January 25, 2019 Coats Museum News
Tobacco farmers had begun a new crop year when the Daily Record, May 21, 1974 edition printed that about 14,000 acres of tobacco had been planted in Harnett County in 1974. Farmers had relied heavily on the tractor-pulled transplanters to do the job.
Who remembers when the farm families used the hand planters that required all manual labor? Can you recall the early hours on the plant beds pulling the young plants with cool dew upon them and packing the tender plants into baskets to be taken to the tobacco field and to be dropped into a little metal setter that was about 32 inches tall. The transplanter had a tube through which the plants were dropped one at a time. The apparatus also had a water compartment with a trigger beneath the handle that would release water at the same time that it opened the mouth of the tube so the plant and water went into the ground simultaneously. This required the person using the transplanter to push the planter into a rigged row of soil and the dropper of the plants to work in sync.
It went something like this. Drop the plant into the tube on the setter, push the mouth of the planter into the soft rigged soil and pull the trigger, lift out the setter, release the trigger , pack the dirt around the plant with the foot and then move on about 20 inches and repeat the process until either the water or plants are out.
It was not uncommon to see the very young farm children carrying small buckets of water to keep the tank-filled so the planter could work continuously. Most farmers had huge metal barrels of water at the ends of the rows and many times on a sled in the middle of the fields if the rows were extremely long. The setting of tobacco in May was a job that began at sunrise and ended at sunset or until the plants were depleted or the acreage was planted. Many of those children who carried the water to the hand planter would be the children who sat on the tractor transplanters that were a sign of modern mechanical farming.
Question-how many rows can a transplanter plant in 2019? This I do know. Farms were not the only area where machines were improving the manner in which tasks were performed. The Superior Lingerie of Coats had recently added a fully automated shipping department in the new building of 525,000 cubic feet working space. Joe Taylor, manager of the plant, stated that it was a dream come true for the Coats Development Corporation (Daily Record May 30, 1974).
Grady Matthews and Herbert Johnson were the two men credited with starting the Coats Development Corporation that was instrumental in getting the Superior Lingerie in Coats in September 1966. The plant employed “500 persons” (Daily Record May 30, 1974).
Graduation had come for the Class of 1974 and several students were recognized for scholastic honors. Miss Ann Barnes Langdon gave the valedictory address and Miss Lou Ann Stewart delivered the salutatory speech. Ann was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood Langdon and Lou Ann’s parents were Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Stewart.
Lou Ann also received the math and cheerleader awards. Ann had received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill. Joey Pollard was president of the graduating class. Joey was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Baxton Pollard (Daily Record June 3, 1974).
Karen Stewart, Miss Dunn of 1974, had left for the Miss North Carolina pageant in Charlotte. She had drawn the number 2 as her pageant number. She had been asked to change her song presentation and she had been busy working on her new song, “Make Somebody Happy”. A contestant from Smithfield was given the okay to sing “I Gotta be ME” before they had received Karen’s taping of the song. Karen wore a burgundy gown and also a cherry red chiffon dress with a flowing skirt. For her gift to the other contestants in the pageant, Burlington Mills had contributed enough denim for each girl to have three yards. The parents of Karen, Mr. and Mrs. Grayden Stewart, attended the pageant. Miss Barbara Bradshaw of Roxboro was Karen’s accompanist. Mr. and Mrs. Don Phillips accompanied the contestant to Charlotte where she stayed at Queens College (Daily Record June4, 1974).
Who remembers W.E. and Eva Smith Nichols? Their daughter, Mrs. Sue Nichols Byrne of Wake Forest, was elected to the Wake County School Board. The paper printed that “Her father had served as chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education for years” (Daily Record June 6, 1974).
It might be noted that the other half of the Byrne name was Tommy Byrne, the famous Yankee baseball pitcher. He attended the Coats Centennial in 2005 with his son, Fuquay Mayor John Byrne. We were so appreciative that Tommy added a baseball glove and ball to one of our first exhibits which showcased the W.E. Nichols family.
Randy Pope was the recipient of the Special Americanism Award at Coats High School. The American Legion of Banner Post 109 in Benson, NC sponsored the award for his outstanding qualities in citizenship, honorable judgment, leadership, patriotism, scholarship, and service. Randy was the son of Mr. Tommy Pope and Mrs. Helen Sears Pope (Norris) (Daily Record June 7, 1974).
Mr. and Mrs. James Spears announced the forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Linda Spears, to Michael Sturdivant of Four Oaks. The wedding was to take place in the Dafford Memorial Chapel (Daily Record June 14, 1974).
