Newspapers / The Yancey Journal (Burnsville, … / March 2, 1950, edition 1 / Page 1
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••••iisiiaitaiiaiiaiiaiia'iauaiiaiiaiiaiiaofliianaiiaiiaiiaiiaMaii* VOLUME FOURTEEN SUB. RATES $1.50 YEAR. Construction of new Duplan Corporation Plant Here Will Begin Soon Bids for Grading Now Closing out of all arran gements for the establish ment here of the Duplan Colporation’s new weaving and throwing plant will be worked out within a few days. Transactions were com pleted last week at a meet ing of officials of the cor poration with the steering committee of the Sponsors of Industry for Yancey County. The corporation officials who were here Wednesday are E. C. Geier, president, J. K. Cochran, chief engi neer, John W. Davis, archi tect, and S. C. Veney, man ager of the southern divis ion. John Haesler, vice pre sident, was here Thursday. Members of the local committee are W. W. Hen nessee, H. W. Johnson, B. R. Penland, W. E. Anglin. H. S. Edge and Mark W. Bennett. The new plant will be located on a 14 acre site just west of Burnsville on the Asheville highway. Bids are being received for the grading which is expected to start within a week and construction as soon as pos sible. ~ Costing over a million dollars exclusive of equip ment, the plant will be of the very latest construction and will cover more Than three and a half acres. Ma shinery will include some owned by the company and some that will be purchas ed new for the mill here. of wide spread local interest in the new en terprise, further informa tion aboutT'the company and Announces Candidacy For Associate Justice , WM3wt ~' JHh , WW .i fe <# I' N ■ »I s§&> Oscar 0. Efird, Winston- Salem attorney, a former judge and former law tea cher, has announced that he will be a candidate for Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in the democratic primary which will be heldl May 27th. He will oppose Emery B. Denny, a present member of the Court. Mr. Efird graduated fi*om Roanoke College with an A. B. degree, and did graduate work in history and at Princeton, University where he re ceived an M. A. degree in 1913. He then operated a wholesale and retail groc ery business for several (Continued on page 8) 0 The Yancey Record -DEDICATED TO THE PROGRESS OP YANCEY COUNTY” Being Received its development has been obtained. The following very brief account is taken front the 50-year history of the company, published in 1948. The founding of the Du plan business was actually made in Lyons, France the silk weaving business of Monsieur Jean Leopold Duplan had devel oped well with the aid of his partner, Ferdinand Duringe. The mill produced fine silk fabrics and many of them were exported to the United States. When Con gress passed the tariff law of 1897 it became impracti cal for French firms to sell fabrics in America against the lower priced products of domestic mills and many foreign firms established branches in the United States. Duplan came to America late in 1897 and in Febru ary 1898 the new Duplan Silk Company was organi zed with seven stockhold ers. They leased one floor of a building in Bethlehem, Pa. and planned to weave fabrics as fine as those of the French Mill. At the directors’ meeting in 1899 Duplan recommend ed a major expansion in the business so that the mill could take its place among the older and important silk mills in the country. The new mill at Hazelton, Pa. was built. The entire history of the company has been one of expansion, progress, deve lopment of new processes, use of new materials. A Welzie Rildle Jr. and daughter Evelyn Watson have been ill of flu for the past week. Lewis Westall of Ham rick, a student at Burns ville Evening College, un derwent an appendectomy in Marion last week. - - - - ■ ■ ■ < "■■■ ■■ - - , ' > . ] „ , ' « st' « <-#<•* «T , »irwßii - i „ ■ djjp?. d* .•_ - -V,"' jr.- ’ '-!•.• « i>; .0 -.wnfa-* Bl . WMM» ,, ‘;- 'jJhs * ■ 4 y y _ , ■,• b lilWllj | i | [ | LA-t!BllilBBMSHi,' , -:--- v ; , ' ASSESS *"‘yflMtefruy rs ,* * Site for the Duplan Corporation Plant, al4 acre tract in West Burnsville. Bids for grading are now . bein « received. . ( p ho t o by John Ttobinson) BURNSVILLE, N. