Beaufort,NC-The Town and Why It's Unique

17th Century Seal of Albemarle

2009-12-11T13:19:00.008-05:00

Seal of the County of Albemarle 1669-1689, continued as the Seal of the Province of North Carolina until the purchase by the Crown in1729. This reproduction is slightly larger than the original; reverse is blank.

Click image to enlarge.

Gray's New Map of Beaufort -1877

2009-12-08T16:10:00.012-05:00

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Note Duncan's Steam Saw Mill on Gallants Channel between Broad and Ann. The Custom House is on west Front Street near Wm. Duncan's property. In that same block of Front Street, Sarah Davis is noted as owning three houses that would be joined and become known as the Davis House. On the corner of Turner and Ann is the house of Mrs. Cramer, wife of then deceased Dr. Cramer who converted the 1796 courthouse into his home. Cap'n Thomas' house is on the corner of Front and Orange while his wharf is noted on the waterfront. On west Front Street, note the Seaside House that would later be expanded and become the old Inlet Inn.

DAVIS HOUSE Survival - Update

2009-11-27T10:39:00.028-05:00

In an email written a few months ago, shortly after he finished his introduction to Porchscapes - The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina, architectural historian Tony P. Wrenn wrote his recollections of how The Davis House was saved from destruction,

“In 1970 the Duke University Marine Lab planned to tear down the three houses behind the Davis House thirteen-bay porch, Beaufort's longest and one of the state's most notable, and construct something to better house students and others who came to work in Dr. John Costlow's facility.

“Jean Kell felt, and she may well be right, that there are certain forces which control such things, and the force, one presumes the good one, had planned for me to be in Beaufort at just the time when the bulldozers were pulled into position to the rear of The Davis House to begin its destruction. This is the same force I assume that brought you to Beaufort to do what you are now doing.

“What Jean wrote is essentially true except that I don't think I was actually the savior of the houses and their porch, but rather the facilitator that led to their saving.

“I remember it in this way. Jean saw the dozers being moved into position, rushed to find out why they were there, then as speedily moved to find me and tell me I had to do something about it, that that porch should not be allowed to go. I went to find Costlow and found that he had already done whatever he could to stave off demolition but had come up short, since the property forces that control Duke, the University, were in control and not the Marine Laboratory, but he welcomed my getting involved if I could.

“I sought H.G.Jones [NC Dept. of Archives and History], told him of the situation and my feeling about the importance of those porches and told him Costlow felt he might be able to reach people at Duke, including Terry Sanford, then President of the University, and possibly get the demolition stopped. H.G. agreed that I could act as his agent and sell the value of the houses and their porch, so Costlow began his calls, ultimately reaching the final person he needed to reach, pitching the importance of the porches to Beaufort, and their historic and architectural value. I don't actually remember whether I talked or not, but believe that I did have a chance to talk about the porches, Waterman's feeling about them and my own, which H.G. supported. I also don't know whether or not Sanford called H.G., but we shortly got the word that the bulldozers would still do some work to the rear of the Davis House, but that the Front Street façade was saved.

“Waterman wrote of the Duncan House 107 Front: ‘Here a two-tiered porch covers the front of the house and is protected by a shed extension of the main roof. The posts are in the form of crudely-turned Doric columns, not unlike those seen in some of the Spanish Islands. In the Davis House [121-123-125] also on Front Street facing Beaufort Inlet, the great length of the house makes a rather similar two-story porch even more effective.....’

“In writing about the porch in my report, I note: "The Davis House porch, mentioned above by Waterman, actually covers three houses, one of them eighteenth century (125), one early (123) and the other (121) late nineteenth century. Before the porches were joined in their present manner, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, all three houses already had two-story porches. The entire composition, thirteen bays long, is, as Waterman says, 'effective.' Its length does not confuse the viewer, however. The builder has used two types of turned Doric posts, alternating top and bottom and has raised the second floor balustrade slightly in the center, thereby visually preserving the identity of the three structures while giving them a common porch.

"As you so beautifully show in your Porchscapes book, the porch is an integral part of the architectural, social and cultural lifestyle of the South and of North Carolina. Among all the memorable porches in the state, the Davis House porch is one of the great ones. That the powers at Duke University did not allow it to be destroyed 40 years ago indicates an awareness of the obligations that public institutions have to our past, and the lasting results of acting on that awareness." - Tony P. Wrenn

Ann Street Methodist Church - Mid-19th Century Memorabilia

2009-10-29T13:58:00.058-04:00

Images and text from an 18-page brochure, History of Ann Street Methodist Church, published in 1966, on the occasion of the 188th anniversary of the organization of the Methodist Church in Beaufort. The brochure was edited by Miss Emily Loftin (1898-1985). Posted here are a few images and excerpts from that publication.

The Sunday school ticket to the left was issued to Irvin Fulford, born March 31, 1839, son of Absalom Fulford and Naomi Rumley. Fulford later served as a Lt. in the CSA, was captured and held as a POW. He was the officer in charge of the artillary defense of Fort Fisher in 1864; his accounts of those battles have been preserved. Fulford was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort. (Fulford data from Mark Green.) The ticket was signed by Sup't. J.C. Manson* and Sec'y. A.C. Davis, father of Nannie Fletcher Davis Thomas. Click to enlarge images.

"Still in existence is a Deacon's License of 1840 to John Jones and a Sacrament Ticket given to 'Miss Mary' Thomas. Interesting, indeed, are the requirements made upon the early members.

"Tickets were given quarterly to such members of the Church as were recommended by a class leader with whom they had met at least 6 months on trial. Those without tickets were regarded as 'strangers.' At every other meeting the Society in every place let no strangers be admitted. At other times they may, but the same person not above twice.

"Let no person who is not a member of our Society be admitted to the communion without a sacrament ticket which ticket must be changed every quarter.

"As to marrying, whoever marries an 'unawaken' person, defined as one we could not in conscience admit into the Society, will be expelled from the Society.

"Give no tickets to any that wear high heads, enormous bonnets, ruffles or rings."

*John C. Manson (Sup't. who signed the above certificate of admission) was a naval captain during the War of 1812 and, after being honorably discharged in 1815, became a prominent merchant. Manson operated a store at what is now the corner of Front and Turner streets.

Ann Street Methodist Church by E.O.Nielsen
(front of the 1966 brochure)

Model of Crissie Wright

2009-09-20T21:32:00.041-04:00

Recently completed model of Crissie Wright by Jim Goodwin will be on display at the Beaufort North Carolina Maritime Museum in January 2010.

Model scale: 1" = 6.3'

Model Length Overall = 32", H = 19 3/4 ", Beam = 3 3/4 "

Click Images to Enlarge
EMAIL Jim Goodwin

Cast Iron and Stones

2009-09-08T17:38:00.013-04:00

Norcom Plot - Old Burying Ground

This iron, from Patch Company, Boston, is dated 1865

Stones in the Old Burying Ground date from 1756, burials from before 1724. More than seventeen varieties of undated cypress wooden markers survive, along with scores of graves topped with brick. Tony P. Wrenn . 1970.
The above will be included in Porchscapes, The Colors of Beaufort, North Carolina.

