Blogs

newsobserver.com blogs

Changing the seeds of time

Submitted by tleonard on 05/11/2012 - 14:55

 

The majesty of England's coronation of King George VI dominated the pages of The News and Observer 75 years ago this weekend, but readers also got a few on-the-scene and behind-the-scenes stories. 
 
Details surrounding this historical event, the abdication of the king's brother, Edward VIII, and George's struggle to overcome his speech impediment, were well known. 
 
But the new queen, Elizabeth (mother to the current Queen Elizabeth) had quite a story of her own. By ascending to the throne of England and Scotland, she broke the curse of Macbeth. 
 
Nine centuries ago, the witches -- Shakespeare's Three Weird Sisters -- had looked into the "seeds of time" and prophesied that no descendant of Macbeth ever would be crowned. 
 
And Queen Elizabeth is a descendant of King Macbeth, who ruled Scotland from 1040 to 1057, before William the Conqueror came to England. She is the daughter of the Earl of Strathmere, whose family seat is the famous, witch-infested Glamis Castle, where Macbeth lived and reigned after he murdered King Duncan and seized the throne. 
 
The Three Weird Sisters had prophesied, on the occasion of a visit by King Duncan to Glamis Castle, that Macbeth "shalt be King hereafter." That night, Macbeth murdered Duncan while he slept. ... 
 
Possible it is that the Three Weird sisters -- and their presence is accepted today by authorities as a historical fact -- did not mean that no descendant of Macbeth ever would rise to the throne, but Macbeth interpreted the prophecy that way and such internationally recognized authorities on Shakespeare as Dr. George Coffin Taylor of the University of North Carolina are of the opinion that the Sisters meant exactly that. 
 
The legend virtually has been overlooked by chroniclers of the coronation, but it is a fact that Macbeth, after a troublesome reign -- also predicted by the Sisters -- was killed by Malcolm, son of the murdered Duncan, and that until yesterday, no descendant of Macbeth ever had been crowned upon the famous Stone of Scone. 
 
This same Malcolm, incidentally is an ancestor of both King George and Queen Elizabeth -- their last royal ancestor in common. 
 
The occasion was of course quite exciting for the young princesses, six-year-old Margaret Rose, and 11-year-old Elizabeth as well. Elizabeth behaved in a dignified manner, but Margaret Rose had some difficulties, including a wardrobe malfunction. 
 
At the height of the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, the coronet on the head of the King's younger daughter slid down over her ears. She shoved it back on top of her head impatiently and went on trying to count the people in the Abbey. 
 
The Queen Mother, Mary, told her to stop it. 
 
The Princess scratched her ear and went on counting, her lips moving and her finger stabbing the air. ... 
 
Margaret Rose wiggled near the end of the ceremony and the Queen Mother looked daggers at her. 
 
Overnight there had been a constitutional crisis -- the issue being whether Princes Margaret Rose was old enough to have a train on her robe. Princess Elizabeth had one, but the Queen Mother ruled that Margaret Rose was too young. Margaret Rose took the matter straight to the throne of England. ... (and) won. A dressmaker was summoned and she spent the entire night sewing a train on Margaret Rose's dress.
 

Civil War dead

Submitted by tleonard on 05/11/2012 - 10:18

Don't miss the next in the State Archives Civil War Sesquicentennial lecture series Monday May 14 at 10:30. Bill Brown, Debbi Blake, Chris Meekins will present “Sacred Bodies: Caring for the Dead During and After the War.” The lecture is free and will be held in the auditorium of the Library and Archives Building in downtown Raleigh. Visit the Archives hours and parking page for parking and bus information.

