Gates County NcArchives News.....MISS MARY RELIVES 100 YEARS September 5, 1981
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
GERALD WIGGINS snoopy841road@yahoo.com February 3, 2010, 7:29 pm

THE VIRGINIA PILOT September 5, 1981
BY GORDON BORRELL STAFF WRITER.
   HOBBSVILLE- TODAY MARY WARD IS 100, EARLIER THIS WEEK SHE WAS A CHILD AGAIN
RELIVING THOSE 19TH CENTURY DAYS WHILE YOUTHFUL HISTORIANS RECORDED HER 
MESMERIZINE TALES.
   IN THOSE DAYS SHE SAID, REPEATING THE STANDARD PREFACE TO MOST OF HER 
RECOLLECTIONS, WE HAD NO CONVENIENCES-NO TELVISION, NO RADIO. WE'D TAKE SEATS
AROUND THE FIREPLACE AND LISTEN TO MY FATHER TELL CIVIL WAR STORIES AGAIN AND
AGAIN."
   MISS MARY AS SHE AFFECTIONATELY IS KNOWN BY FELLOW GATES COUNTIANS WAS BORN 
AT NEARBY TUSCARORO BEACH JAN 26, 1880. A CENTURY LATER TWO 13 YEARS OLDS
PARTICIPATING IN A CLASS PROJECT TO DOCUMENT AND WRITE A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
WENT KNOCKING ON HER DOOR IN SEARCH OF INFORMATION.
   THEY FOUND 100 YEARS OF IT IN MISS MARY WARD.
   OF COURSE , I DON'T REMBER THIS FIRTSHAND. SHE RELATED TO THE BOYS SEATED
NEXT TO HER AT HER DAUGHTER'S HOME IN HOBBSVILLE, " BUT THEY SAID THE NEWS OF
ABRAHAN LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION DIDN'T REACH THIS PART OF NORTH CAROLINA UNTIL
TWO WEEKS AFTER HE WAS DEAD AND BURIED.
    THE EIGHT-GRADERS BILL HOFLER AND KIETH RIDDICK, GLOW WITH FASCINATION.
    HOW DID YOU GET YOUR NEWS THEN? ASKED KIETH, A LEAN INQUISTIVE YOUNGSTER
I MEAN TODAY WE HAVE NEWSPAPERS AND TELVISION TO TELL US WHAT IS HAPPENING
EVERYWHERE. WHAT DID YOU DO MISS MARY WITHOUT THEM?
    " OH MY," SHE SAID, REGAINING HER COMPOSURE BY GAZING AT THE CEILING TO
REMEMBER." WE WROTE LETTERS. THERE WOULD ALWAYS BE SOME NEWS IN THE MAIL FROM 
FRIENDS. A POST CARD COST A PENNY AND MAILED A LETTER WAS FIVE CENTS. HAD TO
CARRY THEM ON HORSE AND BUGGY TO EURE STATION THEN THE TRAIN WOULD COME ALONG
AND CARRY THEM TO THE STATION. IT TOOK TIME FOR NEWS TO GET AROUND.
     IN THOSE DAYS I USED TO BE A SCHOOL TEACHER " MISS MARY SAID" CLUTCHING
TO KIETH'S FOREARM TO INSURE HIS ATTENTION. WHAT DO YOU RECKON A SCHOOLTEACHER
GOT A MONTH BACK THEN?"
     TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS, SHE SAID SHAKING HER FINGER ON EACH SYILIABLE. THE
LAST YEAR I TAUGHT I WAS GETTING $65.00 A MONTH I THOUGHT I WAS RICH.
      MISS MARY TAUGHT SCHOOL IN GATES AND CHOWAN COUNTIES IN THE EARLY 1900'S
AND LATER WORKED AS A DRESSMAKER. SHE WED A LOGGER IN 1908 AND HAD THREE 
CHILDREN, MRS.SUSIE HUDGINS OF HOBBSVILLE, MRS DAPHINE YON OF CURRITUCK COUNTY
AND TH LATE HENRY WARD OF NORFOLK.
      WHO WAS THE EARLIEST PRESIDENT YOU REMEMBER? ASK
      MISS MARY THINKING CLEVELAND, I BELIVE. YES IT WAS CLEVELAND."
      GROVER CLEVELAND WAS PRESIDENT FROM 1885-1889 AND FROM 1893-1897 MISS
MARY DIDN'T SEEM TO INCLINED TO TALK ABOUT POLITICS, THOUGH EXCEPT TO SAY IT
HAS NOT CHANGEED MUCH IN THE LAST 100 YEARS. IT THE INTERVIEW THAT LASTED
ABOUT 90 MINUTES, MISS MARY TOLD THEM ABOUT HER UNCLE WILLIAM P ROBERTS, THE
YOUNGEST BRIGADIER GENERAL IN THE CONFEDERACY AT THE AGE 23 AND OF HAY RIDES
DOWN TO CANNON'S FERRY. HER FATHER USED TO ENTERTAIN HIS CHILDREN BY TWANGING
A JEW'S HARP.
      BEFORE THE BOYS LEFT , MISS MARY GRABBED ON FOR A HUG, YOU DON'T MIND DO
YOU, YOU ARE BOTH SUCH FINE YOUNG BOYS, MY MIND HIS YOUNG BUT MY BODY HIS OLD.
      IT WAS THE BEST 100TH BIRTHDAY PRESENT THEY COULD GIVE HER. MISS MARY
WARD SAID."

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/gates/newspapers/missmary642gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/

File size: 3.7 Kb