History

The first blues song I heard growing up on Atlanta college radio was “Cross Road Blues,” 1936, by genre progenitor Robert Johnson.

John W. Thomas was always confident, a make-it-happen type of guy. He had to be. John grew up fast when his father died in 1810 when John was ten. By the age 17, he moved to Davidson County to mine for precious metals.

It’s officially called the Qualla Boundary, a name most of us aren’t familiar with. We know it by its more common name – the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Haywood County. How it came to be is an interesting story.

When you think of coal mining and coal mining disasters, you don’t think of North Carolina. But the Egypt Coal Mine opened in 1856 in the Deep River Valley in Lee County. It even spawned the Western Railroad, which moved coal to Fayetteville and was in operation during the Civil War.

We’ve all heard of Eng and Chang Bunker – the Siamese twins – who became famous and called North Carolina home. But there was another set of conjoined twins who never became as well-known because they were born into slavery.

In politics you often have the boss, the one who works behind the scenes, to pull the levers of power. Furnifold McLendel Simmons was the big boss of North Carolina politics early in the 20th century.

It’s the eternal home for the rich and famous, and for the poor and unknown. Located in Asheville, the Riverside Cemetery sits quietly and is often overlooked by residents and visitors.

Robert Babington was reading his newspaper in Gastonia in 1909, when he came across a disturbing article about a young crippled child who was refused admission to an orphanage because he was handicapped. Robert then realized that North Carolina had no hospital for handicapped children.

What’s unique about Rutherford College, North Carolina? Well, for one thing there is no college there. The small Burke County town built up around the college Robert Abernathy started in 1853; the town was later incorporated.

When outnumbered, a little ruse can work wonders.

Although the town he grew up in was – and still is – often called “Little Washington” to distinguish it from the nation’s capital, there was nothing little about Cecil’s imagination.

Most people think we have always received personal mail by going out to the mailbox. That has not always been the case.

James Kenan was a leader.

We’ve admired the basket weaver’s talent, as well as that of the wood carver and the folk dancer. And then we wonder, “Where did they learn to do that?”

No one goes to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill without hearing about the old Davie Poplar. It’s right there for all to see, right in the middle of campus.

North Carolina has long been associated with what many call the Bible Belt, and North Carolina Baptists have been a part of that fabric since it was a new colony.

Everyone loves a good show.

There is a difference. For those of us living in North Carolina, our state is different than South Carolina. Just like we are different than Virginia. So when newscasters refer to the “Carolinas” we know they are mistakenly lumping us together.

Evan Jones’ faith was not fleeting, but it was movable.

Nothing is more American than New Year’s Day football, and the highlight is playing the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Right? Wrong.

William Lenoir had a defiant attitude.

George Warren was just looking for stones for his slingshot. He took some of the “greenish-colored rocks” to his home in Alexander County.

They were the Iron Dukes for a reason. The 1938 Duke regular season football team was both undefeated and unscored upon. Not a single point.

The wheels of government have always moved at a snail’s pace.

They were free. They didn’t know what to do.

Raleigh didn’t just happen … it was planned. The Revolutionary War was over. The North Carolina colony turned state wanted a fresh beginning, and what could be more new than a new state capital?

“We’re all Kituwah.”

Ben grew up wanting to be a soldier.

Hugh Hammond Bennett enjoyed playing in the dirt when growing up near Wadesboro in the 1880s, and that soil connection may have saved the nation.

Art was like most children born in 1923 – active and inquisitive. That is until he was three and an eye infection left him blind. He could’ve pitied himself, but his parents encouraged him to rise above his disability.