Central North Carolina is a wonderful place to live. So wonderful, in fact, that our area draws people from all over the U.S. and it’s getting harder and harder to find folks who were born and raised in our little towns.
Thomas Ragland is a Holly Springs native who has seen a lot of changes over the years. He shared with us some of his memories and we have condensed them here, in his words, for our readers.
SL: When did your family first come to this area?
My mother’s people, [the Barkers], came around 1782 to Holleman’s Crossroads. They owned 1,500 to 2,000 acres. The house was just across the bridge over the creek that was dammed for Harris Lake at the Shearon Harris park. The home place was on one side of the river and the family cemetery was on the other. Back then, my grandma on Mother’s side used to wash clothes in the creek. My grandfather was a farmer. Tobacco and cotton.
When my mom’s dad took sick in 1920, they sold off all the land and moved to Holly Springs. My mom was two years old. My granddaddy died in 1925 and was buried in the town cemetery. My mom told me she was about eight when they moved to the house on Raleigh Street with the big wraparound porch.
My dad’s people located here about 20 years earlier, down about four or five miles, where White Oak Creek meets Buckhorn Creek at the confluence of the Cape Fear. They settled where Chatham, Harnett, Wake, and Lee [Counties] all meet within a couple of miles of each other. Where they settled on the river, one side is Wake County and the other side is Chatham County. The property was on both sides of 42 Highway.
My mother’s sister once told me that her daddy would have to go to Raleigh several times a year on business. It was 20 to 24 miles and it would take a day to go and he would spend the night and come back the next day. [The kids] weren’t allowed in one room in the front of the house, but when he went to Raleigh they’d slip in that room. It was full of cotton to the ceiling. They wanted to keep it white and clean so it would bring a better price, but the kids would get on it and play.
SL: What was Holly Springs like when you were growing up?
I was born in 1942 and lived in a brick house on the corner of Raleigh Street and Holly Springs Road. Now, I’m down one block in a two-story house my grandmother’s uncle built in 1910. I have three brothers and two sisters. I was the next oldest.
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Holly Springs was bigger than it was in the 1940s and 1950s. From what I gather, Holly Springs lost population during World War II. There was a textile plant and a bank and the railroad was coming through. It was a growing, prosperous community. After the Depression and World War II, Holly Springs lost the textile plant and bank and things went down. There weren’t enough students for the high school and I think kids were going to Garner, Cary, Apex, and Fuquay. I went to Apex High.
I worked in tobacco with all my brothers and sisters when I was eight or nine years old, but I was allergic to the chemicals. I told my dad I’d rather go to the sawmill. Sawmills were everywhere and my dad owned two sawmills. He cut timber near the Raleigh-Durham airport for years, and in Johnston County which was backwoods back then—all dirt roads and woods. I worked in the sawmills when I was 12 to 14 years old.
I attended junior college in the mountains, at Gardner Webb, for two years and then transferred to the University of South Carolina to study business. I borrowed money to go to school and went to work for a while to catch up.
SL: What kept you from completing your degree?
I was 24 in 1966 and getting ready to be drafted. I heard you got six weeks training and then were sent to Vietnam. I didn’t want that. My friends joined the Navy Reserve and some had traveled the world. They did two years active duty rather than three or four years. If I was drafted, I wouldn’t have a choice. I called the Reserves and they said they weren’t taking anyone but they might open up at any time. They knew I was going to be drafted sometime in the next two weeks so they said I should call every day.
One day when I called, they said, “You need to get over here.” I signed up and I was supposed to do two years active duty but ended up doing a little over a year. It was a time when there were many protests and people were evading the draft. President Johnson cut the Reserves back and they gave me an early out.
In January 1967, when I took my basic training, two weeks at Great Lakes, Illinois, it was 29º below zero and the wind was blowing 20 to 30mph. The snow was waist deep. We didn’t go to the rifle range or do any drilling because of the weather. We went from building to building and watched television.
I was sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. I worked with the postal service. Mail was a big treat because it was the only way we could communicate, so we were real popular with the people on base. It would take about a week to get a letter home and a week to get a letter back. They had a place there for parties and when each command wanted to get the men together, they had kegs of beer and a good cook making hot dogs and hamburgers outside on the beach, in the sand by the ocean. It was like a year’s vacation. It was in the high 80ºs to 100º every day, year-round. On January 1, everything was in full bloom the same as it was on the 4th of July. The uniform of the day was Bermuda shorts, a white t-shirt and a white hat, tennis shoes and white socks. I only wore a dress uniform on base maybe once or twice when there was a change of command.
SL: What did you do after your military service?
I worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 43½ years. I worked in the Raleigh section where they prepared mail for six to eight individual towns, from Greensboro to the coast. We prepared mail for the trucks that took the mail to each town.
SL: What has changed most about Holly Springs?
Restaurants and businesses, and the availability of good medical facilities. You used to have to go to Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Cary, Raleigh. Now, those necessities you can get here in Holly Springs. I enjoy the library and the cultural center.
SL: What do you miss about the Holly Springs of your youth?
Everyone knew everyone and if you needed anything, people helped each other. It was quiet. There was always something to do. We’d play sports on weekends in the afternoons. There were ponds for fishing and it was a good hunting area. Tobacco was everywhere. Now, it’s rooftops everywhere. You don’t see three of four miles of solid woods on both sides of the road. Now, there’s always a rooftop in sight, just about continuously.
SL: If you met someone looking to move to the Triangle, what would tell them are the best reasons to move to Holly Springs?
Holly Springs has high ratings! Safest place in North Carolina for its size. Its affordable cost of land and utilities. Access to the Triangle. Holly Springs is a place I’d recommend to anyone.
