Trouble at Buckhorn (1906-1908)

[Photographs of the Buckhorn Dam site by the Rabbit. Satellite image of Buckhorn Dam via Google.]


View Larger Map

Chatham RECORD, 1906 JAN 25, "Local Records":

A gasolene launch has been put on the Cape Fear river and runs between Buckhorne and Lockville, a distance of about twelve miles. Since the completion of the dam at Buckhorne the water in the river between that point and Lockville is deep enough to float almost any kind of a steam boat.

Chatham RECORD, 1906 JUN 21, "Receivers for Cape Fear Power Co.":

From the Raleigh News and Observer, 15th [inst?].

In the United States Circuit court yesterday the Schenectady Trust Company, of Schenectady, N. York, filed a bill for foreclosure of the mortgage given by the Cape Fear Power Company, organized for the purpose of developing water power at Buckhorne Shoals in Chatham county, a few miles below Moncure, for the purpose of furnishing electric power to Fayetteville and other towns. The mortgage was made in 1903 to secure an issue of $350,000 of first mortgage bonds and the foreclosure is sought to be made on account of default in the payment of the April, 1905, October, 1905, and April, 1906, coupons amounting in the aggregate to $31,000.

Judge Purnell appointed as temporary receivers under a bond of $10,000 Messrs. Charles H. Belvin and E. Maxwell, who are directed to take immediate charge of the property and the defendant is notified to show cause on the 29th instant why their appointment should not be made permanent.

The Cape Fear Power Company is owned principally by Messrs. W.T. Morgan, of Fayetteville, and R. Percy Gray, of Greensboro, and purchased the water power at Buckhorne Shoals from the Deep River Manufacturing Company, the estate of the late Col. Heck and the Lobdell Company, of Wilmington, Delaware. It acquired a right of way from Buckhorne to Fayetteville a few years ago and built and equipped the line necessary for the transmission of power to that city. For some years it has been engaged in the construction of a dam across the Cape Fear and in building a power house at the site of the plant. It purchased large amounts of electrical machinery which has been delivered, but the most of which was never installed, being stored alongside the railroad tracks at Moncure awaiting the completion of the power house.

In view of the fact that the General Electrical Company is so largely interested in the bonds, it is hoped that it will either buy the property itself or form a new corporation to do so and complete the development of the power with a view of transmitting the same to Fayetteville and Raleigh and other cities.

Chatham RECORD, 1906 AUG 16, excerpted from "Superior Court.":

On the appearance docket are twenty-two cases against the Cape Fear Power Co. brought by some of the lands owners on the river between Lockville and the Buckhorne dam, because of the new dam backing water on their land. By an order of Judge Purnell all these cases are to be transferred to the Federal court at Raleigh for trial, as the Cape Fear Power Company is now in the charge of two receivers appointed by Judge Purnell.

Chatham RECORD, 1906 AUG 30, excerpted from the notice "Sale of Valuable Water Power and Electrical Plant.":

Under and by virture of an order of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Fourth Circuit, in the cause therein pending entitled Schenectady Trust Company against Cape Fear Power Company, dated the 23rd day of August, 1906, at 12 o'clock noon, at the door of the Court House of Chatham County at Pittsboro, N.C., expose to sale to the highest bidder at public auction, upon the terms hereinafter set forth, the property of the said Cape Fear Power Company, situated in Chatham, Harnett, Moore and Cumberland Counties, and described as follows, to-wit:

[...]

CHAS. H. BELVIN,
E. MAXWELL,
Receivers

R.T. GRAY,
Attorney,
Aug. 28, 1906

Chatham RECORD, 1906 SEP 6, "Dam A Nuisance.":

There is said to be an epidemic of chills and fever in Cape Fear township among the people residing on and near the Cape Fear river, between Lockville and the Buckhorne dam. This sickness is said to be caused by the backwater from the new dam of the Cape Fear Power Company, which has overflowed many thousand acres along the river banks. Such sickness was predicted and feared by the people of that section when the dam was being constructed, and their fears are now being realized.

Mr. Merrimon Harrington has sold his farm on the river and moved to Wake county, because of the sickness caused in his family by this backwater, and we hear that other citizens of that section are trying to sell out and move away. It is probable that the grand jury, at our November court, will be asked to indict the owners of the dam and have it torn down as a public nuisance.

