The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-04-05
An Inland Business Center of the Past Century.
wv Fayetteville Dealt With Western North
Carolina and the Country Across the Noun
tains The Picturesque Canvas-Top-
ped Wagons and their 'Musi-
cal Teams"
(For The Messenger.)

their lives amid the customs and in
familiarity with the business methods
or a fio~urishing seaport short sto-
~ might prove interesting, Of the
trade and manner OF carrying it on,
Of Fayetteville. the great entire port
of North Carolina from the close OF
the 18th to the early fftieS of the
18th century. It's found
their customers, besides the local
patronage of the Immediately ad-
joining section, in every county west
ward to the Blue Ridge. and even
across the mountains INTO southwest
Virginia and east Tennessee.
1t is significant to note here the in
ftuerce of local conditions and diva
tages on trade centers an dterminals.
Even after Fayetteville became an
important town, and d rapidly advan-
cling civilization claimed the advan-
tages of it's inland navigation for
steam transportation. business enter
prise inevitably sought the banks of
the Cape Fear, and Campbellton,
pitched on its bluffs. awaited the
West India goods which the putting
steamer would bring to it's doors from
the Wilmington merchants, and ship
| ped in return the leaf tobacco, brought
to this market in h~ogsheads suspend
J ed between two wheels, and drawn by
n or two horses. Only a few years
& the last of the huge Campbell
ton warehouses for the storage of
this tobacco was demolished or fell
in ruins.
When the great trade from the
west set in and the long lines of
country" aEOnS came as eager bid
ders for the Fayetteville merchants
wares, bartering in exchange the pro-
ducts of the fertile back country,
West Hay street, the farthest out
reaching point to meet these
became the wholesale district of the
town. with the exception of Charles
T. HaigR, e. w. Winnings. q. n E.
Y. Lilly. James Kyle and one or w
| others near market square. This dis
trict was not more than two hundred
and fifty yards in extent, from the
store of George Mcneil at the foot Of
| Haymoult to that of James Martin
| its center being about where the pas
senger station of the Atlantic Coast
| Line railroad now stands.
Today Campbellton is only the
eastern river suburb of Fayetteville,
and long g resigned all claims to
business importance, our esteemed
fellow citizen, Mr.. 3. G.. Hollings-
worth, alone. in that quarter holding
his own in mercantile life. West Hay
street is now devoted wholly to small
retail trade, though the passing of
the Atlantic Coast Line railroad
through that part of the city has done
much for the betterment of it's bus-
mess.
If of the younger generation
could be transported back to the inte-
rior Of a Fayetteville wholesale store,
say about the year 1850 or before, he
would wonder into h n of
establishment he had been inveigled.
He would see no convenient rolling
desk, no ponderous safe, embiazoned
with gilt letters and guarded by a
1 tjuoa 1nPIx- hn wnl1IH hpar No click nf
Typewriter, no impatient call over lie
the telephone-while the head of the
house probably spent as much in a year
for -head and stationery as the
shopkeeper of today spends in a week
He laboriously wrote his letters with
a quill pen lighting a candle to in
close them in sealing wax, and he
hanked benign art, which later or
gave him the improvement of the rec
wafer
The customers too, would puzzlt
a twentieth ceneury sYisitor. stepping
back more than half a century tC
peep lin. Gigantic bearded fellows, ir
short sleeves, with, black snake whip!
over their shoulders, Stalked through
the store, sampling this and that
joking with the clerks, or reclining
against the coffee bags in waiting t
have their orders flied. These cou
try traders were a strange class O.
men. They were shrewd, honest
but, despite their rough exterior
proud and sensitive and brooked n
assumption of social superiority
They invariably, to begin with, learn
ed the given names of their merchan
and his staff and thereafter the,
were plain John, Henry" Bill
etc, with them. That was the Styl
of salutation IN their country: it Shout
be SO with the merchant prince of tn
big town of "Fayette," as most o
them called it.
These canvas-topped wagon
brought fiour talIow, corn whiske,
and apple brandy. beeswax. feathers
flaxseed, driedfruit and other pro
duce, and they transported to tn
western country sugar, molasSes
Liverpool salt in sacks, coffee, spices
drygoods. nails, iron in bars, farm
ing utensils, etc, In front OF ever
wholesale store was Il post at whic'
one of the present generation WouI
look long ipcomprehendingly. i
was made of very hard wood, wa
: set deep in n ground, above whic
it rose to the height Of about five fee
and about one loot from the top wa
an orifice like the eye of n needl'
piercing the post clear through, an
= bound with iron. Though this pos
the bars OF Swedish iron wer
thrust. and two men bent them dou
4 TX. " AAAC AOAN AAASbS 80
; transportation over the rugged bill
e and long stretches of road. Only III
other day I came across the decaye
stump of one OF these postS-th
K last hat anyone in Fayetteville wi
T ever see
The country wagons were mar
4 ufactured generally at Salem an
: waughtown in Forsyth county. WEI
= very stoutly built and well equippe
e with axe, drag for steep descent
buckets, trough, box for the simpI
g camp outfit, etc. They were painte
usually red and green, and were COY
i. cred with stout water-tight n
Some OF these wagons and team
were owned by the country me-
Ii chants. but the inland TRANSPORTS
ton was mostly in the hands of res
ular transfers, who hauled goods O
a fixed tariff of charges. and some
them did the whole business of the