ES COUNTY
WBERXII
TRENTON, N. C.. THURSDAY JULY ZB. 1955
VOLUME VII
Past Half-way Mark
County-wide estimates indi
cate that the housing of toe 1956
Jones County tobacco crop is
now well past the half-way
marie, in many spots, however,
only one or two light “croppings”
have been taken from toe crop
which Is generally agreed to be
one of the biggest in the county’s
history. The big crop, with bifee
leaves and unusually high num
bers of leaves to the stalk is also
reported to be curing up very
well.
Jones School Bells
Bing Out August 29
Jones County school children
will he climbing aboard their
busses and getting at least par
tial relief from farm duties on
August 29th, Superintendent W.
B. Moore has announced.
Moore says that the Jones
County Board of Education has
decided to continue operation of
the county schools exactly as
they were last year, Insofar as
mixing races in concerned.
Moore says that the Jones
Board so Jar has had no com
plaint from school patrons on the
manner in which the schools are
being conducted and although
he admits the possibility that
petitions may toe forthcoming
lor integration of the white and
' " county’s
bearing upon the lfl
year.
school
‘ (Jne Jones Arrest
Jones County Sheriff Brown
TuteU reports one arrest during
the past week by Constable
Frank Griffin who arrested
Frank B. Murphy of Trenton
route two on charge of disorder
ly conduct and simple assault.
The warrant for his arrest was
signed (by Eugene Taylor. Mur
phy is free under $300 bond.
$1,000 Still Available
Jones County Sheriff Brown
Yates reminded this week that
the $1,000 cash reward is still
available for Information lead
ing to the arrest and conviction
of the man or men guilty of
robbing and assaulting Mr. and
Mrs. Leslie White in a brutal at
tack earlier this year. Several
suspects have been briefly held
for questioning and for checking
of alibis bat so far the perpetra
tor of the crime remains free.
Some over $600 in cash was
stolen from the White's in the
assault, which ptill has White on
crutches from a broken leg he
suffered in the attack. ..
Stella Area Students
Returning to Jones
A recent decision off the Car
teret County Board of Education
has reassigned some 50-odd stu
dents in the Stella section of that
county to the Maysville elemen
tary school and to Jones Cen
tra} High School.
Prolonged litigation oyer the
a recent Supreme Court deci
sion which said that the lltlga
tion had no point since the 1966
Session of the General Assem
bly had given county school
board the complete authority to
assign students to whatever
school they desire.
The litigation had been
brought late last summer against
the State Board of Education
which had supported the Car
teret school’s earlier decision to
send the children to Jones Coun
ty schools.
Triple Tragedy Hits
Kinston Family
On July 16 Lt. Larry French
Jr. was drowned on the west
coast where he was stationed
with the Air Force. Funeral ser
vices tor Young French, a State
College graduate, were held at
3 Sunday afternoon.
Following the runeral rites
Mrs. French, in the company of
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. U. O.
Downs of Norfolk, with a
younger brother, was returning
to her Norfolk Home.
Near Stokes in Pitt County
Downs failed to stop at a cross
roads and ran. into the path of
another oar. Mrs. French was
almost instantly killed, dying of
head and internal injuries.
Shortly afterwards an emergen
cy operation delivered her child,
that was not due until October.
The child lived for about a half
hour.
The 'entire Downs family was
hospitalized but none suffered
serious injury except the fatal
injuries of Mrs. French.
Downs was indicted for failure
to yield the right of way and
tor manslaughter.
J
Attorney General of Lebanon Visits
Friends and Relatives in This Area
Sgt. Winfred Green
Now at Yokohama
YOKOHAMA — Sgt. Winfred
O. Green, son of E. G. Green,
Route 1, Trenton, is assigned to
the Yokohama Engineer Depot
in Japan.
Sergeant Green, assl s t a n t
warehouse forman in storage
division of the 8056th Aimy Uuit,
entered the Army in 1948. He
completed basic, training at Port
Jackson, S. Q, and arrived In
the Par East in May of this
year.
District VFW Meet
W. N. Knight, State Director
of Public Relations for the North
Carolina Department, Veterans
of Foreign Wars, has announced
that the Second V. F. W. dis
trict will meet In LaGrange,
Sunday, July SI, at 2 P. M. The
Second District includes the
counties of Hyde, Beaufort, Pitt,
Greene, Lenoir and Wayne. Elvy
Forrest of areenvttle is com
mander of the district and will
preside over the business session.
r
Lenoir County’s Oldest Mill Being Renovated
What is almost certainly Le
noir County’s oldest water mill,
now the property of Herman R.
King of Southwest Township is
undergoing considerable repair
and renovation. Concrete spill
aways are being installed at two
places in the 200-year old dam
which usually impounds the wa
ters of Southwest Creek into the
county’s largest millpond, some
312 acres of water that has an
average depth of from five to
seven feet.
The huge pond has now been
drained, for the first time in
more than 20 years in order to
permit workmen to make the
changes planned by King, who
is being advised hy Isler Davis,
another mill owner of Lenoir
County.
