1930 - 1970

Although Winton remains the seat of government for Hertford County, by 1930, Ahoskie began to surpass Winton in population and commerce, primarily because the railroad traveled through Ahoskie, fueling its growth, while Winton was bypassed. In addition, Winton, and in fact, most of Hertford County had little manufacturing. Many residents who were not employed in agriculture traveled outside the county for work. Residents even went as far as the shipyards in Newport News and other areas of Tidewater Virginia seeking work, and a private bus line still operates to transport commuters. The boll weevil, a tiny insect that burrows into cotton bolls and consumes the cotton as it develops, decimated cotton crops in North Carolina by the 1930s, and in Hertford County, cotton agriculture was replaced by tobacco, corn, Irish and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and soybeans, as well as strawberries, melons, peaches, scuppernong grapes, and apples. Poultry and dairy farming also were common. Agriculture remained important to the county’s economy in the 1930s, as evidenced by the popularity during that time of the farm and home demonstration agents, assigned to the county in the early 1920s, and the Hertford County Fair, held annually in Winton beginning in 1918.

In addition to the importance of agriculture, Winton’s herring fishing industry thrived during the 1930s and 1940s. The fish returned each spring from the colder Atlantic waters to spawn in the rivers of eastern North Carolina. Winton residents recall that the fish “were so plentiful, so abundant, that we could dip them out of the water using a hand net.” Haul seines, which are nets with floats at the top and weights at the bottom, as well as purse seines, which can be pulled to enclose the net tightly, were commonly used in herring fishing on the Chowan River. Commercial fisheries included Mount Gallant Herring Fishery at Chowan Beach, west of Winton, with additional fisheries at Barfields and Petty Shore on the east side of town, where hauls of as many 100,000 fish were made twice daily.

River traffic also thrived in the early twentieth century, and throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, tugboats pushed barges carrying coal, lumber, and pulpwood

north into Virginia. Trucking was an important aspect of the river transport business as well, since there were no trains to bring lumber from further inland to the barges on the river. One of the largest businesses to operate on the river was Camp Manufacturing Company, which operated a paper mill in Franklin, Virginia. Pulpwood was cut from the pine forests around Winton and sent by barge to the mill in Franklin. Lumber was typically taken to Norfolk, Virginia, or Baltimore

Many of the men working in lumber and pulpwood lived in company housing near the river, close to Manley Hill (formerly the Hill Street area) east of the historic district. However, by 1950, modern technology had replaced manual labor, and the company camps had disappeared.

Although early-twentieth-century racial tensions in Winton did not reach the level of aggression and violence they did in many of North Carolina’s towns, segregation was in full effect. African American women often worked as domestic servants while men worked as laborers. Many who farmed were sharecroppers or tenant farmers. African Americans who were in the professional class were limited to positions as undertakers, preachers, and teachers. The Hertford County Undertakers Union, founded in Winton in 1916, became an important African American institution in Hertford, Bertie, Northampton, and Gates counties.

The National Elks Shrine is located in Winton and named for Hobson R. Reynolds, who was born in Winton and served as the national president of the Elks for many years.

Schools also remained segregated until the late 1960s. The consolidation of public schools in Hertford County had started in the 1920s, consolidating the eighteen white schools and thirty-four African American schools present in 1928 into six white schools and twenty-three African American schools by 1938. This included merging Mt. Clair School with Waters Training Institute for African American children. In 1929, Winton High School (white) was consolidated with Ahoskie High School. The Winton High School building became Winton Elementary School, which closed in 1967 and was demolished in 1974.

Even the libraries were segregated, with the Hertford County Library in Winton serving white patrons. In 1938, Katie Hart, a local teacher, started a bookmobile program and established Hertford County Colored Library in a house on Murfree Street, which operated until 1969 when it merged with the white library.

In the 1930s, Waters Training Institute served grades one through eleven and was still one of only two schools in Hertford County offering high school grades for African Americans. As a result, students came from not only the Winton area, but also Murfreesboro, Harrellsville, Como, Tunis, and Cofield.

Segregation was less visible in Winton’s housing. Residents recall streets and neighborhoods being largely integrated, with white families and African American families living alongside one another, though there was a larger concentration of African American residents on the south end of town near the C.S. Brown School.

Through the 1930s and 1940s, downtown Winton had little to offer in terms of recreation. There was no bowling alley, museum, art gallery, or other entertainment. Whites could attend the theater to view silent movies, but African Americans were not allowed, and the theater was eventually closed and later occupied by a Masonic Lodge. The James Adams Floating Theater, a showboat that stopped in small port towns in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina from 1925 until 1941, sometimes visited Winton. It usually stayed in port for a week at a time to offer plays and concerts, and the ship accommodated 500 people on the floor seats with an additional 350 people in the balcony, which was reserved for African American patrons. Children played outside nearly all the time. Most young people (of both races) visited Ahoskie in search of recreation, but in Winton, the river provided the primary entertainment, and residents enjoyed fishing, boating, water skiing, and swimming.

Southeast of town at Tuscarora Beach, white visitors enjoyed swimming, dining, dancing, and powerboat races on the river. The beach was host to a variety of events, including school, church, and civic organization outings, weddings, and even beauty pageants. Meanwhile, just northwest of Winton, J. Eli Reid acquired four hundred acres of riverfront property in 1926. He used a portion of the site for herring fishing at his Mount Gallant Herring Fishery, which he owned with Charles L. Revelle, Sr. Reid used much of the property to establish an African American vacation destination, Chowan Beach.

Baseball

Another popular pastime was baseball. The first African American team to organize in Winton was the Chowan Bees, originally formed in 1936 or 1937 and named the Winton Bees, who played in a field on the west side of town. After World War II, Will Manley took over the team and renamed it the Chowan Bees. The team played a number of exhibition games against Negro Major League Baseball teams

1950’s Government Complex

With the goals of modernizing, revitalizing, and ensuring the county seat would remain in Winton, the county invested in multiple public buildings in the 1950s. In 1950-1951, a new Hertford County Office Building and Hertford County Health Department, both designed by Kinston architects John J. Rowland and James M. Simpson, were constructed on North King Street. A new Modernist-style courthouse, also designed by Rowland and Simpson, was built in 1956 adjacent to the two earlier buildings to form the centerpiece of the governmental complex, replacing the 1870 Greek Revival-style building.

1956 Hertford County Courthouse

Aluminum Plant

In the 1950s, Easco Corporation, founded in Ohio in 1919, constructed an aluminum extrusion plant on the banks of the Chowan on Metcalf Street, a short street at the northeast end of town and east of the district. It was so large that it spanned across to the adjacent street, Hill Street, replacing most of the original Manley Hill neighborhood in that location.

People’s Program on Poverty

In the 1960s, poverty had reached such a level of concern in North Carolina that the North Carolina Fund, a nonprofit organization, was established in 1963 to seek funding to relieve poverty throughout the state. The North Carolina Fund established the People’s Program on Poverty (PPOP) to focus on the Choanoke region, including Hertford, Halifax, Bertie, and Northampton counties.

Although the PPOP ended around 1968, the legacy of the organization continued through the activities of those who had been involved. Reverend James A. Felton, a co-founder of PPOP, went on to establish public housing, street improvements, and voter education and registration programs in the area. African Americans were also elected to public offices, serving as sheriff, school board members, judges, Register of Deeds, and Clerk of Court. Those who grew up in Winton recall that unlike their neighbors in surrounding counties, they never felt compelled to organize marches or boycott businesses, but those peaceful negotiations were effective to solve most problems of racial inequality in the town.