Caching in Laurinburg & Lots of Missing Caches 3/9/2009

Today we decided to go into Laurinburg and do some caching and try and find the 5 caches we couldn't find on Saturday. Well the first 4 caches were the ones we didn't find then and we didn't find them again today. The next one Ida yarn Mill we did find although all we found was part of the missing container on the ground so we took a piece of paper signed it and replaced it where we thought it should go. The Ida Yarn Mill was the second oldest textile mill in Scotland County. Built by Mark Morgan in 1882. Powered by water wheels. Named in memory of Ida Malloy Morgan 1874-1876, deceased infant daughter of Mark and Margaret Cameron Morgan. Operated here until 1939.
Next we tried to find a few more caches unsucessfully, but more about those later. The next cache we found was Ghostly Dancers in the Dark which was located in Laurinburg in the Fox Crossing Road Woods. There is a eerie story behind this hide as follows: Just off of this road named Fox Crossing Road lies an old lumber road that winds through the woods. While it is no longer used, it was once used by logging trucks to cut timber down and haul it out. If you walk down this lumber road at nighttime, and look out into the woods, you can sometimes see a couple, dressed in 1920's style clothing. They are dancing, and the moon shines right on them. After about three seconds, they always disappear. The story is that they were a wealthy newly wed couple back in the 1920's, and they planned on building a mansion out in these woods, equipped with a giant ballroom for dancing. But they were both tragically killed just as construction of their mansion started. And now they say their spirits dance together forever, in where their ballroom would have once stood.
Then on to 3 or 4 more caches we didn't find, then one in a shopping center put out by Geo13 and the last cache we found was one in downtown Laurinburg under a traffic light post. In all we did not find 13 caches and this was unusual for us. So we made a call to Paul, Geo13, and asked him what was going on here. Well from what he said was that he thinks someone is going around picking up all the caches that they can find. He has lost 2 ammo boxes that were hidden in the woods on a nature trail, 2 places where you just don't stumble on a cache like that. So for whatever reason someone is mad a someone or who knows what down here. We wasted almost 3 hours looking for caches that were already missing and the owners didn't know it.
Well seeing as we did so many interesting caches we didn't find I am going to put the stories on the blog anyway.
Spaghetti, the Mummy of Laurinburg and a DNF.....A young roustabout named Cancetto Farmica was little known in life. But in death he became one of the most fabled people ever to visit the town of Laurinburg, NC. Cancetto hung around McDougald Funeral Home, the oldest funeral home in North Carolina, for years and years waiting for his father to show up. Since he was of italian descent, local wags soon nicknamed him Spaghetti. To most folks, he was known as the Laurinburg Mummy. Cancetto Farmica had arrived, living and breathing, with a traveling show that passed through the area in 1911. Still in his twenties, he was a hothead who apparently pushed on of his colleagues a little too far, because one of them brained him with a heavy tent stake. The blow killed the young worker, and he was taken to the nearby McDougald Funeral Home, where his body was embalmed and prepared for burial. When Farmica's father arrived to claim his son's body, however, he didn't have enough money to cover even the cost of embalming, let alone a funeral. He would have to go back home to get the rest of the cash needed for the services. But as months passed and the older man never returned, it began to dawn on them that they'd been left holding the bag, so to speak. They decided the easiest thing to do was just to keep on holding it. By then the body had completely dried out and stabilized, and had almost become a member of the family. For the next twenty-eight years, Cancetto Farmica's dried corpse hung on the wall of the third-floor embalming room, gradually becoming a regional celebrity. As his gruesome fame spread, visitors passing through Laurinburg would pull over and ask for directions to "the mummy". The morticians were happy to let tourists troop in for a look-see. After all, it was good advertising for their embalming skills (though his preservation probably had as much to do with the effects of simple dessication), and also encouraged their other customers not to dawdle when it came time to settle their bills. By 1939, the stream of visitors had increased so much that the work of embalming the regular clients was being impeded, so the McDougalds had a special glass-fronted case built in which "Spaghetti" could remain on permanent display elsewhere in the building. When they moved the business to a new location, he went with them, repaying his initial cost many times over in the form of free publicity. Eventually, the fact that an Italian American had gone unburied for nearly sixty years didn't sit so well with Italian communities elsewhere. Along with pleas from an Italian American Congressman from New York, the funeral home started getting threats from members of the Mafia, who expressed their annoyance at a paisan being treated with disrespect. By 1972, McDougald's decided that its mascot had become more of a liability than an asset, and made arrangements to have him laid to his well-earned rest. Several hundred people were on hand for the funeral as Farmica's casket was lowered into a grave at Laurinburg's Hillside Cemetery. It is said that two tons of concrete were then poured into the hole, but whether this was a tip of the hat to Mafia traditions or simply a strategy to keep him from ever going on display again is not known.
