February 21, 2011
Coats Museum News
Growth was moving full steam in Coats when on the national level, Woodrow Wilson was elected U.S. President in 1912.This Staunton, Virginia native was a little boy during the Civil War years. He could recall seeing Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee. Of all the previous presidents, he was the most educated and one of the more interesting ones. He attended Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School. Wilson was awarded a Ph. D. in political science from John Hopkins University. He authored several books, played golf, loved the theater, and was a very good singer. (Have I ever written that another president was a good singer?)
Recall that a world war began in Europe in 1914 which was the same year that you read that Coats had the population of 400 white and 25 colored residents. It was the same year that the (Rose Smith) Presbyterian Church in Coats was pastored by A.T. Lassiter.
In 1915, a German submarine sank the “Lusitania”. Wilson made every effort to keep the US neutral. Wilson was reelected in 1916 on the slogan--”He kept us out of the war”. However, he had gone to bed on the night of the election thinking that he had been defeated by Republican Charles Evans Hughes. During the next three months after his reelection, Wilson devoted all his efforts to halting the fighting in Europe. After numerous attacks on American ships by the Germans, Wilson declared that the U.S. could no longer remain neutral, and thus, Congress passed a joint resolution declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
While there was a terrible war being fought on foreign soil, let’s return to Coats and examine the final copy of the N.C. Business Directory (Harnett) that the museum has on hand. The 1916 report shared that the population of Coats was 500. That is 75 more than recorded in 1914. J.L. Johnson was serving his last term as mayor and O.S. Young was secretary-no treasurer was named. F.A. Dawson and B.F. Parrish were town commissioners. W.E. Nichols reappeared as Express agent and Telegraph manager. R.O. Stewart was manning the post office. This post office was located between the current residence of Mrs. Grady Matthews and the recently burned store of Mike Norris on Railroad Street. Guess what other job Mr. R.O Stewart had in Coats? He was telephone manager for the Carolina Telephone Company. What qualifications would one need for that position in 1916? Should the folks in Coats need the services of an attorney, F. Hunter Creech was available for hire. P.S. Cooper was president; J.T. Coats was vice president and N.T. Patterson was cashier of the Bank of Coats. The town had two new barbers-A.R. Byrd and Lee Maynard. R.R. Jones and J.T. Pollard continued to operate blacksmith and repair shops. P.F. Pope and Grove Supply were clothiers and men furnishers. J.W. Ivey was a contractor and builder. P.F. Pope and J.P Stephens operated cotton gins. Dr. W. H. Edwards was a dentist but gave the Coats practice only one -fourth of his time to the Coats practice and G.S. Fields was the town druggist. Car problems were taken to W.H. Parrish or Byrd and Stephenson. (Did they not have first names?)
The general merchants in 1916 were J.W. Talton, P.F. Pope, T.V. Stewart, L.W. Jones, Grove Supply Co., T.D. Whittington, W.M. Keen, Stewart and Johnson, and J.S. P. and T. Stewart. Insurance could be purchased from N.T. Patterson and O.S. Young. The iron founder and machinist was J.T. Pollard. Lee Maynard operated a laundry. Dr. H.C. Roberts was the doctor and J.L Johnson was the only jeweler. W.H. Parrish was a realtor. P.F. Pope controlled the power and light company. (What power company? Read about Dr. Roberts’s power company next week.)
You might wonder if the business directory ever mentioned the names of people who lived in the rural area of the town. Next week meet some of the principal farmers who were listed in 1916 directory as receiving mail through the post office.
Question—those of you who have ancestors who fought in WWI, have you entered their names and military information into the Coats Museum Military Archives? What about those of you who served in the military at any time frame, have you shared your military history with the museum? If you are not sure, visit the Coats Museum Open House and Book Signing by WWII veteran Carsie Denning on Sunday, March 6 from 2-5pm. At that same Sunday afternoon event, you can learn more about a new book being compiled by the Coats Museum History Committee. The book will contain memories of veterans or stories that family members have passed from one generation to the next about a family connected veteran. The collection of stories will be titled, “Defenders of the Red, White and Blue” and there is no charge to submit a story. Mark your calendar for Sunday, March 6th at the Coats Museum at the Coats Heritage Square to get details on how to submit a story for the book or visit the museum’s website-coatsmuseum.com
Keep in mind that this was published in 2011 in the Daily Record.
