People find all kinds of items when they clean out parents’ and grandparents’ attics that can provide insight into bygone times – diaries, vintage clothing and photographs all provide glimpses into the past.
But what about whole communities? Once-vibrant places where folks could go for mail, fabric for new clothes and other provisions?
Communities literally got “on the map” because of post offices, general stores and churches. But road construction and, more importantly in and around the area known as Old Granville County, railroad construction, are what determined a community’s ultimate rise or decline.
WIZS’s Bill Harris and local historian Mark Pace ran through a list of forgotten and almost-forgotten communities, in Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk. Some of those spots in the road are marked with signs – like Huntsville in Granville County – but places like Monroe in the northeast corner of Warren County live on mostly in historical accounts.
This community, named for President James Monroe, got on the proverbial map when a ferry operator named Robinson offered for sale a hundred or so 1/4 -acre lots in that vicinity. He sold a third of them right quick – for the tidy sum of between $35 and $150, Pace said.
The stagecoach stopped there and numerous notables of their day stopped in for visits. There was U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, for example, and Vice President Aaron Burr, whose name would become forever remembered for killing his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
There was only one thing missing from Monroe, however, Pace said.
“The railroad didn’t come through,” Pace said. “And that was the end of Monroe.”
As Monroe, went, so went other small communities that started off in relative prosperity but were doomed because the Raleigh & Gaston didn’t come near.
Take Bunn, for instance, in Franklin County. “Old” Bunn is located a little to the east of present-day Bunn. “When the railroad came through, Bunn moved a mile or so to the east, Pace explained.
And then there’s Lynesville, a precursor to Townsville in Vance County. The railroad moved it a little to the west, drying up Lynesville and giving new life to the unincorporated town that remains today.
And before there was Henderson, there was Chalk Level, which boasted a stagecoach stop, a store and more. It was the mid-1830’s when Lewis Reavis gave land for the right-of-way for the railroad that created a dead end for Chalk Level. The train depot was basically in Reavis’s front yard, Pace said. The advent of the railroad created economic prosperity for what would become Henderson and signal a death knell for Chalk Level.
There are still signs for Tally Ho in Granville County, and there’s a Tally-Ho Road, but when the Stem family gave land for the railroad, Tally Ho died off while the town of Stem gained traction.
Before there was an Oxford, there was a community called Harrisburg, Pace said. Harrisburg played a role during the American Revolution as a gathering point for American supplies.
“As early as 1759 Harrisburg was as large and important as Williamsboro,” Pace said, referring to the once-prominent Vance County community that also fell victim to the placement of the railroad.
In Harrisburg, there was a post office, a dozen or so houses, a community center and the obligatory horse racing track, Pace said. But its exact location wasn’t really clear – until recently. He said thanks to some metal detection work and studied of historical records and deeds, Harrisburg was situated in the general area between the Oxford exits 204 and 206 along I-85.
The community of Letha south of Rocky Ford in Franklin County had a post office from 1890 to 1910. There also was Whitaker’s Mill, as well as a store and perhaps a community cemetery.
“The mill no longer stands,” Harris said, “but you can still see evidence of where the mill was. It’s one of the prettiest areas of Franklin County.”
Most likely it was the mill closing that sent Letha into relative obscurity.
Up in northern Granville County, in the Cornwall community, there was Big Rock. It had a post office from 1885 until the mid-1930’s, Pace said.
When he went off in search of any evidence of the place, Pace said he had to travel several miles through the woods on an ATV.
What did he find? Nothing really was left, he said.
Except, you guessed it – the big rock.
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