PIRATES LAND ON 

CURRITUCK BEACH

1820

          Murder and Piracy.—Norfolk (Virginia) July 19.—On Saturday last, five seamen, who had come up from the beach near Currituck Inlet, stopped at a tavern a short distance beyond the draw-bridge, where they deposited their baggage, and came into town [Norfolk]. They reported that they belonged to an English brig bound from New Providence to Liverpool, which had foundered off the coast of North Carolina; but, among other circumstances, that of their having each a considerable number of Spanish dollars, which they carried about them quilted in belts, led to a belief that they had been engaged in some piratical enterprise; and yesterday our vigilant chief magistrate issued his warrant to have them brought up for examination, and accordingly Thomas Jones, John Radcliffe, Charles Rogers, alias Nicholas Wilcom, Philip Pierce, and Nathan Smith, were conducted into court. 
           Nathan Smith, a native of Belfast, State of Maine, was summoned as a witness in the case, and, being sworn, stated, that he shipped at New York, in the ship Curiazo, which ship was bound to Buenos Ayres, where she remained two months. He was then compelled (having no money) to enter on board the ship Union, a patriot privateer; remained on board the Union six months; was sent in a Spanish prize to Buenos Ayres. He then shipped in the Patriot brig General Rondeau, captain David Miles, and sailed on a cruise. He detailed the transactions on the cruise, which extended to the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and in the Mediterranean. They returned through the Straits, and proceeded to the West Indies. The witness then stated as follows:— “The captain (Miles) used the men very ill; and the day after we passed the island of Barbados, the crew mutinied, and rose upon the officers. I was below at the time the mutiny took place, being a little intoxicated. I heard a great noise upon deck, as of a number of people in a scuffle, and now and then the clashing of swords.

1821 map of the Norther Outer Banks showing New Currituck Inlet
near the North Carolina-Virginia border. Taken from OBX Connection:
 http://www.obxconnection.com/outer-banks-forum/forum-thread.aspx?Thread=35991

            “It immediately occurred to me that the crew were engaged in massacring the officers, and on going on deck next morning, I had but too good grounds for suspicions. The deck was sprinkled with blood, and six officer, viz.—Captain David Miles, second lieutenant M’Sweeney, the captain of Marines, the serjeant of marines, purser, master’s mate, and four privates of Marines, were missing, and several of the crew on board severely wounded. I was informed, that the officers and marines who were missing, were sent away in a boat. This happened about 12 miles from an island, the name of which I was ignorant of.            
          “The crew then took charge of the privateer, and appointed Robinson the gunner, captain—hailed the prize-brig, which was still in company, and told the prize-master to go where he pleased. Shifted our course for the United States, and in two days made land; we then stood for Charleston, and, three days after, put three men on board an English brig, and paid the captain for their passage to England 20 bags of sugar. Three days after, spoke a sloop bound to New York; wanted to put some of our men on board of her, but the wind blew too hard: two days after, spoke an American schooner from Savannah for Boston, and put 13 or 15 more of our men on board of her, paying 20 bags of sugar for their passage. Next day made the land again, which proved, to be the coast of North Carolina, when 15 or 16 of the stoutest men remaining on board turned to and plundered the privateer of everything valuable, which they carried ashore with them in a boat, and abandoned the General Rondeau, leaving me and 13 more on board.           
             “Robinson (the captain) then proposed to run into Wilmington [New Hanover Co.], and give the privateer up to the United States, which was determined on. Off the bar we were boarded by a pilot, who remained on board two days, when he left us, and went ashore with Robinson, and five of the crew. We were then chased two days by an United States’ revenue cutter, and escaped in a heavy blow. The General Rondeau leaked very badly for two or three days after the blow, and as soon as we got her with 20 or 30 miles of land we scuttled her, and took to the boat, bringing with us only our clothes. We landed on Currituck beach at night, where we found lodgings, and the next morning proceeded on to Blackwater [River] in a boat, and there hired three carts to fetch us on to Norfolk.” 
            The money which these men had, they say, was taken out of one of the feluccas [two masted ship] captured up the Straits. One states the sum taken to have been 6,000 dollars, and another 14,000 dollars; but the whole was divided amongst the crew after the mutiny. A few bales of cochineal [red dye] were also taken out of the felucca, which were on board the General Rondeau when they abandoned her. The amount found upon the prisoners is 9,272 dollars, 25 cents, which has been deposited in the United States’ Bank. There are two more of the party who came ashore at Currituck, but they were left on the road from Blackwater, being too unwell to travel.                       
            After a patient examination of nearly five hours, the prisoners were all committed to gaol.            Smith, whose description is given above, is the only American of the party. The rest are all Englishmen. It is also stated that the crew of the brig was composed chiefly of English and Spaniards, or natives of South America.
            Robinson and his five companions, who left the privateer off Wilmington bar, have been apprehended at Smithville [Southport], North Carolina, and 4 of the 15 or 16 who had previously left her, are also in custody at Wilmington, North Carolina.

