Robeson County African Americans2

Posted on February 24, 2019August 14, 2024 by blaketyner

Robeson County African Americans

This is a brief look of some of the African Americans that played a large role in the history of Robeson County. The stories and photographs were gathered from many sources and only present a brief slice of their lives. I documented them in my books Images of American – Robeson County and Images of America – Lumberton. Take time to remember these leaders and record your memories of them and of other leaders that played a part in the history of the county and of your lives.

Alexander Hill Thompson was born a slave on June 28, 1828, to the Reverend Alexander A. Thompson and his wife, Margaret. Following the lead of his preacher father, Thompson grew up to be a preacher, educator, community organizer, and also the progenitor of 27 children by two wives. In 1877, he was one of the two founders of the Lumber River Baptist Association, which grew out of the Grey’s Creek Association. The Lumber River Missionary Baptist Association was organized in Fair Bluff, North Carolina. The minutes of the Grey’s Association show that E.M. Thompson and A.H. Thompson led the way. The association was started to teach the Bible to ministers, who recognized the importance of education for the black population. In 1881, they acquired land and started a school, naming it the Thompson Institute in honor of Alexander H. Thompson and his leadership. The Lake Waccamaw Association donated most of the money, about $l,000. There were three buildings, and Reverend Thompson was the leader while it was a religious school. In 1900, when the institute became specifically an educational institution, the Reverend J. Avery became the first principal, serving two years. Several short-term principals followed until, in 1912, the Rev. W.H. Knuckles became principal and served until 1942. (Courtesy of the Thompson Collection, Robeson Remembers, Robeson County History Museum.)

William Henry Knuckles graduated from Shaw University. He came to Lumberton in 1912 to take a position as principal at the Thompson Institute. The original institute was one building, but by 1921, under the administration of Dr. Knuckles, there were five buildings. The main complex—a three-story brick structure with wooden columns—housed dining facilities, classrooms, and living quarters for teachers and students. Under the leadership of Dr. Knuckles, the school attracted students from many of the nearby counties and from several states, some from as far away as New York. Most of the African American teachers employed in the local schools were graduates of the Thompson Institute. Dr. Knuckles passed away in 1942, and W.H. Knuckles Elementary was named in his honor as a lasting memorial. (Courtesy of Knuckles School.)

Anne T. Jeanes founded the Jeanes Foundation to train African American educators to teach African American children. Ethel Thompson arrived by train in Lumberton in the 1920s; she had been selected to work as a Jeanes supervisor in Robeson County. Her role was to assist the African American population in their educational objectives, but she found herself a record keeper of black, white, and Indian schools from the 1920s to the 1940s. She developed curricula, recruited and nurtured teachers, and reported on teacher development and student enrollment. Dr. J.H. Hayswood, the pastor of Bethany United Presbyterian Church and an avid educator in his own right, began courting her. The couple married, and though they had no natural offspring, they opened their home to eight children who lived with them at various times. It was understood that all eight would attend college, and they did. Pictured from left to right are Ethel Thompson Hayswood, Annie T. Holland, and Mame Holiday. (Courtesy of the Hayswood Collection, Robeson Remembers, Robeson County
History Museum.)

William McKinley McNeill was a local instructor who taught at the Redstone High School. He began teaching there in the mid-1930s. Better known as “Prof” by his students, he wore many hats. McNeill taught math, chemistry, physics and physical education. He coached three sports—football, basketball, and baseball —and served as assistant principal when Dr. John H. Hayswood had to be away from school. McNeill arrived at school at 7:30 a.m. and usually left around 6 in the evening. When his mentor, Dr. Hayswood, retired, the Lumberton School Board named the newly constructed school in his honor and appointed McNeil as principal. At the Hayswood School, his students had the first indoor gym. McNeill was able to hire coaches and other teachers to do many of the activities that he had once done alone. McNeill served as principal from 1949 until his death in 1964. (Courtesy McNeill Collection Robeson Remembers, Robeson County History Museum.)

