North Carolina Minute

A Duplin County Man

Jesse Grimes, was born February 6, 1781 in Duplin County. There is very little of Grimes' early life and education. In 1813 he was appointed Justice of the Peace by the North Carolina General Assembly. After serving four years in that office, Grimes moved his family to Washington County, Alabama. He had hardly settled in Alabama before they appointed him Justice of the Peace in Washington County.

His wife died in 1824 and Grimes remarried and moved to Texas, finally settling down in Grimes Prairie. He must have been fond of community and state service, for he served as First Lieutenant of the First Company Battalion of Austin Texas, member of the General Council of the Provisional Government of Texas, as such he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first Texas Constitution.

Grimes also served as a judge of his home district. His son Alfred was one of the soldiers that were killed in the Battle of the Alamo. Upon the announcement of his son's death, Grimes mustered into service a company of Volunteers for the Texas Army. Following his service in the Texas Army, Grimes was elected to both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas State Senate. He was serving in the Senate when Texas was admitted into the Union.

In 1857 when Sam Houston ran for governor of Texas, Grimes was nominated Lt. Governor on the Houston ticket. In that election Houston was defeated. Following that defeat, Grimes retired from political life. Some of the Texas folks wanted him, to run for governor in 1861, however, he opposed secession and refused to run.

Grimes died on March 15, 1866.

On This Day

- June 29, 1767 - The first tax leveled by the British government on America, by passage of the Townsend Revenue Act.

- June 30, 1936 - Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone With The Wind, is published.

- July 1, 1863 - In the first day's battle at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreat through the town and dig in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.

- July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law.

- July 3, 1962 - Baseball player Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

- July 4, 1826 - Two former Presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die within a few hours of each other.

- July 5, 1776- John Dunlop in Philadelphia first prints The Declaration of Independence. (Note: A man working in a house in Philadelphia about 25 years ago found one of Dunlap's copies and it sold for $235,000.)

How the Yankees Found Tar River

The Colonel Hill had tied up at dark, and the prisoners, wishing to take a bath, the officers in command had stationed guards with torches on both banks of the river, and gave them permission to wade in, which they did, and stirred up the tar and turpentine from the bottom of the river, and they got well smeared with it.

When some of the officials came among the prisoners each man had his rations of meat in one hand and a small piece of stick in the other, greasing and scrap for dear life. We shut off the steam, when we hailed to them, "Hello boys, what's the matter." The reply was, "We have heard of Tar River all our lives, but never believed that there was any such place, but be damned if we haven't found it, the whole bed of it is tar."

Two Runaway Apprentices

Ten Dollar Reward

Ran away from the subscriber, on the night of the 15th instant, two apprentice boys, legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson. The former is of a dark complexion: black hair, eyes, and habits. They are much of a height, about 5 feet 4 or 5 inches. The latter is very fleshly freckled face, light hair, and fair complexion. They went off with two other apprentices, advertised by Messrs Wm. & Chas. Fowler. When they went away, they were well-clad - blue cloth coats, light colored homespun coats, and new hats, the maker's name in the crown of the hats is Theodore Clark. I will pay the above award to any person who will deliver said apprentices to me in Raleigh, or I will give the above reward for Andrew Johnson alone.

All persons are cautioned against harboring or employing said apprentices, on pain of being prosecuted.

James Selby, Tailor

Raleigh, N. C. June 24, 1824

It is said that the boys got into a bit of trouble and rather than go to jail, they ran away. Andrew and William went to Carthage and stayed for a while. However, realizing they were too close to Raleigh they struck out for South Carolina. Several years later Andrew returned to Raleigh to finish out his apprenticeship, but Selby was no longer in business and did not need Andrew. Andrew returned to South Carolina.

Again he came back to Raleigh and took his mother and stepfather across the state into Tennessee where he made his home. Although he was born in Raleigh on December 29, 1808, he entered the office as our 17th president from the State of Tennessee.

If you ever get an opportunity to read or study the life of Andrew Johnson, it will be time well spent.

The following ad appeared in the "Raleigh Register" on June 24, 1824.

(The Confederate Reveille) - When the Confederates were preparing to evacuate Washington, North Carolina, in March 1862, they sent men to destroy all cotton and naval stores that would be likely to fall into the possession of the enemy. At Taft's store in downtown Washington, they found about one thousand barrels of tar and turpentine; and as they could not burn it without burning several houses, they rolled the barrels to the banks of the Tar River. They cut the hoops in two and dumped them in the river. In June of the same year going up the Tar River, the steamer Governor Morehead met the Steamer Colonel Hill, with two flat boats carrying four hundred Yankee soldiers from the prison at Salisbury, N. C. to Washington, N. C., to be exchanged.