[Taken from The Annual Register: A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year 1820]

CARRIE NATION VISITS

NORTH CAROLINA

__________

Raleigh, Oxford and Rocky Mount

__________

BEWARE YE ALL

CARRIE IS COMING

       

     This was the headline in the Raleigh Times on 24 July 1907. It referred to the expected arrival of the fierce prohibitionist, Carrie Nation. “’Good Morning Carrie’ will be the tune next Monday, when the invincible Carrie Nation, with her dangerous battle-axe, swoops down rough-shod upon this awfully intemperate town of Raleigh.”

Taken from Kansapedia at https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/carry-a-nation/15502

            Carrie had spent several weeks in western North Carolina and now she was headed east. The Times went on: “Carrie is coming in all her war-paint, and upon her arrival, will proceed to tell the jug-toters just what she thinks of them. It is rumored that certain red-nosed residents of this community have arranged for an extended fishing trip for next week, hence will be deprived of the illustrious visitor’s counsel.”

            In Raleigh, the temperance advocate was scheduled to speak twice at Pullen Park and to give street-corner lectures, not only about the evils of alcohol, but also the wickedness of tobacco and corsets.

“SMASHES” EVERYTHING IN SIGHT

was the headline in the News and Observer  on 30 July 1907 after Carrie’s arrival. The second line continued:  “Visited Pool Room and Dispensary—Spoke Twice at Park, Doing Her Revised “Smashing” Stunt to Saloons, Dispensaries, Tobac[c]o Factories.”

            When the train from Greensboro had pulled in and the stout, elderly woman with gray hair stepped down, the small crowd on the platform immediately recognized her. Promptly she began to speak about the 'good news.' Large amounts of tobacco had been destroyed in Orange County in a violent storm. “Rev. Mr. Carver had about forty thousand hills of tobacco…,” she read from a morning newspaper. “When the storm was over the tobacco stalks were left standing … .”

            “I consider the destruction of that tobacco as an answer to my prayers,” said Mrs. Nation. “North Carolina is cursed with a regular cancer in the American Tobacco Company. By the way, they are building a memorial church now to the old man Duke. I say they ought to put a memorial window in that church made of Bull Durham Tobacco and Duke’s Mixture.”

            Carrie Nation was especially well known for her habit of attacking taverns and saloons with a hatchet although she no longer did that. One way she raised money, however, was through the sale of miniature hatchets which she had ready on the platform in Raleigh. 

            As she waited for a street car or hack, she went on to say, “I am opposed to gay and expensive dressing, and I am opposed to balls—or hugging schools, I call them. I warn all boys against marrying ball room girls. I tell them if the girls practice hugging strange men before marriage they are likely to have the same taste afterwards.”

Interior view of a saloon wrecked by Carry Nation and her followers, Enterprise, Kansas.Taken from Kansas Memory at Kansasmemory.org

Carrie Nation on the Evils of Dispensaries

            In 1897, North Carolina had passed a law permitting the establishment of county dispensaries for the sale of alcohol. These dispensaries were a target of Carrie’s wrath. When asked if she was going to visit the local dispensary, she replied, “Yes, I am going there. … It’s a regular hell-hole. And these goody-goody church people put it here—so good that the devil loves them. They tell me that you have a church man, a Sunday school teacher managing the dispensary.” [This was a young man named Snelling.]