Duncans, Davises and Mansons

2009-07-04T11:14:00.010-04:00

MANSON HOUSE Porch - August 11, 1910
~

Front Row: 5-year-old Mattie King Hancock Davis
(Laura Davis Piner's mother - Mattie King Gallery named for her)

Row 2: Sallie Gertrude Davis Hancock (Mattie King Davis' mother),
Annie Duncan Gregory, Emma Manson, Della Bryan Duncan Smith

Row 3 : Etta Perry Davis Potter, Laura Gertrude Duncan Davis, John Averett
Duncan, Etta Manson, Ella Duncan Davis,
Minnie Rieger Davis Huntley and Lillian Duncan

Back Row: Nancy Fletcher Davis Thomas, William Benjamin Duncan

and Esther Purvis Duncan Manson

______________________________

Image and Photo ID Courtesy Lou Register and Tibbie Roberts

Only One Survivor

2009-04-14T12:03:00.024-04:00

Six of the Crew of Crissie Wright Drowned and Frozen to Death

January 11, 1886 Newspaper Clippings

Click Images to Enlarge

These clippings, found in the Rickards family Bible, were sent by C.G. Rickards, whose g-g-grandfather perished on the Crissie Wright and was buried in the mass grave in Beaufort's old Burying Ground.

Benjamin Leecraft & Descendants

2009-03-17T09:40:00.053-04:00

Mary "Polly" Fuller Leecraft with her son Benjamin Leecraft III

According to Ian Lucraft, who has been researching his ancestors for twenty-five years, "The Luckraft name appears first in the records in the small villages of the South Hams area of Devon, between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. The variants of the name arise from the differant phonetic spellings as the name was used and recorded. Most of the Luckrafts originate in families resident in the South Hams in the 1500s and 1600's The Lucraft variant originates from Nicholas Luccroft who was married at Farringdon, East of Exeter, in 1691 to Margaret Westcott. Where Nicholas came from is unknown to me, but he commenced a group of families in the villages near Farringdon of Woodbury, and Broadclyst."

Leecrafts are listed as members of the Virginia Company that helped colonize Virginia and Bermuda, as well as settlements north of Virginia on the Atlantic coast.

A Leecraft was Governor of Bermuda under George III when many became discouraged by their lack of independence. Some of the Leecrafts moved south to the Caribbean—Barbados, Antigua and Martinique, to continue commercial shipping using their fleet of ships to cargo to ports along mainland America.

Around 1780 several Leecraft brothers came to the colonies. It is believed that two settled in New York and one in Beaufort, South Carolina. The fourth brother, Captain Benjamin Leecraft I, born in 1753, arrived in the Beaufort, North Carolina area on his own ship and became one of the largest land owners in the province. He married Susannah Elizabeth Bell, daughter of Colonel Malachi Bell. During the Revolutionary War, Leecraft joined with a Captain Biddle of Philadelphia as mate in shipping on the brigantine Active. In 1784 Captain Leecraft was master of the schooner Sea Flower, trading out of Turk's Island for importer William Fisher. He was killed in 1799 in a sea battle off the coast of Bermuda and was buried at sea. Susannah Bell Leecraft died in 1818.

Benjamin Leecraft II, born circa 1793, was the only male heir. In 1816 he married Mary “Polly” Fuller, descendant of the Mayflower Fullers, and daughter of Belcher Fuller and Zilphia Guthrie. They had four sons—Benjamin III, William, Lafayette and Nathan Franklin—and four daughters, Susan Benjamin, Zilphia Ann, Mary and Julia Frances. In 1845 Benjamin Leecraft III married his first cousin Mary Elizabeth Arendell, daughter of Sarah Fisher and Bridges Arendell. Mary and Benjamin III had seven children; all died as infants or young children except for Benjamin Bridges and Carolus Arendell. Their mother, Mary Elizabeth, died in 1858. The 1860 census shows a widowed Benjamin Leecraft III with three small children; his real estate value was $50,500 and personal estate was $23,000.

By 1862 the Union provost marshal granted a Boston merchant “permission to occupy the store formerly occupied by Benjamin Leecraft, the owner having joined the CSA.” Leecraft served in the Confederate Army, 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Artillery.

Since Leecraft was not occupying his home at the corner of Ann and Orange Streets, it was taken by the Federals and used as officers’ quarters. Soldiers left axe marks in the floor of the room (now the dining room) where fire wood was stored.
Benjamin Leecraft III left Beaufort shortly after the war. It appears that Leecraft’s wealth and holdings diminished—or else he was discouraged by the results of the war and the Federal occupation. Leecraft married his second wife, Susan Elizabeth Stowe in 1866 Susan, who was half his age, was the daughter of Colonel Samuel Neel Stowe, M.D., who had served on the staff of General Robert E. Lee. Confederate swords carried by Captain Leecraft and Colonel Stowe became treasured possessions to Brigadier General Walter Alexander Dumas, son of Bessie Holland Leecraft and DeBerry Glenn Dumas and grandson of Benjamin Leecraft III. Leecraft’s sword was originally the property of a Masonic lodge and put into military service at a time when weapons were scarce.

Susan and Benjamin Leecraft III moved to Sherman, Texas in 1870. They had four children—Albert Stowe, Charles Fuller, Daisy Dean and Arthur Neel. Benjamin Leecraft III died in 1880 in Denison, Texas, when his oldest son Arthur was only about fourteen years old.

Arthur Neel Leecraft owned the first all-purpose store in Indian Territory--Leecraft Mercantile-- just north of Denison across the Red River by ferry. He married Lelah Maupin who was part Chickasaw. Arthur later became “Colonel” Leecraft and was very active in governmental and civic affairs in the state of Oklahoma.

Emails from Pat Fleury, Benjamin Leecraft's great-great granddaughter, gives us more insight into the family's life in Texas. Pat is the daughter of Marjorie Leecraft McMahon, daughter of Bertram Maupin Leecraft, son of Arthur Neel Leecraft.

Pat wrote, After Benjamin III left North Carolina, I couldn't find him in Texas. Finally, on a wild hunch, I found him in a California Gold Rush camp, living in a barracks with other men on the same quest. After he got that 'out of his system,' he came back to Texas. Even though genealogical records show the location as Sherman and Denison, back in those days they lived in the countryside. Even today, a person can easily get gored by a wild hog in the woods just outside of Denison,Texas.

When Arthur Neel Leecraft left to go into politics, he left my grandfather, Bertram Maupin Leecraft (b. 1894) behind to attend to Leecraft Mercantile. Back then, the only way across the Red River was by ferry boat. At first, the town was called Colbert's Ferry.

Lelah Maupin Leecraft's father, John Rice Maupin, rode with Quantrill's Raiders during the Civil War. Maupin married Helen Eastman. Through Helen Eastman, we are also cousins to the Eastman Kodak people. My grandfather Bertram Maupin Leecraft could tell stories about Jesse James and other outlaws because of the Quantrill's Raiders connection. Oklahoma in those post Civil War days was really a wild wild west.

Strangely enough, the Maupins were French Huguenots in 1700's Williamsburg, Virginia. Their 'ordinary' or inn in Williamsburg was first given a liquor license in 1711. Eventually they operated three inns. The last one is now called the Taliferro-Cole House, on Lot #352 in Williamsburg.

So, the Maupins started in Virginia and the Leecrafts in North Carolina and they all wound up in Oklahoma during and after the Civil War.

I am sending old photographs from the Bessie Holland Leecraft album that I inherited from my Mom. The photo of John Rice Maupin came from an issue of Chronicles of Oklahoma.

