April 18, 2011 Coats
Museum News
Would it not be exciting if we could go back in time and watch our ancestors as they moved about the county in those early decades of 1900? Would we see them traveling in buggies or would they be traveling in those more modern four-wheel contraptions called automobiles? Would travel have been safer when compared to today’s?
“The Harnett County News” (January 2, 1919) reported a regrettable accident occurred between an automobile and buggy. Deputy Sheriff Will McArtan ran into the buggy while trying to avoid two other cars, which met in a bunch. A colored man named Sim Stewart drove the buggy. Sim had a pretty good team, he thought, but on meeting with three more modern vehicles his outfit took the count.
That same edition of the paper reported that J.B. Ennis and J.T. Pollard of Grove Township had to report for jury duty in Lillington. J. B. Ennis several years later would become the chairman of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners and would die while serving on the board and have over 1,000 people attend his funeral.
After reading about the buggy and auto accident that had occurred four miles from Dunn, Harnett residents were probably interested in an article that appeared in the “Harnett County News” (Vol.1-No. 8-1919) about “Good Roads in Harnett”. The editor stated that Harnett County suffered from bad roads. The “paths are filled with mud holes, capable of almost drowning a mule, will never get us far away from the title of ‘swamp county’”. He said Harnett needed good roads because bad roads were a handicap. The sand-clay soil of Harnett County would make a road that would shed water and be always in good condition with the least expense.
The newspaper editor continued that it would seem the part of good wisdom to build them as soon as possible. He observed that the counties which had already built good roads had declared that it was the best investment ever made by them. They would never go back to the old square-rib roads ornamented with mudholes for twice the sum they spent on the roads they have now. Did Harnett leaders follow his advice?
Some of the readers of the earliest Coats Museum News may recall reading about an article written by the same editor when he wrote about Dunn in the Volume 1-Number 9-1919 edition. He sent high praise to the “little City of Dunn, Harnett County”. The editor noted that the town had a business center that is alive as a hornet-wide awake and progressive. That busy town has its bithulithic streets and asphalt sidewalks, commodious buildings, handsome dwellings, and banks that bank on mingling with businessmen. He wrote that one cannot help being impressed with the spirit of progress that permeates the atmosphere. Is there a rebirth of that spirit in downtown Dunn in 2011?
Autos and roads continued to dominate the news in the February editions of the “HCN”. The editor wrote “The N.C. Legislature is determined to pass some sort of road law. He warned the auto owner to be prepared to pay higher taxes. A tax on the horsepower of an automobile had long been the way to fix a levy because it was the easiest and quickest way to put a tax on the car. The writer wrote that taxes were necessary for better roads, but all vehicles should help pay equitable taxes to ride on better highways?” When did they begin to call roads “highways”? The editor continued that “Harnett County needed a few road scrapers and rollers of steam-power variety. The road to progress contains neither ruts nor holes, and that’s the road we are about to travel.” Did mules pull the scrapers?
Was tobacco a major crop in Harnett County in 1919? Robert Boswell of Wilson, N.C. took an occasion to speak to a group of businessmen and farmers at the courthouse according to the “Harnett County News” (Vo.1-No.8-1919). Boswell told the men that the county needs men today who can make two blades grow where only one now grows. He was advocating the growing of tobacco, but urged them not give the entire operation over to it. He suggested so much tobacco, so much cotton, and so much corn.
Wonder if Mr. Boswell lived long enough to see that the safe and sane advice was followed by the Harnett farmers. This I do know. Sheriff W. H. Turlington was making his last plea to the taxpayers to pay their county taxes that had not been paid. The sheriff said that he would be at the First National Bank in Dunn and to come by and pay him there because after February 18, 1919, he would make a call to your home and the cost of collecting would be added to the tax bill (“Harnett County News”, February 18, 1919).
Times were hard in 1919 and next week we shall read how the Coats Brick Company was affected by the economy.
Please be mindful that this article was published in the Daily Record on April 18, 2011.
