High Tides now available for purchase

Published 12:05 am Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Fall 2017 issue of High Tides is now available for purchase.

High Tides is the semi-annual journal of the Hyde County Historical and Genealogical Society.

The newly published volume includes 100 entries from the 2016 publication, Early Hyde County Marriage Records (1735-1899). Information is furnished on name, age and color of groom and bride, their parents, date and place of wedding, officiant and witnesses, plus a comment by R.S. Spencer

An example is the wedding of Thomas Makinny, 43, white, son of Benjamin and Rutha Makinny, to Charlotta B. Makinny, 38, white, daughter of Uriah and Elisabeth Austin, on 20 October 1869 in Engelhard, with Henry D. Cason, minister, officiating, and Samuel Rollins, William E. Cox, and Isaiah S. Spencer as witnesses. R.S. Spencer adds this comment: “An 1869 marriage in Engelhard — strange since Engelhard was known as Far Creek until its incorporation in 1875.”

High Tides also contains a review of Olde Wickham, Little Kingdom by the Sea, by Swan Quarter native Richard B. Lupton, a comprehensive history of Hyde County, including Ocracoke and Hatteras. It is available from the Society’s authorized sales agent, R.S. Spencer Inc., in Engelhard.

Then there’s the fascinating account of 23 homegrown pirates seizing a French galley that sailed into New Currituck (now Germantown or Spencer’s) Bay in 1781, loaded with weapons, gun powder, ammunition, and other supplies. And the account tells how the local men were caught and dealt with judicially, and legislatively, over the next three years.

Society president Linda Gray Mayo writes about the Foreman Cemetery on Sladesville Credle Road, which was omitted from In Memory Of…., an earlier publication of Hyde cemeteries. Included is information on each person interred plus others related to Benjamin Foreman Sr.

Mayo also chronicles the history of Neal Chapel, forerunner of Scranton Christian Church, listing the names of the 16 ministers between 1855 and 1950.

There’s a report of a church meeting at O’Neal’s Chapel in May 1882 that drew a thousand people who heard Dr. J.T. Walsh preach.

Other news items, and some reproductions of stationery and bill heads, are included about Scranton, Sladesville, Hooten’s Fork, Leonsburg, and Makelyville.

Roderick Kevin Donald, a research scholar at Duke University, provides a guide to cemetery preservation.

Finally, High Tides contains 70 abstracts from Hyde County Deed Book H, transactions dated 1787-1793.

High Tides is available for $10 plus $4 shipping from R. S. Spencer Inc., PO Box 159 Engelhard, NC 27824, telephone 252-542-0000, or email to romsandy@embarqmial.com.