Excerpted from the Beacon Flashes column:

Mr. Thos. S. ARMISTEAD has been invited through the corresponding secretary to deliver an address before a Literary Society at Creswell, this county, on Friday, April 18th.  He informs us that he will accept the honor, but that it will be impossible for him to do so on the date named.  He offers to be present and address the Society on June 4th. We are sure Mr. ARMISTEAD will on that occasion be prepared to entertain the Society with a grand speech, which only men of his literary talent are capable of delivering.

Source: Roanoke Beacon, 28 March 1890, pg 3. Available online at digitalnc.org.