Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Sept. 6, 1950, edition 1 / Page 1
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mSm NUMBER 17 'o Lenoir County The Rumor By Rumor Story From March 25th t<§ Close of the Big Deal on March 25, 1050 County Representative Lenoir Marlon Parrott was unusually busy with a series ofjngtt* matteTs'ln his V^fflce on East Gordon — — -era —-Street he #an interrupted by a law] arhen „ .—_ „ UJ «, visit, from Dave Smith of Wil mington. Although a Stranger to Parrott, Smith, like Parrott was an alumnus ofr The Citadel and he stated his business briefly. He had come to Kinston to at tend to another matter but had found a telegram waiting at Ho tel Kinston calling the deal off. Being an active and ardent Citadel alumnus, Smith told Par rott that he had decided to stop in and see if he could get a do nation ior tneur alma mater. Needless to say, Parrott, very busy with an accumulation of matters, was not too deeply con cerned over the state of the Cit adel Alumni Association treas ury. But In politely endeavoring to get rid of Smith, Parrott had revealed to him the larger pur pose that had brought Smith up from Wilmington. Smith said that negotiations had been underway for some time with Henry B. W. Canady for an option on a 635 acre tract of land in Contentnea Neck (Township. Smith’s employee, the Atlantic Coast TJ.n^ > this Option for trying get Industrial ——... id in,,i mimm forgotten his legal problems and was all *ars. He asked Sinith to sit down and asked hjjgif he would con sent to tattim several >wgde that he'd like: to call jn on the discussion. Smith agreed, al though he pointed out that there was little good in doing this, since it was apparent from the telegram he had received on ar riving In Kinston th&t the “deal was off.” still grabbing at this multi million dollar straw Parrott called Ely Perry, real estate a gent and chairman of the in dustrial committee of the local chamber of commerce. Then he called Leo Harvey who b just about the biggest gear that the county'affords^; — • fewnjiiititW.flw four men self heads together listen wha^he mM^already'^d tt. ■ Not too mm ady was casl&d inch'd ^ etde pf the problem was Resented, He fUd that he most assuredly was not opposed to a big plant’ com ing to the county and he would cooperate in any way to help. However, be pointed out that his refusal to do business with earl ier representatives came from their methods. “Their method”, Canady stat ed, "consisted of sticking an op tion under my nose and telling me to, “sign it.” By the 27th the wrinkles were Ironed out,of the question and an option was given to Mr. Dave L. Smith for the purchase of the 035 acres. The option was to ex pire on June 30, 1950. About the only request made by Smith was one specifically on the subject of publicity. He asked through Parrott that it be kept out of the-local papers if at all possible. Parrott' talked with both newspapea# and re ceived their quick agreement to let the thing stay In the rumor stage until some definite and positive step toward purchase, of the site was taken. Once the option was obtained officials of “the company” start ed visiting the county. Soon aft er their arrival they saw another site that looked good-and here again they called on Parrott. Harvey and Perry to get options. This trio enrolled l|al(e West, local tractor dealer, as a most valuable assistant in this option getting effort, since instead of one man to deal with, as in the case of Canady, eleven options had to be obtained in order to get the amount of land that “the company” wanted. unce tnese sites were under option geologists moved in and began checking both for water potential and for strength of foundation. After iht>longed checks the newer site came up short in the foundation depart ment. The Canady site got a good mark in this department and remained in the race. On June 30th the option was re newed until September 1st. During this time identical checks were being made at an optioned site in Wayne County near Grantham, at a site near Fayetteville and another near Btoirenee, S. O'. one knew had the edge except a The top level pf “the introduce name but not ss affiliations. Heard was "These men want to ride around and look over Kinston. They want to ask a lot of ques tions bu/t they don’t want to be asked any questions.” Heard, who had more than an Inkling of what was going on, agreed without having his arm twisted. For several hours they Here Is Where Huge Plant Will Be south toward Kinston. Visible in the picture are the Highway and Atlantic Coast line Tracks. The aura purchased by the Delaware company Bos between the highway and Neuse Hirer which is to the left and Just out of the picture. (Photo hy Whltaker-LeCfew) Missed The Boat Editor Jack Rider went home in a hurry Tuesday to pat a tie and a clean shirt on when he was told that the rep resen ts tire of the Da Pont Com pany was coming around to pass oat this official poop on the purchase of a site for a huge nylon plant in Lenoir County’s Gontentnea Neck Township. While home, Rider stopped off long enough to in hale an tasty apple dumpling in addition to the quick change act. When he came steaming back into his office a few min utes later at 1:30 all prettied up for the 2 p.m. appointment he found that the biggest story in this history of Kinston had been handled by C. B. Lod gaard, production manager of the Ldhoir County News Co. wearing his dirty apron and his hands covered with ink. rode, missing