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 195(f company had been formed to make artificial silk in the states and the first quantity: made in this cou ntry was delivered to the Duplan mill for weaving experiments. When nylon hosiery yarn was introduced the com pany made plans for the production of this yarn, and mills were built near the hosiery factories, the first at Winston-Salem. Year after year the com pany’s technicians develop ed new fabrics, new pro cesses, new methods. New 'successes followed. Experi j menting was continuous [and the business had, long since taken its place among the important silk~mills of the country. When Duplan retired as president Paul C. Debry was elected to this office. This was in 1923, and the company continued to add new plants and expand the business. In 1937 Debry became chairman of the board and Ernest C. Geier was elected president and is still serv ing. He had started as a loom fixer in 1909; at Haz elton, Pa. he had invented new technical improve s merits';' in New York he had . purchased the raw mater ials and coordinated the selling and mill operations. Geier believed that stock holders, employees and the public should know how a , publicly owned company was operated. (In 1928 it , was decided to place the • stock on the New York Stock Exchange and the change was made from a (Continued on back page) NOTICE Names of some of the Sponsors of Industry for Yancey County are listed in this edition. Others will . be printed later as they are ■ reported to us. LAST RITES HELD FOR MRS. C. L. McPETERS Mrs. C. L. McPeters, 86, died Monday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. W. C. . Gillespie, in Burnsville, following a long illness. two dau i ghters. Mrs.|pllespie and Mrs. Roy F/ Wilson of Ok lahoma Cityi fOkla., and a son, Francis & McPeters of | Burnsville. i Funeral advices were held in Higgjns Memorial Methodist Church Tuesday at 2 p. m. with the Rev. F. R. Barber, th| Rev. Charles B. Trammel and the Rev. David Swartz officiating. Burial waaj|in Mclntosh Cemetery. » B. rT Penf|ind and Joe Young are attending the Small Busings Men’s As sociation invention in Washington, |D. C. Plans and Specifications For Bee Log School Completed —<;— Plans and specifications for the replacement of the Bee Log School building have been completed by Lindsey Gudger, Architect of Asheville, N. C., and have been forwarded to the State Board of Education for final apr oval. tD.irncclHi* -iiDOYi >*#»- cefpt of tnis approval thA Board of Education will ad vertise for bids on the pro ject. South Toe River school plans are nearly completed but due to the fact that this is a new building re quiring checking by the State Board of Education The Office of the Insurance Commission, The State Fire Marshal and the State Department of Public Hea- Ith and the progress of the plans on this building is not as rapid as on the other project. In conference with the Architect, Frank W. How ell, . Superintendent of I Schools,'estimated that the advertisement for bids for the South Toe Rivtr School would be issued about the Duplex Apartments Will Be Built -A Frank W. Howell, direc tor of Burnsville Evening College, has announced the , purchase of three lots on 1 Longview Drive by the col- 1 lege. Plans are for the build- . ing of two duplex houses ] which will be occupied dur ing the summer by mem- , jbers et the staff of the ' I School of Fine Arts of the [Woman’s College. Construction will begin within a few weeks. Basket Ball Game The American Legion team will play the Ashe ville Waste Paper Bombers in the Burnsville Gymna sium Monday night, March 6th. > I The Burnsville Girls All Star team will play the Beacon Mills girls team. middle or end to the steadily bettering of the price picture in school construction the local Boa rd of Education has timed the issuance of requests for bids on this project to take advantage of the best pos sible price conditions. It is 1 expected that the facili i-trelfkObtainable in the new school building will be con siderably in excess of those originally c o ntemplated, both in floor area and fix ed equipment, due to the steadily bettering of price conditions. Superintendent Howell stated that confer ences with the Architect | indicated that the bids ' should be taken at a time | to allow the construction of ! those portions of the build ‘ ing affected by weather in ; the summer months and [ the finishing in those mon ths when the construction industry could provide i more, better and cheaper ' labor. f .a ‘ r W. E. Anglin attended 1 Supreme Court in Raleigh 2 1 this week. . - '• T 1 1 n " *‘"^l. «• Governor Scott Will Present Plaque Here Friday i Governor Kerr Scott will be in Burnsville Friday to award a bronze plaque to the county, to attend a luncheon given in his honor and te uneet with district highway officials. The plaque will be pre sented at special exercises which will be held in the new Burnsville gymnasium beginning at 10:30 