Expert canners Julius E. and Alice Bryan are shown here at their Elizabethtown Road home with their winter supply of canned fruits and vegetables. Canning was a part of everyday life and was essential to feeding a family in the days before refrigeration and supermarkets. This photograph was taken by George W. Ackerman on May 20, 1932. During his almost-40-year career with the US Department of Agriculture, Ackerman took more than 50,000 photographs. (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

Dr. Eugene Burns “E.B.” Turner served as the pastor of First Baptist Church on West Second Street for 57 years with his helpmate and wife, Georgia McNeill. An inspirational leader, he encouraged all citizens, especially African Americans, to find the courage to use their voices to break an oppressive silence. It was upon arriving in Lumberton as a preacher at the age of 22, that he first discovered the harsh living conditions African Americans were forced to endure. There were no paved streets in the black sections of town, and most blacks lived in poor housing with little opportunity for upward movement. In the political field, he was chairman of the Robeson County Democratic Party and served 30 years on the Lumberton City Council before being elected to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners in 1992. He was also on the boards of Lumberton Economic Advancement for Downtown, Inc., the Lumberton Housing Authority, Lumberton Community and Economic Development Committee, Lumberton Commission for Youth and the Family, the Lumberton Visitors Bureau, and Historic Robeson, Inc. (Courtesy of Robeson County History Museum.)

Ida Van Smith knew from her early childhood that she wanted to be a pilot. Her father began taking her to air shows at the old Lumberton airport when she was three years old. She was delighted by barnstorming exhibitions performed by pilots and by the women performing wing- walking stunts on the airplanes. Born in 1917 in Lumberton to Theodore Deland and Martha Jane Larkin, Smith graduated from Red Stone Academy and Shaw University. She earned a master’s degree from Queens College and became a teacher in the New York City Public Schools in the fields of history and special education. In 1967, at the age of 50, she finally fulfilled her personal dream of learning to fly. Once she had her private pilot’s license and instructor rating, Smith founded the Ida Van Smith Flight Club on Long Island, New York. The flight-training club was for minority children to encourage their involvement in aviation and aerospace sciences. Training for the students was provided in an aircraft simulator funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and an operational Cessna 172. Soon, there were more than 20 clubs throughout the country, with members between the ages of 13 and 19. As a result, thousands of children were exposed to aviation, and many pursued related careers. Smith also produced and hosted a cable television show on aviation and taught an introductory aviation course at York College of the City University of New York. (Courtesy of Robeson County History Museum.)

Major Alexander L. Lewis, a Lumberton native, was serving as Post Chaplain of US Army Garrison Fort Hamilton in August 1958 when alerted that he would be leaving for Korea. He was the only African-American holding this type of position in the Army. Lewis had served in combat during in Europe and the Pacific, where he was awarded a bronze and silver star. (Courtesy Historic Robeson, Inc.)

Professor John Truman Peterson became Principal of the Red Springs black school in 1933; this was the year the first high school class graduated. His entire mission was to provide a quality education for Red Springs African American children. On 1 July 1958 the new high school was named in his honor.

While the 1969 integration of the school system the Peterson High School became the Peterson Elementary School. The building was destroyed 28 March 1984 when a tornado ripped through the town. The new Peterson Elementary School was opened for students 2 September 1986. (Courtesy Red Springs Historical Museum)

Dr. Joy Johnson graduated from the Laurinburg Institute and then attended Shaw University. He was called to the First Baptist Church in Fairmont in September 1951. He was active in his community serving as State Secretary of the NAACP, President of the Robeson County Black Caucus and was founder of the African American Cultural Center in Lumberton. He was elected the first black mayor of Fairmont. (Courtesy African American Cultural Center)

When Sherman’s troops invaded Robeson County by K. Blake Tyner

Posted on March 8, 2018 by blaketyner

After Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army devastated Atlanta, he began his infamous march through the South in early January 1865. By March 7, his troops had reached North Carolina and begun their reign of terror on Robeson County.

While Sherman himself passed through the Laurinburg area on his way toward Fayetteville, his troops were spread all across neighboring Robeson County. Some of the county’s residents left detailed accounts of encounters with the troops during what turned out to be the final weeks of the war, including the Rev. Washington S. Chaffin, Annabella McCallum McElyea and Ellen Douglas Bellamy.

Lumberton
The Rev. Chaffin, a circuit-riding Methodist minister, was living in Lumberton at the time of Sherman’s raid. His diary, located in the Special Collections Library at Duke University, gives his viewpoint of the time the Yankees were in town.

