Tracking down origin of ‘Piggly Wiggly’ is an adventure

How did Piggly Wiggly get its name? Nobody ever got a straight answer from the company founder Clarence Saunders, but he sure had fun with it. 

According to journalist Ralph Schwartz, Saunders prepared a newspaper advertisement to run a few days before the grand opening of the first Piggly Wiggly store in 1916 in Memphis, Tenn. 

The ad copy read: “Piggly Wiggly... ain’t that a funny name? The fellow that got up that name must have a screw loose somewheres.”

Saunders would later comment: “It took me two hours to find a name that was ridiculous enough” to be talked about, laughed at, remembered…and loved. 

Memphis historian Mike Freeman offered clues in other conversations involving Saunders that the name came “from out of chaos” and was “plucked from originality.” 

Freeman, in his book “Clarence Saunders and the Founding of Piggly Wiggly,” published in 2011, speculated that Saunders may have been inspired by the old nursery rhyme “Higgledy Piggledy, my fat hen; she lays eggs for gentlemen.”

 

Or perhaps the name was related to “Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures,” a series of children’s stories by Howard R. Garis that premiered in 1910. Saunders may have read these books with his three children (born between 1903 and 1912). 

Uncle Wiggily Longears is the main character, an engaging elderly rabbit, who is lame from rheumatism. Wherever he goes, he always relies on “his candy-striped walking cane.”

 

There’s no question, Clarence Saunders found a name so unique it would stick in your head, Freeman wrote. 

And “Mr. Pig,” Piggly Wiggly’s mascot – a faithful, ever-smiling anthropomorphic pig with the small butcher’s hat – has been there right along since the very beginning, said Al Hunter, a freelance writer.

 

“Porky Pig,” the famous animated character in the Warner Bros. “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” series of cartoons, was the first character created by the studio in 1935. “Hence, Mr. Pig came first,” Hunter asserted. “Mr. Pig is the original.” 

(For a few years, Porky was romantically inclined toward “Petunia Pig,” who came along in 1937, but their relationship faded away.)

 

Another famous animated member of the swine family, of course, is “Miss Piggy,” the Muppet character with the big hair. She debuted for Jim Henson in 1976 and “has been notable for her temperamental diva superstar personality.”

 

Mr. Pig made his first appearance in a television advertising campaign for Piggly Wiggly in 1998, and he was noticeably thinner, promoting a healthy lifestyle. 

Now in 2022, Piggly Wiggly LLC exists as an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., headquartered in Keene, N.H. 

Today, there are more than 530 Piggly Wiggly independently owned and operated stores serving communities in 17 states, including the entire Southeast. Alabama has the most stores – 103. 

Piggly Wiggly also has a strong presence in eastern North Carolina with 34 stores in these locations: Ahoskie, Ayden, Beaufort, Broadway, Burgaw, Farmville, Goldsboro, Greenville, Jacksonville, Kinston (5), Leland, Manteo, Maysville, Mount Olive, Nashville, New Bern (2), Oriental, Pinetops, Plymouth, Richlands, Riegelwood, Rocky Mount (2), Sanford, Swansboro, Wallace, Warsaw, Washington, and Wilson. 

Piggly Wiggly North Carolina LLC, which owns and operates many of stores in the state, was selected as the “Retailer of the Year” in 2019 by the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association (NCRMA). 

“In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, Piggly Wiggly owners delivered medicine by helicopter to Burgaw (in Pender County), which had become an island, and there was no way in or out,” said NCRMA President Andy Ellen.

Piggly Wiggly food stores began as a ‘Southern thing’

Piggly Wiggly was born in the South and pioneered “self-serve supermarket shopping” in America. 

Clarence Saunders was 35 when he launched Piggly Wiggly in 1916 in Memphis, Tenn., to “revolutionize” the grocery buying process.

 

Here’s how grocery shopping used to work: A customer would enter a market and present a shopping list to a clerk stationed behind a counter. The clerk would skitter about the inventory of foods, gather the requested items and then determine the sum of the order. Prices often “varied,” causing the customer to suffer great angst. 

