School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER LXXI.

PROGRESS OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT.

A. D. 1876 TO 1878.

1876.

In this state of advancement as to her material interests, North Carolina again became excited in 1876 over the choice of new men for Chief-Magistrates, both of the Republic and of the State.

2. After eight years of service as President of the United States, General Grant was retired to private life, and Governor Brogden, who had succeeded Governor Caldwell upon the death of the latter in 1874, was also near the end of his service as Governor of North Carolina. No Gubernatorial election was ever more exciting to the State. It resulted in the choice of ex- Governor Z. B. Vance over Judge Thomas Settle of the Supreme Court.

1877.

3. In the complications which resulted in the seating of Governor Hayes as President of the United States, there was such a change effected that the Federal army was no longer employed to uphold the reconstructed officials in Louisiana and South Carolina, and the people of those States, at last, were left to the management of their own affairs. With this consummation, so long and devoutly wished, came that peace and contentment to all sections which had been unknown since 1861.

4. The enormous increase in the amount and quality of cotton grown in North Carolina since the late war has been dependent upon the use of various fertilizers and other appliances of a better cultivation of the soil. The old habit of educated men, in committing their plantations and slaves to the management of overseers, has been almost wholly abandoned. Many individuals of the largest culture are now devoting their time and skill to the discovery of improved methods in agriculture, and North Carolina is reaping a golden harvest thereby.

1878.

5. No employment, except agriculture, exceeds in importance that of the merchant. North Carolina is shut off from foreign commerce by the sand barriers on the coast, Only at Beaufort, on Old Topsail Inlet, can be found such an entrance to internal waters as promises safety to the mariner who would approach with his deep-laden vessel. But, while this has precluded the possibility of great commercial activity in North Carolina, there has not been a lack of men, at any period of our history, to illustrate the dignity and importance of legitimate traffic. Cornelius Harnett and Joseph Hewes were as conspicuous for financial success as they were for patriotism during the Revolution.

6. With the return of peace to the belligerent States, North Carolina was commercially prostrate. The merchants and the banks were almost all ruined in the general impoverishment of their debtors. The supply of cotton which remained on hand at the cessation of hostilities was about all that had been left, in the general wreck, upon which trade could be again commenced with parties at a distance.

7. Raleigh had never been recognized as a trade centre. A few stores on Fayetteville street, between the State House and where the Federal building now stands, were the representatives of their class in the city. Cotton was very little grown in that region of the State, and no market for its sale had even existed nearer than Norfolk and Petersburg.

8. But this state of things was not to continue. Numbers of young men, combining great energy and judgment with small capital, came to the city and began the work of expanding its trade and resources. It has not, like Durham, risen up in a few years from almost nothing, but so great a change has been wrought, that the story of its growth is one of the most striking incidents in the State's history. The extension of the railway lines has opened up new custom in many counties that had never previously dealt with merchants of the place.

9. The development of commerce and manufacture is the great hope of the "Old North State." The enterprise and capital of this and other communities are seeking opportunities of investment, and the day is fast coming when North Carolina will rival Pennsylvania in the variety and excellence of her manufactures. The "Cotton Exchange" of Raleigh is aiding very largely in building up the business of the city to vast proportions. The quantity of cotton sold in Raleigh has been rapidly increasing annually since the war, and the receipts for the year 1880 amounted to over seventy-six thousand bales. In 1869 the entire product of the State was only one hundred and forty-five thousand bales.

10. In the towns and cities of North Carolina may be found a considerable number of Israelites engaged in the various branches of trade; and this class of our citizens has added no little to the general growth and material prosperity of the State. They have synagogues at Wilmington, Charlotte, Raleigh, Goldsboro and New Bern.

11. About the year 1878 the example of the Federal government and that of certain Northern States induced the State Commissioner of Agriculture to establish a fish hatchery at a mouth of Salmon Creek in Bertie county. This establishment has hatched and liberated a very large number of shad and other varieties of fish, and valuable returns are seen in some of the rivers that have been in this manner replenished with this savory and abundant source of food. It has been satisfactorily demonstrated by Seth Green, of New York, and other naturalists, that fish which are spawned in fresh water and reared at sea almost invariably seek the place of their birth in the spring, when they reach maturity.

12. In addition to this artificial increase of the supply of fish, there have been large additions made to the means of their capture. The use of steam in the handling of the long seines and the great weirs known as "Dutch Nets," have opened the way to an indefinite increase of the amount taken, while the use of ice and rapid transportation make it possible to deliver the fish fresh in the markets of the Northern and Western cities.

13. This trade is also supplemented in the same region by such attention to the growth and sale of vegetables. All the requirements as to position, soil and climate are abundantly filled by the counties with alluvial soils along the seacoast. Heavy crops of Irish potatoes and garden peas are reared on the same land which, later in the year, supplies a second crop of cotton and corn.

14. In the same eastern counties the products of the farms have been increased by a large and rapidly extending area devoted to the production of peanuts and highland rice. With the exception of a limited supply of the former article, grown above Wilmington, there was seen in other communities only a few small patches for the use of the family, but with no design of sale or shipment. In many eastern counties the fields of peanuts are, of late year, almost as numerous as those of cotton. The same history belongs to the highland rice. This great staple of human diet is rapidly becoming a favorite crop, and mills for its preparation are fast making their appearance in different localities.

15. Nowhere else in the State has there been so great an increase in trade as in the city of Wilmington. Many ships from foreign ports began to visit Cape Fear River, and, from different cities in other States, regular lines of steam packets were established, which greatly facilitated the means of communication.

16. Repeated appropriations, but never in sufficient amount, were made from time to time by the United States Congress for the improvement of Cape Fear and other watercourses in North Carolina. The closing of New Inlet is believed to be entirely efficacious in the effort to deepen the approach by way of the river's mouth. A stone barrier of great length and stability shuts off the flow of water, except past Fort Caswell, and the happiest results are already realized.

17. In the city of New Bern another shipping point of importance had been largely developed in the years since the close of the war. There, too, is the terminus of prosperous freight lines, employing many large steam vessels, that yet ply regularly between Neuse River and cities beyond the borders of the State. A great trade in lumber and garden produce is improved by cotton and other factories, that add largely to the population and means of the city.

QUESTIONS:

1. How was the State excited in 1876?

2. What was the result of this election?

3. What is said of the events of the past few years?

4. How have the agricultural pursuits of the State been benefited?

5. What are the most important employments in a State? What are some of North Carolina's commercial advantages?

6. What was the financial condition of the people at the close of the war?

7. What is said of Raleigh as a trade centre?

8. In what way did trade matters begin to improve at the capital?

9. What else is said of North Carolina's commercial prospects? What advantage has Raleigh derived from the Cotton Exchange?

10. What is said of the Israelites?

11. What new enterprise was inaugurated in 1878? What have been the results of the hatchery? What fact has been proven concerning fish?

12. What is said of the improvement in the means of catching fish?

13. What other species of trade is found in the eastern counties?

14. What is said of the production of peanuts?

15. Can you tell something of the growth and trade of Wilmington?

16. How has the navigation of the Cape Fear River been improved?

17. What other seaport city is now mentioned? What is said of its commercial interests?