Robeson County NcArchives News.....Ashpole Name Changed to Fairmont 1907 ************************************************ 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: Glenn McGirt gdmcgirt@gmail.com July 9, 2014, 4:21 pm March 14, 1907 - The Robesonian 1907 Fairmont, Please. - The Name of the Thriving Little Town of Ashpole Will no Longer Suggest a Swamp: Once upon a time, as the Fairy Stories begin, a kind old gentle man gave the land for a Baptist church on Tadpole Branch in Robeson County. For a long while the church was called by the name of the benefactor. The Pitman church, but was afterwards called Ashpole, perhaps in honor of the largest swamp in the county. As the years passed by a thriving community and then an up-to-date town grew around the church - as good people as are to be found in all of commonwealth. But as its people began moving out into the world they realized that the name of the town now grown to an influential part of the county, was a great handicap. Whenever a citizen visited and told the name of his residence, it was sneered at, laughed at or pitied. "What you actually live in a place named Ashpole". "How do you get out of the swamp". "Who on earth ever heard such a name before". These were among the comments. Visitors to the town were always amazed to find a pretty little town in high dry attitude, bustling with life. "Well I was sure I'd have to wade your roads". "Why where is your swamp". "Why can't you get a name for as nice a little town as you have here". There comments for years from visitors decided the citizens to change the name. A few for the sake of old memories were opposed to the change as is always the case, but fully nine-tenths of the citizens and all the officials of the place desired the late Legislature to make the change. It is done. Ashpole is dead but from her ashes, Phoenix like, rises the bustling little town of Fairmont, Robeson County, North Carolina, ready to take her place in the vanguard of progress of our beloved State. We have churches, school, industries, climate, health, and friendship for all who would like to join us in making Fairmont a power in the land. Additional Comments: Transcribed by Martie Groome-McGirt File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/robeson/newspapers/ashpolen572nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 2.6 Kb