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PeaRidge, NC
History
(Washington County)
under
construction
Geology
"Washington County is a very flat and not very high above sea
level. The
county is, in fact, a seabed that is temporarily not covered
by the ocean. In the past, the county has been covered
and uncovered by the ocean many times.
Some of the rise and fall in sea level has been due
to changes in the
ocean volume, but most has been caused by continental
glaciers, vast ice sheets
a mile or more thick that covered much of North
America. For millions of years, the
earth has undergone cycles of glacier formation
followed by periods of glacier
melting. Sea level becomes lower when the glaciers
form and sea level rises
when the glaciers melt.
In eastern North Carolina, the western advance of the sea
during each
melting of the glaciers is marked by a sand ridge
called a 'scarp.' The land to
the east of each scarp is called a 'terrace.'
The scarps and terraces occur at
lower elevations and are younger from west to east. Most
of Washington
County is on the youngest marine terrace, called the
Pamlico Terrace. The
Western boundary of the Pamlico Terrace is the
Suffolk Scarp, a sand ridge
complex that extends from Suffolk, Virginia, through
Washington County, to
near Morehead City. There are two scarps in Washington
County. The older
scarp is called the Walterboro Scarp. Long Ridge
Road follows the Walterboro
Scarp sand ridge from Plymouth to Pinetown. The elevation
at the foot of this
scarp is about 40 feet above sea level, and the ocean
most likely reached here
several hundred thousands years ago.
The Suffolk Scarp is the youngest scarp
in the county. Highway 32 follows
it from Plymouth to Acre Station. The elevation at
the foot of the Suffolk
Scarp is about 20 feet above sea level. During the
last warming period between
glaciers, about 70,000 years ago, the oceanfront was
at the Suffolk Scarp. The
Outer Banks ran through Washington County 70,000 years
ago. At that time,
an inlet where Van Swamp drains across Highway 32.
The climate was warm
and the vegetation was tropical.
While the ocean was at the Suffolk
Scarp, the glaciers again began to grow
and there was another ice age (called the Wisconsin glacial
age) which reached
its peak about 18,000 years ago. Continental glaciers
covered North America
as far south as Pennsylvania. Sea level fell as water was
tied up in the glaciers,
and present day Washington County found itself 400 feet
above sea level. The
ocean shoreline was many miles further east of
its present location. The
Roanoke River ran to the sea through a broad river valley
that is now
Albemarle Sound, and most of Pamlico Sound was dry
land. The climate was
cold and the vegetation was similar to present-day Canada.
Strange animals
such as the mammoth, musk ox, and mastodon roamed
the area. Again the
glaciers began to melt and sea level began to rise.
The coastline has been
migrating westward ever since. Rising sea level has
filled the Roanoke River
valley with water and formed the Albemarle
Sound.
Sea Level is now estimated to be rising
about one foot each 50-100 years
causing shoreline erosion along the sound and river and
increasing drainage
problems in the eastern part of the county.
Counties to the east are struggling
to cope with saltwater intrusion and poor drainage.
In Washington
County,the town of Creswell and some farmland along
the Scuppernong River require pump-assisted
drainage. Unless the melting of the glaciers stops,
Washington County will one day be reclaimed by the sea."
***
The Roanoke River and the Albemarle
Sound
"Technically, the Roanoke River is
not in Washington County. Through
a political fluke, the entire river to the washington
County bank is considered
part of Bertie County. However, the river forms part of
the northern
boundary of the county. The Roanoke River rises in
the southwestern Virginia
mountains and has the largest flow of any river
draining into Albemarle
Sound. The river basin covers almost 8,000 square miles,
or about fie million
acres of land. Much of it is mountains an piedmont.
The river flows 140 miles
in North Carolina. The average annual flow of
the Roanoke River into the
Albemarle Sound is 8,800 cubic feet per second.
The average residence time for
water in the sound is 45 days. The Roanoke
shares a large delta with two other rivers, the Middle
and the Cashie. Until the eighteenth century,
the Roanoke
River was called the Moratoc, after a tribe of
Algonquin Indians living on it.
The Roanoke drains into the
Albemarle Sound and the Albemarle and
Pamlico Sounds form an estuary that is a huge shallow
basic covering more
than two million acres of "drowned" coastal
plain. On the est coast, this
estuarine system is second in surface area
only to the Chesapeake Bay. The
water depth is a maximum of seven feet in Currituck Sound,
about 18 feet in
the Albemarle, and 24 feet in Pamlico Sound.
