CABARRUS GENEALOGY SOCIETY

A. L. Brown’s Clear Springs Farm was a  Model Cabarrus Dairy  Cow Barn, Clear Springs Dairy Farm, 1936. Courtesy of  NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center,  ua023_007-003-bx0006-007-022. Remember the days when the milkman made home deliveries from local dairies - a time when dairy farms were big enough to bottle and sell their milk in local stores? Cabarrus County has been home to a surprisingly large number of dairies, including Cabarrus Creamery, Sunrise, H.B. Troutman, Pure Milk Products, Dixie, Russell, J.C. Misenheimer, Crest Ridge, Boxwood Manor, Rose Hill Guernsey, Cold Water Farm, Cedar Grove and Clear Springs Farm. There also was York’s Goat Milk Dairy in Concord and Jackson Training School once had its own dairy. Someone recently requested information about Clear Springs Dairy Farm. He was from out-of-state but knew his grandfather had worked there. You may see the name Clear Springs near the S & D coffee plant on Highway 29 (Concor

Cabarrus Civil War Soldier Muses Over Leap Year Courting On January 24, 1864, Cabarrus County Civil War soldier, John Allen Smith, wrote to his sister M. C. Smith (spelling as transcribed): "The fourth regt of N. C. cavalry will start back to N. C. tomorrow morning. We hav very fine and warm wether at presant. It makes me think a bout being at home to go a corting and squeaze some of the girls for I no that they would like to be squeazed a little... I would like to no if the girls goes corting as this is leap year and there year to go see the boys. I think if I was at home they would shorely come to see me but if the girls will go to see the boys they will hav to go some distance be fore they will find them. And so I think if they hav any boys at home they would be better to hold on to them for the boys out here are getting prety bad." John is referring to the Scots-Irish folk tradition that women may propose marriage in leap years. While it has been claimed that t

1890 Veterans Census Shows A Civil War  Union Soldier At Home in Cabarrus County A Census Bureau employee using a Hollerith tabulator in 1908. The Hollerith tabulator was first used for the 1890 census. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress . A recent posting on the blog site Family History Daily ( www.familyhistorydaily.com ) was a story about how the 1890 Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War can assist genealogy research as a substitute for the 1890 U. S. Federal Census. As many know, the 1890 census, which contained more than 60 million individuals, was destroyed in a fire in 1921. The special enumeration of Union (and some Confederate) veterans is very large, and 90,000+ images are offered on a number of subscription sites, and for free at www.familysearch.org .  Although much of it survived the fire, u nfortunately, the records for the states of Alabama through Kansas (alphabetically) are mostly lost, Records remain from all states from Kentucky

Roy Durant is credited with bringing lespedeza to Cabarrus County. Photo:  "Yes, a fine crop of barley and vetch," Cabarrus County, NC, c. 1929. Courtesy of NC Cooperative Extension Service, NCSU, University Archives Photographs.   Roy Goodman Helped Cabarrus Farmers Improve Through Knowledge Roy Durant Goodman, 1939. As a demonstration agent for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Roy Durant Goodman spent his career as an important adviser to Cabarrus County's farming community. Tasked with promoting food  safety, market cooperatives and new developments in planting, farming techniques and equipment, Roy not only provided a valuable service to area farmers, but became known as a trusted and competent consultant and friend. The roots of the Cooperative Extension go back to the agricultural clubs and societies which sprang up after the American Revolution in the early 1800s. In 1914, Congress passed The Smith Lever Act, establishing the U. S. Dep