64
|
October/November
•
2009
Forever Fayetteville
I
t was not an easy time to be black and living in the South.
The year was 1866, one year after the Civil War and the year Samuel Jasper
Hodges was born on a farm in the Manchester Township of Cumberland
County.
No one knew it then,
but from those humble
roots would come one of Fayetteville's
largest and most
influential families.
Sam was the oldest of nine and like many children his age he went to work at
an early age to help his parents make ends meet. One of his first jobs was boxing
pine trees and dipping tar. He was a genuine "Tarheel," working years in the forest
product industry from which North Carolina received its nickname. The production of
lumber, tar and turpentine was an important industry in the county in the mid-1800s.
In one year alone, Fayetteville shipped 100,000 barrels of tar to Wilmington for export
Above | In the days of segregation,
Mack's Tavern on U.S. 301 served as
the last stop where blacks could rent a
room between Fayetteville and Atlanta.
Ernest McMullen ran the store, gas
station and motel with his wife, Bertha
Hodges McMullen, one of Sam and
Fannie Hodges' 12 children.
Contributed photos
A LONG LEGACY
BY EDDIE DEES