Chatham RECORD, 1906 OCT 6, "Important Sale.":

In pursuance of the notice heretofore published in THE RECORD the receivers of the Cape Fear Power Company sold at public auction at this place, on last Saturday, all the property and rights of that company. The first bid was made by Mr. J.B. Blades, a wealthy lumber dealer from the eastern part of this State, who started the bidding at $120,000. The next bid was $125,000 by Mr. Henry F. Schaffner, of Winston-Salem. Mr. Blades then bid $130,000, whereupon Mr. S.D. Mitchell, a prominent electrician of New York, bid $250,000 in behalf of the bondholders and there being no higher bid the property was knocked down at this bid.

The property had been bonded to the amount of $350,000, so that it did not bring the amount due the bondholders. Not only do the bondholders lose heavily, but also the stockholders of the company who were the promoters of the undertaking have lost all that they invested in it. The company was organized several years ago for the purpose of constructing a dam across the Cape Fear river near Buckhorne falls (about twelve miles below Lockville) for the purpose of transmitting electric power to the cotton mills at Fayetteville, Sanford and other places. The dam was at last completed last winter, after many delays, but the electric power has not yet been developed, and it may cost $50,000 more to develop it.

This was the second most important sale ever held in this county. The most important sale before this was the sale of the property and rights of the old Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company, on the 26th of August, 1859, under a mortgage or deed of trust to the State of North Carolina to secure a loan of $300,000 made by the State to the company. The State became the purchaser at that sale through Gov. Ellis.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 JAN 24, "Local Records":

After an argument before Judge Purnell at Raleigh, on last Saturday, he refused a motion by the plaintiffs to remand to our superior court the damage suits brought against the Cape Fear Power Company by more than twenty landowners in this county, whose land is damaged by back-water caused by the big dam across Cape Fear river. Several of the suits have been compromised.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 MAR 28, "Buckhorne Electric Power.":

Special to the Charlotte Observer. Fayetteville, March 24. -- Mr. E.J. Maxwell, superintendent of the Cape Fear Electric Power Company, with an immense plant at Buckhorne Falls, was in town yesterday. He confidently states that he will have 3.500 or 4,000-horse power flashed by electric transmission to the industrial plants of Fayetteville by the 1st of next June. This is a "consummantion devoutly to be wished," but, to be plain, there has been so much "hope deferred" here about the Cape Fear company that we will wait and see it.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 APR 25, "FOUR MEN DROWNED":

Swept Over Buckhorne Dam.

Four men were drowned, on last Tuesday, at the Buckhorne dam in the Cape Fear river.

They were Capt. Thorson, the foreman of the works at Buckhorne, Mr. Emory A. Brady and two colored men, one name George Champion and the other Henry Lashley.

They and a colored man, named Joe Andrews, were in a gasolene boat that was in the river above the dam, carrying some lumber across the river, when the machinery got out of fix, or for some cause the boat got beyond control and began drifting with the strong current towards the dam. All efforts to stop the boat were in vain, and with accelerated motion it swept to the dam and plunged over, dashing the five men into the seething waters below.

Only one of them, Joe Andrews, escaped a watery grave. He was able to swim ashore, but the other four were drowned, and their bodies were swept down the river and may not be found for many days, if ever.

Capt. Thorson was a stranger who had been at Buckhorne only a few months. Mr. Brady was born and reared near Haywood, in this county, and had been empoyed for two or three years by the company building the dam. He was a son of Capt. Brady, who was the captain of the old steam boat that used to belong to the Cape Fear & Deep River Navigation Company.

This dam at Buckhorne was completed last year by the Cape Fear Power Company and its construction was so costly as to bankrupt that company, which went into the hands of receivers last summer by whom its property was all sold last fall. Its present owners will soon be able to utilize and transmit the electric power generated there to Fayetteville and other places.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 MAY 9, "Local Records":

On Monday morning about 70 feet of the dam of the Cape Fear Power Company at Buckhorne Falls was washed away. It will be replaced at once by concrete work, the part washed out being made of dirt.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 MAY 9, "Local Records":

The bodies of all four of the men, who were drowned at the Buckhorne dam, have been found and decently buried. They were found in the river near the place of the accident.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 MAY 23, "Local Records":

The recent breaking of the big Buckhorne dam on the Cape Fear river has greatly reduced the quantity of water in the river between Buckhorne and Lockville, in this county. The water is now so low in that part of the river that the gasolene boat can not run, as heretofore, between Buckhorne and Lockville.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 JUN 20, "Local Records":

