June 27, 2011 Coats
Museum News
Coats was abuzz with baseball news in the summer and fall of 1920. On Tuesday, July 27, the Coats baseball team defeated the Pleasant Hill team by a score of 5 to 3. The Coats team later continued winning their games by topping Duke (Erwin) with a 9-0 win. In the “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 No. 31, the news reported that Coats was defeated by West Durham by 9-6. Until the seventh ending, the score was 6-2 in favor of Coats. As the season continued, the Coats sluggers defeated the Buies Creek team to the tune of 8-1. The entire team displayed terrific hitting. Buies Creek used two pitchers but to no avail. The following Tuesday, retaliation was sweet for the Buies Creek team who defeated Coats with a 10-4 score (“Harnett County News” Vol.2 No. 42 October 5, 1920).
Was this a school team or a community team? This I do know. My father, Jonah C. Johnson, played ball with and against Paul Green. Dad never attended Coats School nor did Paul Green, so the conclusion is that the teams were made up of community players. Dad often commented that Paul Green was a man who could do damage with either arm. In fact, the “Harnett County News” reported that Coats defeated the fast Four Oaks baseball team by a score of 3-2. All the runs were made in the first inning with Paul Green allowing only five scattered hits as he pitched for the Coats team. Sanders of Four Oaks allowed but six. This game made the 13th game played by Coats of which they had only lost four. The “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 No.50 gave the last information about the team when it printed that the Coats team had been victorious in 10 of its 14 games and that Paul Green had pitched a good game.
How many players were on a baseball team in 1920? How did they travel to the games? Did you notice that the games were played on weekdays? Did that eliminate many farm boys from playing?
We do know that folks were motoring throughout the county and state in 1920. Mr. Roscoe Bailey of Rocky Mount was visiting relatives in and around Coats. Was he a descendent of Alfred L. Bailey of Baileys Crossroads? Coats dentist, Dr. C. Garner Fuquay, had spent Sunday in Sanford with relatives. Interestingly, many years later, he and his wife Gladys would meet death in an automobile accident as they traveled to visit relatives in that same area.
According to an article in the “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 October 5, 1920 edition, some Dunn citizens paid $800.000.00 for 800 acres of land 14 miles from Dunn. There had been talk of postponement of the sale because of low cotton prices. However, in Coats the farmers were likely more interested in the news that T.V. (Troy Vance) Stewart had reported that his 41 bales capacity cotton gin would begin to operate the later part of the week (“Harnett County News” Vol. September 23,1920).
Would late summer and early fall be the time to make apple cider? Allene Honeycutt recollected that her brothers had a cider press and in the afternoons the children would pick up all of the knotty apples from under the trees. Her mom used the better ones in canning and drying. The brothers would put the knotty apples into the press and make containers of cider. She thought they put sugar into it .She joked that as the cider got older, it got “harder” and it could have a pretty good “kick” if it got a little old. In fact, it was a desirable product. She recalled that two family friends, George and Hill Massey, who helped on the Stuart Turlington farm, would come by for a glass of hard cider. Was that bootlegging , Allene wondered in her autobiography, “Remembering the Past”.
Read next week’s news to meet Janie, Alice and Florence Massey and learn about games that young children played in 1920’s. We shall also visit for a typical weekend on the Willie and Lizzie Turlington farm and then one during an association of the Primitive Baptists.
The Coats Museum Board of Directors had a very informative meeting last Saturday and welcomed James Futrell, Mark Parrish, Juanita Hudson and Walter Weeks on board. Mark Valsame and Norfleet Gardner were not able to attend. Thanks to those who gave endowment memorials to honor the memory of Hazelene Baker Strickland.
Please be mindful that this Coats Museum News was published in the Daily Record In 2011.
Coats was abuzz with baseball news in the summer and fall of 1920. On Tuesday, July 27, the Coats baseball team defeated the Pleasant Hill team by a score of 5 to 3. The Coats team later continued winning their games by topping Duke (Erwin) with a 9-0 win. In the “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 No. 31, the news reported that Coats was defeated by West Durham by 9-6. Until the seventh ending, the score was 6-2 in favor of Coats. As the season continued, the Coats sluggers defeated the Buies Creek team to the tune of 8-1. The entire team displayed terrific hitting. Buies Creek used two pitchers but to no avail. The following Tuesday, retaliation was sweet for the Buies Creek team who defeated Coats with a 10-4 score (“Harnett County News” Vol.2 No. 42 October 5, 1920).
Was this a school team or a community team? This I do know. My father, Jonah C. Johnson, played ball with and against Paul Green. Dad never attended Coats School nor did Paul Green, so the conclusion is that the teams were made up of community players. Dad often commented that Paul Green was a man who could do damage with either arm. In fact, the “Harnett County News” reported that Coats defeated the fast Four Oaks baseball team by a score of 3-2. All the runs were made in the first inning with Paul Green allowing only five scattered hits as he pitched for the Coats team. Sanders of Four Oaks allowed but six. This game made the 13th game played by Coats of which they had only lost four. The “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 No.50 gave the last information about the team when it printed that the Coats team had been victorious in 10 of its 14 games and that Paul Green had pitched a good game.
How many players were on a baseball team in 1920? How did they travel to the games? Did you notice that the games were played on weekdays? Did that eliminate many farm boys from playing?
We do know that folks were motoring throughout the county and state in 1920. Mr. Roscoe Bailey of Rocky Mount was visiting relatives in and around Coats. Was he a descendent of Alfred L. Bailey of Baileys Crossroads? Coats dentist, Dr. C. Garner Fuquay, had spent Sunday in Sanford with relatives. Interestingly, many years later, he and his wife Gladys would meet death in an automobile accident as they traveled to visit relatives in that same area.
According to an article in the “Harnett County News” Vol. 2 October 5, 1920 edition, some Dunn citizens paid $800.000.00 for 800 acres of land 14 miles from Dunn. There had been talk of postponement of the sale because of low cotton prices. However, in Coats the farmers were likely more interested in the news that T.V. (Troy Vance) Stewart had reported that his 41 bales capacity cotton gin would begin to operate the later part of the week (“Harnett County News” Vol. September 23,1920).
Would late summer and early fall be the time to make apple cider? Allene Honeycutt recollected that her brothers had a cider press and in the afternoons the children would pick up all of the knotty apples from under the trees. Her mom used the better ones in canning and drying. The brothers would put the knotty apples into the press and make containers of cider. She thought they put sugar into it .She joked that as the cider got older, it got “harder” and it could have a pretty good “kick” if it got a little old. In fact, it was a desirable product. She recalled that two family friends, George and Hill Massey, who helped on the Stuart Turlington farm, would come by for a glass of hard cider. Was that bootlegging , Allene wondered in her autobiography, “Remembering the Past”.
Read next week’s news to meet Janie, Alice and Florence Massey and learn about games that young children played in 1920’s. We shall also visit for a typical weekend on the Willie and Lizzie Turlington farm and then one during an association of the Primitive Baptists.
The Coats Museum Board of Directors had a very informative meeting last Saturday and welcomed James Futrell, Mark Parrish, Juanita Hudson and Walter Weeks on board. Mark Valsame and Norfleet Gardner were not able to attend. Thanks to those who gave endowment memorials to honor the memory of Hazelene Baker Strickland.
Please be mindful that this Coats Museum News was published in the Daily Record In 2011.
