With the strife and unrest of the war years behind them, the people of Alamance looked forward to a new era of prosperity and expansion. The county had escaped the physical ravages of war, and had suffered little from the tumultuous days of reconstruction. No longer did the rumble of many hooves bring exclamations of "Soldiers!" or "The Ku Klux Klan!" it usually neant that a group of lads were having a horse race. Raching and other sports became extreamely popular during the latter quarter of the nineteenth century, and the social and cultural interests of the county assumed much greater importance. The Editor of the Alamance Gleaner, in the first edition of his paper in 1875, took not of the changing times: "In our county we have no town of considerable size. Company Shops . . . being the largest. And even this has not, so far, applied for a charter reciting wards and bestowing city privileges and dignities. . . Graham is regularly laid off and beautifully located, with some of the handsomest residences of any village of its size in the State. It is pleasant and healthful; and, but for the employees at Company Shops, would exceed that place in population. Both places do considerable in the way of selling goods and buying countyproduce. . . Mebanesville near the Orange line is a pleasant village where are several stores. Near this place is located the Bingham School. These we believe are all the incorporated towns in the county, though a stranger coming to one of our factories would unhesitatingly conclude that he was in teh midst of a considerable country village . . . At all of these are to be found stores. . . (Ref: Alamance Gleaner v 1, no 1) The village of Company Shops continued to grow during the war years. The completion of several new buildings was announced in 1864 to the stockholders of the North Carolina Railroad. "during the year (1864) we have erected seven dwellings for our employees at this place and four good log-houses for negroes. . . ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange