YOUR HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1978 w w w. j a m e s t o w n n e w s . c o m
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oCt. 22-28, 2025 vol 47 No 43 | 1 Section | 6 Pages
SCHOOLS SPONSOR FALL FESTIVAL Haynes-Inman and C.J. Greene education centers are holding a combined Fall Festival Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Included will be games, fire trucks and face painting, as well as hotdogs, hamburgers and baked goods for sale. There will also be a $1 raffle and school-based vendors with items created by students and staff. Entry to the event, located in the Haynes-Inman Gymnasium at 200 Haynes Road, Jamestown, is free. Join the fun while supporting the HaynesInman Eagles and C.J. Greene Mustangs. PLANNING BOARD ELECTS OFFICERS The Jamestown Planning Board’s October meeting was very short as the only items of business was election of a new chair and vice-chair along with introduction of Gordon Holton, the new planning technician. Elected as new chair was Hope Inge, who previously was vice-chair. New vice chair is John Capes. The Nov. 10 meeting will feature a fence variance request. Have an event that you think needs to be included in About Town? Email Norma B. Dennis at ndworddesign@gmail.com or Carol Brooks at cab1hp@gmail.com
“Look for the good where you are and embrace it.” — Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood
Civitans volunteer The Jamestown Civitans partnered with the Jamestown Public Library and the Old Jamestown School Association to serve BBQ and fixin’s at their annual fundraiser on Sept. 27. The Civitans had a great time chatting with revelers and listening to the music as they served food in Jamestown’s public library. Pictured from left to right are Larry Flotkoetter, Dan McDaniel, Tim Brooks, and Keith Volz of the Jamestown Civitans. — Charles Poston
Church prepares weekend food packages for students Every week since school began in August, volunteers at Sedgefield Presbyterian Church have been packing food bags for students to take home for the weekend. At this time, they are delivering 110 bags per week. The church has silently but steadily been able to sustain this program for over 16 years. — SPC newsletter
Help with doors For some reason, doors into businesses seem to have gotten heavier as I age. I always appreciate it when someone pauses for a moment to hold a door open for me, especially as I come and go from the Jamestown Post Office. — Norma B. Dennis Everyone likes good news and this column is dedicated to sharing good things seen happening in the community. To make the column work, you need to participate. Email ndworddesign@gmail.com with your observations of a person or group being helpful. Norma Dennis will print them on the fourth Wednesday of each month.
By nORMa B. dennIs FreeLANCe WrIter ndworddesign@gmail.com Margaret Akingbade has accomplished something many people no longer do. She has worked at the same occupation for five decades. On Oct. 15 she completed her 50th year serving some of the most significantly physically impaired students, many also with intellectual disabilities, in Guilford County Schools. In 1975, she began physical therapy services at the old Cerebral Palsy School on Gatewood Avenue in Greensboro. Along with her students, Akingbade transferred to Gateway Education Center in the 1980s and in 2010, again followed her students, ages 3-22, to Haynes-Inman Education Center in Jamestown. Friends and colleagues felt Akingbade’s loyalty and dedication to her students as a physical therapist should be applauded and on Oct. 15 that is exactly what happened. Students and staff lined the front hallsee seRvICe, PAGe 2
Photos by Norma B. Dennis
(above) Physical therapist Margaret akingbade was overwhelmed when she entered the media center at HaynesInman education Center and saw the many people gathered in her honor. (Top right) Haynes-Inman Principal kevin Carr welcomed guests and acknowledged akingbade’s accomplishments. (at right) Brenda Collins, right, worked at the front desk when akingbade first arrived at the Cerebral Palsy and Orthopedic school in 1975.
Jamestown area once known for gun making By CaROL BROOks FreeLANCe WrIter cab1hp@gmail.com
This area of North Carolina is well known as having fine furniture makers, even earning the nickname “the Furniture Capital of the World.” But long before the furniture industry began in High Point – before the city existed, in fact — the Jamestown area had its own well-known industry — gun making. Michael Briggs, researcher and writer, spoke about the Jamestown School of Longrifle Makers at the Oct. 2 First Thursday with History Program at the Jamestown Public Library. Briggs brought several of the longrifles from his collection along with images to complement his talk about the significance of the local gun manufacturers. Some of his collection were on display at the September Village Fair at Mendenhall Homeplace. The pieces were called longrifles because the black powder used in them was thought to burn slowly, necessitating a longer barrel. That was later proven false. Most were 30-caliber, with a wooden stock. Given the predominantly non-violent Quaker presence in the early days of neighboring Jamestown, it’s perhaps sur-
Photos courtesy Michael Briggs
(above) Longrifle made by John Ward. (Below) Longrifle made by Thaddeus gardner 1800-1810.
