North Carolina Newspapers

VOL 68 No. 48 PRICE TEN CENTS Kings Mountain, N. C., Thursday, November 28, 1957 Sixty-Eighth Year Population Greater Kings Mountain 10.320 City Limits 7.206 The figure for Greater Kings Mountain Is derived from the 1955 Kings Mountain city directory census. The City Limits figure is from the United States census of 1950. U Pages Today Local News Bulletins CAKE SALE Daughters of Wesley class of Central Methodist church will sell cakes, pies, candies, ap rons, and canned goods as a class project beginning Satur day and continuing each Satur day morning from 9 to 11 o’ clock in the vacant building next door to Griffin Drug com pany. PRESBYTERIAN The Executive board of the Women of First Presbyterian church will meet Sunday, De cember 1st, at 2:30 p. m. This meeting is for all incoming and outgoing executive board mem bers. BACK AT WORK H. G. (Pete) Barkley has re turned to his work as a Shelby grocer, working a half a day, and resting hdlf a day. Mr. Bar kley who suffered a heart at tack about a month ago was reported by Mrs. Barkley, as "doing fine.” SPEAKER Rev. and Mrs. G. T. Brown and family, missionaries to Korea, will be honored Friday at a fa mily night . supper at the First Presbyterian Church at 7:30 P. M. Rev. Brown will deliver the message Sunday morning, Mrs. Brown will speak at Sunday School assembly, and they will conduct the young people’s program on Sunday night. The Browns will alsp conduct the Sunday 3 p. m. service at Dixon Presbyterian church. BREAKFAST All members of Central Meth odist church aree invited to the' annual Thanksgiving breakfast Thursday morning at 7:30 in the church fellowship hall. The Adult Fellowship class will pre pare the meal. Rev. James B. McLarty, pastor, will conduct the service following the break fast. NO PRAYER SERVICE Due to the Thanksgiving breakfast on Thursday morn ing at Central Methodist chur ch, there will be no mid-week prayer service this week, it has been announced by Miss Joyce Simpson. DINNER SUNDAY , Seniors of Central Methodist church will serve a beef dinner Sunday immediately following the morning worship at 12:15 at the church. Plates will be one dollar for adults, 50 cents for children, and proceeds will go for Senior projects. William F. Young is sponsor. ONE FIRE C. D. Ware, city fireman, said Tuesday the department had only one call last week. Fire men extinguished a chimney fire at the home of Kings Mountain Negress Edna Briggs on N. Cansler street last Thurs day. Ware said there was no damage to the house. CLUB OFFICER Miss Jane Osborne, Catawba college freshman, has been e lected secretary of the Blue Masque, campus drama organi zation. Miss Osborne recently had a role in the organization’s presentation of “Show Boat”. Truck Dented, Pumpkin O. K. And then there’s the one a foout Andy Jenkins, projection ist at Joy Theatre, who had a minor key crack-up last Sun day because of his Thanks giving pumpkin. Andy was returning from a trip to Charlotte where he pick ed up a load of film. He bought a pumpkin. En route home the pumpkin rolled from its lodg ing beside him on the seat, landed on the projectionist’s foot, pinning it to the accel erator. . Perturbed Andy couldn’t reach the brake pedal, lost control of his truck, and it left the road. Damage was slight, a small dent in the left fender of the track. Neither Andy nor the pumpkin were injured and the Jenkinses still will have pump kin pie for Thanksgiving day dinner. Thanksgiving To Be Work Day For Most Folk Kings Mountain retail employ ees will take a. holiday Thursday as will workers in some of the city industrial plants and other businesses. Majority of retailers will close for the day, as will financial firms, the postoffice, and local and state government offices. Principal retail establishments which will be open for business will be service stations, theatres, and some grocery stores. ! Some industrial plants will ob serve regular schedule, and these include Neisler Mills division of Massachusetts Mohair Plush company, Kings Mountain Man ufacturing company, Craftspun Yarns, Mauney Hosiery Mills, Ca rolina Throwing company, and Lithium Corporation of America. j Some plants will give their employees the holiday. Kings Mountain Mica Company employees will get a long week end beginning Thursday when the plant will shut down