Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Aug. 18, 1960, edition 1 / Page 1
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C, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1960 VOLUME XII Begins Journey to Market Once Again i major _ KH En ■too. The earliest histories of Kingston • mention a tobacco warehouse on the banks of Neuse River. Today, despite the amazing growth of beef and hog production for market in the Kinston area, despite the huge Du Pont Dacron plant and despite the concentra tion of needle work factories in the'Kinston area TOtBAOOO is still the kingpin of the Kinston economy. Dollar-wise, employment-wise and certainly emotion-wise tobac co has no close competitors for top billing in Eastern Carolina in gen eral and the Kinston area in par ticular. From January 1 to December 31 tobacco IS king, but Kang Nicotine bolds court each year from mid August until early November when the faithful pay homage in the huge “palaces of tobacco” where uie peculiar mmiill me aucuuueer and the sign language of the to bacco buyer comb'fle tp indicate whether King Tobacco has been good or bad to his servants. Although Kinston exerts every effort to become something more than a seasoral “market town” it still glistens in its most material splendor when itlS a market town, and the royalty checks pour forth from the dozen tooacco ware houses. In 12 .to 13 weeks while King Nicotine’s court is jn session well over a half infllion dollars a day will .pour out—in the gootf years— and. the happy tune of cash regis ters ringing brings smiles to the habituaPy long faces'of the mer chant classes. Into town come people who haven’t been to town since “last tobacco selling.” They cash their checks, make their purchases and return iv uieir sucaucxcu, acvici ic treats to talk thrombi a long winter pbout the things they saw, and some times did. But these frightened, strange looking residents of “Tobacco Road” grow fewer each' year. Twenty years ago they were nearly the majority. Today they are. strange sights even to the more uiibane tobacco growers who live more nearly in the middle of mid 2Cth Century civilization. Into town comes the “young son” to sell his first acre of tobacco. He’s “his own man now.” Papa a~d mama will never be able to keep him down on the farm again. Some wise few of these young sons selling their first acre of to bacco will salt ’it away in a bank or savings institution for a college education, but nine out of ten will invest their sudden wealth in a flivver or perhaps even a new cm wiui a i.mi' ireijj irinn ina and pa”. The girls get an acre of tobacco too in this time of “equal rights” but they depend on riding in the cars of “young sons” and spend their money on fire clithes, a glorious relaxation in the beauty parlor and come out looking 1 ke Filth Avenae models. And'ttfere are the older rogues. The kind with loose money, looser morals and an inclination to howl. But as each year passes a larger percent nga of those men and wo men who work the long, hard sticky hours that it takes to make a to bacco crop handle their tobacco mo ey more w sely. In savings accounts, trust funds for children, new or greatly improved and modernized homes. Tobacco farmers who for gen erations lived in a “feast and fam me iasn.on .nave nappny readied that point where hard work, know how and reasonable good luck guarantee them a little, if not all of the finer things every year. Now they visit the beauty parlors as regularly as their cousins who live in town. They dress, on the average better than town folks. They drive newer, and bigger cars, and they have bigger and more stable bar.k accounts. Any analysis of savings deposits n banks and other savings insti tutions in Tobaecoland, USA would quickly reveal that the tobacco farmer is sharing the nation’s prosperity. The laborers, the sharecroppers still live a hand-to-mouth life; but the better class tenants and land owning farmers—they never had it so good. ' And the best of good times is tobacco selling time. Jones County Tobacqo Crop Called Biggest in History Jones County Farm Agent Jim my Franck says this week, “I be lieve this’ll be the biggest tobac co crop—aicre-for-acre—ever har vested in Jones County.” * Erven the water damage that caime with heavy July and early August rains 'has not materially damaged either the poundage or quality of the Jones' County crop, in Franck’s opinion. Franck says with the exception of a narrow streak in the States ville area Crops arfe beautiful all the way to the mountains. He re cently returned from a trip to the mountains and got a chance to see tobacco from the coast to the mountains. Other farmers who have taken loads of tobacco down to the bor der markets say there is a strip of sorry tolbacco in the Tower part of the state which was badly hit by dry weather. This year Jones County farmers are expected to fare much better .than last year when drownings of field after field of tobacco made it impossible for many to “pay out”. Tenant fanners were badly hit last year,-and landlords also felt the loss from excessive rains. This year with price supports fixed at the same levels as last year the only Jones County farmers who stand to lose money on their to bacco crop are those who might suffer loss by fire in a packbam before they get it to the warehouse floor. From the Pink Hill section on the west to the Stella section in the east, heavy crops of tobacco that have, on' the whole, cured well were grown. Big Com Crop Bolstering the good tobacco news is what everybody is calling the biggest corn crop in the history of the county. More acres, and1 more bushels of corn to the acre are ex pected* Oils yeai' tlEni ever before in the county. Every f armer .who possibly can is urged NOT to sell his com on a crash early