He writes on March 9, 1865, of the Yankees’ arrival, which led to robbery and the burning of railroad property:

“Cotton was burning in different heaps,” he wrote. “Great excitement. The Yankees are said to be in two different places near here — I am incredulous, just as I penned the last word in the last line, two couriers came straining their steeds down street from Major Blount’s hollering, ‘The Yankees are coming, the Yankees are coming.’ They were not couriers, but a part of the raiding party. Almost in an instant the streets were swarming with Yankee cavalry charging in every direction. There were some 300 to 500 of them, I suppose. They robbed me of Mrs. Chaffin’s watch — Also stole Kate. They burned the county bridge, R. R. Bridge, and depot. Entered many houses & committed many depredations — They did not come into our house. Whence they came from and whither they went, I know not. My wife was greatly excited. I have owned Kate 5 years, 11 months & 17 days — She has never been sick — I traveled with her on horseback 17,102 miles.”

While Lumberton was still in shock over the loss of personal property, as well as the railroad bridge and depot, Chaffin made the following prayer on March 14 that showed his courage and strong belief in reconciliation:

“In our nation may all malice, & hatred & wrath be laid aside — that there be no more sectional animosity, so that violence shall no more be heard in our land, wasting nor destruction in our borders. May the President of the nation have the piety of Joseph, and his counselors — wisdom — may they be good men & disposed to measures of peace, that there may be peace in all our borders & that all the people may engage in the industrial pursuits of life.”

He noted in the diary after the prayer, “Exception, I learn has been taken to it.”

Fork community
Annabella McCallum McElyea, known to most everyone as “Aunt Becky,” lived in the southwestern corner of the county in the community known as Fork.

*“Aunt Becky”*
*Annabella McCallum McElyea*

She was a regular correspondent to The Robesonian from 1907 until her death in 1926. While her articles often carried the current news of her community, the bulk of her writings dealt with her recollections of days gone by. On March 18, 1909, soon after the 44th anniversary of Sherman’s march through Robeson, she wrote about her memories of the raiding troops.

She called Sherman’s bummers a “veritable band of thieves and robbers stealing everything from horses to ladies’ jewelry and clothing.” She and her sister had packed their best clothes and jewelry in a trunk and had it put in the loft of their “black mammy’s house,” which was the first place searched by the troops.

The troops that came to her father’s home were led by a man on horseback who attempted to ride into the house. Her mother objected and was told, “Why, Madam, when I’m at home I ride this horse into my parlor.” Aunt Becky commented that “the four-footed beast was by all odds a more fitting occupant than the two-legged one.”

She summed up their time in the community: “They were bent on completely devastating the land and for this reason carried off and destroyed many articles which were of no use to them.”

Floral College
Floral College, the first North Carolina college to confer degrees to women, was chartered on Jan. 11, 1841, and located about three miles north of Maxton.

Floral College was one of the casualties of the “War Between the States” as surely as any human casualty. Due to economic hardships, the loss of students, and fear of being unable to provide safety to students, the college was forced to close for a time.

Shutting down the school provided opportunity for other use. O.G. Parsley and Dr. John Dillard Bellamy, prominent Wilmington residents, felt that Wilmington would come under Yankee rule early in the war and desired to move their families where they would be safer. They rented the deserted campus and moved their families there.

Ellen Douglas Bellamy was born May 11, 1852, the fourth child of the Bellamys. On April 26, 1937, at the age of almost 85, she began writing her memoirs. Her booklet titled “Back With the Tide” covers the period that the family resided at Floral College and gives insight into lives of well-to-do families in southeastern North Carolina during the Civil War.

This is her story:

“I loved that little village (Floral College community) — life was so sweet and different there. We entered a select private school, just a short walk around my brothers, John and George, and I was taught by Mrs. Maria Nash, widow of Rev. Frederick Nash, a Presbyterian minister. I loved that teacher and feel that I learned a great deal during our few sessions there.

