Leaving the beach on a beautiful, late-summer day, I took a circuitous route home (my favorite kind!), winding along backroads through four of North Carolina’s eastern counties.
The most populated part of Onslow County is the Jacksonville area, home of the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base. For me though, Onslow is important for its beaches. Our family spends a week on Topsail Island every summer (pronounced Top-sul here in North Carolina). Although we prefer the southern, Pender County end of the island, we’ve enjoyed several memorable beach weeks in Onslow County’s North Topsail.
With a population of fewer than 10,000 people, Jones County boasts more natural beauty than human accomplishments and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I took a break in Pollocksville to enjoy a view of the Trent River.
From Jones County, I headed northwest to Lenoir County and the town of Kinston, which holds a special place in my heart as the home of UNC basketball greats Jerry Stackhouse and Reggie Bullock. Carolina basketball looms so large in my world that I expected a little more recognition of these two than I found in Kinston. I was happy though to see a shoutout to Stackhouse in the Kinston-Lenoir County Sports Hall of Fame as Kinston’s best ever.
Driving through downtown Kinston on South Queen Street, I was taken aback to see an exact replica of the Old Well on the corner in front of me. The Old Well is an iconic symbol of UNC and of course I had to know why there was a copy of it in this particular spot! What I discovered is that Kinston has produced more than just UNC basketball greats. Harvey Beech was one of several trailblazing Black students who integrated the university in the early 1950s, gaining admission to the law school with the legal assistance of Thurgood Marshall. Beech went on to live a remarkable life in Kinston and was honored by the town with this symbol of the school he had to fight to attend. For a town of around 20,000 people, Kinston has produced a significant number of remarkable individuals.
The last stop on my journey was Greene County. For centuries before the arrival of Europeans, this land was home to the Tuscarora. Today, on the courthouse lawn in Snow Hill, a stone marker commemorates a nearby battle that led to the death or capture of nearly 1,000 Tuscarora in 1773. This defeat ended a three-year war with colonists and drove the Tuscarora north from their homeland where they joined with the Iroquois League in present-day New York. (Flags in the picture are half-staff in honor of Michael Verardo, a US Army Afghanistan War veteran who advocated for wounded veterans and their families.)
Traveling country roads through this fascinating state of ours, there are constant reminders that, whenever and wherever human beings make their home, you will find evidence of violence, militarism, and discord that has touched even the most seemingly peaceful corner. Where we humans dwell, strife and beauty inevitably go hand in hand.
September 3, 2025 – Counties #69, 70, 71, and 72 – Onslow, Jones, Lenoir and Greene
100countyquest 