A TRIP TO EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

1897

H. D. G.

A GLANCE at the proposed route, as shown on the map, revealed so many waterways that fears were expressed as to our physical comfort on such a trip at the height of the cold season. Nothing daunted, however, we set sail, and found ourselves one sleety morning in January in Norfolk, en route for Eastern North Carolina via the Norfolk & Southern Railroad. Great was our surprise and pleasure upon finding the private car of the General Manager of the road placed at our disposal, and that genial gentleman himself ready to accompany us as host and companion.

Taken from "A Trip To Eastern North Carolina"

    

        Accustomed as the traveler he traveler in the North is to the superb management of its great railway corporations, he is apt to expect but little from the lesser systems not connected with the great centers of trade. It was, therefore, with no little surprise that we found ourselves speeding along at a rapid rate over a road-bed as firm and well ballasted as the best engineering skill could make it.

            Though the Norfolk & Southern R. R. has not as great length as some of its competitors, the excellent condition of its rolling stock and its general thriftiness have earned for it the enviable reputation of being one of the finest railroads of the South. The road skirts the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, tobacco farms and cotton fields stretch out on either side and large sawmills here and there indicate the flourishing business of this section.

            An hour and a half of this pleasant travel brought us to the bustling town of Elizabeth City. Its rapid recent growth and progress impress all visitors, for there are signs of enterprise and newness on every hand. The water front crowded with storehouses and mills and docks give evidence to the approaching traveler that here is a town keeping even pace with the times in its development along the lines of trade and commerce. Nature, too, has favored the spot, for here we see the encircling forests, the curving banks of the Pasquotank river, rich in picturesque scenes of woodland beauty, with fruit groves and flower gardens, adding here and there their soft and bewitching influences.

 

Taken from "A Trip To Eastern North Carolina"

            The settlers of this “Queen City of Eastern North Carolina” were not without their tendencies toward sentiment. The town was named for the young and beautiful daughter of the owner of the favored tract, and she in turn was the namesake of England’s “Good Queen Bess.” This was upwards of one hundred years ago, when the town was well in the lead of trade with the West Indies, importing largely the staples of salt and molasses. In return she sent out many shingles and staves. Now her increasing thrift depends largely upon the crops of corn, cotton, potatoes, wheat, oats, hay, rice, sorghum and vegetables.

[Taken from "A Trip to Eastern North Carolina" contained in a booklet given Compliments of Old Dominion S. S. Co., 1898. The booklet was found at ECU Library in the Meyers Family Papers. More of this booklet will be published later.]