This Week In History

ROBESON COUNTY HISTORY

April 21: Robeson delegation too large for space provided . On hundred years ago, the April 21, 1924 Robesonian reported that “Citizens living along State Highway 21 in Robeson, Cumberland. Harnett and Wake counties who saw the many automobiles filled with [Angus Wilton] McLean supporters pass their way Wednesday and Thursday en-route to the Democratic convention in Raleigh were no doubt greatly impressed with support [Gubernatorial candidate] Mr. McLean is receiving in his home county.

“In the convention hall the section allotted to the Robeson County delegation was filled to overflowing long before the meeting was called to order. Had the space been three times the size, it would have been filled.

“The roll call of counties was begun but it had to be stopped, for in cam the most important man at the convention — Mr. Angus Wilton McLean. The Robesonian started the cheering and yelling, which was taken up all over the auditorium. “The noise went from gallery to gallery and from floor to roof. This cheering however as nothing compared to was was given when Secretary of State [William Nash] Everett mentioned the name of Angus Wilton — that was all that could be heard — as one of the North Carolinians who has served the nation most acceptably during the war as chairman of the War Finance corporation. “Everybody cheered. The Wake County delegation seemed to forget that Josiah William Bailey was candidate for Governor opposing Mr. McLean. They made a great demonstration. The applause when Mr. Bailey’s name was mentioned was weak, unorganized and so scattering that the humor of it caused chuckling”

April 22, Gas Cost Expected To Soar : Fifty years ago, the April 22, 1974 Robesonian reported that “by summer, motorists may be paying 60 cents for a gallon of gasoline, says the nation’s top energy official.

“Federal energy chief John C, Sawhill said Sunday he expected gasoline prices to go up a few more cents and to level off at about 60 cents a gallon this summer. He told reporters covering a meeting of the National Oil Jobbers Council that he didn’t expect gasoline prices to go much above that level.”

April 20, UNCP has no taste for alcohol at sports events. Five years ago, the April 22, 2019 Robesonian reported the following: “As a bill to allow beer and wine sales at sporting events on the 15 UNC campuses moves to the state Senate for final approval, it appears that The University of North Carolina at Pembroke will be the only state university to remain alcohol free at athletic contests.

April 26, Lumberton sees new housing. Is it enough? One year ago, the April 26, 2023 Robesonian reported that “the sounds of jackhammers and bulldozers have become common in some parts of Lumberton where developers are building apartments for lower-income residents. And more projects are likely on the way: The Lumberton City Council voted this month to rezone three separate land tracts where developers hope to use a tax-credit program run by the state to add more than 180 new apartments. The construction boom is welcome news in this Robeson County community devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018.

NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY

April 20: Hydroelectric Power Introduced, 1898 : On April 20, 1898, the Fries Manufacturing and Power Company transmitted electrical power 13 miles from the generating plant to the Fries-owned Arista textile mill.

The transmission, which originated near the Yadkin River bridge west of Clemmons in Forsyth County, was North Carolina’s first long-distance transmission of electricity.

Long interested in the use of electricity to power industrial machinery, Henry Fries of Salem founded the company to harness the hydroelectric capability of the river.

Construction on the power plant began in 1897 and it soon became known as Idol’s Hydroelectric Station, after a ferry that was once located on the same site. The dam built for the station was 482 feet long and the reservoir covered about 35 acres. The flow of the dam generated about 2,500 horsepower.

The station later provided power for other textile and grain mills, fertilizer plants, the Winston-Salem electric railway, electric street lights and wood and metal working shops in Winston-Salem.

Fries sold his power company in 1913 to Southern Public Utility Company, which was purchased by Duke Power in 1914. Duke Power, now Duke Energy, operated the Idols station until 1996. The station burned two years later.

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On April 20, 1898, the Fries Manufacturing and Power Company transmitted electrical power 13 miles from the generating plant to the Fries-owned Arista textile mill.

The transmission, which originated near the Yadkin River bridge west of Clemmons in Forsyth County, was North Carolina’s first long-distance transmission of electricity.

Long interested in the use of electricity to power industrial machinery, Henry Fries of Salem founded the company to harness the hydroelectric capability of the river.

Construction on the power plant began in 1897 and it soon became known as Idol’s Hydroelectric Station, after a ferry that was once located on the same site. The dam built for the station was 482 feet long and the reservoir covered about 35 acres. The flow of the dam generated about 2,500 horsepower.

The station later provided power for other textile and grain mills, fertilizer plants, the Winston-Salem electric railway, electric street lights and wood and metal working shops in Winston-Salem.

