Readers of The Lincoln Journal know a lot about Red Devil football, Lincolnton, and Lincoln County. Consider the following questions and test your knowledge.
Answers are provided after the questions.
1. What do the Red Devils have in common with the fictional town of Mayberry?
2. Prior to the current Post Office, what buildings served that function in Lincolnton?
3. The same area has been used as the football field since 1922. What was it used for before then?
4. Lincolnton has changed a lot over the last fifty years. Name three things, other than church buildings, that haven't changed much.
5. In 1930, what was the primary route to Augusta?
6. Lincolnton once was home to two movie theaters and a bowling alley. Where were these located?
7. Where was the jail before the current one was built?
8. W. T. "Tutt" Dunaway started football at Lincolnton High in 1922. At what college was he a star football player?
9. Legendary stories about Dr. Weems Pennington continue to be told. "Doc" would sometimes sneak out his office's back door during the day and visit a nearby business and help their customers. Which business?
10. Where was Larry Campbell's first paycheck from after he moved to Lincolnton?
Answers:
1. An old song. The Mayberry Founders' Day song and the Red Devil fight song are both based on "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight", which is believed to have originated as a Civil War song about soldiers.
Here's the Mayberry lyrics: "Mayberry'll shine tonight, Mayberry'll shine. When the moon comes up and the sun goes down, Mayberry'll shine." Here's the original lyrics: "Our boys will shine tonight. Our boys will shine. We'll shine in beauty bright all down the line. We're all dressed up tonight. That's one good sign. When the sun goes down and the moon comes up, our boys will shine." The song has been adapted many times as fight songs for high schools, colleges, and others around the world.
2. Going backwards in time: the brick building at intersection of Goshen and Peachtree; the stone-faced building on Main Street, next to Linco Place; the right-most storefront in the long brick building on the other side of Main Street, adjacent to the barber shop; the Wilkes House, which was torn down to make room for the current location of Farmers State Bank.
3. The present football field was used as a cow pasture. Dr. C. H. May allowed the school to use it for football since it was some of the flattest property nearest the school. In 1922, the high school would have been at what became known as the "green building" on the corner of Sunrise and Dallas.
4. Here's six; there are probably more: (1) Red Devil football - still winners. (2) Goldman & Wengrow. (3) City Pharmacy. (4) Spratlin's Hardware Store. (5) Lincolnton still has only three intersections with full traffic signals; the 378 & 79 signal was the last added, in the early 1960's. (6) The Lincoln Journal - the oldest continually-operating business in Lincoln County.
5. Before the direct route from Lincoln County through Evans and Martinez was developed, the shortest route was through Leah to Appling and then to Augusta. What is now an hour's ride (depending on traffic) once was an all-day effort over rutted dirt roads.
6. The Linco Theater was on Main Street, where City Pharmacy is now located. The Amuzu Theater was in the Keeter Building, the two story building at the Confederate Monument. The bowling alley was in the building on Washington Street between the traffic signal and Guillebeau Avenue; this building would later house A&M Supermarket and other businesses.
7. The jail was on Washington Street, just east of the current location of Crawford & Breazeale Drugs. Part of the foundation still stands.
8. Dunaway starred for the Mercer College Bears in 1909 and 1910. Also on the 1910 Mercer team was Homer L. Rice, later to be the Washington coach in 1922 and 1923, and a Baptist preacher. After the 1942 season, Mercer dropped football. The Bears returned to the gridiron in 2011, and earlier this year joined the Southern Conference.
9. Farmers Hardware and Furniture. Here's the story of one of "Doc's" visits to the store at told by Emory Ware on the Facebook group "I am so Lincoln County that I remember ...": "Farmers Hardware was one of Dr. Pennington's go-to places when a break was needed . He would simply slip out the back door of his office and come through the back door of the store. Doc loved to ramble about and find an interesting device or tool then go into a 10 minute discourse on its origin and potential use. And Dr. Pennington loved to help customers find an item and of course fix something that was broken, often drawing diagrams on brown paper bags to illustrate his idea of a solution and lecturing the customer on ways to make their life better if they would just heed his advice.
"The telephone company was refurbishing some equipment for a time and one of their technicians, from "out of town" came in while Doc was taking 5 . When Doc saw the man carrying a small bundle of wires he stepped forward and said "how can I help you?" What followed was a rather deep discussion on advanced technology and intricate switching mechanisms, right down Doc's alley. The technician was amazed at the depth of knowledge offered and even admitted that some of the information bordered on genius! While I was charging the items to the telephone company Doc slipped back out the door and was gone. The technician exclaimed 'Y'all better try and hang on to that guy that waited on me. He is amazing! [Well], he should'a been a doctor!"
10. During the summer of 1970, Larry Campbell was hired to work as a lifeguard at the Elijah Clark State Park swimming area. (That info came from Mrs. Mildred Fortson several years ago.)
Please email the writer (tradition@reddevils.us) if you have additional information to offer on any of the topics.