“There were some very pleasant, congenial families living at Floral. Mrs. Eliza McLaughlin, a lovely widow, had moved there a few years earlier from Columbia, South Carolina, with four pretty daughters and six handsome sons. There was, also, the Lilly family; Mr. Edmund Lilly keeping a store with a little of everything. The stock became depleted and could not be replenished, so he soon sold out and closed up. I remember my sister and Miss Lizzie Parsley purchased a box of white pallbearer’s gloves and dyed them in green tea and distributed them among their friends.

“I must not forget the Watsons; old Major Watson was a rare character who kept the Inn, or Tavern; his wife and three old maid daughters made up his family. It was his house the General Francis Blair chose for his headquarters for the two days and nights the Yankee army was there. He was a scamp, although later he was nominated for Vice-President of the United States; he was defeated. That was the only time my father ever scratched a Democratic ticket; he could not vote for a man who talked so insultingly to my mother and other ladies.”

Bellamy remembered the fear and desperation in the community when the Yankees arrived:

“It was this same old Major Watson, the newsmonger of the village that Josie Davis and I with Misses Mary and Callie McLaughlin, taking a walk, approached for news, as it had been reported the Yankees were not far away, heading for us. Major Watson called out: ‘Run girls, the blue jackets are coming!’ There they were like a swarm of bees through the woods and did we run!

“Then they rushed in demanding food and drink. We had only milk and a barrel of scuppernong wine, made the summer before at Grovely; when they tasted it and found it too new and sweet, they pulled out the bung and let every bit run on the ground. My mother was made to taste all food before they would for fear she had poisoned it.

“In the twinkling of an eye, the whole house was ransacked; they appropriated anything they fancied. Some flat silver and the new silver cake baskets were hidden among trash and rubbish under crated furniture in the lumber room, another big square tin cake-box full of silver was buried in the lot, at side of the front steps near the root of a big tree; the ground was thickly covered with leaves; surprisingly, it escaped their bayonet thrusts, which were made every few feet, feeling for buried treasures.

“The silver forks, used at every meal, my mother wore down her stocking legs for several days, the prongs of one inflicting a painful wound on the calf of her leg!

“Mrs. Peter W. McEachern, whose husband had been killed in battle in Virginia, moved to Major Watson’s for protection, bringing with her carriage horses and her husband’s horse that had been sent home from Virginia. Suddenly she saw the Yankee soldiers astride her horses riding away. She rushed to General Blair and implored him to restore her husband’s horse, at least. He said: ‘Kiss me and I will grant your request.’

“She replied, ‘You rascal! I would die first.’ So, she never saw her horses again. Do you wonder that my father refused to vote for him when he ran for Vice-President, with Seymour, on the Democratic ticket?

“The house we occupied then, Steward’s Hall, had a long dining room, in rear; one end we used as a kitchen, and the remainder of that long room was packed from floor to ceiling with corn, peanuts in bags, and other foods, many of them brought from our own commissary department. The Yankees swore it was a Rebel Commissary Department, and in a few minutes every vestige was gone! Our servants, cooks, maids, nurse, and wash maids were completely demoralized, and when the Yankees offered to take them to Wilmington every one of them left us!”

Floral College re-opened in January 1866 and operated until 1872. The old campus was not entirely abandoned. Steward’s Hall became the home of the Rev. H.G. Hill and his family. The main building was used as a public school for years, and another building was purchased by the Purcell family and moved to an adjacent area to serve as their home.

Steward’s Hall was moved in 1950 beside Centre Presbyterian Church, where it serves as an education building for the church, still carrying out its original purpose as an edifice of education.

Churches
Sherman’s troops often chose to camp in and around churches during their march through the South. Antioch Presbyterian Church, near Red Springs, and Bethel Presbyterian Church, near Raeford, were campsites of Union troops. Both were left unharmed but this was not the case for the Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church. The troops camped at Lumber Bridge on the evening of March 10 and began to tear down the church and nearby Temperance Hall for fuel. The next morning they used the remaining lumber to construct a causeway.

The members of Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church managed to rebuild the church in only three years, which was accomplished by sacrifices of the members. In 1887, a $3,000 claim was filed against the federal government for the loss of the buildings. Every year the claim was defeated until March 3, 1915, when a claims bill was passed by both houses of Congress to pay the trustees of the church $1,800.

This week marks 153 years since Sherman’s troops brought destruction and hardship to Robeson County. Memories remain. There are more stories of that painful time never recorded publicly. Robeson County History Museum is a good place to preserve the memories, photographs and artifacts of our residents.

