October 4, 2024 Coats Museum News
With all of our traveling into the long ago past, then into the not too far past and eventually into the 2024 present, I hope you are pondering “From whence did my ancestors come. Are there any physical characteristics that can be traced to a certain group of my people?”
For example, on my husband’s side of the family, red hair was common in his mother’s siblings while his dad’s siblings had darker skin, black hair and brown eyes.
My mom had black hair, blue eyes and fair skin but she married my dad who had black hair, brown eyes and dark skin. From that marriage came ten children-two boys and eight girls. My two brothers had dark hair, fairly dark skin and brown eyes. Of the eight girls, six had dark brown eyes and the other two very blue eyes. There were no natural blondes or redheads in my family. Only one sister had what was referred to by some as natural curl in her black hair as did my mom.
Recall that I wrote last week that the Scot Highlanders were warriors and hunters and when they came to the new world, they sought land that had rolling hills and brawling streams similar to what they had left across the Atlantic Ocean. According to Malcolm Fowler these Scottish people date back 12,000 years ago to the Stone Age. They were a nomadic people and history records that they were known as Celts who originated in Central Siberia. Eventually migrating for hundreds of years in search for meat the Celts’ history recorded it was more hundreds of years before they reached a land that would be later named Scotland.
During the Iron Age the Celts began to eat iron oxide because they equated that with the strength of iron and hence it has only been discovered in the mid 1900’s that red hair pigment is a rare chemical compound of iron and other complex substances and according to Malcolm Fowler in his book “They Passed This Way”, “chromosomes and genes developed among these iron oxide eaters who had a capacity to utilize a quota of iron over that normally required and thus a typed red-haired group became an hereditary element in the Celtic generations.”
Since many of us who have a long lineage in Harnett County, we likely have some Scottish DNA. Possibility in another column I can address the bagpipes and kilts of that Scottish ancestry but for now let’s discuss what all those seeking a grant in the new world had in common.
There were Frenchmen, Germans, Welshmen, Scottish and Englishmen who sought grants by the mid 1700’s. They had to find a piece of unclaimed land, list it with an entry taker of that county and file a description and location of it. If approved by the Governor’s Council, a deputy –surveyor would eventually show up and with a warrant signed by the governor ordering him to measure and lay off the land.
The settler had 18 months in which to take out a patent for the said land. If he failed to do so, another could take up the land. If the settler perfected the patent, then he was issued a grant to the land and could do whatever he pleased. He paid a yearly quitrent on the land and paid 1 dollar per 100 acres. He paid the surveyor. The only other condition was that he had to clear 3 acres per 100 acres in 3 years; build a fence horse high, pig tight, and bull strong (Fowler 17-18).
Did you know that info? I do know a few hundred years later in 1994 life would be so different. Printed in the Nov. 3 edition of the Daily Record, Belle’s Notes recorded that the Cardinal Singers had entertained at the Senior Center. She noted that Amy Ryals, daughter of Clarence and Beth Ryals, had won the Most Photogenic while Emily Michele Kilgore was Most Photogenic in the Wee Miss Coats division. Elma Langdon’s sister Rose Abbott had died in Florida. Mattie Ruffin, Lisa Shearin, Tony Upchurch, Harry Wheeler, Weldon Beasley and Willie Mae Parrish were hospitalized.
The Coats Elementary School was one of the 100 recipients of the 1994-95 Chrysler Family Reading Grants. The purpose of the grant was to encourage teamwork among families, teachers, and students to make this happen. Beverly McLean, Marie Salmon and Gayle Sorrell developed a reading program called DREAM (Do Read Every Available Minute) and it became the thing for the students to do when they any free time and to end the school day with 20 minutes of DREAM time.
This was an amazing program since students would reach down into their desks to take out a book to read after finishing a test or class assignment-it definitely created a quiet class environment and a love for reading.
A big thank you goes to Becky Adams, Lynda Butler and Betty Wolf for sharing info about the Coats Town history to a group at the Coats Public Library and to the library staff for inviting them. Donuts fill the stomach and donations to the Coats Museum warm the heart- thank you Ralph and Lorena Denning and Stacy Avery for doing just that.
