Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune

By Stratton C. Murrell and Jean Murrell

Located near the North Carolina coast on the New River, Jacksonville is home to the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. From the beginning, the people of Jacksonville have faced challenges brought on by the winds of nature and the winds of war in a poised and dignified manner, turning hardships to the betterment of the community. Such changes have encouraged population and tourist growth, as well as physical expansion of the city, thus creating a booming area that still manages to maintain the charm and hospitality of a small Southern town. Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune revisits the era when Jacksonville was just a fledgling community, when tobacco barns and warehouses dotted the landscape and ferries and fishing boats forged the New River. The townspeople looked to agriculture, shipping, naval stores, lumbering, hunting, fishing, and political involvement to occupy their interests and energies, while hurricanes and wars loomed in the world beyond. Few people in those times could have imagined that a hurricane would make Jacksonville the county seat of Onslow County or that the world at war would result in the population expansion of the 1940s and the 1950s. With the building of the Marine base, which brought about enormous social change for the residents, the city attracted construction workers, young families, and service men and women who paved the way for today s rural metropolis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Aug 6, 2001
• ISBN: 9781439612125

Stratton C. Murrell

Dr. Stratton C. Murrell, a lifelong resident of Onslow County, is an optometrist with a passion for collecting historical stories and pictures. He and his wife, Billie Jean Murrell, a retired public health nursing director who shares a similar interest in history, have co-authored this intriguing volume to celebrate Jacksonville�s rich and colorful past. The collection of vintage photographs and informative text will fascinate both longtime residents and newcomers alike with a vivid portrayal of life in days gone by.

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Lejeune.

One

THE TOWN AROUND THE COURTHOUSE

Jacksonville/Camp Lejeune is located in Onslow County, North Carolina, and the town’s history relating to its becoming the county seat and the site of the county courthouse is quite interesting.

The Native Americans on the east coast of what is now North Carolina began to see a different kind of person arriving on these shores in the early 1700s. Even though they were illprepared to live on this land, the newcomers proved themselves to be of fairly hardy stock, and they began small settlements. The land, rivers, and streams became their means of livelihood.

Many who came to the area, later known as Onslow County, were from the more eastern sections of the Carolina Colony or the shores of Virginia. Travel was difficult and the population was scattered. So problematic was it for people to get from the area now called Onslow to Wilmington in New Hanover County or Beaufort in Carteret County to take care of their legal affairs that in 1734 Onslow County was formed from parts of those counties. A small courthouse was built on the New River and, later, another at Johnston. The first was destroyed by fire and the one at Johnston was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1752. Another courthouse was built at Wantland’s Ferry landing and the