USA > North Carolina > New Hanover County > New Hanover County : a brief history > Part 4
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In spite of the importance of turpentine, rosin, and lumber, the economic significance of New Hanover County rested mainly on the role of Wilmington as a center of trade and shipping. As
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Weighing Cotton on Compress Docks
VORTH & WORTH
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These dock hands are loading cotton, as depicted in top photograph. The lower photograph shows a paddle-wheel steamer loading rosin. Photographs from McKoy collection.
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the population of interior North Carolina increased, the impor- tance of Wilmington increased. From an ever widening area goods flowed through the city to the outside world. In value, about half the exports was turpentine, followed by rosin, cotton and cotton products, and timber products. Of less importance were rice, peanuts, tar, pitch, corn, flaxseed, and sundry other products. The great majority of these exports went to other American ports. Only about one eighth went to Europe, to the West Indies, and to other foreign destinations.
Transportation
Closely related to the expansion of trade were improvements in transportation by road, by water, and later by railroad. As the growing population spread out over a wider area, more roads were built. In some cases, goods were brought over these roads directly to Wilmington. In other cases, they were brought to Fayetteville, Elizabethtown, or some other river community, and then by water to Wilmington.
Roads continued to be crude and unpaved, and the vehicles were little better. The four-horse stagecoach carried passengers and mail over specified routes, but land travel was mostly by private conveyance. The more affluent people used closed car- riages, similar in appearance but lighter than a stagecoach. Persons of more modest means used less expensive vehicles, such as a sulky for a single person, or a gig for two. Most people, how- ever, both male and female, continued to ride on horseback. The inescapable hardships of antebellum journeys discouraged land travel, and for that reason Wilmington did not achieve its full potential as a center of trade. There continued to be a general dependence on water transportation, and this depen- dence, in turn, gave rise to increasing concern over the condition of the waterways.
As early as 1784 steps were taken to improve the navigability of the Cape Fear River, and similar measures were taken in the years that followed. Because it was the only important river that flowed into the ocean, it was the most important river in the state for trade. But the Cape Fear had its limitations. Both entrances to the river, at the Bar and farther upstream at New Inlet, were treacherous. At the mouth of Town Creek, the Flats continued to limit the size of vessels that could proceed over it. To make matters worse, ships deliberately sunk during the
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Revolution to impede the British remained as a hazard to all craft.
For some time, improvements to the various rivers of North Carolina were undertaken by the state government, and about 1819 Hamilton Fulton, a celebrated English engineer, was brought over to guide this project. Work on the Cape Fear was concentrated on the main river between Wilmington and the ocean where a system of jetties was planned. The work was under the direct supervision of Hinton James, a Wilmingtonian who is best known as the first student to enter the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the end, Fulton's schemes exceeded the financial resources of the state, and his resignation was accepted in 1825.
At about the same time and in a more realistic mood, the state legislature appropriated $6,000 for clearing out the Flats and directed that a steam dredge be purchased for the job. In addition, an appeal was made to the federal government to assume part of the burden, and it did. Between 1829 and 1839, annual federal appropriations were made for the purpose. The funds ceased altogether during the following eight years; they were resumed in 1847, but because money came so slowly and intermittently a number of enterprising Wilmington business- men raised $60,000, a large sum for the time, so that work could be continued on the river and the Bar. In the meantime, improvements had also been made on the Northwest Branch of the Cape Fear, between Wilmington and Fayetteville. This work also was, at least in part, the result of private initiative. In 1818 the Cape Fear Navigation Company was improving that portion of the river, and by 1848 the Cape Fear Transportation Company had spent more than $60,000 on the same work.