A visit to the Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church Circa 1797 brought this story..... Maybe it was the rain. Maybe it was just too wet for Sherman's boys to burn anything. But when Union Gen. John Logan's troops hunkered down for the evening at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church, some of them decided to leave a permanent reminder of their visit. In early March, 1865, Sherman split his forces as they advanced on Fayetteville. He traveled with four divisions of the 15th Corps into North Carolina, which camped on March 7 at Laurel Hill Church. Along the way, they destroyed some rail stock and a small gun factory in Laurinburg. Then the heavy rains came. Church historian Sylvia McLean says calvary troops removed the pews from the church to keep their horses dry. The infantry later used the pews to cover mudholes in the march to Wagram. The lucky soldiers who got to stay dry with the horses began idly scribbling on the walls. After the war, many of the names were whitewashed over. Others were covered by visitors eager to add their own names. Eventually church members carefully preserved many of the remaining names by chipping out the plaster. They are preserved in a display at the church, as is a replacement Bible sent by a Union soldier a few years after the war.
Richmond Cotton Mill and The Murdoch Morrison Gun Factory was our next stop and a 2 stop DNF. Richmond Cotton Mill, which was the first textile manufacturing plant in Scotland County. Powered by water wheels, machinery was said to have come from a sunken blockade runner. It was leased by Mark Morgan in 1872 and became the first of the Morgan Mills. The Murdoch Morrison Gun Factory was located on Gum Swamp Creek, which provided it with water power. Until Union General William T. Sherman's army swept through here on March 9, 1865 and destroyed it, it manufactured rifles modeled after the Buchanan Rifle, as well as other weapons for the Confederate army. Three millponds on Gum Swamp Creek also powered textile mills built before the Civil War.
Next stop was Old Stewartsville Cemetery and another weird story and another DNF. The Old Stewartsville Cemetery in Southern Scotland County guards the remains of some of south-central North Carolina's earliest settlers, inluding those of J.C. McLaurin, for whom Laurinburg, N.C. is named. This particular cache is in memorial to the grave of the Rev. Colin Lindsay, one of the area's more colorful inhabitants who is probably most famous for being 'the man who was born after his mother was dead and buried'. The tale begins in Scotland with Lindsay's mother. In 1736, a Scottish woman fell sick and entered a deep coma. Thought to be dead, she was buried near her home. The evening of the burial, grave robbers, greedy for the diamond rings on her fingers, dug up the body. Finding one ring extremely difficult to remove, they began to cut off her finger. At this same moment, she regained consciousness and sat up in her coffin. The terrified robbers fled, leaving the unfortunate soul alone in the cemetery. She walked back to her home. Six years later, in 1744, this woman gave birth to Colin Lindsay. Colin Lindsay immigrated to the United States in 1790. He settled in the Sandhills region and became one of the area's most colorful, if not cantankerous, ministers. He was suspended from the Presbyterian ministry three times due to his violent temper. Colin was the first minister of OLd Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and is now buried in Stewartsville Cemetery." We also saw a very interesting marker commemorating the McColl Clan of Scotland who moved to NC from Appin in 1790. Appin is located in Argyleshire in the western highlands of Scotland.
