The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1923-11-02
IRWIN COBB ON
OUR ANCESTORS
Noted Writer Doesn't Believe
There were Many Gentle
men" First Settlers

Folks who brag about their
early Colonial ancestors should
put on the soft pedal around
Irwin S Cobb who thinks our
first settlers were in the main
just ordinary run of folks and
nothing to brag about.
Mr.. Cobb has written an interest
ing article about North Carolina in
the current number of Hearst's H.
tcrnatiOnal i'm which he says that
North Carolina is the greatest state
South Of Mason & Dixon ana then
some buf he isn't enthused over the
early aristOcracy. Mr.. Cobb says:
"In the first place, hack at the
beginnings Of the English-speaking
white mans state Of things on this
continent, her soil was Squatted up
on by types Of men and women
whose descendants today form n
population that makes North Car
olina perhaps the most typically
American Of the Southern States
just as Indians. by virtue Of similar
blends In her original composition,
is mdeniably the most typically
American Of all the sO-called Middle
Western States, and just rs Oregon.
from similar causes, il probably the
most diStinctively American of all
those States which individually
and gcOgraphically-are Western.
These first settlers almost tXclu-
Sively were OF AnglO-SaXon stocks
artisans. farmers. small traders
II sturdy. hard-hcaded. moncy-poor.
Iand-grccdy race. very shortly to he
enriched by groups Of Irish refugees
and Highlander Jacobitcs and at n
somewhat later period by II valuable
stream Of trckkers across the noun
tains from up Pennsylvania way
Ouakcrs and Dutchmcn and Welsh
men. mainly: still later came Swiss
and few Swctlcs ont of Delcwarc
and New Jersey. So. y0u see. hoth
in the strains OF her immigrating
and her cmigrating additions, the
yonng country signally was favored.
"She did not carry the outset thc
lurtcn Of an ariStncratic institution
which htl high h-hcadrd ncighborS on
either flank-Nirginia and South
CarOlina-already were carrying. Ii
may sound like treason III some ears
for me 10 say it. being Southern
born myself. but it seems to me the
South rather has Ovcrw0rkcd the
Cavalier, fetish just as New Eng
land has overdone the Puritan
Father fetish.
II am constrained to believe that
there were not nearly 50 l'GnY gen
tlcfolk among the Southern 'is
as one might he led 10 l. .um
reading of the histories. Wv.
as Il rule. dO not cross
ouS unchartcd sea 10 bic" .. "'''s
and savage land. The &c, 81. M..r.r-
ever found. are prone to stay on at
home: they are doing pretty we'll
there. else they would not he rat
cd as belonging among the elect.
1T is the travelling tailor, the
runaway apprentice, the petty
tradcsman in debt the dOwn-at-
hels schoolmastcr. the itinerant
preacher, the hricfless barristcr, the
butcher, the baker and the candle
stick maker who compose the mass
of settlers in far places and these
soon absorb the. trickling admiX-
lures of adventurous younger SONS
and gentlemen soldiers of fortune
who come with them overseas. Lat
or, with prosperity. the pleasing
romance of an aristOcratic ancestry
is created.
AT any rate, this largely was
true of North Cardinals settlement.
Her first citizens did not build
many mansions. but with bush hook
and axe blade they hacked their
way to the heart of the wilderness
there to set up their log home
steads."