N.C. Fraser fir will be 2024 White House Christmas Tree

Once again, the official White House Christmas Tree that will decorate the Blue Room on the first floor of the U.S. president’s home in Washington, D.C., in 2024 is going to be a Fraser fir grown in North Carolina.

The honor has gone to North Carolina 17 times, more than any other state. The tradition began in 1966, during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Former occupants of the White House President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter are shown in the oval Blue Room, the middle of three state parlors

on the first level of the White House.

This year’s 18-foot White House Christmas Tree is coming from Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm near Newland in Avery County, N.C., a family business that was launched in 1959 by Sam and Margaret Cartner (shown below).

Both are now deceased. Their three sons – David, Jim and Sam Jr. – now own and operate the 500-acre tree farm, employing Ronnie Beam as field manager to handle the production aspects of the farm.

This vintage photo shows brothers Sam Jr., Jim and David with their father.

(The selection of Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm gives North Carolina back-to-back White House “winners.” In 2023, the Blue Room featured a Fraser fir from Cline Church Nursery, a 700-acre family farm near Fleetwood in Ashe County, N.C., owned by Cline and Ellen Church.)

Sam Cartner Jr. said that officials from the White House are scheduled to arrive at Cartner’s farm on Oct. 28 and choose a tree that will be harvested on Nov. 20. Festivities will include a send-off event that pays tribute to the Hurricane Helene flood first responders and helps raise funds for families recovering from the massive flooding that occurred in Avery County.

The designated Fraser fir is expected to arrive at the White House about on or about Nov. 25, and Sam Cartner Jr. says the family is looking forward to participating in the ceremonies.

 It is always a news media event when the White House Christmas tree arrives.

A few days ago, Jennifer Greene, executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Trees Association, based in Boone, said: “We do not expect the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to have a significant effect on the supply of real North Carolina Fraser fir Christmas trees this holiday season. Christmas tree farmers are resilient, and they possess the grit and determination to overcome the most challenging circumstances.”

Carrie McClain of Hart-T-Tree Farms near Grassy Creek in Ashe County told news reporters that the Christmas tree growers appear to have suffered minimal damage. The biggest concern for some growers will be road access – “Can I get the trees out of the field.” But I think the majority will be able to get their trees out.”

Larry Smith of Mountain Top Fraser Fir near Newland said the flood washed away a barn that his grandfather built, “but we got most of our equipment moved” – the tractors and trailers that he and his brother, Lynn, use to haul the trees down off the mountain. We did lose a couple vehicles, but they were older.”

 

Here is Larry Smith of Mountain Top Fraser Fir, a former supplier of the official

\White House Christmas tree.

Smith said the power at his farm was out for about two weeks, but fortunately, Christmas trees require no electricity to grow in the field. The Smith brothers raise about 40,000 trees, of which about a tenth are harvested each year.

“We have a long way to go,” Greene said, “but we have every confidence that in November, we will welcome our faithful friends to our local choose and cut farms and our wholesale Christmas trees will be on their way down the mountain, ready to help families celebrate the merriest season of all.”

 This young customer at Cartner’s is in search of the perfect family Chrismtas tree.

“Many have asked how they can support Christmas tree farmers in western North Carolina. Be sure to buy a real Christmas tree, preferably a North Carolina Fraser fir, but any real tree helps support what we dedicate our lives to do.”

North Carolina is No. 2 nationally in Christmas tree production behind Oregon.

Here’s another tale to add to Carteret’s ‘WW II Heritage’ tally

In 2021, another connection surfaced between Carteret County, N,C., and World War II, further strengthening the case to designate Carteret County as a “World War II Heritage Community.”

Whereas No. 17: One of Carteret County’ s World War II heroes was Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer surfman Glen Livingston Harris of Beaufort, who was born in Stacy.

 

A 154-foot Sentinel-class cutter in the Coast Guard fleet was named in his memory during ceremonies at Coast Guard Sector Field Office at Fort Macon in August 2021.

 

Coast Guard Adm. Linda Lee Fagan (shown below) commissioned the Glen Harris, while family members and dignitaries looked on. (Adm. Fagan became Commandant of the Coast Guard on June 1, 2022.)

 

While serving in the Pacific theater in World War II, Glen Harris and three other Coast Guard sailors piloted the first U.S. amphibious landing craft to arrive at Tulagi, one of the Solomon Islands, on Aug. 7-9, 1942.

Additionally, they made several trips while exposed to heavy Japanese fire to deliver ammunition and supplies.