Experience the Siege of Fort Macon

Submitted by tleonard on 04/26/2012 - 10:24

This past weekend was the sesquicentennial of the siege of Fort Macon. The N.C. Division of Parks & Recreation provides this description of the events:

 
Early in 1862, Union forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside swept through eastern North Carolina, and part of Burnside's command under Brig. Gen. John G. Parke was sent to capture Fort Macon. Parke's men captured Morehead City and Beaufort without resistance, then landed on Bogue Banks during March and April to fight to gain Fort Macon. Col. Moses J. White and 402 North Carolina Confederates in the fort refused to surrender even though the fort was hopelessly surrounded. On April 25, 1862, Parke's Union forces bombarded the fort with heavy siege guns for 11 hours, aided by the fire of four Union gunboats in the ocean offshore and floating batteries in the sound to the east.
 
While the fort easily repulsed the Union gunboat attack, the Union land batteries, utilizing new rifled cannons, hit the fort 560 times. There was such extensive damage that Col. White was forced to surrender the following morning, April 26, with the fort's Confederate garrison being paroled as prisoners of war. This battle was the second time in history new rifled cannons were used against a fort, demonstrating the obsolescence of such fortifications as a way of defense. The Union held Fort Macon for the remainder of the war, while Beaufort Harbor served as an important coaling and repair station for its navy.
 
A full two days of events, including a demonstration of night artillery bombardment, commemorated the battle. If you missed the weekend at Fort Macon, you can get a good taste of the events with this video:
 

The Last Days of the War

Submitted by tleonard on 04/24/2012 - 11:54

 

Fifty years after the dedication of Bennett Place State Historical Site, historians and history buffs will gather for a full two days of storytelling and re-enactments, commemorating those last days of the Civil War.
 
Three years after its dedication, on the 100th anniversary of the historic meeting between two generals, Ernest H. Robl relayed the story.
 
When thunder rumbles across the darkened sky, it is not difficult to visualize the scene 100 years ago: two men meeting in this simply furnished room; one coming as the victor, the other coming in defeat.
 
The date was April 26, 1865; General Joseph E. Johnston had come to surrender the last major remnant of the Confederate army to Union General William T. Sherman at the farm home of James Bennett, located outside of what is today Durham.
 
[...]
 
Unlike many other historic sites which have been absorbed into metropolitan areas, the Bennett Place site has remained isolated out in the country, though only a mile outside the Durham city limits.
 
Except for a nearby telephone line and a paved road, providing easy access, not much has changed around the site. There are no other buildings in sight, and great pains have been taken to retain the authenticity of the surroundings, imparting a particularly strong sense of history. 
 
Sherman had moved into North Carolina early in the March of 1865 with 60,000 men; Johnston, with less than 30,000 men, tried unsuccessfully to prevent Sherman from moving north to join Grant in Virginia, resulting in an encounter at Bentonville 18 miles southwest of Goldsboro, on March 19 through 21.
 
During this time Sherman exchanged messages with Grant and President Lincoln concerning terms for the surrender of the Confederacy.
 
On April 14, 1865, General Sherman received a message from General Johnston , asking for a personal conference , and at noon on the 17th the two opposing generals met at the Bennett Place, a point located midway between the army lines. The two adversaries approached the farm home simultaneously from different directions on the Hillsboro road; while still mounted, they greeted each other courteously and shook hands. 
 
Upon entering the house, Sherman showed Johnston a telegram he had received that morning, informing him of the assassination of President Lincoln. This message came directly from Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war.
 
Unable to agree on terms, the two generals attempted to work out a compromise. Sherman offered Johnston terms similar to those Grant had give Lee at Appomattox -- simple military terms -- but Johnston wanted political as well as military terms. These  terms were to include guarantees to restore the rights and privileges of the people of the South.
 
After a period of discussion both generals withdrew to confer with their aides -- Sherman to Raleigh and Johnston to Hillsboro.
 
The two generals met again the next morning with Johnston asking that Confederate Secretary of War Breckenridge be allowed to participate in the negotiations. After a brief conversation, Johnston presented a plan which he had prepared; Sherman then wrote out a list of terms which both men agreed upon.
 
[...]
 
Though a promise of general amnesty was included, Sherman hinted to Breckenridge that Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet should escape before the terms could be challenged in Washington.
 
