INC NEWS - Hayti novelist (Dec 1); Jim Wise book signing (Dec 5 <- note change); Mattocks Mill Hike (Dec 7)

[John Schelp]

Hayti novelist visits library 
Herald-Sun, 25 Nov 2008

Lewis Shiner, author of "Black and White," a novel set in Durham's Hayti community, will host a book talk and signing at noon Monday, at Stanford L. Warren Library, 1201 Fayetteville St. 

Shiner's novel chronicles civil rights, race relations, business success, residential relocation and African-American uplift in Durham. 

Durham native, historian and former N.C. Central University administrator and professor Beverly Washington Jones will also be on hand to contextualize the social history of Hayti. 

This event is free and open to the public. 

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Durham Tales by Jim Wise  <-- NOTE DATE CHANGE 
Book signing set for Friday, Dec 5 at Duke's Gothic Bookstore (12:30-2PM)

There is much history in the Bull City, and some of it can be found within these pages. Journalist and local historian Jim Wise relates how Bull Durham smoking tobacco put Durham, North Carolina, on the map; how a plastic cow and an oversized flag cut the city council down to size; how it felt to travel back in time at the Duke Homestead; and how sportsman Al Mann and Mom Ruby Planck left indelible marks on their hometown.

Durham's stories are its own, but in them readers may find people, places and truths that resonate with hometowns everywhere.

Copies of the new book are available at several bookstores including the Regulator, Stagville, and Gothic. Jim is doing a book signing on Friday, December 5 at Duke's Gothic Bookstore (12:30-2PM in the Bryan Center, behind Duke Chapel).

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These are fun & interesting hikes...

Visit Mattocks Mill & Hart Ford
First Sunday Hike, December 7th (2-4PM)
Trading Path Association

We'll trek through the vicinity of "Old Mattocks Mill", the site where Regulators planned the plans that went awry and led to the Battle of Alamance. Because of those meetings, to save his neck the owner, Joseph Mattock gave the mill site to then Governor Wm Tryon. [See map links below]

Tryon in turn gave it to one of his local loyal supporter, Thomas Hart. Mattock then led the Quakers of the Eno Meeting (i1918 Soil Survey map of Mattocks Mill area including President Carter's ancestors) to Georgia.

Come the Revolutionary War, Hart moved to Maryland, apparently a healthier climate for Americans unenthusiastic about the revolution. He left the mill in the hands of Jesse Benton, one of his subordinates. Jesse, the father of Thomas Hart Benton, died trying to make a go of the mill complex. Some will recall that Hart and Benton both were involved with Judge Henderson in the questionable purchase of Cherokee lands during the time of the Regulation.  In fact, Henderson may have aided the suppression of the Regulators so as to encourage them to move west to the lands he'd just purchased, Kentucky and much of Tennessee.

While he camped at Hillsboro, Revolutionary War General Cornwallis lost a detachment of twenty-some troops sent to grind meal and guard the Hart/Benton mill. A militia band led by Captain Joseph Graham attacked the mill and destroyed both the mill and British picket. This probably convinced the British that Hillsborough wasn't nearly the safe resort they had hoped it would be and they left for friendlier parts and more functional mills soon thereafter.

We will see roadbeds that once led to the mill, at least one house site that may or may not relate to the mill (only archaeological testing will tell). We'll be looking for a ford and other remainders from these long ago days.

As usual, we will depart on this 1.5 mile stroll at 2 PM and be back at our cars by 4 PM. Our trailhead is the four-siloed barn north of Highway 70, west of the Eno River. The turn in to the barn is on the eastern edge of Efland, NC, and is the third drive on the north side of Hwy 70 west of the Eno River. We'll try to have a few more maps ready for map spiel before the hike, so if maps amuse you come early. We'll be putting up way-finding signs and setting up the TPA table at about 1:30. There will be signs pointing the way at the interstate exits and along Hwy 70.

Old Maddock's Mill
http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/hikes/cnty_or_1891_sh1hartfordcroplaab.jpg

1918 Soil Map
http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/hikes/soil_or_1918hartfordcroplab.jpg

1930 Map with Old NC 10
http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/hikes/orange1930hwyhartfordcroplab.jpg

Aerial photo today
http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/hikes/mattockortho.jpg