{"id":131,"date":"2009-09-29T18:54:38","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T00:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncgenweb.us\/nash\/?page_id=131"},"modified":"2009-10-02T09:52:34","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T15:52:34","slug":"henry-proctors-empire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncgenweb.us\/nash\/stories\/henry-proctors-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Proctor’s Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

HENRY PROCTOR’S EMPIRE, 1902 – 1950
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Nathan Alonzo Price, Jr<\/strong>. called \u201cN.A.\u201d by the family and known to others as \u201cBill\u201d, grandson of William Henry Proctor; son of World War I veteran Nathan Alonzo Price, Sr. and Bertha Virginia Proctor.\u00a0 Nathan Alonzo Price, Sr. received sever permanent damage to his nervous system from mustard gas in World War I.\u00a0 Henry Proctor\u2019s oldest son Homer Stonewall Proctor, b.\u00a0 2 October 1894 in Nash County, NC and died on\u00a0 10 October 1918 in France from pneumonia during World War I.\u00a0 Henry blamed Woodrow Wilson personally for his son\u2019s death and switched political parties from Democrat to Republican.\u00a0\u00a0 During the period, he was one of the few elected Republican officials in the South.\u00a0 He was a farmer, saw mill owner and politican in Nash County, NC.\u00a0 Both Nathan Alonzo Price, Sr. and Homer Stonewall Proctor are buried with Henry and his wife Minnie Moore Proctor in Forest Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

edited by:\u00a0 Earl P. Bell, Jr.<\/p>\n

posted:\u00a0 27 September 2009<\/p>\n

comments, questions and corrections to:\u00a0 earl.bell3@gmail.com<\/p>\n

WILLIAM HENRY PROCTOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born:\u00a0 9 September 1867. Where:\u00a0 between Barnes Hill Church and Sandy Cross, Nash County, NC.\u00a0 Married:\u00a0 27 December 1893 to Mary Jane [Minnie] Moore.\u00a0 Where:\u00a0 Nash County, NC.\u00a0 Died:\u00a0 1 September 1951.\u00a0 Oak Level Township, Nash County, NC.\u00a0 Both buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

THE CHILDREN OF HENRY AND MINNIE MOORE PROCTOR WERE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

HOMER STONEWALL PROCTOR. <\/strong> b. 2 October 1894.\u00a0 d.\u00a0 10 October 1918.<\/p>\n

JOHN HANSEL PROCTOR.<\/strong> b.\u00a0 17 February 1897.\u00a0 m.\u00a0 Gertrude Joyner on 25 December 1926.\u00a0 d. November 1982.\u00a0 Scotland Neck, Halifax County, NC.<\/p>\n

HENRY CLAY PROCTOR.<\/strong> b.\u00a0 6 July 1899.\u00a0 m.\u00a0 Lucille Farmer on 15 March 1924.\u00a0 d.\u00a0 24 April 1965.<\/p>\n

BERTHA VIRGINIA PROCTOR.<\/strong> b. 21 September 1901.\u00a0 m.\u00a0 Nathan Alonzo Price on 18 January 1922.\u00a0 d.\u00a0 May, 1985.\u00a0 w. Greenville, SC<\/p>\n

MAMIE LEE PROCTOR.<\/strong> b. 30 April 1905.\u00a0 m. Oscar Sermons on 29 April 1927.\u00a0 d.\u00a0 10 June 1993.\u00a0 w.\u00a0 Craven County, NC<\/p>\n

MINNIE MOORE PROCTOR.<\/strong> b.\u00a0 31 July 1912.\u00a0 m.\u00a0 Eddie Strickland on 12 July 1944.\u00a0 d.\u00a0 November, 1993.\u00a0 w.\u00a0 Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

[SOURCE:\u00a0 all information from John Hansel Proctor, Scotland Neck, North Carolina, except the dates for the death of a family member listed in the Social Security Index]<\/p>\n

