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James A. Hall

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California, Santa Cruz County, Watsonville
An accomplished attorney and Watsonville mayor, James A. Hall was an adventurer at heart. In the summer of 1900, he set out to find a lost mining claim near Teller, Alaska. Before too long, he was lost himself. Without provisions and clad in summer attire, he wandered aimlessly for 68 days. Starving and near death, he was found at last by two hunters. His book documenting the ordeal “Starving on a Bed of Gold” is a rare look at one of Watsonville’s pioneers.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Leaksville Cotton Mill

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Eden

Former Gov. John Motley Morehead built the Leaksville cotton factory here in 1839. Water from the nearby Smith River rapids powered the stone mill. In May and June 1861, the factory furnished 1,700 yards of osnaburg (a coarse, strong cloth developed in Osnabruck, Germany, by the 16th century) for uniforms for Confederate infantry companies commanded by Capts. John H. Boyd, Thomas T. Slade, and Giles P. Bailey. That winter, the factory also made 500 twelve-man tents for the Confederate forces. Known as Sibley tents for their inventor, Gen. Henry H. Sibley, who sided with the Confederacy, they were also called “bell” tents because of their shape.

When authorities ordered additional cloth from Morehead, he refused even after they threatened to confiscate the mill because sales to civilians were more profitable. After the younger male employees were conscripted into military service, Morehead used older men, women, children, and slaves to manufacture cloth. He finally closed the mill when all able-bodied men under fifty were forced to serve. Morehead later convinced Confederate authorities to detail two older men to work in the mill and resumed the production of cloth for sale to civilians.

After Morehead died in 1866, his son James Turner Morehead managed the Leaksville factory. The original structure burned in 1893, and a brick mill was built on the site using the rock from the old building as a foundation. The mill was demolished in 1992, leaving only the stone foundation.

(Industry & Commerce • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Boys, you must get out of here! You are surrounded!

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Tennessee, Rutherford County, Murfreesboro
-James Negley, brigadier general, commanding 2nd Division, Center Wing

The jumbled rocks you see here sheltered the four Union regiments of Miller's brigade during a hard two-hour-long fight. Rebel bullets whined and ricocheted, wounding many. Men in blue from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania grimly held on tight inside this limestone labyrinth.

Then General Sheridan's troops, who had been fighting on your right, ran out of bullets, broke ranks, and ran. General Negley called for a retreat as waves of gray-clad soldiers threatened to overwhelm his men on three sides. This stone stronghold turned into an ankle-twisting deathtrap.

Many of the men who fought here had seen the huge slaughter pens of Chicago's meatpackers. When they saw so many dead and wounded men stacked here, the soldiers called this place "the Slaughter Pen."

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Beauty and the Beach

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
The first Miss California Pageant took place at the Boardwalk in 1924, drawing huge crowds. The pageant moved to the Civic Auditorium in 1966. Santa Cruz enjoyed the economic benefits of this popular event until 1985.

Faye Lanpheir, Miss Alameda, won the first Miss California crown at the Boardwalk in 1924. When she was crowned Miss California again in 1925, Faye was criticized by newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst who asked how Lanphier could be a bathing beauty if she couldn't even swim. Despite the criticism, Fay was crowned Miss America in Atlantic City that year.

(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Boards

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
These boards are part of the original Santa Cruz Boardwalk and were saved during a restoration project completed in 1984.
This project was one of many completed under Laurence P. Canfield, President of the Santa Cruz Seaside Company from 1952 to 1984

(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Magical Merry-go-round

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
Whether you call it a merry-go-round, carousel, or whirlgig, visitors have always been enchanted with the Boardwalk’s oldest ride. At the grand opening of the “hippodrome,” as the carousel and its building were called, one hundred rocking chairs were provided so that mothers could sit comfortably to enjoy the music and watch their children ride the brilliant new horses.

Preservation of the carousel is labor of love. Boardwalk artists repair and repaint the horses during the off-season.

The Boardwalk’s carousel was named a National Historic Monument in 1987.

The Man
Charles I.D. Looff began building carousels in 1880. By 1911, when he delivered the Boardwalk’s shining new carousel, Looff was well known for his work and it had made him wealthy. His son Arthur built the Boardwalk’s Giant Dipper roller coaster.

The Brass Ring
This carousel has one of the few remaining ring dispensers in the country. Rings once fed manually into the metal arm by a “ring boy”. The process was mechanized in 1950. The Boardwalk goes through more than 70,000 steel rings each year. Brass rings are still used on special occasions.

The Horses
All 73 were originally produced by Looff’s company.
Each horse has a real horsehair tail.
The 71 “jumpers” move up and down, the two “standers” are stationary.
The chariots ensured that ladies of the early 1900s could be modest and safe when the rode the carousel.