The Leecraft Houses on Ann Street

Leecraft House in March 1862. - 307 Ann Street - mounted orderly Lt. C.M. Duser. Benjamin Leecraft II (and/or Ben III) built this 1850 house and other Leecraft houses next door on Ann Street.

Leecraft House circa 1850

The three Greek revival-style homes have features taken from books on architecture by Asher Benjamin. His influence is seen in its wide hall, broad staircase, large rooms with high ceilings, and distinctive woodwork. Even though plaqued 1850, 1856 and 1857, the 1857 house, on the corner of Ann and Orange, due to its construction details, may have been the first built.

Contemporary photos of the Leecraft houses:

FRENCH HUGUENOTS

2009-01-18T12:19:00.053-05:00

...how some made their way to Beaufort.

This etching shows how French Huguenots fled from Brittany and Normandy
in small boats across the English Channel to England.
Image from www.betheafamily.org

When Louis XIV began a policy of une foi, un loi, un roi - one faith, one law, one king - and revoked the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685, the large scale persecution of the Huguenots resumed. At least 250,000 French Huguenots fled to countries such as Switzerland, Germany, England, America, the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa, where they could enjoy religious freedom. Between 1618 and 1725, some 5000 to 7000 Huguenots reached the shores of America.

Besides those who settled in Florida in 1564 and South Carolina in 1679, about 1705 small colonies settled on the Pamlico River and on the Trent where Baron DeGraffenried’s colony found them in 1710 when he founded New Bern.

In 1708, the region, known today as Carteret County, began to attract settlers. A few families moved into the area about North River, known then as the “the Core Sound” settlement.

It is believed that Pivers and Shackelfords were among those first settlers. In later years these frontiersmen were followed by families with names of Paquinet, Noe, Manney, Delamar, Midyette and Geoffroy—all descendants of French Huguenots:

Shackelford: John and Francis Shackelford came to the coast of NC in the early 1700s and acquired what is now known as Shackleford Banks. Their father, Roger Shackelford , the immigrant (1629-1704) fled England about 1658, on a boat with Edward Palmer and his siblings, who had received a land grant in Virginia. The Palmers were French Huguenots. Roger married Mary Palmer about 1660.

Piver: Peter Piver circa 1690-1758 arrived in the area about 1708, perhaps on the west side of North River. Over the generations, he, son Peter and grandson Peter acquired various plots of land including acreage west of what is now Moore Street. Peter Piver, Jr. , born in 1717, served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter III was born about 1740. In 1795, Carteret County court minutes note that Peter Piver and wife Lydia sold half of Piver’s Island (seven acres) to Elijah Bell. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort.

Paquinet: The 1790 US Census shows Ann, James, Isaiah and John Paquinet in Carteret County. The 1772 Will of Michael Paquinet left his sons James, John and Isaiah his plantation, 100 acres on Cane Creek and 200 acres on Broad Creek. Third generation names were Belcher Fuller and Mary Severn—both Huguenot descendants through Michael Paquinet, born in Paris in 1690. The Paquinet House circa 1769 is on Front Street.

Rebecca Paquinet married John Mades, 16 Jun 1803.
Betsey Paquinet married Francis Dennis, 18 Jan 1804.
Elizabeth Paquinet married Jesse Piver, 19 June 1817.

Noe: In early 1800s there were two Noe families - James Noes and Peter Noes. James Noe, Jr. married Mary Polly Paquinet in 1829. In 1862 Thomas Noe married Frances Ann Mades, daughter of Rebecca and John Mades. The James Noe House circa 1828 is on Moore Street.

Manney: Jean Magny left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He first settled in Rhode Island in 1686. About 1691 most of the Huguenots were forced to leave. Jean Magny settled briefly in Oxford, Mass, but soon moved to New York City.

Magny, Manee, and Maney evolved to Manney. James Manney came to Beaufort from Poughkeepsie, NY. The Dr. James Manney House circa 1812 is at the corner of Craven and Ann Streets. In 1848, Dr. Manney's son, Dr. James Lente Manney, married William Fulford's daughter, Julia Ann.

Delamar: 1668 Francis De Lamar, or De la Mar, born in Boucre, Calais, France, died in 1713 in Pacquotank County, NC. Some of his descendants came to Beaufort from New Bern before 1850. The Gibble-Delamar House circa 1866 is on the corner of Turner and Broad Streets.

Midyett: Midyett families, originally from Normandy, France, were early inhabitants of Bodie Island and the Outer Banks in the late 1600s. "Many Midyett girls married sailors off Black Beard's three ships. The name was spelled different ways: Midyett, Midyette, Midgett, Midgette, but no matter how you spell it, they all came from Matthew Midyett who landed at Bodie Island, NC around 1600. He was a ship captain and was shipwrecked off the coast of the outer banks."--Donald Midyett. Midyetts helped start the US Coast Guard by establishing life-saving stations on the Outer Banks. Some of the family found their way to Beaufort by 1850.

Geffroy: Malachi R. Geffroy, husband of Nannie Pasteur Davis, had roots back to France then Canada. The M.R. Geffroy House circa 1885 is in the third block of Ann Street.

There are descendants of French Huguenots living in Beaufort today.

David DuBuisson is an indirect descendant of brothers Henry Martyn Baird and Charles Washington Baird - both Huguenot historians. In 1885 Charles W. Baird, D.D. (1828-1887), Presbyterian minister and historian, wrote the History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. The Baird brothers contributed perhaps two-thirds of the Huguenot scholarship in English that exist today. Their mother was Fermine Amaryllis Opheia DuBuisson Baird. Fermine was David DuBuisson's great-great aunt, the older sister of his great-great grandfather, George Washington DuBuisson.

David DuBuisson wrote: The Huguenots in the U.S. quickly dispersed and assimilated. Many of them had already assimilated in English or Dutch or German societies before crossing the Atlantic. As a religious denomination, the Huguenot church essentially disappeared under the relentless persecution of Rome. So, with a few exceptions, by the time they reached America Huguenots were generally affiliated with the Dutch Reformed (NY), Presbyterian or Anglican (VA, SC) churches. As they spread out through the colonies, they did not do so as a coherent group, but rather as individual families colonizing mainly with the English. This would explain why there would be no recognizable “Huguenot colonies” in, say, North Carolina, though there would be individual families.

Jimmy Piver and his children are descendants of Peter Piver through his son Peter Piver, Jr.

To add other Huguenot descendants in Beaufort, please email Mary Warshaw.
To email the link to this post, click envelope icon below.

Piver Family

2009-01-18T11:55:00.013-05:00

Piver's Island - Late 1800s
Earliest photograph in existence showing the point at Duncan's Green looking westward
Image scanned from Beaufort, An Album of Memories by Jack Dudley

The Pivers are descendants of 16th and 17th centuries French Huguenots. Their civil rights in France were guaranteed to them by the Edict of Nantes. This official decree of religious tolerance was signed by King Henry IV of France on April 13, 1598.

In 1685, the intolerant King Louis XIV revoked this edict and issued a new one which withdrew all their civil and religious liberties. The Huguenots were faced with danger to both person and property, and thousands of them fled to new homes in England, Brandenburg and the Low Countries. From these European countries they then migrated to America and settled in the Carolinas, Virginia and New York. The Huguenots that did remain in France did not receive their religious and political freedom until the time of the French Revolution.

