Historic marker at Murfree's Landing.
Start at the northern end of Hart Street on the southern bank of the Meherrin River.
Our tour starts on the southern bank of the Meherrin River where Murfreesboro as we know it today began.
From the earliest days Murfreesboro was a popular river port. It was one of the westernmost ports that steamships could reach. Goods from the western part of the region would be transported to Murfreesboro to be loaded onto ships. Visitors, students, and merchants arrived in Murfreesboro primarily by small steam ships that brought the mail and goods to be transported further inland. It is said that the port of Murfreesboro was so busy that there were days when ships would be stacked up and docked next to each other to the point where someone could walk from one side of the river to the other just by crossing the decks of the boats.
In the days before television when commercial radio was in its infancy and silent movies were the new form of entertainment, The James Adams Floating Theatre (JAFT) sailed the Chesapeake Bay, Albemarle Sound, and various rivers including the Meherrin River bringing musical revues and melodramatic plays to excited patrons between Maryland and North Carolina. Author Edna Ferber visited the JAFT when it was in Bath, North Carolina and used it as the model for her 1926 novel, “Showboat”, which was made into a Broadway musical in 1927, and has been remade three times on film.
The JAFT did not travel under its own power. It was more of a floating barge that was pulled by a tugboat. It didn't look anything like the Mississippi paddle wheeler that you see in the movies. Advance men would paper the towns with flyers and banners prior to arrival. By the time the JAFT pulled up to the waterfront, the population was excited to see the arrival and buy tickets to the show. The floating theater visited Murfreesboro every year between 1922 and 1930.
In 1992, Dr. Alton Parker recalled, “The JAFT always arrived on a Sunday afternoon. Townspeople would line the river banks, bridge, and dock to see the boat come in, pushed by a tugboat. The first performance would be on Monday night. A different play was presented every night for a week. I was a small boy then, and not allowed to be out much, but I was privileged to see one play – “Peg O’ My Heart. I shall never forget how thrilling it was to see the live production. After the drama, a short comedy was always presented. One had to purchase another ticket for the comedy. Since there were some risqué jokes in the skit, children were discouraged from attending this show. Consequently, I never saw one of the comedies.”
Next Tour Stop - Up Hart Street and Turn Right onto East Street next to Riverside Cemetery. Take the first left onto East Broad Street. Proceed to 650 East Broad Street where you will see a historic marker sign on your left.
A portrait of General Marquis De Lafayette
650 East Broad Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
This is the sight of the Indian Queen Inn, originally called the Pocahontas Inn, which burned in 1896.
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the Siege of Yorktown. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789. He is considered a national hero in both countries.
In 1824, President James Monroe invited Lafayette to the United States as the nation's guest, and he visited all 24 states in the union and met a huge reception. Lafayette’s first overnight stop in North Carolina was rerouted at the last minute, and word came to town that Murfreesboro was to be his first stop on February 26, 1825. Townspeople got word of the honor just the day prior, and they hastily prepared a banquet and ball in his honor.
Because The Marquis de Lafayette had changed his plans to travel a more eastern route towards Raleigh, the people of Murfreesboro had no idea that they would be the first stop in his North Carolina tour until Friday, February 25th. Buzzing with excitement, the town began to quickly plan a lavish reception, banquet, and ball for "The Nation's Guest." It was said that every lady in town spent the day refurbishing their best gowns for what was sure to be the social event of the decade!
The custom during Lafayette's journeys had been to have a welcoming delegation of state officials and militia meet the party at the state line and escort him to his next stop. The North Carolina Officials had hurried from Raleigh as soon as they got word of his new route, but could only make it as far as Halifax by the 26th. There, they deputized local politician, Robert Potter, to rush to Murfreesboro to let them know the official state delegation was unable to meet him. The town of Murfreesboro had sent their own welcoming delegation to meet Lafayette at the state line: Dr. Lawrence O'Brian, Lewis Meredith Cowper, and John W. Southall. Southall gave his "very comfortable carriage" to Lafayette's party since the official carriage from Raleigh had not arrived yet.
