PAGE 2—THE HERALD, Ahoskie, N. C.—MILESTONE YEAR 1959
Greene Starts Agency
After Traveling Career
AHOSKIE — T. W. “Billy”
Greene says he’s a traveling sales
man who married a school teach
er and settled down in his own
home town. His traveling days
started in 1937, when he was
graduated from the University of
North Carolina and got a job with
the W. T. Grant Company.
For several years, Greene trav
eled the country, setting up new
Grant’s stores. “Then tlie bugle
blew,” says Billy chewing on his
pipe, “and I joined the navy.”
During his six-year hitch, he was
in the V-7 Navy program at Notre
Dame and Northwestern Univer
sity, and by discharge time had
risen to the rank of lieutenarit.
Then Greene came back to the
Eoanoke-Chowau area, managing
an apparel store at Roanoke Rap
ids’ for four years. There he met
Miss Dorothy Delbridge, who
taught school, and married her.
They are now parents of a seven-
year-old son, Thomas W. Greene,
Jr.
From Roanoke Rapids, Greene
went back on the road, tj'aveling
for four years as a salesman for
the Richmond Dry Goods Com
pany. It was 1952 before the
Greenes finally returned for good
to Ahoskie, where Billy grew up
as a son of one of the town’s first
doctors, the late Dr. A. W.
Greene. Clerk of Superior Court
Arthur W. Greene, Jr., is another
son.
In 1952, Greene bought the Ra
leigh Baisey Insurance Agency
from the Baisey estate. At that
time, the office was located in the
Earl Theater building. He re
tained the Baisey firm name until
1955, when he moved into a new
location on West Main Street, as
the Greene Insurance Agency.
The Greene Agency offers gen
eral insurance of all kinds.
Greene is also associated with
Ollie M. Brown in the mortgage
loan business. Miss Sophia P.
Sumner, a long-time employee,
was originally with the Baisey
agency. Mrs. E. T. Wise is also an
office employee of the Greene
Agency.
Moonlight Firm Began Outdoors
MURFREESBORO — Back
1946, Hiram C. Hill’s neighbors got
used to the sound of hammering
and sawing going on in his back
yard after dark. As soon as he got
through work at the Riverside
Manufacturing Company, he went
out to build lawn furniture and
other items by the light of the
When Hiram’s son. Bob, came
back from the service, he took
over the building business, and it
was the neighbors who named it
Moonlight Enterprises. Until 1950,
Bob ran the business by himself—
doing plumbing, heating, air con
ditioning and building, like a one-
man band.
Then the whole family joined in.
Father Hiram handles the indus
trial end, brother Hiram, Jr. is in
charge of plumbing, heating and
air conditioning, and Bob is overall
manager, in charge of general
building. The Hills called the firm
the Moonlight Enterprises, Inc.,
and set out to do what they liked
best—to build things, ansdhing.
If you need plumbing, heating,
air conditioning, refrigeration, mill-
work, interior decoration, building
supplies, small motor repairs, or
general service—Moonlight can fur-
Serving
-1952-1959-
the Roanoke-Chowan
with OUAIITY...
GROCERIES — HARDWARE
FARM SUPPLIES
WE JOIN OUR FELLOW CITIZENS
IN CELEBRATING THE
200th Anniversary
of Hertford County
sc
Ahoskie Wholesale Co.,
614 N. RAILROAD ST.
PHONE 2076
nish it. The firm maintains a de
sign department, builds and fi
nances homes.
The main office is located on
Third Street, with a machine shop
on Main Street, where Evinrude
outboard motors and Homelite
chain saws are sold.
At 35, Bob Hill is a young busi-
with his hands full. Last
year, Moonlight Enterprises Ijuilt
28 houses in a radius of 40 miles of
Murfreesboro, and did about half
a million dollars business. From
the original group of father and
sons. Moonlight has nov/ grown
to employ 45 persons. “We built
our business on service—anything
the customer needs, we’ll do,” Bob
Hill says proudly.
Vepco Serves Wide Area,
Brightens 20th Century
Since January 1, 1926
For 33 years we have
been meeting and serving
the folks in the
Roanoke-Chowan area , .