Even though approved by Jefferson Davis, the terms agreed upon at the Bennett Place on April 18, 1865, were immediately rejected when they reached Washington. Resumption of hostilities was ordered by the cabinet.
General Grant arrived unexpectedly in Raleigh on April 24, but merely instructed Sherman to continue negotiating. Disobeying orders from Jefferson Davis, Johnston arranged for a final meeting at the Bennett house on April 26.
 
At that time General Johnston agreed to a simple military surrender: side arms, baggage and horses were to be retained by officers; other arms and public property were to be turned over to the United States. In addition to the official terms, individual men were required to promise in writing not to resume hostilities.
 
Johnston's surrender at the Bennett Place also brought about the later surrender of two smaller Confederate armies, completely ending the war.
 
[...]
 
After passing from owner to owner, the Bennett Place fell into neglect, and was almost destroyed by fire in 1921. The land and the remains of the buildings -- the main house in which the surrender and negotiations had taken place, and a cookhouse -- were donated to the State of North Carolina in 1923. -- The N&O 4/25/1965

Yeggmen make off with loot

Submitted by tleonard on 04/18/2012 - 15:18

 

One hundred years ago today, the talk around Hillsborough (or Hillsboro back then) was all about the recent bank heist. The Mebane Leader reported on the work of the yeggmen, a word I'd never heard, meaning a safecracker or burglar.
 
PROFESSIONAL YEGG MEN LOOT BANK AT HILLSBORO
Vault Blown open By Powerful Explosive and all the Cash Taken— No Clue to Robbers. 
 
Hillsboro became feverish with excitement last Friday morning when it was known that some time during the night safe crackers had blown the vaults of the Bank of Orange with nitroglycerin and gotten away with something like $5,000 in cash, all they had on hand with the exception of some loose change which was left scattered over floor. The job clearly indicated the work of expert yeggmen, the doors of the large safe inside the vault also the door to the burglar chest being litterally blown to pieces so effectively had the powerful explosive used done its work. 
 
The burglars entered the bank by the front door. The tool house of the Southern Railway and a nearby blacksmith shop were drawn upon for picks, sledges and chisels but it now develops that these do not appear to have been used, the combination knobs to the doors being blown off and the nitroglycerine poured into the openings thus made. The bank was not even temporarily embarrassed by the robbery as the loss Is fully covered by insurance and a source of ready money supply was near at hand. In fact Cashier Collins and Bookkeeper Lockhart were the coolest men in the throng that gathered in the early morning to view the wreck and inquirer were informed that the bank would be open for business upon the stroke of 9 and the pay-rolls of the manufacturing plants furnished as usual. There is no definite clue as to the robbers. Three strange men with grips were seen to get off train No. 131, which arrived from Goldsboro at 8:30 but these have since been accounted for. Two umbrella menders who have been around town for some days are missing Saturday and suspicion naturally points to them but proof of their guilt is larking. The bank offers a reward of $200 for the apprehension of the guilty parties. -- The Mebane Leader 4/18/1912
 

Experience the Titanic

Submitted by tleonard on 04/02/2012 - 14:27

It happened one hundred years ago, but you can follow the Titanic's Twitter feed as if it were happening today. @TitanicRealTime tells us that the ship has completed her sea trials and is waiting to be deemed sea-worthy.

Roxboro native lost with the Titanic

Submitted by tleonard on 04/01/2012 - 05:00

 

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The tragedy and its victims dominated the front pages of the nation's newspapers for weeks. The headlines noted the loss of "a number of prominent people, including John Jacob Astor and wife, and other millionaires." On April 18, 1912, there was this small item on the front of The News & Observer:
 
It is highly probable that Roxboro furnished one of the victims to the Titanic disaster. A message from Cochran of the Mail Department at Washington, confirmed the fear of his mother that Mr. O. S. Woody, who was in the post sea service, was on board the Titanic.
 
He had written his mother when he last sailed from New York that he would return on the Titanic.
 
The mother is almost crazed with grief and suspense since hearing that the ship went down and of course she has little hope that he was saved. Mr. Woody was an excellent young man and his mother and sister there have the deep sympathy of the town. 
 
