Milford chronicle., 1926-01-01
MILFORD MAN WRITES
FROM SUNNY SOUTHLAND
Freeman Bennett Tells OF His Trip
To Florida.

The following letter from Mr'
Freeman Bennett, who with his wife
is passing the winter in Florida, and
expects to return to Milford in
March. will be interesting reading
to many people of Milford and VI
cinity. The letter is dated Christ
mas day and it follows:
With Mrs. Bennett and Mr.. Fred
Whitehead we left Milford on De-
cember 14th in our automobile en-
route for Florida. We went via
Cape Charles, Va, and we had good
roads all the way. From there 10
Norfolk, Va, was a very beautltul
ride: Old Fort Monroe of Civil war
fame with the Notifications and re-
servations about it are passed close
by. On the steamer we met LleuIen-
ant Lockwood Pratt who was on his
wav to the Aerial Base at Norfolk.
We made only a very brief stop at
Norfolk and continued from there
on to the Portsmouth and Suffolk
Ferry. and crossed the EllzaDeLh
River and then on to Suffolk, va.
Here our route ran through the
great spinach fields where that veg
etable was being cut by hundreds OF
people, barreled and shipped TO
northern markets. For miles Ihe
most conspicuous thing to be seen
were great piles of barrels. The
workers had small fires built TO
keen their hands warm, as II was
quite cold.
The cold weather seemed to fol-
low us all the way clear to Palm
Peach. Florida, and it rained three
nights out of four in succession.
After leaving Franklin, Va, we
saw large fields of peanuts, the nuts
and vines standing in small STACKS,
ready for the thresher; some OF
which are run by gasoline power
while others were using the old
fashioned horsepower. After the
nuts are removed from the fields
hogs are turned into them, and the
hogs certainly turn over every men
of the field in search of the peanuts
which were left in the ground or
shattered from the vines, and Ihey
fatten quickly on them.
The scenes along the way thru
Virginia and on to Henderson,
North Carolina, were very similar;
from this place we found good ROADS
and had a fine run to Raleigh, the
State Capitol and it is beautiful
city: although it was raining and
that made night driving bad. The
next morning we found the weather
clear an DIVE started early, Dut
shortly after leaving Raleigh. we
had to detour because of repairs to
the Jefferson Davis Highway, which
runs through North Carolina and
Georgia. 1t is named after Jefferson
Davis, who was president of the
Southern Confederacy of States dur
ing the Civil War. At intervals
there are monuments marking the
highway on which is the name OF
Jefferson Davis to inform the tour
list.
1t was a beautiful sight to see the
grand views which are literally
scattered along the route through
the CarOlinas.
The Haw River is crossed on a
splendid steel and concrete bridge,
and the view is striking as the car
rolls on it's way. AS we looked
down far below and saw the yellow
and turbulent waters rolling among
the rocks and dashing into spray it
was indeed a pretty sight. Soon the
Deep River with the same impress
i've bridge and yellow turbid waters
was encountered. Here we stopped
for a cup of coffee and a piece of
pie, for which the charge was only
Is cents for the two. From here to
Stamford and Pinehurst brought us
into the peach growing sections,
and for miles there is little to be
seen but peach trees of fine appear
ance and seldom over eight feet
high. Acres and acres unroll as the
auto passes along the highway.
We come to Southern Pines, and 1
suppose that it gets it's name from
the towering pine trees of the long
shaft variety, which are everywhere
and make a handsome landscape
effect. 1t is a well-laid out city,
everything green, wide streets.
Many small towns were passed,
and we finally reached Rockingham,
North Carolina, where a barbecue
was being prepared for a gathering
of $4,000, which was occassioned by
q general celebration of the opening
of a new bridge, which cost about
100000 to construct. The people
of North Carolina have and are
building some of the largest and
handsomest bridges we have ever
seen.
From here we went into South
Carolina and I want to tell about
the roads we have experienced in
North Carolina and in parts of
outh Carolina.
e you ever rode on rubber-here
here you get on; they are very
and that old Essex Of mine
south without changing
n uphill or on down-hill |
without regard for the speed |
but Mart" Townsend can |
hat the old bus can do on such |
roadB as he has one of them-just |
runs like jack rabbit sailing along |
with gray hound on the chase. |
We met a Hudson or Essex every !
few minutes-it might be that they ,
have "still" in the hills about here |
and turn them out like hot cakes.
While eating lunch near Bethune
we met fellow named Jackson who !
was going back to Pittsburgh for
He claimed to have made
$4,000 last week. He Joined us in
eating a sandwich. He gave us some
as to the roads, and |
places to stop at night along the
way to Florida.
At Camden we crossed a toll bridge
and there quite a goodly number of |
these To ahsnrh un111. chnnon The