How many of you recognized that name? Yes, that young Mrs. Linda Spears Sturdivant would teach English at Coats and Coats Erwin Middle School, impacting the future of so many young people from the Coats Grove Township area.
Death found its way to a Coats family. Mrs. Lillar Byrd Tart, 86, had died at GHH on Thursday. Services were held at the Rose Funeral Chapel in Benson. Elder C.D. Turner officiated. Her survivors were Mrs. Thelma Jones, Mrs. Manella McGill, Mrs. Melvin Grimes, Mrs. Vernon McLamb, Walter M., Jarvis, and Leroy Tart. Her sisters were Mrs. Liddie Tart and Mrs. Sallie Ennis (Daily Record June 14, 1974).
A wedding was held at the Willow Springs PB Church for Miss Sue Lou Ogburn and Robert Wellons. Elder J.M Mewborn, uncle of the bride, officiated. The parents of the bride hosted a reception at the New Hope Fellowship Hall in Willow Springs. The rehearsal dinner was at Heath’s Steak House in Dunn.
Question-is there a distinction between Willow Springs and Willow Spring in Wake County?
I do know that the paper printed that figures disclosed that 61.7 percent of the families in Harnett County were homeowners. Thirty-nine percent owned their homes free and clear. Does that mean that the days of sharecropping were replaced with jobs that brought in a weekly or monthly pay check? Does it mean that farm jobs were replaced by machines that demanded less manpower? Does it mean that local industry offered job opportunities or more transportation improvements made jobs in other counties more inviting? Had better and more specific education opportunities made a difference?
I do know that the Coats High Class of 1963 had held its class reunion at the Holiday Inn. C.T. Clayton presided over the meeting. Mrs. Janice Lucas presented a booklet she had complied containing the addresses of the class members. Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Patrick received a gift for being married the longest. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Opie Barnes and Mr. and Mrs. Tony Mangum tied for having the most children. The classmate having the oldest and also the youngest child was Earl Barnes. Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill Davis traveled the greatest distance traveling from Pensacola, Florida. Mrs. Wanda Kay Pollard Denning and Mrs. Edna Andrews Mangum were in charge of the reunion to be held in four years.
Those who attended were Mr. and Mrs. Tony Mangum, Mr. and Mrs. C.T. Clayton, Mr. and Mrs. Opie Barnes, Mr. Harry Denton, Mr. and Mrs. Billy L. Matthews, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth McLamb, Mr. and Mrs. G.R. Stephenson, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Lucas, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Collier, Bruce Faircloth, Mr. and Mrs. Waeford Pope, Mr. and Mrs. Tommy E. Patrick, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sherrill Denning, Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill Davis, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Kirksey, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Owens, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stephenson, and Mr. and Mrs. Doug Prescott (Daily Record June 19, 1974).
Donnie Ray Pope, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pope, served as vice president of the Student Government Association at Campbell College. Pope’s major was government in which he planned to pursue graduate study (Daily Record June 20, 1974). Does anyone know where Donnie is today?
We enjoyed a very young volunteer at the museum last Thursday. Edwin Smith, a sixth grader at Southern Wake Academy, helped clip and file current events about the Coats area from the Daily Record, helped clean the museum and learned about the various exhibits so he could help give tours. Almost immediately, he got his chance to share his new knowledge when Jim and Sandra McCauley and their two young children came into the museum.
Edwin’s grandfather H.L. Sorrell gave Edwin a training tour of the Cotton Museum and taught Edwin how to use his math skills to determine approximately how many pounds of seed were in 1200 pounds of picked cotton that made a five hundred bale of ginned cotton. Edwin had to pick the seeds from a lock of cotton and determine how many seeds were in a boll of cotton. Edwin learned how to calculate when a certain number of bolls of cotton made a pound and how many bolls a person had to pick to weigh in a certain amount. By the way, is there the same number of seeds in all locks of cotton?
Edwin’s granddaddy showed Edwin how the plantation cotton gin sawed through the seeded cotton to separate the seed from the lint and how the family used the spinning wheel to spin the lint into the thread which was later used to make socks or on the loom to make fabric. Edwin was surprised to learn that there was a time when seeds were picked from the cotton by hands.
We invite parents of middle school children to bring them to the museum for a learning experience in the Coats Museum and the Cotton Museum. They might be surprised at how much they can use their knowledge from the classroom to apply to ways of life in the days of yesteryear.
