ANNUAL EDITION

ARMY NUMBER

SECOND SECTION

VOLUME 28. NO. 51

Southern Pines andSouthern Pines... Its Evolution Froma Sand Barren to a World Famed Resort

The Present Town Fathers

W. DUNCAN MATTHEWS, Mayor

Surviving Pioneers Proudof Their Beautiful Town;Its History Briefly Told

By CHARLES MACAULEYFor the information of the many

new residents of Southern Pines we

herewith present in concise form thesalient facts of its history?thestory of a town built upon sandfrom practically nothing into aworld-famed winter resort.

As a town. Southern Pines cancelebrate its 60th anniversary thoughits most material progress was madein the last 20 years. The preceding 40years were the days of the pioneerscarrying out the plans of its founder,the late John T. Patrick. Started in1883, in a desolate.-sandy barren thatwas the despair of the State, if isnow a thriving municipality of up-wards of 3,500 inhabitants, occupy-ing modern homes, located in wellkept grounds on tree and shrubberylined avenues, of which the majorpart are surfaced. They have ade-quate police and fire protection, am-ple supply of pure water from themunicipal plant. Enjoy the advan-tages of excellent public and privateschools, a fine library, churches offive denominations, a splendid coun-try club, good postal, telephone andtelegraph service, numerous stores,and services of an exceptionally ablebody of physicians, dentists, pharma-cists and lawyers-

Indian TrailsThe first Europeans, hunters from

Virginia and the North Carolinacoast settlements, undoubtedly camein contact with the Indians, but asthey left no records what little weknow is almost all traditionary. Forthe most part they were rovingbands of Siouan stock who used twowell defined trails within our limits.The "Peedee trail" passed throughWest Southern Pines; the "Yadkintrail" passed through Manly and isnow a part of the Midland Road.Both trails were used by the firstsettlers of Moore County and soonbecame travelled roads. While num-erous camp sites and some few vil-lage sites are quite near, the onlyactual site within our corporate lim-its was at the spring head near thePeedee trail, now Bennett street andIllinois avenue.

AS WE SEE IT

In sections two and three ofthis Annual Issue oi THE PILOTits staff has labored to presenta word picture of the war as itaffects Southern Pines, its citi-zens. its men in the service, themen and women in uniform whomake their home here, or are

temporary visitors from FortBragg or Camp Mackall, and theefforts of our people either in-dividually or as members of civ-ic bodies and churches for thecomfort, welfare and entertain-ment of all in uniform-

Legion Hut ProvesBoon to Weekenders

Soldiers and FamiliesAppreciate "Train Meeting"Service of Legionnaires

By L. D. WILLIAMSShortly after Camp Mackall was

opened last Spring, Sandhills Post ofAmerican Legion decided that some-

j thing must be done to'assist the sol-diers on pass here over the week-

, end, as hotel accommodations were!entirely inadequate. As funds were| low, it was decided that whatever

I was done must be of a*temporary na-i ture.I A committee was appointed by! Commander Currie and in a few days

| a truck load of mattresses donatedby Pinehurst. Inc.. was unloaded atthe Legion Hut- A call was made to

I the Auxiliary who provided light! bedding, coffee and doughnuts-Plans were made to build platforms

L. V- O'CALLAGHAN

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E. C. STEVENS

M. F. GRANTHAMH. J. BETTERLEY

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Beginning about 1745, and contin-uing at intervals for the next 80years, settlers almost entirely fromScotland and the Western Isles lo-cated at many points contiguous toour present limits, but in commonwith all Seaboard states, the west-ward trek of the third and fourthdecades of the 19th century caused asevere loss in population to the Sand-hills- Here, this may have an evenearlier impetus, owning to the des-perate and bitter struggle betweenthe Whigs and Tories in the latteryears of the Revolution. Outside oftheir raids and forays there were nobattles or passage of regular troopsof either armies.

These first settlers found a coun-try of rolling ridges with deep cleftvalleys interspersed with easily ford-able clear streams; land topped withawe-inspiring stands of magnificenttimber of which the stately longleafed pines predominated; groundcarpeted with a lavish growth of par-tridge peas so luxuriant as to growalmost knee high a food eagerlysought by the profusion of wild liferanging the forests. White taileddeer, bears, wolves, turkeys anddoves were so numerous as to bea menace to fields and to the cattleturned into the woods to forage,though the once numerous buffalohad gone-

First Town Site SettlersThe first actual known settlers

within the present town limits wereMcNeills, whose grants for the mostpart were southeast and southwestof the present Morganton Road- Afamily graveyard is now part of Mt.Hope Cemetery. The first sale knownwas that of (John) McNeill to Char-les C. Shaw in 1820, who for a num-bers of years lived with his family lathe McNeill cabin on the site of the

