THE EARLY DAYS - GEORGE WASHINGTON, PEANUTS AND THE RAILROAD
To start with, just where is downtown Hampstead? The town isn't incorporated and there's no municipal government. It's part of a Pender County locality known as Topsail Township, a geo-political identification that includes Surf City and Topsail Beach. Most of the settlements are known by their former railroad depot names, and the location of the Hampstead Freight Depot is shown on the town layout map in Barnhill's history, 2 in between Peanut Rd. and Hoover Rd. Using Mr. Barnhill's map as a guide, there was a time when Hampstead had something like a central business district, a 'downtown'. Over the years there have been several stores, several post offices, several churches and several schools, all located within a few blocks. If you drew a line from Atlantic Seafood to the Weir Building, the red brick two-story building on US-17 at Factory Road, a point in the middle of the highway would be as good as any other to locate 'old' Hampstead. Plantations and farms were located along sandy roads that meandered through the woods towards the sound behind the sand spit that faced the Atlantic Ocean, Ashe Island, later renamed Topsail Island by a real estate developer. 3 Two other significant sand spits are Lea and Hutaff Islands. 4 In 1939, during the Great Depression, The Federal
Writer's Project hired writers to document local history, and you can "Hampstead is the scene of a fiddler's contest each fall. The first prize one year was a mule." Jack Howard mentions several large plantations in the area - Frog Hall, Tom Hills Branch, Sloop Point and more. "In 1835, Captain James Howard, Jr., son of James, Sr., of Onslow purchased what is now Hampstead, 505 acres and more, five tracts, a plantation called Grovedere, for $4,500. He built a manor plantation home on the sound on the hill overlooking Howard's Channel (now known as Factory Landing)." 5 Gradually, the cart path from Wilmington to New Bern was improved, low areas were filled in with shells and logs, the wagon trail became a highway, was paved and became US Highway 17, and residential neighborhoods sprang up. Rail service connected Hampstead with the rest of the world, but as more roads and highways came into use, the railroads discontinued service. Most people did their shopping in nearby Wilmington and in fact, many worked in Wilmington, too. The North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer supplies more information and clues of what it may have been like once, including another settlement called Annandale, between Hampstead and Woodside, and it may have been a whistle stop on the rail line. Many of these place names are easily found on modern maps, names that lead to landings and plantations, all named after the first inhabitants. Plantation Road connects to Grovediere Lane in the neighborhood with Howard's Channel Road, Howards Landing Road and Howards Lane, a little further up King's Landing and Mallard Bay, Moore's Landing Road, Sloop Point Road, another Plantation Road, Salt House Road, and Watts Landing Road. Across Highway 17, The Topsail Presbyterian Church is situated parallel to the highway because when it was built, the Wilmington to New Bern Road ran right in front. Traces of the road run behind Topsail High School and are now seen as St. John's Church Road up to the church property, and Avery Road where it leaves the church parking lot and rejoins the highway.
