Horsewhipping approved for misbehaving wives

“In the early 1860s, North Carolina Chief Justice Richmond Pearson denied the divorce petition of a woman who claimed her husband had horsewhipped her. He noted in his decision: ‘The law gives the husband power to use the degree of force necessary to make the wife behave and know her place.’ ”

— From “Southern Culture: An Introduction” by John Beck, Wendy Jean Frandsen and Aaron Randall (2009)

Alexander clan clustered in Catawba County?

“It was common for Scots-Irish extended families and even large segments of clans to settle in the same region. In Catawba County, North Carolina, over 300 Alexander families were identified in the first census of the United States in 1790.”

– From “Southern Culture: An Introduction” by John Beck, Wendy Jean Frandsen and Aaron Randall (2009)

Update puzzler: I notice belatedly that Catawba County wasn’t created from Lincoln County until 1842.

One possible explanation: Mecklenburg County not only dates to 1762, but also included Hezekiah and numerous other Alexanders among its early residents. Even today among U.S. cities Charlotte is second only to Brooklyn (!) in  Alexanders per capita.

Who remembers Mattie Grady’s?

“For many [in the ‘other South’] the past isn’t even past. In Warsaw, North Carolina, people giving directions for a back road route to Goldsboro commonly included the instruction to ‘turn left at Mattie Grady’s store.’  This store had been closed for years, and while the building was still standing, it took a close inspection to make out the faint outline of Mattie Grady’s name. To someone born and raised in Warsaw, it would always be Mattie Grady’s store, even when the store fell down.

“But…  the growing number of people who have never farmed, the big city drug problem, the fleeing young people and the ubiquitous television culture do not bode well for such time capsules….”

– From “Southern Culture: An Introduction” by John Beck, Wendy Jean Frandsen and Aaron Randall (2009)

Hats were on their heads, not in their heads

“The Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Carolina began holding an annual state convention in the early 1900s, often meeting in county courthouses. In 1909 the convention met in the legislative chamber of the North Carolina House, and delegates heard a presentation on hookworm, voted to contribute to a scholarship for a young woman to attend Oxford University in England and transferred ownership of their ‘traveling libraries’ to the North Carolina Library Commission.

“The ladies posed for a picture in front of the [State Capitol], all of them with enormous hats (the current fashion) perched on their heads. … At the next convention they resolved to stop wearing hats at their meetings because apparently they felt the hats took away from the seriousness of what they were doing.”

— From “Southern Culture: An Introduction” by John Beck, Wendy Jean Frandsen and Aaron Randall (2009)