Friends of the Page-Walker Cary Me Back

Built to Last: The Marcus Baxter Dry Legacy at Cary High School

Carla Michaels — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:51:23 GMT

Marcus Baxter Dry, the longest serving Cary High School principal never built a house for his family to live in, but he oversaw the building of two Cary High School buildings that had profound effects on education locally and statewide. Read on to learn more about Dry’s life, his personal home, and his influence on education represented by two brick high school buildings and more.

The House on the Corner

Marcus Baxter Dry House; photograph courtesy of the author

The Marcus Baxter Dry House has sat at the corner of Dry Avenue and Faculty Drive in downtown Cary overlooking the Cary Arts Center and Cary High School for 125 years or more. For more than 30 years it was the home of Professor Marcus Baxter Dry, the longest serving principal of Cary High School and beloved community member, and his family. The house is a good example of a one-story “Triple A” cottage with Victorian features, typical of houses across Wake County and in Cary. The house is dated circa 1900 and features details such as a wrap-around porch and patterned shingles in the gables with lancet-shaped louvers. Its simplicity and lack of ostentatious features belie the accomplishments and impact on education rendered over 50 years by Professor Dry. We’ll talk about his remarkable life and the campus buildings in a bit, but first, let’s explore the history of the land and his personal home.

The Land & House

The Dry Family property was part of much larger acreage once owned by Frank Page, who set aside four acres of this large parcel on a high spot at the end of South Academy Street for use as school grounds for the newly formed town. Page understood the value of education, and he wanted both his own children and the children in his newly formed town to have the opportunity of a solid education. Trees were felled on the “school lot” as it was known and milled into lumber at his sawmill. The two-story school was completed and ready to begin classes in January 1870, over a year before the town was officially incorporated. The date 1896 in the image below refers to the year that the school passed out of the hands of the Rufus H. Jones family and to stockholders.

Jerry Miller drawing for Cary High School

Courtesy of Cary High School Archives

After the school was built, Page still owned land in the surrounding area, and the land adjacent to the school lot was sold in smaller parcels over the years and descended through numerous hands. In 1901, the widow Mrs. Elizabeth Quince Petteway bought the property now located at the corner of Dry Avenue and Faculty Drive, a parcel which at that time comprised four acres. The map below shows Mrs. Petteway’s house on the 1906 map drawn from recollections of Terrine Holleman Woodlief and Marvin T. Jones, both long time Cary residents and early graduates of Cary High School.

Mrs Petteway’s daughter Kate was married to William H. Butt who was from Wake County. He had been a farmer early on in his working life and had acquired large tracts of land around Cary. In the 1900 Census, The Butt family and Mrs. Petteway lived in the same household in Cary. Was the family living in what became known as the Dry House? There is no way to know for sure, but there are no homes on this map for the Butt family. Around 1905 – 1910, Mr. Butt changed careers, beginning work as an engineer for the Seaboard Airline Railroad (SAL.) The Butts along with Mrs. Petteway were found in Hamlet, a hub of the SAL, in the 1910 Census. Sadly, Mrs. Petteway passed away in 1915, still owning her Cary property. Her heirs sold the 4-acre property to M. B. Dry in 1917 for $2600.00. By that time, the Dry family had been in Cary for nine years. The deed explained that the land was sold to fulfill payment of legacies outlined in Mrs. Petteway’s will.

The Drys Move to Cary, But Not to the Dry House

Although the house is known locally as the long-time residence of the Dry family, they clearly lived elsewhere for a while. Other details about where the Dry family lived when they first came to Cary were found in The Cary News newspaper article in 1990. Dry’s son, William Henry Dry recounted, “When they [his parents] came to Cary from Wingate, they couldn’t find a place to live. They lived in the girls’ dormitory, and that’s where I was born.” William was born in August 1908, so he would have been born soon after his parents arrived in Cary for Mr. Dry to take on the principalship of Cary High School.

Girls’ Dormitory 1916

William Dry went on to explain that the family lived in several homes around Cary, and for a time lived in what was then called the Walker Hotel. He told this anecdote, “When I was just a little fellow the first paddling I ever got was for putting rocks on the railroad track,” he said with a laugh. “I must have been about three.” William was three around 1911, so it appears the family was still in transition and not yet in the Dry House.

The article went on, “Later, [my] father bought the house which now sits at the corner of Dry Avenue and Faculty Drive, right across from the school. The Dry family made that their permanent home. That house is over 100 years old… [as of 1990] We moved into it I think when I was six or seven…” This would have been about 1915. So perhaps, the Drys rented the house until the heirs of Mrs. Petteway were able to execute her will and fulfill the legacies, with the sale taking place in 1917. In the photo below, a young man appears on the porch. One guess is that it is William Dry, who would have been around 12 at the time.

The Dry House from the 1920 CHSite, yearbook of Cary High School

Dry's Early Life and Educational Achievements

Now that we know a little bit about the house and land, let’s back up a bit and examine the early life and education of Professor Dry. Marcus Baxter Dry was born in 1871 on his father’s farm near Hopewell Church, Goose Creek Township, Union County, NC which is southeast of Charlotte. Hopewell Church is the top red oval, and the lower oval encircles Unionville, where Dry went to school later on.

He learned the value of hard work on the farm, learning to use an ax, mattock, and plow, and run the engine of the steam mill that his father operated.

Photo of the Dry Homestead found on the Ancestry family tree: AngelaDryGarrett

His early education started at local schools: the Old Field (or Friends) School, Hopewell Church School and the Faulks School. He went on to preparatory school at Union Institute, graduating in 1892.

Photo from https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jganis/genealogy/unionco/photos/main.html

His course of study was so rigorous that he enrolled at Wake Forest College in 1893 as a sophomore and graduated in 1896, just three years later, with a Master of Arts degree and as Valedictorian and Poet of his class. He also served as an editor of and writer for “The Wake Forest Student” newspaper. No yearbook photographs exist online for Wake Forest College from the 1890s.

Catalogue of Wake Forest College [1892-1905]

Here was his course of study as noted in the catalog listing his graduation:

1896 excerpt from Catalog of WFC 1892-1905

The above abbreviations stand for: Moral Philosophy, Chemistry, Biology, Modern Languages, Greek, Latin, Physics and Applied Mathematics, and English. Clearly, he was a serious and educationally ambitious student.

As a dedicated educator who understood the importance of life-long earning, Dry offered summer schools for teachers at Wingate and later at Cary. Later in his career, he himself attended summer sessions of the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York as well as summer school at the University of North Carolina. When the farm-life school model started to take hold across the state, Dry entered A & M (now NCSU) Summer School for farm-life men, attending three summers and applying himself to subjects such as soil, fertilizers, agronomy, animal husbandry, dairying, poultry, horticulture, botany, bacteriology, etc. All this study converted him to the farm-life idea that he implemented later at Cary High School.

Early Teaching Career

Before he arrived in Cary to teach, Dry had years of teaching and school administration experience under his belt. Although Dry’s own educational experience has been previously outlined, what wasn’t mentioned was that while he was at the Union Institute and Wake Forest College, he taught at local schools near his home when he was not in school himself, such as in the summer and between terms. These would have been small, one teacher community

schools. It should be pointed out that in these “one teacher schools” there may have been little to no equipment, not even a blackboard, many schools being log and chinking structures. Professor Dry recounted, (and you can hear his poetic nature coming out) “No desks, no tablets or pencils, no toilet arrangements of any kind! …Wide was the fireplace and scanty was the light that came in through the diminutive window. The shrunken floor-boards admitted an abundance of fresh air from beneath the building.”

Example of a log cabin school found in:

https://piedmonttrails.com/2021/04/15/the-rural-little-schools/

1896 was a year of change for Dry and his family. Late in 1896, for reasons unknown, Henry Dry, Marcus Dry’s father sold his land and moved, along with his wife and younger children to Texas. Marcus stayed behind after graduating from Wake Forest College earlier in the year, in May, and he assumed the principalship of the newly organized Wingate School in Union County where he served for twelve years. Wingate School was about 15 or so miles, as the crow flies, from his now former home in Goose Creek. At Wingate, he simply taught, in his own words, “practically everything I had studies at college” at Wake Forest. Because there was no state oversight for curriculum choices, he devised the following curriculum for his high school students: “four years of English, four years of Mathematics including both Plane and Solid Geometry, four years of History, five years of Science, embracing Physiology, Physical Geography, Physics, Geology and Astronomy, one year of French, one of Greek, and four of Latin… Pupils got a big doses of Spelling, Penmanship, Composition Writing, and had speaking pieces that were presented Friday afternoons. Two debating societies were maintained…”

Wingate School from: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jganis/genealogy/unionco/photos/main.html

According to a biographical sketch of Professor Dry in the book “Historical Raleigh” published in 1908, “The [Wingate] school had just been established in 1896…the attendance at Wingate grew from a small local patronage to an enrollment of three hundred pupils, one-third of whom were boarding students. Here is Professor Dry with many of his students in the 1900-1901 school catalog. This is the earliest photograph of Dry that has been located so far.

“A community grew up around the school, taking on the proportions of a village… The school made the town.” That sounds very much like the trajectory of Cary Academy/Cary High School. Both Wingate and Cary were served by the railroad, making travel for boarders easier and town development possible.

Personal Events at Wingate

In 1904, at the age of 33, Marcus Baxter Dry married 18-year-old Wilma Anne Perry of Monroe, NC. They had met when she was a student at Wingate. Her extended family lived around the Wingate area, so it would have been an obvious choice for her to attend the local co-educational school.

1904 Wedding Photo of Marcus Baxter Dry and Wilma Anne Perry

gift to Cary High School from Charlotte Dry Keuhn of Aiken, SC,

granddaughter of the Drys

Their first child, Helen Marshall Dry, was born in 1905, and Wilma was expecting their second child when, in 1908, Professor E. L. Middleton retired from Cary High School as Cary transitioned from a private to a public high school. Professor Dry was elected to replace him. Lots of changes were on the way.

Shortly after arriving in Cary, Wilma gave birth to their second child, William Henry Dry in August of 1908, as mentioned above. Here is a photo, again from Charlotte Dry Keuhn, showing Dry, Wilma, the oldest daughter Helen and baby William. The photo dates to 1909, shortly after the Drys moved to Cary.

1909 Dry Family Photo

gift to Cary High School from Charlotte Dry Keuhn of Aiken, SC,

granddaughter of the Drys

Photo from the 1916 CHSite Yearbook

Cary High and Professor Dry

But let’s back up to 1908 to set the scene for the beginning of Dry’s tenure at Cary High School. His predecessor Professor Edwin Lee Middleton started at Cary the same year that Professor Dry took over the headship of Wingate and was only five years older than Dry, so they could be considered educational peers. They both attended Wake Forest University. Middleton studied Latin, Greek and Math.

Middleton worked relentlessly to build up the Cary school. He promoted Cary High School far and wide, published an engaging school catalog with photographs to send to interested parents, advertised widely and “sold” the school wherever he traveled. This is remarkably like the approach that Dry was taking in Wingate. By 1908, Cary High School had become highly regarded as one of the best high schools in the state, but after Dry arrived, he took the school to new heights. He adopted a similar approach to education in Cary that he had employed at Wingate and added teachers who were able to teach the challenging curriculum.

A Substantial Second Cary High School Building

Dry started his Cary teaching career in the original wood-framed building from 1870 which had been added on to as the school’s reputation grew. Seeing the need for improved facilities, Dry advocated for a new brick building to replace the heavily worn original wooden structure. He even insisted on columns on the building, saying that even though they were an additional expense, columns made the building project serious educational presence, and he got them. So, in 1913 the new brick school, with columns, was built, incorporating numerous facility improvements. A number of school delegations from across the state came to tour the school and use it as an architectural model for new schools back home.

It is an interesting and noteworthy fact that, in 1914, the badge which was adopted…

Dry's Educational Philosophy

The News and Observer, July 27, 1924, pg. 60

Under Dry’s direction, Cary High School became a model for the development of North Carolina’s public school system that took place in the 1920s. Not only was the school an architectural model, but teaching professionals from across the state came to Cary to learn the secrets of student success. After the completion of the first brick school building, Dry started implementing what may be called “adaptive education.” An article authored by Dry in 1924 explained why so many educators came to view Cary High School. He began:

“I have seen boys and girls become interested in these subjects (agriculture and home economics) and stay in school through four years who without doubt would have had a brief and unhappy high school career if they had been compelled to study Latin or some of the higher mathematics… To say that the vocational courses are light, flimsy, namby-pamby stuff, requiring no real effort on the part of the pupil, is missing the mark very widely… To graduate in one of these courses means work, and it is work that counts for something when it is done…” He used a both/and approach to educational choice: college prep as well as vocational courses with diplomas.

This philosophy of education drove him as a pioneer in curriculum development, and his goal was to make the school a working partner with Cary’s rural community. He established the E. L. Middleton Farm-Life Department with a 13-acre farm and Home Economics department (1914) offering diploma courses in both. He also pioneered vocational training for mentally handicapped children, a teacher training department (1922) during a time of teacher shortages along with public school music and band.

He also introduced a commercial department (1924) and developed a robust physical education department. He started a local “Betterment Association,” the forerunner of the Parent-Teacher Association which enabled him to provide hot lunches for children.

The physical plant of Cary High School expanded on its original four acres as curriculum expanded and enrollment grew. Dry laid the first brick in each of the brick buildings built from 1913 to 1939 to turn the “school lot” into a quadrangle style campus. The Frank Page Dormitory for Girls (1916) replaced a wooden structure lost to fire, a boys dormitory (1920) which later became the “teacherage” housing teachers and their families on campus, the Walter Hines Page Vocational Building (1922), and a new elementary school building (1927). The Templeton Gymnasium (1925), the first gym in a rural high school, joined the campus buildings, and the football field was built on additional acreage to complete the campus (1928.)

The above two photographs from the 1929 CHSite yearbook

Changes On the Way

But educational trends were changing the landscape. The trend in North Carolina in the late 1920s was for consolidated high schools. From the site Ncpedia.org:

"School consolidation was a trend that developed in North Carolina immediately following World War I as state and local leaders sought to improve the quality of rural public schools. Parents of children in rural districts served by one- and two-teacher schools began to demand educational advantages more comparable to those in towns and cities. Leaders tried to accomplish this in many cases by consolidating several small districts into one…”

There was some resistance to overcome:

“People in rural communities often resisted efforts to close small neighborhood schools in exchange for larger and better-equipped facilities.” Rural areas looked askance at higher taxes, loss of local autonomy, and less personal rapport between students and teachers."

Over time, “proponents of the consolidation movement were successful in convincing voters of the benefits of home economics, agriculture, and other vocational courses not found in the smaller schools. Consolidation also allowed many rural communities to have high schools for the first time, as well as teachers with specialized training in academic subjects… as well as “more competitive athletic teams, which had an undeniable influence on school and community spirit.”

A local example of a consolidated school was Green Hope School established in 1927. Three small communities near Highway 55 consolidated their three schools. The names of these communities were Green Level, Carpenter, and Upchurch all in western Wake County.

Green Hope School 1927-1963

For Cary High School in 1927, consolidation signaled the end of high school dormitories for boarding students, with school buses in outlying areas able to carry students to schools much closer to their homes. These rural high schools were generally brick, with laboratories, libraries and other attractive features for a broad education. What did Dry think about these changes? Admittedly, Dry saw the advantages of tuition-based schools. He observed that the students studied harder and were better controlled (or disciplined, probably due to parental pressure over tuition money being well spent,) but he also saw the advantage of the local consolidated schools which offered tuition-free schooling in reach of all, “even if some students were indifferent,” in his words. It was also a benefit for students in rural areas who had limited access to the educational and cultural benefits of schooling. He oversaw that change at Cary High School and was able to maintain Cary’s reputation for excellence during and after the transition. He even stated firmly that “the consolidated school is the best type of school that has ever been devised for a rural people.” Here is a photo of buses that were used for student transport in the greater Cary area.

Honoring Thirty Years of Service

In 1938, Dry was lauded at a banquet celebrating his being the oldest principal in point of service in North Carolina, at the oldest public school in North Carolina, and for his 30-year service at Cary High School. The Wake County Superintendent John C Lockhart praised him as “the head schoolmaster, not only of Wake County, but of all North Carolina” and called his record “without parallel in North Carolina.”

In an act of appreciation for his years of service, his Sunday School class, former students, friends, and community members, as well as the school board, presented him with an all-expense paid trip to the Holy Land, including 13 countries along the way. It was a tour that he talked about for the remainder of his life! One of the countries he visited was England, and this anecdote appeared in the newspaper, 20 years after the death of Walter Hines Page. Dry did a little name-dropping…

Yet Another Cary High School, the Third Building

But the project that is his lasting legacy after the accolades of 1938 is the structure that we live alongside even now. Dry did not rest on his laurels. He oversaw, once again, the construction of another brick main high school building. The photo below shows what I think is the basement level of the third Cary High School building, construction underway, with the Teacherage and Dry House in the background. The original brick building had been outgrown and was outdated, and the school board was able to secure funding through the Public Works Administration.

Plaque located in the lobby of the Cary Arts Center

Many people in town confused the PWA with the WPA of the Depression era, a more well-known program of the Depression. Townspeople would joke about the slow rate of construction, at least in their eyes. Today, we would consider the construction to be rapid, having started in 1939 and the building dedicated in 1940, but locals called the entire venture the “We Poke Along!” Here is a photo of the construction.

The building is now known as the Cary Arts Center. In the dedication address for this building, the state superintendent of public instruction said in his knowledge Mr. Dry was the only man who literally wore out a school building. Actually, Professor Dry also wore out the original wood building, too! A News & Observer editorial at the time called this new building “the last word in educational equipment!” To recap, Professor Dry started in the wooden building, advocated for and had built the first brick building in 1913, and did the same again in 1940!

According to a lengthy newspaper article, and in true Cary style, the third Cary High School, whose construction Dry oversaw, was thoughtfully and very well-equipped with state-of-the-art sound-proof rooms for typing and commercial classes, using insulated walls and double thickness of glass and doors. There were projectors (the latest technology) for motion pictures used for teaching and a sound system connected with the superintendent’s office (Professor Dry’s office) that could communicate with every room and could be tuned to the radio in any or all classrooms. The radio system extended to the large auditorium where students could hear national broadcasts on important subjects. Each Friday morning a free motion picture was shown for educational purposes and each Friday afternoon a motion picture was shown for those who wished to remain and pay admission. Cary children and young men and women had the best facility they could hope for, for learning and success. I even found in the Cary High School Archives an International Business Machines diagram for a fire alarm system. That must have been a hint of the impact a couple of decades later that IBM made on Cary!

Although all these accomplishments speak for themselves, there are more to tell! Dry was also a leader in establishing the North Carolina Education Association and was a member of the first state Textbook Commission.

Another side of Professor Dry

You may wonder, did Professor Dry have a life outside of the classroom? It’s hard to believe he had any spare time, having accomplished so much in his teaching career. The students of Cary High School remembered him in 1929 in “his daily pose.” That is the image students had of him… always at work!

But the driving force in his life which he would attest made his accomplishments possible was his life of Christian faith. According to his daughter Hallie Dry, Professor Dry was a deeply religious Christian man who taught the Dry Bible Class at Cary Baptist Church for thirty years. He also served on the board and later as chairman of the Board of Deacons for Cary Baptist Church. He also sang in the choir.

Dry’s Christian values shaped his approach to operating a school. Rachel Dunham was a boarding student who graduated in 1924, and she recounted, “…we always went to Chapel every morning… in the auditorium of the school…Mr Dry always led them [the services]. And he always said the Lord’s Prayer. And he’d read a chapter in the Bible… most of the time it was the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.” In a tribute after Dry’s death, the writer noted that Dry was “the last word in kindness and gentleness in dealing with his pupils, and yet he was patient and firm in the best kind of discipline…” The write went on to say, “The poet writes, “The teacher lives forever,” and that is very true when a man has built his life into the character of boys and girls for many years.”

He also had a self-deprecating sense of humor. One essay he wrote about his educational philosophy contained this passage:

“Back in the nineties [the 1890’s!] I had been exposed to a liberal quantity of classical learning in the form of Latin and Greek grammar and literature… I can’t now recall even the names of half of them. I imbibed a great dose of mathematical lore, in the form of… differential and integral calculus (whatever that means, though I made close to a hundred on it)…

Many early photographs of Professor Dry captured his serious nature. BUT he was caught on camera with a wry smile on his face when the popular Vaudeville star “Noodles Fagan” visited Cary High School to emphasize the importance of education and character. His message was simple and expanded on Professor Dry’s educational philosophy (AND Frank Page’s big three: hard work, clean living, and education): be polite, be honest, and hustle (which I take to mean work hard). Don’t miss one school session, don’t drink, don’t chew, keep your hands clean and your character clean. This was a fun event for the schoolchildren, but one with a purpose. encouraging children to stay in school. Unlike Queen Victoria, Professor Dry seems to have been amused!

And he could take some gentle ribbing from his students in their “Last Will and Testament” for 1919:

After having suffered from a serious bout of typhoid fever in the late 1890s, with his recovery lasting several months, I’m sure he would have wanted to make sure the students understood the serious nature of the Spanish Influenza, even if they had to endure numerous lectures on the subject!

The End of an Illustrious Career

Dry finished his teaching career by handing in his resignation to the Cary School Board on April 1, 1942. His decision to resign as principal must have been a difficult one. The school newspaper interviewed Professor Dry at the end of his final year, and Dry remarked, “I have been at the work of teaching so long, that I don’t see how I can reconcile myself to stay away from the class room.” Here is a photograph of him from the school newspaper, The Echo. Note he is still wearing his signature high collared shirt and three piece suit.

April 1942 Cary High School Echo newspaper

The couple was honored in May 1942 at a special ceremony following the presentations of diplomas at the 1942 Cary High School graduation with the presentation of a silver coffee set. They were cheered on with a standing ovation by current graduates and hundreds of his former pupils who returned to mark this occasion. Almost the entire audience had attended school under Dry for at least one year during his tenure. At a reception following graduation, congratulatory telegrams and letters from former pupils were read aloud. When asked for remarks, Professor Dry humbly replied, “I should ask my better half to make this speech. Whatever success I have attained has been due to the fact that I married the finest woman in Union County.”

The News and Observer, May 6, 1942

Fortunately for the students and teachers alike, he continued to work as a substitute teacher until 1944 when his health concerns became serious.

Marcus Baxter Dry passed away on January 27, 1946. Former Governor J Melville Broughton delivered the main address at a memorial service in 1947. A bronze memorial plaque was presented to Cary High School honoring his over 50 total years of service in the classroom and to the two communities he served. Broughton said, “The life of Marcus Baxter Dry was not a conspicuous life, it was not a sensational life, but it was a life that, in terms of service, was truly great.”

Continuing to Honor Dry’s Memory

In 1948, a portrait of Professor Dry, painted by Peace College instructor and noted local Morrisville artist, Mabel Pugh was presented to the school. The portrait was restored a few years ago through funds contributed by the Friends of the Page Walker Hotel, Cary’s Historical Society, and the portrait hangs in the Cary Arts Center, the crowning achievement of Dry’s life-long personal investment in public education and the lives of his students.

Here is a photograph of the portrait being given to the school.

Dry’s memory continued to have an impact after his death, and not just in Cary. In 1957, on the 60^th anniversary of the founding of Wingate School, now Wingate University, the Dry Memorial Fountain located between the theater and outdoor amphitheater, was named in memory of Professor Dry. A campus article noted that the school was founded near a spring which provided water for the school, an important consideration.

The campus chapel was erected in 1964 by the former students of Professor Dry and dedicated in his honor and named the M. B. Dry Memorial Chapel. Today, the chapel serves as an office of Wingate’s minister to students. In 1993, Jerry McGee was named the 13^th president of the university, and a newspaper article printed a photograph of McGee alongside a portrait of the first head of school, a young Marcus Baxter Dry. The portrait based on the circa 1908 photograph also found in the 1915 CHSite yearbook hangs in the Trustee Room overseeing 130 years of Wingate history.

The Wingate portrait and the photograph used to create it.

Here in Cary, when the old, and third, Cary High School, later Cary Elementary and Junior High School and later still Cary Elementary, was replaced with more modern school buildings, the town wisely chose in 2003 to convert this historic site and structure to the Cary Arts Center, and ground for the Cary Arts Center was broken in 2010. Two rooms, The Marcus Dry Room and the Principal’s Hall honor directly or indirectly the man who left a lasting impression on education in Cary.

So here’s to Professor Marcus Baxter Dry. What a remarkable man; what a remarkable imprint on Cary history!

A Life Written in Records: John Beckwith’s Story

Carla Michaels — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:11:49 GMT

The life of John Beckwith tells the powerful story of a person born into slavery who ultimately lived to experience emancipation and life beyond bondage. What makes Beckwith’s story especially remarkable is the extensive documentation that traces his life from beginning to end. Such a record is uncommon, as many formerly enslaved individuals were left unnamed and undocumented before the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Thankfully, many documents spanning John Beckwith’s full life have survived, allowing us to better understand both his personal journey and the times in which he lived.

The story of the Beckwith family starts with an 1848 mention in the Wake County Register of Deeds (Bk 18 Page 169) of enslaved boys Green and Henderson who were sold by Sarah Edwards to her son Joseph W. Edwards for a token amount of $1 and “for the natural love and affection which I bear unto my son...”

Just a couple of years later, the 1850 Slave Schedule for the Western Division of Wake County enumerated on July 27, 1850 noted the following individuals in the listing of the slave owner Joseph Edwards:

This appears to be Green (age 21) and Henderson (age 12,) both later with the Beckwith surname, along with Miley whom Green had married in the interim and two minors, most likely Miley’s and/or Green and Miley’s children. Note that over the years, John Beckwith’s mother was known as Miley, Millie and Molly.

A 2014 article on the dailykos.com website written by “edwardssl for Genealogy and Family History Community” provided a possible insight into John Beckwith’s father Green. This writer started from a different research point which led him through another line of the Edwards family and uncovered details about John’s father, Green. The research goes back to the white Edwards family and points to the assignment of surnames for the enslaved based on the slave owner’s surname. Different but related family members knew Green as Green Edwards. The assignment of surnames can be confusing and misleading, as is the case in this family.

Going back to Sarah Edwards (nee Woodward), this same researcher showed that Sarah’s mother Mary Woodward Turner received as the widow of Augustus Turner in 1829 a number of enslaved persons, including a boy Green, about 4 years old, meaning that he was born around 1825. The earliest census specifically naming Green Beckwith was 1870 with his age recorded as 47, born around 1823. It is entirely possible that Green Beckwith had been known in the family as Green Edwards and after being emancipated from the Beckwith family was assigned this surname, as was the case many times during this period. But these facts get slightly ahead of the changing circumstances of the family of John Beckwith.

The next mention of this enslaved family continues with Green and Miley. The May Term 1854 estate papers of Joseph W Edwards, (son of Sarah Edwards,) who died April 28, 1854 give a glimpse into the life of these two individuals. These papers name the enslaved persons owned by Mr. Edwards, and they would have been considered part of his estate. Named are Green (a man), Henderson (a boy of about 16), Miley (AKA Molly/Millie - no age given) “with the following children” with their age: Lydia, about age 6; Henry, three years old in August; Sam, age 2; and John about 6 months old. My view is that this is the family of John Beckwith, with John being about 6 months old at the time of this petition in May 1854. Again, it appears, based on age, that Henderson could have been the brother, or a relative, of Green.

NC Estate Files Wake Joseph W Edwards 1854

The document below explains what happened at this stage to the Beckwith family. On June 22, 1854, Martha Helen Edwards, widow of Joseph W Edwards, purchased the entire family. While the buying and selling of human beings is a harsh truth which cannot be reconciled, the family fortunately stayed intact, which was not necessarily the usual circumstance surrounding these types of transactions during this time.

North Carolina Estate Files, Wake County, Joseph E Edwards-1854

Moving forward to the 1860 Slave Census, we see that the census once again contains no names of enslaved persons. However, a female named Hellan Gulley [AKA Martha Helen and Martha H.] appears. After Joseph W. Edwards died, Martha Hellan Edwards married Francis Marion Gulley on May 2, 1855, but he died fairly shortly thereafter on July 10, 1860.

Martha Hellan Gulley was listed in the 1860 Slave Schedule with the following:

1860 Slave Schedule, Wake County, Southern Division

Note the ages of the two older individuals are listed as one year apart which coincides with the 1850 schedule, even if the actual ages are off - a common occurrence across the board in early census records. I believe the male age 6 is John Beckwith in the household of his parents. The number one in the right-hand column indicates one slave house. It appears that the male Henderson was not listed at this time with the family.

After Francis Marion Gulley’s death in July 1860, Martha Helen remarried once again on December 29, 1860. Her third husband was William Hilliard Beckwith. It appears that Hellan kept the enslaved family intact through her marriages. And it appears that the surname Beckwith became associated with this enslaved family, most likely after emancipation.

The Civil War ended in 1865, creating a new environment for newly free African-American citizens. Yes, freedom was welcome, but life after the war was challenging. Formerly enslaved persons had no land and no money to purchase land. In the Cary area, there were few work opportunities outside of agriculture, being what many formerly enslaved persons in the immediate area knew. The Freedman’s Bureau records following the war give us a glimpse of hardship.

In 1865-1867 Freedman’s Bureau records, Miley Beckwith is listed with the following information: former owner Hilliard Beckwith, eight people in the family and five days of meat and hard bread.

NC Freedmen’s Bureau Records July 21, 1865

The next month, Miley Beckwith is listed with the following information: former owner M E? Beckwith, two in the family [perhaps listing just the two adults], five days of rations and amounts of meat and hard bread issued.

NC Freedmen’s Bureau Records August 23, 1865

The family continued to survive and was enumerated in the 1870 Census, White Oak Township, Wake County, page 35.

Neighbors at this time included white families such as Rufus Jones, who would soon join Frank Page in his bid to formally establish the town of Cary in 1871. Note that the family includes Alice Beckwith in 1870. It is unclear if Alice is the same person as Lydia, noted in previous, pre-emancipation papers, or simply a close relative.

As it happened, John Beckwith’s future wife was living in the area. Jenny Jones is listed with her family in the White Oak Township, Wake County, page 22 in the 1870 Census.

According to John’s slave narrative captured by the WPA in the 1930s (more on this later), he stayed at the plantation until he was 16, around 1870 after enumerated in the census, when he was harassed by Klu Klux Klansmen, in his words, “’bout fightin’ wid a white boy. Dat night I slipped in de woods an’ de nex’ day I went ter Raleigh. I got a job dar an’ ever’ since den I’se wicked for myself…”

Although he worked in Raleigh, by 1878 or earlier, John was back in the Cary area. At age 23, he married Jennie Jones, age 17, daughter of Thomas and Emaline Jones whose family was noted above as being in the area.

The marriage took place in the home of Rev. George Dowell, a white Baptist minister living nearby.

And by the 1880 Census, a daughter had been added to the family.

1880 Census, Cary Township, Wake County, NC

John Beckwith’s parents continued to reside in the Cary Township of Wake County. This is the information recorded for them in the 1880 Census.

1880 Census, Cary Township, Wake County, NC

Because the 1890 Census was destroyed, there is a gap in knowledge about people across the country during the 20-year period between 1880 and 1900. However, there are some records that give glimpses of John Beckwith’s life during this period.

In 1891, Beckwith co-signed a deed for the advance of money “to be used on my farm,” a tract of land adjoining the lands of Wiley Baucom who lived near Chapel Hill and SE Maynard Road. At this time, he was growing “cotton, corn, and other products…” There is no deed listed for John Beckwith in this area, so he may have been a sharecropper at this time.

Wake County Register of Deeds Book 112 Pg 537

On a sad personal note, John’s wife Jennie Jones Beckwith died January 31, 1896 and was buried in the historic Cary First Christian Church Cemetery.

Findagrave photo

Another record pertaining to John Beckwith during the year 1896 is a church record found in the publication “Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth Annual Session of the North Carolina Christian Church Conference” which was held in November 1896 in Cary, NC. John Beckwith’s name appears among the names of church members at the time of the conference.

In the 1900 Census, John Beckwith was listed as a widower, age 40, living with his children and his mother Miley, by this time a widow, age 60. The full listing shows that Beckwith owned the home with a mortgage. Again, ages recorded remain inconsistent. Unfortunately, there is no death record or burial information for Green Beckwith. It is noted that Miley/Molly was the mother of four with only three surviving at this time. John was working at a local saw mill, of which there were several in the Cary area and two children were receiving schooling.

1900 Census, Cary Township, Wake County, NC

On January 10, 1907, John married into another local Cary family. His bride Rosa Satterfield was the daughter of Louis and Hawkins Satterfield, and the couple was married at her family home by W. H. Horton, a white minister in the area.

But before this marriage, John Beckwith began work as a custodian at the historic Cary High School, then a stockholder-owned school which became a public high school in 1907.

Here is a photo of John Beckwith with the boarding students of Cary High School.

Dormitory Boys in Session 1908-1909 from Cary High School Archives

John Beckwith on the back right

Beckwith was a beloved figure on the school campus and was honored with a tribute in the Cary High School yearbook, the CHSite, in 1921. The tribute celebrated his 16 years of service to the students and the school. In part, it reads:

A 1916 Cary High School graduate, Miss Elva Templeton, recalled:

“…he used to ring the school bells for us. We had a bell and I wished they’d put it up in the yard at school where it should be. And so he’d watch while we’d go down to the store on down the street to get candy and then the last bell started ringing. Uncle John would ring that bell until we got there so we wouldn’t be late.”

John Beckwith in the CHSite Yearbook 1920

Miss Templeton also added to our knowledge of the Black community in Cary by recalling where families lived around 1900. The resulting hand-drawn map showed the location of the John Beckwith household around this time and earlier. It also shows the location of Cary First Christian Church near Beckwith’s home and the church cemetery somewhat farther away.

Excerpt from Elva Templeton Map of Cary circa early 1900s

This land on which John Beckwith lived had apparently been purchased from Frank Page and the deed lost or not registered. In 1906, Frank Page’s second wife, Lula B. Wynne, who remarried after Frank’s passing, made a quit claim deed for property that she had inherited from Frank after his death. A number of quit claim deeds were made for land in the same area. The survey map of the land referred to in the deed has not been located.

Although written records in the early years of Cary First Christian Church are scant, there is a Wake County deed dated January 22, 1909 from Rev George Dowell and his wife Tranquilla who deeded additional land to the historic African American church cemetery, now called Cary First Christian Church Cemetery. John Beckwith was named one of the trustees of the church. The cemetery was located south of the home of John Beckwith, as shown on the map above, along with the church which was closer by. Rev. Dowell had performed John Beckwith’s marriage to his first wife, Jennie.

The 1910 Census shows John and Rosa and a baby living near Handy and Martha Jones, shown on the Templeton map living near the Beckwiths.

Sadly, Rosa Beckwith, a mother of two, died on April 21, 1917 around the age of 35. Her death certificate states she was buried in Cary, and Cary First Christian Church Cemetery would have been the cemetery in Cary in which African-Americans would have been buried at that time.

In the 1920 census, we find John Beckwith, a widower living with two children. His occupation is listed as “wash” which may allude to the 1921 CHSite tribute which also stated, “…he comes round and collects the laundry and carries it away.” According to this account, Beckwith also ran mail back and forth from the post office, ran errands, helped the teachers, and if he had time, would split wood and perform other tasks. The writer noted, “He always worked cheerfully and with a wide, wide smile on his face. “Uncle John” is growing old, but we hope he will live many years yet to spread his sunshine about the campus of Cary High School.”

By the 1930 census, Beckwith was 75 and didn’t have an occupation listed. He was living with his daughter, son, and two grandchildren.

During the Great Depression, the Federal Writer’s Project of the US Work Projects Administration captured the stories of surviving formerly enslaved persons. John Beckwith talked with Mary A Hicks who recorded his memories. A photograph was also taken.

John Beckwith, age 83, Federal Writer’s Project

Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress

John was a child during his enslavement. One researcher stated about John Beckwith’s narrative, “In any case, the narrative was very interesting, containing detail about life with the Beckwiths as an enslaved boy. One should keep in mind while reading what are at times John's rather "rosy" descriptions about life on the plantation, his narrative was given during the Great Depression when poverty and hunger were at its peak. Also, John was a very young boy when enslaved and likely not subjected to the harsher treatment that other older slaves suffered.” Food for thought.

To read the full article and comments:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/5/2/1295447/-GFHC-After-All-They-Were-Only-Part-of-the-Inventory#comment_53303359

The story of John Beckwith ends with his death and burial. His death certificate listed his date of death as September 21, 1939 in Cary. His occupation was listed as Janitor of Cary High School, father Green Beckwith, mother’s name unknown, and the informant was Effie Holmes of New Haven, Connecticut, a daughter of John and Jennie Beckwith. Raleigh Funeral Home provided services and the burial was in Wake County, not in Cary specifically. The burial posed a question which Haywood Funeral Home (which was also known as Raleigh Funeral Homes) was able to solve. According to their records, John Beckwith was buried at the Wake County Home Cemetery on Noble Road in Raleigh. Mr. Ray Haywood explained that many years ago most African Americans were buried in either Cary First Christian Church Cemetery, where John’s first wife Jennie was buried, or at the Wake County Home Cemetery. Unfortunately, most of the burials at the Raleigh location were unmarked. It will never be known why John Beckwith was not buried in the cemetery of his local church. The death certificate brings to a close the documentation of the life of John Beckwith.

With recent emphasis on telling the wider, more inclusive history of Cary, it’s time to tell John Beckwith’s story. His is a story of resilience and strength, a story of facing harsh circumstances throughout life and moving forward, overcoming with humor, good will, and honest labor. It is truly a remarkable story to tell.

The Life of Primus Page of Wake County

Carla Michaels — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:14:05 GMT

A recent discovery has unearthed a connection between the Page family and an enslaved person owned by Frank Page’s father, Anderson Page. Primus Page worked on Oaky Mount Plantation, the homeplace of Anderson Page in the Leesville area of Wake County.

Early records of Primus Page’s life during his enslavement do not exist. The 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedules do not list individual names, although the ages listed for several men correspond to the approximate age of Primus Page. However, there is a marriage record for Primus and wife Elizabeth with a date of May 12, 1846 that declares “emancipated slave”. The dates of these marriages prior to emancipation were generally established based on testimony of the married couple after the Civil War and recorded after emancipation, sometimes many years after the marriage unofficially took place.

Wake County Marriage Register

In the book “The Making of an American” by Burton J Hendrick, Walter Hines Page as a boy or young man remembered Primus Page on the porch of Oaky Mount sitting close by Anderson Page as the younger Page would approach the house on regular visits.

This would be the earliest family mention or recollection of Primus Page that we have. Since Walter Hines Page was born in 1855, the anecdote from childhood might date to around the end of the Civil War or a little later.

After the Civil War ended, we find the Primus Page family close to the Anderson Page property. On November 9, 1877 Anderson Page sold to Primus Page 192 acres of land adjoining his own land for $800.

Wake County Register of Deeds Book 48 Page 532, 1877

The prospect of farming on one’s own was daunting for many poor farmers, black and white alike. A number of lien bonds are recorded that show Primus Page pledging various items, including animals and his land as collateral to borrow money in order to buy what he needed to farm for the upcoming year. The money would be repaid out of the profits made at the end of the season.

Wake County Register of Deeds Book Book 93 Page 568, 1887

Although free after the Civil War, life was difficult not only on a financial level but also on a personal level for many formerly enslaved persons. In Primus Page’s family, his son Matthew was reported in a newspaper notice as having left on the 4^th of July 1867.

The Weekly Standard, July 24, 1867, Page_3

Although the family of Primus Page grew large, neither son Matthew nor another son Madison appear in the household of Primus Page in the 1870 or 1880 Census records.

