I have always been fascinated with Statesville's history. It is
interesting to me to realize how briefly my family lived there. My great
grandfather moved his family from Charlotte to Statesville around 1916, and I believe
he moved to South Carolina around 1930, and later to Burlington, NC. My
grandmother was married in 1929, so her association with the town was only of about
a dozen years' duration, and during part of that time she was away at college.
Still, as a child, I loved to hear her tell Statesville stories. In her
accounts, it was  something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, with generous
helpings of Robert Benchley, Margaret Mitchell, Lewis Grizzard, and Tennessee
Williams thrown in.

There were horse shows, and country club dances where Guy Lombardo's
orchestra came down from New York to provide the music, and moonlight picnics on the
river. There was gallantry and evil. There were proud, courageous old ladies
who genteely starved to death rather than admit that they were in financial
trouble, and men who embezzled funds from the bank and shot themselves at dawn on
the hotel roof. There was also a parrot who was taught to say some not very
nice things when his cage was covered over on Sunday mornings, and an endless
supply of amusing children and servant stories.

It must have been a fascinating place to live...or at least my grandmother
made it seem so in her stories. Of course, she was a fine weaver of tales, and
sometimes I wonder how much of what she told was inspired by creativity.

You asked about the Stearns Building. That was built by my grandmother's
older brothers, Carrold Adam Stearns (1893-1950) and Clyde Casey Stearns
(1895-1969). I have pictures of them and some newspaper articles if you would be
interested.

Actually, I am getting a bit ahead of the story...though I don't know if you
are interested in all of it. My great grandfather was Dulin Benson Stearns
(1863-1962). He was born in the last years of the War Between the States, in
which his father was killed. The Stearns family were early settlers in Mecklenburg
County, of German origins. They arrived from Virginia in the 1760s. His
mother was the daughter of Harmon Daniel King, Jr. (1805-1906) a Union County, NC
minister of South Carolina origin, whose father had been a soldier in the
Revolution. The Kings go back to early English and French Huguenot settlers in
Virginia and South Carolina. Harmon King, Jr. "rode on a mule" from South Carolina
to Alabama to attend the Univeristy there shortly after it was founded.

Dulin Benson Stearns grew up in Union County, NC, where he spent part of his
time with his maternal and part with his paternal grandparents. (His mother
had remarried after the War and her second husband had insited that she go with
him out to Arkansas.) In those dark days of Reconstruction, Dulin received no
formal schooling, but was taught at home. He had a life long love of learning,
and amassed a considerable library, a few of the volumes of which I still
have. He also loved music, and had an innate talent for it. Passing by a music
shop in Charlotte that was having an auction in 1880, he bought an old, broken
violin for 50 cents. He repaired it and taught himself to play. (The only
existing photograph of his father, made in his Confederate uniform before his
death, shows him holding a violin.)

Dulin was a farmer in early life, and also had a career as a "professor of
music." He married Miss Mary Jane Beachum (1867-1910) the daughter of Jeremiah
Washington Beachum, a prominent Anson County, NC landowner and veteran of the
rather well known 26th NC Regiment, CSA, in 1884. They had 10 children: Junius
Stitt Stearns (1885-1965), Ada Eugenia Stearns (1887-1980, Mrs. John Henry
Bennett), Ila Faye Stearns (1889-1980, Mrs. Clyde Covington Fesperman), Carrold
Adam Stearns (1893-1950), Clyde Casey Stearns (1895-1969), Jesse Free Stearns
(1898-1916), Mary Elizabeth Stearns (1900-1985, Mrs. Raymond S. Deck), John Lee
Stearns (1904-1904), Eunice Virginia Stearns (1906-1983, Mrs. John Levi
Field, my grandmother), and Ophelia Jane Stearns (1909-1910). Dulin moved his
family from rural Union County to Charlotte, NC around 1891. At that point, he
tried out a variety of careers... music teacher, traveling salesman, and house
mover. He became quite successful in house moving and construction, and also
branched out into real estate investments.

Mary Jane Beachum Stearns died in 1910. Around 1913, Dulin married Miss Nancy
Virginia Eagle (1863-1924). She was from Statesville originally, and I
suspect it was her influence that encouraged him to move there a few years later. By
that time, the older children, Junius and Ada, were married and living in
Monroe and Charlotte respectively. Aunt Faye went to school in Charlotte, and
remained there. Carrold, Clyde, Mary & Eunice came to Statesville. Carrold and
Clyde both attended Trinity College (now Duke University) ..briefly...and Clyde
was in World War One. Mary attended Womens' College in Greensboro, and took
graduate courses at Columbia University in New York. Eunice attended Queens
College and Greensboro College.