There will be a Fourth of July celebration at the bridge across Buckhorne creek near the big dam across the Cape Fear river, in this county. In addition to speeches there will be all sorts of games and contests of an amusing character, and at night there will be a display of fireworks.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 SEP 5, "Fatal Flash":

During the storm last Tuesday a flash of lightning struck the cementhouse of the Cape Fear Power Company at Buchhorne dam and instantly killed 7 men and stunned 25 others. This was the most fatal flash of lightning that we ever before heard of in this county. The same storm reached this place and extended over most of this county, and it was not only an unusually violent electric storm but it was an unusually heavy fall of rain. The government rain-gauge, kept here by Mr. B. Nooe, showed a rain-fall of two inches and thirty hundreths of an inch. A feed trough of Mr. T.M. Bland, near here, was filled to the depth of three and a half inches by the rain. The heavy rain was accompanied with heavy crashes of thunder and blinding flashes of lightning. A tree was struck in the yard of John L. Council, of this place, and the shock shattered 42 panes of glass in the windows of his dwelling. A rain was greatly needed, the crops were suffering very much and the streams were all very low, but this storm rather over-did the thing.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 SEP 12, "Catastrophe at Buckhorne":

Later news from the fatal flash of lightning at Buckhorne does not decrease its horrors. As was published in last week's RECORD, a flash of lightning instantly killed seven men in the cement house of the Cape Fear Power Company. The lightning struck a tall poplar tree in a few feet of the cement house, in which the men had sought refuge from the rain, and then went through the roof of the building and did its fatal work.

There were twenty-one men in the building, seven were badly shocked and seven escaped injury. A horse was also in the building and it was not hurt, but was frantic with fright. One of the injured men was thought ot be fatally hurt, but is till alive. This terrible accident so demoralized the other men at work at Buckhorne that about one-half of them quit work and left there. Of course there is no more danger from lightning there than anywhere else, and there is an old saying that "lightning never strikes twice in the same place". It is said that about twenty men have lost their lives by accidents at this place since work was begun on the big dam several years ago. It will be remembered that a few months ago four men were carried over the dam in a boat and were drowned.

About fifty feet of the dam was washed away next day after the men were killed by lightning, which will delay for some time longer the completion of this important (and we may add unlucky) enterprise.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 SEP 12, "Local Records":

On last Thursday there were two peculiarly sad funerals at Zion Christian Church in Oakland township. They were the funerals Messrs. Eugene Black and Carlton Gunter, then young men of that neighborhood who were killed by lightning at the Buckhorne dam. They were popular young men, whose sudden and untimely deaths were a shock to all their friends.

Chatham RECORD, 1907 OCT 24, "Local Records":

The break in the dam a [sic] Buckhorne, which occurred several months ago, has at last been repaired and the electrical machinery is being conveyed down the river from Moncure and installed. It required five days for the river to fill up after the dam was repaired, the water being backed some distance up Haw and Deep rivers whose confluence form the Cape Fear nearly ten miles above the dam.

Chatham RECORD, 1908 JAN 8, "Water Power":

The great work of developing the water power at Buckhorne on Cape Fear River, in this county, is about completed and last week the electric power generated there was transmitted to Fayetteville for the first time. This work has been in progress several years and nearly half a million dollars have been expended on it. It is hoped that the valuable water power at Lockville, ten miles above Buckhorne, may be developed and utilized at no distant day. This power can be developed much cheaper than than [sic] at Buckhorne and is at present running idle and of no value to anybody. This property, which includes 2500 acres of land, is now owned by the Lockville N.C. Power Corporation most of whose stockholders reside at Richmond, Virginia.

Chatham RECORD, 1908 MAR 25, "Visit to Bucknorne Falls":

On Tuesday of last week the editor of THE RECORD, being one of a small party from this place, visited for the first time the electric power plant recently erected at Buckhorne Falls on the Cape Fear river in this county by the Cape Fear Power Company, now called the Central Carolina Power Company, and which was put in operation the 3rd of this month.