THANK YOU
for your friendship
and patronage these
past 33 years.
WE INVITE YOU
to visit our store
for all your
Hardware Needs.
FARMERS
HARDWARE
COMPANY
Ahoskie, N. C.
The part that Virginia Elec
tric and Power Company played
in the growth and progress of
Hertford County began in 1927 on
November 15 when Vepco pur
chased a small distribution sys
tem located in the Town of Win-
ton together with a distribution
tie line connecting Ahoskie and
Winton.
At that time, there were ap
proximately 150 customers being
served at Winton, with a popula
tion of 750 persons.
The company’s next acqusition
was made on November 21, 1927,
when Vepco purchased a distri
bution system located in Ahoskie,
At that time, Ahoskie had a pop
ulation of approximately 2,700
and there were 400 electric cus
tomers in the town. The town also
owned distribution lines which
served the towns of Colerain,
Powellsville and Harrellsville.
In the following year, Vepco
purchased a distribution system
from the Town of Murfreesboro
from W. E. Worell.
One of the interesting facts in
this system was that the power
plant only furnished power from
sunset until midnight to about
150 customers at that time.
The foLurth and last of the prin
cipal acquisitions in Hertford
County was made on November
4, 1935, when Vepco purcha.sed
distribution system from the
town of Harrellsville.
This system served approxi.
mately 60 customers at the time
of the purchase.
In addition to these acquisi
tions, the company served several
scattered customers in the rural
areas between these towns.
As Hertford County grew, so
did Vepco. New ana improved
service was made possible in the
I arfes by the modernization of
-existing equipment, much''
which'^haaUjO be completely
'lacedjM^^
.on of
chT^f
ilyfFe-
Service'll
From a total of 760 customers,
which were served when the
properties were acquired by
Vepco, the service in the county
has grown to the point that today
Vepco serves over 5,000 customers
in Hertford County.
Thus, the progress of Hertford
County is directly linked with
the progress and growth of Vep
co. The company operates in 19
counties in northeast North Car
olina and provides service to al
most 43,000 Carolinians. Vepco
recently dedicated its new divi
sion headquarters at Williamston,
marking the 34th year in the state.
Also in the state, at Roanoke
Rapids, is located Vepco’s larg
est hydroelectric generating sta
tion, with a generating capacity
of 100,000 kilowatts.
Plans for the project started
many years ago when the Roan
oke Rapids Power Company, a
Vepco predecessor in the area,
started buying land along the
river for the dam and reservoir.
Vepco acquired the property in
the early 20’s, made numerous
surveys, and was ready to begin
construction when the 1929 fi
nancial crash made it necessary
to await more favorable condi
tions. On the heels of the depres
sion came World War 11 with its
control on manpower and equip
ment.
After the war, Vepco filed an
application with the Federal
Power Commission and was
granted a license to begin con
struction early in 1951.
Actual construction started on
September 1, 1953. It took .two
years and nine months to com--
plete the project. Some 1,200 men,
three shifts of 400 each, worked
around the clock for about 7,-
500,000 man-hours of labor dur
ing the construction.
Vepco used 300,000 tons of
crushed stone,- 800,000 bags of
cement and 120,000 tons of sand.
This much material would build
a sidewalk six feet wide and 189
miles long. It is equal to a block
of solid concrete the size of an
office building a block square
and eight stories high.
The power station had to be
blasted out of solid rock. It was
built in a 70 by 230-foot excava
tion carved 72 feet deep from
granite. The lake behind the dam
would fill a tank 9 miles long, one
mile wide and 171^ feet deep.
Nuclear Project
Vepco recently joined with
three neighboring utilities in
North and South Carolinalto form
Carolinas Virginia Nuclear Power
Associates, Inc,, a nonprofit or
ganization, organized to discover
and study economic ways to uti
lize nuclear malorial and atomic
or.orgy lor the generation of elec
tricity. A site at Parr Shoals,
South Carolina, has been selected
and an experimental, nuclear re
actor is scheduled for completion
in 1962.
Today, under President A. H.
McDowell, Jr,, Vepco stands
the threshold of its second half
century after 50 years of progress.
