Still quoting from Centennial History of Alamance County 1849-1949 by Whitaker Social activities had always gone on sporadically in the county, and now began to be more pronounced. The continued growth and development of towns and communities--Burlington, Graham, Mebane, and the others--led to an increase in group and community social and cultural functions. In the rural sections of the county, the old American custom of visiting was very popular. Communications were poor and the farms were isolated, so the country people looked forward eagerly to the visits of the neighbors and friends and the exchange of news. Sometimes traveling peddlers would vend their wares through the county; their "foreign" clothes and accents brought curious stares and hesitant questions from the untraveled people of the land. They seemed strange and exotic and interesting, with their "Yankee brogues" and their casual mention of far-away places like Philadelphia and New York and Boston Sports held a prominent place in the social life of the county during this period. Hunting and fishing wre popular among the men, and self-styled marksmen often matched their skill at "turkey shoots". Wagon, buggy and horse races were often held, and brought great excitement to the spectators. It was a stirring sight to see pairs of fine horses thundering along, raising clouds of dust and roars of encouragement and ovation. Baseball was in its infancy then, but it has become extremely popular in the county. Each community had its team, and rivalries were keen. The game as it was then played was rather crude and unperfected, and the scores were usually large. In 1887, for instance, the Graham Mutuals defeated Company Shops by the score of 41-38. Rounders, a form of baseball, was often played when a regular game couldn't be organized. In this game, each player started at left field and, as batsmen were retired, played each position until he came to bat. Whenever groups of people gathered for festive occasions, such as auctions, physical contests were held for entertainment. rough and tumble wrestling, boxing, high jumping, broad jumping--all were popular interludes in the days business. For those who preferred less strenuous exercise, "barnyard golf," or horseshoe pitching, had its attractions. The first Alamance County fair was held in a warehouse on Davis Street in Burlington on Octorber 10-11, 1888, and was attended by a large crowd. That same year, The county Fair Association signed a 30 year lease for 12 acres of the county poor house lands to be used as a permanent fairground. This land lay between Graham and Burlington at the present site of the Cloth Finishing Plant of Burlington Mills, near which a small section of the old race track can still be seen. Annual fairs were held here for many years, and people came to Alamance from some distances to attend them. On the morning of a fair, the grounds would begin to fill early with eager and expectant people. Some walked, some rode horses, some came in buggies or wagons, and some pedaled awkward and tricky "wheels", or bicycles. A long table was set up inside the race track, and here the picnic lunches were spread. The speech was the featured part of the fair, and in that day of no loudspeakers those who were interested gathered around the dignitaries, while whose who were indifferent retired to a shady spot and lit a pipe or bit a "chaw of plug". When it became time for the horse race, the track was cleared and the spectators watched the line of handsome horses prance into postion. The fair was famous for its fine pure-bred horses. One wwell known horse was Esperanza, from the stables of Colonel Julius HARDEN, and another was John R. GENTRY, from the L. Banks HOLT's Alamance Farm at Graham. In 1894, the latter horse, at Terre Haute, Ind., paced a mile in 2:03 minutes to set a new record for stallions. Livestock, farm, and home exhibits were held and the midway operated, but for children of all ages the big thrill was the balloon flight. They watched excitedly as the big bag filled with hot air from a kerosene burner, then soared skyward with the balloonist doing stunts on a suspended trapeze. Soon he opened a parachute and floated back to earth, while the balloon rose a few hundred feet, whas turned upside-down by sand bags on one side and quickly descended under a trail of smoke. For the gentler sex, entertainment during this period ran to croquet, spelling bees, quiltings, and dances. In the rural sections of the county, barn-raisings and corn huskings brought together groups of both sexes in a festive spirit. It is interesting to look back into some details of daily life of this period in Burlington and the county. These glimpses seem quaint and curious today, but old-timers will remember them with perhaps a twinge of nostalgia. Take a walk down Main Street of the Burlngton of 1900. Stroll along the two-board sidewalk, light up your "White Roll" cigarette, and observe the early days of Burlington. There is less than a solid block of business houses on Mail Street, and some of these are false-fronted wooden structures. They look out on a rough dirt street that disappears south through an avenue of trees and comes to an abrupt halt at the passenger station to the north. Horses hitched to wagons and buggies are tied up at telegraph poles and hitching posts along the street. There are no automobiles to be seen, but a daring fellow pedals by on his skyscraper bicycle, narrowly missing a boy who scuffs along the road in his brass-toed shoes. A woman comes by in her bustle and long skirt, heading for B. A. SELLAR's store; she wears no lipstick, but her nose is carefully powdered. The buggies and horses of the rural mail carriers are lined up in front of the post office on Main Street, and a crowd of people waits at the railroad station to watch the train come in and leave. A gentleman passes in his stovepipe breeches, carrying a can of red kerosene for his household lamps, while another stops at the "butcher shop"-- a wagonload of meat cuts, with a cloth streched over them. His meat is weighed out, and he clomps away in his heavy brogans. The street light tender lays his little box under one of the lamps, stands on it, and raises a long pole bearing a blade on the end. Flicking open the lamp glass, he trims the carbon from the wick. Then he closes the glass, picks up the box and heads for the next lamp. A laughing and jostling group of teen-age boys passes down the street going toward the Company pond (south of the present Pine Hill Cemetery), where they will watch the pump as it send water over to the tank in town--the tank from which the locomotives are filled. This pond is one of their favorite recreation places. A child swings gaily from the stirrups of the life-size dummy horse at the entrace of Kirk HOLT's hardware store, and the wooden Indian standing in front of the STAFFORD and STROUD Drug Company building stares blindlly into the past. A man with a swollen jaw strides jpast toward the new office of Dr. R. W. MORROW, the towns first dentist. Wagons pass, loaded with hay and feed for the numerous livery stables in town, and a nattily-dressed young man with a girl at his side runs the gauntlet of stares and smirks in his rented buggy. A matron fills her pails at the town pump and walks toward her house, shooing some chickens out of her path. And so passed a day in Burlington in 1900--an average, uneventful day in the lives of the pioneers of the modern city, and of modern Alamance County. ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange USGenWeb Orange Co, NC Archives site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nc/orangnc.htm