1870 Census Wake County, NC

1880 Census Wake County, NC

This painful family separation continued. The 1889 administration papers of Primus Page listing his heirs mentions that the family had not heard from Primus’ son Madison Page since 1869, and son Marcellus Page had not been heard from in 12 years, approximately 1877, although Marcellus, age 12, was listed on the 1870 census in the household. Matthew Page was not mentioned at all.

Primus Page Estate Papers, 1899, Wake County, NC

Later in Primus Page's life, we have another snapshot of him, again with Walter Hines Page, now an adult, as recounted in the Hendrick book. The book states: “A year or two after the old man died [Anderson Page died in 1884 – so 1885 or 1886],

The deed to the 192 acres doesn’t mention a payment schedule, but an oral agreement may have been worked out at the time of the land sale, based on this recollection. Walter made one small error. The deed for Primus Page’s land was signed by Anderson Page in 1877 who didn’t pass away until 1884.

Primus Page died January 1, 1889 according to estate records. The inventory of his estate show that he owned everything needed to operate a household and farm, items which were bought by family members and neighbors. Interestingly, he owned a Harrison plow (Robert J Harrison Wagon Works of Cary, NC produced plows) which was sold at his estate sale for $1.00. It was listed among the large number of personal and household items he had owned. Here is an excerpt showing the plow:

Primus Page Estate Papers, 1899, Wake County, NC

At Primus Page’s death, Frank Page wrote to Andrew Syme, administrator of the estate, that he had several outstanding notes against Primus Page, valued at around $125 with interest, but that Frank Page was only claiming $100 as he (Primus) was “an old family negro”. Frank Page later received $14.50 from the administrator. Andrew Syme (pronounced “Sim”) was a prominent citizen in Raleigh, possibly acquainted with the Frank Page family who took care of the last earthly possessions of Primus Page.

Primus Page Estate Papers, 1899, Wake County, NC

In 1895, the land that Primus Page bought from Anderson Page was divided among his heirs. Down from the original 192 acres, 117 acres of land were left in the hands of one son, Moses, and five daughters, Virginia “Jenny” Jeffers, Emeline “Emily” Hunter, Elizabeth Porter, Katie “Katy/Kate” Page and Serena “Rena” “Raney” Ray. It is unclear why the total acreage had decreased over time and why the deed was not registered until 1910.

Wake County Register of Deeds Book 236 Page 494

Although details about the early life of Primus Page are scant and although we do not have a photograph of him, the details we do have of him after emancipation paint a picture of the life of a formerly enslaved person connected to the Page family who lived a difficult but honest life. We are now able to attach a name and a story to one of these formerly unknown, unnamed people.

A Frequently Passed Cemetery on Old Apex Road Tells the Stories of Legacy Families of Color in Cary

Barbara Wetmore — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:20:25 GMT

Many people driving along Old Apex Road from downtown Cary to High House Road today might notice the Turner-Evans Cemetery near the Sha'arei Shalom Temple. What they might not realize is that this cemetery is one of the last remnants of the African American, Native American, and multi-racial families that once lived on, owned, and farmed over 150 acres of land in this area in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s. Another remnant standing not far away along the railroad tracks is a house that belonged to the family of John Willis Turner Sr., a farmer of multi-racial roots who owned 56 acres in the area, including the land on which the cemetery started and still exists.

Home of John Willis Turner

John Willis Turner Sr. purchased 56 acres of land in the Old Apex Road area in 1911 from Henry B. Jordan, a white citizen and one of Cary's early residents and land owners. In 1910, Turner married Etta Evans Scott, the widow of Irvin Scott. Etta was the daughter of Charles and Matilda Marsh Evans, who had come to the Cary area from Chatham County with their families in the 1870s. Charles and Matilda, along with their son Otis Norfleet “Noffie” Evans, purchased close to 100 acres of land in 1903 - 1905 from formerly enslaved Mary Irvin and her husband Cary Irvin, who had purchased the land in 1879 from the Raleigh Cooperative Land and Building Association (RCLBA).

The Raleigh Cooperative Land and Building Association, a lending corporation incorporated in 1869 by James H. Harris and J. Brinton Smith in the present St. Paul AME Church in Raleigh, was a reliable source of loans to families of color for purchasing land and building homes.

Some of the land bought by the Evans family from Mary and Cary Irvin adjoined the land of Henry B. Jordan that John Willis Turner Sr. would purchase just a few years later in 1911. Together the Evans and Turner families owned and farmed a considerable amount of land in the vicinity of Old Apex and High House Roads. Descendants of the Evans family would go on to develop some of the land into the Dutchess Village neighborhood where many Cary families live today. And 1 acre of the land owned by John Willis Turner Sr. would become sacred ground where loved ones in both families would be laid to rest.

How the land became a cemetery

Sadly, Etta Evans died in 1914, likely from complications of childbirth. Her infant son, Monfleet Etta Evans, died just weeks later; as the doctor noted on the infant's death certificate, “I guess cause of death [is from the] loss of the mother.”

Etta Evans Scott Turner

Etta and her infant son became the first persons to be buried on the land belonging to John Willis Turner Sr. Three years later, two young African American sisters, Nina and Aslee Allen, victims of the flu epidemic of 1918, were the next people to be buried on the same land. Word-of-mouth stories passed down through the Turner and Evans descendants tell that the Allen family could not afford a burial for their daughters after they died 4 days apart and that resting places were offered to the family on the land where Etta and her son were buried 4 years before. Some of the stories tell that the Allen sisters were white, but a check of census records and death certificates shows that they were black or mulatto and came to the Cary area from Dutchville Township in Granville County. Some years later in 1932, their brother Connie, a victim of a fatal shooting in Apex, was also buried at the cemetery.

As the years went by, more members of the Evans family and the families they married into were buried at the cemetery, along with the Turners. The cemetery continued to be a private cemetery and in 2012, family descendants incorporated into Turner Evans Cemetery Inc. and formed a board that manages the cemtery today. It is currently an active cemetery with 92 graves, including those of some of Cary's most prominent people of color.

The stories of the people buried at the Turner-Evans Cemetery tell in particular the history of the Evans family, a free family of color with Native American and African American roots who arrived in Cary from Chatham County after the Civil War and contributed greatly to the development of the town and are still contributing today.

Land acquisition and development

Charlie Evans and Matilda Marsh, buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery, came to Cary as teenagers with their families in the 1870s. Charlie's family had its roots in Native American ancestry and its members had always been free people of color. Charlie's father was Fielding Evans, who brought his family to the Cary area from Chatham County. Fielding was a representative from Cary at the Wake County Republican Convention in 1874. Matilda's family also likely had its roots in Native American ancestry, though because her parents Nancy and Frank Marsh did not appear in census records until 1870, it's possible they had been enslaved. Nancy and Frank purchased 6 acres of land in Cary in 1879 from J.P.H. Adams.

Charlie and Matilda married in 1877 at the home of Nancy and Frank Marsh and went on to have 12 children. Their oldest son Otis Norfleet “Noffie” Evans, also buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery, purchased 25 acres of land in the vicinity of Old Apex Road from Mary and Cary Irvin in 1903. Charlie and Matilda purchased an additional 73 acres in the same area from Mary and Cary Irvin in 1905. In 1917, Charlie and Matilda's son Clyde, also buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery, purchased 23 of these 73 acres from his parents. The land eventually was developed by Matilda and Charles’s great grandsons Herbert, George, and Ray Bailey, along with their parents Joe and Mamie Evans Bailey, into the Dutchess Village neighborhood where many Cary families live today, including members of the Evans family. Their company was known as Bailey Three Development Corporation, and streets in Dutchess Village are named for members of the Bailey family.

Otis Norfleet “Noffie” Evans

Matilda Marsh Evans

Clyde married Vermel Stewart, a descendant of one of the Native American founders of the Friendship community in Apex. Both Clyde and Vermel are buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery. In 1939, Vermel purchased 100 acres in the area we know today as Evans Road from the North Carolina Joint Stock Land Bank of Durham. Joint Stock Land Banks were chartered under the authority of the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916.

Vermel Stewart and Clyde Evans Sr.

In a tribute to her mother, Mamie Evans Bailey wrote, “It was Vermel who helped my father locate and buy the family farm of 100 acres. She had many dreams of this place before locating the actual site. She alone located the owner and made the appointment to buy the land. It was a major step for our family and the future of her children. The land has helped her children to maintain their livelihood.”

Clyde Evans Sr. began farming this land. Over time he sold acreage to his siblings, cousins, and friends. Clyde Evans Jr. said of his father, “My father was a great land lover. Daddy wanted to build a town for people not fortunate to have any land to build on.” Many of these land purchasers were sharecroppers, which meant they didn’t own the land they worked on. By selling parcels of land to these men and women, Clyde Evans Sr. accomplished his goal of helping the less fortunate to escape poverty by building their own homes on their own land.

Five subdivisions and 15 streets in Cary are named for members of the Evans family.

Some of the land that Clyde Evans Sr. farmed eventually became Evans Estates, Bailey Park, Bailey Grove, and Bailey Creek, developed by his grandchildren. As their children became adults, Clyde Sr. and Vermel would give each of them a piece of land on which to build their homes or get their start. At the time of Clyde Sr.'s death in 1986, there were approximately 60+ acres still owned by the Evans family. Members of the Evans/Bailey families still own and reside on land on Evans Road and in these subdivisions that are a part of this overall community today.

Education advocacy

Clyde's uncle, James Lovelace Evans (son of Otis Norfleet Evans), also buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery, purchased 1 acre of land along State Road 1653 in 1927 from his mother in law, Maggie Harris Allen. This road would later be named Evans Road in honor of the multiple branches of the Evans family who contributed to the growth and development of Cary, especially along this road.

James Lovelace Evans

In 1944, James purchased an additional 34.5 acres once belonging to his parents in law. In 1963, James and other Evans family members sold approximately 28 of these acres to the Wake County Board of Education and in 1965 a new high school for African American students opened on this land.

A Cary News photograph dated 1964 indicates the school was called Clyde Evans High School while it was being built. But when it officially opened in the fall of 1965, it was called West Cary High School. One reason might be that the school board had decided not to name schools for people who were still alive. But the board clearly valued Clyde Evans' 22 years in an advisory role and awarded him a plaque to recognize his contributions to ensuring education for Cary's African American students.

West Cary High School for African American students operated as a segregated school until it was integrated and temporarily became a 9^th Grade Center in 1967 and 1968. Today it is known and functions as West Cary Middle School.

West Cary Middle School and Kingswood Elementary School trace their roots back to people of color in Cary. Land for both schools was donated or sold to the Wake County Public School System by members of families of color and opened as schools for African American children.

Clyde's sister, Trannie Evans married into the Ferrell family and her brother in law, Ernest Bunn Ferrell represented the African American Schools in Cary on the Advisory Board of the Wake County Board of Education in the 1960s. He and his wife Lovie Johnson Ferrell sold land to the Wake County Public School System to expand the Kingswood School, which had been built in the 1930s and owes its existence today to the African American families who lived in the North Academy Street neighborhood in the first half of the 20^th century. When the Cary Colored School on Holleman Street (south of the present day Cary Elementary School) burned down in 1935, the proposal was for children through 7^th grade to be bussed to Method in Raleigh to attend school. The African American parents understandably objected to the plan, boycotted the plan, and families from the neighborhood organized and formed a Committee for a New Elementary School in the Colored Community, which was built on land donated by African American family members Goelet Arrington and his sister Emily Arrington Jones. Trannie Evans and Ernest Bunn Ferrell and his wife Lovie Johnson Ferrell are buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery.

Commitment to worship and Christian community in action

Jeannette Reaves Evans, wife of James Lovelace Evans's son Herbert, was a founding member and long-time volunteer with Christian Community in Action (CCA), a consortium of volunteers from different churches in Cary that became Dorcas Ministries. Jeannette managed the Dorcas Shop thrift store as a volunteer for its first 20 years. Dorcas Ministries is a strong non-profit organization today, still growing and helping many families in need. Jeannette also petitioned the state in the 1960s to pave State Road 1653; the once dirt road became Evans Road. Jeannette's parents, Connie and Lillian Reaves, served on the Committee for a New Elementary School in the Colored Community in the 1930s and helped establish the school we know today as Kingswood Elementary School. Jeannette Reaves Evans is buried in the Turner-Evans Cemetery.

The Dorcas Shop in its first location on West Chatham Street

Jeannette Reaves Evans

Many members of the Evans Family have belonged to Cary First Christian Church, one of the earliest congregations formed in Cary. They began meeting in the 1860s under a brush harbor on West Cornwall Road and then in a small wooden church on Holleman Street, and their history continued on Evans Road. Clyde Evans Sr. donated land on Evans Road to the church in the 1960s after they outgrew their church on Holleman Street. Members of this historic church built a new sanctuary and fellowship hall on this land and worship there today. Many members of the church and other people of color are buried in the Cary First Christian Church's cemetery, which still exists on West Cornwall Road where their congregation first began meeting.

Cary First Christian Church on Evans Road

Cary First Christian Church Cemetery on West Cornwall Road

Cemeteries reflect the collective stories of the people who lived their lives in the community where they are laid to rest. Both the Turner-Evans Cemetery and the Cary First Christian Church Cemetery hold the resting places of families of color who are part of Cary's history and whose contributions helped Cary grow into the town we know today.

An Ivey-Ellington House Mystery Encased in Plaster

Carla Michaels — Sat, 17 May 2025 19:27:29 GMT

One of the joys, and challenges, of “old house” rehabilitation is what lies beneath the surface. Once layers are peeled back, surprises, good and bad, can emerge. One such surprise, a good one, was revealed in the rehabilitation of the historic Ivey-Ellington House in Cary, NC. The house has long been an icon in Cary, but due to downtown Cary redevelopment, it was moved from its original site to a prominent position on the “showcase” Academy Street across from the new Downtown Cary Park. Rehabilitation started as soon as the house arrived at its new home, with exterior work starting first. Once rehabilitation moved inside, and layers stripped away, work within a closet halted while a series of strange letters and numbers emerged from plaster that had long been hidden from view by drywall. Untangling this mystery in the lath and plaster of this historic home revealed far more information than we dreamed.

Kris Carmichael, Operations & Program Supervisor -- Historical Resources for the Town of Cary, called on researchers on the Friends of Page Walker board of directors, Barbara Wetmore and Carla Michaels, to help make sense of the cryptic inscription. The research began with a simple query and a photograph:

“Hi,

I have a mystery for you. While working on the Ivey-Ellington workers discovered a large inscription in a section of plaster wall (see attached photo.) It looks like first initial “C” last name “Alored” dated July 17^th 1882. Who could it be. Would love your ideas!

Kris”

Barb immediately sprang into action. Barb served as the project manager for a large transcription project of letters of one of the oldest families in Cary which had just wrapped up, and she called in volunteers to give their thoughts.

“We have an exciting mystery to try to solve! See forwarded email from Kris Carmichael. With all of us working on this, maybe we can figure it out. Please share whatever you might find. How cool is this? Someone left us a remnant of his existence!”

As the discussion bounced around between transcribers, Barb, and Carla, a few suggestions of different spellings of the name, thoughts about a craftsman working on the house, and whether plasterers worked as brick masons, based on brick making in the region. The theory emerged that the letters were a “signature,”, but there was no clear identity of C Alored, Alford, Allard, Allred, Aldred, C A Lores, etc, etc!

At the time that this mystery popped up, Barb and Carla were knee-deep in research to identify all the owners and residents of this historic house, but none seemed to be related to this mysterious inscription. Further, the date of the plaster inscription did not line up with the long-accepted date of construction, circa 1871. We were stumped.

Barb mulled over the J T & Bettie H Pool family, known owners of the property and earliest confirmed residents found by chain of title research on the parcel of land. A T Mial, a prominent and wealthy landowner in Eastern Wake County, the previous owner, sold the property to the Pools and the deed was recorded in April 1882. There was no indication that Mial lived, worked or constructed a house in Cary. The date in the plaster was July 17^th, 1882. The mystery persisted.

Sometimes, “eureka moments” come when one’s brain is well-rested, or exhausted, or when a chance “let’s give this a try” happens. Such was the case late one evening for Carla who read Barb’s latest musings one more time, this time on her phone. The tiny phone image, seen through bleary eyes and late at night after a long day, popped out in a different way. The name magically appeared as “C A Creel.” Carla’s heart skipped a beat because she knew from her personal local history research that a Creel family lived around Cary and wondered if they lived here in the 1880s. Free research tip: enlarging images can help a lot, but minimizing images can have advantages as well.

Carla searched on Ancestry with: C A Creel, born 1850 plus or minus 10 years (a guess), lived in Cary 1880.

She didn't get a reasonable hit, so she tried an 1860 birth date plus or minus 10, and bingo, The family of John Creel popped up, with a son Charles A Creel, age 9 in the household, rendering a birth date for Charles of around 1861. In 1870, the family was in Orange County. Charles’ handwriting in the plaster was very neat, especially since it had been scribed in wet plaster. He must have had good schooling, probably in Orange County, to form his letters so carefully and beautifully.

1870 U S Federal Census excerpt, Orange County, Chapel Hill Township

In 1880 the family was in Cary, so the move happened in between the censuses. The father was listed as a brick mason in 1870 in Orange County, and both the father and son were listed as brick masons in 1880, which picked up on the idea that Barb had about brick masons also doing plaster.

1880 U S Federal Census, Wake County, Cary Township

The dual skill of plasterer and brick mason was confirmed by a newspaper article about the father John Creel and his work on the Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro, NC, in 1882. An excerpt:

Chatham Record (newspaper), June 17, 1882

Back to the story of our plasterer. Charles A Creel was married on Nov 21, 1881, to Nora Haithcock of Chatham County, NC shortly before he autographed his work in wet plaster. The image below is difficult to read, but it shows Charles M Creel marrying Nora M Haithcock. We have confirmed by other documents that this is the correct marriage certificate for Charles A Creel.

North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011, Chatham County, Marriage Register (1851-1977)

The first child of Charles and Nora arrived under a year later in September of 1882. The couple had another child on the way when tragedy struck on July 25, 1884.

The Wilmington Morning Star, Tuesday, July 29, 1884

The above newspaper clipping stated that he had heart disease. Charles A Creel is buried at the historic Hillcrest Cemetery in Cary, NC.

Although little else is known from public records about Charles A Creel, many newspaper clippings and other sources provide information about John W Creel, the father. Creel became a stockholder in Cary High School when the Jones family sold the private institution.

Cary High School Catalog for the year 1906-1907

Another newspaper clipping shows Cary citizen Capt. Harrison P Guess going around town drumming up subscriptions to a newspaper. This snapshot of some Cary citizens includes the name of C A Creel. T B Creel was Teasley/Tinsley Brantlett Creel, Charles A Creel’s older brother.

The Farmer and Mechanic, Wednesday, October 25, 1882

Barb was amused by the above newspaper clipping about Capt. Guess rounding up subscriptions. In it, the reporter refers to Cary as:

"The clever little town that is destined to grow."

Carla was intrigued by the follow-on phrase: “and wear seven-league boots, one of these days.” Seven-league boots harken back to European folklore, and the phrase means a pair of boots enabling the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride, enabling great progress with great speed. Oh, if the townspeople of the 1880s could see their little town now Cary’s recent development spurt, they would agree we are indeed fulfilling the prognostication made almost 150 years ago!

Further research shows that the baby who was unborn at the time of its father’s death was a little girl, named Charles “Charlie” Elizabeth Creel in memory of the father she would never know. An Ancestry.com public family tree, jenclem0791, posted this lovely photo of Charlie. She was a classic "Gibson Girl."

Charlie’s mother later remarried and lived in Pittsboro, Chatham County, NC, and Charlie lived in the household with her mother and step-father until she married George R Stallings in 1908. She died in May 1983 at the remarkable age of 98 and was buried in Pittsboro. One of her sons, Godfrey Charles Stallings had a long life as well. He was a resident of Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary at the time of his death at age 97 in 2012 and may or may not have known about his family's roots in Cary, certainly not the signature in plaster.

So, the mystery encased in plaster has been resolved, but some mystery surrounding the Ivey-Ellington House remains. Stay informed of future mysteries uncovered by subscribing to the Friends of the Page Walker, Cary’s Historical Society’s newsletter, The Innkeeper, here:

https://www.friendsofpagewalker.org/Mailing-List

Cary at the Crossroads - the Intersection of Chatham & Academy Streets

Carla Michaels — Sat, 10 May 2025 17:01:08 GMT

The intersection of Chatham and Academy Streets has long served as the center of downtown Cary. Each corner of the intersection tells part of the story of Cary’s development from a small agricultural village to a suburban community to an urban destination. The history of the southeast corner is covered in a bit of mystery, as there is little photographic documentation of its early history, unlike the other three corners. This is what we know about some of the businesses at Cary’s original “crossroads.”

Let's Start With a "Frank" Talk

As with many stories about Cary, we will start with Frank Page who purchased 300 acres of largely undeveloped land in 1854 in what officially became Cary in 1871. He laid out the main street along Cedar (formerly Railroad) Street so that his lumber and sawmill business would have easy access to the North Carolina Railroad.

Travelers going west would follow the railroad along Cedar Street until they reached Academy Street, which ran north and south. In its earliest days, travelers could follow the now defunct Jones Street (also called Railroad AND Hillsboro) which joined today’s West Chatham Street a block west of today’s Chatham and Academy (dotted red line below.) Travelers also had the option to turn left on Academy, go one block south, then turn right on Chatham to continue through Cary toward Apex (solid red line below.) That latter “zig and zag” through downtown created the intersection that would come to define downtown Cary today, shown below by the “gold star.”

Businesses sprang up around this intersection. Frank Page’s three-story factory building faced Cedar Street and occupied the north east corner, the Gray family had a mercantile business and their home on the northwest corner with the business facing Chatham Street, “Uncle Bob” (Robert J) Harrison’s store and home above the store occupied the southwest corner and also faced Chatham Street. But what about the southeast corner? The shoe shop noted on the above map didn’t come along for many years. We’ll explore this corner’s earlier history as we explore all four corners.

The Beginning

Frank Page’s 300 acres included this southeast corner parcel, which he sold in 1882 to L H Jones, Lily Houghton Jones, wife of William Merritt Jones who was the son of Rufus Henry Jones, a business associate of Frank Page. William M Jones started his working life with a grocery and general merchandise store, location unknown. Was it on this corner? So far, there is no evidence to prove where he conducted this business. Jones later transitioned into the window sash and lumber business, moving to Asheville, NC by 1900, where he was a successful businessman.

Cottage on the Move

William and Lily Jones sold this southeast corner parcel in 1889 to Edward Dorsey (E. D.) Yates, the son of Atlas B Yates who ran a sawmill on Railroad Street on land he purchased from Frank Page adjacent to Page’s factory lot. Atlas Yates later expanded his operation by purchasing Page’s three-story brick factory building at the corner of Cedar/Railroad and Academy Streets. The factory lot extended back from Railroad Street to what is now Chatham Street, which didn’t exist at that time. Sadly, Atlas Yates died in 1890. Yates’ widow, Elizabeth Council Yates sold the property as the administratrix of her late husband’s estate to B N Duke of Durham, the majority stockholder of Cary Lumber Company. At the time of the sale of the factory lot, Atlas’s son E D Yates was leasing the factory property, and according to estate papers, E D Yates was living in a three-room house at the back of the factory. Part of the estate sales agreement was that E D Yates was allowed to move the house to another property no later than the end of 1895. It appears that since he had previously bought the property to the south of the factory lot in 1889 (now the southeast corner of Chatham & Academy), he only had to move the house a short distance!

We have not located a photo of this “cottage on the move.” We have just a couple of glimpses of it, one in the photo shown above of “Uncle Bob’s Corner.” The E D Yates House/Cottage is barely visible on the left of the photo. The other glimpse is in the photo below where the cottage peeks through the trees to the left of the Methodist Church which still stands on Academy Street in its original location, albeit expanded and clad in brick.

The sale of the factory lot on the northeast corner and the move of the house coincided with the sale of the southeast corner lot by E D Yates to Cary Lumber Company. The house is noted as Yates on the circa 1906 map of Cary, even though technically the land belonged to Cary Lumber Company at that time. For a discussion of Cary Lumber Company, see “Around and About Cary” by Tom Byrd, pages 48-50.

Road Trip!

Let’s take a short little road trip further down West Chatham Street to celebrate a preservation success story. By 1900, E D Yates was well established in a much larger family home at 215 W Chatham Street.

When more recent downtown development started in earnest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this house was moved to Williams Street, just a little further west and stands today.

With the purchase of the southeast corner parcel by Cary Lumber Company, the Factory Lot started at Cedar/Railroad Street and now ran south to the boundary with the Methodist Church.

Local Controversy

A town-changing event in the years around 1907 caused a bit of controversy in Cary. At this time, what we know today as West Chatham Street ended at Academy Street. There was no East Chatham Street. Note on the Templeton map circa early 1900s, what would become East Chatham was nothing more than a country lane.

To head east out of town toward Raleigh from Chatham Street, travelers had to make the “zig and zag” to continue to Raleigh using Cedar/Railroad Street. Town officials decided that extending Chatham Street, in essence creating West AND East Chatham, would be a good solution to traffic flow, such as it was at the time. Alice Waldo, widow of town doctor, Dr. S P Waldo, completely disagreed and filed a civil action to prevent the proposed extension from crossing her property which lay to the east of the Cary Lumber property, Frank Page’s old factory site. Her case was dismissed, the judgment stating that running the new extension through her property would cause more good than harm to the value and usefulness of her parcel of land, thus East Chatham Street was created.

As this case was working its way through civil action, Cary Lumber Company sold the entire property (factory lot and southeast corner – formerly Yates lot) to F R (Fernando/Frank R) Gray, who had been leasing the tobacco factory for some time and who owned adjacent property on the northwest corner of Chatham and Academy. Frank and his brother Patrick ran a mercantile business that fronted today’s West Chatham Street and their residence was behind the store facing the railroad.

Family Affair

This made F R Gray the owner of three of the four corners of the centrally located intersection of Chatham and Academy. The only corner NOT in Gray hands was “Uncle Bob” Robert J Harrison’s Corner which later became Adams Drug Store and Ashworth’s Drugs. Although the Gray family didn’t own this fourth corner, there was a connection! Patrick Gray, Frank’s brother, was married to nee Maude Harrison, who was the niece of “Uncle Bob” Robert J Harrison. He owned the southwest corner, directly across Chatham Street from Gray’s Store. Cary’s crossroad was a family affair! To learn more about Robert J Harrison and his corner, please read the blogpost, “Hot Dogs and History: From Uncle Bob's Corner to Ashworth's Drug Store.”

https://www.friendsofpagewalker.org/Cary-Me-Back/10089296

F R Gray was a life-long bachelor, and at his death left his property to his deceased brother Frank’s family, who in turn hung on to the properties, leasing the land to various tenants.

On the northwest corner, the Gray Store was eventually razed and the Cary Branch Bank of Fuquay was built as a rather mundane one-story brick building. The decorative wavy awning was added later. This corner has gone through a number of facelifts and rebuilding over the years but remains a bank property.

Fire!

The northeast corner of this intersection has had a more eventful history. Shortly after Gray purchased this corner from Cary Lumber, a fire destroyed Frank Page’s original brick factory building.

The property remained underused or not used at all for a number of years. Currently and ironically, the Cary Fire Department administrative offices are located on the old factory lot that burned to the ground!

Cary Enters the Suburban Era

With the rising popularity and availability of the automobile, a gasoline service station was created on the corner of Chatham and Academy, leased to series of proprietors through the years. The former Gurkan’s Automotive Shop (recently closed) was the latest occupant of the corner. Plans are to rehabilitate the gas station building into a restaurant while recreating the look of the service station from 1951, shown below.

Back to the Elusive Southeast Corner

Early information about this corner is scant, with the exception of the E D Yates cottage moving to this site in 1895. Additional facts begin to surface starting in the 1920s. Cottage Grocery, also the former Yates house, was first mentioned in a 1923 CHSite (Cary High School yearbook) advertisement as Templeton’s Delicatessen “Cottage Store,” which was an apt named for the humble 3 room house that E D Yates had once lived in and later moved to this location.

According to the ad, ice cream, fancy fruits, candies and cakes were all on offer. The next year, it was simply known as Cottage Grocery run by C C (Cleon Clive) Eatman, a local graduate of Cary High School. Based on the offerings, it appears he ran it as a small grocery store.

The building also appears on a 1923 map of Cary as “Cottage Grocery” and shows the footprint of the house. For a three-room cottage, it appears to be somewhat larger than expected, if the map is drawn to scale.

Later in its life on the corner, the cottage housed Cotronis Shoe Shop for a number of years. It is unclear when Athens, Greece native John Cotronis started his business, but his shoe sales and repair business leased the property from the Gray family and operated for a number of years. Descendants of Mr Cotronis still reside in the area.

A New Beginning

As previously stated, after the death of Frank Gray, the properties at this intersection passed to family members. One of Mr Gray’s nieces inherited the southeast corner property and sold it in 1949 to J Glenn Hobby. At the time, Mr Hobby was in the grocery business in downtown Cary on West Chatham Street.

His growing enterprise needed more space, so he purchased the roomy southeast corner parcel of land and the cottage. He sold the Yates cottage to Russell Heater, “Mr Cary,” known for his promotion of the Town of Cary far and wide. Mr Heater moved the house to West Park Street, reconfigured and added to it and made it a comfortable family home. Mr Heater’s son, Robert “Bob” Heater recounted that the cottage was sawn in two and an addition was inserted to join the two parts. In the photo below, it appears that was the case. West Park Street has recently been developed with “in-fills” and thus the little cottage that sat on the northeast then southeast corner of Chatham and Academy is no more after a long life and various uses. The little cottage provides an illustration of Cary’s development from a small village with modest local businesses into a larger business district and more suburban community.

Mr Hobby built a one-story brick building to house his appliance company. He ran his appliance company in the west half of the building, and initially, a “Piggly Wiggly” grocery store operated out of the east side.

Over time, Piggly Wiggly merged with Winn-Dixie which built a large stand-alone store across the street from the E D Yates House at 215 West Chatham Street. What might have Mr Yates thought about the 11,000 square foot grocery store, which was leaps and bounds bigger than the modest “Cottage Grocery” that had once served as his house at the crossroads of Cary?

The vacated Piggly Wiggly space was taken over by an up-and-coming businessman named James “Pete” Murdock. His business was known as “Pete’s Hardware.” Pete’s Hardware operated at this locale for a number of years before it outgrew its space and located down the street in the 200 block of East Chatham, along one stretch of Chatham that had once been so contentious. Pete’s Hardware eventually closed and his store is incorporated within Mid-town Shopping Center. Hobby’s is now Kitchen & Bath Galleries, which more recently gained some local notoriety when the building owners unwittingly violated a local ordinance which banned painting brick and concrete exterior surfaces of buildings. Kitchen & Bath Galleries remains there today, with a lovely, completely painted tan exterior!

My, oh my. What changes this intersection has seen in its 150 years! Starting as part of a zig-zag path to negotiate through the dirt roads of a fledgling country village, it became the center of a small business district of a suburban town on the way up. Today it still serves as the crossroads of downtown Cary which is quickly turning into an urban destination. Stay tuned for more articles on the transformation of downtown Cary!

A Brief History of the Ivey-Ellington House

Michael Rubes — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 01:05:45 GMT

The Ivey-Ellington House - The Little White Church that Wasn't

Ivey-Ellington in snow

We at the Friends of the Page-Walker are often asked for information about “that little white church” that previously sat on West Chatham. Now that the house has been moved to South Academy Street, we still occasionally get asked about it and whether it was a church.

The Ivey-Ellington house, though, was never a church. But the confusion is understandable and, as it turns out, intentional.

History is seldom 100% certain, but these are things we do know. In April of 1874, just three years after the incorporation of Cary, Alonzo T. Mial bought four acres on West Chatham from the town founder, Frank Page. The Mial family was from East Wake County, in the modern day Wendell area. Even though he owned the land, there is no indication that Mial built the house himself. Records indicate that Alonzo Crocker built the house around 1874 at a cost of around $300. However, neither Crocker, Mial, nor Frank Page ever actually lived in the house.

Alonzo Crocker had quite a history in Cary. Born in 1846 in Wake Forest, he was known to be an expert machinist and woodworker. His work included the original pews and lectern used at Cary First Methodist, along with millwork and trim found in many of the interiors of early Cary houses. He was married three times, outliving his first two wives. His first wife was Susan (Susannah) Raboteau, who was sister to Catherine Raboteau. Catherine was better known as Mrs. Frank Page. Alonzo Crocker and Frank Page were brothers-in-law. It is not unreasonable at all to think that Frank Page connected his brother-in-law with Alonzo Mial to work as a builder for the equivalent of a 19^th century “spec house”. Tragically, Crocker died in 1901 at the age of 55 when he suffered a broken leg in a mill accident while working for the Cary Lumber Company.

Alonzo Crocker

The Ivey-Ellington is a classic example of a Gothic Revival style. Alonzo Mial previously had a Gothic Revival Church built in the Shotwell area near Wendell, so perhaps he was the instigator of this style of house in Cary?

Gothic Revival stylistic elements include pointed arched windows, a steeply sloped roof, deep soffits and board and batten siding. The Ivey-Ellington House has scalloped facias as opposed to plain facias found on many Gothic Revival structures. The Gothic Revival style signified an architectural form that focused on changing attitudes towards nature, religion, technology and the family. This style was very popular in the mid-19^th century. The style was promoted as being appropriate for rural settings because it was thought the complex lines and shape would fit well in natural surroundings. The pointed windows and steeply sloped roofs are designed to direct the viewer’s gaze upward, in a heavenly direction.

Because of the style’s association with church architecture, it often signified a Christian dwelling. In fact, the footprint of the original house is the classic cathedral plan of a cross. The Ivey-Ellington retains its original floorplan and layout. Most of the millwork, flooring and hardware is original to the house.

Ivey-Ellington from above. Note that additions on the left and rear have been removed prior to relocation.
Photo by Kevin Pugh Media (kevinpughmedia.com)

As mentioned, neither Frank Page, Alonzo Mial, nor Alonzo Crocker ever lived in the house. It does appear that in 1882 J T Pool and his wife Bettie purchased the house from Alonzo T Mial and by 1883 were living in the house. Pool and his wife Bettie seemed to have spent most of their lives in the Johnston County area, only moving to Cary in 1883. They appear to have lived in the house until 1888 when it was sold to Anderson Betts and his wife Elizabeth Jordan. Elizabeth Jordan was sister to Henry B Jordan, a prominent landowner and politician in Cary who twice served as Cary’s Mayor. Anderson Betts and his wife appear to have only lived in the house a short time as it was sold in 1892 to Thaddeus and Mary Ivey. Records indicate Anderson and Elizabeth living back in Raleigh by 1900.

Even though Thaddeus and Mary only lived there 5 years, their family lived in other parts of Cary for many, many years and had a lasting impact on the community. Thaddeus Ivey moved to Cary in 1891 to escape “city life” in Raleigh and to raise his family in the country. Cary was very much the “country” in 1891!

Mary and Thaddeus Ivey

However, Thaddeus Ivey still commuted to Raleigh to work as a bookkeeper at the NC Farmers State Alliance Business Agency. And by “commute”, I mean he would take the train to Raleigh Monday morning, work for the week and take the train home on Saturday! As a member of the Prohibition Party, his views on alcohol fit right into Frank’s town! He moved to Hillsborough in 1898 for a short time but then returned to Cary a few years later. In 1922 he bought The Raven House on the corner of Academy and Park and moved in with his family, including his daughter, Esther Ivey. When Thaddeus purchased the house, he was still commuting to Raleigh, but now had a car he could drive to town.

Esther was born in 1890 in Wake Forest while her father was a student. She graduated from Cary High School in 1906 and then from Guilford College a few years later. She moved into the Raven House with her family in 1922 and would live there until her death in 1989 at age 99. Later in life she would tell the story of seeing old west style cattle drives come through town as ranchers from Chatham County would drive their herds to market in Raleigh. They would often come right down Chatham Street, directly in front of her house!

Esther Ivey

Charles Romulus Scott bought the Ivey-Ellington House in 1898 and owned it until 1918. Scott was born in Chatham County in 1831. He was married to Anna Yates, daughter of Eli Yates. Her siblings included Carlos, Alvis and Pharis Yates, all of whom were prominent landowners in Western Wake County. While living in Chatham County, he served as a County Councilman for 18 years. Cattle drives from Chatham County to Raleigh were conducted while he owned the house with the drives going right down Chatham Street.

He moved to Cary about 1898 and opened Scott and Son Grocery and Dry Goods with his son, Charles William Scott. In addition to running the store, CR Scott worked as a county tax assessor. Allegations of corruption in 1900 led him to being a witness in the investigation. He was eventually exonerated. This was part of his testimony:

Talking about his own personal house, was asked:

Prosecutor: What was your house valued at?

Scott: It's an old house, worth about $600.

Prosecutor: What sort of house is it?

Scott: The ugliest in Cary

So, maybe we can assume that Mr. Scott was not a fan of Gothic Revival?

The ugliest house in Cary?

After Scott, Joseph Smith owned the house for less than a year before it was sold to John Harrison Ellington in 1919. Ellington owned the house for 30 years, but not a lot is known about him. He was born in Chatham County in 1875. It is unknown for sure when he moved to Cary, but he was living here by the 1910 census. He owned several properties in town, and it appears he may have used the Ivey-Ellington as a rental. By 1930 he was living in South Carolina but still owned the Ivey-Ellington. When he died in 1943, his family held on to the house for a few years but then sold it in 1946 to H H Waddell. The Waddell Family would own the house for more than 60 years.

Harvey Halford Waddel

Harvey Halford Waddell, or HH as he was called, purchased the house in 1946. He was born in Lillington in 1895 and moved to Cary in 1917 to work as a mechanic. He would enjoy a long period of service to Cary in various capacities. He was appointed Cary’s first Fire Chief in 1923. He was elected Mayor in 1929 and served a 4-year term. He was twice elected as a town Commissioner. In 1949 he was appointed as a local judge and held that position for 9 years. He was elected to the Town Council in 1960 and served there for 4 years.

HH Waddell was the first owner to substantially alter the house. Part of that was by necessity when Hurricane Hazel ripped off the front section. Waddell repaired the front, but left off that extended section, making the front flat and removing the porch. Sometime in the early 1950s he also added a small kitchen and bathroom off the back of the house.

Hurricane Hazel damage, October, 1954

By the late 1960s the family was leasing out the house. In 1972, a year before his death, Waddell deeded the house to his two daughters. In 1984, his daughter Melba sold her half to her sister, Eva and Eva’s husband, Jefferson Sugg.

Around 2000, Jefferson Sugg did a partial remodel of the house. He rebuilt the front gable, restoring it to its original form. He also added a modern bathroom off the back. He began commercial leasing of the house after his remodel. After his death in 2010, the town of Cary bought the house.

From 2011 to 2022, the lot around the house was used as a weekly meeting spot for the Cary Farmers Market.

After a lot of talking and planning, the house was moved from Chatham Street to the “old library” library site on Academy Street on 20 February 2023. Since then, the house has undergone a full restoration and modernization. That includes replacing the metal roof with period appropriate wooden shakes as well as rebuilding the chimneys on each end. The intended use for the house will be offices for the new Downtown Cary Park. Because it is intended for town office space, an ADA compliant bathroom and entrance were added off the rear of the house. In addition to the house itself, there has been extensive landscaping done around the house in its new location.

Moving Day, 20 February 2023

At this time, it is planned that there will be a section of the first floor devoted to rotating historical displays about the house and Cary in general.

Ivey-Ellington, now on Academy Street

Restoration work has been continuing since the house was moved in 2023. It is scheduled to be opened in May of 2025.

The Ivey-Ellington nearing completion of restoration, March 2025

For over 150 years the Ivey-Ellington House has stood in downtown Cary. Here’s hoping it is there for 150 or more years to come!

