Attractive Young Miss Wahab and the Mystery of the Missing Piece Goods

I came across an interesting letter in the files of B.B. Winborne.

It was written almost exactly a hundred years ago, and I thought you might enjoy reading it:

Small, MacLean & McMullan
Attorneys at Law
Washington North
Carolina

March 9, 1909

Hon. B.B. Winborne,
Murfreesboro NC

Dear Sir ---

We are in receipt of your favor of the 7th, in which you state that you will be glad to represent Miss Hattie Wahab in the event she is arrested upon the warrant sworn out against her by the Pittman's. Since we wrote you our last letter, we have heard nothing further as to an arrest being made, but do not think that the warrant has yet been sent to Hyde County or if this has been done, we have heard nothing of it, although we instructed our client to advise us by telephone as soon as he ascertained that the warrant had in fact been issued. For this reason, it is possible that the prosecution will not be started, and that there will be nothing for us to do in the
matter in such an event. However, we desire to give you a somewhat detailed statement of the matter so that you may be fully informed beforehand, and as you suggest, use your influence towards having the matter ended before the prosecution is begun.

During last fall Mrs. Pittman employed Miss Wahab to work with her as a milliner. At the time of making the contact of employment, Miss Wahab was working for a firm in Baltimore, who make it their business to train young ladies for positions as milliners and get them a job after they have been instructed. The contract of employment was made by Miss Wahab, Mrs. Pittman and the Manager of this institution. Miss Wahab went to Aulander and worked with Mrs. Pittman for two or three months, or until a few weeks before the time she contracted to work would expire. About this time the relation between Mrs. Pittman and Miss Wahab became unpleasant on account of some accusations made by Mrs. Pittman against Miss Wahab in connection with some young men of the town. Thereafter she accused Miss Wahab of taking from her store certain pieces of goods or remnants, about five or six pieces. Miss Wahab states that Miss Pittman locked her in her house and held her there for some time after this accusation was made, and demanded that she pack her trunk and leave town without letting the people of the town know what had become of her. This Miss Wahab refused to do and was held in confinement in Mrs. Pittman's house until she was taken away through the efforts of Dr. Harrell and Mr. Dunning . These two gentlemen were very kind to Miss Wahab and interested themselves in her protection. They seem to think that she was unjustly accused and that the accusations were made against her for some sinister purpose. Miss Wahab went to Dr. Harrell's house and stayed there for a few days, having in the meanwhile wired to her father in Hyde County to come to her rescue. The writer went with Mr. Wahab to Aulander in response to this telegram and when we arrived there, found that Miss Wahab was staying at Dr. Harrell's and that her trunk was held by Mrs. Pittman, who refused to give the same up after being demanded by right.

After Mr. Wahab had brought his daughter back, suit was instituted in the Superior Court of Hyde County by Mr. Wahab and his daughter against Mr. and Mrs. Pittman for false imprisonment, slander, etc. and in this suit arrest and bail proceedings were issued and served on the male defendant. Bond was given by him and the proceedings now stand in that shape. After that time, claim and delivery was taken out in this action pending in Hyde County for the recovery of the trunk. After considerable correspondence with the Sheriff of Bertie County, and some confusion in regard thereto, the trunk finally turned up here in Washington, being sent by express in care of us. When the trunk was opened in Hyde County, it appeared that the goods claimed by defendants had been taken out, and that the trunk had been inspected by someone unknown to us.

Miss Wahab states that the goods claimed by Mrs. Pittman were given to her by certain friends who worked with her in the store in Baltimore, whose names she gives and states that she can prove this fact by them. She is about twenty years old and quite an attractive young lady.

We did not know her personally before this occurrence but her people are of the highest standing and regarded in their County as having the highest sense of honor. Mr. Wahab was at one time Clerk of the Superior Court of Hyde County and a very good old man. However, they are people of very moderate means. The purpose of the suit brought in Hyde County was merely to vindicate Miss Wahab from the accusations made against her. At any time Mr. Wahab would have been willing to settle this suit upon a full and fair retraction being made by the defendant and his actual loss compensated. Messrs. Mann & Jones, of Swan Quarter, appear with us, representing the plaintiffs in this case. When the writer was at Aulander, he found that the sympathies of the people generally were altogether with Miss Wahab and most people seems unwilling to place any credit in the charges made by Mrs. Pittman and freely stated that they regarded her as unworthy of belief. We sincerely hope that the prosecution will not be undertaken, but in the event it is, we are glad that you will co--operate with us, as we are particularly desirous of doing all in our power to vindicate Miss Wahab. We will advise you as soon as we hear anything further about the warrant. In the meanwhile, we will be glad to hear from you.