However, the ones that remained suffered, survived and become very prosperous tradesmen in Europe and exported their manufactured products to America. The L.T. Piver Cosmetic Company, Paris, France, is an example of a prosperous Piver firm. The cosmetic products were shipped to America in the early 1900s. Local persons remember the newspaper ads and used the cosmetics. I have living relatives who remember their mothers using L.T. Piver’s talcum powder and perfumes.

Peter Piver, Sr.* came from England to Carteret County, North Carolina in 1708 and helped settle the community known as Fishtowne, which is the western end of present-day Beaufort. He was given a land grant by Lord Proprietor which gave him title to many acres of land in Beaufort Township.

Edward Warren Piver – Clams, Loblollies, Jelly Rolls and a Model-T

Edward Warren Piver, born October 30, 1869, married Martha Duncan Longest. Edward Warren Piver’s jobs of life varied with the seasons of the year. During the spring and summer months he farmed and bought clams from clammers for 30 cents per bushel to re-bed in North River’s sandy reef opposite where he lived. Later, in the fall and winter months, the clams were removed, packaged 250 per grass bag and shipped by railroad freight and then in the late twenties by over-the-road highway truck to sell on the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. From 1910 and until the late 1920s, the clams were transported from North River by motor boat to freight depot in Beaufort for shipment.

On some of the boat trips Edward W. took his son, Edward Lee, with him. When a load of clams was placed in the freight car and he started back home, he would stop at the business section of Beaufort, go to Clawson’s Bakery, buy several dozen of different kinds of warm mid-afternoon baked goods to eat on the way home and also take some to the rest of the family. The warm jelly rolls were delicious.

He also enjoyed an after-supper smoke outside the house. His corncob pipe was so strong with nicotine; he agreed to leave it at a given place on the back porch. It and the can of Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco were always there for is use and enjoyment. Another luxury he enjoyed was a short nap after the midday meal. For this rest period a couch was place in the dining room for his use.

The farming operation was performed with a pair of mules. It provided food for family and for livestock. In addition to using the two mules for the farm operation, they were often hitched to the wagon or buggy and driven on a 5 to 8 mile journey rather than walk the muddy or sandy road.

After a devastating hurricane in the 1930s, Edward W. experimented with the fast-growing loblolly pine trees to re-forest his wood lots. The project was successful and he was invited to North Carolina State College to share his know-how with students in the Forestry Department. He was unable to accept the invitation.

After 1910, to provide a better education for his children than the one-room-one-teacher school, a 1914 Motel-T Ford was purchased in 1916 for his two daughters and one son to drive eight miles per day to attend St. Paul’s School in Beaufort—and later [to attend] the public school. The car was capable of traveling the hub-deep mud road which is currently Highway 70 East.

Throughout his life Edward W. Piver manifested his love and concern for his family.

Transcribed from an article written by:

Edward Lee Piver, Heritage of Carteret County 1982

*HISTORY NOTE: Peter Piver served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter and Lydia Piver’s son, Jesse, married Elizabeth Pasquonette June 19, 1817. It is believed that Jesse was the Piver who purchased, from the state of NC, what was then known as Still Island just opposite the western “Town’s End.” After dredging improvements to deepen the channel, the island became known as Piver’s Island. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort. Several Piver families and descendants still call Beaufort home.

Story - A Spanish Visitor - 1783

2009-01-16T20:19:00.017-05:00

Francisco de Miranda

Self Portrait

On 13 July 1783 Beaufort was host to a most unusual visitor from Spain. Francisco de Miranda, then thirty-three years old and a fugitive from Spanish justice, had set sail from Havana, Cuba on the first day of June bound for Charleston, South Carolina. Throughout the year Miranda was to record his travels and observations of this new country.

Instead of putting in at Charleston the Captain of his vessel sailed to North Carolina waters and passed through Ocracoke Inlet on the eighth of June. Proceeding through the sound and up the Neuse River, Miranda arrived in New Bern. His description of that city is a contrast to what he has to say later about Beaufort. “The population of this city is composed of five hundred families of all classes. The houses are middling and small as a rule, but comfortable and clean; almost all are made of wood. The church and the assembly house are of brick and are suitable to the town. The finest building of all and one which really deserves the attention of an educated traveler is the so-called ‘Palace.'"

Remaining in New Bern until the twelfth, Miranda then departs, crossing the Trent River on a ferry and takes the road to Beaufort. He arrives at the Allways Inn at two o'clock in the afternoon. The diary states that this inn was twenty-five miles from New Bern. He describes his stay at the Allways as being refreshing in the following manner,". . . a moderate and clean meal and the company of Comfort and Constance, daughters of the innkeeper, fifteen and eighteen years old and very good looking, soon made me forget the excursion. That evening there was a good supper and better conversation with the girls; after all had retired for the night, one had no embarrassment in coming at my request to continue the conversation in my bed."

The next morning Miranda continued his journey and . . . “having gone twenty-one miles on roads similar to the one of the day before and crossed a swamp which must be more than a mile wide and had millions of mosquitoes. I arrived four hours later at Beaufort. I took lodging at the home of Mrs. Cheney, who treated me and took care of me grandly. Her gracious company mitigated to some extent the aridity and unsociableness of the town.”

In this section of the diary, Miranda describes his meeting with some French businessmen who had been shipwrecked on the shores of Cape Lookout, and goes on to tell of natives having, “. . .picked up whatever objects were floating about. (They even salvaged the copper sheathing and brought it to Beaufort.)”

As to Beaufort, the diary reports: “Beaufort is located on a sandy beach that, except for some sandbanks, which act as a barrier against the sea and form the sound, is quite unsheltered. It has about eighty inhabitants, and the houses are very miserable. Despite the fact that its location is much more advantageous than that of New Bern (even frigates can enter the sound), there is no commerce and, as a result, the inhabitants are poor. Mr. Parret and Mr. Dennis are the educated persons of the town and favored me with their company while I was here, waiting for a ship to take me to Charleston. The first is a surveyor general and gave me a good map of the state.”

The Miranda diary ends its tale of the Beaufort visit with this bit about the author’s excursion into the country-side: “ I made an excursion for a distance of twelve miles into the region, going up the little Newport River to the homes of two Quakers: one was rich and ignorant and the other, Mr. Williams, poor, educated and generous . . . Never before have I suffered similar discomfort from heat, bedbugs and mosquitoes to that which I went through in these two days of Quaker study. The agriculture one sees around here amounts to very little (mostly corn and potatoes), the earth being sandy and very poor. On the shores there are many windmills of very good construction and design. They are of wood and nevertheless last between twelve and twenty years. There are others on the creek which fall into the rivers; by means of a causeway and locks they collect water and generally form two mills; one to say wood and the other to grind grain. Of this type there are an infinity in this region, as lumber is one of the principal branches of commerce.”

On the twenty-second of June, Miranda took a ship for Charleston. So ends the tale of the Spanish visitor to Carteret County and Beaufort! -Charles O. Pitts, Jr., as transcribed from Heritage of Carteret of Carteret County, 1984

HISTORY NOTE: Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez (1750 - 1816) commonly known as Francisco de Miranda, was a Venezuelan revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spanish American colonies failed, he is regarded as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar, who during the Hispanic American wars of independence successfully liberated a vast portion of South America. Miranda led a romantic and adventurous life. An idealist, he developed a visionary plan to liberate and unify all of Spanish America but his own military initiatives on behalf of an independent Spanish America failed in 1812. He was handed over to his enemies and four years later, in 1816, died in a Spanish prison. (Above image is a painting showing Miranda in prison.) Within fourteen years of his death most of Spanish America was independent.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 1 - Farnifold Green's 1707 Grant

2009-01-13T08:22:00.049-05:00

Part of 1676 Map - A New Description of Carolina
Map Courtesy George Howard

In 1653, over fifty years before Farnifold Green’s land grant, it appears that his grandfather, Reverend Roger Green, had been granted his one-thousand-acre choice of ten-thousand acres on the south side of the Chowan River. The 1676 “Description of Carolina” map notes land between the Pamlico and the Neuse Rivers as “Green’s Land.”

