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UPTOWN Volume 2, Issue 8 Town of Castalia Oct-Nov 2007 (252) 459-3668
From the Mayor’s Desk
As the days shorten and the trees blanket the earth with leaves all aglow we turn the time back and prepare for the next season. School buses start to roll carrying our children to school. Footballs are spiraled through the air and sports fans rally around the goal posts. Fall festivals take place all over the area and we find ourselves busy, busy, busy.
Another and a most important event takes place in the fall, the Town Elections. I encourage you to take this seriously and exercise your American right to vote. Seek out the candidates running, talk with them, ask questions to determine how they can work to provide a better place to live. Go to the polls in November and vote, but don’t stop there. Attend town meetings to support and assist the board in all facets of work.
It is a great privilege to work in your town government and render a service to your fellow men. Become involved and take advantage of the opportunities that are available for your benefit.
From the Town
The Castalia Disaster & Relief Team
This is the second year that the Castalia Disaster and Relief team stands ready to assist in the event of a community disaster. The hurricane season is with us now and will be through November, however when December arrives so does the cold weather and the possibility of ice damage and the Disaster and Relief Team will be ready then too! Please consider dropping off a can of fruit, vegetables or canned meat at the Castalia Town Hall. Please help us now so that we can help when the need arises.
4th of July Committee News
The 4th of July Committee is starting its fund raisers to benefit the events for 2008
Mark your calendars for Saturday October 20th. The committee is having a Barbecue Chicken Plate sale. The cost of the plate will be $5.00. The sale will begin at 10AM and will be held at the Castalia Town Hall. The plate will include a leg quarter, potatoes, green beans and bread.
The committee is also selling raffle tickets. The tickets are $2.00 each. The drawing will be held on the first Tuesday in December after the town board meeting. Raffle tickets will be sold at the barbecue chicken sale. They are also available at the Castalia Town Hall or may be purchased from any committee member until the night of the drawing. For more information on the prizes please call the Town Hall.
Aluminum cans are still being collected and may be dropped off at the Town Hall. They are recycled and the money goes into the 4th of July account.
Please support these fund raisers.
Your support makes the 4th of July celebration possible. The committee is seeking citizens to join us and help us make the 4th a day to remember. Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 9th at 7PM(meetings are the second Tuesday of each month). The committee members are all volunteers and more people are needed to participate. Please get involved. For more information call Chairperson Ken Rice at 459-2745.
Clean Sweep
Clean Sweep occurs twice a year in Castalia, once in the spring and once in the fall. It is a program through Keep America Beautiful. Clean Sweep is always scheduled on a Saturday and interested residents meet to help clean the streets of Castalia. You can make a BIG difference in just a few hours when you help with Clean Sweep. Your help is needed because litter hurts us in many ways. This year’s fall cleanup is scheduled for Saturday October 27th. This event starts at 11AM (Rain date Saturday November 3). All people wishing to participate should meet at the Castalia Town Hall and get their street assignments from James Alston, the Clean Sweep coordinator. Refreshments will be served afterwards. For more information please call the Castalia Town Hall.
Business In Town
Joyner’s Lawn Service
Joyner’s Lawn Service is family owned and operated. Currently three generations of Joyners work for the business. The business was started in the 1980s by Joseph Joyner. During the 1990s his son Wayne Joyner started helping him. In 1999 due to health reasons Wayne Joyner took over the business from his father. Now Wayne’s son Christian Joyner also works for the business. Joyner’s Lawn Service cuts grass for several businesses, churches, and residences in the Castalia area.
History of Castalia
Researched from articles printed 1973 in
Nashville Graphic written by L.S. Inscoe
Evening Telegram written by Clyde Gallop
Castalia Schools
In 1853, 20 years before the Town of Castalia was chartered the old Cedar Rock Academy, three miles away in Franklinton County, was burned and the principal David S. Richardson, from New Hampshire moved to the Harrison and Taylor Community in Nash County and established another school.
