Vance County News Articles Through the Years

The bill repealing the act prohibiting the catching of opossums in Vance County at certain seasons was taken up in the North Carolina House of Delegates recently, and the members at once began laughing.  Mr. Watson, colored of Vance was called on to speak, but said he declined in favor of his brother, Mr. Watson of Forysth, whom all wished to hear.  Mr. Watson of Forsyth made a speech in his usual merry style, which kept the House in a roar.  He said the hunting of the opossum was an inalienable right of the African, almost a common-law right, in fact. He evolved out of his deep Scriptural knowledge the fact that the 'possum caused the confusion at the Tower of Babel.  He also said that since that early time there had been a close affinity between the children of Ham and the 'possum.  He said the Hittities, the Jebusites and the Gideonites were great hunters of 'possums. Mr. Watson declared that he had discovered that ambrosia was made of a chowder composed of the heads and feet of 'possums caught by Diana around Mount Olympus.  Mr. Watson said he himself was a devoted hunter of the 'possum, that the old maternal 'possum, as she swung by her prehensile tail, first sang the modern nursery song, "Rock-a-by-Baby on the Treetop".  He hoped that this Legislature would restore to the member from Vance and his constituents this measure of relief and that the vote would be unanimous. Mr. Spruill said the present act was the sole monument left of his predecessor, the member from Franklin County.  The bill passed without dissent.
 

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The New York Times
May 30, 1897
IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Henry P. Cheatham of Vance County, N.C., who has been appointed Recorder of Deeds at Washington D.C., for two terms represented his district in Congress.  He is the son of his former master, but was never treated as a slave.  He was given a good common school education, and was treated as a companion by his father and his half-brothers.  He has taught in colored schools and is now a lawyer.  While in Congress he appointed white boys to West Point and Annapolis.

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The Lexington, N.C. Dispatch

W. D. Pace, a well-known and prosperous farmer of Kittrells, Vance County, committed suicide last week because his neighbors and friends would not accept large sums of money from him.  He did have some money in the bank, but he could not give that away. He imagined that he owed everybody in the country large sums of money and because he could get no one to accept his checks, he hanged himself.

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The Lexington Dispatch

Rev. R. S. Troxler, of near this city, went to Vance County Monday and is assisting in a series of revival services in a Methodist Protestant church near Henderson.  He will return Saturday and preach at his churches Sunday.
 

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Mrs. George Buchan has been declared the regular Democratic nominee for register of deeds in Vance County, North Carolina.
 

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Henderson, N.C. Sept. 2 (AP)

C. T. Poythress, 36 year old Vance County farmer, died in a Durham hospital late last night from injuries he suffered Sunday when a newly bought bull gored him as he was feeding his stock. His widow and six children survive.
 

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Henderson, NC, Oct. 15, (AP)
Mrs. Ruby Wilder Ellington, 34, first woman ever tried for her life in Vance County, wept today after a Superior Court jury acquitted her of the death of her husband, Hartwell Ellington.  Stoical throughout the trial and the return of the jury to the courtroom after deliberating an hour and a half, she  swooned after she realized the full purport of the verdict, and clung
to her sisters, sobbing.

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Henderson, N.C. - Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Wimbush, Route 3, Box 237, of Nutbush Township, have eight sons, six of who are in the armed forces, and two others who are expecting to go any time.   Mr. Wimbush, 70, had eleven children by his first wife, and eleven by his second, Mrs. Emma Wimbush, 55.  They live and work on a farm about twelve miles from Henderson.  Another Vance County family, that of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Jones, has six sons in the armed services also.
 

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Landowner Faulkner being tried for Farmers Death -Henderson, March 8, (UP)
Spectators jammed into the small antiquated Vance County courtroom today to watch Marvin E. Faulkner tried for his life. Faulkner, 48 year old baseball club owner, tobacco farmer and landowner, is charged with the pistol slaying of farmer Fenner Currin, 30, the night of last Oct. 23. In Vance Co. jail meanwhile, 30 year old Mrs. Edith Currin waited until $25,250 bond for trial as accessory in the death of her husband. The slender, dark-haired widow also faces charges of fornication and adultory with the man accused as her husband's slayer. As the testimony began Wednesday, witnesses told of finding Currin's body, riddled by seven pistol wounds, lying behind the stable in his farmyard. Currin's 11 year old son, Lester was one of the first to testify. The boy wept as he answered questions. He said his father left the house after supper to go to a nearby store. While his father was gone, his mother also left, he said.  Both parents returned together.  His father immediately got a shotgun and went out the back door, young Currin said.  Shortly afterwards he heard five or six shots. "We went out in the back yard and then to James and Allen Gill's house across the field for help", he said.  James Gill said he found Currin's body lying face down in a pool of blood.  Under him was the cocked and loaded shotgun. "I stayed with the body," he said and brother (Allen Gill) went to get the law.  Faulkner, stocky and of medium height, his hair thinning and turning gray, seldom took his eyes from the witness stand as the trial proceeded.   Filling station attendant J. K. Foster, Jr., told of seeing Faulkner's car pass his station in the direction of the Currin farm shortly before the time of the shooting. D. W. Edwards, Vance County prison farm employe, said "he saw Faulkner's car parked by a bridge across a field from where Currin lived."  Coroner Fred B. Hight said Currin had been shot in the back of the head, the abdomen, groin, left shoulder, left hand and left arm.  The wound in the head caused death, Dr. Joseph P. Mayo testified.  The small courtroom built for 150 persons, was packed by nearly 3 times that number.  The spectators, mostly women, lined the walls and railings around the bench and lawyers tables. Most of those who had seats kept them throughout the noon recess.

©2010 by Deloris Williams, and/or individual contributors. You are free to use records on this site for your own personal research.  Any republication or reposting is expressly forbidden without the written consent of the owner. Last updated 08/27/2020

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