The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-14
K|NSTON TO DOUBLE
TAX ASSESSMENT
No N. C.. Town Shows More
Substantial Progress.
AN EDUCATIONAL CENTRE
In its First Year Rhodes Military School has
Enrolled us PupiIG---AlI the
Work Done by the
Students.
Editorial correspondence

Editorial Correspondence
Kinston. n. c.. June 14.-This town has
never done much to advertise itself. 1t
has been too busy for ten years building
new enterprises and growing and well
coming new citizens to tell the world OF
the half that it has done. 1t has been
nearly or quite twenty years since, IN
partnership with my brotner, we came to
this place and established the Kipston
Free Press. 1t was then one of the most
delightful villages In Eastern North Caro-
lima, the county seat of one OF the most
fertile counties IN Eastern North Caro-
lima. 1t had good private schools IN that
day before graded schools were being es-
tabIshed in all progressive towns, and
it had such teachers as Foy, Lewis, KIN
sey, Howard and others of like fitness,
and to its splendid schools it attracted the
most promising youths of half dozen
counties There was business activity and
enterprise here then. Thrift, industry,
economy, were the trinity that predomi-
mated. But the growth here was as Sow
then as it was wholesome. Ten years ago
there came new life into this community
More literally / should say that ten years
ago the people woke up to the possibii-
ties of growth and wealth of which they
had given little thought.
This town began its new era when 1t
began to build factories. Like most other
towns in North Carolina it waited for
years for outside capitalists to come here
and build cotton mills and other factories.
At last in 1898 some ef the PROGRESSIVE
business men of the town decided to or
ganize company and build cotton mill.
Then they built knitting mill. Both
have prospered. The success in these
two lines of new industry gave the peo-
pie faith in themse,ves-faith that they
could do many things beside growing
crops and selling goods. There came also
the building of immense lumber mills.
They have done very much for the de-
velopment of Kinston and there are here
three of the biggest and most prosperous
lumber mills in North Carolina, and in
addition there are prosperous shingle
mills, sash and bind factories, carriage
factories, and all other industries found in
a progressive and growing town.
Tobacco gave Klnston a wonderful
stimulus. Prior to 1885 nobody supposed
that bright tobacco could be grown pro-
fitably in this section. In that year a
trial was made by two or three farmers
who put As acres in tobacco. 1t was as
good as that grown in the far famed
Brassfields section of Granville county,
but it was not until 1892 that many
farmers followed their example. In 1895
the farmers went into the cultivation of
tobacco in earnest, the price of cotton
having gone below the price of produc-
ton / wonder if cotton had remained at
10 or II cents this people would ever have
found out that they could grow tobacco!
Necessity is the mother of diversifying
production. In the first year that Kin
ston had a warehouse, 100000 pounds of
tobacco were sold here. The next year
there were two warehouses and 100000
rounds were sold. Then came new ware
houses. prize houses, stemmeries and all
other accessories of a great tobacco mar
ket. This is now the second largest
bright leaf tobacco market in the world.
That fact is not due alone to any one
man. but it is chiefly due to Mr.. j. w.
Granger. who out of his own pocket
bought $500 worth of seed and induced
the farmers to try tobacco, and he built
the first warehouse for the sale OF the to-
bacco. Tobacco has brought many good
citizens to Kinston, it has invested hun
dreds of thousands OF dollars in great
establishments and caused Kinston's pro-
gress to be so marked as to draw new
citizens and new investment from other
parts of the State. The native Klnston-
ian. who should return here after an alb
sence of twenty years, would not know
the town, if put down in the northern
section where the tobacco development Is
greatest. The past seasons have been ex-
cellent ones, both to the farmers and to
the town, and If there is no depreciation
IN prices, tobacco will continue to be one
OF the biggest foundations upon which
Kinston rests.
Before there was any railroad or sug-
gestion OF railroad here Kinston en-
joyed good transportation facilities down
the Neuse to New Bern and splendid
steamers Piled the water between the two
towns They still make trips during a
portion OF the year and cheaper the cost
of transportation. / heard gentleman
say last night-not a Kinston man-that
Kinston furnished the Atlantic and North
Carolina Railroad more business than anv
town on its line, and it touches three of
the largest and most prosperous of the
larger towns in North Carolina.
Dirt here is almost high enough to sell
by the pound The rise in the price Of
real estate has been steady and marked