There is essentially no tidal
action in the sound because of few inlets
to the
ocean. The inlets through the Outer Banks have
opened and closed frequently
over the years. Albemarle Sound is now one of the
largest freshwater sounds
in the world, but this has not always been the case.
Albemarle Sound was a
salt-water sound until the 1830s when a northeaster
closed the Currituck Inlet
and the Albemarle became fresh within a year.
Even before this inlet closed,
access to the sea was limited and dangerous. In
contrast to most of the coast,
which was settled from the sea, the first settlers reached the Albemarle Sound
by coming overland from Virginia. The sound then became a
highway for the
region. The sound also was a resource of great
abundance. Inhabitants of the
area established large seine fisheries to take advantage of the herring, shad,
and
striped bass.
Until this century, the most
important way to travel in the region was by
water. Land was explored and settled
from the water and all towns were
located on navigable water. Streams and
sounds formed the highways of the
region. Washington County was first viewed
by europeans during the time of
the Roanoke Island colonies in the 1580s. Nearly
100 years passed before
there was significant impact by settlers. The
lands bordering the sound, rivers, and
creeks were settled first, and the inland areas were settled more
slowly and by
a different type of person. In general, the larger, more
progressive landowners
and businesspersons faced the water, while the backwoods
were occupied by
small, independent, subsistence frontiersmen. This way
of life reflected the
need for water transportation as well as contact
with the world at large. Inland
travel was, in general, extremely difficult. Somerset
Place on Lake Phelps
might be viewed as an exception to the rule, but
the plantation was connected
by canal to the port at Cherry, and by that port to
the Scuppernong River and
the rest of the world. Plymouth became one of the
principal ports of North
Carolina during the 1800s. The town was
located on the closest accessible high
land to the Albemarle Sound. Throughout the region,
settlement followed the
waterways and sand ridges. The first
roads evolved by following the sand
ridges from village to village or house to house. No
roads crossed the larger
swamps until modern times. An example is Old
Roper Road which swings
south from Plymouth to follow the sand ridges, while present
US 64 toward
Roper takes a straight course east from Plymouth
through wetter land."
***
The Early History of Pea Ridge
Records of the early history of what is
now Pea Ridge tell us this area was
one of the first to be settled in what is now
Washington County.
Sixty-nine years after the translating
of the Bible into the King James
version or in the year 1680, Captain Thomas Miller and
Colonel Joshua
Tarkington made their celebrated exploration of the South
Shore of the
Albemarle Sound (called by the early captains the
Carolina River). On their
return to Queen Ann's Creek (later to become Edenton),
they reported the
land as "Hearts Delight." With the
pressing flow of immigrants from Virginia,
the Albemarle area was beginning to get a bit
congested, so, with the good
report from Miller and Tarkington, there was a trickle of
settlers to the South
Shore - first, at the mouth of the Scuppernong
River, then to Kendricks Creek
(present day Mackeys). From there, they
moved on own the shoreline to the
east to made a settlement called South Lancaster.
As early as 1703, legal
documents were using such language as "laying on
South Lancaster, or
Langthester." One of the early landmarks of
South Lancaster was Mrs. Long's
Landing. As late 1797, an itinerant preacher by the name of
Jeremiah
Norman wrote about going up from Scuppernong to South
Lancaster to hold
a meeting. While there, he called on a M. J. Long. There
was a colonel James
Long who served in the Revolutionary War. James
Long was the father of
Mary Long Norman who was Jeremiah's mother."
Information from Washington County, NC: A
Tapestry
*** The Spruill family early history
in Pea Ridge was excluded from this book for whatever
reason. Here is a some of what it contains.
from
"The Spruills--a
Family of Colonial Notables." Our State
magazine. August 1, 1964 by David E. Davis.
"Dr. Godfrey Spruill,
patriarch of the family, was born in 1650, thirteen years
before King Charles issued the celebrated Carolina
Charter. A tobacco planter, surgeon and patron of the
sport of kings in the Cavalier colony, he had probably
heard stories from ship captains who had plied the
Carolina River (Albemarle Sound) in search of hides, furs
and naval stores, of the inviting forests along this
body's south shore. Between 1693 and 1697 he and his wife
Joanna bought land in the area and moved to
Carolina. They were among the section's first white
settlers.
The original Spruill grant included over a thousand
acres of the south shore of Albemarle Sound and west side
of Scuppernong River between Back Creek and Bunting Bay (now
Bull's Bay). In this beautiful, primitive setting, called
Heart's Delight by explorers a decade
before, the Spruills set down their roots. Behind the
high banks of the sound shore lay ridges cut here and
there by quiet creeks and forested with virgin timber.
