On May 16, 1961, Richard Corbitt, a well-known truck builder, died. Corbitt began his business as a tobacco merchant in the 1890s before creating the Corbitt Buggy Company in 1899. Initially building horse drawn buggies to haul agricultural products, Corbitt’s company began to produce passenger cars and trucks, and later buses and military vehicles. The company adopted assembly line production and that, combined with successful marketing efforts, transformed the small Henderson operation into the leader in North Carolina’s auto industry. Though …
Category: History
VGCC instructor’s children donate pieces of history to library
The children of a longtime Vance-Granville Community College instructor who qualifies as one of the “founding mothers” of the institution recently donated historical records and other items to the college library. The late Frieda Bender Haun of Kittrell, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 95, became well-known in the community in part for the “personal enrichment” classes she taught at VGCC. Her involvement in the school started long before it opened in 1969, however. In 1965, Haun …
The World Is Not Coming To An End
In case you hadn’t heard … there’s a solar eclipse happening today. I don’t know how anyone could NOT hear about it, but it’s always a possibility. And in case you’re wondering what time you need to tell your boss that you need to leave the office for this once in a lifetime event (it’s really not, but more on that later), it will begin at 1:16 PM, peak at 2:44pm and it’s all over and done with at 4:06pm. …
Henderson History: Richard Corbitt, of Corbitt Trucks Passes (May 16, 1961)
On May 16, 1961, Richard Corbitt, a well-known truck builder, died. Corbitt began his business as a tobacco merchant in the 1890s before creating the Corbitt Buggy Company in 1899. Initially building horse drawn buggies to haul agricultural products, Corbitt’s company began to produce passenger cars and trucks, and later buses and military vehicles. The company adopted assembly line production and that, combined with successful marketing efforts, transformed the small Henderson operation into the leader in North Carolina’s auto industry. Though …
VGCC to welcome back “Thomas Jefferson”
A series of lectures at Vance-Granville Community College by Bill Barker, in character as President Thomas Jefferson, were so popular in 2016 that the college’s Endowment Fund is bringing him back to the community. Barker will speak as Jefferson on the “Freedom for Religion” in the VGCC Civic Center on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County on Monday, March 20, at 11 a.m. Then, he will present “Mr. Jefferson on Food and Wine” at the same location on Monday, …
Marrow’s Murder Flashpoint in Oxford, 1970
On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old African American Vietnam War veteran, was murdered in Oxford. Marrow was approaching Robert Teel’s store to buy a Coca-Cola when he spoke to a young white woman. Teel, his son and his stepson interpreted the exchange as offensive, so they chased Marrow from the store parking lot, beat and fatally shot him. Oxford had remained segregated and violence against blacks in the town was met with a blind eye from the authorities. Marrow’s murder …