If the number of customers exceeded the number of clerks, the scene could get quite hectic. One journalist described the action of customers trying to get a clerk’s attention a lot like watching wiggly piglets trying to grab a meal. 

In Saunders’ mind, there had to be a better system.

 

Food writer Donna Boss said Saunders believed he could increase efficiency, reduce costs and attract customers. After passing through a turnstile, each customer was handed a store basket by a Piggly Wiggly greeter. 

The store featured a one-way “continuous aisle” layout that snaked back and forth throughout the store, requiring all shoppers to walk in an orderly fashion past every “priced-stamped item” in the store – and serve themselves.

 

Customers selected their items off the shelves, placing them into their basket. Shoppers were amazed at the variety – a cafeteria of choices. Someone coined the term “groceteria.”

Louella Weaver, a Memphis museum curator, joked that “impulse buying was born in 1916 at Piggly Wiggly.” 

Also, customers were required to pay “cash money” for their items, rather than running a line of credit. By eliminating the problem of collecting past-due accounts, Saunders became the “king of cash-and-carry.” 

Piggly Wiggly advertisements boasted: “Your dollar at Piggly Wiggly will not help pay the BAD DEBTS of others.” 

Freelance writer Andrew Lisa said: “Saunders set his prices with a margin just 14% above cost. That, coupled with buying in bulk, allowed him to keep prices low.” 

“All of this innovation quickly made the shops of old feel like relics. By the end of that first year, the city was bursting with no fewer than nine Piggly Wigglys,” Lisa wrote.

 

Clarence Saunders’ star continued to rise through 1922, but he lost control over Piggly Wiggly in 1923 after a complicated series of events involving ownership of the company’s stock, reported Memphis historian Bill Carey. 

“Saunders borrowed millions of dollars in an attempt to buy control of his own stock. But on Wall Street, his plot backfired, and Saunders went from filthy rich to destitute overnight,” Carey said. 

Piggly Wiggly stores remained open, and Memphis businessman James Cowden Bradford Sr. was brought in to right the ship in 1924. (He was the founder in 1927 of the brokerage firm named J.C. Bradford & Co.) 

The value of Piggly Wiggly franchises continued to grow over time, as the company locked in on a clever marketing plan in 1997 to leverage the chain’s rural, small-town identity. Slogans included “down home, down the street” and “local since forever.”

 

“There is a place in people’s lives for a traditional supermarket, one that is friendly and convenient like Piggly Wiggly,” company president Larry Wright said at the time. 

“Politeness and courtesy continue to define the Piggly Wiggly way of doing business,” commented Ralph Schwartz of mashed.com, a social media site focused on foods. 

Today, a smiling young female shopper featured on the company’s website says: “I dig Mr. Pig.”

John White steps up to assume colonial governorship

Sir Walter Raleigh’s selection in 1587 of John White as his new colonial governor to build a permanent settlement in the New World was an intriguing choice. White was an artist, not a warrior. 

Perhaps having a “nonconfrontational and nonmilitary” leader would lead to better relations with the brown-and-red-skinned natives who the English colonists were sure to encounter in the Chesapeake Bay area.

 

John White

This was the region targeted by Raleigh and White as the place that offered “the best opportunity” to build a successful and sustainable settlement in North America. 

The pilot for the 1587 transatlantic journey was Raleigh’s favorite navigator, Simon Fernandes. The Portuguese ship captain had been hired twice before by Raleigh, leading expeditions in 1584 and 1586 to Roanoke Island. 

White’s first order of business was for Fernandes to carry the sailing party back to Roanoke Island, so the Englishmen could gather up the 15 colonists who were assigned by Sir Richard Grenville to stay behind on the island and hold down the fort in 1856.

 

Simon Fernandes

Upon arriving at Roanoke Island in late July, Fernandes flipped the script and announced his refusal to take White’s party to Chesapeake Bay. 

John D. Neville, a retired history professor from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., said: “White and his men found the fort razed and the houses abandoned. Of the 15 men left by Grenville, the only trace was the skeleton of one man.” 