The exact age of King’s mill
and millpond property is not
known. For most or the modem
era It has been called Kelly’s
Millpond, and in other days in
the Twenties, when it was a
favorite recreation area for the
Kinston section, it was named
Lakeside, the name King still
retains for his milliiig opera
tion.
But the “Kelly” got into the
millpond name long, long after
the millpond and It’s half-mile
long dam were created.
King, naturally interested in
the history of his property, has
gone to some trouble and ex
pense to determine all that local
i records afford on the subject.
The earliest recorded mention
of the pond and mill was in a
deed, dated October 26, 1765,
when the owner at that time,
one Thomas Box, sold the mill
and surrounding plantation to
Kittrell Mundine and Benjamin
.1 .
This Is also a rare view of the
two water wheels which furnish
||| power for two of the millstones
that rrind a roodly portion of
uie meal consumed to the Kin
ston section. Soon they will be
re-encl06ed in a new box and
ready for the whirl of water
against the turbine Made*. |p|
This is a seldom-seen-view of
Lenoir County’s oldest and larg
est millpond, now owned and
operated by Herman R. King,
and perhaps best known as Kel
ly’s Millpond. The 312-acre lake
which normally furnishes power
for the mill has been 'drained to
permit renovation and moderni
zation of the mill dam and spill
ways. King says he hopes to be
ready'to start “catching water”
within another three weeks. ..
Doty. All three of these are fam
ily names that have disappeared
from this section, with the pos
sile exception of “Doty” which
might have been a misapplica
tion of the “Daughety” family
name which is still well-repre
sented in this part of the state.
The next mention of the mill
was made December 12, 1768,
when Mundine and Doty sold a
three-fourths interest in the land
add mill to Major Croom. Croom
was one of the county’s most im
portant early settlers and scion
of one at Its most numerous and
best known families of today.
Croom, who was one of the
county’s largest landowners, dis
posed of the mill and plantation
on March 23’, 1772 to Richard
Caswell, soon to become the
county’s most illustrious citizen.
Caswell didn’t keep the pro
perty long either. On January 13,
1783, he deeded the mill and
plantation to Jesse Cobb. Cobb
was the gxeat-great-great grand
father of County Auditor Katie
Cobb.
In March of 1800 Jesse Cobb
deeded the mill and land to his
son John Cobb. John Cobb died
without leaving a will and Com
missioners P. Hardee, B. Cole
man, N. O. Blount, Louis Des
mond and S. B. Carraway were
appointed by the court to divide
his holdings- part of that divi
sion included the mill which
went to John Cobb’s son, Jesse.
(Continued on page 8)
On Monday of this week Kin
ston had a most distinguished
visitor in the person of Chafie
Hatem, Attorney General of
Lebanon, (at right above) who
in the company of several East
ern Carolina relatives came to
Kinston to visit, Raymond Far
ris, left above, a friend of Ha
tam’s father, who came to
America in 1912 from Lebanon.
Hatem, whose title is “Direc
teur General de La Justice”, has
been in the United States for
the past two weeks, negotiating
witt} officials of the World Bank
in Washington for a loan of 27'
million dollars to his country.
Hateta reported that the ne
gotiations had been successfully
completed but for the “formali
ties” and that the loan had been
approved. Upon this successful
completion of his official busi
ness, he then took a few days to
visit relatives and close family
friends, among whom were Fred
Maroon, a cousin of Wilson, and
Nassef Cannon of Farmville, an
other, cousin. These cousins,
along with Hatesn’s uncle, John
Joseph of Decatur, Indiana,
made the trip to Kinston so that
Hatem could visit Farris, a very
close friend of his father’s
The 27 million dollar loan, Ha
tem pointed out, is to be used to
build a TVA-like hydro-electric
and irrigiation project on the
Litani River which runs through
almost the entire length of his
native land.
In addition to adding ma
terially to the electrical energy
supply of Lebanon, Hatem
pointed out that the project
would also make possible the
irrigation of approximately 72,
000 hectares of now arid land.
(This is roughly 175,000 acres.)
How much this irrigation
means to the country is indicated
by the fact that the entire Re
public of Lebanon is only 3,475
square miles, which is only
2,224,000 acres.
This gives a fairly good idea
of the size of Lebanon, since
North Carolina has an area of
52,426 square miles, which makes
it about 45 times larger than
Lebanon.
Latest population figures for
Lebanon were 1,238,000, or about
one third the papulation of
North Carolina, which indicates
that it is far more thickly popu
lated than the Tar Heel State.
Lebanon was formed in 1020
from ^ive former Turkish dis
tricts: North Lebanon, Mount
Lebanon, South Lebanon, Beirut
and Bekan. Until 1946 it was
administered under French Man
date but since that time is has
enjoyed full freedom and opera
tes under a parliamentary sys
tem in which the members of
the parliament elect the presi
dent for a six year term. The
present, and first president of
Free Lebanon is Beshara al
Khoury.
Lebanon is primarily an agri
cultural nation in which the
Continued on page 8