May 16, 2011 Coats
Museum News
Do you know what the names of any of the automobiles were which were available for purchase by drivers in 1919? Recall that one of the tasks of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners was to fix a schedule of valuation on personal property. This schedule included not only mules, horses, cows, hogs, corn, peas, wheat, forage, meat, and lard but also cars and trucks. From this schedule, we discover that the Ford, Maxwell, Dodge, Chevrolet, Buick, Studebaker, Oldsmobile, Hupmobile, Patterson, Saxon, and Cadillac were valued. How many of the names do you recognize as being manufactured in 2011?
The “mobile” in automobile had made it possible for males and females to travel to places likely not possible twenty years earlier. “The Harnett County News”, (June 6, 1919) gives us some proof that much travel was going on to and from Coats. The edition shared that Mrs. L.L. Levinson and children of Coats spent the weekend with her mother in Four Oaks. (Was her husband the mayor of Coats?) A Mr. Jones of the Cumberland Railroad and Power Company visited Coats on business. (Did you see the word “power”?)Mrs. Ethel Stewart spent the weekend with relatives in Dunn. Mr. P.K. Honeycutt of Clinton visited Coats on Friday. Misses Callie Stewart and Annie Keen visited friends in Rocky Mount and Wilson. (Was there an Interstate 301 in 1919?) Miss Irene Johnson of Rose Hill spent Monday with friends in Coats. Mr. Jasper Ennis returned home from visiting relatives in Virginia. Miss Hettie Ennis went to Elevation where she visited Miss Nora Dorman and other friends. Mr. and Mrs. Parlia Wood and their children returned from Wilmington where they had spent several days with a party of 25 or more at the beach.
Is this how you pictured life in the Coats Grove Township in 1919? It definitely reads as if they had lots of social activities.
Last week you read that M.B. Matthews and Roger Sexton of Lillington had paid Coats a social visit. You might have questioned if they were “courting “some Coats girls. A news article in the November 6, 1919 edition of “The Harnett County News” stated that Miss Laura Parrish of Coats and Mr. Roger Sexton were married at the home of Dr. J.T. Ellis, pastor of the Pullen Memorial Church of Raleigh, on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 pm. A few relatives and friends were in attendance. Laura was the daughter of Barty F. Parrish of Coats and the paper reported that she “was a lady of such loveable traits of character that she had won a host of friends”. The news item wrote that Roger was the son of Mrs. Laura Sexton of Lillington. (Note wife and Mother have the same name.) The editor wrote that there was “no young man in the entire county who was more admired and respected. He was “of sterling worth, of gentle habits, and promising future and there was not one who knew him but loved him.” Misses Mamie and Sudie Sexton, sisters of the groom, and W.H. Parrish, brother of the bride, along with I.W. Smith, accompanied the groom to Raleigh. The newlyweds started housekeeping on the Sexton farm just across the Cape Fear River.
Did they motor to the ceremony? We do know that Barty Parrish was one of the wealthiest men in the Coats area and is remembered for giving his children large sums of money often placing it under the dinner plates when the family had gatherings.
While travel was on the minds of many in the area, bids were being sought for school construction in the area. “The Harnett County News,” July 1919, wrote that bids were sought for a new school building and for one additional room at Grove Township-District 4 (Turlington). For particulars, readers were told to apply to D.I. Ennis at Duke, N.C. Route 2. Where was the new school to be built?
The Harnett County Board of Commissioners called for a special election to be held in Coats, N.C. on the 12th day of August 1919 to submit to qualified voters of the Coats School District the question of issuing $15,000 in bonds to build a school house for District #3. J.F. Parrish was appointed registrar for the said election (“The Harnett County News” July 24, 1919).
Is this election to raise funds to build the 1921 brick school building on the Coats Grove #3 site? Read future Coats Museum News columns to follow the problems that confronted the local school board as they worked to build a new Grove # 3 school. Did women have the right to vote in the special election?
Please be mindful that this article was published in the Daily Record in May of 2011.