Fries sold his power company in 1913 to Southern Public Utility Company, which was purchased by Duke Power in 1914. Duke Power, now Duke Energy, operated the Idols station until 1996. The station burned two years later.

For more about North Carolina’s history, arts, nature and culture, visit DNCR online. To receive these updates automatically each day, make sure you subscribe by email using the box on the right, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

April 21: Astronaut and Moonwalker Charles Duke : On April 21, 1972, Charlotte-born Charles M. Duke became the youngest man to walk on the moon at age 36.

After graduating and receiving a commission from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1957, Duke embarked on a career in the Air Force as a pilot. His dedication to aeronautics and advanced education at MIT made him an ideal candidate for NASA, which selected him and 18 others in April 1966 to form Astronaut Group Five. Before visiting space himself, Duke served as the capsule communicator for the Apollo 11 crew, the first crew to land on the moon. The Earth-based capsule communicator’s job is to keep constant contact with the crew in space.

During the Apollo 16 mission, Duke was the lunar module pilot alongside mission commander John Watts Young and command module pilot Thomas K. Mattingly. On April 21, Duke and Young stepped out onto the lunar surface, becoming two of only 12 people ever to walk on the moon. They spent 71 hours in the Descartes Highlands, a rugged region of the moon.

In just over 20 hours of moonwalks, the pair carefully surveyed the Moon’s surface, collected samples and deployed scientific equipment. Duke is one of nine North Carolina-born astronauts.

April 22: Fayetteville Arsenal Surrendered, 1861 : On April 22, 1861, the U.S. Arsenal at Fayetteville surrendered to a force of state militia troops roughly a month before North Carolina seceded from the Union.

At the time of the firing on Fort Sumter 10 days earlier, the Fayetteville Arsenal was guarded by a company of the Second U.S. Artillery. On April 22, the U.S. soldiers were confronted with a large force of nearly 1,000 state militia troops reinforced with artillery.

Former Governor Warren Winslow, acting as agent for then Governor John Ellis, negotiated the surrender of the post, which allowed the federal soldiers to leave with their equipment, but forced them to turn over the arsenal’s equipment to the state. By April 27, the Union artillerymen were able to get transportation to Wilmington, and by May 7, the company had arrived at Fort Hamilton in New York City.

During the Civil War, the arsenal manufactured small arms for the Confederacy with machinery shipped there shortly after secession from Harpers Ferry, Va. One of the arsenal’s better-known products was the “Fayetteville Rifle,” a copy of the US 1855 rifle.

Union Major General William T. Sherman captured the arsenal in March 1865, and had the installation destroyed.

April 23: Major Depression-Era Loss at Wingate : On April 23, 1932, the Administration Building of what’s now Wingate University was destroyed by fire.

At the time, the building housed the college library and chemistry labs, classrooms, an auditorium and offices. The library, which had more than 5,000 volumes at the time, and the chemistry labs were totally destroyed.

The building was valued at $50,000 and the loss was only partially covered by insurance. Some equipment and furniture in the building was saved, as were the surrounding buildings. The fire began in the boiler room, even though the furnace had not been lit for several days.

Firefighters from Monroe and Marshville tried to save the building but a lack of water pressure and the chemicals from the lab hampered their progress. Another fire that night destroyed the W. A. Chaney building nearby. An investigation into a break-in there led to suspicions that the fire was set on purpose. There were suspicions too, that the Wingate fire was intentionally set, but its cause remain undetermined.

The board of trustees voted quickly to have a new building erected before classes began the next year and began fundraising. Local Baptist churches helped as much as they could in the Depression-strapped times.

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April 24: Salt Works Established to Support Revolutionary War Effort : On April 24, 1776, North Carolina’s Provincial Congress ordered that a salt works be established in the colony for Revolutionary War use.

Before the war, North Carolina and other southern colonies had relied largely on salt imported from Great Britain to preserve their meats, flavor their foods and feed their livestock. It was a vital commodity. At the war’s outbreak in 1775, Great Britain had severed all trade with the fledgling American government, causing fear of a salt shortage. To ensure availability, the Provincial Congress initially set price caps on salt, rationed the existing supply and offered bounties to encourage its manufacture.

Not until April 1776, when the colonial government authorized four men to spend up to 2,000 pounds of public funds to establish a salt works, did work begin. Robert Williams and Richard Blackledge, both began salt works near Beaufort that spring. Williams’ operation at Gallant’s Point, which used solar evaporation, soon failed. But Blackledge’s plant on Core Creek succeeded, using a furnace to boil saltwater in iron pans until the water evaporated and only the salt remained. Although Blackledge died in 1777, his salt works continued to operate throughout the Revolutionary War.

