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Cleveland County Tidbits: Compiled from Mamie Jones' Articles

Over 100 historical tidbits compiled by Larry Simpson from Mamie Jones' 'In Cleveland County's Early Days' column in the Shelby Daily Star (1947-1955). Each piece captures a specific moment, person, or event from Cleveland County's early history, based on interviews with eyewitnesses who lived through that era

115 items in this collection

Other Items

TXT A Calf Was Once Tied To The Courthouse Bell Cord
TXT A Country Doctor Delivered Five Babies In Four Days
TXT A Railroad Freight Building Served As Yankee Barracks In 1865
TXT A Railroad Freight Building Was Use
TXT A Shelby Home Built With Louisiana Lottery Winnings
TXT A Storekeeper Cut A Coin In Half To Make Change
TXT A Woman Danced On A Union Soldier’s Grave
TXT A Woman Walked From Shelby To Virginia Every Year
TXT Amos Owens Kept Making Liquor After Nine Stills Were Destroyed
TXT Amos Owens’ Cherry Bounce And The “Sweet Potato” Whiskey Wagon
TXT An Indian Mound May Have Existed On Buffalo Creek
TXT An Indignant Jailer Offered $25 For Three Escapees And The Jail’s Blankets
TXT Bankrupt Merchants Started Over And Others Bought The Stock
TXT Black Velvet Coffins And Five Dolla
TXT Cleveland County Was Known By Eight Different Names Before It Existed
TXT Community Memory Filled Record Gaps
TXT Community Reputation Mattered In Court
TXT Completed List
TXT Court Sessions Drew People Long Distances
TXT Creek Crossings Slowed Travel
TXT Early Inns Had Government Set Price
TXT Early Lighting In Shelby From Fat Lamps To Gasoline Street Lights
TXT Early Merchants Extended Credit Carefully
TXT Early Records Were Handwritten And Fragile
TXT Early Town Life Followed Legal Calendars
TXT Edgar Fulenwider’s $25,000 Bankrupt Stock
TXT First Cleveland County Court Was Held In A Man’s Living Room
TXT Food Was Kept Cool By Lowering It Into Wells
TXT Four Public Wells Once Stood On The Court Square
TXT Four Women Who Shaped Shelby’s Civic And Church Life
TXT Gasoline Street Lamps And The Lamplighter’s Can
TXT Government Set Prices At Early Inns
TXT How Court Appointed Officials Were Chosen
TXT How Court Orders Shaped Daily Life
TXT How Crime Was Publicly Advertised
TXT How Early County Courts Really Operated
TXT How Early Courts Handled Minor Matters Quickly
TXT How Early Government Records Were Preserved
TXT How Early Jails Were Supplied And Maintained
TXT How Early Prisoners Were Held And Guarded
TXT How Early Town Life Centered On The Court Square
TXT How Official Notices Reached The Public
TXT How Public Announcements Reached The People
TXT How Public Order Was Enforced Locally
TXT How Road Work Was Assigned And Enforced
TXT How Roads Followed Natural Geography
TXT How Roads Were Opened And Maintaine
TXT How Shelby’s Early Business District Was Arranged
TXT How Shelby’s First Town Lots Were Advertised Across Two States
TXT How Space Was Used In Early Town Buildings
TXT Ice Cream! … It Must Be Sold
TXT Ice Was Cut From A Pond Behind What Later Became The Rogers Theatre
TXT Indians Knew About Cleveland Spring
TXT Justices Licensed Liquor Sales During The First Cleveland County Court
TXT Kerosene Reached Shelby — Then A Lamp Accident Killed A Father And Child
TXT Life Expectancy Was Less Than Thirty Years When Dr. Williams Practiced
TXT Liquor Licenses, Moral Character, And A Ten Dollar Limit
TXT Local Knowledge Replaced Signs And Maps
TXT Magic Lantern Shows In Shelby Before Motion Pictures
TXT Martin Roberts Served With Washington And Is Buried Near Shelby
TXT No Prohibition For The Pioneers
TXT Plug Tobacco Sold Three For A Quarter In Shelby
TXT Public Wells Shaped Daily Movement
TXT Revenue Agents Were Nicknamed “Red Legged Grasshoppers
TXT Robinson’s Circus Brought Shelby Its First Blinding Electric Light
TXT Schoolboys Once Moved Wagons, Gates, And Buildings Overnight
TXT Shelby Had About 900 People In 1880
TXT Shelby Once Celebrated A Murder Ver
TXT Shelby Once Had A Tobacco Boom That Almost Rivaled Cotton
TXT Shelby Once Had An Opera House That Seated 1,500 People
TXT Shelby Once Had Four Public Wells On The Court Square
TXT Shelby Once Had Wagons Of Cotton So Close You Could Walk Across Them
TXT Shelby Once Rejected Free Public Sc
TXT Shelby Once Turned Down Becoming Half Lincoln County And Half Rutherford County
TXT Shelby’s First Ice Was Cut From A P
TXT Shooing Flies With Turkey Wings And Homemade Fly Brushes
TXT Spring Houses Kept Food Cool Long Before Ice
TXT Stagecoach Driver Who Was Shot For The Mail
TXT The Battle That Lasted Only 50 Minutes Changed The War
TXT The County Was Once Completely Emptied By An Indian Uprising
TXT The Doctor Who Saved A Dying Man Wi
TXT The Federal Liquor Tax That Turned Farmers Into Moonshiners
TXT The Fifteen Year Old Who Started The Cleveland Star
TXT The First Artificial Ice In Shelby
TXT The First Coca Cola In Shelby Came
TXT The First Coca Cola In Shelby Was S
TXT The First Court In Tryon County Was Held In A Man’s House
TXT The First Doctor In Shelby To Use An Automobile Was Considered Radical
TXT The First Ice Cream Cones In Shelby
TXT The First Land Ever Donated For She
TXT The First Matches People Walked 15 Miles To See
TXT The First Stagecoach Dinner Was Signaled By A Horn
TXT The Indians Left “Pots” Carved Into Flat Rock
TXT The Inn Where Stagecoaches Changed Horses And Meals Were Timed By A Horn
TXT The Legislator Who Rode To Raleigh
TXT The Man Who Smuggled Whiskey As Sweet Potatoes
TXT The Man With 22 Children Who Fought At Kings Mountain
TXT The Only Way To Tell Whigs From Tories Was By What They Wore On Their Hats
TXT The Over The Mountain Soldier Who Stayed In Cleveland County
TXT The Preacher Who Was Relieved To Be Called A Hypocrite
TXT The Shelby House With The Mock Orange Hedge
TXT The Widow Who Chose Her Second Husb
TXT The Widow Who Chose Her Second Husband When The First Returned
TXT Tryon County Had 1,426 Taxable Polls In Its First Year
TXT Typhoid Fever Was Thought To Be God’s Will
TXT Water For Brick Construction Was Carried By Hand From The Court Square Wells
TXT When Farming Barely Paid And Liquor Brought The Cash
TXT When Shelby Had No Sidewalks And People Walked In The Street
TXT When There Was No Undertaker And Neighbors Buried The Dead
TXT When Water Was Carried By Hand From The Square Wells
TXT Yankees On The Court Square Played Ball With Hardtack
TXT “Freezing Ice In July!”
TXT “Fresh Fish And Oysters!” Could Be Heard Two Blocks Away
TXT “Here’s To The Land Of Blockade Booze”
TXT “I Ain’t Never Seen One Of Them Germs Yet”