USA > North Carolina > New Hanover County > New Hanover County : a brief history > Part 2
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The hanging of Stede Bonnet, infamous pirate who prowled off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia, is portrayed here.
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ernmost Bounds of the Province." Presumably, it extended from the Atlantic on the east to the westward as far as the province extended. The name of the county was chosen to honor and to please the reigning English king, George II, who was a member of the German House of Hanover. The Cape Fear was also called the River of Hanover for a while, but that name was soon forgotten.
By creating New Hanover County with its vaguely defined area, the province of North Carolina extended its authority over the whole of the Lower Cape Fear area. It was able to do so because the newly arrived settlers preferred to be in North Carolina rather than in South Carolina. Any jurisdictional con- troversy that might have lingered was soon removed. In 1729, the same year that New Hanover was founded, the English crown purchased the Carolinas from the Lords Proprietors. The two provinces thereby came under the administrative control of the crown and of the royal governors sent over as its agents. In 1735 the crown did what the Lords Proprietors had failed to do; it designated an official dividing line between North Carolina and South Carolina. The Cape Fear River and the land for at least 30 miles beyond were included in North Carolina, and there they have remained.
Like other counties in early North Carolina, New Hanover was administered by justices of the peace, or magistrates, who were appointed by the governor. The prestigious office tended to be dominated by members of the upper class. The justices had both judicial and administrative functions and in their judicial capacity sat as the county court. In their administrative capacity, they conducted the affairs of the county much in the manner of present-day county commissioners, levying taxes, appropriating public money, providing public buildings, caring for the poor, constructing and maintaining roads, and exercising various other minor powers. None of the county's several officers was more important than the sheriff, who was appointed by the governor. He was required to be in constant attendance at county court ses- sions, to carry out its orders, and to collect taxes for the county. In addition, the sheriff preserved the peace, aided by constables who were appointed by the county court in whatever number was deemed necessary. The constables were, in effect, neighbor- hood police officers.
As the population of New Hanover County increased and became dispersed over a wider area, it became difficult for some
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of the people to travel to the county seat. Consequently, from time to time, parts of New Hanover were cut off and made into new counties. The first such subdivisions were Onslow and Bladen counties, which were created in 1735. In 1750 the northernmost portion of New Hanover was made into Duplin County, and in 1764 the area to the west of the Cape Fear River was incorporated as Brunswick County. In the years that followed several boundary adjustments were made, but no other county was formed until 1875 when the upper part of New Han- over became Pender County. Since that time New Hanover County has had its present bounds.
A Tale of Two Towns
Soon after the crown took over the Carolinas, the Cape Fear River was designated an official port of entry, a place through which exports and imports could pass legally. Known as Port of Brunswick, it was one of five ports in North Carolina, but it
Dressed in colonial costume, William M. Reaves is pointing out the remaining foundations of Russellborough, the Brunswick Town home of Governors Dobbs and Tryon. Copy of photograph by Stanley South.
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PLAN of the Town of WILLNING TON in New - Hanover County NORTH CAROLINA
REFERENCE
A, Church. D. Count House. C, Goal . D, Tann Yard. L, Still House.
Survey'd and Drawn m December 1769. By.C.J, Sonthier.
N
CAPE - FEAR
RIVER
Eagle'
bland.
This is a copy of C. J. Sauthier's 1769 map of Wil- mington.
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quickly became and remained the most important. The develop- ment of trade, however, also required a center where ships could load and unload. This need was anticipated by Maurice Moore, one of the foremost leaders of the movement to the Cape Fear. In 1726 he founded the town of Brunswick on land he owned on the west bank of the river, about 12 miles above its mouth and several miles below a shoal in the river called "the Flats." This shoal was at the mouth of Town Creek and impeded large ships from proceeding upstream. Accessible to large and small vessels, Brunswick immediately became the trading and shipping center for the region. It also became the county seat when New Hanover County was created in 1729.
