~

In this photo, Isa Gordon Powell, the mother, stands on the porch of Oakland,
the Bertie County home of the Powells, in 1898. The identity of the person
tending the carriage is unknown, but the brothers are, from left, Junius,
Jack (in the carriage) and Gordon, with father Edgar Powell at right.

Photograph courtesy of Virginia Powell Street

~~~

GROWING UP IN ROXOBEL
Part Two

Excerpts from an article by Jack Powell (1897-1973)
in the 1972 Bertie Ledger-Advance

Edited and submitted by his daughter, Virginia P. Street,
of Massachusetts

FLOUR AND SUGAR BY THE BARREL

Growing up at our Bertie County home, Oakland, I remember as a small boy that flour and sugar were purchased by the barrel at a local store and brought in a mule-drawn cart or wagon to the farm where it was stored in the pantry. Coffee was bought ~ green, in a cloth bag ~ and was roasted in the oven and ground as needed. There were no grocery stores. The stores in Roxobel and Kelford were general merchandise ~ meaning cotton and wool goods, or drygoods, home furnishings and assorted work clothes. Canned sardines, pork and beans and sometimes cheese were carried on the shelves. At Christmas, fireworks were sold.

We had a huge vegetable garden, many fruit trees, and grape arbors. Home canning of vegetables and fruits was carried on from late spring until almost Christmas. I remember all the kettles boiling on our wood stove as our mother and her various helpers cooked the contents and sterilized the glass jars. Enough of these foods were "put up" in the jars to last until the ensuing year's crop.

The annual hog-killing in winter produced enough meat and sausage to carry us through the year. Occasionally a farmer would butcher a lamb, sheep or one of his cattle and sell portions to his neighbors. In the spring, fishermen brought herring from Albemarle Sound or freshly caught shad from the Roanoke River. Blueberries and huckleberries were sold to us by farmers. It was a great treat for us children to find fresh oranges, tangerines and nuts in our Christmas stockings.

NO ELECTRICITY ~ NO PLUMBING

Each day the glass chimneys of the kerosene lamps were cleaned of the black smoke stains from the previous night. Candles were used, too, on special occasions. Wood-burning stoves heated the rooms that were used regularly, such as sitting and dining rooms, and some bedrooms had them. Others had only open fireplaces. Great stacks of pine and hardwoods were cut by our handyman and piled near the house for winter use. Open fires were charming to look at but I can recall how long it took to warm the body by standing in front of them, turning frequently.

At one end of the large vegetable garden, screened by high old box bushes, was an outhouse for the men. At the extreme end on the other side of the garden, also well screened, was one for the ladies. Chamber pots were kept inside the house for small children and the sick.

("When I was a wee small tot, they set me onto an ice cold pot, whether I wanted to go or not." ~ Author Unknown)

ONE TELEPHONE IN TOWN

The only telephone in Roxobel in those early days was in the Burkett store, one of the half-dozen stores. To make a call to Windsor or other nearby towns, you did a lot of ringing before you reached the operator. After a long wait, you were connected with a telephone in the town you had called. You would ask that a certain person be brought to the phone or you would request that a message be delivered to that person. It was a painfully slow, uncertain process. If the person couldn't be brought to the telephone at that time, you often ended up writing a letter or sending a telegram instead.

NO REFRIGERATORS

Each town had its own ice house. Usually, it was a small building partly filled with sawdust. The ice company delivered 100-pound blocks of ice to the building. The blocks were piled inside, one on top of the other, and then covered deep with sawdust. At intervals, our family drove to town in the horse and buggy and waited while a 25 or 50-pound block of ice was sawed from a larger one. That block, placed in the bottom of our home icebox, kept our food from spoiling. When the ice melted, another trip to the ice house had to be made.

OUR ANCESTORS

Moses Bishop, our ancestor, who lived in what is now known as Roxobel, was an officer in the army during the Revolutionary War. His grandaughter (my grandmother, Cornelia Ann Bishop Powell) lived in the same house and was buried in the family graveyard on the same Roxobel farm where I was born and lived until our mother's death. (Many Bishops and Powells are buried in the family cemetery at the Oakland Plantation on State Road 308 ~ now known as the Powell Home Place. ~ Virginia.)

An old deed in my possession (later donated to the Southern Historical Society at UNC Chapel Hill) shows that the Bishops owned much of the land of present Roxobel, extending southward toward Kelford, and including the 500-odd acres which made up the farm where my two brothers, my sister and I were raised.

(A letter written in 1974 by my Aunt Dot, Dorothy Powell Moore of Charlotte, states: "The Devereux family owned the plantation next to the Bishop and Powell one on the Roanoke River. When they sold after the Civil War, our family bought part of it. As long as we owned it, it was called Devereux Place. Your father, Junius and I sold all the land in the Thirties. During the Depression it was impossible to operate and, at the time, was the only thing we could do. ~ Wish we had it back!" ~ Virginia.)