JONES COUNTY
NUMBER 37
TRENTON. N. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 30. 1964
VOLUME XV
Neuse Valley Association has
Meeting in New Bern, Acts to
Stimulate Seafood Industries
Because of the growing import
ance of the fisheries industry along
the North Carolina coast, the Board
of Directors of the Neuse Devel
opment Association has added to
its Industrial Committee a sub
committee on Seafood and Fish
eries.
In adding the sub-committee, it
was pointed out by the Directors
that the Association, consisting of
eight counties including Carteret,
Onslow, Pamlico and Craven where
the industry is growing, can aid in
the growth and expansion of this
source of income.
A budget for 1964 of $3,000 has
been set by the Association. Each
County within the area is being
aslted to raise specific amounts of
money based on population of the
individual county.
Other counties in the association
are Jones, Lenoir, Greene and
Wayne.
In order to facilitate the activ
ities of the four major committees
of the Association, President A. C.
“Lon” Edwards named Vice-Presi
dent Oscar Cranz Jr. to work with
and coordinate activities of the Ag
ricultural and Industrial Area Com
mittees.
Vice-President Donald Brock is
to work with the Area Committees
on Community Development and
Travel and Recreation.
jor committees have been named.
Tom Hardy, of Greene County, has
been named vice-chairman of the
Agricultural Committee under
Charlie Davis of Jones County.
Mrs. Paul Fletcher, of Lenoir
County, was named vice-chairman
of the Community Development
Committee to work with Mrs. Al
ta Koonce, of Jones County.
Charles McNeil, of Carteret
County, was nartied vice-chairman
of the Industrial Committee which
is headed by Bill Bowen of Lenoir!
County, Don Taylor, of Craven
County, will serve as vice-chairman
of the Travel and Recreation '
Committee headed by Bill Chalk,
of Carteret County.
Paul Barwick, LaGrange news
perman and publisher, was named
as Public Chairman for the Neuse
Development Association.
The next meeting of the associa
tion Directors will be held in Ori
ental on April 22.
Land Transfers
Jones County Register of Deeds
Bill Parker reports recording the
following land transfers in his of
fice during the past week.
From W. J. Dillahunt to John
Clayton Jr. four acres in Pollocks
ville Township.
From Isaiah Kornegay to Wal
ter P. Henderson 100 acres in
Trenton Township
From Viney Coombs to Archie
Davis one acre in Cypress Creek
Township.
From J. J. and Lena Conway
and Richlands Development Corp
oration to M. R. and Sally G. Will
iams a tract of land in White Oak
Township.
From Hobert and Margaret San
derson to Carl and Lela Sanderson
three tracts in Chinquapin Town
ship.
Jones County Superior Court
Clerk Walter Henderson reports
that one suit was filed in his office
during the past week in which
Christon Bryant is seeking a di
vorce from Willie Mae Ellis Bry
ant is seeking a divorce from Wil
lie Mae Ellis Bryant on grounds
of two years separation. The suit
alleges that the couple was mar
ried March S, 1930 and separated
“sometime in 1952.”
Vandalism Reports
Several homes and business es
tablishments in the Trenton area
were the target of an apparent
series of vandalistic attacks by the
same person or group of persons.
Either pellet guns or air rifles were
used to shoot through windows of
at least six homes and business
places and Sheriff Brown Yates
says if the guilty person is appre
hended he will be prosecuted to
the full extent of the law.
FHA Program Offers
Special Assistance
Alleviating poverty and improv
ing rural conditions is a major goal
of national, state and local groups
throughout the country.
John Robert Jarman, Chairman of
the County Committee of the
Farmers Home Administration,
stated the present authorities are
being fully utilized to implement
the efforts of these groups in deal
ing with the major income and
heath problems of farm people.
FHA authorities are designated
to assist farm families who are
confronted with low income result
ing from limited agricultural or
other potential or physical handi
caps and need to borrow funds for
seed and fertiizer, or other farm
and home operating expenses to
make this year’s crops.
Emphasis will be placed on loans
to,^ssist.farw»fa»nili»a*tt> punehase
subsistence livestock, produce and
conserve increased quantities of
food for family consumption and
to add to and expand income pro
ducing farming enterprises.
Any farmer in Jones County de
siring further information about
these loans, or other types of as
sistance available through the
Farmers Home Administration, may
contact Mr. J. E. Mewborn, Jr.,
County supervisor, located at Agr.