This farm is located in Nash County, North Carolina near Sandy Run. Henry Proctor was the brother of my grandfather, my mother’s father, John Sidney Proctor; N. A. Price’s mother was the daughter of Henry Proctor; my grandfather John Sidney [Sid] Proctor owned a country store at Westry’s Siding [typed by Earl P. Bell, Jr., 6 August 1998 from a personal correspondence from Bill Price, now deceased.]<\/p>\n

MY GRANDFATHER’S EMPIRE <\/strong><\/p>\n

written by N. A. “Bill” Price of Greenville, South Carolina.\u00a0 It describes his grandfather’s farm in the first decades of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I refer to my grandfather, I always mean my maternal grandfather.\u00a0 My paternal grandfather died when I was barely four, and I have no memories of him.<\/p>\n

My maternal grandfather whom I called “Papa’ owned a tobacco farm of some forty acres.\u00a0 This spot was his world, his wealth and his capital.\u00a0 All he owned excepting a bank balance and a cemetery lot was here within sight of his front porch.<\/p>\n

Although forty acres is a small farm, it was adequate for him and his family in his lifetime.\u00a0 He was already in his mid-thirties with four children when he acquired the property and built his home in 1902.<\/p>\n

My purpose here is to record a description of his empire for myself for when my memory dims.\u00a0 For small farm though it was, it comprised a large part of my childhood world.\u00a0 My parents lived nearby (nearby by present definitions although two miles was not so near then).\u00a0 Hardly a day passed that I did not spend some time at “Papa’s” farm.<\/p>\n

It was a fascinating place for a youngster with all kinds of novel and intriguing buildings and areas.\u00a0 The house started as a square four room structure with a central hall with front and back doors at the ends.\u00a0 It was built of choice lumber from my grandfather’s sawmill, and I expect he personally selected each board.<\/p>\n

There were two rooms on each side of the hall with chimneys centered on the common wall of each pair of rooms.\u00a0 There was originally fireplaces in each room.<\/p>\n

The roof was of tin and slanted upward from each side pyramid fashion ending with a small spire.\u00a0 This point, as was fashion then, mounted a lighting rod with a blue glass ornament.\u00a0 Each chimney also had a less attractive lightning rod.<\/p>\n

The house faced due east.\u00a0 The southeast room was the living room or parlor, and was seldom used.\u00a0 The southwest room was Papa’s room during most of my memory although he later moved into and died in the northeast room.\u00a0 The northwest room was my grandmother’s bedroom and also a “sitting” room.\u00a0 This room had a closet on the north or outside of its chimney.\u00a0 The northeast room had a closet on the inside of the house both closets opened into the southwest room.<\/p>\n

The hall was fairly [eds. note: I believe he left out the word “long” here] with doors at each end that were relatively formal with sidelights.\u00a0 All of these rooms and the hall were wainscoted with vertical planks topped with ledge molding.\u00a0 The walls were constructed of horizontal boards with decorative grooves about an inch and a half apart.<\/p>\n

An ornate but comfortable porch spanned most of the front of the house complete with the banjo and scroll work rails, posts, and trimmings of the age in which it was built.<\/p>\n

The exterior of the house was of clapboard or horizontally applied “weatherboarding” as it was known locally.\u00a0 It was painted white with dark green roof and trim.<\/p>\n

At the back of the house two more rooms had been added with time.\u00a0 A dining room, the largest room in the house and a kitchen.\u00a0 The dining room went straight back westward from the northwest room, the same width as the northwest room but about twice as long.<\/p>\n

