On December 24, 1960, fiddle and banjo player and old-time ballad singer Sarah Samantha Biddix Bumgarner died.
Born in Tennessee in 1878, Bumgarner grew up in Dillsboro in Jackson County. Her father was the well-known fiddle player Has Biddix, and when he was not around Samantha used his fiddle to teach herself how to play. She also taught herself how to play the banjo.
On December 23, 1848, the General Assembly approved the construction of an “Insane Hospital of North Carolina.” The approval was the result of intense lobbying by Dorothea Dix, noted advocate for the mentally ill.
On December 22, 1965, Ruth Cannon died, bringing an end to a life of extraordinary dedication to preservation and to North Carolina history.
Born Ruth Coltrane into a banker’s family in Cabarrus County, she married Charles Cannon, longtime president of Cannon Mills Company in Kannapolis. A history major at Greensboro College, Cannon was a stalwart member of heritage groups including the Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution.
On December 21, 1918, journalist and diplomat Walter Hines Page died in Pinehurst.
On December 21, 2000, descendants of the Harper family arranged for the acquisition of the 1887 Queen Anne-style Shuler-Harper House in Hickory by the Catawba County Historical Association in order to ensure its future preservation and to serve as a museum and cultural center for the community. Following a successful fundraising effort, the house was fully restored. The restoration highlighted its picturesque and highly decorative exterior design and exquisite interior finishes.
On December 21, 1756, Commissioners Richard Caswell and Francis Brown inspected the recently completed Fort Dobbs. Their report to the assembly of the colony described “A good and Substantial Building” that was 53 feet by 40 feet, with oak pillars supporting the structure, which rose almost 25 feet. Soldiers were able to simultaneously fire up to one hundred muskets from the walls of the fort, making Fort Dobbs an imposing headquarters on the Carolina frontier.