A great day in the history of New Hanover County came in the year 1817 with the arrival of the Prometheus. It was the first steamboat to come into the Cape Fear River and had been built in Beaufort for a firm in Wilmington which proposed to run the vessel from Wilmington to both Fayetteville and Southport. A side-wheeler on its maiden voyage, the Prometheus arrived in Wilmington amid the ringing of bells, the firing of gun salutes, and a general air of excitement. For the Cape Fear country this was the beginning of a new area. Under the leadership of James Seawell, the Clarendon Steamboat Company was organized at Wilmington in 1818 and received from the state the exclusive right to operate steamboats on the Cape Fear for a period of
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Ronci
The Prometheus, a side-wheeler, is pictured in James Sprunt's Tales and Traditions of the Lower Cape Fear, 1661-1896 (Wilmington, 1896).
seven years. In return the company was required to keep at least one vessel in service. In addition to the Prometheus, another side-wheeler, the Henrietta, was soon on a regular run between Wilmington and Fayetteville. Other vessels made their appear- ance, and in 1822 the Cape Fear Steamboat Company was in- corporated. By the 1850s, in addition to the riverboats, there were regularly scheduled steamers plying between Wilmington and Charleston. At the same time, there were others to and from northern ports as well as to more distant places. The Charleston packets operated by the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Com- pany were reminders of a new day in transportation.
March 7, 1840, was another great day in the history of New Hanover County. On that date the first railroad line into Wilmington was completed when the last spike was driven at present-day Goldsboro. Until then Wilmington had been con- nected with the north only by unscheduled ships and by two stage lines. One line passed through New Bern and the other through Fayetteville and Raleigh. A few years earlier, the
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P. K. Dickinson, whose portrait is pictured above, instigated the found- ing of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, so important to New Hanover commerce. Photograph from William Lord DeRosset's Pictorial and His- torical New Hanover County and Wilmington, North Carolina (Wilming- ton, North Carolina, 1938), p. [53]. Other pictures from this volume are used in this pamphlet and will be so acknowledged.
railroad had made its appearance in the United States, and among the many interested in this revolutionary form of trans- portation was P. K. Dickinson, a resident of Wilmington. On a visit to New England, Dickinson saw a small railroad in operation, and he returned home convinced that this was the means by which the trade and prosperity of Wilmington could be increased. His enthusiasm was contagious, and other Wilming- tonians joined him in the determination to see Wilmington, the chief seaport of the state, connected with Raleigh, the capital, by a rail line. As a result, in January, 1834, the state legislature issued a charter authorizing the construction of the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad. The people of Wilmington subscribed money for the project, but the people of Raleigh failed to do the same. For that reason, the charter was amended and the destination of the road was changed from Raleigh to Weldon, on the Roa- noke River. There it would join other lines running into Virginia
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and thereby become a part of the continuous systems that would extend from north to south. At the first meeting of the stock- holders, held in the courthouse at Wilmington on March 14, 1836, Edward B. Dudley was elected president. He resigned the office the following year to become the first governor of North Carolina to be elected by the people rather than by the state legislature.
Construction on the road began in October, 1836, and ended with the driving of the final spike on March 7, 1840. Several weeks later on April 5, 1840, a mammoth celebration was held in Wilmington to mark the completion of this great enterprise which also signaled the beginning of a new era for the town and the county. The track, extending for 1611/2 miles, was the longest single line of railroad track in the world. Like other roads of the time, it was laid on wooden stringers on which were fastened plate iron 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. The name of the line was changed to the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad in 1855.
The importance of the Wilmington and Weldon was increased by the extension of its services in several directions. Four steamers were acquired to make regular runs between Wilming- ton and Charleston. In 1846 another line, the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, was incorporated to extend into South Carolina and to join several lines in that state with the Wilming- ton and Weldon Railroad and with Cape Fear shipping. Work on the Wilmington and Manchester was begun at once and was carried on vigorously over a period of several years. Its depot was on the west side of the river, opposite Chestnut Street.
In 1855 a connection between Wilmington and the western part of the state was projected with the chartering of the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad. By 1861 this line was incomplete, but it extended for some 100 miles through the pine forests where naval stores were produced and into the Piedmont counties where cotton was grown.
The several rail lines, along the steamer connections and the roads, extended over a wide area in various directions and brought increased trade and prosperity to Wilmington and New Hanover County. They also brought in many visitors. Wilming- ton became an important connecting point for passengers travel- ing between the north and the south.
