Portrait of Robert Ross Blackwell (1927-2017)

Portrait of Robert Ross Blackwell (1927-2017)

At its January 6, 2020, meeting, the Caswell County Board of Commissioners approved a motion "for Judge Robert Blackwell's portrait to be displayed in the historic Courthouse."

Photograph: February 2014 at the office of Scott & Watlington, P.A., Certified Public Accountants. Courtesy Barbara H. Scott.

Caswell County Cemeteries Board of Trustees

Caswell County, North Carolina, Cemeteries Board of Trustees

At its January 6, 2020, meeting the Caswell County Board of Commissioners approved appointments to the Caswell County Cemeteries Board of Trustees, which is a new board for the county. The five members are:

Ashby, Lisa (Leasburg)
Carter, Andrew Sterling (Caswell County Commissioner)
Mitchell, Ginny (Providence)
Terrell, Jared Lee (Burlington)
Wrenn, James Earl (Prospect Hill)

The Caswell County Cemeteries Board of Trustees had its first meeting on January 16, 2020.
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North Carolina General Statutes §65-113 provides:

"The county commissioners of the various counties are authorized to oversee all abandoned public cemeteries in their respective counties, to see that the boundaries and lines are clearly laid out, defined, and marked, and to take proper steps to preserve them from encroachment, and they are hereby authorized to appropriate from the general fund of the county whatever sums may be necessary from time to time for the above purposes.

"The boards of county commissioners of the various counties may appoint a board of trustees not to exceed five in number and to serve at the will of the board, and may impose upon such trustees the duties required of the board of commissioners by this Article; and such trustees may accept gifts and donations for the purpose of upkeep and beautification of such cemeteries."

Lea & Little Dry Cleaners (Yanceyville, NC)

Lea & Little Dry Cleaners was a successful black-owned business on the Square in Yanceyville. Employee Thomas Swann is at work in the early 1960s. The building burned in 1970. The Lea and Little families were early supporters of educational opportunities for Caswell’s black children, both with their time and money. (Courtesy Helen Little.)

The following article is from The Bee (Danville, Virginia), 28 September 1970, Monday, Page 1. Click items to see a larger version.

Caswell County Fair

Caswell County Fair: 1918

"The Caswell County Fair will be held in Yanceyville, October 1, 2, and 3."

Source: Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina), 29 September 1918, Sunday, Page 26.

Fair Worker Shot to Death: 1968

Yanceyville (UPI) -- A carnival worker was fatally injured after the closing early Friday of the Caswell County Fair and a co-worker was being held here for murder.

A spokesman at nearby Danville, Va., Memorial Hospital said Peyton Leon Rider, 46, of Muskogee, Okla., died about 1:50 a.m., Friday from multiple gunshot wounds. He said Rider was shot three times in the chest and once in the shoulder.

The sheriff's office here said another carnival worker, James Hance, 44, of Ravenelle, S.C., had been charged with murder, but deputies would not disclose the details of the shooting.

Source: Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, North Carolina), 16 September 1968, Monday, Page 4.

North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868

Convention of 1868

On January 14, 1868, a North Carolina constitutional convention, now known as the "Convention of 1868," opened in Raleigh. Caswell County's Wilson Carey was a delegate and a member of the Black Caucus.

Wilson Carey (b. 1831), a free black farmer, represented Caswell County. Born in Virginia, Wilson moved to Caswell in 1855 and taught school. During the convention, he spoke against proposals to attract white immigrants to North Carolina: "The Negro planted the wilderness, built up the state to what it was; therefore, if anything was to be given, the Negro was entitled to it."

Carey also served in the 1875 constitutional convention dominated by Democrats. He was elected to six terms in the state house and a term in the state senate. He left Caswell County after 1889 due to Ku Klux Klan violence.

Fox Family Photograph

Fox Family

Click to See Larger Image

Looking back at my stash of family photographs, I found a more recent one of the children of John Younger and Rosa Royster Fox taken at a birthday party for the eldest, Henrietta E. Fox Perkins ca. 1951.

Back row, left to right: Edward Younger Fox, born 1885; Willie Wise Fox, born 1891; Lexie Bernice Fox, born 1896; Eugene Fuller Fox, born 1885.

Front row, left to right: Cora Aldine Fox Oakley, born 1887; Charlie Oscar Fox, born 1900; Henrietta E. Fox Perkins, born 1881.

Source: John Benjamin Fox (January 2020)

Here is the peeking-child version:

YMCA in Caswell County, North Carolina?

YMCA in Caswell County?

Source: Anderson, George A. "Caswell County in the World War 1917-1918." Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1921, p. 13.