In April, 1733, a rival community was begun about 15 miles upstream from Brunswick at "the Forks" where the two branches of the Cape Fear came together. Founded by James Wimble, John Watson, Joshua Grainger, and Michael Higgins, the new town was located on the east bank of the river. First called New Carthage and then New Liverpool, it soon became known as New Town or Newton to distinguish it from the "old town" of Brunswick. In a struggle for political and economic prominence, a bitter rivalry developed between the two towns, a rivalry cul- minating on February 25, 1740, when the North Carolina Gen- eral Assembly incorporated Newton as the Town of Wilmington. At the same time Wilmington replaced Brunswick as the county seat of New Hanover and was authorized to send a representative to the assembly. The town was named in honor of Spencer Comp- ton, Earl of Wilmington, destined to become prime minister of England.
The first official plan of Wilmington, based on an original survey of 1733, was adopted in 1745. The bounds of the town were Campbell Street on the north, Wooster Street on the south, Fifth Street on the east, and the river on the west. The area within these bounds was divided into squares separated by unpaved streets. The squares, in turn, were divided into lots uniform in size except for those that extended from Front Street to the river; these varied in depth according to the meandering of the shoreline.
From the time of its incorporation in 1740, Wilmington was governed by commissioners. The number varied at first but in 1745 was fixed at five elected annually by the townspeople. For a period in the 1760s Wilmington was a borough governed by a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. By the
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beginning of 1768, however, the old commission form of govern- ment had been resumed; it remained in effect for almost a century. Government of the town was subject to the will of the General Assembly, but the town commissioners were delegated considerable authority. Within limitations they had the power to levy taxes. They were also required to maintain the peace and security of the town. To carry out this responsibility they were authorized to hire guards and watchmen. Additional pro- tection was provided by the constables appointed by the county court; constables served both inside and outside the town.
Fire, an ever present danger in Wilmington, was a principal concern of the commissioners. In spite of regulations designed to prevent them, destructive blazes occurred from time to time. After a particularly bad fire in 1756 the town acquired a fire engine. It was allowed to deteriorate, however, and had become useless when another bad fire occurred in 1771. Another engine was purchased to replace the old one.
The Courthouse in Wilmington
An interesting sidelight in the rivalry between Brunswick and Newton was the public spirit and foresight displayed by the people of the latter community. In 1739 Newton was designated the place where the court sessions for the southern judicial district of North Carolina would be held. Rising to this honor, the people of the village made voluntary contributions for a courthouse which was soon built. There still was no such build- ing in Brunswick although it had been the county seat for ten years. Consequently, the people of Newton argued that their courthouse could serve the county as well as the district court, and if the county seat were transferred to Newton, the people of the county would be spared the cost of another courthouse at Brunswick. This was a persuasive argument and the change was not long in coming. This courthouse was probably the best in- vestment the people at Newton, or Wilmington, ever made. Its part in raising Wilmington to a dominant position over Bruns- wick was only one dividend. Standing in the intersection of Mar- ket and Front streets, the courthouse served the community in various ways for half a century. In addition to housing the district court and the county justices, it accommodated the town government of Wilmington and provided a convenient meeting place for the townspeople. For many years it also was used for
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church services by members of the Church of England. In short, the courthouse was the heart of the community.
Economic Activities in Colonial Times
The economic pursuits of the people were based almost alto- gether on their two principal natural resources, the soil and the forest. In the soil they grew corn and other crops, although there were almost no green vegetables. Some rice was also grown in the marshes along the freshwater streams, which could be flooded and drained as the crop required. Beef and pork were obtained from the cattle and swine that were allowed to run free to forage on the grass and nuts of the forest. Lumber, shingles, barrel staves, and other timber products came from the seemingly end- less expanses of trees of various sorts. The forest also provided the most important source of income, naval stores in the form of tar, pitch, and turpentine.
