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INDUSTRIALIZATION MOVING SLOWLY, BUT SURELY ALONG IN LENOIR COUNTY
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:THE JONES COUNTY
T O U RNAL
NUMBER 10
TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1966
VOLUME XVII]
New Home for Old Kinston Business North of Kinston
This is not the home of a new Lenoir Coyhty business but the new home of an old business
that has been serving the area for many years. Overnite Transportation Company, one of the
state’s major trucking line operators, moved into this handsome and efficient new home early
this year after being in crowded and almost inaccessible quarters in downtown Kinston for many
years. This brings to three the number of modern truck terminals being operated in the Kinston
area. McLean, New Dixie, and now Overnite, all provide fast and efficient freight service for the
area and much of the nation.
Federal Figures Fix Local Lifetime
Income at Over $211,000; Got Yours?
The lifetime earning capacity
of the average male resident of
Kinston has reached new
heights.
Under current conditions of
employment, of national produc
tivity, of education and life span,
the average local man who is
just, starting out to earn, reliv
ing has a prospective lifetime
income of no lefg than $211,000.
It is no pipedream. It is
based on figures recently cited
by President Johnson to indi
cate the dollars and cents value
of a better education.
The estimated earning power
*of the average yonng man in
Kington, for the 40 to 45 years
that he will be working, takes
into account the amount of
schooling he has received and
the present level \ of income lo
cally in relation to incomes in
other parts of the country.
The data comes from the De
partment of Labor, the Depart
ment of Commerce and other
sources.
. It shows that 98.1 percent of
the local male population, age
25 or older, have gone through
elementary school, that 16.7
cent have completed four
of high school and that
it have had four
From a purely financial stand
point, the figures show that
whatever investment of time
and money is made toward get
ting a good education produces
a very high rate of return.
In general, the average high
school graduate will earn ap
proximately $60,000 more than
a person; with only an elemen
tary school diploma and a col
lege graduate will earn about
$180,000 more than the high
school graduate, according to
the latest estimates.
In Kinston, the educational lev
el of the population is relatively
high and is steadily moving high
er. The median years of school
ing, locally, is now 9.6 years for
male residents.
This is more than most men
in the State of North Carolina
are getting, the median being
9.1 years.
Fer young parents who look
forward to seeing their new
offspring entering college 18
years hence, now is the time to
start preparing for it, say the
bankers.
They figure that it will re
quire savings of $25 a month,
invested at 4% per cent com
pound interest, to yield $8,300
in 18 years, just about enough
for a college education.
ini
•A.
face and economy of our area.
The farm boy returning is most
sadly struck by the large num
ber of old farm homes — some
tenant houses, but many fine old
homes that are rotting into his
tory. Few farms in the county
do not include One or more such
weed and vine hidden relics of a
bygone era when large amounts
of hand labor were necessary for
the local way of farm life.
Gone with the tenants are the
mules; replaced by either tract
ors, pigs, or beef animals on a
majority of our farms. Farming
has changed from a way of life
to a complex, highly competitive
business, where huge invest
ments in machinery, materials
and land have replaced the man,
and the woman with the hoe.
This is a process that has been
•going on since the end of World
War Two, and it has now near
ly run its course. This has
created a tremendous economic
ana social problem since in Le
noir County, as all over the ag
ricultural south farm - oriented
families have been pushed into
the towns and cities where they
can find little, or no use for their
green thumbs.
As farm employment has
dwindled industrial and com
mercial employment has mov
ed in. The area’s huge com
plex of needle industries has
expanded again and again and
it still is expanding at this mo
ment a great deal more.
That biggest single local em
ployer, Du Pont, is now, as it
began 13 years ago, continuing
the expansion of its plant and
its personnel.
Smith-Douglass, an old indus
try in Kinston is now rushing
to what is hoped to be a Sept
ember opening its new fertilizer
and chemical plant just north of
Kinston.
Wall Manufacturing Company
is rapidly completing its new
home where high quality, pre
cision soldering irons are to be
made, replacing the companv’s !
present plant in Pennsylvania.
South of town Blendspun is
spinning along with something
like 40 new local' jobs in its
textile operation.
A par-four distance from
Blendspun the Daly-Herring Com
pany is building a larger and
more efficient home for its chem
ical plant.
Pink Hill is getting a nation
ally known needlework plant,
La Grange is in the process of
getting a ■similar industry.
Frosty jilom has plans for a
two-stage expansion of its meat
packing plant just west of Kins
ton.
A short skip and a hop down the
road from Frosty Mom a new
shirt maker has brought the old
skating rank called “Wonder
land” and is giving jobs to more
local folks.
WUI UU II1UUOU/ XU LUC LUUlliy
has expanded so rapidly as the
education industry, which has
added more jobs in the past
year, both in number and in
percentage than any industry in
the county.
Despite all of these many ex
pansions of payroll the same ec
onomic and social problem re
mains: That all too few of those
displaced persons from the farm
have the skill or the tempera
ment for these new jobs.
So while the total income of
the county moves ever higher
the welfare rolls of the county
move in the same or perhaps a
greater degree.
Wednesday Suicide
Thurman Harper, 49, book
keeper of the Kincton Tobacco
Company, hanged himself last
Wednesday morning at his home
on Kinston route 6. Harper had
been depressed for some time,
according to reports, when he
drove home at about 9:30, went
to a packbarn behind his home
and hanged himself. He was
found and cut down shortly af
ter he had gotten home, but ef
forts to revive him proved futile.
Huge Machinery Installed In Smith-Douglass' New Plant
.i.nmssmaam.ir .
Dozens of workers and machines are being pushed in the summer heat to install the huge ma
chines and the buildings to house them at the plant site of Smith-Douglass Company just north
of Kinston. The long cylinder shown in the picture here is one of many large and complex pieces
3f machinery that will make possible a greater production of much more complex chemical pred
icts by this newest plant of this old company which has had one of its plants in Kinston
since the 30’s. A September completion is hoped for by company officials. The old plant on
West Bright Street will be used for storage and sales purposes after this manufacturing unit goes
nto production.