Beulaville, North Carolina A Somewhat Complete History
Beulaville, North Carolina A Somewhat Complete History
By: Drew
Last Updated:
June 6, 2004Most likely if you're reading this you are from the small town of Beulaville, the surrounding area, or at least attend school or work here. But what do you really know about our town? You probably know some, listening to your parents and grandparents talk, but you most likely have much more to learn.
This isnt very fascinating to say the least, but i feel this information needs to be included first and foremost. Beulaville is located on the coastal plains of North Carolina in Duplin County. It's 90 miles southeast of Raleigh, the states capitol, and 278 miles South of Washington, D.C. The town is positioned at the intersections of NC 111, NC 24, NC 241, and NC 41. It's exact latitude/longitude postion is 34.92 degrees N. of the Equator and 77.77 degrees W. of the Prime Meridian. Beulaville's total land area is 3.183 sq. kilometers. The towns population as of 2002 is roughly 1,990 people.
Now heres something a tad more interesting if you're actually eager to learn something about Beulaville, which now you mention it, wasn't always called Beulaville. At one time the town was referred to as Snatchette, which recieved it's name from the local post office. And how did the post office earn that name? Well, when a fairly large number of people began to move here around the mid 19th century, alot of the townsmen would go down to the edge of Beulaville down Hallsville Road to a "Night Club" to get some "Snatch", thus the name Snatchette. But Beulaville was also known by a another notorius name a short while later in history. The townspeople, after declaring Snattchette an unsuitable name, dubbed their town with the new title of Tearshirt, because of the pure rowdiness of the town at the time. It was said that there was sure to be a fight every Saturday night at an old country store where the former First Citizens Bank is now, especially if there was a newcomer in town. It remained Tearshirt up until 1910 when it was finally changed to Beulaville, the name changed by the postmistress Ida Sandlin who aparently no longer thought the name to be appropriate. Beulaville was named after the Beulah Baptist Church.
Beulaville was founded in 1873, but there were several families and possibly even a plantation scattered about the proximity of Beulaville even before that. The town was incorporated, or officially became a town, in 1915. Beulaville has an economic history revolving mainly around the pine tree and the farming of corn and tobacco. But undeniably the pine tree was the first source of income for the families of Beulaville. From the pine tree came tar, turpentine, resin, paper pulp, and of course the lumber itself. Corn liquor, or moonshine, was also a major source of income around the turn of the century. In the 1920's, Beulavilles economy took a major blow. A huge fire broke out in the major buisness district of the town. The post office, drug store, hotel, and at least six other structures fell victim to the blaze. The town was devastated, but most of the buildings lost in the fire were soon rebuilt. Beulaville was also hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930's. Prior to the Depression, Beulaville was a jumpin' little place. But sadly the Depression forced a large number of Beulaville's stores out of buisness. A majority of the stores were offering credit to farmers, which in most cases the sums owed were vast for the time and never got fully paid, eventually forcing the stores to close up. Many other properties were seized by the bank at this time. But over many years Beulaville eventually recovered and most of the properties were able to be bought back.
Now here's some more of Beulaville's history, this time concerning the school. A public school system in Beulaville had it's beginnings in 1839, when the county passed a tax for the school's support. The school started out in a small wooden building with just one teacher, but by 1901 the little school, nearing 50 years old, had become a four teacher school. In 1906 property was purchased for a new school at the current site of the Old Beulaville School. A new building was erected and first used in the school year of 1917-1918. The enrollment for that year was nearly 200. Three additons, the auditorium, gym, and band building were added in 1923. Additional tracts of land were purchased for the school between the years of 1933-1950. On November 6, 1945 the school's main building burned to the ground. Only the John Hargett Gymnasium and the auditorium were spared. School continued in these buildings and the teacherage until the fall of 1947 when the elementry building was rebuilt and a new high school building had been constructed. Potter's Hill Elementry merged with Beulaville in 1960 and integration was established shortly after that.