Yours very truly,
Small, MacLean
& McMullan

I wonder what happened to the "attractive and young" Miss Wahab? Or Mrs. Pittman ?

Tune in next time and I'll try to have some of the answers for you.

2009 ... HAPPY NEW YEAR .... !!!!

Happy New Year !

I'm afraid we may be in for a bumpy ride in 2009, but as these historic manuscripts show - "the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same".

Littleton Mission School
Littleton NC
3/17 1897

Mr. Winbourne,
Please don't take any steps yet. I can not get all the money together until Sat. the 20th and will forward at once.

Yours, Virgil N. Bond

North Carolina Insane Asylum
Geo L. Kirby M.D.
Superintendent

Raleigh NC ..... 189 ...

R.W. Winbourne Esq.
Murfreesboro NC

Dear Sir:

Kindly advise me if Murfreesboro is a good location for a physician and if not can you tell me where to find one. I expect to lose my place here in next few days whether by legislative action or by action of incoming Board of Directors to be appointed by the Gov. Kindly advise me at once as my days here are numbered
and oblige.

Very respectfully
J.A. Faison M.D.

Allison & Addison
Manufacturers of Fertilizers
1322 Cary Street
PO Box 365
Richmond VA
April 19, 1897

Dictated by J.H.A.

Mess. Winbourne & Lawrence
Murfreesboro NC

Gentlemen,

Replying to your favor of the 16th inst., we note that you have collected a check from A.B. Adkins, Esq., for $100 on account, and we hope that the check will be paid and that we will soon have the remittance in hand. In regard to granting his request for the extension until next fall we have to say that we are not willing to do so, unless he can give us gilt edge security for the balance due; if he cannot do this we will ask that you push the matter as previously advised and secure a judgement before a magistrate and have the execution issued at once. If, however, he can give you a new note for the balance due with gilt edge security for the payment of the same, interest to be added, we would be willing to extend the time until next fall, otherwise, we wish the matter pushed to a speedy conclusion.

Yours truly,
Allison & Addison

Lafayette's Visit

Typewritten document dated Jan 14, 1962:

C.C.Lawrence says that his grandmother, Miss Mary Pipkin, later Mrs. John W. Southall, told him as a child that she attended Lafayette's address at a house at the head of a gully making up from Broad Street, across and slightly east of the Wheeler House. This house had a brick cellar,bricks rising from the ground about four feet, extending to weatherboarding. One floor after the weatherboard; two floors with cellar. On top of the building there extended from the comb a square hewn timber, approximately 6 x 6 " square, upward approximately 4 or 5 feet high, atop which rested "something similar to a 12 o'clock bell" (farm bell). This house was in use "during my days" as a lodge house for the colored ones. The bell in 1962 is still being in use for the colored ones lodge.

River Town Crossings

Typewritten document dated Jan 14, 1962:

Crossings of Murfreesboro Streets before the paving and when C.C. Lawrence was a child, were of stones. Old folks said they were ballast stones for the sailing ships of olden days. The rocks were placed in the hull of the boats upon return trips from the east Indies to prevent strong winds from capsizing the sailing ships. There were walk crossings to keep folks from the mud.

The stones were laid a little above the surface, and a person could cross without muddying feet.


The one I remember most distinctly was leading from north side of Main Street to the south connecting with College Street.

Another one near present Boyette's Hotel. A big elm tree on the north of the street and there was a big elm tree on the west side of the crossing. Went directly in front of the Boyette Hotel, originally Lassiter Hotel.

In front of Jim Babb store ballast stones (flat sided ones) were used to form a sidewalk. This store was immediately east of the old Methodist Church, now west of the Nicholson Building housing Murfreesboro Pharmacy. West side of the Babb store had a soda fountain.

