Hawkins House circa 1827-1836

Painting by Mary Warshaw

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES (Pezzoni 1989): Hawkins House - 208 Elm - Three-bay double pile center-hall plan house, engaged two-tier front porch, two-story rear additions, some circa 1900 remodeling. Bazel Hawkins probably built this house - his heir Catherine Hawkins owned it in 1850. Methodist minister John F. Mattocks owned the house during the early 1860s.

In the 1830 census the Bazel Hawkins family was in Onslow County--19 people listed under his household including 12 slaves. He bought this lot in 1827 and died in 1836.

According to the Swansboro Historical Association, a Confederate dispatcher was captured in an upstairs bedroom when Union troops briefly occupied Swansboro for a second time in 1862.

Regarding the capture in this house:

According to Onslow County—A Brief History by Alan D. Watson: Architectural evidence suggests the house was built in the 1830s or 1840s. When the lot was bought by Bazel Hawkins in 1827, evidence suggests that no house was on the site. It is not clear whether Hawkins built the house before he died in 1836 or whether it was built for his widow or for Edward Lee Hawkins. Hawkins heir Catherine Jane Hawkins, daughter of Bazel, married Cyrus B. Glover; they sold it in 1858 to David W. Simmons, who sold it to Andrew Jackson Merrell in 1860. Merrell sold it to the Rev. John F. Mattocks in 1863, and in 1866 Mattocks sold it to William P. Ward. Apparently, during Merrell's ownership the house was rented. During the first capture of Swansboro in 1862, William Harden Jones, a Confederate dispatcher, was visiting his parents [or the Mattocks] there on furlough and was captured in the upstairs east bedroom by Union troops.

Noted in Swannsborough Seaport—A Profile compiled by Thomas J. Reed, 23-year-old clergyman John F. Mattocks, and new bride Susan Gibson, were most likely renting the house in 1862 when Federal soldiers captured Confederate dispatch rider William Harden Jones in the upstairs bedroom.

Old image of the house courtesy Daniel Barefoot . Touring the Backroads of North Carolina's Lower Coast . Blair Publishing 1995.

Clyde S. Pittman House circa 1906

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places: 206 Elm Street - Three-bay I-house with two-room plan, decorative two-tier front porch, formerly semi-detached one-story rear kitchen. (NR)

Clyde S. Pittman, brother of Augustus W. Pittman, was born in 1874 to John A. Pittman and Olive Elizabeth "Bettie" Ward. In 1901/02 Clyde Pittman married Callie L. Bloodgood (1882-) daughter of Mart Edward Bloodgood and Clara Moore.



In 1900, Clyde Pittman was a salesman still living at home with his parents and three siblings. By 1910, Pittman was still a salesman, but living in his Elm Street house (then noted as 3rd St.). He and Callie had two children: Olive Elizabeth 8 and one-year-old Clara L. Pittman.

Clyde Pittman was a retail merchant by 1920, living on Main Street next to his brother Fred Pittman. In the household at that time were sister-in-law Janie B. Smith, nephew Edward Smith and father-in-law Mart E. Bloodgood. His mother Olive was living next door with his brother.

By 1930, Pittman had become justice of the peace. At that time, he and Callie had four boarders--all teachers. Pittman later became mayor of Swansboro.

Robert Lee Smith House circa 1901

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places (Pezzoni 1989): 202 Walnut Street - Three-bay "I" house with center-hall plan, two-tier front porch, one-story ell now detached and located on adjoining property. Smith was Swansboro's most prolific early 20th century carpenter - he participated in the construction of at least thirteen structures between 1900 and 1940 - and also built many boats. This was Smith's residence from circa 1901 until 1913.

Robert Lee Smith was born November 30, 1875 in Carteret County, North Carolina to James Smith and Abbie Willis. He married Lina H. Russell in 1897. Lina Russell 1870-1967 was daughter of 1837 Major Russell and 1846 Mary Amelia Barnum. In the 1910 Swansboro census, children in the home included Daisy L. 13, Amelia B. 9 and 11-year-old Marjorie R. Smith. In the 1920 census Smith was listed on Water Street and was a ship carpenter.