Bldg., Trenton, North Carolina.
Lenoir’s Third Highway
Death Claims Kinston
Man Friday Night on 11
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Seven Arrests Made
During Past Week
Jones County Sheriff Brown
Yates reports seven arrests during
the past week.
Walter Lee Jarvis and Ralph
Linwood Jarvis of Belhaven, John
McGruff of Maysville and Ray
Smith of Trenton route 1 were each
charged with public drunkenness
and Harry Lee Murrell of Trenton
route 1 and Gerald Turner of
Pink Hill route 1 were each charg
ed with drunken driving.
William Earl Jones of Stella was
charged with driving without a
icense.
Telephone Company
Pays Jones Taxes
D. F. Holliday, local manager
for Carolina Telephone, one of the
county's larger taxpayers, this week
presented a check for $3,517 to the
Jones County tax collector.
The check was in payment of 1963
ad valorem taxes on the company's
properties within the county. In
addition, checks covering municipal
ad valoreum taxes will be deliver
ed this week.
The company’s total county and
municipal tax bill throughout east
ern North Carolina amounted to
$1,008,000. In addition, state and
federal taxes came to $7,700,000.
This does not include the 10 per
cent federal exercise tax on tele
phone service which the company
.eeHeets-'-fTOTn its subscribers and
remits to the federal government.
STERN’ SENTENCE
Recorder Emmett Wooten Mon
day handed Ray Spear of Kinston
route 2 a “stern” sentence for es
caping from custody as he was
being transferred from the county
jail to begin serving an 18-month
term for stealing soybeans from a
mill north of Kinston. Wlooten gave
Spear an 8-month term to run con
currently with his other sentence.
Lenoir County's third highway
fatality of 1964 came at about 12:30
am. Saturday two miles north of
Kinston on Highway N. C. 11. Ir
ving Eugene Meeks, 41, of 903 N.
McLewean street was instantly
killed in the crash of the car he
was riding with a pickup truck
driven by Dexter James of Burgaw.
Meeks was in the back seat of a
car belonging to Ashley Deaver of
Grifton route 2 which was being
driven by either Camp Lejeune
Marine Carroll Hargis or 16 year
old Sheila Arthur of 7-E Simon
Bright Apatments.
Patrolman Vernon Heath has not
completed investigation of the ac
cident, and has not yet determined
the driver of the Deaver car. Both
of the passengers in the front seat
of the car are still hospitalized.
James, driver of the truck, suf
fered a broken jaw and other less
serious injuries and his wife,
Louise, suffered a broken leg and
other less serious injuries.
Evidence indicated that the Dea
ver-owned car was skidding down
the wet highway, completely out of
control, when it slammed broad
side into the James truck.
Miss Arthur was unconscious
when taken to Lenoir Memorial
Hospital but this week her con
dition is reported to be fair al
though she is still sore from sev
eral broken ribs and possible other
internal injuries.
The James couple is reported to
be resting well at Parrott Memor
ial Hospital.
Kinstonian Hurt in
Beaufort County
Emmett Murphy of 106 East Ver
non Avenue suffered painful but
not critical injuries in an accident
two miles south of Washington on
highway U. S. 17.
Murphy’s truck was stopped on
the shoulder of the highway when
it was hit by the car of Harry
Schertzman of Fort Lee, N. J.,
who had lost control of his car.
Murphy suffered a slight concus
sion and bruises and about $100
damage was done to his truck.
Damage to Schertzman's car was
estimated at $1,000.
Lenoir County Proposal to North Carolina Fund
The Steering Committee appoint
ed by City of Kinston and County
of Lenoir' officials to study the
problem and to make this proposal
feels that this county is pecularly
in need of urgent effort in the field
of systematic poverty that has set
in, and now to an accelerated de
gree with a dangerously high per
centage of the county’s population.
In the most recent decade (1950
1960) for which statistics are avail
able the number of farm families
in Lenoir County has dropped from
3,781 to 2,429, which, based on an
average family of five, indicates a
shrinkage of farming population
from 18,905 to 12,191. The same
trend that caused this terrific social
change in the period 1950-60 has
accelerated rather than decreased.
In the past two years cuts of first
five and this year 10 per cent in
the tobacco acreage allocations
have combined to worsen an al
ready bad situation.