George Washington was in his first term as President of the brand new United States of America and wanted to learn more about the lands and people of the new country. He began his Southern Tour and passed through what was to become Hampstead, on April 24, 1791. He was an experienced surveyor, and his thoughts were preserved in his journals. He departed New Bern on the 22nd of April, "dined at a place called Trenton ... crossed at this place on a bridge, and lodged at one Shrines 10m. farther - both indifferent Houses." On the 23rd, "Breakfasted at one Everets 12 miles bated at a Mr. Foy's 12 miles farther and lodged at one Sage's 20 miles beyd. it, all indifferent Houses." On the 24th, "Breakfasted at an indifferent House about 13 miles from Sage's - and three miles further met a party of Light Horse from Wilmington" and observed, "The whole road from Newbern to Wilmington (except in a few places of small extent) passes through the most barren country I ever beheld; especially in the parts nearest the latter; which is no other than a bed of white Sand. "In places, however, before we came to these, if the ideas of poverty could be seperated from the Land, the appearances of it are agreeable, resembling a lawn well covered with evergreens and a good verdure below from a broom or course grass which having sprung since the burning of the woods had a neat & handsome look especially as there were parts entirely open and others with ponds of water which contributed not a little to the beauty of the Scene." 6 Washington described a pocosin wilderness, and similar conditions exist today as Holly Shelter, an immense tract of land that is for the most part uninhabitable for a variety of reasons. A pocosin wilderness can be characterized as areas of desert dryness along and among sand ridges that were once beach dunes. In between the dunes and ridges are low seepages, bogs and wetlands. Scattered among the whole, especially near the coastal part, are Carolina Bays, unique oval shaped sphagnum bogs aligned for the most part SE to NW, with typically a sandy ridge at its SE edge. Most are filled with an impenetrable mass of vegetation, and home of the pocosin pine, a small pine adapted to wet feet. Once, large stands of southern longleaf pine dominated, with groves of ancient live oaks, cypress ponds and bogs typical. Summer storms and lightning struck, and the resin rich wood of the pines fueled forest fires of gargantuan proportions. In fact, you can see advisory signs today of "Extreme Forest Fire Hazard" posted along the highways that border much of the southern woodlands. These fires had a beneficial outcome. It alone enabled the uniqueness of plant life like no other on earth, but only within a fifty mile radius of Wilmington. The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that grows in nitrogen poor soil, getting its nutrients by trapping insects in trigger activated folding leaves that snap shut as soon as it senses an insect. In addition, pitcher plants, butterworts, bladderworts and sundews exist in profusion here, and their success, along with the pocosin wiregrass savannah, all depend on forest fire to burn over the underbrush, leaving tall pines high above the burning groundcover. In a natural state, balance is achieved because the fast moving, hot burning fire consumes the undergrowth but does not harm the long leaf pine or live oaks. The burned over land is perfect for the emergence of a unique set of plants that must have fire to either reproduce, or get enough room and sunlight to flourish before the understory re-establishes itself and shades out the ground hugging plants. This, then, sets the scene for ancient Hampstead. The earliest inhabitants of the area were apparently occasional and may have been made up of, at various times, Iroquoian, Siouan or Algonquin. The easiest to find traces of early native American activity is the huge shell midden (leftovers) known as Permuda Island, alongside the Intracoastal Waterway just inside Onslow County. Pottery fragments and other artifacts have been recovered from various areas, and some are on display at the Missiles & More Museum in the town of Topsail Beach across the sound from Hampstead. Why such a huge pile of oyster shells? It was the same then as it is now - oyster roast! Stump Sound is thought to have some of the very best oysters in North Carolina, if not the country, and they were a regular food source for native Americans. In addition, springtime festivals relied on another coastal feature, the yaupon holly. The shrub is everywhere along the maritime forest, and the leaves are high in caffeine. Ilex vomitoria brewed strongly led to near spiritual hallucinations, copious sweating, acted as a diuretic and purgative, and elevated activity levels. I simply can not imagine how much fun it must have been, and I'm not sure I want to. I. vomitoria leaves, toasted or microwaved, and brewed sanely, make a really decent cup of tea, virtually indistinguishable from Tetley's or Lipton's. I. vomitoria wasn't the only holly of note, either. American Holly, Ilex opaca, often called the Christmas Holly, is the celebrated holiday decoration. Holly Shelter, the 76,000 acre wildlife management area, takes its name from an early rest area on the old sand Wilmington to New Bern cart track, and Holly Ridge gets its name from the forest of holly which grew near there - grew so thick in fact that locals were able to make extra money at Christmas time by harvesting and shipping holly to the New York market by rail. 7 The first European settlement attempts in North Carolina were not successful. The earliest permanent settlers were from the Tidewater region of Virginia, and were likely the "second sons" from the FFVs, or First Families of Virginia. The first son inherited the property rights through the practice called "primogeniture" in which the first son got everything, the daughters and subsequent males got nothing, so push further south to establish themselves. For the best exploration of the character of the South and how it developed, get "The Mind of the South" by W. J. Cash. He follows the journeys of the second sons and their pioneering settlements, establishment of plantations and land holdings, and continuing immigration of their second sons ever further across the Old South. The Spanish had already explored the area, and established settlements further south, and by the middle 1600s other European settlers began to trickle in and found the area agreeable. The woods were full of game, the rivers were full of fish, and the ocean's bounty was right at hand. This was indeed a land where the living was easy.