April 25: Meadowlark Lemon, Basketball’s Court Jester : On April 25, 1932, Meadow Lemon III was born in Lexington County, South Carolina. He moved to Wilmington at age 6.

A fan of basketball from an early age, Lemon used to tell the story that his first basketball ensemble was a hoop made from an onion sack and a coat hanger with a Carnation milk can as a ball. After seeing the famed Harlem Globetrotters in a movie theater newsreel, he ran home to tell his father that he planned to join the team. In 1954, he did just that.

Lemon changed his name to Meadowlark in the late 1950s, but he was also widely known as the “Clown Prince of Basketball.” Though a slick player with phenomenal ball-handling skills and a long-distance hook shot that rarely missed the hoop, it was his cheeky comedy on the court that propelled him into the spotlight.

The best-known Globetrotter, Lemon became a television star, portraying himself in television shows like Gilligan’s Island and in cartoons including Scooby Doo.

Lemon retired from the Globetrotters in 1979, became an ordained minister in 1986 and established Meadowlark Lemon Ministries in 1994.

Inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 200, Lemon died in 2015.

April 26 : Negotiations at Bennitt Place : On April 26, 1865, the largest troop surrender of the Civil War took place on the farm of James and Nancy Bennitt in what was then Orange County.

Ten days earlier two worn adversaries, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, along with their escorts, rode out to meet and negotiate the terms for the surrender. By chance, the Bennitt farm was located halfway between the Union forces positioned in Raleigh and the Confederate forces encamped in and around Greensboro.

The two generals asked permission to use the farmhouse to conduct their meeting. The Bennitt family, already touched by the war with the loss of both of their sons and a son-in-law, retreated to the separate kitchen building to allow the generals to use the house.

After several days of negotiations, which were complicated by the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Johnston surrendered his army. Johnston’s forces included all Confederate troops in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, nearly 90,000 soldiers in all. The mustering out of the Confederate army took place in Greensboro in early May, where paroles were issued to the soldiers.

Bennett Place became a State Historic Site in 1961.

April 27: Baseball Hall of Famer Enos “Country” Slaughter of Roxboro . On April 27, 1916, Hall of Fame baseball player Enos Slaughter was born near Roxboro to a farm family.

As a child, Slaughter honed his strength and skill with farm work, hunting rabbits with rocks and playing sports. He also began to develop a lifelong passion for baseball by watching Durham Bulls games. Slaughter began his pro career with a St. Louis Cardinals farm team, the Martinsville Redbirds, and it was while playing with the Virginia team that his tireless hustle earned him the nickname “Country.”

Slaughter entered the majors with the Cardinals in 1938, and stayed with them until 1953. He went on to play for a number of other teams including the New York Yankees, seeing five World Series and ten All-Star Games during his career. At various times he led the National League in triples, double plays by an outfielder and RBIs.

Though a standout player in many respects, Slaughter saw his reputation marred by his racial attitudes. In 1947, he tried to get Cardinal players to strike in protest of Jackie Robinson’s presence on the Dodger’s roster. Though the strike attempt failed, Slaughter intentionally spiked Robinson in a later game.

Slaughter retired from baseball in 1959, but managed a few minor league teams and coached briefly at Duke. He died in 2002.

NATION AND WORLD HISTORY

April 21, Queen Elizabeth II is born . On April 21, 1926, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was born in Mayfair, London; she was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and the Queen Mother.

April 22, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez seized in Miami, returned to Cuban father : On April 22, 2000, in a dramatic pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

April 23, first YouTube clip is uploaded : On April 23, 2005, the recently created video-sharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.

April 24, final Unabomber-linked killing : On April 24, 1995, the final bomb linked to the Unabomber exploded inside the Sacramento, California, offices of a lobbying group for the wood products industry, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. (Theodore Kaczynski was later sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for a series of bombings that killed three people and injured 29 others.)

April 25, Athens surrenders to Sparta, Peloponnesian War ends : In 404 B.C., the Peloponnesian War ended as Athens surrendered to Sparta.

April 25, Elon Musk agrees to buy Twitter : In 2022, Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the social media platform where he – then the world’s richest person – had made a habit of promoting his interests and attacking his critics to his tens of millions of followers.

April 26, Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster : On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)

April 27, Federal minimum wage increased . In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers.