North Carolina Newspapers

M IS READ ST f OVER MM MARTIN COUNT! VAMUn TWICE EACH WEEE THE ENTERPRISE krl. THE ENTERPRISE IS REAB OVER 3.000 MARTIN CO FAMILIES TWICE EACH ONft , HI VOLUME LI—NUMBER 74 William*ton, Martin County, North Carolina, Thursday, Sept emher 16, 1948 ESTABLISHED 1899 A judge J. (J. smith Has Thirty Cases f In County’s Court Drunken and Reckless Drivers and Speedsters ‘ Monopolize Docket Judge J. Calvin Smith called thirty cases in the Martin County Recorder’s Court last Monday, the H list including ten cases charging defendants with speeding on the highways. Drunken and reckless drivers and speedsters almost monopolized the docket which kept the court in session until 1:00 o’clock that afternoon. Fines amounted to $855, includ ing $250 'imposed for speeding. In addition to the fines, several de fendants were sentenced to the ♦ roads, one for nine months in the case in which he was charged with drunken and reckless driving. , The proceedings: Judgment was suspended upon the payment of the costs and checks in the case charging L. H. Hamm with issuing worthless checks. Charged with drunken driving, Willard Whitley was fined $100, taxed with the cost and had his li cense revoked for one year. At the conclusion of the state’s evidence in the case charging Russ and Eva Perry with assaulting a female, the defense counsel made a motion for a directed verdict of not guilty as to Eva Perry. The motion was allowed. The other defendant was adjudged guilty and he was fined $25, plus costs. Pleading not guilty of assault ing a female, Delbert Leggett was adjudged guilty of simple assault and judgment was suspended up on payment of the costs. Jasper Rollings was found not guilty of carrying a concealed weapon. Pleading guilty of carrying a concealed weapon, Walter Leon Atkins was fined $50, plus costs. In a second case, Atkins pleaded guilty of drunken driving and he was fined $100, taxed with the cost and the court recommended that his license to operate a motor ve hicle be revoked for one year. Charged with drunken driving, Harry Lane Cline pleaded guilty and was fined $MM) and taxed with the costs, the court recommending that the defendant's driver's li cense be revoked for one year. Charged with operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license and failing to report an accident, C. D. Beauchemin pleaded not guilty. Adjudged guilty only of operating a motor vehicle without a license, the defendant was fined $35 and taxed with the costs. Vance Ozell Davis, charged with operating a motor vehicle without a driver's license, failed to answer when called and papers were issu ed to? his arrest. Pleading guilty of operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license, Mayo Andrews was sen tenced to jail for five days and di rected to pay a $25 fine and costs. Charged with failing to report a highway accident, Richard Earl O'Mary pleaded not guilty. Ad judged guilty he was sentenced to the roads for sixty days, the court suspending the road term upon the payment of a $25 fine and costa. The case charging Mandy Bow l Continued on page six) f Hamilton Signs Power Contract ' The Virginia Electric and Power Company is to furnish power and light loi the Town of Hamilton for the next twenty years, in ac cordance with the terms of a con tract signed by Mayor R. F. Ever ett at the direction of the board of town commissioners in a meet ing there Tuesday evening. The company will supply the town wholesale. Material is being ordered and the company is to start construct ing several miles of line from Spring Green to a sub-station cn the outskirts of Hamilton. It is planned to make power available. there within thirty or sixty days, j - A ten-year contract has been' signed with Oak City, and the' company is to build a line from| Speed, but it will be possibly sometime next year before the project can be completed. | CITIZENS OF TOMORROW The Enterprise takes much pleasure In presenting another in a picture series of this section’s "citizens of tomonow". So far none has figured prominently in public affairs, t it as fu ture citizens they have a tremendous assignment to handle in a muddled world. Certain they’ll do a better job than has been done or is being done, The Enterprise presents the youngsters as the one great hope for the future. Top row, left to right, Audrey, two, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Cavenaugh, Williamston; Larry, two and a half, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Seaton, Jamesville; Seth, Jr., two, son of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Bailey, Williamston; Bottom row, Irma Dean, six, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Tyre, Williamston; Ronnie, three, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Edmondson, Bethel, and Linda, two, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Roberson, Williamston. | TOBACCO SALES j With at least two-thirds'of the crop already marketed, it is new a fairly well establish ed fact that farmers with In ferior tobacco will be left holding the proverbial bag, while those with good tobacco will make some money. Sell ing the last of his crop yester day, a farmer said he averag ed more than $850 an acre. So many others are averaging $200 and less per acre. Prices held at about the usual level on the market here the first three days of this week when three-quart ers of a million pounds were aoM for an average slightly above $46 per hundred, fair ly light sales are in progress today, but heavy sales are ex pected for tomorrow and next Monday. Charged With Not Having His Motor Vehicle Inspected Fifteen Cases Handled By Justices of Peace Here In Pa$t Few Days ■.—o The first cases in which defend ants were charged with not hav ing their motor vehicles inspected in accordance with the law, were booked this week by Justice of the Peace R. T. Johnson for trial in the county recorder’s court on Monday, October 4. Substantial fines are imposed by statute in most motor vehicle law violations, but what action will be taken in the inspection cases is yet to be determined. LeRoy Rodgers was the first man booked in this county for al legedly violating the inspection law, and Justice Johnson referred the case to the county court. Simi lar charges are pending against William Griffin and LeRoy Gee. Other cases handled by Justice Johnson include the following: Judgment was suspended upon the payment ai the costs in the case charging H. E. Leggett with operating a motor vehicle with improper equipment. Publicly drunk, James Moore was taxed with $7.85 costs. Ben Edwards was required to pay $6.85 costs foi being publicly drunk. Justice John L. Hassell handled the following cases: Publicly drunk, W. C. Chapman, William Brown, Joe N. Phelps, Herman Spruill and Sam Sim mons were each fined $5 and tax ed with $8.50 costs. Jonah Clemmons was fined $5 and taxed with $5.50 costs on a disorderly conduct charge. Charged with issuing a worth less check, Wallace C. Moore was sentenced to the roads for thirty days, the court suspending the road term upon the payment of the $5.48 check and $5.50 costs. Arthur McNair and James Mar riner, charged with public drunk enness, were each fined $5 and taxed with $7.50 costs. ' Local Young Man Victim Of Polio Roy Avant Hinson, local young man who died suddenly in a Greensboro hospital on Wednes day morning of last week, was a victim of poliomyelitis, according to information received here late Tuesday. After spending the week-end at home, the 31-year-old man re turned to Greensboro where he ■was temporarily stationed with an insulating company. He was tak en’ill in his hotel room that morn ing about 3:00 o’clock, complain ing of stomach pains. When his condition failed to improve, he got up, dressed himseif and caught a taxi to the hospital, dying there a few minutes after he was admit ted and before his ailment could be diagnosed. An autopsy was performed and polio was given as the cause of his death. The case was said to have been of the bul bar type, meaning that the ail ment was centered in the bulb of the spinal cord or medulla oblon gata. The young man's body was brought here late that night and was buried last Friday. A report from Duke hospital where he was carried last Sunday stated that James Bennett, two and one-half-year-old colored chlid who fell victim of the dis ease back in August, was still run ning temperature and that his condition was fair. Week Of Missions At Local Church • ■■ The local Memorial Baptist Church will be host to nine other churches in this immediate section during the Roanoke Association wide Week of*Missions, beginning next Monday evening at 7:30 o’clock. Rev. Stewart B. Simms said this morning that sizable numbers are expected from the West End, Hamilton, Everetts, Piney Grove, Riddicks Grove, Jamesville, Ced ar Branch, Robersonville and Plymouth churches for each of the five evening services, and that the public was invited. The special services here are a part of a series being conducted during the week throughout the Roanoke Associa tion. The Baptist program at home and abroad will be reviewed by prominent speakers, followed by a forum led by the host church pas tor. Special music will be includ ed in the program each evening. A tentative list of the speakers Monday night, Sept. 20—Rev R. K. Red wine, State, convention worker in North Carolina. Tuesday—Rev. Lowell Spivey i who is on N. C. State Missionary Board. ’ Wednesday—Rev. Buell Wells, home missionary working in Ken- < tucky. i Thursday—Rev. J. C. Powell, < foreign missionary working in Africa. Friday—Rev. Stanley Smith, \ home missionary working in Flor-1 ida. Highway Workers Discuss Problems At Meeting Here - - ♦ Propose Program To Wipe Out Inequalities and Lift Low Salaries Up - • • Meeting with -members of the general assembly from several counties an»l a few special friends, sfficers and members of the State Highway Employes Association informally discussed some of their problems here last evening. The employes, digging into their own pockets, furnished a delicious meal which was served under the direction of Captain John Del bridge and his assistant Captain Arthur Sessoms in the prison camp dining room. Unit Chairman C. F*. Gore of Weldon presided over the session and introduced the officers of the association and special guests. Dis trict Commissioner Merrill Evans, H. G. Horton, E. S. Peel, Dr. V. E.. Brown, prison physician, T. J. Mc Kim, district highway engineer, and his assistant, Mr. Miller, Ottis Banks of Raleigh, and Representa tives A. Corey and Wayland Spruill made timely and brief re marks. „ Mr. Earl Crump, association president of Weldon, reviewed the problems of the workers and ex plained that the association wai! formed two years ago to promote the interests of the group, to make the svstdm more efficient and to work for a better state. "Some things need adjust ments," Mr. Crump declared, ex plaining that it was a bad state of affairs when an underpaid group of employes have to pay five or ten thousand dollars to lobbyists to represent them. “But 1 believe that such an expenditure is un necessary," he said, adding that he feels certain the lawmakers will recognize the highway work ers’ problem and do all they can to help solve those problems. He explained that there are two groups of highway employes. One group is under the budget com mission and the other under the highway commission, that some requests for salary adjustments are granted and some are refused. “Men have been working for the highway commission for ten and fifteen years and have not yet reached the maximum pay scale provided for their classifications,” Mr. Crump said, adding that ho had been working with the de partment 23 years and had just reached the maximum allowed under his classification. He declared that Raleigh should not have the same man for per sonnel director and assistant di rector of the budget. “We think it very necessary to have a separate personnel director, that some of the inequalities be eliminated and that some provision should be made whereby eligible employes could get a certain percentage raise each year until the maxi mum in his classification is reach ed. The speaker explained that the association is working out a legis lative program, that it will be dis cussed at a state meeting of the association in Asheville next month. Unit Chairman Gore said that (Continued on page nx) Child Seriously Hurt In Accident Dallas Ray Green, 5-year-old colored child, was seriously hurt Wedneauky morning at 7:00 o’ clock when he got out of a car and ran into the path of a truck driven by LeRoy Bowers, promi nent Pitt County farmer, on a street in Parmele. Suffering a broken pelvis bone md internal injuries, the child vas given first aid treatment in he Robersonville clinic and later •emoved to Duke Hospital. The little fellow was in Nathan Thompson’s car and jumped out nto the path of the truck, reports tating that Bowers could not niss the child under the cir umstances. The boy's mother works in Phil idelphia and