July 11, 2011 Coats Museum News
Surely there are many families in the Coats and surrounding areas who have pictures of the many men and women who traveled the dirt roads for fun and business in 1920. The "Harnett County News" Vol. 2 No. 40 shared that Miss Dona Ennis, Messers Zalmon Ennis and W.C. Whittenton had returned from a trip to Wrightsville Beach and to Charlotte where they had visited Miss Margaret Hudson. Was she a former principal or was she with the Home Demonstration Service? L.L. Levinson also wrote that some people were taking typhoid vaccine being given in Dunn. Millions of people had been killed from the typhoid fever. Questions—What were the symptoms; how was the ailment contracted and why did they not go to Coats to get the vaccine?
Let's read about some more folks who were on the road. Miss Lillian Truelove had visited her cousin, Miss Iva Stewart, for some time. Miss Truelove had returned to her home in Wilmington. Mr. and Mrs. W.J. McStewart and daughter, Lillian, had spent last week shopping in Raleigh. Surely that was before the motto, "Shop Coats First" was encouraged. Mr. Charlie Bailey, Miss Delphia Bailey, and Miss Callie Stewart were visitors to Lillington on Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. T.D. Stewart and daughters, Mary and Mildred, had shopped in Dunn. Are these two Stewart men kin? Miss Naomi Stewart had returned Saturday night from Samarcand, N.C. where she was a teacher. Mr. P.K. Honeycutt, representing Walter and Gurley Auction Company, had been a business visitor in Coats.
The date was October of 1920. The rains were causing problems for the farmers. The pickers had not been able to get into the cotton fields and the farmers seemed slow in putting cotton on the market. However, the rain did not keep H.A. Turlington from a business trip to Rocky Mount. It had not stopped Messers. Carr Gregory or Knox Gardner of Angier from visiting Coats last week. Mr. Zeb Stewart of Portsmouth, Virginia had returned home there after visiting family in the Baileys Crossroads area. Lawyer C.L. Guy and family of Dunn had visited Mr. J.H. Ennis and Miss Novello Holland of Dunn had visited Miss Florence Ennis. Mr. Howard Ennis had been in Coats on Sunday. The L.L. Levinson family had visited the Willie Ennis family of the Sorrell School area. Miss Esther Whittington had entertained a number of friends at a birthday party. More questions—Did you notice the two different spellings of Whittenton and Whittington-is there a story there and did cars have window glass in the doors in 1920?
Levinson and Verl Johnson warned in the "Harnett County News" that Coats had a new policeman and stated that he means to enforce the law. What law was being broken?
The "Harnett County News" Vol. 2 No. 42 could have read "Coats Voters Pass the School Bond" but it was not a headline. However, the Coats voters did pass the bond by a substantial majority. The $30,000 bond had been enough to finish the school by the spring of 1921. We shall go into that school building in a future column.
According to the same edition of the "Harnett County News", the Dunn Fair had drawn a large crowd from the Coats area. Josephus Daniels had been speaker on Wednesday. Had Coats Farmers Day already been celebrated in 1920? We do know that the Todd Vauderville Shows had been in Coats for a week according to L.L. Levinson. Large crowds had attended. Do you wonder where they performed to accommodate large crowds? Wonder if the entertainers stayed at Mollie Stewart's hotel. There were seven bedrooms and chicken was served at breakfast. This I do know. Levinson wrote that both cotton gins were running to capacity due to the fine cotton picking weather and the farmers desired to meet their obligations promptly. What happened when the farmer could not pay the fertilizer and other bills? Not trying to be funny but a MD on a land transfer does not mean Medical Doctor but Mortgage Deed. Many farms were lost if cotton prices were so low that farmers did not have the money in the fall to pay the debt.
As promised earlier, next week we shall share Allene Honeycutt's memories of growing up in a family that attended the Primitive Baptist Church. The following week, per request of several readers, we shall visit in more detail the history of the early schools in Coats Grove Township.
A special thank you goes to Patsy and Stacy Avery, Hilda Pope, Betty and Charles Manning, and Robie and Lynda Butler for their memorial gifts to the Coats Museum Building Fund to honor Mike Hudson. Another thank you goes to Hilda Pope, Betty and Charles Manning, and Lynda and Robie Butler for their memorial gifts to the same fund for the late Ed Lewis. The WWI uniforms on display in the museum look especially nice thanks to John Willoughby of Sunny Cleaners in Dunn.
Please be mindful that this Coats Museum News was published in the Daily Record in July 11, 2011.