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Denver Allred on Worthville
Denver Allred, at home in Worthville, from the Courier Tribune, September 3, 1984. One of the reasons I started this blog is that, having collected information on Randolph County history for more than...
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On the Waterfront
A hundred and more years ago, Randolph County’s mill villages were intimately attuned to the waters of Deep River. A good strong flow meant regular work as the mill’s water wheel or turbine turned...
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Last Ride on the Underground Railroad
Florence Stockage, from the Virginia Historical Society As early as 1786 George Washington complained that one of his runaway slaves had been assisted to freedom by a “society of Quakers, formed for...
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From Galvanized Yankee to Race Car Driver
R.V. (“Bob”) Toomes with his grandson Richard Petty Randolph County’s heritage of resistance to secession and support of the Red String has been amply documented by the late, lamented Bill Auman in his...
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Randolph County’s First Christmas Tree?
Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1850- a revised version of the Illustrated London News, edited to Americanize Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. North Carolina in 2014 ranks number two in the nation in Christmas...
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The Randolph County Courthouse Bell
Bell being replaced in 1909 Courthouse From the earliest days, the Randolph County Court House had a bell to announce the beginning of its sessions of court. Preserved and moved from building to...
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What’s in a Name?
It is pretty common, living in Asheboro, North Carolina, for visitors to confuse our community with our cousin to the West, Asheville, North Carolina. Both of us are named after the 9th Governor of...
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Independence Day, 1842 (Part 2).
Recreated 1830s Fourth of July Celebration at Old Sturbridge Village, Mass. 1842: One hundred seventy three years ago; a lost world that is oddly similar to our own…. It is Monday, July 4th, 1842, and...
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Independence Day, 1842.
John Lewis Krimmel, “Fourth of July Celebration in Centre Square”, 1819. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Raleigh Register, Friday, 15 July 1842, p2. COMMUNICATION. FOR THE REGISTER. CELEBRATION...
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Notes to Independence Day, 1842.
Published in the Raleigh Register, Friday, 15 July 1842– The Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Weekly Advertiser was published weekly in Raleigh beginning in 1799, and in various formats and title...
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Odd Fellows Cemetery
This is the “Nomination for Cultural Heritage Site” I submitted to the Randolph Count Landmarks Commission that was approved in January 2016. It’s long, but it speaks to an entire segment of local...
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Tempora labuntur, omnia mutantur
Oak trees at 722 West Main Street, Franklinville, NC Even though Vergil, several millennia ago, said that ‘tempus fugit,’ time flies, as I was looking east out my home office window this holiday...
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Thomas McGehee Moore: First Mayor of Asheboro?
Signature of Thomas M. Moore [I apologize for not posting here since I began at the Randolph Room, but I’ve been busy. Case in point: in August the City of Asheboro asked the library to provide...
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Is Randolph County’s Confederate Monument a monument to White Supremacy?
Many Confederate monuments erected at or around the same period were used overtly to advance a racist agenda. “Silent Sam,” on the Chapel Hill campus, for example, was dedicated in 1913 by Civil War...
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The Randolph County Confederate Monument
The Randolph County chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was organized in 1906 at the suggestion of Mrs. E.E. Moffitt, the daughter of Governor Jonathan Worth. “The paramount interest...
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Mill Power: Steam
I realized today that there is a major Franklinville anniversary coming up this month. One hundred twenty years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1897, the “Upper Mill” started up its second...
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The Jonathan Worth House and Lot
Jonathan Worth (1802-1869) is usually cited as Asheboro’s most famous former resident, on the basis of his two terms as Governor of North Carolina from 1865-1868. There is little in Asheboro to...
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Civilian Casualties of War, 1863
[Public Domain clip art from https://www.wpclipart.com/American_History/civil_war/Various/hanging_during_civil_war__by_Pyle.jpg.html%5D The history of Randolph County’s turbulent civilian life...
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Women’s War Work: Julia Thorns
In my job at the library I write a lot of stuff, but most of it doesn’t end up on this blog. For example, here is an article I wrote for the NC Department of Natural and Cultural History blog during...
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WWI Aviation Mechanics: Ralph Whatley
Ralph Whatley, seated on the ground, lower right, with French and American members of the 1st Motor Mechanics Brigade of the US Army in France, 1918. When the contents of my great-grandparents’ house...
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