History of Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA

The following letter from the Rev. Mr. Rowland, to the editor of the National Gazette, describes, in a most vivid manner, this sorrowful occurrence.

Fayetteville, N.C. May 29, 1831.
Sir - FAYETTEVILLE IS NO MORE !! - This morning the sun rose upon us in its beauty, and with gladdened hearts we flocked to the churches of our God. Now we are in ruins. But two stores of all that this place contained are standing. The rest are entirely consumed. Nothing but stacks of tottering chimnies remain to tell what we once were.

Except in the outskirts of the town, and in those streets which are a little off from the centre of the village, not a dwelling house remains. All the churches, with the exception of the Methodist, which is distant from the centre of the town, are destroyed. The academy, the two splendid hotels, our printing office, the two Banks, the old state house, every apothecary's shop, and some of our mills, are all in ashes.

The fire communicated, (it is supposed) from a...

Fayetteville, a flourishing town, capital of Cumberland county, North Carolina, is situated on the left bank of Cape Fear river, at the head of natural navigation, 60 miles S from Raleigh, and 100 miles N. W. from Wilmington. The town is regularly laid out, with streets of 100 feet in width. It is the centre of an extensive trade, which is facilitated by plank-roads extending in various directions. The adjoining country is partly occupied by extensive forests of pine, which supply important articles of export, in the form of turpentine, tar, lumber, &c. The navigation has lately been extended, by the construction of locks and dams, as far as the coal mines of Chatham county. The ample water-power of the river is employed in manufactories of cotton and flour. Fayetteville contains an arsenal of construction, a large establishment enclosing about 50 acres, now nearly completed ; also 3 banks and 3 news paper offices. In 1831 a large part of the town was destroyed by fire, and nearly...

Fayetteville, a city and the capital of Cumberland co., N.C., is on the right or W. bank of the Cape Fear River, 82 miles by rail and about 53 miles direct S. of Raleigh. Steamboats can ascend the river to this town. It contains a court-house, 12 churches, a bank, several cotton-mills, a carriage-factory, 2 wooden-ware factories, 2 machine-shops, an edge-tool-factory, a plough-factory, 3 grist-mills, a turpentine-still factory, lumber-mills, 3 weekly newspaper offices, &c. Turpentine, tar, and lumber are exported from this place. Pop. in 1890,4222.

Fayetteville, N. C., Aug. 28. - This city, with a population of 12,000, located on Cape Fear river, was almost entirely submerged because of floods of last night and today. Three thousand persons are homeless.

Walls Fall.
Augusta, Ga., Aug. 28. - The flood has apparently damaged the foundations of many buildings in the lower part of the city. Today the Central Grammar school collapsed, the walls of the National Biscuit building have fallen and the under-pinning of the Port Royal bridge is washed away.

Cold Added.
Throughout Georgia and the Carolinas the temperature today dropped near the frost point, adding much suffering to those homeless by the floods.

Fayetteville, a banking post-town, capital of Cumber land co., N.C., is on the right or W. bank of the Cape Fear River and on the Atlantic Coast Line, 53 miles S. of Raleigh. Steamboats ascend the river to this town. It has cotton - and cotton-seed oil mills, a silk-factory, manufactures of furniture, knitted goods, and wooden-ware, turpentine- stills, etc. Turpentine, tar, and lumber are exported from here. A state normal school (for colored) and the Donald son-Davidson Academy are located here. Pop. in 1900, 4670.

Fayetteville, N.C. - (AP) - A flat-bed truck filled with migrant farm laborers and a tractor-trailer slammed together in a fiery crash at a road intersection today and killed 17 persons.

The state highway patrol said the accident killed 16 but a check of funeral homes in the area disclosed 16 bodies and another at a hospital here.

The highway patrol said 21 persons were taken to hospitals of this area and 14 of them were in critical condition.

All the laborers reportedly were Negroes.

Fire that broke out in the truck caused most of the deaths, the State Highway Patrol said.

Ball Of Fire.
"It looked like a ball of fire," said Joe Lozak of Berwick, Pa., who saw the crash in the rear-view mirror of his potato truck. "Men, women and children lying all over the highway. I think the impact killed them, not the fire."

The patrol said 41 laborers, from several states, were aboard the truck which pulled into the path of the tractor-trailer at the intersection of Highway 301...