| Beverly & Fitzgerald, tanners |
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In January 1869, Robert G. Fitzgerald, a free black/Army and Navy Civil War veteran/teacher, moved from Pennsylvania to Hillsborough (via Virginia) and soon became good friends with a Haywood Beverly (also spelled Heywood Beverley, and the 1870 Federal Census taker misspelled his first name as Howard). In his diary, Fitzgerald described Beverly as an �enterprising man, a tanner and to his charge I have been consigned." Beverly was born about 1840, likely in Alabama, but his parents were born in eastern North Carolina; he was living in Hillsboro by at least 1867, when his second child (daughter Julia) was born. (He, like Fitzgerald, was labelled as a "mulatto" in official records.)
Since Beverly knew the tanner�s trade, and Fitzgerald was good with business, they decided to enter into a partnership and start a tannery together. They looked at other tanneries around town, for ideas for a suitable and efficient building design, and soon arranged to purchase three acres �on the edge of town� for their own tannery. This �edge of town� was west of Hillsborough, in a "town" named Chaseville (also spelled Chaisville). The deed from the later sale of Fitzgerald�s interest in the property describes the property as �lying west of Hillsboro in the Town of Chaseville beginning on Greensboro Road thence north with Church Street 9 chains 50 links to Latimer Str. Thence west with Latimer St. 5 chains thence south 9 chains 50 to Greensboro Road thence with said road 5 chains to the beginning containing 4 � acres & known in the plat of said town as No. 1 the same being the land H. N. Brown conveyed to Beverly & Fitzgerald by deed being [?] date 29th Sept 1868 on which there is a tan yard situated�� Fitzgerald was briefly called away to Goldsboro to fill a vacant principal position at a school, but returned to Hillsborough July 1. Upon his return, he reopened the local Freedmen�s school (with 65 students attending), and worked on the tannery after school, where he and Beverly built a one-room office (which Fitzgerald called his little �Cottage by the Stream�), installed tanning vats, and purchased hides. In late March 1869, the firm of Beverly and Fitzgerald, tanners, launched its business: �Finished Mr. Moore�s 3 hides and delivered them to him. �place 1 kid and 1 sheep skin at H. N. Brown�s Store for sale. Our hides are all stamped with the name of our firm and they look hot.� By January 1870, Fitzgerald dissolved his partnership with Beverly, and took his share of the hides to trade locally for other goods. He also dismantled the tannery office that he had built, and �hauled the logs, lumber, door and window sashes� to his family farm, Woodside, where he traded them to the local wheelwright for partial payment on a buggy. In early May, 1871, Fitzgerald sold his interest in the tannery property to Beverly for $400. The 1880 Federal Census lists Beverly's occupation as a tanner, and his residence as Hillsboro; in an 1886 business directory, Haywood Beverly was listed as a tanner, and as having an office on King Street and as living in Hillsboro. The tannery property was later rented (in August 1887) and sold in April 1888 to James A. Cheek, who operated a distillery on the property. |
| Sources:
Ancestry.com Chas. Emerson's North Carolina Tobacco Belt Directory. Edwards, Broughton, and Co., Raleigh, 1886. Murray, Pauli. Proud Shoes. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1956. Orange County Register of Deeds Deed Book 40, page 389 Pauli Murray Papers, 1827-1985. Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Robert G. Fitzgerald Diary. Part 2, Volume 4. June 28, 1867-August 8, 1871. U. S. Federal Census. 1870, 1880. |
| [Created: 26 August 2008; Last updated: 21 July 2009] |