A Look Into Chatham’s Past is a podcast series part of a Girl Scout Gold Award project focused on promoting community identity in Chatham County, North Carolina by teaching local history. Hosted by Ella Sullivan.
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A Look Into Chatham’s Past A Girl Scout Gold Award
Mildred “Mama Dip” Edna Cotton Council was born in the Baldwin Township of Chatham County. In her youth, she worked with her parents as sharecroppers; however, she knew from a very young age cooking was her calling. She worked in countless kitchens around Chapel Hill, eventually opening her own restaurant. Her restaurant would go on to receive love from influential people like Michael Jordan and President George W. Bush. Council also published two cookbooks and a line of food products.
6 Jul 2021
James Iredell Waddell
James Iredell Waddell was born in Pittsboro, North Carolina in 1824. He would go on to become a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy after resigning from his post in the United States Navy. Waddell’s time as captain of the Shenandoah would make him notorious for his continued fighting after the end of the Civil War.
6 Jul 2021
Clarence Hamilton Poe
Clarence Hamilton Poe was born in 1881 and would go on to become a household name within the farming community. He owned the Progressive Farming Company and was editor of the Progressive Farmer for the majority of his life, helping to increase circulation of the magazine from 5,000 to 1,400,000 copies.
6 Jul 2021
Wilkins Perryman Horton
Wilkins Perryman Horton was born in 1889 in Kansas City, Kansas. By three, the Horton family had relocated to Pittsboro, North Carolina, where Horton would from then on spend most of his life. Horton was a lawyer with different practices in Pittsboro at varying points in his career. He also was a politician, serving as a state senator and as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 1937 to 1941 before running for governor.
6 Jul 2021
Simon Green Atkins
Simon Green Atkins was born in Haywood, Chatham County to two former enslaved people. He went on to co-found the North Carolina Negro Teachers’ Association. Later, he created Slater Normal and Industrial School which in time would become Winston-Salem State University.
6 Jul 2021
Jon Condoret
Jon Condoret moved to Chatham County later in life but prospered during his time in the county. Condoret was a Paris-trained architect who combined North Carolina modern architecture with European sensibility. Condoret is most notably remembered for his work as Chief Architect for Fearrington Village.
6 Jul 2021
Mary Myrtle Siler
Mary Myrtle Siler was North Carolina’s First Female Sheriff. A member of one of Chatham County’s oldest families, she was appointed to finish the previous sheriff’s term by the county’s all-male Board of Commissioners. Her appointment was covered by newspapers across the state.
6 Jul 2021
Francis J. LeClair
Francis J. LeClair was born in Belgium, but later emigrated to the United States. Working in many nurseries across the nation, LeClair developed his horticulture and botany skills. Later, after finding employment with the United States Government, LeClair traveled to North Carolina. During his time in North Carolina, LeClair resided on his farm in the Oakland Township outside of Pittsboro, located now is called Holly Ridge Road. LeClair also worked for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at one point being promoted to the university’s landscape architect. LeClair not only created many natural settings at the university including the Morehead Planetarium’s Rose Garden but also developed new variations of hollies such as the “Pearle LeClair,” named after his wife.
6 Jul 2021
George Moses Horton
In 1797, George Moses Horton was born enslaved in Northampton County. His enslaver relocated to Chatham County during Horton’s childhood. Throughout his life, Horton worked the fields of his enslaver’s tobacco plantation while creating poems in his head. Eventually, Horton journeyed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and found some allies that would later help him publish his poetry. Throughout his life, he published three collections of poetry. For the last 17 years of his life, Horton lived as a free man in Philadelphia after the end of the Civil War. His poetry touched on many subjects including where he spent his childhood, rural Chatham County.
6 Jul 2021
Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels was a North Carolina musician who found national success with hits such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” However, Daniels’ teen years were spent in Gulf, Chatham County where he founded his first band, The Misty Mountain Boys, at Goldston High School.
6 Jul 2021
Doris Betts
Doris Betts was an accomplished writer and short story author who spent her later life in Pittsboro. Born in Statesville, North Carolina, Betts attended but did not graduate from college. Despite not having a degree, she became a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to publish many works that received praise across the state and some nationally.
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