Next was The John Blue House also logged as a DNF. The John Blue house was built in the early 1890's by John Blue, Sr. (1861 - 1935). Built entirely of heart of pine lumber harvested from the Blue property. John Blue was inspired by a Mississippi river boat when he designed this house in the 1890's. Some of these prominent house features include the Steamboat Gothic architecture, double circular porches, nine fireplaces, and stained glass elements over the twelve outside doors. The interior is refurnished with period furnishings from the parlor, formal dining room, and bedrooms. Mr. Blue was a very prominent businessman, farmer and inventor. Mr. Blue invented the first cotton stalk cutter, the John Blue cotton planter and a fertilizer distributor. The grounds of the John Blue House are also the home of several historic buildings: The Jones-Lytch Cabin (circa 1800's). It has been converted into an early cotton museum featuring an early hand-operated cotton gin, an antique loom, cotton samples, and other displays that trace the early production and use of cotton in Scotland County. Also in the cabin are examples of John Blue's early inventions. Other cabins on the grounds include the Shaw Cabin (circa early 1800's), the McNeill Cabin (circa mid 1800's), and the Ferguson Study (circa 1890's). A.D. Gibson Store (Circa late 1800's). The store was moved to the site and restored. The interior displays tools and products from days past. The soda fountain is from the old Legion Drug Store in Laurinburg. There is also an early physician's office with implements from early Scotland County doctors. The Chisholm Cotton Gin. This pre-Civil War mule powered cotton gin is believed to be one of the oldest in existence. The gin was originally located near Hemingway, South Carolina and was heavily damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The remnants were carefully dismantled and brought to Laurinburg where the gin was restored using antique tools. Located beside the gin is a replica of an antique mule-powered cotton press. The cotton press was used to bale ginned cotton. Both the gin and the press are fully restored and functional. Also on the grounds are an old saw mill and a 1/2 mile 18 gauge railroad.
The Tale of the Burning Depot in Laurinburg was our next DNF. During the Civil War, Laurinburg was a stop on the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford RR. Near the end of the conflict, as Union forces beseiged Fort Fisher, and closed in on Wilmington, the rail yards in the port city were relocated here to a site in the middle of the town. Some of Wilmington's citizens also fled and came here. On March 7, 1865, advance elements of Union General William T. Sherman's army entered the state from South Carolina. That afternoon, they struck here, destroying the rail yard, depot, and shops as well as several miles of track east and west of Laurinburg. A detachment of the 5th Tennessee Cavalry witnessed the destruction before moving northeast.
Another site we saw, where there was no cache, was the Original Springfield Cotton Mill. It was the third oldest textile manufacturing plant in Scotland County. It was built by Mark Morgan in 1892 and was powered by water wheels. It burned down in 1917.
Well that was about it for a very interesting but unproductive day of caching but a great day as far as seeing where a lot of history was made. It was on back to the RV and a "tight" shower and Mom did the logs and we had dinner. Tomorrow is moving day, thank goodness, so stay tuned. Until next time we love you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-John Blue House, 2-Front of the house, 3-John Blue marker, 4-Side of the house, 5-Back of the house, 6-Parlor, 7,8,9,10-Antique Cotton Press, 11,12,13,14,15-Chisholm Cotton Gin, 16,17,18-Shaw Cabin Circa 1825, 19,20,21,22,23-McNeil Cabin Circa 1820, 24,25,26-Pastor's Study, 27-A.D. Gibson Store, 28-Jones- Lytch Cabin, 29-Storage Shed, 30,31-Milk House, 32-Old well, 33,34,35-Machinery storage, 36,37-Grape Arbors, 38,39-Stewartsville Cemetery, 40-Rev. Colin Lindsay grave marker, 41,42-Cemetery markers, 43,44,45,46-McColl Clan marker, 47,48,49,50-Original Springfield Cotton Mill site, 51-Burning Depot marker, 52,53,54-Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church Circa 1797, 55-Old Laurel Hill Church historic marker, 56-Church marker, 57,58,59,60-Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church cemetery, 61-Sherman's March historic marker, 62-Original Richmond Cottom Mill historic marker, 63,64-Murdoch Morrison Civil War Gun Factory historic markers, 65,66-Ida Yarn Mill & Historic marker.