Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 191?-19??, 1914-12-03

State. The cleared areas were small,
except in a few instances. The oldest
clearing in the county, n probably
at the time the largest, raj the farm
Of Josiah Sasser, O. which the first
court was held, which is o owned
by Messrs. I. F. Ormond and E. B.
Borden, and which has been, according
to well established tradition, in
continuous cultivation since 1775, and
probably prior to that date.
There were few roads and travel
was usually by neighborhood paths on
horseback. Practically all the houses
were built of logs. An order in Coun-
Gil, March 81, 1925, provides that For
the saving of lands for the future,
every house shall be fifteen feet long,
ten broad, made tight and habitable
of clapboard and logs squared, with
roof and chimney place and a door
place. The whole acre cleared well
and the major part of it broke up and
| planted with either fruit trees or
grain" In the towns, purchasers of
lots were required to build houses 16
by "a feet. Lumber was. generally
sawed by hand and was scarce and ex-
pensive. Their were few saw mills
and North Carolina produced only
about $50 900 feet of lumber a year
prior to 1850, and probably twice as
much in 1873. In the older settled
regions along the Cape Fear, Neuse
and Chowan a number of large n
elegant mansions had been built and
there was a degree of wealth AMI lux
ury enjoyed there which pres ,nted to
the traveller a striking contrast to
the humble homes and frugal 1ives CT
the people of this section. In 1876
there were only two water mills in the
colony, and grain was generally
ground in hand mills even to a much
later date.
Cloth:ng, shoes and hats were maze
at home home grown cotton, w1ci.
leather and the sEins and fur of will
animals being Utilized TO-: the pur-
pose
1 note that an item of North Caro-
lima Export Trade in 1853 was 10000
deer skins. In 1884, II bags of cotton
weighing 225 pounds each were ex-
ported to England from Charleston,
there being no export of cotton from
any other port, and seized by the
English Government on the ground
that the. United States could lot pro-
duce SO much.
A traveller, writing just before the
Revolution, says: There is but little
, specie in circulation, there being no
Occasion for it; for a planter raises
his own meats, beef and bacon, his
own corr and bread, his drinks, cider
and brandy, his fruit, apples, peaches,
ETC., and a great part of his clothing,
1 which is cotton"
:. The cotton gin had a late introduce
ton in this county; and before it's ad-
vent, cotton vas picked by hand from
II 4ho -oo1 ~o,a 4h@ &ro1slo - -:~h+
and a shoe full was the task for each
memeber Of the family from supper
) until bed time. My friend, Capt. J,
, B. Edgerton, informs me that he en-
;, gagged in this pleasant past-time as
/ late as 1916, and that growers of cot
ton in the middle of the 4O's hauled
: their cotton to Fayetteville to be gin
ned. He remembers quite wildly
that, as a boy, he accompanied his
fathers wagons on this long journey
Some plantation gins operated by hand
were in use. The card, the spinning
wheel and the loom were necessities
} in every well regulated house, and OF
) the matron of that day it might have
been written as Solomon wrote in
: praise of the good wife:
"She seeketh wool and fax, and
worketh willing with her hands,"
"She layeth her hands to the spindle
E and the distaf."
"She looketh well unto the ways OF
her household and eateth not the bread
e of idleness."
y In 1870 there were only four post
> offices in the State-Edenton, New
Bern, Wilmington and Washington
and up to 1859 no post routes. Letters
= were carried by travellers from planta-
: ton to plantation and forwarded as
: promptly as practicable, but the
means of communication were made.
quate and unsatisfactory. Official mai
= was carried by messengers or specia.
= carriers on horse Jack and at great
? expense. In 1855, upon the recon
. mendation of Gov. Bobbs, James Da.
. Wis, Printer, was employed for the sun
: of one hundred pounds, six shillings
: and eight pence, proclamation money
= for n year "To carry all public
letters, expresses n dispatches relat
: ing to this province to any port there
,, of, and every fifteen days send a mes
senger to Suffolk, in Virginia, and tt
Wilmington!"
There were four or five newspaper
published in North Carolina at the be.
ginning of the Revolution, at New
Bern, Wilmington, Halifax, EdentoI
! and Hillsboro. The publication of the
North Carolina Gazette was begun in
New Bern by James Davis about 1751
O Or 1852. 1t contained according to its
a announcement The freshest advices
foreign and domestic" and was pub
lished weekly. To James Davis belongs
the honor of having set up the frs
+ printing press in North Carolina in
: the year 1749, and of having printed
the first book in 1851, a "Revisal Of
o the Acts of the General Assembly,
known as the yellow Jacket" He
was appointed postmaster at New Bern
by another famous printer whose
, name was Benjamin Franklin. James
Davis was a Virginian by birth and
! the ancestor of Mrs. Thomas w. Slo.
cumb, Col. Adam c.. Davis and Jeffer-
son Davis, Esq, of Goldsboro, and
James Davis, deceased, of Wayne
, Among his descendants living in other
communities, l have known James w
and Thomas C. Davis and their sister
+. Mrs. James Murray of Wilson. All OF
these have exhibited the high charac-
ter, fine intelligence and public ano