Category: 33. The Henry Berry Lowry period

1083. Norment, Mary C. The Lowrie History, As Acted in Part by Henry Berry Lowrie, the Great North Carolina Bandit. With Biographical Sketches of His Associates. Being a Complete History of the Modern Robber Band in the County of Robeson and State of North Carolina. Wilmington: Daily Journal Printer, 1875. Key source

Publication type: Book

Library Locations:
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, State Library of North Carolina (1875 edition); UNCP-Library (1909 edition)
> For additional library location of this and other editions, search the WorldCat database (accessible from the home page of this site).

Full text:
> The Eastern North Carolina Digital Library contains a digitized version of the 1909 edition. The Book Reader software allows you to view either the text or the page image within the same window, tabbing from one format to the other. The page image can be rotated as well as panned up or down.
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/item.aspx?id=loh

Reprints:
Weldon, NC: Harrell’s Printing House, 1895; Lumberton: Lumbee Publishing Co., 1900, 1909.
The 1875 edition was serialized in the Charlotte Observer 1905: 19 Mar. p. 15; 26 Mar. p. 15; 2 Apr. p. 16; 9 Apr. p. 14; 16 Apr. p. 15; 23 Apr. p. 18; 30 Apr. p. 14; 7 May p. 16; 14 May p. 16; 21 May p. 14; 28 May p. 16; 4 June p. 10; 11 June p. 18. The 1875 edition was microfilmed by SOLINET/ASERL in 1995. The 1909 edition was microfilmed by Yale University Library in 1990.

Annotation:
A standard, frequently-quoted source. W. McKee Evans states that, although “strongly partisan,” Norment “seems to make few factual errors” (To Die Game, pp. 273-275). Includes a genealogy of gang members, description of Scuffletown’s origin and geography, account of “the true condition of affairs in Robeson County,” 1864 through late 1870; and sections on people who were robbed or killed by the gang. The appendix of the 1909 edition is a condensation of a series of newspaper articles by Col. F. A. Olds. Weeks ("The Lost Colony of Roanoke: Its Fate and Survival," Papers of the American Historical Association, 1891) asserts that this book was actually written by Joseph B. McCallum. W. McKee Evans was never able to substantiate this claim. He has not seen any mention of Norment being celebrated as an author but speculates that a ghost writer could have used her name for publicity purposes (from correspondence).

This annotation first appeared in The Lumbee Indians: An Annotated Bibliography (McFarland, 1994), by Glenn Ellen Starr. Last updated on April 17, 2007 .

Home Page URL: lumbeebibliography.net