In the years since World War II,
the company has virtually dou
bled its electric customers. The
use of electricity by residential
customers has doubled. The total
amount of electricity sold has
tripled.
Under construction or recently
completed at its stations are ad
ditions that will more than equal
the total generating capacity of
the system in 1946. By 1960. Vep
co will have more than two mil
lion kilowatts capacity — four
times its 1946 capacity.
In 50 years, Vepco has grown
from a company with property
and plant valued at $116,000,000
to a company with more than
$675,000,000 in assets and over
37,000 shareholders in the United
States. It strives to give good
service at the lowest practical
cost to its more than 700,000 elec
tric and 90,000 gas customers.
It is a company that is growing
with the area it serves, storing in
the experience of half a century,
and hopeful for the vision of the
years to come.
It is with a great sense of pride
in having accomplished its goal
of the best possible service to its
customers, that Vepco and its em
ployees join with the citizenry
of Hertford County in celebrating
the county’s 200th anniversary.
As Vepco reflects on the past
fifty years of its service to the
tri-state area of North Carolina,
Virgili^ia and West Virginia, the*
s^es years of progress;
Myrtle's Shop Female Institution
AHOSKIE—Miss Myrtle Powell
came back from New York City in
the early 1930’s with a diploma
from beauty school and a lot of
good ideas about maldng Ahoskie’s
womenfolk prettier. A lot of the
ladies found that Myrtle’s ideas
helped—that’s why Myrtle’s Beauty
Shop is one of the leading salons
here today.
The shop—and its operators—is
colorful, and the conversation is
good, especially when the voluble
Italian who married Miss Powell
is around. Guy Raspa, who came to
Hertford as a cook at the Italian
prisoner of war camp at Union
during World War II, decided he
liked the beauty business when he
met Myrtle, and they were mar
ried in 1945.
Myrtle entered the beauty shop
field as a partner with. Mrs. Tal-
mage Baker, but by the end of the
’30’s, had her own shop. In the
late 1940’s, the old Baker building
opposite the post office burned,
along with all of Myrtle’s equip
ment.
“But I never missed an appoint
ment,” Myrtle says proudly. Ev
eryone pitched in to get the beauty
shop relocated within three days
in the old F^rmerS-Atlantic Bank
building. Meanwhile, Myrtle went
to her customers’ homes to fill
appointments,
Later, the .sliop was moved to
the Garrett Hotel building, and
still later to a location owned by
Ralph Basnight on McGlohon St.
In 1958, Myrtle’'s shop moved to
a new building in the Roanoke-Cho
wan Shopping Center off Memorial
Drive. The new shop is decorated
in Myrtle’s favorite color, an or
chid which contrasts well with her
own hair. And Guy’s hair is red, to
add a spark df 'difference.
Ahoskie’s Oldest
Retail Establishment...
WE HAVE PASSED QUITE A FEW MILESTONES IN THE
HISTORY OF OUR STORE. . . , WE ARE PROUD TO JOIN
IN CELEBRATING THIS MILESTONE IN OUR COUNTY'S
HISTORY. WE WANT TO THANK THE CITIZENS OF
HERTFORD COUNTY FOR THEIR CONTINUED FRIEND
SHIP AND PATRONAGE
Featuring STAR BRAND SHOES
for Over 40 Years
Hayes-Miller Co.
in and For Ahoskie Since 1912
1944-1959
We
OUR
Proudly Celebrate a Milestone...
ANNIVERSARY
TO MATCH THE PROGRESS OF OUR TOWN
AND OUR COUNTY HAS BEEN OUR GOAL
SINCEWEWENT INTO BUSINESS IN 1944. THAT
HAS BEEN QUITE A CHALLENGE AT TIMES BE
CAUSE THIS AREA HAS DEVELOPED SO RAPIDLY. WE
ARE PROUD TO SAY WE HAVE KEPT PACE AND LOOK
FORWARD TO EVEN MORE PROGRESS IN THE YEARS
AHEAD. WE JOIN IN CELEBRATING THE 200TH ANNIVER
SARY OF HERTFORD COUNTY.
WHITE & WOODLEY
Eiectrica! Appliances ----- Plumbing and Heating
123 E. MAIN ST. AHOSKIE
PHONE 3083