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BERTIE IN 1830.
Some
Interesting Sketches of Bertie Postmasters at That Time -- Location of the
Offices.
WINDSOR, N. C. }
Aug. 30, 1897.
} MR. EDITOR: In your issue of the
19th inst. you give an entertaining column taken from Mr. James S. Grant's "Postal Guide 1830." At that date
Bertie county had six postoffices. There are now in this county 23 offices. The
names of the offices and officers as published by you will be the basis of this
article.
Mr. Josiah Holley, the postmaster at Colerain, was a man of large
wealth -probably the largest land owner in the State. He was a very handsome
man. He died in 1845, childless, leaving his vast estate to his nephews and
relatives, the forefather of the Etheridges and Holleys. Col. S. B. Spruill told
me that Mr. Josiah Holley was more than a millionaire, and that he was the
wealthiest
man in America. However that may be, he was a rich man. Colerain is
still a postoffice -the incumbent a colored man. It takes its name from the
Colerain Islands. Mr. E. E. Etheridge, of Colerain, could write you an
entertaining column about that vicinity. It was in his hospitable home that I
saw a picture of Josiah Holley. Mr. Etheridge also showed me the orignal plat of
the town of Colerain.
The postoffice at Merry Hill was discontinued long
after 1830. In recent years it was re-established under the name of Walke, but
in deference to the wishes o[f] the patrons of the office the old name has been
restored. The present locality called Merry Hill is more than a mile from the
Merry Hill of 1830. This hill got its name from the hospitality of John Webb who
lived there. His comfortable home was the scene of many a merry gathering. The
postmaster in 1830 was John Webb, a man of excellent repute and of the strongest
horse sense. He was the father of Mr. L. S. Webb of whom I speak in connection
with the Windsor office. Mr. John Webb was something of a physician without a
diploma and without scientific reading. So successful was he that one of the
largest slave owners in his community employed him to look after the health of
his slaves. It will not add anything to Mr. Webb's reputation as a doctor to
know that he cured a bad case of dyspepsia by putting his patient on a fat meat
diet! Mr. Webb had a large number of sons, one of whom was the father of Mrs.
Dr. Wingate of Wake Forest College.
Mount Gould is still a post office in
the county. Mr. George W. Womble, who married Miss Holley, is the postmast[e]r.
Many years ago a man named Gould owned the farm and owing to the fact that it is
the highest point on the bank of the Chowan River it was honored with the name
"Mount." Steph[e]n Thatch, the postmaster in 1830, kept store at Mount Gould. He
was a native of Hertford county and from Murfreesboro. He had a son, Stephen
Thatch, who was captured and died in a Federal prison. Mr. Burrell Russell, a
merchant in Windsor up to 1868 was his uncle.
Turners X Roads of 1830 is the
Lewiston of to-day. The postmaster then was Robert C. Watson. Mr. Watson was a
very handsome man, of great intellect and of fine business capacity. Mr.
Watson's sisters married prominent men in this county -Mr. Jonathan S. Tayloe,
Mr. L. S. Webb, Rev. Wm. Hill Jordan and Mr. Wilder Bird, the father of Mrs. P.
H. Winston. Mr. Watson represented this county in the L[e]gislature. He was a
staunch Democrat. On one occasion the vote was close and Mr. Lewis Thompson
stated th[at] he would send for Jere Sumpson who would vote the Whig ticket. Mr.
Simpson was of Caucasion blood, but very dark. Mr. Watson threatened to
retaliate by voting Dick, his carriage driver, who though a negro, was of whiter
skin than Simpson. An amusing incident connected with the mail at Turners X
Roads was related to me by my mother. Mr. Lewis Thompson and other gentlemen who
lived a mile away jokingly told the mail carrier that they would pay more for
letters than they paid at the cross roads. The carrier possessed qualities more
suited to the Treasury than the Postoffice Department. On his next trip he drove
through the cross roads and was going at full speed to the land of higher
postage when the joke was explained to him. Shortly after 1830 the postoffice
was moved from Turner's X Roads to what is now called Woodville and it was given
the designation of "Hotel." You will see that name on the old maps. Mrs. Wilder
Bird kept hotel there for her brother, Mr. Watson. It was the favorite boarding
place of a large number of young people who attended the schools there -schools
that were famed in those days.
In the course of time Hotel was changed to
Woodville and Mr. James P. Johnson, a highly intelligent merchant was
postmaster. After the war Mr. Watson Lewis succeeded in carrying the office back
to the cross roads and the place was incorporated under the name of Lewiston.
Mr. Lorenzo Stevenson Webb, post master at Windsor in 1830 was born at Merry
Hill. In early life he was the clerk in a store in Edenton which was at one time
occupied [by] Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mr.
Webb married Miss Edward Watson and located in Windsor. He was a prosperous
merchant. He held the postoffice and was for many years Clerk and Master in
Equity. He was the Cashier of the branch of the State bank located here -a bank
that did the business for all of this eastern country. Mr. Webb was of the
purest life, of the highest integrity. His [d]evotion to Windsor and all its
traditions was touching. He lived to be 86 years old.
Mr. John E. Tyler
kindly furnishes me th[e] following interesting account of the Britton's Store
postoffice:
"R. H. Barnes, who was postmaster at Britton's Store in 1830,
was a man of good standing in his community. He kept a tavern [n]ear the spot
where the Masonic Hall now stands at Roxobel. G. Hampton Barnes, the Roxobel
poet, is his grandson.
"Col. William Britton came to Bertie county from
Petersburg, Va. I do not know the date of his coming. He was the owner of
considerable property and a very successful merchant and farmer. Probably the
first steam engine ever brought to the county belonged to him. The building in
which it s[t]ood was burned to the ground in 1838. The burning was supposed to
be the work of an incendiary.
"There was a postoffice in South Carolina
called Britton's Neck. The names of the two postoffices being so nearly the
same, was the principal reason for changing the name of the postoffice at
Britton's Store.
"Col. William Britton highly esteemed a novel by Mrs.
She[r]wood entitled - "Roxobel-a Village Tale." This caused him to have the name
of the postoffice changed to Roxobel."
C[a]n you not induce Porfessor Webb
to establish a course of lecture[s] on local history and traditions. Bertie,
Northampton and Hertford counties can furnish material of that sort for many
volumes.
FRANCIS D. WINSTON.
"The Patron and Gleaner", Andrew J. Conner,
ed., Rich Square, Northampton County N.C.
Thursday, September 2, 1897 [Vol.
6, No. 35]
Source:
http://members.cox.net/bjernigan/gates/bertiein1830.html
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Col.
S. B. Spruill
and/or