he has been living vith his grandmother in Parmele. Patrolman B. W. Parker made ' he investigation. ( i Speedsters Have j Another Day In j The County Court Drivii^ 80 Mill's An Hour, Woman Finrd SI 00 j Lust Monday Tlie speedsters had another day in the Martin County Recorder's Court last Monday when ten were called before Judge J. Calvin Smith. The defendants included a U. S. diplomat who was on his way from Chile to London, and a woman from New York who was fined $100 for speeding eighty miles an hour on the county high ways. Charged with speeding and reckless driving, Vernon Doyle McLean of Goldsboro was fined $50 and taxed with the costs. It was the defendant's second of fense and it is likely that the de partment of motor vehicles will ask that his license be revoked. Herbert Calvin Mack of Raleigh was fined $15 and taxed with the cost for speeding, Don Ceity Smith of Staley, N. C. , failed to answer when called on a speeding charge, and papers calling for his arrest were issued. Pleading not guilty, Albert James Miller of Kinston was ad judged guilty and he was fined $15, plus court costs. Pleading guilty of speeding and reckless driving, Thomas Lee Mc Daniel was fined $25 and taxed with the costs. Thelma M. Wheat in a hurry to go from Washington, D. C., to ''Little" Washington for a wed ding, pleaded not guilty when charged with speeding. She main tained her speedometer was slow. She was adjudged guilty and judg ment was suspended upon the payment of the costs. Curtis Fitzhugh* McMahan of Aberdeen, Md., was fined $15, $15, plus costs, for speeding. Mrs. Irvin Cantor, charged with speeding eighty miles an hour, | was fined $100 and required to I pay the court costs. Walter Roberson Wise, Jr., ap parently in a hurry to get from Bayonne, N. J., to college in Dur ham, was fined $15 and taxed with the cost for speeding. Robert E. Kramer, U. S. diplo mat who was driving a station wagon from Miami to Washington, D. C., was fined $i5 and taxed with the costs. He was said to havg been en route from Chile to London on a diplomatic mission, and that he handled his case very diplomatically. Fines imposed on the alleged speedsters amounted to $250. •-o Review Appeal In Frank Grepn Case - ■ ♦ ■■ At an informal hearing held in the Justice Building, Raleigh, yes terday morning, Parole Commis sioner Hathaway Cross reviewed the Frank Green appeal case. The hearing was attended by Mr. and Mrs. Johnnie Wynne, Mrs. Velma Bailey, Attorneys Clarence Grif fin and E. S. Peel and Messrs. Les lie and Luther Hugh Hardison. Representing the opposition and victims of the accident in which Green ran down and killed and maimed innocent parties at the in tersection of the Bear Grass and Washington Roads early last year, Mr. and Mrs. Wynne and Mrs. Bailey declared they did not think Green had paid his debt to society. The supporters of the appeal of fend no evidence. Thi commissioner c* plained that Green will have completed his sentence next August, that it was the commission’s policy to hear appeals for parole after a prisoner had served so much of his time, that he thought it advis able to parole the man now and supervise his conduct for two or three years. A petition, carrying a goodly number of signatures and oppos ing the parole, is being forwarded to Raleigh. Wr. Du will tort (Moulin iiuh III In Local Hon/iilul - m Mr. Chas. Davenport continues ill in the local hospital where he has been a patient for several weeks. I County School Enrollment The following figures offer a comparison of preliminary enrollment figures in the county’s nine white schools for the 1947-48 and current terms, and show a slight downward trend in elementary enrollments and an increase in the high school figures, the latter offsetting the ioss with thirty to spare: 1947-48 Term Elc. 11.8. Total 1948-49 Term Elc. II.S. Total J ames ville Farm Life Bear Grass Williamston Robersonvillc Oak City Hamilton Hassell Everetts 336 96 135 58 280 68 746 166 432 160 213 117 155 60 231 432 193 348 912 592 330 155 60 231 320 109 135 55 270 74 770 185 428 181 201 120 165 75 195 429 190 344 955 609 321 165 75 195 Totals 2588 665 3253 2559 724 3283 Small Enrollment Gain Reported In County’s Schools Mo*l White Elementary 11 nits Lost Rut Mbst High Schools Gain -O Despite a decrease in the ele mentary school enrollment, Mar tin County's nine white schools