(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Piedmont Railroad

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Reidsville

The Piedmont Railroad, chartered in 1862, linked Danville, Virginia, with Greensboro, North Carolina. Work began on the road that autumn in Danville, but wartime labor and supply shortages impeded progress on the 48-mile-long line, which did not extend here to Reidsville until late in 1863. Passenger service between the two towns began on December 21, and the railroad was completed to Greensboro in May 1864. For the remainder of the war it was a vital supply line from North Carolina to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

In 1865, the community here consisted of a few houses and a store containing a post office established in 1829 by future governor David S. Reid. By the 1850s, Joseph Holderby and his son-in-law William Lindsey owned much of the property here. Holderby laid out a town that he named Reidsville after he learned of the planned railroad; he sold a few lots, but the town did not prosper. Reidsville did become the county collection point for Confederate taxes, however, and Holderby served as collector for tax district 35.

It was along this route on the morning of April 11, 1865, that the train carrying Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet rolled from Danville to Greensboro after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, two days earlier. The present Norfolk Southern Railway follows the historic route of the Piedmont Railroad. Reidsville grew quickly after the war and was incorporated in 1873. A Confederate monument was erected several blocks northwest of here in 1910.

( Sidebar : )
After passing through Reidsville, Jefferson Davis and his dwindling entourage continued through North and South Carolina to Georgia, where U.S. cavalry captured him near Irwinsville on May 10, 1865. Davis was incarcerated at Fort Monroe, Virginia, until his release on May 13, 1867.

(Railroads & Streetcars • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Burgers at the Beach

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
The restaurant now called Surf City Grill has been known by other names and owned by several families over the years. In spite of these changes, it remains a favorite for satisfying the appetites of visitors, ravenous after a day at the Boardwalk.

(Entertainment • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Annie Eliza Johns

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Eden

Anne “Annie” Eliza Johns, volunteer nurse, poet, teacher, and author of Cooleemee, A Tale of Southern Life, is buried here with her family in the Church of the Epiphany Cemetery. She was born in Pittsylvania Co.,Va., on July 16, 1831. Her father, Dr. Anthony Benning Johns, moved the family here to Leaksville in 1835. In 1846, Annie Johns attended the Edgeworth Female Seminary in Greensboro, N.C. The Right Rev. John Johns, who later administered the oath of office to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, confirmed her in the Episcopal Church on November 3, 1851.

Johns rose to fame as a nurse during the Civil War. In April 1862, Dr. James Cabell, surgeon in charge of the newly established Confederate hospital complex in Danville, Va., offered her the position of chief matron. She instead became assistant matron, superintending the hospital’s clothing and bedding. Besides her assigned duties, she ministered to the sick and wounded patients, read to them, wrote letters for them, and did her best to make them comfortable. She and her fellow nurses urged authorities to provide better transportation for the wounded and furloughs for recuperating soldiers. When a hospital was constructed in the winter of 1863-64 for Union prisoners, Johns volunteered her services there as well and remained to care for them after Confederate patients were moved to Richmond. She left Danville on March 1, 1865, after the Union prisoners were transported to the Confederate capital.

Johns lived in Leaksville for the rest of her days, a dedicated member of the Church of the Epiphany. She died on October 22, 1889.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Booker T. Washington High School

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Reidsville

      The school was built to serve African-American students of Reidsville, NC and Rockingham County. The graduates of this great institution have made contributions to society in a variety of vocations and professions.

      The outstanding teachers and staff members of the school were served by the following principals:
Mr. J.A. McRae; Dr. S.E. Duncan; Mr. H.M. Holmes; and Mr. H.K. Griggs.

      The original building was located 617 ft. north of this historical marker.

(African Americans • Education) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Lower Saura Town

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Eden
A village of the Saura
Indians, abandoned by
that tribe in the early
18th century, was on
Dan River, 2½ mi. N.E.

(Colonial Era • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Masonic Home

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North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro
Established in 1912 by
Grand Lodge of Masons
and Order of Eastern
Star for their aged.

(Fraternal or Sororal Organizations) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

“River boat Men: Dan River, 1792 – 1892”

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North Carolina, Rockingham County, Eden

The mural of the river boatmen is a tribute to the men who were responsible for the economic development of the vast interior region along the Dan River. The most prominent figures in the mural, the African American boatmen in the foreground, reflect dignity and the community’s respect for them. The little known role of these boatmen is honored by this mural, which proclaims their important legacy to the community.

Throughout the nineteenth century in an era of poor roads, goods were transported by the bateaux until the arrival of railroads. Prior to the Civil War the batteaumen were primarily enslaved and free blacks and some whites. There is evidence of some boats being crewed entirely by slaves, including the captain. Regardless of their personal status, boatmen were respected for their boat building expertise and especially for their skills as pilots on the river. The figure in the mural with his hand on the sweep (tiller) is the batteau captain and pilot, responsible for the safe arrival of the boat’s crew and cargo.