During the reign of Queen Anne, Farnifold Green, who came from Virginia in 1697, had a 1700-acre plantation on the north side of the Neuse River. In 1707/1708 Green obtained a land patent from the eight Lords Proprietors—780 acres. This choice land was described as "beginning at the mouth of Core River, running up the river and creek 245 poles to a pine, then east 345 poles to a gum, then north eighty degrees east 45 poles to a pine at North River, then down the river to the mouth 420 poles, then along the sound to the first station."

Part of Green's land grant, in the vicinity of Cape Lookout and present-day Beaufort, was home to the Coree (Coranine or Cwarewiock) Indians.

In 1709 Green established an outpost on his land grant. As an outpost, the few pioneers probably built small make-shift houses and began to fish and farm.

It is believed by many that Farnifold Green was the person who built the “White House” seen on early maps—the house now known as the Hammock House. After all, he owned the land, and had the resources to build such a structure—most likely as a place to stay while in the area and provide an inn for travelers.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 2- The Coree and Tuscarora Wars

2009-01-13T07:46:00.036-05:00

The first few brave settlers, in what would become CarteretCounty, may have encountered a few Coranine or Coree Indians, a small tribe that had occupied the coastline south of the Neuse River. According to Al Pate in The Coree Are Not Extinct, the Coree, about five years earlier, had already begun to roam the coast “from the New River of Onslow…to Core Point and into their old homeland on the Pamlico south shore of Coree Tuck .”

Although Shackelford, Piver, Nelson and others were relatively safe in their isolation in the Core Sound area near Cape Lookout, the circumstances of the time were not conducive to more settlement. For several years those south of the Albemarle and north of the Neuse River faced a period of not only political strife but conflict with the lower Tuscarora and Coree Indians.

Al Pate described his Coree ancestors as a proud people who refused to return friendship “with every beating they took.” Pate wrote, “The Coree War is the Indian war that’s in the records, that history ignored and historians forgot.” The Coree War described by Pate as “a canoe warfare and pitiful delaying action,” started about eight years before the Tuscarora War and lasted another two years after the Tuscarora headed north.

The Tuscarora, outraged over enslavement , land encroachment and the deceitful practices of the white intruders, were angered at being pushed off their land--the area of present-day New Bern. King Hancock and his braves, full of resentment and hatred, murdered Deputy Surveyor John Lawson and decided to declare war. In September of 1711, according to historian William Powell, King Hancock's warriors, joined by other tribes, including the Coree, "launched an all-out attack along the Neuse and Pamlico, including the town of Bath." The unsuspecting and untrained colonists, also weak from a poor drought-caused harvest, were stunned and frightened. Farnifold Green and others made out their wills.


In 1712 Governor Thomas Pollock appointed Farnifold Green to help supply the army in Bath 
County and to garrison a small militia in the Core Sound area. Two years later Green’s
1700-acre Neuse River plantation at Greens Creek was the site of a brutal massacre that ended in
the death of forty-year-old Farnifold Green. According to a family historian, also killed were
“his son Thomas, a white servant and two Negroes. Another son was shot through the shoulder but
managed to escape.” With help from Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell, Colonel James
Moore and their South Carolina troops, including Indians from other tribes, the Tuscarora were
finally defeated at Nooherooka in early 1713. The majority of the Tuscarora survivors migrated
north and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Coree, as noted by Pate,
“grunted at the signing…and hunkered down in their hideaways, deep in the swamps…while their
menfolk harried the Albemarle, the women and children of the Corees made their way to rich dry
hammocks between the pocosins.”

The continuation of the Coree War went on until February 11, 1715, when the colonial government finally returned “a piece of old Pamtico” to the few remaining Coree. However, with names like Core Banks and Core Sound, the Coree left their mark on land south of the Neuse.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 3 - Beaufort Named and Plat Designed

2009-01-13T07:25:00.029-05:00

First map of Beaufort 1713

In 1713, about a year before his untimely death, Farnifold Green, frightened and discouraged, assigned his land patent to Robert Turner, a merchant from Craven Precinct. Even though the Tuscarora War had delayed the establishment of the town, within months after the peace treaty was in force, a town was laid out on the southwest corner of the peninsula between the North River on the west and the Newport River on the east.

Robert Turner named the town Beaufort after his friend, Henry Somerset, the 2nd Duke of Beaufort, one of the Lords Proprietors, who in 1713 was Palatine of Carolina—the chief position among the Proprietors. Turner hired Deputy Surveyor Richard Graves to design the layout of the town.

Except for a few minor changes, the plan and the streets have never changed.

Two streets were named for the then reigning Queen Anne—Queen and Ann Streets. Orange Street was named for William III of Orange, who had occupied the throne before Queen Anne. Moore Street was named for Colonel James Moore, a hero in the Tuscarora War. Pollock Street was named for the Colonial Governor then in office. Craven Street was named for one of the Lords Proprietors, William Lord Craven. The only road into town was named Turner Street, after Robert Turner, the father of the town.

It wasn’t until after 1782 that Front Street got its name—before that, the irregular oyster-shell thoroughfare was known as Water Street.

Deputy Surveyor Richard Graves, draftsman for the plat, had been born about 1673 in Old Rappahannock County, Virginia, to Francis Graves and Jane Davenport Maguffey. Somewhere between 1708 and 1714, Richard left Virginia and slogged south to Carolina. He and Francis Shackelford, also from Essex County, Virginia, bought a sloop—probably speculating on engaging in coastal trade.

In 1715 Richard Graves married Hannah Kent Smithwick Green, widow of Farnifold Green. Graves family, and Essex County, Virginia records show Richard Graves as a person of recognized ability, taking a prominent part in the affairs of Craven Precinct. In the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Richard Graves is noted in 1726 as representing Craven Precinct in the Lower House of the Assembly of North Carolina.

Richard Graves made out his will on April 30, 1730 and died that same year. After his death, his wife Hannah, who outlived three other husbands besides Graves, ran the ferry across a tributary of the Neuse River not far from Turkey Quarter on the Old Washington Post Road in what is now Craven County. Hannah’s fifth and last husband was George Linnington; they had no children. Hannah is thought to have died about 1742.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 4 - Queen's Anne's Revenge

2009-01-13T06:32:00.018-05:00

This was the age of piracy - 1716-1720, when pirates like Blackbeard sailed the seas, often tucked into Cape Lookout bight and Beaufort Town - leaving their legacies and even artifacts for us to discover almost 300 years later.

The bronze bell reveals the letters IHS MARIA and the date 1709.

QAR mages below courtesy Jim Goodwin and Queen Anne's Revenge.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 5 - Turner Sells to Rustull

2009-01-12T20:59:00.016-05:00

Richard Rustull's 1726 Home - Now known as the Ward-Hancock
Warshaw Painting

In his October 1970 account in The North Carolina Historical Review, Charles Paul documented Robert Turner’s encouraging but false start in lot sales. In the first three months of 1713, after the town was laid out, 28 lots were sold to 14 different investors. Nineteen of these were waterfront lots—about half of those then available with water view and access.

