The heart of old Havelock

This story, written by Marilyn Cummins, first appeared in the Sun Journal on July 2, 1976. It details a trip back in time at Trader's Store, which was once the center of activity in Havelock. The store closed less than two years after this story appeared.

Back in the 1920s, men were hunters and farmers in Havelock, and when the noon sky parched lips and teased appetites, the folks needed a place to gather - to discuss plowing and to "count coup," Cherokee term for one-upping fellow hunters.

Remingtons and thrashers in tow, they strolled down to the local mercantile for some canned Vienna sausages, wheel cheese, saltines and a Swisher Sweet.

And, following another old Indian custom, the local men just naturally gravitated to the place of the local story teller. Such an establishment and an institution was Trader's Store. There on old N.C. Highway 10 in a wooden-shuttered-frame building half its present size, J.J. Trader and his son Hugh talked at length with their customers and friends around the crackling fire of a pot-bellied tin stove.

Frequently the talk centered around local politics or how many deer young Armstrong saw yesterday, this year's corn crop or the lack of rain. Such talk of drought generally made a man thirsty and, especially when the words drought and corn were mentioned in the same sentence, a jar of corn liquor was produced from an oversized hunting jacket. Young men satisfied themselves with a Coca-Cola from the McFray-Frictionless, Self-Sealing drink box.

Some say that corn

was sold by the gallon instead of the bushel in Havelock. Hugh Trader didn't know about that. But he did know that there was just no way to keep sugar in stock and all those people down in Harlowe had such a sweet tooth, they were buying it in 100-pound bags. Stock for the winter, you understand.

"Whenever they cleared for a subdivision around here, the workmen found evidence of old stills," Oscar Sermons, a Havelockite-of-old recalled. "Those woods on the base were just filled with liquor factories and old half-gallon bottles."

"Dad used to say that most of the illegal liquor left Havelock via the train. They would bring carloads of potatoes up from Beaufort and sometimes a loaded car would be side-tracked overnight. Those moonshiners took their jars of corn and hid them among the potatoes and when the trains picked up the abandoned carload and took their cargo to New Bern and northward, they carried the stowaway bottles to," Cherry Roycraft, daughter of Hugh Trader, remembered.

"The smart revenue men jus' didn't bother about comin' down to Havelock during the Prohibition years (1920-1933). Exportin' lightning was how those poor farmers kept their children fed and it was the only way they could. Feeding your children is serious business and there was just that one main road in and out of here, if you know what I mean," one Havelockite added.

Sometimes the women came into Trader's to pick up the mail, restock the family pantry and monitor the corn consumption. Mr. and Mrs. Russell followed by W.J. Wynne Sr. were the postmasters then, and Trader's, being the community center, was the natural location for a post office. Meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, auto parts, horse liniment and pig feed were all stocked in the store for the residents of all the communities of the area.

"Trader's is like no ordinary store. It is one of those wonderful mercantile establishments commonly known as the ‘typical country store' where one can buy anything from hairpins to horse collars," reported The Havelock Journal in 1952.

"Between New Bern and Morehead City, Trader's was all there was for people who needed supplies," Mr. Sermons stated. "We were all one big happy family back then. Times were hard and you had to help each other. Of course, things weren't any worse in Havelock than in the rest of the country."

Back then, Havelock was peopled by the Armstrongs, the Rooks, the Jacksons, the Wynnes, the Bryans, the Russells and the Traders. Many of these families can still call Havelock home.

People also came to Trader's to use the hand-crank telephone, one of two in town. The other telephone was located at the train station, and it was for official railroad use only.

Overland travel to Havelock during the '20s and '30s was tedious, time consuming and potentially hazardous, so the telephone became an important link with the world.

Mrs. Roycraft remembers many late-night calls from relatives of townspeople notifying them of a family death and then seeing her father, Hugh, solemnly leaving to report the sad news.

Humans weren't the only mammals that found the shady overhangs and cozy fire irresistible at Trader's. Mrs. Hugh Trader, the proverbial proprietress still found behind the counter, remembers when a customer's pig jauntily trotted through the store. And once a four-legged show lifter just shy of county height snuck inside to rob sugary candy from the gallon jars displayed. Mrs. Trader turned to catch the slender nose of a Shetland pony stuck inside the jar.

All of these animal antics prompted the Traders to hang a warning sign declaring "Keep you dog out of here."

Trader's did a brisk trade on the days when all Harlowe appeared to catch the train to New Bern. The 18-mile trip took considerably longer then for the old engine, popularly known as "The Mullet Line," which stopped at every crossroad village. The epithet was logically earned by the train's frequent cargo, fish from Beaufort and Down East.

Memorabilia still stock the shelves at Trader's Store. A seasoned '30s watcher could locate a fuel pump for a 1936 Chevrolet, a bottle of Sykes "Elite" Furniture Polish brewed on Middle Street in New Bern, old wooden Brand apple crates, all cotton work shirts selling less than $5 and leather shoes for $3.98.

And for a penny, you can still weigh yourself or buy some gum balls, talk to Mrs. Trader and meet your neighbors.