The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-09

you some incidents in my life, pear
ing upon my early start III manuIac-
turing tobacco, and the precepts IN
business by which 1 have been guided,
has been received / have never de-
sired to have anything printed about
myself, and yet if, as you say, such
an article would be helpful and in
spring to the YOUTH" l will comply
with the request.
/ began life in Orange as q country
boy with nothing I never inherited
dollar. Up to the breaking out of
the war l had been farming thirty
years. / had worked hard in the
fields. made on the farm nearly
everything / needed, and by close
my farm and had stocked it we'll
This was the result of the savings
of thirty years of hard work and
close economy and it was made on
an Orange county farm In those
days money was made very slowly,
and only made at all by close econo-
my.
/ made only one crop of cotton
which | sold at five and half a
hundred. This crop didn't pay and
never made another. At that time
calico was selling at from 5 to rs
cents a yard, and iron for farming
implements brought cents a pound
went into making tobacco in 1863
and so. We knew nothing then OF
the present methods of curing. and
my crops were sun cured. The first
year the crop was wonderfully fine
and was sold for between and 10
cents q pound.
Before the war I hauled fodder
and flour to Raleigh on wagons, once
1 remember through mud that came
up in some places to the aXles of the
wagon wheels, and again through the
rain and snow. / slept III camps or
in the wagon moro than once when
the snow was on the ground. The
fodder would bring me SO cents
hundred and the flour $3.50 a bar
rel. Times We're much harder then
than they are now, and it was much
more difficult for farmers to make
money. Farmers handled very little
cash What they raised on their
farms sold for less, and what they
bought cost more than now.
The ruling price for eggs was from
to cents per dozen; butter was
125 cents pound chickens brought
from to 10 cents. | have already
said that calico sold from Is to rs
cents yard and iron for cents a
pound.
Other things the farmer had to buy
was in proportion
About the time the war broke
out / hade made up my mind to quit
farming and go to manufacturing to-
bacco. In carrying out this resolu-
ton in 1863, | sold everything, even
my horses, stock and crops, and
agreed to take pay for them in to-
bacco. | even traded my plantation
agreeing to take pay III tobacco to
be delivered yearly for si>. years, but
afterwards had to take it back. Some
of my friends thought | was very uIl-
wise. | had. quite a quantity of to-
bacco stored away and when the
armies came along they took most Of
it.
When the war was over l found
myself at New Bern, after being re-
leased from Libby prison with one
five dollar Confederate note, sold
that to a Federal soldier for fifty
cents, and walked home, 134 miles,
to my farm near Durham. / said to
my boys, when / got home: THE
war is over. For people who will do
their duty and stick to their busl-
ness, there never was better OPP
portunity in the world for men to
make their fortunes" My idea was
then that there was nothing that could
bring money into this country but
cotton and tobacco. | planted a to-
bacco crop and began to manufac-
ture, in a log hut ABOUT 16X18. such
tobacco as / accumulated during the
war that the soldiers had not carried
off. We made it ourselves lny three
boys working with me) on rainy days
when we could not work on the farm
Some of this tobacco / took to Dur
ham (hauled it about three miles
from the farm to the factory and got
Capt. Ward, who was then a partner
in Tn6 . "a
it put up into plug tobacco.
] took this with a quantity of smok-
ing tobacco we had made, in the
summer and fall of 1865 and travelled
through Eastern North Carolina sell
ing it Most of it was sold to the
merchants in the small towns and viii
lagos. Wilson was one of my best
points and | sold quantities there, one
of my best customers being the Roun
that firm well and my dealings with
them were pleasant and profitable all
around. My son Buck was with me-
he was then a little bit of a fellow
just big enough to put a bride on a
horse. In those perilous times, when
the stragglers from Sherman's and
Johnson's army were proving around
the country, and there were many
negroes. wandering about in the hap
slept out at night and travelled along
the country without weapon of any
kind.
| sometimes shudder to think about
the risks we ran. If any robber had
attacked us, we had no weapon bigger
than a pocket knife with which to de-
fend ourselves. Since then l have
given ten years to travel, selling to-
bacco in thirty-two States, and never
in all those years have / felt the need
of a pistol. This shows me that If
men will do right, they are in no
danger. and have no need of carrying
concealed weapons. Old man Billie
Cole, an old fashioned, honest Orange
county farmer, had no use for men
who went around carrying concealed
weapons. One time he hired white
man to help him hoe corn. What
sort of hand is he?" some one ask
ed Mr.. Cole. His reply was: He is
no count He hoed corn all day yes
terday with 'rees-tol' in his pock-
ct"
On my first trip to Wilson and that
section, after selling my tobacco at
good prices, l bought a load Of lard
and bacon and hauled it up the coun-
try. / knew that the Federal soldiers
were in Raleigh, and / wasn't certain
whether it was wise to go in the city
II .t,etx ~,r~, -