“In September of the same year, Harris landed against forces at Taivu Point, Guadalcanal Island, thereby materially contributing to the enemy’s eventual defeat,” a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

Harris and his three Coast Guard colleagues – Daniel Tarr (shown below), Harold Miller and William Sparling – received Silver Star Medals on Oct. 2, 1942, Today, each has a Sentinel-class named in his honor.

 

This is all part of a plan that was instituted in 2010, credited to Master Chief Petty Officer Charles W. “Skip” Bowen (shown below), the most senior non-commissioned Coast Guard officer. He recommended that all 58 cutters in the Sentinel-class be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who had been recognized for their heroism.

 

For more than a decade, the Coast Guard has been working to replace its aging 110-foot Island-class patrol boat fleet with 154-foot Sentinel-class cutters.

Speaking for the Glen Harris family, Stacey Howley of Atlanta, Ga., said her grandfather, who died in 2005 at age 96, “was so very proud to have had the privilege to serve his country in the Coast Guard – so much so, that when his initial service term was over, he re-enlisted.”

“I believe if he were here with us today, he would most certainly say that his actions…were simply a reflection of the Coast Guard’s long tradition of life-saving missions and of putting others before oneself,” she said.

The Glen Harris, under the command of Lt. Reginald Reynolds, has been assigned to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), with a homeport of Manama, in the Kingdom of Bahrain, located in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Its mission is to “equip, deploy and support mission-ready Coast Guard forces in the conduct of maritime operations across the Middle East for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (CENTCOM).

 

“The PATFORSWA squadron currently consists of six 154-foot Sentinel-class fast response cutters, a cutter relief crew and a 150-member mission support detachment in Bahrain,” the Coast Guard stated.

Also of interest, another of the Sentinel-class cutters (shown below) is named for Maurice Jester of Chincoteague, Va., who was the commanding officer of the Coast Guard cutter Icarus, which sank Germany’s U-352 on May 9, 1942.

 

Jester, who enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1917, advanced to the rank of Commander. He was awarded the Navy Cross during World War II.

 An official resolution proclaiming Carteret County to be worthy of designation as a “World War II Heritage Community” can never have too many “Whereas” statements. Send yours to swindsguy@gmail.com.

Remembering British sailors: Part of Carteret’s WW II ‘DNA’

Perhaps the compassion shown for those who served in World War II is what sets Carteret County, N.C., apart in its quest to earn recognition as a “World War II Heritage Community.” Our formal resolution in support of such designation is nearing completion.

 

Whereas No. 15: Morehead City took great pride in welcoming survivors of the battles at sea during World War II who were brought here for care and treatment.

As one example, the community embraced the 22 crew members rescued off the San Delfino, a British tanker that was destroyed when it was torpedoed by U-203 on April 9, 1942.

Shortly thereafter, two bodies from the San Delfino washed ashore on Core Banks and were delivered to the Morehead City morgue. They were identified as Sailor John Latto Fisher of Scotland and Artillery Gunner Maldwyn Jones of Wales.

Locals rallied to ensure these war heroes received a proper burial. A graveside service was held in Bayview Cemetery on April 30, 1942.

Military historian Paul Branch (shown below) said: “About a week after the bodies of Fisher and Jones were laid to rest, a third body from the San Delfino washed up.”

 

Branch said that county coroner Alphonso Hamilton James of Bell and James Funeral Home in Morehead City performed “a common technique at the time – removing the skin from the fingertips and then rehydrating it.”

James scoured through British fingerprint records to positively identify the body of Able Seaman James Robinson Watt of Scotland.

The paperwork that identified Watt was lost, however, when the funeral home was destroyed by fire, Branch said.

“With no concrete proof of identification, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is reluctant to confirm the identity,” Branch said.

Therefore, the third gravestone in the small British section at Bayview Cemetery continues to contain the words “A Sailor of the 1939-1945 War. Known Unto God.”

Herb Stanford, author of two books about Carteret County history (shown below), reviewed Branch’s research and stated that the “unknown San Delfino seaman is almost absolutely certain” to be James Robinson Watt.

 

Whereas No. 16: For the aforementioned “proper burial” of the British seamen from the San Delfino, Morehead City community leaders set out to find British Royal Navy Flags to display.

The task fell to Aycock Brown, a former newspaper editor in Beaufort (shown below), who spent the war years working as a special civilian agent for the Naval Intelligence Office.

 

Brown marched down to the Morehead City waterfront in April 1942 and struck up a conversation with Lt. Thomas Cunningham. He was the commanding officer of the Bedfordshire, an armed British trawler, which had been sent over to assist in the war against the German U-boats and was docked in Morehead City.

