Temperance Hall: A Place to Debate and Proclaim Vows of Abstinence

Old historic structures always have a tale or two to tell. Temperance Hall, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, near Wagram, NC, has had an important role in its community for decades. Although it's a simple brick building, it has many stories to tell.

Formally known as the Richmond Temperance and Literary Society Hall, this historic structure in Scotland County is believed to be the only structure in North Carolina built to house a temperance society. The hall was the scene of lively debates in its early days and is still used for meetings of civic groups.

The simple structure of Temperance Hall was completed in 1860.

To elevate the moral and cultural life of its community, the Richmond Temperance and Literary Society was founded in 1855 in what was then lower Richmond County in an area settled in 1773 by Highland Scots. Built of hand-molded local bricks, the hall is still standing in tribute to its sturdy construction in 1860 by the Scottish descendants, although it was sacked five years later by U.S. soldiers advancing toward Fayetteville during Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War.

Influenced by the temperance movement, the charter members vowed to “neither make, sell, buy, nor use as a beverage any intoxicating drink whatever.” The cultured and worried citizens at that time were troubled by the “deadly influence” that alcohol consumption was “exerting over the morality of our country and seeing the ravages that it is daily making in our midst.” Within a few years of organizing, the society built the small one-story, one-room hexagonal building with sixteen-foot sides near what is now the town of Wagram. Here they met and coordinated their “uncompromising hostility to intemperance and untiring zeal for the advancement of literature.” 

The finial on the roof portrays the twin aims of the Richmond Temperance and Literary Society.

The society’s twin aims are illustrated at the peak of the building’s roof by a wooden finial that represents an inverted wine goblet on top of a closed Bible. Both pieces of the finial were reportedly shot down by Sherman’s troops, and pot marks made by their bullets fired during target practice can still be detected on the hall’s exterior. The interior ceiling was once painted blue with a constellation of gold stars; each star represented a member of the society. However, if the member broke the vow of abstinence, the star was painted black. (Several stars had alternating coats of gold and black.) When a member died, the star was gilded with silver. 

The society continued to meet in the hall until the 1890s. In 1899, the area around Wagram became part of the new Scotland County, and the hall found a new role until the 1920s as a school for white students (as segregation ruled during the Jim Crow era). After many years of neglect and decay, the hall was restored as accurately as possible in 1959 by reconstructing a two-tier wooden platform that supports a lectern used by speakers, adding a cast-iron stove similar to the one that originally heated the hall, and rebuilding the pairs of recessed bookshelves on the northeast and south walls. In its role as a museum today, it serves a symbol of cultural attitudes of a bygone era. 

A two-tier platform with lectern was reconstructed in 1959.

The restored home of North Carolina poet-laureate John Charles McNeill, a Scotland County native and grandson of Scottish immigrants, was moved to the site of Temperance Hall in 1960 and serves as the visitor center for both properties. 

Although hexagonal, the hall is architecturally significant because it is a diminutive version of the octagonal mode popularized in North Carolina in the mid-1800s by the concepts of Orson Squire Fowler, who analyzed that an “octagon house” (a term that refers specifically to octagonal houses built in North America during this period) with its eight sides encloses more space than a square one with equal wall space.  

The Richmond Temperance and Literary Society still meets all these years since its founding, although now only annually. The hall is about 1½ miles west of US 401, which is Main Street in Wagram, off Old Wire Road near Spring Hill Cemetery.

Temperance Hall has survived decades as the area around it has changed, and its history is quite phenomenal. Although meetings held in the hall today no longer promote abstinence, its continued use guarantees that its history is not yet complete and it may inspire more tales for future generations to tell.

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Note: The post is influenced by two articles about Temperance Hall that I have written. One is an entry uploaded in June 2019 in NCpedia, the online encyclopedia about North Carolina. The other is an article published in the May 2019 issue of OutreachNC Magazine.

Scottish Heritage Preserved in Games, Music, Food, and Religion

Cultural history of the American South can be learned by attending events that preserve traditions of previous generations, particularly when the activities emphasize music, skill contests, food, religion, and other aspects of society and family. An excellent example occurs in Scotland County, N.C., during the first weekend of each October.