Within the colony, there was a great celebration on Aug. 18, 1587, when Ananias Dare and Elinor White Dare became the proud parents of Virginia Dare. She was the first child born to English parents in the New World. (Elinor was the daughter of governor John White and Thomasine Cooper White.)

 

Yet once again, supplies were running low, so it became obvious that a leader of the colony must return to England in order to obtain badly needed supplies and inform the English authorities that the colonists were back on Roanoke Island, not in the Chesapeake Bay, Neville said. 

Curiously, Fernandes was still anchored offshore. None of the seven assistant governors wanted to go, so “with great reluctance and hesitation,” White agreed to sail with Fernandes, according to Neville. 

Once back in England, White arranged to meet with Raleigh in early November 1587. He learned that two weeks prior, Queen Elizabeth had issued a general “stay of shipping,” preventing any ships from leaving English shores, because of the looming threat of war with Spain. 

White found himself in a scrape, unable to grab supplies and catch a ride back to Roanoke Island.

 

John White’s return to Roanoke Island delayed until 1590

 Sir Walter Raleigh tried his best in 1587 to find some English ships to carry governor John White back to Roanoke Island with supplies for his fellow colonists who were struggling to make a go of it in the New World. 

Queen Elizabeth vetoed the plan, however, because she wanted all British vessels available for combat duty in the looming war with Spain.

 

England would go on to crush the Spanish Armada in 1588, but it was not until 1590 that passage could be arranged by Raleigh for White to travel with privateers. 

An essay published in 1972 by the National Park Service, written by Charles W. Porter III, explained: “Privateering was such a profitable venture at that time that a voyage solely for the relief of a half-forgotten outpost was almost unthinkable.” 

Thus, John White was basically the only passenger on a voyage to “pillage, plunder and profit.” 

Eventually, Capt. Abraham Cocke carried White to Roanoke Island, as promised, but in trying to access the port, a small vessel captained by Edward Spicer crashed in the waves on Aug. 17, 1590. Spicer and six crewmen drowned. 

White was determined to press on. He found the remnants of the colony on Aug. 18; the site was long deserted. The few clues about the colonists’ whereabouts included the letters “CRO” carved into a tree and the word “CROATOAN” carved on a post of the fort.

 

Croatoan was the name of a nearby island (Hatteras), less than 50 miles south of Roanoke Island. The Croatoans who lived there had been friendly toward the settlers, so it was logical that the tribe’s leader, Manteo, would welcome and absorb the English people into his native village. 

White was eager to find them, and the plan was to travel to Croatoan on Aug. 19. 

Historian Dr. James Horn said: “Overnight, a great storm blew up and snapped their anchor cables, nearly driving the (main ship) onto the reefs lining the Outer Banks. With his anchors gone, provisions dwindling and a tempest that showed no signs of abating, Cocke decided to head out to winter in the West Indies, then return in the spring.”

 

“But continuing gales forced the ship far into the ocean, persuading Cocke to set a course for the Azores and then back to England,” Dr. Horn wrote. “The bitterly disappointed White knew that it was highly probable that he would never see his family, friends and fellow venturers again.” 

Scientific evidence shows that severe droughts occurred on Roanoke Island between 1587-90. The weather may have caused any surviving colonists to pack up and leave. 

Some archaeologists digging around the Buxton community on Hatteras Island indicate that their findings support the theory that the people from the “Lost Colony” were “assimilated into the Croatoan people on Hatteras Island” – end of story. 

Other researchers believe that “there was not a likely single large relocation site,” and it is probable that the Roanoke Island colonists “dispersed into numerous small settlement groups.” 

This opens the door to the possibility that some “lost colonists” found their way down to Cedar Island in Carteret County. 

Or an even wilder suggestion is: The entire “Lost Colony” was at Cedar Island.

Ralph Lane had profound impact on colonization of N.C.

Ralph Lane occupies a curious…and precarious…place in North Carolina history.

