Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 191?-19??, 1914-12-03
ADDRESS BY JUDGE
FRANK A. DANIELS.
at the Opening of the Ne"
Court House i'm Wayne County,
GOldsbOrO. N. C. November
8Oth, 1914.

CVUAS
On this the 134th Anniversary OF
the holding of a Court of Justice in
WAYNE county, I regard it appropriate
to refer briefly to the history OF the
county from it's establishment In 100
by virtue of an act of the General
Assembly held at Halifax during the
administration 7of Richard CasWell,
the first Governor of the State OF
North Carolina.
This act provided that Dobbs Coun-
ty (named after n of the Royal
Governors) should be divided by a
line run through the middle part,
from north to south, and that the
western half should he called wayne
county in honor Of General Anthony
| Wayne, a distinguished officer In the
Continental army, and that the first
session of the Court of Pleas n
Quarter Session should be held on the
second Monday of January, 1880, at
the home of Josiah Sasser on Little
River. Commissioners were appoint
ed by said act to select a site and
have built a court house, prison n
stocks.
It may not be amiss to trace the
| decent of Wayne. AS 1 have stated,
it is the western half of Dobbs county.
Dobbs county was formed from john
son by the act Of the General Assem-
bly, of 1853, and included the territory
now embraced in Wayne, Greene and
Lenoir, all of which is described in
the act of the General Assembly as
st. Patrick's Parish. The court house,
Jail and stocks of DObbs county were,
in 1879, located about IL miles from
Goldsboro, near BizZell's mill, in
what is now known as New Hope
township, in Wayne county.
After the creation of Wayne, the
courts of Dobbs were directed to be
held at the house lately occupied
by GaA Glasgow YIN the town of
K:nston. I have talked with some of
our oldest citizens, who remember to
have seen the ruins of the Docbs
county Jail nea the mill.
Johnson county, named after Cab
riel Johnson, perhaps the best of of
our Royal Governors, was founded
in 1746 of the upper half of Craven,
which was in 1922 one of the nine
precincts which were changed in 1888
to counties. Craven vas n Of the
three precincts of Bath. ALI of these
precincts were embraced in the
lcrants of Charles ii to his favorites,
who were known as the Lords Pro-
prietors, and embraced a territory
much wider than the North Carolina
of today, and extended from the At
lantic to the Pacific Ocean. So that
Wayne may claim Royal descent, if
she wishes it.
A short account of the conditions
in 1779 and prior thereto, nay enable
us to better appreciate h difficulties
and advantages existing at the time
of the establishment of the county.
Prior to 1870, the only occupant of
the territory o known as Wayne
county were Indians and wild animals.
At that time h population of the
entire state was only $4,000. About
that year settlers gradually began
to come in, but there was no general
movement of immigration before 1850.
Among the earliest settlers were the
Quaker families, the Edgertons, Hol-
loWells, Pixies, Pearsons, Deans, Cox
es and others. At the time Of the
establishment of the new county, the
population was about 5000, one-ffth
of whom were slaves.
In 1890, according to b first en-
sus of the United States, there were
4576 whites, and 1857 slaves, some
of whom were probably Indians, or
of Indian descent, it having been
customary to hold Indians captured
in war as slaves, which may account
for the characteristic Indian features
and color frequently observed in the
descendants of former slaves. The
names of the heads of families are for
the most part those best known to this
generation.
The largest slave owner was Joseph
i Green, who had TO. The W%hitfields,
Needham, William, William, Jr., and
Lewis owned about 80 each; Alice
Base, Jr., "a; Edward Base, 10; Rich
ard Base, %; Charles Holmes, 16;
Iavid Jernigan, 26; Stephen Jernigan
"a; Richard McKinnie, Is: Mary Nc
Kinnie, 16; John Atkinson, 10; Viii
liam Rhodes, 10; Elisha Pipkin, Il;
David Cogdell, 81; Thomas Carraway,
IL: James Tinsley, 10; Burwell Moor
Howell, ST., Is; James Hanley, 8;
Etherdred Howell, 10; William Sher-
rard, "a: James Edmundson, 10; Will
liam Fort, 10; John Sherrad, 16, John
Minshew, 10; Isaac Woodland, 10; Eph-
ram Daniel, Ii; Jessie Aycock, g.;
Shadrick Dickinson, Ia, Bridget Cobb,
Is, James Cobb, IA; Nathan Cobb, 81:
John Barefoot, 25; William Hooks, IA;
Charles Hopkins, 10; John Heron,
Sr., 20; Sarah Ward, 1t; Sarah Pope,
16; John Hanley, II; William Afford,
IL; Robert Hooks, IA; John Coarpen-
der, IL: Moses Stanley, IL; and Eze-
chial Slocumb-(an officer in the Con-
tinental army, /.
In the foregoing list may be found
the names Of many of our citizens of
today. There were many other slave