The Witches of Murfreesboro

Some "how to" advice from Roy Johnson seems appropriate as Halloween nears:

Mrs. Lee Smith of Winton, native of Fort Island in Gates County, says if a screech owl is bothering you, tie a knot in the corner of a sheet and he won't hollar but one time more.

Mrs. Smith says also if your husband forsakes you at night for the opossum hunt you can kill his luck. Take off your shoes and stand then against the side of the house with the soles in the direction of the dogs and they'll catch nothing. She says,"I've worked it many a time on my old man and Albert Liverman."

Mary Ellen Crawford Dilday of Route 3 Ahoskie says, "It was popularly known in Gates COunty that a wooden latch was the only sort that could bar entry of witches."

Mrs. Smith says you could take a fork, "stick it up towards the seat of a bottomed chair and a witch would sit there all day long or until the fork was removed."

and my favorite -

Anyone with a rudimentary acquaintance with witchcraft knows a witch will not step over a broom, and often in the Roanoke-Chowan area people suspected of the Devil-pact have been given the broom test. Mrs. Mary Ellen Crawford Dilday of Route 3 Ahoskie, native of Eure community of Gates County, say a Fort Island witch suspect visited a neighbor and they sat in the house talking. The hostess found occassion to go outside for a few minutes whereupon she placed a broom beneath the door step. The visitor extended her visit hours beyond customary and eventually she asked the broom be removed so she could go home.

That tells how to keep a witch from entering the house.

But what can be done to keep ugly old witches from leaving nasty blog comments calling me "pretentious"???

Another piece of the puzzle ....

Another vague handwritten reference to the African-American school in Murfreesboro (see previous entry)....

"The Elizabeth City North Carolinian for August 12, 1869 has an article on commencement exercises at Murfreesboro for Lincoln Institute, taught by Miss Lydia Warrick. Must be same school previously known as O.O. Howard School. Had 60 or more students, orations by Master James J. Reynolds and Master George Raynolds, both students. Remarks by Rev. L. Washington Boone, Joseph P. Waever, Simon Collins, Esq. and the Hons. William Reid and J.T. Reynolds. Next issue, that of August 19, 1869, contains column-length address delivered on above occasion by J.T. Reynolds. of Northampton."

It seems that the school was larger than I imagined - 60 students ! But whoever wrote this note appears to have made a mistake about the name of the school. He/she mentions that it was "previously known as O.O. Howard", but that seems backwards because the reference in 1870 refers to it as O.O. Howard, while this reference in 1869 calls it the Lincoln Institute. It was probably originally called Lincoln Institute and then became the O.O. Howard School.

"O.O. Howard" is for Union Civil War General Oliver O. Howard. From May 1865 to July 1874, General Howard was commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

And "Lincoln Institute" ... well, I think we can assume that was named for Abraham Lincoln.

We have citations for exact dates - anyone want to try to track down the microfilm for the Elizabeth City North Carolinian for 1869 and send the complete articles?

If we all add to the pieces we'll quickly solve this historic puzzle.

Nineteenth Century African-American Education in Murfreesboro

(I'm not even going to try to apologize for my long-term neglect of this blog - but I am going to try once again to start adding entries on a regular basis. Stay tuned.)


I recently came across a historical reference in a note written decades ago. I found it very exciting and want to share:

"See Raleigh Daily Standard, Feb 23, 1870, for letter from "Joannes" at Murfreesboro re O.O. Howard School for colored youths there, taught by Miss Lydia Warrick, in operation then for three years. Taught orthography, math, geography, grammar and science. Had rented school heretofore but now in process of buying a lot and hope to build on it. Plan to add a Female Industrial Department. (A Hertford County Deed of 1869 shows Eley Carter selling lot on north side of Broad Street, to William Reid, Phillip Weaver and Andrew Reynolds as a place for a Negro school house and church.)"

I don't have access to the Raleigh Daily Standard, but I would greatly appreciate it if someone in NC could try to get a copy of that article. I imagine the newspaper is on microfilm and available through some of the larger research libraries. Maybe try Whitaker Library at Chowan?

Only two years after the Civil War, and Murfreesboro's African-American community had an established school for it's youth. What an amazing achievement, and a great topic for the Murfreesboro Historical Association to be researching and promoting through educational programs with the local schools.

MHA this is a gift from the past ---- now let's see what you can do with it.