Realizing that few, if any, of these investors lived in the immediate area, in 1714, Turner added a provision in his sales contracts—a house of not less than 20 feet by 15 feet had to be constructed within one year of the sale. Only five lots were sold that year—all lapsed due to unfulfilled building stipulations.

In 1720, during the reign of King George I, a discouraged Turner sold his 780 acres to Richard Rustull for 150 pounds sterling and moved to the Pamlico River area.

Charles Johnson, in his History of the Pirates, described a 1718 visit by Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet where they spoke of a “poor little village at the upper end of the harbor…”

Though Richard Rustull owned the town of Beaufort for only five years, he played an important role in the development of the early town. He increased the size of the town from its original 100 acres to 200 acres. The lots were sold for 30 shillings each—20 shillings paid to Rustull, and the other 10 shillings went to purchasing guns to help protect the town. He helped established a church to be known as St. John’s Parish, gave land to be used for the courthouse, served as Justice of the Peace, Customs Officer and was one of the first town commissioners. One of his numerous responsibilities was collector of the King’s taxes.

Charles Paul’s Colonial Beaufort cites at least 39 lots were sold during this period, and in 1722, when Carteret Precinct was carved out of Craven Precinct, Beaufort was chosen to be the site of the area courthouse. That same year the Governor confirmed an order from the Lords Proprietors that appointed Beaufort as an official port.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 6 - Incorporated in 1723

2009-01-12T20:54:00.015-05:00

Whaling License issued to Samuel Chadwick 1726

The license reads, "To Samuel Chadwick you are hereby permitted with three boats to fish for whale or Other Royall fish on ye Seay Coast of this Government and whatsoever you shall catch to convert to your own use paying to ye Hon, ye Governor one tenth parte of ye Oyls and bone Made by Vertue of this License. By ye Hon. y Govern. Ord."

Transcription and image from Seasoned by Salt by Rodney Barfield.

On November 23, 1723 Beaufort was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly. Contracts for lots sold were to keep the building provision established by Robert Turner in 1714, but increased the time limit to two years. Money received from the resale of lots was to be used for the building of a church and other uses decided upon by the church wardens and the vestry.

Guidelines also stipulated that all lots were to be cleared and all streets measure at least 66 feet wide. There would be no make-shift fences. Those fences built were required to be “paled in”—constructed with post and rails. Disturbing the peace would warrant a fine of ten shillings, 24 hours in jail, or two hours in a stockade. At the same time, liquor made in the precinct could be sold by anyone without a license.

In 1725, according to Charles Paul, two roads connected Beaufort with the surrounding area. One extended northeast to the west side of North River. The other ran north to Core Creek. The two roads merged in town at the courthouse. At that time a ferry became available across Core Creek and a bridge road was planned from the west side of the Newport River to the White Oak River area.

The growth of the town of Beaufort proceeded at a snail’s pace. In 1723, only five lot sales were recorded—all lapsed because the owners did not build on them. In December, 1725, Richard Rustull saved his investment by selling the Beaufort land to Nathaniel Taylor, a resident of Carteret Precinct, for 160 pounds sterling.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 7 - Nathaniel Taylor

2009-01-12T20:32:00.012-05:00

Old Burial Grounds 1898 - 165 years after Nathaniel Taylor deeded land for a cemetery.
Image scanned from Rodney Barfield's Seasoned by Salt

Nathaniel Taylor, just as Robert Turner and Richard Rustull, once lived in Beaufort’s oldest house—the Hammock House. Since Taylor was justice of the peace, court was held at his house until a courthouse was built.

According to Charles Paul, 1728 marked a high point in lot sales, perhaps due to more awareness and better promotion of the town. Between 1728 and 1732, 21 new lots were sold, plus 16 were resold by the town due to a lapse in building requirement.

During his ownership, Taylor extended the town limits to include the Hammock House, and deeded land to the town for a cemetery—The Old Burial Ground. In 1731, Governor Burrington described the town as one of “...little success and scarce any inhabitants.” In 1733, even though there had been a marked increase in settlers and sales, Nathaniel Taylor sold his interest in the town to Thomas Martin. The Beaufort waterfront “creek” was named for Taylor.

As years passed, lots in Beaufort were transferred back and forth from one owner to another, but the town had little overall growth.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 8 - Pre-Revolutionary Times

2009-01-12T13:17:00.014-05:00

1730 Owins-Bedford House
Warshaw Painting

In Colonial Beaufort, Charles Paul wrote of John Brickell, in his Natural History of North Carolina, describing Beaufort as a town with a pleasant prospect, but that it was “small and thinly inhabited.” Charles Paul also cited the list of taxables in 1748 as only 320 for the whole county, perhaps with only about 32 in Beaufort.

In 1741 and 1744 Spanish Privateers harassed the coastline, especially off of Ocracoke Inlet. In 1747 they entered Beaufort Harbor threatening the town. Militia troops were hurriedly gathered under the command of Major Enoch Ward and held the Spanish until August 26, when they captured the town. However, Colonel Thomas Lovick and Captain Charles Cogdell gathered enough troops to force the Spanish from the town by early September.

According to Charles Paul, at least 37 lots changed hands during the 12 years before the Revolutionary War. At least 9 of these lots showed some sort of structure.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 9 - Revolutionary War Times

2009-01-12T12:39:00.018-05:00

During the Revolutionary War, ships were in and out of the harbor transporting needed supplies. Patriots built salt works to supply themselves, and others, with the salt that had previously been imported. Some helped form an artillery battery to help defend the town.

Below are brief biographies of a few Beaufort citizens who were part of that time period.

ROBERT WILLIAMS circa 1723-1790 purchased 75 acres along Taylor’s Creek from James Winwright including the Hammock House. Williams built a salt works facility on the east end of town. He had a grist mill and built the first brick house in Carteret County using bricks and ballast stone from England. In 1776, Williams was appointed by the Provincial Congress to produce salt – he purchased Galland's Point for that purpose. (Galland's Point and Galland's Channel were named for John Galland, clerk of court in Carteret County in the 1720s. The named evolved to Gallants.)

RICHARD COGDELL circa 1724-1787, grandson of John the immigrant, was born in Beaufort to George and Margaret Bell Cogdell. Richard married Lydia Duncan. Cogdell was an ensign during the 1747 Spanish invasion, Aide de Camp to Governor William Tryon, justice of the court, sheriff of Craven County in 1762, representative from Carteret County in the legislature of 1766, member of the Provincial Congress of 1774 and 1775, and Chairman of the Committee of Safety. During the Revolutionary War, he was Judge of the Admiralty Court for Port Beaufort in 1776. He was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army and led troops that drove the last British Governor out of New Bern. It is said that he entertained George Washington when he visited New Bern.

WILLIAM BORDEN, JR. circa 1731-1799 was a landowner, shipwright, and delegate to the Fifth Provincial Congress in 1776 when the Bill of Rights was adopted. His father, William Borden, Sr., was a ship builder from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who arrived in North Carolina in 1732 aboard his schooner. William Borden, Sr., son of John Borden, was one of two progenitors of the Borden family in America.