very few of Kins ton’s streets. They asked abou taxes, property prices, rents buildlrig costs, schools, recrea tion facilities and a lot mon things, Heard kept his promlsi and answered all the question and In spite of his king size( curiosity he asked none. By now the proposition wai street comer gossip. It was h cost anywhere from a half mil lion dollars to a fialf billion It was another hydrogen boml plant, a paper mill—The stink My Goodness! The usual belly achers had their comer stand and were giving odds that “Ob Ely will slip around and get 1 on his land sotnehow.” Harve1 ' had a little of this ' Kind a - on it" themselyes: (ige too. The Wayne County site tume< up short on the availability o Water and the Goldsboro crowi threw in their sponge and be gan rooting for Lenoir County From Goldsboro one amusing ru mor drifted out to the effeci that Lenoir County had gotter the nod over Wayne because Le noir Commissioners had hac “the foresight to buy a site anc Here’s Du Pont’s Official Release On Purchase Of Site For Lenoir Facfory give It to ‘tile company’ free of charge.” On August l, 1950 a five car special train pulled by a swanky, freshly painted diesel locomotive pulled in on the ACL. This was a sight in itself since it had been over a decade since passenger thrains had run on this ACL line. n,R?Ur.°™ offlclals admitted that ACL President C. McNeil Davis wap aboard the special train as well as ACL Vice-Pres ident L. C. Jeffords and C. G. Sibley and to keep these number one gears company was none other than F. B. Langley of Sa vannah, Ga., general superin tendent of the ACL. When ques tioned about the rest of the par ty of some dozen men aboard the train the railroaders clam med up tighter than a fright ened oyster. For one hour and five min utes the train sat at the siding between Gordon and North streets, waiting for five men who had gone in an automobile out to the Canady Site. When they returned the train pulled out and rumors really got into high gear. During the following week rur mor had it that T. A. Loving East Carolina’s biggest building contractor was organizing a group to build 1,000 residential dwellings in Kinston. sivne week that the X&ft tssL-zr-'’- — - j—'ont’xk Nemours had been engaged tc construct a hydrogen bomb plant Hie story went on to point oul that a 200,000 acre site would be required for this project. That did not deter local rumor mak ers, however, who quickly for got the 635 acre size of the lo cal site. Some local folks were moving to the mountains. Some even (Continued on Back Page E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company has taken an option on a tract of approximately 635 acres on the Neuse River be tween Kinston and Graingers for the site of a nylon plant “We are looking forward with pleasure to this new location to the South,” said A. E. Buchanan Jr., assistant general manager of Du Pont’s Rayon Department, to making the announcement here today. “We have had mutually finp relations with the people where our other plants are located add we will be working closely with the people of the Kinston atea from now on,” said Mr. Buchan an. He was accompanied by Dr. G. W. Filson, manager of the Nylon Division; C. W. Switzer, assistant manager, and William T. Wood, director of nylon pro duction. Located on the northeast bank of the river about six and a half miles from Kinston, the tract Is bounded by State Highway 11 and is adjacent to the main line of the Atlantic Coast Line Rail way. Approximately 1,200 people will be required to operate the plant when completed. Construction work, which will be handled by the Engineering Department of the Du Pont Company with sub contracts for such specialities as job conditions warrant, is ex pected to start eart . I n in jin- 1,1 months will be required for com pletion after start of construc tion. The plant here will be Du Ponts fourth nylon yam plant and the ninth major expansion of its nylon manufacturing fa cilities since World War II. The world’s first plant at Seaford, Del., is being expanded at pres ent as is the plant which was opened at Chattanooga, Tenn., In 1948. Both projects the sched uled for completion early next Two weeks ago, the company announced an expansion pro ject for the plant at Martins ville, Va., which was built in 1941 and enlarged in 19455-46 Immediately after the war Du Pont completed a new plant at Orange, Texas, for the manu facture of nylon basic chemical ingredients. Construction is un der way on a new plant at Vic toria, Texas, for the manufacture of additional basic ingredients while capacity for other basic materials required in the produc tion of nylon is being expanded at a unit of the Niagara Falls, N. Y., plant which was built in 1947-48. In addition to nylon yam, Du Pont’s Rayon Department man ufactures viscose process rayon at Buffalo, N. Y„ Old Hickory, Tenn., and Richmond, Va. Ace tate rayon is manufactured at Waynesboro, Va., and “Orion” acrylic fiber is produced at Cam den, S. C. Measles Outbreak In Lower Jones A minor outbreak of measles has many school-age boys and girls in the Hunter Creek section of Jones County missing the first weeks of school, Public . Health Nurse Alma Vassey reports. Not considered a serious outbreak but enough to cause comment, some 17 boys and giris are absent with official leave due to attacks of “red measles", she says. '
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Sept. 6, 1950, edition 1
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