His “plain-jane” name may not ring a bell, but he was among the first Englishmen to set foot on the shore near Cape Lookout in 1585.

 

Ralph Lane

Lane communicated to his boss in England – Sir Walter Raleigh – that he had found the “Goodliest Soile under the Cope of Heaven.” 

North Carolina’s Charles Kuralt, an iconic television newscaster, borrowed Lane’s positive phrase repeatedly to promote pride in the “Old North State.” 

In the negative column, however, Ralph Lane may have been largely responsible for “losing North Carolina’s Roanoke Island colony,” evoking the wrath of Raleigh. 

Sir Walter Raleigh

As background, Ralph Lane was a military hero in service to Queen Elizabeth. Lane was 57 years old when he was hand-picked by Raleigh to serve as governor of a military colony in the New World. 

To accomplish the mission, an expedition (with seven vessels) led by Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh, sailed from Plymouth, England, in April 1585.

 

 Sir Richard Grenville

On June 24, 1585, Grenville’s fleet anchored near Cape Lookout. Lane and the rest of the crew enjoyed a good day of fishing before continuing north along Core Banks. Near Portsmouth Island, they found “an opening,” according to Carolyn Mason, the historian at the Foundation for Shackleford Horses.

 

“When the pilot attempted to enter the sound with the flagship Tyger, she grounded and lay in the surf for two hours,” Mason said. “The crew feared that her back would be broken, because she received some 89 buffets.” 

“This was a devastating loss, however, since her load of supplies was soaked in salt water,” she said. 

Many historians believe that the animals on deck – hogs, cattle and horses – washed overboard or were put off the vessel to lighten the vessel’s load so she could be floated onto the beach for repairs to be made. 

Philip Howard, an Ocracoke historian, said that Grenville’s men anchored at Wocokon Island (Ocracoke) for about a month. 

The Englishmen arrived at Roanoke Island on Aug. 17, 1585. Lane and 107 soldiers went on shore to build their colony. Autumn was approaching, so the growing season was winding down. 

The fleet with the remaining sailors, under command of Grenville, returned to England. 

Historian F. Roy Johnson of Murfreesboro, N.C., wrote that Lane’s initial encounters with Pemisapan (Wingina), who was king of the Algonquian-speaking natives on Roanoke Island and vicinity, were cordial. 

Relations, however, deteriorated because of “Lane’s arrogance.” 

The French historian Gerard E.T. Tondu agreed with Johnson’s assessment, stating: “As governor, Ralph Lane did not certainly have enough diplomacy to get along with his neighbors, preferring threat and confrontation.”

 Pemisapan decided to withdraw his people from Roanoke Island and leave the colonists to fish and farm on their own. Lane gave orders on June 1, 1586, to have Pemisapan executed. 

“The killing of Pemisapan brought in a definitive way an end to the attempt of living peacefully with the natives,” Tondu said. “The survival of the colony seemed at the moment compromised,” and destined to fail.

 

Sir Francis Drake arrives to ‘rescue’ Lane’s Colonists

Sir Francis Drake arrived unexpectedly at Roanoke Island in early June 1586, about a week after the English colonists murdered Pemisapan

 

The was a fortuitous turn of events for governor Ralph Lane. Drake’s fleet of 23 ships represented an impressive show of force to avert retaliation from native tribesmen. 

Additionally, the sailing vessels were loaded with “a tremendous booty freshly seized from the Spaniards” in the West Indies, wrote Gerard E.T. Tondu. 

Drake generously offered Lane ample ammunitions, clothes, food and other supplies to keep the colony afloat, without having to rely on the natives for assistance and handouts. 

Plans changed, however, when a major, three-day hurricane swept across Roanoke Island in mid-June 1586, leaving Drake’s fleet severely battered and bruised. The crew salvaged what it could and set sail for England after the seas had calmed. 

Lane had determined to throw in the towel and abandon the colony, so his soldiers climbed aboard Drake’s ships. Manteo, also left the island with the Englishmen. 

Three of the English colonists were away from Fort Raleigh, off on a reconnaissance mission at the time. These poor fellows missed the boat and were left behind – becoming the first “lost colonists.” 

