Chowan River Bridge

            A map of northeastern North Carolina shows a small cluster of counties dangling from the southeastern corner of Virginia, cut off from the rest of the state by the Chowan River. Until 1927, these counties were only accessible by boat or from Virginia. The isolated counties were Gates, Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, and Currituck. 

Six NC Counties Cut Off By Chowan River

            A bridge between Windsor (Bertie County) and Edenton (Chowan County) was approved in 1925 and the Chowan River Bridge was opened to the public on 2 July 1927. It was 1.5 miles long, the longest bridge in the state, and reduced the distance between Edenton and Windsor from 89 miles to 21 ½ miles.

            The official opening of the bridge on July 20 was a spectacular event. The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) 21 July 1927 said: 

“No Such Spectacle Seen By This Generation In State As That Yesterday at Eden House; While Bands Play, Throng Yells and Aircraft Motors Buzz, Ribbon Is Cut Removing Last Symbolic Hindrance To Union of Rich North East With The State; Admirals of The Navy, Generals of The Army and Men High In Public and Private life Present For Momentous Occasion; Edenton Distinguishes Itself Forever In Manner In Which It Handles Big Undertaking.”

            Ben Dixon MacNeill, a reporter with the News & Observer, described his experience at the opening in his column, “Cellar and Garret” on 26 July 1927:

            “… most magnificent spectacle I have ever witnessed, and … the most delightful experience I have had this year. It was almost worth living a generation for. …I climbed aboard a naval torpedo airplane in Edenton Bay and after a little was wandering around in the sky above the bay and the river and the bridge. It was a big ship, and I could walk around and poke my head out first one window of the big cabin and then another.

            Scarcely had Lieutenant Commander Moloney pulled the craft gently out of the water when we began to have company in the air. Flying low over the great oaks at Hayes came the army dirigible TC-5, almost dragging its anchor-lines on the tree tops. Then its sister ship the TC-9i came over, and together we went toward the bridge where the celebration was to be presently staged. Beneath us the revenue cutter Pamlico was steaming its way slowly, and from its decks came faithfully the strains of martial music.

            At first the bridge looked like a spring stretched across the two miles of water, and as we drew nearer it widened. We came lower and swooped down, almost touching the masts of the cutter and soaring upward. The torpedo ship rode the air smoothly and easily, its great motor roaring. The slower dirigibles wee coming along in the rear, seeming scarcely to move. The bridge became a bridge, and there were automobiles crawling along its length. If you looked carefully enough the ceremonial ribbon across the Bertie end of the bridge could be seen. From out of the mists came a squadron of army observation ships, swift and magnificent, sweeping out of the haze in wild-goose formation. They wheeled and turned back, circling for their bearings. The dirigibles cruised over the scene and the navy ships zoomed and climbed up. Then the hour of the ceremony came, and the pilots of the aircraft, observing the time, moved across for the processional. The official parade arrived at the eastern end of the bridge.

            The dirigibles crossed over and turned, flying close together and low over the bridge. The squadron of army ships came over and took up position above and behind the dirigibles, and the big torpedo planes of the navy above and behind them, with their motors throttled back and drifting serenely. The parade moved across the bridge—the groundling automobiles bearing a distinguished company, and above them the silver dirigibles and above them the yellow-winged observation squadron and above them the navy’s craft.

            Never has there been such a parade anywhere. It almost made one delirious to look down upon the spectacle. I guess I behaved like a child at a Christmas tree. Anyway, I had my head poked far out of the rear cockpit, in the full stream of the exhaust from the great motor that was carrying us. I got dirty, but I had an enormous time. The procession moved on and came to the place of ceremony. The pilots gave their mounts full throttle and they soared up and broke the magic formation.

            Time may bring me to witness such another spectacle and I shall hesitate at no length of accumulating grim to be able to witness it. My white pants can get as black as Egypt and such hair as I have accumulate all the exhaust a motor can discharge and all the talkative females in Christendom can assemble to discuss my deplorable condition, but I shall give the, no mind. It was worth it.”

The Sad Tale of the Perquimans County Sheriff

A Sheriff Gagged and Robbed.

            It is stated, that Sheriff Jno. H. Cox, of Perquimans county, was met on the road two miles out of Hertford, the county seat, by two masked men, one armed with a double barrel gun and the other with a pistol, who gagged and tied him to a tree and robbed him of $1642 in money. He was thus found two hours after by some one passing. No clue to the perpetrators.