The Highland Games of Scotland County, held on the grounds of the John Blue Home and Historical Complex in Laurinburg, celebrate the rich Scottish heritage of the Upper Cape Fear and Pee Dee regions of the Carolinas. Even though events extend over three days, the primary day is Saturday (the second day), when the field opens to the general public at 8 a.m. The opening ceremonies feature pipe bands and a parade of tartans. The morning activities typically include Scottish athletic events, sheep dog demonstrations, piping and drumming competitions, and other entertainment. In the afternoon, more music and athletic competitions are held, including children games. The games continue a tradition of Scottish games in the area (that began in 1976 with the Flora MacDonald Highland Games, which had been held annually in nearby Red Springs but were discontinued in 2007).

Athletic Competitions
The athletic events seem particularly archaic when compared to today’s popular sports, such as football that emphasizes throw, punt, and run skills or basketball with a focus on dribble, pass, and shoot proficiency. However, the Scottish contests demonstrate skills needed in arduous conditions for taming both native and foreign lands. For example, one event – turning of the caber – involves throwing a caber (a tree that can range from 17 to 21 feet and weigh up to 160 pounds) so that it turns end over end with the large end striking the ground before the small end follows through and then strikes the ground. The champion wins by landing a caber in a perfect 12 o’clock position (on an imaginary clock). In contrast, competitors in other events are judged by the height or distance that they can throw a cumbersome object. The highest toss wins for these two events:

• Sheaf toss. A sheaf (bundle of twine wrapped in a burlap bag), which weighs up to 16 pounds, is tossed with a pitchfork over a horizontal bar.
• Weight over bar. Using only one hand, competitors toss a weight (up to 56 pounds) with an attached handle over a horizontal bar.

The longest throw wins for other events.

• Open stone. A stone weighing up to 22 pounds for men (12 pounds for women) is thrown (or “put”) from the shoulder with only one hand.
• Heavy weight toss. A competitor throws an implement weighing up to 56 pounds with one hand.
• Light weight toss. Similar to the heavy weight toss, this event also uses an implement but a lighter one (28 pounds for men and 14 pounds for women).
• Scottish hammer throw. A hammer (with a shaft of 50 inches or less), weighing up to 22 pounds, is thrown over the shoulders using both hands.

Can children participate? At the games in Scotland County, children from 4 to 16 can compete in several basic activities, including Scottish competitions, such as the stone throw; caber toss; clachneart, an event resembling the shot put; and hammer throw. In addition, running events (not exceeding one-fourth of a mile) and a tug of war offer other competitive contests for young participants.

Music
Music seems to be playing continually during the Highland Games of Scotland County. Although a central entertainment stage has continual performances and demonstrations of music and dance, the main music attraction is the piping and drumming competitions. Because the sweet and melodious tunes of the bagpipe have been heard in the Carolinas since the 1730s when the first Highland Scots arrived in the region, the music competition for pipes and drums bands is intense.
The music competition honors the Argyll Colony that arrived in 1739 in the Upper Cape Fear region and was the first group of a large emigration of Highland Scots that continued for about 100 years. As they arrived, music was an indispensable component of social life and prominent in several historical settings. For example, pipers during the American Revolutionary War were known for creating a ruse to confuse Patriot forces as to the location of Loyalist forces. Because suspicions arose about the “alien British” community in the region during the War of 1812 and they were pressured to assimilate into American ways, piping became less prominent.

As a result, piping was replaced by fiddling in providing music for dance, even though the local conservative Presbyterian clergy typically viewed music and dance as irreconcilable with spiritual life. Recovering slowly from this decline, pipe bands began to appear in the Carolinas by the mid-20th century. An early example is the Blue Ribbon Caledonian Pipe Band, established around 1947 in the N.C. Triad area, that played for the inauguration of Governor Scott in 1947. A few years later in 1955, The Citadel in Charleston began a pipe band that is still part of the cadet music program.

