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Subject: Foreman Community, Carteret County
Date: 1 Apr 2005 20:28:39 -0700

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Message Board Post:

It seems that there was a small community of about 50 people named Foreman on Core Creek (near Harlowe) around the turn of the 20th century. This came from an unpublished book on postmasters by the late Charles Pitts, Jr.:

"Foreman - June 18, 1902 - April 7, 1904

On May 22, 1902, the Fourth Assistant Postmaster general addressed a Location Paper to Mrs. Holland Foreman in care of the Postmaster at Beaufort. It was the standard questionnaire that the Post Office Department used to ascertain information for making a decision on requests for the establishment of a new post office. Mrs. Foreman, in her reply, wrote in the word Carteret as the proposed name for this new office. That was struck out and the word Foreman written above. This new office was to be on the Beaufort - Merrimon route, three and one-half miles east of Harlowe’s post office and ten miles north of Beaufort. Mrs. Foreman further identified the office location by stating that it was four miles north of the Newport River and “on (the) banks” of Core Creek, on the east side. She was prepared to serve a population of fifty.1

On June 18, 1902, Holland Naomi Longest Foreman was appointed Postmaster at Foreman, Carteret County, North Carolina.2 Holland Naomi Longest was the daughter of Elijah W. and Hopy Ann Barrett. Her father, a veteran of the Civil War, was variously listed in the census records as a ship and house carpenter, fisherman and farmer. After the Civil War, he resided on land in the Core Creek area (purchased from Jonathan Stanton in 1866 and from which he moved to Newport in the 1870s.3

Holland Naomi Longest married Alexander Foreman, son of William and Cynthia Chestnut Foreman. William was apparently the first of that surname to settle in Carteret County.4 Alexander and Holland Foreman made their home on the east side of Core Creek, a structure that still stands facing the waters, between the site of the old Core Creek “Swing” Bridge and the new “High Rise”. In front of the house, Alexander operated a general store and it was in this building that Holland Foreman set up her post office. Alexander, like his father before him, also farmed.5

The Foreman Post Office was short lived. On April 7, 1904, the Post Office Department “disestablished” Foreman and returned the mail service to Beaufort. The only remaining physical evidence of Holland Foreman’s tenure as postmaster is her desk. The small wooden item is now owned by Charles Edwards of Williamston, NC. Alexander and Holland Foreman lived into the nineteen twenties and are buried at the Harlowe Methodist Church cemetery.6

1.Site Location Records.

2.Postmaster Listings.

3.“Heritage”, Vol. I, p. 323, # 561. Elijah W. Longest married three times. Hopy Ann Barrett was his first wife. (In the census records her name is variously spelled “Hopie” and “Hope” and on Holland Naomi’s death certificate she is identified as “Hopie Piver”.) The family was residing in Beaufort at the beginning of the Civil War. Enlisting and assigned to Fort Macon, it is written that he slipped away one night to visit his wife and daughter, age four, and returned to the fort the same night. After moving to Newport, Hopy Ann died and Elijah remarried twice. His second and third wives were sisters, Mary Elizabeth and Alda Rena Garner.

4.“Heritage”, Vol. I, p. 226, # 392. In this account Holland Naomi Longest is incorrectly identified as Naomi Holland Perkins and her given names are reversed. This account also states that Alexander Foreman “kept” the post office. Whatever the case, Holland Naomi was the designated postmaster.

5.Ibid. Here it is also written that Alexander and Holland Foreman were the parents of fourteen children, five of whom died in infancy from “lockjaw”. Alexander was said to be able to “pour a bucket of eggs into a basket without breaking one.” And that “many a time a single egg was traded for a piece of store bought candy’.”

6.Postmaster Listings. Information on the post office desk was furnished by Mrs. Laura Mountjoy Foreman. Photos of the desk are in the records of the Core Creek Methodist Church."

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