            Sheriff Cox was taking the money to Edenton [Chowan Co.] to express to Treasurer Worth.

[The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, NC) 20 Feb 1879]

_____________________

            Sheriff J. H. Cox—This gentleman reached this city (Raleigh, Wake co.) Thursday night. He is the sheriff who had the misfortune to be robbed a few days ago in Perquimans county of $1,642. The foot-pads took him from his buggy at the point of a double-barreled gun and pistol and despoiled him of his tax money. He says that being tied for two hours to a tree is all very fine for boys to read about in a yellow-back novel, 4 for a dime, but devilish poor fun for a sheriff who has got to devote his term of office to

retrenchment in order to get even again.

[The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, NC) 21 Feb 1879]

_____________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1879

night session.

            Bill for the relief of Jno. H. Cox, sheriff of Perquimans county. Passed

[Observer (Raleigh, NC) 22 Feb 1879 and 27 Feb 1879]

_____________________

            Robert White has been elected Sheriff of the county of Perquimans to succeed Jno. Cox [who] resigned.

[The Weekly Economist Elizabeth City, NC) 9 Sep 1879]

DOUBLE ACTING ROTARY CHURN

[Taken from The Old North State (Elizabeth City, NC) 20 Apr 1850]

Cows Run Wild

            In the early days in North Carolina, free roaming livestock created problems for many farmers. Experiencing such troubles, Thomas Newby of Perquimans County sought relief from the Court in May 1846, indicating “there runs by his house and Through his lands a public road, though little used by any persons except himself, it being the road to a public landing on Little River & running from the Durant’s Neck Road, to the River — Your Petitioner shows your Worships That he is much annoyed by Stock going down this road to the swamp lying on the River, by their breaking into his fields, and enclosed grounds; and other damages, which he thinks he might remedy without inconvenience to any one by the erection of a gate across the said road … His petition was granted.”

1872 Wood engraving showing the Jersey Cow
From Prints Old and Rare
http://www.printsoldandrare.com/farmanimals/

[Perquimans County Historical Society Year Book, Hertford, NC, 1969]

What's the Total?

gh---gh

What's the Total?

            A Yankee, describing an opponent says “I tell you what, sir, that man does not amount to a sum in arithmetic. Add him up, and there is nothing to carry.

____________

[Perquimans’s Record (Hertford, NC), 2 Sep 1891, Page 1]

Legend of Batz's Grave

LEGEND OF BATZ’S GRAVE.

            Near Drummond’s Point (Perquimans County) on the upper waters of Albemarle Sound, lies a solitary island, now uninhabited (Chowan County), once the home where the goat browsed and the gull built its nest and defied the storm with its discordant scream. Its name is “Batz’s Grave.” Within living memory no man has dwelt thereon, but, within living memory it was the roost of myriads of migratory gulls, who held undisturbed possession of their island home.

            There is a legend about that desert island that furnishes food for the contemplative, a legend of love and sadness, a legend of Jesse Batz and Kickowanna, a beautiful maiden of the Chowanoke tribe of Indians.

            Batz was a hunter and trapper on the upper waters of Albemarle Sound, and was one of the earliest settlers that made a home in that paradise of the Indian hunter, where the wild game alone disputed his supremacy.

            Jesse Batz made his temporary home on the island that the Indians sometimes visited and called Kaloha, from the innumerable flocks of sea-gulls that disturbed its solitude. Batz was friendly, and sometimes joined the Indians in their hunting parties. He was young, comely and athletic. He became familiar to the Indians in their wigwams, and the chase.

This is a portion of the 1733 Moseley Map showing the tiny island, Batts Grave.
The map is at East Carolina University.

    
      There was one who was the light of the wigwam of the Chowanokes—who sometimes looked at Jesse Batz with the love-light in her eye—the pretty, nut-brown Kickowanna. Her eye was as a sloe, and her long and glossy hair was as a raven’s wing. Her step was agile and graceful as the “down that rides upon the breeze.” 

      While Batz, the hunter, let fly the bowstring that brought down the antlered stag of the forest, a better archer aimed at Jesse’s heart the fatal arrow, and he, too, fell, a victim of Cupid’s unerring aim. The insidious poison rankled in his veins. He was a changed man in every look and tissue of his being. The chase had lost its charm. His eye would droop when Kickowanna came. She was daughter of the old King of the Chowanokes, Kilkanoo, the jewel of his eye. Kickowanna was a peri [sic] of beauty. Famed she was throughout the land. The great Pamunky chief of the Chasamonpeak tribes to the north had sought her hand, and had offered alliance to Kilkanoo, chief of the Chowanokes, but his suit was rejected and he sought to obtain by violence what he could not by courtly supplication. 