The information I'm about to present is essential in understanding what Beulaville was like back in "the day". Sure there wasnt a Hardee's or McDonald's, but there was more than enough to make up for it. The main road through Beulaville was not east to west as it is now, but southwest from from Hallsville to northwest towards Potter's Hill. The railroad that ran from Wilmington to Kinston went through the center of Beulaville, and there was even a small train station four blocks north of main street along where Railroad St. is now. Where Ricky Lenn's store is now was a conveniance store called Mr. Trotts. To the left of that was John Whaley's store and sea food market. Since then it's moved across the highway and become the Whaley's we should all be familiar with. Where BB&T bank is now was an Esso gas station and next to that, where Hardees is now, was I.J. Sandlin's store called Sandlin's General Merchandise. The store was composed of four parts. The first section was hardware, the second a clothing department, the third a grocery store, and in the back were the offices. Connected to that on the right was the post office and across the street from that was Archie Lanier's Sandwich Shop. Inbetween Beulaville Hardware and NAPA Autoparts was a walk-in-movie theater called the Model. It had a balcony for blacks and even a seperate entrance. A man who knew the three stooges lived in Beulaville at the time and even got them to put on a show there in the 40's. The standard admission price for the Model was 15 cents for children and 35 cents for adults. There was also a drive-in theater called the Twilight Drive-In at the corner of Turkey Branch Rd. and Hwy. 24. At the corner of Bostic and Railroad St., where the Treasure Chest antique store is now, was a store called Garner Edwards which sold ferilizer among other things. There was also a soda shop where the McDonalds currently operates. You probably remember the building there before McDonald's. Well, that was it. Around where Beulaville Auto Sales is now, a bowling alley operated. There was also a skating rink down Old Chinquapin road which closed up around the mid 60's or 70's. In addition there were two dry-cleaners, one serving blacks, the other whites, and several restraunts. But probably one of the first, if not the first, structure ever built in Beulaville was the old wooden post office. The post office still stands today in the back of someone's yard near the center of town. People passing by would simply assume it is an old storage building, when in fact it is much more; possibly one of the last relics of what i like to think of as the golden era of Beulaville. Heres a list of a few other buisness that operated in Beulaville throuhout this "golden era":
Hinson's Mill & Blacksmith Shop, D.D. Sandlin Barber Shop, Rhodes Dairy, Rhodes Grill (still in operation), Lanier's Sandwich Shop, Avon's Service Station, J.D. Sandlin Lumber Co., Ashe Miller General Merchandise, Carlistle Raynor Stock and Feeds, Brown and Miller Furniture, Hardware, and Elecrical Supplies, and Norman Mercer's Cafe.Beulaville is an odd little place to say the least. Here, racism still thrives as it does in many other communities throughout America. But here, i would have to say, you can feel it in the air. You can basically divide Beulaville into two sections: south beulaville and everywhere else. Back when harsh racism was publicly accepted throughout most of the country, the townspeople of Beulaville decided to compell the blacks to live in a certain area of the town; "south b" as many of the blacks call it, and "color town" as some of the whites do. This area of the town wasnt exactly a place where one would want to make a permenant residence. Being in a lower area than the rest of the town, it flooded much worse. The roads were not even paved there until the late 80's and early 90's. But none the less, it was seen by the local Ku Klux Klan that all the blacks lived there, as not to cause harm to the good "white folk". I'm not entirely sure if Beulaville still has a KKK. If by chance we still do, it isnt too active. When integration at school in Beulaville first began, Klansmen marched up and down the halls of the school. They didnt do anything serious, but the pure sight of them would likely make your blood run cold. They had been known to burn crosses in front of several homes and businesses who "got along" with the blacks. But thankfully, we don't have anything quite like that anymore. Racism is becoming less and less evident in everyday life in Beulaville, I'm happy to say. As soon as this last generation of hateful, niger bashing old white men die off, I'm hoping there will be an end to racism for good. Though i know this isnt true, no thanks to the blacks themselves for created an irratating steriotype for each other, maybe one day it can finally be eliminated from Beulaville and the rest of the world once and for all.
Another thing that worries me in our town is freemasonry. You may have no idea what I'm talking about, but chances are you have heard of the Masonic Lodge. Visit the weblink that says CLICK HERE!!! and it should tell you everything. I'm not sure how serious the problom is here, but none the less i think it is a problom. The lies need to be exposed and the truths revealed. What it would take for this to occur, i haven't the faintest. I do know, however, that the conspiracy and satanic occultism goes deep... deeper than many would be willing to admit. I fear by the time the world does in fact know the truth it might be too late. Never loose hope or the will to fight.
Hope this webpage served someone some good in better understanding Beulaville, North Carolina.
-Disabled_Freedom_Fighter@hotmail.com
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