We were met at Moncure by "Commodore" M.T. Sturgeon in one of the company's gasoline launches and after a delightful ride of an hour were landed safely at the big 1200-foot concrete dam, from which point a walk of a mile brought us to the power-house. Here we were taken in charge by Mr. C.P. Stewart, the efficient superintendent, who courteously showed us over the plant, explaining the details of the mechanism, etc. In the equipment, all of which is of the latest pattern, are three alternating current generators each capable of generating 2300 volts of electricity, two exciters, one of which furnishes electric lights for the plant and premises at night, a continuous motor pump making 1700 revolutions a minute, and electric transformers carrying 60,000 electric volts.

The amount of power now available is [1,600?] horse power, although only 800 horse power is at present used, this being supplied to two cotton mills at Fayetteville 34 miles distant. In a few days a line will be surveyed to Raleigh, 26 miles away, looking toward furnishing that city with electric power and arrangements have already been made by industrial plants at Sanford to take a considerable quantity of the power.

An interesting feature in connection with this plant, and in fact all like plants, is that while its erection required the labor of several hundred men for months, yes years, the work having gotten started over five years ago, yet the services of only half a dozen men are required to operate it.

This electric power plant, which represents an expenditure from first to last of nearly half a million dollars, is by far the largest industrial concern in our county and we wish for it and its energetic general manager, Mr. Eugene Maxwell, through whose courtesy we are indebted for this enjoyable trip, the largest measure of success possible. The dam is 1200 feet long, 12 feet wide at the base and 14 feet high and is made of concrete. It is a few feet below the site of the old dam built before the war by the old Cape Fear & Deep River Navigation Company, and is eight miles below the railroad bridge at Moncure.

The trip from Moncure down the river to the dam was delightful, and was a [?] experience in this county. The river varies in depth from Moncure to the dam from ten feet to thirty feet and is a beautiful sheet of water, being over twice the width of the Cape Fear at Fayetteville. Two miles below Moncure is the "point," the confluence of the Deep and Haw rivers, where the Cape Fear River begins. At this point each of the two rivers seems to be about the same width. Two miles below the confluence of the Deep and Haw rivers is McKay's Island, half a mile long and containing about 65 acres. Two miles below that is Avent's ferry which has been in use ever since the county was organized in 1771 and has always since borne the same name. The ride down the river was made in less than an hour, and a more delightful spring day could not have been selected. The air was balmy, the water as smooth and calm as a mill pond and with a whirr the gasoline launch churned through the water, leaving rolling waves in its wake. The banks of the river were low and the country on each side quite level until the dam was reached, where the high hills arose abruptly on each side of the river, and the entire landscape was changed.

Chatham RECORD, 1908 AUG 12, "Local Records":

Quite a number of young people went form here last Wednesday to Buckhorn Falls on a picnic launch party and spent a most enjoyable day, thanks to the many courtesies extended them by Superintendent C.P. Stewart and Captain Eagle. Those composing the party were the following: Misses Alice Bynum, Elsie Williams, Betsey London, Mamie Elliot, of Linden, Jessie Crosswell, of Fayetteville, Josephine Boylan, of Raleigh, Annie Plummer Nicholson, of Washington, and Katherine Hawkins, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Messrs. Paul J. Barringer, H.M. London, F.W. Bynum, Jesse Milliken, Walter Jerome, Bennett Nooe, Isaac London and B.B. Pope, of Weldon.

Pittsboro's Big Day (1907)

Chatham RECORD, "Local Records", 1907 MAR 14:

The height of human happiness is experienced by a child (and some grown folks) at a circus, and there will be many a happy one here next Tuesday enjoying Sparks' Shows.

Chatham RECORD, "Local Records", 1907 MAR 21:

A fairly large crowd for this season of the year witnessed the afternoon and night performances of Sparks' show here on last Tuesday. A special train brought the circus here at 3 o'clock in the morning, and at 12:30 the street parade took place, the chief attractions of which were the elephants and the ponies. All who attended the show seemed well pleased.

The Irrepressible Levi Poe (1906 - 1910)

As told by the Chatham RECORD...

1906, OCT 25, "Notice":

Notice

I will be in Pittsboro on Thursday, November 1, 1906. All that I hold papers against will be there to settle with me, as I shall be there only one day. After that day the papers will in 'Squire Burns' hands for collection. Please don't ask for any more time.

I have 80 young mules that I want to put out on twelve months' time, good papers, better than I have brought to the county.

B.B. Wagner.

1906 NOV 22, "$25 Reward":

$25 Reward

I will pay $25 for the arrest and delivery to the sheriff of Chatham county of Levi Poe.