Lt. Cunningham and Aycock Brown mulled over the situation, while sharing a tumbler or two of British rum. Lt. Cunningham, who had become a popular figure about town, gladly gave Brown the flags he needed as well as several spares.

Just a few days after the graveside service, the Bedfordshire, while on patrol off Cape Lookout on May 11, 1942, was torpedoed by Germany’s U-558. All 37 hands aboard died.

 

Carteret County people were both stunned and greatly saddened about the sinking of the Bedfordshire.

Carteret County historian Rodney Kemp (shown below) noted that one of the ironies of war is…“one of those extra Royal Navy Flags that had been donated by Lt. Cunningham would be used to commemorate his own gravesite in Ocracoke.”

 

Lt. Cunningham’s body was one of four from the Bedfordshire that washed ashore on Ocracoke and were buried in a small British Cemetery there.

Sumner Kimball developed U.S. Life-Saving Service

Prior to the formation of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, rescues at sea were the responsibility of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, which was officially formed in 1878.

Curiously, during the 37-year history of the Life-Saving Service, this federal agency within the U.S. Treasury Department had but one superintendent in charge.

He was Sumner Increase Kimball of Lebanon, Maine. Born in 1834, Kimball was educated at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and then became a lawyer.

 

Kimball was given his first government job in 1861, an appointment made by President Abraham Lincoln. Kimball was assigned as a clerk on the Washington, D.C., staff of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, a former U.S. senator from Ohio. Kimball was an impressive and talented performer who gained respect within the halls of government.

The strongest congressional advocate for the creation of a national Life-Saving Service was U.S. Rep. William A. Newell of New Jersey (shown below), who started speaking out in 1847. He argued that well-intentioned volunteer lifesavers were no match for the cruel side of Mother Nature.

 

According to an essay posted online by curators at the Ocean City (Md.) Life-Saving Station Museum, two weather-related shipwrecks in 1854 off the coast of New Jersey elevated the issue in the arena of public opinion.

First, the Powhatan was grounded near Beach Haven, N.J. Its crew and passengers (primarily German immigrants) all perished (at least 250 people). A few months later, the New Era wrecked off the coast of present-day Asbury Park, N.J., killing as many as 230.

Pressed to “do something,” Congress agreed that “the concept of a government-sponsored service to aid mariners in distress was a valid one,” the museum reported. “The first funds authorized were primarily for the provision of boats and crude stations at a few critical areas along the coast. No provision was made to fund employment of manpower.”

“There was still considerable trepidation at the federal level as to just how much involvement was appropriate. The times prior to the Civil War were filled with issues involving states’ rights, and Congress was very cautious not to infringe upon those rights.”

“Unfortunately, the Civil War intervened in the further development of any competent Life-Saving Service, and no advancement of importance was attempted between 1861-65,” the museum curators said.

“Once reconstruction of the South began, it was more obvious than ever that coastal shipping needed assistance,” the essay stated.

During the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, beginning in 1869, the wheels began to turn.

By 1870, George Sewall Boutwell of Massachusetts, as President Grant’s Secretary of the Treasury (shown below), was tasked with finding a “reform-minded person to head the Revenue Marine Bureau to commence the process to bring about changes that would better serve the interests of the maritime industry.” (Ultimately, this would result in the formation of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1878.)

 

When approached about the job in 1871, Kimball agreed to head the Revenue Marine Bureau…if, and only if…Sec. Boutwell would give his personal assurance that he would deflect politicians who sought to interfere with Kimball’s operation of the bureau.

“Fortunately, Sec. Boutwell agreed to Kimball’s terms for acceptance of the job,” the museum essayists wrote.

Kimball rolled up his sleeves and went to work, “completely overhauling the Revenue Marine Bureau and its hodge-podge system of lifesaving stations,” wrote Dr. Dennis L. Noble, a noted U.S. Coast Guard historian.

In doing so, Kimball proved to be “one of America’s greatest, prolific and accomplished federal government administrators,” Dr. Noble commented. 

Life-Saving Service ‘comes to the rescue’ beginning in 1878

Sumner Increase Kimball labored for seven years – from 1871-78 – to put together the proper framework within the Revenue Marine Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that would enable the nation to have a “first-class lifesaving organization” to patrol the national coastline and interior waterways.

Two shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina in the late 1870s helped ramp up public awareness in support of Kimball’s mission.

First, on Nov. 24, 1877, the U.S. Army steamer Huron (shown below) wrecked off Nags Head in a violent storm, and 103 persons drowned. (Sources reported that a makeshift lifesaving station two miles away at Nags Head was “closed for the season.”)

