Jones Fair Association
Holds Slipper Meeting;
New Director Named
The Jones County Agricultural
'Fair Association held a supper
meeting Feb. 13 at the Jones Cen
tral School cafeteria. The direc
tors chosen for the next three year
tetpn were Dan Verne Ison, w. W.
.Lowery andMrs.‘Richard Harker.
One of the items discussed during
the business meeting was that at
exhibits. A $25 award has been
offered to the Home Demonstrar
tfon Club winning the most prem
iums, instead of the most exhibits,
as in the 1956 fair.-Also, it Was
announced that fireworks will be
shown each at the five nights of
the fair- The new committees for
1957 are as follows:
Fair Catalog — J. R. Franck,
R. F. Wadkin And Dan Vernelson.
Program J. H. Pollack, M.
B. Wright an$ John Yates
livestock — Denfold Eubanks,
Bill Duval, and Marivern Banks
Beauty Contest — Mrs. W. W.
Lowery, Mis. Joe Becton and Mrs.
Hugh Lofltin
T%nt Committee — p. N. Banks,
Edward Banks and Elvert Andrews
Space — C. M. Gray Jr., W. J.
Johnson' and Donald Brook
Field Crop — Ross Johnson Jr.,
amt Mack Curtis.
Horticulture Rom Mallard and
G. T>Koonce Jr. <'
Fa^tie Cox.
week in a’ row
whisky industry of
County’s western frontier in
Township suffered at the
of Sheriff Brown Yates.
a small “family
urn up just west
258, “not too far from the
we got last week”, Sheriff
7i;: Yates reports this week.
Four barrels of mash at the still
iV Site, indicated that it was not com
, peting too strongly with Schetnley.
j T-3 Bryant Griffin
' New in 11th Division
MUNICH, GERMANY (AHTNC)
| — Army Specialist Third Class
This rather repotted Buick bo
ngs to Hilton Moor* of Kinston
nd It cam*, to tMk sodded stop
uesday afternoon .t iboot 4:30
Mb Mooje was driving east on
C-12 about a mile from the Jones
ponty /Une in lenotr County*
ibra.says/.he was driving about
) to SS mite* *i$; hpor In a ra
wr heavy shower falling at that
me. The ear hit a puddle of wa
li.o ourvef . iwf *•*» :«*
■pb^-and caused it to swerve
sharply to the left. Moor* Mid he
was afraid sudden braking would
have tlimed the car over, so he
decided 'to steer his way out of
the difficulty but the shoulder was
toe slick and the result is shown
above. Moore and a passenger
qs^apodiniory and damage to the
car was slight, Letand Tucker* an
accotnodxting highway department
■foreman, used his truck to pull
*»*»re onto the highway .«• ho
could proceed on his way
■ , auijHt'a~V1* Vi'.f vJ.’W' 3, :
Tax Research Report Furnishes
Interesting Comparisons in
Jones. Lenoir, Other Counties
The .biennial report ot the North
OaMdina Tax Research Depart
ment agaih confirms the wide dif
ference among North Carolina’s
100 counties jn their willingness
to tax themselves. A pair cf ex
amples 'which reflect extreme
points of view are the sister coun
ties of Jones and Lenoir.
Jpnes County had at the last
official count 11,004 citizens and
Lenoir County had 45,953 potential
tax payers within its borders.
. For the fiscal year 1955-56 Jones
Countians through their board of
county commissioners taxed them
selves in the total amount of
$136,280 while Lenoir Countians
were Weeding much more freely
to their .county (government which
exacted $798,302 from their thin
hides’and then took another $222,
210 that year from them in pro
fits from county-owned , liquor
stores. Which proves to be a county
government bite in Jones of $12.38
per year for each citizen. In Le
noir the price goes up to $22.25
per capita.
But this is just a tiny part of
the grossly different cost of taxa
tion in Jones and Lenoir counties.
and
the 1955-56 report
collected $11,052 and
Trenton’s tax collections amounted
to $9,079. But in Lenoir their are
three city tax departments, Kin
ston, La Grange and Pink Hill, and
their collections ran $389,573 for
Kinston, $13,932 for La Grange and
Bryant Griffin, son of Mr. and
Mrs. C. M. Griffin of Comfort, is
a member of the 11th Airborne
Division in Munich Germany.
Specialist Griffin is assigned to
Company M of the division’s 503d
Infantry Regiment. He. entered
the Army in August 1954 and com
pleted basic training at Fort Jack
son, S. C.
The 19-year-old soldier attended
Jones Central High School, Tren
ton.
$7,271 for Pink Hill. When the tax
payers' of these Lenoir County
towns figure up, they do, they
have "been bitten at the rate of
$43.49 per capita in Kinston, $41.08
in Pink Hill and $29.77" in La
Grange. /
Trentonians are taged at the
rate of $31.73 per capita by their
town and county governments and
Maysvillians are asked to pay
$25.89 per capita to their city and
county tax collectors. •
But if one thinks the spread be
tween the Lenoir and Jones County
Jax bite is something, consider
Mecklenburg County. There in
Charlotte the per capita - tax is
$79.22 per year, and in the county
the rural rate without any city
tax collections added the Mecklen
burg tax levy is $23.51 per capita
per year.