Carrold (often called Jack) and Clyde were very active in the development of
Statesville in the 1920s. An excerpt from Carrold's 1950 obituary states: "
(He) was a pioneer road builder through the twenties and organizer of several
enterprizes. He lived in Statesville for a number of years and among the
construction work in which he engaged here was paving of city streets, erection of
the Stearns Building, development of Woodlawn and Country Club estates, Reynolda
and Elma apartments. He was one of the organizers of the Iredell Development
Company which became center of Phoenix Mill, now the Beaumont Mills. Other
interests he had while here were ---- (I can't read it) Furniture Company, and
the Shoe Factory in West Statesville, Atlantic Paving and Stearns Brothers
Construction. Statesville's first horse show, held in Woodlawn, was sponsored by
Mr. Stearns."

Well, I am afraid I am rambling on, and telling you far more than you ever
wanted to know about the Stearns family. Still, I thought if you were interested
in that house, you might want to know a bit about the people that lived in
it. I believe my great grandfather bought the house in 1916, and newspaper
articles suggest he sold it around 1924. He bought two houses on East Broad Street
at that time. The West Broad Street house was, I am told, sold to the City of
Statesville, which used it as city offices for a time. At that time, I think
the front porch and front yard were replaced with the small one story brick
offices that are still being used. I suppose the brick veneer on the front was
added at that point, as well.

My grandmother said that when they moved from Charlotte, much was said at the
time about the house being one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in
Statesville. I suppose it is possible that the house could have belonged to her
step-mother's family, but I am uncertain of this. Her stepmother's grandfather was G.
A. Eagle, who lived in Statesville long before the War Between the States.
Other relatives of hers were the Weems and Dotson families. I think they were
all rather prominent in Statesville back then...at least it seems so from he
newspaper articles. Watt Eagle, a cousin of the stepmother, became a well known
doctor at Duke University later.

After Nancy Virginia Eagle Stearns' death in 1924, Dulin married Nancy Joyner
(1881-1976). I beleive her family was from Statesville, too, but I am afraid
I do not know much about them. It was funny, Dulin's second & third wives were
both named Nancy and the children of the family referred to their two step
mothers as "the first Miss Nannie" and "the second Miss Nannie." My mother's
generation referred to "the second Miss Nannie" as "Grandma Stearns" as she was
the only grandmtoehr they had ever known, and that is how I knew her when I was
a very small child. She was a lovely lady, very quiet and retiring. 

I grew up surrounded by furniture that would have been in that house on West
Broad Street.  Our dining room table is the same one that was there...and the
same gilt framed watercolor of a French cathedral hangs on the wall nearby.
Our huge old mahogany corner cupboard (in our living room because there is not
room enough for it in the dining room) is the same one that was in Statesville.
Chairs, tables, a sofa, footstools, beds, trunks, bookcases, a cedar chest,
rugs, etc. Quite a few can be traced back to that time in our family or
earlier, not to mention some books, silver, china and cut glass, and my great
grandfather's violin. We've even got some monogrammed towels from then. (I come from
a long line of pack rats.)

Well, I am going on and on. I am attaching two pictures of the house as it
appeared in around 1920. I can print them out on photograph paper and send them
to you in the regular mail, if that would be better. I can also send you
pictures of the folks who lived there, if you are interested, as well as some
copies of newspaper articles, etc.

I am very interested to learn of your projects, and all that is being done to
preserve the history and heritage of Statesville. Oh, and incidentally, while
my grandmother's family was not originally from Statesville, my grandfather's
family does have some ties to the early history of Iredell County. His mother
was a Bell, and her ancestors settled in the vicinity of Coddle Creek and the
Coddle Creek ARP Church back in the 1750s. This is on the border between
Iredell & Cabarrus Counties. The Bells, DeWeeses, Carrigans and Van Pelts, were
early settlers in that area. In fact, I think one of the Van Pelt cousins was
mayor of Statesville in the 1920s. (I am afraid I don't know nearly as much
about these folks, as my grandfather died before I was born, so I never had the
benefit of hearing the stories passed down through his family as I did with my
grandmother's family.)


John
John Field Pankow