A porch the width of the hall ran along the south side of the dining room and terminated the southwest corner of the whole house with a small pantry (which ultimately became a bathroom).\u00a0 At the west end of the dining room was a fireplace, at the east end a door led into the northwest room.\u00a0 The back hall door opened onto the sideporch which had ornate rails, posts and trimmings matching the front porch.\u00a0 The dining room had side doors about midway.\u00a0 The south one leading to the porch, the north one to a set of steps outdoors.\u00a0 Both these doors were plate glass from the waist up.\u00a0 There was also a window on the north side of the dining room chimney.\u00a0 The dining room had at one time been [the] kitchin and dining room.\u00a0 A lightning rod was mounted on the dining room chimney also.<\/p>\n

Later, before my memory, a small kitchin was added at the northewestern corner.\u00a0 It was entered through a door just west of the north side dining roon door.\u00a0 On the west side of the kitching there was an outside door leading to a small back porch containing a well.\u00a0 There were windows in the eastern and northern walls of the kitchin.<\/p>\n

A huge pear tree was just a few feet from the north side of the house about even with the chimney.\u00a0 In autumn pears as large as softballs would drop onto the roof and roll to the ground.\u00a0 It was along this side that my grandfather grew roses in his later years.\u00a0 Also, along the drip line of the roof of this side, there was an extremely fine sand deposit of peculiar texture that ‘scrunched’ when a barefooted lad walked in it.<\/p>\n

The outside steps from the dining room were in the corner or angle formed by the kitchin and dining room.\u00a0 These steps were unused except for kids at play.\u00a0 Eventhough that door was opened for ventilation in summer, a screen door barred exit, and I don’t ever remember the screen door being opened.<\/p>\n

A few feet further north of the pear tree a fence ran parallel to the house.\u00a0 Since the kitchin jutted out on this side, there was only two or three feet clearance between it and the fence.\u00a0 This fence was the south perimeter line of enclosed gardens and chicken yards or “lots’ that extended to the property lines in the other three directions, the east and north fences lying parallel to roads and the west lyin along a large drainage ditch which marked the western property boundary.<\/p>\n

Enclosed in this area were fine, distinct and separate areas.\u00a0 To the extreme east there was an area that was sometimes pasture and sometimes melon patch, but always an orchard.\u00a0 Just west of this, two enclosures lay side by side, with my grandmother’s chicken yard closest to the house and the main vegetable garden beside it next to the road.<\/p>\n

My grandmother and grandfather liked different kinds of chickens, so each had a chicken lot.\u00a0 My grandmother favored Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Domineckers.\u00a0 My grandfather raised only Leghorns.<\/p>\n

His chicken lot came next in the series and stretched from the house side fence to the road.\u00a0 Beyond this was another orchard-vineyard- cornfield.\u00a0 The grapevines were located here next to the fence along the drainage ditch.\u00a0 There was a scuppernong, a large “James’ grape (big, black, cultivated muscadines), a Catawba pink grape, and a Niagara white grape.\u00a0 The latter vine had climbed a small persimmon tree next to it.\u00a0 The James grapevine surrounded and climbed into a large wild cherry tree.\u00a0 Both the scuppenong and James grape vines had been framed up and both were huge.\u00a0 The other two were summer grapes strung on wires between poles.\u00a0 Underneath the two large vines were cool dark canes six or seven feet in height.\u00a0 Except for the hazard of bees these spots were great for kids to play.\u00a0 Between the house and the grape vines there were apple, peach, plum and cherry trees.<\/p>\n

Needless to say the grapevines were one of the favorite locales for youngsters in late summer and early autumn.\u00a0 Another favorite spot in summer was a huge Carolina June apple tree in the vegetable garden near the road on the north edge.\u00a0 I doubt if this apple is grown now.\u00a0 I read in 1970 that where there used to be over three hundred kinds of apples grown, there are now only about a dozen, one half of the apples marketed in this country are delicious, both red and golden.<\/p>\n

The Carolina June was a firm white fleshed apple with a dark red peel.\u00a0 As I recall it was a sweet not very acid tasting apple.<\/p>\n

The entrance to all of the fenced area except the very easter or front (section) was through gates at the northern end of an alley formed by the back porch and a “smoke house.”<\/p>\n

