RICH SQUARE

A short history of Rich Square

Quakers were some of the earliest settlers in Northampton County, being established there by the early 1750s. The congregation in Rich Square was established in 1760, and was once a center for the Religious Society of Friends in North Carolina. By 1832, they were a minority in Rich Square, though they continued working to relocate former slaves into free states.

In 1947, Godwin Bush was a black man in Northampton County who escaped a lynching by a white mob; two all-white grand juries refused to indict the seven white kidnappers. In response, local pastor and businessman Paul A. Bishop promoted a black-led boycott of white-owned businesses in Rich Square (contemporaneously described by a black community leader as "a town that didn't like black folk.") Many of the boycotted stores went out of business.

On July 26, 1959, Lieutenant Colonel William Rankin was flying his US Marine Corps F8U Crusader from Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Massachusetts to Naval Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. When he lost all power at an altitude of 47,000 feet (14,000 m), he ejected into the −70 °F (−57 °C) air and began uncontrolled decompression through an intense thunderstorm and hail for the next 40 minutes. After "the most prolonged and fantastic parachute descent in history", he eventually landed near Rich Square, from where he was rescued by a local farmer and eventually taken to Ahoskie, North Carolina for triage. (The plane came down near Scotland Neck, North Carolina.)

In 1968, the federal government of the United States established the Family Development Training Project in Rich Square, an effort up uplift families in poverty by simultaneously educating all members thereof at government expense. On a 50-acre (20 ha) parcel of town, twelve training and support buildings were constructed to support the 50 families living in 50 colocated mobile homes. Eligible families must have been employed by two or more employers in the preceding year, and annually earn less than US$2,500 (equivalent to $23,146 in 2025). In 1974, The Family Coordinator called the five-year program "one of the most unique and successful programs ever developed in the United States".

The Duke-Lawrence House is a recognized example of Georgian architecture in Rich Square, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1980. The local Holoman-Outland House was recognized for its Colonial Revival architecture and listed on the register in October 2001.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Rich Square, North Carolina, revision 1376597833 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.