September 18, 2015
Coats Museum News
From experiences, we know that fads come and go. In 1954, the new fad in Florida was the combination umbrella and beach hat. Fishermen and sunbathers used it. Would you not like to see a picture of one? I do know that H.L. and I got to see and meet U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond when he was the first one to approach our car and greet us as we made our way to a relative’s burial plot in a small country church cemetery near Greenwood, S. C. He did not come across as the bigger than life figure covered by the national media but rather as a frail old man with dyed hair who felt our sting of death of a loved one. He was a cousin of my brother-in-law and they respected each other even though they so often disagreed on political issues. Obviously many people did like Strom Thurmond’s views because he was the first U.S. man in history to be elected by a write-in campaign (Daily Record Nov. 23, 1954).
In that same issue of the paper it disclosed that Mr. and Mrs. Hunter Ogburn of Willow Springs had announced the birth of a son, Charles Dannon. Do you know to what political family he belonged?
A while back someone asked in the Daily Record if anyone knew about someone climbing a building in Dunn many years again. I do know that the “Human Fly”, Johnny J. Woods, was to climb the Dunn Hotel Cottondale according to the Dunn paper. Did he climb it? It is a fact that Claude Moore was the new county sheriff after he defeated Gene Stewart of Coats in the November elections. Another lady who made her mark in the county was Mrs. Delmer Ennis of Coats who was elected the president of the woman’s group of the Farm Bureau (Daily Record Nov. 24, 1954).
You will have to agree that it takes all kinds of people to make life interesting. One man who definitely made a mark in Grove local history was Oscar S. Young. In a long published article in the Daily Record Nov. 26, 1954 issue, it proved Young to be a man who was ahead of times when it came to having varied occupations. According to the article, Elder O.S. Young of Barclaysville was “probably the only man in Harnett County and probably N.C.” who could boast of a list of occupations that sounded like a page out of an employment agent’s “Wanted” column. Oscar Young had been a teacher, merchant, banker, insurance agent, farmer, politician, surveyor, and ordained minister in the Primitive Baptist Church.
Oscar Young was born 2 miles east of the post office at Barclaysville in May 1886. His grandfather reared him on the farm. In 1903, his grandfather died and Oscar was left with the responsibility of earning a living for the family. Oscar began school, such as it was, in the late 1890, at the Williams Grove School. It was a one room planked building -20 by 25 or 30 feet in size and had one teacher, J.A. Williams. Later he attended Gregory School that was a mile and one half miles from his house. That first Gregory School was also a one-room school. When Angier School offered a high school curriculum, he attended it in 1906 with “Seth Parrish as its first teacher.” The article shared that Angier had the first high school in the County and one had to pay to attend it.
I do know that there were some other high schools in that time frame. Coats had a high school in 1910 but one did not have to pay to attend it; however, one did have to pay to attend a subscription school such as the one in the New Hope PBC in Coats in the late 1890’s and the one at Buies Creek in 1887 which grew into Campbell University. At the New Hope Primitive Subscription School the cost was one dollar for 20 days of school.
Young was a teacher at Coats in 1911 verified by the fact that his picture is in the 1911 photograph of the student body taken in front of the old wooden Coats School building. After teaching a few years, he went into the mercantile business in Coats and clerked for the James P. Lee and Company. He was later associated with Johnson Cotton Co. in Coats around the first of 1911. When did the young Johnson brothers leave Coats to open a business in Dunn? Why did Mr. Lee operate the Johnson Bros. business when they first came to Coats? I promise you that is also a good story.
Mr. Young went back into the teaching field again by teaching in high school at Coats. Soon he left teaching again and went into insurance business. He joined the real estate and insurance business with W.H. Parrish. He did not stay long and returned to the teaching arena.
About December 24, 1914, the “love bug” bit the teacher and he married Miss Willie Myrtle Stephenson of Wake County. With the addition of the family, he needed more money than teaching could bring in so he went back into the insurance and real estate business.
