"I can remember when there was only one store in Ahoskie, and it was owned by Fletcher Powell."

MISS LOLA TELLS HOW POOR TOWN
GOT ITS NAME

An adaptation of an interview
with Lola Saunders Askew
by Delores Mason
Date uncertain

At the age of 89, Lola Saunders Askew, widow of Elliott Askew, reminisced about her life at Poor Town.

She reared four children near the Poor Town sign ~ O'Quinn, Carlyle, Jane and Janice.

"There were more Askews and Newsomes around Poor Town than anything else," said "Miss Lola," as she is affectionately known.

"It has been Poor Town for as long as I can remember," she said. "Poor Town and St. Johns are the oldest communities in this county.

"I can remember when there was only one store in Ahoskie, and it was owned by Fletcher Powell."

The area, outside Ahoskie on the Aulander road, apparently has been called Poor Town for about 125 years.

Reportedly, Charles Bonner Newsome named the place. Miss Lola quoted his granddaughter, Bessie Newsome Askew, as saying, "As the estate grew, the neighbors suggested names for the area, but my grandfather, being a man of humble nature, said 'We will just call it Poor Town'."

Miss Lola, the oldest resident of the area, spoke proudly of her early days at Poor Town.

She said the children of the area attended a one-room school at Oak Grove, called Sycamore Academy because of a large sycamore tree in the schoolyard.

There were about 45 pupils of all grade levels in one room ~ with one teacher.

Although Miss Lola was not sure who the teacher was at that time, she said it might have been one of Charles Newsome's sisters, who were "real educated ladies." During that period, "school only lasted about four months out of the year," she said.

Children would carry an egg to school, she said, and after school they'd stop by "Captain Ed" Newsome's store and trade it for a stick of candy.

"When the new road came, it cut Mr. Ed out," she said. "The new road came right in front of his door." He later built a new store.

One resident gave the Poor Town folks a scare around 1968 when he suggested changing the name of the area to "New Village." He reportedly had been a resident of the place for about a dozen years when he decided that Poor Town, with its newly built homes and well-cared-for appearance, deserved a better name.

His request to replace the "Poor Town" sign at the crossroads was denied by the state highway division.

His suggestion only made the residents appreciate the unique name even more, according to Miss Lola.