Population
Greater Kings Mountain 10,320
City Limits 7.206
Th# figure for Greater Kings Mountain is derived from
tile 1955 Kings Mountain city directory census. The city
limits figure is from too United States census of 1950.
VOL. 70 No. 23
Kings Mountain's Reliable Newspaper
Kings Mountain, N. C., Thursday, June I I, 1959
Seventieth Year
Established 1889
1 0 Pages
SO Today
PRICE TEN CENTS
HOW THE NEW FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WILL LOOK—Pic
tured is the architect’s sketch of how the new First Baptist chur
ch will look on completion. Architects are Wilber, Kendrick and
Workman, of Charlotte. Ground-breaking services were held on
the site, W. King at Sims street, Sunday afternoon. The structure
will be full air-conditioned, and contract is for $255,000.
BAPTISTS BREAK GROUND — Pictured above
are principals in Sunday's groundbreaking cer
emonies held by First Baptist Church at the
site for the $255.01)0 new church plant on West
King and Sims streets. Left to right are Dr. E.
V. Hudson, interim pastor. Rev. Bomar L. Rain,
es. the new minister who has assumed the pas
torate, and Wray Williams member o! the
church building committee. Standing at far
right is W. B. (Bill) Logan, chairman of the
building Committee, and other members are in
the background. Mr. Raines delivered the prin
ciple address at the afternoon service attended
by a large crowd. ,
Mrs. Hauser lakes Little City,
Would Decry Return To Kg One
BY ANNE JAMES HARMON
“It’s so free, so relaxted!”
This iis one of the many things
Mrs. Jack Hauser, native New
Yorker, likes about the South.
Discussing the difference be
tween (her home on Crescent Hill
and, her Queens apartment, (Mrs.
Hawser, Who moved here last Au
gust Shortly after her husband
joined Waco Sportswear, Inc., a
sweater manufacturer, said, “It’s
just like night and day. (But we
really never felt wte made a mis
take. It’is the way people live.
Their friendliness is wonderful.’’
“You know, this Is the ’first
plaicfe my huSband Considered
when he decided to come South,”
shie continued. “He Visited several
other places, but Kings Moun
tain Was allways to the hack of ills
mind.”
Aftfer one school term here,
Mrs. Hauser says, “This is a won
derful place to raise children! I
like the schools. The teachers take
a personal interest in the child
ren.”
Peter Hauiser, Who skipped a
grade to enter the sixth at West,
mlade a straight “A” average, as
did Dianne, a first grader this
year.
Concerning the differences to
schools here and to the big cry.
Mrs. Hauser said Dianne' had
been subjected to some work that
'Peter didn’t have, until his third
yeiar in New York.
Mrs. Hauser says her husband
is thrilled With the many activi
ties for children. The little league
sports programs, the pools and
near-by woodlands keep the chil
dren “always interested to some
thing.”
“It’s grand,” she said, “not to
Worry about the traffic and sev
eral flights of Stairs every time
they 'go outside. ‘1 was wondering
before we moved whether the
children would like lit. Well, I tell
you, we never had any trouble
whatsoever.”
The Hausers like their church
(St Matthew’s Lutheran! arid
ere especially fond of Sunday
school. In the North, according to
(Mrs. Hauser, children attend Sun
day school until their ooufirma-'
Continued on Page Ten
Southern Installs
Warning Signals
Southern Railway Company
has installed flashing light warn
ing Signals at the Piedmont ave
nue crossing.
The new signals, comparable to
those on Mountain street cross
ing, goit into operation Tuesday.
When a train is approaching
the red lights will flash and a
warning bell will sound.
Blood Goal
Is 244 Pints
TThe Red Crass Blaodmobdle,
Which comes to Kings Mountain
'Monday, is seeking a 244-pint
quota, and 'local officials antici
pate the deficit in the 'blood pro
gram will be erased.
Donors will be processed from
11 a. m. to 5 ip. m. at the Woman’s
club.
)B. F. Manor, Kings Mountain
blood program chairman, said re
cruitment of blood dot ors with
so-cH'ltied “rare” blood types is es
pecially sought. Inventory of the
“rare” Wood types runs consist
en'tly low, and each chapter has
been requested >to recruit the fol
lowing donors with known Mood
types: O Negative; B Positive;
AB Positive; AB Negative.
'Mr. Matter noted that the June
Vfsit is 'the final one for the fiscal
year atrtd the only opportunity to
make up 'the necessary qitota to
fill “he need.
Red Cross officials are hopeful
that recipients of blood who have
not replaced their donations in
the blood bank aask friends and
relatives to make up the deficit.'
Currently, persons receiving;
blood without a donor card (given
to indie dual donors! must agree
to replace tfhe blood by obtaining
other donors.
NO BUIUUNG PERMITS
Cilty Inspector J. W. Webster
has issued no building permits
since May 30.
