COUNTY
VOLUME FIVE TRENTON, N. C, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1954.
NO. 38
■
Power Plant Superintendent Albert Scott
Aiiuerv ouuib JLt> me jljcujul ujl
the 240 employees of the City
of Kinston and by a pretty good
margin, having been employed
without interruption since Aug
ust 1911—the exact date has es
caped his memory as well as
the “memory” of the city's offi
records.
team
that supplies the sendees that
so many take for granted there
have been some considerable
changes in the “Old Home
Town.” And not the least of
these has taken place in the
city-owned power plant where
Scott has pulled all of his
“hitch.”
Scott was born near what i6
now Oxley’s Crossroads In Jones
County on October 25, 1-881,
wh ch puts him in his 63rd year
now. He was one ol six chil
dren born to the late S. W. and
Leah Andrews Scott and he still
owns the “old home place.”
After his schooling had start
ed at a crossroads “little school
house” and progressed some
more in the schools in Tren
ton, Scott with his family moved
to Kinston — a distant 18
miles away in those slow-trav
elling times. Scott and his fam
ily took up residence in Kinston
In the winter of 1904-05 and he
added more to his schooling at
the old Rhodes Military Acad
emy which sat atop the beau
tiful hill now occupied by Me
morial General Hospital and the
borne of Mi^. Heber McCoy.
In August 1911, shortly before
his 20th birthday, Scott became
one fourth of the labor force at
the city’s tiny power plant.
Scott and the late Ernest Dunn
were the i'operators” of the two
generators the ci$ then proudly
boasted—one ofi 50 kilowatt ca
pacity and the other of 80 kil
owatt capacity. The only other
employees were the firemen,
Negroes Bill Reed end Charlie
Jarman, both of whom have also
passed on.
Those two tiny generators and
two handfired boilers supplied
Kinston of 19U with what
"" it got. The population
that 42-year-ago time stood
6,995, Scott recalls of
^ V \
worked 12 hours and were
Highlights In
The Past Week
Harold Adams of Albertson
route one In Duplin County,
Leslie Stroud Jr. of Kinston,
route four and Willie Qenett of
South Street in
loaded down by some
72 jars of stumphole whisky
Friday night by Officers Sam
Ives and Harold Cogdell of the
Kinston Police Department.
Bids were opened Tuesday on
the new elementary school that
is to be built soctn just North
east of the Kinstoin City Limits
awd 'School officials were well
pleased with the bidding which
was considerably lower than
had been anticipated by archi
tects and some school board
members. After the bidding had
been reviewed, and after the al
ternates had been decided upon
it was found that all four of the
major bids were placed by Kin
ston firms. O. L. Shackelford
was low bidder on the general
contract for the 20-room school.
Horace Ervin Electric Company
was low bider for the wiring of
the building and the Kinston
Plumbing and Heating Company
was low bidder on both the
plumbing and heating work in
the school. As soon as a de
tailed review of the bids is made
by Architect John Rowland, the
contracts will be signed and
work will begin soon afterwards.
The total of the bids was slight
ly in excess Of the $520,000
available for the this much
,needed school and. the review
See Past Week Page 12
off 12 hours. No holidays. Sev
en days every week in the year
and the only way we could get
time off was for Dunn to stand
an extra shift for me, or me for
him.”
Scott remembers the boilers
that produced steam for those
early generators :g “They were
hand-fed of course, largely with
wood slabs purchased from local
sawmills and occasionally a lit
tle coal would be used.”
Then the “light plant”-os most
Klnstonlans call it, underwent
■ See Scott Page 7
Tax Article Backfires Due to Wrong
Impression Some Got of the Listing
By Harvey’s Which was the Highest
The recent series of articles
in this paper having to do with
inventories listed by_JKinston
merchants for purpose of tax
ation has caused some misun
derstandings, at least one of
which seems to persist in spite
of every effort that can be
made to end it.