“Imagine the surprise…when they returned to find that their comrades had departed, and they were left to fend for themselves. I’m thinking this is the definition of a very bad day,” wrote Roberta Estes, a research scientist and creator of DNA eXplained.

 

Just a few days after Drake’s fleet sailed, Richard Grenville returned to Roanoke Island from England with a shipment of supplies. But he found the fort deserted. 

Stephen Luscombe, a historian based in Plymouth, England, said: “Grenville spent two weeks sending teams to search for the colonists and to try to figure out what had happened.” 

Grenville resolved to leave 15 men with two years’ worth of supplies. He designated Master Coffin as commander, directing him to “repossess the fort whilst Grenville returned to England for further instructions.” 

Later, it was learned that Coffin and one other man had perished while fighting against the natives, but the other 13 Englishmen escaped and put to sea “in a pinnace and searched for sanctuary,” according to Luscombe. This became the second wave of “lost colonists.” 

Another attempt to put an English colony on Roanoke Island occurred in 1587, under the leadership of John White as governor. Estes said that this expedition would include families of settlers.

She said that each colonist “would receive, among other enticements, 500 acres of land. Land was impossible to purchase in England, so for anyone who was not in the line of inheritance, meaning a first son of a family with land, the only hope for land ownership was outside of England.” 

Many in the party of 117 were personally recruited by White to make the journey, Estes added. 

They arrived at Roanoke Island on July 27, 1587, with their native friend Manteo in charge of mending fences with tribal leaders.

N.C. barbecue may have originated in Harnett County

Is Harnett County the “point of origin” for North Carolina’s legendary pork barbecue?

Could be. In the early 1750s, a settler who had come from Scotland and known as “Big Red Neill McNeill” saw steam or a mist rising from a nearby creek. 

McNeill, who was a former sailor and explorer, said the sight reminded him of the smoke wafting from the barbecue meat-cooking pits in the islands of the Caribbean. “In a fit of culinary nostalgia,” he named the stream Barbecue Creek.

 

The people of the West Indies may have invented “whole-hog pit-cooked barbecue,” but North Carolinians have perfected it.

 

According to the late Malcolm Fowler, a local Harnett County historian and author, Neill McNeill “held many a barbecue at his cabin on the Cape Fear River near Smiley’s Falls at Averasboro (now Erwin), inviting all his pioneer friends.” 

“One of these good friends was Archibald Buie, known as ‘Piper Archie,’ who would supply the music on these raucous occasions,” Fowler wrote. 

“In 1759, Neill McNeill threw his last party. A great fever struck the Upper Cape Fear. McNeill spent much time attending to the sick and dying, but he finally succumbed to the fever himself,” Fowler said. 

“With the help of Piper Archie, McNeill carved his own giant casket out of a large gum tree, with the two sides pieced together with pegs.” McNeill, who was at least 6-foot-6, wanted to be buried “on the brow of Smiley’s Hill” on the opposite (west) side of Smiley’s Falls on the Cape Fear River, Fowler wrote.

 

The river had risen. It was too high. Archie Buie decided “it was impossible to get the coffin across,” so McNeill was buried on the east side of the river, near his cabin. 

For more than 100 years, stories were told that “when the wind was just right,” people could hear a giant ghost with bright red hair and a curly red beard moaning, while Piper Archie’s haunt was playing his pipes. 

In 1865, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman came through Harnett County. Confederate troops met the Union soldiers in the Battle of Averasboro, which was fought in a driving rain. “It rained for several days without cessation, and the swollen Cape Fear River finally burst its banks and flooded the valley.” 

“When the waters receded after the flood, a large gum tree was discovered on the west bank of the river. The tree had burst apart, and inside the hollowed-out trunk, the remains of a skeleton with red hair and a red beard were found. Neill McNeill was finally laid to rest on the brow of Smiley’s Hill.” 

Historian Jerry Dale (J.D.) Lewis said that the community of Barbecue, N.C., once was spelled as “Barbeque.” 

