Tag Archive for: #kittrell

November 4th Henderson City Council Ward 4 Runoff

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UPDATE 11-3-25:

Tuesday, Nov. 4 is Election Day for Kittrell and Middleburg townships, as well as for the runoff election in the contest for the Ward 4 seat on the Henderson City Council.

Incumbent Ola Thorpe-Cooper is seeking to retain her seat on the Council, facing challenger Catherine “Kitty” Gill.

The polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and local elections officials remind voters that only residents of Ward 4 will be casting votes in this runoff election.

Henderson Ward 4 residents who vote on Nov. 4 should cast ballots at their polling precincts which include Sandy Creek, Central, Northern Vance (campus of Vance County Middle School) and South Henderson. These four precincts are the only sites that will be open on Nov. 4, according to Vance County Board of Elections Director Haley Rawles.

As for Kittrell and Middleburg voters, you’ll be voting for mayor as well as members of council.

In Kittrell, the incumbents are seeking re-election, including Mayor Gene Pulley and town commissioners Mary Jo Floyd, Susan Pulley and Robert B. Tunstall.

In Middleburg, incumbents Mayor Ray Bullock and council members Hazel A. Baskett, Shirley H. Bullock and Mamie Turner are seeking to retain their seats.

These mayoral contests are unopposed, and the member positions are vote for three, and there are only three candidates available in each contest.

Vance County Board of Elections Chair Susan Floyd reminds voters that they will be asked to show a photo ID before casting their ballot. All voters will be allowed to vote with or without ID. Voters who lack ID can get one for free from their county board of elections.

If you have questions, please contact the Vance County Board of Elections at 252.492.3730.

Click Play for our Broadcast Audio from the 11 a.m. hour on 11-3-25!

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Filing Period For Municipal Elections Opens July 7

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Filing for municipal elections begins Friday, July 7 at 12 noon and will conclude at 12 noon on July 21, 2023 at 12 noon. Someone will be in the office at all times during the business week  throughout the filing period, according to Board of Elections Director Melody Vaughan.

The filing fee for the City of Henderson is $10. Candidates must live within the city limits and also must reside within the Ward for which they seek election.

Voters will elect a mayor, as well as council members in the 1st and 2nd Wards, and at-large members in Ward 3 and Ward 4.

The filing fee for the Town of Middleburg  is $5. Candidates for the office of mayor and for the three council seats must live within the city limits.

The filing fee for the Town of Kittrell also is $5 and candidates for mayor and for the three commissioner seats must live within the city limits to qualify as candidates.

TownTalk: Around Old Granville

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The name Blacknall may be a familiar name in the area – there’s Blacknall Cemetery in Henderson, a historic home in Durham called Blacknall House and another cemetery in Kittrell. These are all vestiges of a once-prominent family whose members have played a role throughout the history of what is now Vance, Franklin and Warren counties.

WIZS’s Bill Harris and North Carolina Room Specialist Mark Pace took a look Thursday at the Blacknall family history, filled with some triumphs but rife with tragedy as well.

“They were very well read, very literate people,” Pace said, adding that in those days, such prominent families felt “a certain moral and civic duty to make the world a better place – they were soldiers and writers, movers and shakers in the community.”

There was Col. Charles Blackwell, who raised a regiment in Franklin County to fight in the Civil War. He died in 1864 after being wounded in the battle at Winchester, VA.

He was captured not once, but twice, during his military service, Pace said. He was part of a prisoner exchange deal after being taken to the Old Capitol prison near Washington.

One of Col. Blacknall’s children was Oscar William Blacknall, who was born in Kittrell, apparently under a dark cloud.

His success as a businessman allowed him to pursue literary interests and more, Pace noted.

In 1888 he established Continental Plant Company, a nursery business known especially for strawberries.

But Oscar may be best remembered for the Kittrell Hotel, Pace said. It was the first summer resort in North Carolina, established in 1858. If stayed in business throughout the Civil War, closing in 1873.

It catered to Southerners, who came to enjoy the hotel’s amenities – including a ballroom, billiard room, bowling alley and, of course, the water from Kittrell Springs.

During the Civil War, the hotel was used as a hospital. The Confederate soldiers buried in Kittrell died at Kittrell Hotel.

Blacknall’s wife was also his double first cousin – he married his uncle’s daughter. Of their seven children, one died as an infant, two committed suicide, the oldest died of tuberculosis and daughter Kate died at Blacknall’s own hand.

Seems he got up from the midday meal on Saturday, July 6, 1918, shot his wife first, then took aim at his 24-year-old daughter before taking his own life.

Thomas Blacknall was from another branch of the Blacknall family. He owned a slave, also named Thomas, who became the patriarch of the African American branch of Blacknalls. The white Blacknall held in such high regard the Black Blacknall that he allowed him to sell his wares (he was a blacksmith and bellmaker), allowing him to eventually buy his and his children’s freedom.

CLICK PLAY!

 

TownTalk: Town Of Kittrell Has An Interesting Story To Tell

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Kittrell Drew Visitors From All Over With Mineral Springs, Hotels…

Is it possible that the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1901 could have played even a small role in the fate of the Vance County town of Kittrell?

Maybe.

Driving on US 1 through Kittrell today, you’d never know that Kittrell had been home to hotels and resorts that drew visitors from all over. People convalescing from tuberculosis came for the mineral springs and Northerners came to hunt and escape cold winters, according to Mark Pace, local historian. Pace and Bill Harris shared stories about the tiny town of Kittrell on Thursday’s Town Talk as part of an ongoing conversation about local history.

“Kittrell really takes off when the railroad came through,” said Mark Pace, during Thursday’s Town Talk with co-host Bill Harris. In the late 1800’s it was called Kittrell’s Depot – plural because there were two depots, one for passengers and one for commercial use. About the time that the railroad came through, they found a mineral spring, which launched a host of hotels and lodges that brought people from all over to the small Vance County town.

Back at the turn of the 20th century, Census records showed that Kittrell had 168 residents – just about what it has today. But that number back in 1900 is half of what the population had been just 10 years earlier.

Why the drop? “The hotels had closed up by that point,” Pace said.

“Kittrell had its day,” he said. It had its own downtown district, hotels – it was famous throughout the South, complete with fine old homes and historic buildings.

Several families, including the Kittrells, gave land for the railroad to come through. “Kittrell really takes off when the railroad comes through,” Pace said. In the mid-1850’s, the town was called Kittrells – because there were two train depots, one for passengers headed to the hotels and resorts and a second for freight. Along about the time the railroad began chugging through, there was a discovery of a mineral springs. And from the late 1850’s until World War 1, Kittrell was in its heyday.

Over a period of about 30 years, there were four hotels in Kittrell: Located where the Dollar General now stands was Kittrell Springs. It could accommodate 600 guests; and the Davis Hotel, or Glass House, had space for 800 people.

The Glass House, so named because glass porches on either side of the hotel was where people with tuberculosis could be cared for indoors by staff nurses while enjoying the sunlight. The destination was so popular, folks even rented out rooms in private homes. In 1867, Pace said that all the hotels 500 people were turned away. There was no more room.

But after the Golden Era of the resort – after the end of the Civil War and just prior to World War I – interest in Kittrell fell off.

The healing and restorative powers of the mineral springs were largely debunked by the Pure Food and Drug Act. And the bottled water, promising help to those suffering from dyspepsia to female ailments, lost traction in the national market.

The hotels and opera houses, billiard rooms and downtown district are long gone. But the stories remain.

For complete details and audio click play.

 

Kittrell Job Corps 06/13/18

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