Coats Museum News, November 10, 2023
This author is giving Gayle Sorrell, the usual writer, a break to talk about an exciting Thursday when the third-grade students from Coats Elementary School toured the Coats Museums as part of their field trip to learn more about Coats. They began the tour by driving by Gift Primitive Baptist Church, appropriately named because it was given by Preacher Tom Coats as a gift for Coats, the town. The three buses of children then drove by Preacher Tom’s home place before going in a rotation to the police station, the fire and rescue station, the museums and to lunch at the Coats Park.
The students were accompanied by many parent and grandparent helpers as well as their teachers. Half of the students went to the Heritage Museum while the other half toured the Cotton Museum. Some of the amazing questions asked by the students took us volunteers by surprise. Imagine telling them that the adults with them might have been in the same class as they were until they could read. That’s the case with the old two room schoolhouse, or Goat House, as it was referred to before being relocated from its site across from the 1923 brick Coats School. Several community minded people, many being WWII Veterans, began the process of moving the Goat House given to the town by Billy and Peggy Pope, to its current location in 1990. By 1995, it was ready for the first visitors.
One group began the tour in the records room with Becky Adams and Peggy Robinson and were very excited to see their surnames on the genealogy books. Others were excited when they were told we needed their ancestry information too. One child asked if we wanted their information since their heritage was Honduras and were very pleased to learn that, “Yes, we want as many heritages as we can obtain!” Another wow moment was seeing the astronaut flight suit worn by Dr. William Thornton, the first astronaut from North Carolina. He gave the suit to the museum because Coats is the home place of the first licensed pilot of North Carolina, Alton Stewart. A couple of the students could quickly tell who Orville Wright was when they were told he signed Mr. Stewart’s license.
The train spikes, old nails, the chronology of telephones to cell phones were all eye opening for the students. The wood cook stove brought up the first opportunity to talk about how much children had to work ‘back in the day.’ The children had to get up early to bring in the wood for the stove so mama could make biscuits for breakfast. Who knew how exciting a simple old typewriter would be for technology-based young people? When they first spied the typewriter in ‘Grandma’s Attic’, the excitement grew to learn that it still works and doesn’t need charging. A wringer washing machine, a brick from the old Barclays Inn, a wooden tub with casings of pretend sausage and a hollowed-out log for a feeding trough brought out so many questions. The Native American arrowheads, spear points and grinding stones bring many questions and shares from those who have arrowheads of their own.
The toy display brings out comments from the boys about how creepy the dolls eyes are. They settle down after seeing the steam engines and model cars. Looking at the medical display made them a little skittish when they saw an old-style hypodermic needle. Probably the most impressive to this author is the respect they showed when talked about the various wars, Revolutionary, War Between the States, WWI, WWII and Afghanistan represented by mannequins in uniforms, many of whom were worn by local people. The most comments were about the drone when many students asked why we had a drone. We were glad to share more about the ‘First in Flight’ concept, from the Wright Brothers to first licensed pilot to the newest concept of flight.
The students then switched from the Heritage Museum to the Cotton Museum. Lenny Parker explained how the cotton seed was delinted so it would germinate better. He again emphasized how we made children work. They began the day picking the cotton early in the morning and picking out enough seed from the cotton to fill their shoe before they went to bed. (As the child grew, so did the size of his shoe). Then along came Eli Whitney and the cotton gin so the metal fingers did what their little fingers did. Of course, he explained that the children still had to work the cotton even after the cotton gin came about. The children picked the ‘tags’ in the cotton field after the picker finished so mama could make a ‘whipped quilt’. The questions most asked were, “How much does a bale of cotton weigh?” “How much cotton could a person pick in a day?” They saw how the cotton was carded and then spun to thread and how the thread then was woven on a plantation loom to make blankets. Many questions were asked about the rabbit trap box in the display. They would have been amazed to know how many rabbit traps this author tripped on her way home from the school bus stop!
Thanks goes out to the young man who bought breakfast for three out of the four museum volunteers at a local restaurant. On a more serious note, thank you to Linda Kimbrough for her gifts to the museum in memory of Mary Louise Baker Ennis, John Alvis Ennis, Sr., Melissa Lynn Ennis and H.L. Sorrell.
