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Dallas Herring Carolina Heritage Annex of Pender County Library

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Dallas Herring Carolina Heritage Annex of Pender County Library

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Dallas Herring Carolina Heritage Research Center offers genealogy and local history resources concentrated on eastern North Carolina, particularly Duplin, Pender, and Sampson counties.

08/14/2026

Historians and community members that are interested in the history of Pender County owe a great thanks to one Martha Matilda Bloodworth. Known more familiarly as "Miss Mattie," she was a historian, author, and the first president of the Pender County Historical Society.

The collection at the Dallas Herring Library Annex includes, but is not limited to, a copy of her book "History of Pender County North Carolina," several news articles, and a copy of the address given by Clifton Moore at the unveiling of a portrait of "Miss Mattie" for the Grand Jury room of the county courthouse in 1959. Additionally, you'll find book plates in some of the collection noting that the item was purchased with funds from the sale of her book.

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

08/07/2026

Did you know that the Dallas Herring Library Annex accept donations? After sharing on social media about the collection of Burgaw Beacon issues, we received this donation from a community member. It included an early issue of the Beacon, two handmade booklets, and a program for "Third Annual Singfest" held in 1948. Our collection continues to grow with unique items that will help future community members understand what life was like throughout the years in Pender County.

If you have a unique piece of Pender County that you'd like to donate, contact us to discuss if it might fit our collection!

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday. You can contact us over the phone at (910) 259-1906 during open hours.

08/01/2026

Have you ever wondered when some of the first cars began to show up in the town of Burgaw? The answer lies in the collection at the Dallas Herring Library Annex. Our collection houses many newspapers and interesting articles that tell the story of Pender County through the years. Featured in this post is an article from The Pender Chronicle published in 1954 that tells the story of Dr. H. B. Thomas who purchased one of the earliest cars in Burgaw. Dr. Thomas drove to Raleigh and paid $900 cash for a Ford automobile that went about 12 miles an hour. After much debate, Dr. Thomas decided to purchase the car after “realizing that in some cases time was valuable in saving patients lives.”

Visit the Dallas Herring Library Annex to read some of the other articles about early automobiles and other interesting aspects of Pender County history. Located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library), the annex is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

07/24/2026

Pender County is known for many festivals these days, but did you know it once held a Bean Festival? The first (and only) Burgaw Bean Festival was held on June 12, 1940. The festival celebrated the local bean harvest with a parade, a selection of festival queen, an evening ball, and an address by Commissioner of Agriculture W. Kerr Scott. While the festival program billed it as the “First Annual Burgaw Bean Festival,” it was a one-time event – possibly due to the outbreak of World War II. The library collection includes a handful of articles and a copy of the festival program. If you know more about the Burgaw Bean Festival or have any other photographs or documents about it, we’d love to hear from you!

You can stop by the Dallas Herring Library Annex to view these documents and other interesting artifacts from Pender County history. Located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library), the annex is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

07/17/2026

Riverboats are connected to Pender County history in unique ways, such as the Point Caswell connection we shared last week. If you'd like to dive deeper into that history, we've got a few more resources for you at the Dallas Herring Library Annex. In addition to several articles, including the first image shared here, we have shared some images from the books "Riverboating in Lower Carolina" by Roy F. Johnson and "Carolina Riverboats and Rivers: the Old Days" by Earl White.

Stop by to learn more! The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw(across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

07/10/2026

There are many towns in Pender County that exist mainly in memory these days...and in the archives at the Dallas Herring Library Annex. Many of you may remember Point Caswell, well known for it's riverboat trade. You can read a bit more about it's history in some of the articles shared here, and stop by to flip through "Early Recollections of Boyhood: Point Caswell Days" by Daniel Jasper Black.

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

07/03/2026

A significant aspect of Pender County history is the Rosenwald Schools. During and post-Reconstruction, many African American communities throughout Pender County created dozens of schools. Several of these schools were assisted by the Rosenwald Fund that offered matching grants to these communities. This fund was instituted in in the early 1910s by Booker T. Washington and was named after Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, who offered the funds for grants provided to these communities. You can learn more about the history of Rosenwald Schools overall, and more specifically their history in Pender County with some of the materials mentioned in this post – all available in the Dallas Herring Library Annex.

The collection includes, but is not limited to, the following materials: “You need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South” by Stephanie Deutsch, an essay in the North Carolina Historical Review by Thomas W. Hanchett entitled “The Rosenwald Schools and Black Education in North Carolina,” and “Rosenwald School Reflections: Documentation & Preservation” by Claudia Stack.

Additionally, the collection includes several documentaries by Claudia Stack that you can view on site. We've shared a preview of one here: “Irene Documentary, Rosenwald School” which is a documentary and interview of Irene Wallace about her childhood and going to the Pender County Training School, a Rosenwald School produced by Door K**b Films. The collection also includes various documentaries by Claudia Stack such as "Seeing It in Color: Remembering the Cane Tuck Rosenwald School," “Under the Kudzu” and “Carrie Mae: An American Life.”

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

06/27/2026

As Pender County celebrates Juneteenth in downtown Burgaw today, we wanted to take a moment to share resources in the Dallas Herring Library Annex to assist in the search for African American ancestry. We have both general guides to researching ancestry among the African American community as well as specific records for North Carolina and Pender County.

Among the collection, patrons can find more general books such as “Finding Your African American Ancestors: a Beginner’s Guide,” “Black Roots: a Beginner’s Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree,” “A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your African American Ancestors,” “Slave Genealogy: a Research Guide with Case Studies,” and “Black Genealogy.”

Additionally, the Dallas Herring Library Annex has more North Carolina specific items such as “Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia” (Census records of late 1700s and early 1800), “Strength Through Struggle: the Chronological and Historical Record of the African American Community in Wilmington, NC, 1865-1950," “A History of African Americans in North Carolina,” “Recollections of My Slavery Days” by William Henry Singleton, “Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina,” and copies of the Slave Deeds of New Hanover County.

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

06/12/2026

The 23rd Annual Blueberry Festival is coming up soon and the Dallas Herring Library Annex has some great resources on the history of both the festival and how the blueberry came to be such a big deal for Pender County.

If you’re interested in the more detailed history of the blueberry and Pender County, stop by to browse the book Atkinson Blueberry Land by Glendal L. Jenkins – we've shared a few pages from it in this post.

Additionally, we’ve got several articles about both the festival itself and Pender County’s connection to blueberries including a feature article from Our State magazine and a piece on the 2nd Annual Blueberry Festival from the Pender Post.

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

06/05/2026

The Dallas Herring Library Annex has a new collection to share!

William P. Quinn served in the US Army from 1936-1939, and again from 1940-1945. Though Quinn was originally from the Chicago area, he served at Camp Davis in North Carolina during his second stint with the Army. His Daughter recently donated a collection of artifacts, photographs, and news clippings. This collection is now available to be viewed by the public and includes some of the things pictured here: post cards of local places, Army meal tickets and transportation papers, and the Camp Davis Station Compliment Historical and Pictorial Review (1941) which served as something of a yearbook.

The Dallas Herring Library Annex is located at 108 S. Cowan Street in Burgaw (across the street from the Main Library) and is open 10-5 Thursday and Friday and 10-2 on Saturday, and available by appointment 10-5 Monday through Wednesday.

Address

108 S. Cowan Street
Burgaw, NC
28425

Opening Hours

Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+19102591906

Website

https://penderpubliclibrary.org/CarolinaHeritageResearch/

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