1906 Industrial Issue - Neuse Township  

This Industrial Issue of the Kinston Free Press was published in 1906 although there was an earlier Industrial Issue published in 1899. The issue is composed of both text and numerous pictures of places and people. This will be a slow project so please be patient.

We are grateful to the Free Press for permission to post anything of historical or genealogical in nature published prior to 1939.

NEUSE TOWNSHIP

There are about thirty miles of public roadway in Neuse Township. The, roads are generally good, but are a times heavy with sand in the dry weeks of summer. The township comprises 19,819 acres, of which white citizens own 855 acres. There an only 160 polls, and of these 97 are white and 63 colored. There is some valuable timber in the township such as oak, gum, and hickory, also some hundred or more acres of swampland .

There are four schools and five churches in Neuse Township. Rev. W P. Campbell is pastor or the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, and Miss Nonie Sutton superintends the Sunday school. The Rev. Mr. Campbell Is also pastor of the Sandy Bottom Baptist Church, and J. G. Croom is superintend of the Sunday school.

Bottom Methodist Church is served by Rev. 'W. A. Forbes as pastor and W. C. Croom superintends the Sunday- school. The Primitive Baptist Church has services once a month, and has a large membership.

The Parrott School is taught by Misses Warmouth Sutton and Alice Jackson. There is an enrolment of more than a hundred pupils. Sandy Bottom School has two teachers, Misses Margaret Laughinghouse and Mary 0. Rice. There is a good attendance, as also at the Moody school which 1s taught by Miss Nannie Lewis. The school committee comprises J. N, Parker, C. A. Dudley, and Jesse J. Croom.

There is an underlying stratum of marl throughout the township from ten to fourteen feet beneath the Surface.

W. E. SUTTON

W. E. Sutton, was born in Lenoir county, twelve miles southeast of his present home in Neuse township, on the 17th or November, 1874. His father was named William and hls mother Wilmouth, (nee Alberson).

Besides the schools of his Immediate neighborhood Mr. Sutton attended the Clinton High School for a while. He is now a prominent farmer of his section, owning about 350 acres of land with about 225 under cultivation. He makes a bale of cotton to the acre on some of his land. He married Miss Enma, daughter of Jesse and Ellzabeth Jackson. The children are Nonie Orlean, Wilmouth, Elizabeth, Ada, Jacob and Ethel.

Mr. Sutton is a member or the Missionary Baptist Church and clerk of the church board.

JESSE JACKSON

ONE of the substantial men of Neuse township is Jesse Jackson. He was born on the plantation he now ownes and occupies, near Kinston, on January 1,1854. His parents were JEsse and Elizabeth Jackson, (nee Mrs. Whitfield). When he was nineteen years of age Mr. Jackson attended Wake Forest College; but his father's falling health made it necessary far the young man to return home and look out for the interests of the home and Farm. He never returned, to school but has been farming ever since. Mr. Jackson now conducts a fourteen horse farm, cultivating 420 acres good land. It is best adapted to the culture of cotton, but will produce almost any crop that is planted. He easily makes a bale of cotton to the acre on much of his land. In 1903, when tobacco was so low he discontinued the cultivation of the weed.: He believes in raising home supplies, and plenty of them. He attributes his success as a farmer to "strict attention to business, his rule to pay as he goes, and his invariable custom of raising his own supplies.

Besides his farming interests, Mr. Jackson Is a stockholder and director In each of the banks in Kinston; a stockholder In the Kinston cotton mill; owns real estate in the city, and has erected a nice residence on Mitchell street, now occupied by L. J. Moore. Thus he invests liberally of a his surplus capital In Kinston enterprises.

For four years after the fall of 1888, Mr. Jackson was county treasurer. He was tendered the nomination a third term, but private business prevented his acceptance.

In 1880 Mr. Jackson married Miss Eliza A. Parrott. There are ten children all of whom are living.

CICERO A. DUDLEY

Cicero A. Dudley was born In Carteret county, February 26, 1849. His parents were Jechonias and Hannah Dudley. His father was a good farmer, but held no slaves; also his mother, who was a Quaker, did not believe in the slave-holding idea, and set her slaves free soon after acquiring them.