He is a tall white man, about 26 or 27 years old, spare built, no beard, light colored hair.

B.B. Wagner,
Pittsboro, N.C.
November 22nd, 1906

1907 MAY 2, "Local Records":

Sheriff J.R. Milliken received a telegram from Norfolk Tuesday stating that Levi Poe, a young white man of this county who is wanted here for disposing of mortgaged property, had been arrested and would be held until sent for.

1907 MAY 9, "Superior Court":

The May term of Chatham superior court began on last Monday. The judge is Hon. Robert B. Peebles, who arrived on the train after 1 o'clock on Monday and opened court as soon as he had dinner.

[...]

State against Levi Poe was a novel case, the first of its kind we have ever known in this county. He had been indicted for disposing of mortgaged property, and when the case was called for trial his attorneys insisted that he was insane and could not plead to the indictment. The following issue was then submitted to the jury: "Has the defendant sufficient mental capacity to understand his defense?" After hearing the evidence the Solicitor said he would not resist a verdict for the defendant, and the issue was answered "no," and the defendant was ordered to be sent ot the hospital for the dangerous Insane for treatment.

1907 MAY 16, "Commissioners' Meeting":

The county commissioners held their regular monthly meeting last week and audited the following accounts:

[...]

Chas. B. Wright, for conveying Levi Poe from Norfolk to Pittsboro .... 40 45 [$40.45]

1907 MAY 23, "Local Records":

Mr. Levi Poe has escaped from the hospital for the dangerous insane at Raleigh, whither he was carried at the last term of our court.

1907 SEP 26, "Local Records":

At last May term of our superior court Levi Poe, of Hickory Mountain township, was sent to the department for the criminal insane at Raleigh, from which he escaped shortly thereafter and returned home. He had been having all right until a few days ago when he again became violent and dangerous, and made desperate resistance when deputy sheriff James T. [illegible] and a posse went to arrest him. He not only tried to kill them but also tried to kill himself before they could secure him.

1907 NOV 7, "Local Records":

Levi Poe, a young white man who was put in jail here about six weeks ago to await trial on the charge of disposing of mortgaged property, escaped from jail here last Tuesday night by breaking the lock to his cell with a cold chisel which he had secured in some way and forcing an entrance throught the ceiling of the building.

1907 NOV 21, "Local Records":

Levi Poe, who escaped from our county jail two weeks ago, was captured last Saturday at Raleigh and was returned to the insane department at the penitentiary, from which he escaped several months ago.

1907 DEC 19, "Local Records":

The irrepressible Levi Poe has again escaped from custody, being the third time in less than six months. Last May he was sent to the criminal insane department of the penitentiary, from which he soon escaped. In October he was arrested in this county, after a desperate struggle, and confined in our county jail, from which he soon escaped. He was again arrested at Raleigh last month and returned to the penitentiary, from which he escaped last week and with him three others.

1908 AUG 19, "Superior Court":

The August term of Chatham Superior Court was held last week for the trial of civil actions only ....

[...]

The next case tried was that of H.G. Kime against L.N. Womble, which was a suit for the value of a horse alleged to have been bought of plaintiff by Levi Poe, who gave a mortgage on it and then sold it to the defendant. There was a good deal of evidence as to the identity of the horse, as to whether the horse bought by the defendant from Poe was the same on that had been mortgaged to the plaintiff. The jury decided that it was the same horse and rendered their verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the amount of $100. The moral, or lesson, to be learned from this suit is to be careful with whom you trade horses and to be sure that there is no mortgage on the horse you get.

At this point, Levi Poe seems to disappear for some time from the pages of the Chatham RECORD. Chatham County marriage records show Levi Poe, age 24, marrying Eula Jones, age 20, at Hickory Mountain Baptist Church on August 15, 1909, John R. Blair, J.P., officiating. His parents are listed as James W. and Anna Poe, while Eula's are deceased. Then Levi and Eula make one final appearance in the newspaper:

1910 FEB 16, "Levi Poe's Suicide":

From a Jacksonville, Florida, paper of February 2nd, we copy the following account of Levi Poe killing himself:

"Taking deliberate aim with a 44-calibre Colt's revolver held tightly clutched in right hand, Levi W. Poe, a young white man 25 years of age, sent a bullet crashing through his heart yesterday afternoon at 3:30 o'clock.

The tragedy took place on a vacant lot on Myrtle avenue, only a short distance from Kings road and there were no witnesses to the suicide.