They started off from the Virginia line in the afternoon, but the weather slowed their progress. Heavy rains over the past several days had turned the road into a giant mudhole. About 4 miles from Murfreesboro, the carriage became so stuck in the mud that it took over an hour just to get it free! It was just after 9 pm that the carriage finally rolled into Murfreesboro. As the citizens cheered and a brass band played, Lafayette was welcomed by mayor Thomas Maney. He was then escorted into the Indian Queen Tavern, where the banquet was served until past midnight. Because of the late hour, the weary Lafayette and his party were allowed to retire to their beds, and the planned ball was cancelled.
On the morning of the 27th, Lafayette left the Indian Queen Inn about 11:00 A.M. and traveled about twenty miles to Northampton Court House (now the town of Jackson) where he was received by the official state welcoming committee. With fifty years having passed since the Revolution which brought him to America, Lafayette’s tour inspired the citizens of Murfreesboro, indeed the whole country, by reviving patriotic feelings that had begun to dissipate.
Next Tour Stop - Continue west on Broad Street to the John Wheeler House at 407 East Broad Street.
The front of the John Wheeler House from Broad Street.
407 East Broad Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The original part of this home was built around 1810 as a commercial building which housed a store owned by William Hardy Murfree and George Gordon. Four years later, a shipper from New Jersey named John Wheeler converted the building into his family home, and lived here until 1867. The dining room dependency is the only brick dependency in Murfreesboro. The kitchen dependency is a reconstruction based upon archeological work done in the 1970s. Wheeler was married three times and had 19 children. A daughter, Julia, married Dr. Godwin Cotton Moore who was a founder of the Chowan Baptist Female Institute. A son, John Hill Wheeler, was the first native North Carolinian to write a history of North Carolina and was the first U.S. Minister to Nicaragua.
The house has solid brick, Flemish bond walls 18 inches thick, an entrance fan window, and original cornice. The home was restored by the Murfreesboro Historical Association in the 1970s. The black and white photo of the house shows it in 1940 prior to restoration. The surrounding fields were the location of slave quarters, livestock pens, a smokehouse, and corn crib.
In 2002, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. published a historical manuscript called "The Bondswoman's Narrative" that he had purchased at auction. It is believed to be the first novel ever written by an African-American woman. It is the account of a young mixed-race woman slave who escapes to the North and gains freedom. The novel was written by Hannah Bonds, a.k.a. Hannah Crafts. She was born in 1830 and escaped slavery in 1857. Her novel revealed close knowledge of the Wheeler household and his tenure as US Minister to Nicaragua. It is believed that she was enslaved by the Wheeler family and served them in Murfreesboro and Washington DC. When she escaped, she was disguised in men's clothes, perhaps helped by someone in the Wheeler family, and traveled north as a white boy. She lived for a time in upstate New York with a couple named Crafts. She apparently took their surname as her pseudonym. Later she settled in New Jersey where she married and became a school teacher.
In 2023, Dr. Greg Hecimovich published his book, “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts - The True Story of the Bondwoman's Narrative”. His research revealed many details about the life of Hannah Crafts from her birth in Bertie County into enslavement, her enslavement by the Wheeler family, her escape, and her later life as a wife, stepmother, and teacher.
Next Tour Stop - Go north on 4th Street past to the Murphy Spiers House at the corner of 409 North Street to the lot behind 409 North Street. There you will see the Jenkins Cottage in the fenced yard.
A view of the Jenkins cottage from the front.
Behind 409 North Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The Charles Jenkins Cottage, possibly an early 18th century structure (built circa 1725) is reputed to be the earliest surviving structure in Hertford County. Originally located on the banks of the Potecasi Creek, it was moved to this location and restored as a guest house. The original house was as you see it today. A porch was added across the rear at one point and then enclosed to provide two rooms. Special features include yellow pine beaded beams and ceiling in the first-floor rooms, hand hewn timbers throughout including chair rail, and a beautiful paneled mantel. The chimney has been reconstructed from photographs of the original.