added enough pupils to their high school rosters to show an over-all increase of thirty pupils this year over Ihe opening figures last term. The preliminary figures show fairly heavy losses in five of the elementary schools and from med ium to fair-sized gains in four oth ers, leaving the preliminary en rollment figures 29 below the opening figures last year. In the high schools, there was an in crease in the enrollment figures in all but one, Farm Life reporting the small loss of three pupils. The gain in the high school depart ment was 59. Discussing the enrollment for the current year, school officials are of the opinion that enrollment in the county’s schools has about reached the saturation point with the possibility that variations will be more marked in future years. With their total enrollment for the lust days of the term stand ing at 3,283 pupils, the white schools are being overshadowed in number by reports coming from the county’s twenty-one colored schools. Accurate figures for com parison are not available, but it is fairly certain that the enrollment in the colored schools this year showed the largest percentage gain of any year in the history of the school system. At the present time the colored schools hold a numerical advantage of 179 pup ils, the elementary count exceed ing that in the white schools by 593 pupils with the colored high school enrollment trailing that in the white schools by 414. The preliminary enrollment fig ures in the twenty-one colored schools follow: Biggs, 107; Burroughs, G9; Cor ey’s, 46; Cross Roads, 62; Dardens, 108; Gold Point, 138; Hamilton, 221; Jones, 62; Oak City, 207; White Oak, 83; Whichard-James, 89; Salsbury, 107; Everetts, 221; Robersonville, 348; Rogers, 117; Williams, 101; Jamesville, 93; Smithwiek, 52; Bear Grass, 59; Williamston high school, 154; Wil liamston, elementary, 671; Par mele, high school, 156; Parmele, elementary, 191, a total of 3,152 in the colored elementary schools and 310 in the colored high schools, or a grand total for all the schools of 5,711 in the elemen tary and 1,034 in the high school departments. Minor Wreck On Road Near Here Taking his eye off the road just for a few seconds to view the scenery to the side, Garvie L. Har rell of Hobgood ran his 1937 CMC panel truck into the rear end of a 1946 Podge truck driven by Blythe D. Pierce of Hamilton on N. C. Highway No. 125 about two miles out of Williamston last Tuesday morning at 8:00 o’clock No one was hurt. Damage to '.he Harrell truck was estimated at $100 by Patrolmen Narron and Powers. No damage was done to the truck driven by Pierce. Pierce had stopped his truck for a school bus and was just before moving again when the Han ell truck plowed into Ills vehicle. | REGISTRATION }\ y _ - The registration for the draft passed the 1,600 mark in the county this morning, but with only two more days to go the registration is almost cer tain to fall short of the pre dicted count of 2,088. Up until this morning, 1,589 young men had registered in this county, including 559 World War II vetcralis, 2.92 married non-veterans, 622 single non-veterans, 87 cigh tccn-ycar-olds, and 29 transi ents. Of the 1,589 registered, 770 arc white and 819 are col ored. The special registration continues through Saturday of this week when all 18-26 year-olds arc supposed to have their names on the regis tration books. Those becom ing 18 years of age after that time will register at the draft board office on the third floor of the town hall in Williams ton. Bureau Reveals Flimflammer Has Record in Courts ■■■ Twii Companions Hail Been In Courts For Similar Offenses Previously William Henry Sherman, color ed man who did not quite get away with flimflamming in this county the 29th of last month, ap pears to be an old hand at the game. The FBI, in a report re leased a few days ago, says he was sentenced to the National Train ing School for Boys in Washing ton, D. C., back in 1945 for juven ile delinquency. Less than two years later he was booked for an assault with a deadly weapon in Washington and while confined to jail he was booked for another as sault. On March 24, 1948, he was arrested and fined for larceny by trick in Petersburg. Less than t wo months later on May 31, 1948, he was booked and fined on a flimflam charge in - Beaufort, South Carolina. He then moved to this county with