Gaston County’s
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Thursday, June 23, 2022
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• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Belmont’s oldest piece of public art is a treasure By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Belmont has been making great strides in the area of public art, but there’s one piece that predates all the others by a wide margin. Long before Belmont’s City Hall became the center of the town’s municipal government, it was a U.S. Post Office, constructed in 1938. In that building is a reminder of those days when the federal government’s New Deal was in full swing in the form of a mural entitled “Major William Chronicle and His South Fork Boys”. Many thousands of people over the years have seen the mural, but not that many know about the artist, Peter DeAnna, who painted it, how he went about his work in
Belmont in 1940, and the fact that the mural as folks see it today was not his first choice of theme. DeAnna was one of a small army of artists that the Works Projects Administration (WPA) sent out across the land during the Great Depression to create public art, perform music, and take photos of everything from poor folks to national park vistas. Overall, from 1934 to 1943, over 1,300 murals and 300 sculptures were commissioned by the federal government nationwide. Artwork for post offices was supposed to This mural “Major William Chronicle and His South Fork Boys” inside Belmont city hall dates to 1940 and is the town’s first and reflect the heritage or history oldest piece of public art. Photo by Alan Hodge of the town where it was located. Most of the post office Treasury Department. at age sixteen for a work en- scribing what he was doing. best in me.” murals were funded by the The phrase “revising The Belmont Post Office titled “China Boy.” “This past week I have been Section of Fine Arts under the mural was DeAnna’s first According to the book working from scaffold,” he drawing in several places” is paying art job. A native of “New Deal Art in N.C.” by penned. “The white lead ad- likely a reference to changes Uniontown, Penn., DeAnna Anita Price Davis, DeAnna hesive has caught hold quite DeAnna was told to make had grown up in Washington, came to Belmont in June 1940 well. Work is slowly nearing to his original idea of havD.C., and received “formal” to start his project when he completion. I am striving for ing the mural show a Native art training of sorts at the was just 19 years old. While more quality of paint texture. American encampment with Washington Boys Club. A he was in town, he wrote Also revising drawing in sev- women tanning hides and natural talent, DeAnna won letters to WPA Art Admin- eral places as you suggested. hauling grain near a hut. first prize at a local art show istrator Edward Rowan de- I assure you I am giving it the See ART, Page 4
Did Lincoln’s mother live in Belmont? By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Belmont author Jack Morris is seen with a copy of the book he wrote about gold mining near Kershaw, S.C. Photo by Alan Hodge
Gold fever still grips our area By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
Prior to the California gold rush of 1849, our area was part of the top gold producing region in America. In fact, from 1860 until the Civil War, gold mining was along with farming one of the primary occupations not only
in Gaston County, but across the Piedmont in general. So much gold was found in our local area that a branch of the U.S. Mint was set up in Charlotte in 1836 to handle it. As early as the 1700s there were a number of gold producing mines in Belmont, See GOLD, Page 6
One of American history’s most controversial mysteries- who the biological father of Abraham Lincoln actually washas roots in a Belmont neighborhood. In the early part of the 19th century, Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, as well as her mother Mandy and sister Lucy, are said to have not only spent time in what would eventually become Belmont, but according to some folks conceive Abe while she was in this part of Gaston County- with someone other than Tom Lincoln, Abe’s “legal” daddy. As a girl in the early 19th century, Nancy and the other girls supposedly visited her uncle Dicky Hanks who lived on land off what is now South Point Rd. To commemorate that time, there’s a stone and bronze marker on the site where Uncle Dicky’s log cabin is said to have stood. The monument is at the very end of See LINCOLN, Page 3
Belmont author and historian Jack Page remembers camping near the Hanks monument when it was in the woods long before any houses were built nearby.
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