Laurinburg Maxton Airbase – Start to Finish by K. Blake Tyner

Posted on February 21, 2018July 31, 2024 by blaketyner

December 7^th, 1941, was justly called a “day that will live in infamy.” Indeed, repercussions of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor from Japan were felt even in the Robeson county area. The immediate response found the men and women volunteering to enlist in the nation’s armed forces. World War II left lasting mark on Robeson County with the construction of the world’s largest glider air assault training base.

The first mention of the Laurinburg Maxton Airbase is found in the minutes of the Maxton Town Board meeting of December 23, 1941 when Mayor W.H. Hasty announced that interest had been shown by the federal government in locating an airport in the vicinity of Maxton, as part of its effort to bolster air defenses in response to the surprise attack 16 days earlier. The February 6, 1942 issue of The Robesonian announced that the Civil Aeronautics Authority would be constructing a Class 3 airport similar to the Raleigh-Durham Airport near Maxton.

The town commissioners established a committee of 10 men to conduct a search for land that would be suitable. Maxton approached the City of Laurinburg about the possibility of working together on the project; they were joined by Robeson and Scotland Counties in purchasing 613 acres to lease for a $1 per year to the government to be used as a military reservation. In order to pay their fourth of the cost, Maxton issued bonds in the amount of $12,000.

Glider training at Laurinburg Maxton Airbase

Site established

The site was referred to in the May 1942 town minutes as the Maxton-Laurinburg Airbase Project, but sometime shortly afterwards the Army named the site the Laurinburg-Maxton Airbase. Even in the planning stages, the Army desired to increase the site and began the process of purchasing the surrounding property. Small and large parcels were purchased from thirty-seven owners totaling over 4600 acres. Not everyone was happy with the location of the airbase as can be gathered in a letter from Mrs. Lula Cox Sheppard to President Roosevelt in May 1942 quoted in the book “Forgotten Fields of America” by Lou Thole:

The government is taking several places for an air base including
Our little place and I was wondering if we could get just one
Little corner of which we live as it is on the outer edge.

We love our home so very much we hate to leave the place. It was
just a little forgotten spot when we took it over, and we have built
it up all we could.

But please understand sir, I could not complain at it up to the government if it is for defense, for we are too glad to do all we can for our country.
We have a son in the Navy and we are buying defense bonds through
the plant at which we work.

Fortunately for the Shepard family, the Executive Branch allowed arrangements to be worked out so that the family house was saved and relocated to a corner of land near the larger tract purchased by the Government. Their house was moved by placing logs under it and rolling to the new location where it was set on a new foundation.

Construction begins

The government authorized construction on April 20, 1942 with much of the labor being provided through the Works Progress Administration, a “New Deal” era agency that provided work to many during the Depression. An account from the May 1942 edition of The Robesonian rumored that while the plans called for a $500,000 airport that the project was really a glider training school that would cost 3 – 10 million dollars.

The base could rightly be called a city; it consisted of over 560 buildings and three runways 150 feet wide and 6,500 feet long forming a triangle. The cost was over ten million dollars and netted 20 miles of paved roads within the compound. Colonel Younger A. Pitts, a veteran of twenty-seven years of Army flying, oversaw the construction and served as the first commander of the Base. In addition to the new airbase the facilities at the Lumberton Airport and Camp MacKall were also used in the glider training program.

Housing problems

The sudden influx of thousands of soldiers caused problems unlike any the surrounding area had ever experienced. Nearly every home in Maxton made rooms available to rent to soldiers that had families since there was no married housing on the base.

Flora Lou Morgan Morton remembers her mother renting all of the upstairs rooms to soldiers and their wives. Her mother had a rule that she would not rent to a couple with children, so she always asked to make sure that the couples were childless. Mrs. Morton remembers one couple that her mother forgot to ask, and as they were moving in the sound of a baby crying was heard. Her mother started upstairs to tell them that they would have to leave in the morning but the begging of her own three children convinced her to let the family stay ― in fact they stayed over two years.

Patsy Hamer recounted in “Forgotten Fields of America” that her mother also opened her house to construction workers building the base and to soldiers.