Sallie Jones: 100 Years of Cary Hometown Spirit

Barbara Wetmore — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 19:37:17 GMT

Sallie Jones, announced in November as the 2024 Cary Hometown Spirit Award recipient, has called Cary her hometown for 100 years! She was born in 1924 in a house on the very corner in the very neighborhood where she now lives, just north of downtown on Academy Street.

Some of her ancestors were enslaved and came to the Cary area just after the Civil War, her great grandfather Alfred Arrington and grandfather Arch Arrington Sr. from Nash County and her great grandfather and great grandmother Yancey and Sabra Blake from Raleigh. Her great uncle Addison Blake was the founder of the Union Bethel AME Church in 1898. It still exists on North Acadaemy Street, the only one of four black churches founded in the 1800s still standing in its original location. Sallie's great aunt Eliza Blake Nichols was interviewed by the Federal Writers' Project in 1937 and left a recorded narrative of her memories of being enslaved as a child on the Whitaker plantation in Raleigh. Her grandfather Arch Arrington Sr. was the first African American businessman in Cary and a community leader.

As a child, Sallie Jones attended the Cary Colored School located behind the current Cary Elementary School along what was a dirt road and is now being developed as an expansion of the Higgins Greenway. Sallie lived through the Jim Crow era and remembers when the Colored School burned down in 1935 under suspicious circumstances. She would have started sixth grade the next day. Instead, she did not go to school at all that year, while her parents and other black families led by her uncle Arch Arrington Jr. protested the plan to send their young children to school in Method and worked together to establish a new school for African American children in Cary. Sallie's mother Emily Arrington Jones and her uncle Goelet Arrington worked with the Wake County Board of Commissioners to provide land for the school. Opened in 1937 on East Johnson Street, we know that school today as Kingswood Elementary.

When the new school for African American children opened, Sallie was too old to attend it. She had been studying her older siblings' text books during the time she didn't go to school and when it came time for seventh graders at Method to take the exam to determine if they would be allowed to continue their education at the high school level, Sallie's mother sent her to Method to take the exam. She passed, despite not going to school in sixth grade and skipping the seventh grade! She was a smart and determined young lady!

Sallie graduated from Berry O'Kelly High School in Method in 1940 and attended college at St. Augustine's in Raleigh. She earned a degree and taught in North Carolina schools in Parmele and Goldsboro for 12 years before accepting a job in Gary, Indiana, where she taught advanced French in the high schools there for 20 years. She lived through desegregation and the Civil Rights movement and helped integrate the schools in Gary.

When Sallie retired from her teaching career in Gary, she returned to Cary, back to the corner where she was born, and has remained since. For many years of her retirement back in Cary, Sallie volunteered with AARP as a community coordinator focusing on housing and other issues in the area. She learned about the plans to build a retirement community on Cornwall Road, where her church's cemetery dating back to the 1860s was located, and she personally took it upon herself to preserve it. Because of Sallie, an important piece of Cary's history was saved. Sallie continues to be an active member of First Christian Church, now located on Evans Road.

Sallie Jones is a proud Caryite and a proud American and has kept up her spirit and devotion to her town and country for many long years! The Friends congratulate her on being so deservedly chosen the 2024 Cary Hometown Spirit Award recipient!

Rufus Jones Helped Build Cary . . . and Control Its Grasshopper Population

Barbara Wetmore — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:43:38 GMT

Allison Francis (Frank) Page is certainly well publicized for his contributions to the development of Cary and is known as the town's founder. But there is another highly accomplished citizen who perhaps doesn't get the credit he should. He is Rufus Henry Jones.

Rufus is Cary through and through. He was born here. He died here and is buried here. He was here before Frank Page, and he stayed here. And while he was here, he contributed greatly to the development of Cary and its people.

Rufus Jones

Two grandfathers with the same first and last names

Rufus Jones was a descendant of one of the first land owners in this area, Francis Jones. Though Francis acquired the land in 1749, he likely never lived here, but he willed the land to his sons Tignall and Nathaniel and the two of them were two of the first white settlers to build homes in this area. Tignall settled in what is now Morrisville. His brother Nathaniel settled along Crabtree Creek in what is now central western Cary. This Nathaniel Jones was known as Nathaniel Jones Sr. of Crabtree to distinguish him from Rufus Jones's other grandfather who was also named Nathaniel Jones and living in the area at the same time! This other Nathaniel Jones was known as Nathaniel Jones of White Plains for the cotton fields he owned in the eastern part of what is now Cary. These two Nathaniel Joneses were not related, but they had children who married each other, thereby connecting the two families by blood. Nathaniel Jones Sr. of Crabtree had a son, Henry who married the daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains, Nancy. Rufus Jones was the son of Henry and Nancy.

A famous house to grow up in

You might recognize Henry and Nancy Jones as the owners of the famous and historic Nancy Jones House. Likely built by Nathaniel Jones Sr. of Crabtree in the very early 1800s, this house still stands on Chapel Hill Road and is on the National Register of Historic Places. For a deep dive into the history of the Nancy Jones House, see Historic Houses on the Move: The Nancy Jones House by Carla Michaels. As late as 1900, a Raleigh News and Observer article reported that Rufus was the owner of the “plantation” and that the property had continually been in the Jones family since the original grant to his great grandfather Francis Jones in 1749.

Historic Nancy Jones HouseRufus was born on December 31, 1819, the eve of the new year 1820. He was the third of five children born to Henry and Nancy, who was Henry's second wife. A family bible record from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University shows the recording of the marriage of Henry and Nancy and the births of their five children.

Jones Family Bible pages

Education first and foremost

Rufus, like all children in the early days of Cary, grew up in a family that farmed. Being a relatively well off family, the Henry and Nancy Jones family had the means to formally educate their children. Rufus attended Hillsborough Academy (also known as the Bingham Academy) in 1839 to prepare for higher education, and he went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1843. He started his own career in education by operating an early school in the Cary area in 1847. He also served on the Common School Committee of Examination, ensuring the quality of teachers in Wake County. In 1873, Rufus purchased a 1/3 interest in Cary Academy from Frank Page, who had started the school in 1870. In 1886, two of his daughters, Sarah and Loulie (Louise) purchased the remaining interest in the school, and the family owned the school until stockholders bought out the Jones family interest and incorporated the school in 1896. Rufus’s home on Academy Street stood until the 1960s and was known as the impressive “Principal’s House.” After Rufus's death in 1903, the house was sold by his heirs to one of Cary High School's early principals, E.L. Middleton. The house stood on the site of the old library green, near the Cary Arts Center. This site is now the home of yet another historic house, the Ivey-Ellington House, which was moved from its original location on West Chatham Street in February 2023.

Rufus and Sarah Jones House, later owned by an early principal of Cary High School, E.L. Middleton

Education ran in the family. Rufus's daughters Loulie and Lily attended Greensboro Female College and studied to be teachers. Both of them taught at the private Cary Academy and as noted, Loulie was part owner of the school for 10 years.

Lily Jones

Connections to Chatham County

Rufus Jones married Sarah Catherine Merritt of Chatham County in 1849. The Merritts lived in Pittsboro near New Hope Creek on a plantation they called “Cape Lookout.” Rufus's brother Algernon Sidney Jones married Sarah's sister Elizabeth Rencher Merritt. With two brothers from the Jones family of Cary married to two sisters of the Merritt family of Pittsboro, several connections between the two families and towns were made.

Sarah Merritt Jones

Young Sarah Merritt Jones

In 1870, Sarah's brother A. H. (Haywood) Merritt was brought into the newly established Cary Academy as its first principal and teacher by his brother-in-law Rufus Jones. Not only was Merritt the principal of the school that Frank Page built, but was also on the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Church, the church that Frank Page had a hand in founding and building. He also served on the executive committee of the Wake County Bible Society along with Frank Page and brother-in-law Rufus Jones. After serving as an appointed town commissioner, Haywood was in the first group of elected commissioners for the Town of Cary. Professor Merritt went on later to be in charge of the successful Pittsboro Academy in Chatham County and served for many years as the Superintendent of the Pittsboro United Methodist Church Sunday School. On the state level, Professor Merritt served as a 3-term state senator. He served on the committee of education and libraries, demonstrating his commitment to education and was a leading proponent in the legislature of the temperance movement. He served as a trustee of the University of North Carolina as well as superintendent of public instruction in Chatham County. Haywood Merritt moved to Mt. Airy, NC in his later years and lived out the rest of his life there with other members of his family.

Haywood Merritt [bearded gentleman in the middle] and family in Mt. Airy

A time of war

At the time of the Civil War, Rufus Jones and his family were living in the western part of what is now Cary, not far from his mother Nancy Jones, who was still living. On the 1870/1871 Fendol Bevers map of Wake County, his home appears along Pittsboro Road (just above the number 11). The home of Nancy Jones was northeast of Rufus's home (along the railroad tracks under the “v” in Morrisville on the map). Our best guess places Rufus's home near the present-day intersection of Davis Dr. and High House Rd.

Fendol Bevers 1870/1871 map of Wake County

Clara Jones was an African American woman who was enslaved by the Rufus Jones family during the war. Her memories were recorded as part of a Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938. Clara recalled about the end of the war:

“When de Yankees come, Mis Sally Marse Rufus' wife cried and ordered the scalawags outen de house but dey jist laughs at her an' takes all we got. Dey eben takes the stand of lard dat we has got buried in de ole fiel' an' de hams hangin' up in de trees in de pasture. After dey is gone, we fin's a sick Yankee in de barn an' Mis Sally nurses him. Way atter de war Mis Sally gits a letter an' a gol' ring from him.”

You can read Clara's complete narrative here.

Politics and religion and grasshoppers

Rufus followed in the footsteps of some of his inlaws and his own Jones family ancestors and developed an early interest in politics, serving in the House of Commons from Wake County in 1848 – 1849 and as a Wake County Commissioner. He is also noted for being the first elected mayor of Cary in 1872.

In 1877, Cary was apparently besieged by grasshoppers and Rufus did his part to try to rid the community of these pests. This snippet from the Raleigh Christian Advocate in 1877 tells of his actions:

Snippet from September 19, 1877 Raleigh Christian Advocate

Rufus also participated in civic and religious activities throughout his life. He was an early member of Asbury Church, appearing on a list of members in 1853. Rufus was also a founding member and trustee of the Cary Methodist Church and was a long-time president and member of the Wake County Bible Society.

As a businessman, Rufus operated a short-lived tannery.

More than an esteemed ciitzen

At his death, his obituary noted that Rufus Jones “was held in the highest esteem by all the people of the county.” He died in 1903 and is buried in the family plot at Hillcrest Cemetery. Many Jones family members are buried there with him, including his father Henry and brother Nathaniel whose bodies were moved from their original burial spots on the Nancy Jones House property. Hillcrest Cemetery exists because of Rufus and his wife Sarah, who donated land they owned to the town in 1887 for use as a place for townspeople's burials. Cary townspeople are still being buried there today.

With Rufus Jones being Methodist, an educator, and a member of one of the earliest and most influential families in the Cary area, it was natural for Frank Page to know and value Rufus’s influence and talents in establishing the Town of Cary. We might take it a step further and give credit to Rufus for co-founding the town with Frank.

Where's Waldo? A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole

Carla Michaels — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 13:28:36 GMT

Sometimes history research is a bit like Alice taking a tumble into the rabbit hole. You never know where you will end up or what you will find! Recently, a group of researchers trying to answer questions about the Ivey-Ellington House fell down the proverbial rabbit hole and ended up looking for answers regarding E O Waldo’s Drug Store! We started with this photo, which had surfaced some time ago and had reappeared in a query from Michael Rubes who is working on a presentation about the Ivey-Ellington House. (See "Upcoming Events" on our Home Page.) That’s all it took to set off in the search for answers.

Based on what we know about 1900s Cary, the building couldn’t be immediately placed. It looks remarkably like what is known today as Scott’s Store on West Chatham Street beside the former location of the Ivey-Ellington House. What we know about surrounding buildings on West Chatham Street, it was clear that the two buildings were indeed two different buildings, not the same structure.

One researcher (Carla) remembered a map drawn from Elva Templeton’s memories of early Cary. Elva was the daughter of Dr James McPherson Templeton, and Elva placed various homes and businesses on streets in Cary around 1906 or so. Here is a section of a map drawn from her recollections:

On this map, what is marked “Lane to Raleigh Rd” is now known as East Chatham Street. During this time, businesses were located on Cedar Street and what today is known as West Chatham Street, both of which served as the business “district” of Cary in the late 1800s and 1900s. Just above the word “Lane” appear two buildings marked “Ernest Waldo Drug Store”. It is open to interpretation as to whether one was a home and one was a business. The two buildings sat at the corner of what is now East Chatham and Walker Street on the property of today’s Modern Service, an automotive repair shop.

Now, take a look at a photo of Cary’s fire trucks arranged on the Modern Service property, circa 1950s, looking east to Raleigh. The street on the left of the photo is East Chatham Street. You will see a home in the background of the color photograph in approximately the same location as the home in the black and white photograph above, which is just visible. The houses are oriented the same way, facing Walker Street, although the roof of the house in the color photo may have been altered.

In a bit of serendipity, another conversation about a completely unrelated subject brought to one researcher’s (Carla’s) attention an old newspaper in the collection of the Page Walker Arts and History Center. The newspaper had been donated by Jerry Miller. Carla made a phone call to Mr Miller and found that Mr Miller had been given the newspaper by Mr R O Heater, who wanted Jerry to draw pictures of the houses in the newspaper that didn’t exist any longer. Mr Heater had emphasized to Jerry how important the newspaper was. Mr Miller also mentioned that he had donated it to the Page Walker Arts and History Center. Carla joined the Center’s supervisor, Kris Carmichael, in looking at this newspaper. To Carla's surprise, within the pages of the “Farmer’s Journal”, published by Dr J M Templeton in 1913, was a photograph of the E O Waldo Drug Store with the caption, “E O Waldo Drug Store, East Chatham Street.” Bingo. This was confirmation that the pieces of the puzzle regarding the drug store that we guessed at were accurately put together. It also underscored the value of saving documents from the past.

There are some differences in the two photographs of the building, which are explainable. The newspaper photograph does not have the stairs on the outside of the building and does not show any telephone wires. Those came later, as evidenced in the stand-alone photograph. The signage above the front door is different in style, if not in content, but could have needed refreshing over the years. The article above states that two years previously, fire had destroyed “their house and stock.” Does this mean a separate house and a business as pictured on the hand-drawn map? In the photo above, it appears that only the business has been rebuilt, but could have contained a residence on the second floor. Maybe that is an explanation for the “more substantially than ever” remark.

But that isn’t all that we found down the rabbit hole. Independently, another researcher (Barb) had been looking through the Thomas Byrd Collection of research documents used in the book “Around and About Cary”. Tom Byrd’s collection has recently been painstakingly digitized and placed online at digitalnc.org.

[https://lib.digitalnc.org/search?ln=en&p=903%3Apagewalker_011419_NPB_01&f=&sf=&so=d&rg=10&fti=0]

Out of curiosity, Barb began to browse the online research documents and found a photocopy of the same newspaper, which Jerry Miller had gifted the Page Walker! The discovery of the digitized newspaper and the original happened at the same time. What a coincidence!

The information in the stand-alone photograph of the drug store with telephone lines led us to another rabbit hole – the history of telephone service in Cary. According to an interview with Irma Ellis, long-time school teacher in Cary and captured in "Around and About Cary," the earliest phone service started in 1899 and was located in Waldo’s Drug Store. We had to go down the rabbit hole again and ask, “Where was THAT store located?” We are not sure, but think it was the drug store started by Dr S P Waldo and probably located on the commercial (and main) street of Cary, Railroad (now Cedar) Street. Apparently, that store burned, too. The drug store seemed to have particularly bad luck with fire. Perhaps it was because the store sold not only medicines but paints, oils, and general merchandise. That is a lot of volatile material! Here is a receipt from 1885 from S P Waldo’s store found in the estate file of Araminta (Mrs A J) Page Clegg, the sister of Frank Page, who lived in Cary and ran the Page Hotel (now the Page Walker Arts and History Center) for Frank and Catherine in the hotel’s early years. After she stopped managing the hotel and it was sold on to the Walkers, she remained in Cary and died here in 1885. Sadly, the receipt doesn’t give the address of the business, but Cary was so small that an address wasn’t needed.

Back to the telephone lines, newspaper clipping shows that the town geared up for the first telephone exchange for the town of Cary in 1915. In the photograph of the drug store below, the signage for the public telephone exchange and the line from the building to the pole are clearly visible, meaning that the photograph was taken in or shortly after 1915.

Another bit of information came from old telephone books in the Olivia Raney Library. A few people in Cary had phones before the telephone exchange came to town. A 1916 Telephone Book shows the earliest listing of numbers for Cary, but if you look at the Apex listings, you will see that several homes and businesses had telephone service through the Apex exchange. It’s reasonable to think that since the Cary exchange was established later in 1915, that the 1916 telephone book contained the earliest separate listing of Cary numbers.

In the 1916 telephone book, Mrs Ida F Jordan (residence - Carla's great-grandmother!), J M Templeton Sr, (Dr Templeton) (residence), and N G Yarborough (Nathaniel G Yarborough who owned the Guess-Ogle House), (residence) and The Bank of Cary on the Apex exchange joined 24 other numbers on the Cary exchange. All these numbers eventually were Cary exchange numbers.

If anyone doubts the value of the research that makes up “Around and About Cary”, doubt no more. All one has to do is read the information in that book to learn the details of fires that destroyed the drug store, not once, but twice.

Barb pointed out a paragraph in the book “Around and About Cary” that recounted the last fire. “The telephone switchboard and an apartment occupied by Mr and Mrs Larry Penny were located over Waldo’s Drug Store. Upon returning from the town pump one cold January morning in 1919, Mrs Penny discovered her kitchen ceiling ablaze. Said Mrs Hilliard (Lyda Barbee Hilliard, Cary’s first operator):

People started yelling at me to come down, but I was trying to get the long-distance operator (in Raleigh) so she could send help. Cary didn’t have a fire department at the time, and it was customary for Raleigh to send a wagon out.”

The Raleigh operator never came on line and the building burned. “Our long-distance service was poor,” Mrs Hilliard said.” [Said with a touch of understatement! – Carla]

In another remarkable coincidence, one researcher (Carla) said that her grandmother (Annie Beasley Jordan of Cary) was related to Mrs Hilliard and they were best friends. The researcher knew Mrs Hilliard personally. Too bad Carla didn’t know this story as a girl so she could ask some questions!

About Mr and Mrs Larry Penny! Larry Bryant Penny of Cary and Mary Brown of Apex were married in Cary in 1918 by W H Atkins, a JP. The apartment over the drug store was the home for newlyweds, but the fire shortly thereafter must have put some fear in them as they are listed in records from 1920 on as living in places outside “downtown” Cary. Who would blame them!

But, wait! There is more to sort out about the E O Waldo Drug Store. Ernest Owen Waldo, Sr was the son of Dr S P Waldo, who died very young in 1891, and nee Alice Owen. Ernest ran the drug store with his father, and after Dr Waldo’s death continued the business until his own death on 26 Nov 1909. At that point, Ada Owen, Alice Owen Waldo’s sister, ran the business started by her brother-in-law. Later, the business fell into the hands of Estes L Baucom, who had attended Cary High School. His family was located in Western Wake County, and a relative, A V Baucom, owned and operated a drug store in Apex. Estes L Baucom was listed as the operator of E O Waldo Drug Store in corporate tax records of 1916 – 1917. According to Mary Belle Phillips in an oral interview with Peggy Van Scoyoc, Mr Baucom’s drug store was in the building now known as Ashworth’s Drug Store. We can speculate that after the 1919 fire, he moved the pharmacy up the street and the old burned drug store was not rebuilt. In the estate papers of Alice O Waldo, much was made of old bricks on a particular property which were sold and the proceeds distributed to heirs. Could these have been bricks salvaged from the burned building? It’s hard to tell!

What about the other fire, the one in 1911? This clipping is all we know of details about the fire. Because the photos of the E O Waldo Drug Store show no surrounding buildings, and this clipping says surrounding buildings were saved, it would appear that this fire happened on Railroad (now Cedar) Street and the business was rebuilt on what is now Chatham Street.

We are indebted to many long-gone Cary residents who recorded their memories for future generations. Besides Elva Templeton and her map of Cary, another Cary resident, Terrine Holleman Woodlief, also recorded her recollections in map-form about who lived where in Cary and the businesses of the time. There are similarities between the two maps, but each lady remembered different buildings. Taken together, the two maps fill in many of the gaps that the other left out. On Mrs Woodlief’s map, there is an inset of the “business district” of Cary. On the map below, Railroad Street runs across the top from left to right. Beside the brick factory, you will see a building labeled “drug store”. It is reasonable to assume that this is the drug store that burned and was reconstructed on East Chatham Street. The order of businesses lines up with our current understanding of the placement of the brick building, Jones Store and blacksmith. More research is needed on who Williams was and the type of store he/she operated.

Another detail emerged late in the research. A daughter of Dr Waldo and Alice Owen Waldo, his wife, was Ruth Yarrell Waldo (later Mrs John Wesley Brothers), who operated the phone exchange on the property of the US Post Office on Academy Street in Cary. She came by her knowledge of telephones through the family! Deed research indicates that the property passed through the Waldo family, was owned by Ada Owen, sister-in-law of Dr S P Waldo and was contiguous to the original site of his home that has since been moved, restored, and now sits behind the Mayton Inn on East Park Street. Carla’s father, C Y Jordan, who was born in 1927 in Cary and lived almost his entire life here, told a story about visiting the house with his older cousin Betty Jordan. They knew they were allowed to observe the exchange operator, but they also knew they had to maintain complete silence! They were permitted inside because Betty’s widowed mother, Lila Westbrook Jordan operated the exchange for a time, most likely in the mid-1930s! C Y could “mimic” Mrs Jordan, who he remembered would say “Number, please” in a high-pitched voice when someone rang into the exchange for assistance. That must have been a time when more people in Cary had phones, maybe too many numbers for an operator to quickly remember who had which number!

Just when we think we are reaching the end of the rabbit hole, something new emerges! A researcher (Michael Rubes, this time) found a group of photos in Flickr that showed views of “old” Cary. One showed a house described as the telephone exchange in Cary circa 1930 on Academy Street, noted above. This photo must be the Brothers House. It is described in deeds as a “5-room cottage on Academy Street.” C Y Jordan remembers there being two houses on the current Post Office lot, and the photo bears this out. The sign in front of the house is a wonderful detail. Southern Bell contracted to lease the house from Ada Owen for two five-year terms which ran from 1929 to 1939. The leases were found in the Wake County, NC Register of Deeds office, with deeds available online.

Michael also pointed us to a photo circa 1910 of a phone operator in Cary. So, we circle back around to the Waldo Drug Store on East Chatham Street. Because the date assigned is approximate, it is reasonable to think that this photo was taken in the two-story building with the phone exchange upstairs. Note the pot-bellied stove and lacy curtains. Too bad we can’t see what is hanging on the wall to the right of the window. Is it a calendar that would show the month and year? Hard to say, but we can almost read the clock on the table beneath! What time do you think it says? Referring back to the first photo in the blog, there is a pipe coming out of the side wall on the second floor. Is that the stove pipe we see in the photo below? If so, the window may be the right-hand second floor window as you face the building. And is this the first operator, Lyda Barbee, before her marriage to Mr Hilliard? The 1910 Census doesn’t shed light on her occupation, as she was only 15 at the time. She finished at Cary High School in 1915 or 1916. The 1920 Census shows her living at home on Walnut Street and working as a clerk in the telephone office. The unanswered question is whether she worked in her late teens for the telephone exchange. In 1919, at the time of the last, disastrous fire, she would have been about 24 and could have started working at the exchange when she finished high school. Based on the date of the exchange, September 1915, she would have been 19 or 20, plenty mature enough and educated enough to work in the office. Cary High School records list her for the last time as a student in the 1915 CHSite, the yearbook of Cary High School. All the details seem to fall into place.

Thus ends our excursion (for the time being) down rabbit hole, with all its twists and turns, serendipitous moments and bunny trails. You have gotten a glimpse into the fun of research and the thrill of the hunt! Many thanks to Tom Byrd, Cary’s original researcher, who captured vital details about Cary’s history that otherwise would have been lost, Jerry Miller who brought long lost structures in Cary to life, and other Cary-ites from long-gone days who left memories which have helped us on our journey. And thanks to Barbara Wetmore, Michael Rubes, and Kris Carmichael for this team effort to try and sort through the details…down the rabbit hole!

Historic Houses on the Move - The Nancy Jones House

Carla Michaels — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 22:37:08 GMT

The Nancy Jones House stands today between Cary and Morrisville. In its heyday, it was a singular house on what once was the original stage coach road between the capital, Raleigh, to the newly formed University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the former state capital at Hillsborough. What makes this house that seems unexceptional today such a local and county treasure? Read on and find out!

Until the mid-1700s there was little in the way of any development in the Cary area. The land had been forest land and a hunting ground for the Tuscarora Indians until early white settlers arrived.

First, a little county formation history. Early in North Carolina’s history, Craven County extended far inland from the coast, up to and beyond today’s Wake County. In 1746, Johnston County was formed from Craven and included the Wake County area, and finally, in 1771, Wake was carved out of Johnston, along with parts of Chatham and Orange Counties. Keen researchers will keep in mind county formation and county line changes when searching for old records.

The earliest known landowner in the Cary area was Francis Jones of Edgecombe Co, NC. He received a land grant from Lord Carteret, later Earl Granville, in 1749 for 640 acres of land (a square mile) in Johnston County which later became Wake County and even later a part of the Cary area. He was a prosperous landowner in Edgecombe County and bought this land grant in Johnston County with some of his wealth. Buying land outside one’s area was not an uncommon practice in the day for those with the means to invest in real property.

This is part of a map compiled by Mr Allen B. Markham, Jr. of Durham in the 1970s. He used the original land grants found at the North Carolina Archives to plot these early grants in Wake County, formerly Johnston County. Although this map is a “best guess” based on vague descriptions of land, it does show where each land grant lay in approximation to other grants. The map shows Francis Jones’ land, later surrounded by other notable Jones family land grants. Interestingly, there is no proof that Francis Jones lived on this local property. His will was probated in Edgecombe County in 1755, which leads us to believe he resided there. In his will, Francis willed the Johnston (later Wake) County land grant to two of his sons: Nathaniel (later known as Nathaniel Jones, Senior) and Tignall or Tingnall Jones, both of whom became influential figures in Wake County history. Francis also owned additional property in current Wake County which he left to other sons and a son-in-law and which spread the influence of the Francis Jones family across the county.

A map drawn by local artist Jerry Miller for the first edition of “Around and About Cary” contains this bird’s eye view of the area, showing the relative locations of notable features and houses, including the Nathaniel Senior/Henry/Nancy Jones House, Bradford’s Ordinary/A F Page House (destroyed by fire in 1970), Nathaniel Jones of White Plains House, the Tignall Jones Property, and the High House built by Tignall and/or son Fanning Jones. Note that all of these early Cary area historic houses are gone, except the Nancy Jones House, which makes its restoration even more important.

Now that we have talked about the land, let’s talk about all the Nathaniels – this is where it gets “fun”!

The Joneses are complicated families, some are related and some not. This is what makes research interesting and challenging.

Nathaniel Jones, Senior had a number of children, two of which we will mention here: first, Nathaniel Jones, Jr, commonly referred to as Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree (C. T.) or Crabtree Jones. The other son is Henry Jones, sometimes referred to as Henry Jones of Crabtree. In his will, probated in 1810, Nathaniel, Senior divided his land holdings between all his sons. The land would legally pass to the sons after the death of his wife Anna Snickers (or Sniggers) Jones.

Nathaniel Jones, Jr, (one of the many Nathaniel Joneses in our area) received land on Crabtree Creek in Raleigh, an eastern section of the creek that runs across a large part of Wake County. This photo shows the impressive house that belonged to Nathaniel “Crabtree” Jones, and it stands today near the beltline and Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. It was moved from its original site and restored. In this way, it mirrors the related Nancy Jones house which has also been moved and is in the process of restoration. The Crabtree Jones House serves today as a private residence. Research indicates that it was built sometime after 1810 and before 1820. Although there has been a large amount of research done on the house, we will move on from the Crabtree Jones House.

Nathaniel, Senior gave his son Henry Jones “..my old tract of Land on Crab tree whereon he lives together with all other land taken up by me or bought by me joining said Old tract on the Waters of Crabtree creek, also the land whereon I now live to him and his heirs...” The wording of the will and the known location of the original grant places this land on the western end of Crabtree Creek in Wake County.

Establishing sons on their inheritance but not actually making the land available to them in their own names until the father and/or mother had died was not an uncommon ploy by wealthy landowners. This technique made it more likely that the sons would settle and stay in the area, rather than catching the “go west, young man” fever that many people of the time caught. This was certainly the case for the sons of Nathaniel Jones, Senior - three of the four remained in Wake County for the remainder of their lives.

This brings us to the Nancy Jones House. Here is a portrait of Nancy Jones, probably in her middle years. Unfortunately, we do not have a portrait or photograph of her husband Henry. After extensive research on the house, including National Register documentation, deeds and wills, it still remains unclear exactly when or by whom the house was built. The house is variously dated by experts to 1803 - 1825, with most settling on circa 1803, but that still doesn’t clear up who built it, Henry or his father, Nathaniel Jones, Sr.

According to one researcher, Nathaniel Jones, Senior built and lived in the Nancy Jones House until his death in 1810 and in his will devised it, at his wife Anna Snickers Jones’ death (sometime after 1810), to their son Henry. Could Henry have lived with his parents, Nathaniel and Anna, until their deaths? Would he have married and brought spouses into the parental house? These are unanswered questions. Regardless of who actually built the house, and who resided in the house and when, what we do know is the Nancy Jones House was the home of Henry Jones.

The house was built along the stage road from Raleigh to Hillsborough and would have been one of the most impressive houses along the way. It was one of the very few houses that was painted bright white, which would have made it stand out for more than just its imposing size relative to modest wood-built, one-story homes along the way. Located about 10 miles from Raleigh, it would have been a convenient stop for travelers to get out, get some liquid refreshment and a meal and stretch their legs. There is no indication that it was ever an inn, simply a stage coach stop.

There is no firm evidence as to when the house started to function as a stop along the stage road. Bradford’s Ordinary was the older tavern/inn/ordinary located on the site of the Cary Town Hall campus (also shown in a previous photo), and was located along the stage road east of the Nancy Jones House toward Raleigh. John Bradford is mentioned in Wake County Court Minutes numerous times starting as early as 1772, shortly after Wake County was formed and court minutes recorded. The December 1794 Court session showed him as an overseer of the road “from the fork near the said Bradford’s Tavern to Babb’s Lick”. (A fork in the road at Bradford's Ordinary is shown on the map above, but Babb’s Lick is not!) Hands of Nathaniel Jones, Sr and John Bradford were to work on the said road. Any mention of Bradford’s Ordinary and John Bradford, the operator of the Ordinary, disappeared from county records around 1810, and that disappearance would have left a gap in stagecoach services along the route. This loss provided a great opportunity for the Joneses to fill the gap.

Wake County Court Minutes also recorded to whom and when tavern, public house, and ordinary licenses were granted. Although there is not a specific mention of the license granted to Bradford to operate the ordinary, the minutes DO record that Nathaniel Jones of White Plains received a public house license for his home in 1794. Operating a stage coach stop would not have been an unfamiliar undertaking for Nancy Jones, a daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains, who witnessed the operation of a similar business in her own childhood home.

Let’s take a peek inside the house that we recognize from the outside.

These photos of the house in more modern times show high quality woodwork, such as this mantel, throughout the house. We also see shiplap and robust newel posts in these photos.

The search for information about the house and the Henry Jones family led to the discovery of a piece of furniture in the Tryon Palace collection that was auctioned by a Jones descendant around 2010. This impressive walnut china press with yellow pine secondary wood and original glass is a lovely example of eastern North Carolina furniture and points to the wealth and social status of the residents of the Nancy Jones house. It dates to the late 1700s, so it could have been owned by either Nathaniel Jones, Sr OR Henry Jones his son, or both, with the furniture being passed down in the family. Henry was born in 1766, and being around 30 years old at the time of the making of the piece, it is possible that he could have been the purchaser, although he was still a single man at the time. His father, Nathaniel, Senior, could also have made the purchase. What we do know is that it descended through and stayed in the Jones family until it sold in 1982 to Tryon Palace, who supplied the Friends of the Page Walker Hotel with research information and this photograph. Just think about all the people who traveled along the stage road and stopped at the house, including a US President, governors and other dignitaries, as well as “ordinary” folk and visiting family members. They probably saw this very piece of furniture filled with china. If only the walls, and the furniture, could talk!

So we know something about the house itself and the land that it stood on. Let’s talk people!

First, let’s look at the family tree of Henry Jones, son of Nathaniel Jones, Sr., brother of Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree, and son-in-law of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains! Believe it or not, these three aren’t all the Nathaniel Joneses in Wake County. We will meet another one later.

It is surprising to some that Nancy Jones was not Henry’s first wife. This family tree shows Henry’s two marriages and the children of each marriage.

The David M Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke has a collection of letters and documents donated in 1958 by the family of Rufus Henry Jones, son of Henry and Nancy Jones. The collection contains a journal with family information that listed the earlier marriage. Here is the page outlining some of Henry Jones’ family information. You can see that he recorded his marriage to Sally McCullers Smith and the birth of their only child.

These pages of the family Bible go on to tell the sad story of this first marriage. Henry and Sally McCullers Smith married in 1806 in Johnston Co, NC when Henry was 40, and their one child, Eliza Jones was born in July 1807. On this page, it’s interesting that Henry is referred to as the son of Nathaniel Jones who is noted as being deaf.

Sadly, Sally died in March of 1808 leaving behind Henry and their child Eliza, who was not even a year old. Henry remained a widower for five years.

But here is where Nancy Jones, daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains arrives on the scene. Nancy was born in 1783, so she would have been age 30 at the time of her marriage to Henry in 1813, so no spring chicken at that time. Let’s look at the family tree again.

Henry and Nancy had five children together: Algernon Sidney, Amelia Ann, Nathaniel, Rufus Henry, and Adolphus G. Although there are no letters that give details of the children in their “growing up years”, the letters we have from about 1836 on indicate that all the children from the second marriage had a deep affection for their half-sister Eliza. Eliza married Dr. John Young in 1824, and the Young family moved to Tennessee in the mid-1830s and later on to Arkansas where both passed away. Many of the letters and correspondence we have today that shed light on the Jones family stem from Eliza’s move out of the area.

There are actually two sets of letters that have been uncovered in recent years. One set came from descendants of Eliza Henry Jones Young in Louisiana, and the other set is, as mentioned, at the Rubenstein Library at Duke in the Rufus Henry Jones Collection. The Friends will feature the most interesting parts of them in future blog posts and presentations. But here are some sneak peeks!

First is a reference to peach wine or brandy, which will feature in a couple of anecdotes!

In 1836 on Christmas Day, Henry Jones wrote a letter to his daughter Eliza Young who by this time was already married and living in Tennessee.

“You wish to know my method of making Peach wine; In the first place I beat and press the peaches as late in the Evening as possible in Order to give the liquor as little chance to ferment as possible, which it will be sure to do in warm weather, next morning have a good clean tight Barrel ready, with about Eight gallons of Brandy in it before you begin to put in the peach Juice…” The letter goes on after more explanation to say, “I never added Sugar to any I ever made, but am Satisfied it would be the best, say one pound to 10 gallons I think would be enough…”

So, now that you know the recipe, who is going to start making peach brandy? Peach trees were not uncommon in this area, and later on in Cary’s history, Cary founder Frank Page grew peach trees and harvested and canned the fruit for sale.

Henry Jones was prominent and wealthy enough to send his sons to an academy or prep school and then on to “the university”, as UNC was known. The stage coach went right by the house, so getting to school was not as arduous a journey as it might have otherwise been.

Amelia Ann Jones wrote to her half-sister Eliza Young on January 4, 1836 about her brothers’ recent time at the Bingham School in Mebane, NC:

"Nat and Rufus are here enjoying their vacation very much they brought home excellent reports. Mr Bingham considers Rufus the brightest scholar but bestows on Nat equal praise for other virtues." Cary’s most famous son, Walter Hines Page, son of Cary’s founder, A F “Frank” Page, also attended the Bingham School, although much later than Henry Jones’ sons.

After studying at the Bingham School, the Jones boys attended “the University”. In 1840, the oldest son Algernon Sidney wrote to Eliza:

“All of our brothers are doing will [sic] at College Adolphus will graduate with a distinction proboly [sic] the first if he does as well as he has been doing since he has been there…”

On a sadder note, the family letters also outline the death of Henry and Nancy’s son Nathaniel, who died while enrolled as a student at UNC. One letter described his stoicism in facing death, and in a letter from Amelia to Eliza in September 1841, Amelia wrote:

Our brother is buried in the back part of the garden alittle [sic] to the left of the head of the middle walk so that the grave is not seen as you approach it by that walk untill [sic] within a few feet of it.

Only a few months later, father Henry died, and he was also buried on the grounds of the house in the back garden. More details about the burials will come later.

Although the house served as a private residence, it was also noted for the people who stopped for a rest and refreshment.

One of the most celebrated stories about the Nancy Jones House is the tale featuring the governors of North and South Carolina, who both happened to be at the Nancy Jones House, possibly imbibing some of the delicious peach brandy we have talked about.

Here is another set of images from a newspaper article. The story goes that in 1838 the North and South Carolina governors were both at Nancy Jones’ house/stage coach stop and imbibed the first round of beverage in short order. It would appear that the refill was a long time in coming. Thus, one governor remarked to the other “It’s been a damn long time between drinks!” There have been many newspaper, magazine and genealogical journal articles written about this incident and who was actually in attendance (there is some argument about that). As it is said, “details may vary”, but the most compelling recollection was an interview with Joel Whitaker, the son of Amelia Ann Jones Whitaker and the grandson of Nancy Jones. Joel stated that his grandmother told him the story with the two governors as outlined above. Some lore indicates that Nancy Jones wasn’t as offended by the use of the inappropriate word as she was insulted by the apparent slam on her hospitality!

Another important visitor to the house was President James Knox Polk. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in 1795 and graduated with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. While serving as the 11^th president of the United States, he was asked to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class of UNC in June 1847. He kept a diary and we find this excerpt:

Monday May 31, 1847: “At nine o’clock this morning I set out with my family and suite for Chapel Hill. We stopped half an hour at Mrs Jones’s, 10 miles on the way…

The party arrived at about 6:00 pm in Chapel Hill, quite a long day of travel! Unfortunately, we are left to wonder if peach brandy was served to the President!

Not long after President Polk’s visit, the latest technology was being planned for North Carolina – the railroad. The North Carolina Railroad drew up maps of all the right of way properties the railroad was purchasing in order to run the railroad line in an arc across the state. In this portion of the map, we see that the Nancy Jones (Mrs H Jones) property was located along the railroad right of way. In the close up, you can see the buildings on the property. The line was constructed in the mid-1850s, and even the railroad got a mention in family letters. There was some fallout from unexpected consequences along the rail line. Here is Rufus, Nancy’s son, telling a tale on his mother in a letter to his brother-in-law, Dr John Young in 1857.

Rufus wrote:

“I was to see Ma yesterday. she enjoys unexampled health for one of her age… Occasionally her feelings are upset by having an old cow, that has paid for herself a time or two in butter, run over by the Cars and killed, but that, I have no doubt, is the case with all the old women on the Rail Road, who seldom migrate beyond their own yard fences. They imagine that because they do not hear of it, that the Cars never kill the old cows and pigs of no one else but themselves.”