      War raged for a time between Pamunky and Kilkanoo. Batz fought with the Chowanokes. His valor, his strategy and his success were conspicuous. He led the Indian braves. In a hand-to-hand personal encounter with Pamunky he clove him down with his Indian club, but the prostrate Pamunky sued for mercy. Batz’s ire softened, and he gave him his life. For Batz’s deeds of bravery Kilkanoo adopted him as a member of the Chowanoke tribe, under the adopted name of Secotan, which, interpreted, is— “The Great White Eagle.”

            Batz grew in favor and influence with the Chowanokes. He was always present at their councils, at their harvest dances, their war dances; and when they smoked the calumet he was given the biggest pipe of peace. Batz became an adopted Indian of the Chowanoke tribe. He adopted the Indian dress and customs. 

     The pretty Indian maiden, Kickowanna, whom he loved, and by whom he was loved, with winning words of love distilled into his willing ears the siren voice of ambition, and whispered low that when her father, Kilkanoo, should be beckoned up to the “happy hunting grounds,” he would be his chosen successor, King of the warlike Chowanokes. Batz and Kickowanna lived and loved together. She penciled his eyebrows with the vermilion of the cochukee root. She put golden rings in his nose and ears. She wound long strings of priceless pearls around his neck. She put the moccasin shoes and leggings around his feet and limbs. She folded his auburn locks in fantastic folds around the top of his head, and decked it with the eagle’s feather, emblematic of his rank and station. And then she gave him the calumet of peace and love. And while he smoked the calumet of peace and happiness, eye met eye responsive in language known alone to love. He then looked the big Indian indeed, and the dream of love encompassed them.

           While this dreamy delirium prevailed the stream of love ran on in its varying smooth and turbulent current. Batz, now a recognized power with the Chowanokes, made frequent visits to his old island home, sometimes prolonged. While there in his solitude, the waves and the seagulls sang a lullaby to his weird fancies. The beauteous Indian maiden sometimes came from her home at the upper broad waters, and her visits were love’s own paradise. She came from the opposite shore of the mainland, paddling her light canoe. No season knew her coming. Sometimes in the silent watches of the night, sometimes in the glare of midday. Always alone. Always aglow with love. And when she came it was love’s high pastime. The scream of the white gull was the chant of love. The monotone of the waves was the lullaby of love. The sighing of the winds as they swept through the pendant mosses was a sigh of love, the very solitude and silence of the forest was love’s chosen temple, and every nook and recess was a shrine.

            One night—alas, it was a night of destiny! The Indian maiden came, as was her wont. The angry clouds looked down, the storm raged, every scream of every sea-bird betokened danger nigh. The wind blew as ‘twas its last, the lightning flashed, thunder pealed and the welkin rang with the echoes of the blast. But love defies danger, and the pretty Indian maiden pushed through the storm to the lone island, with the roar of thunder for her watery funeral requiem.

            Batz never left the island more. He remained there till he died, a broken-hearted man, shattered in mind and body, and he rests there in his final rest till the resurrection note calls him to meet his loved Kickowanna.

[This was taken from Literature in the Albemarle by Bettie Freshwater Pool, 1915. 

The story was written by Col. R. B. Creecy.]

Nathaniel Batts (1620–1679) was a fur trader. In 1655, he was the first recorded European to permanently settle in North Carolina. His deed from King Kiscutanewh for “all ye Land on ye southwest side of Pascotanck River from ye mouth of ye sd. River to ye head of new Begin Creek” was witnessed by George Durant in September, 1660. Later he purchased an island in Albemarle Sound near the mouth of the Yeopim River that became known as Batts Island. Some charts refer to the island as Batts Grave since he lived a solitary life on the island and was buried there. The island eroded through the years and was totally destroyed by a hurricane in 1950.   Quaker missionary, George Fox, noted that Nathaniel Batts “hath been a Rude, desperate man.” In his later years, Nathaniel  spent more time with Native Americans than he did with other European settlers.  A 1650 map  identifies “Batts House” on the western bank of the Chowan River and the northern bank of the Roanoke River where the two intersect.