On this location about 1705 was founded Roundabout
Plantation, the seat of the Tyrrell Spruills for
the next century.
Unlike many of Scuppernong's colonial land barons --
the Pettigrews, Collinses and
others who held land on the South Shore but whose
interests lay elsewhere -- the Spruills settled in
Scuppernong and began the task of clearing and exploiting
the rich dark land.
Dr. Godfrey Spruill, probably one of Carolina's
first medical men, became well-known throughout the
struggling Albemarle Colony, being called on numerous
occasions across the sound to Queen Anne's Creek, the
site of present Edenton, to care for the sick. At his
death the Roundabout fell to his son Samuel Spruill
and then to his grandson Joseph Spruill. Around
1710 near Backlanding, the private wharves of the
Roundabout, was erected Saint Paul's Chapel,
one of the earliest churches in Carolina. Thirty years
later Joseph Spruill gave this chapel to St.
Andrew's Parish.
The Roundabout and the Spruill lands at Backlanding
were the center of colonial activity in Scuppernong. Here
in 1746 was erected "His Majesties Warehouse"
and twenty years later Benjamin Spruill invited
the county court to meet at the "big house."
Subsequently he gave the land for the building of the Tyrrell
Courthouse at Backlanding following the outbreak
of the Revolution. Here also sailing schooners docked
momentarily on their voyage from Ocracoke to Edenton.
For the next five generations Spruills played
important roles in local as well as state religious and
political life. Probably not many families in Carolina
can boast such a continuous record of public service. Samuel
Spruill served in the Provincial Assembly from
1754 until his death in 1760. His brother Joseph
Spruill, an early vestryman of South Chowan Parish,
was major of the county militia, magistrate and
supervisor of "the King's high roads." He also
served as sheriff and a member of the Assembly. It was
his brother Colonel Hezekiah Spruill who was among
Tyrrell's leaders in the Revolution. Benjamin Spruill,
a member of the General Assembly, introduced the bill
creating Martin County from Tyrrell in 1774.
Nemeniah Spruill built the first bridge across
Scuppernong River near Cool Springs (now Creswell) during
early colonial times. This crossing is still called Spruill's
Bridge today. It opened transportation into a
new territory above Creswell and Lake Phelps to settlers.
Two Spruills, Joseph and Benjamin, were
members of the First and Second Provincial Congresses in
the turbulent opening days of the Revolution. Joseph
Spruill was a signer of the Halifax Resolves and was
appointed a major in the battalion being gathered in
Tyrrell at Lee's Mill under the leadership of Colonel
Edward Buncombe. Hezekiah Spruill and Stephen
Lee were appointed by the Second Provincial Congress
to "receive, procure and purchase firearms for the
use of the troops and to receive, maintain and repair all
swords, dirks, pistols and other implements of war which
have been taken by the Tories."
Like many of the hard-pressed farmers of the southern
Albemarle many Spruills migrated to the Deep South and to
the Mid-West. Today seldom a week passes that the Tyrrell
Register of Deeds office does not receive inquiries from
genealogists and researchers about this now fairly
widespread name. Many take the time and expense to come
to Columbia to search the county's colonial records for
information about this lost generation of early
Carolinians. John W. Melson of Columbia, who has
for several years done research on the history of the
Spruills, has uncovered most of the information known
today about the family.
From 1750 until 1860 there was hardly a North Carolina
General Assembly without a Spruill representing Tyrrell
or neighboring Washington County.
The main branch of the Spruill family, established in
Alligator by Colonel Hezekiah, remained on the
north shore until the latter part of the 1800's when the
place was sold and gradually passed away, much of it
reclaimed by the dense forests. Only a few Tyrrell
countians now bear this old name."
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Cont. The Early History of
Pea Ridge
"By 1830, just about all the land
on the South Shore had been deeded. In
1837, Ebenezer Pettigrew of Bonarva Plantation and Josiah
Collins of Somerset
Plantation on Lake Phelps formed a joint venture to go
into the silk business.
They bought 500 acres of land on the South Shore of the
Albemarle Sound
from Abram Newberry. The deed is dated 29 may 1837.
Some of this was land
formerly owned by John Long. They named the property
"Sahara" and
immediately went about preparing the land for setting out
morus multicaulis -
mulberry trees. The silk business did not prove
successful. They scrubbed the
idea of getting rich on silk and sold the land on 17
April 1840 to Edward S.
Riggs. The deed mentions the orchard.
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Information from Washington County, NC: A
Tapestry
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. . . "a
quiet community on the south side of the Albemarle Sound"
Civi War List, Washington County, NC
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