Professor Richardson was well versed in classical literature
and mythology. He gave the new school location the name Castalia for the place in Greece where the celebrated spring of the Delphic Oracle was located. This was the first school in Castalia. In the late 1880's the Castalia Academy was formed. In the early days of Castalia the school was housed on the second floor of a building sometimes referred to as “The Old Yellow Store” on Peachtree St.(today it is Barnes St.) In back of the present brick building on the southwest corner of Main and Barnes. W. J. King taught there from 1875 to 1878. Another well-known teacher who taught at the school in the early 1880's was W. O. Dunn. Erection of the Castalia Academy building by S. J. Bartholomew in the late 1880's made a big change for the better in the school situation. At one period in the 1890's there was no school in Castalia. Main Street became the dividing line between the Rice School several miles out on the Spring Hope road and the Griffin School which was several miles in the opposite direction at the H. R. Griffin place. On October 5, 1903 Mr. Bartholomew deeded Castalia Academy to the Nash County Board of Education. Efforts were made to improve the school by securing good principals and teachers. Wingate Underhill, R. H. Burns, E. L. Fox and P. D. Mangum served as principals of Castalia Academy. The Academy offered college preparatory courses as well as elementary education. In 1907, Rev. G. W. May, who had been operating a private school at Red Oak was induced to move his school to Castalia and became the headmaster of the Castalia Academy. He operated the school through the tenth grade. Tuition was $13 a month for the high school students, but the elementary students paid for four months and received four months free. A large two story girl’s dormitory was erected across Main Street near the Academy followed by a boy’s dorm adjoining the Academy grounds and the Academy building was enlarged and improved. The course of study was expanded to include additional high school subjects, commercial work and music. W. O. Johnson was principal in 1905-1907. He was followed by Oscar Creech who remained until 1912. During this period Castalia was widely known as an education center. Many boarding students from Nash and other counties were enrolled. Loss of the girl’s dormitory by fire on March 13, 1913 just about put an end to the boarding facilities but Castalia continued to have a strong high school for some years. Vocational agriculture was added in 1919 with T. B. Elliot as agriculture teacher and principal. In 1918 the old frame building that had been called the Academy was replaced by a two-story brick building with steam heat, indoor toilet facilities and running water. It was the most modern school building in the Nash County school system at the time. The brick building was closed as a school sometime during the 1960s. Today the children of Castalia attend Cedar Grove Elementary School, Red Oak Middle School and Nash Central High School.
Public Hearing
Attention! Attention! All Citizens
The Town of Castalia will hold a Public Hearing for Water and Sewage on October 11, 2007 at 7:00 PM in the Town Hall Meeting Room. It is very important that you attend this meeting. Please come and voice your opinions.
Citizen’s Corner
Meet Lynwood “Pee Wee” Harper
Pee Wee was born on October 10, 1923 in the Castalia township (known now as the Landfill Rd area) to Nobie and Mildred Harper. He had two sisters Betty and Catherine and a brother who died at 2 months. Pee Wee attended school at the Castalia School through the fifth grade; says he is like Lil Jimmy Dickens as he got the rest of his education”out behind the barn”.
When he was ten years old his parents died and the family was split up, the girls went to live with grand parents and he stayed on at the home place and stayed a good deal of time with Mr. Murray Braswell. Pee Wee and his friend Joe Braswell did farm work for Mr. Morton Joyner; primed tobacco for 40 cents a day with a promise to be paid on Saturday which never came he says. On Saturday Pee Wee and Joe would catch a chicken put it under their arm and thumb a ride to Rocky Mount. They would sell the chicken at Sexton’s Feed & Seed Store for enough money to go to the picture show and buy some popcorn.
After an attempt to join the Navy and Marines, turned down because of being color blind, Pee Wee joined the CC Camp; he was placed in the fish and wildlife division where he served about twelve months. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the army and served during WWII in England. He fought in the invasion of France at Normandy, he served in Germany and Austria. Pee Wee received a purple heart, four battle stars and a citation for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
Upon leaving the army Pee Wee returned to Rocky Mount and began working at Cockrell’s Garage under the G. I. Bill of Rights training. He also worked for Alan Mim’s Ford. In 1947 Pee Wee married Dorothy Harris and they had a family of six children. In 1950 they moved back to the home place in the Castalia township. In 1955 they moved into the Castalia town limits. Pee Wee operated a garage on Red Bud Rd for 25 years and worked for Braswell Milling Co in Nashville for 18 years. He served in the Castalia Volunteer Fire Dept for 25 years, being the fire chief for part of the time. He served 4 terms as a Castalia commissioner and is a member of the Castalia Baptist Church.
In 1995 Pee Wee’s wife Dorothy passed away leaving a void in his life. While coping with this he met and married Louise Leonard and they reside at 9537 Main St. They have a regular lunch date each week with friends Jody and Sylvia Braswell and according to Sylvia they can’t assist anyone else on that day.
Pee Wee says his favorite foods are barbecue, fish, shrimp, pineapple cake and ice cream. He is a coffee drinker. His health is fair after by-pass surgery and he gets about slowly and carefully, he has been declared legally blind and is very appreciative for the services offered for the blind through social agencies. Pee Wee is an ardent auto racing fan; his favorite racer was Dale Earnhardt, so now he says he pulls for anyone driving the chevys.
His advice to his fellow citizens is to work hard and save as much of your monies as possible. Also if your life is not right with God you need to make it so.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING !
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