Further study of these vast gaps
between the tax paying habits of
Tar Heelia’s 100 counties comes
when such counties as Avery where
the per capita tax payment per
year i$ $8.51. For the citizen of
Charlotte who pays $79.22 opr capi
ta city and county tax also have
to assume some of the obligations
Avery County,
In school bond issues for the
State of North Carolina the theory
has been to give such counties as
Avery a much higher percentage
of the money derived from the
bond issues than such counties as
Mecklenburg receive, that is on a
per capita division. Federal monies
are made available upon this same
formula of taking from the rich
counties and giving to the poor,
only with federal handing out is
based on taking from the rich
states and giving to the poor states.
Statisticians and sociologists la
bor over the implications of such
a situation, as do people interested
in principles of government. The
status of North Carolina as a state
is comparable to that of Jones as
a county.
Among the 48 states North Caro
lina has by far the largest pro
portion of its people working in
agriculture. Among the 100 coun
ties of North Carolina there are
few, if any with higher percentage
of their citizens engaged in farm
ing than Jones County,
Comparisons of per capita an
nual income make tooth North
Carolina and* Jones County seem
pityfully low. The statisticians
must try to answer the question:
is this a reflection of un-reported
income from farmers, or is it sim
ply a brutal gap between urban
and rural incomes? Hie sociolo
gist tangles with another aspect of
the same problem: Which is a
more accurate index to health and
happiness, per capita income or
actual standard of living?
Even North Carolina Governor
Luther Hodgegs would lie reluc
tant to insist that the low per
capita income fanner of Jones
Ooupty is not living at a level su
perior to that of a high,per capi
ta income worker in New York or
Chicago.
Whether the importance of act-'
ual cash in pocket or final manner,
of living should be given prece
(Continued on page 4)
'Eternal Triangle' Blamed in
Tuesday Murder of Jake Koonce
By Jasper Metis in Comfort
This picture was taken from
near the spot where Jasper Metts
stood Tuesday afternoon when fir
ing two .22 caliber rifle bullets
into the back of Jake Koonce's
head. Koonce came out of Battle's
store shown here and walked in
the direction of Metts, until he
got to the corner of the filling sta
tion where he turned and started
to run down the side .of the station
wall. He fell between this washpan
sitting on the box and the towel
just beyond and was dead a few
seconds later.
This picture indicates where
Koonce lay after being shot, be
side the towel and near the pan
of water which was used t.o wash
away the blood from the two bul
let wounds.
Although no one was willing to
talk “on the record” conversation
without direct quotes freely blamed
an “eternal triangle” situation for
the Tuesday afternoon murder of
Jake Ezra Koonce of Poliocks
vdlle by 43 year-old Jasper Metts,
Comfort filling station operator.
Koonce, 33, accompanied by a
nephew, E. W. Jenkins also of Pol
locksville, stopped in Comfort at
about 2 p. m. Tuesday at Charlie
Battle’s general store for a Coke.
Battle’s filling station is about 75
to 100 yards west of the store
operated by Metts, and on the
opposite side of NC Highway 43
which runs through Comfort.
Witnesses say that while Koonce
and his nephew drank their Coke
Metts came from his filling sta
tion with a .22 caliber automatic
rifle and engaged in a brief scuf
fle with his brother who tried to
take the gun from him.
Koonce’s car was parKed to the
southwest comer of the Battle
store and Jenkins says that when
he and Koonce came out of the
station Metts opened fire. “I don’t
know how many times he shot”,
Jenkins admits he was too busy
ta'king cover.
Koonce who was very near the
southwest comer of the station,
turned and ran north, along the
west wall of the Battle establish
ment, but he did not get far. Two
of the .22 long bullets hit him
squarely in- the back of the head
and he fell, in the grass.
.Metts returned io his filling
station, surrendered the rifle to
his brother and then got in his car
and drove to Trenton where he
surrendered to Sheriff Brown
telling him, “I killed Jake
from Comfort preceded
that Metts was on his way and
that Koonce was shot.
Those first to reach Koonce
turned him over on his hack and
say he gasped a few breathes and
died.
Koonce, a native Jones CounUan,
had a long record of various law
Coot. On Page 4
Comfort Trio Booked
After Fracas Where
Knives Were Involved
Jones County Sheriff Brown
Yates indicted three men from the
Comfort section after a fracas last
week in which two suffered knife
wounds.
Haywood Philyaw and Hugh
'Garrison were each charged with
'assault with a deadly weapon and
William Banks was accused of pub
lic drunkenness in the same scuf
fle.
Patrolman Mercer
Gets Three Lenoir
Men on Liquor Charge
Trenton Highway Patrolman
Bert Mencer last week indicted a
trio of Lenoir Coumtians who came
over into Jones while celebrating
the visit of one who is now living
in Augusta, Georgia.
The trio included Franklin Hill
and Dallas Freeman of Deep Run
route one and Blaney Hill, a for
mer resident of the same section^
now residing in Georgia.
' The changes against each mem
ber of the party were identical:
Public drunkenness and possession
of stumphole whisky. Mercer says
they had “more in ’em than they
bad in the jar." Which reportedly
Was only about one.third full.