FORGOTTEN PLACES IN PITT COUNTY—PART V Rochdale and Other Places Near Bell Arthur The following is a small history of some of the villages and communities that once lay in Beaver Dam Township, now called Bell Arthur Township. In 1900 Rochdale (or Cobb’s Store) was considered the social and commercial center of Beaver Dam Township. It was located on the Stantonsburg Road, eight miles west of Greenville or nearly six miles east of Farmville. Cobbdale, which was a large stock farm occupied by B. P. Cobb, was located about one mile north of Rochdale, and Arthur (now Bell Arthur) was 1œ miles south. Smithtown was 1œ miles northeast of Rochdale, and Marltown was three miles south. Poketink (or Nicholstown) was located about four miles southeast of Rochdale, and Grimmersburg was about four miles south. Now that I have you thoroughly lost, I want to begin talking about Cobb’s Store (or Rochdale). About the year 1872, J. C. Cobb erected a little store on his farm and had each of his boys work in it to gain business experience. The store grew and was a successful business and his sons went on to own their own stores. By 1888, the store was known as J. C. Cobb and Son; Robert J. Cobb remained with his father as a junior partner. On June 28, 1888, a post office was established in Cobb’s Store known as Rochdale with Robert J. Cobb as postmaster. The post office remained there until October 1891 when the post office was closed. The post office was opened again in August 1894 with Charles L. Tyson as postmaster, but was closed in January 1897. Cobb’s Store was eventually sold to C. D. Smith which was probably when the Rochdale office reopened the second time. Very little is known about the Rochdale area other than it was a farming community. At Smithtown, the seat of the Ivy Smith, Mills Smith, and Jesse L. Smith families, there stood a schoolhouse known as Smith’s Schoolhouse. Built by 1869, it became the social center of the community. It was here that religious services were held several times a week, Sunday school was held each Sunday, and choir practice was held one night a week. Some of the remembered teachers at Smith’s Schoolhouse between 1907 and 1910 were Miss May Brooks, Miss Dell Clement, Miss Mary Joyner, Miss Rebecca Evans, Mrs. D. K. Smith, and Miss Lena E. Gary. Besides the religious ceremonies, Smith’s Schoolhouse was the site for public and political gatherings. There was also a Woman’s Betterment Association which held basket parties at the schoolhouse to raise money to help fund the school. The Association helped buy the schoolhouse an organ in 1908, with Mrs. L. W. Smith as the first organist. In September 1907, the Norfolk and Southern Railroad built a rail line through Beaver Dam Township and opened a station there known as Cobbdale, since it was near Cobbdale stock farm. The station was moved to Arthur a few years later. In April 1909, the Rochdale and Smithtown boys organized a debating society, known as the Phoenix Debating Society, that met every Friday night. In November 1909, a farm club was organized at Smith’s Schoolhouse by G. C. Hedgepeth of Nash County, and by 1910 the Rochdale boys had organized a baseball team. In January 1910, C. D. Smith almost lost his store by fire. It seems that Mrs. Smith, who clerked in the store for her husband, went out to pick up wood to put in the heater late one night and saw a lot of smoke. She looked to the top of the store and saw flames coming through the shingles near the stove flue. She rushed to the store and gathered up all the books and valuable papers and then gave the alarm. In a few minutes a dozen men had arrived and soon had a line of buckets going from the well to the roof. With persistence the fire was put out and damage to the store was mainly by water on the goods. In March 1911 the Dramatic Club of Smithtown presented a drama in Smith’s Schoolhouse, the proceeds going for the benefit of the Christian Church in Arthur. The final end of Rochdale came when, in February 1912, the old store once known as Cobb’s Store and later as C. D. Smith’s Store was moved to Arthur by L. A. Fulford. Arthur soon became a bustling town and Rochdale began to fade into just a place name in the forgotten past of Pitt County. —Roger Kammerer Greenville Times July 31, 1996