o’clock.; J. Frank Huskins will in troduce Gov. Scott who will make the award’ and the! plaque will be accepted by Frank W. Howell, superin tendent of schools. The luncheon will be held] at the Roberts and Johnson Home Service Department' ai 12, and the meeting of j the governor with district I road officials will be held following the luncheon. Named on the arrange ment committee are C. L. Proffitt, H. W. Johnson, J. Frank Huskins and Frank W. Howell. —■—- New Highway Patrolman I I Charles Long of Andrews! has been tlansferred from j Bakersville as Patrolman for Yancey County. J. R. Miller was transferred to McDowell County. N a than Dempsey was Burnsville Resident Snd Mighty Athlete Jack Dempsey’s Grand father Many Stories of His Prowess Handed Down V A Burnsville town c fi nance was once made “out lawing” Nathan Dempsey’s closed fist, or making it a felony instead of a misde meanor for him to strike any one with his closed , fist. This, after he had fell ed a half dozen hardy op , ponents in a free for all , slugging match. When this story w r as pub lished recently many in quiries were received about further Dempsey stories. The following informa tion is given by citizens of the county: -y Nathan Dempsey came to Burnsville in the 1850 s, set up his blacksmith shop, i lived here for a few years! during which he gained 1 much fame as an athlete, then moved on to the west. Why he happened to settle here, how long he stayed, why he moved on, whether he had a family or not— all these things are not de finitely known. There was a general movement west ward at that time and Dempsey was probably a part of that movement and didn’t live here very long. • Many facts, however, have been well established and handed down. Demp sey was a remarkable man in appearance, in athletic ability, in kind and jovial disposition. He lived in a hou.3e locat ed on the south side of the Burnsville Town Square. The house was destroyed by fire years ago but. the spring located near the house 3till has a good flow of water. The stump of the kèp NUMBER THIRTY-TWO Scott Will Speak at 100 Bushel Club Dinner With Governor Kerr Scott as principal speaker, the annual Farmers Feder ation tribute dinner for 100 bushel corn growers will be held in the George Vander bilt hotel Saturday at 12 o’clock. ! The dinner is given by [the Federation each year |to honor all farmers, Fut ure Farmers and 4-H club members in Western Nor th Carolina who have grown 100 or more bushels of corn on ohe acre of land. .The person raising the lar jgest number of bushels on an acre will be awarded a Isloo prize, it was stated. One hundred or more bushels of corn on one acre represents from three to five times the average number of bushels grown on one acre several years ago. Proper choice of hy brid corn, proper fertiliza tion and tending has in !creased the yields by this i large amount. E. L. Dillingham, Yan cey county agent, and J. N. ! Barnett are on the commit tee for the dinner. “Dempsey Bear Tree” stood until a few years ago. The tree was so called be cause Dempsey is reported to have driven nails in it to keep bears from scratching and damaging the tree. The location of the Dem psey place of residence was established by the state ment of R. W. Wilson, Bur nsville attorney. His grand father, Morton Shuford, operated the Carter-Ray Tannery nearby. Mr. Wil son’s mother was born in the house in 1856 and she was told by her parents that Nathan Dempsey had lived there. Most of the other infor mation was furnished by Charles L. Brown, local cit izen and close student of county history. His chief informant was “Uncle Wil jse” Allen who died five | years ago at the age of 94. { As a small boy “Uncle Wil se” had Dempsey pointed out to him, and heard many stories of his prowess thro ugh the years. According to his state ment, Dempsey was often seen in his Prairie Schoon er wagon and the wagon figured in at least one of his feats He could jump across" if standing flat footed! “Unde Wilse” was par ticularly specific in his des cription of Dempsey, both from being told. Well over six feet tall with tremend ous shoulders and chest, big hands with one of whi ch he could span his ankle, slim hips, small ankles and feet, Dempsey was approx imately 235 pounds of bone . and muscle. One of the most persistent reports was that he wore a size 7 shoe. Since there were in Bumsfille at (Continued on page 8) *• ' • •'<
The Yancey Journal (Burnsville, N.C.)
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March 2, 1950, edition 1
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