Local History

Local History

70 arts and crafts vendors hallmark of the Happening on the Common
Arts and crafts are a hallmark of the Happening on the Common and this year was no exception. Live arts and crafts projects for children and vendors selling their handcrafted wares both were part of Saturday’s happening.
P.J. Shafer of Rocky Mount sold her pottery, which ranged from traditional mugs and bowls to mushroom shaped pottery suitable for decorating a yard and a piece of pottery with a face carved into it and horns protruding from the top, suitable for hanging on a wall.

May 20, 2013 2 Photos
ECU Orchestra highlights end of concert season with free performance
The last concert of this season’s Edgecombe Performance Series is a free, afternoon concert featuring the East Carolina University (ECU) Orchestra
Dr. Jorge Richter will direct the symphony in the concert at 3 p.m. April 21 in the Keihin Auditorium on Edgecombe Community College’s Tarboro campus. The audience will enjoy “Orchestral Favorites,” including Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances Nos. 5 & 6 and Peter I. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64. The concert will also highlight the winner of the 2012-2013 ECU Concerto Competition.

April 11, 2013 1 Photo
United Manor Courts: An African American Community Self-Help Project
This is the narrative of how four community churches came together in a self-help effort and enabled several dozens of low-income families to have safe and adequate housing in the early 1970s. A by-product of this project was home ownership by many of these families.
Prior to the 1919 flood, the majority of African Americans lived in Princeville after it started in 1865. Many residents of Princeville were day workers, crossing the bridge into Tarboro each morning and returning to Princeville each evening, a convenient arrangement for all concerned. However, this pattern was interrupted by the 1919 flood when the high water prevented this back-and forth daily trek, disrupting the work force to which the white community had become accustomed.

March 8, 2013 1 Photo
Edgecombe natives Charles Lavinghouse, Richard Cherry & Hamilton Pittman gave their lives for freedom
Of the 36 Edgecombe County natives that enlisted in the 35th, 36th, and 37th US Colored Troops in New Bern, N.C., in 1863, orginally known as the African Brigade, twenty were members of the 36th USCT (see attached list). The African Brigade regiments were orginally named the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd N.C. Colored Volunteers, then later re-classified as the 35th, 36th and 37th U.S. Colored Troops.
The 36th USCT (orginally the 2nd N.C. Colored Volunteers) was one of six USCT regiments that made their mark at the Battle of New Market Heights, Va, in September 1864, outside of Richmond.

March 8, 2013
ECC faculty member publishes book on local history
Edgecombe Community College faculty member Monika S. Fleming has published her fifth book on local history, "Legendary Locals of Edgecombe and Nash Counties."
Fleming is program coordinator of the Historic Preservation Trades program at the college.
She worked with the Twin County Museum and Hall of Fame, Braswell and Edgecombe libraries, and the Edgecombe County Veterans Military Museum to identify more than 180 local legends who are highlighted in the book.

March 4, 2013 1 Photo
The Tarboro Jubilee Singers
Most readers will remember and recognize the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the a capella choral group from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers were organized in 1871 and their tours were (and continue to be) a successful means of raising funds for the institution. The popular group is known for singing spirituals as well as a wide variety of other songs.

August 15, 2012 1 Photo
Roberson School, a Brief History and Legacy
Note: The Edgecombe County School Board, at its April 9, 2012 meeting, approved the closure of the Roberson Center for Educational Achievement. Final approval by the State Board of Education is expected. Future use of the building has not yet been determined.
The first Roberson School, a three-teacher wooden school, was located next to old Mayo Chapel Church, about half a mile northeast of Mayo Crossroads on NC 42. The school, like other African-American schools across the county, served a rural, low-wealth, and agarian population, mostly sharecroppers and small farmers

June 25, 2012 1 Photo
CRIME ROUNDUP

The following people were either cited for traffic violations or charged with crimes during the past week by the Tarboro Police Department.

March 28, 2012
Legendary Locals & Twin County Hall of Fame
It is almost spring and each spring since 2004 the Twin County Hall of Fame has asked the public to nominate people worthy of being inducted. Nominations are collected and reviewed by a special committee of people representing both Edgecombe and Nash counties and Rocky Mount. The committee then proposes a list to the board to be inducted in the fall.

March 14, 2012 1 Photo
Mother seeks answers in daughter's death
A mother of the woman who was killed when she was run over by a car is still looking for answers to her daughter's death.

March 2, 2012
More Local History Headlines