A natural offshoot of the growing commerce of Wilmington was the need for banking facilities. In answer to this need the Bank of Cape Fear, a private organization, was chartered by
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the state in 1804. This and the Bank of New Bern, chartered the same year, were the first banks in North Carolina. The Bank of Cape Fear building was located on the southwest corner of Front and Princess streets. Banking facilities expanded to keep pace with the growth of business until in 1860 Wilmington had four of the thirty-six banks in the state. The four included a branch of the State Bank of North Carolina, with headquarters in Raleigh, and the Bank of Cape Fear which had branches in several other towns in the state.
Church Life after the Revolution
The collapse of organized religion that came with the Revo- lution created a void that cried to be filled. In time this need resulted in the resurgence of church life in which varied de- nominations and creeds played a part. Out of the ruins of the Church of England emerged the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, much like the old but no longer bound by adminis- trative ties. This revival was marked in New Hanover County in 1795 when the vestry of St. James Parish met and reorganized. Soon thereafter the Reverend Solomon Halling, the first of a long line of distinguished ministers, arrived, and the old church building near Fourth and Market streets once more stirred with the performance of religious rites. This building was in such a bad state of repair by 1839 that a new structure was begun, a short distance to the westward, on the southeast corner of Market and Third streets. This impressive building was conse- crated the following year and continues to serve the needs of a thriving congregation.
Another active Christian body appeared in New Hanover County in 1797 when the Methodists joined together in a formal organization. For some years, the Reverend Francis Asbury, later a bishop, included the Cape Fear in his ceaseless travels and attracted both blacks and whites by his fervent preaching. As a result in November, 1797, his followers formed the Front Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The local leader of the movement was William Meredith, who died in 1799 and left to the congre- gation a chapel and dwelling. The first place of worship was located on the northeast corner of Walnut and Front streets. Asbury preached there for the first time in February, 1801, to a capacity audience. This building was burned in the disastrous fire which swept over part of Wilmington in 1843, but another
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church building was soon raised on the same site and continued to serve the congregation until after the Civil War.
Religious life in New Hanover County was further invigorated when the Presbyterians first organized in April, 1817, by au- thority of the Presbytery of Fayetteville, which had jurisdiction over New Hanover. Since as far back as 1756, when the Reverend Hugh McAden first preached in Wilmington, Presbyterian minis- ters had visited the town and had found a warm response among the Scottish residents and others who had been raised in the faith. For some time after their organization, the Presbyterians had no place of worship of their own, and they were the bene- ficiaries of a fine ecumenical gesture on the part of the local Episcopalians who permitted them to use St. James Church for their services. Their own church was completed in 1818, and in May, 1819, the first pastor, the Reverend Artenus Boies, arrived. Within a few months, the church, along with many other build- ings in the town, was destroyed by fire. A new church was soon raised on the same location and remained in use until it, too, was destroyed by fire on April 13, 1859. After this disaster, the con- gregation purchased a lot on the northeast corner of Orange and Third streets and there built a new and larger church which was completed in April, 1861.
Baptists were active in the Cape Fear area before the Revo- lution, but they do not appear to have been numerous in New Hanover County until much later. The First Baptist Church was organized on April 13, 1833, but apparently it did not have a settled minister until the Reverend A. Paul Repiton arrived in 1839. The first building was a frame structure located on Front Street between Ann and Nun. In time the growth of the congre- gation led to plans for a new building, and a lot on the northwest corner of Market and Fifth streets was purchased for the purpose. Funds for the proposed building were subscribed in February, 1859, and construction work began soon thereafter. War, however, interrupted the project and it was not completed until 1870. During the interim, the old church proved inadequate, so for a while services were held in the city hall with the old building eventually being converted into a residence.
The first Roman Catholic church in the county was founded in 1845. On January 1 of that year, the Reverend Thomas Murphy was appointed pastor of the proposed congregation by the bishop of Charleston, whose jurisdiction then included North Carolina. Although the Roman Catholics of the county did not number
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Shown at left is Saint Mary's Pro-Cathedral.