three com panions and attempted to get money by trickery from O. S. Coltrain and other country mer chants. Sherman, arrested and carried into the county court the following day, pleaded guilty and accepted all the blame, drawing twelve months on the roads and freeing his three companions. It now turns up that two of the three companions have court re cords. ,1. D. Woodson, one of the quar tet, was booked in Virginia in 1944 for grand larceny .. Hs. sent to a detention home and ran away. In April of the following year he was booked and fined for robbery. In September id that same year, 1945, he was booked for grand larceny in the same city of Richmond. Two years later on (Continued on page 6ix) To Coneliule Special Services Triday Slight The pastor, Rev. Jas. 1. Lowry, will conclude a series of special services in the Presbyterian church here tomorrow evening, i using for his topii: at that time, “The Gospel of Ctnistian Securi-1 ty.” Tonight at tJTOO o’clock the minister will have for his sermon topic, “Division of the Soul.” ■ Nineteen Cases On Docket For Trial In Superior Court -o Two-Week TVrm of Court Not Kxpwlwl Attract To Much Attention -o The Martin County Superior Court is opening a two-week term here next Monday for the trial of both criminal and civil cases. Judge Walter J Bone, absent from the bench in this county for sev eral years, is scheduled to return. There are nineteen cases on the criminal docket, but none of them is expected to attract much atten tion. Court officials are of the opinion that the criminal docket can be cleared in two days, mak ing it possible to start the trial of the civil calendar on Wednesday. Seventeen divorce cases are sche duled for trial the following Mon day, The nineteen criminal cases in clude the following: Henry Lee Fred Shelby, violat ing the motor vehicle laws. Shel by was convicted in the county court last December. He appeal ed and in March the ease was con tinued. He failed to appear last June and now the case is sched uled for trial next wegk. William Howard Cherry, drunk en driving. He appealed from a lower court judgment. Joe Walter Williams, drunken driving, appealed from the county court. John Markland Coulbourn, speeding, appealed from the coun ty court. W. F. Coppage, speeding, ap pealed from lower court. Simon D. Moore, removing pro perty on which a lien existed, ap pealed from lower courts. George Green and Ananias Thompson are charged with steal ing billfolds, containing $160, from the premises of Sadie Ruffin at Star Light Inn on August 7. Thu two are also charged with being drunk in public. Thomas Rogers is facing a man slaughter charge as a result of an attack made on Moses Harrell in Goose Nest on June 12. Bill Winbush is charged with assaulting Johnnie Bryant with intent to kill in Poplar Point on July 17. The two-year-old manslaughter charge against Goodman Spruill is to be called. Spruill, Hobgood col ored man, ran down and killed McKinley Jones, colored child, between Oak City and Hobgood on November U, 1946. He was ap prehended a week ago. Lafayette Pearsall is charged with attempting to break into the home of Mary Ella Pearsall here on July 17. L, R. Whitehurst, Wilmer Whitehurst, W. C. Whitehurst, Jr., and Bill Mozingo are charged with breaking into and robbing the store of Tom Clay of merchandise valued at more than $50 in Par mele on August 19. James Arrington is defendant in two cases, one for stealing a $275 outboard motor from Henry Lee Hardison on July 24 and a $50 cow from Clinton Jones in Wil liams Township the same day. Robert and Pearl Rodgers are charged with stealing from R. S. Critcher in his office here last April 15 papers that had been con veyed to Critcher, covering a mule, hogs, auto and household and kitchen furniture, also a mortgage conveyed to Critcher by George Brown, covering auto. Linwood Strickland is charged on or about June 20 with stealing 165 bales of peanut hay from-E. M. Mozingo in Goose Nest. The "•*#8»r,Mnue.1 on page suc)^ * o Soldier’s Body On Its Way Home The body of Clyde E. Mizelle, son of Mrs. Minnie Moore Mizelle Roberson, of Farm Life, and the late Joseph Mizelle of Jamesvitie Township, this county, is en route home for burial in native soil, tic wording to a message received by the young man’s mother yester day. The young man died in tppines on July No but it lot ir six weeks.