When the Nancy Jones House was being inspected after the move to its present location, a short section of track was found in one of the chimneys which had possibly been inserted to shore it up. Analysis showed that it was probably a part of the original railway line. I wonder, could it have been part of the section of rail where the unfortunate cow met her maker?

The next event of note in our area was the Civil War. By this time, the 1860s, the area around the house had grown up and was known as Jones or Jones Station, as noted on this map from around 1858. Neither Cary nor Page’s Station or Turnout is shown, just Jones and Morrisville. Cary was not formally incorporated until years later, 1871.

By the end of the Civil War in 1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops were on the march through North Carolina, heading to Bennett Place in Durham, where Sherman would preside over the largest surrender of Confederate troops of the war. Reports from various regiments showed that troops marched from Raleigh to Jones’ Station and beyond. And we see that Union troops camped on the Nancy Jones property and the surrounding area on their way to and from Bennett Place.

The Jones family was one of some families in the area who had enslaved people on their land. One of the enslaved women on the Rufus Jones property, named Clara Jones, gave this account in her WPA Slave Narrative in the 1930s. To set the scene, during the war, Nancy’s son Rufus and his wife, Sarah, or Sally, Jones lived along the Old Pittsboro Road, just down the road from Rufus's mother Nancy. What follows is an exact transcription of the account recorded by the WPA worker.

Clara Jones said, “When de Yankees come, Mis’ Sally, Marse Rufus’ wife, cried an’ ordered de scalawags outen de house but they jist laughs at her an’ takes all we got. Dey eben takes de stand of lard dat we has got buried in de ole fiel’ an’ de hams hangin’ up in de trees in de pasture. Atter dey were gone, we fin’s a sick Yankee in de barn an’ Mis’ Sally nurses him. Way atter de war, Mis’ Sally gits a letter an’ a gol’ ring from him.”

As of 1874, Adolphus, Nancy’s youngest son, wrote to Eliza that, “Mother will be 91 years old in a few days… She retains the faculties of her mind pretty well but her physical powers are gradually giving way. She walks about the yard and garden – sometimes she walks over to a near neighbor’s house.”

But, finally the inevitable happened and an era came to an end with the death of Nancy Jones in 1876. After Nancy Jones’ death, Nancy’s youngest son, Adolphus Jones, lived in and ran a school out of the house for a while, at or around the time Cary Academy/High School was being established in Cary. Rufus and his wife Sarah had moved to Cary proper, and Sarah’s brother, A H Merritt, was the school’s first principal. It was a small, tightly interconnected world in Cary’s early history.

In 1878, Rufus wrote to Eliza letting her know about plans for the homeplace property. Adolphus, as a representative of the family, was selling the homeplace, so what were they going to do about the burials in the back garden? Rufus wrote, “I ought to have mentioned that Ma died 3^rd March 1876 and just here while I think of it Sister, I wish to make a request of you which is this, that you furnish me, if in your power, with the date and year of Pa and bro Nat’s deaths, we have removed their remains to the Cemetery in our little village of Cary, and wish to mark their graves with suitable slabs. I suppose you have perhaps some old letters conveying to you the intelligence of their deaths.” Henry and Nathaniel’s graves along with graves of infant children formed the nucleus of Hillcrest Cemetery on land originally owned by Rufus and Sarah Jones.

Adolphus sold the house to S R Horne and moved to Cary. After Mr Horne, several families owned the property in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We have no details about these owners.

However, a "Cary News" newspaper article in 2000 related a number of interesting anecdotes from a later era of the house. Russell Heater is a familiar name to many Cary locals. The Heater family was originally from West Virginia and came to Cary around 1913 and started a well drilling business. Russell Heater was known as “Mr. Cary” for his love for Cary and his promotion of Cary as a great place to live. His son Bob Heater was an infant when the family began living in the Nancy Jones House for several years in the days of the Great Depression.

Bob Heater said that his older sister, Margaret, was old enough to remember hobos from the railroad who would jump off the cars and come to the house to ask for food, along with hobos traveling the road in front of the house. Mrs. Heater always had cornbread baking and would share portions with them. Margaret also told about a sturdy peach limb that was kept by the back door in case of trouble from the hobos. There must have been local peach trees on the property for some time after the peach brandy era!

The Depression also took its toll on the Heater family, and Bob remembered the regret that the family felt in having to sell the big crystal chandeliers in the living and dining rooms to raise money when the well digging business went bankrupt. Another anecdote Bob told was that men would drive up to the house seeking “services,” thinking that prostitutes lived and/or worked in the house (There is no image for this topic!). Mr Heater would disabuse them of that notion, and Mrs Heater would slam the door in their faces! Margaret never doubted that the house was haunted. She told about hearing footsteps and summoning her father to come search for the perpetrator, but no one or nothing was ever found.

One final anecdote from this era! Once, when Margaret’s father, Russell, was away, the family heard what they called an “ungodly sound” in the night. Their Aunt Opal, who was staying with them and apparently “was not afraid of the devil” in Bob’s words, “got a flashlight and a gun and went down to the cellar and saw red stuff that looked like blood seeping out from the bottom of the wall. She picked up something and banged on the wall. Part of the wall collapsed and behind it was a wine cellar filled with bottles of wine that had exploded from the summer heat.” Just wondering… could some of it have been well-aged peach brandy?

Bob Heater said that in the end “Mother wouldn’t stay there because she couldn’t keep the doors locked." The doors would be locked at night and found unlocked in the morning. Ghosts again? Mr Heater bought the red brick bungalow on the corner of Dry and South Harrison Avenues, and the family moved to downtown Cary, leaving the Nancy Jones House, and possible ghosts behind.

In 1935, Thomas and Audrey Stone bought the property. The windmill, pictured here, blew down in the 1940s during World War II, and the scrap metal was used in the war effort. Mrs Stone lived in the house until her death in 1991. The article went on to say, Audrey “never wanted to leave this house… She was very proud in 1984 when it was put on the National Register of Historic Places. Anybody who stopped and wanted to look at the house, she would always let them in.” After her death, a succession of families lived in the house. Many reported unusual creaks and sounds unlike any other properties they had lived in. In the late 1990s, Kent Henley rented the house, became its caretaker and refinished the 2” thick plank floors and painted the interior. HE thought the noises in the house were not unusual and attributed them to the wind!

Moving forward a number of years, the large property, including the house and acreage, was purchased by the Sri Venkateswara Temple. The temple sold the house to the Town of Cary in 2019 with a proviso that the house would be removed from the property.

The Friends of the Page Walker are grateful to the Town of Cary for purchasing and saving the house. For the most recent history, in March 2021, the house was successfully relocated to a town-owned parcel approximately 500 feet east of the original site. The National Register designation was reassigned when a new application was submitted. The house continues to front onto Chapel Hill Road so it has retained its historic orientation to the former stage road.

In early 2022, Cary's Historic Preservation Commission initiated the process to recommend the Nancy Jones House be designated as a Local Historic Landmark. This process included having two commission members visit the house, assess the house for historic integrity, and report back to the HPC. Following this assessment, a consultant was hired to complete the nomination report. In August 2022, the nomination report was forwarded to SHPO for their comment. The designation process continues.

Today, the Nancy Jones House stands ready for a new beginning, some 220 years after it began its life, around 1803. What the Town will use it for remains unclear, but the house’s historical, cultural and social significance cannot be overstated. Let’s hope a truly fitting use for the house will be decided on in the very near future, that it will include the telling of its history and provide public access, and that renovations will showcase a shining white house along the old stage road from Raleigh to Hillsborough once again. When that happens, let’s toast the occasion with peach brandy!

Frank Page...and Who? Cary's Original Town Commissioners

Carla Michaels — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 22:57:28 GMT

If you know even a little about Cary’s founding and history, you know that Frank Page stands in the center of it. BUT you may be unfamiliar with the original town commissioners assembled by Frank Page in 1871. These five men helped Frank Page guide Cary through that momentous year to the first election of town commissioners in 1872. Here is an introduction to some known and some little-known names of Cary’s past.

Men named in the Act of Incorporation of the Town of “Carey”

Rufus Henry Jones (1819 – 1903)

Rufus Henry Jones was the son of Henry and Nancy Ann Jones and the grandson of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains (maternal lineage) and Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree (paternal lineage). His childhood home was the historic Nancy Jones House, still standing on Chapel Hill Road in Cary. He attended Hillsborough Academy (also known as the Bingham Academy) in 1839 to prepare for higher education, and he went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina in 1843. He started his own career in education by operating an early school in the Cary area in 1847. He also served on the Common School Committee of Examination, ensuring the quality of teachers in Wake County. In 1873, Rufus purchased a 1/3 interest in Cary Academy from Frank Page, who had started the school in 1870. In 1886, two of his daughters, Sarah and Loulie (Louise) purchased the remaining interest in the school, and the family owned the school until stockholders bought out the Jones family interest and incorporated the school in 1896. Rufus’ home on Academy Street was the impressive “Principal’s House”, which stood on the site of the current library green, near the Cary Arts Center.

Besides his own daughters Loulie and Lily who taught at the school, several members of the extended Jones family were also committed to education for local citizens. Nathaniel Jones of White Plains was a trustee of the early Raleigh Academy and Rufus’ brother Adolphus built a private school in 1867 that was known to have educated Walter Hines Page. Alfred D “Buck” Jones also supported the community by sponsoring an early school for African American students.

Jones followed in the footsteps of some of his Jones ancestors and developed an early interest in politics, serving in the House of Commons from Wake County in 1848 – 1849 and as a Wake County Commissioner. He is also noted for being the first elected mayor of Cary in 1872. He also participated in civic and religious activities throughout his life. He was a founding member and trustee of the Cary Methodist Church and was a long-time president and member of the Wake County Bible Society. As a businessman, he operated a short-lived tannery. At his death, his obituary noted that Rufus Jones “was held in the highest esteem by all the people of the county.” He died in 1903 and is buried in the family plot at Hillcrest Cemetery on land he and his wife Sarah Merritt Jones had given to the town in 1887. Being a member of one of the earliest and most influential families in the Cary area, and Methodist, it was natural for Frank Page to know and value Jones’ influence and talents in establishing the Town of Cary.

Rufus Henry Jones

Abram Haywood Merritt “AH” (1832 - 1913)

Abram or Abraham Haywood Merritt was born in Chatham County, NC in 1832. As did Rufus Jones, he studied at the Bingham School in Hillsborough and graduated from UNC in 1856. His teaching career started at Olin High School in Iredell County. At the start of the Civil War, he returned to his home in Chatham County and worked as Clerk and Master in Equity for the county, a position usually reserved for attorneys. In 1870, he was brought into the newly established Cary Academy as principal and teacher by his brother-in-law, Rufus H Jones, who was married to Merritt’s sister, Sarah Merritt Jones. Not only was Merritt the principal of the school that Frank Page built, but was also on the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Church, the church that Frank Page had a hand in founding and building. He also served on the executive committee of the Wake County Bible Society along with Frank Page and brother in law Rufus Jones After serving as an appointed town commissioner, he was in the first group of elected commissioners for the Town of Cary. Professor Merritt went on later to be in charge of the successful Pittsboro Academy in Chatham County and served for many years as the Superintendent of the Pittsboro United Methodist Church Sunday School. On the state level, Professor Merritt served as a three-term state senator. He served on the committee of education and libraries, demonstrating his commitment to education and was a leading proponent in the legislature of the temperance movement, which is no surprise, given his associations! He served as a trustee of the University of North Carolina as well as superintendent of public instruction in Chatham County. Although he didn’t seek the limelight, he was a sought-after speaker and used humor and his knowledge on a variety of subjects to be an entertaining and eloquent speaker. His literary skills served him well during his time as editor of the popular “The Pittsboro Home” weekly newspaper. He was described by a great-grandson as “a dreamer, educator, poet, and public servant.”Later in life, “AH” moved with his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Purvis Merritt, to Mount Airy to join one of his sons, who had successfully established himself in business there and had become a community leader. Both “AH” and his wife lived out their lives in Mount Airy and are buried there.

Mr Merritt is pictured below. He is the older gentleman in the middle of the photo, surrounded by his family.

William Peter Mallett, MD (1819 – 1889)

W P Mallett was born in Fayetteville in 1819, the son of Charles Mallet, a Huguenot who had fled France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was educated in Fayetteville, his hometown and at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. From there he received his doctorate in medicine at the Medical College of Charleston, SC in 1841, practiced for several years in Tuscaloosa, AL and eventually returned home to set up his practice in Fayetteville and the surrounding Cumberland County area. In 1857 when his health declined, he moved to Chapel Hill so that his children could attend “the university”. While in Chapel Hill, he set up the first infirmary at UNC and practiced general medicine in the community and served as a physician at the university. Although his health never fully recovered, he continued to practice medicine throughout his life. As a doctor, he was known for his gentleness and studious nature. He was quiet, soft-spoken, confident and brought peace and an assurance of recovery to his patients.

He distinguished himself as a surgeon and in 1852 remarkably performing a caesarean section on a young mother, who survived to later have several children. This was one of the first recorded C-sections in the South. He insisted upon cleanliness (before germ theory was developed), using hot water and soap for both himself and his patients, even for minor surgical operations. He also promoted the treatment of fevers with fluids and appropriate diet, which was actually considered dangerous in its day. He kept abreast of the newest medical literature.

After the Civil War, he left Chapel Hill. He advertised to sell his property in Chapel Hill and in 1870 was “erecting some handsome buildings” in Cary. On the 1870 Census, his household is listed near the Rufus H Jones family.

We may assume that Frank Page and Dr Mallett met in Fayetteville. Frank Page’s wife Catherine Raboteau Page shared a Huguenot background and it is likely that paths crossed in Frank’s years in the timber business in Fayetteville before Page returned to Wake County after his marriage. Frank would have been familiar with Dr. Mallet’s fine character and the esteem granted him during his lifetime, making Dr Mallett a natural choice to help guide Cary in its early stages of development.

Dr Mallett died in 1889, working with patients up to the very end of his life. He was on his way to visit a patient when he suffered a heart attack. He was able to return home, but died the following day. He is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

William Peter Mallett

Henry B Jordan (1834 – 1914)

Henry B Jordan was born in Wake Co, NC in 1834 to Calvin and Rebecca Bagwell Jordan. Calvin Jordan was a business owner in Raleigh from the late 1840s to 1858, when he moved with most of his family to western TN. Henry stayed behind to liquidate the business. With Calvin’s unexpected death shortly after arriving in Tennessee and the closing of the family business, Henry and his family moved to southeast Wake County near the Hollands Community where his wife Helen owned property. Henry and Helen were members of the Hollands Methodist Church and active members of the community. During the Civil War, Henry was in charge of the train that brought General William Tecumseh Sherman to Raleigh en- route to the Bennett House for surrender term talks with Confederate General Joseph E Johnston. Henry was also a temperance man, firmly believing in prohibition. It is unclear how Jordan became acquainted with Frank Page, but the two shared Methodism and a belief in the temperance movement. Perhaps Frank met Henry on one of his forays into Raleigh. The Jordan family moved to Cary shortly before its incorporation, and Henry became a member of the original slate of town commissioners. He was also a founding member and trustee of the Cary Methodist Church. What Henry lacked in higher education (he had a common school upbringing), he made up for in civic responsibility, being elected as a town commissioner in Cary’s first election in 1872, serving as mayor of Cary, as a justice of the peace, as an election judge and the Public School Committee member for the District #2 for the “colored race”. In this capacity, the commissioners bought land from Frank Gray, a businessman in Cary, for the school. Jordan also owned and operated a general store in Cary and worked as a railway agent and farmer. His home was located near the intersection of Harrison Avenue and West Chatham Street, near the former location of the Ivey-Ellington house. Henry had two children with his wife Helen George Crowder Jordan. His daughter Maggie Ida Jordan married a shopkeeper from Raleigh, Robert E Ellis. One of their daughters was Miss Irma Ellis, a long-time 1^st grade teacher in Cary. Miss Irma remembers her grandfather Henry taking her to visit Bennett Place and hearing the Civil War story directly from him. Henry’s son was James B Jordan, who worked as a logger/timberman and later as a Deputy US Marshall. He was shot twice in the line of duty breaking up stills (a man after his father’s heart) and eventually died in poor health caused by his wounds. Henry, wife Helen and son James B Jordan are all buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Cary. Robert, Maggie and Miss Irma Ellis are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.

Henry B Jordan

William H Bobbitt

Rev William Hilliard Bobbitt, DD was born in Halifax Co, NC in 1826. After joining the Methodist Episcopal Church at an early age, and in 1846, he joined the North Carolina Conference, which was the umbrella organization for Methodist churches in the state. He actively ministered for 44 years, mainly in North Carolina. Although he didn’t reside in or pastor the Methodist Church in Cary, he served in the Raleigh District for several years. He suffered a stroke near the end of his life which ended his ministerial duties, and he died in 1890. He is buried in Salisbury, NC. His younger brother, Rev James Burrows Bobbitt served the Methodist Church in many capacities, and published “The Raleigh Christian Advocate”, the newspaper of the North Carolina Conference.

It is well known that Frank and Catherine Page were ardent Methodists and would have known Rev Bobbitt. According to a newspaper clipping from “The Raleigh Christian Advocate” in 1870, Rev Bobbitt appointed A H Merritt, among others, to prepare Sunday School lessons to be published in “The Raleigh Episcopal Methodist” for distribution and use. This connection between Rev Bobbitt and A H Merritt underscores the familiarity of the commissioners with each other. As a matter of fact, Rev Bobbitt performed the marriage ceremony of Mr Merritt and his bride, Sarah Elizabeth Purvis. When the Cary church was made the Methodist circuit headquarters for this section of NC in 1873, Rev Bobbitt was the Presiding Elder and held the District Conference in Cary the same year. This meeting must have been one of the first important meetings held in the newly formed town. He returned to Cary in 1884 for a Methodist revival, “with the gratifying result of forty persons converted”.

William H Bobbitt

Frank Page was an astute businessman who selected men of character and ability to join him in building the Town of Cary. Each man brought skills that reinforced the qualities that were important to Mr Page: education, high moral character, and business opportunities, as seen in the lives of the five men who joined Page to put Cary on the map. There was a minister, educator, physician, businessman, and political figure. It’s said that behind every successful man is a strong woman, and that is the case with Frank Page and his wife, Catherine. BUT Frank Page also had five strong men with him who helped get the Town of Cary started on the right foot!

History of the Company Mill in Umstead State Park

Michael Rubes — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 18:57:49 GMT

Around 1810, Lewis Page sold a few acres of land along Crabtree Creek to his 20 year old son, Anderson. Anderson proceeded to build a grist mill on the creek a few miles north of what would one day become Cary. The Mill was built with hand hewn lumber and pegs. Called the Page Mill, it stood as a working mill until the 1920s before being mostly washed away by flooding in the 1930s.

Anderson's son, Frank Page, would go on to found the town of Cary in 1871.

Anderson ran the mill himself until around 1847 when he sold his interests in the mill to his brother, Williamson, and two other men. They renamed it The Company Mill.

Anderson Page, Circa 1884

For generations, the Mill stood as a focal point for the Cedar Forks community. There were two other grist mills in what would eventually become Umstead State Park, but the Company Mill was the biggest. At its peak around the turn of the century, over 40 families lived around the Mill and used it for grinding their home grown corn and wheat, both for personal use and for business use.

It was said that the Mill produced the finest quality of flour from any mill in the area. Commercially, mule drawn wagons brought sacks of corn and wheat to the mill to be ground. Two roads led to the Mill, one from the north and one from the south. By the 1920s, some folks were even driving their trucks to the Mill to have grain ground. Remnants of the southern road are still visible when viewed from the north bank of the Mill site. There was a wooden footbridge that cross Crabtree creek just downstream from the Mill, but it was not rebuilt when it washed away in the 1920s.

View of the Mill from the Southern Bank of Crabtree Creek

The Grissom Family was the last one to operate the mill, well into the 1920s. Their homesite was just up hill on the north bank of Crabtree Creek. Joe Grissom has told the story of how it was a steep walk down and back to the mill to get freshly ground corn, but how he liked doing it in the winter. The freshly ground corn was warm, so he would tuck the bag of corn flour under his shirt and it would keep him warm on the walk back home.

Crabtree Creek was much higher back when the Mill was operating. The dam wall was over 15 feet high and created a sizeable mill pond. The pond was used as a local swimming hole and boating pond for folks in the summer.

The Mill itself not only served the surrounding community as a mill, but was also often the center of social activities. There are plenty of accounts of dances and other types of events being held at the Company Mill.

By the turn of the century, folks were coming from as far away as Durham to swim and boat in the mill pond, have picnics on the shores and attend other social events. The Mill was three stories tall, with the bottom story containing the mechanical parts of the Mill, while the middle story was an open room where the dances and parties were held.

View of the Mill from the Northern Bank of Crabtree Creek

Even after the Mill closed in the 1920s, people would continue to come to the Mill site to enjoy the Millpond for picnics and boating. By the mid 1930s, it was common to see over 100 cars parked along the road there on a Sunday afternoon. That lasted until the the great flood broke the dam wall and destroyed the mill. It was about this same time that the Resettlement Administration was buying up land from farmers facing ruin and there was a mass exodus of people moving out of the Cedar Fork Township. The RA purchased a lot of the land that would make up Umstead, enlisted the help of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and went about creating Crabtree Creek State Park, which would eventually be renamed for William B. Umstead as Umstead State Park.

Did you know Cary has had a farmers' market for 29 years?

Kerry Mead — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:47:46 GMT

1994 was the year the Cary Downtown Farmers Market came to town. There were a few co-ops, farm stands, and popup markets in different locations over the years, but no formal farmers market existed in Cary prior to 1994. Cary started out as an agricultural community and many residents grew their own vegetables, so there was little need for a farmers' market in the beginning.

Donna Walker and her beeswax candles booth at the Train Station location

Starting in the middle of the 20th century, you could find fruit, vegetable, and egg stands/markets at different locations along Chatham Street, including:

Mack’s Fruit Stand that sold fruit and vegetables across from Taylor Biscuit Company (now where Martin’s Architectural is located on Chatham Street)
An egg market co-op on Chatham near Harrison
An egg market at Chatham and Reedy Creek Road

Several factors came together in the early 1990s to help the market get started. One farmer, then another, sold their produce at Ashworth Village for several years. Seeds of Hope, a grass-roots organization affiliated with the NC Council of Churches, was also active in Cary and trying to find ways to help small farmers find a direct market. Finally, the Cary Chamber (and Ralph Ashworth, Chamber Chair) got involved, and supported the formation of the farmers market.

Market fridge magnet from the 1990s

Where the market has been located:

1994: Sorrel’s parking lot (the current La Farm building)
1995: The Town’s Municipal Parking Lot on Academy Street
1996-2009: Cary Train Depot parking lot
2010-2011: Chatham Square Shopping Center
2012:2014: Office building parking lot at current-day Mayton Inn site, corner of Park and Academy Streets
2014-2022: Ivey-Ellington house grounds
Nov 2022 to now: The Perfect Piece parking lot:

Cary Downtown Farmers Market at the Ivey-Ellington

Market managers through the years:

Lloyd and Barbara Norris
Scotty Spahr
Donna Walker
Michelle Blackley
Karmen Patterson
Rick Savage
Leah Smith
Brett Pinsent

Current-day patron favorite -- Jason of Parker Farms

When Cary was the Gourd Capital of the World

Barbara Wetmore — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 12:37:09 GMT

“What were those funny shapes around the seal of the Town of Cary?” I wondered as I sat in my car at a traffic light, studying the decal in the corner of my windshield (required for car owners in Cary at the time). It was 1981 and I had just moved to Cary.

Cary Town Seal adopted in 1964

They're . . . gourds! And the words printed around the circular seal read, “Gourd Capital of the World.”

“I have moved to the gourd capital of the world!” I remember exclaiming out loud. I couldn't wait to tell my family and friends. Wouldn't they be jealous? :-)

By the end of that year, I had attended my first Gourd Festival at Jordan Hall and purchased my first of many gourds. Here it is (I still have it):

I love gourds. And I love that Cary has a history tied to gourds. That history goes all the way back to 1937 and it's still going today. Public Historian and Page-Walker Arts & History Center Program Assistant Matthew Champagne has written a great summary of this history:

85 years ago, in 1937, a group of Cary women formed a club called the “Gourd Gardeners.” The following year, in the Home Economics Department of the brand-new Cary High School (now the Cary Arts Center) these women exhibited a dazzling array of lamps, baskets, doorstops, charm rings, birdhouses, toys, and other crafts all made from – you guessed it – the gourds they grew.

Hosted in Cary from that day in 1938 until 1999, the Cary Gourd Festival still holds the title of Cary's longest-run annual celebration. In fact, gourds were Cary's first claim to fame. Emboldened by the overwhelmingly positive response to the first Cary Gourd Festival, the Gourd Gardeners shipped a large package of their best grows to a festival in California and Cary took the gold! “That convinced us that we could grow gourds as well as anyone,” said founding member Rachel Dunham. Soon afterward, the club adopted the name the Gourd Village Garden Club, which has blossomed today into the North Carolina Gourd Society, which since 2000 exhibited their gourds at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. Be sure to check out this year's 80th Annual Gourd Festival on November 5^th and 6^th.

Early 1950s Gourd Festival in a pool hall that once occupied the former site of Crosstown Pub

If we have any math wizards among us, you may have noticed something doesn't quite add up there. An annual festival started in 1938 should be celebrating its 85^th anniversary in 2022, not its 80^th. Well, in addition to the years of severe droughts, no Gourd Festivals were held between 1943 and 1945 because of our country's involvement in World War II. Like thousands of other women across the United States, Gourd Village Garden Club members aided the war effort by substituting ornamental grows, like gourds, for fruits and vegetables that could help supplement the country's limited food supply. These became known as Victory Gardens and proved significant in winning the war.

Fortunately, gourd gardening in Cary resumed after World War II and Cary became known as the Gourd Capital of the World. In fact, in 1964, when the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a contest to design an official town seal, the winner, Marion Daugherty, decorated the border of her entry with drawings of gourds and at the bottom of the seal she placed the words, “Gourd Capital of the World.” Although the basic design has remained intact, subsequent town leaders have altered the seal slightly. The biggest change occurred during the administration of Mayor Fred G. Bond when the seal was “degourded.” The words “gourd capital” were removed and the gourd drawings were turned into decorative curlicues.

Perfectly combining Cary's long agricultural history with our craft traditions, it should come as no surprise that the Gourd Festival now organized by the North Carolina Gourd Society stems from a Cary homegrown tradition.

In the book Images of America: Cary by Sherry Monahan, the photo on page 45 shows the former Crosstown Pub building as the Gourd Village Garden Club. The door is set on an angle, just as the current building has retained.

Former site of Crosstown Pub circa 1950s; it was the meeting place of the Gourd Village Garden Club

Recent former site of Crosstown Pub in 2022

The Gourd Village Garden Club became the North Carolina Gourd Society and moved its annual festival to the State Fairgrounds in 2000. It's still “growing” strong! This year you can take in gourds to your heart's delight at the Fairgrounds on November 5 and 6 at the 80^th Annual NC Gourd Arts and Crafts Festival.

Though no longer the home of the society or the festival, for me, Cary will always be the Gourd Capital of the World!

A Brief History of Cary's Trains Segment 3

Peggy Van Scoyoc — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 15:21:52 GMT

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARY’S TRAINS SEGMENT 3

The railroads literally put Cary on the map in the mid-19^th century. Here are tales about how important trains have been to our town. Historic content was taken from the book, Around and About Cary, by Tom Byrd. Additionally, the transcripts from oral history interviews provided the majority of the information herein. Almost 100 interviews have been conducted with long-time Cary residents who shared their memories with members of the Friends of the Page-Walker history center, so those histories could be documented for posterity. Each narrator is named as a contributor.

MEMORIES ABOUT CARY’S TRAINS FROM ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

THE TRAIN RACES

ESTHER IVEY: (I was born in 1890). When I was a teenager, there was a Seaboard passenger train and a Southern passenger train that was going West. We had two train stations or depots in Cary. We could take either one of the trains that we liked to go into Raleigh. The trains went parallel until they got to Cary where they had to cross. Sometimes they were going in the same direction at the same time. We would sit with our windows open and the cinders flying in. We would shout out the window to the other train that we were going to beat them to Cary.

ELVA TEMPLETON (taken from Around and About Cary by Tom Byrd): (I was born in 1898.) In the early 1900s, both railroads had three daily passenger trains each way. Each had a southbound train that left Raleigh at 4 P.M. Some Cary passengers would take one train and some the other. The trip would result in a race, with passengers leaning out the windows, breathing cinders and shouting for their engineer to go faster.

A keen observer of the race would be the switchman perched in a two-story structure near where the tracks of the two railroads crossed. His job was to throw open the switch for the lead train. Railroad crews called the crossing Fetner, but to local people it was “Feetner.” One engineer always approached Fetner so fast that the switchman would throw the switch and run as the train came around the curve. Another engineer played hymns on his steam-powered whistle as he rolled through town.

KIDS TAKING THE TRAIN ALONE INTO RALEIGH

BILLY ROGERS: When we were kids, we would go alone, without an adult with us, over to the train station for the train that came from the Morrisville area to go into Raleigh for the day. You could hear it when it was coming up the tracks and blowing that whistle. It was always exciting. Everybody would be in the train station, waiting. On cold days, they had a big old potbellied stove over in the corner that kept it nice and warm in there. Mr. Massey, the train master, was the only person working. He sold the tickets and ran the teletype machine. He did the whole thing. As soon as we would hear the train whistle blow, we’d all go out and get on the train, and all aboard, be off, go on through Hillsborough Street and through North Carolina State campus, and then on into the downtown train station. That was the end of the line. I don’t know where that train began each day. On any day, there would might usually be twenty-five people going to and from Raleigh on that train.

We would go into Raleigh on Saturday mornings to go to the movies and in between two shows, we would have lunch. The train would usually get to Cary early in the morning, sometime around 9:00, 9:30. We would go to the first movie in Raleigh, which probably started at 10:00, 10:30. Then we would walk up to the little sandwich shop and have lunch, and go to the movie next to the sandwich shop on Salisbury Street for the second show. I believe tickets were $.09 to go to each movie. That’s how we could go to the movies, have a sandwich, and pay for the train ride, everything all-inclusive, for not over $1.50 and it might not have been that much. Then after the movie, we would walk back to the train station and usually not have to wait too long for the train to come back to Cary.

MARY CROWDER: When I was young, we had the Seaboard and the Southern coming through. We had a morning train that went into Raleigh. In the mornings, that’s the only way we had to go to Raleigh, because each family only had one car back in those days. You either rode the bus or most of us rode the train. I could ride it for a dime. We were left off in Raleigh in the central station downtown. Both the Southern and the Seaboard came in there.

When my friends and I got old enough to go to Raleigh alone, we would go on Saturday and spend the afternoon. We would go to the drugstore on Fayetteville Street, get a toasted cheese-pimento sandwich and a chocolate milkshake, go to the movies, go to Woolworth’s and get some candy and paper dolls or whatever, and have money left over from a dollar. We rode the train for a dime, both ways, and we got the movies for a dime. A milkshake was a dime. Sandwiches were like a quarter or a dime. Bottled drinks were a nickel. That was a lot of money though for a kid in the ‘30s.

CLYDE EVANS JR.: When I was about ten, twelve years old, we’d catch a train from Cary to Raleigh for ten cents. I couldn’t understand why they’d stop a big thing like that for a few dimes. The Southern went down Highway 54. The Seaboard didn’t stop, but headed south, through Apex and on down. The Southern went back toward Durham and Greensboro.

A Brief History of Cary's Railroads Segment 2

Peggy Van Scoyoc — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 14:53:18 GMT

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARY’S TRAINS SEGMENT 2

The railroads literally put Cary on the map in the mid-19^th century. Here are tales about how important trains have been to our town. Historic content was taken from the book, Around and About Cary, by Tom Byrd and Jerry Miller. Many of Jerry Miller’s drawings are also included. Additionally, the transcripts from oral history interviews provided the majority of the information herein. Almost 100 interviews have been conducted with long-time Cary residents who shared their memories with members of the Friends of the Page-Walker history center, so those histories could be documented for posterity. Each narrator is named as a contributor. The painting of Lonnie and Evalena Cotton, by artist Tina Winters Taylor is also included.

MEMORIES ABOUT CARY’S TRAINS FROM ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

TRAIN STATIONS

RACHEL DUNHAM: When my sister and I lived at the Page-Walker Hotel, we’d walk across the railroad tracks to the old train station that was there. One of the most tragic things to me was when that railroad station was torn down. It was right across from the hotel. They had a colored room for the colored, and they had another for whites. They also had a way to send telegrams there.

REBECCA SAULS: I remember the depot. Cary had a nice-looking train depot. I don’t know why in the world they destroyed it, because Apex has kept their depot on the same Seaboard railway track. I remembered ours had a beautiful chandelier in there, and I did hear that the Billy Henderson family got that and put it up in their home. The old depot was across Academy Street going toward Raleigh. And there was nothing else there. It was right straight across from the Page-Walker Hotel, and it should have stayed there.

Drawing: Courtesy of Jerry Miller

THE STATION MASTER

LOISE MASSEY CROW: (Daughter of train master Mr. Willie Massey): My father was the station master. My father’s whole career was working in the railroad station at Cary, and before that, he was at the Trinity station, where he began his career. My father was sent to Cary from Trinity as the telegrapher and a station agent.

At Cary, he did everything. He sold the tickets. He supervised the luggage. He didn’t do any of the actual work, but he supervised and saw that it was done. If you brought a bag there to be checked, he checked that bag, and put it on a little wagon to be taken up to the train. He had a very responsible job.

If someone wanted to go to California, he would arrange the tickets from here. If they had to change trains in Chicago, he would be in touch with Chicago by telegraph and arrange so that when you left North Carolina you had your tickets all the way to California. Seems like they were in a little book, folded. So, you’d get on the train with your tickets. When you got to Chicago, the conductor would tell you ahead of time, “You are to change and get another train in Chicago, because it’s right there on your ticket. You will wait here thirty minutes before your train comes in.” So, you knew exactly what to do, because it was all written down.

My father also had brothers who were all in the railroad as station agents and ran the station. There was one in Raleigh, and just down the road, different places. It was a railroad family. They loved their railroads.

COTTON AND EVALENA

Lonnie and Evalena Cotton, by artist Tina Winters Taylor

REBECCA SAULS: There was a man named Mr. Cotton who worked for the post office. Sometimes his wife Evalena was with him. He had a cart that he pulled around. He would pick up the mail off the train, put it in his cart and bring it up to the post office to be sorted. I remember Pat Gray was the name of the postman in the old days.

FRED AND MARIE SEEGER: FRED: When the mail came through on the train, it was dropped off at the depot. The Cottons had a little cart that they pulled. They would bring the mail from the depot up to the post office. The mail came twice a day. After Cotton and Evalena brought the mail up to the post office in the cart, it was sorted and put in the boxes or general delivery. If you wanted to know if the mail had come today, you would just ask anybody in town if they had seen Cotton and Evalena today.

MARIE: During World War II, Evalena was the person who delivered the telegrams that notified people about casualties from the war. All the people that lived in Cary that had children in service just lived in fear of her coming to their house. Any time they ever saw her walking around with a telegram, they immediately knew that it was terrible news. My mother had two sons in service, one in the Army and one in the Navy. My younger brother was in the Army, and he was in forty-eight battles in the European theater. So, we were always so afraid when we saw her that it would be very very bad news.

FEEDING TRAIN PASSENGERS

The (Page-)Walker Hotel

RACHEL DUNHAM: My sister Mossa and I came from Pino, North Carolina on the train to attend Cary High School. We lived in a room at the Page-Walker Hotel. The big room there was used as a dining room. At that time, train passengers would stop over and spend the night. They’d get off the Southern train. I don’t think they had any other permanent people to stay in the hotel then. It was mostly people going and coming. Mrs. Walker cooked dinner for all the train passengers. The hotel had a kind of living room on the west end, where people staying there could entertain.

DORIS DENNING: Right behind our grocery store, Grocery Boy on the north side of east Chatham Street, there was a lady at the Westside Inn who would cook dinner for the train passengers. The train would stop there for a good while, so she would cook and have it for people who were traveling, to come there and eat dinner as they went on their journey. I think they would also come, get the food, then take it back on the train to eat as they traveled. I remember people said she did an awful lot of cooking, but she was not doing that when we moved here in 1951. That was earlier on.

ESTHER IVEY: The Westside Inn was a boarding house that was just behind Grocery Boy. We also had the Page-Walker Hotel where Mrs. Helen Walker was the manager. When the trains would come by, they had a dinner stop in Cary. The cook at the Page-Walker Hotel wore this big white cap, and would go out and ring the bell to entice the train passengers over to the Hotel. Somebody from Westside Inn would be there also, trying to entice them to go up there to eat instead.

EMMA LOU JOHNSON: We have the train track right behind our house, that was on the east side of Highway 55. The house was built about 1900. That train track goes through the whole village of Carpenter for the Durham and Southern Railroad. Today (2001when she was interviewed) there are two trains a day, one to Durham and one back. The speed limit is ten miles an hour.

My mother-in-law, Pattie May Johnson, used to tell me stories about how, during the Depression, there were a lot of hobos on the railroad. She said that for some reason, they would come to the back door of our house and ask for food. She must have gotten a reputation as someone who would feed them. And she always did, even throughout the Depression. I even remember seeing people come to our back door asking for food long after the Depression. That was nothing unusual.

WARREN WILLIAMS: Prior to when my father bought the Page-Walker in 1939, the property had been empty and was run down, so it had been a hang-out for people coming up and down the railroad who were referred to as hobos. They would go in and out at will, and it’s a thousand wonders that the place hadn’t been destroyed by fire, because they’d get a little careless during cooler weather making fires in the fireplaces there.

A Brief History of Cary's Railroads Segment 1

Peggy Van Scoyoc — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 18:44:32 GMT

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RAILROADS IN CARY

1895 Steam Train

Drawing Courtesy of Jerry Miller

The railroads literally put Cary on the map in the mid-19^th century. Here are tales about how important trains have been to our town. Historic content was taken from the book, Around and About Cary, by Tom Byrd and Jerry Miller. Many of Jerry Miller’s drawings are also included. Additionally, the transcripts from oral history interviews provided the majority of the information herein. Almost 100 interviews have been conducted with long-time Cary residents who shared their memories with members of the Friends of the Page-Walker history center, so those histories could be documented for posterity. Each narrator is named as a contributor.

THE NORTH CAROLINA RAILROAD (NCRR)

TOM BYRD (From his book, Around and About Cary): In the 19^th century, North Carolina provided most of the funds to build a railroad across the state. Chartered in 1849, the railroad right-of-way was surveyed through Cary in 1851, passing in front of the home of the Pharis Yates house. The railroad was built mostly by slaves, beginning in 1853, with steam engine train service beginning along the entire 223 mile-line in 1856. The railroad literally put Cary on the map.

Morrisville got the first railroad station in the area, and Cary got a sidetrack where eastbound and westbound trains could pass each other. By 1860, a rural depot had been established. Frank Page was the agent, so it became known as Page’s Turnout. In 1862, NCRR prevailed the Southern Express Company to build a telegraph line through Cary. Because the trains began to stop occasionally for passengers, Frank built a small shelter for those waiting for a train to stop for them. By 1867, there was regular passenger service in Cary.

In 1868, a junction was formed in Cary when NCRR allowed the Chatham Railroad to lay tracks “not less than 8 feet from their own,” and to cross the tracks near Cary. In gratitude, the Chatham railroad (later called the Seaboard) then built a “commodious depot” in Cary. Frank Page sold ten acres of land for the right-of-way for the depot at a cost of $2.00.

Over time, the two original railroads changed ownerships and names. In 1893, the Chatham Railroad became the Seaboard Coast Line System. In 1895, the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company became the Southern Railway Company.