Amelia B. Smith married Everett Canady. Daisy Lee Smith Moore 1897-1995 offered history to Early Swansboro History by Lucy Greene.

Robert Lee Smith 
Death Certificate

Lina Russell Smith 
Death Certificate

According to the Swansboro Historical Association's tour brochure, after salvaging a shipwreck on Bear Island, Smith built his home at the corner of Walnut and Church Streets.

Smith retired in 1939, four years before his death. He died from influenza/pneumonia complicated by hypotension.

Ward Cemetery or Swansboro Cemetery circa 1800s

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places: 222 Walnut Street -The cemetery contains approximately 250 marked graves, some in brick and concrete-block walled family plots. It is planted with live oaks, junipers, magnolias and dogwoods. The cemetery has probably been used by townsfolk since the late eighteenth century.

Below are a few headstones; many others are included with house histories.

Augustus W. Pittman House circa 1901

NATIONAL REGISTER of History Places (Pezzoni 1989): 308 Church Street - Triple A "I" house with three-bay center-hall plan, one-story front porch and ell. Pittman served in the Coast Guard.

Augustus Ward Pittman (1871-1951) was the son of John A. Pittman (18 Nov 1839 - 9 Feb 1917)  and Olive Elizabeth Ward of Swansboro. In 1896 John A. Pittman was the mayor of Swansboro--population 300.

In 1899 Augustus married Swansboro neighbor Susan Duffy (1877-1949), daughter of merchant and farmer George Duffy and Agnes Moore.

1900 Census: “Sailor” Augustus 27, Susie G. 23 and one-year-old Augustus F. Pittman. 

1910 Census: “Tugboat Engineer” Augustus 38, Susan G. 33, Augustus F. 11, Kenneth D. 9, George T. 7, John A. 5 and  three-year-old Agnes W. Pittman. 

1920 Census: Augustus 47 was a towing boatman and Susan 42 had the following children: Kenneth 19, George 16, John 14, Agnes 11, Dorothy 7 and two-year-old Robert Pittman. 

1930 Census: Augustus 58, Susie G. 52, Dorothy F. 17, Robert W. 12 and nine-year-old Elsie L. Pittman. Value of home $800. Augustus was noted as a “Captain - Pleasure Yacht." 

Augustus and Susan's son Augustus F. Pittman, who served in the Coast Guard, lived to be 95; he was buried in Norfolk, Virginia.

Augustus W. Pittman and Susan G. Duffy were buried in Ward cemetery.

Thomas H. Pritchard House circa 1905 (Elm)

Pritchard courtesy Jack Dudley

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places (Pezzoni 1989): 

228 Elm Street - Five-bay center-hall plan I-house which may incorporate a slightly earlier house which served as a Methodist parsonage, with decorative one-story porch, rear wings, fine detailing, asbestos siding. Pritchard.was the president of  the Swansboro Land and Lumber Company.

Thomas Henry Pritchard Sr. 1855-1920 was born in Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina to George Lafayette Pritchard and Catherine Riddick Congleton.

In the 1900 census, Thomas Sr. and his wife Charity Hampden "Singie" Anthony were living in Scotland Neck, North Carolina; at that time their son Thomas Henry Pritchard Jr. was 16-years old.

Thomas H. Pritchard Jr. 1883-1945

The 1910 Swansboro census recorded Thomas H. Pritchard Sr. 55, as manager of the saw mill. In the household at that time were: Thomas H. Jr. 26, bookkeeper at the sawmill; William A. 23, salesman at general store; George L. 20, medical student; Sallie A. 17, college; Frank H. 15, college; Peyton 13, salesman at general store; Kate Kess 22, boarder and stenographer at the "mill company."

The 1920 Swansboro census recorded "lumberman" T.H. Pritchard Sr. 64 and T.H. Pritchard Jr. 36, lumber inspector - in the same household. That year T. H. Pritchard Sr. died in Kinston, North Carolina.