 
In 2003, Sharon O'Donnell, a distant relative of Woody, recalled what she had learned about her ancestor's fate.
 
He was body number 167, recovered from the dark, icy waters of the North Atlantic after the Titanic disaster. His name was Oscar Scott Woody, a sea postal clerk on the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage in 1912.
 
[...]
 
American sea post clerks like Oscar Woody earned about $1,000 a year, according to the Postal Museum's Web site. That salary was considered a small fortune by many at that time. These clerks were very skilled in handling large amounts of mail. They traveled aboard luxurious ships, took their meals in a separate dining room and were allotted an allowance for their board while in a foreign country.
 
Woody received his travel orders to Europe and arrived there from New York on April 2 aboard the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Upon arriving in Plymouth, England, he was instructed to go to Southampton and return to New York on the Titanic, setting sail April 10.
 
... Woody was one of five mail clerks on the journey, in charge of sorting responsibilities and the safe delivery of letters, postcards and packages heading across the Atlantic. The Titanic.com Web site reports that the ship was transporting 6 to 9 million letters.
 
On the night of the tragedy, the postal workers and other crew members were celebrating Woody's birthday. He was to turn 44 at midnight --about 20 minutes after the ship's collision with the iceberg. The celebration ended early because it became apparent that something dreadful had happened.
 
The mail holding area was one of the first to fill up with water. When water started coming in, the dedicated clerks lugged many of the heavy mailbags to the next level of the ship. Of course, it was all in vain.
 
[...]
 
His few personal belongings, such as his pocket watch, are now in various museums, including the U.S. Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. There is a small exhibit with a few of his artifacts at the Person County Museum of History in Roxboro. In Southhampton, England, the origin of the Titanic's voyage, there is a plaque memorializing the five postal workers, who all perished on the voyage. Woody was buried at sea. --The News & Observer  9/18/2003

The record snow of 1927

Submitted by tleonard on 02/23/2012 - 14:54

 

Last weekend's snowy flirtation with winter was no comparison to the great storm that hit North Carolina 85 years ago. Snow started during the night of March 1, 1927 and continued until it had hit record depths and crippled the city.
 
The heaviest accumulation was reported in Wilson, which saw between 30 and 40 inches of snow. Nearly 18 inches hit Raleigh. The storm spanned the state and extended as far west as Kentucky and as far south as Alabama. It was the biggest storm since the famous blizzard of 1899.
Raleigh yesterday struggled beneath the heaviest single day's snowfall in the history of the city. Twenty hours of continuous snowfall, which ceased yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock, brought the total depth to 17.8 inches, one-tenth of an inch more than the previous record of 17.7 inches recorded February 12-13, 1899.
 
[...]
 
Yesterday's record snow played havoc with traffic and business in general. The General Assembly was practically the only organization to function on all cylinders. Street car traffic was at a standstill; bus lines and taxicab companies kept their vehicles in the garages; trains in and out of Raleigh ran several hours behind schedule; city and county schools observed the day as a holiday; no session of Wake Superior or Raleigh city court were held; state departments declared a holiday, and in offices and stores throughout the city only partial forces were at work as many of the officials and employes were snowbound and unable to reach the establishments.
 
While the snowfall was but 17.8 inches, it was accompanied by a 30-mile wind which resulted in drifts on streets of the city in some instances waist high and at the corners of tall buildings in the business section of even higher proportions. Pedestrian traffic was the order as few automobilists ventured forth in their vehicles. Pedestrians found safe traveling on the slippery tracts or in the knee-deep drifts extremely difficult, and to maintain safe footings proved a feat.
 
Dispatches from all over the state described conditions in individual towns.
 
