Williams Ferebee" on Find a Grave website. 18 February 2010.

37. George I. Nowitzky. "Bayboro and Stonewall: The Twins of Pamlico." 184-185 in Norfolk; the Marine Metropolis of Virginia. Norfolk: George I. Nowitsky, 1888. 185.

38. Sue Rainey. "Drawn to Nature: John Douglas Woodward’s Career in Art." In Shaping the Landscape Image, 1865 - 1910: John Douglas Woodward. University of Virginia, Bayly Art Museum exhibition catalog. 1997.

39. Advertisement for Woodward and Son. Opposite 2:296 in New Bern, N. C. Directory 1907–8. Richmond, Virginia: Hill Directory Company, 1907. The company then consisted of Minor and his son, Steward Minor Woodward.

40. Rainey. Woodward was with John Hunt Morgan on his foray into Ohio. Morgan escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary and returned South. [67]

41. Branson spelled the name Kughle.
42. May. 334.

43. "Oriental Lumber Co vs Blades Lumber Co." The Southeastern Reporter 50:270:16 March 1905.

44. Lewis Midyett. Obituary. "Death Comes to the Founder of Oriental, NC." Republished by J.D. Larimore on "Lewis Brason "Lou" Midyette." Find a Grave website. 9 March 2014.

45. J. D. Lewis. "North Carolina Railroads - Elizabeth City & Norfolk Railroad." Carolana website. 2013.

46. Midyett obituary.
47. William S. Powell. "Carolina Bays." NC Pedia website. 2006.

48. Roy L. Ingram and Lee J. Otte. "Peat Deposits of Light Ground Pocosin, Pamlico County, North Carolina." North Carolina Energy Institute and United States Department of Energy, June 1980. The Light Ground pocosin can be seen more clearly on the map posted with the entry for 24 May 2020. It may have been larger in 1896.

49. Lewis.
50. Wikipedia. "Oriental, North Carolina."
51. J.D. Larimore. "Arthur Francis Midyette." Find a Grave website. 9 March 2014.

52. Arthur married Lula Dean Delamar, daughter of Paul Jones Delamar, in 1897. [68] The 1900 Census reported Paul was a sawmill manager. [69]

53. Midyett and Company.
54. J.D. Larimore. "Paul C. Delamar." Find a Grave website. 9 November 2015.

55. loganealogy. "Matthew Midyett- Our North Carolina Pioneer." Loganalogy website. 27 December 2017.

56. Larimore, Lewis Midyett.
57. 4losthistory. "Albin Brinson Campen." Find a Grave website. 21 June 2013.
58. J.D. Larimore. "William Hugh Sawyer." Find a Grave website. 20 August 2014.

59. Annette Hill Jones, Gladys Ford Sodoma, and Salona Jensen McCotter. The History of Vandemere United Methodist Church. Baltimore: Otter Bay Books, 2010. 9. This church was mentioned in the post for 24 May 2020.

60. Jones. 9.
61. J.D. Larimore. "Samuel Campen." Find a Grave website. 8 May 2014.
62. "John Benton Reel." Find a Grave website. 25 November 2014.
63. J.D. Larimore. "Marion Butler Vendrick." Find a Grave website. 28 November 2014.
64. Wikipedia. "Arapahoe, North Carolina."

65. J. D. Lewis. "All Known NC Post Offices - 1785 to 1971." Carolana website. 2007. He spelled the name Hardinson.

66. "Hardison." Obituary for Susan Bowden Hardison. North Carolina Christian Advocate. 8 May 1913. 12. Posted by simpsonjean. 27 October 2018.

67. Wikipedia. "John Hunt Morgan."
68. J.D. Larimore, Arthur Midyette.
69. Find a Grave website. 7 November 2014.