In the 1860s, NCRR built what became known as the Southern station. To the horror of many Cary citizens, it was demolished in 1939. Then both train companies began to use the Seaboard station (the original “commodious depot,” and the name was changed to Union station. Then it was also torn down in 1965. The current Cary depot was built and opened in 1995.

MEMORIES ABOUT CARY’S TRAINS FROM ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

CLYDE EVANS JR.: The trains were the Seaboard and Southern. They had steam engines when I was a child, there weren’t any diesel engines like it is of this day. Steam engines would come through Cary, one on the right and one on the left. There were two stations then between the two tracks, one for the Seaboard and one for the Southern, and they sold tickets right there. Both would go to Raleigh but the Southern stopped all the time. The Seaboard didn’t stop too much, unless it was necessary.

WARREN WILLIAMS: My father was a brakeman and flagman on the railroad that came through Cary. He often noticed this old brick building standing by the tracks. He was later able to buy the Page-Walker Hotel building for our home in 1939. One of the biggest enjoyments of living at the Page-Walker was sitting on the balcony and watching the Silver Medium Shooting Star, or Silver Star on the railroad, which was the Seaboard Airline Railway at that time. We got great enjoyment seeing the trains come through.

TRAIN SWITCHES

C.Y. JORDAN: It’s been said that my ancestors, Pharis and Alvis Yates, gave the land here for the railroad to come through. Several of my family were railroad people, including myself. I worked for fifteen years for railroads.

My father had a brother named Carlos Yates. That would be my uncle. He was killed in an accident at age twenty working on the railroad. He was a brakeman. I was named for him. My mother’s father was a section foreman. She had two brothers who worked on the railroad. One of her brothers was also killed in an accident. It was dangerous work in those days, especially for the brakeman. They would walk the top of the boxcars while they were moving. I’ve seen them many times when I was a boy, walking down the top of a moving freight train. He mis-stepped and went down between the cars, well...

When I was working for the railroad, they were beginning to become very safety conscious. Now they’re extremely safety conscious. They wouldn’t allow any personnel to board or de-train from a moving train. That tells you how conscious they are of safety.

My father went to work as a brakeman at age sixteen. His grandfather Henry taught him the telegraph, so he became a telegraph operator. From there he left train service and became a telegraph operator and a train dispatcher. Then he pursued other ways of making a living.

WARREN WILLIAMS: In the early days, where there were telegraph poles indicated where the railroad came by. When they built the station house, they built much heavier lines. They had these two or three lines coming across that went down to the Fetner tower. The tower was where a man would work twelve hours a day, then another man would come to take his place. They would throw the switches to move the tracks in and out, to put a train on the sidetrack, or over on the main track. He had to watch what he was doing particularly well and be abreast of the times to keep the trains from getting into one another.

Fetner tower was there until they torn the Cary station down. Then they went to an automatic type system which they worked out of Raleigh. My daddy had a first cousin that was a telegrapher down at Raleigh, and he was put in charge of throwing the switches from Raleigh to Hamlet, North Carolina. I forget how many miles it is across there. He would sit and watch all the train tracks on a great big board in front of him. He could see a train coming with a marker coming up and getting close to a sidetrack, and see another train coming, and he’d push the right buttons to put this train on the sidetrack, maybe twenty-five miles from where he was sitting. He would press another button to let this train by. It was such a precise job, you had to be real careful with it. He would sit in the chair with his mind right on what he was doing, because if it wasn’t done right, it could be a terrible catastrophe. His chair was rigged so if he had a heart attack or fell over, this thing would automatically cut off until somebody could come and relieve him. Now the new computers probably control all of that. Computers are so smart, they can do anything with a computer, you know.

FETNER TOWER

Drawing: Courtesy of Jerry Miller

C.Y. JORDAN: When I was a teenager during World War II, my father would work sometimes down at Fetner tower, the interlocking plant. I was familiar with the other fellows that worked the other shifts down there. One in particular, old man Sam Smith, lived here in Cary. If I didn’t have anything else to do, I would go down in the afternoon and stay with Mr. Smith. During those years of World War II, we would have ninety trains through here a day, sometimes a hundred in a twenty-four-hour period, moving troops, everything. Freight trains weren’t as long as they are now due to the power of the steam engines. The most you would ever have would be two engines coupled together, a double-headed engine. There’s only so much tonnage that they could accommodate. Now there are big diesel engines, and they can put four or five of them together to carry a train a mile and a half long with a hundred and fifty cars, which is close to two miles long. So, the frequency was much greater during the war when you have steam engines. Everything was steam powered.

Ninety to a hundred trains kept that operator, Mr. Smith, busy. By then the telegraph system had about run its course and telephones had taken over. He gave me a headset so I could listen to what was being said up and down the road. The dispatcher was operating the trains. I’d help Mr. Smith some, throw the levers to line up for different trains coming from other directions.

I had one year in the Navy at the end of World War II. Then I had been working for the railroad when I was called up into the Army for the Korean War. When I got home from that in the early 50s, I went back to my job with the Seaboard Airline Railroad on Halifax Street until 1955. Then I came back to Cary and began working with my brother as a real estate developer. Things slowed down, so in 1967, I went back to work with the railroad as an Assistant Division Engineer. Worked there another ten years.

We had accidents, train wrecks, derailments, bridges burned, a landslide covered the track over in Alabama. All kinds of things going on over that much territory. I was sent out to many problems or disasters. If it was a wreck, we’d have to get it cleared off the track, then build the track back. The worst one I responded to was a little, local passenger train that ran from Birmingham into Atlanta. It struck an earth-moving piece of equipment on the track and derailed the train. But it turned the rail over and that guided the derailed train right on down the track until it came to a stop, so it didn’t do a lot of damage. Nobody was injured to any extent. While I was in Raleigh, the Silver Star derailed on two different occasions for various causes, cause unknown on one of them. I had never been involved in anything serious, to the extent of fatalities. Most of the derailments on the railroad were due to freight trains or equipment. In the old days before they had roller bearings, they’d have what is known as “hot box,” and that would cause a wheel or axle to break and derail the train. They were never all that serious, but we had to clear it up quickly because there were other trains rolling.

Significant, Sacred, Historic: Cary First Christian Church Cemetery tells the story of Cary's early African American families

Barbara Wetmore — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:04:27 GMT

Cornwall Road, south of downtown Cary, holds a special place in Cary's African American history. From the mid-1800s and into the 1900s, it was home to many African Americans, some whose families settled on and began farming the land just after the Civil War. It also was the place where African Americans began worshiping under a brush arbor in 1868 on a site where they had begun to bury their loved ones. Now surrounded by newer homes and the Glenaire Retirement Community, a significant remnant of Cary's African American past still remains at 300 West Cornwall Road. The sacred land where families began burying their loved ones as early as 1866 is now a 1.39 acre cemetery owned and maintained by Cary First Christian Church. And it has some stories to tell . . .

Stories of leadership, service to country, enslavement, education, and more

When you step through the cemetery gate into Cary's African American past, you will find the resting places of the first African American businessman and community leader in Cary; founders of the new Cary Elementary School (for Colored Children); businessmen, farmers, and laborers; church founders, leaders, and supporters; community organizers; large land owners; educators; WWI, WWII, Korean, and Vietnam War veterans; free and formerly enslaved African Americans and people of mixed race. You will see grave sites of prominent families and grave sites of unknown persons. And you will walk upon ground where known and unknown persons are laid to rest with no grave marker to indicate where.

Seven members of the Committee for a New Elementary School in the Colored Community who were instrumental in establishing a school for African American children in 1937 after the Cary Colored School near the present day Cary Elementary School burned down are buried at Cary First Christian Church Cemetery (CFCCC): Arch Arrington, Jr., Willis Cotton, Mae Hopson, Effie Turner Jones, Emily Arrington Jones, Connie and Lillian Turner Reaves. The new Cary Elementary School (for Colored Children) went on to become present day Kingswood Elementary School.

Cary Elementary School (for Colored Children) ca. 1937

One of the most prominent families buried at CFCCC is the Arrington family. Patriarch Alfred Arrington has the earliest marked birth date in the cemetery: 1829. He was the son of an enslaver on a plantation in Warren County, North Carolina where he learned many trades. Alfred was freed before the Civil War came to Cary during the late 1860s. Both he and his son Arch Arrington, Sr. were craftsmen and became large landowners in north central Cary. Arch, Sr. was one of the first African American businessmen and community leaders in Cary. He married Sallie Blake, sister of John Addison Blake, the founder of the Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church on North Academy Street in Cary.

Arch Arrington, Sr.

Sallie Blake ArringtonArch and Sallie's son Arch Arrington, Jr. organized the African American community to build a new school for African American children in 1937 after the Cary Colored School near the present day Cary Elementary School burned down. Arch, Jr.'s brother Goelet Arrington and sister Emily donated the land to the Wake County School System for the school, which went on to become Kingswood Elementary School, located today at 200 East Johnson St.

2300 formerly enslaved persons were interviewed and their memories recorded as part of the Federal Writers Project that produced U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938. Three of them are buried in Cary at CFCCC: Eliza Blake Nichols, Martha Jones Organ (unmarked grave), and Chaney Utley Hews (unmarked grave).

Eliza Blake Nichols
(Photo from Library of Congress, Manuscript Division)

One of the earliest marked graves in the cemetery is that of Jennie Beckwith, who died in 1896 at the age of 31. She was the first wife of John Beckwith, who was born into enslavement in Cary and was 9 years old when the Civil War ended. His memories were also recorded in U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938. John was a farmer and later a beloved custodian at Cary High School when it was located on Academy St. He was remembered for ringing the bell, signalling to students that they should all be in their seats in their classrooms. John is buried in an unmarked grave at Wake County Home Cemetery off Noble Road near Five Points in Raleigh. Several other Beckwith family members are buried at CFCCC in unmarked graves.

One fourth of the 86,000 troops from North Carolina in WWI were African American. Seven WWI and three WWII veterans are buried at CFCCC, along with one Korean War veteran and two Vietnam War veterans. WWI veterans: Exum Arrington, William Boyd (unmarked grave), Clarence Cotton, James A. Cotton, Harry Jones, Herman Lee, Arthur Moore. WWII Veterans: Clyde Louis Arrington, Fletcher Beckwith, Bruce Jones. Korean War Veteran: Emerson “Dick” Arrington. Vietnam War Veterans: Archie Wayne Jones, Edgar B. Jones.

Bruce Jones, WWII Veteran

The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of little Hattie Turner, who died as an infant in 1891. She was the daughter of Bob and Lucy Turner. Sadly, 10 infants are buried at CFCCC.

Caring for the cemetery

During 2021, members of Cary First Christian Church partnered with the Town of Cary and the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel to take steps to make the public aware of the significance of this historic cemetery, the first cemetery to be designated as a landmark in Cary and in all of Wake County. The Town planted new trees and helped clean up the cemetery and also enlisted Verville Interiors & Preservation to repair some of the damaged headstones. Volunteers from the church worked with volunteers from the Friends of the Page-Walker to research the history of the cemetery and the people who are buried there and to produce a walking tour brochure, which is now available outside the gate of the cemetery. The refurbished cemetery along with the brochure were revealed at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 30, 2021.

Not the first time the cemetery received some love and attention

It's possible the cemetery would not be standing in its original location today if not for the efforts of church member Sallie Jones. Sallie, a descendant of historic Cary African American families including the Arringtons and the Blakes, made it her personal project in the 1980s to preserve the Cary First Christian Church Cemetery to save it from being lost. She hired archeologists to survey the cemetery and produce a map of marked and unmarked graves and she enlisted the help of the community to clean up and restore the cemetery, which had fallen into disrepair through overgrowth of vegetation and some vandalism. Desiring to honor those unknown persons buried in unmarked graves, Sallie worked with experts at the state level to identify some of the unknown names, spending many hours going through archived records. In a critical step, she registered the cemetery with the state, protecting it from ever being sold. Sallie Jones, today at age 96, was a key contributor to the development of the newly released walking tour brochure through her knowledge and remarkable memory of the people buried at the cemetery.

Sallie Jones

Formerly unknown people buried in the cemetery now identified

The cemetery holds approximately 262 burials as of 2021. Of these 262 burials, around 102 known persons are buried in graves with markers that display names and dates. About 160 persons are buried in graves either unmarked or marked with boulders, piles of stones, quartz, and uninscribed or unreadable stone, concrete, marble, and granite. Some are buried in graves marked with uninscribed concrete slabs placed by the church after the archeological survey revealed that 139 of the 160 unmarked graves had been unknown until 2002. The vinyl stickers seen on these grave markers correspond to locations on a map produced by the archeological survey. Through the tireless efforts of church member Sallie Jones and additional research by church volunteers and the Friends of the Page-Walker, 113 of the people buried in unmarked graves or graves with unreadable markers have been identified. 47 unknown persons still remain to be identified.

A look at the land in the 1860s and its subsequent history

Stories passed down tell that African Americans began burying their loved ones on the land as early as 1866. Research revealed that the land belonged to James Allen at the time, a white man living in Wake County, who then sold it to Mariah Seagroves Horton and her husband William, also both white and of Wake County. Interestingly, the Hortons sold the land to James Joseph (J. J.) Hines of Craven County in 1869. J. J. Hines was a white traveling minister who sometimes preached in Asbury. Ownership of the land stayed among white people of Craven County until 1879, but statements in deeds reveal that sometime between 1869 and 1877, J. J. Hines conveyed one acre of the 35+ acres he had purchased from the Hortons to a religious congregation, presumably the early members of Cary First Christian Church. In 1879, when Tranquilla and George Dowell of Wake County purchased the land, the deed contained this statement: “(excepting) nevertheless one acre of said tract at its north west corner on which a church has been built by certain colored (people) containing 34 1/2 acres more or less, after deducting said acre excepted.” The church structure to which this deed is referring might have been the brush arbor under which the early members of the Cary First Christian Church congregation worshiped from 1868 to 1883, when they moved into their church building on Holleman Street near present day Cary Elementary School. In 1909, George and Tranquilla, also white, conveyed a piece of land to “Trustees for Colored Cary Christian Church”: John Beckwith, Handy Jones, and Dennis Jones. The land in this deed increased the cemetery size to approximately 1.377 acres, the size that it is today. Handy Jones and Dennis Jones are buried at CFCCC. In 1968, the church moved to its current location at 1109 Evans Road. Today, the cemetery is the only vestige of the congregation at its original location.

Unique grave markers

The most unusual and historically significant grave marker in the cemetery is a rare segmental-arched wooden headstone, dating back possibly to the mid-1800s. There are no markings or engravings remaining on this wooden marker to enable us to know who is buried here. Many grave sites in the cemetery are marked by simple pieces of rock or boulders with no inscriptions, or are not marked at all. Though researchers have been able to identify 113 of the 160 people who are buried in unmarked or unreadable graves, it's likely that people who were buried before the late 1800s might never be identified because of the lack of records dating back to that period and because enslaved persons were often not accounted for by name but simply by the number of them that were enslaved by a land or property owner.

Many of the readable grave markers in the cemetery display funerary art, including cherubs and crowns, stars, clasping and praying hands, laurel branches, ivy vines, and engraved interlocking chains and letters such as “FLT” for Friendship, Love, and Trust that denote the deceased's affiliation with the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (not to be confused with the International Order of Odd Fellows, whose constitution included a “whites only” clause until 1971).

Some of the grave markers are made of concrete. Family stories tell us that the African American Hawkins family made gravestones, along with the Satterfield family. Both families' homes were on West Cornwall Road, very near the cemetery. Though researchers have not been able to confirm it, it's possible the Hawkins and Satterfield families made some of the gravestones here.

A few of the gravestones are marked with hand-scratched inscriptions, including the gravestones of Nazareth Jones, Mattie Norris, and Rev. Boyd, one of the early ministers of Cary First Christian Church. One unusual set of stones represents not a grave marker, but rather a memorial marker. No bodies are buried with the stones, but one them contains a hand-scratched inscription: “In memory of Geo. W. Day and family.” A second engraved stone with the names of all the family members accompanies the hand-scratched stone. The George Washington Day family was originally from Orange County, where a large number of mixed race families migrated from Virginia in the early 1800s. Census records show they were living in Cary in 1880. Although further research is required, it's possible that this family is related, albeit distantly, to Thomas Day, the renowned furniture maker who left Virginia and settled in Milton, North Carolina in 1823.

Not the only African American cemetery in town

Many African Americans from the Cary community are buried in the private Turner-Evans Family Cemetery at 800 Old Apex Road in Cary. The Turner and Evans families owned large tracts of land in that area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Evans family owned and still owns a large amount of land to the west on Evans Road -- which is named for them -- and donated the land on which the Cary First Christian Church is currently located on Evans Road. Some members of the Turner and Evans families are buried in CFCCC and some members of the families buried at CFCCC are buried in the Turner-Evans Family Cemetery as a result of marriages between the two families.

Explore Cary's rich African American history

Take a walking tour of the Cary First Christian Church Cemetery with our new brochure (available at cemetery entrance). Trace Cary's African American history on a self-guided driving tour (download here) or follow along with a guide on one of our African American trolley tours (check here for availability). Stop by the front desk of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center to purchase a copy of Peggy Van Scoyok's book Desegregating Cary.

Help build a memorial to those buried in unmarked graves

Contribute to a fund to erect a simple memorial to known and unknown persons who are buried at Cary First Christian Church Cemetery in graves that are unmarked or graves that are marked with unreadable stones. Contact admin@caryfirst.org or call 919-467-1053 to learn how.

Scary Cary: Legends of mysteries and hauntings at High House and the Page-Walker Hotel

Barbara Wetmore — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 13:54:27 GMT

Mysteries and legends of ghostly tales tend to come to us from days past, and in Cary several of our haunted legends surround two old properties, one that still stands.

Mysteries and hauntings of the High House

The oldest property, which is no longer standing, was the High House that stood on what is now, not surprisingly, High House Road. The house was built in the 1700s and named for its tall physical presence and its location atop a hill just across from the present day Maynard Crossing shopping center. You can read all about the history of the High House in this blog.

Back view of the High House.

The intrigue surrounding the High House involves a mystery about a buried treasure. In Around and About Cary, Tom Byrd recounts that Margaret Williams told of a treasure hunt by her father Leander Williams, who was born in the High House in 1883. After the family moved away, Williams had a dream about valuables buried in the hearth. When he learned the next morning that his mother had had the same dream, the two of them rushed to the house, only to discover that someone had already torn the hearth apart, brick by brick. Perhaps the source of these dreams was this account in Tom Byrd's book of an encounter at the High House by General Sherman's troops near the end of the Civil War:

When the soldiers arrived at High House, they found an old black man apparently crippled by gout and with a heavily bandaged foot resting on the hearth. What the soldiers never knew was that the foot concealed a removable stone under which valuables were hidden.

As for being haunted, there are stories of the ghost of a woman who has appeared both on the grounds and in the house when it was still standing. Robert Hoke Williams in his account The Ghost of High House tells of a legend that two men were in love with the same girl and one day while attending a horse race, one of the men in a fit of anger, during a quarrel with the girl, grabbed her and strangled her to death before he could be stopped.

One other tale of a sad and tragic death of a woman involves a possible first wife of Fanning Jones. Fanning was the first owner of the High House. This passage is from High House Mystery:

Some of the old fireplace brick remains, and a cemetery is located nearby. Only a few tombstones remain, so it is not known if Mrs. Fanning Jones is buried there. She died a tragic death only a few years after her marriage in 1799. The Raleigh Register September 8, 1806, reported that Mrs. Jones "... was found in a grove far from the house, depraved of all reason, where it is supposed she had been praying (having been very religious for some time past). She remained in the deplorable condition till her death... (on July 27, 1806)." (p.3)

The phantom horse of the Page-Walker Hotel

Another spooky legend involves an iconic Cary historic building, the old Page-Walker Hotel, built in 1868-1871 by Cary founder Frank Page. The hotel is still standing and now serves as the Cary Arts and History Center. Frank Page and his family lived just to the west of the not-yet-built hotel on the site of the current Cary Town Hall in 1865. During the last days of the Civil War in the spring of 1865, union troops camped at the Page homestead for about 3 weeks and kept their horses in the barn with an armed guard. On the last night of their occupation, the youngest of their wounded died. The next morning as they lined up their horses to depart, they discovered that the dead soldier’s horse had disappeared. It was never seen again.

Years later one springtime night not long after the hotel was built, all the horses in the stable started kicking and whinnying. Legend has it the stable boy heard the sound of a lone horse galloping full force down the dirt road in front of the hotel, but when he looked at the road there was no horse or rider in sight. Other “hearings” of the phantom horse have occurred through the years, but no “sightings.” Listen for the sound of the phantom horse's galloping hooves the next time you are at the Page-Walker on a quiet evening . . .

Reverend's Influence Extended Beyond Church

Kerry Mead — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:42:00 GMT

As part of our extensive oral interviews with past Cary residents, Peggy Van Scoyoc recorded the following interview about prominent Cary citizen, Reverend John William Meadows, with his great-grandson, Jimmy Gibbs. We're reposting this interview as part of our September focus on the naming of Cary Regional Library's rooms to honor the Town's past.

The Rev. John William Meadows was one of the most prominent and influential people in this area’s black community in his time. He was born in 1880 in Granville County, but most of his life was spent in Cary. He was a college graduate, and a well-respected minister of Hickory Grove Christian Church from 1919 until his death in 1954. He also was the principal and one of three teachers at the original Cary Colored School from 1900 through 1935.

Meadows’ first wife died giving birth to his only child, Curtis. He later married his second wife, Annie Mitchell Meadows, who also became a teacher at the Cary Colored School for many years, right alongside her husband. Annie taught grades 1-4, and Rev. Meadows taught grades 5-7. Black students were then bussed to Berry O’Kelly High School across from the Raleigh state fairgrounds. Meadows’ great-grandson, Jimmy Gibbs, talked to us about his great-grandfather:

JIMMY GIBBS: Our family has a lot of history here in Cary, thanks to my great-grandfather. He was very distinguished, one of those high society people in this area at that time. He had a beautiful home on Cornwall Road, across from the Glenaire Retirement Center. His property backed up to what is now the Carolina Pottery store on Kildaire Farm Road. It was a large, two-story home. It did have electricity, but no running water. There was an outhouse in the back and a lovely barn. They actually had hired help, which was very unusual in the black community at that time.

My great-grandfather was very busy. Not only was he an educator, but he was a minister and a leader in the Lincoln Christian Church Conference as well. When he wasn’t teaching and being a principal, he was doing his ministry work, traveling around to the churches within the Lincoln Conference. He was the vice-president of that conference, which caused him to do a lot of traveling on the weekends. So, he wasn’t only preaching in his church in Cary, he preached at several other churches in the area as well, using Cary as his home base.

The Cary Colored School was a three-room wooden building that stood right behind the playground of Cary Elementary School, so it was right up the street from his house. The school had wood-burning stoves for heat, and an outside privy. Sadly, the school where he and his wife taught all those years in Cary was burned down in 1936, just a year after he retired from teaching. Then, long after Rev. Meadows died, his house on Cornwall Road also burned down in the 1970s.

Much of the Cary’s Heritage column is taken from the book, Desegregating Cary, published in February of 2010. The book is a collection of oral history interviews conducted with local residents by the Friends of the Page-Walker History Center. The rest comes from later oral history interviews with local citizens.

Interview with Ruth Cathey Fox

Kerry Mead — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 23:05:47 GMT

As part of our extensive oral interviews with past Cary residents, Peggy Van Scoyoc recorded the following interview with beloved Cary teacher, Ruth Cathey Fox. We're reposting this interview as part of our September focus on the naming of Cary Regional Library's rooms to honor the Town's past.

Recorded 6/10/99

Peggy Van Scoyoc (PV): This is Peggy Van Scoyoc. I am in the home of Ruth Fox in downtown Cary. It is Thursday, June 10, 1999, and I am here today to speak to Mrs. Fox in her home. So Mrs. Fox, you where reading some notes to me just now. Some notes and information that you had written down for our interview today, and I would just love if you would go through them for us on the tape.

Ruth Fox (RF): Walker Hotel, as I have known it. I moved to Cary from the Charlotte area in 1919 when I was only seven years old. My father was connected with the Seaboard railroad. He roomed at the Walker Hotel for six months before my mother and I joined him. No meals were served at the hotel, no electric lights and no indoor plumbing. History has it that when the Hotel was first opened, passenger trains, the Seaboard and Southern, had regular meal stops at the Walker Hotel. I lived nearby and had friends who lived in the Walker Hotel after Mrs. Walker’s death. How we did enjoy running up the stairs to the third floor [to visit friends who were boarders]. After Mrs. Walker died, they rented that building. A family lived there, they had one daughter that was about my age in the same grade. I would visit her and we would have a lot of fun running up the steps to the third floor.

Cary High School and Farm Life School - the first public high school in North Carolina dating back to 1908 according to the cornerstone in the building. Many from out of state boarding students attended school here and how the townspeople would meet the trains as the students would arrive. We had a boys’ and a girls’ dormitory, and teacher training course granted a Class C teachers certificate. Farm Life and Dairy Poultry School - many exhibits at the State Fair. School was granted a two day holiday to attend the fair.

Streetlights in Cary were turned on each evening by hand. Central location, the corner near what is now South Academy and West Chatham Street. The telephone office was upstairs above the corner drug store. Only two churches - the First Methodist in the present location, and the Baptist was at the corner of what is now West Chatham Street and West Streets. However, the Baptist Church now is located on South Academy Street. We had a lovely so-called boarding house here, that was called the Westside Inn and it has been demolished. No house to house mail was delivered. We rented a box at the post office. And I remember our box number was 174. And no zip codes then. Telegrams were sent to the ticket agent at the railroad station, the Seaboard and Southern, and then they were delivered to the addressee.

PV: That was fantastic. Thank you so much for writing all that down and sharing that with us. That is so valuable to us. Life was a little different back then than it is now.

RF: I wonder how it sounds.

PV: I’m sure it sounds wonderful.

RF: I married Charles Fox [who] had three children [from a previous marriage.] He taught poultry science. I went to Lewisburg College, the oldest junior college in the nation, 1787. Then I transferred to Columbia College, Columbia South Carolina. I majored really in music. [I began teaching] in 1933. I taught the second grade at Cary Elementary School for 34 years. I drafted into the first principal-ship at Briarcliff School. I had forty years service. I also directed the high school glee club for a number of years. I directed the choir at the Methodist Church for eight years.

PV: Tell me about the early years of your teaching career. What you taught, the methods that you used, and how those have changed for you over the years?

RF: Well, at that time we had so many rural children that were bussed in, you know. We had very few, not too many here in the Cary area, but they came in from Morrisville and that area. And they were so attentive, and the parents, oh they appreciated the teachers so much. The little boys, at that time, lived way out in the country, you know, near the airport at that time. And they had what were called rabbit boxes they put out in the woods to catch rabbits. Well, those mothers would dress those rabbits and send the rabbits in to me already dressed. In the cold weather, we’d put them out on the ledge of the window to keep them cool. They would send me homemade butter, big old collards they would bring in on the bus. They were so, so appreciative.

PV: And how did you see that change of the years?

RF: Well, more sophisticated families, I’ll say, moved into the Cary area and having come from large cities moving in here, that made quite a difference.

PV: I would imagine so. How did the curriculum change over the thirty-four years that you taught second grade. From the first few years of teaching until the last few years of teaching the second grade.

RF: Well, of course, the teachers were required to go to summer school, you know, to review all the new inventions that came in.

PV: Every summer?

RF: No, not every summer, but periodically.

PV: The curriculum changed?

RF: Oh yes, we had to be brought up to date on that, you know. Of course, they don’t even teach phonics anymore. But many years, we did teach phonics.

PV: Do you think that was good? Did it work well?

RF: Yes, I thought it was good.

PV: What else changed?

RF: Discipline.

PV: How did it start out and how did it change?

RF: Years ago, the children and their parents, whatever the teacher said was law and order. There was so much appreciation from some of the folks. So much appreciation. But I enjoyed the influx of Cary. McGregor Downs. I had all the McGregor Downs’ children over at Briarcliffe.

RF: [Briarcliffe opened in] 1967. M.B. Dry was superintendent Principal at Cary High School when I was a student. And I came back as one of his teachers. [Mr. Dry] was so understanding as my Principal when I was at school and also as one of his teachers. [He was principal for] about twenty six years. His wife, Mrs. Dry, was in charge of the boarding students, the meals. That was done away with in 1933, the boarding students. I was so fortunate at Briarcliffe during integration. They had closed Holly Springs school which had been an all black school and all those students came to Briarcliffe, which made it very, I won’t say easy, but it was very convenient to have all of them there together rather than from here, yonder and everywhere. My former students still come to see me. [I was Principal of Briarcliffe] 1967 to 1973. I took my graduate work at Appalachia State University in Boone [for] three summers. When I first started teaching at Cary Elementary School, second grade, the parents were so appreciative of every little thing that you would do. They seemed to find no fault about anything. Most of them were farmers, not too well educated, maybe to high school. They thought what the teacher did was absolutely fine, anything. We had black teachers too. I was never accustomed to black teachers at Cary Elementary when I taught there. The black teachers were very loyal. Of course, our custodian and maid, they were black. Some of the cafeteria workers were black. We had excellent food service [at Briarcliffe]. The house that we bought [when I was a child] had electricity but it had no indoor plumbing.

[As a child we played] jump rope, drop the handkerchief, London bridges falling down. Who’s that knocking at my door and the person would say, it is I. But sometimes they’d forget and say, it is me. Hide and seek. Sometimes they’d have a baseball game. Farmer in the Dell. I haven’t thought of those things in years. [I’ve lived in this house] since 1950.

WHP: A Cary-born Monogram Rediscovered

Kerry Mead — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 22:28:05 GMT

By Pat Sweeney

WHP – Walter Hines Page – or “WAT” a nickname favored by the Page family for their first Cary-born son, therefore Cary’s true “First Son” is, historically, Cary’s most widely known man of political consequence. WHP capped his public life by serving as the Ambassador to the Court of Saint James during WWI, as part of the Woodrow Wilson administration.

Readers interested in revisiting or learning about the role WHP played in this war can do so through Pulitzer-prize winning autobiographies by Cooper and Hendrick, old newsprint and commentaries aplenty on the web or in libraries with extensive historical materials. The Olivia Raney Library located nearby in southeast Raleigh is such a library.

The Wake County's Cary Regional Library chose to salute WHP as a son of Cary because of his career in journalism and publishing. Books, book, books were always a keen part of WHP’s life. He learned to read at his mother’s knee as a home-schooled, if you will, boy. In those days, home-schooling was basically the way of early education. Lucky the child whose mother was herself a reader and devourer of the written word. It is said that Katherine Page always carried a book in her apron or dress pocket to enjoy during brief respites in an otherwise hectic day! As a single/only child for four years, WHP was the epicenter of his mother’s world. Walks thru the woods, learning and observing the world of Mother Nature and quite times lingering over books like The New England Primer, a book of verse introducing children to the alphabet using Bible lessons, awakened a sincere fondness and joy in the written word…

Most Caryites of recent emigration first learn of WHP from the highway history marker along Chatham Street near the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, part of the original homestead of Cary’s founder, Frank Page, as well as birthplace for WHP. Father and son both would choose independent career paths from their forebearers. The plow and the hoe would be exchanged for more modern, contemporary career paths. Frank seeing the future economy of industry and business became a woodsman and lumberjack, and WHP would venture off into the world of words, ideas and international diplomacy. Both father and son understood the power of personal relationships and partnerships as they practiced the power of persuasion for change and development in their chosen areas of interests.

WHP, in his early scholastic years, met and was mentored by social activists who saw the need for ‘the rebuilding of the commonwealth’ following the Civil War upheaval of social and cultural norms, especially in the South, and most especially in his beloved North Carolina. Joining other social visionaries of the time, WHP helped sow the seeds of social and cultural reform and development that would become the basis for Cary’s present-day position in the economic and social dynamism that is the Research Triangle…A prime example of this WHP local activism is seen in his contributions to the founding of NC State University. As member of a group of seven self-appointed ‘public-spirited’ young men (so described by author Hendrick) WHP aided and abetted the establishment of The “State College for Agriculture and Engineering,” later to become NC State University.

Because the Page family left Cary after only 26 years of residency, and WHP earlier becoming a part-time resident while attending the Bingham School in Mebane, NC, Trinity College in Durham, NC, Randolph-Macon in Ashland, VA, and lastly concluding his formal studies at the newly founded Johns Hopkins College in Baltimore, MD, the early years of WHP’s career and social activism have not been highlighted in the Cary memory and reflections of him. The hope is that the newly dedicated room to him in our library will spark a collective interest and discovery of our local boy’s hiding-in-plain-sight historic presence among us…After all, aren’t we all the product of our childhood family ties and cultural landscape?

Wat, as I shall now reference him, hoping you feel more familiar with him after this brief introduction, loved Cary and its environs wholeheartedly. In fact, I would say his love for this place and his family were of equal proportions…In his own writings throughout his life, he speaks of returning to Cary for rest and re-focus, describing Cary and North Carolina as his place of personal refuge, his place of sustenance in times of emotional fatigue, his underpinning as well as fount of his work on behalf of ‘rebuilding the commonwealth.’

Experiencing the worst of the Civil War at a safe distant in Cary, Wat, nonetheless was shaped by the war’s presence, especially as Sherman and the Yanks spent approximately three weeks in the area bringing the war to a virtual close. These days allowed Wat to meet and interact with the “enemy” in a ‘face-to-face’ manner; to be challenged in his mindset about the war, its’ causes and effects on not only his family and State, but society and the country as a whole…

I have penned a slim volume, available in the library, about Wat and his Civil War childhood here in Cary. The story is my imagined days and nights (based on WHP bibliographies by Cooper and Hendrick) of Wat as the First Son during Cary’s founding years and the intersection of his coming-of-age years and the issues of racial relations during the Civil War. Especially interesting to me are the crosswinds of the Civil War and their impact on this young boy’s evolution as advocate for public education, journalism and publishing – all born and bred from his Civil War roots. It is an easy read; check it out!!! (Wat, A Son of the Civil War, by Sweeney)

By way of introduction to WHP’s deeply held love for these parts, please enjoy the following lines from his poem “The Song of the Pines,” disclosing his love for the Old North State, especially the State’s long-leaf pines.

They hang their harps for the winds to sweep-

Strung to a soft low Southern tone;

An ocean of music from mountain to deep

Waves with the waves of the wind – lone

And how is their song,

Centuries long,

The song of the lands that beneath them sleep.

. . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The fair in their sound are laid to sleep,

The bones of the brave beneath them rest;

The hopes of the dead die not, but keep

In their song a thrill for a younger breast.

‘Tis the tale of her years,

That the old State hears

Roaring in music from mountain to deep.

Majestic, eternal, the swell of their roar-

A burden of hope, if a burden of woe-

Telling In song, traditional lore;

Ernest and tender, solemn and slow,

A promise and prayer,

Forever they hear,

From the past to the future for evermore.

There are many more local stories to be shared about WHP, aka Wat. Watch this space…

Farming for details: The Farm Life Program and Agriculture

Chinmay Talikoti — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 03:55:00 GMT

Throughout its history, Cary has always been a place whose unique features have attracted new citizens. While today that role is fulfilled by the booming tech industry, Cary High School’s Farm Life Program was the first such draw. More than 80% of the local population worked in agriculture, but there was a strong desire to improve efficiency and create more skilled labor. Furthermore, no more than 10% of rural children got past their local schools, so such a program would have a great impact on the area.

The farm life program began in 1914, and was inspired by the school’s principal, Marcus Dry, spending three summers at A&M College (today NCSU) studying agriculture. Upon its founding, the program was so popular that delegates to the State Teachers Assembly began advocating for a similar program in their home districts after touring the facility. Because of the proximity to Raleigh, the school was seen as an excellent testing ground for new policies that would benefit North Carolina’s overwhelmingly rural population.

The following year, townspeople came together to fund the program: local attorney James Templeton Jr. donated 15 acres on Walnut Street to build a model farm, and $1,500 was raised to erect a farmhouse, barn, and provide equipment. While the farm was abandoned after little more than a decade, the house itself still stands at 510 Walnut Street, with the barn behind it.

In 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act became federal law, and it provided funding to teach vocational and agricultural skills in public schools. With this, the Farm Life program really took off.

After World War I, in 1922, the school hired a second agriculture teacher. E. N. Meekins became a valuable member of the community who assisted local farmers in increasing crop efficiency. Within 4 years, the department created an incubator capable of storing 12,000 eggs--eventually giving rise to two businesses, one of which is still operating (Cary Egg Market).

However, this prosperity became uncertain at the onset of the Great Depression. In 1933, the school shut down the dormitories; at the same time, teachers created the Cary Community Club, which sponsored square dances every Saturday and a fair in the fall. Although the school system had fewer resources, it managed to continually create a strong sense of community.

In spite of these repeated hardships, the faculty at the program remained remarkably stable. One such teacher was Rufus Sheldon Dunham, whose namesake park sits across Walnut Street from the old model farmstead. Nicknamed “Dad” because of his premature baldness, Dunham taught agriculture at Cary High School for forty years. He operated a cannery for locals to use during the period of rationing created by World War II, and was the reason the agricultural program did not fail.

Even though Cary High still had two farms after the war, there was a problem. By the 1950s, demand for agricultural training was waning, but Dunham helped pivot it to an at-home model, where students could continue to learn domestic skills and put them to use on their time.

The farm life program, while crucial, is still only one part of Cary’s agricultural heritage. In addition, numerous barns can still be found in and around town. One of the most interesting is the Mitchell Dairy Barn, which has now been converted to housing. Keep an eye out for both the barn and its related farmhouse the next time you’re on South Dixon Avenue!

A final farm with special significance to Cary is Kildaire Farm, which today survives in the name of one of our most important thoroughfares. It was primarily a dairy farm, and the Kildaire family owned the Pine State Creamery, which supplied milk, eggs, and other products to area communities. Employees of the farm were nearly self-sufficient, and almost all products could be used on-site.

Even though these farms and programs have ceased to be operational, Cary's agricultural history lies in plain sight all around us.

Cary’s Green Thumb – the Story of Ben Savage and His Park

Carla Michaels — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 17:58:51 GMT

Construction on the new Downtown Cary Park is underway, but secrets of the land are just being uncovered. How fitting that an early owner of at least part of the property, Benjamin Oliver Savage, originally from Scotland Neck, NC, loved plants and getting his hands in the dirt.

Map of Halifax County, NC

Ben Savage was born in 1845 in Halifax Co, NC. By 1870, he had land and was married with two young daughters. But in 1871, sorrow struck with the loss of his beloved wife Anna. He published a tribute to her shortly after her death, which read in part, “Oh! Wretched me, my Annie has flown with the angels to heaven, and has left me…. Oh, how I loved my Annie…” It was signed “By her Bennie”.

During this time, he worked on inventions for his farming operation. He developed a pea and bean harvester, a rice harvester, and a labor-saving machine that picked and sacked cotton along the rows. The pea and rice pickers were exhibited at the Goldsboro NC fair and won first prize. He also applied for patents for his machines and went on to produce and sell them.

Also, during this time, a new family moved to the area. Dr. E. W. Owen of Oxford moved with his family to Scotland Neck and set up his practice. His older daughter, Alice Owen had married Dr. Samuel P. Waldo in 1869, while Dr. Waldo began his medical practice in Oxford after graduating from medical school. The Waldo family moved to Cary around 1874. It was at the time of this move that Dr. Owen moved to Scotland Neck with his wife and younger daughter Lillian. Lillian Owen married Ben Savage in 1875.

It’s unclear what precipitated Ben Savage’s move to Cary, but his father died in 1891, as did his brother-in-law, Dr. S. P. Waldo of Cary. Based on a newspaper account in 1897, the Savage family had moved to Cary some 3 or 4 years earlier, but sorrow followed them to Cary. Ben’s wife Lillian died in 1897 following the death of a daughter by his first marriage, Julia, in 1896.