This shrinkage of farming pop
ulation took place during the per
iod when the county's, overall pop
ulation was increasing from 45,953
to 55,276. A great many of these
displaced farm families have gone
to the metropolitan areas of the
fiorth, but a very large percentage
of them from the great farming
areas south of Kinston have settled
in Kinston, where an average of
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1650 is registered on any given day
for employment. However, their
skills in farming are unwanted in
the local market. This has forced
a large segment of this group to be
forced into this cycle of poverty
by powers over which they had lit
tle or no control. The majority of
this group is Negro, but a consid
erable segment is white.
In 1949-50 the Negro school en
rollment in Kinston was 1,788; for
the current school year it is 3,004,
an increase of 68 per cent.
While acreage cuts were taking
their toll of farming families the
automation of tobacco farming has
taken perhaps even a greater toll.
And while automation on the farm
has dried up employment for thou
sands of people, the automation of
tobacco processing plants has seen
jobs lost to over 2,000 in the City
of Kinston with the transfer of re
drying and storage functions from
Kinston tobacco plants to new and
modernly equipped plants in Wil
soq, Rocky Mount, and Greenville.
This year alone Kinston is losing
almost 1200 jobs because of this
centralization of tobacco process
ing plants.
All the . factors combined have
given Lenoir County a great sur
plus of fertile land perhaps even a
greater surplus of farm-oriented
'
ttsSSsf m is «
The project proposed by the Le
noir County Steering Committee is
built around an experiment that
may possibly combine these two
surpluses to the advantage of both;
thereby to some degree breaking
the cycle of poverty that has en
gulfed so many people in the past
10 years.
The Lenoir County Steering
Committee proposes to acquire, ei
ther by purchase from county funds
or long-time lease the recent aban
doned State Prison camp and farm
one mile south of Kinston on High
way U- S. 258. The farm includes
40 acres of class 1 land,, offices,
barracks, kitchen and storage fa
cilities that handle an average
prisoner load of 100 men.
This facility woud be used for
experimentation and training in
specialized types of agriculture. The
basic intent would be to create a
corps of workers capable of pro
ducing high quantities of high
quality vegetables and fruits on
small acreages. All endeavor
would be aimed toward those food
products that are in constant
shortage and items that are in high
demand.
Such types of farming as Hydro
ponic, Organic, ^ot-frame, Cold
frame, and ■ greenhouse . farming
would be engaged in on a year
round basis.
None of these is a new area since
considerable experimentation has
been going on for varying lengths
of time in all of these specialized
fields, ‘but little or none has been
done at the commercial level in
North Carolina, and absolutely
none in Eastern North Carolina
where the great surpluses of fer
tile land and idle farm hands exist.
Operating in conjunction with
farming experimentation would be
packing, processing, grading, freez
ing, storing, cooking and market
ing of all produce from this experi
mentation.
Since it is recognized that every
idle worker does not have a “green
thumb’’ the allied fields of food
preparation, packaging and market
ing would open avenues of employ
ment which would undergird the
logical foundation of small indus
tries in the area.
It is also recognized that there
is a growing shortage of trained
people in the service trades, and
this training in cookery, food pro
cessing and even food grading
would touch constantly in this field.
The low-quality produce that
might come from this project would
be used as experimental rations for
meat animals — most basically
poultry and pork. This meat would
also offer training for workers in
fields where shortages now exist;
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butchers, meat cutters, graders, and
helpers in all these fields.
The records division of this proj
ect would also be used as a clearing
house for work on a day-work ba
sis around farms and homes in the
area.
This would provide a constant
source of employment on a system
atic basis for dozens of “yardmen”
and specialized house-cleaners and
would be a minor source of in
come to the project which would
supplement income derived from
sale of farm products.
The Lenoir County Committee al
so proposes to set in motion as a
supporting arm to this experiment
a system of day nurseries to free
parents for training on this proj
ect. The committee also will rec
ommend to the county officials that
a “Sheltered Work Shop” be set up
immediately to absorb as many
workers as possible whose educa
bility and physical ability prohibits
their employment at public work.
Working closely with and draw
ing upon the experience of the
Caswell Rehabilitation Center ba
sic farm and home skills would be
taught in this project center on a
“see-and-do” rather than on a
textbook level.
Such things as basic tractor and
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