August 22, 2025 Coats Museum News
Do you know what the letters RFD represent? Did you say, “Sure I do, but it could represent many things.” Have you ever gone through old documents, letters or personal items of deceased ones and discovered that even though they had always lived in the same house, the mailing address had changed over time?
In my column today, you will discover that there was a time before 1906 that there was no Rural Free Delivery (RFD) of mail in most of our country. The mail was likely delivered by stagecoach or train. The Pony Express is another story. The receivers of the mail would pick it up in the homes of the postmasters. For example in our area, there were several post offices-Turlington, Troyville, and Barclaysville.
Let’s revisit our Grove area in the early 1880’s. There might have been a silver dollar in the man’s pant pocket, a bicycle in the yard, and an Edison phonograph in the parlor. Coats would have been in Grove Township since 1870. James Thomas Coats would now be an ordained elder in the Primitive Baptist Church –there was no Gift Primitive Baptist Church in the 1880’s.
Harnett County would have had 10,862 population of which 3,770 were colored and 7,092 were white. In 1882, the real estate value of the county was $572,016.00 and personal property value was $152,767.00. The average assessed value of land per acre was only $1.45. Does that not blow your mind?
Possibly in a later column, I could share much more about the life of the early pioneers of our area in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. For now I will share that there was no post office in Coats because there was no Coats. There was a Troyville and Joseph Ary Stewart was the postmaster in his house located possibly in the area between Angel Hedgepeth Elliott and the Coats Baptist Church. Since the Stewart Cemetery is in that area, it is concluded the house was near it. If anyone knows differently, the museum folks would love to record the exact location of the Troyville post office.
The rural receivers of the mail would travel by wagon, buggy or walk to get their mail from the post offices. After the Cape Fear and Northern Rail was laid around 1903, (Coats was incorporated as Coats in 1905), the train brought the mail to the area where Andrew Coats, son of Preacher Tom Coats, was the first postmaster of Coats and there was no longer a Troyville post office.
An additional interesting fact is that early on there could be two deliveries to rural mail boxes in the country but in the December 1, 1995 edition of the Daily Record, the news was that Ed and Grace Dixon had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their children at the Meat and Cleaver Steakhouse in Sanford where they had enjoyed dinner, a beautiful cake and gifts. Ed and Grace’s girls were Elaine and Danny Thomas and Pam and Vince Altman. Grace Dixon had been a smiling face at the Coats Post Office for years.
The year 1945 must have been a popular year for weddings. John B. and Agatha Stephenson had planned their 50th celebration at the Coats Sr. Center and Jim and Virginia Pollard also had plans for theirs at that same center.
The Christmas Ornament was on sale at the CACC office and it featured the Coats Senior Center. Does anyone know how many years they sold these ornaments –they would make for a beautiful display at the museum?
Congratulations were due to the Applied Computer Technologies (ACT) on being recognized as one of Harnett’s fastest growing industries. For those on this historical journey with me might not know that Kent Hudson (CHS Class of 1971) and Carsie Denning, Jr. whose roots in Harnett go back to Seth Lee of Abattoir Road, started the ACT Company (Daily Record Dec. 1. 1995).
How awesome it is that visitors to the museum are keeping the Thursday volunteers busy giving tours. Becky Adams and Betty Wolf are excited as they are in fast mode to organize a Young Historian Club. Lenny Parker must have more batteries than a Tesla as he is everywhere and doing everything to keep the museum folks hopping. David Barnes is seen all around keeping the technology up to date. Robbie Butler and Betty Wolf work hard to keep the financial records. Becky Adams works tirelessly recording all that happens at the museum from financial support, to items loaned and donated, tasks accomplished and posting the Coats Museum News column alone with Funding on our coatsmuseum.com website. Lynda Butler is busy matching pictures to the column for the Daily Record. Randy Stephenson, Walter Weeks and Lenny are working to get land records up to date so the museum can move forward with building another addition to the museum to display some amazing gifted and loaned items in storage.
An entire column could be written on appreciation for those who support the museum. Jonathan Weaver (Kenneth and Ann’s son) donated top soil needed at the museum and David Barnes - a laptop; Thorp & Clarke, PA, Gayle Sorrell, Ralph and Lorena Denning, John and Jenny Wiggins, Larry and Brenda Smith, and Becky Adams have memorialized Eddie Vaughan. Verle Flowers was remembered by her daughter and son-in-law William and Sandra Barnard; Tommy Ennis and JoAnne Turlington were remembered by Becky Adams and Gayle Sorrell and Hilda Pope and Randy and Rhonda Stephenson remembered Edna Lockamy—thank you to all of these donors- you are making a difference.
