July 18, 2025 Coats Museum News
How many of you know where your grandparents were married? What about the place your parents were married? Many of the old Bibles in our museum share the date of marriage but I don’t think many record where the ceremony took place. Were many of our ancestors married by a Justice of Peace, a magistrate, in a church or at the home of the bride or groom?
I do know there was a time when many young couples eloped to Dillon, S.C. In fact, if you have been following this Coats Museum News column for many years, you know that it was not uncommon for two couples to head out to Dillon to get married at the same time.
I know we can all agree that the cost of a wedding today blows our minds. The costs to rent a barn venue, water view, garden setting or a palatial mansion can run into thousands of dollars. Was there not a recent wedding of a billionaire that had a forty million dollar price tag?
My parents had eight daughters and that meant eight weddings and each followed in the same order that each was born and I being the last daughter, you would assume that I would want one comparable to my older sisters. I didn’t. H.L. and I decided that we would simply get married in our church manse with a single white gladiola as a flower. My dear friend Sarah Ennis Flowers and my brother-in-law Milton Farmer were our witnesses. My dad also attended the ceremony to likely give Pastor Bill Kimbrough a little extra money while my older brother J.C, his wife Charlotte and my sister Joyce did a major job decorating our car while the ceremony was taking place inside the manse. I can still recall the honks from trucks and cars all the way to Canada.
Why did we not want a big flashy wedding? We decided the money could better be spent on furniture, my college education and H.L’s college debt and we would be just as married as my seven sisters, and by the way who like me, stayed with our mates until death did we part.
Relatives in Coats had to be proud of the comments they had received about the good-looking couple whose engagement was announced in the Daily Record. The grandson of Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Turlington, Jr. and Mrs. Gladys and the late Ezra Lee (Doc) Denning of Coats was to marry on December 30th. Fred Thomas Denning, Jr. of Concord, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Denning, was to marry Elizabeth Mayne of Gold Hill (Daily Record Oct. 19, 1995).
How many of you had a chance to play volley ball when you were in school? It was very popular in 1995 and continues to be so today. The Coats Middle School Volleyball team staged two monumental rallies in the final two games to win 3-1 over West Lee. The win left Coats Middle on top of the standings. Tiffany Mattox, Beth Williams, Karrie Hilderbrand and April Pleasant had points.
Death visited the area and took Harold Turner, 67 of Route 3, Dunn, on Wednesday at his home. He was the son of the late Jarvis Eastman and Katie Godwin Turner. His brother was R.D. Turner (Daily Record Oct.19, 1995).
The Daily Record carried an article on the “Future of Harnett County” from the perspective of HCBOC Chairman H.L. Sorrell, Jr. Mr. Sorrell stated that Harnett County had 74,890 people within it and was the 16th fastest growing county in N.C. That was thirty years ago. Can you guess how many people lived within Harnett in 2020 (not 2025)? The US Census of 2020 stated that 134,000 people resided in Harnett. That was 20 percent growth since the 2010 census. What is our rank in 2025?
Chairman Sorrell challenged his audience to decide what they wanted their county to look like in 50 years. He told the group to decide if they wanted to be architects or tenants? He stated the decision must be made now in order to provide for the astonishing growth in Harnett. He stated that growth will demand more expansion of schools, more law enforcement and added services in every department.
Mr. Sorrell, a retired educator, who spent nearly all his time working for the county, told the Dunn Rotarians, “We must invest in our young people’s future.” Sorrell informed the club that the county could not provide the new services required on property taxes alone. A 1-cent increase in property taxes would bring in only $200,000 while a 1-cent increase in sales tax would provide $2.5 million dollars. He stated that sales tax would assure those newcomers and all other non-property owners pay their share for services they use (Daily Record post Oct.19, 1995).
Next week, I will share more of Mr. Sorrell’s perspective for Harnett County to the Dunn Rotarian Club and how it affected me as the wife of this commissioner.
The carpet in the Theater Room has been replaced after having thousands of visitors walk on it since 2013. We have been closed for a few weeks while repairs were completed. Thank you for understanding and come out and visit your museum of local history.
Two of our often visitors and supporters, Ralph and Lorena Denning, celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary this month and have been honored by an appreciative volunteer. Their names now appear under Funding on our coatsmuseum.com website.