Shown at right is First Baptist Church.
Shown at left is the Grace Methodist Church.
These copies of early pictures appearing in DeRosset's Pictorial and Historical New Hanover County and Wilmington, North Carolina, show churches of great historical interest which are still active in Wilmington. The Grace Methodist Church was originally the Front Street Methodist founded in 1799.
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more than forty at the time, Father Murphy, a dedicated and energetic leader, brought them together in an active body and rented a small room to serve as a temporary church. In Novem- ber, 1845, a lot located on the south side of Dock Street between Second and Third was purchased for a church. The members contributed liberally to a building fund, and the cornerstone of St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church was laid on May 28, 1846. The completed building was consecrated on July 18 of the fol- lowing year.
New Hanover County was without a Lutheran organization until 1859. For many years Germans, predominantly Lutheran, had come to the county to make their home. Lacking a Lutheran church, they generally worshiped with other denominations. At first the Lutherans held their services in the First Presbyterian Church, and later in the vestry room of St. James Episcopal Church. In 1859, however, some sixty Lutherans decided the time had come to worship according to their past custom. Accordingly, they organized St. Paul's Evangelical Church on January 6, 1859, and called the Reverend John H. Mengert as their first pastor. In the same year, 1859, the congregation acquired property on the east side of Sixth Street between Market and Princess streets for a church building of their own. Construction soon began and the handsome structure was completed by the end of the Civil War.
Cultural Activities in Antebellum Days
The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 authorized public schools, but although some citizens favored the creation of such a system, others opposed it. While the issue was debated through the passing years, the people continued to rely on private initia- tive for education. As in the past, many children received from their parents an education that was too often inadequate. Also, private tutors continued to serve those who could afford them. At the same time, subscription schools became increasingly popular. Such a school sometime came into being when a planter who had hired a tutor for his own children might arrange for neighboring children to share the service and the expense. On occasion, the sharing went to the extent of providing visiting children with room and board during the school term. More often than not the tutor rather than the planter took the initiative in soliciting students on his own account, often by means of news- papers. Some of the schools were for boys, some for girls, and
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some mixed. Fees depended on the subjects taught, which might include reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, history, Latin, Greek, French, philosophy, science, or others. Subscription schools were often of temporary duration and their quality de- pended, of course, on the teacher.
Academies were another popular type of educational insti- tution. Some differed little from subscription schools, but most had a sounder financial foundation and were more lasting. For this reason, they generally provided a more thorough education, and many had large and substantial school buildings.
New Hanover County and especially the town of Wilmington had their share of private schools and perhaps more. The insti- tution begun by the Reverend James Tate before the Revolution came to an end when he moved to Orange County during the course of the conflict. Its place was filled when the Reverend William Bingham, a Presbyterian minister from Ireland, founded "Bingham School in Wilmington."
The Innes Academy came into being shortly after the Bingham School was begun. Long before the Revolution, in 1754, Col. James Innes had provided in his will that his plantation and certain other property should be used for a free school for "the youth of North Carolina" upon the death of himself and his wife. The widow died in 1775, but the civil strife that already gripped the province delayed any action on the establishment of the school. Unfortunately, in 1783 the plantation buildings were burned. In the same year the state legislature incorporated Innes Academy and placed it under a board of trustees who were authorized to sell the Innes property. The proceeds, along with other gifts that might be received, were to be used for the purchase or erection of a suitable school building at a convenient location to be selected. In 1788, additional funds were raised by subscription. Property was acquired in Wilmington on the north side of Princess Street between Third and Fourth, and the school building was begun. Before it was completed, however, an arrangement was made with the newly created Thalian Associ- ation for the lower floor to be fitted out as a theater and used by the association under a perpetual lease. The upper floor was to be occupied by the academy. Completed about the year 1800, the building was a large brick structure which stood long after it ceased to serve as a school.
