Articles, In the Duplin Times September 26, 2008
LEON SIKES Article “SOME TIME AGO” 

SARECTA, DR. WILLIAM HOUSTON, AND THE ALBERTSON GENERAL lSTORE

       The first officially incorporated town was Sarecta. It was chartered on January 6, 1878. Sarecta does not function as an official town today. Let’s take a brief look at Sarecta, one of the oldest settlements in the county.
SARECTA
       Sarecta is located in the east central part of Duplin County on the east bank of the Northeast Cape Fear River. It was on of the earliest settlement areas in what was to become Duplin County.
     The first settlers arrived around 1736 with an English man named Henry McCulloch.
    McCulloch received a land grant for 71,160 acres in the area from the British Crown. In correspondence dated 1744, he gave as his Caroline Address “Soracte.”
	The earliest reference to the name spelled as “Sarecta” was found in a land deed to Eleazor Allen in 1739, Also at the time records show that ten houses were built at Sarecta. The builders were: John Pidcock, William Lewis and John Porter. (Three early names for family researches)
	On January 6, 1787, By an act of the General Assembly. Sarecta became Duplin County’s first town. The town was laid out on 100 acres of land owned by Dr. William Houston.
	The first town commissioners of Sarecta were: Charles Ward, John Hill, James Outlaw, Samuel Houston, David Murdough, George Miller and John Matchel. These families were among the earliest settlers in Duplin County.
DR. WILLIAM HOUSTON
	Sarecta’s most famous resident was a physician. Dr. William Houston. Dr. William Houston was living in Sarecta at the time King George II appointed him Stamp Master for province of North Carolina on July 11, 1765. Dr. Houston’s term of office was short, however.
 	On November 16, 1765, he was forced to resign the office by outraged and rebellious inhabitants of the region for being taxed by the British Crown. The citizens of New Bern were so upset that they “tried, condemned, hanged, and burnt Dr. Houston in effigy….,” according to newspaper account at the time. He was also hanged in effigy in Wilmington, Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) and even in Duplin County.
	Long-tome Sarecta resident and local historian Randolph Smith, who is exceptionally knowledge about the history of Sarecta and the surrounding area, is convinced that Dr. Houst’s home was situated on the hill on the hill overlooking the river on the east side, on the left side of the road (coming from highway 11/0-3), just after crossing the Northeast Cape Fear River. In years past, small glass bottom that resemble old medicine bottles, that have been plowed up at the site.
	The deteriorating timbers of the old Lee Albertson general store are all remains on the site. Houston’s home is long gone.
LEE ALBERTSON GENERAL STORE
	For almost 100 years, the Albertson General Store served the community and served it well.
	From the late 1860s to the 1950s when it ceased operations, it was the main general store in the Sarecta area.
	According to Smith, the store was built and first operated by Albertson. He eventually sold the store to Alonza A. Quinn, the father of C. E. Quinn, and moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Quinn operated the store until he relocated to Kenansville. In subsequent years, John Smith and Ransom Brock operated the store for Mr. Quinn. Mr. Brock was the last to operate the store. Still inside the deteriorating building is a very large, solid oak ice box, large enough to hold 300 pound block of ice.
During the late 100s and early 1900s, the naval store industry was still going strong throughout the area, and the Albertson store, towards the river, a turpentine still once operated.
From there, turpentine, pitch tar, and rosin were rafted down river to the port at Wilmington for commercial use.
Postal records show that there was a post office operating in Sarecta from February 25, 1830 until it was discontinued on March 31, 1903. After closing the post office at Sarecta, mail was routed to the post office in Kenansvile.
Sarecta never really grew in trade or in population. This was possibly due in part to the relocation of the county seat of government to what is now Kenansville from Turkey Branch just north of Baltic, and the arrival of the railroad in the late 1830s through the western half of the county spurring development along it tracks.

(Editor’s note: Leon Sikes is off this week. The following column was his first in the “Some time Ago” series and ran June 9, 2005)