Dictionary men Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster always insisted that the one and only correct spelling is “barbecue.” But, U.S. President Andrew Jackson, a North Carolina boy, always said: “It’s a damned poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”

 

An authority on southern sociology is Dr. John Shelton Reed, a retired professor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said: “Despite the shortcomings of barbeque (it looks as if it should be pronounced ‘bar-beck’), ‘barbeque’ is in a statistical dead heat with ‘barbecue’ in the Carolinas.” 

“Over the mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, ‘barbeque’ is about twice as common as the authorized spelling. It’s clear that Southerners really like that letter ‘Q,’” Dr. Reed said.

 

Dr. Reed

Barbecue Township is historically significant

One of North Carolina’s most historic churches is found in Harnett County’s Barbecue Township. It’s the Barbecue Presbyterian Church near Barbecue Creek, organized in 1757 by early settlers who had come to this region from Scotland. 

The Rev. James Campbell was sent from Philadelphia to serve as minister to the “destitute settlements” in five North Carolina counties – Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee and Robeson. He would preach to the Scots in their Gaelic tongue.

 

As the American Revolutionary War drew nigh, the Scots were quite divided as Loyalists or Patriots. “One Sunday, Rev. Campbell prayed for the success of the American arms,” reported historian Jerry Dale (J.D.) Lewis. 

After the service, the preacher “was approached by an old Tory Scot, McAlpin Munn, who said, in effect, ‘If ever you pray again as you did this day, the bullet is molded and the powder is in my horn to blow it through your head.’” 

Lewis said that encounter prompted Campbell to relocate his ministry to Guilford County, “a safe distance from McAlpin Munn.” 

Barbecue Church was the site of a Revolutionary War skirmish in 1781. Patriots from the Barbecue Company of the Cumberland County Regiment under the command of Capt. Daniel Buie engaged the British Legion dragoons who were led by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton.

 

He was regarded as “the most hated” British commander, because his “Tarleton Raiders” were responsible for slaughtering colonial troops in 1780 at the “Waxhaw Massacre” near Lancaster, S.C. 

Tarleton recorded an “easy win” at Barbecue Church. During the brief struggle, patriot Archibald Buie, known as “Piper Archie,” was shot in the back of the head, said the Buie family genealogist. The wound caused him to slowly lose his vision. 

“Piper Archie had always been known as a wanderer, and he continued to roam the hills and hollows,” even after going blind. Often becoming lost, Archie would then “begin playing his bagpipes. Someone would hear his piping and go and bring him in.” 

So, where’s the best place to get Carolina barbecue when one’s in Barbecue Township? Probably at the Presbyterian church when the men’s Bible group is having a pig picking.

 

Otherwise, the locals suggest motoring about 15 miles to Sanford in Lee County to enjoy Ron’s Barn Barbecue & Seafood, Stubbs and Son BBQ or Smoke & Barrel. Another option is to travel about the same distance in the opposite direction to Noble Meats & Eatery in Spring Lake.

 

Ron's Barn

Katie Lee prefers Ron’s. She says: “The pulled pork was succulent and well prepared. We love the NC vinegar-based sauce. The hush puppies were cooked to perfection and the butter potatoes, baked beams and sweet tea were perfect. This is cafeteria-style, so you walk down the line and pick your meats and vegetables from a wide variety of southern staples.”

Bailey Lawrence likes to get his barbecue fix at Stubbs. He says: “Food is fantastic. BBQ is Eastern NC Style, so expect chopped pork with a vinegar-based sauce that has a slight kick. Slaw is vinegar-based as well. Fries are hand cut and excellent.”

 

Stubbs and Son

Commenting on Smoke & Barrel, Mickie Smith says: “This is our go-to place. We moved from across the country some months ago and immediately looked for a local place to enjoy some bbq and drinks. Based on reviews, we tried this place, and it didn’t disappoint.”

Irene Giovanelli is a fan of Noble. She says: “Very amazing quality meat! This is my new favorite place to get tasty authentic BBQ.”

Noble Meats & Eatery