In 1918, Young felt he had had enough of public life and returned to the farm. When farmers of the area needed a surveyor, he tried his hand at that. Surveying did not last long for he went to Angier after the people ask him to be cashier in a newly organized bank called Farmers Bank. He remained with Farmers Bank from 1919 to 1926 when the bank merged with Angier Bank and Trust Co., the older of the two banks.
Hence, Young returned to the farm and his surveying job. The following year in 1927, his real talent was discovered and he was ordained as a minister in the Primitive Baptist Church of which he had been associated with since 1923. After his ordination, he continued in full time work as a minister in Angier, Coats, Greenford, Rose Bay in Hyde County, Ebenezer in Person County and others. He later became an appraiser for various farm loan agents in Harnett, Cumberland, Sampson, Johnston, Wake and Lee Counties.
During all of the various occupations, Oscar Young worked hard for the GOP and ran for the Harnett County Clerk of Court (Daily Record Nov. 26, 1954).
Folks, was this not the time in history when one selected a job and kept it for a lifetime? I do know that his daughter worked with an airline and was killed in a plane crash and another daughter, Janice, lives in the Coats area. We have on loan to the museum his surveying instrument that he likely used to survey the hundreds of properties in and around Harnett County.
Red Callahan who served during the Vietnam War has shared many stories of that war with us at the museum. On Red’s recent visit he brought his map of Vietnam showing the different drop zones where young Americans troops set foot on a hostile soil that would claim life, limb and innocence only to return to their homeland to be cursed at, spit upon and unappreciated for doing what they had to do. The Vietnam War Exhibit contains numerous items that Red and Donald Page have loaned to the museum for our November 14th event at the museum.
The museum volunteers are compiling the names of scores of men and women from the Grove Township area who have served under the American flag since WWII. If you are interested in sharing information about military experiences for the Research Library in the Coats Museum, fill out a form to be a part of an event to recognize your service to our country on November 14th on the Coats Heritage Square. Forms and more information about the event can be obtained from the museum, Cornerstone and the Coats Barber Shop.
From experiences, we know that fads come and go. In 1954, the new fad in Florida was the combination umbrella and beach hat. Fishermen and sunbathers used it. Would you not like to see a picture of one? I do know that H.L. and I got to see and meet U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond when he was the first one to approach our car and greet us as we made our way to a relative’s burial plot in a small country church cemetery near Greenwood, S. C. He did not come across as the bigger than life figure covered by the national media but rather as a frail old man with dyed hair who felt our sting of death of a loved one. He was a cousin of my brother-in-law and they respected each other even though they so often disagreed on political issues. Obviously many people did like Strom Thurmond’s views because he was the first U.S. man in history to be elected by a write-in campaign (Daily Record Nov. 23, 1954).
In that same issue of the paper it disclosed that Mr. and Mrs. Hunter Ogburn of Willow Springs had announced the birth of a son, Charles Dannon. Do you know to what political family he belonged?
A while back someone asked in the Daily Record if anyone knew about someone climbing a building in Dunn many years again. I do know that the “Human Fly”, Johnny J. Woods, was to climb the Dunn Hotel Cottondale according to the Dunn paper. Did he climb it? It is a fact that Claude Moore was the new county sheriff after he defeated Gene Stewart of Coats in the November elections. Another lady who made her mark in the county was Mrs. Delmer Ennis of Coats who was elected the president of the woman’s group of the Farm Bureau (Daily Record Nov. 24, 1954).
You will have to agree that it takes all kinds of people to make life interesting. One man who definitely made a mark in Grove local history was Oscar S. Young. In a long published article in the Daily Record Nov. 26, 1954 issue, it proved Young to be a man who was ahead of times when it came to having varied occupations. According to the article, Elder O.S. Young of Barclaysville was “probably the only man in Harnett County and probably N.C.” who could boast of a list of occupations that sounded like a page out of an employment agent’s “Wanted” column. Oscar Young had been a teacher, merchant, banker, insurance agent, farmer, politician, surveyor, and ordained minister in the Primitive Baptist Church.
