On September 15, 1938, Major League Baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry was born in Williamston.
Perry grew up helping his tenant farmer family, but his father, who was an athlete and sports fan, gave him time to play sports. Though he played every sport at his high school, Perry was most competitive at baseball.
On September 15, 1946, the massive Greensboro Overseas Replacement Depot closed its doors.
On September 14, 1862, William Ashe, railroad president and commander of the Confederate government’s transportation network between New Orleans and Richmond, died after being struck by a train.
On September 13, 1948, 11-year-old Martha Mason of Lattimore in Cleveland County came down with polio on the very day her parents buried her older brother Gaston who had succumbed to the disease. They were both victims of a major polio outbreak that year. Martha survived, but became a quadriplegic dependent on the iron lung for the next 60 years.
On September 13, 1938, Shepherd Dugger, chronicler of North Carolina mountain life, died.
In 1881 Dugger, became the first superintendent of Watauga County’s public schools. After holding that position for a single four-year term, he opened a hotel at the base of Grandfather Mountain, with partner J. Erwin Callaway.
Dugger married Callaway’s daughter, Margaret, in 1887.