 

Then, only 20 miles farther north, on Jan. 31, 1878, the steamer Metropolis wrecked near shore at Currituck Beach during another tempest. (Sources said that a rescue attempt “was bungled by a lifesaving team that was inexperienced and ill-prepared.”) Most of the 245 Metropolis passengers managed to swim about 100 yards to shore, but 85 others drowned.

Early on, Kimball employed two strategies that “helped the planets align.” First, he dispatched Capt. John Faunce of the Revenue Marine Bureau (shown below) to travel the nation’s coastlines and file an inspection report with recommendations for lifesaving improvements.

 

Using Capt. Faunce’s findings, Kimball published a 45-page manual on regulations and operational procedures to guide a Life-Saving Service agency.

Kimball hoped to construct Life-Saving Stations at seven-mile intervals along the east coast, to form an interlocking system of lifesaving that would stretch from Maine to Florida to Mexico.

Second, Kimball employed William Douglas O’Connor (shown below) , a professional journalist, whose skills were used to convince Congress and the public that Kimball’s “cause was a worthy one,” wrote the curators at the Ocean City (Md.) Life-Saving Station Museum.

 

“Kimball shrewdly used O’Connor’s writing ability to attract public interest in the heroic services provided by the lifesavers and…to persuade legislators to provide funding,” the museum curators wrote.

“On June 18, 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes (shown below) signed a bill creating the U.S. Life-Saving Service as a separate agency within the Treasury Department. Soon thereafter, Kimball was nominated to be the General Superintendent of the service and rapidly confirmed by the Senate.”

 

Kimball continued to head the Life-Saving Service for 37 years during its entire existence (1878-1915)

“Much of the present-day Coast Guard’s highly regarded reputation as a humanitarian organization is the result of Kimball’s organizational skills and management abilities,” the museum curators commented. “Many of the routines that he established, such as constant drills with rescue equipment, are just as important today as they were more than a century ago.”

Kimball in his later years.

 

Writing for the Island Free Press of Hatteras, N.C., in 2022, James D. Charlet dubbed Kimball a “wizard,” suggesting Kimball’s birthday of Sept. 2 be observed as a national holiday.

Charlet is a well-known storyteller throughout the Northern Outer Banks. He was associated for many years with the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site and Museum at Rodanthe in Dare County. He dressed and acted the part of “Keeper James,” and has developed a vast knowledge base about the history of the Life-Saving Service.

 

James Charlet frquently appears with his wife Linda Molloy, 

who portrays the character of Miz Linda.

“Today’s U.S. Coast Guard is revered for its consistency, uniformity and teamwork, but perhaps most of all, for its excellence and rapidity of response,” Charlet said. “The origin of all that goes back to one man and one time – the former General Superintendent Sumner Kimball.

“His impact on both organizations – the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard – would prove to be immeasurable. He made America vastly safer for maritime travel and…more secure.”

“Thank you, sir.” 

Grayden Paul’s ‘Museum’ once was a Beaufort, N.C., landmark

In the 1940s, Grayden Paul of Beaufort, N.C., began earning the reputation as the town’s “highly visible, all-around ambassador and ‘raconteur,’” wrote Ruth Barbour, editor of the Carteret County News-Times.

A raconteur is “a person who is skilled in relating stories and anecdotes interestingly.”

Ruth Barbour was one smart lady, asserted historian Rodney Kemp of Morehead City (shown below). “But both the word and the definition are ‘too hard’ for regular people in Carteret County to say and remember.”

 

“Grayden Paul was a heck of a storyteller; the best I ever heard,” Kemp said. “Grayden had amazing stories as well as a regular routine that he would perform with his wife, Mary Clark, who went by ‘M.C.’ He would tell tall tales and sing his songs while she accompanied him on the piano.”

Grayden Paul’s “official occupation,” as listed on the 1940 census document, was “marine mechanic.” He operated a “marine shop” in Beaufort, providing “repairs and sales.”

Beginning in 1952, Grayden Paul began dressing in outlandish costumes to conduct guided tours around town. The tourists lapped it up.

 

He was a natural showman and promoter. One of the “attractions” was Grayden Paul’s own “Museum of the Sea.” He had salvaged the Alphonso, a 55-foot schooner-rigged sharpie and beached it along the Taylors Creek waterfront at the end of Pollock Street in Beaufort.

 

The vessel was built in 1911 in the Down East Carteret County community of Williston by Zephaniah “Zeff” Willis for Capt. Theodoshia “Dosh” Davis of Davis.

Grayden Paul filled it with a bunch of marine artifacts, seashells, whale bones and other specimens that people could walk around and view, while being entertained by a bird-like mascot named “Grayden Gull.”

