BERTIE IN 1830.
Some Interesting Sketches of Bertie Postmasters at That Time -- Location of the Offices.

WINDSOR, N. C. }
Aug. 30, 1897. }

MR. EDITOR: In your issue of the 19th inst. you give an entertaining column taken from Mr. James S. Grant's "Postal Guide 1830." At that date Bertie county had six postoffices. There are now in this county 23 offices. The names of the offices and officers as published by you will be the basis of this article.
Mr. Josiah Holley, the postmaster at Colerain, was a man of large wealth -probably the largest land owner in the State. He was a very handsome man. He died in 1845, childless, leaving his vast estate to his nephews and relatives, the forefather of the Etheridges and Holleys. Col. S. B. Spruill told me that Mr. Josiah Holley was more than a millionaire, and that he was the wealthiest man in America. However that may be, he was a rich man. Colerain is still a postoffice -the incumbent a colored man. It takes its name from the Colerain Islands. Mr. E. E. Etheridge, of Colerain, could write you an entertaining column about that vicinity. It was in his hospitable home that I saw a picture of Josiah Holley. Mr. Etheridge also showed me the orignal plat of the town of Colerain.
The postoffice at Merry Hill was discontinued long after 1830. In recent years it was re-established under the name of Walke, but in deference to the wishes o[f] the patrons of the office the old name has been restored. The present locality called Merry Hill is more than a mile from the Merry Hill of 1830. This hill got its name from the hospitality of John Webb who lived there. His comfortable home was the scene of many a merry gathering. The postmaster in 1830 was John Webb, a man of excellent repute and of the strongest horse sense. He was the father of Mr. L. S. Webb of whom I speak in connection with the Windsor office. Mr. John Webb was something of a physician without a diploma and without scientific reading. So successful was he that one of the largest slave owners in his community employed him to look after the health of his slaves. It will not add anything to Mr. Webb's reputation as a doctor to know that he cured a bad case of dyspepsia by putting his patient on a fat meat diet! Mr. Webb had a large number of sons, one of whom was the father of Mrs. Dr. Wingate of Wake Forest College.
Mount Gould is still a post office in the county. Mr. George W. Womble, who married Miss Holley, is the postmast[e]r. Many years ago a man named Gould owned the farm and owing to the fact that it is the highest point on the bank of the Chowan River it was honored with the name "Mount." Steph[e]n Thatch, the postmaster in 1830, kept store at Mount Gould. He was a native of Hertford county and from Murfreesboro. He had a son, Stephen Thatch, who was captured and died in a Federal prison. Mr. Burrell Russell, a merchant in Windsor up to 1868 was his uncle.
Turners X Roads of 1830 is the Lewiston of to-day. The postmaster then was Robert C. Watson. Mr. Watson was a very handsome man, of great intellect and of fine business capacity. Mr. Watson's sisters married prominent men in this county -Mr. Jonathan S. Tayloe, Mr. L. S. Webb, Rev. Wm. Hill Jordan and Mr. Wilder Bird, the father of Mrs. P. H. Winston. Mr. Watson represented this county in the L[e]gislature. He was a staunch Democrat. On one occasion the vote was close and Mr. Lewis Thompson stated th[at] he would send for Jere Sumpson who would vote the Whig ticket. Mr. Simpson was of Caucasion blood, but very dark. Mr. Watson threatened to retaliate by voting Dick, his carriage driver, who though a negro, was of whiter skin than Simpson. An amusing incident connected with the mail at Turners X Roads was related to me by my mother. Mr. Lewis Thompson and other gentlemen who lived a mile away jokingly told the mail carrier that they would pay more for letters than they paid at the cross roads. The carrier possessed qualities more suited to the Treasury than the Postoffice Department. On his next trip he drove through the cross roads and was going at full speed to the land of higher postage when the joke was explained to him. Shortly after 1830 the postoffice was moved from Turner's X Roads to what is now called Woodville and it was given the designation of "Hotel." You will see that name on the old maps. Mrs. Wilder Bird kept hotel there for her brother, Mr. Watson. It was the favorite boarding place of a large number of young people who attended the schools there -schools that were famed in those days.
In the course of time Hotel was changed to Woodville and Mr. James P. Johnson, a highly intelligent merchant was postmaster. After the war Mr. Watson Lewis succeeded in carrying the office back to the cross roads and the place was incorporated under the name of Lewiston.
Mr. Lorenzo Stevenson Webb, post master at Windsor in 1830 was born at Merry Hill. In early life he was the clerk in a store in Edenton which was at one time occupied [by] Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Webb married Miss Edward Watson and located in Windsor. He was a prosperous merchant. He held the postoffice and was for many years Clerk and Master in Equity. He was the Cashier of the branch of the State bank located here -a bank that did the business for all of this eastern country. Mr. Webb was of the purest life, of the highest integrity. His [d]evotion to Windsor and all its traditions was touching. He lived to be 86 years old.
Mr. John E. Tyler kindly furnishes me th[e] following interesting account of the Britton's Store postoffice:
"R. H. Barnes, who was postmaster at Britton's Store in 1830, was a man of good standing in his community. He kept a tavern [n]ear the spot where the Masonic Hall now stands at Roxobel. G. Hampton Barnes, the Roxobel poet, is his grandson.
"Col. William Britton came to Bertie county from Petersburg, Va. I do not know the date of his coming. He was the owner of considerable property and a very successful merchant and farmer. Probably the first steam engine ever brought to the county belonged to him. The building in which it s[t]ood was burned to the ground in 1838. The burning was supposed to be the work of an incendiary.
"There was a postoffice in South Carolina called Britton's Neck. The names of the two postoffices being so nearly the same, was the principal reason for changing the name of the postoffice at Britton's Store.
"Col. William Britton highly esteemed a novel by Mrs. She[r]wood entitled - "Roxobel-a Village Tale." This caused him to have the name of the postoffice changed to Roxobel."
C[a]n you not induce Porfessor Webb to establish a course of lecture[s] on local history and traditions. Bertie, Northampton and Hertford counties can furnish material of that sort for many volumes.

FRANCIS D. WINSTON.


"The Patron and Gleaner", Andrew J. Conner, ed., Rich Square, Northampton County N.C.
Thursday, September 2, 1897 [Vol. 6, No. 35]

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