prising to learn that the town was well known as the center of gun making, not only in North Carolina, but in the southern United States. There were nine schools of gun making in the state from 1765-1810 before the Jamestown School became the foremost, lasting from 1810-1902. The word “school” is used to indicate a regional style. In 1988, local historian Fred Hughes wrote in “Guilford County, N.C., a map supplement” about the Jamestown longrifles, “This gun was not made for royalty and aristocracy; it was made for the ordinary citizen, the Joseph Taterdiggers and Thomas Cornshuckers of the nineteenth century, the backbone of America. It was a simple gun, solid, durable, dependable, and above all,
it was accurate.” Briggs said there were actually two longrifle schools in the area. “From 1770 to 1810 there was a group in Guilford and Randolph counties that worked in what we call today the ‘Early Deep River School,’” he said. “It is not known who started the Early Deep River School, but when Nathaniel Greene was here at the time of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781, he wrote that local gunsmiths were repairing his army’s rifles. “Local legend has it that there was a gunsmith named Matthew Osborne in the Centre Meeting House area on the county line between Guilford and Randolph that made longrifles for his Quaker neighbors and was incensed to learn that some of them had been used at
Photo by Carol Brooks
The guilford County Long Rifle school and their Jamestown Rifles marker at the greenway at gibson Park.
the battle. He then re-purchased and destroyed them. But this has not been documented.” Briggs said that rifles made by David Grose, Craft Jackson and Thaddeus Gardner still exist. Grose and Jackson worked in the Early Deep River School style. Grose owned land near New Garden Friends Meeting and Jackson lived near the current Jamestown Park Golf Course. Gardner was one of those credited with creating what see gUnMakIng, PAGe 2
Town provided arms for confederate forces By CaROL BROOks FreeLANCe WrIter cab1hp@gmail.com We don’t usually associate the Jamestown area with the Civil War, except perhaps in association with Jefferson Davis’ flight from Richmond at the end of the war, when he stopped over in Greensboro. But Jamestown played a large part in protecting Confederate soldiers. We had an actual Confederate gun factory in town. When the soldier went off to the Civil War in North Carolina, there was a very good chance he was carrying his own rifle, made at the so-called Jamestown School of gunsmithing. Once Confederate munitions factory production caught up with the fighting, the soldier probably received a new rifle. “With the large trained [gunsmith] workforce [in the area], it made sense that when the Civil War started we would have Confederate gun factories here,” said C.
Michael Briggs. “What we had was more than any other place in the South. “These guys all got together and got contracts. They formed seven Confederate gun factory businesses within 20 miles of Greensboro. The Greensboro Historical Museum has the largest collection of Confederate military rifles in the world.” The guns were previously full-stock flintlock rifles, but during the Civil War they were changed to half-stock percussion rifles with shorter barrels, making them lighter. They were also re-crafted to hold a bayonet., A local historian, the late Jack Perdue once wrote, “During the War for Southern Independence, demand for guns in the South was high and many sporting guns were converted to military use. … After the war, production of Jamestown sporting rifles resumed.” Aside from the fact that there were so many gunmakers already in the area, there was perhaps another strong incentive for the
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largely peace-loving Quaker population to provide arms for the war – gunsmiths were exempt from conscription. The Mendenhall, Jones and Gardner factory (or Deep River Armory) was located on Oakdale Road where the old Oakdale Cotton Mill is now. It was owned in part by Cyrus P. Mendenhall (son of Richard), who was once mayor of Greensboro and who, according to Briggs, “had the political connections to deal with the contract with the state.” Ezekial P. Jones, a banker, and Grafton Gardner, son of well-known gunsmith Thaddeus, rounded out the factory’s leadership. “These guys had no qualms about making guns,” Briggs said. “They were looking to make money.” This factory, which operated from 186164, produced rifles for North Carolina Confederate forces between 1862-64, Briggs see aRMs, PAGe 2
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Physical therapist celebrated for 50 years of service to students