INC NEWS - Library Presents Program on History of Northern Durham

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Program:             Beyond the Eno:  Wild, Wonderful Northern Durham County
Date/Time:           Saturday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m.
Location:             North Regional Library, 221 Milton Rd.
Cost:                    Free and open to the public
 
 
Library Presents Program on History of Northern Durham County Feb. 24
 
 
DURHAM—Local journalist and historian Jim Wise will moderate a panel
discussion on the history and culture of northern Durham County at 2 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 24, at North Regional Library, 221 Milton Rd.  “Beyond the
Eno:  Wild, Wonderful Northern Durham County” will also feature John
Anderson, former Rougemont stationmaster and a founder of the Rougemont
Ruritan Club; Shirley Mallard, a genealogist and historian of northern
Durham County and its families; Dr. Marie Roberts, retired physician and
longtime Bahama resident; and Millard Thacker, an active member of the
Rougemont Ruritan Club and a leader in the effort to incorporate the town
of Rougemont.
 
The program, presented by Durham County Library’s North Carolina
Collection, is the perfect opportunity for newcomers to learn more about
the history of the area and for old-timers to reunite and reminisce.  Lynn
Richardson, North Carolina Collection librarian, is hoping for a mix of
historical fact, good stories, and some boosterism from the panelists, who
are all close to the heart of northern Durham.
 
“I want people to leave this program with a real sense of the past of the
area north of the Eno River and how that past has shaped northern Durham
County today,” said Richardson.
 
The panelists will introduce themselves and speak briefly to answer the
question:  What would you like for people to know about northern Durham
County?  This question is wide open to interpretation by the panelists. 
They may talk about interesting events from their own lives or from the
lives of other area residents, historical information from the near or
distant past, tales about people, places, events—whatever strikes their
fancy that relates to northern Durham County.  
 
In addition to moderating the program, Wise also will share some of his
great knowledge and unique insights about the area’s history and culture,
including stories about one of his favorite people—tobacco empire
patriarch Washington Duke’s oldest brother, William J. Duke, known in the
community as “Uncle Billie.” 
 
Biographical Sketches of Panelists
Jim Wise
Although he is not a native or Durham, Wise has spent all but four years
of his adult life in Durham.  He has a keen interest in local history and
has published two books about Durham:  “Images of America:  Durham
County,” in 2000, and “Durham:  A Bull City Story,” in 2002.  Wise came to
Durham to attend Duke University, then worked as editor of the
university’s alumni publications until he started graduate work at The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a master’s
degree in folklore.
 
Since 1981, Wise has been a local newspaper columnist, editor and
reporter, first with The Durham Herald Co. and presently with The News &
Observer, which also publishes The Durham News.  He has taught courses on
local and regional history at the Center for Documentary Studies and for
the Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement (DILR), now known as the
Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning (OLLI).  Wise is also active in
local organizations.  He chairs the board of the Trading Path Association
and is a member of the Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project Committee and
the Rotary Club of Southwest Durham.
 
John Anderson
Anderson grew up in a small Virginia town.  Always interested in trains,
he first became a railroad telegrapher.  Then, in 1942, he became the
stationmaster in Rougemont, a job he kept until the position was cut in
1965.  Anderson also worked in the timber business, owned his own
insurance agency from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, helped a friend
farm for three years and made flues for tobacco barns.  
 
Shirley Mallard
Mallard’s family moved in with her grandparents in Bahama when she was 10
years old.  They lived there a year and a half before moving to Durham,
where Shirley graduated from Durham High School.  She spent her career
teaching high school French and was living on Long Island in 1972 when her
mother died.  Prompted by the discovery of a tiny blue notebook with notes
on family history in a desk at her mother’s house, Mallard decided it was
time to retire, move back south and trace her roots.  She says in the
preface to her book “Bahama Roots”:  “Although I have lived other places
in the United States and now reside in Durham, it is in Bahama that I have
my true roots.  As soon as I turn off Roxboro Road onto Bahama Road I can
feel my connection to this land, the land of my ancestors
.It is a grand
heritage.”  She has nearly a dozen history and genealogy-related
publications to her credit.
 
Dr. Marie Roberts
Roberts attended Mangum High School and earned her bachelor’s degree from
Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC Greensboro).
She went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota
and a medical degree from Medical University of South Carolina in 1949. 
After interning at Durham’s Watts Hospital, she set up her own practice in
Bahama, where she practiced until 1967.  She accepted a position at the
Durham County Health Department and worked there until she retired in
1982. 
 
Millard Thacker
Thacker was born and raised in northern Durham County near the
Durham-Person-Orange county line.  He attended Rougemont Elementary School
and Mangum High School in Bahama, where he was a part of the last
graduating class before consolidation of schools to form the current
Northern High School.  After college at UNC-Chapel Hill and four years in
the Air Force, he returned to the Durham-Rougemont community.  In 1961 he
was employed by the U. S. Army Research Office, then located on the Duke
Campus and later in Research Triangle Park.  In 1969 he was one of a few
employees hired by what is now the Environmental Protection Agency.  He
retired in 1992.  He is very active in his community, including extensive
work in the Rougemont Ruritan Club and the effort to incorporate
Rougemont. 
 
The primary mission of the North Carolina Collection (Main Library, third
floor) is to preserve and make available materials relating to the history
and culture of Durham County.  The collection contains a wealth of
information, including books, journals, newspapers, microfilmed records,
the Durham Historic Photographic Archives, small manuscripts collections
and much more.
 
Durham County Library provides the entire community with books, services
and other resources that inform, inspire learning, cultivate understanding
and excite the imagination.

CONTACT:  Lynn Richardson
North Carolina Collection
Durham County Library
560-0171 or lrichard at durhamcountync.gov