However, even with these early encouraging examples, piping and pipe bands were not part of this region of traditional Highland settlements until recently. Typical competitors at the Highland Games include the oldest continually organized pipe band in North Carolina. Wearing the Carolina tartan (the state tartan of North Carolina), the band, organized in 1968 by graduate students, is from N.C. State University. Formed in 1991 (earlier than most other bands) is the pipe band from St. Andrews Presbyterian College, which regularly competes throughout the U.S. South. Other bands in the Carolinas, formed mostly after the mid-1990s, from Raleigh, Columbia, Huntersville, and Jamestown also vie for music awards.

Food
Food is another way to connect culturally to previous generations. During the Highland Games, many Scottish foods are available. For example, Scottish meat pies, sausage rolls, haggis puffs, and Forfar bridies (a meat pastry) made by Cameron’s of Kearny from Sumter, SC, were tempting. Drinks included Irn-Bru (a popular Scottish carbonated beverage) and ginger beer. (The meat pie was an excellent mid-afternoon snack.)

Scott’s Keltic Kitchen & Bakery of Murrells Inlet, SC, delighted spectators with Scottish desserts. I was particularly impressed with the clootie dumpling with devon custard that I had never tasted before. The bakery was also offering scones with strawberries and cream (very popular) as well as sticky toffee pudding, cream meringue, and chocolate bread pudding (with chocolate sauce).

Family Bonds and Other Heritage Connections
Although the food selections are popular, the vendors detain the attendees only briefly from the main gathering area of the clans. The primary game field is encircled by more than 40 clan tents where families, societies, and other groups mix and mingle. On display are histories, migration patterns, insignia, and tartans (the symbol of the family association or home district). Each clan, a gathering of families for economic and political protection as well as social support (who are not necessarily related by blood), in Scotland had its own tartan.

Several vendors from throughout the Carolinas set up tents for the Highland Games to display and sell Scottish merchandise – metalworks, fine arts, clothing and fabrics, utensils, and souvenirs. The booths were quite popular and attracted serious as well as casual shoppers.

Religion
Although some competitors and vendors seem to request divine intervention throughout the weekend, the primary religious event occurs on Sunday morning when worshipers at the nearby Old Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church (founded in 1797 by Highlanders) conduct a “kirkin’ of the tartans” service. According to Scottish legend, the ceremony can be traced to the Parliamentary Act of 1846 in England. The act banned the kilt, plaid, or other tartan garment to destroy Highland clan identity. In defiance of the British Crown, the Scots ignored the ban when they went to church and carried remnants of their tartans in their pockets, and the minister added a blessing into the service for the clans represented by the tartans. The first kirkin’ was held in Washington, D.C, in 1947 by the Saint Andrew’s Society (whose members are all Scottish descendents). A growing number of Presbyterian churches in the Southeast celebrate this service annually to recognize the transfer of faith to America by clans whose families arrived almost 300 years ago.

The Highland Games of Scotland County are an excellent way to learn more about the cultural history of the American South and traditions of previous generations. The skill contests — athletic as well as music — celebrate a heritage shared by many families. Because many Southerners live near venues that host Highland games (such as Grandfather Mountain, NC; Stone Mountain Park, GA, The Plains, VA; Tallahassee, FL; Greenville, SC; Maryville, TN; and San Antonio, TX), these games will continue to increase in popularity. Attend one soon and observe the past in the present.

Burns Day: A Time to Celebrate Scottish Food Traditions in North Carolina

[Note: This post, prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.]

Where in North Carolina is Scottish food celebrated, and when can you find authentic Scottish food in our state? Travel no farther than to the multi-county Sandhills where many residents still celebrate Scottish heritage, particularly today – known to many as Burns Day in honor of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns on this day in 1759.

Haggis is ceremoniously presented
for dinner as a poem by
Scottish poet Robert Burns is read.

As described in Transatlantic Scots, a recent study edited by Celeste Ray, the “exodus of Scots to America” still shapes the identity of many in our state, particularly in Scotland County, home of the “Fightin’ Scots,” and other locales with Scottish ancestry where foodways constitute a significant part of this identity.

Continue reading at the NCFood blog…