New in the collection: Colonel Shelby cigar brochure

Two page advertising spread that reads "Dealers are enthusiastic over Colonel Shelby Cigars" and includes images of several cigar boxes.

The story of Col. Joseph Shelby, the Overmountain Men and the Battle of Kings Mountain is well documented — less so the cigars named for him in the town named for him.

This ad appeared in the Danville (Va.) Bee on April 18, 1927: “Wanted: Responsible Salesman To sell Hava-Rexa, Champagne, and Colonel Shelby cigars to retailers. Attractive line; liberal commissions. Rex Cigar Co., Shelby, N.C.”

“Colonel Shelbys are growing in favor,” this pitch to dealers claims, but a Cleveland County history notes only that “After several years the business moved from North Carolina and smokers lost the pleasure of a local cigar.”

Loyalist found a fate (slightly) preferable to being hanged

“As both Patriots and Loyalists recognized the war in the South as particularly violent, predictably, each side blamed the other. Among the most notorious rebels was Colonel Benjamin ‘Bull Dog’ Cleveland, who terrorized Loyalists in the Yadkin country. When [British Major Patrick] Ferguson‘s proclamation just before Kings Mountain men­tioned the rebels ‘murdering an unarmed son before the aged fa­ther, and afterwards lopped off his arms,’ he was referring to an infamous incident involving the ‘Bull Dog.’

“In another instance, Cleveland’s men broke out two Loyalists from a prison, stood one of them ‘on a log, put the noose around his neck, threw the end of the rope over a tree limb, fastened it, and kicked the log out from under him.’ Cleveland then gave the second Loyalist a choice: he, too, would be hanged, unless he cut off his own ears. The man grabbed a knife, sliced off his ears, and was let go.”

— From Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth” by Holger Hoock (2017)

Cleveland County is named for the ‘Bull Dog.’

 

Kings Mountain had chilling effect on Tories

“The Revolution’s epochal battle between patriots and Tories came on October 7, 1780, at Kings Mountain on the North Carolina-South Carolina border, when some 900 rebels annihilated a force of about 1,200 loyalists, all Americans but for the British officer who led them.

“The rebels took 698 prisoners and, for murky reasons of vengeance, held a campfire court martial that sentenced 36 of the captives to death. After nine were hanged — three at a time, from the limb of a great oak tree — officers stopped the lynching. On the march to prison, a survivor later wrote, an unknown number of captives, ‘worn out with fatigue, and not being able to keep up,’ were ‘cut down and trodden to death in the mire.’

“To Tories everywhere, Kings Mountain sounded a call to reality. All the combatants except Col. Patrick Ferguson had been American, and those who chose to fight for King George III had chosen the wrong side.”

— From “With Little Less Than Savage Fury” by Thomas B. Allen in American Heritage magazine (Fall 2010)

Presidential visit fails to brighten mood

On this day in 1930: President Herbert Hoover visits the textile town of Kings Mountain for the 150th anniversary of the nearby Battle of Kings Mountain, a turning point in the Revolutionary War.

Thousands watch from the curb, store windows and rooftops as the president and first lady Lou Henry Hoover, accompanied by no visible security personnel, ride slowly past in an open convertible.

At the battleground, 8 miles away in York County, S.C., Hoover makes a 22-minute talk before a crowd estimated at 75,000.

The Charlotte Observer reports that President Hoover, showing the “cares of his office,” indirectly responds to charges that he hasn’t done anything to ease the Great Depression precipitated by last year’s stock market crash.

He compares “the material well-being of the United States with that of other nations of the world,” pointing out that twice as many Americans own homes as Europeans and seven times as many own cars.

A lone heckler yells, “Well, Hoover, all us jackasses are here to get our hay.” Nobody laughs, and Hoover doesn’t respond.

History book wars: The more things change….

“North Carolina last week was upset because its fifth-grade pupils were learning State history out of a book (“North Carolina Yesterday & Today” by Jule B. Warren) which declared that:

” ‘ — Congress elected George Washington… President.’ (The electors, not Congress, did so.)

” — Joseph Martin had fought in the Mexican War in 1848…  and died in 1786.)

”  — Charles McDowell was a hero of the Battle of King’s Mountain in 1780… and was buried in 1775.)

“These were among more than 200 errors of fact turned up by a white-haired, peppery schoolteacher named Nell Battle Lewis, who writes a column in the Raleigh News and Observer.

“In North Carolina [textbooks] are picked by the State Board of Education, which consists of the Governor and State officers.

“Four months ago Clyde R. Hoey and fellow board members adopted the Warren book, rejecting a more scholarly work by Professors A. R. Newsome and Hugh T. Lefler, of the University of North Carolina, and recommended by the State Textbook Commission (educators).

“Nell Lewis had raised such a furor that Governor J. Melville Broughton (who succeeded Hoey Jan. 1) hurried home from a vacation in Mexico City and ordered that the Warren books be recalled for corrections. He also asked Revenue Commissioner A. J. Maxwell to analyze the rejected Newsome-Lefler book. Maxwell, a Hoeyite, explained everything:

” ‘The Newsome-Lefler history continues to harp on the conservatives of the Democratic Party… and intimates that both Governor Ehringhaus and Governor Hoey owed their election to fraud. Such an implication… is entirely out of place in a proposed history for the fifth grade.’ ”

“Last week Authors Newsome & Lefler said in a letter to the Governor: ‘No one can deny the accuracy of the statement that… “many citizens demanded laws to make clean and honest elections more certain.” ‘ ”

– From Time magazine, April 28, 1941

North Carolina last week was upset because its fifth-grade pupils were learning State history out of a book (North Carolina Yesterday & Today by Jule B. Warren) which declared that:

> “Congress elected George Washington . . . President.” (The electors, not Congress, did so.)

> Tarheel Joseph Martin had fought in the Mexican War in 1848 and trained Confederate troops in the Civil War. (The book also states he died in 1786.)

> Tarheel Charles McDowell was a hero of the Battle of King’s Mountain in 1780. (On page 306, the book says he was buried in 1775.) These were among more than 200 errors of fact turned up by a white-haired, peppery schoolteacher named Nell Battle Lewis, who writes a column in the Raleigh News and Observer. Miss Lewis described the whole thing as A POLITICAL STINK.

Most U.S. schoolbooks are chosen by the schools that use them, but eleven States have boards which adopt books for the elementary schools of the whole State, a system well liked by politicians. In North Carolina they are picked by the State Board of Education, which consists of the Governor and State officers.

Four months ago Clyde R. Hoey, then Governor, and fellow board members adopted the Warren book, rejecting a more scholarly work written by Professors A. R. Newsome and Hugh T. Lefler, of the University of North Carolina, and recommended by the State Textbook Commi sion (educators).

Nell Lewis’ campaign had raised such a furor that Governor J. Melville Broughton (who succeeded Hoey Jan. 1) hurried home from a vacation in Mexico City and ordered that the Warren books, already in use by 90,000 fifth-graders, be recalled at the end of the school term for corrections. He also asked Revenue Commissioner A. J. Maxwell to analyze the rejected Newsome-Lefler book. Maxwell, a Hoeyite, explained everything:

“The Newsome-Lefler history continues to harp on the conservatives of the Democratic Party down to and including the administration of Governor Hoey and plainly intimates that both Governor Ehringhaus and Governor Hoey owed their election to election frauds. Such an implication . . . is entirely out of place in a proposed history for the fifth grade. . . .”

Last week Authors Newsome & Lefler said in a letter to the Governor: “No one can deny the accuracy of the statement that . . . ‘many citizens demanded laws to make clean and honest elections more certain.’ ”

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