Ships of the eighteenth century were made of wood; and their operation required tar, pitch, and turpentine for such uses as rope preservation, caulking, and painting. These products were
Wilmington was once the naval stores capital of the world. Pictured above is a turpentine still with barrels filled or waiting to be filled with turpentine or rosin. This photograph is reproduced from original photo- graph in files of Henry Bacon McKoy and used by permission of owner. Other McKoy photographs from this collection are used in this pamphlet and are so acknowledged.
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derived by various processes from the longleaf pine found in abundance in the Carolinas. England, a maritime nation, needed these supplies and encouraged their production in the colonies by granting subsidies to the producers. New Hanover County and her neighbors responded to this need; more pine tar, pitch,
AV Gallant
NO
crafta Hallo
0
NONTA WEST
O
Onet111℃
AST
WILMINGTON
Greenfielde
Seffel
OCEAN
PLANTATIONS
ATLANTIC
LOWER CAPE FEAR 1725 . 1760
:
DRAWN ESPECIALLY FOR WADDELL'S HISTORY OF NEW MANÖVER COUNTY.
H. deW. Rapely's map showing the plantations along the Cape Fear River is from Alfred M. Waddell's History of New Hanover County (Wil- mington, 1909).
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and turpentine were shipped to England from the port of Bruns- wick than from any other port in the British Empire. For this reason the area was among the most highly prized of Britain's colonial possessions.
The prospect of profits from naval stores was an important factor leading to the permanent settlement of the Lower Cape Fear. While the area was still an uninhabited wilderness, important men from the older settlements in both Carolinas acquired large grants of land there. These men included Roger and Maurice Moore, Edward Moseley, Eleazar Allen, Samuel Swann, and others who led the way into the Cape Fear country and were active in its later development. They were men of wealth and position who brought their families and slaves and settled on large plantations, albeit these were not the typical plantations of broad cultivated fields. Instead, they remained, for the most part, forests in which the slaves extracted tar, pitch, and turpentine from the pines. Exported to England and to other English colonies, these products provided money which enabled the Cape Fear people to import the many things they desired and did not produce themselves. Not all the early settlers owned plantations, but there were enough to establish the plan- tation character of the Lower Cape Fear. Most of the plantations of New Hanover County were along the banks of the Northeast Branch of the river above Wilmington.
Early Transportation and Communication
To produce goods was not enough ; they must be channeled into the marketplace. Shipping and trade, accordingly, were the life- blood of the Cape Fear economy and both Wilmington and Bruns- wick played important economic roles. Some of the numerous ships that entered the Cape Fear came from other coastal ports, some from the West Indies, and some from as far away as Europe. They differed considerably in size although by modern standards all were small. The variation in size had an important bearing on the commercial development of New Hanover County. The larger vessels coming into the river which could not cross over the Flats used the harbor facilities at Brunswick. Conse- quently, Brunswick became the center of overseas shipping. It was there that the port officials resided, and it was there that all ships entering and leaving the river were required to clear. However, smaller vessels, generally those in the coastal and
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West Indian trade, could, and many did, proceed over the Flats to Wilmington. Thus, because it was more accessible than Bruns- wick to the people scattered throughout the area, Wilmington became the center of local trade.
From the beginning, when roads were few or nonexistent, the people sought to acquire land along navigable streams over which they could travel and transport their goods to market. Naturally the local waterways were active with small craft of various types. Vessels used for personal travel might range from small, crude canoes to larger, more elaborate outfits covered with bright awnings and propelled by slave oarsmen. Goods were transported by rafts, flatboats, and small sailing vessels. From as far away as Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) on the upper Cape Fear, these craft came bearing their cargoes to Wilmington or Brunwick; from these ports the merchandise went by ocean- going vessels to the outside world.
In time, as the population increased and became more dis- persed, people could not always find land on the banks of a stream. As a result, inland roads had to be built to serve their needs. These early roads, however, were generally little more than narrow clearings through the forests, sandy ruts in dry weather and quagmires in wet. Besides the local roads there were
The Market Street ferry crossing the Cape Fear at Wilmington was of great importance in the early centuries. This McKoy photograph was taken ca. 1900.