Do you know what the names of any of the automobiles were which were available for purchase by drivers in 1919? Recall that one of the tasks of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners was to fix a schedule of valuation on personal property. This schedule included not only mules, horses, cows, hogs, corn, peas, wheat, forage, meat, and lard but also cars and trucks. From this schedule, we discover that the Ford, Maxwell, Dodge, Chevrolet, Buick, Studebaker, Oldsmobile, Hupmobile, Patterson, Saxon, and Cadillac were valued. How many of the names do you recognize as being manufactured in 2011?
The “mobile” in automobile had made it possible for males and females to travel to places likely not possible twenty years earlier. “The Harnett County News”, (June 6, 1919) gives us some proof that much travel was going on to and from Coats. The edition shared that Mrs. L.L. Levinson and children of Coats spent the weekend with her mother in Four Oaks. (Was her husband the mayor of Coats?) A Mr. Jones of the Cumberland Railroad and Power Company visited Coats on business. (Did you see the word “power”?)Mrs. Ethel Stewart spent the weekend with relatives in Dunn. Mr. P.K. Honeycutt of Clinton visited Coats on Friday. Misses Callie Stewart and Annie Keen visited friends in Rocky Mount and Wilson. (Was there an Interstate 301 in 1919?) Miss Irene Johnson of Rose Hill spent Monday with friends in Coats. Mr. Jasper Ennis returned home from visiting relatives in Virginia. Miss Hettie Ennis went to Elevation where she visited Miss Nora Dorman and other friends. Mr. and Mrs. Parlia Wood and their children returned from Wilmington where they had spent several days with a party of 25 or more at the beach.
Is this how you pictured life in the Coats Grove Township in 1919? It definitely reads as if they had lots of social activities.
Last week you read that M.B. Matthews and Roger Sexton of Lillington had paid Coats a social visit. You might have questioned if they were “courting “some Coats girls. A news article in the November 6, 1919 edition of “The Harnett County News” stated that Miss Laura Parrish of Coats and Mr. Roger Sexton were married at the home of Dr. J.T. Ellis, pastor of the Pullen Memorial Church of Raleigh, on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 pm. A few relatives and friends were in attendance. Laura was the daughter of Barty F. Parrish of Coats and the paper reported that she “was a lady of such loveable traits of character that she had won a host of friends”. The news item wrote that Roger was the son of Mrs. Laura Sexton of Lillington. (Note wife and Mother have the same name.) The editor wrote that there was “no young man in the entire county who was more admired and respected. He was “of sterling worth, of gentle habits, and promising future and there was not one who knew him but loved him.” Misses Mamie and Sudie Sexton, sisters of the groom, and W.H. Parrish, brother of the bride, along with I.W. Smith, accompanied the groom to Raleigh. The newlyweds started housekeeping on the Sexton farm just across the Cape Fear River.
Did they motor to the ceremony? We do know that Barty Parrish was one of the wealthiest men in the Coats area and is remembered for giving his children large sums of money often placing it under the dinner plates when the family had gatherings.
While travel was on the minds of many in the area, bids were being sought for school construction in the area. “The Harnett County News,” July 1919, wrote that bids were sought for a new school building and for one additional room at Grove Township-District 4 (Turlington). For particulars, readers were told to apply to D.I. Ennis at Duke, N.C. Route 2. Where was the new school to be built?
The Harnett County Board of Commissioners called for a special election to be held in Coats, N.C. on the 12th day of August 1919 to submit to qualified voters of the Coats School District the question of issuing $15,000 in bonds to build a school house for District #3. J.F. Parrish was appointed registrar for the said election (“The Harnett County News” July 24, 1919).
Is this election to raise funds to build the 1921 brick school building on the Coats Grove #3 site? Read future Coats Museum News columns to follow the problems that confronted the local school board as they worked to build a new Grove # 3 school. Did women have the right to vote in the special election?
Please be mindful that this article was published in the Daily Record in May of 2011.