WILLIAM THOMPSON circa 1732-1803 was a naval deputy for the port of Beaufort and delegate to the Provincial Congress. As a colonel during the Revolution, he was the highest ranking officer from Beaufort. In 1776 he was commissioned to establish a salt works, and was justice as well as county treasurer – serving the town and county for thirty years. His Last Will and Testament provided land to an orphan and money for the schooling of four of the town’s poorest boys.

JOHN MARSHALL circa 1744-1807, born in London, served in the Revolutionary War, moved to Beaufort and purchased 100 acres. He was appointed by the General Assembly of North Carolina as commissioner of the town of Beaufort.

CAPTAIN CHARLES BIDDLE circa 1745-1821 designed and helped build the town's artillery battery after realizing the vulnerability of Beaufort to British attack. Biddle was not in Beaufort for long, but was elected to the General Assembly of North Carolina. For a short time, he owned the Gibble House on Marsh Street. until returning to Philadelphia in 1780. He and wife Hannah Shepard of Beaufort, had many children including Nicolas Biddle--child prodigy and famous American financier.

NATHAN FULLER circa 1750-1800, father of Belcher Fuller, was a Revolutionary War ensign in the Carteret County Militia. He was a navigator and ship owner who sailed from Beaufort to England and the West Indies, bringing supplies into Beaufort harbor prior to the Revolution.

COLONEL JOHN EASTON circa 1750-1850 was a man of great influence in Carteret County. He settled in Beaufort about 1770 and reared four daughters, who married local men. He served during the Revolutionary War, was a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, Congress of 1776—which framed the state constitution, and was on the Committee of Safety in the New Bern district. He lived in what became known as the Easton House - actually built for Jacob Henry in 1800.

After the Revolution, Beaufort experienced a real period of growth. Most of the citizens made their living as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, mariners, coopers, shipwrights and fishermen. They also manufactured salt, processed forest by-products and shipped these products to other areas. There were also ministers, attorneys and a school master. More investors actually lived in, and took an active part in the building of the town. Ordinary citizens also became town leaders, some going on to represent the town in the North Carolina Legislature. Mail delivery was improving. Though still by horseback from New Bern, it was being delivered every two weeks.

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 10 -18th Century

2009-01-12T10:23:00.013-05:00

Image scanned from Seasoned by Salt by Rodney Barfield

It was a poor little village from the beginning, with only a handful of makeshift houses. The first streets were merely sandy clearings, probably with hand-marked wooden stakes. There was a wharf on the natural shoreline that witnessed a few small boats and tall ships arriving from the northern colonies, the West Indies or from England.

Early inhabitants were fishermen, tailors, carpenters, shipwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. The inhabitants did what they had to do to survive.

One of the most vivid accounts of Colonial Beaufort was given by a French traveler who visited the town in 1765. It has been written that the Frenchman arrived at Cape Lookout and walked down the beach to a whalers’ camp. There he persuaded some of the whalers to take him over to Beaufort. A short visit left him with a very unfavorable impression of the town. He described it as “a Small vilage not above 12 houses, the inhabitants seem miserable, they are very lazy and Indolent, they live mostly on fish and oisters, which they have in great plenty.”

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 11 -19th Century

2009-01-10T20:54:00.024-05:00

Scene in Beaufort during the bombardment of Fort Macon

April 25, 1862 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

The beginning of the nineteenth century found a 100-year-old town—still very isolated and struggling. Records from 1812 show there were 600 residents and some 75 houses.

The Civil War had a huge impact on mid-19th century Beaufort. However, Amy Muse, in The History of the Methodist Church, gives an interesting account of day-to-day life in Beaufort in the 1800s.

“There were no paved streets, no shell roads, only a wilderness of scrubby bushes and deep sand with marshy places here and there where at high tide or during storms the water came in and stood. The most frequent outlays of town funds were for 'causewaying' or laying 'trunks' over the low places, repairing the foot bridges on Ann Street, deepening the ditches, or 'grubbing' Ann Street and making it 'passable.' Sandy paths radiated out from the church, through trees and undergrowth and back lots, to the homes—all without benefit of street lights.

Pigs and cows and horses and geese roamed at large and when encountered on the way from church on a dark night were a common source of fright. An ordinance said, ‘All hogs running at large shall be liable to be destroyed by any person or persons feeling themselves aggrieved,' but those who unexpectedly stumbled on one and heard the movement of other life in the darkness just hurried home. In spite of all this, by early candlelight whole families finished their chores and ploughed through drifted sand to meeting. Mothers brought babies in their arms who learned to sleep through hours of preaching and singing and shouting. Others went home at intervals to nurse theirs returning again to slip into service. The colored listened from the gallery and, under the influence of the same terror-arousing pleas, cried out in conviction of sin or rejoiced aloud over forgiveness. The more emotional ran in an out among the graves of the old cemetery shouting aloud.

Mail began [1855] to come to Beaufort by stage and three times a week! One of the old folks in writing of it said: ‘The coming of the mail was the chief event of the day, and notice was given of its arrival by a horn blown by the stage driver as he came through town.’ By the time he arrived at the old Post Office on the southwest corner of Ann and Turner Streets, the town was assembled to meet him.

Beaufort was then a struggling town, stretching along for the space of a mile upon the edge of the water. The Methodist was the only denomination that had a house of worship in the town.

Half dozen schooners—more or less—were laying at anchor at irregular distances from the shore—wharves there were none, or next to none. The fact is, Beaufort in those days, was as nearly out of the world as a town could well be. Communication with New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore was more direct and frequent than with New Bern.

But, no better people lived than the good people of Beaufort. It was a seaport town without any of the vices that generally prevail in seaports.

The coasting vessels that came into port were generally owned by residents of the town, and the sailors were young men, for the most part, whose parents lived in Beaufort. It was an exceedingly rare thing for a foreign vessel ever to anchor in Beaufort harbor.

It was a quiet, moral, and religious community. Everybody went to church on Sunday. Church members were orderly and pious. Hospitality prevailed under every roof. Nobody was rich, none so poor as to be dependent upon charity. The means of subsistence was in the reach of all that could get to the water.

…The year of 1854…A railroad was being talked. In fact, there was a possibility of its coming to Beaufort. There were those who wanted it, but some were uninterested. Things were pretty good as they were. A railroad would smoke up the town, kill the cows and chickens, run over the children, fill the town with tramps. Nevertheless, it was built to Sheppard’s Point which in 1858 was incorporated as Morehead City. When it was completed, Steve Turner and Palmer Davis sailed over early week-day mornings with mail and passengers, and at night met the train and brought the incoming mail and passengers to the expectant group gathered at the dock, around dark, to meet them.

…the barque Louisa Bliss [ventured out in search of gold] in 1850. With A. M. Fales as master and Brian Rumley, S. S. Duffy, William Penn Hellen, LeRoy M. Piver, James Gillikin, David William Noe, William F. Hatsel, J. L. Manney, Charles Whitehurst, and James Busk as crew, she sailed around Cape Horn for San Francisco with a cargo of lumber from William C. Bell and Company.

...The Atlantic House and The Ocean House carried advertisements in The Journal: Rooms at '$2.00 per diem' with 'bathing in ocean or surf, in the sound, or in bathing houses immediately contiguous to the hotel…Probably no hotel short of our large cities can make such a display of splendid silverware for dinner service…splendid magic wine stands, magic casters, cups lined with gold, egg spoons, pickle stands, fruit baskets...’ T. Duncan and Sons advertised stores 'one in the extreme west end of town the other on the corner of Front and Craven Streets'…'Dr. J. L. Manney respectfully tenders his professional services to the citizens of Beaufort'… Beaufort Female Seminary with Stephen D. Pool as Principal and Beaufort Male Academy with R. W. Chadwick as Principal were soliciting pupils…Windmills stood on Front Street.