The University of North Carolina and the town of Chapel Hill are literally snowbound today. The heaviest snow of many years fell last night and this morning, burying the countryside beneath a 20-inch blanket of white and cutting off all communication with the outside world except by wire. Until a late hour this afternoon there had been no mail service of any kind. Not a bus or car has run between Chapel Hill and Durham, and train connection with the main line of the Southern at University station 13 miles away has been cut by the deep drifts. Railway authorities stated that the train to University station would make a trip late this afternoon, and people of the town may get their morning papers late tonight. Highway crews are working on the drifts that block the roads leading into town, and travel by bus and auto may be resumed tomorrow. Until then Chapel Hill is a town that stands alone.
 
Although this was a record snowfall, it was not as problematic as others in recent memory.
 
The famous snow storm of April, 1915, which started on Good Friday evening, and piled up a depth in snow of around ten inches, was by far more destructive than the present storm. The 1915 snow started falling after the ground had been soaked by a torrential rain and with the temperature high enough to cause the flakes to stick together, with disastrous results to telephone and telegraph wires, trolley lines and trees. The fall continued from Friday evening, around 8 o'clock, until Saturday afternoon.
 
The scene that greeted Raleigh citizens [that] Saturday morning was one of devastation on all sides; fallen trees and telegraph and telephone poles littered the streets, adding to the obstacles of resuming street car service; broken wires made laborious walking dangerous; and the usual Easter Sunday fashion parade as well as church programs were postponed for a week. The paralysis of the wire systems kept the city without lights and power for two or three days.
Raleigh was cut off from outside communication for an entire week, the first wire to be re-established by the Western Union being used to handle Associated Press reports and urgent commercial business. The "Old Reliable" was forced to get its news by train, receiving carbon copies of the Associated Press report at Greensboro a day late. -- The News & Observer 3/3/1927

First Baptist celebrates 200 years

Submitted by tleonard on 02/08/2012 - 12:43

 

Visitors to Capitol Square might wonder about the First Baptist Church on one corner of the square and another First Baptist Church on the opposite corner. The two churches actually began as one congregation, and both are marking their bicentennial this year.
 
In 1962, Jane Hall wrote about each of the churches and their development. 
 
It all began on a winter night early in 1812 when Raleigh had approximately 1,000 inhabitants and not a single church building. On that night both white and Negro citizens met in the State House where they heard a powerful and eloquent sermon by the Rev. Robert T. Daniel. The result was the organization of Raleigh's First Baptist Church, with both white and Negro members.
 
Six years later the congregation constructed its first church building at a cost of $600 on South Person Street in the block between Hargett and Martin streets. In 1822, the city granted the congregation permission to move the church to Moore Square where it was located in a grove of magnificent oaks. Ever since, the square, which faces the present city market, has been called "Baptist Grove" by local citizens.
 
By 1826, when the Rev. Mr. Daniel resigned, the congregation numbered 224 and of these 157 were Negroes. Shortly after, during the pastorate of the Rev. Amos J. Battle (1839-44), the congregation purchased from Willie Jones the present lot on the corner of Morgan and Wilmington streets and a church was built there. ...
 
Finally, in 1858, during the first pastorate of the Rev. Thomas E. Skinner, a site was purchased on the corner of Edenton and Salisbury streets and a church erected there. 
 
At the same time, the Negro members of the congregation -- led by Henry Jett -- started a movement for the establishment of a separate church and on a motion by P. F. Pescud the request was granted.
 
The First Baptist Church Colored retained the Morgan and Wilmington streets site but on Sept. 17, 1859, the congregation sold it to the Rt. Rev. P. N. Lynch, Roman Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C., and the Catholics used the property until 1879 when they bought from Palaski Cowper the site where Sacred Heart Cathedral now stands.
 
Meanwhile, in the years between 1859 and 1896, the congregation purchased and disposed of two other sites. One site was on Salisbury Street, between North and Johnson streets, which was subsequently sold on Jan. 17, 1907 to B. F. Montague for $2,500. The other site was on the northwest corner of Blount and Hargett streets which was sold in 1907 to the City of Raleigh for a fire station.
 
On April 18, 1896, the First Baptist congregation bought back from the Catholics the present lot on the corner of Morgan and Wilmington streets for $2,000.  ...
 