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A. B. PATERSON

for the mattresses and secure moreblankets later. Several public spir-ited people donated money for blan-kets, but it wasn't until Charlie Pic-quet generously offered a "cut" ofthe sale of tickets to "This Is theArmy" that enough money was insight to buy bedding for thirty sol-diers. The Post also offers readingand writing material to the men-

Many service men and women andtheir dependents arrive in SouthernPines daily and through no fault oftheir own do not have hotel reserva-tions, and do not know how to con-

tact the soldier. Sometimes the sol-dier will meet one train but does nothave time to meet the next one andreluctantly goes back to camp won-dering what his wife or sweetheartwill do if he is not there to meet thetrain- The Post has appointed Leo-nard Van Fossen, better known as"Van," to render this service andfrom reports this service is much ap-preciated- This Legionnaire meetsthe late trains and assists all whoare in trouble- He has the full co-operation of the railroad officials andthe Police Department. "Van" alsotakes care of the boys at the Hut onSaturday night-

The present officers of the Postare: Commander, John H- Stephen-son; Vice Commanders; John G. Har-

Red Cross CanteenForerunner of USO

j Carried On Splendidly atCivic Club for Four MonthsPrior to Coming of U.S.O.

When the need first arose in

Southern Pines a year ago for aplace the soldiers could use duringtheir time off. the Red Cross CanteenCorps was called into service- TheCorps consisted of 21 women, whohad taken the prescribed Red Crosscourse of 40 hours, and 14 CanteenAides who assisted them- The Can-teen chairman was Mrs- Eugene C-Stevens, vice-chairman, Mrs H- Hol-abird Towne, and Mrs- Guy Whittallwas treasurer.

The Corps was fortunate in secur-ing the use of the Civic Club, whichthey turned into a hospitable placefor recreation, providing the soldierswith books, magazines, games, writ-ing material, radio and victrola, andservng sandwiches, homemade cakes,

coffee and cigarettes to all whocame. It proved a most popularplace and men were entertained from

; every state in the union.The funds for this enterprise were

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Presbyterians Began!Soldier Work in '4O

Now Have Bathing, Shavingand Sleeping Facilitiesin Church Basement

BY L. VAN FOSSENThe Brownson Memorial Presby-

terian Church first started taking

care of our soldiers' comfort during

the maneuvers which were being

held in this area in the fall of 1940by installing an electric water heaterand showers in the basement of thechurch so that the tired and dusty

; men could have the comforts of a

. good hot bath when they came to. town.

i After war was declared, the largeI number of soldiers that were sta-

tioned near Southern Pines taxedi the local hotels to capacity with the> result that soldiers were sleeping on

- benches in the park, the railroad1 station and any other place that

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rington, Chester L Williams, J- F.t Smith; Adjutant, L. D- Williams;

\u25a0 Finance Officer. L. V. O'Callaghan;? Publicity, D. A. Currie.

H. F. BURNS

The present board of Southern Pines commissioners is headed by Mayor W. Duncan Matthews, with Commissioner L. V.O'Callaghan as mayor pro-tem. Mr. O'Callaghan has served on the Board since 1927; E. C. Stevens in 1929, and again from 1935;H. J. Betterley from 1937 and M. F. Grantham from 1941. A. B. Patterson is the new member having been elected to office in 1943.Mayor Matthews has served since 1941. Howard Burns, City Clerk and Treasurer, has served since 1925.

and Blue signs of the USO. To some,'these signs mean long hours devoted jto the carrying out of a great moralresponsibility belonging to all, that jof serving and aiding in every waypossible the men and women of theArmed Forces and their families. Toothers, these signs convey a messageof welcome and an invitation to ex- jplore the facilities for comfort andpleasure offered by the organization.

It is the duty of every U. S. O.Club to afford the opportunities formeeting and solving many problemswhich confront the vast numbers ofour national population forced tomove constantly from one locationto another. It is the hope of everyU- S. O- Club to be able to offer aplace of warmth and friendliness, toread, rest, dance and sing- A havenfor companionship and hospitality.

U- S- O- services are available tofive feminine groups- These groupsinclude wives, mothers and childrenof men in uniform; women in theArmed Forces, WACS, WAVES andSPARS; U. S- O. Senior and JuniorHostesses.

Today women are filling up theranks left by men in the Service.Women are in the Armed Forces;they are taking civilian jobs on theassembly line; they ere fitting into

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T HSouthern Pines. North Carolina Friday, November 19, 1943.