               A 1696 Chowan County Deed documents the sale of 27 acres known as Batts Grave.  The 1733 Mosley Map of North Carolina and the 1770 Collett Map both show an island in the Albemarle sound near the mouth of the Yeopim River and identify it as “Bats Grave.”

[Taken from Native Heritage Project Website: https://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/08/28/the-legend-of-batz-grave/]

GENERAL POST OFFICE

Philadelphia

August 25, 1793

Mrs. Sarah DeCrow

Madam:

In the absence of the Postmaster General, I have received your letter in which you expressed a wish to resign your office in consequence of the small compensation that you received for your services. You are mistaken in supposing that you were entitled to no more than 20% compensation. You are entitled to 40% which is the highest rate of compensation the Postmaster General is authorized to allow to any of his deputies. I am sensible that the pecuniary advantages arising from your office cannot be much inducement to you to hold it, yet I flatter myself you will continue to do the business for the benefit of the town and neighborhood. If, however, you should decline holding the office any longer, be pleased to recommend some suitable character to succeed you. Mr. Blount's contract for carrying the mail does not expire until 1 June 1794, when proposals will again be received for the conveyance of the mail, and you will then have an opportunity of making yours which will be duly attended to.

(Signed) C. B.

From: Postmaster General Letter Book of June 13, 1792—October 27, 1793.

 

"In 1792 Sarah Decrow was recorded as the first woman postmaster appointed under the Constitution. She was in charge of the Hertford, [Perquimans County] North Carolina, Post office. Disappointed with the small compensation she was receiving, Decrow sent letters [including the one above] to the Postmaster General on several accounts, expressing her intent to resign from her post. On behalf of Postmaster General Timothy Pickering, the Assistant Postmaster General responded by asking her to reconsider her decision. In his letter to her, he claimed that Decrow was receiving the 'highest rate of commission the Postmaster General is authorized to allow to any of his deputies.'
 

"The Assistant Postmaster General's statement proves the ambiguous treatment of women in the postal system. In that one sentence, he defends equal pay between men and women."[1]

 

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[1] “Women in the U. S. Postal System,”   http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/WomenHistory/women_history/history_republic.html

[The letter was taken from Town of Hertford bi-centennial, 1758-1958 : and historic data of Perquimans County, North Carolina]

Early Quakers in Northeastern North Carolina

"Benjamin Mendinghall came a travelling fom Pensillvaney along with Samuel Hopwood and was taken sick and died 5-13-1743."[1] This notice appeared in the records of the Pasquotank County, North Carolina Quaker Monthly Meeting.

 Quakerism arrived in North Carolina about 1665 when Henry Phillips (Phelps) and his wife Hannah arrived from Salem, Massachusetts and settled in what was then Albemarle. They made their home at a place that was probably near what is now Hertford in Perquimans County, North Carolina.

William Edmundson, an Irish Quaker missionary, traveled to eastern North Carolina in 1672. He kept a diary in which he described a worship service at the home of Henry Phillips (Phelps) for settlers in the wilderness area south of the Great Dismal Swamp:

 “... having not seen a Friend for seven years before, they [Henry and Hannah Phelps] wept for joy to see us; yet it being on a First day morning when we got there, I was weary and faint, and my cloths all wet. I desire them to send to the people there-away to come to a meeting about the middle of the day, and I would lye down upon a bed, and if I slept too long, that they should awake me. Now about the hour appointed many people came, but they had little or no religion, for they came, and sat down in the meeting smoking their pipes; but in a little time, the Lord's testimony arose in the authority of His power, and their hearts being reached with it, several of them were tendered, and received the testimony. After meeting they desire me to stay with them, and let them have more meetings....”[2]

  “Among the early settlers who attended that first meeting were Francis Toms, Joseph Scott, Nathaniel Batts, and Hugh Smith.”[3]   Edmundson must have made an impression on those who attended the first meeting because he held a second meeting at the home of Francis Toms.

George Fox, Englishman and founder of the Religious Society of Friends— or Quakers— arrived in North Carolina a few months after Edmundson’s visit. He held several meetings around the area and established a Quarterly Meeting, the first structured religious body in North Carolina. The Society of Friends spread throughout the northeast corner of North Carolina, particularly in Pasquotank and Perquimans Counties. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire wrote in the North Carolina Booklet of April, 1906, page 261: “Quakerism was the only organized form of religion in the colony, with no rival worship among the people for the rest of the seventeenth century (1672-1700).”