            Promising to visit the dispensary at three o’clock that afternoon, she went on to preach against distilleries: “The distiller is the worst murderer in the land.”

At The Park

            She had no set speech, but her theme was: “Carry A. Nation for the Home; Carry A. Nation for Woman.” She touched on sobriety, temperance, purity, virtue, true manhood and womanhood, and railed against the saloon, the dispensary, the pool room, the gambling den, and the places of impurity.

            Suddenly she exclaimed, “Look here, there is a man smoking.” Pointing her finger at him, she said sharply:  “Don’t you know better than to smoke in this audience, sir? They get into such a habit of smoking that they loose [sic] all their manhood and self respect.” Returning to the subject of the dispensary she described it as “a hellhole where rotten slop is dealt out to poison and damn men’s lives and souls and destroy the virtue and womanhood of woman.”

Nude Pictures On Display

            To a News and Observer reporter she told the story of her visit to Lewis’ pool room, giving it a verbal slap. There she saw on the wall a picture of women 'perfectly nude.'  Describing the results of viewing such profanity, she said, “They would bare woman of love, they would bare her of virtue, they would bare her of home, they would bare her of sons, they would bare her of clothing. O, this is a time of making women bare!”

Carrie Nation Hatchet Pin for sale on Ebay

Taxation Without Representation

            Carrie Nation even touched on the subject of women’s right to vote—which they didn’t yet have!  She noted that women who owned property were forced to pay taxes to support courts for the purpose of punishing crime caused by selling liquor which she [the woman] could not vote to stop. “This is taxation,” she declared, “without representation, and is unconstitutional.” She declared that women can’t vote because saloon men know that women would vote them out of business.

            Near the end of her speech, she told of going into the office of the Bull Durham tobacco factory in Durham. She asked ‘a man’ why nude women were pictured in cigarette advertisements, and wondered, if they were going to use pictures of nude women anyway, why he didn’t use pictures of his own wife and daughter. She was promptly ordered out of the office.

Carrie in Oxford in Granville County

            The Oxford Public Ledger reported briefly on August 2: The well advertised Carrie Nation, who is now taking in the North Carolina town ripping things up the back, struck Oxford Wednesday and lectured in the Courthouse at night to quite a good audience. She made her usual talk on whiskey, tobacco, cigarettes, and the dispensary. She jumped on the Oxford dispensary and said our nice granolithic sidewalks put down by dispensary money would not stand. Paid her respects to the tobacco trust, Teddy Roosevelt, Republican and Democratic parties, and was anxious to sell her little hatchet. The receipts were about $30.

And in Rocky Mount in Nash and Edgecombe Counties

            The Wilmington Morning Star noted on 6 Aug 1907—Rocky Mount, N. C., August 3: Mrs. Carrie A. Nation, who has been here for two days, left today for Lynchburg, Va., where she will continue her efforts for prohibition. While here she delivered lectures at the opera house, at Oakland Park and in every saloon in town. Her lectures were attended by very good crowds and aroused considerable interest, but not much enthusiasm.

North Carolina — First in Prohibition

            Prohibition had long appealed to many people in North Carolina. As early as 1852, a petition for prohibition was presented to the General Assembly and in 1881 a referendum was held on the subject, but neither passed and saloons and taverns continued to thrive. The Anti-Saloon League was organized in 1902 with J. W. Bailey, a Warren County senator as its chairman. Many towns were able to stop the sale of alcohol within their limits through special acts of the Assembly.

In 1907, the Anti-Saloon League began a strong push for prohibition. Perhaps that was why Carrie Nation was here. The Watts Act was passed in 1908 forbidding the manufacture or sale of alcohol. North Carolina was the first state in the union to have such a law. It was not until January 1919 that the Eighteenth Amendment was passed making Prohibition the law of the land.

