A Glimpse of the Past - Pee Dee, NC

Records shows that the little community known as Pee Dee has its first postmaster appointed in 1839[1], Mr. Thomas Waddill, Jr. Over the next 115 years postal service would be established, discontinued or rescinded a total of 6 times until it was completely discontinued and sent to Lilesvile in 1954.

Pee Dee was/is a populated place located at latitude 34.935 and longitude -79.89 in Anson County, North Carolina.[2]

Pee Dee elevation is 236 feet.

For the most part Pee Dee was just a local stop on the old Seaboard Air Line Rail System. Last evening as I sat and talked with my brother-in-law (b. 1926); he reminisced and answered my questions about Pee Dee as he remembered.

He told me that there were two stores. One store, a mercantile store was run by Mr. Lester H. TROGDEN.  Across the road from the Trogden store was a store owned by a black man, whose name he did not recall. Up the road from Trogden mercantile store, on the left side of the dirt road was a church for the black members of the community. All ticket sales for the Seaboard Rail System were sold at the Trogden Mercantile Store.   

The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Corporation Commission of the State of North Carolina (1916) Year ending December 31, 1916 heard a complaint from the “Citizens of Pee Dee v Seaboard Air Line Railway. Petition for establishment of flag-stop at Ballast Pit, a point on defendant’s line three miles west of Pee Dee and three miles east of Lilesville. Dismissed. [3]Page 24

In 1916, Pee Dee was an active Post Office and William R. Boggan was the Postmaster. The commission report does not indicated if the Ballast Pit was in addition to the Pee Dee stop, about 3 miles east of the Ballast Pit, or if this was the prelude to establishing the stop at Pee Dee.  

Mr. Trogden was a single man born 5 September 1887 in Franklinville, Randolph County, North Carolina. Lester’s World War I Draft Card, dated 5 June 1917 shows that he was a Telegraph Operator for the Seaboard Air Line Rail Road in Pee Dee, North Carolina.  

Lester H. Trogden listed in both the 1930 and the 1940 census[4] for Anson County, North Carolina.

On 12 Aug 1937, Frank G. and Portia H. Fetzer sold 23 acres to L. H. Trogden. [5]

December 18, 1941 - Merchant Is Found In Store Dead For A Day - A well-known citizen, World War veteran, retired Seaboard railroad station agent and for the past few years a merchant at Pee Dee, Mr. Lester Hayworth Trogden, was found dead in his store in that town Tuesday night. Sheriff S. M. Gaddy was called by citizens of that neighborhood who had become alarmed because Mr. Trogden’s store remained closed during the day. The sheriff went to the store at about 8 o'clock, found the door locked, forced the door open and discovered the body lying on a cot with a bottle of medicinal ammonia clutched in one hand. It was apparent that Mr. Trogden had died of a heart attack which the sheriff's investigation indicated had happened early Monday evening.

Trogden, who was unmarried, had resided in Pee Dee for about 30 years. While railroad agent there several years ago, he was found one morning in the station, bruised and tied, as a result of an attack by nighttime marauders who were never apprehended. He was born September 19, 1887, a son of Mr. George Trogden and Mrs. Julia Lutterlob Trogden, of Franklinville, who survive him as do two sisters, Mrs. H. G. Ferree, of High Point and Mrs. Williamson of Franklinville. The funeral is being held this Thursday afternoon at the M. E. cemetery near Franklinville, Randolph County. 

Lester H. Trogden obituary was also printed in The Courier Tribune, Randolph County, North Carolina Newspaper, December 19, 1941, page 9.

1748-1948 Anson County Bicentennial Edition

1748-1948 Anson County Bicentennial Edition (small section)

The map [6]above is a small section of the 1748-1948 Anson County Bicentennial Edition map by James M. Furr, Jr. of Albemarle, North Carolina. As you turn off Highway 74 onto what is now Highway 145 (old 85) it shows a school and a Black Church on the right and another Black Church on the left. The Black school was known as the Collegiate Institute for Negro Youth  spearheaded and promoted by the Reverend A. M. Barrett. it was a rather large brick building built in the late 1800 to early 1900's. [7]  

The wife and I both grew up in Anson County and attended school together. She remembers, as a small girl, riding with her Mother to the Post Office at Pee Dee and picking up stamps. That was most likely in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. She remembers a lady ran the Post Office and that  would have been Bettie W. Wall who was elected Postmaster in 1942 and served until its closing.  

Today, all that remains is the railroad tracks and the rumbling of the CSX locomotives down the tracks.

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[1] Mary L. Medley, History of Anson County, North Carolina: 1750-1976 (Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Company, 1976), page 339.

[2] http://northcarolina.hometownlocator.com/nc/anson/pee-dee.cfm

[3] books.google.com/books?id=Q2VMAAAAYAAJ

[4] Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Lilesville, Anson, North Carolina; Roll: T627_2871; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 4-15. Household of L. H. Trodgen.

[5] Emma Goodwin, Type Talk I I of Lilesville Township: Anson County, North Carolina (Charlotte, North Carolina: Herb Eaton Historical Publication, 1990), page 269.

[6] Small section of the 1748-1948 Anson County Bicentennial Edition map by James M. Furr, Jr. of Albemarle, North Carolina
[7] Mary L. Medley, History of Anson County, North Carolina: 1750-1976 (Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Company, 1976), page 255.