Having grown despondent over a nervous affliction, and having battled with odds against him with fickle fortune, Poe calmly and deliberately planned his self-destruction without giving the slightest intimation to the few friends he had here, or to his wife, that he contemplated putting an end to his life.

Poe came to Jacksonville in August, accompanied by his wife, from Goldston, N.C.

The couple had just married and with light hearts and a future that seemingly had much happiness in store for them they came to Florida to live. But all did not go well with Poe and his young bride. He soon lost his health and day by day he saw what money he had gradually dwindling away.

Recently Poe was driven to the last extremity, and through the kindly offices of a friend he secured the position as an attendant of an old invalid gentleman that resided on Kings road. His wife secured the position of assistant house-keeper at the Duval county experiment station. With the small stipend that each received they managed to keep the wolf from the door. But as the days wore on Poe's heart grew heavier, and yesterday, having reached the breaking point, the young man put an end to it all by snapping out his life.

How long Poe had planned to end his existence is not known as he appeared, or tried to appear, to the friends he had made since coming to this city, and to his wife, as being in a hopeful and happy mood. It is said that Poe could have obtained financial aid from his parents who are reputed to be well off, but this he persistently refused to do.

Yesterday afternoon at three o'clock, Poe walked into the grocery store of R.D. McCormick, at the corner of Myrtle avenue and Kings Road, and after chatting a few moments, walked from the store. That was the last seen of him alive. Five minutes later a pistol shot was heard, and on an investigation being made the lifeless body of Poe was found lying in the center ofa vacant lot adjoining the store he had just left. In his right hand was clutched a brand new 44-calibre Colt's revolver. The bullet had done its deadly work, for Poe did not move, nor did he utter a word after the shot was fired.

There was no farewell message, no note, nothing left by the suicide to his wife or relatives telling them why he had committed his rash act. But it was known to all who knew him -- he died because he could no longer withstand the disappointments that seemed to completely engulf him."

Who Defaced the Chatham Confederate Monument?

[This post follows up on a 4-part series about the Chatham Confederate monument. The image of the "Negro Domination" headline is taken from a special "Supplement to the Chatham RECORD", published November 3, 1898.]

Late summer 1907, Pittsboro, North Carolina. The week after the Winnie Davis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a reunion of Confederate veterans some 300-men-strong unveiled the Chatham Confederate monument before a crowd of six thousand, someone defaced it with shoe polish and grease. I wrote a three-part series on the monument project, the unveiling and the defacement, and posted it late in August and last week. Since then I've had the opportunity to discuss the incident with some highly informed readers.

In part 3, I had placed an emphasis on the possibility of the defacement as an act of protest, performed by an African-American who saw the statue as an overt symbol of racial inequality. I also suggested in passing that the defacement might have been a result of disgruntlement with Henry London, or resentment toward the unveiling event. My correspondents suggested taking the idea of disgruntlement further to encompass something that everyone who participates in elections in Chatham comes to know at some level -- animosities related to local politics. That's right, it's like the guy who held up the "Buck Funkey" sign at the January, 2004 court house protest. Except different, because not just goofy and personalized, but racial and broad.

As I wrote in part 1 of the series, the monument was a very public project of Henry A. London's. London was a staunch Democrat who relentlessly used the pages of his newspaper to taunt the Republicans, Populists and those who fashioned the Fusion coalitions of the previous decade. One way to get back at London would be to desecrate the statue that he had placed so much fund-raising and editorial effort upon.

Furthermore, London used race as a political wedge wherever it would be effective. He had learned the lessons of 1898 well. He learned them as a participant; in the "Local Records" section of the RECORD of September 24, 1898, he wrote:

A friend at Wilmington has sent us a copy of the negro paper at Wilmington, dated August 18th, in which is published that vile and infamous libel on the poor white women of this State. We would be pleased to show this paper to any and all persons who will call at the RECORD office, and they can see for themselves that it is not "a democratic lie."

Here he references the infamous editorial, purportedly by Alexander Manly, which appeared in the Wilmington DAILY RECORD. Manly's assertion that some relations involving white women and black men were consensual (see the excerpt here) lit the fire under the powder keg of the "white supremacist summer" of 1898. After the Red Shirts staged their racial insurrection in Wilmington, London wrote (November 17): "WILMINGTON is once more ruled by respectable white men and all her citizens are now safe and secure in their lives, liberty and property. Peace prevails ...."