The Alphonso continued as a waterfront attraction until 1978 when it “was considered unsafe for public use.”

At that time, the artifacts were removed and preserved for the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. What remained of the Alphonso was torched by Beaufort firemen during a training exercise. The spot was later named “Grayden Paul Park.”

 

Grayden and M.C. wrote a book in 1975 about their memories of Beaufort and Down East. Growing up in the Davis Shore community, Grayden Paul recalled the arrival of Capt. Frisby, “a seafaring man who plied the coast from Boston to Charleston, S.C.

Occasionally, Capt. Frisby stopped at Davis Shore to pick up cargo. One day he met a local woman “and they fell in love at first sight.” He proposed. She said she had lost her father and two brothers at sea. Only if he gave up the captain’s life would she marry him.

The woman told him to “get a breeding sow, some chickens and a milk cow.” They would settle in her old homeplace and raise their own food. He was in love. He sold his boat, and they were married.

The woman showed Mr. Frisby (as she called him now) how to milk the cow, which had a calf and was producing plenty of milk. Until the calf had weaned and the milk began to dry up.

Perplexed, Mr. Frisby tied a rope around the cow behind its forelegs and threw the other end of the rope over a rafter in the barn. He tugged and soon had the cow “standing on her hind feet, with her front feet dangling in the air.”

Some neighbors saw what was going on, blurting out: “Are you trying to hang the cow?”

“Why no,” Mr. Frisby said, “I am just trying to make the milk run aft.”

Storyteller Grayden Paul teetered from fact to fiction

Beaufort’s legendary storyteller Grayden Paul, who lived from 1899 to 1994, enjoyed telling tales of romance, and one of his favorites was about identical twins Faith and Charity Langdon, who he placed as living in Beaufort in 1823.

One never knew for sure just where Grayden Paul’s tales veered from fact to fiction. Certainly, Langdon is a surname that goes deep into Beaufort history.  

The father of Faith and Charity was a wealthy merchant who frequently entertained sea captains from whom he bought various goods. One day, while hosting a handsome young captain, he introduced his daughters, the extroverted Faith and the shy Charity.

The captain was attracted to Charity and declared his love for her. But it came time for him to leave. In his letters, he expressed his adoration and proposed marriage. But lo, he confused their names, addressing his love letters to Faith.

Faith accepted his proposal of marriage, and the whole town was giddy, anticipating a grand wedding – except for Charity, whose heart ached.

Upon arrival for the nuptials in Beaufort, the captain realized that “something has gone wrong.” Mr. Langdon dismissed the captain’s concerns, stating: “My son, just have Faith.” He replied: “I don’t want Faith – I want Charity.”

Grayden Paul said: “Since Charity had never revealed her secret love for the captain, the father insisted the captain marry Faith”…to save face.

“But poor Charity. She retired into seclusion, never again leaving her home. Beaufort people said they never saw her on the streets again.”

“It was also said that she died about a year later of a broken heart, but actually it was tuberculosis that took her life,” Grayden Paul said.

 

Located nearby in Beaufort was the house of Dr. James Manney, a local physician. In the mid-1830s, his daughter Nancy Manney fell in love with her young schoolteacher, Charles French, a native New Englander.

He, too, would leave Beaufort – but to complete law studies. But he vowed to return and make Nancy his wife. Meanwhile, Dr. Manney’s wife had died. He relied on Nancy to help raise her seven younger siblings. Having a newly minted husband around would only complicate matters, so Dr. Manney devised a plan to thwart development of a relationship.

Grayden Paul wrote: “Dr. Manney, in his anger…and frustration, contacted the postmaster (William Coale Bell) and bargained with him that the letters written by Charles French and Nancy should not reach their destinations.”

All the love letters were intercepted and collected in a sealed bin at the Beaufort post office. Nancy held out hope that one day her beloved Charles French would come for her. “She would marry no one else,” Grayden Paul wrote.

Charles, on the other hand, believed the lovely Nancy had lost interest in him and had moved on to someone else.

The undelivered letters were eventually revealed to Nancy upon Bell’s death in 1850, but French had moved to California and parts unknown. What caused him to seek to reestablish contact with Nancy Manney in 1885 was a love that hadn’t died. They were reunited.

The wedding parlor in Beaufort was filled with red roses. Nancy (now about age 65) was weak and frail, overcome by tuberculosis. “Her tiny frail body was wracked with coughing,” Grayden Paul said. “Charles knelt by Nancy’s couch, took her in his arms and they were married” on April 29, 1886.

“Nancy died a few days after this, declaring her love for Charles and asking that no bitterness remain. These two had passed through those ‘unknown seas’ as last – to reach harbor together.”