How many of you know where your grandparents were married? What about the place your parents were married? Many of the old Bibles in our museum share the date of marriage but I don’t think many record where the ceremony took place. Were many of our ancestors married by a Justice of Peace, a magistrate, in a church or at the home of the bride or groom?
I do know there was a time when many young couples eloped to Dillon, S.C. In fact, if you have been following this Coats Museum News column for many years, you know that it was not uncommon for two couples to head out to Dillon to get married at the same time.
I know we can all agree that the cost of a wedding today blows our minds. The costs to rent a barn venue, water view, garden setting or a palatial mansion can run into thousands of dollars. Was there not a recent wedding of a billionaire that had a forty million dollar price tag?
My parents had eight daughters and that meant eight weddings and each followed in the same order that each was born and I being the last daughter, you would assume that I would want one comparable to my older sisters. I didn’t. H.L. and I decided that we would simply get married in our church manse with a single white gladiola as a flower. My dear friend Sarah Ennis Flowers and my brother-in-law Milton Farmer were our witnesses. My dad also attended the ceremony to likely give Pastor Bill Kimbrough a little extra money while my older brother J.C, his wife Charlotte and my sister Joyce did a major job decorating our car while the ceremony was taking place inside the manse. I can still recall the honks from trucks and cars all the way to Canada.
Why did we not want a big flashy wedding? We decided the money could better be spent on furniture, my college education and H.L’s college debt and we would be just as married as my seven sisters, and by the way who like me, stayed with our mates until death did we part.
Relatives in Coats had to be proud of the comments they had received about the good-looking couple whose engagement was announced in the Daily Record. The grandson of Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Turlington, Jr. and Mrs. Gladys and the late Ezra Lee (Doc) Denning of Coats was to marry on December 30th. Fred Thomas Denning, Jr. of Concord, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Denning, was to marry Elizabeth Mayne of Gold Hill (Daily Record Oct. 19, 1995).
How many of you had a chance to play volley ball when you were in school? It was very popular in 1995 and continues to be so today. The Coats Middle School Volleyball team staged two monumental rallies in the final two games to win 3-1 over West Lee. The win left Coats Middle on top of the standings. Tiffany Mattox, Beth Williams, Karrie Hilderbrand and April Pleasant had points.
Death visited the area and took Harold Turner, 67 of Route 3, Dunn, on Wednesday at his home. He was the son of the late Jarvis Eastman and Katie Godwin Turner. His brother was R.D. Turner (Daily Record Oct.19, 1995).
The Daily Record carried an article on the “Future of Harnett County” from the perspective of HCBOC Chairman H.L. Sorrell, Jr. Mr. Sorrell stated that Harnett County had 74,890 people within it and was the 16th fastest growing county in N.C. That was thirty years ago. Can you guess how many people lived within Harnett in 2020 (not 2025)? The US Census of 2020 stated that 134,000 people resided in Harnett. That was 20 percent growth since the 2010 census. What is our rank in 2025?
Chairman Sorrell challenged his audience to decide what they wanted their county to look like in 50 years. He told the group to decide if they wanted to be architects or tenants? He stated the decision must be made now in order to provide for the astonishing growth in Harnett. He stated that growth will demand more expansion of schools, more law enforcement and added services in every department.
Mr. Sorrell, a retired educator, who spent nearly all his time working for the county, told the Dunn Rotarians, “We must invest in our young people’s future.” Sorrell informed the club that the county could not provide the new services required on property taxes alone. A 1-cent increase in property taxes would bring in only $200,000 while a 1-cent increase in sales tax would provide $2.5 million dollars. He stated that sales tax would assure those newcomers and all other non-property owners pay their share for services they use (Daily Record post Oct.19, 1995).
Next week, I will share more of Mr. Sorrell’s perspective for Harnett County to the Dunn Rotarian Club and how it affected me as the wife of this commissioner.
The carpet in the Theater Room has been replaced after having thousands of visitors walk on it since 2013. We have been closed for a few weeks while repairs were completed. Thank you for understanding and come out and visit your museum of local history.
Two of our often visitors and supporters, Ralph and Lorena Denning, celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary this month and have been honored by an appreciative volunteer. Their names now appear under Funding on our coatsmuseum.com website.