Owner, Charles Jenkins, died in the house in the late 1700s.
Supposedly the site of one, and possibly two terrible deaths, and many say that the cottage is haunted. There is a legend about a young servant girl was tending the fire in the back of the house. A spark flew onto her dress and caught her on fire. She screamed. Someone in the house saw a bucket and assumed it was filled with water, but it was actually kerosene. They threw it on her, and she burned to death. Legend says that there is a charred black spot in the house to this day where the girl was burned, and that her ghost still haunts the cottage. If you get an opportunity to go inside the home someday, the burn spot is supposedly on the left as you face the fireplace.
The house was given to the Murfreesboro Historical Association in the early 1980s with the stipulation that it be moved from its original location on Bridgers Road. In the early 1990s, a professor working at Chowan University was renting the cottage. She was seeing a man from Ahoskie who was called up for active duty during the first Gulf War. She committed suicide by shooting herself in the house.
This home is privately owned.
Next Tour Stop - Go south on 4th Street to the Murphy - Spiers House at 409 North Street.
The Murphy-Spiers House built in the early 1800's.
409 North Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
This home was relocated from its original location on Broad Street. It was built in the early 1800s. The first known owner was Edward Murphy who was a shoemaker. He was in the house as early as 1825. Lewis T. Spiers acquired the house in 1853 and remodeled it.
The house was donated to the Murfreesboro Historical Association in 1970, and early plans were drawn up to restore it and use it as exhibition space. It is now privately owned.
One of the recent owners reported that his children were awakened in the middle of the night while sleeping upstairs. A man in old fashioned clothing was sitting at the foot of the bed. The children believed that it was the ghost of the shoemaker. Does the spirit of Edward Murphy still occupy the house? Do ghosts travel when a property is moved? Or was he out looking for the new location of his former home?
The land that the Murphy - Spiers House sits on today was once a part of the five-acre Thompson property. Just to the left of North Fourth Street as you are facing north at the edge of the yards that now have the Murphy – Spiers and Jenkins Cottage on them is the location of the Thompson Family graveyard. The graves are unmarked now. In the 1970s, a team of archeologists were digging in the back yard of the Wheeler House. As they searched the general area, they found the Thompson family graves in a overgrown thicket along what is now North Fourth Street. Some of the caskets were made of metal and had rusted and corroded to the point of collapse.
Al Parker recalls, “I remember being able to look down into a hole and seeing human remains through a place where the casket had collapsed.” Jack Myers, who lived in the Murphy – Spiers house at one time found an old fashioned child’s shoe which had come from another open grave in the same plot. It is believed that there are nine unmarked graves here. Reverend Thompson’s casket had a glass pane on the top. Glass panes on caskets served two purposes in the days before embalming. First, they allowed families to view their dearly departed without being exposed to the smell of a decaying body. Second, they allowed loved ones to check on the dead during the “wake” in order to ensure that they had not inadvertently put a live person in the casket ahead of their time.
Next Tour Stop - Continue west on North Street next door to 405 North Street.
The Cowper-Thompson House
405 North Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The oldest part of this privately owned home is the back wing. The front of the house is built in a style common to Tidewater Virginia in the early 1800s. Lewis Meridith Cowper is the earliest known owner. His father, William Cowper, moved to Murfreesboro about 1790.
In 1839, Reverend George Mathias Thompson purchased the house. Thompson was instrumental in encouraging Archibald McDowall to come to Murfreesboro to open the Chowan Baptist Female Institute. At the time, Thompson was the minister at Meherrin Baptist Church. Thompson was born in London, England on the 28th of February, 1806. The Thompson family, parents, one brother, and three sisters migrated to New York City in 1815 where the rest of the family lived their entire lives. Thompson moved south to Richmond, Virginia where he was ordained at First Baptist Church on September 2, 1830 at the age of 24. Thompson served as minister in a number of communities including Suffolk, Elizabeth City, and Salem. He also served as a missionary to the poor counties of Washington and Tyrell which would take him away from home for months at a time. On December 27, 1831 he married Margaret Wilson Poole of Pasqutank County. She was a widow with two sons. Reverend and Mrs. Thompson had four daughters during their marriage.
