{Parts of this text were created with the assistance of AI technology.}
After a pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the southeastern North Carolina George Washington Petteway family reunion will resume this year from June 21-23. The gathering will take place on the grounds of the Edney Free Will Primitive Baptist Church and schoolhouse. Shelia Blue, a direct descendant of G.W. Petteway, will host the event. A family picnic is scheduled to follow the morning church service at the former Rhodestown Road Volunteer Fire Department site.
Historical accounts show that in 1870, G.W. Petteway, shortly after being emancipated from slavery, brought together white and black citizens of Onslow County, North Carolina, to build a church and schoolhouse for the African American community. Supported by his wife Celia, the land needed for these structures was provided by Durant H. Rhodes, a prominent local white farmer.
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I have composed a modest brief to honor the legacy of the Edney Schoolhouse and church, which has surpassed one hundred and fifty years, to be featured in the forthcoming family reunion ceremonies in June 2024.
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Edney Chapel Schoolhouse
Established ca.1870
Today, we celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Edney Chapel schoolhouse and Free Will Primitive Baptist Church. The exact dates of the origin of the schoolhouse have become lost within the annals of local history. Few official records remain of the founding of the schoolhouse. What is known, prior to 1870, officials from the North Carolina Free Will Primitive Baptist Church (F.W.P.B.) approached George Washington Petteway, a Minister of the Gospel. Reverend Petteway was called to take his small congregation and form a school and church for local children of freed slaves who lived within the Briarneck and Catherine Lake region of Onslow County—known as the Edney Free Will Primitive Baptist schoolhouse and church. By 1872, Reverend Petteway initiated a committee consisting of: Benjamin Giles, John Munford, along with other Edney F.W.P.B. Church members and local supportive white citizens.
Under the
tutelage of Reverend Petteway local citizens of all races came together to
develop the schoolhouse. There is no known official written record of its earliest
years. There are, however, oral
histories handed down from teacher to student then passed onto their future
generations. Family history has shown Celia Ann [White] Petteway, the wife of
Reverend Petteway, was one of the earliest teachers and cooks within the school.
As with future teachers, one can imagine Celia, standing on the small steps of
the door to the wooden schoolhouse.
Numerous families
recite their oral histories of attending school. Reports confirm during the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century children walked to the Edney school as far away as
the Briarneck and Catherine Lake communities.
Members of the Jarman and Cox families of Hines Farm district had a
longer distance to walk. Over five generations of local families made their way
down dirt roads, through deep woods or walked railroad tracks to and from school
since the 1870s.
The Edney school
served as part of a newly formed system to educate black children of Richlands,
North Carolina. It was not the first of its kind, but it is the only nineteenth
century African American schoolhouse still standing within Onslow County. Official
records, however, of all other African American schools of this period are
sparse. For over fifty-five years, Odell Petteway preserved the history of Edney
school. When a hurricane damaged portions
of the school Odell brought local whites and blacks together, just as his
grandfather had done, to repair the damage.
Family oral history tells us Odell rebuilt the Edney church after the
original one was destroyed during the same hurricane in the early 1960s. Since
2013, Shelia Blue, a direct descendant of George Washington and Celia Petteway
has maintained primary and secondary material regarding the Edney schoolhouse
and in promoting the significance of the Petteway rich heritage.
Gary A. Franks,
Great Grandson of George Washington Petteway and three-term U.S. Representative
for Connecticut’s 5th District, over the years has given thanks to
his Ancestor:
“… [George Washington Petteway] made
education such a vital part of his life, as he was allowed to read and write
when reading was against the law for most Blacks. He shared the word of the
Bible with the community and founded [one of the] first school[s] in the area
for newly freed slaves.” …
…“G.W. Petteway instilled in his children
the importance of education and how education could help change your life and improve
your community and country.” (CT Mirror; February 2012)
The Edney
schoolhouse was designated the 18th trail marker for the Onslow
County African American Heritage Trail system, on October 14, 2016. Many mid-twentieth
century students attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. Each shared their
stories to the next generation of local citizens. Norman E. Brown told a local
reporter, “We had no school buses. No car transportation, so we had to walk five
miles.”
There have been
many stories of attending the Edney school. Hauling firewood and water into the
school before class started are two. A consistent thread—teachers taught more
than education. Each inspired their students the sense of pride in where they
had been and to prepare them for their future as a person and as a race. Contributions
made by teachers of the Edney schoolhouse over the past one hundred and fifty
years have been remembered with fond appreciation.
First
official Edney school committee (ca. 1879):
G.W.
Petteway; Samuel Stephens and John Brooks.
Early
official list of teachers associated with Edney School [partial list]
Name: Grade: Name: Grade:
N. N. Humphrey 1 Ginger
Green 1
H. H. Parker 2 Olive Hicks 1
B. H. White 2 S. J. Henderson 2
N. P. Bell 2 Ella Thompson 2
Belinda Sanders 1 Jennie Whitefield 1
J. J. Robinson 1 Ida Taylor 2
Annie R. Graham ? Phylis J. Parker ?
Please visit
your family oral histories, scrapbooks, and Bibles, as part of the one hundred
and fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Edney schoolhouse. If you find a document, photograph, or other
material in reference to the Edney schoolhouse it is requested that you contact
Shelia Blue and provide a copy of your family heirloom. The Petteway family and
local historians will appreciate your efforts.
To quote
Reverand Doris Petteway as she described the importance of the Edney school and
its founders:
“A
legacy from God that still lives on.”
“We
will never forget the stories of our foreparents and students…today the torch
continues to burn.”