The subject of this sketch came to Lenoir county in 1874. For two years he was overseer for Captain W. J. Barrett. Then he rented and farmed, and has occupied his present place for ten years. In January, 1879, he married Miss Annie Rigby, of Alabama, who was visiting in Lenoir county. Their children are Green, now in the furniture factory business in Memphis, Tenn.; Logan, Willie, Anna, Claude, Clyde, Mamie, Dora, and Bessie. In March, 1896, his wife died, and in October he married Miss Annie Lewis, of Lenoir county. She died in December, 1899, leaving no children.

Mr. Dudley cultivates about 100 acres. His land seems to be better adapted to the production of cotton than anything else. He produces good corn and tobacco, peanuts, field peas, and some fruit. He averages about a thousand pounds of meat a year.

Mr. Dudley has been a justice of the peace for twenty years; has taken a lively interest in the schools of his neighborhood, having served his district as committee-man for several terms. He speaks highly of his neighborhood, as having good churches, schools and roads. He is a Democrat, tried and true.

SETH CROOM

One of the younger farmers of the county, and one who is making his way is Seth Croom, of the Sandy Bottom section of the township. He was born on the old W. A. Croom place, June 15, 1882. His father, W. A. Croom, was a Republican, a justice, a county commissioner, and took the census for three successive decades, beginning with 1870. His mother was Annie M. Croom. They had ten children, nine boys and one girl. One of his brothers, W. C. Croom, has a store at Sandy Bottom.

Seth is the baby. He has been farming all his life. He now owns fifty-four acres of good land, and has twenty-five acres under cultivation. He shows one thing clearly, i. e., that there is much to be gained from having under cultivation a small farm and working it well. He makes over a bale of cotton to the acre. Last year he realized $333 from two acres in tobacco, and this year made $200.00.

In December. 1901,he married Miss I Nemmie Haynes who came from Georgia. There are two children, Edna, aged two years, and Sadie, two months old.

J. H. ALBRITTON

JAMES Herbert Albritton was born in Green county, September 11, 1864. After he reached manhood he went to Grifton, where for two years he was engaged in the mercantile business. He married Miss Ida V., daughter Theo. and Mary Bland of that place. The children are Leo. Sanders, Nannie, Eunice, and Guy L;, all of whom are at in the neighboring schools.

In January, 1900, Mr. Albritton came to his present home--the old Sheriff Becton place. He bought this place and cultivates some 150 acres, producing corn, cotton, and tobacco, and anything that can be raised anywhere in the country. He says that his land is "sure land," always to be relied upon. He has some valuable standing timber, though it has been cut over. Recently he has finished a fifty-saw cotton gin, having capacity of ten bales a day.

He lives on the Seven Springs road. and is one of the substantial farmers of Neuse township.

A MEXICAN WAR VET.

ROBERT Blanchett, of Neuse township, enlisted In Company A, Fourteenth Tennes- se&-Col. J. R. Coffee-at the outbreak or the Mexican War, In 1846. He Is, probably, tbe only living veteran of that war now residing In section of the State.

He was in all the important battles of that war-Palo Alto, Monterey, Buena Vista, Vera Crux, etc etc., In all or which the American army was victorious. ( During the civil war Mr. Blanchett was a member or Company B, Fourth North Carolina Regiment, and was engaged In many or the battles or the Virginia and Maryland campaigns. He was seriously wounded In the shoulder at Ceder Run, Va. After General Lee surrender, Blanchett was assigned to General Johnson's army, near Goldshoro. On the retreat from Goldsboro he was seriously wounded in the right leg. He was carried to the Durham hospital, and hut for the kindly attention of Gen. W. R. Cox he probably would have died. Mr. Blanchett married Miss Cain of Jones county. Their daughter is Mrs. John Cauly, of Lenoir and their only son lives in Georgia.

Mr. Blanchett is now elghty-seven years of age, having been born In Jackson county, Ala., July 25, 1818.