fall market, but to hold it in storage or sell it through hogs, poultry or beef cattle. This year in particular many farmers are studying the possibi lity of buying some feeder steers in September to consume some of their grain during , the fall and winter for another “cash crop” in the spring. Murder Still Unsolved ' The continuing investigation by Lenoir County authorities of the murder of Sgt. Robert Eugeue Schroeder is still without clues. .The veteran Marine's body was found on July 25 and an autopsy set the death time as late in the night of July 21st. His body was found in the trunk of his own ear which was parked by a filling sta tion 3 mHps east of La Grange on the Kinston highway. Three .45 caliber bullet wounds—one in the left temple, one in the left neck area and the third in the left chest section—were inflicted by the murderer after the Ohio Marine's body was placed in thftear. Dover Man Seeks to Transfer Daughter to &inston 7th Grade Lloyd Taylor, a resident of Do ver, who is X-ray technician at Parrott Memorial Hosipdtal and has been for the past 14 years, Mon day night asked permission of the Kinston School Board to transfer his daughter, Marilyn, to the 7th grade of Kinston schools. - -The controversy that-has arisen over consolidation of Western Cra ven county schools and his feeling that a better educational oppor tunity was available to his daugh ter in the Kinston schools were Taylor’s reasons for asking the transfer. He was told that permission would be granted for his daughter to attend Kinston schools if a re lease were obtained from Craven County school officials. Warehouse Operator Draws Heavy Fine Liddell Lawson, negro farmer of the Liddell section of western Le noir County, drew the heaviest fine ever imposed by Recorder Emmett Wooten last Friday when he was found guilty of having in his smokehouse 204 jars of non taxpaid whisky. ABC officers who raided the “warehouse” said that Lawson was merely a pawn of large white boot leggers in Duplin County, who were using his smokehouse as a “ware house” for their “wares”. A Duiplin Countian with a hand full'of $10Q bills paid the fine for Lawson, and commented that they were lucky to get off so light. Tobacco Bam Fire on Cneston Farm Could Have Been Worse | This was tha scene that greeted members of the [' Trenton Volunteer Fire Department last Thursday afternoon when they answered a call to the A. H. Cheston Farm, five miles west of Trenton. Prompt action dpon their arrival put the fire and saved a major part of the tobacco bam, but vast majority of the tobacco in the bam was strayed. V Cheston commented, "I bragged toe soon . , . ■ Just this morning I was talking about what good burners I had In that barn, and now look at it!" Unlike neighboring Lenoir County which has had one of its worst years for tobacco barn fires, the Trenton Department reports answering calls to few er bam fires this year than last. ' r . ? t ! Seymour Johnson Airman is Drowned Near Hardy’s Bridge At press ,t-me Thursday the search by military and civilian au thorities continued for a Seymour Johnson Air Base enlisted man who is belieyed to have been drowned Monday afternoon in House River in the vicinity of Hardy’s Bridge. A capsized boat and motor and other boating items were found late Monday afternoon in a whirl near the bridge, and earlier in the afternoon residents of the a tea re port seeing a single man in the same boat. Air Force officials have asked that the name of the airman be withheld until notification of his family and until his body has been recovered ahd identification is positive. Rescue squads from Mount Olive, Goldsboro, Kinston and the air base are participating in the search, which is made extremely difficult because it is not known where the boat capsized, and it might have drifted a few yards or h few miles from the point where the airman was thrown in the water. Local Paratroopers In Big War Game Pvt. William E. Wiggins whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lamb B. Wiggins, live in Maysville, PFC Woodrow Ham Jr. of Kinston and T-4 George Jones of Maysville, are scheduled to participate in Exercise Bright Star at Fort Bragg, Aug. 13-28. A massive airborne assault in volving 30,000 troops is scheduled as one phase of the Strategic Army Fisherman Got Lost This is a picture that got lost in the vacation shuffle, but it proves a good point; that E. W. Humphrey cf Deep Run knows where the big cnes harg out in Ellis Davis mill pord. Humphrey said he never fished until he was 65 years old, but he is catching up the slack now. The string above included four largemcuth bass. One weighed in at 8 pounds 6 -ounces another at a fraction over s x pounds the other two "wouldn't weigh more than two pounds 3 piece." All caught in a cuup.e of hours or.e morning in July. Corps (STRAC- exercise. This sin gle-day mass air-drop will sur pass in numbers any similar drop during World War II and the Ko rean War. ‘Peace Shelter’ Dedicated Last Wednesday This is part of tho gathering last Wednesday that came for the dedi cation of a new dual purpose fall out shelter designed and construct ed by Smith Concrete Products Co. of Kinston. Mayor Guy Elliott of Kinston is extending an official welcome to the group, which in chided Congressman L. H. Foun tain, who ihade the dedicatory ad dress, and both state and federal officials of the Office of Civilian Defense. The "Peace Shelter" as it is call ed by its builders was designed by the company VEEP, John E| Kelly, and Bill Gower. It meets the re ew:remer.ts of radiation protection and can also be used as a play house for children, a den for adults or an attractive party room.
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Aug. 18, 1960, edition 1
1
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