The cornerstone of the present church was laid in 1904 during the pastorate of the Rev. W. T. Coleman. The earlier building on the site had become physically unsafe and had been demolished. -- The News & Observer 2/18/1962
 
Church discipline in [the] early days was strict and to the point. Until 1827, members were required to attend the communion service. They were excluded from membership if the charge of intoxication was proved against them. A woman member ... was expelled for "heresy."
 
In another instance, Major W. W. Vass was brought before the church conference charged with having attended a circus. His description of what he saw and heard at the circus so moved his hearers with interest and muted hilarity, the charge was quietly dropped.
 
The church also reprimanded a non-member -- J. J. James, editor of the Biblical Recorder -- for his criticism of their pastor. James said he would give $100 on a new building if the church would get an interesting preacher. 
 
The most significant expulsion ... was that of I. G. M. Buffaloe in 1849. Buffaloe was charged with "being guilty of conduct unbecoming to a Christian in having formed a co-partnership for the purpose of speculation in Negroes."
 
He was ordered to cease from such traffic and make a suitable apology to the church. Buffaloe refused and the congregation unanimously expelled him for "conduct unbecoming to a Christian." 
 
This action [according to the church's historian] showed clearly the attitude toward the slave traffic of Christians in North Carolina generally and the membership of the Raleigh Baptist Church in particular 12 years before the beginning of the War Between the States and at a time when many church members owned slaves. -- The News & Observer 2/25/1962
 
Both congregations celebrate their 200th anniversary this year. One event marking this milestone will be Two Buildings/One Heart: 200 Years of the First Baptist Churches of Raleigh, a performance by Burning Coal Theatre Company that will begin in one church and end in the other.

Behind the Carbine Williams Story

Submitted by tleonard on 01/24/2012 - 13:06

Visitors to the NC Museum of History who view the workshop of inventor David Marshall "Carbine" Williams get only a glimpse of the colorful character who died 37 years ago this month.

 
Raleigh Times staff writer D.I. Strunk described some of the story in Williams' obituary.
 
He was a colorful backwoods man turned inventor-genius. But he also was a man who lost his freedom and then regained it, in a sense, with guns.
 
In 1940, in 14 days, he developed the weapon that became the M-1 Carbine. He was honored by the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who praised the weapon Williams invented as "one of our strongest contributing  factors to our victory in the Pacific."
 
A motion picture, "Carbine Williams," released in 1952 and starring Jimmy Stewart, was based on Williams' life. 
 
It was a life that grew out of a large family of 11 children on a plantation in the backwoods country close to Godwin. But the first crucial event in Willams' life came when he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of a sheriff's deputy during a raid on Williams' still.
 
He served his time in Caledonia State Prison, where he made his first real gun, a .22 rifle. He made the gunstock by hand from a walnut fence post and the barrel from a discarded Ford axle.
 
It was an improvement over the guns he had fashioned as a boy on his father's farm.
 
Those early guns were made from the reeds that people also used as fishing poles. He would wind his mother's sewing thread around the reed give it a coat of shellac and repeat the process several times until the gun barrel was made. 
 
He would whittle the stock out of juniper wood and fasten the firing hammer to the stock by a shingle nail. It all operated by rubber bands. 
 
His fascination with guns continued to grow. After quitting school in the seventh grade, he began to roam.
 
At 15 he lied about his age and joined the Navy. He was discharged, but his military experience inspired him to enroll in a military institute in Virginia.
 
This soon palled and, at 17, he married his school sweetheart, Margaret Isabella Cook, and took a job on the old Atlantic Coast Line railroad as a section hand.
 
But the railroad paid only $1.40 a day, and he quit after a year to become a bootlegger.
 
Then, on the morning of July 22, 1921, came the sheriff's raid on his still in Cumberland County and the killing of the deputy. To his dying day, Williams denied he killed him.

 
Initially, Williams was far from a model prisoner. He gained a bad reputation from several attempts to escape. He was sent to Caledonia and there met the man who provided the turning point of his life.
 
