9.29- Smith's Friendly Mini Mart

The old Smith's store in Mesic, NC

Mesic is an incorporated town in Pamlico County, NC with a population of fewer than 250 folks. It is just across Vandemere Creek from the town of Vandemere (see prior two posts) on the Bay River (see map, bottom of post)...

The information below is a summary of info I learned about Mesic and its families from the research and writings of Bill Smith (a.k.a. "Poppa Bear") of Mesic - my source is a very intriguing (if somewhat enigmatic) genealogical/history web site put together by Bill Smith bout his 11 year quest "In Search of Rodger - 1710-2009."

The above store (no longer in operation) is owned by the Smith family, descendants of "Maricay," b. 1710, a mestizo slave from Maracay, Venezuala who ended up as a slave of the Midyette family in Hyde County. (No doubt part of the same Midyette family which subsequently produced Oriental's founder Ropert P. Midyette, who in 1873 migrated from Dare County to purchase the land that eventually became the town of Oriental.)**

Maricay's son, Charles, married Elizabeth Jennett, who "was said to have been on the English slave ship Good Intent and ended up in Hyde County after the ship was wrecked near Cape Hatteras in 1767."

Charles and Elizabeth gave birth to their son "America" on July 4, 1776.

America, who was legally granted freedom by the Midyette family in 1808, was Poppa Bear's great-great-great-grandfather... America had 10 children, four of whom had been born before or during 1808... I have not yet found any mention about whether America's wife or children were also given their freedom in 1808.

It seems that many of Mesic's current residents, about 70% of whom are African-American, are descendants of slaves held by some of eastern NC's earliest European settlers (at least the ones that didn't mysteriously disappear) - including McCotter, Credle, Midyett, Green, Blunt, and O'Neal - whose surnames were adopted by their former slaves upon gaining their freedom, before and after the Civil War.

According to Poppa Bear;

"After the Civil War was over, some time in the late 1860's. Old man
Jacob McCotter needed farm hands to work his farms, so he hired a
large boat to bring some of our ancestors from Hyde Co. this boat
landed in Lowland. [Another ancestor,] Rodger [Smith] and his family
migrated to Pamlico Co. in the early 1880's. They also came by boat
and landed in Lowland...

"They worked on the area farms, clearing farm land digging drainage
canals and in the lumber camps. They worked hard from sun up to
sunset and saved what they could so that they could buy land and build
their homes..."

Mr. "Poppa-Bear" Smith's web site is chock full of fascinating documents (including copies of wills conveying his ancestors), historic photographs, oral histories and anecdotes related to his 11-year effort to to trace his family's ancestry to its African roots... As Mr. Smith quotes his Aunt Louisa (b. 1896.), "We've come a long way, children."

See Mr. "Poppa-Bear" Smith's family history web site at http://poppabear.org/

The official Town of Mesic website is at http://www.mesictownof.com/

Smith's Friendly Mini Mart location in Mesic, NC:

View Smith's Mini Mart, Mesic, NC in a larger map

** Yes, I know the "official" Oriental history published by the Oriental Tourism Board credits Louis B. Midyette with founding the town, but my research strongly suggests otherwise.


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9,28- Summons to Ophelia?

"Exit" sign leading to a boat ramp in Vandmere

This sign made me think of Shakespeare's "Ophelia," Hamlet's love interest who escaped her hopelessness and Hamlet's increasing madness by descending into the waters of a stream, singing a last song as the weight of her clothing pulled her under.

Luckily, this boat ramp is used for much more cheerful purposes, like going fishing!

It is located at the end of First St. in Vandemere, between two fish-houses, the Pamlico Packing Co. (see yesterday's posting) and McCotter's Seafood Co.

I have read in various places that, at least in NC, where a public street ends at water it is normally presumed to be usable for public (i.e. free) access to the water.

It certainly appears that this ramp is at the terminus of First St. on the water (see photo, left)...

And the Pamlico County Tax office map shows First St. extending to the waterline (see below, click to enlarge, red parts added by me).


The Pamlico County tax map has, however, been known in the past to offer misleading depictions of taxable properties and street-ends) The map shows the property to the east of the ramp belonging to Pamlico Packing, and that west of the ramp to the heirs of H. Carawan, and the public right-of-way is shown going all the way to the water where the ramp is located.

But this ramp has an "honor-box" next to it (see below,) a sure sign that someone considers it to be a private ramp... no indication on the box as to who that might be - just a faint etching of "$5.00 RAMP FEE" (hard to see - click on image to enlarge)


Another Pamlico County street-end mystery... well, the deed searching on this one belongs to someone else.

Here is the spot on Google Maps:

View Ice house at Pamlico Packing Co. in a larger map

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9.27- Vandemere fish-house

Ice-house at the Pamlico Packing Co. complex on First Street in Vandemere

(click on image to enlarge)

Today I took an afternoon drive to some parts of Pamlico County I have not previously visited by land.

This is one of the buildings at the "Pamlico Packing Co." fish-house complex on First Street in the town of Vandemere (population 289)(Vandemere town web site here), at the confluence of Vandemere Creek into Bay River (see map below). A "fish-house" is a place where commercial fishing vessels can dock and unload their catch for processing, packing and loading onto trucks for trans-shipment.

This building was (is?) apparently the ice-house on the complex... Commercial fishing vessels need vast quantities of ice in their holds to keep their catches fresh until they get back to the fish-house, so ice production is a standard function at fish-houses.

According to this New Bern Sun Journal article about Vandemere, the "Pamlico Packing Co." was formerly the "I.J. Packing Co." until purchased and renamed in 1941 by Earl Holton and his brother-in-law Robert Whorton (who also once owned a packing and canning company here in Oriental.)

I can find nothing about "Homer Wall," whom the sign on this building identifies as the owner of "Wall's." According to Pamlico County tax records, the part of the complex on which this building stands is owned by Pamlico Packing and "Vandemere Ice Co.," which NC Sec'y of State in turn indicates is still owned by the son-in-law of Earl Holton...

A local informed me the fish-house is still operational, though it looks to me like some of the buildings are not used very much, if at all.

The ice-house building is marked on the map below:

View Vandemere fish house in a larger map

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10.11- Bay River fish-house

Shrimp boats rafting at Gaskill Seafood Co. docks in Bayboro.

Today I walked in the rain around the Gaskill Seafood Co. on the Bay River in Bayboro (county seat of Pamlico County).

Gaskill Seafood is a twelve mile trip up the Bay River from its' mouth on the Neuse River...

The Bay River is only a tad over 100 feet across where these 70 foot long trawlers are rafting.

Makes me wonder just how they turn around.

There were six trawlers in tied up at Gaskill today.

You can zoom in on the Gaskill Seafood Co. and explore the Bay River on the embedded Google Maps below, or Click here for full size Google Map ZOOMED IN ON GASKILL SEAFOOD:


Embedded with Map Channels.

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