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March 31, 2012
The History of W. S. Creecy School
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The W. S. Creecy School was organized in 1899. It grew out of the consolidation of the Rich Square School and the Willow Oak School.
The Rich Square School was located just east of the railroad track at the present location of the First Baptist Church and was conducted by Mr. G. G. Maggett.
The Willow Oak School was located about one-fourth mile from the location of the present school. About one hundred pupils attended.
Inadequate seating made it necessary for some of the pupils to remain outdoors at all times, thus making it difficult for passers-by to determine recess time.
It is interesting to note that the first consolidated school was the result of a misunderstanding. Funds that had been raised to construct a high school at Jackson were mistakenly turned over to the Rich Square community and were used to construct a two room building where the football field is presently located.
Later two upstairs rooms were added. Professor L. Sessons, the first recognized principal, name the school, the Rich Square Academy.
During the administration of the fourth principal, Mr. W. H. Morris, a girls’ dormitory was built in 1903. Mr. Thaddeous Langford built the dormitory and the first benches used in the school.
Lindsey Hill was the first and only graduate in 1903.
The school was expanded during the administration of the sixth principal, Mr. William Spencer Creecy, Sr. with a larger school building in 1913, a boys’ dormitory, dining hall, and principal's home.
Mr. Creecy also changed the name of the school to Rich Square Institute in 1913. Other improvements during his administration were an eleven room brick high school with a large auditorium (seating capacity for five hundred) erected in 1931; an eight room brick elementary building in 1934; and an eleven room brick teacherage in 1940.
Mr. Creecy's administration also helped bring about academic expansions as well. He began the first school library in 1927, in one of the classrooms. Miss Viola Taylor (Mrs. P. A. Bishop, Sr.) was the first librarian. A trade department was added. He also purchased a private bus for the transportation of students.
In honor of Mr. Creecy's many years of service to the community, the state department changed the name of the school to W. S. Creecy School in 1938. The same year the first county school bus was given to the school.
At the death of Professor W. S. Creecy, Sr., March 10, 1940, his oldest son Mr. W. S. Creecy, Jr., was made principal and remains the principal to the present time. Under the leadership of Mr. W. S. Creecy, Jr., the school continued to grow.
The elementary school was standardized, neighboring smaller schools were consolidated into the school, and an agricultural building and a gymnasium were erected.
This information is from the book FOOTPRINT IN NORTHAMPTON .
Courtesy of David J Lassiter
via. A J (Danny) Sexton
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March 31, 2012
History of Willow Oak AME Church (1866 - 1973)
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History of Willow Oak AME Church (1866 - 1973)
Willow Oak, one of the first black churches in Northampton County, was organized the second Sunday in June, 1866 by the Reverends W. H. Bishop and Henry Epps. Seven dedicated Christians gathered that day, namely, Lazarus Pope, Margaret Pope, Venus Josey, Barbara Wiggins, Anthony Brewer, Mason Brewer and Julia Wilkins. They met under a willow oak tree, for which the church was named.
This tree stood on a clay hill beside what is now state highway No. 258, south of Rich Square. At first these pioneers had no building so they made a brush arbor under which they worshipped God. In winter they met in an old slab school for protection from the cold. In 1868 they built a wood structure large enough to seat more than 150 people. At this time there were 100 members added to the church.
During Rev. R. R. Nichol's administration, 1896-1899, the members purchased the old Corinth Church from the white Baptist members for the sum of $250.00, and very reluctantly moved from the old clay hill next door to where the present church now stands. Under the leadership of Rev. L. R. Pearce, 1925-1935, a new structure was built. With Rev. S. A. Fennell as pastor, 1948-1954, the building was renovated, new furniture was purchased and the parsonage was renovated.