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several that connected New Hanover County with distant places. The earliest and perhaps the most important of these was the one that came down from the northern colonies through Wilmington and continued on into South Carolina and Georgia. By the end of the colonial period, several important roads led out of Wil- mington. One ran to New Bern, while two others extended north- ward into Duplin County and beyond. Another, reached by ferry from the foot of Market Street to the opposite shore, crossed Eagles Island. Just to the west of the Brunswick River the road divided into two branches. One led northward to Cross Creek and the other southward by way of Brunswick Town into South Carolina. There was also a road that ran from Wilmington southward along the east bank of the Cape Fear to the Bruns- wick Ferry. Near Brunswick it connected with the main road leading into South Carolina.
Travel for long distances, whether by land or by water, was slow, uncomfortable, often lonely, and sometimes dangerous. Horseback was the usual mode of land conveyance, but carriages of varying degrees of size and comfort were also used by those who could afford them. Stagecoaches did not come into general use until after the American Revolution. Because of the difficul- ties involved, travel was seldom undertaken lightly. For that reason, the people of New Hanover County, like most people of that time, led relatively isolated lives.
Means of communication were no more advanced than was transportation. Overland mail service was slow and uncertain. On occasion scheduled deliveries between Wilmington and other places were arranged, but these efforts were sporadic and short- lived. In the absence of a regular system mail was sometimes delivered by special courier, but the expense was too great except for important government dispatches and the most urgent private messages. The people more often depended on the good offices of a friend or even a stranger who might be traveling to a par- ticular destination. In 1769 an official post, part of the royal service, was begun between Wilmington and Charlestown in South Carolina; but even after becoming part of the royal post, mail service remained poor. In the year 1770, the service was extended to Suffolk, Virginia. In 1774 frequent deliveries were arranged between Wilmington and Brunswick Town and a fort- nightly service established between Wilmington and Cross Creek. Mail also came and went by ship, but this means was no less slow and irregular. In addition, its delivery was so uncertain
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that a copy of the original communication was usually sent by a vessel other than the one carrying the original. Once in port, ship mail became part of the unreliable land post.
In 1774 Wilmington, along with several other North Carolina towns, acquired a postmaster. They were all business men for whom the post was a part-time occupation, and they handled it in their regular places of business. None of the towns had a separate post-office building. With the coming of the Revolution, the postal system, being part of the royal post, collapsed along with British administration in general.
Religion
Religious life in early New Hanover County centered on the Church of England, or Anglican Church. Because it was the established church of the province all taxpayers, whether mem- bers of the Anglican Church or not, were required to contribute to its support through public taxes. North Carolina was divided into Anglican parishes, and when New Hanover County was founded in 1729, St. James Parish was created within the same boundaries. When St. Philips Parish was founded on the west side of the river in 1741, it was also within New Hanover County but was included in the bounds of Brunswick County when that political subdivision was created in 1764.
For many years the worship services for St. James Parish were held in the courthouse in Wilmington. In 1753 construction was begun on the first St. James Church. A simple brick build- ing with a peaked roof but without a belfry, it was located a short distance below Fourth Street and projected into Market Street on the south side for about 30 feet. The church was not completed until about 1771, although it probably was in use before that time. The long period of construction was attribut- able to money problems. Construction money came from several sources, but the most unusual fund was that derived from goods recovered from a Spanish privateer. This ship invaded the river in 1748 and was sunk. A tangible reminder of this unexpected bounty is the painting of Christ, Ecce Homo, which still hangs in the vestry room of St. James Church. The church of St. Philips, begun and completed in Brunswick Town at about the same time as St. James, also benefited from this same incident. Upon the completion of St. James, the church-yard became the burying
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Saint James Church, above, was begun in 1839 and replaced an earlier nearby structure begun in 1753. Inset shows the Ecce Homo ("Behold the man"), an art treasure owned by the church, which was salvaged from the wreck of a Spanish privateer that attacked Brunswick Town in 1748. Saint James Parish was created in 1729 by the same act of the legislature which created New Hanover Precinct (County). Photographs from McKoy collection.
ground for the community and continued to be for almost a century.