Would it not be exciting if we could go back in time and watch our ancestors as they moved about the county in those early decades of 1900? Would we see them traveling in buggies or would they be traveling in those more modern four-wheel contraptions called automobiles? Would travel have been safer when compared to today’s?
“The Harnett County News” (January 2, 1919) reported a regrettable accident occurred between an automobile and buggy. Deputy Sheriff Will McArtan ran into the buggy while trying to avoid two other cars, which met in a bunch. A colored man named Sim Stewart drove the buggy. Sim had a pretty good team, he thought, but on meeting with three more modern vehicles his outfit took the count.
That same edition of the paper reported that J.B. Ennis and J.T. Pollard of Grove Township had to report for jury duty in Lillington. J. B. Ennis several years later would become the chairman of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners and would die while serving on the board and have over 1,000 people attend his funeral.
After reading about the buggy and auto accident that had occurred four miles from Dunn, Harnett residents were probably interested in an article that appeared in the “Harnett County News” (Vol.1-No. 8-1919) about “Good Roads in Harnett”. The editor stated that Harnett County suffered from bad roads. The “paths are filled with mud holes, capable of almost drowning a mule, will never get us far away from the title of ‘swamp county’”. He said Harnett needed good roads because bad roads were a handicap. The sand-clay soil of Harnett County would make a road that would shed water and be always in good condition with the least expense.
The newspaper editor continued that it would seem the part of good wisdom to build them as soon as possible. He observed that the counties which had already built good roads had declared that it was the best investment ever made by them. They would never go back to the old square-rib roads ornamented with mudholes for twice the sum they spent on the roads they have now. Did Harnett leaders follow his advice?
Some of the readers of the earliest Coats Museum News may recall reading about an article written by the same editor when he wrote about Dunn in the Volume 1-Number 9-1919 edition. He sent high praise to the “little City of Dunn, Harnett County”. The editor noted that the town had a business center that is alive as a hornet-wide awake and progressive. That busy town has its bithulithic streets and asphalt sidewalks, commodious buildings, handsome dwellings, and banks that bank on mingling with businessmen. He wrote that one cannot help being impressed with the spirit of progress that permeates the atmosphere. Is there a rebirth of that spirit in downtown Dunn in 2011?
Autos and roads continued to dominate the news in the February editions of the “HCN”. The editor wrote “The N.C. Legislature is determined to pass some sort of road law. He warned the auto owner to be prepared to pay higher taxes. A tax on the horsepower of an automobile had long been the way to fix a levy because it was the easiest and quickest way to put a tax on the car. The writer wrote that taxes were necessary for better roads, but all vehicles should help pay equitable taxes to ride on better highways?” When did they begin to call roads “highways”? The editor continued that “Harnett County needed a few road scrapers and rollers of steam-power variety. The road to progress contains neither ruts nor holes, and that’s the road we are about to travel.” Did mules pull the scrapers?
Was tobacco a major crop in Harnett County in 1919? Robert Boswell of Wilson, N.C. took an occasion to speak to a group of businessmen and farmers at the courthouse according to the “Harnett County News” (Vo.1-No.8-1919). Boswell told the men that the county needs men today who can make two blades grow where only one now grows. He was advocating the growing of tobacco, but urged them not give the entire operation over to it. He suggested so much tobacco, so much cotton, and so much corn.
Wonder if Mr. Boswell lived long enough to see that the safe and sane advice was followed by the Harnett farmers. This I do know. Sheriff W. H. Turlington was making his last plea to the taxpayers to pay their county taxes that had not been paid. The sheriff said that he would be at the First National Bank in Dunn and to come by and pay him there because after February 18, 1919, he would make a call to your home and the cost of collecting would be added to the tax bill (“Harnett County News”, February 18, 1919).
Times were hard in 1919 and next week we shall read how the Coats Brick Company was affected by the economy.
Please be mindful that this article was published in the Daily Record on April 18, 2011.