for the holiday. Bonnie Cotton Mills will not operate Thanksgiving pay. Employees of Park Yarn Mills will get both Thursday and Fri day as holidays, a spokesman for the firm said. Both Sadie Mill and Carolina Throwing company wiil observe the holiday and some employees of Lambeth Rope Corporation will get the day off, a spokesman reported. The regu lar mill shifts at,Foote Mineral company will be in operation, though office personnel will re ceive the one-day holiday. Drug strose will operate on ab breviated schedules. Kings Moun tain Drug company will be open during the hours of 10 to 12 noon and from 4 o’clock to 6 p. m. for prescription service. Griffin Drug store also will offer prescription service. Stroupe Drug company will be closed all day. Retailers Open Six Days Weekly Kings Mountain retail firms have suspended regular Wednes day afternoon half-holidays un til after Christmas. As is customary, the merchants suspend the mid-week closings the day prior to Thanksgiving. They plan to resume them on January l; The change is made to accom modate Christmas gift-buyers, and is stipulated in by-laws of the Kings Mountain Merchants association. VFW Poppy Sale This Weekend Kings Mountain Veterans of Foreign Wars, Fost 9811 will hold a Poppy Sale Friday and Saturday. Proceeds will be used, locally to help underprivileged children of Kings Mountain, it was an nounced. The poppies will be sold by the Girl Scouts of Central Metho dist church, under the direct ion of Miss Joyce Simpson. In event of rain the sale will be postponed a week. ARP SPEAKER Mrs. Jack Raymer, pres., of First Presbyteriai, will address Boyce Memorial ARP Women of the Church at their regular meeting Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock. City Will Offer Natural Gas On Interruptible Rate Basis RESIGNS — V. L. Beachum, city gas system superintendent, has tendered his resignation, effective December 8. Mr. Beachum is go ing to Camden, S. C.. as superin, tendent of the gas department of Carolina Pipeline Company. Beachum Resigns Natural Gas lob Vincent L. Beachum, city gas system superintendent, is resign ing, following City Clerk Gene Mitcham to a position with Car olina Pipeline Company, a Co lumbia, S-C., gas public utility, Mayor Glee A. Bridges reported Tuesday Mr. Beachum had noti fied him he was resigning effect ive December 8. Mayor Bridges said he antici pated that Corbett Nicholson, as sistant to the superintendent, would succeed Mr. Beachum in the $3900 per annum position. The Mayor said the resigning superintendent will take a simi lar position with Carolina Pipe line in Camden, S. C., a city of about 18,000 population. Mr. Beachum is the first gas system superintendent. He came to Kings Mountain during con struction of the natural gas dis tribution system and aided in launching the city into the gas distribution business. The city now lists about 600 gas customers. Today's Herald Early By One Day Today’s Herald is being distri buted a day earlier than is cus tomary. The change was made due to Thursday’s Thanksgiving holi day. It enabled grocers to get Thanksgiving delicacies advertis ed in the Kings Mountain homes prior to holiday dinner day and will assure mail subscribers of re ceiving their newspapers prior to Friday, which the postal holiday would have necessitated. The Herald will assume regu lar schedule next week, appear ing on newstands Wednesday night, under date of December 5. SERVICES WEDNESDAY The annual Thanksgiving ser vice at First Presbyterian chur ch will be held Wednesday e vening at 7:30 p. m. Special music by all three choirs of the church will feature the service. Church Bites, Football, Hunting, Turkey On Thanksgiving Day Fare Kings Mountain citizens pre pared this week for a traditional Thanksgiving Day holiday. The diet promised to include numerous turkey dinners, treks to football games, church attend, ance a* special Thanksgiving sea. son services, and rambles through the woods with hunting dogs and guns, an ill omen for rabbit and squirrel. Three churches , plan Thanks giving morning services. A 7:30 breakfast will precede the Thanksgiving service at Central Methodist church. Thanksgiving rites will be held at Boyce Me morial ARP church at 8 o'clock, be followed by breakfast in the Sabbath school building. St. Matthew's Lutheran church will hold a special