With all of our traveling into the long ago past, then into the not too far past and eventually into the 2024 present, I hope you are pondering “From whence did my ancestors come. Are there any physical characteristics that can be traced to a certain group of my people?”
For example, on my husband’s side of the family, red hair was common in his mother’s siblings while his dad’s siblings had darker skin, black hair and brown eyes.
My mom had black hair, blue eyes and fair skin but she married my dad who had black hair, brown eyes and dark skin. From that marriage came ten children-two boys and eight girls. My two brothers had dark hair, fairly dark skin and brown eyes. Of the eight girls, six had dark brown eyes and the other two very blue eyes. There were no natural blondes or redheads in my family. Only one sister had what was referred to by some as natural curl in her black hair as did my mom.
Recall that I wrote last week that the Scot Highlanders were warriors and hunters and when they came to the new world, they sought land that had rolling hills and brawling streams similar to what they had left across the Atlantic Ocean. According to Malcolm Fowler these Scottish people date back 12,000 years ago to the Stone Age. They were a nomadic people and history records that they were known as Celts who originated in Central Siberia. Eventually migrating for hundreds of years in search for meat the Celts’ history recorded it was more hundreds of years before they reached a land that would be later named Scotland.
During the Iron Age the Celts began to eat iron oxide because they equated that with the strength of iron and hence it has only been discovered in the mid 1900’s that red hair pigment is a rare chemical compound of iron and other complex substances and according to Malcolm Fowler in his book “They Passed This Way”, “chromosomes and genes developed among these iron oxide eaters who had a capacity to utilize a quota of iron over that normally required and thus a typed red-haired group became an hereditary element in the Celtic generations.”
Since many of us who have a long lineage in Harnett County, we likely have some Scottish DNA. Possibility in another column I can address the bagpipes and kilts of that Scottish ancestry but for now let’s discuss what all those seeking a grant in the new world had in common.
There were Frenchmen, Germans, Welshmen, Scottish and Englishmen who sought grants by the mid 1700’s. They had to find a piece of unclaimed land, list it with an entry taker of that county and file a description and location of it. If approved by the Governor’s Council, a deputy –surveyor would eventually show up and with a warrant signed by the governor ordering him to measure and lay off the land.
The settler had 18 months in which to take out a patent for the said land. If he failed to do so, another could take up the land. If the settler perfected the patent, then he was issued a grant to the land and could do whatever he pleased. He paid a yearly quitrent on the land and paid 1 dollar per 100 acres. He paid the surveyor. The only other condition was that he had to clear 3 acres per 100 acres in 3 years; build a fence horse high, pig tight, and bull strong (Fowler 17-18).
Did you know that info? I do know a few hundred years later in 1994 life would be so different. Printed in the Nov. 3 edition of the Daily Record, Belle’s Notes recorded that the Cardinal Singers had entertained at the Senior Center. She noted that Amy Ryals, daughter of Clarence and Beth Ryals, had won the Most Photogenic while Emily Michele Kilgore was Most Photogenic in the Wee Miss Coats division. Elma Langdon’s sister Rose Abbott had died in Florida. Mattie Ruffin, Lisa Shearin, Tony Upchurch, Harry Wheeler, Weldon Beasley and Willie Mae Parrish were hospitalized.
The Coats Elementary School was one of the 100 recipients of the 1994-95 Chrysler Family Reading Grants. The purpose of the grant was to encourage teamwork among families, teachers, and students to make this happen. Beverly McLean, Marie Salmon and Gayle Sorrell developed a reading program called DREAM (Do Read Every Available Minute) and it became the thing for the students to do when they any free time and to end the school day with 20 minutes of DREAM time.
This was an amazing program since students would reach down into their desks to take out a book to read after finishing a test or class assignment-it definitely created a quiet class environment and a love for reading.
A big thank you goes to Becky Adams, Lynda Butler and Betty Wolf for sharing info about the Coats Town history to a group at the Coats Public Library and to the library staff for inviting them. Donuts fill the stomach and donations to the Coats Museum warm the heart- thank you Ralph and Lorena Denning and Stacy Avery for doing just that.