The personal challenges he faced didn’t stop him from pursuing his passion for all things green. He bought land in downtown Cary from the heirs of Rufus Jones and heirs of Josephine Edwards on the east side of Academy Street. He used this land to establish Valley Nook Decorative Landscape Nursery and Rose Farm, part of which was on the site of the Downtown Cary Park.

Map based on the recollections of Miss Elva Templeton, circa 1906

The entrance to the Nursery was on Academy Street, where the home of Dr John P Hunter sits now.

Ben had been known as a “great fruit and nut man” and built on that reputation in Cary by growing strawberries and raspberries among other fruits, and planting trees, especially nut trees, which he recommended as a source of income. He even sold raspberry vines to the State Prison in Raleigh and made a contribution of grapevines to an orphanage in the Charlotte area. His wisdom on horticultural subjects was sought after. When asked why, at the age of 73 (in 1918) he continued to plant pecan trees, he replied, “I plant some fruit or pecan trees every year… I shall plant trees every year as long as I live. I am never happier than when I am planting something.” Some of the pecan trees dotted around the new park may have even been planted by Ben!

Photo of pecan tree taken by author from The Verandah at The Mayton

Benjamin Savage continued to live in Cary as a widower until his death at the age of 83 in 1928. He is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery along with his wife Lillian.

When the new park is complete and the trees growing and plants blooming, I hope you will think of Ben Savage, his green thumb and the beauty and joy of the natural world, so important to him, being created once again in this corner of Cary.

What's In a Name? Cary's History Told Through Street Signs

Carla Michaels — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 15:41:25 GMT

Part 1: Early Streets and Cary Families

Street signs help us find our way around our area, but street signs in downtown Cary can also teach us about the history of our town. So, grab a downtown Cary map or use the one below as you read along and learn about some of the stories of Cary’s past. This is part of a Cary map published in 1962 that shows the streets we will explore below.

The Road to Hillsborough

Let’s start before Cary was Cary. Cary was incorporated as a town in 1871, but it existed well before that date. A road from Raleigh to Hillsborough ran through our area very early on and is captured in this 1798 Price-Strother map.

On this part of the map, you can see a notation “Bradford’s Ordinary”. An ordinary was a combination tavern/hotel/inn for travelers. According to the history books, a man named John Bradford ran the ordinary. John Bradford owned land in Wake County, but there is no proof that he ever actually owned the ordinary or the land it sat on, but we are fairly certain that the house stood on Cary Town Hall grounds. So you might say that the road to Hillsborough was the first Cary street. Today there are remnants, perhaps, of this route along Hillsboro Street (Hillsboro Rd on the map above), which runs from N Harrison Avenue west toward Morrisville.

Here is another map of future downtown Cary that dates to the mid-1850s when a new railroad route through the area was being proposed. The North Carolina Railroad sent out survey parties to map the right of way along the route from Goldsboro to Charlotte, and as a result, included the route through Cary.

You can see part of what has become “downtown Cary”. Pharis Yates, who later owned and operated Yates Mill in Wake County, bought this land from his father Eli Yates of Chatham County in 1841. The road running in front of his homestead is Hillsborough Road. The proposed railway route is marked by the large pink band, and someone has penciled in the name Cary. The actual train track was laid much closer to the Yates Homestead than this map indicates.

Railroad/Cedar Street

From the map above we can see that the road and the railroad coexisted very early on, and the road and railroad still run side by side in downtown Cary. The street was originally named Railroad Street, for obvious reasons, was later renamed Cedar Street, and was the main street of Cary.

In this birds-eye sketch on display at the Cary Museum in the Page Walker Arts and History Center, Jerry Miller captured Railroad/Cedar Street in its heyday as Cary’s main street, with businesses lining Railroad Street between Academy and Walker Streets. Today Cedar Street is an almost forgotten street and serves as an alternative route to Chatham Street, which today is considered Cary’s main street in downtown.

West Chatham Street

West Chatham Street was a continuation of the business district located along Railroad/Cedar Street. Chatham Street took its name from its destination, Chatham County and the Chatham Railroad that was planned to service important coal fields there. The name Chatham Street dates to as early as the late 1860s in early deeds of central Cary.

East Chatham Street

East Chatham Street from Ashworth’s Drug Store going toward Raleigh was a country lane in its early existence. It was lined with primarily residential properties and open land used for pastures. But in the 1920s, the Capitol Highway, US#1, was built along this country lane. Instead of heading into Cary down Railroad Street, the highway bypassed Railroad Street and routed traffic along what had previously been a mainly residential street into downtown Cary. This photograph shows the intersection of Walker and Chatham Streets looking east when the area was largely undeveloped.

Prominent Citizens Lend Their Names

As Cary grew from a wide place in the road to a village, more streets were developed and named after landowners or prominent citizens of Cary.

Dr. Samuel P Waldo

One of the earliest doctors in our area was Dr. Samuel Pierce Waldo, and he gives his name to Waldo Street that runs beside the First United Methodist Church in downtown Cary.

Dr. Waldo was born in 1845 in Hamilton, Martin County, east of Rocky Mount on the Roanoke River.

He studied medicine after the Civil War ended, graduating from the Washington University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland in March 1868. After graduation, he moved to the Oxford, North Carolina area, and married Alice Owen, the daughter of a local doctor, in December 1868. He located to Cary around 1874 with his wife and, by that time, three sons. He owned a drug store on what the deed described as “Main Street or Railroad Street”. He was a highly respected figure in the community and his early death in 1891 at the age of 46, after a year of failing health, was a great loss to Cary. His family home stood at 114 Waldo Street behind the post office, across from the Methodist Church. The house has been saved and restored, and it stands today south of its original location and serves as the bridal suite for the Mayton Inn.

Walker Street

Another early family of the area was the Walker family. If you are familiar with the history of the Page Walker Hotel, you know that half its name is derived from Jacob and Helen Yates Walker. Here is a picture of Helen as a young woman. Helen Yates Walker was born and raised in the Cary area. Jacob was a section master for the railroad.

The Walkers bought about 26 acres from Frank Page in 1868, three years before Cary was incorporated, and this property ran along the east side of Walker Street from the railroad tracks heading south.

When Frank Page decided to sell off his property in Cary to move to Aberdeen, the Walkers bought the hotel and about 3 acres of land on the north side of the tracks for $3000 in 1884.

This early photo of the hotel dates to about 1916.

The couple ran the hotel until Jacob’s death in 1915. After that Helen alternately tried to rent the hotel and run it as a boarding house. She died in 1922, and the hotel property passed to her grandchildren, children of Rev. A. D. and Irene Walker Hunter. The Hunter family leads us to the next street name.

Mary Irene Walker was the only child of Jacob and Helen Walker. She married a prominent local Baptist minister, Rev. Alsey D. Hunter whose first wife had died, leaving one daughter.

Rev. Hunter and Irene had four children. Sadly, Irene died in 1905, leaving her four young children and the one step-daughter. Rev. Hunter married again, to Betsy Rodwell, but not long afterward, Rev. Hunter died, leaving Betsy a widow with a child from this last marriage and the 5 children from his previous marriages. The best known of the children was Dr. John Hunter.

After graduating from Cary High School, John attended Wake Forest College, in Wake Forest, NC at the time and graduated with a medical degree. He practiced medicine in Cary for the rest of his life, from 1920 to 1959. He lived on Academy Street in the brick bungalow beside the new park. One of Cary’s remaining in-town chicken coops still stands behind the house. Dr. Hunter was also the president of the Cary Chamber of Commerce, and served on the Cary Town Board and the Wake County Board of Education.

Another child of Rev. Hunter and Irene, John’s older sister LaRue Hunter, is important to our story, too. After graduating from Cary High School, she studied at the Durham Conservatory of Music. Before her marriage to George Isaacs of Durham, she is known to have taught music lessons in the hotel, in one of the upstairs rooms.

Templeton Street

It’s easily overlooked at just one block long, but Templeton Street is named for another important Caryite. Dr. James McPherson Templeton was born in 1855 in Iredell County, and grew up around Lincolnton.

He attended lectures at the University of the City of New York and went on to graduate in 1882 from Baltimore Medical College. He was in Cary by 1884 and married Rachel Jones, the granddaughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains, one of the earliest landowners in the area. Dr. Templeton had a large two-story home behind Cary Academy, facing what is now Kildaire Farm Rd.

As well as being a town doctor, he was appointed by the state to coordinate the planning of the “Great Central Highway” route through the area. We learned earlier that the 1^st five blocks of East Chatham Street were built as part of the project which re-routed this highway down Chatham instead of Railroad Street. He also served as President of the Wake County Good Roads Association. Dr. Templeton was a member of the Methodist Church and followed fellow Methodist Frank Page’s example of being a prohibitionist. He ran as a prohibition candidate for Congress and for governor of North Carolina. He served on the Board of Directors of Cary High School and was a member of the Cary School Committee. He also farmed AND owned a saw mill. Amazingly, he also served as a doctor in World War I at the age of 61.

His military uniform is on display in the Cary Museum at the Page Walker. His grave marker in historic Hillcrest Cemetery reads, “A country doctor who served his nation in the time of war, his community in the time of peace, the rich and poor alike,” a fitting tribute.

Now that we know about the marriage of Rachel Jones to Dr. Templeton, it’s an easy transition to talk about a little street that disappeared and has now reappeared in a slightly different spot in downtown.

Jones Street

One of Frank Page’s earliest land sales in Cary was to Rufus Henry Jones, the grandson of both Nathaniel Jones of White Plains and Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree.

Frank sold Rufus Jones Lot #1 in Cary in 1869 in the 200 block of W. Chatham Street. Jones Street ran beside the current day Barnes Family Properties office and then turned a sharp corner to join Academy Street. You can see the original location of Jones Street on the above map.

Rufus grew up in the area. His mother was Nancy Jones of the historic Nancy Jones house. He graduated from UNC in 1843 and established an early school in the area. In 1873, Frank Page sold a 1/3 interest in his Cary School to him, and he became principal of the school. Later, in 1886 Page sold his remaining interest in the school to Rufus’s daughters, Sarah and Loulie Jones. Rufus also had a very full civic life in addition to his contributions to education. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1848, was named a town commissioner on the original Cary Town Council in 1871, and was an early and influential member of the Methodist Church. Rufus also served as Wake County’s Superintendent of Common Schools and as a Wake County Commissioner. That’s just part of the history of this illustrious Jones family member. Jones Street on the north side of W Chatham Street disappeared when the Fidelity Bank took over the entire block and built their multi-story building and parking lot. But Jones Street has returned, close to its original location. Look for the street sign in front of the historic Ivey Ellington House.

As you navigate your way through and around downtown Cary, we hope you will look for these street signs and have a renewed appreciation for Cary's long history. We will continue this series soon with other street names that tell more of the story of Cary.

Herbfest-10 Years and Counting

PATRICIA FISH — Thu, 06 May 2021 15:03:32 GMT

Herbfest-10 Years and Counting

Eleven years ago in 2010, the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel’s Special Events committee worked on a plan to develop an event, featuring herbs, that would celebrate and promote the beautiful herb gardens located on the grounds of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center. The Board members readily supported the idea and Herbfest was born! The annual event is co-sponsored by the Friends and the Town of Cary and is held in early May. As Kris Carmichael, Operations & Program Supervisor-Historic Resources for the Town of Cary, wrote in a news release for our 2017 Herbfest: “The beautiful gardens at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center are a downtown treasure. While the historic center hosts other events, classes, and programs throughout the year, Herbfest highlights this green amenity and its educational herb garden when it is at its most beautiful-the spring.”

Our first Herbfest was hosted on May 15, 2010. We welcomed 10 vendors who sold herbs and a variety of garden-related crafts. Three other vendors offered herb-related demos, such as cooking with herbs and natural health & beauty aids. We initiated our plan to share and celebrate our Herb Gardens, which were named the Anne B. Kratzer Educational Gardens in 1995 in honor of the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel’s beloved founder and creator of the gardens, Anne Kratzer, with our guests at Herbfest. Volunteers from the Friends and the community co-maintain the garden with the Town of Cary (Please see Volunteer Opportunities on our website if you would like to become a garden volunteer). We asked Anne Kratzer, who served as the chairman of the garden committee for years, to have her volunteers available at the Herbfest to share information and answer questions about the herbs. Participation of these garden volunteers have provided a key contribution to the success of Herbfest every year. They also educate our guests about the historical significance of the Smokehouse that has proudly sat in the middle of the herb garden since 1977. The 1850’s Page Smokehouse is the only structure that remains from the homeplace of Allison Francis “Frank” Page, the founder of Cary. The Page home property was purchased by Frank and his wife, Catherine Raboteau in 1854, and was located on the present Cary Town Hall site.

There is little doubt why the Anne Kratzer Educational Gardens are a “Signature” component of Herbfest when you read Marla Dorrel’s (current chairman of the garden committee) following colorful description of our bountiful garden and what it means to have it included in Herbfest.

“Thanks to our dedicated corps of volunteer gardeners, the Anne B. Kratzer Educational Gardens share their beauty year-round. But it’s during Herbfest that we emphasize the educational aspect of the gardens. On that day, volunteers are on hand to answer questions and encourage visitors to explore all four of the garden categories: Culinary, Industrial, Medicinal, and Ornamental.

The Culinary bed holds many familiar herbs found in contemporary kitchens – oregano, rosemary, basil, and several varieties of thyme. Lesser-known Comfrey straddles the Culinary and Medicinal beds, an appropriate location of this plant that is used in salads and teas, but also heals infections, relieves bronchial problems, and gastric ulcers. Many of the plants throughout the garden have uses that fit multiple categories.

The Industrial bed offers several plants that were traditionally used to make dyes for textiles. Herbfest is the one day each year that you will find samples indicating the colors certain plants produce. One might question finding Chamomile in the industrial section. While we are most familiar with its use as a tea, it is located in our industrial bed due to its use as an insect repellent and yellow dye.

As visitors peruse the Medicinal bed, it may come as a surprise to find Beebalm, which most of us think as strictly ornamental. However, the garden brochure (available year-round at the gardens) tells us that this plant has been used to produce an infusion to treat coughs, sore throat, and nausea – who knew? The brochure also tells us that the soft leaves of Lambs Ears have antiseptic properties and have been used as bandages for minor wounds.

Ornamental beds give the gardens exceptional color and interest. At the time of Herbfest, they are just beginning to develop their blooms, reminding visitors to return throughout the summer as they put on a spectacular show. And keep an eye on the bamboo “teepee” closer to the street. This is the home of our ornamental Hyacinth Bean crop. Seedlings are carefully nurtured in volunteers’ homes until ready for planting. They might struggle at first, but late in the summer there will be lush vines and purple blooms, promising seed pods to gather in the fall.

Herbfest gives us the opportunity to educate, inform, and delight. We can’t imagine a better way to celebrate the arrival of spring.”

Anne B. Kratzer Educational Gardens

Following our first Herbfest, we sent notes to our vendors sharing that we had heard lots of praise from attendees about them. Anabela Anca Mendes, one of our vendors (Bela Imports) wrote: “I am still thinking about the Herbfest. It was a lovely event. When asked to make suggestions to improve the festival, Anabela wrote “Whichever direction you go it will be successful because you will make it pleasant to those attending”. Thanks to all of our vendors, volunteers, the staff at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, our community who attended the festival and our partner, the Town of Cary, who all made the festival such a huge success, the Friends were excited and ready to launch Herbfest as an annual event!

Over the next nine years, Herbfest has been celebrated each May. The beautiful grounds of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center in downtown Cary are covered with white tents where vendors sell items related to gardening, herbs, native plants, perennials, nature and cooking. Guests can stroll through these craft and herb booths and enjoy learning about herbs in the beautiful Anne Kratzer Educational Gardens. In addition to visits to the Gardens, over the years the Friends have added other key events at the festival. In 2011, in an effort to make the festival fun for all ages, we began offering an activity for children—deciding on a craft item that would be fun and would also serve to educate the kids about nature in tune with our festival theme. Jennifer Hocken, Program Specialist-Historical & Cultural for the Town of Cary, and a member of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center’s staff, is our lead for this activity. She chooses a craft each year that the kids will really enjoy; and with the festival always being held in early May, the crafts can also make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts. Over the years, kids have made Herb Buddies, butterfly seeded cards, lavender sachets and corn husk dolls to name a few.

Suzanne Tilton of Butterfly Lady LLC volunteered to be a participant in the festival in 2011. Suzanne’s company’s special interest is butterfly gardening and rare butterflies; and she offered to do a presentation for the children attending the festival— butterfly releases. The releases are such a special experience for everyone, children and adults alike, and, although the Butterfly Lady was not able to join us again, the committee discussed how the Friends might be able to host our own butterfly releases-an opportunity to create another “Signature” feature for Herbfest. We researched the option of ordering the butterflies online and found an ideal choice, Fragrant Acres Butterfly Farm located in Georgia. We have been so happy with this company that we have ordered from them every year since. We just order the number and type of butterflies we want and two special boxes in which the butterflies are shipped. Our order arrives at the Page-Walker the day before the festival where the boxes of butterflies must be kept in a cool environment (air-conditioned room or refrigerator). One and a half hours before each scheduled release, the box of butterflies is moved to a warmer environment (75-80 degrees) to prepare the butterflies to do their magic and take wing out of their box to everyone’s delight.

“Painted Lady” Butterfly

Our special hosts for the releases over the years have included Brent Miller, Lois Nixon and Kris Carmichael. Brent shares his Herbfest experiences and what the butterfly releases mean to him in the following: “It’s been an honor and joy to fill the role of the “The Butterfly Lady” and “Mr. Monarch” over the years at Herbfest. As you might know, for many years, we’ve performed two butterfly releases during Herbfest. We procure “Painted Lady” butterflies and then gather around the smokehouse in the Anne Kratzer Educational Gardens and release them after a short educational session about the life cycle of these amazing and beautiful creatures. It’s wonderful to see the butterflies take wing, but the best part about the event is watching the anticipation of the children as the butterfly box is opened and their sheer joy and amazement as the butterflies take wing, and occasionally land on someone!”

“The Butterfly Lady” -Releasing the Painted Ladies

For Herbfest 2019, we joined the Town of Cary’s initiative as the Town Council named 2019 as the “Year of the Monarch Butterfly” in Cary. The initiative featured the efforts from the National Wildlife Federation to challenge communities to get the word out about the threatened monarch butterfly. The Town took the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch pledge to increase native habitats and romote pollinator conservation in Cary. Herbfest joined this important commitment by dedicating our tterfly Releases to help educate our guests about the plight of Monarch butterflies, and the steps that ery household and community member can take to support the future survival of the Monarchs. We also commissioned local artist, Wade Carmichael, to design and create a beautiful set of butterfly wings to be worn by our release hosts. Brent Miller, aka Butterfly Lady, debuted the wings this year and became “Mr. Monarch” in honor of this year’s special designation.

For seven years, 2013-2019, the Friends sponsored a silent auction at Herbfest. Thanks to the generous efforts of Peggy Van Scoyoc and Nancy Ryan, the auction’s gracious hosts, the event was very successful. Peggy and Nancy worked tirelessly to create beautiful and unique garden-related items each year for the auction. Items such as birdcages, wind chimes, filled baskets, planters, decorative chairs and tiled tables, to name just a few, graced the auction stage each year. These elegant decorative and gift items adorn many homes in our community - a gracious and ongoing reminder of Herbfest!

A number of years ago, the Young Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel was created to engage teens in Cary by hosting new youthful events that incorporate the cultural arts and local history. The teens are under the advice and supervision of the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel. In order to raise funds for the teen organization’s events, the Young Friends hosted their first Bake Sale at Herbfest in 2015, and it has been a big hit every year – a fantastic addition to the festival. Tables are filled with luscious home- made baked goods-breakfast, snack and dessert delights. The Young Friends have used the proceeds they have earned over the years to sponsor their “Paint the Page” event for teens at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center.

During our 7^th annual Herbfest in 2016, we helped celebrate the opening of the new Pollinator Garden at the Page-Walker. The garden was created through a unique partnership between the Cary Woman’s Club, the Cary Garden Club, the Friends of the Page-Walker and the Town of Cary. It is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat that features native plants. Pollinators, including insects and animals, such as bees, butterflies, wasps and birds, are anything that helps carry pollen from one flower to the another. Almost all of our fruits, nuts and vegetables that we eat need pollinators to produce our food. Native plants are the best source of food for pollinators; and some of the plants in our garden include milkweed, goldenrod, butterfly weed, lantana, yarrow . columbine and aster. With some pollinators in decline, the Pollinator Garden not only provides an ideal habitat for pollinators to flourish, but also serves as an educational resource for the community. The partners of the garden “…hope you will learn and get ideas from our garden, and then consider planting a pollinator garden-even a small one-at your home to provide nectar and host plants for the pollinators that call Cary “home” “. Herbfest provides a wonderful opportunity each year to visit this special garden and learn all about the pollinators and their critical work from our garden volunteers.

Guests at Herbfest are treated to another special opportunity—a visit to the historic Page-Walker Hotel (now known as the Page-Walker Arts & History Center). Allison Francis (Frank) Page, the founder of Cary, built the hotel around 1868 to serve railroad passengers after the railroad tracks were built through Cary in 1854. This important building is located on the National Register of Historic Places. You are invited to tour the site by using the fact and picture filled self-guided walking tour brochures available in the Page-Walker. Your tour is not complete without visiting the Cary Heritage Museum located on the third floor. The museum chronicles the history of Cary using timeline exhibits and contains significant artifacts and many educational exhibits.

On May 4, 2019 Herbfest celebrated its tenth anniversary. The Friends are so grateful to everyone in the community that has contributed to the success and growth of the festival over the years; and we offer special thanks to all of our supportive vendors. Several of our vendors have joined us for years. Mildred and John Michael of J &M Garden Art have participated since our first festival in 2010. They create beautiful copper garden art and are located in Gibsonville, NC. You can learn more about their crafts on their Instagram account at Jandmgardenartshop. Carolyn Dean, owner of Lyn’s Garden Creations in Apex, NC, sells beautiful homemade cards, baskets and many garden inspired creations: www.lynsgardencreations.com Carolyn graciously shared her Herbfest experience in the following: “The Cary Herbfest is the Market that always creates an open, relaxed and educational environment for the entire family. We enjoy sharing and celebrating the community’s love of gardening. The leisurely day outdoors at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center creates a social vibe that a person can carry home and spread within their own garden—indoors and out. We so look forward to the 2022 Herbfest and visiting with our fellow gardeners again.” Sandra Reynolds, owner of Peak Olive Oil Co. in Cary, NC, sells an extensive variety of herbal olive oils and balsamic vinegars: https://peakoilcompany.com . Sandra shares her vendor experience in the following: “Herbfest as a vendor has meant community to me. It’s been a fun event to attend as a vendor but also as a customer. I enjoy seeing the different venues and wares. A nice variety of High quality plants and many gadgets and gizmos to browse through. The butterly release is always a hit for both kids and adults to experience. I enjoy seeing new and repeat customers and sharing experiences using fresh herbs and herbal olive oils and vinegars. We learn so much through community and Herbfest.”

We are excited and hopeful at the prospect of hosting our 11^th annual Herbfest in May, 2022. We look forward to welcoming back our vendors and sponsors and all of you, our community supporters. Please watch our website and follow our social media next spring for news about the festival. And we invite all of you to join us on the lovely grounds of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center next May to stroll through craft and herb booths, visit and learn about our beautiful herb and pollinator gardens, enjoy home-baked goodies at our Young Friends bake sale, and experience our must-see butterfly release. And we are especially excited about a new feature we plan to introduce to the festival next year—Trolley rides in downtown Cary. We invite all of you to help us celebrate the 11^th annual Herbfest!

Believe it or not, there were once grocery stores galore in downtown Cary

Peggy Van Scoyoc — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 21:20:13 GMT

In the past, Cary has been called “the little town that had nothing but grocery stores.” Here is why:

Cary’s founder, Frank Page and wife Catherine arrived in 1854, bought 300 acres of land with a house near the newly laid railroad tracks where Town Hall stands today. They converted the house into a home for their growing family. The following year, when there were only little more than 200 people living in the area, Frank built and opened the first general store, probably on Railroad Street, now called Cedar Street. By 1866, Frank had found a unique way of bolstering his store profits, by preserving the peaches from his trees and selling them.

Notice in the Daily Standard on January 26, 1866

Advertisement in the Daily Standard on January 26, 1866

Around the turn of the 20^th century, John Wesley Booth Jr. opened a general store on his farmland on Reedy Creek at Harrison Avenue, north of the Cary town limits. He and his family ran it for decades.

By 1900, when Cary’s population had grown to 316, another general store owned by Wiley Jones opened on Railroad Street. And soon after, Captain Guess and Mr. Cole opened their grocery store on the corner of Academy and Jones Streets.

The Scott brothers opened a grocery store in a wooden building at 123 West Chatham Street in the early 1900s. Years later, the Cary library was started in an upstairs room. That building was demolished in 1980.

Drawing of Scott’s Store at 123 W. Chatham Street, courtesy of Jerry Miller

The early 1900s was a boom time for grocery stores in Cary. Within a few decades, the Jones Brothers grocery store, M.J. Jones grocery store, J.H. Wilder grocery store, and W.T. Lynn grocery store all opened along Chatham or Cedar Streets. But by far, the largest general store of all was owned by the Gray brothers on the corner at 100 West Chatham Street and Academy Street, where the large Fidelity Bank is today. The store was the center of the community for four decades, until it closed in 1939.

By 1930, there were seven grocery stores open and operating on Chatham Street. Why so many grocery stores? Because, beginning with the Highway Act of 1921, U.S. 1 and 64, and later U.S. 70 and 54 as well fed into and down Chatham Street, right through Cary. Businesses sprung up all long Chatham Street for the motorists passing through, as well as gas stations and places to eat and spend the night. Remnants of those businesses still exist today.

At about the same time, Terrell’s Grocery Store was operating on Chapel Hill Road, across from the VFW building today. This store catered to many African American families in Cary. The building is no longer standing.

By 1950, Ken-Ben’s 5 & 10 store on the corner of Academy and Jones Streets continued to operate through 1960.

Cary’s 1939 telephone “book,” which was a one-page list, included Branton’s Groceries, Hobby’s Cash Grocery, and W.L. Rogers Grocery stores. These were the only ones with a listed telephone number.

Lemuel Rogers started his early career buying produce at Raleigh farmer’s market, then selling it all around the area from his pickup truck. In 1939, he then expanded and opened a grocery store at 107 W. Chatham Street, adjacent to Adams (now Ashworth) drugstore. Just two lots west of Rogers Grocery store, at 117 W. Chatham Street, was Hobby’s Cash Grocery store. Directly across the street, at 122 W. Chatham Street was Denning’s Market. So there were three grocery stores on the same block for a decade or so, all competing for the same customers.

Today at 105B W. Chatham is the door for the stairs to the second story above Ashworth Drugstore. Adjacent to the stairs is 107 W. Chatham Street, now Douglas Realty.

Billy Rogers, Lemuel’s son, was still a boy when he began delivering groceries on his bicycle that had a large basket in front. People would call the store, some on a daily basis, and put in an order to be delivered. Those customers lived as far as a bicycle could reach on the same day as the order. Lemuel carried credit for many of his customers by running up a tab for them that they would pay off at the end of the month when they got paid. When Herb Young was a boy, he caught rabbits and traded them for candy at Rogers’ store. He was not the only one to make such trades.

117 and 119 West Chatham Street, south side, today

Glenn Hobby had done very well during World War II, because he was able to attract more customers through allotments. He would put cartons and baskets of produce out on the sidewalk in front of his store at 117 West Chatham to attract customers. He was a good businessman. He later bought the lot on the southeast corner of Academy and Chatham Streets, moved the house where Mr. Catronis, the shoe repair shop owner, had lived and built the building where the Kitchen and Bath store is now. He leased it to Piggly Wiggly, and the first supermarket in Cary opened in June of 1950.

When Piggly Wiggly opened, Billy Rogers stood outside his father’s store trying not to cry as he watched all their customers cross the street to the new supermarket. Not long after, Lemuel Rogers sold his grocery store in 1952, and in 1954, he opened a restaurant down the street.

In the 1920s, G.H. Jordan opened a store at 122 West Chatham and Jones Streets. In 1941, he sold the store to Milton Denning who opened and ran Denning’s Market there until 1946, when he closed it due to failing health. In 1951, Milton’s son Joe bought the same building and opened his own store he called Grocery Boys. Joe and his wife Doris lived upstairs for years and had two of their three children, both sons, while living there. Since both Joe and Doris worked long hours in the store, they put a playpen behind the meat counter, where the boys could be watched by both parents and Grandpa Milton, who was their butcher.

Drawing of the original Grocery Boys store at 122 W. Chatham Street, courtesy of Jerry Miller

Right to left, 122, 124 and 126 West Chatham Street, north side, today

The Dennings also delivered groceries from phone-in orders, using their truck. They also carried credit for their customers.

Before 1958, Winn Dixie came to Cary and opened the second supermarket in the building at 220 W. Chatham Street where LaFarm Bakery is today. Then in 1958, Winn Dixie built a large building at 365 W. Chatham Street near the corner of Dixon Street. They moved from today’s LaFarm Bakery building two blocks west in August of 1958. That building no longer exists.

The News and Observer, August 5, 1958

In 1964, C.Y. Jordan built the building at 200 East Chatham Street, on the south side, where the Perfect Piece store is today. He leased the completed building to the A&P market.

200 E. Chatham Street when the A&P Opened in 1964

Finding themselves surrounded by supermarkets, Joe and Doris Denning realized that if they were going to stay in the grocery business, they needed to open one of their own. So in 1964, they bought the lot at to corner of Chatham and Maynard, and built a new building where the Patel Brothers are today. When completed, they moved Grocery Boys there as an expanded supermarket. They also ended carrying credit or making deliveries. Their gamble paid off, the store was a success.

While on vacation in Florida in 1966, the Dennings discovered what was called a “convenience store” there. Thinking this concept might work in Cary and be a successful second business of them, they built and opened one on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh near Rex Hospital that they called Grocery Boy Jr. It was one of the very first convenience stores in Wake County, and was an instant hit. Four more Grocery Boy Jr. stores soon followed, from 1967 to 1969.

In 1966, Joe and Harry Stephenson, owner of Cary Old Company, were friends. One day, Harry approached Joe with an idea to put a gas pump in front of his convenience stores. Joe agreed to give it a try, and the first pump was installed at the Grocery Boy Jr. on Blue Ridge Road. This initiative was also successful. Eventually over time, there were eighteen Grocery Boy Jr. stores scattered throughout Wake County, and each one had gas pumps out front. When Joe and Doris retired, their three children took over running the business.

GROCERY BOYS AD IN NEWS AND OBSERVER:

THE AD CONTINUES...

WE STARTED THE SIMPLE WAY, SMALL!

Dad, Milton Denning, started Denning’s Market in 1941, on the corner of N. Jones and Chatham Streets. In 1951, Joe Denning, a son, took over the store and ran the store until 1964, when smallness was no longer the way to go in the grocery business. Seeing that Cary was in the need for a locally owned supermarket, Joe and Doris Denning opened the GROCERY BOYS. This supermarket, located on the corner of Maynard Road and Raleigh Highway, has continued to grow and expand its service to its customers. In 1966, seeing that areas in Wake County were in need of a locally owned convenience store, Joe opened the first GROCERY BOYS JR. on Blue Ridge Road. This proved a good decision, and the second GROCERY BOY JR. was opened in the Macedonia area in 1967. With quick succession, three other GROCERY BOY JRs were opened… Number three on Lake Wheeler Road in 1968; Number four on the corner of Jones Franklin Road and Athens Drive in 1969, and Number five on Highway 64 East at Hodges Road in 1969.

Today, there are no grocery stores in downtown Cary.

Hot Dogs and History: From Uncle Bob's Corner to Ashworth's Drug Store

Carla Michaels — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 18:27:40 GMT

Known today as a destination for hotdog specials and old-fashioned lemonade and ice cream treats, the location where Ashworth's Drugstore currently sits started out as "Uncle Bob's Corner." Who was Uncle Bob and what was his corner? To answer these questions, let’s travel back to the early days of the town of Cary. Frank Page, the founder of Cary, bought much of what comprises downtown Cary in 1854 and started selling lots to local citizens and out-of-towners to develop and populate his new town. In 1879, Frank Page sold a prime corner lot at the intersection of Academy and Chatham Streets to a lady named Alice G Harrison, the wife of Robert J Harrison, owner of Harrison Wagon Company, inventor and future mayor of the town of Cary. The southwest corner of the intersection became the home of the Harrison family and was conveniently located close to the wagon works.

Over the years, the wagon company was wildly successful, with good quality wagons sold far and wide. However, the company eventually succumbed to the advent of the motor car. According to Tom Byrd’s “Around and About Cary”, “the company declined after 1900 and closed about 1913.”

That wasn’t the end for Robert J Harrison in Cary, though. Mr. Harrison ran a café and store on this corner in a two-story wood sided building that was built on the property that Alice Harrison had bought many years before. “Uncle Bob”, as he was known to students from Cary High School, was a popular figure at the school and in town. We don’t know how many years the café/store had been in existence, but it had been long enough to develop a loyal following among students at the school. A “sketch” from the 1917 CHSite yearbook of Cary High School describes him this way:

Soon after the sketch appeared in the CHSite, “Uncle Bob”, who had been a widower for a number of years, married a lady from Alamance County and moved away to live near Elon College. Harrison sold the property shortly after his marriage. The purchaser was J M Templeton, Jr, a son of the beloved town doctor, J M Templeton.

Harrison’s second marriage was of short duration and ended in his wife’s death in 1919. His only living child Robert C Harrison died in 1923. After these sad milestones, “Uncle Bob” went to live in the North Carolina Soldiers Home in Raleigh. He was admitted for residency on February 3, 1926.

North Carolina Old Soldiers’ Home

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Archives and History

He lived out his remaining days there, and he retained his genial nature to the end. He traveled across the south east attending Confederate Veterans conferences as far away as Biloxi, MS and Dallas, TX. He also stayed active while a resident at the Home and was known for selling North Carolina factory made socks in Raleigh, including at “State College”, now North Carolina State University. These two articles points out his enthusiasm for and pleasure in making sales, just as in “Uncle Bob’s” shop keeping days!

Because he was one of its oldest relatives near the end of the facility’s life (the home closed 1938), he was celebrated on his 85^th birthday along with two 90 year old veterans. Here are photos of Robert J Harrison, one taken in earlier days and one taken in 1928 of the three “birthday boys”! At age 85, Mr Harrison was a little grayer but still recognizable.

Robert Johnson Harrison died at the North Carolina Soldiers’ Home on February 8, 1933 and is buried in historic Hillcrest Cemetery in Cary near the son who predeceased him.

Before Harrison’s death in 1933, the Cary Masonic Lodge built its new building on the site of Uncle Bob’s Corner. A newspaper article from 1931 detailing the laying of the cornerstone for the new building mentioned that it was being “built on the ground where the home of R J Harrison formerly stood.” The article doesn’t make clear if the Harrisons had lived above the café/store or in a separate house on the site, but it does give a description of the new brick building:

Over the years, the property changed hands several times, eventually being purchased by Henry R Adams of Cary. Mr Adams was the son of J P H Adams and Cora Reavis Adams, long time citizens of Cary. He was educated at Cary Elementary School and Trinity Park School in Durham. Henry's sister, who owned a drug store in Durham, is said to have influenced his decision to study pharmacy. He studied in Massachusetts, and when he returned to Cary, he bought property on the southwest corner of Academy and Chatham to open his drug store. The drug store continued to be a local hang-out and source of employment for Cary High School students just as in Uncle Bob’s day. When Ralph Ashworth purchased the store in the late 1950s, he retained the soda fountain, which continues today to offer a walk down memory lane to a simpler time and place.

An added note: February 25, 2021

In reviewing the "Cary's 100th Anniversary" booklet today, I ran across this anecdote from Russell O Heater, who described Uncle Bob's Corner this way: "a rather tall building which was the usual type of soft drink joint and operated by old Uncle Bob Harrison - Mr. R J Harrison of the former Harrison Wagon Company. He operated this for a long time and it was the hang-out for the Cary High School boys who came down to the "pop joint" for their cold drinks... potted meat and crackers that came out of a barrel." This anecdote adds another level of detail that brings Uncle Bob's historic corner alive!

From the Friends of the Page Walker Hillcrest Cemetery Walking Tour brochure: "Russell O. Heater (Jan. 20, 1895-Jan. 10, 1971) was one of Cary’s earliest and most prolific developers, building Sunset Hills, Veteran Hills and Russell Hills. Known as “Mr. Cary”, he also started Heater Drilling Company, the Cary Recreation Corporation (now the Cary Swim Club) and served on the Cary Town Council and Wake County Commission. He was a leader in the Methodist Church, Boy Scouts and the Masonic Lodge. He tended Hillcrest cemetery for 25 years." Mr Heater knew firsthand the fun to be had in Uncle Bob's Corner.

Photo credits:

1. Photograph of Uncle Bob’s Corner – 1917 CHSite yearbook

2. Tribute to Robert J Harrison – 1917 CHSite yearbook

3. Photograph of North Carolina Old Soldiers’ Home courtesy of North Carolina Archives and History

4. Newspaper clipping #1 of Robert J Harrison as sock salesman from The News and Observer, Tuesday, June 26, 1928

5. Newspaper clipping #2 of Robert J Harrison as sock salesman from The News and Observer, Sunday, February 12, 1928

6. Photograph of Robert J Harrison taken from the publication “Cary’s 100th Anniversary”, official publication of the Cary Area Centennial Corporation, May 1971

7. Photograph of Robert J Harrison at age 85 from The News and Observer, Sunday, January 15, 1928

8. Photograph of Robert J Harrison grave marker – author’s own

9. Newspaper clipping of Masonic Lodge from The News and Observer, Wednesday, July 22, 1931

Find Hidden History Along Academy Street!

Kerry Mead — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 23:51:13 GMT

The Friends of the Page-Walker invite you to bring the entire family and find hidden history in downtown Cary this holiday season! AND - when you participate, you’ll have the opportunity to win a gift basket!

Steps:

Park your car in the library parking deck and stretch your legs as you walk along Academy Street and hunt for history! All hidden history sites are outside along Academy Street, between Chatham and Dry Streets, in downtown Cary.
Use the following Challenge clues to find each site.
Take a selfie with the site.
Post the photo to your Facebook page and be sure to tag @pagewalkerhotel and #pagewalker to be added to the drawing! For each post you correctly make, you will be entered to win an extra time.

Posts must be made by 9 p.m. on January 3rd to qualify for the drawing. Each correct posting and tag enters you into the drawing to win the gift basket. Good luck!

Challenge 1
From the park, glance behind the 1925 house of brick
Built for Dr. Hunter’s family.
Catch a glimpse of times gone by
Where chickens ruled the roost.

Challenge 2
Behind a white picket fence,
A doctor’s office with two side doors,
a sign of divided times.
One is still a door, the other now a window.

Challenge 3
A federal building when it was built,
Opened in 1965 and reopened in 1988,
While mailing a letter, take your photo with two presidents.

Challenge 4
Home to many businesses,
From doctor’s office to library
To tasty sandwich shop,
This charming little date spot has cozy brick walls.

Challenge 5
The group that built this 1931 building,
Served the town before it was a town.
Secret handshakes were exchanged here.
Look high to find the letter G.

Board Members Share Their Favorite Cary Christmas Memories

Kerry Mead — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 15:59:41 GMT

Some of our Friends of the Page-Walker board members share their favorite Cary Christmas memories:

Anne Kratzer:
For the past 29 years, the Open House at the Page-Walker and the lighting of the Cary Holiday Tree have been favorite memories of mine.