The drumbeat of race and the hammering of the Fusionists continued through London's career. Perhaps because he didn't want to offend the Populists directly, or possibly to marginalize them, London focused his haranguing fire on the Republicans. Still, in October of 1906, leading up to the election before the unveiling of the memorial, London looked into his heart and wrote:

When the Fusion gang had charge of our county they appointed negro school committeemen in charge of schools for white children, and this was endorsed by the present Republican candidates. What do the white men of Chatham think of this?

One of my correspondents assured me that Populist sentiment ran high in the county. Democratic sympathies would have been concentrated in Pittsboro, where Mr. Pittsboro himself, London, developed a personal and professional relationship with Democratic kingpin Josephus Daniels, publisher of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Populists thrived in the other parts of the county (according to my correspondent). There the smaller farmers developed their political consciousness via the Farmer's Alliance. They briefly forged their coalition with the Republicans and took power before the race scares of 1898 broke it up. The RECORD's relentless taunting must have galled them considerably.

With this background, perhaps it makes more sense to suggest that a Populist aimed the racially-charged vandalism of the memorial directly at London and the RECORD. Or perhaps the target was more broadly the Democratic elite, whom the shoe-polish phantom saw embodied in that figure posed in the center of Pittsboro. Along similar lines, it could have been a scalawag. Or as one of my correspondents suggested, it could have been some teenagers who got into their father's corn liquor.

But the simple fact is, I was probably wrong in my original estimation. The act was too swashbuckling to be a statement about racial (in)equality. As I said in part 3, lynching was not a common practice in Chatham at the time, but the fear of lynching or other horrific punishment would have persisted. An African-American caught on the plinth with a bottle of shoe polish in the dead of night could have paid for the transgression with his or her hide. A white Republican or Populist would escape with a night in jail, a fine and a stern finger-wagging from Henry A. London. It would have been unpleasant for a while, but a scant day or two later, the perp would have been on his way, enjoined to return for court week in a month or so. The incident might even have given the a certain lightness to his step on the way home.

Rabbit Lore #9 (1907)

Chatham RECORD, 1907 DEC 19, "Local Records":

Did you ever hear of catching rabbits in a well? Mr. T.M. Bland is having a well dug at his farm, near here, and since it was begun about twenty-five rabbits have been caught in it. They would fall or jump into it at night. Pretty good rabbit trap, isn't it?

Rabbit Lore #8 (1907)

Chatham RECORD, 1907 DEC 5, "Local Records":

Sheriff J.R. Milliken headed a rabbit hunting party on the morning of Thanksgiving Day and bagged 13 of Chatham's celebrated game in a few hours.

Rabbit Lore #7 (1907)

Chatham RECORD, 1907 NOV 21, "Local Records":

Did you ever hear of a cat catching rabbits? Mrs. M.A.Y. Wheeler, who lives near here, has a large Maltese cat which came to the house some days ago dragging a rabbit which it had caught.

Rabbit Lore #6 (1907)

Chatham RECORD, 1907 OCT 31, "Milliken on Rabbits":

The Raleigh Evening Times of last Friday contained an interesting interview with Sheriff Milliken on the quality and quantity of Chatham's crop of rabbits, a large part of which is engaged from year to year by our Raleigh neighbors. The interview, which is really the opinion of an expert on this important topic, is as follows:

"Sheriff J.R. Milliken, of Pittsboro, is in the city today, being on his way home from Goldsboro, where he took a negro to the insane asylum. Sheriff Milliken reports an unprecedented crop of Chatham's chief staple, the rabbit. 'People treat our rabbits as a joke,' laughed the sheriff, 'but really the cotton tail forms a big item in the commerce of the county. Thousands of the things are marketed each year, and they bring from eight to ten cents apiece. One man at Siler City last year sold wagon loads of them.

"'Do you know,' continued Sheriff Milliken, 'on what the rabbit fattens? It's frost. 'Possums eat persimmons, but rabbits love frost, and they are already getting fat. There won't be many 'possums this fall, but we have thousands of big rabbits, and there are plenty of birds, too.'"

Rabbit Lore #5 (1907)

Chatham RECORD, 1907 SEP 26, "Local Records":

What do you think of a rabbit being paid as a marriage fee? Well, that what was paid one of our popular Chatham preachers some time ago by a happy groom as the fee for marrying him.