Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History

On November 16, 1951, renowned writer, journalist and literary critic Edwin A. Björkman died in Asheville.

Born and raised in Sweden, Björkman worked as a clerk, journalist and actor before coming to the United States in 1891. Upon arrival, he briefly stopped in Chicago and then joined a Scandinavian colony in Minnesota, writing for newspapers to support himself. He later wrote for several papers in New York, served in the short-lived League of Nations’ news bureau and taught Scandinavian drama at Yale before moving to Waynesville in 1925.

On November 16, 1764, early political leader John Steele was born in Salisbury.

After being educated near Statesville, Steele pursued several business ventures. His first political post was as tax assessor for the Salisbury area. He held several local offices in Rowan County and was sent to negotiate relations with Native American tribes before being elected to represent the area in the General Assembly in 1787.

On November 16, 1933, the Blue Ridge Parkway project received approval. The Blue Ridge Parkway, part of the National Park Service system, extends 469 miles through the Southern Appalachians, linking the Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.

On November 15, 1921, Governor Cameron Morrison and a host of other state dignitaries gathered in Raleigh for the debut of the silent movie about the Lost Colony called “The Earliest English Expeditions and Attempted Settlements in the Territory of What Is Now the United States, 1584-1591.”

Conceived as an educational tool, the film was produced on the Outer Banks and starred Dare County residents as Indians and English settlers.

On November 15, 1958, the Textile Workers Union of America called a strike at the Harriet-Henderson Mills in Henderson. The union had targeted cotton mills across the state since 1946 as part of “Operation Dixie.” By 1958, more than a thousand local workers had enrolled in the union, accounting for one in seven of all union members in the state.

On November 15, 1933, noted criminal Roger “The Terrible” Touhy orchestrated a mail truck robbery in the heart of the Charlotte.

At the time of the robbery, Touhy was battling mobster Al Capone for control of illicit alcohol sales in Chicago. While awaiting trial for kidnapping, Touhy sent four men in his gang south to “raise” money for his defense. Although Charlotte had no connection to organized crime at the time, it was a burgeoning hub of the financial industry.

On November 14, 1892, U.S. Senator and Chief Justice of North Carolina A.S. Merrimon died. Born in 1830 in Transylvania County, Merrimon studied law alongside Zebulon B. Vance in Asheville. Before the Civil War, he held a variety of public offices in Asheville, serving as a solicitor for Buncombe County and in the legislature in 1860 and 1861.

On November 14, 1937, a team of Emory University professors revealed the transcription of a message carved on a rock discovered by Louis Hammond in Chowan County earlier that year. The text of their transcription reads:

[Side 1]

Ananias Dare &
Virginia Went Hence
Unto Heaven 1591
Anye Englishman Shew
John White Govr Via.

[Side 2]