The ‘smoke house’ was about the size of the kitchin, was windowless, had a single door opening to the south and was the storage place for cured pork raised on the farm.<\/p>\n

The huge drainage ditch already mentioned was well-kept and dry most of the time, forming a wonderful trench for kids to play war.<\/p>\n

At the front of the house were two medium size magnolias and an umbrella mulberry.\u00a0 The mulberry was eight or ten feet tall with branches drooping from the top to the ground.\u00a0 This formed a marvelous tent some five or six feet in inside height.\u00a0 The berries that appeared in late summer were considerably larger than borne by the common mulberry trees about the farm.\u00a0 My grandfather must have liked mulberries for there were several large trees around.\u00a0 Or maybe he just liked the birds attracted by the mulberries.<\/p>\n

In front of the magnolias and about midway between the house and the road were two huge pecan trees.\u00a0 These trees bore small spherical nuts in great qantitites.\u00a0 In the back were more pecan trees which had larger oblong nuts.<\/p>\n

The drive to the house from the road was along the southern side.\u00a0 To the south of this drive lay cultivated farm land.\u00a0 A front parking area and lane ran between the magnolias and the pecan trees at the front of the house.\u00a0 This land also led to the gate of the very front fenced-in lot previously mentioned.\u00a0 At the other end of this lane between the main drive and the farm land was a large hickory tree.\u00a0 There were always a couple of bricks on the ground beside the trunk for cracking hickory nuts.\u00a0 Did you ever eat hickory nuts sprinkled with brick dust?<\/p>\n

The drive continued on beyond the land turn-off, and about opposite the rear of the southwest room there was another parking turn-off.\u00a0 This latter parking area was right at the side porch and was separated into two spaces by a gigantic maple tree.\u00a0 The above ground roots at the base of this maple formed another great play area for children.<\/p>\n

In the right angle formed between the lane and the back turn-off there was a well house.\u00a0 It was a square structure about fifteen feet by fifteen feet.\u00a0 The east and south sides were enclosed to a height of about three feet, the enclosing wall topped by a wide shelf or seat.\u00a0 The other two sides wre open.\u00a0 The well house roof copied the pyramidal style of the main house, ending in a smaller spire.\u00a0 The well itself was in the very center of the well house, and had a terra cotta well pipe.\u00a0 A bucket fastened to a hemp rope which ran through a pulley or tackle suspended from the ceiling provided “running water.”\u00a0 Just east of the well house was a large iron wsh pot or kettle.\u00a0 Tin or wood tubs placed on the seat-shelf on this side constituted a wash house where the family laundry was done weekly.\u00a0 I remember a clump of bright red blossomed cannap planted just east of the wsah pot.<\/p>\n

The main driveway continued on in a westerly direction to the stable area.\u00a0 On the north side of this drive beyond the rear parking area was first a steel corn crib then a wooden barn equipped on each side with connected open fronted shelters.\u00a0 Finally, the driveway terminated at a mule lot and a stable and hay loft building.\u00a0 A well was located near the lot.<\/p>\n

The steel corn crib was most unusual.\u00a0 It was called “the steel crib and was patented.\u00a0 It was cylincrical in shape, about ten feet in diameter and eight feet high with a conical roof.\u00a0 The galvanized sheet steel sides had small sheilded perforations for ventilation.\u00a0 The idea was a rat proof storage area for corn.\u00a0 I guess it worked with rats, but it didn’t keep out mice.<\/p>\n

The wooden barn known just as “the crib” was a general store at one time and was furnished with counters and shelves.\u00a0 Behind it on the north were several large Brunswick fig bushes.\u00a0 These bore large brown sweet figs that my grandfather liked so well.<\/p>\n

