February 1, 2013 Coats Museum News
Last week, you were asked to recall the days of 1937 when a pack house was a prominent building on all tobacco farms. Once the green tobacco was cured into dry golden leaves, it was removed from the tobacco barn and transported to a building referred to as the pack house for storage until it was graded, bundled (You thought that was a 21st century word, right?) and transported to markets which might have been in Dunn, Fuquay, Durham, Smithfield, Fairmont, Chadburn, or other unknown destinations.
The trailer packed high with sticks of cured tobacco had reached the pack house last week in the Coats Museum News column. The family which had worked in the dark with only the light of a couple of kerosene lanterns to load the tobacco were likely seeing the sky lighten as dawn was approaching when the family crew switched jobs. This time the older youth would remove the sticks of tobacco from the trailer and pass them to others until they reached their dad who packed the sticks of tobacco in a wind-row pattern against one of the walls in the barn; hence, we have a “pack house”.
The farmer had to calculate where the barns of tobacco were packed because the entire tobacco crop had to be stored into that barn. Many barns were two stories tall requiring the sticks of tobacco to be passed through a small opening in the floor of the second level. Some farmers allowed the barn of tobacco to stay in that wind-row pattern for about a week and then the family penned the tobacco.
Penning tobacco meant that two sets of four sticks were piled in a square pattern, interlocking with two sets of four sticks having the bottoms of the leaves touching each other. Then the same process was used except two sets of four sticks were turned the opposite direction on the layer below it. Each layer always had sticks and stems turned to the outside of the pen. Again, the penner had to keep the sticks even or this penned tobacco would tilt over and could damage the leaves of gold and require extra time which was valued on the farm in the summer time.
After the entire crop was harvested, the pack house was full of large squares of penned cured tobacco. The farmer often tagged the piles so he would know the different curings of the tobacco. The barn with all of its curings neatly stacked was like a maze that had to be followed to get to a particular curing when it was to be taken to the tobacco pit to order it before it was to be graded in the strip room-but that is a different story.
Hence, when Joe Penny lost his pack house, it had to have been devastating to the family. A year of work was destroyed along with the pack house which would have to be rebuilt in time for next year’s crop. How would they replace the income that went up in smoke?
Wonder if any of the Penny boys or girls drove a school bus for the Coats Union School. If so, they were made aware that the N.C. General Assembly had passed a law requiring anyone who would drive a school bus during the school year to take a test administered by a highway patrolman. Those passing the test were to receive an attractive certificate (Harnett County News September 23, 1937).
The Harnett County Board of Commissioners requested from Commissioner D.B. McCrary that the State Highway and Public Works Commission take over and maintain a road from Barclaysville to Bethel Church and thence to F.L. Denning’s place to the Coats-Bethel Church Road near H.C. Norris (Harnett County News October 7, 1937).
U.S. Deputy Marshal H.A. Turlington was called to the Wake County jail where the prisoners refused to eat the regular fanfare. To decide whether there were any valid reasons for the revolt, Marshal Turlington ate a dinner at the jail and pronounced the food excellent. The prisoner who caused the revolt was segregated after which the other prisoners made up for lost meals and the affair was settled peacefully (Harnett County News October 7, 1937).
The same edition of the newspaper recorded that after the conference with county officials, Principal J.T. Jerome announced that both Coats and Oakdale Schools would be closed because of a water shortage. The Coats School had been receiving their water from a private reservoir of Mr. Fred Byrd. A prolonged drought had resulted in a shortage of water.
Rain fell in the Coats and Oakdale School areas and the schools were reopened. The task of digging a deep well had started last week but not completed so Byrd offered the use of his reservoir until the well was completed. The addition of the 1936 building and the consolidation of all but one of the Grove Township school s had rendered the reservoir of Mr. Byrd’s to be insufficient (Harnett County News October 14, 1937).
For those of you who can recall watching the Waltons sit around the radio and listen to the happenings outside of Walton’s Mountain, you might wonder if our ancestors here in Harnett County did likewise. If so, wonder if they listened in disbelief when Sydney G. McAllister, president of International Harvester Machine, Co., said in a few years that a machine to pick cotton would do the work of millions of hand pickers (Harnett County News October 14, 1937).
Efforts to find water on the Coats School site were abandoned. After digging 182 feet, drillers advised that another site be located. State Geologist Bryson was called in and gave the opinion that there was no underground water within a half-mile of the school. However, the Byrd reservoir had picked up considerably and no shortage was feared in the near future.
The same issue of the Harnett County News (October21, 1937) reported that H.A. Turlington had won three blue ribbons at the County Fair. Roger Sexton’s Percheron mare had won the pulling contest. Do you recall that his horses had helped dig out the auditorium in the 1936 Coats School auditorium and that Joe Grimes and Delma Grimes had used mules to dig out the basement of the first 1920-21 brick building on the Coats School campus?
Special thanks to those who gave the memorial gifts to the Coats Museum Endowment to honor the memory of J.W. Coats and Brandon Denning and also thanks goes to Major Faircloth who brought some interesting artifacts to be used in the museum. We might need help in identifying one of them.
PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THIS COATS MUSEUM NEWS APPEARED IN THE DAILY RECORD 2-1-2013
Last week, you were asked to recall the days of 1937 when a pack house was a prominent building on all tobacco farms. Once the green tobacco was cured into dry golden leaves, it was removed from the tobacco barn and transported to a building referred to as the pack house for storage until it was graded, bundled (You thought that was a 21st century word, right?) and transported to markets which might have been in Dunn, Fuquay, Durham, Smithfield, Fairmont, Chadburn, or other unknown destinations.
The trailer packed high with sticks of cured tobacco had reached the pack house last week in the Coats Museum News column. The family which had worked in the dark with only the light of a couple of kerosene lanterns to load the tobacco were likely seeing the sky lighten as dawn was approaching when the family crew switched jobs. This time the older youth would remove the sticks of tobacco from the trailer and pass them to others until they reached their dad who packed the sticks of tobacco in a wind-row pattern against one of the walls in the barn; hence, we have a “pack house”.
The farmer had to calculate where the barns of tobacco were packed because the entire tobacco crop had to be stored into that barn. Many barns were two stories tall requiring the sticks of tobacco to be passed through a small opening in the floor of the second level. Some farmers allowed the barn of tobacco to stay in that wind-row pattern for about a week and then the family penned the tobacco.
Penning tobacco meant that two sets of four sticks were piled in a square pattern, interlocking with two sets of four sticks having the bottoms of the leaves touching each other. Then the same process was used except two sets of four sticks were turned the opposite direction on the layer below it. Each layer always had sticks and stems turned to the outside of the pen. Again, the penner had to keep the sticks even or this penned tobacco would tilt over and could damage the leaves of gold and require extra time which was valued on the farm in the summer time.
After the entire crop was harvested, the pack house was full of large squares of penned cured tobacco. The farmer often tagged the piles so he would know the different curings of the tobacco. The barn with all of its curings neatly stacked was like a maze that had to be followed to get to a particular curing when it was to be taken to the tobacco pit to order it before it was to be graded in the strip room-but that is a different story.
Hence, when Joe Penny lost his pack house, it had to have been devastating to the family. A year of work was destroyed along with the pack house which would have to be rebuilt in time for next year’s crop. How would they replace the income that went up in smoke?
Wonder if any of the Penny boys or girls drove a school bus for the Coats Union School. If so, they were made aware that the N.C. General Assembly had passed a law requiring anyone who would drive a school bus during the school year to take a test administered by a highway patrolman. Those passing the test were to receive an attractive certificate (Harnett County News September 23, 1937).
The Harnett County Board of Commissioners requested from Commissioner D.B. McCrary that the State Highway and Public Works Commission take over and maintain a road from Barclaysville to Bethel Church and thence to F.L. Denning’s place to the Coats-Bethel Church Road near H.C. Norris (Harnett County News October 7, 1937).
U.S. Deputy Marshal H.A. Turlington was called to the Wake County jail where the prisoners refused to eat the regular fanfare. To decide whether there were any valid reasons for the revolt, Marshal Turlington ate a dinner at the jail and pronounced the food excellent. The prisoner who caused the revolt was segregated after which the other prisoners made up for lost meals and the affair was settled peacefully (Harnett County News October 7, 1937).
The same edition of the newspaper recorded that after the conference with county officials, Principal J.T. Jerome announced that both Coats and Oakdale Schools would be closed because of a water shortage. The Coats School had been receiving their water from a private reservoir of Mr. Fred Byrd. A prolonged drought had resulted in a shortage of water.
Rain fell in the Coats and Oakdale School areas and the schools were reopened. The task of digging a deep well had started last week but not completed so Byrd offered the use of his reservoir until the well was completed. The addition of the 1936 building and the consolidation of all but one of the Grove Township school s had rendered the reservoir of Mr. Byrd’s to be insufficient (Harnett County News October 14, 1937).
For those of you who can recall watching the Waltons sit around the radio and listen to the happenings outside of Walton’s Mountain, you might wonder if our ancestors here in Harnett County did likewise. If so, wonder if they listened in disbelief when Sydney G. McAllister, president of International Harvester Machine, Co., said in a few years that a machine to pick cotton would do the work of millions of hand pickers (Harnett County News October 14, 1937).
Efforts to find water on the Coats School site were abandoned. After digging 182 feet, drillers advised that another site be located. State Geologist Bryson was called in and gave the opinion that there was no underground water within a half-mile of the school. However, the Byrd reservoir had picked up considerably and no shortage was feared in the near future.
The same issue of the Harnett County News (October21, 1937) reported that H.A. Turlington had won three blue ribbons at the County Fair. Roger Sexton’s Percheron mare had won the pulling contest. Do you recall that his horses had helped dig out the auditorium in the 1936 Coats School auditorium and that Joe Grimes and Delma Grimes had used mules to dig out the basement of the first 1920-21 brick building on the Coats School campus?
Special thanks to those who gave the memorial gifts to the Coats Museum Endowment to honor the memory of J.W. Coats and Brandon Denning and also thanks goes to Major Faircloth who brought some interesting artifacts to be used in the museum. We might need help in identifying one of them.
PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THIS COATS MUSEUM NEWS APPEARED IN THE DAILY RECORD 2-1-2013