Thanksgiing ser vice at 9 o'clock. Resurrection Lutheran, Grace Methodist and First Presbyterian I churches had scheduled Wednes. day evening services. Football's chief attraction will be the traditional Catawba vs. Lenoir-Rhyne game, to be played this year in Hickory. Other not too-distant football fare will be the Presbyterian-Newberry clash at Newberry, S. C. At Chapel Hill, the Tar Babies will seek to dup licate last Saturday's varsity win against Duke. Masters of the skillet in Kings Mountain homes have been busy this week perfecting Thanksgiv ing dinner menus. Turkey will be a favorite, local grocers reporting that the price of the big birds is quite favorable for any budget. Thanksgiving was not to be a holiday for all, as majority of in dustrial firms planned to operate on regular schedules. But all area school pupils, employees of retail business firms, and employees of several industries could count on a day free from the regular work grind. Demand Charge Is 80 Percent Of Peah Usage The city board of commission ers voted last week to purchase a gas telemeter—a consumption recording device—for an installed price of approximately $1800. Gas System Supt. V. L. Bea chum had explained that several industrial gas customers, seeking lower rates, had asked for in terruptible contracts, rather than the firm, contracts (at higher rates) under which they now buy gas. Bennett Brick & Tile Com pany, he said, the city’s largest gas customer, was chief among the complainants, Mr. Beachum said. He explained that with the tel. emeter, the city could have a con. startt report on gas consumption and that industrial users could be notified to switch to other fuels during peak load seasons—pre venting the city system from be ing charged with a new demand rate. City Clerk Gene Mitcham ex. plained that a new demand char ge is set each day that a new consumption peak is reached. He added that the demand rate is 80 percent of peak consumption. This rate system meant that on one day last July the city paid Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation for 265,000 cubic feet of gas which the city neither sold nor received. ‘This cost the city gas system more than $600 on tha^ one day/”'Mr. Mitcham said. Mr. Beachum said Bennett Brick & Tile could convert from gas to another fuel in two to five | hours. Other indus'rial customer change-over rates, he reported, are: Kings Mountain Mica Com pany, 15 minutes; Mauney Hosi ery Company operating two boil ers, about 45 minutes per boiler He said Slater Manufacturing Company has installed recently a gas-oil boiler. In other actions last Thursday, the board:: 1) Approved, at request of Civil Defense Director Ollie Har ris, installation of a telephone in Busy Schedule For Miss Byars Miss Jane Byars will represent Kings Mountain in the Carrousel parade on Thanksgiving Day. Wearing a yellow evening gown and fur stole, the Kings Moun tain entrant will compete with other prinoesses for the title of Carrousel Queen. The princesses will spend Wed nesday night at Hotel Charlotte in preparation for the parade on the following day. On Wednesday, registration will be held in the lobby of the Hotel Charlotte and at '3 o'clock a bus tour of Charlotte is schedul ed. At 3:30, the princesses will go to Queens College for a tea in their honor and at 6 o'clock they will be honored at the Mayor's Dinner, also at Hotel Charlotte. The Knights of the Carrousel Coronation Ball will be held at 9 p. m. at the Coliseum with last year’s queen reigning over the festivities. On Thursday, the Carrousel! Vice-President’s breakfast will fete the princesses, at 9:30 the group will attend Thanksgiving services at various churches, lie turning to the hotel, the princess es will be entertained at noon a the Executive Director’s Lunch eon. At 3.00 the parade *.vill begin following the parade, the queen will be named and crowned a‘ the Carrousel President’s buffet at 6 p. m. To climax the occasion, all princesses will toe honored guests at the Carolinas' Carrou sel Show to toe held at the Coli seum. Miss Byars was determined Kings Mountain’s Princess by a high school student body ballot and was officially crowned Miss Kings Mountain by Harry Milner, of the Carrousel committee in a recent assembly program at the high school. ELEVATED—Joe H. McDaniel. Jr., veteran assistant