January 25, 2013 Coats Museum News
Does the name N.T. Patterson ring a bell with any of our readers? He moved his family from Broadway, N.C. to Coats in 1912 and was associated with the Bank of Coats, the Coats hosiery mill, and many other business ventures. His son Bill Patterson was born in Coats in April of that year. Bill graduated from Coats School and eventually became a much recognized doctor. Dr. Bill Patterson was honored by the American Society of Clinical Pathology in 1937. He was presented a gold medal for making the most significant contribution at the entire meeting and exhibit (Harnett County News August 5, 1937).
The Coats WPA (Works Progress Administration) librarian was told to read the 100 books received from the N.C. Library Commission. Miss Pensy Holmes read practically all of the 25 adult books in the group. She glanced over the 75 books for children so she would know about the subject matter. One of the books she read was Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Folks, do you know how many pages are in that book? It was a 1037 page novel. The WPA made it possible for the library to stay open during the summer (Harnett County News August 26, 1937).
Reports from a nearby colored school in the Coats area reported that the library was crowded with children every day. John Arnold, a middle-age Negro of Grove Township, succumbed in the Erwin hospital from injuries he received when he was struck by an automobile at Turlington’s Crossroads. He was hit by a driver with no license (Harnett County News August 26, 1937).
Lockjaw proved fatal to a Coats child. Lottie Byrd, 11 year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Byrd was buried in the Wiggins Cemetery (Harnett County News September 2, 1937).
Death was not playing favorites for he visited the households of white and colored, young and old. Andrew Parrish, an 84 year-old farmer, died at his home on Angier, Route 2. Funeral services were held at the family cemetery. He was survived by three daughters: Miss Roxie Parrish, Mrs. Trixie Gregory, and Mrs. W.W. Weeks. D.H. Parrish was his only son (Harnett County News September 9, 1937).
A fire on the farm of Joe Penny, well-known farmer of near Coats, had destroyed a pack house full of tobacco and burned a cow in an adjoining stable. In the barn was tobacco grown on 20 acres and valued at between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00(Harnett County News September 23, 1937).
Some of you are wondering, “What is a pack house?” To have a better understanding as to what a pack house was, let’s row our paper canoe backwards to a time when green tobacco was tied onto wooden sticks and put on tiers in log or wooden barns to cure to golden dried tobacco leaves. Before a new priming of green tobacco could be primed from the stalks in the fields, a tobacco barn had to be available. That meant the cured tobacco had to be removed from the barn and stored until it was graded for market. Once the tobacco was cured in about six days, it was powder dry and had an incredible smell. Before it could be removed from the tiers, moisture had to be returned to the leaves. Leaving the doors open overnight allowed some moisture to soften the leaves, but sometimes farmers emptied a barrel or two of water into the barn to hasten the moistening process. The tobacco was usually removed on the day that another barn of green tobacco would replace the cured leaves.
“Taking a barn of tobacco out” started at about 4:00 AM. If two barns had to be removed, wakeup call came at 3:00AM. Taking a barn of tobacco out was a family affair. When the Mom or Dad called, it meant children as young as six or seven as well as the teenagers hopped out of bed to take on the responsibilities of farm children. Each had a job at the barn. The older teens-boys and girls-had to climb the wooden tiers. One took the sticks of tobacco from the top three or so tiers by placing one foot on one tier and placing the other foot on the opposite tier. It was like walking on parallel bars that were about 40 inches apart and varied being from 6 to 15 feet from the ground if working the top tiers. The person on the tiers passed two sticks of dried tobacco at a time to the person on the bottom tiers who had made an opening by beginning the process of passing two sticks at a time to someone on the grounds who had to look up at the person on the tiers to retrieve them.
It was really a clean, fun job when sand, crumbles of dried tobacco leaves, and dead tobacco worms landed in the face and hair as the person reached up to grab the ends of the two sticks. Sometimes, if the loopers had not tied the tobacco tautly on the stick, the tobacco would slide down on the stick and that did not make a good situation.
Once the person on the ground took the sticks of tobacco from the person on the tiers, the sticks were passed to a younger member of the family. This child passed the sticks to a person who packed them onto a trailer or truck. This was usually the task that required packing skills for an entire barn of tobacco went onto the trailer. The tobacco was packed in a windrow technique of placing two sticks at the end of the trailer. The second two sticks overlapped about 10 inches of the bottom of the leaves. This process continued until the row was filled to the end of the trailer and the process reversed. The packer had to be very careful and keep the rows even or the entire load would tilt over as it was being taken to the “pack house”. The drier the tobacco and the higher the tailer load increased the likelihood that the tobacco would tilt over. Sometimes the entire family would walk beside the trailer holding the tobacco load up until it reached the pack house safely.
Next week learn more about the tobacco pack house.
A big thank you from the folks at the museum goes to Ron Jenkins, Ron’s Barn in Sanford, and Ron’s Barn in Coats for their sponsoring one of the exhibits in the expansion of the Coats Museum. Lottie Stephenson Ennis and Bill Johnson have had memorials given in their honor to the Coats Museum Endowment. Thanks to Mary Avery and Delores Avery Royals for their calls to tell me that Harvey Glenn Avery, Jr. was the young boy who survived the tick bite and spotted fever. He was very ill for 2 weeks and was administered different medicines every day until the fever was reduced. Delores said that Dr. Corbett, Dr. Fleming and Dr. Hunter doctored “Junior”. A few years later “Junior” was called upon to give a vile of blood for a four –year-old girl who was also ill with the spotted fever. Mary’s husband Wayne, Delores, Robert, and Jesse May are Junior’s siblings. Junior lives in Florida and his brother Preston of California died a few weeks ago. Thanks ladies for the calls.