Oscar Young was born 2 miles east of the post office at Barclaysville in May 1886. His grandfather reared him on the farm. In 1903, his grandfather died and Oscar was left with the responsibility of earning a living for the family. Oscar began school, such as it was, in the late 1890, at the Williams Grove School. It was a one room planked building -20 by 25 or 30 feet in size and had one teacher, J.A. Williams. Later he attended Gregory School that was a mile and one half miles from his house. That first Gregory School was also a one-room school. When Angier School offered a high school curriculum, he attended it in 1906 with “Seth Parrish as its first teacher.” The article shared that Angier had the first high school in the County and one had to pay to attend it.
I do know that there were some other high schools in that time frame. Coats had a high school in 1910 but one did not have to pay to attend it; however, one did have to pay to attend a subscription school such as the one in the New Hope PBC in Coats in the late 1890’s and the one at Buies Creek in 1887 which grew into Campbell University. At the New Hope Primitive Subscription School the cost was one dollar for 20 days of school.
Young was a teacher at Coats in 1911 verified by the fact that his picture is in the 1911 photograph of the student body taken in front of the old wooden Coats School building. After teaching a few years, he went into the mercantile business in Coats and clerked for the James P. Lee and Company. He was later associated with Johnson Cotton Co. in Coats around the first of 1911. When did the young Johnson brothers leave Coats to open a business in Dunn? Why did Mr. Lee operate the Johnson Bros. business when they first came to Coats? I promise you that is also a good story.
Mr. Young went back into the teaching field again by teaching in high school at Coats. Soon he left teaching again and went into insurance business. He joined the real estate and insurance business with W.H. Parrish. He did not stay long and returned to the teaching arena.
About December 24, 1914, the “love bug” bit the teacher and he married Miss Willie Myrtle Stephenson of Wake County. With the addition of the family, he needed more money than teaching could bring in so he went back into the insurance and real estate business.
In 1918, Young felt he had had enough of public life and returned to the farm. When farmers of the area needed a surveyor, he tried his hand at that. Surveying did not last long for he went to Angier after the people ask him to be cashier in a newly organized bank called Farmers Bank. He remained with Farmers Bank from 1919 to 1926 when the bank merged with Angier Bank and Trust Co., the older of the two banks.
Hence, Young returned to the farm and his surveying job. The following year in 1927, his real talent was discovered and he was ordained as a minister in the Primitive Baptist Church of which he had been associated with since 1923. After his ordination, he continued in full time work as a minister in Angier, Coats, Greenford, Rose Bay in Hyde County, Ebenezer in Person County and others. He later became an appraiser for various farm loan agents in Harnett, Cumberland, Sampson, Johnston, Wake and Lee Counties.
During all of the various occupations, Oscar Young worked hard for the GOP and ran for the Harnett County Clerk of Court (Daily Record Nov. 26, 1954).
Folks, was this not the time in history when one selected a job and kept it for a lifetime? I do know that his daughter worked with an airline and was killed in a plane crash and another daughter, Janice, lives in the Coats area. We have on loan to the museum his surveying instrument that he likely used to survey the hundreds of properties in and around Harnett County.
Red Callahan who served during the Vietnam War has shared many stories of that war with us at the museum. On Red’s recent visit he brought his map of Vietnam showing the different drop zones where young Americans troops set foot on a hostile soil that would claim life, limb and innocence only to return to their homeland to be cursed at, spit upon and unappreciated for doing what they had to do. The Vietnam War Exhibit contains numerous items that Red and Donald Page have loaned to the museum for our November 14th event at the museum.
The museum volunteers are compiling the names of scores of men and women from the Grove Township area who have served under the American flag since WWII. If you are interested in sharing information about military experiences for the Research Library in the Coats Museum, fill out a form to be a part of an event to recognize your service to our country on November 14th on the Coats Heritage Square. Forms and more information about the event can be obtained from the museum, Cornerstone and the Coats Barber Shop.