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Newcomers (1.4.3)

The late 1860s and early 1870s saw the arrival of ambitious northerners who assumed leading roles in the post-war development of Elizabeth City. Among the first was Dr. Palemon John (ca. 1827-1902), who published The North Carolinian in 1869. Through his newspaper, Dr. John espoused the economic, industrial, and social advantages of settling in eastern North Carolina, and helped to attract a number of northern businessmen to Elizabeth City and the Albemarle area.

Two of these new residents stand out. Charles Hall Robinson (1848-1930) came in 1868 from New York to look after his father's vast timber inierests in northern Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. This venture became the Land and Lumber Company of North Carolina, one of the area's large pioneer lumbering businesses; it ended in total failure in I873. In 1877 Robinson formed the C. H. Robinson Company, a mercantile firm, the first of his many successful ventures in retail and wholesale merchandising, textile manufacturing, banking, electrification, and ferry operations; he also had extensive farming interests in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. Daniel Stiegerwalt Kramer (1834-1899) came to Elizabeth City in January 1870 from Pennsylvania, where he had been involved in a successful lumber business with his father and brothers. In August 1871 Kramer began operation of a lumber mill at the foot of what is now Burgess Street. While saw mills had been operating in the Elizabeth City area for at least twenty years, Kramer was the first to successfully engage in lumber manufacturing on a large scale.

Other northern citizens attracted to Elizabeth City included: Dr. William Underwood, a hotel proprietor and a major supporter of the railroad, who arrived in 1867; merchants J. D. Fulmer and Peter W. Melick, both in 1870; and Samuel S. Fowler, a dry goods merchant and later owner of a net and seine factory, who arrived in 1871. All four men were from Pennsylvania (Historical and Descriptive Review, 1885: 222-223, 226-229, 230-233; Kramer 1967, 7-8; Butchko 1989, 334 n. 61, 334 n. 64, 334 n. 65).

Because the prospects of business success in Elizabeth City were brighter than in much of the Albemarle region, ambitious men from nearby counties flocked to Elizabeth City. Some of these men were: H. C. Godfrey, who left Perquimans County to establish a junk shop in Elizabeth City and later became a hardware dealer and proprietor of the Elizabeth City Cedar Works, a manufacturer of cedar pails; merchant and tailor Samuel Weisel, a native of Bohemia, who came to Elizabeth City in 1867 from Plymouth, where he had been since 1852; furniture and agricultural implement dealer John L. Sawyer, who came from Perquimans County in 1867; grocery proprietor Jerome B. Flora, a native of Currituck County who came to Elizabeth City in 1879; and, in 1880, attorney E. F. Lamb, who came from Camden County and became one of the town's foremost early realtors (Historical and Descriptive Review, 1885: 223,225-227, 229-231). These men joined others in not only rebuilding the local economy into the most robust one in the region, but in making Elizabeth City the educational, social, and cultural center of northeastern North Carolina.