George Fox

The Society of Friends was based on Fox’s belief “that to every man God was speaking in the depth of his own soul, if only he would listen and obey.” [4]  There was no need for clergy to interpret God. All people are connected and that to hurt someone was to hurt God. This meant that Quakers were pacifists. The Friends also practiced plainness—in dress and in speech.

A Quaker Meeting was a time for quiet and contemplation, listening rather than talking. If a member felt a need to share his thoughts, he was free to stand up and express himself. It was often the case that no one felt the need to speak for long periods of time.

The origin of the name Quaker is disputed. However, George Fox recorded this account in his Journal. In 1650, Fox was brought before Justice Bennet of Derby in England on a charge of blasphemy. According to Fox's Journal, Bennet "called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God." 

Below is a map showing the early Quaker Meetings in northeastern North Carolina.

Map of Albemarle. Early sites of Quaker meetings in Perquimans and Pasquotank Counties are shown.[5]

Many records of early Quaker Meetings—Quarterly and Annual—have survived. They provide an interesting portrait of early events in the lives of northeastern North Carolina Friends. For example, at the Annual Meeting of 1708, the following: "The judgment of this meeting, considering the indecency of Friends in not keeping of their places in meeting—that Friends keep their places as much as possible, and not run in and out in times of worship and likewise in meetings of business." In other words, stay in your seat! At the same meeting, it was decided that the Annual Meeting was too large if everyone was allowed to come. Instead, twelve men were named to make up the Meeting. No women were included.

In 1709 the only business before the Yearly Meeting was the settlement of a difficulty between Francis Toms and his son in-law, Gabriel Newby. Among other things, Newby accused Toms of: “…contrary to good order used amongst us, set with his hat on when Gabriel was at prayer, and when he was preaching turned his back to him as a dislike to his testimony."

Quakers were active in the politics of colonial North Carolina. In fact, John Archdale, a Quaker, was once governor. In 1711, one of the twelve members of the Annual Meeting, Emanual Lowe, son-in-law of former governor Archdale, was not allowed to take part in the Meeting because he had “acted divers things contrary to our ways and privileges." His error was "in stirring up a parcel of men in arms, and going to Pamlico, and from thence to Chowan in a barkentine with men and force of arms contrary to our holy principles."[6] The event that precipitated Lowe’s un-Friend-like actions was the Cary Rebellion, a political and religious disagreement in which Quaker governor Thomas Cary refused to turn the governorship over to Edward Hyde.

In 1715, there is a complaint that might be familiar to modern ears:  "Meetings for worship and discipline are not so well attended."  In 1716 there was concern about "superfluity of apparel," and the next year, it was directed that no “victuals or drink be provided except as the case may require” at funerals. By 1740 there was complaint about sleeping in meeting. After all, it was quiet and peaceful.

One final admonition: “No Friend can wear a wig without the consent of his Monthly Meeting."[7] It is worthy of mention that the Perquimans Friends did not grant a request for a wig. A few years later, permission was granted, but the person who requested permission was advised “to wear a plain one.”

Although the Annual Meeting was held at various locations, mostly in Perquimans County, North Carolina, from 1698 to 1787 they were all held in the Eastern Quarter, or northeastern North Carolina. As migration increased from places like Pennsylvania, New England and other northern areas, the fellowship of Quakers mushroomed in western areas of the state. Beginning in 1787 and continuing to 1812, the Annual Meeting alternated between the Eastern Quarter (Perquimans and Pasquotank Counties) and the Western Quarter (Guilford County). After that, the center of influence moved to the Western Quarter. Below is a picture of the first Meeting House, which was in Guilford Co.[8]

NOTE: It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss Quaker view on the issues of education, slavery and war. However, the reader can easily find information on these topics.

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[1] Hinshaw's N. C. Quaker Records, Vol. 1, Page 102 of the Pasquotank Monthly Meeting.

[2] Life, Travels, Sufferings, and Labour of Love in the Work of the Ministry … by William Edmundson:1829, Page 61. A Google Book

[3] http://zeus.as.arizona.edu/~dmccarthy/HillFamily/JILL/C2.html

[4] “Quaker Thought & History, George Fox and Christian Theology” by Edward Grubb: http://www.strecorsoc.org/grubb/qth01.html

[5] http://www.carolana.com/NC/Counties/pasquotank_county_nc.html

[6] Julia S. White , “History of North Carolina Meeting,”  Bulletin of Friends Historical Society of Philadelphia (February 1909): p4

[7] White 9

[8] White Facing III, I