Winn-Dixie Building
To Adjoin Herald
The new Winn-Dixie building
will adjoin the Kings Mountain
Herald building, fronting on S.
Piedmont avenue, Robert-Yoder,
one of the stockholders in the
building corporation, said this
week. .
The building will be erected
’ by Fiske-Cai)ter Construction
Company, Mr. Yoder said, and
will require an outlay of approx
imately $100,000.
The building will be 80 feet
wide and 144 feet deep, giving
the firm 11,520 square feet of
floor space. Parking will be han
dled at 'the side and rear of the
new building.
Union Service
Here Sunday
The second evening service for
five city church congregations
will be held ait St. Matthew’s Lu
theran church Sunday evening at
8 o’clock.
Dr. W. P. Gerberding, the pas
tor, will deliver the evening mes
sage and the Church Choir will
render special music.
Dr. GerbOrding and family will
leave Monday to vacation with
friends and relatives in Wiscon
sin, Minnesota, and Michigan.
Professors from the Southern
Seminary will' fill the pulpit dur
ing the pastor’s absence.
The Vacation Bible School is
going wdH at St. Matthew’s with
the largest enrollment of child
ren in recent years. Ten teachers
are directing the program.
Shute Superior
Superintendent
W. B. (Bill > Shute has returned
<So Kingis Moutain to become su
perintendent of the Kings Moun
tain operation of Superior Stone
division, American Mlarietta Com
pany.
Mr. Shute Was been serving as
superintendent of Superior’s Au
gudtia, Ga., plant
He win succeed J. H. Arthur,
who Is retiring In December.
Mr. Shute aaad hds family wth
join him here to the near future.
lim Parker.
Nonogenarian,
RR Man, Miner
By MARTIN HARMON
“I was always obedient to my
God, obedient to my parents, and,
really, obedient to everyone.”
Thus Jiim Parker, elderly Negro
who lives on his farm near the
mountain gap on York Road, at
tributed his 93 or 97 years. The
elderly Negro says he’s 93, but
hits son, Jim, Jr., says that his
father always said years ago that
he was four years old at the end
of the Civil War.
Parker’s wife 'Matilda Whis
nant, though her father was Tom
White, is the sarnie age.
Parker reminisced with' evident
iance. In slave times, prior to the
end of the Civil War, it was cus
tomary for slaves to take the
names of tlheiir owners. It was
also customary 'for parents, when
a child was married, to give the
child a slave as (a personal ser
vant. The servant’s 'surname then
Changed to tha/t of hlis or her new
maSstter or mistress.
Parker reminisced with evn
relish over his long life since his
birth in what is now Cherokee
County (then York county), S. C.
He recalls his work as a teamster
i at the Wilson Gold Mine, later a
| bamdoned when inundated after
a heavy dynamite blast, and now
on property owned toy Carl F.
Mauney on York Road. But thi
gold mine work came after work
laying rails on the old OCC Rail
I road from Camden to Blacksburg,
S. C. Later he became a railroad
section 'hand.
Pay was hardly stupendous on
either of these jobs, 'but prices
weren’t as hligtti either. The going
rate wais $1 per day at the mine
and constructing a railroad, but
a section hand made only 60
cents pfer. day. The work day was
ten hours. He recalls 'Tiait a Oaipt.
! Siegfried was top boss at the
mine and Dave Mayberry was the
I underground boss. During Par
ker’s servide a second shaft was
dug. He says It is 365 feet under
ground. One of the shafts stretch
es in length from York Hoad to a
point under what is now Kings
j Mountain Cotton Oil Company, he
; says.
j It. was while working at the
(Continued on Page 7B)
Withers Rites
On Thursday
Funeral rites for James Ray
mond Withers, 57, father of Fred
Withers, Kings Mountain high
school baseball coach and also1
coach of the ‘59 edition of the
Kings Mbuntain Legion Junior’
baseball team, will be held
Thursday afternoon at 4 o’clock
at St. T’aul Lutheran church in
Dallas.
Mr. Withers died Tuesday in a
Charlotte hospital.
Surviving, in addition to his
son here, are his wife, a daugh
ter, Mis. Fred Moore, of Stanley,
three other sons, Jack and Dan
Withers, both of Dallas, and Ray
Withers, High Poin/t; five sisters,
Mrs. Paul Jenkins and Mrs. Betty
Spargo, both of Stanley, Mrs.
Russell Butler, Clinton, Mrs. Har
ry McGuigan, Nashville, Tenn.,
and Mrs. Jack Lahanier, San
Francisco Calif.; and three broth
ers, R. A Withers, High Shoals,
John O. Withers, Jr., and B. M.
Withers, both of Stanley; and his
stepmother, Mrs. J. O. Withers,:
Stanley.
Warren Ellison Quits Force,
Blasts Commissioner Stroupe
Employment Here Is At Peak
Fcr Recent Months-Ware
-
School Merger
Conversations
Are Continuing
Conversations among township
school officials are continuing in
•an effort to carve a suitable ar
rangement whereby thie schools
can be merged into the Kings
Mountain district.
Fred W. Plonk, chairman of
Kings Mountain city district
board of education, is also a
member of the committee of the
committees which has been
working to obtain a suitable po
litical arrangement for govern
ment of the merged district.
Mr. Plonk said at a recent
meeting in Grover, Holmes Harry,
member of the Grover committee
suggested a temporary nine-man
board of education be formed,
with five of the present members
of the Kings Mountain board of
education and the other four to
come from what is now the Beth
ware, Park Grace, Grover and
Compact districts of the county
school system. As terms of office
expire (Kings Mountain mem
bers are eleated to staggered I
'terms of six years), the board of
education of the merged district ;
would again become a five-mem. j
i ber board, with three members I
: from the present city district and |
two from the outside areas now |
in the county system.
Mr. Plonk said all of the dis
tricts were represented at the
Grover meeting and that each!
representative expressed approv.'
al of the Harry suggestion.
It is illegal to expire terms of
office of elected members of gov-)
ernmenit boards.
Favor for ithe five-man board,
rather than seven or nine, Mr.1
Plonk says, comes from exper
ience of other schools in North
Carolina. Boards with more than
five members tend to become un
wieldy, he noted, as quorums are
harder to. obtain.
Grover representatives particu
larly and some others would like
to see a bond issue offered for a
>new township high school at the
same time the citizens vote on
the school mierger. Whether lega
arrangements could be accom
plished this desire is not yet
known, Mr. Plonk said.
Castle loins
Commercial Ores
Jim Castle, former manager of
Foote (Mineral Company's Kings
Mountain plaint, has joined Com
mercial Ores, Inc., as plant man
ager of the Henry’s Knob kyanite
mining operation.
Mr. Castle assumed his duties!
June 1, after serving as manager!
of the industrial minerals divis
ion of International Minerals and!
Chemicals Corporation since Oc
tober 1955.
IMr. Castle is residing at the
home olf (Mrs. B. S. Peeler. His
family expects to return to Kings
Mountain from Illinois about Au- j
gust 1.
GILBERT McKELVIE
SCOTT WRIGHT
CHIP NEISLER
Three Graduate
From Schools
Two Kings Mountain area stu
dents received college degrees
and another was graduated from
military school in commencement
exercises recently.
Gilbert MeKelviP, son of the
late Mr. and Mrs. H. M. McKelvie,
was graduated with a bachelor of j
(Continued On Page Ten)
Jobless Pay
Claims Low
During May
Kings (Mountain employment is
ait a peak for recent months, the
May report of tlhe Employment
Security commission branch Of
fice shows.
Franklin L. Ware, Jr.t mana
ger, said only one major plant is
at a slow operating pace and that
only 1093 claims for unemploy
ment compensation were filed in
May, for an average of 273 per
week. By month’s end, the claims
were down !tto 215 per week and
have continued in this-low area.
Meantime, the (employment of
fice found job openings (108)
than new applicants for jobs,
which totaled 98. The office was
able to place 72 persons in jobs.
Applicants for work have bebn
greater this month, Mr. Ware
said, due to the recent crop of
high school graduates in Number
4 Township. Biggest problem, he
says, is i:n placing high school
girl graduates.'
‘Most of them want secretarial
work and are equipped for it, but
there aren’t many secretarial
openings,” Mr. Ware commented.
He said his conversations with
employer's -indicate the favorable
industry operating rate will con
tinue, certainly for sbveral mon
ths.
T. H. Crawford's
Rites Thursday
Funchal -rites for Thomas Har
mon Crawford, 53, will 'be held
Thursday at 4 p. m. from Boyce
Memorial ARP church, interment
following in Mountain Resit ceme
tery.
Mir. Crawford, a former Kings
Mountain painter, succumbed
Tuesday morning at 5 o’clock at
his home in Ruffin. Death was at
tributed to a heart attack.
He was an employed of Rector
Lumber Company in Ruffin and
a member of Temple Baptist
church, Kings Mountain.
Survivors include his mother,
Mrs. Minnie Harmon Crawford; I
his wife, Mrs. Ethel Reynolds i
Crawford; three -sons, W. Donald
Crawford, all of Kings Mountain,!
Robert Crawford of the Air Force |
in San Antonio, Tex., and James
Crawford of the Air Force in
Houma, La. Also surviving are,
three brothers and two sisters,]
Raymond Crawford, Kings Moun
tain; J. L. Crpwtord, Augusta,
Ga.; Pauli G. Crawford, Cherry
ville; Mrs. Wendell Phifer, Mrs.