Tobacco farmers had begun a new crop year when the Daily Record, May 21, 1974 edition printed that about 14,000 acres of tobacco had been planted in Harnett County in 1974. Farmers had relied heavily on the tractor-pulled transplanters to do the job.
Who remembers when the farm families used the hand planters that required all manual labor? Can you recall the early hours on the plant beds pulling the young plants with cool dew upon them and packing the tender plants into baskets to be taken to the tobacco field and to be dropped into a little metal setter that was about 32 inches tall. The transplanter had a tube through which the plants were dropped one at a time. The apparatus also had a water compartment with a trigger beneath the handle that would release water at the same time that it opened the mouth of the tube so the plant and water went into the ground simultaneously. This required the person using the transplanter to push the planter into a rigged row of soil and the dropper of the plants to work in sync.
It went something like this. Drop the plant into the tube on the setter, push the mouth of the planter into the soft rigged soil and pull the trigger, lift out the setter, release the trigger , pack the dirt around the plant with the foot and then move on about 20 inches and repeat the process until either the water or plants are out.
It was not uncommon to see the very young farm children carrying small buckets of water to keep the tank-filled so the planter could work continuously. Most farmers had huge metal barrels of water at the ends of the rows and many times on a sled in the middle of the fields if the rows were extremely long. The setting of tobacco in May was a job that began at sunrise and ended at sunset or until the plants were depleted or the acreage was planted. Many of those children who carried the water to the hand planter would be the children who sat on the tractor transplanters that were a sign of modern mechanical farming.
Question-how many rows can a transplanter plant in 2019? This I do know. Farms were not the only area where machines were improving the manner in which tasks were performed. The Superior Lingerie of Coats had recently added a fully automated shipping department in the new building of 525,000 cubic feet working space. Joe Taylor, manager of the plant, stated that it was a dream come true for the Coats Development Corporation (Daily Record May 30, 1974).
Grady Matthews and Herbert Johnson were the two men credited with starting the Coats Development Corporation that was instrumental in getting the Superior Lingerie in Coats in September 1966. The plant employed “500 persons” (Daily Record May 30, 1974).
Graduation had come for the Class of 1974 and several students were recognized for scholastic honors. Miss Ann Barnes Langdon gave the valedictory address and Miss Lou Ann Stewart delivered the salutatory speech. Ann was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood Langdon and Lou Ann’s parents were Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Stewart.
Lou Ann also received the math and cheerleader awards. Ann had received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill. Joey Pollard was president of the graduating class. Joey was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Baxton Pollard (Daily Record June 3, 1974).
Karen Stewart, Miss Dunn of 1974, had left for the Miss North Carolina pageant in Charlotte. She had drawn the number 2 as her pageant number. She had been asked to change her song presentation and she had been busy working on her new song, “Make Somebody Happy”. A contestant from Smithfield was given the okay to sing “I Gotta be ME” before they had received Karen’s taping of the song. Karen wore a burgundy gown and also a cherry red chiffon dress with a flowing skirt. For her gift to the other contestants in the pageant, Burlington Mills had contributed enough denim for each girl to have three yards. The parents of Karen, Mr. and Mrs. Grayden Stewart, attended the pageant. Miss Barbara Bradshaw of Roxboro was Karen’s accompanist. Mr. and Mrs. Don Phillips accompanied the contestant to Charlotte where she stayed at Queens College (Daily Record June4, 1974).
Who remembers W.E. and Eva Smith Nichols? Their daughter, Mrs. Sue Nichols Byrne of Wake Forest, was elected to the Wake County School Board. The paper printed that “Her father had served as chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education for years” (Daily Record June 6, 1974).
It might be noted that the other half of the Byrne name was Tommy Byrne, the famous Yankee baseball pitcher. He attended the Coats Centennial in 2005 with his son, Fuquay Mayor John Byrne. We were so appreciative that Tommy added a baseball glove and ball to one of our first exhibits which showcased the W.E. Nichols family.
Randy Pope was the recipient of the Special Americanism Award at Coats High School. The American Legion of Banner Post 109 in Benson, NC sponsored the award for his outstanding qualities in citizenship, honorable judgment, leadership, patriotism, scholarship, and service. Randy was the son of Mr. Tommy Pope and Mrs. Helen Sears Pope (Norris) (Daily Record June 7, 1974).
Mr. and Mrs. James Spears announced the forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Linda Spears, to Michael Sturdivant of Four Oaks. The wedding was to take place in the Dafford Memorial Chapel (Daily Record June 14, 1974).