The magnificent star-filled evening of December 8, 1991 featured the dedication of the first floor of the newly restored Page-Walker Arts & History Center followed by the Cary Holiday Tree Lighting. Strains of Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus went through the minds of the Friends of the Page-Walker as they prepared for the first open house. Mike Thompson, on behalf of the Cary Town Center, donated a tree for the gallery which was trimmed by the Friends with handmade Victorian ornaments. The Lady Slipper Garden Club helped the Friends decorate the mantles and windows in the gallery and parlor, and art works by the Cary Arts Guild graced the walls. Carolers and a brass quartet, under the direction of Larry Speakman, added a Dickensian flavor. After a moving devotion by Dr. Harvey Duke and speeches by Wayne Mingis, representing Town staff, Mayor Koka Booth, Representative David Price, former Mayor Harold Ritter, and Myrick Howard of Preservation NC, summarized the pride that all felt with the culmination of a long, but very worthwhile effort. In the words of our Town founder and builder of the 1868 Hotel, Allison Francis Page, “Well done, my friends.”

The Holiday Open House tradition has continued. A warm, welcoming, beautifully decorated historic treasure filled with stunning artwork by Cary residents, holiday music and delicious treats welcomes Cary visitors. And recently, the evening is topped off with Brent Miller donning his top hat to assist visitors onto the horse and carriage rides. What could be finer?!!

Bryan Craddock:
I remember buying the family Christmas tree at the Cricket Texaco gas station in downtown Cary. There was a small grassy area between the gas station and E. Chatham St., and the Texaco station sold beautiful Fraser fir trees there for about $6 each. I can remember the string of clear light bulbs that would stretch overhead, to illuminate the tree lot. As a child, it was magical to run around, in between the trees, checking them all out. And as soon as we bought a tree and took it home, we would sit the tree in a bucket of water to keep it fresh.

I remember riding around Cary, looking at yard and house decorations about a week before Christmas. It was a tradition to load up the car with a few family members, and play Christmas music as we rode around town. If we had time, we would drive over to Capitol City Lumber Co., near the fairgrounds, to see the Santa and reindeer wooden cut-outs on top of their warehouse.

And I certainly remember the early years, back in the 1970s, when almost everyone in Cary put out luminaries on Christmas Eve. It was beautiful to see all those candles in the little white bags along the neighborhood roads. It reminded me of an airport runway! And I'm pretty sure that on more than one occasion, we turned our car headlights off, as we drove around checking out the lights. Of course, the bags/candles had to be cleaned up on Christmas morning - but that was a small price to pay for such beauty on Christmas Eve.

Barb Wetmore:
I have had the good fortune to live in the Trapper's Run neighborhood near Bond Park where for the past 25+ years, our friends and neighbors the Freemans, have been drawing visitors and spreading cheer with a light show that rivals the Griswolds! They have amassed a large collection of holiday lawn decorations, including traditional vintage figurines in the form of lovely angels and cheery snowmen and some more modern not-so-traditional decorations in the form of an inflatable, singing fish and my favorite, the green alien. I earned the special privilege of placing the alien for many years and looked forward to the day I got the call, “Barb, the alien is waiting for you!” What fun to find a place for this unusual Christmas misfit in the holiday landscape, sometimes hanging out in a circle of lit-up Santas, sometimes posing as a caroler singing along with the plastic choir boys beneath the plastic lamp post. The Freemans have been written up many years for having one of the most lit up yards in Wake County. You can get a glimpse of the twinkling wonderland in this 2017 video story from WRAL: https://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/17186625/.

Another holiday activity I am adding to my Christmas memory bank (and missing this year) is annual attendance at the "White Christmas" movie at The Cary. You cannot spend a couple of hours with Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby in spectacular technicolor on the big screen, throwing “snow” confetti in the air every time the word snow is mentioned, jingling a bell every time the word Christmas is mentioned, and singing along with the audience to “I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas” and not come out of the theater filled with tremendous Christmas spirit! It gets me every time! I love it!

I also remember Christmas shopping and taking my kids to see Santa at the Cary Village Mall. There were days you could not find a parking spot and the traffic waiting to get into the mall parking lot would be backed up down Walnut St. all the way to where Cookout is now! After we visited Santa at the Cary Village Mall, we'd head over to see his reindeer at South Hills Mall. I'm talking about real reindeer! Living, breathing reindeer! That was something very unique. And while there, we liked to go inside and watch the model trains.

Of course, there are the horse and carriage rides at the Page-Walker Holiday Open House, with horses wearing Santa hats clip-clopping around Ambassador Loop. And the Christmas parade through downtown. And finally, I remember my young husband and my young self attending the very first Cary Christmas tree lighting ceremonies in the early-to-mid 1980s. There was no entertainment then, no Cary Town Band, just a group of Cary citizens, joining together in song like the Whos down in Whoville. In particular, I remember one tree lighting ceremony when we all held lit candles while we sang. Here's where my memory fails me. I want to say we were holding a vigil in honor possibly of the Iranian hostages, but I am not at all certain of that and 1980 seems a bit early. If anyone reading this remembers that candle-lit tree lighting ceremony, please reach out and let us know when it was and for whom we lit the candles! Thank you.

Jimmy Gibbs:
My favorite memories are still visiting friends’ homes on Evans Road and looking at their Christmas decorations and tasting their homemade desserts. My aunt Ann lived on Ferrell Street and made cookies and cakes; it was always fun to stop by during the holidays to visit. Our holiday tradition for over 45 years was spent with The Burt Family who lived on Boundary Street on Christmas Day for a day of eating and relaxing, they in turn spent Thanksgiving at our home.

Carla Michaels:
I was blessed growing up in Cary in the 1950s and 1960s. My three living grandparents lived on East Chatham Street, and virtually all my other relatives lived in the one square mile that was Cary long ago. So it's natural that family Christmas celebrations revolved around these nearby relatives. One of the family highlights of the season was the birthday celebration of my paternal grandmother, Annie Beasley Jordan, who was born on Christmas Eve. The Jordan family gathered for a Christmas dinner in the early evening of Christmas Eve to celebrate the double occasion of "Nana's" birthday and the anticipation of Christmas Day itself. In preparation for Christmas, although not seen in this photo, the fireplace mantle was decorated at both ends with matching Christmas trees made from multi-colored, round glass ornaments of graduated sizes threaded onto a long upright metal spear. With greatest care, Nana and I would thread the ornaments onto the spear, one by one, starting with the largest balls and working our way up to the top and ending with a glass finial. What a joy to share that time with my beloved Nana.

Going back another generation in the Jordan family, my great grandmother Ida Yates Jordan and her daughter Lily Jordan decorated this freshly cut cedar tree in Ida's home on Railroad Street (now Cedar Street), probably cut from land Ida owned in the area. Her house was located on the Bond Brothers Brewery property. The cedar tree is dripping with tinsel and presents are already piled under the tree. I remember coating our family trees with tinsel, each family member having his or her own technique, ranging from placing each single strand carefully on the branches all the way to draping handfuls of tinsel at the time! Does anyone put tinsel on their trees any more?

Kerry Mead:
Christmas in Cary started for me in the 1980s, when I would travel to Cary every year to visit my in-laws. From that very first Christmas, I helped light the luminaries in front of my in-law’s house, a tradition that my mother-in-law said started in 1973 with my husband’s Boy Scout Troop, #208. When we moved to Cary in the 1990s, we started lighting luminaries in front of our house, too, and have done it every year since. I especially love seeing the lights stretch down the street, the candlelight dancing in each bag. 2020 will be the first year we haven’t had luminaries, with our local Troop skipping this year due to Covid. https://www.caryliving.com/a-tradition-burns-bright

Another fond Christmas memory I have is volunteering at Cary Towne Center at the Cary High School Marching Band gift wrapping booth. Both of our children were in marching band, so we had many opportunities to participate. What I loved the most about this were the folks that specifically came by the booth to support the band, having either had children in the band or were past band members themselves. We would even have folks stop by and simply donate money, without having any gifts wrapped. Sadly, the mall is closed now, so these memories are a thing of the past.

And finally, what would Christmas in Cary be without the Jaycees’ Christmas Parade each year?! We started taking our children to the parade when they were toddlers, and they both participated in the parade as they went through Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Boy Scouts, and Marching Band. Many years, we would come home with pockets stuffed with candy thrown by parade participants. We even brought home a CD of Christmas music that was thrown by a float one year!

John Loyack:
My favorite Christmas memories come from the open house held at the Page-Walker Hotel each year. The Hotel is always covered in its Christmas finest, both inside and out. The scent of warm cider hits you as you enter the Hotel. Children and parents go from room to room discovering this historic treasure and enjoying goodies and fun activities. Out on the front porch, visitors line up for an authentic horse drawn carriage ride and listen to Brent Miller as he shares stories of the founders of the hotel and the history of Cary. On occasion, we even receive a bit of snow during the event which makes things seem even more festive. Those are my favorite memories of Christmas in Cary.

Pat Sweeney:
Life in Cary during the 1950s was pretty typical of small towns around all the major urban areas of the state and, I dare say, the country. Times and culture would morph through that decade as the returning military men began their new lives in the postwar period. Military service broadened all eyes and minds to the diversity and ingenuity of life in all parts of our country and the world at large. Lifestyles, manners and mores were seen anew due to the cross-cultural experiences the war brought to all. And, of course, the ballooning of science and technology that hastened globalization was "Pandora's Box" that continues to give the world new vistas and visions...much of the excitement was centered around Raleigh in the 40s and 50s. We were just a little town then but we had lots of special times.

My dear friend, Anne Turner Bland, (a picture of her Grandmother's hosue - the house she grew up in - hangs in the Page-Walker, I think) gives a super description of Cary Christmases in the 1940s/50s.

Pat's friend, Anne Turner Bland:
Much of my Cary memories were church related. I don’t know when we had a parade in Cary...too much competition for Raleigh. There were bags of goodies passed out by Santa that consisted of oranges, apples, candy, and nuts. This was at our church...am not sure what the Methodists did. Back then, there were only two churches in Cary.

We had Christmas caroling up and down the streets. Both churches got together in the school auditorium and sang carols, then we walked down to the small town hall and had the lighting of the Christmas tree in the yard of the hall. Then we had goodies, I'm sure.

I recall the arrival of Santa via helicopter in Devereux Meadow in Raleigh, and a mainstay was Santa and his sleigh and reindeer on top of the Capitol Lumber Company building across from the state fairgrounds. It was there for many years.

Then of course, there was the special sleepover at my house. With everyone on the floor...lots of Krispy Kremes! I loved that time...we drew names...I can still recall who got my name and what I got!! So many special times at my house. Mother didn’t cook except at Christmas time.

Lots of people came by to check the tins of fudge, date nut bars, ice box fruitcake, wedding cookies, chocolate dipped nuts, and more. It was such a fun time at our house.

These are the things I recall without going into presents. I was always amazed at your parents giving you money for after Christmas sales. That must have been fun!

Well that’s all I can recall for now. Always the Raleigh Christmas parade was never missed. Our grandmother took us to it every year. June and I loved it, especially the jolly old Saint Nick who was always the last in the parade. Many years, it was really cold, but we never missed it due to the weather.

As for decorations in Cary, I never remember them...don’t think we had them when we were little. I do recall the main middle Christmas display at Ivey Taylor’s.....it was Shirley temple playing an organ...not real of course. She was so pretty.

Top Ten Cary Christmas Memories

Kerry Mead — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 20:45:57 GMT

For a walk down memory lane, check out these top Cary Christmas memories we rounded up from Cary residents.

1. Luminaries

One of the most beloved Cary traditions, a local Boy Scout Troop started the Cary luminaria tradition here in 1973, a time when Cary was much smaller, and neighborhoods worked together to light luminaries in front of their homes. These magical lights have been lining our streets on Christmas Eve ever since. In addition to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and American Heritage Girl troops now participate in this annual tradition.

https://www.caryliving.com/a-tradition-burns-bright

2. REINDEER AT SOUTH HILLS

Starting in 1989 and continuing throughout the 1990s, a live reindeer exhibit became a big part of Cary family Christmas traditions. Five reindeer (with antlers!) travelled all the way from Oregon each year to delight area residents. As South Hills Mall became known as the place with the reindeer, the mall created a mascot, and Rodney the Reindeer was born!

https://www.wral.com/when-cary-had-reindeer-memories-from-cary-s-first-mall/19095222/

3. Tom’s Train Station at South Hills

While at South Hills Mall to see the reindeer, families would then walk inside to Tom’s Train Station to see the miniature trains on display there! Tom’s was open from 1997 until 2015, delighting young and old alike.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/cary-news/article10328081.html

4. Downtown Fountain Light Display

Lit red and green for Christmas, the water fountain in the town’s new downtown park is quickly becoming a must-see Christmas tradition. The park plaza and fountain were built and opened in 2017.

https://www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/parks-greenways-environment/parks/downtown-park

5. Jaycees’ Cary Christmas Parade

Started in 1979, the Jaycee parade has been a not-to-be-missed Christmas activity on the second Saturday in December of each year. Filled with local dance groups, Boy Scout troops, marching bands, and businesses, this is a favorite of families with children, who have fun catching candy being thrown by passing floats. Once Santa has passed, you know the parade has ended and it’s time to head home, pockets stuffed with candy. This year, the parade went virtual!

https://www.caryjaycees.org/parade

6. Cary Tree Lighting

Cary got its first official Christmas tree in 1984. The 37-foot cedar was lit on December 13 of that year. Ever since, Cary has held a special tree lighting event featuring local talent to kick off the holiday season. This year, the Friends of the Page-Walker’s very own board member, Brent Miller, honored with the Hometown Spirit Award this year, had the privilege of lighting the tree.

Watch the 2020 virtual tree lighting here: https://archive.org/details/tocnc-Town_of_Cary_Virtual_Christmas_Tree_Lighting

7. Victorian Christmas at the Page-Walker

Our beloved Page-Walker Arts & History Center in downtown Cary, is well-known for its annual Christmas celebration that includes Victorian carolers and horse-led carriage rides. The Victorian Christmas began as a Holiday Open House in 1991, once the restoration of the Page-Walker was complete, and is held in conjunction with the annual Christmas tree lighting on the Town Hall campus each year.

Although cancelled for 2020, check out the Victorian Christmas at the Page-Walker webpage in 2021 for next year’s celebration: https://www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/events/holiday-events/heart-of-the-holidays-celebration/page-walker-holiday-open-house

8. Cary Theater’s “White Christmas” Sing-a-long

Started in 2014, this popular sing-a-long was started to make a classic Christmas movie into a fun, interactive, community-based event. Each participant gets a “goodie” bag with snow, Christmas bells, a song-booklet and a candy cane. Participants get a run-down of the instructions before the film starts and the patrons take it from there! This event has become a yearly staple at The Cary and we have enjoyed seeing multi-generational attendance. The joy and laughter on people’s faces has truly been magical. Although the sing-a-long is canceled for 2020, there are holiday movies The Cary is streaming this holiday season.

https://thecarytheater.com/events/

9. The Gifting Tree Project

Have you noticed the many beautifully decorated Christmas trees along Academy Street in downtown? Local families, schools, and organizations compete in this fun event each year to win a donation they give to a nonprofit organization. The Gifting Tree Project is in its ninth year this year!

https://www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/events/holiday-events/heart-of-the-holidays-celebration/gifting-tree-project

10. NC Chinese Lantern Festival

Beginning in 2015, area residents have enjoyed Chinese lantern lights at Booth Amphitheater. Although Booth Amphitheater is closed this year due to Covid, a number of these beautiful lanterns are available for you to see for free, spread out throughout downtown Cary!

https://carycitizen.news/2020/12/09/the-chinese-lantern-festival-has-landed-in-downtown-cary

NC Chinese Lantern festival, 2016

Before There Was Cary, There Was Cary High School

Carla Michaels — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 15:46:07 GMT

As we approach the upcoming 150^th anniversary of Cary’s founding on April 3, 2021, it may come as a surprise to many that classes at Cary High School started before the town was incorporated in 1871! Today, Cary High School stands at the intersection of Walnut Street and Maynard Road, but Cary High School’s origin was the “school lot”, now known as the Cary Arts Center. Let’s explore this important piece of property in Cary’s history.

“The Early Years”

Let’s look at the history of this significant property by exploring the three school buildings that have educated children on this site. We’ll start with the first building, a wooden structure that served as the school building from 1871 to 1913. To set the stage, prior to 1870, children were taught in the home, at small “common schools” dotted around the county to teach the “Three R’s”, or, for students whose parents had some means to pay, at small, local academies. It took the vision, land and building materials of Frank Page, the founder of Cary, to construct a proper schoolhouse in Cary itself “on four acres of land…well shaded by a grove of oaks.” The site of this original school house is now known as the Cary Arts Center.

A newspaper advertisement, dated December 1869, announced the first session of Cary High School in January 1870. The principal is shown as Abraham Haywood Merritt, a graduate of the University of North Carolina. Merritt was the brother-in-law of Rufus H. Jones, who was one of the original town commissioners and a colleague of Frank Page. Professor Merritt was on the Board of Trustees of the Methodist Church in Cary and also served as an original town commissioner, so he would have been well known and approved of by Frank Page to head the school in Cary. Frank Page’s children, most notably Walter Hines Page, future United States Ambassador to England during WW I, attended the school.

The two story, four room wooden school house was finished in January 1871 to accommodate ongoing classes. We know from early Cary history that the economic downturn of 1873 affected Frank Page financially and that he left Cary for the Moore County pine forests to remake his fortune. As he was making the transition to Moore County, Page sold a 1/3 interest in the school to his colleague Rufus Jones. Continuing the Page family influence at the school during this time was Frank’s brother, Rev. Jesse Page, who served as principal from 1873 to 1877.

The school’s goal from the beginning was to provide “a “high grade” education, firm discipline and thorough instruction”, but in these early years, the school appeared to search for an identity. Early on, the school was advertised at various times as a combined male and female school, a female school, a female seminary, and a Teachers Institute.

The early years also saw a number of principals. Rev. Solomon Pool, a former president of the University of North Carolina served as principal for several years in the early 1880s. Other principals we know of are Rev. W. B. Bagwell of Wake County, and Professor W. L. Crocker, a graduate of Wake Forest College. By 1886, the Jones family had purchased the remaining school property from Frank Page. Loulie and Lily Jones, daughters of Rufus Jones and both graduates of Greensboro College, ran or taught at the school in the 1890s. Although we know the names of many of the principals, the exact years that some of them served are lost to time. In the 1920 CHS yearbook, the student editors noted that the earliest records of the school were preserved largely by tradition.

Stability came to the school with the arrival of Professor E. L. Middleton. He came highly recommended for the position after successful tenures at the Wilson Male Academy and Durham Female Institute, and his arrival coincided with the purchase of the school by a board of stockholders from the Jones Family. The school was officially incorporated at this time by the State of North Carolina on July 24, 1896. Professor Middleton was the leading force at Cary High School from 1896 to 1908. His energy and enthusiasm for high quality education increased the school’s growing reputation. As the reputation of the school grew, so did the student body. Classroom wings expanded the physical size of the school, and dormitories were added on campus to accommodate boarding students from outside the Cary area. Professor Middleton was keen to develop not only the intellect of his students but their moral character as well. Catalogs of the day indicate that although it was not a sectarian school, a “broad and liberal Christian spirit (was) encouraged”.

Professor Middleton was the leading force at Cary High School from 1896 to 1908. His energy and enthusiasm for high quality education increased the school’s reputation. However, he had a passion for establishing Sunday Schools in Baptist churches, so he left the high school to become the first Sunday School Secretary of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. His departure ushered in a new era for Cary High School. In 1908, Marcus Baxter Dry was selected as the next principal of Cary High School.

Before we explore Professor Dry’s tenure, here is a photograph of the first school building, the wooden one, near the end of its life. The school not only provided a superior education for its students, but it was a gathering place for the community. Picnics and barbecues were regular events at the beginning of school terms, and important visitors to the town used the school as a large venue to perform or speak in.

Have any of you ever heard of Noodles Fagan? Let me tell you his remarkable story and his visit to Cary. His given name was Lawrence Clinton Fagan, and he had an impoverished childhood in the Bowery of New York City. He started out at a young age selling newspapers on the street. One day a charitable person bought him a bowl of noodle soup which he promptly spilled down his coat. That earned him the nickname “Noodles”. His circumstances didn’t hold him back, though. He became a successful newspaper seller and went on to own real estate, several newspaper stands, and even became a vaudeville star. His goal was to speak to every child in America with this message: be polite, be honest, and hustle (which I take to mean work hard). Don’t miss one school session, don’t drink, don’t chew, keep your hands clean and your character clean. He traveled around the world three times, met King Edward of England, King Alfonso of Spain, and President Taft.

A previously undated photo of the school in the Cary High School Archives has recently been discovered to commemorate Noodles' visit to Cary in 1912. In this close up view of the photo, he was surrounded by delighted children. In many early school photos, children wear stoic faces, but in this photo their faces are beaming, as is Noodles’. Even Professor Dry has a smile on his face! What a day for those lucky schoolchildren to remember.

Now let’s turn our attention to the longest serving principal of Cary High School, Professor Marcus Baxter Dry. Mr. Dry was born in 1871 on his father’s farm in Union County in western North Carolina. He attended Wake Forest College and returned to Union County to serve as principal for 12 years of the newly established Wingate High School. In 1908, when Professor E. L. Middleton retired from Cary High School, Professor Dry was elected to replace him. Under his direction, Cary High School rose to prominence in the state.

“A Modern Brick Building”

The wooden building that had served the school so well for 40 years became outmoded and inadequate for the growth and expansion of school programs. Professor Dry wrote a letter to the Wake County School Board appealing for a new, modern, school building. The wooden structure came down and the first brick building was built in its place. Work started in the fall of 1913 and the new building was dedicated in April 1914. Quite a turnaround!

One newspaper article recounted the that the building had “every whim of modernity”. The article went on to say that the original 4-room schoolhouse had been renovated or extended 12 times. It had definitely served its purpose. However, not all was lost! Part of the old building was upcycled to become part of the boys’ dormitory. During its long history, it’s fortunate that the wooden school building itself never burned. However, fire destroyed the wooden boys’ dormitory in 1916. When the new brick dormitory was built, the boys acted with gallantry and turned over their new home away from home to the female students. In 1920, a dormitory of similar design was built for the boys who had been housed among local families.

Professor Dry was a firm believer in quality education that suited the student, not a “one size fits all” approach. He believed in superior academic training and college prep for students who wanted to go on to further their education after high school, but he also recognized the importance of vocational education to equip young men and women to work in their communities. Because the new school building had space to grow, Professor Dry created several vocational departments in the next few years, the most notable being the Farm Life School.

Even the space in the new brick school building proved inadequate for the expansion of the curriculum. By the early 1920s, a vocational building was built through a local bond issue that the town fully embraced. It was named for Walter Hines Page, Cary’s most famous son who believed in “the free public training of both the minds and hands of every child born of woman”. Around the same time, a full commercial department was instituted, with six manual typewriters representing the high tech instruments of the day.

For a short while, Dry introduced teacher training at Cary High School to meet the increasing need for teachers in Cary and beyond, but the program was phased out when colleges in the state were able to train teachers in sufficient quantity to meet demand. Dry also pioneered vocational training for mentally handicapped children. His "Betterment Association”, forerunner of the Parent-Teacher Association, enabled him to provide hot lunches for children. Other programs he instituted include: student council, public school music and band, and physical education (establishing the first rural high school gymnasium in the state). School ledgers from the 1920s show that young men and women from outside the county and from as far away as Virginia and South Carolina attended the school along with local children. Under Dry’s direction, Cary High School became a model for the development of North Carolina's public school system in the 1920s. It’s entirely appropriate that the street that runs in front of the former Cary High School is named for this champion of education, Marcus Baxter Dry.

The big event of 1929, the stock market crash and the ensuing Depression brought challenges to the school. The high school yearbooks, which are important sources of details about student life, were discontinued and didn’t resume until after WWII. School newspapers tried to fill the gap, but few exist from this time period, so our understanding of school life during these hard years is limited.

The community pulled together to help each other through the hard times, and the school played a central role. The Fall Festival, a community event like a mini-fair, with exhibitions and judged competitions, offered a source of entertainment and community involvement to Cary-ites. Local businesses sponsored the printed booklet, which records businesses of the time. Here is the cover to one of the booklets and some advertisements naming local businesses. The cover features a likeness of the Templeton Gymnasium, named For Dr. James M Templeton, a respected local doctor and member of the School Committee.

The high school’s character began to change with the introduction of school buses in the county. Here is a photo of the wood sided buses all lined up, waiting to transport students.

Because bus transportation allowed former boarding students to attend new regional schools closer to home, enrollment at the high school consisted mainly of local students, and by 1933 the dormitories closed. The girls’ dormitory, which had been named the Frank Page dormitory, was converted into “The Teacherage” that had apartments for married teachers and single rooms for unmarried teachers.

“A Bigger and Better Building”

To help communities struggling through the Depression, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, funded projects around the country, and this program funded yet another school building for Cary. The school had outgrown the first brick building, and the Federal Government stepped in to build what is now known as the Cary Arts Center. The old brick building was razed with a wrecking ball in 1938 and all the students were squeezed into existing buildings for the duration of construction. A rare construction photo shows work on the building that now houses studios and ceramics kilns in the basement and classrooms and exhibition space in the upper floors. In the background is the teacherage on the left and Professor Dry’s house on the right. Because of ongoing construction, the 1939 graduation exercises were held in various venues throughout the town.

A photo of the 1939 graduating class on the steps of First Baptist Church on Academy Street signals the make-do efforts of the school. In a newspaper article, J. M. Broughton, who was running for governor, came to deliver the commencement address at the church for the graduating class. He made his speech, which he thought was a good one, and sat down. There wasn’t the faintest suggestion of applause, so he thought his speech had flopped. Later, as he observed the graduates receiving their degrees without any audience response, a school board member whispered that an unwritten rule of the church was that absolute decorum was to be observed. No clapping in the sanctuary! It is said he swore off making commencement speeches in Baptist churches from that day forward.

The new brick school building was eventually finished, and in the dedication address, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction said in his knowledge Mr. Dry was the only man who had literally worn out a school building!

Not long after the new building was completed, America was shaken by Pearl Harbor and our country's entry into WW II. A number of Cary High School graduates answered the call of their country; some did not return. The Cary VFW post is named after two men from the area who died during the war. One was William Perry Sloan, Class of 1937 and another, Carl E Franklin. From the school archives, a poignant letter accompanied by a newspaper clipping from Iva Stuckey, mother of David Stuckey, a 1941 CHS graduate who lost his life in the South Pacific in 1943 reads:

My dear Mr. Cooper, I am mailing under separate cover the flag presented to me at the re-burial service of my son, Private David Warren Stuckey. I consider it an honor and a privilege to thus pay tribute to Cary High School in memory of my son who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. Yours very truly, Mrs. Iva A Stuckey. The newspaper clipping gave details of the many awards that Stuckey received for his service. It is unclear what happened to the flag, but we have a record of Private Stuckey’s gallantry and courage to inspire and move us all these years later.

In 1942, another era came to an end when Professor Dry stepped down as principal of the high school. He served for 34 years in Cary and 51 total years in education. It is hard to overstate the impact he had on education in Cary. His innovative approach to academic and vocational training was admired and copied across the state. Here is an image of Professor Dry in the student newspaper, the Echo, at the end of his long career. With his passion for education, he couldn’t stay out of the classroom! He continued to teach until he developed health issues in 1944. He passed away January 1946 and is buried at Historic Hillcrest Cemetery.

The school continued to educate and graduate students during the war years, but by 1944, enrollment had dropped to its lowest point in about 30 years. However, after the war ended, life at school and in the community gradually returned to normal. Over the next 10 years, enrollment almost doubled. The yearbook resumed publication in 1945, and in 1948, the name of the yearbook was changed to YRAC, and that name has stuck through the years.

After Professor Dry retired, two men assumed the principalship of CHS in rapid succession: Thaddeus Frye and Earl R Franklin, who had been a student, teacher and assistant principal at the school. Paul W Cooper was selected as the next principal, and he served from 1948 to 1967.

To round out the high school years on this property at the head of Academy Street, let’s focus on three teachers who served the school and school children for many years. The first is Miss Irma Ellis, the granddaughter of Henry B Jordan, a trustee of the Methodist Church, founding Cary Town Councilman, and a mayor of Cary. “Miss Irma” attended the State Normal College, now UNC-G, for teacher training and began her teaching career in Cary in 1907. She retired in 1950 at the age of 70, having had an impact on virtually every child in Cary who entered first grade here. Along with her work with children at the Methodist Church, which extended past her retirement as a school teacher, she influenced countless children in Cary. Known both as a strict disciplinarian and beloved teacher, many long time Cary residents still remember her.

Rufus Sheldon “Dad” Dunham was another long serving teacher. He was from Bladen County, graduated from NC State in 1930 and worked as a teacher of agricultural studies at CHS for 40 years. He didn’t change much over the years and it’s apparent why he was nicknamed “Dad”! Not only was he a respected teacher at the school, but he was a deeply admired Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church. He was also known for a dry sense of humor! PTA minutes from 1953 tell that “Mr. Dunham acted as Master of Ceremony and “in clever doggerel introduced each teacher.”! His wife Rachel, a former boarding student at Cary, married “Dad” after she returned to Cary after teacher training. The Dad Dunham Park on Walnut street was named in his honor.

Another teacher who had enormous impact on students was Claire Marley, who taught junior and senior English and dramatics. Senior class plays were a community highlight each year. Mrs. Marley involved all her students in some capacity, both on and off the stage.

The costumes, sets AND the programs were designed with amazing detail. The Flora McDonald play from 1951 had a hand colored cover and was cut in the shape of a book. The program for "The Robe" had original student art work on the cover. Both attest to the care and creativity Mrs. Marley instilled in her students.

Cary High School has long been known for its excellent music program. From its earliest days, piano and violin instruction were part of the curriculum. In 1922 a marching band was established. According to minutes of the school committee, the committee granted band members “the privilege of selling refreshments at commencement” in 1923 to raise money for equipment.

Under the direction of band directors Harold Burt, Jack White and Jimmy Burns, the marching band gained local, national, and international acclaim. Harold Burt was hired as an Industrial Arts teacher and began the band program part time. He taught at Cary for five years before replicating his success at numerous other schools in Wake and Johnston Counties. He was known as Cary’s “Music Man”. Jack White, a jazz trumpet player and charismatic band leader, went on to serve as the Elon College band director until his retirement. Mr. White won numerous local awards for his service to the school and community, and he began a Cary tradition known as Cary Band Day in the late 1950’s. Jimmy Burns built on Jack White’s success and propelled the Cary High School Marching Band to national and international acclaim, taking the band to the Rose Bowl Parade and to Switzerland, among other successes.

Twenty plus years of heavy use and school growth took its toll on the third Cary High School building. A new Cary High School was planned, and in May of 1960, the third Cary High School building saw its last high school graduation. The campus then became Cary Elementary and Junior High School. Before we leave the old campus, here is an aerial view of the “old” Cary High School campus, showing the quadrangle design of the campus and all the buildings that many “old Cary” folks fondly remember! The Class of 1960 was the last class to attend all their grades, from 1^st to 12^th, on one campus.

“Way Out Walnut Street”

Let’s take a moment to summarize some important events that happened in the more recent past at the “new campus”. The new Cary High School was built “way out Walnut Street” on land owned by Luther Maynard, whose family is the namesake of Maynard Road. Luther Maynard was a farmer and saw mill owner and had furnished wood for football field light poles at the old site.

It was at the campus on Walnut Street that Cary took lead in the desegregation of Wake County Schools during the 1960s. In the early 20^th Century, James P H Adams and Arch Arrington of the African American community had been friends and worked alongside each other, setting an example for how the two communities could come together harmoniously. James’s son Henry Adams, owner of Adams Drug Store (now Ashworth’s Drug Store) and member of the Wake County school board, learned from their example and promoted desegregation in Cary Schools.

On Aug 30, 1963, six young African American women integrated Cary High School. Although the difficulties these women encountered were enormous, support from key members of both the black and white communities in Cary ensured that the process was ultimately successful. Over the next few years, the schools were fully integrated.

Over the years, the current Cary High School has grown and changed. In a photo from the 1962 yearbook we see the modest size of the campus and lack of development around the school. This shows that the school really was “way out Walnut Street”!

This newspaper photo of students doing a landscaping project shows that even in 1970, the surrounding area was largely undeveloped. The house and field in the background are now occupied by Bank of America and Outback Steakhouse!

A photo of the campus in 1996 shows campus expansion and development around the campus. Even more buildings have been added to date. The campus is no longer considered “way out Walnut Street”! Why, it’s now conveniently located “inside Maynard Road”!

In 1996, the school celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the school’s incorporation by the State of North Carolina. Mr. Tom Byrd wrote an 88-page synopsis of Cary High School history and Jerry Miller created new artwork to celebrate the occasion. Class reunions, a parade, and other celebratory events also marked the milestone.

Today, Cary High School continues to fulfill the mission started 150 years ago: to provide quality education, preparing students for success in life and their chosen field of interest. Unlike the first years, CHS is a diverse community reflecting the growth and cultural expansion of the Town of Cary itself. We wish Cary High School another 150 years of academic success.

As we draw our overview of the history Cary High School and the "school lot" to a close, we encourage you to further explore the Friends of the Page Walker website. We welcome volunteers and contributions to help promote historic preservation, education and the cultural arts in Cary.

We also strive to preserve historic documents and photos in our digital archives. If you have items of interest regarding Cary and Cary High School, please contact us!

Credits:
Many thanks to Principal Nolan Bryant who graciously allowed the Friends of the Page Walker to digitize the Cary High School Archives recently and has allowed us to use the images to promote Cary and Cary High School history. Thank you, also, to Mr. Tom Byrd who researched the history of Cary and Cary High School which has told the story of Cary and Cary High School in a compelling and thorough way.

Petty Women, Fast Horses, and Plenty of Spirits – Oh, the goings on at High House!

Barbara Wetmore — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:47:40 GMT

Photo of the High House taken around 1887. These are likely members of the Williams family.

Robert Hoke Williams writes in his account The Ghost of High House:

Before the occupation of High House by Nathaniel Green Alford and wife Nancy Liles Alford, and the Williams family, [the house], located in Western Wake County, just beyond Cary, North Carolina, was the scene of petty women, fast horses, and plenty of spirits, as I have been told by my Dad. This house was built several years before the Revolutionary War of (1775 - 1781), and was the gathering place of the sportsmen of that time. Horse racing and whiskey were plentiful, and as will be at such gatherings, plenty of fist fights and shootings were displayed at times.

The house Robert Hoke Williams talks about was one of the earliest houses built in the western part of what would become Cary. One of its earliest known owners, Fanning Jones, was the grandson of Cary's first white land owner, Englishman Francis A. Jones, who received considerable land near Crabtree Creek through a grant from Earl Granville, earlier known as Lord Carteret. Fanning and his nephew Henry Jones owned similar houses not too far away from each other. One was built around around 1803 and still stands on the south side of Chapel Hill Rd. just past the Maynard Rd. intersection; and one was built around 1760 and stood until the early 1900s near the southwest corner of the Maynard Rd. and High House Rd. intersection.

The house on Chapel Hill Rd., now on the National Historic Register, is known as the Nancy Jones House, named for Henry's wife who outlived him by 35 years and ran the house as a stagecoach stop between Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Nancy, by the way, was the daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains who owned a considerable amount of land in what would become the eastern part of Cary. Henry was the brother of another Nathaniel Jones, not related, who was called Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree to distinguish him from the other Nathaniel Jones to the east! If you're confused, think how these families and townspeople must have felt back then!

The Old Tory Driven from the Neighborhood

But enough about Henry and Nancy, the Nathaniel Joneses, and the Nancy Jones House. What we want to talk about is the High House, named for its tall physical presence and its location atop a hill not too far from the old Ralelgh to Haywood Rd. (We think this aligns in parts with the current Old Apex Rd.) Robert Hoke Williams describes the house and property when his father, William Adolphus (Dolly) Williams lived in the house in the 1860s timeframe:

The house was so named because it was situated on a hill, and as the architectural designs of that period called for, the main body of the house was connected to the kitchen by a walkway. It was set back by about 400 feet from the road with a few oaks in the front. The backyard contained one house for the house slaves, and during my Dad's time, Uncle John and Aunt Jennie held the honor of being the servants for the family. Between Uncle John's house and the orchard was a big well and water trough for watering the horses that was not to be placed in the stable lot. Beyond this were other houses for other slaves.

Back view of the High House.

Fanning Jones, an earlier owner of the house, was the son of Tignal Jones. Tignal was the brother of Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree, who built the Nancy Jones house. It's possible that Tignal built the High House. Though built earlier than the Nancy Jones house, the High House was similar in design to the Nancy Jones house and the two houses stood not too far from each other, as the crow flies.

Fanning seems to have been quite the character. He likely would have been one of the ones racing horses and drinking whiskey, and getting into fist fights, according to the legends Robert Hoke Williams' father told. Fanning tried to sell his house and land for several years and finally turned them over to an attorney in 1822 and headed for Tennessee. Tom Byrd in his book Around and About Cary gives us a possible reason why:

The name “Fanning” once struck terror in the hearts of North Carolinians because of David Fanning, “the most perfect scoundrel in the history of the state.” He led a band of Tories during the Revolution that murdered, pillaged, and even kidnapped Governor Thomas Burke and handed him over to the Britiish. David Fanning was a native of Wake County but fained his notoriety after moving to nearby Chatham. His connections, if any, with Fanning Jones are a mystery. Hope Summerell Chamberlain in her 1922 history of Wake County wrote:

There stands . . . a desolate house with vacant windows and grinning rafters, a high four-square old house, dating from the Revolutionary time, but which has been deserted many years. It stands near the town of Cary, to the west, and its story was told to me by an old lady who remembers traditions, and was somewhat kin to the former owner, Fanning Jones, but who was not proud of the relationship.

Whether his name means a relationship or connection with the notorious Tory Leader who stole the Governor, or whether it is merely a coincidence, no one can now declare, but he is said for some vague reasons to have forfeited the regard of his patriotic relatives, and to have been driven from the neighborhood for that reason. “The Old Tory,” they called him.

Another possible reason Fanning left for parts west is that his father, Tignal owned 2,100 acres of land in Tennessee and Fanning either desired to move there or found it convenient to to relocate there after being “driven from the neighborhood.” Fanning lived out the rest of his days in Tennessee and swapped the High House plantation land in North Carolina for land in Tennessee with John Ray and James Peters before he died around 1830.

New High House Owner Left Out of His Father's Will

John Ray and James Peters of Tennessee sold the High House plantation to Green Alford in 1833 (Wake County Deed Book 11, Page 176). Green Alford, often referred to as Nathaniel Green Alford (perhaps because his father fought under General Nathanael Greene in the Battles of Cowpens and Guilford Court House), was apparently somewhat of a character himself. His father, James Lodwick Alford left him out of his will, and Lodwick Houston Alford might have found the reason why, as he explains in EUREKA: PROVING AN ANCESTOR IN WAKE COUNTY, NC:

Meanwhile bits and pieces of information kept coming in . . . mostly from descendants of the nine daughters of Green and Nancy Alford. Most all agreed that Grandpa James Lodwick left Green and his children out of his will because he just did not like their mother Nancy Rose. But there seemed to be a curious absence of why Nancy might not have been liked by her father-in-law. You can imagine how the tongues of those nine daughters of Green and Nancy Alford wagged and passed on family lore to their children and descendants. There were hints that Green had become a notorious slave trader and mistreated his own slaves. Sometime after the death of his father in 1820, Green appeared to be in the money. Where and how did he get it?