Do you know what the letters RFD represent? Did you say, “Sure I do, but it could represent many things.” Have you ever gone through old documents, letters or personal items of deceased ones and discovered that even though they had always lived in the same house, the mailing address had changed over time?
In my column today, you will discover that there was a time before 1906 that there was no Rural Free Delivery (RFD) of mail in most of our country. The mail was likely delivered by stagecoach or train. The Pony Express is another story. The receivers of the mail would pick it up in the homes of the postmasters. For example in our area, there were several post offices-Turlington, Troyville, and Barclaysville.
Let’s revisit our Grove area in the early 1880’s. There might have been a silver dollar in the man’s pant pocket, a bicycle in the yard, and an Edison phonograph in the parlor. Coats would have been in Grove Township since 1870. James Thomas Coats would now be an ordained elder in the Primitive Baptist Church –there was no Gift Primitive Baptist Church in the 1880’s.
Harnett County would have had 10,862 population of which 3,770 were colored and 7,092 were white. In 1882, the real estate value of the county was $572,016.00 and personal property value was $152,767.00. The average assessed value of land per acre was only $1.45. Does that not blow your mind?
Possibly in a later column, I could share much more about the life of the early pioneers of our area in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. For now I will share that there was no post office in Coats because there was no Coats. There was a Troyville and Joseph Ary Stewart was the postmaster in his house located possibly in the area between Angel Hedgepeth Elliott and the Coats Baptist Church. Since the Stewart Cemetery is in that area, it is concluded the house was near it. If anyone knows differently, the museum folks would love to record the exact location of the Troyville post office.
The rural receivers of the mail would travel by wagon, buggy or walk to get their mail from the post offices. After the Cape Fear and Northern Rail was laid around 1903, (Coats was incorporated as Coats in 1905), the train brought the mail to the area where Andrew Coats, son of Preacher Tom Coats, was the first postmaster of Coats and there was no longer a Troyville post office.
An additional interesting fact is that early on there could be two deliveries to rural mail boxes in the country but in the December 1, 1995 edition of the Daily Record, the news was that Ed and Grace Dixon had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their children at the Meat and Cleaver Steakhouse in Sanford where they had enjoyed dinner, a beautiful cake and gifts. Ed and Grace’s girls were Elaine and Danny Thomas and Pam and Vince Altman. Grace Dixon had been a smiling face at the Coats Post Office for years.
The year 1945 must have been a popular year for weddings. John B. and Agatha Stephenson had planned their 50th celebration at the Coats Sr. Center and Jim and Virginia Pollard also had plans for theirs at that same center.
The Christmas Ornament was on sale at the CACC office and it featured the Coats Senior Center. Does anyone know how many years they sold these ornaments –they would make for a beautiful display at the museum?
Congratulations were due to the Applied Computer Technologies (ACT) on being recognized as one of Harnett’s fastest growing industries. For those on this historical journey with me might not know that Kent Hudson (CHS Class of 1971) and Carsie Denning, Jr. whose roots in Harnett go back to Seth Lee of Abattoir Road, started the ACT Company (Daily Record Dec. 1. 1995).
How awesome it is that visitors to the museum are keeping the Thursday volunteers busy giving tours. Becky Adams and Betty Wolf are excited as they are in fast mode to organize a Young Historian Club. Lenny Parker must have more batteries than a Tesla as he is everywhere and doing everything to keep the museum folks hopping. David Barnes is seen all around keeping the technology up to date. Robbie Butler and Betty Wolf work hard to keep the financial records. Becky Adams works tirelessly recording all that happens at the museum from financial support, to items loaned and donated, tasks accomplished and posting the Coats Museum News column alone with Funding on our coatsmuseum.com website. Lynda Butler is busy matching pictures to the column for the Daily Record. Randy Stephenson, Walter Weeks and Lenny are working to get land records up to date so the museum can move forward with building another addition to the museum to display some amazing gifted and loaned items in storage.
An entire column could be written on appreciation for those who support the museum. Jonathan Weaver (Kenneth and Ann’s son) donated top soil needed at the museum and David Barnes - a laptop; Thorp & Clarke, PA, Gayle Sorrell, Ralph and Lorena Denning, John and Jenny Wiggins, Larry and Brenda Smith, and Becky Adams have memorialized Eddie Vaughan. Verle Flowers was remembered by her daughter and son-in-law William and Sandra Barnard; Tommy Ennis and JoAnne Turlington were remembered by Becky Adams and Gayle Sorrell and Hilda Pope and Randy and Rhonda Stephenson remembered Edna Lockamy—thank you to all of these donors- you are making a difference.