city clerk, will assume the duties of clerk on Monday. He succeeds C. E. (Gene) Mitcham, resigned. McDaniel Named To Clerkship Joe H. McDaniel, Jr., veteran as. sistant city clerk, will step into the clerkship Monday, succeed ing C. E. (Gene) Mitcham, who resigned last week. Mr. McDaniel was named elerk on unanimous vote of the city commission last Thursday night. He will be paid the same salary as the retiring clerk, $4200 per year, with $300 of the total being paid by the city’s natural gas sys. tern. Also elevated, to the assistant clerkship, was Miss Gr^ce Car penter, for the past four years billing clerk at City Hall. Miss Carpenter is to be paid $63 per. week. Named to the vacancy created by Miss Carpenter’s promotion was Mrs. Margaret Pasour Wil son, wife of Furman Wilson, at a salary of $40 per week. Mr. McDaniel is a graduate of Gardner-Webb college, class of ‘49, and attended the University of North Carolina in 1949-50. He became billing clerk at City Hall in 1950, was promoted to assist ant clerk in 1932. A member of First Baptist church, he is also a Mason. He is a navy veteran of World War II. Miss Carpenter joined the city office staff at her graduation from Kings Mountain high school in 1953. She is a member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran church and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Jam es Carpenter. Mrs. Wilson is currently em ployed at Stroupe Drug Company. She is a graduate of Kings Mountain, high school and is a member of Grace Methodist church. City Gas Loses Foote Contract Foote Mineral Company is making plans to use natural gas but will purchase from Public Service of North Carolina, rath er than the City of Kings Moun tain. Foote Manager Neil O. John son says, “The city bid too high on its rate schedule.” City Gas Supt. V. L. Beechum says, “Installation costs would have been $45,000 and we would have lost money selling it any cheaper.” Mr. Beachum and City Clerk Gene Mitcham says the city’s proffered gas contract was pro. mulgated by the city’s gas en gineering firm and was presented as a tentative proposal. “The next thing we heard, Foote was having lines installed to buy from Public Service,” Mr. Mitcham reported. Public Service is a natural gas utility. It’s rate schedules are fixed 'by the North Carolina U tilities commission and are on file in Raleigh. Foote will buy gas on an in terruptible service schedule, Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Beachum said the city would have to obtain an increased allotment from the Federal Pow. er commission if it served Foote. >' 4 lithium Firm Will Auction Mining Tools Lithium Corporation is offering for sale at public auction on E>e. cernber 6 all of its mining equip, ment located at the Indian Creek mining site in Lincoln County. Sale circulars have been dis-; tributed to mining companies throughout this area and others. j Joe N. McClure, mining engi.; neer for Lithium Corporation,; was out-of-town Tuesday, but j Richard Nielson, manager of the company’s Bessemer City plant; said the equipment is being sold to convert this now idle asset into cash for other uses. Lithium Corporation is under contract to purchase lithium, bearing ore from Quebec Lith ium Corporation and, since the early months of 1956, has been using this ore exclusively. The contract with the Canadian firm, originally for five years, expires in 1959. Mr. Neilson said the sale of machinery in no way indicates that Lithium Corporation will fail to resume mining operations at the expiration of the contract with Quebec Lithium Corporation. He also said the sale has no connec tion with announced plans of Quebec Lithium Corporation to build a multi-million extraction plant as Rousse’s Point, Quebec, on the St. Ladrence river. Barring broadened demand for lithium chemical products during the coming two years, Lithium Corporation won’t do any min ing in that period, Mr. Neilson commented. However, he indica. ted the company will resume mining as quickly as the Quebec contract expires Mining the com. pany’s own properties in this area would be a cheaper source of sup ply than the contract purchases from Quebec, Mr. Neilson said. Noting that any type of equip ment tends to deteriorate when idle, Mr. Neilson guessed com pany officials felt it better to dispose of the equipment now, make new mining equipment pur chases and/or arrangements when it resumes ore recovery two years hence. The sale will toe conducted at the Indian Creek mine site, where the machinery is located, the aircraft watch tower atop City Hall. Mr. Harris said he thought the Army would rein burse the city for this expense. 