Plans for a new structure were made while Rev. G. B. Bowling was pastor, and completed in 1973 during the pastorate of Rev. H. L. Ingram, with the exception of the altar rail, carpet, tile and pastor's study. In November 1973 Rev. L. O. Saunders, was assigned to the Rich Square Circuit. Under his leadership $10,000 worth of improvements have been made, and through cooperation with the other churches of the Circuit, namely, St. John A. M. E. of Conway and Allen Chapel A. M. E. of Jackson, built a new parsonage in Rich Square.
This information is from the book FOOTPRINT IN NORTHAMPTON .
Courtesy of David J Lassiter
via. A J (Danny) Sexton
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March 31, 2012
History of Rich Square
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The exact date of the founding of Rich Square is unknown, but it can be placed between 1717 and the recording of a deed with the name Rich Square thereon in 1766.
It is difficult to fix an exact date because in those days land transactions often were not recorded for years, if ever, because travel to the county seat was slow and land transactions were affected by scripts between the parties concerned and also by wills.
Many times the terms, scripts, and wills were used interchangeably. In 1741, the same year Northampton County was formed from Bertie, a group of area landowners expressed the need for a meeting house for worship and a trading center.
These landowners were Maules, Randolphs, Norfleets, Lawrence, Cathcarts, Perrys, Hunters, and Dukes. Isaac Hunter owned 640 acres referred to as “the rich fertile square.” The two main roads of the area crossed the Hunter property which became known as Hunter's crossroads.
For the sum of “10 shillings of current money” the society of people called Quakers bought one acre of land near the crossroads for the purpose of building a meeting house. The names Demcy Hunter, his wife Unity, Thomas Knox, and Robert Peele appeared as trustees for the Quakers on the transaction.
The meeting house was built, named Rich Square, and recorded in the county seat on November 29, 1759. The monthly meeting was formed October 10, 1760, with John Peele, clerk. Marmaduke Norfleet purchased a tract one mile in each direction from Hunters’ crossroads and established a trading center.
The name Rich Square appeared on this deed recorded in 1766. The trading center consisted of a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a grist mill. Items were bought with pounds, shillings and pense, in current money, or by bartering.
The crossroads of Rich Square were on roads leading from the Roanoke to the Chowan Rivers and from Cottens ferry to Hills ferry.
Other family names thereafter appear in the records as people moved down from . Copelands, Baughams, Peeles, Outlands, Elliotts, Leakes, and Parkers.
All of these were Quakers who came to help establish the new meeting house. Farming was the chief occupation and the people lived simply, yet the meeting and trading center grew. The meeting handled most disciplinary matters of the time as there were no local lawyers.
The first doctor in the Rich Square area was Dr. William Cathcart, who inherited the large medical library of Dr. Gabriel Johnston, Governor of from 1734 to 1752.
The first doctor to live in town was Dr. Windfield S. Copeland. The first doctor's office was built around 1850. It is now owned by Dr. R. B. Outland, Sr., and serves as a private museum.
Around 1800 a Quaker school was built near what is now Eagletown. It was one of the first schools in Northampton County and was named Union School. Families continued to move to Rich Square coming down from and the eastern counties.
A new Quaker meeting was built three-fourths of a mile east of the old one. This meeting dissolved when the members split over religious matters in the yearly meeting. Mr. A. Jackson Conner bought the meeting house in 1904 and operated a printing office for the Roanoke Chowan Times.
Other religious denominations moved in. The Methodists built a church at Pinners to the north in 1820 and the Baptists built a church called Corinth in 1853 to the South. These were the mother churches of our present-day Rich Square churches.
Cotton became the chief crop and the counties’ first gin opened shortly after the Civil War. The first peanuts were brought into Northampton County at Rich Square from Southampton County, Virginia in 1880 by Mr. James Outland.
Rich Square was incorporated in 1883. W. S. Norwood was elected first mayor along with four town commissioners: Everette Baugham, J. W. Buxton, L. J. Davis, and Watkins Roberts, a black man.
This information is from the book FOOTPRINT IN NORTHAMPTON .
Courtesy of David J Lassiter
via. A J (Danny) Sexton
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