By 1930 47-year-old "lumberman" Thomas H. Pritchard Jr. had married Mary W. (Ward?). In the household were Frank Ward 27, George W. Ward 25, Clifton Ward 19 and Mary M. Ward--all perhaps children of Mary.

Thomas Henry Pritchard Jr.'s death certificated noted his having been in the community of Swansboro for 40 years. He was noted as bookkeeper in the lumber business. Pritchard was buried in Ward Cemetery.

Pritchard Jr. or Sr. built another house at 214 Walnut about the same time. 

Ernest Webb House circa 1910

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places (Pezzoni 1989): 307 Church Street. Gable-fronted side-hall plan house with one-story front and rear additions, modern porch, aluminum siding. Robert Lee Smith and Emory Rogers built this house. Drastic 20th century alterations make this house noncontributing. (NR)

Ernest Thomas Webb (1870-1961) was the son of Thomas B. Webb (1838-1879) and Elizabeth Hart Moore (1838-1914); Thomas B. Webb  was noted as a tobaccoist in Durham Township in 1870. By 1880 widow Elizabeth H. Webb (42) was in Swansboro with sons Willie 20, Ernest 9, Charles 7 and daughter Emma 16 with husband Elijah Sewel 22.

Ernest Webb married Sadie Elizabeth Becton in 1889. On the 1910 census Ernest 39 was noted as a retail merchant in Township #5, Craven County. By the 1920 census he was noted on Church Street in Swansboro with wife Sadie 42, James F.15, Ernest C. 12, Madie B. 12 and 6-year-old Milton W. Webb. On that census Ernest is noted as a ship carpenter. By 1930 he and family were in Morehead City where Ernest was noted as an operator of drawbridge.

Onslow County - A Bit of History

Pelletier House, built circa 1850, as seen from New River
Photo circa 1905--Onslow Museum Collection

Attracted by the waterways and longleaf pine forests, the first European and English settlers arrived here in 1713 in what was originally part of the colonial precincts of Carteret and New Hanover. Onslow County was formed in 1734 and was named for the Honorable Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the British House of Commons.

Onslow County is situated on the extreme eastern part of the state. It is bounded on the north and east by Jones County; on the east by Carteret County; on the south by Core Sound and the Atlantic Ocean; and on the west by New Hanover and Duplin Counties.

Interestingly, in 1850 the population of Onslow County was 5,005 whites, 170 free Negroes and 3,108 slaves. Products shipped in 1840 included 47,281 barrels of turpentine, 3,200 bushels of salt, 228,759 bushels of corn, 8,126 bushels of oats, 2,117 bushels of wheat, 218,104 pounds of cotton and 6,981 pounds of wool.

More on Huggins Island

Hammocks Beach State Park is made up of three areas: the 30-acre Mainland, 980-acre unspoiled Bear Island with its wind-swept dunes and 211-acre thick maritime forested Huggins Island—all at the mouth of the White Oak River in Bogue Inlet. Huggins Island played an important role in the history of Swansboro and the state of North Carolina.

In 1861 Confederate authorities found it necessary to construct a number of earthwork fortifications which included one on the White Oak River—to secure against Union attempts to advance inland from the coast. The battery on Huggins Island was completed early December of that year.

In the construction, almost all of the physical labor was performed by Negro laborers—some free Negroes and the rest slaves.  

The bombproof was an underground chamber—a shell-proof magazine with timbers and soil above. A barracks building added accommodation for the garrison.—probably a simple log building. It is believed that only six 32-pound armaments were installed, later removed to New Bern to consolidate efforts against Burnside’s advance. 

Captain Munn

Brigadier General Stevenson

On February 19, 1862, orders were issued for Captain Munn to withdraw his company from Huggins Island. Guns and ordinance were apparently transported to New Bern and ultimately fell into Union hands when Burnside captured New Bern on March 14, 1862.

On August 17, 1862, three months after the siege of Fort Macon, Brigadier General Thomas Stevenson and his forces took possession of Swansboro and destroyed salt works in the area. Before heading back to Beaufort on August 19th, there was a half-hearted attempt to destroy the abandoned Huggins Island Battery—evidenced only by possible explosion of the magazine bombproof.

