PROGRESS OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT.
A. D. 1876 TO 1878.
1876.
In this state of advancement as to her material interests, North
Carolina again became excited in 1876 over the choice of new men
for Chief-Magistrates, both of the Republic and of the State.
2. After eight years of service as President of the United
States, General Grant was retired to private life, and Governor
Brogden, who had succeeded Governor Caldwell upon the death of
the latter in 1874, was also near the end of his service as
Governor of North Carolina. No Gubernatorial election was ever
more exciting to the State. It resulted in the choice of ex-
Governor Z. B. Vance over Judge Thomas Settle of the Supreme
Court.
1877.
3. In the complications which resulted in the seating of Governor
Hayes as President of the United States, there was such a change
effected that the Federal army was no longer employed to uphold
the reconstructed officials in Louisiana and South Carolina, and
the people of those States, at last, were left to the management
of their own affairs. With this consummation, so long and
devoutly wished, came that peace and contentment to all sections
which had been unknown since 1861.
4. The enormous increase in the amount and quality of cotton
grown in North Carolina since the late war has been dependent
upon the use of various fertilizers and other appliances of a
better cultivation of the soil. The old habit of educated men,
in committing their plantations and slaves to the management of
overseers, has been almost wholly abandoned. Many individuals of
the largest culture are now devoting their time and skill to the
discovery of improved methods in agriculture, and North Carolina
is reaping a golden harvest thereby.
1878.
5. No employment, except agriculture, exceeds in importance that
of the merchant. North Carolina is shut off from foreign
commerce by the sand barriers on the coast, Only at Beaufort, on
Old Topsail Inlet, can be found such an entrance to internal
waters as promises safety to the mariner who would approach with
his deep-laden vessel. But, while this has precluded the
possibility of great commercial activity in North Carolina, there
has not been a lack of men, at any period of our history, to
illustrate the dignity and importance of legitimate traffic.
Cornelius Harnett and Joseph Hewes were as conspicuous for
financial success as they were for patriotism during the
Revolution.
6. With the return of peace to the belligerent States, North
Carolina was commercially prostrate. The merchants and the banks
were almost all ruined in the general impoverishment of their
debtors. The supply of cotton which remained on hand at the
cessation of hostilities was about all that had been left, in the
general wreck, upon which trade could be again commenced with
parties at a distance.
7. Raleigh had never been recognized as a trade centre. A few
stores on Fayetteville street, between the State House and where
the Federal building now stands, were the representatives of
their class in the city. Cotton was very little grown in that
region of the State, and no market for its sale had even existed
nearer than Norfolk and Petersburg.
8. But this state of things was not to continue. Numbers of
young men, combining great energy and judgment with small
capital, came to the city and began the work of expanding its
trade and resources. It has not, like Durham, risen up in a few
years from almost nothing, but so great a change has been
wrought, that the story of its growth is one of the most striking
incidents in the State's history. The extension of the railway
lines has opened up new custom in many counties that had never
previously dealt with merchants of the place.
9. The development of commerce and manufacture is the great hope
of the "Old North State." The enterprise and capital of this and
other communities are seeking opportunities of investment, and
the day is fast coming when North Carolina will rival
Pennsylvania in the variety and excellence of her manufactures.
The "Cotton Exchange" of Raleigh is aiding very largely in
building up the business of the city to vast proportions. The
quantity of cotton sold in Raleigh has been rapidly increasing
annually since the war, and the receipts for the year 1880
amounted to over seventy-six thousand bales. In 1869 the entire
product of the State was only one hundred and forty-five thousand
bales.
10. In the towns and cities of North Carolina may be found a
considerable number of Israelites engaged in the various branches
of trade; and this class of our citizens has added no little to
the general growth and material prosperity of the State. They
have synagogues at Wilmington, Charlotte, Raleigh, Goldsboro and
New Bern.
11. About the year 1878 the example of the Federal government and
that of certain Northern States induced the State Commissioner of
Agriculture to establish a fish hatchery at a mouth of Salmon
Creek in Bertie county. This establishment has hatched and
liberated a very large number of shad and other varieties of
fish, and valuable returns are seen in some of the rivers that
have been in this manner replenished with this savory and
abundant source of food. It has been satisfactorily demonstrated
by Seth Green, of New York, and other naturalists, that fish
which are spawned in fresh water and reared at sea almost
invariably seek the place of their birth in the spring, when they
reach maturity.
12. In addition to this artificial increase of the supply of
fish, there have been large additions made to the means of their
capture. The use of steam in the handling of the long seines
and the great weirs known as "Dutch Nets," have opened the
way to an indefinite increase of the amount taken, while the
use of ice and rapid transportation make it possible to
deliver the fish fresh in the markets of the Northern and
Western cities.
13. This trade is also supplemented in the same region by such
attention to the growth and sale of vegetables. All the
requirements as to position, soil and climate are abundantly filled
by the counties with alluvial soils along the seacoast. Heavy
crops of Irish potatoes and garden peas are reared on the same
land which, later in the year, supplies a second crop of cotton
and corn.
14. In the same eastern counties the products of the farms have
been increased by a large and rapidly extending area devoted to
the production of peanuts and highland rice. With the exception
of a limited supply of the former article, grown above
Wilmington, there was seen in other communities only a few small
patches for the use of the family, but with no design of sale or
shipment. In many eastern counties the fields of peanuts are, of
late year, almost as numerous as those of cotton. The same
history belongs to the highland rice. This great staple of
human diet is rapidly becoming a favorite crop, and mills for its
preparation are fast making their appearance in different
localities.
15. Nowhere else in the State has there been so great an increase
in trade as in the city of Wilmington. Many ships from foreign
ports began to visit Cape Fear River, and, from different cities
in other States, regular lines of steam packets were established,
which greatly facilitated the means of communication.
16. Repeated appropriations, but never in sufficient amount, were
made from time to time by the United States Congress for the
improvement of Cape Fear and other watercourses in North
Carolina. The closing of New Inlet is believed to be entirely
efficacious in the effort to deepen the approach by way of the
river's mouth. A stone barrier of great length and stability
shuts off the flow of water, except past Fort Caswell, and the
happiest results are already realized.
17. In the city of New Bern another shipping point of importance
had been largely developed in the years since the close of the
war. There, too, is the terminus of prosperous freight lines,
employing many large steam vessels, that yet ply regularly
between Neuse River and cities beyond the borders of the State.
A great trade in lumber and garden produce is improved by cotton
and other factories, that add largely to the population and means
of the city.
QUESTIONS:
1. How was the State excited in 1876?
2. What was the result of this election?
3. What is said of the events of the past few years?
4. How have the agricultural pursuits of the State been benefited?
5. What are the most important employments in a State? What are
some of North Carolina's commercial advantages?
6. What was the financial condition of the people at the close of
the war?
7. What is said of Raleigh as a trade centre?
8. In what way did trade matters begin to improve at the capital?
9. What else is said of North Carolina's commercial prospects?
What advantage has Raleigh derived from the Cotton Exchange?
10. What is said of the Israelites?
11. What new enterprise was inaugurated in 1878? What have been
the results of the hatchery? What fact has been proven
concerning fish?
12. What is said of the improvement in the means of catching fish?
13. What other species of trade is found in the eastern counties?
14. What is said of the production of peanuts?
15. Can you tell something of the growth and trade of Wilmington?
16. How has the navigation of the Cape Fear River been improved?
17. What other seaport city is now mentioned? What is said of
its commercial interests?