Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
North Carolina is a well-known retirement destination, offering everything from mountains to a beautiful coast and everything in between. While there have been some famous people to settle here after becoming famous, there are also some great legends and tall tales about others. One unsolved case is that of Jean Lafitte — a pirate, privateer,…
Most people are familiar with the Scopes “Monkey Trial” held in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. High school teacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolution. The case drew national attention — which was exactly what city leaders wanted when they set up the whole thing. It was a PR stunt. Tennessee was one…
North Carolina is known as the “Old North State” and the “Tar Heel State.” The University of North Carolina’s mascot is the Tar Heels. But there isn’t total agreement on where the nickname started. When I was in elementary school, most of the attribution for the nickname had Civil War roots. The most common I…
In 1755, a law was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly for “relief of the poor and the prevention of idleness.” Later, in 1817, a tax was approved, and through private donations and will bequests, funding for the poor slowly came about. Not much was done formally until well into the antebellum period, when…
Going through school, it seemed we never got to the history I was most interested to know in class. It was rare to get much about the Revolution and forget the Civil War. It sure seemed like we spent plenty of time on the Greeks and Romans and Holy Roman Empire. However, we always got…
Most Americans have heard about how Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star- Spangled Banner” while onboard a British ship during the shelling of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. (Technically, he was on an American truce ship tethered to a British ship) The poem went on to become our national anthem after being set…
The man was known as Omeroh, Moro, or Omar Ibn Seid and caused quite a curiosity in Fayetteville back in the early 1800s. The story goes that in 1810, John Owen — a man who later became governor of North Carolina — went to the Cumberland County jail and secured the release of a “strange-looking,…
David Marshall Williams was so good at hiding his moonshine stills and keeping his illegal business under wraps, even his wife didn’t know about it. However, on a fateful day in 1921, that secret came to light and almost cost Williams his life. Sheriff’s deputies raided his Cumberland County operation near Godwin where Williams and…
There have been plenty of movies made about America-Russia conflicts, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall. “Red Dawn” came out when I was a teenager and featured a Russian invasion of America. However, it seems lost to history that Americans actually fought Russians in Russia during the Russian Revolution. In 1918, America, France, Canada, and…
Americans are used to the tradition of the national anthem being played at the start of major sporting events. It was not preplanned. On September 11, 1918, Game 5 of the World Series was scheduled to be played between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. While it may seem like a modern theme,…