Does the name N.T. Patterson ring a bell with any of our readers? He moved his family from Broadway, N.C. to Coats in 1912 and was associated with the Bank of Coats, the Coats hosiery mill, and many other business ventures. His son Bill Patterson was born in Coats in April of that year. Bill graduated from Coats School and eventually became a much recognized doctor. Dr. Bill Patterson was honored by the American Society of Clinical Pathology in 1937. He was presented a gold medal for making the most significant contribution at the entire meeting and exhibit (Harnett County News August 5, 1937).
The Coats WPA (Works Progress Administration) librarian was told to read the 100 books received from the N.C. Library Commission. Miss Pensy Holmes read practically all of the 25 adult books in the group. She glanced over the 75 books for children so she would know about the subject matter. One of the books she read was Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Folks, do you know how many pages are in that book? It was a 1037 page novel. The WPA made it possible for the library to stay open during the summer (Harnett County News August 26, 1937).
Reports from a nearby colored school in the Coats area reported that the library was crowded with children every day. John Arnold, a middle-age Negro of Grove Township, succumbed in the Erwin hospital from injuries he received when he was struck by an automobile at Turlington’s Crossroads. He was hit by a driver with no license (Harnett County News August 26, 1937).
Lockjaw proved fatal to a Coats child. Lottie Byrd, 11 year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Byrd was buried in the Wiggins Cemetery (Harnett County News September 2, 1937).
Death was not playing favorites for he visited the households of white and colored, young and old. Andrew Parrish, an 84 year-old farmer, died at his home on Angier, Route 2. Funeral services were held at the family cemetery. He was survived by three daughters: Miss Roxie Parrish, Mrs. Trixie Gregory, and Mrs. W.W. Weeks. D.H. Parrish was his only son (Harnett County News September 9, 1937).
A fire on the farm of Joe Penny, well-known farmer of near Coats, had destroyed a pack house full of tobacco and burned a cow in an adjoining stable. In the barn was tobacco grown on 20 acres and valued at between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00(Harnett County News September 23, 1937).
Some of you are wondering, “What is a pack house?” To have a better understanding as to what a pack house was, let’s row our paper canoe backwards to a time when green tobacco was tied onto wooden sticks and put on tiers in log or wooden barns to cure to golden dried tobacco leaves. Before a new priming of green tobacco could be primed from the stalks in the fields, a tobacco barn had to be available. That meant the cured tobacco had to be removed from the barn and stored until it was graded for market. Once the tobacco was cured in about six days, it was powder dry and had an incredible smell. Before it could be removed from the tiers, moisture had to be returned to the leaves. Leaving the doors open overnight allowed some moisture to soften the leaves, but sometimes farmers emptied a barrel or two of water into the barn to hasten the moistening process. The tobacco was usually removed on the day that another barn of green tobacco would replace the cured leaves.
“Taking a barn of tobacco out” started at about 4:00 AM. If two barns had to be removed, wakeup call came at 3:00AM. Taking a barn of tobacco out was a family affair. When the Mom or Dad called, it meant children as young as six or seven as well as the teenagers hopped out of bed to take on the responsibilities of farm children. Each had a job at the barn. The older teens-boys and girls-had to climb the wooden tiers. One took the sticks of tobacco from the top three or so tiers by placing one foot on one tier and placing the other foot on the opposite tier. It was like walking on parallel bars that were about 40 inches apart and varied being from 6 to 15 feet from the ground if working the top tiers. The person on the tiers passed two sticks of dried tobacco at a time to the person on the bottom tiers who had made an opening by beginning the process of passing two sticks at a time to someone on the grounds who had to look up at the person on the tiers to retrieve them.
It was really a clean, fun job when sand, crumbles of dried tobacco leaves, and dead tobacco worms landed in the face and hair as the person reached up to grab the ends of the two sticks. Sometimes, if the loopers had not tied the tobacco tautly on the stick, the tobacco would slide down on the stick and that did not make a good situation.
Once the person on the ground took the sticks of tobacco from the person on the tiers, the sticks were passed to a younger member of the family. This child passed the sticks to a person who packed them onto a trailer or truck. This was usually the task that required packing skills for an entire barn of tobacco went onto the trailer. The tobacco was packed in a windrow technique of placing two sticks at the end of the trailer. The second two sticks overlapped about 10 inches of the bottom of the leaves. This process continued until the row was filled to the end of the trailer and the process reversed. The packer had to be very careful and keep the rows even or the entire load would tilt over as it was being taken to the “pack house”. The drier the tobacco and the higher the tailer load increased the likelihood that the tobacco would tilt over. Sometimes the entire family would walk beside the trailer holding the tobacco load up until it reached the pack house safely.
Next week learn more about the tobacco pack house.
A big thank you from the folks at the museum goes to Ron Jenkins, Ron’s Barn in Sanford, and Ron’s Barn in Coats for their sponsoring one of the exhibits in the expansion of the Coats Museum. Lottie Stephenson Ennis and Bill Johnson have had memorials given in their honor to the Coats Museum Endowment. Thanks to Mary Avery and Delores Avery Royals for their calls to tell me that Harvey Glenn Avery, Jr. was the young boy who survived the tick bite and spotted fever. He was very ill for 2 weeks and was administered different medicines every day until the fever was reduced. Delores said that Dr. Corbett, Dr. Fleming and Dr. Hunter doctored “Junior”. A few years later “Junior” was called upon to give a vile of blood for a four –year-old girl who was also ill with the spotted fever. Mary’s husband Wayne, Delores, Robert, and Jesse May are Junior’s siblings. Junior lives in Florida and his brother Preston of California died a few weeks ago. Thanks ladies for the calls.