SMALL PACKAGES?  I love them!

Janey Deal
Genealogist North Carolina Room

            Whoever said, “Good things come in small packages” was right! In the last few months, several small packages have come my way at Hickory Public Library.
            The first were snapshots of a home on 3rd Street, close to Carolina Park. You can see the change in this area since the 1960s. Second was a 1946 “Survey and Classified Directory of Hickory: North Carolina’s Fastest Growing And Best Balanced City”, a booklet published by the Hickory Chamber of Commerce. Beyond the usual listing of Chamber members, there are articles giving us history, i.e., “An Unsurpassed Location” and “Pennsylvania Dutch Background”.

One article gives reason for Hickory to claim favorable status regarding each of the six essential factors required by those seeking a new location – Power, Transportation, Raw Materials, Water Supply, Labor Supply, Markets, and Legislation. A paragraph or two brings to light what each meant for Hickory’s economy and infrastructure.
Under “Hotel Accomodations” you will find The Hotel Hickory that was, sad to say, imploded in 1972. Published after the first Polio Epidemic in 1944, this booklet highlights the “The Miracle of Hickory” and post WWII projects within the City.
From Patsy Fischer, a volunteer at Mobil Meals in Spartanburg, SC, came a little book about an Abernathy Family written by Elizabeth Pauline Abernethy Erwin b. ca. 1908. Mrs. Erwin gives the reader an inside view into her family - Julius Franklin and Mattie Forney Abernathy. Julius was her father, while Mattie was her stepmother. Elizabeth says, at the end, she has written this as a history for her children, the year was 1983.
            Much praise and thanks to all who have taken the time to mail information to us that enhances the resources we already have in the North Carolina Room. Praises and thanks go also, to Christine F. MacBean for her generous donations of several books in the “Mayflower Families” series.

Come visit our collection at Patrick Beaver Memorial Library, 375 3rd St. NE in Hickory. Call: 828.304.0500 ext 7283, or email jdeal@ci.hickory.nc.us. Hickory Public Library is a department of the City of Hickory. The library is open 9:00-9:00, Monday through Thursday; 9:00-6:00, Friday and Saturday; and 2:00–6:00 on Sundays. The Ridgeview Branch is open the same hours, but is closed on Sundays.