The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-03-19
HISTORY OF TYRRELL COUNTY
AND COLUMBIA
BY David Davis-Coumbia High School Student
Reprint from Utilities"

men and trained them at Bun
combe Hall at his own expense.
Colonel Buncombe was wounded
at Germantown in 1777 and died
of his wounds while on parole
in Philadelphia. A county in
Western North Carolina was
named in his honor.
Sent First Volunteers
Among the documents in the
Courthouse is letter from
Joseph Hewes, one of the signers
of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, to Governor Caswell,
stating that Tyrrell and Per-
quimaons counties sent the first
Revolutionary volunteers from
the Albemarle Section.
Tyrrell continued to grow rap
idly, new and larger plantations
were established and more slaves
were imported. Southern Hos
pitality" was truly a great re-
cognized quality of Colonial
North Carolina. The people who
settled in Tyrrell had few ways
getting news from outside their
locality, and when they came
upon a traveller, they were over
joyed. There were hardly any
newspapers until after 1851, and
the process of travelling was slow
and tiresome as well as danger
Gus.
At first the planters lived in
log cabins, but when some of
them became financially better
off, they moved into wooden
houses and some of them into
Greenhouses. The plantations
were usually reached by a road
or the river. The big house was
usually a large square building
with a hall running through the
center. The kitchens were set off
from the big house. Negro slave
servants usually were employed
in the house and in the kitchen.
All the work on the plantations
was done by the slaves. Of these
there were many. Josiah Collins,
who owned the great Lake
Phelps Plantations once owned
300. The slaves resided in small
cabins away from the Masters
House. They sometimes owned
their own gardens and chickens.
The Masters usually treated the
slaves well. 1t would have been
foolish and uneconomical to do
otherwise. If they had allowed
their overseers to beat and tor
ture the slaves, they would have
been wasting energy needed in
the fields. In most cases the
slaves were happy and never
dreamed of escaping or obtaining
freedom. Even when the Union
Army freed them, many an old
colored nanny and uncle stayed
with the "Mastuh".
Education was a problem in
Tyrren in ante-bellum days.
There were no free public
schools. The planters, if they
were able, usually hired a COVER
ness, who lived in the Big
House with the family and rear
ed and educated the children.
These governesses were often
strict and difficult. However the
poor and less fortunate often did
not receive an education.
Columbia First Known as
Elizabeth Town
In 1900 Columbia was known
as Elizabeth Town. However, in
1910 it was changed to Columbia
in honor of Christopher Co
lumbus, the discoverer of Amer
lea. The pride of the town in
these early days of its history
was the bridge which crossed the
Scuppernong River, which ap-
proaches the town from the
north. 1t was still, however, a
small village with a few houses
and probably store.
The Scuppernong River, on
which Columbia is situated, is a
black stream. The name is der
ived from Askuponong (Algon-
quin Indian name for "At the
place of the sweet bay tree") Ira
dition says that Scuppernong
Grapes were first discovered
here by two Alexander Brothers
in the eighteenth century. In 1919
Senator Nathaniel Macon sent
two bottles of Scuppernong Wine
to Thomas Jefferson at Month
cello, describing it as the BEST
in the country.
During the war between the