After the Civil War, batteaumen were the region’s most important black entrepreneurs, continuing their dominance as builders, captains, and crewmen of the vessels, and becoming the owners as well. By 1870 there were some 200 batteaux on the river. The boatmen lived mostly in the river ports of Madison, Leaksville, and Milton in North Carolina and in the Virginia ports of South Boston, Clarksville, and especially in Danville, the river’s largest city. Edward Pollock of Danville wrote in 1870 that the boatmen were “important persons” valued for their skills who “wielded a certain amount of influence in the community.”Lindley Butler
Rockingham County Historian

(African Americans • Industry & Commerce • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fickle Fashion

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
At the turn of the century, lounging couples covered the beach much as they do today. But the women were fully dressed, and men wore hats and coats. Laws prohibited sitting on the beach in bathing attire. Today, from bikinis to tankinis, women’s beachwear stresses comfort and individuality. The popularity of the local surf culture makes baggy “board shorts” the most popular choice of men’s swimsuits.

(Arts, Letters, Music) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Boardwalk Goes Hollywood

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
The timeless and picturesque Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has “starred” in everything from industrial films, commercials, and music videos to made-for-TV movies and feature-length big-screen releases.

(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ace Roller Coaster Landmark

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California, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz
American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) recognizes Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's Giant Dipper as an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark, a designation reserved for rides of historic significance.

The 75-foot high wood coaster officially opened on May 17, 1924, replacing the 1908 L.A. Thompson scenic railway. With a track length of over 2,700 feet and an initial drop of 63 feet 6 inches, the innovative track design with articulating trains included tight twists, a thrilling serpentine tunnel, a graceful pan turn and the unusual curved station. Designed by Fredrick Church (1878-1938), it was constructed in less that seven weeks for $50,000 by Arthur Looff (1888-1970) who described the ride as a “combination earthquake, balloon ascension, and aeroplane drop.”

Over time, the stylish cars have been updated, adding to the charm of this well-maintained, double out-and-back coaster, which earned National Historic Landmark status in February 1987. While it has starred as a backdrop in several Hollywood films, this rare seaside coaster is best enjoyed during golden sunsets and after dark when tracer lights magically accentuate its legendary profile.

Considered one of the ten oldest operating roller coasters in the world and one of only three remaining examples of Church’s work, the beloved Giant Dipper continues to thrill riders of all ages and remains an integral part of the Boardwalk’s outstanding collection of rides and attractions.

Presented by American Coaster Enthusiasts
During the 100th Anniversary of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
May 5, 2007

(Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Gen. William Lee Davidson Was Killed

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North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Huntersville
Cowan’s Ford, Catawba River
where
the Revolutionary Hero
Gen’l. William Lee Davidson
was killed in action Feb. 1, 1781

Born at
Lancaster, Pa.
1746
-------•-------
Davidson College
Founded 1837
-------•-------
Erected by
Edward Lee Baxter Davidson

(Education • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

General William Lee Davidson

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North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Huntersville
To the memory of
General William Lee Davidson
of Mecklenburg County N.C.
Born in 1746. Youngest son of George Davidson
of Lancaster, PA. who moved to Mecklenburg Co.,
North Carolina, in 1750.
Major 4th Reg. North Carolina Troops.
Promoted Lieutenant-Colonel.
Severely wounded at Calson’s Mill.
He was promoted for bravery
to the rank of Brigadier-General.
With 300 men opposing Cornwallis and troops
he was killed at Battle of Cowan’s Ford
Februay 1, 1781.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Richard Barry

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North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, Huntersville

Tanner
Legislator
Signer of Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence

Co-founder of:
      HopewellPresbyterian Church
      City of Charlotte
      Mecklenburg County
      N.C. Superior Court

He recovered General William L. Davidson’s body after the Cowan’s Ford Battle and brought him to Hopewell Church for burial.

Family homesite approximately 0.2 miles east.

(Colonial Era • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Jose Antonio Navarro

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Texas, Navarro County, Corsicana
Lover of liberty. Foe of despotism. Born in San Antonio, Texas, February 27, 1795. Died January 13, 1871 and buried there. Member of the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, 1821; land commissioner of De Witt's colony 1831 and of Bexar District, 1834-1835; signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836; member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1838-1839; a commissioner of the Santa Fe Expedition, 1841; member of the Constitutional Convention of 1845; senator in the Legislature of Texas, 1846-1849. Navarro County gratefully bears his name. Corsicana was named by him for the isle of his father's birth - Corsica.

(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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