The existence of numerous other schools in Wilmington throughout the antebellum period is indicated by newspaper
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advertisements in Wilmington and in other towns of the state. Among these schools were the Wilmington Academy; Stanlift's Writing School; Corbin's School; Spencer's Academy, operated by James Dickson "for young gentlemen"; Ryckman's; Simpson's; Mrs. Jewett's schools for young ladies ; Murdoch's English School; Crook's Grammar School; Repiton's School "for the youth"; the Wilmington Male and Female Seminary, which was established in Wilmington in 1852 by Mrs. George W. Jewett, from Maine; and the Odd Fellows School, established in 1843 on land leased from the trustees of the Wilmington Academy.
One of the most interesting educational ventures in early Wil- mington seems to have been inspired by the existence of the Innes Academy for boys. In 1817, the ladies of the town formed the Female Benevolent Society of Wilmington. Under the leadership of Eliza Lord, this organization undertook to provide poor girls and destitute orphans with a religious and secular education. Widely recognized for its excellence, the school was in operation for some years and was the inspiration for similar schools in other towns, such as Raleigh.
An example of rural schools was Halsey's, which was opened in 1836 by B. W. Halsey at his plantation on the sound, eight miles from Wilmington. It was open to both sexes with accommo- dations available for eight to ten boarding students. The charge was $4.00 per month provided students furnished their own bedding.
Advocates of public education gained an important victory in 1839 when the General Assembly authorized a public education system for all counties in which the people approved the program by popular vote. The majority of the counties, including New Hanover, did approve. As a result, several public schools were established in the county, but they were not widely patronized and so were of poor quality. Until the end of the antebellum period, most parents who could afford the expense, especially those in Wilmington, continued to send their children to private schools.
The most important outgrowth of public education in New Hanover County prior to the Civil War was the Union Free School. The name "Union" was applied to any school in which private and public interests were united by legislative action. The Union Free School resulted from a meeting held in 1856 in which a number of Wilmingtonians gathered to consider the establishment of a public school in the community. Soon after-
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ward funds were raised and a building was constructed on South Sixth Street, between Nun and Church. It was ready for use by October 1, 1857, and from the beginning the school made an im- portant contribution to the cultural advancement of the town and county.
The cultural interests of the people of New Hanover were also reflected in the newspapers published. Throughout the ante- bellum period numerous newspapers were published in Wil- mington at one time or another, but most were of short duration. An example, and perhaps the first to appear after the Revo- lution, was Hall's Wilmington Gazette. Allmand Hall was a printer in Wilmington as early as 1789, and in 1797 he began the publication which bore his name and which was soon to become the Wilmington Gazette. In 1808 he sold the paper to William S. Hasell, who continued it until his death in 1815. The Wilmington Gazette then passed into other hands and was published until 1816 when it appears to have ceased. Other short-lived newspapers were the Wilmington Herald, the Cape Fear Recorder, the People's Forum, the Wilmington Advertiser, the Wilmington Messenger, the Democratic Messenger, the Democratic Free Press, and others.
Of the early newspapers, two were particularly outstanding in influence and service to the community. One, the Wilmington Chronicle, was begun in 1838 by Asa A. Brown. In 1851 Brown sold it to Talcott Burr, who changed its name to the Wilmington Herald. The other was the Wilmington Journal, founded in 1844 by the firm of Fulton and Price, well-known printers and publishers. A strong supporter of the Democratic party, it be- came the first regular daily paper published in North Carolina. In 1860 the state had only eight daily papers. The Wilmington Journal was one; the Wilmington Herald was another.
Wilmington people had access to reading material other than the local newspapers. For example, there was the "reading room" established by William Hasell in 1808. A native of the town, Hasell was graduated from Yale University in 1799 at the age of eighteen. He was a lawyer by training but seems to have been more interested in literary matters. In any event, he soon abandoned the practice of law and opened a bookstore. The reading room was an extension of the store; its purpose, in Hasell's own words, was "to collect in one mass all the responsi- ble papers of every political description to be regularly filed, all new and interesting pamphlets and a variety of the best
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