Cathy
07-10-2005, 09:29 AM
Story from the N&O (not everything they print about Cary is bad!)
Published: Jun 12, 2005
Modified: Jun 12, 2005 3:00 AM
Amid Pinehurst lore, Cary's founder
By STEVE FORD, Staff Writer
With Pinehurst set to enjoy its week at the center of the world of sports, favorite stories have again been told of how this golfers' paradise came to be.
We've savored the tale of James W. Tufts, the Boston tycoon and philanthropist who thought the pine-scented North Carolina Sandhills would be ideal for the resort he envisioned a place where Northern families could come to escape the snow.
We've hailed again the master golf architect Donald Ross, abiding presence at Pinehurst for 50 years and creator of the hallowed No. 2 course where our next national golfing champion will emerge.
We've saluted Frank Page, the lumberman who...
No we haven't. Frank Page? How'd he get in this picture?
That's a story that hasn't been told for quite a while.
Around this state's capital county of Wake, Allison Francis Page is best remembered as the founder of a settlement along the railroad tracks a few miles west of Raleigh. The settlement grew into the "town" of Cary, now North Carolina's seventh-largest city. Page himself chose the name, in honor of an Ohio politician who was outspoken in his opposition to strong drink.
Page's parents had operated a plantation in the area, and after he got started in the lumber business and married Kate Raboteau, the couple returned from Fayetteville to Wake County in the mid-1850s to make it their base of operations and raise a family. Their homestead stood on the site of Cary's present town hall.
The Civil War threw Page's business activities into turmoil, but in a few years he was looking for somewhere to expand. That search took him down the Raleigh and Augusta Railroad, which turned south at Cary toward the Sandhills. At a spot along the rail line in Moore County then known as Blue's Crossing, he bought an initial 1,660 acres of pine forest in 1880 and turned loose his tree-cutters. Soon the Pages were living there.
A history of Moore County by Manly Wade Wellman captures the region's remoteness during that era. The Sandhills, Wellman writes, "were considered highly unproductive save for turpentine and tar obtained from the pine orchard, and lumber from the felled trees. Beyond this, went a dry aphorism of the time and place, the land was good only to hold the surface of the world together."
But for Frank Page, Moore County was fertile soil indeed. Turpentine and lumber were his mainstays. Railways were extended into the woods to haul the products out, and sawmills were erected.
Soon Blue's Crossing had grown to the point that it was graced with a new name Aberdeen, which these days is one of the three principal towns in the Sandhills golf constellation along with Pinehurst and Southern Pines.
Enter the aforementioned James Tufts. He knew that most folks up North didn't have the means to winter in Florida as he did, but could he establish for them an affordable Southern getaway?
It was with that dream in mind that Tufts in 1895 wound up taking a trip on the Pages' family-owned railroad northwest out of Aberdeen. The train went through large stretches of the family's property, which by then had been cut over.
As Wellman relates, Tufts afterwards approached Henry Page, one of old Frank's five sons. In response to Tufts' query, Henry said that, well, yes, a sale might be arranged, involving some 5,000 acres. The asking price for each of those acres would have to be as much as a dollar.
Tufts "instantly" agreed. The Pages were concerned that they had gypped him -- but they didn't anticipate what was about to bloom on their scrubland and what it would soon be worth.
Tufts went back to Boston and arranged with his friend the celebrated landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead to lay out the vacation village. Trees and shrubs numbering 226,000 were planted. Soon the Holly Inn was open for business, and Pinehurst -- with Donald Ross to become its golf course guru -- began its rise to world renown. A haven for the middle class? To be sure, it was a noble thought.
The Pages were intelligent, curious, ambitious. The oldest of Frank and Kate's five sons, Walter Hines Page, rose to national prominence as a writer, progressive editor (of The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines), book publisher and diplomat. He served as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain through the dark days of World War I. His grave is at Aberdeen.
Another son, Robert, became a 20-year congressman. Henry and J.R. were business leaders. Frank Page the younger became a legend as North Carolina's first highway chief. There were three daughters as well. The Pages, Cary's founding family, were also a founding family among the pines.