2) Voted to increase the sal. ary of Police Desk Sergeant E. W. (Buck) Bridges toy $15 per month, retroactive to November 1, due to his increased duties as clerk of recorder’s court. 3) Voted to pay city firemen, now doubling in brass as police department deskmen, the same as city policemen, retroactive to November 2. 4) Approved request of in coming-clerk Joe McDaniel to re. tain an auditor for one day to outline and approve city book keeping procedures. Mr. McDan. iel said several questions had re sulted from installation of a new bookkeeping machine. FROM CONFERENCE Miss Alice Averitt, city schools teaching consultant, has returned from Southern Pines where she attended the state conference for superivsors and directors of instruction. Miss Averitt is state treasurer of the division of supervision of the North Carolina Education Association. BEAUTY QUEEN—Elaine Hern don, of Durham, Miss North Car olina in last summer's "Miss A merica" contest at Atlantic City, N. J„ will appear here Wednes day, December 4, in the annual Christmas opening parade of the Kings Mountain Merchants As sociation. Parking Question Brings Loud "No" Mayor Glee A. Bridges got a quick answer to his suggestion that Mountain street parking be restricted to one-side of the street. The answer was a resounding, “No!” The Mayor had said at the No. vember 14 board session that he had received several suggestions that Mountain street parking be limited to improve the traffic situation. He didn’t detail from whence the suggestions came. Last Thursday night, a petition was presented to the board of commissioners which opposed in hardly uncertain language the mayor-voiced suggestion. It was signed by virtually every mer cantile and professional occu. pant and employee on the two block strip of Mountain street, which is a main por*ion of the business district. City Attorney J. R. Davis re marked after the session, “No I didn’t sign it. I thought the pe tition favored one-side parking.” The city board voted to leave Mountain street parking “as is”. Comm. Ben H. Bridges said the petition was handed to him a bout three hours prior to the meeting by Steve Rathbone, Grif. fin Durg Company employee. Football Banquet To Feature Giese Warren Giese, head football coach at the University of South Carolina, will be the principal speaker at ‘he annual Lions club football banquet, to be held Mon day, December 9, at the Woman’s Club. Completion of program ar. rangements was announced Tues. day by J. Ollie Harris, chairman. The Lions club annually honors the high school football team at a dinner meeting with a college coach as chief speaker. All high school players, coaches and man agers will be guests of the club, along with area sports writers. Coach Giese is completing his second year as head coach at South Carolina. Formerly assist, ant to Jim Tatum at Maryland, he migrated south at ‘he same time Tatum came to UNC. Giese first played at Central Michigan in 1947, then transferred to Ok lahoma, where he played end un der Tatum. Alcoholics Anonymous Looks Back On Ten Yean Of Profitable Work Kings Mountain’s branch of Alcoholics Anonymous is in its eleventh year of quiet, anony mous work toward arresting the alcoholism of citizens in Kings Mountain and other nearby com munities. Founded in the spring of 1947, the organization numbers on its informal roll (there’s no mem-j bership record) more than 30, Kings Mountain citizens. In ad-| dition it organized a group in Cherryville and revived an or ganization in Shelby. More important—and the realj purpose—is a list of a dozen j Kings Mountain area citizens, in addition to others in Shelby and Cherryville, who have arrested their alcoholism after work with and through the Alcoholics Anon ymous program. Alcoholics Anonymous operat es on several basic principles. Here are some of them: 1) Alcoholism is a disease, just as much as tuberculosis. 2) Alcoholism can be arrested, but is incurable. 3) It is a disease with physi cal, mental, and spiritual-emotion al overtones. 