Though insignificant in the scope of the Civil War—built and occupied for only three months—the site holds greater importance today as the only unspoiled example of Confederate earthwork fortification surviving on the North Carolina coast.

Above is a synopsis from: Huggins Island Battery by Paul Branch, Fort Macon State Park Historian

When the state of North Carolina purchased Huggins Island for incorporation into Hammock Beach State Park, the purpose was to "to protect the island's maritime forest habitat from development pressures in the area" and to protect its coastal waters. It is noteworthy due to its relatively undisturbed maritime forest--currently a nature preserve.

Huggins Island, a significant natural heritage area, was incorporated into Hammock Beach State Park in 1999. The island has a long history of human activity, exemplified by shell middens, a Civil War earthen fortification and farm clearings. An inventory of the flora from 2001-2005 found 192 species of vascular plants in 148 genera and 75 families. Thirteen species were new county records, and five species were significantly rare in North Carolina. Thirteen species of exotics occurred, ten of which are invasive in the southeast. Eleven major plant communities were recognized, including previously recognized, globally rare, maritime swamp forest. The largest community was maritime evergreen forest, and the most species rich was shell midden community. Few signs of human habitation and farming were visible, but most of the upland had storm damage, likely resulting from a series of hurricanes from the mid-1990s.

SOURCE: The Vascular Flora of Huggins Island, Onslow County, North Carolina
Lisa Kelly, Dept. of Biology, UNC at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC

Colonel John Starkey and Edward Starkey

COLONEL JOHN STARKEY
Marker: NC-24 at White Oak River, Swansboro, NC, USA

John Starkey first appeared in the White Oak River area of Carteret County in 1723, and received his first land grant seven years later. He eventually would accumulate extensive properties in the vicinity. Starkey’s political career was launched in 1734 when he was appointed one of the justices of the peace for Onslow Precinct. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1734, and again in 1738, after which time he served in that office consecutively until his death in 1765. In 1750 the lower house, as was their privilege, elected their associate John Starkey to the office of Southern District Treasurer, another position that he held until his death. It was in his position as “Public Treasurer,” as he referred to it, that Starkey rendered the most influence.

Governor Arthur Dobbs was outspoken in his opposition to the treasurer, declaring that he was “a professed violent Republican in every instance taking from his Majesty’s prerogative and encroaching upon the Rights of the Council, and adding to the Power of the Assembly to make himself popular.” Dobbs also disparaged Starkey for wearing plain shoe strings, rather than silver buckles on his shoes, and for dressing plainly and going without a wig. Dobbs would concede, however, that Starkey was “a man of good behavior . . . and of tolerable fortune.”

John Starkey introduced in the House of Commons in 1749 the first bill to provide for a public school in North Carolina. He later introduced the bill to provide the post road and service between Virginia and South Carolina, linking Boston to Charleston. Starkey’s public career, on the regional level, also included service as chairman of Onslow County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, coroner, church warden, commissioner of the town of Johnston, colonel of the Onslow County militia, and treasurer of Onslow County. John Starkey died in March or April 1765, as he appears in records dated March 12, but his death was reported in the Assembly on May 3.

Ancestry Notes:
John Starkey was born in 1688 in Monmouth, New Jersey and died in Onslow County in 1765. His second wife was Alice Wharton, of Jones County, daughter of Edward Wharton and Elizabeth Dudley. John Starkey was buried at The Bluff, Mt. Pleasant Plantation, Swansboro. From Jones Family Tree: "Only one tombstone remains of Ann Keziah Jones Ferrand Whitty Daughter of Kilby Jones."

___________________________________ 

EDWARD STARKEY from Commonwealth of Onslow - A History by Joseph Parsons Brown . Owen G. Dunn Company . New Bern, NC . 1960

Edward Starkey was the second member of the family to achieve prominence in the public service of Onslow. Just what relation he was to John Starkey, the Colonial Treasurer, we do not know.