Mother hired three cooks to prepare and serve meals to the construction workers… the cost was $1 a day for three meals.

Each of the four upstairs bedrooms was rented for $7 per week. The high demand for sleeping space led the day shift workers to share their rooms with night shift workers.

First anniversary

On September 1, 1943 the airbase celebrated its first anniversary; the event drew a crowd of over 10,000. The air show consisted of twenty-five planes with paratroopers making jumps and was topped off with the landing of four gliders. The celebration also included a softball game, a dance for the enlisted men and a dinner -dance for the officers. Colonel Pitts is quoted in August 25, 1943 issue of the base newspaper, The Slipstream before the celebration:

When we glance backward over the rugged path behind us, as the
first anniversary of our base approaches, it’s easy for us to pick
out the obstacles we have overcome, for they were many. It is
primarily the fine spirit, the willing cooperation of the officers
and men and civilian employees of this command that turned
this North Carolina farm land and the chaotic piles of lumber
and dirt that decorated it, into a fine modern Army air base.

But in war-torn days such as these, the time for reminiscing is brief.
So let’s devote it to constructive thinking, by looking back only to
consider and plan ways to correct errors that crept in here and
there among our accomplishments. We must also look forward
and resolve that one year from now we will have doubled our progress.

The same issue goes on to give the early history of the base by those soldiers that were first to arrive at the base. Cpl. Jerry Giles remembers fields of cotton filled with pickers trying to get in the last crop to be grown on the property and of seeing Cpl. Eugene Dunham shooing a sow and her brood from beneath the barracks. Captain Robert DuBose remembered that all the offices were cramped into the Base Headquarters Annex along with a one-chair barber shop, and mini PX stocked with candy and drinks, as well as a dispensary. These first arrivals found farm roads and two gates guarded by civilians.

They also found many of God’s creations that the area was known for – namely gnats, mosquitoes and files. Set. George Tuttle remembers

As we walked across the weeded patch, we stepped high,
for we’d heard rumors of snakes being around to welcome us.
We were really pioneering.

Casualties suffered

The year 1944 saw a change of command. Colonel Lloyd L. Sailor assumed command in March, replacing Colonel Pitts; however, his tenure would be short due to other needs. Sailor was replaced in June by Colonel Ellsworth Pierce Curry. During this year the base also suffered casualties. In May, a glider crashed killing an officer and injuring two others. The later part of the year twelve men on a C-47 were killed when a parachuted supply bundle dropped during a training mission hit the plane, and caused loss of control.

Recreation

The soldiers found time for much needed recreation on the base and according to the base newspaper, The Slipstream; they were entertained by traveling shows such as Ina Ray Hutton and her Orchestra. The paper also reported that the base had eight softball teams, movie theater and swimming facilities; by 1943 the base also had its own band that performed concerts three times a week.

Further evidence of the concern of the community over the morale of the soldiers stationed at the base is shown in September 1942 minutes of the Maxton Town Council. The Council appointed a special committee to work with the USO Committee in selecting a lot for a building. The building was erected the following year on Saunders Street (now Martin Luther King Highway). An article in the July 28, 1943 edition of The Slipstream announced the opening of the Maxton USO from 6pm until 11:30pm with Miss Minnie Lou McRae serving as hostess. An average of fifty men a night have enjoyed singing and dancing along with the piano and juke box.

Base closed

When World War II ended in 1945 talk began about the closing of the Laurinburg-Maxton Airbase and what the Towns of Maxton and Laurinburg would do with the property. Beginning in February 1946 joint discussions between the two towns yielded a desire to turn the base hospital over to the Scotland County and to lease the airport facilities to Presbyterian Junior College for an aviation training program.

In May 1946, the towns entered into a lease agreement with Airports Operations, Inc. a corporation established by Presbyterian Junior College to operate the aviation program. In June 1946, the towns voted that Scotland County Hospital Association could operate the base hospital but due to the fact that the towns did not obtain clear title to the property until March 1947 it was not until April 1948 that the hospital and forty-four acres were actually donated to the association.

Maxton and Laurinburg entered into an agreement in 1948 to form the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport Commission to administer the airport property. Today, the airport still functions, not only as a working airport, but as a tangible reminder of the area’s contribution to freedom during World War II.