Growth was moving full steam in Coats when on the national level, Woodrow Wilson was elected U.S. President in 1912.This Staunton, Virginia native was a little boy during the Civil War years. He could recall seeing Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee. Of all the previous presidents, he was the most educated and one of the more interesting ones. He attended Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School. Wilson was awarded a Ph. D. in political science from John Hopkins University. He authored several books, played golf, loved the theater, and was a very good singer. (Have I ever written that another president was a good singer?)
Recall that a world war began in Europe in 1914 which was the same year that you read that Coats had the population of 400 white and 25 colored residents. It was the same year that the (Rose Smith) Presbyterian Church in Coats was pastored by A.T. Lassiter.
In 1915, a German submarine sank the “Lusitania”. Wilson made every effort to keep the US neutral. Wilson was reelected in 1916 on the slogan--”He kept us out of the war”. However, he had gone to bed on the night of the election thinking that he had been defeated by Republican Charles Evans Hughes. During the next three months after his reelection, Wilson devoted all his efforts to halting the fighting in Europe. After numerous attacks on American ships by the Germans, Wilson declared that the U.S. could no longer remain neutral, and thus, Congress passed a joint resolution declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
While there was a terrible war being fought on foreign soil, let’s return to Coats and examine the final copy of the N.C. Business Directory (Harnett) that the museum has on hand. The 1916 report shared that the population of Coats was 500. That is 75 more than recorded in 1914. J.L. Johnson was serving his last term as mayor and O.S. Young was secretary-no treasurer was named. F.A. Dawson and B.F. Parrish were town commissioners. W.E. Nichols reappeared as Express agent and Telegraph manager. R.O. Stewart was manning the post office. This post office was located between the current residence of Mrs. Grady Matthews and the recently burned store of Mike Norris on Railroad Street. Guess what other job Mr. R.O Stewart had in Coats? He was telephone manager for the Carolina Telephone Company. What qualifications would one need for that position in 1916? Should the folks in Coats need the services of an attorney, F. Hunter Creech was available for hire. P.S. Cooper was president; J.T. Coats was vice president and N.T. Patterson was cashier of the Bank of Coats. The town had two new barbers-A.R. Byrd and Lee Maynard. R.R. Jones and J.T. Pollard continued to operate blacksmith and repair shops. P.F. Pope and Grove Supply were clothiers and men furnishers. J.W. Ivey was a contractor and builder. P.F. Pope and J.P Stephens operated cotton gins. Dr. W. H. Edwards was a dentist but gave the Coats practice only one -fourth of his time to the Coats practice and G.S. Fields was the town druggist. Car problems were taken to W.H. Parrish or Byrd and Stephenson. (Did they not have first names?)
The general merchants in 1916 were J.W. Talton, P.F. Pope, T.V. Stewart, L.W. Jones, Grove Supply Co., T.D. Whittington, W.M. Keen, Stewart and Johnson, and J.S. P. and T. Stewart. Insurance could be purchased from N.T. Patterson and O.S. Young. The iron founder and machinist was J.T. Pollard. Lee Maynard operated a laundry. Dr. H.C. Roberts was the doctor and J.L Johnson was the only jeweler. W.H. Parrish was a realtor. P.F. Pope controlled the power and light company. (What power company? Read about Dr. Roberts’s power company next week.)
You might wonder if the business directory ever mentioned the names of people who lived in the rural area of the town. Next week meet some of the principal farmers who were listed in 1916 directory as receiving mail through the post office.
Question—those of you who have ancestors who fought in WWI, have you entered their names and military information into the Coats Museum Military Archives? What about those of you who served in the military at any time frame, have you shared your military history with the museum? If you are not sure, visit the Coats Museum Open House and Book Signing by WWII veteran Carsie Denning on Sunday, March 6 from 2-5pm. At that same Sunday afternoon event, you can learn more about a new book being compiled by the Coats Museum History Committee. The book will contain memories of veterans or stories that family members have passed from one generation to the next about a family connected veteran. The collection of stories will be titled, “Defenders of the Red, White and Blue” and there is no charge to submit a story. Mark your calendar for Sunday, March 6th at the Coats Museum at the Coats Heritage Square to get details on how to submit a story for the book or visit the museum’s website-coatsmuseum.com
Keep in mind that this was published in 2011 in the Daily Record.