The family lived on White Oak River, the Starkey burying ground being at the Bluff about four miles above Swansboro indicates that place as the original home site. Later the family lived near the intersection of Starkey Creek and White Oak River, the home known as the “Yellow House” stood not far from where White Oak consolidated school now stands.

Edward Starkey entered the Colonial Assembly for one Session in 1775, a most turbulent period, for in that year Committees of Correspondence were appointed to keep in touch with other colonies. This marked the beginning of colonial cooperation.

He took part in the Provincial Congress at New Bern in April, 1775, when delegates were elected to the Continental Congress, and at Hillsboro when the Provincial Council was set up, was on the Committee on Claims, and with others, was appointed to purchase rigging, anchors and equipment for galleys built in Virginia for the State of North Carolina. With the new constitution which he had helped to form went into effect, he was on the first Council of State. That same year, 1777, a French vessel was captured by the British fleet, but becoming lost at sea the Prize Master returned the ship to her owner, who, his provisions being low, put into White Oak Inlet, now Swansboro, and put his vessel in the hands of Starkey, occasioning the writing of two letters by him which are preserved in the records.

Starkey was again elected to the Commons in 1778 and 1779; also reelected to the Council and in 1783 became Speaker of the House of Commons.

Almost from the first, Starkey occupied an influential position among his contemporaries. His ready wisdom and understanding of questions before the Assembly seemed to enable him to master the situation in every circumstance and soon he held the complete confidence of his contemporaries.

Starkey was deeply interested in education, was one of the Trustees of the James Innes Academy in New Hanover. To promote education in his own county, he in 1783 proposed the following resolution: “Whereas the establishing of public schools at convenient places for the education of youth will be attended with great advantage to inhabitants of their state, etc.” It was proposed that two schools be established in the county, one at Rich Lands with Edward Starkey, James Howard, Fred Harget, Lewis Williams, William Shackelford, and Daniel Yates as trustees, and one at Swansboro, with George Mitchell, Reuben Grant, William Nelms and Joseph Lillibridge, trustees. Also in his will he made ample provision for the education and training of one of his nieces “in a manner suitable to her station in life.”

In 1784 he was on the Commission of Navigation for Bogue Inlet. He remained in the House of Commons until 1787.

Edward Starkey was a religious man. He said in his will that times were so profane that he considered it incumbent upon him “to make a public confession of my sincere and unfeigned belief in the merits of the Holy and Blessed Jesus, hoping and trusting, through Him alone, to receive remission and forgiveness for the manifold sins and wickedness of which I have been guilty.”

Then in the next paragraph he directed that demands against him be paid “especially orphans for whom I have been executor,” and closed the instrument with these words: “Desiring all my relations, friends and acquaintances to pray for the peace and quiet of my soul.”

The will, written in 1781, shows he owned part of the land formerly owned by Treasurer John Starkey, and also that he himself left no descendants. The date of probate is illegible and the date of his death is uncertain, probably about 1788 or 1789.

Thomas Merritt Sr. House circa 1890

NATIONAL REGISTER of Historic Places: 222 Water Street - Unusual three-bay "I" house with a two-tier front porch and two-room plan. The house may have originally been one-story in height.

Thomas Merritt 
Death Certificate

Thomas Merritt, born in South Carolina May 5, 1854, was 56 in the 1910 Swansboro census, with his occupation noted as "passenger boatman." In his household were wife Nettie Moore 37 (married 19 years), along with children George A. 18, Thomas J. 16, Nellie M. 15, Edna B. 10 and four-year-old Lillian M. Merritt. The census also noted that Thomas Merritt's father was born in England; his mother was born in North Carolina.

Thomas Merritt's wife Nettie Moore was born in Onslow County in 1873 to Joseph Francis Moore and Martha Ann Bell.

Thomas Merritt died on July 11, 1932 at the age of 78. According to his death certificate, Merritt was involved in an automobile accident on Highway 24, three miles from Swansboro. He suffered from a broken neck and contusions to his head and face. Attending physician was J.P. Corbett. Thomas and Nettie were both buried in Swansboro's Ward Cemetery.