The back of “the crib” and the previously described fence on the north side of the house, enclosed a rectangular garden area devoted to vegetable and flowers.\u00a0 This garden was bisected in an east-west direction by a dirt foot path which terminated on the west end of a privy located right on the western boundary of the property.\u00a0 The privy was a typical early farm shallow open privy and was later replaced with a pit type privy nearer the house.<\/p>\n

Just to the west of the back parking area was an above ground carbide light tank and a coal house.\u00a0 Behind the coal house was a stone wood pile and a kindling chopping area.<\/p>\n

In front of “the crib” and across the driveway were two large pecan trees beneath which farm machinery was usually stored.\u00a0 The left hand or western shelter of the crib was also used to house farm implements such as small plows and hand tools like hoes and rakes.\u00a0 The right hand shelter housed the family automobile.\u00a0 Beyond the pecan trees to the south was a potato storage house built in later years.\u00a0 It also had a shelter which housed the farm wagon.<\/p>\n

A bell tower rose near the steel crib in the juncture of the main drive and the back parking area.\u00a0 This bell was used to waken and summons tenants on the farm, to toll the lunch hour, to signal work resumption after lunch and to end the work day.\u00a0 All the mules and dogs in the neighborhood brayed and yelped when the bell was rung.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the farm lay across the road in front of the house.\u00a0 This road was of sand while my grandfather lived, later it was black-topped.\u00a0 Directly opposite the driveway to the house was a farm patch leading to the cow and pig lots located in the edge of a woods about a hundred\u00a0 yards from the road.<\/p>\n

On either side of this path were farm building and an occasional tree.\u00a0 Beginning at the road, on the right side was a huge persimmon tree, then a tobacco barn and shed on the left , another barn and shed on the right, a dry well on the left, a third barn on the left, a large “pack house” on the left, a sweet potato house on the left, a tall hickory tree and another potato house and the right and finally a combination “tobacco stick” shed, feed room and cow shed on the left.\u00a0 The path ended here in a turn around area.\u00a0 The cow pasture was straight ahead at the end of the path and right at the gate stood a large mulberry tree, the trunk worn smooth by cows rubbing their coat<\/p>\n

I remember getting a splinter deep in my hand from the gate when I was little.\u00a0 My grandfather whittled the splinter out with a pocket knive.\u00a0 Any other time I would have screamed my head off but with him I didn’t even whimper.\u00a0 The knife blade wasn’t even sterilized by flame because my grandfather didn’t smoke and didn’t carry matches.<\/p>\n

There was a hawthorne tree near the gate that attracted countless bees in the summer.\u00a0 There was also a well in this location.\u00a0 My grandfather believed in a lot of wells around the place.<\/p>\n

An eternally muddy hog pen was to the right where springs originated a small stream which later became Polecat Branch.<\/p>\n

Beyond this section lay several acres of woodland dividing the farmland into a north field and a south field.\u00a0 The north field was bounded on the north side by another farm path leading to a tenant house.\u00a0 An enormous crepe myrtle grew in the north field near the tenant house.<\/p>\n

A second tenant house was on the main road in the south field.\u00a0 In the field back of this house there was an apple orchard containing another persimmon tree also.\u00a0 The only kind of apple I remember was a flat tart York.<\/p>\n

The woods between the fields contained mostly hardwoods such as oaks, hickories, populars and hollies.\u00a0\u00a0 There was a marshy boggy area in the part fartherest east.<\/p>\n

As a youngster I visited these woods with my grandmother and later alone.\u00a0 On my last visit, I killed a single squirrel with a new .22 rifle.<\/p>\n

The next summer my grandfather died and the farm was sold.\u00a0 I haven’t been back there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HENRY PROCTOR’S EMPIRE, 1902 – 1950 By Nathan Alonzo Price, Jr. called \u201cN.A.\u201d by the family and known to others as \u201cBill\u201d, grandson of William Henry Proctor; son of World War I veteran Nathan Alonzo Price, Sr. and Bertha Virginia…<\/p>\n

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