Collectors: Titanic News Clipping

In 1966, Mrs. Ed Martin holds a copy of the Yadkin Valley Pilot. Photo: The Yadkin Ripple

In July, 1916—East Bend’s second newspaper gave up the ghost after being published for six years. It was the Yadkin Valley Pilot, established about January 1, 1910 by 16 East Bend businessmen and citizens headed by a newcomer to town, Charles Edward Jenkins. The corporation, formed under the title of East Bend Publishing Company was dissolved in December, 1910 but the paper continued to be published, sometimes intermittently, under various owners and editors.

In 1912, when the luxury liner Titanic sailed, Mr. Jenkins was on it. When the ship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage to New York on April 15, Mr. Jenkins lost his life.

Mrs. Ed Martin of East Bend had one of the very few surviving copies of the newspaper in existence. It is dated June 22, 1911 and carries the words Volume 2, No. 25, showing it has been published for several weeks before being granted a second class mailing permit, and it must have begun publishing in January 1, 1910.

The record of corporations in the office of the Yadkin County Clerk of Court shows the East Bend Publishing Company filed a certificate of incorporation on March 22, 1910, with the following stock holders: J. Lee Norman, W.A. Martin, John T. Benbow, W.G. Leak, Joe V. Davis, John G. Huff, L.B. Davis, W.H. Hinsdale, R.B. Horn, W.N.Horn, J.T. Smitherman, W.C. Poindexter, Henry E. Davis, H.H. Huff, B.V. Whittington and Charles Edward Jenkins.

This list is a who’s who of early East Bend business leaders.

The copy of the paper that Mrs Martin had contains the address label with the name of her father, J.G. Huff on it. The masthead lists J.Lee Norman, W.N. Horn and J.T. Benbow as owners and editors. The paper’s price was listed at 50 cents a year or three cents a copy.

Research done in relation to the paper several years ago revealed that other editors included Chester Vogler, R.M. Wells and Professor S.J. Honeycut. When Mr. Honeycut, the father of Mrs. Rufus Crater of Yadkinville died in 1925, his obituary contained these words: For most of the life of The Yadkin Valley Pilot, he was the editor and publisher."

Some people have discredited the Charles Edward Jenkins’ story as his name was not on the passenger list. But we believe it to be a very real possibility Mr. Jenkins was on board and went down with the Titanic. There have been other stories of Titanic passengers who lost their lives traveling under other people’s tickets. For instance, the Asheville Vanderbilts were scheduled to be on board, but at the last minute didn’t make the trip; their butler did and died.

Also, at the time this article was printed, there were still living East Bend residents with first hand knowledge of the Yadkin Valley Pilot and the Titanic tragedy. Without a pretty firm foundation we don’t think the story would have made it to print.

The embosser that formed the offical seal on documents of the East Bend

Publishing company. The What Is That item in the July/August magazine is a cast iron embosser, no ink used, to authenticate legal documents. This item seemed a bit more challenging because we drew a few guesses for a hole puncher before we got our three correct guesses. David Miller of Mocksville is our $100 winner. Brandi Bowman of Germanton actually sent a photo of a very similar stamp that she still uses every day in the Walnut Cove Town office. Rosalee Moxley from Boonville was the third correct drawn guess and she shared, “As a notary, I have used a seal like this many times but later switched to the self-inking stamp because it was a lot easier to show on copies.” Both Brandi and Rosalee will be mailed a Yadkin Valley Magazine cookbook entitled One Last Sweet Bite.

Patsy Cockerham used one of these embossing seals at the bank she worked at many years ago. Mark Hoots of Lewisville was very detailed in explaining this item as a notary seal used to validate the notary’s signature to make the notarial act official and that the imprint of the notary seal contains the Notary Public’s commission information.

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