A household here, another there, and soon the woods were dotted with clusters of houses. Travelers followed animal trails because they were clear and easier to follow, and eventually established tracks or paths connected one settlement with another, and these almost always wound their way across the tops of sand dunes and ridges because the lowlands flooded regularly, and could stay wet, even underwater, for months at a time. This is really significant, and to appreciate the difficulty of travel in pioneer days, study the history of the Battle of Moore's Creek. Because of the wetness and general swampiness of southeastern North Carolina, travel to the coast could be nearly impossible through some areas. Loyalist Militia trying to get from Fayetteville to the coast and the waiting British fleet had but one dry land route and that included the necessity to cross one large creek on the Widow Moore's land, and of course, the bridge. The Patriot Militia removed the planks, greased the stringers, and blocked the Scots Highlanders from joining up with the British. As time went on, more and more families moved in, better travel routes stretched longer distances, always along the high land, skirting low, wet areas whenever possible. The "high" way often had to dip into the lower areas, and these wet areas were filled in with shells, sand, logs and whatever else was at hand that could make the roads passable. Eventually, two river trading towns, Wilmington and New Bern, were connected well enough for wagons to pass along trading goods and households. It was this sandy ridge "high way" that George Washington travelled along on his Southern Tour, and it's along this sandy ridge that present-day Hampstead is situated, a good 15 feet above average sea level. By comparison, Burgaw, (an Algonquin name derived from "mud-hole, wet spot") the county seat, is only about five feet above sea level in spots, and large areas are frequently in flood after heavy rains. It was not as easy to gain access to navigable water as you might think, and roads led through the woods to spots where a boat could make a landing and these were locations for the first plantations. Agriculture prevailed, and getting crops to market in Wilmington was by either mule wagon or barge. With a passable road in use, more people trickled in, and many came from Fayetteville: "By
1878 the John William Howard family had moved from around "This
is the ancestry of Ms. Nellie Howard (teacher for many years at
Hampstead's growth accelerated when the railroad established the Wilmington and New Bern Railroad with a stop in the township. The depot shown here is actually the one currently preserved near Willard, cleverly disguised, and if not exactly like the one pictured in Barnhill's history, it's close enough. Jack Howard remembered the fare to ride the train to Wilmington or New Bern was a nickel - 5¢ Travelers driving along US 17 today
can find traces of the whistle stops This picture is one of the markers
still standing along the old rail line, and If that's correct, two longs, a
short and another long identified the Topsail "In 1834, a plan to construct a
railroad line from "The railroad was important for several obvious reasons of transportation and commerce, however, for an additional reason—it gave us our name Hampstead! "Hampstead was named after 1875.
Prior to this name we were simply the Topsail Sound Area of New Hanover
County. The railroad named the stops of the old steam trains Verona, Folkston, Vista, "There were stops of the trains
where the rural planters could meet the train from "Prior to the railroad, much trade
was carried on by ship through the Dora Corbett is a frequent writer for the Topsail Voice newspaper, and in an article in May 16, 2007 writes: "Older Hampstead residents remember John Owen Howard's Store. "From the four o'clock train every Saturday, a 300-pound block of ice was kicked off the train. It is said that Howard pulled the ice to his sawdust room and folks gathered in anticipation of a milk shake. If six people waited, the storeowner would shave off the ice, open a large can of Eagle brand milk and make milk shakes". 11 |