This author is giving Gayle Sorrell, the usual writer, a break to talk about an exciting Thursday when the third-grade students from Coats Elementary School toured the Coats Museums as part of their field trip to learn more about Coats. They began the tour by driving by Gift Primitive Baptist Church, appropriately named because it was given by Preacher Tom Coats as a gift for Coats, the town. The three buses of children then drove by Preacher Tom’s home place before going in a rotation to the police station, the fire and rescue station, the museums and to lunch at the Coats Park.
The students were accompanied by many parent and grandparent helpers as well as their teachers. Half of the students went to the Heritage Museum while the other half toured the Cotton Museum. Some of the amazing questions asked by the students took us volunteers by surprise. Imagine telling them that the adults with them might have been in the same class as they were until they could read. That’s the case with the old two room schoolhouse, or Goat House, as it was referred to before being relocated from its site across from the 1923 brick Coats School. Several community minded people, many being WWII Veterans, began the process of moving the Goat House given to the town by Billy and Peggy Pope, to its current location in 1990. By 1995, it was ready for the first visitors.
One group began the tour in the records room with Becky Adams and Peggy Robinson and were very excited to see their surnames on the genealogy books. Others were excited when they were told we needed their ancestry information too. One child asked if we wanted their information since their heritage was Honduras and were very pleased to learn that, “Yes, we want as many heritages as we can obtain!” Another wow moment was seeing the astronaut flight suit worn by Dr. William Thornton, the first astronaut from North Carolina. He gave the suit to the museum because Coats is the home place of the first licensed pilot of North Carolina, Alton Stewart. A couple of the students could quickly tell who Orville Wright was when they were told he signed Mr. Stewart’s license.
The train spikes, old nails, the chronology of telephones to cell phones were all eye opening for the students. The wood cook stove brought up the first opportunity to talk about how much children had to work ‘back in the day.’ The children had to get up early to bring in the wood for the stove so mama could make biscuits for breakfast. Who knew how exciting a simple old typewriter would be for technology-based young people? When they first spied the typewriter in ‘Grandma’s Attic’, the excitement grew to learn that it still works and doesn’t need charging. A wringer washing machine, a brick from the old Barclays Inn, a wooden tub with casings of pretend sausage and a hollowed-out log for a feeding trough brought out so many questions. The Native American arrowheads, spear points and grinding stones bring many questions and shares from those who have arrowheads of their own.
The toy display brings out comments from the boys about how creepy the dolls eyes are. They settle down after seeing the steam engines and model cars. Looking at the medical display made them a little skittish when they saw an old-style hypodermic needle. Probably the most impressive to this author is the respect they showed when talked about the various wars, Revolutionary, War Between the States, WWI, WWII and Afghanistan represented by mannequins in uniforms, many of whom were worn by local people. The most comments were about the drone when many students asked why we had a drone. We were glad to share more about the ‘First in Flight’ concept, from the Wright Brothers to first licensed pilot to the newest concept of flight.
The students then switched from the Heritage Museum to the Cotton Museum. Lenny Parker explained how the cotton seed was delinted so it would germinate better. He again emphasized how we made children work. They began the day picking the cotton early in the morning and picking out enough seed from the cotton to fill their shoe before they went to bed. (As the child grew, so did the size of his shoe). Then along came Eli Whitney and the cotton gin so the metal fingers did what their little fingers did. Of course, he explained that the children still had to work the cotton even after the cotton gin came about. The children picked the ‘tags’ in the cotton field after the picker finished so mama could make a ‘whipped quilt’. The questions most asked were, “How much does a bale of cotton weigh?” “How much cotton could a person pick in a day?” They saw how the cotton was carded and then spun to thread and how the thread then was woven on a plantation loom to make blankets. Many questions were asked about the rabbit trap box in the display. They would have been amazed to know how many rabbit traps this author tripped on her way home from the school bus stop!
Thanks goes out to the young man who bought breakfast for three out of the four museum volunteers at a local restaurant. On a more serious note, thank you to Linda Kimbrough for her gifts to the museum in memory of Mary Louise Baker Ennis, John Alvis Ennis, Sr., Melissa Lynn Ennis and H.L. Sorrell.