Editorial page editor Steve Ford can be reached at 829-4512 or at sford@newsobserver.com
Published: Jun 12, 2005
Modified: Jun 12, 2005 3:00 AM
Amid Pinehurst lore, Cary's founder
By STEVE FORD, Staff Writer
With Pinehurst set to enjoy its week at the center of the world of sports, favorite stories have again been told of how this golfers' paradise came to be.
We've savored the tale of James W. Tufts, the Boston tycoon and philanthropist who thought the pine-scented North Carolina Sandhills would be ideal for the resort he envisioned a place where Northern families could come to escape the snow.
We've hailed again the master golf architect Donald Ross, abiding presence at Pinehurst for 50 years and creator of the hallowed No. 2 course where our next national golfing champion will emerge.
We've saluted Frank Page, the lumberman who...
No we haven't. Frank Page? How'd he get in this picture?
That's a story that hasn't been told for quite a while.
Around this state's capital county of Wake, Allison Francis Page is best remembered as the founder of a settlement along the railroad tracks a few miles west of Raleigh. The settlement grew into the "town" of Cary, now North Carolina's seventh-largest city. Page himself chose the name, in honor of an Ohio politician who was outspoken in his opposition to strong drink.
Page's parents had operated a plantation in the area, and after he got started in the lumber business and married Kate Raboteau, the couple returned from Fayetteville to Wake County in the mid-1850s to make it their base of operations and raise a family. Their homestead stood on the site of Cary's present town hall.
The Civil War threw Page's business activities into turmoil, but in a few years he was looking for somewhere to expand. That search took him down the Raleigh and Augusta Railroad, which turned south at Cary toward the Sandhills. At a spot along the rail line in Moore County then known as Blue's Crossing, he bought an initial 1,660 acres of pine forest in 1880 and turned loose his tree-cutters. Soon the Pages were living there.
A history of Moore County by Manly Wade Wellman captures the region's remoteness during that era. The Sandhills, Wellman writes, "were considered highly unproductive save for turpentine and tar obtained from the pine orchard, and lumber from the felled trees. Beyond this, went a dry aphorism of the time and place, the land was good only to hold the surface of the world together."
But for Frank Page, Moore County was fertile soil indeed. Turpentine and lumber were his mainstays. Railways were extended into the woods to haul the products out, and sawmills were erected.
Soon Blue's Crossing had grown to the point that it was graced with a new name Aberdeen, which these days is one of the three principal towns in the Sandhills golf constellation along with Pinehurst and Southern Pines.
Enter the aforementioned James Tufts. He knew that most folks up North didn't have the means to winter in Florida as he did, but could he establish for them an affordable Southern getaway?
It was with that dream in mind that Tufts in 1895 wound up taking a trip on the Pages' family-owned railroad northwest out of Aberdeen. The train went through large stretches of the family's property, which by then had been cut over.
As Wellman relates, Tufts afterwards approached Henry Page, one of old Frank's five sons. In response to Tufts' query, Henry said that, well, yes, a sale might be arranged, involving some 5,000 acres. The asking price for each of those acres would have to be as much as a dollar.
Tufts "instantly" agreed. The Pages were concerned that they had gypped him -- but they didn't anticipate what was about to bloom on their scrubland and what it would soon be worth.
Tufts went back to Boston and arranged with his friend the celebrated landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead to lay out the vacation village. Trees and shrubs numbering 226,000 were planted. Soon the Holly Inn was open for business, and Pinehurst -- with Donald Ross to become its golf course guru -- began its rise to world renown. A haven for the middle class? To be sure, it was a noble thought.
The Pages were intelligent, curious, ambitious. The oldest of Frank and Kate's five sons, Walter Hines Page, rose to national prominence as a writer, progressive editor (of The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines), book publisher and diplomat. He served as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain through the dark days of World War I. His grave is at Aberdeen.
Another son, Robert, became a 20-year congressman. Henry and J.R. were business leaders. Frank Page the younger became a legend as North Carolina's first highway chief. There were three daughters as well. The Pages, Cary's founding family, were also a founding family among the pines.
Editorial page editor Steve Ford can be reached at 829-4512 or at sford@newsobserver.com