It was not until a few years ago that some of the mysteries and questions surrounding Green Alford and his family began to clear up. Two excellent researchers. Elizabeth Dees and Madlyn Jamison found and began to publish "Bastardy Bonds and Records" in "Wake Treasures," the journal of the Wake County Genealogical Society. There before my bugged-out eyes in bold print was the name of my great grandmother Nancy Rose Liles. In the spring of 1813 she was observed, shall we say delicately, as being with child. The sheriff was directed to haul her up before some justices of the peace who demanded to know who the father was.

Green Alford then at age 26 had been sitting in judgement as a JP on other unhappy females in the same predicament. But his name does not appear in the record on the day Nancy was hauled up and there is no indication of who she named as the father. Twelve days later Nancy Rose Liles was back before the justices with two gentlemen who went her bond of fifty pounds and this time Green Alford was present. Five weeks later on 26 July, 1813 Green Alford and Nancy Rose Liles were married leaving us to guess who was the father of the child born about two months earlier. Now we had something specific to suggest why Major Tanner [James Lodwick] Alford might not have cared much for his daughter-in-law Nancy Liles Alford.

Green and Nancy went on to have 11 children, nine daughters and two sons, all raised on the High House plantation, with several of them inheriting the land and passing it on to future generations.

High House Passes to the Williams Family through Daughter Penina

After Green's death in 1848, one of his daughters, Penina, inherited a piece of Green Alford's land, Lot 3, as shown in this picture from the Wake County Wills, Inventories, Settlements Book 26:

Penina went on to marry Robert E. Williams and the Williams family came to be the owners of the High House until it was apparently abandoned in the early 1900s. We are working to determine how the Williams family came to be the owners of the house, as the house likely sat on the large lot labeled “Widows Dower.” Nancy, Green's wife, died three years after he did in 1851, and she left a share of her Widows Dower lot to Robert and Penina, so it's possible and likely that the house stood on that share of land. We think we've been able to confirm this through tax records, but if any descendants of the Williams family know the details, please let us know!

Family Cemetery on the Land

Though the Friends of the Page-Walker had heard of a family cemetery that stood near the High House, we had never been able to find it . . . until a recent comment on our Facebook page included a map that showed us the way. While looking at the map, I realized that the location was very near my house, and I convinced my neighbor on one of our evening walks to go look for it with me. When we got to the intersection where the map indicated the cemetery should be, we saw a lovely little park with a tiered fountain, but no cemetery. We speculated that maybe there was nothing left to mark the cemetery and so a park was placed there instead. Still, I decided to get down on my hands and knees to look under the hedges along a fence toward the back of the park and when I did, I thought I saw a gravestone! Yes! It was a gravestone! It bore the name Stedman.

There were broken remnants of several headstones and one intact inside a modern fenced-in area. None were standing. They were lying flat on the ground, scattered around the ground, or propped up against a tree. The three legible gravestones bore the names:

Stedman, Ada L., b. 3 Jun 1866, d. age 29yr 7mo 18da, dau. o. Jos. B. & Mary D. Stedman

Stedman, Mary D., b. 24 Feb 1829, d. 7 Nov 1886, age 57yr, w. o. J. B. Stedman

Stedman, William A., b. 14 Nov 1860, d. 22 Jun 1890, s. o. Jos. B. & Mary D. Stedman

William Stedman's gravestone was the only one intact, though no longer standing.

Who were the Stedmans? One of Green's other daughters, Mary (also known as Polly), inherited Lot 5 from her father before she married Joseph B. Stedman. He fought in the Civil War and served on the first committee to establish public schools in Cary after the war. Mary also inherited a share of the Widows Dower lot after her mother died. This explains the presence of the three Stedman graves in the family plot.

Further investigation revealed that the developer of the neighborhood encountered the cemetery back in 2003 and was able to determine that at least 18 grave sites were in the cemetery, perhaps through an archeological survey. We are working to track that down. In a March 25, 2003 newspaper article in the Raleigh News & Observer, the developer, Michael Dean Chadwick, stated that once he knew there were at least 18 confirmed grave sites, he decided not to move the cemetery, but to leave it where it was and to build around it.

Who else is buried in the cemetery? Several family accounts state that Green Alford and his wife Nancy, along with other family members, and enslaved persons, are buried in the family plot that stood not far from the High House. There is a Find-a-Grave record and a cemeterycensus.com record that state that Green and Nancy are buried in the family plot along with their grandson, George Benton Alford near the Leslie-Alford-Mims house in Holly Springs, but we feel this is not correct, as George Benton Alford did not purchase the Holly Springs house until 1860 and would have been only 3 years old when his grandfather, Green Alford died. It is far more likely that Green and Nancy are buried in the family plot that stood near the High House, as family stories indicate, along with other family members and some of their enslaved persons.

Drowning, Death by Turkey Hunting, and a Wife Not be be Trusted

Combing through old newspapers, we found some interesting things happening on the High House land, or at least to the people associated with it. Among the many newspaper clippings we found was one about the unfortunate demise of Corbin Edwards (brother-in-law of Martha Alford Edwards), who drowned while attempting to cross the swollen Yadkin river while traveling to pick up his young son in Tennessee after the son had been visiting relatives. According to an eyewitness account from a family that was unable to rescue him, the struggle was “observed from its beginning to its awful close when man, horse, and buggy all disappeared beneath the unrelenting waves.” The Salisbury Watchman reported that “a half empty flask of whiskey in the unfortunate man's pocket left no room for doubt that intoxication was the cause of his death.”

Another family member met his end while hunting turkey. According to the newspaper account, Eldridge Austin, a relative of Martha Alford Edwards' through marriage, “had shot and broken the wing of a wild turkey and was running for his game when the sad catastrophe occurred.” Though the newspaper clipping does not give the details, we assume the sad catastrophe was likely a mishap with his loaded gun that resulted in a self-inflicted fatal wound.

But by far, the most eye popping clipping we found was this one by Penina Alford Williams' husband, Robert, who was clearly upset with his wife at the time for apparently spending too much of his money:

Mysteries and Hauntings

The intrigue surrounding the High House continues with a mystery about a buried treasure. In Around and About Cary, Tom Byrd recounts that Margaret Williams told of a treasure hunt by her father Leander Williams, who was born in the High House in 1883. After the family moved away, Williams had a dream about valuables buried in the hearth. When he learned the next morning that his mother had had the same dream, the two of them rushed to the house, only to discover that someone had already torn the hearth apart, brick by brick. Perhaps the source of these dreams was this account in Tom Byrd's book of an encounter at the High House by General Sherman's troops near the end of the Civil War:

When the soldiers arrived at High House, they found an old black man apparently crippled by gout and with a heavily bandaged foot resting on the hearth. What the soldiers never knew was that the foot concealed a removable stone under which valuables were hidden.

One other tale of a sad and tragic death of a woman involves a possible first wife of Fanning Jones. This passage is from High House Mystery:

Some of the old fireplace brick remains, and a cemetery is located nearby. Only a few tombstones remain, so it is not known if Mrs. Fanning Jones is buried there. She died a tragic death only a few years after her marriage in 1799. The Raleigh Register September 8, 1806, reported that Mrs. Jones "... was found in a grove far from the house, depraved of all reason, where it is supposed she had been praying (having been very religious for some time past). She remained in the deplorable condition till her death... (on July 27, 1806)." (p.3)

Maggie Sears shared in an interview with Friends oral historian Peggy Van Scoyoc in 2012:

I’m not sure when it [the High House] burned down either, but it was when my father was young, because it was still there when his oldest sister when to college at Meredith [around 1910?]. Of course, that’s not the same Meredith grounds that it was then. But they would have to go down on the horse and buggy to pick the girls up when they went to school. He said whenever they got close to the old High House, the horse wanted to get spooked. I think it spooked him as [much] as it did the horse, so they were sort of glad to get by it.

The Founder of Holly Springs

Not all the stories surrounding the people who lived on the High House land are dark in nature. Green Alford's grandson, George Benton Alford went on to become the founding father of Holly Springs and is the Alford for whom the historic Leslie-Alford-Mims House is named.

George was the son of Green Haywood Alford, who married Rebecca Jones. She is known for thwarting “Sherman's bummers” by throwing scalding soup in their faces as they scouted the area ahead of Sherman's advance into Wake County. George had the story proudly inscribed on his mother's tombstone; the inscription reads:

A devoted Christian mother
Who whipped Sherman's bummers
With scalding water
While trying to take her dinner pot
Which contained a ham bone
Being cooked for her
Soldier Boys.

Rebecca's tombstone can be seen in the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church graveyard southeast of Holly Springs.

Picnics and Teas

On a further pleasant note, articles from the Raleigh News & Observer in 1924 and 1925 report that the faculty at Cary High School, including principal Marcus Baxter Dry and his wife, met at the High House property for a “gypsy tea” and a picnic where they gathered around a bright campfire and ate steak, wieners, bacon, and corn before being entertained with old-fashioned melodies. Another article tells of the Girl Reserve Club of Cary High School taking along provisions on a 2-mile hike before settling around a huge bonfire to toast bacon and hot dogs and hear historical events connected with the site. They declared it one of the best and most “wide awake” outings the club had ever had.

Whatever Became of the High House?

While the articles about the picnics and teas talk about the High House property in the 1920s, they do not indicate whether the house was standing at the time. However, another article by Paul Matthews in 1925 talks about “the outbreak of ghosts in those dilapidated premises,” implying the house was still standing, though apparently not in the best of condition.

Robert Hoke Williams tells us in his account:

I was about thirty years of age (1930) when I saw the site of the old place for the first time. I stopped over one day to see my half brother (William Ladd Williams) who at that time lived in the vicinity of the High House, and he drove me over to where the house once stood. All that was left of the old place were big rocks used for the chimney and pillars of the house. A short distance away was the family cemetery where my Great Grandfather (Nathaniel Green Alford) and Great Grandmother ( Nancy Liles Alford) along with other members of the family, and also a few of the slaves, were buried.

So it seems that sometime between 1925 and 1930, the house met its demise. Kris Carmichael, director of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, remembers an older gentleman stopping into the center one day and telling that the house burned down sometime in the 20th century. Perhaps one of those campfires or bonfires got out of control. :-) If anyone knows the details of what happened to the house, please let us know!

Remembered by its Name

We frequently point out that long after the wooden structures, houses, barns and out buildings comprising the farms and plantations of the 1700s and 1800s are gone, all that often remains are the hardened gravestones and iron fences marking the spot where the owners and family members are buried and laid to rest. In the case of the High House plantation, we do have the remnants of a cemetery still standing. But we also have a road that bears its name. The next time you travel down what is now the busy High House Rd. extending from W. Chatham St. all the way to Rt. 55, think back on the early history of Cary when the High House was built, and on the many intriguing stories of the families who lived there.

Watch for a Live Stream Tour of the High House Family Cemetery Plot

The High House family cemetery plot is now privately owned. We obtained permission to visit the cemetery and plan to live stream a visit to the cemetery from our Facebook page on Saturday, November 7 at 2:30 p.m. so you can see it, too. Tune in . . .

Acknowledgements: Thank you to fellow Friend, Carla Michaels, whose extraordinary research revealed important details and interesting anecdotes about the High House and its inhabitants; and to one of our Facebook Followers, Emily Brooks, whose personal interest in and research on the High House led us to the family cemetery plot and to remarkable family stories about the inhabitants of the house.

Hidden in Plain Sight -- Mysterious Clue on Gravestone in Historic Cary Hillcrest Cemetery Deciphered

Carla Michaels — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 23:03:51 GMT

Each marker in a cemetery contains a story, and the grave marker for C. M. (Claudius Monroe) Baucom is no exception. His marker in Historic Hillcrest Cemetery is impressively large and contains images that tell part of the story of his interesting life. However, one image on the marker remained a mystery for many years and has only recently been deciphered.

C. M .Baucom was born in Apex in 1880 and raised in western Wake County, as generations of his family had been. One of his ancestors, John Baucom, Sr. was a Wake County Revolutionary War patriot. Following in the senior Baucom’s footsteps, C. M. enlisted in the army as an 18 year old and served during the Spanish American War as a part of the mounted cavalry. He traveled to the Far East in the military, seeing the Philippines and participating in the China Relief Expedition during the Boxer Rebellion. After returning to Wake County, he worked for the railroad as many men did in the area in the early 1900s, married a local girl, Patty Page, and raised a family. A physically active man, he enjoyed the outdoors and had a “jolly outlook” on life, according to family members.

His sense of duty and honor called him once again when World War I broke out. He volunteered for service at the age of 38, entering the military this time as an officer. Near the end of the war in the fields of France, he survived a gas attack, but as a result, experienced gradually deteriorating hearing and vision loss. As someone who had taken great pride in being independent and active, these losses affected him deeply and caused him to worry about how he could provide for his family. Tragically, he took his own life in 1925, leaving behind a loving wife and 5 children in Cary.

His impressive marker in Hillcrest contains obvious symbols of his life – the crossed rifles and flag allude to his military service. The masonic logo points to his participation in this fraternal organization. An oval shape on the left contained a portrait of Mr. Baucom, long missing, put in place by his loving family. But what about the mysterious logo at the bottom of the marker? What does it mean?

After much research, the image has been identified as the emblem of the Order of Railway Conductors, Scottish Rite, which speaks to his employment with the Seaboard Railway. The lantern (which looks more like a grenade on the monument) is easily identifiable based on the accompanying logo; the tool remains unidentified. It may be a specialized tool used by railwaymen. This image provides the last clue to what Mr Baucom considered important in his life – his family, his livelihood, his community, and his country.

A final note: In 2017, the family received the medals he earned in the two wars and richly deserved.

Little Known Big Cemetery in Cary Holds Mysteries/Secrets and Keys to Town's History

Barbara Wetmore — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 08:29:35 GMT

Author's note: Excerpts of this blog were taken from a comprehensive document put together by Friends of the Page-Walker, Marla Dorrel and Pat Fish in 2009. Read Mysteries and Secrets: Exploring Hillcrest Cemetery.

Join us, with a spirit willing to be haunted by the stories and the images, the mysteries and the secrets, we’ve found in Hillcrest Cemetery. If you were to close your eyes and imagine the perfect, idyllic small-town cemetery, you might very well conjure up Hillcrest. True to its name, Hillcrest Cemetery is at the top of a hill. It’s surrounded by homes and appears to serve the adjacent neighborhoods as a passive park. It’s not unusual to see people walking their dogs through the cemetery (notwithstanding a town ordinance against this) or children riding their bikes along the peaceful, paved paths. Hillcrest is located just a few blocks from Cary’s downtown historic district, easily within walking distance. Nevertheless, it remains one of Cary’s hidden secrets.

Let’s start, then, by sharing a secret. Finding Hillcrest.

Finding Hillcrest is easy, if you start from one of Cary’s most notable landmarks: Old Cary Elementary (now the Cary Arts Center).Go west on Dry Avenue, crossing South Harrison, to Page Street.Turn left and the rest is really simple – Page Street ends at the cemetery gate. The cemetery opens daily at 8:00 am and closes during the winter months at 6:00 pm; during the summer, it’s open until 8:00 pm.

Hillcrest is owned by the Town of Cary, but that was not always the case. According to the Town’s records, the Hillcrest Cemetery property was first owned by R. O. Heater, who conveyed the first tracts, commonly known as the “old section,” to the Hillcrest Cemetery Association on June 11, 1945. Ten years later, GeorgeTurner conveyed additional tracts to the Association. These tracts were conveyed to the Town of Cary in 1970; in1977, more tracts were deeded over to the Town.

The map from the Town of Cary shows an aerial view of Hillcrest, with many of the grave sites identified. Wake County land records show the cemetery property to cover 4.9acres.

Earliest dates on gravestones

We wondered which graves were the earliest and, based on the cemetery census, here’s what we found. The earliest recorded date of birth is that of Henry Jones, born on January 29, 1766. He was the son of Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree and the husband of Nancy Jones, daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains. The house Henry and Nancy lived in, built in 1803, is still standing on Chapel Hill Rd. and is a Cary Historic Landmark. Learn about the Nancy Jones House.

The earliest recorded date of death is also among the Joneses – Nathaniel Jones, who died on August 31, 1840 – just 40 days before the death of Henry Jones. This Nathaniel Jones, however, is not Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree or Nathaniel Jones of White Plains. Nathaniel Jones was a popular name back then!

MYSTERY: Who is buried in the ten graves whose headstones are unreadable?

A cemetery census conducted by Shirley Olson in 2005, and updated by Karen Freeman in 2008, identified ten unreadable or unmarked headstones in Hillcrest. We may never know what secrets lie buried in these places.

Markers and Headstones

Hillcrest presents an interesting assortment of grave markers, both old and new. Here are just a few of the interesting shapes we found.

While most of the graves have the traditional monument headstone, there are a number of examples of more distinctive markers. The box tomb; the headstone and footstone - in this case with a ledger marker (the moss-covered,concrete pad) and the obelisk.

Hillcrest also displays a wide array of artistic designs, some of which give us clues about those who are buried there. The book, “Stories In Stone, A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography,” opens its chapter on Flora by reminding us, “Flowers have served as symbols of remembrance ever since we began memorializing the dead.” Engravings of flowers adorn many of the gravestones at Hillcrest.

There is some unusual artwork to be found among gravestones inHillcrest, in both the older and the more contemporary markers.

And quite interesting are these two footstones. For the father, with a mortar and trowel, and the mother, with a rake and hoe.

MYSTERY: What is this symbol? What does it mean?

The bent arm on the monument of C.M. Baucom pictured to the right is taken from the emblem of the Order of Railway Conductors, Scottish Rite. The lantern (which looks more like a grenade on the monument) is easily identifiable on the emblem; the tool remains unidentified. C. M. Baucom was a Seaboard freight conductor. He also served in the Spanish American War and WWI.

Religious Symbols are also widely used in Hillcrest. Here you see, in the upper left corner, the praying hands; beneath them, the crown, symbolizing victory, leadership and distinction, but more often in funerary, the crown represents the sovereignty of the Lord. On the right, the Latin cross shown here with a heart, likely symbolizing the love of Christ; and below it, the Star of David. In the center is the Celtic cross. The initials, IHS, in the center, are derived from the first three letters of Jesus’ name using the Greek alphabet: Iota, Eta, and Sigma.

Walking through Hillcrest, you are reminded of those who served their country in the military. From reviewing cemetery surveys, we’ve identified some 62 gravestones that speak of the role these brave men and women played in defending our country and standing for their ideals. The records reflect service in five wars, all branches of the military, and rankings at all different levels. Here are two of the more elaborate gravestones that speak of the service record of those they memorialize. The prominent flags on these monuments memorialize the service of the men buried here to their country.

Before we leave symbology, we must mention the secret societies, clubs and fraternal organizations symbolized on the grave markers at Hillcrest. The most prevalent symbol in Hillcrest is that of the Masons. More than a dozen markers carry the Masons’ symbol, the square and compass. It is said that the square and compass represents the interaction between mind and matter and refer to the progression from the material to the intellectual and spiritual. The letter G in the center – some say this stands for ”God” while others say it stands for “geometry.” According to the book, “Around and About Cary,” Cary Lodge No. 198 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons was chartered on November 17, 1857 - 14 years before the town was incorporated. A great deal of secrecy surrounds the organization – and those are secrets that we couldn’t tell you, even if we knew them.

Other clubs, societies and organizations are also represented in Hillcrest. Here are more of the emblems we found. The emblem of the Eastern Star (far left) is frequently seen on the marker for the wife of a Mason – rightly so, since the Order of the Eastern Star is the female counterpart toFree masonry. In the center is the emblem of the American Legion, primarily an association for military veterans. The emblem of Woodmen of the World (right) is one of the best-represented in cemeteries, because until the 1920s, each member was provided with a tombstone. Other organizations represented at Hillcrest, but not pictured here, include Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution, Rotary International, Shriners and Boy Scouts of America.

To tour Hillcrest is to take a stroll through Cary’s history.

Hillcrest is the final resting place of 15 of Cary’s mayors, the earliest of these being JPH Adams, Cary’s second mayor, serving in 1871; J.P.H. Adams, Mayor in1884; and Robert J. Harrison, Cary’s mayor in 1903. But mayors aren’t the only notable citizens we found at Hillcrest. You’ll recognize many of them, because they have also been memorialized in other ways throughout our community. Here is just a sampling:

Captain Harrison P. Guess, 1827 – 1919

Captain Guess was among the first “railroad men” to arrive in Cary. His position was recorded as “road master.” His name is familiar to many of us, because it graces the historic pink Guess-Ogle Home in downtown Cary. “Around and About Cary” tells us that the home takes its name from Captain Guess due to the fact that in 1880, he and his wife, Aurelia, purchased 16 acres of land from Frank Page, including the site of the Guess-Ogle Home.

Dr. J. M. Templeton 1855 – 1932

One of Cary’s earliest doctors, Dr. Templeton is described in “Around and About Cary” as a man who searched for the truth, lived by principles and practiced charity. He crusaded for Prohibition, public education, good roads and economic justice for farmers. In addition to being a doctor and surgeon, he ran a lumber business and also farmed. His gravestone carries the following inscription: A country doctor who served his nation in the time of war, his community in the time of peace, the rich and poor alike. There is a small secret here – Dr. Templeton volunteered for the Army when the United States entered World War I. But it seems he quit after 6 months, supposedly because the Army insisted that he stop wearing civilian clothes. Nevertheless, the statement is true – he DID serve his nation in the time of war. You can see Dr. Templeton’s uniform in the Cary History Museum.

Marcus Baxter Dry, 1871 – 1946

Marcus Baxter Dry was Principal of Cary High School for 34 years, from 1908 through 1942. He also served as Superintendent of the Cary School District. Under his leadership, North Carolina’s first state-supported high school, Cary High, became a model for all that followed. It is said that his success as an educator stemmed from his genuine interest in each student and his ability to embrace new ideas over the course of his career. Dry was instrumental in the construction and modernization of Cary High School’s buildings during his tenure. In 1913, under Dry’s leadership, a brick building was built on the school’s site. The current building, which now serves as the Cary Arts Center, was constructed just a few years before Dry’s retirement.

Dry’s residence was just east of the school and, today, is a contributing structure in the Cary Historic District. It is fitting, then, that both his house and the school are located on what is now called Dry Avenue.

Dr. Frank Yarborough, 1895 – 1957

Another of Cary’s earliest doctors, Dr. Yarborough first practiced with Dr. Templeton. He also practiced at Rex Hospital when it was located on St. Mary’s Street in Raleigh. His home, where he established his own practice, stands today in the Cary Historic District, and still retains the two side entrances for his patients. One entrance was for those who were white, the other for those who were black. In Cary’s oral history book, “Just a Horse Stopping Place,” there is the following account, recalled by Dr. Yarborough’s son: “He (referring to his father, Dr. Yarborough) built the office at the present location on Park Street that was connected to our home. He practiced there for the entire time that I can remember him practicing medicine. The cars would line Park Street on both sides of the street from morning until night. And when I say night, I mean eleven, twelve o’clock. When I’d come home from school in the day, it was just a line of cars like a big procession going on. His office hours at night were Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The rest of the nights, and even when he got out of the office, he would make house calls.”

Hillcrest Cemetery also holds many stories of tragedy and great sadness. Among these is the story of Dr. Yarborough’s daughter, Mary. Mary Ray Yarborough was said to be “the apple of her father’s eye” and family members recall that she called him “Daddy Blue Eyes.” When she was 11 years old, she contracted meningitis, and, unfortunately, the medical treatment she received was unable to save her. It was said that the anguish of her death tore the Yarborough’s marriage apart. Their love for her is there at Hillcrest for all of us to see, in the bust of Mary that marks her grave in the family plot.

R. S. “Dad” Dunham, 1905 – 1987

This well-known teacher at Cary High School owned a 30-acre tract of land on Kildaire Farm Road, which was described as “the closest thing Cary had to a botanical garden.” Mr. Dunham’s agriculture students at Cary High received much of their forestry training on these grounds, which later became the site of the Glenaire, among the earliest of Cary’s continuing care retirement communities. It was the Dunhams desire to see their land used for this purpose. If “Dad” Dunham’s name looks familiar to you, it may be that you’ve visited the popular neighborhood park on Walnut Street that was named after him.

Tammy Lynn Pierce, 1957 – 1971

Described on her gravestone as, “Cary’s Angel Unaware,” Tammy Lynn Pierce sustained a brain injury at birth and lived all of her 14 years in the family’s home on Kildaire Farm Road. At that time there were no custodial homes in North Carolina for children with developmental disabilities, and her family refused to place her in a state institution. Prior to her death, Tammy Lynn’s parents joined two Raleigh couples in similar circumstances to create a foundation that would lead to the establishment of the Tammy Lynn Center for Development Disabilities. Today, the Tammy Lynn Center offers education, residential, and family support services to children and adults with special needs. The Center's goal is to provide the individuals it serves the opportunity to maximize their abilities in a loving, nurturing environment.

Fascinating Inscriptions

We couldn’t leave Hillcrest without sharing with you some of the fascinating inscriptions found on the grave markers. And, yes, there are a few mysteries and secrets waiting for us here. Inscriptions provide the opportunity for those who are deceased to continue to speak to us. Or, in some cases, the message is from loved ones, telling us about the one who has passed away. Some inscriptions give us advice and others recite Bible scriptures that tell us of the person’s religious devotion. The book, “Sticks and Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers,“ tells us that an influx of British stonecutters arrived here in the 1830s to work on the new state capitol in Raleigh and other major masonry projects. In 1837, North Carolina’s first resident funerary monument firm was established in Raleigh. Once rail lines were complete, more commercial stonecutters set up marble yards along the rails. While the railroad caused the proliferation of small marble yards, it also led to their demise. In the early 1900s, small marble yards were absorbed by larger ones and the ease of shipping monuments by rail led to the rise of the mail-order monument business. New stonecutting technology allowed for the use of granite, instead of marble, and within a few years, the artistic role of the stonecutter changed from sculptor of the overall monument to mere engraver of the inscription. Today, stonecutters still work in North Carolina, but most of their business is sandblasting inscriptions onto blanks. With only a few exceptions, gravestone carving is a lost art.

We identified interesting and intriguing inscriptions at Hillcrest. Some are serious, while others add a touch of humor. Here is a sampling of those we found and liked:

Love makes memory eternal

She hath done what she could

Redeeming love has been my theme . . .

To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die

Always Giving Never Asking

Your legacy of love and laughter lives on through your family

Mom to All Who Knew Her

She was too good, too gentle and fair to dwell in this cold world

Under The Dew, The Sun And The Stars, I Wait For You

We were also touched by the simplicity of this hand-engraved marker.

One of the most loved inscriptions – and the one that made us really smile – was found on the back of the gravestone of Shirley Faye Tharpe.

Lasting Farewell

It is time to leave Hillcrest, with our invitation to you to visit this beautiful, peaceful and intriguing Cary treasure on your own. We think you’ll fall in love with it, as we have. As we depart Hillcrest, we’ll also leave you with this sage advice from one who is buried there.

Remember friends as you pass by

As you are now so once was I

As I am now, so you must be

Prepare therefore to follow me.

Join Us on a Live Tour of Hillcrest Cemetery

We're going to take you to the White Plains Cemetery via live streaming on our Facebook page later this month. And because it's October and we're visiting a cemetery, there might be a few spooky surprises. Follow us on Facebook to learn more.

Tombstone Graffiti Connects the Past to the Present

Carla Michaels — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:21:02 GMT

It’s the autumn of 1937. A boy is walking through woods on the outskirts of Cary and comes upon a long-abandoned cemetery. He pauses long enough to etch his name into the stone obelisk – Charles Dellinger, 11/2/37, age 15.

Fast forward to 2020. The abandoned cemetery is White Plains Cemetery, the burial ground of the Revolutionary War Patriot, Nathaniel Jones. It is now a well-cared for historic site within the town limits of Cary and is surrounded by a housing development. Olivia Loyack, a young lady who lives next door to the cemetery, takes an interest in the etching and uncovers one of the untold stories of an “old Cary” family, their connection to the Revolutionary War, and their sacrifices during World War II.

The Dellinger family was originally from Lincoln County, NC. Henry Dellinger fought in the American Revolution along with his brother, who had signed the Tryon Resolves in 1775. Several generations later, a descendant, Charlie Lee Dellinger, a railroad employee who worked in Greenville, SC, met and married a local Greenwood SC girl, Ella Pinson. After living and working in Hamlet, NC, a railroad hub, the family moved to Cary with the railroad in the late 1920s. They settled near Ephesus Baptist Church, where Charlie, along with his railroad position, worked as a custodian and cemetery caretaker. Over the years the family grew to include children Charles, Howard, Frances, Eugene, Katherine, Ruth, and Cecil.

Charlie Lee had a patriotic spirit. At age 16, he attempted to volunteer for World War I, but was declined due to his young age. Years later, he attempted to volunteer for World War II after Pearl Harbor was bombed, but was declined again due to his older age and seven children. In raising his children, he passed on his love of country. His oldest child, Charles went to Baltimore after graduating from Cary High School to work for Martin Aircraft. After several deferrals due to his important work for the aircraft industry, he entered the Army in 1943. After training, he was assigned to Italy. In letters that his mother saved and are now treasured by family, Charles wrote home for two specific items: his camera and the book “Rules of Baseball” which speaks of his love for the All-American game. Charles and his brother Howard were talented baseball players, and the family story is that Charles and Howard were pulled out of grade school at Mount Vernon to pitch games for Cary High School! Along with Charles’ letters, the family also has the photos Charles took with his camera in Italy. During fighting in the fall of 1944, Charles was injured and was given the option to return home or rejoin his unit. He returned to his unit, but was killed on January 5, 1945 as American forces broke through “The Gothic Line” on their march to Florence. He was 22.

The story continues. The second Dellinger son, Howard, enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1943. He suffered from high blood pressure so it took several attempts to pass the physical to enlist! After training at Parris Island and Quantico, he was assigned to Okinawa where he was killed in fighting, just a few short months after his older brother Charles, on June 5, 1945, after US forces had officially captured the island. The three remaining sons, Frances, Eugene and Cecil followed their brothers by serving in the military, and with their two sisters, Katherine and Ruth, lived long, successful lives.

The Dellingers, descendants of a Revolutionary War Patriot…a family with a great love for country…paying the supreme sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy today…their story unearthed through graffiti on the obelisk marking the burial spot of another Revolutionary War Patriot. The story has come full circle.

Author's note: A special thank you to Jane Wydra, niece of Charles and Howard Dellinger who supplied valuable details in a phone interview with Carla Michaels and to Charles and Howard’s siblings, Ruth and Cecil, who kindly gave permission to use family photos in this article.

How 200-Year-Old Graves in a Cary Neighborhood were Discovered and Saved

Barbara Wetmore — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:14:10 GMT

Long after the wooden structures, houses, barns and out buildings comprising the farms and plantations of the 1700s and 1800s are gone, all that often remains are the hardened gravestones and iron fences marking the spot where the owners and family members are buried and laid to rest. This is the case with the White Plains Cemetery, resting place of Nathaniel Jones, his first and second wives, and seven of his children.

Besides being the owner of 10,000+ acres of land in what would become eastern Cary, Jones (1749-1815) was a Revolutionary War Patriot and served as a Wake County Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Clerk of Court, member of the General Assembly and delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Hillsborough in 1788. Learn more about Nathaniel Jones.

Descendants of the Nathaniel Jones family visited the cemetery in 1971 during the Town of Cary's centennial celebration. They made their way through the woods that would one day become the Maynard Oaks neighborhood and found the neglected cemetery on a small plot that would one day be situated on Tolliver Ct. in that neighborhood. The Cary Historical Society was formed in 1974 and although there was interest then in conserving the obelisk that marked Nathaniel's burial spot and the box tomb that marked that of his second wife, Rachel Perry Jones, it wasn't until 1986 that Town of Cary staff worked with the Historical Society and Sunsouth Homes, Inc. (the developers of Maynard Oaks and the owners of the cemetery at the time) to put together a proposal to conserve them.

Important Information Recorded by Two Cemetery Surveyors

In the meantime, Ann Burns and Irene Kittinger recorded the cemetery in 1981 for the Wake County Cemetery Survey Project and made a return visit in 1982. As they described, the slab atop Rachel's box tomb was no longer intact and Nathaniel's obelisk was leaning. Six or seven plain marble markers were counted inside the cemetery and five slender unmarked stones were found. The foundation was still there for what once held a wall, or perhaps an iron fence, but the fence was gone.

In 1983, Ann and Irene visited two sisters who were third great granddaughters of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains and Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree, and who provided a Bible record of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains and a copy of typed family records. These sources, along with obituaries, provided the information to determine who was buried in the White Plains Cemetery along with Nathaniel and Rachel. Keep in mind, with the exception of Nathaniel's obelisk and Rachel's box tomb, no gravestones in the cemetery bore any legible writing. But with the obtained information, it was determined that Nathaniel's first wife, Millleson Blanchard Jones, was also buried in the cemetery. She died three days after the birth of one of their children. Two of their other children are also buried in the cemetery; both died young, one at age 7 and one at age 2. These two young children both died during the same year, 1780, and are the first members of the family to be buried in the cemetery. The remaining graves contain five of Nathaniel and his second wife Rachel's children, ranging in age from 34 to 76.

Before the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, there was the Nathaniel Jones Obelisk

In June 1987, the Cary Historical Society engaged David C. Fischetti, P.E. (who went on to play a significant role in the relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse) to provide an assessment of the Nathaniel Jones obelisk, with an action plan for the obelisk's stabilization and conservation. An archaeological study of the cemetery was completed by the N.C. Office of State Archaeology. The Town of Cary and the Cary Historical Society, with support from the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel, donated funds for conservation work on Nathaniel Jones’ obelisk. They also erected an iron replacement fence around the gravestones. In addition, they restored the collapsed sides of Rachel Perry Jones’s box tomb and covered it with a temporary stone top because the original ledger stone had been displaced and was in pieces scattered throughout the cemetery. The conservation work was completed in 1989 and Sunsouth Homes deeded the site to the Town.

In 2009 - 2010, with funds donated by the Cary Historical Society, the Town and the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel installed a permanent granite ledger stone for Rachel's box tomb. The ledger stone was engraved with the original inscription, having been recorded in February 1981 by Ann Burns and Irene Kittinger before the original ledger stone was broken into pieces and eventually lost. They also added small marble tablets behind four unadorned fieldstone head markers, behind one unadorned marble foot marker, behind three damaged marble head markers that are missing sections bearing the deceased's attributes (name, date of birth, death of death, epitaph, etc.), and at the head of the one unmarked grave. In addition, they installed an interpretive sign outside the fence. The fieldstones and damaged marble tablets are original to the cemetery and its period of significance. The nine new marble tablets are approximately 2-feet tall, and are comparable to the height of the fieldstones and the lower section of the original marble tablets that mark the various burial locations.

Family Descendants Return to Find Restored Cemetery

In 2011, Jones family descendants were joined by Town representatives, Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel, Cary Historical Society members, Maynard Oaks residents and Daughters of the American Revolution to celebrate the conservation of the White Plains Cemetery. They laid bouquets of white flowers on each of the graves to honor their ancestors. Watch a video slideshow of the ceremony.

In 2012, the Yates Mill Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a commemorative grave marking ceremony and mounted on the gate leading into the graveyard a bronze plaque in honor of Nathaniel Jones. This plaque honors Jones' service as a Patriot during the American Revolution.

Forty-six years after the descendants of Nathaniel Jones trekked through the woods to find their ancestors' cemetery in a state of disrepair, the fully conserved cemetery became an official Cary Historic Landmark in 2017. The Town of Cary designates Cary Historic Landmarks as a way to preserve buildings and sites that are historically, architecturally, or culturally significant to our community. The White Plains Cemetery is certainly that.

You can visit the White Plains Cemetery at 100 Tolliver Ct. in Cary.

Watch for More Posts and a Livestream Visit to the White Plains Cemetery

This month we're trying something new and are bringing you weekly posts with more information about Nathaniel Jones and his family and about the cemetery in which they are laid to rest. And we're going to take you to the White Plains Cemetery via live streaming on our Facebook page. Follow along in this blog during September as we present new information about Nathaniel Jones, and tune in to accompany us on a visit to this Cary historic landmark on September 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Revolutionary War Patriot's Burial Site Hidden in a Cary Neighborhood

Barbara Wetmore — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Photo by Charlene Jones

The families living on Tolliver Ct. in the Maynard Oaks neighborhood share their cul-de-sac with some unusual neighbors, the deceased members of the Nathaniel Jones family. Tucked between two houses on the quiet cul-de-sac is the White Plains Cemetery, one of the oldest and most historic sites in Cary, likely dating back to 1780. It's the resting place of the Jones family, at one time the owners of land comprising much of present-day eastern Cary.

Who was Nathaniel Jones? Besides being the owner of 10,000+ acres of land, Jones (1749-1815) was a Revolutionary War Patriot and served as a Wake County Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Clerk of Court, member of the General Assembly and delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Hillsborough in 1788. In 1792, he offered his land to the state for the future capital of North Carolina, but land owned by Joel Lane was eventually selected in nearby Raleigh.

Jones was born in 1749, about the time the first English settlers began acquiring land through grants from Lord Carteret in the part of the state that would become Cary. In 1772, he married Milleson Blanchard in Chowan County; and in 1774, moved to Wake County and purchased land in the western part of the county, what would become Cary nearly 100 years later. By 1811, he had acquired between 10,000 and 11,000 acres, making him one of the largest land owners ever to own land in what is now Cary.

Jones named his house and property "White Plains" because of the many fields of cotton that surrounded his house. His Federal style plantation home, known as the Jones Manor, was located at what is today the southwest corner of Walnut Street and Greenwood Circle in Cary. The house, pictured to the right, was still standing in the 1950s before it was demolished.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

Nathaniel Jones was a popular name In Wake County during the mid-to-late 18th century and early 19th century. There were four of them! The two most prominent among the four were Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree and Nathaniel Jones of White Plains. Both owned large tracts of land, one in what is now western Cary around Crabtree Creek (hence the distinction, Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree) and one in what is now eastern Cary surrounded by fields of cotton (hence the distinction Nathaniel Jones of White Plains). These two Nathaniel Joneses were not related, but their two families were eventually connected through marriage when Nancy Jones, daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains, married Henry Jones, son of Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree on February 3, 1813. Henry inherited a house built by his father in the early 1800s that is still standing and is another very historic Cary property, the Nancy Jones house on Chapel Hill Rd., pictured to the left. The house is named for Nancy who outlived Henry by 35 years.

In addition to having large land ownership in common, the two Nathaniel Joneses were political rivals. Both were candidates for the House of Commons during the late 18th century, and their efforts to win a seat generated some negative discourse. Recorded in Raleigh's The Morning Post, Nathaniel Jones of White Plains told his opponent, Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree, "I am going to beat you because your constituents have not any shoes and it is too cold to walk barefooted to Raleigh." Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree informed his constituents about these comments and "when election day come, streams of men could be seen on every road, with corn whiskey in their stomachs and shoes and sticks over their shoulders, their feet naked, hurrahing for Jones of Crabtree. Jones of White Plains was badly beaten."

50 Years before the Emancipation Proclamation, Jones Wanted to Free His Enslaved Workers

Nathaniel Jones of White Plains is noted for his last will and testament, in which he requested that his enslaved workers be set free, 50 years before the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. In his words:

I suppose it will be asked my reason for Emancipating my Negro Slaves (as soon as) the laws of the State will admit or Tolerate it, which reason are as follows:

Reason the first, agreeable to the rights of man, every humane person, be his colour what it may, is entitled to Freedom, when he or she or they arrive at mature years.

Reason the second, my conscience the grate Criterion condemns me for keeping them in slavery.

Reason the third, the Golden Rule directs us to do unto every Humane Creature, as we would wish to be done unto, and shure I am, that there is not one of us would agree to be kept in slavery during a long life.

Reason the fourth and last, I wish to die with a clear conscience that I may not be ashamed to appear before my master in the future world.

Sadly, Jones' enslaved workers were not freed because the law in North Carolina at the time would not allow it.