Rev. Mr. Hester, Baptist minister from Roxboro. These photographs below were taken in the spring of 1917 at Longhurst Methodist church in Jalong, Roxboro, Person County, NC.

Phogographs courtesy Flat River Gravefinders.

Life in the Good Old Days in Alamance, Caswell, and Rockingham Counties

Life in the Good Old Days in Alamance, Caswell, and Rockingham Counties 

Lasley, R. T. and Holt, Sallie, Editors. Life in the Good Old Days in Alamance, Caswell, and Rockingham Counties. Hickory (N.C.): Hometown Memories Publishing, 2005.

Articles Related to Caswell County, North Carolina:

1. "Dreaming of Lamp Light and Dirt Floors" by Ocie [Louise] Graves Bigelow (born 1935 in Caswell County)
2. "A Special Place to Be From" by Lee P. Brandon
3. "Angels and Missionaries" by Violet Brown-Riley
4. "Change, Growth and the Circle of Life" by Lois Simmons
5. "No Strangers in Caswell County" by Linda Ellen Cowager

6. "The First Car" by Clifton Brown, Jr. (born 1939 in Caswell County)
7. "Caswell County and Me" by Marshall L. Scruggs (lived between Providence and Purley)
8. "Fluid Art Discouraged" by Jerry L. Cole
9. "A Milton to Come Home To" by Jean B. Scott of Milton, North Carolina (born 1925 in Denver, Colorado)
10. "Child of a Sharecropper" by Betty Thaxton of Blanch (born 1949 in Caswell County)

11. "Remembering Semora" by Jackie Blalock Ransdell
12. "A List of Memories" by Rebecca Willis Maya (born Caswell County 1937)
13. "The Dishwashing Injury" by Mary Sue Wright (born 1937 in Caswell County)
14. "That Little Readheaded Girl" by Lelia Neal Essic (born 1922 in Caswell County)
15. "Waiting for the Rawleigh Man" by Dr. Houston G. Jones of Chapel Hill (born 1924 in Caswell County)

16. "The Luziane Horse" by Nancy Isley Chatman of Yanceyville (born 1929 in Graham
17. "The Poteat House" by Carolyn Bason Long of Washington, D.C. (born 1922 in Yanceyville)
18. "Digging for the Tree Stump Baby" by Joyce B. Badgett of Yanceyville (born 1934 in Caswell County)
19. "Rabbit Salad" by Ada Kirby Nicks of Yanceyville (born 1925 in Caswell County)
20. "A Good Raising for Ten Children" by Annie Mae Brown Gunn of Mebane (born 1934 in Caswell County)

21. "Mule Riding, Milking, Egg Laying and Bible Talking" by Edwena Kirby (born 1953 in Caswell County)
22. "Where Kings Have Not Walked" by Alice Jones Charette of Milton, Caswell County, North Carolina
23. "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child" by Barbara Shelton of Reidsville (born 1955 in Caswell County)
24. "Riding a Mule Named Pat" by Sallie Brown Thompson (born 1942 in Caswell County)

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25. "The Old Plantation" by William Thomas Brown of Burlington (born 1935 in Caswell County)

26. "The Norfolk Angel and the Model T" by Thomas Garrett Neal of Eden (born 1914 in Caswell County)

27. "Big Families" by Mable P. Farrar of Graham (born 1916 in Caswell County, NC)

28. "Potted Meat, Cold Biscuits and Happiness" by Hazel Rose of Burlington (born 1941 in Caswell County)

29. "The Bear and the Baby" by Rosa Ann Watson of Greer, South Carolina (born 1949 in Caswell County)

30. "The Home Place on Turner Road" by Alice Marie Brown Clark of Burlington (born 1934 in Caswell County)

31. "Change, Growth and the Circle of Life" by Lois Simmons of Elon (born 1938 in Caswell County)

Brown's Shop and Restaurant (Yanceyville, NC)

Brown's Seafood Restaurant

Reminders of the Past/Visitors See the Writing on the Wall at Historical Site

By Bonnie Lawrence, Staff Writer Mar 12, 1991
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The Writing's on the Wall at Brown's of Caswell.

Actually, the writing's on several walls. But the faded scribblings don't bother Brenda Brown, owner of the combination specialty shop and restaurant in Yanceyville. In fact, she cherishes the antique scratchings because they speak of the history of the 200-year old building which houses her shop.

According to Brown, storekeepers of yesteryear would keep track of customers' bills and other records by writing them on the wall. An inscription proclaiming "H. H. Hammer, 25 cents is visible on a side wall. By the front door is scrawled "N. P. Oliver, Yanceyville" in an old-fashioned hand.

"He owned two saloons once," said Brown of Oliver. "That makes us think this building might have been a saloon."