Fred Owens, both of Kings Moun.
tain. and two grandchildren.
Dr. W. L. Pressly, Boyce Memo
rial pastor, and Rev. Jack Weav-;
er, pastor of Temple Baptist!
church, will conduct the final!
rites. i
SUCCUMBS j
Mrs. George V. Patterson of
Gastonia, fanner citizen, died
Wednesday afternoon of a heart
attack. Funeral plans are in- -
plete.
Ellison Says
Stroupe Sought
To limit Duty
Warren Ellison, veteran city
policeman, resigned from the
force liaSt weekend and, in his
letter of resignation, charged that
Police Commissioner R. Coleman
Stroupe ordered Ellison not to
make arrests in certain sections
of the city.
(Mr. Ellison did not clarify by
stating which section or sections
he had been ordered to quit, and
Mr. Stroupe was not in town Wed
nesday and could not toe reached
for commend.
Boyce OaiUlt, however, also a
city commissioner, said it was has
understanding that Mr. Stroupe
had instructed Mr. Ellison to
avoid patrolling or making ar
rests in the Negro sections of ithe
community. Mr. 'Gault said he un
derstood several Negro citizens
had complained 'to Mr. Stroupe
that Mr. Ellison was too rough on
them. "
Mr. Ellison has become an em
ploy* of Superior Stone division
of American-Mariefta Company.
In his letter of resignation, Mr.
Ellison wrote the Mayor and city
Commission:
“I hereby tender my resignation
as police officer effective ait once.
I have enjoyed my work with all
the off icers of the City of Kings
Mountain. N. C., force'and hate to
leave you. 1 have also enjoyed
■having 'tihe privilege of working
with the citizens of Kings Moun
tain, N. C., in enforcing the laws
of our fair city. When I took oath
■as an officer, the oath read like
this: “I am to uphold and enforce
the laws of She State of North
Carolina and the City of Kings
Mountain." Then when your Po
lice Commissioner Coleman Stro
upe tells me not to go in certain
parts of our City regardless If on
call or what not, then i t’s time for
me or any Other officer to quit. I
have tried to be fair to ail, mak
ing such arrests as I deemed ft
necessary, answering ail calls re
gardless Of what section of our
city they came from.”
ft is possible that the commis
sion will consider replacing Mr.
Ellison alt its Thursday night
meeting.
Several weeks iago, ft was rum
ored that Chief Martin Ware and
Officer Paul Saunders, along with
Mr. 'Ellison, were on Mr. Stroupe’s
griddle. However, OommissioneT
Ben Bridges said later that the
difficulties had proved minor and
had been settled to Mr. Stroupe’s
satisfaction.
Board Will Have
General Session
Kings Mounain City school
board meeting, scheduled for
Monday night at 7:30 at Kings
Mountain High1 school, will toe a
general business session, B. N.
Barnes, city schools superintend
ent, said Wednesday afternoon.
"We have no definite agenda,”
Mr. Barnes reported “but discus
sion will probably be on the pro
posed No. 4 Township school con
solidation and some phases of
the budget.”
He tropes to have some teach
ers to present for election, also,
he skid.
Mr. Barnes noted he has sev
eral applications for the vacant
principal posts, but said there is
nothing definite on this dither.
Plonk To Bremen; Dasen Reeves No 2.
JIMMY PLONK
BY MARTIN HARMON
Jimmy Plonk will leave Xew
York Monday and will sail for;
Bremen, Germany. Wednesday i
from Hoboken, X. J., aboard the
Dutch Ship SS Zuiderkruls, along
with other American youths who
have been awarded American:
Field Service international sehol ;
arships.
Jim will live ■‘his summer with I
Mr. and Mi's. Rudolph Kretsoh i
mer. Mr. Kretschmer is owner of
a beauty and barber shop j
The Kretschmers have a son, age j
15. L/iving in Bremen, a city on a
navigable river which was heav
ily 'bomb-blasted during World
War U. Jim will also get ho travel
to other paints in Germany.
Though he doesn’t speak fluent
German yet, Jim has already been
f Continued On Page Ten)
PIERRE OASEN
BY MARTIN HARMON
A 17-year-old Swiss youth will
be temporarily adopted by the
Fred Plonks come August;
Pierre Rodolphe Dasen will live
in the Plonk home and attend
Kings Mountain high school, as
Graeme Reeves has done in the
P. G. Padgett home for the past
i school year.
Young M. Dasen will be the
second visitor from abroad in the
American Field Service Intema
; .tional Scholarship program. Pur
pose of the scholarships is to in
crease international understand
ing among the nations of the
world.
Dasen turned 17 on June 1. He
is a beanpole, measuring five
feet, 11 inches and weighing 128
; pounds. Susan Plonk, 11-year-old
(Continued On Page Ten)
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