…A notice of A. C. Davis, City Clerk, reflects some of the municipal problems of the day: Warning irrelative to horses and dogs running at large; running or draying horses at such a rate as to endanger the safety of pedestrians; removing sand from the streets; obstructing the streets and sidewalks, washing clothes near the pump, remain in full force and will be strictly enforced.

…the 1880s were peaceful happy days of autograph albums, dominoes, croquet, cisterns, feather beds, mosquito nets and ice cream festivals. They were the days when courting couples gathered down on Whitford’s wharf and when at dusk everyone went to meet the mailboat…when funeral notices were neatly written on letter paper, a piece of dull black ribbon inserted between the sheets and sent from door to door; and, without the ribbon, party notices were sent in the same manner with the names of all invited guests on the sheet.”

19th Century Ships
Otway Burns' Snap Dragon (1812), Confederate Steamer Nashville (1860)
and the Schooner Crissie Wright (1888)
Models by Jim Goodwin

HISTORY OVERVIEW - Part 12 - 20th Century

2009-01-10T20:27:00.044-05:00

Celebrating New Depot and One of First Trains to Beaufort - June 8, 1907

Again, Amy Muse, in her History of the Methodist in Beaufort, gives us a good snapshot of life around town . . .

“At some elusive period early in this century, Beaufort changed considerably. Banker ponies were prohibited on the Town Marsh and Bird Shoal, so they were no longer able to swim across the channel at low tide to graze along the sidewalks or run up and down the streets at night. Artesian wells took the place of the town pumps. A factory was built to manufacture our own ice. Sheds overhanging the sidewalks were removed, the picket fence around the cemetery was replaced with a wall, Dr. Maxwell came out with his Maxwell automobile in 1911, and from then on the familiar two-wheeled carts drawn by banker ponies began to disappear from the streets.

"The old ordinance prohibiting travel at more than ten miles an hour on straight roads or six around corners soon seemed foolish and later was repealed. The old fence around the town and the town gates were kept in condition until after 1910 then gradually people stopped closing the gates and no longer kept in repair, they disappeared.

"The picturesque net reels that stood on Bird Shoal fell into disuse and one by one disappeared the last going just about the time the board walk went. Somewhere along these years, too, women dropped their widows' bonnets with the narrow white rushing about the face and the heavy black veils falling sometimes all around the head; sometimes from the back only. Days of the bonnets were days when a woman mourned for life. A dress for a second wedding was supposed to be at least 'light mourning.'

"The railroad had something to do with the change, the light and water plants in 1909, the Inland Waterway in 1911, the World War, the radios that began to come around 1918—everything that tended to put us in closer touch with a larger world.”

_____________

Although Beaufort was affected directly by and took part in our country’s major events over the centuries, it remained very isolated for the most of its history. Today, residents and visitors remain thankful that Beaufort, this little village by-the-sea, has not only maintained its historic appearance, but also remains small, quaint, and unspoiled.

During the 20th century, these boats were used for fishing,
hauling, as mailboats and general transportation.

Carolina Sharpie, Shad Boat and Shrimper
Models by Jim Goodwin

Methodist Episcopal Church and Purvis Chapel A.M.E.Zion Church 1820

2008-11-29T07:49:00.041-05:00

Old Purvis Chapel circa 1820

Image found in History of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, published 1941

Date of Photo Unknown

In The Story of the Methodists in the Port of Beaufort, Amy Muse wrote, "On the lot between the burial ground and the colored church stood 'the house appointed for a Court House.' It had been deeded to the Wardens of the Parish of St. Johns by Richard Rustell in 1724. In it during the middle years of the seventeen hundreds, the service of the Anglican Church was read.

A church building was erected on the same lot some time after 1774 so was practically new when the Methodists began using it. L.A. Potter, born in 1844, remembered the old church which, he said, stood until a short time before the Civil War. Robah F. Bumpas said this building was purchased by John White who moved it to the lot on which his residence stood on Water Street, now Front, and used it as a storehouse and shop. It was blown down by the storm of 1879 when the Atlantic Hotel went to pieces.

Purvis Chapel circa 1900 and 1999

Image from Beaufort's Old Burying Ground by

Mamré Marsh Wilson, Diane Hardy and Marilyn Collins

According to the 1820 deed registered in the Court House one half acre, lot 101, corner of Craven and Broad Streets, was purchased from the town 'to be erected and built thereon a house of worship for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America.' The trustees to whom it was deeded were: James Chadwick, Samuel Chadwick, Elijah Canaday, Culpepper Pigott, Freeman Ellis, Peter Noe, Dillins Ellis, Jechonia Pigott and Anson Chadwick. Those who filed into the new church on Sundays were the Bells, Forlaws, Reads, Arendells, Halls, Lovetts, Rumleys, Murrays, Whitehursts, Barnes, Manneys, Perrys, Mansons, Leecrafts, Dills, Merrits, Fullers, Davises, Pivers, Thomases, Canadays, Langdons, Fulfords, Buckmans, Gabriels and many whose names are lost to us.

In 1821 when Robert Wilkinson was here the church was dedicated by Lewis Skidmore who was one of the leading ministers of the Conference. Even then it was neither completed nor paid for. Still incomplete, January 2, 1830, 'It has never been plastered consequently is decaying fast.' It was repaired in 1836, not out of debt until 1840!

When the white Methodists built a new church in 1854, Black Methodists were deeded the old Methodist church building, known as Purvis Chapel, in which to worship independently. (According to Mamre Wilson, the old church was named after a poplular revivialist minister, Reverend James Purvis, who visited in 1834.)

In 1863, A.M.E. Zion missionary James Walker Hood established the first permanent A.M.E. Zion congregation in the South in New Bern. Several weeks later, he journeyed to Beaufort and enrolled Purvis Chapel in the A.M.E. Zion denomination, making it the second oldest church of the denomination in the South. During the Civil War, Purvis Chapel saw considerable usage for church, school and community purposes under the supervision of the Union Troops."

The two-story, gable-front building is five bays wide and was originally four bays deep, with two additional bays added. The chapel has a three-stage corner tower and a front pediment supported by two tapering Doric posts. Three entrances are recessed beneath the pediment. At the south front corner wall, surfaces project out to enclose an interior stair to the balcony. The tower also contains a balcony stair. The church has Gothic stained glass windows and some rectangular windows with Queen Anne colored glass lights.

The original 1820s church was apparently enlarged about 1900 with front additions to create the present appearance. The patterned shingles in the pediment and upper stage of the tower, as well as sawnwork kingpost ornament in the gables, relate the church stylistically to the Queen Anne/Gothic Revival style of the nearby 1854 Ann Street Methodist Church.

Purvis Chapel's bell was cast in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1797. It originally hung in the north tower, but now resides inside the church.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1998 the Purvis Chapel was recognized with a second Kathryn Cloud Historical Preservation Award. In 1963, the building was one of Beaufort’s first twenty historic buildings to display a plaque.

This post was compiled from various sources, including Ruth Little’s 1997 Beaufort National Register Historic District Survey, Amy Muse's The Story of the Methodist in the Port of Beaufort and Mamré Wilson's Story of North Carolina's Historic Beaufort.