In the original story (Decem
ber 25th) in a listing of inven
tories listed for taxation by lo
cal department stores it was
stated, correctly, that the fol
lowing valuations were on the
tax books: Sidney’s $18,500,
Bfird’s $16,030, (Pennyls $63,
340, A. J. Sutton’s $14,750, Har-.
ry Pearson’s $18,975, Nacham
son’s $20,185, Brody’s $32,650,
Belk-Tyler’s $36,000, Montgom
ery Ward’s $35,415, Harvey’s
$35,565 and Sear’s $64,580.
Last week a further article in
this connection pointed out that (
the $35,565 listing for Harvey
only included the inventory list
ings of the Harvey department
store and did not include the
entire Harvey listing.
It was felt that since other
department store listings were
included
thereat
in this category that
pn^llc would be able
listing. But #1$ was a flatter
ling impression to have of the
reading public since many per
sist in the belief that $35,565 is
the total listing of the Harvey
business establishment between
Queen and Heritage Streets.
Such is certainly not the case.
Added to the department store
listings from Harvey of $35,
565 are the shoe department
listing of $8,770 and the appli
ance and machinery listing of
$60,545 which make a total in
ventory listing for the Harvey
businesses between Queen and
Heritage Streets of $104,880.
This does not include real es
tate or store fixtures but is only
the inventory listing.
Felix Harvey HI, president of
the Harvey Company, points
out that he shares 100 per cent
the views of this paper and its
effort to obtain a more real
istic inventory listing from lo
cal merchants. s Harvey under
standably did not like the wrong
iimpresion that so many people
had gained from the Decem
ber 25th article in this paper,
since rather than being among
the “lowest listers” Harvey’s
rates among the very highest.
The $35,565 listing for its de
partment store which did not
include the store’s shoe de
partment is, by far, the highest
department store listing in the
county as a review of the fig
sprinted above clearly in
xt'jt r "? y- ...
Pecularirly enough, this pa
per published the original article
with the express purpose in
mind of embarrassing the ab
surdly low listers in this in
ventory category but apparently
Above is a picture of Sergeant
First Class Guy T. Eubanks Jr.
'.vho has now been officially de
clared killed in action by the De
partment of Defefnse. Sgt. Eu
banks, son of Mr. and Mrs. Guy
T. Eubanks df Trenton route
one, had been on the missing
in action list since September
5, 1950.
ended up in causing the most
acute and erroneous embar
rassment to the highest lister
rather than the lower.
"Viewed from a volume ‘ at
! store-square-footage position
Harvey’s listed inventory for its
department store is a model
that many of those low listen*
on Queen Street might strive
to copy.
Spaniel Saves Family Of Six
Last Saturday night the James
Braxton family of Grafton
Route two—just across the river
from Grifton proper—went to
bed as usual and to sleep.
Mrs. Braxton says that about
11 o’clock she was awakened by
the whining and pawing of their
pet cocker spaniel ‘Blackjack”
who had Jumped onto her bed.
On arousing, Mrs. Braxton
found the house filled with
smoke and afire. Her four chil
dren that were at home and her
husband were all still asleep
when she was waked by “Black
jack.”
Mrs. Braxton hurriedly aroused
the other five members of the
family and along with “Black
ack” they beat a hasty retreat
from the house which was by
that time afire all over.
The Grifton Fire Department
answered the call but by the time
they arived it was too late to
save any part of their home or
its contents.
With boys six and 10 years of
age and girls 5 and 4 the Brax
tons are in need of every thing
that goes to make a home—fur
niture, clothing and most par
ticularly bed clothing.
“Blackjack,” the hero of this
incident is a solid black cocker
who has yet to reach his first
birthday. The Braxtons got
him last spring about tobacco
transplanting time when he was
a tiny ball of black Wool. He is
NOT for sale, at any price, the
entire Braxton Family agrees.
■
‘Blackjack,” seen here sitting
in the lap of Mrs. Janies
£raxion, will not be a year old
for several months yet bat he
SB already a Hero of the' first
water. His anxious whining
and pawing that awakened Mrs.
Braxton last Saturday night
quite probably saved her life
and the life of her husband and
four children when their home
and, cts entire contents were
totally destroyed by fire. (Pola
roid photo-in-a-minute by Jack
Rider.)
. . * • ^ :
\...