While Thompson was in Murfreesboro, a Mr. Swann opened a dancing school that quickly became popular with the younger people in town. Reverend Thompson was very displeased. He proclaimed that this was the forerunner of the devil, and that no one should patronize the dancing school. When Swann found out, he appeared on Main Street with a horse whip and proclaimed that he was going to whip Reverend Thompson. When Thompson found out, he calmly sent word back that if he were to be approached with a whip, he would take Swann over his knee and “for sometime thereafter it would be more comfortable to stand than it would be for him to sit down”. The issue never came to an actual physical altercation, and before long Mr. Swann closed his dancing school and left town.
Thompson died on February 27, 1850. He collapsed while preaching in a church at Halifax, North Carolina while on his way to the Baptist State Convention in Louisburg, NC. His body was returned to Murfreesboro, and he was buried in the garden of this home. (You will learn more about that at our next stop.)
Next Tour Stop - Go south on 3rd Street and the Southall - Neal - Worrell House will be on your left facing Broad Street.
The Southall - Neal - Worrell House
301 East Broad Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The builder of this home is unknown, but John W. Southall was the first known occupant in 1825. The rear frame wing was added in 1833. E.C. Worrell built the Victorian porches in the late 1800s. The house has 21” thick brick walls, original floors, wainscoting, and mantels.
The Southalls were prominent members of the town of Murfreesboro beginning with Reverend Daniel Southall who moved to Murfreesboro in 1816. He married Miss Julia Riddick and they produced several children. (After his wife died, he married Miss Patience W. Branch of Halifax County in 1810 and they had a daughter, Mary Susan Southall, who died at the age of three months.) Reverend Daniel Southall died in 1830. Another one of Reverend Southall and Julia's children was John W. Southall, who went on to become a prosperous merchant in the Murfreesboro community.
John V. Lawrence was the father-in-law of Susan E. Southall, daughter of Mary P. Wynns and John W. Southall. John V. Lawrence married Hannah Peck Rea in 1836. Among other ventures, Southall had a partnership (Lawrence & Vaughan) with fellow merchant Uriah Vaughan (1813-1890.)
John W. Southall provided the carriage that brought General Lafayette to Murfreesboro.
In 1858, John W. Southall along with Captain Thomas Badger purchased the steamer “The Chowan” which was renamed “The Southern Star”. The ship was constructed in Murfreesboro but sold at bankruptcy to Southall and Badger. It was the largest ship built to date in North Carolina at that time. The new owners had their ship towed to Wimington, Delaware where it was fitted with its engine and propulsion system. Southall and Badger sold the ship to the U.S. Government where it was renamed “The Crusader”. Ironically the ship was used to combat slave trading.
In the 1970s until 2024 the house was owned by E. Frank Stephenson who was one of the founding forces behind the Murfreesboro Historical Association. Frank Stephenson is the author of many books about the history of Murfreesboro and the surrounding area. The home is now the property of Jeffrey Parker who is working to restore it.
Next Tour Stop - Go next door to the Gingerbread House at 401 East Broad Street.
The Gingerbread House
401 East Broad Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
This charming house is privately owned and was built in c 1887 by E.C. Worrell of Southampton County, Virginia for his daughter and son-in-law.. He is best remembered for Worrell’s Mill, a gristmill on the east side of town. He also ran a blacksmith and wheelwright shop in Murfreesboro in the 1890s. It is surprising that this house, despite its small appearance, has 11-foot ceilings in the front portion.