SOUTHERN PINES

WELCOMES SOLDIERS

SECOND SECTION

TEN CENTS

the ArmyU.S.O. Is Mecca ofArmy Men, Women

Many Forms of Amusementand Personal ServicesAre Provided by Club

Red Cross ReportsAil-Out Service

Ministrations of This Hu-manitarian OrganizationReach Around the World

By MRS. E. V. HUGHES

Every type of trouble known to

man walks in the office door ofMoore County Chapter, AmericanRed Cross, in a week. The ExecutiveSecretary studies the nature of thedifficulty and dispatches it to thedepartment or departments bestequipped to work out an adequatesolution, as the problem may requirethe services of the County Chairmanand the Executive Board, the HomeService Bureau, and all the SpecialVolunteer Services. But have nofear! If it requires the attention ofevery volunteer, it will get it. RedCross does not shirk responsibilities.

If the problem is of distressingproportions it is safe to presume thatit will become a first considerationof the Home Service Bureau, withone or more of the service corps as-sisting. The usefulness of this de-partment has expanded beyond themost daring anticipation since No-vember, 1942, as a result of the sud-den intake of population followingthe establishment of the AirborneCommand at Camp Mackall- Accord-ing to the November, 1943, report.Home Service was this year's out-standing achievement.

Three Home Service case workerscarry on this tremendous program.They give counsel on and obtain ma-ternity care for wives and medicaland nursing care for infants of en-listed men in military service; allot-ments and allowances for depend-ents; make claims for compensationsand government benefits to ex-ser-vice men, help secure vocational re-habilitation for them and arrange fortheir hospital and medical care; as-sist in communication between ser-vice men and women and their fam-ilies; complete data on social histor-ies for medical departments; makereports on home conditions neededby commanding officers in decidingon discharges, furloughs, and clem-ency; give financial help in specialfamily needs; help to meet otherfamily difficulties as well as solic-iting the aid of other agencies; maketemporary emergency loans; verifythe necessity for emergency fur-loughs; secure information neces-sary to the release of men because of"dependency"; investigate and givecounsel in A.W.O.L. and desertioncases; get letters, cables and radio-grams to American prisoners of theenemy. If a form is to be filled out,the Home Service Department fillsit- The War and Navy departmentslook to Red Cross for all of theabove services.

By GEORGE B. FERRYThe U- S- O- Club in Southern

Pines is housed in an attractive, wellkept building, complete with ter-race, stone walks and gardens- Theinterior is spacious, ideal for thewell attended weekly dances heldeach Saturday night- Music for thedances is furnished by the generousservices of the bands of variousunits from Camp Mackall.

Each Wednesday evening is devot-ed to dancing classes conducted asan aid to those who desire to learnto dance- These classes are helpfuland still lots of fun.

The reading and writing room iscomfortable and offers many currentpublications, a variety of books andgenerous supplies of stationery.

A grand assortment of games vary-ing from two to many more partici-pants' amusement are within reach.There is also tennis equipment onhand which is available for use onthe courts opposite the Club.

The new shower facilities are agreat boon to the men. Includedtherein are shaving and shoe shin-ing aids-

Refreshments are served on Wed-nesday afternoon and evening, alsoSaturday and Sunday afternoons andevenings and breakfast on Sundaymorning.

The U. S- O- Club under the aus-pices of the National Catholic Ser-vice began operations under the dateof June 18. 1943- The total attend-ance of the guests at the Club is 25,-

338 to date. Throughout SouthernPines in various advantageous loca-tions may be seen the Red, White

In the last year between 2,500 and3,000 Home Service Cases werehandled by Moore County Chapter.Many allotment and allowance formswere filled out. Allotment is thatpart of his pay a soldier signs overto his dependents, in which theybenefit according to their kinshrip.An allowance is what the govern-ment allows a family in need in ad-dition to the allotment. Patient edu-cation on how to obtain these bene-fits is necessary for many. The formsare complicated and, while the gov-ernment is exceedingly efficient atanswering appeals, errors in applica-tion, frequent change of address andother confusing situations arise tointerfere with results. Allotmentchecks get lost or are delivered tothe wrong parties. Two women withthe same name complicated an al-lotment check here several weeksago- The two women had the samename and lived on the same streetin the same town, but were unac-quainted. The check went to thewrong woman, who was told, whenshe asked for an explanation, thather husband was a prisoner of theGermans. She appealed to the RedCross, who investigated. Many hoursof work were required to clear thiscase, get the allotment check to theright party and information correct-ly classified, but Red Cross did it.

A type of case requiring consider-able investigation is the verificationof illness and death in families ot

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