How many of you recognized that name? Yes, that young Mrs. Linda Spears Sturdivant would teach English at Coats and Coats Erwin Middle School, impacting the future of so many young people from the Coats Grove Township area.
Death found its way to a Coats family. Mrs. Lillar Byrd Tart, 86, had died at GHH on Thursday. Services were held at the Rose Funeral Chapel in Benson. Elder C.D. Turner officiated. Her survivors were Mrs. Thelma Jones, Mrs. Manella McGill, Mrs. Melvin Grimes, Mrs. Vernon McLamb, Walter M., Jarvis, and Leroy Tart. Her sisters were Mrs. Liddie Tart and Mrs. Sallie Ennis (Daily Record June 14, 1974).
A wedding was held at the Willow Springs PB Church for Miss Sue Lou Ogburn and Robert Wellons. Elder J.M Mewborn, uncle of the bride, officiated. The parents of the bride hosted a reception at the New Hope Fellowship Hall in Willow Springs. The rehearsal dinner was at Heath’s Steak House in Dunn.
Question-is there a distinction between Willow Springs and Willow Spring in Wake County?
I do know that the paper printed that figures disclosed that 61.7 percent of the families in Harnett County were homeowners. Thirty-nine percent owned their homes free and clear. Does that mean that the days of sharecropping were replaced with jobs that brought in a weekly or monthly pay check? Does it mean that farm jobs were replaced by machines that demanded less manpower? Does it mean that local industry offered job opportunities or more transportation improvements made jobs in other counties more inviting? Had better and more specific education opportunities made a difference?
I do know that the Coats High Class of 1963 had held its class reunion at the Holiday Inn. C.T. Clayton presided over the meeting. Mrs. Janice Lucas presented a booklet she had complied containing the addresses of the class members. Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Patrick received a gift for being married the longest. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Opie Barnes and Mr. and Mrs. Tony Mangum tied for having the most children. The classmate having the oldest and also the youngest child was Earl Barnes. Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill Davis traveled the greatest distance traveling from Pensacola, Florida. Mrs. Wanda Kay Pollard Denning and Mrs. Edna Andrews Mangum were in charge of the reunion to be held in four years.
Those who attended were Mr. and Mrs. Tony Mangum, Mr. and Mrs. C.T. Clayton, Mr. and Mrs. Opie Barnes, Mr. Harry Denton, Mr. and Mrs. Billy L. Matthews, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth McLamb, Mr. and Mrs. G.R. Stephenson, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Lucas, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Collier, Bruce Faircloth, Mr. and Mrs. Waeford Pope, Mr. and Mrs. Tommy E. Patrick, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sherrill Denning, Mr. and Mrs. Sherrill Davis, Mr. and Mrs. John R. Kirksey, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Owens, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stephenson, and Mr. and Mrs. Doug Prescott (Daily Record June 19, 1974).
Donnie Ray Pope, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pope, served as vice president of the Student Government Association at Campbell College. Pope’s major was government in which he planned to pursue graduate study (Daily Record June 20, 1974). Does anyone know where Donnie is today?
We enjoyed a very young volunteer at the museum last Thursday. Edwin Smith, a sixth grader at Southern Wake Academy, helped clip and file current events about the Coats area from the Daily Record, helped clean the museum and learned about the various exhibits so he could help give tours. Almost immediately, he got his chance to share his new knowledge when Jim and Sandra McCauley and their two young children came into the museum.
Edwin’s grandfather H.L. Sorrell gave Edwin a training tour of the Cotton Museum and taught Edwin how to use his math skills to determine approximately how many pounds of seed were in 1200 pounds of picked cotton that made a five hundred bale of ginned cotton. Edwin had to pick the seeds from a lock of cotton and determine how many seeds were in a boll of cotton. Edwin learned how to calculate when a certain number of bolls of cotton made a pound and how many bolls a person had to pick to weigh in a certain amount. By the way, is there the same number of seeds in all locks of cotton?
Edwin’s granddaddy showed Edwin how the plantation cotton gin sawed through the seeded cotton to separate the seed from the lint and how the family used the spinning wheel to spin the lint into the thread which was later used to make socks or on the loom to make fabric. Edwin was surprised to learn that there was a time when seeds were picked from the cotton by hands.
We invite parents of middle school children to bring them to the museum for a learning experience in the Coats Museum and the Cotton Museum. They might be surprised at how much they can use their knowledge from the classroom to apply to ways of life in the days of yesteryear.