According to Caroline Stephenson, “Built in 1877 by Edwin C. Worrell as a wedding present for his daughter Annetta Worrell Evans. The house is also known as the Worrell Evans House. EC Worrell moved to Murfreesboro in 1873 and purchased the Southall Neal Worrell house next door to the Gingerbread House from the widow of Dr. Neal. E.C. Worrell bought Carter's Mill from Perry Carter's Family and it was renamed Worrell's Mill which it is still called today. E.C. Worrrell's son Miles Edward Worrell ran the Mill after his father's death and continued to do so until his death in the 1960s. The Mill ceased operations in the 1970s.”
Next Tour Stop - Cross Broad Street to the Morgan - Myrick House at 404 East Broad Street.
The Morgan - Myrick House built in 1805.
404 East Broad Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The James Morgan House, also called the Myrick House, was built in 1805 by James Morgan, a prominent local merchant. It is a two-story, Federal brick building with brick chimneys on each end.
Around 1830, James Morgan moved his family along with some indentured servants to what is now Texas, which at that time was part of Mexico. One of the servants was a beautiful young woman of color named Emily West a.k.a. Emily Morgan. Legend tells us that she was captured by General Antonio López de Santa Anna . On April 21, 1836 when Sam Houston’s troops arrived for what would become the Battle of San Jacinto, General Santa Anna was caught off guard while in his tent with his captive. Houston’s troops won the battle, and Emily was immortalized in the song, “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.
The home was later owned by the Myrick family and the Carter family. The lot at one time extended from Broad Street to Williams Street and contained a beautiful formal garden. The house has many outstanding features including brick dentil work (the only example of this in North Carolina), fanlight windows, full cellar, and a winding stairway. The brick walls are 18 inches thick.
Fannie Myrick Southall, daughter of Thomas and Julia Myrick, was born in this house on August 18, 1857. She married a Southall and is buried in the Southall Cemetery which is one of the later stops on this tour. She died a young woman at age 34 in 1882.
Previous owners of the house claimed that Fannie’s ghost often returned to the home, but she is a very affectionate spirit. When the air is still and the house is dark, she will tiptoe to your bed as you sleep and blow in your ear. The home is privately owned today.
The current owners, Steve and Sandra Fowler, say that they have seen a spirit walking through the dining room of their house. Sandra also saw a woman looking into the baby’s crib on a day when their granddaughter did not come to visit.
Steve Fowler notes that Thomas Wynns killed a Confederate deserter in the front yard of the Morgan / Myrick house who had joined a gang of Buffaloes who would raid the town during the Civil War. A spirit of the Confederate soldier has been seen near the magnolia tree in the front yard of the house off and on since that time.
Next Tour Stop - Go east on Broad Street to the John Wheeler House and turn right onto 4th Street. The Vincent-Deale Blacksmith Shop and the Evans Tin Shop will be on your left.
The front of the Vincent-Deale Blacksmith Shop.
202 North Fourth Street, Murfreesboro NC 27855
The Blacksmith Shop houses an outstanding collection of blacksmith tools which originated from the Deale family of Southampton County, Virginia. The collection was donated by Hugh Vincent (the blacksmith in the picture), a grandson of the Deale family. There is a working forge and a blacksmith who demonstrates the craft during tours.
The one story, single room Evans Tinsmith Shop was formerly a Post Office in the Town of Princeton in Northampton County, located about two miles up the Meherrin River. Princetown, also a river port, gradually disappeared as Murfreesboro prospered. Around 1877 or 1878, Richard Evans, a tinsmith from Petersburg, Virginia, came to Murfreesboro and opened a tin shop in a building near the corner of College and Main Streets. The bulk of the tools are from the 1860s and 1880s on up to the early twentieth century. Richard's son, John Evans, was one of the most prolific tinsmiths in Northeastern North Carolina. He ran the business from the 1910s until the 1960s expanding from making and repairing kitchen/house wares like coffee/tea pots, baking pans, pails, and candlestick molds to making stovepipes, metal roofs, and gutters. On display inside this building are a collection of the tools used by Evans and his family.
Both of these properties are owned by the Murfreesboro Historical Association.
Next Tour Stop - Cross the street to the Winborne Law Office and Country Store at 201 North Fourth Street.