A North Carolina law of 1715 guaranteed freedom of worship to all Protestant dissenters provided they worshiped in public and conformed to certain other conditions laid down in the laws
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of England. Many New Hanover County residents took ad- vantage of this toleration and attached themselves to various non- Anglican denominations. The size of such groups is not known, but the Baptist seems to have been the largest. At least, in 1759 its growing number was of grave concern to the St. James Parish officials. The presence of Quakers in the county is indi- cated by a Quaker cemetery which was located in Wilmington in 1738. Presbyterianism was introduced as early as 1756 when the Reverend Hugh McAden, considered by many to have been the founder of the denomination in North Carolina, came to Wilmington to preach. However, there is no evidence of an organized Presbyterian church in New Hanover County until after the Revolution.
The doctrine of the Methodist society was first preached in the county by the Reverend Joseph Pilmore, an Anglican minister who visited Wilmington in 1772. At the time, Methodism was still a reform movement within the Church of England and did not become a separate body until later. By then the Church of England had ceased to exist in New Hanover, having been rejected along with the political domination of England. The end came in 1777 when the Reverend John Wills, the last clergy- man of the Church of England to serve in the county, resigned as minister of St. James.
Education and Other Cultural Activies
Education was, by modern standards, neglected in early New Hanover County. People struggling to transform a wilder- ness into a civilized community found too little time for the refinements of life. Nevertheless, the value of learning was not forgotten, and efforts to provide education were made to the extent that the circumstances of the time permitted. There were no public schools, so the only education many children received came from parents who, in many cases, because of their own neglected childhood, had little learning to pass on to their off- spring. Parents who could afford the expense often hired private tutors. Sometimes a tutor was shared by several neighboring families, and the result was a school of sorts. In some cases young people of the county were sent to other places to acquire learn- ing.
In 1745 a school was conducted at Brunswick Town in a small house that also served as a church on Sundays. Presumably
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the schoolmaster was the resident Anglican minister, and prob- ably similar arrangements existed at Wilmington and in other communities. However, the earliest school known to have been in Wilmington prior to the Revolution was the Tate School, a private institution opened in 1776 by the Reverend James Tate, a Presbyterian minister from Ireland.
The subjects studied varied according to the level or quality of instruction. Children taught by parents probably did not proceed beyond reading, writing, and simple arithmetic. The education of the more fortunate boys generally included Latin, Greek, French, grammar, advanced mathematics, and other courses of a classical nature. Aside from reading, writing, and arithmetic, the education of girls was usually confined to sewing and other skills preparatory for marriage and homemaking.
Just as education was limited, so was the opportunity for other cultural pursuits. Because they were so isolated, those who felt the need for cultural sustenance found this lack to be a particular hardship. Books were one source of satisfaction and those who could afford to do so acquired home libraries. There were no public libraries, but some churches had collections of books which were generally made available to responsible citi- zens. Many of the books owned by the various Anglican churches came from England as gifts from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary arm of the Church of England, generally known as the S.P.G. St. James Church in Wilmington received its first such gift in 1755 and another in 1770. The church volumes, as might be expected, tended to be confined to religious and moral subject matter.
An attempt to serve the literary needs of the people more adequately was the founding (probably, 1760) of the Cape Fear Library Society. Little is known of this organization except through a few scattered references and the name plate in several extant books. Some, if not all, books of the society were in the care of Archibald Maclaine during the British occupation of Wilmington, in 1781. He, in turn, placed them together with his own books for safekeeping in the Wilmington home of his son- in-law, George Hooper. Ironically, the books of both Maclaine and the library society escaped the enemy only to be carted off by state militiamen who occupied the town after the British left. This loss seems to have ended the activities of the society.
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