That man was Capt. H.T. Peoples, in charge of Caledonia prison, who encouraged and helped Williams in his experimental work with rifles.
 
His work eventually gained attention in the press. In September of 1929, four years after developing a .30 caliber rapid-fire rifle that was a forerunner of the Carbine, Williams was pardoned by Gov. Angus W. McLean. -- The Raleigh Times 1/8/1975
 
Carbine Williams describes prison conditions in the 1920s.
 
Williams became something of a folk hero, especially after the release of the movie. This 1952 press release breathlessly described its local premiere.
 
David Marshall Williams of Autreyville will return to Central Prison tomorrow.
 
This visit will be a lot different from the one he made 31 years ago, however. On November 21, 1921, Williams -- then 21 years old -- walked through Central Prison's gates on the losing end of a 30-year sentence for second degree murder. Tomorrow "Carbine" Williams, a millionaire inventor, will walk through those same prison gates as the hero of a story that makes Horatio Alger's yarns sound about as exciting as a Mother Goose rhyme.
 
Williams will be on hand ... for a special showing of the M-G-M motion picture of his life. The picture was premiered at Fayetteville last night, and tomorrow's showing to North Carolina "big house" occupants will be the second.
 
The picture tells how Williams was making the best corn liquor in Cumberland County when a raiding party paid his still a visit. In the ensuing row, a revenuer was killed, and Williams -- protesting his innocence -- was convicted of the death and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
 
Williams served part of his time at Central Prison, while now Assistant Prisons Director H.H. Honeycutt was assistant warden there. Then he was transferred to Caledonia Prison Farm, where Captain H.T. Peoples let him design his famous carbine while working in the blacksmith shop. Williams ... had his sentence commuted ... and walked out of prison a free man on September 29, 1929.
 
Arms manufacturers gobbled up Williams' patents and ideas, particularly that of his rapid-fire, lightweight carbine. Uncle Sam was interested, too -- so much that some 8,000,000 of Williams' carbines were used in World War II and now is the most widely-used weapon by United Nation forces in Korea.
 
Williams became wealthy, but his story remained untold until his son came home one day wanting to know if it was true he had been in prison. The inventor called in his old friend, Captain Peoples, to tell the story to his son. Fayetteville writer-photographer Fay Ridenhour heard and wrote about "Carbine" Williams for a nationally -circulated magazine, then Hollywood and M-G-M stepped in.
 
The result is the picture "Carbine Williams" starring Jimmy Stewart... which will be shown at central Prison to the prisoners tomorrow afternoon.
 
Invited guests for the prison showing of the picture include Captain Peoples, who played a leading role in the rehabilitation of Williams; Assistant Prisons Director Honeycutt, and, of course, Williams.
 
Tomorrow, when he walks through the Central Prison gates, David Marshall Williams ... undoubtedly will remember a trip through the big house gates 31 years ago when he was Convict No. 17758 with 30 years to go. -- release by NC State Highway and Public Works Commission
 
In 1971, Williams' workshop and part of his firearms collection were donated to the state history museum. The General Assembly honored him in a joint resolution congratulating him "for overcoming misfortunes which might have broken weaker men."
 
Photos courtesy of NC State Archives
 
But Williams' life continued to be controversial. He died at Dorothea Dix Hospital in 1975, having been a patient in the geriatrics ward there since 1972. Following his death, a Hollywood actress claimed to have been his mistress in the 1950s and threatened to publish a book about him, which Mrs. Williams criticized as "a smutty idea." The family of Al Pate, the sheriff's deputy Williams was convicted of killing, continued to resent the notoriety Williams enjoyed in his later years. 
 
In 1952, Williams' side of the story was published in The Charlotte Observer. 
1234next ›last »
Cars View All
Find a Car
Go
Jobs View All
Find a Job
Go
Homes View All
Find a Home
Go

Want to post a comment?

In order to join the conversation, you must be a member of newsobserver.com. Click here to register or to log in.
Advertisements