4) Few people can sympa thize wi‘h the problems of an alcoholic except another alcoholic, or, at least, a person “who has had trouble” with alcohol. Alcoholics Anonymous mem. bership is open to anyone who wishes to belong. There are no dues. The only requirement is that the person have an hones* desire to cease the use of alcohol. He is his own witness. Success of the local group, which meets each Sunday night in the City Hall basement at 7:30, is indicated by the facts. Three members have logged recently, or will within the next few weeks, their tenth year of complete so (Continued On Page Eight) Elaine Herndon To Appear Here; 15 Bands Listed Santa Claus is coming to town Wednesday for his annual pre Christmas visit. His hosts, the Kings Mountain Merchants association, has been busy this week completing plans for the event which will feature a big parade, and large crowds are expected to attend. Sharing the parade spotlight with Santa will be Miss North Carolina, Elaine Herndon, of Dur ham, who will appear along wPh numerous beauties from the sur rounding high schools and cities in the 42-unit Christmas opening event. The pretty North Carolina beauty will come to Charlotte by plane where she will be met by a committee of welcomers who will accompany her to Kings Moun tain and the parade. Scheduled to get underway at 4:30 p. m. sharp, the parade will LINE OF MARCH Next Wednesday’s Christmas parade will form on West Gold street and at 4:30 sharp will be gin along the following route: West Gold to Railroad avenue; north on Railroad to West King street; east on West King to Gaston street; south on Gaston street to Mountain street; west on Mountain to Battleground avenue; south on Battleground to Gold street; east on Gold street to Mountain Rest ceme tery entrance and disband. also include numerous floats en tered by Kings Mountain area firms and organizations, includ ing Neisler Mills, Foote Mineral company, Biltmore Dairies, Caro lina Freight Carriers, Mauney Mills, the State Highway Patrol, and others. Representative Basil L. White ner, of Gastonia, will also ride in the parade as will officials of the city, the mayor, and board of commissioners. Among high scnool beauty queens in the parade will be Miss Kings Mountain, Jane Byars who represents the city in the Caro linas Carrousel parade in Char lotte Thanksgiving Day; Miss Bethware, Pat Hamrick; Miss Grover, Brenda Jackson; Miss Shelby, Elizabeth Hayne^; Miss Cherryville, Gail Baxter; Miss Bessemer City, Barbara Tate; Miss Gastonia, (of Ashley High school) Lois Adams; Miss Waco, Virginia Eaker; Miss Dallas, Les lie Smith, and Miss Tryon, Em mabell Lovingood. In addition to the Kings Moun tain school band, other bands to appear in the parade will feature school musicians from Ashley high school, Gastonia, Dallas, Shelby, Bessemer City, Cherry ville, and Davidson hjgh school. The Rhythm band of Davidson 'school and the John Chavis band will also present music along the line of march. Troops of Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts will march in the parade, and clowns and horses will also feature the colorful program. The merchants Christmas pa rade officially launches the Christmas shopping season in Kings Mountain. Charles Blanton is chairman of the committee on arrangements for the event. Water, Sewage Asked By Firm Consolidated Textiles, Inc., has asked the city what it can furnish in water and sewage disposal services to an industrial prospect for the vacant Loom-Tex Cor poration building. Mayor Glee A. Bridges said he acknowledged the inquiry last week, informing L L. Langley, of Lynchburg, Va., a Consolidated vice-president, that the city could handle water demands of one million gallons per day, or more. Meantime, W. K. Dickson, of Charlotte, the city’s . engineer, wrote that he felt sure the city could handle dye waste in its sewage system, provided it were pre-treated. Mr. Dickson, who designed and superintended the installation of the city’s new McGill creek sew age disposal plant, commented he was sure the city would coope rate in supplying the industrial prospect’s needed services. Mr. Langley wrote that the prospect for the Loom-Tex plant, liquidated of equipment and idle for some two years, would have a dyeing and finishing operation, Mayor Bridges said Tuesday he’d received no answer to 'the correspondence.