[NCPedia at http://ncpedia.org/anti-saloon-league; Raleigh Times (Raleigh, NC) 24 Jul 1907; News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) 30 July 1907; Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, NC) 2 Aug 1907; Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, NC) 6 Aug 1907]

Tarboro and Edgecombe County 

Business in 1862

            On August 22, 1889, The Tarborough Southerner published a list of business enterprises in Tarboro in 1862. According to the article, there were fewer businesses in 1889 but “those here now are larger and much better equipped and none have gone down except those run by the Confederate Government.”

            The population of the town was about 750-1000 and contained the following establishments:

          

     A Court House, Jail and Town Hall.

     A branch of the State Bank—Robert Bridgers , President: Russell Chapman, Cashier.

     One newspaper office, The Southerner published by Wm. Howard & Co.

     Churches—Episcopal church, Rev. J. Blount Cheshire, D. D. Rector; Methodist, Rev. J. S. Simpson, Pastor; Missionary Baptist, Eld. T. R. Owen, Pastor; Primitive Baptist—4.

      Tarboro Academy—Male Department, F. S. Wilkinson, Principal; Female Department, Miss M. E. Thom, Principal.

     Private School—Elder T. R. Owen and lady, principals.

     Hotels—Edgecombe House, Dr. Joseph H. Baker, proprietor; Tarboro Hotel, by Geo. Howard—2.

     Lawyers—John L. Bridgers and Lorenzo D. Pender—2.

     Physicians—Drs. Joseph H. Baker; Reuben Cobb; Benj. F. Halsey; J. Wesley Jones; A. H. Mcnair and W. T. McNair—6.

     Stores—Austin, Norfleet & Co.; Dowd-Brown & Co.; Dozier & Co.; Jacob Feldenheimer; Hart, Wimberley & Co.; McNair, Bro. & Co.; Hoskins & Scay; D. Pender & Co.; A. A. Willard—9.

     Drug Stores—Wm. Howard & Co.; A. H. Mcnair—2.

      Confectionaries—Seth S. Hicks; John H. Deigh; S. E. Moore; James M. Redmond—4.

Ad taken from The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, NC) 22 Aug 1889

      Milliners—Mrs. M. E. Bond and Mrs. Nancy Hunter—2.

      Jewelers—William Davison and Theo. Brown—2.

      Sadlers—Robt. A. Sizer and James M. Spraggins—2.

      Merchant Tailors—James Mehegan and David Neal—2.

      Coachmakers—N. M. Terrell and Williamson and Stewart—2.

      Cabinetmaker—John W. White—1.

      Carpenters—Wm. Burnett, R. B. Bassett, C. E. Bennett and John F. Ward—4.

      Painters—J. H. Allen, Wm. Bassett, Ed Zoeller and A. Sorg—4

      Boot and shoemakers—T. C. Hussey and Theo Lane—2.

      Bricklayers—Philip H. Garnett—1.

      Livery Stable—Robert H. Rowe—1.

      Bakery—Lawrence Whaley.

      Gunsmith—Julius Holtzscheiter.

      Blacksmith—Isaac Palmountain.

      Hydraulic Engineer—Michel Cohen.

      Tarboro Ranch Railroad—R. A. Watson, Conductor; Thos. Oberry, Ticket Agent.

       Express Office—Thos. Oberry, Agent.

       Steam, Grist and Saw Mill—Oberry & Dunn.

       There is also a water-proof cloth manufactory carried on by T. M. Cook.

       An oil cloth manufactory by David Pender.

       A whiskey distillery on an extensive scale, by Michael Cohen.

       A Confederate Cap manufactory in operation by F. L. Bond.

       A Soap and candle manufactory, by R. B. Bassett.

       And, a Cotton Seed Oil Mill, connected with the manufacture and repair of Agricultural implements and repa[i]ring of machinery, in a state of forwardness by James P. Smith.

       Lodges &c.—Concord Royal Arch Chapter; No 5, James Mehegan, High Priest—regular meeting third  Saturday in each month,

       Concord Lodge, No. 58, Baker Mabrey, Worshipful Master—meet third Saturday in each month.

       Edgecombe Lodge, No. 50, I. O. O. F. James A. Williamson, Noble Grand.

[The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, NC) 22 Aug 1889]