David Dellinger, son of George Henry Dellinger, (that moved from Catawba County to Mitchell county and started up the Grist Mill), lived in the town of Newton, N.C.
He lived right on the corner, on the square, in Newton!
He married Martha Ann Jones and they operated a boarding house or hotel .
By accounts that I have found, the hotel was built of round logs.
The courthouse that exists today was, of course, not yet built , but court was held nearby it's present day location. So with people coming in to town for court, a hotel was a good idea.
There is a publication called "Catawba Cousins" that mentions one account of David's hotel. I have also seen records that he operated a Grist Mill in Catawba County.
I went to the Catawba Co. Library to find land records to support this , but could not find any. But I did discover the hotel info!
The account that I found states that that the first "Native Newtonian" was James Newton Dellinger, David and Martha's son. They named him after his birthplace.
David Dellinger put up the first hotel, on the corner of the square, east of Luther Yoder's dwelling. Eli Yoder, from Hog Hill, came into town for court, and decided to eat at David's hotel. David thought he would prepare an extra good meal for his guest so he bought a nice turkey with all the trimmings and had it carefully prepared.
The meal cost David about 75 cents, complete with turkey. Well, old Eli Yoder ate up ALL the turkey and the fixings and left something less than 25 cents for the meal.
Dellinger apparently did not like this much and spread the word about town, Eli ultimately earning the name of "The Great Chicken Eater" from then on.
Not sure how it went from a turkey to a chicken..grin. But isn't that funny?
Apparently this was big news of the day because it made it to publication. Grin.
Silly as it was, events like this were documented and we learn a great deal from tiny tidbits. Many times events and happenings were not documented at all, many marriages were not. I still am looking for Calvin Patterson and Emma Caroline Kidds marriage record. Calvin and Caroline were the parents of Rachel Rosenna Patterson that married David and Martha Ann Jones Dellinger's son. our David Alphonso.
They had a daughter named Virginia Belzonie that they called 'Virgie'.
Virgie married Eli Burton Hull and became the parents of our precious Maude.
I keep hopeful that someday that elusive, wonderful, fact-filled Family Bible will magically appear on Ebay for sale for 5 dollars..but alas, not yet. I can dream, can't I?? That wonderful old Bible filled to the brim with dates and names, all the documentation that a 'genie' girl could hope for...Pictures and everything! Maybe even carefully twirled ancient locks of hair??
Sigh..Oh well..Back to the library and the cemetery, until then.
No comments:
Post a Comment