1906 Industrial Issue - Unnamed Section  

Contributed by Martha Mewborn Marble

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.

UNNAMED SECTION – pp 83 and 84

The Hargett Furniture Co., is composed of E. B. Hargett, F. H. Miller, and G. M. Henderson, Messrs. Hargett and Miller attend to the Kinston end of the business, while Mr. Henderson travels largely for the firm. The Hargett Furniture Co., carries a full line of furnishings for the home. “Everything from garret to cellar,” is their motto. Their large stock consists of furniture and house furnishings, lamp, stoves, heaters, mattresses, clocks, rugs, carpets, pictures, etc. etc. The firm is now prepared for a large business and expects to do more next year than ever before.

Mr. E. B. Hargett, the senior member of the firm came from Onslow county, where he was born December 29, 1856. His father was a merchant in Swansboro, and young Hargett engaged in farming and merchandising until he came to Kinston in 1903. Since coming to Kinston, Mr. Hargett has been engaged in the furniture business. He bought out the White Furniture Co., then formed a partnership with Mr. L. H. Hartsfield, and later with the present member of the firm.

Mr. F. H. Miller came to Kinston from Duplin county, where he was born in 1875. Leaving his father’s farm in that county, he entered the employ of the W. T. Mercer Furniture Company of Wilmington, remained with them for five years and was sent to Kinston, when they opened up a branch in this city.

Mr. Miller is familiar with the furniture business, and his experience makes him of value to the firm.

Mr. Gilbert M. Henderson was born in Onslow county, September 11, 1871. Here he farmed and engaged in the live stock business until he was twenty-one when he entered business at Jacksonville, NC. Later he entered the employ of Quinn and Miller, furniture dealers, in Kinston, where he remained for some time, and then went back to Jacksonville.

He is now a member of the Hargett Furniture Company, and is active in pushing the business in the territory easily reached from Kinston.

THE WANDERER
By C. O. D. of Kinston

The Buddhist to his idol bends,
The Catholic to his cross,
Pessimists in their lonely dens,
Revel in remorse,
When far from home, sweet magic charms
And the fond embrace of mother’s arms
Thought some may be,
With hearts of glee,
Seeking treasurers to find,
In the ships of time,
When they strand on life’s rock covered shore,
They wend their way back,
To mansion and shack,
The sons of old Lenoir.

Mr. L. R. Varser, our city attorney, was born in Gates county, North Carolina, on August 13, 1878 at Reynoldson.

He attended school and prepared for college at Reynoldson Institute, under the instruction of Rev. W. B. Waff, John G. Mills, and M. O. Carpenter, and entered Wake Forest college in the fall of 1895. Joining the Euzelian society he graduated as class orator in 1899, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, returning the next year to take the law course under Prof. N. Y. Gully. He received his license in October 1901, and came to this city to begin the practice of his profession, the following December. In September of the next year he formed a partnership with Mr. A. J. Loftin which still exists under the firm name of Loftin and Varser.

In June 1904, he was married to Miss Lily Ford Snead, of Fluvanna county, Virginia, and they now reside at No. 200 East Bright Street.

Mr. Varser is a member of the I. O. O. F., is treasurer of the lodge, and holds the position of City Attorney. He is rapidly forging to the front rank of the legal fraternity in Eastern North Carolina, is a member of the Baptist Church and superintendent of the Sunday school.

W. M. COBLE AND SON

The firm of W. M. Coble and Son, photographers, is composed of W. M. Coble and his son, Albert H. Coble.

Mr. W. M. Coble was born in Guilford county, in 1856. He spent most of his early life on his father’s farm. In 1873 he came East and has for the last twenty years devoted himself exclusively to pushing the jewelry business, in connection with which he conducted an art studio at Durham, NC, Trenton, NC. In 1904 Mr. Coble came to Kinston and established his studio in the building over Tunstall and Hill’s furnishing store. Since that time he has not engaged in the jewelry business, but has devoted his whole time to photography, building up a large business.

With Mr. W. M. Coble is his son, A. H. Coble. Mr. Albert H. Coble was born in Craven county, NC in September 1880. When still young he removed with his parents to Trenton, N.C. where he enjoyed the privilege of attending the Rhodes school, of that place. He took a full business course, receiving a diploma in book-keeping and type- writing. When his father came to Kinston young Coble also came and entered the art studio, where he is actively engaged.

Besides doing high grade photography, Coble and Son make a specialty of framing and life size work. They are continuously adding to their equipment, and are now in a position to give the public the best of service. They are grateful to the public for their past patronage, and solicit a continuance of the same.

C. FELIX HARVEY

One of the most prominent and successful of Kinston’s younger business men is Mr. C. Felix Harvey, born in Kinston, February 9, 1872.

After graduating at the State University in 1892, he came back to Kinston and entered the office of his father, L. Harvey.

In 1895 a partnership was formed, the style of the firm being L. Harvey and Son. Since then it has been doing a business of wide scope, covering insurance, fertilizers, real estate, trucking, cotton buying, the manufacture and sale of brick, etc.

Recently the brick business came under control of the Carolina Brick Co., of which company Mr. Harvey is secretary and treasurer. He is president of the Seven Springs Supply Co; secretary and treasurer of the Kinston Cotton Warehouse Co; vice president of L. Harvey and Son Co; a trustee in the Kinston Graded school and now a member of the Elks, Odd Fellows, Pythias, St. John’s Lodge no 4, and Caswell Chapter R. A. M., St. John Commandery No 10 at Newbern, and of the Social and Industrial Association of Kinston.

In 1894, Mr. Harvey married Miss Mamie L. Heartt, of Durham, daughter of Capt. Leo D. Heartt, now cashier of the Citizens Bank of Raleigh. They have three very interesting children – C. Felix, Jr., Leo Heartt, and little Miss Mary Lewis.

Stephen William Isler, an attorney at the Kinston bar, is the son of the late Col. Simmons Isler, of Jones county. He was named in honor his paternal and maternal grandfathers, the former being named Williams Isler, ad the latter was General Stephen Miller, of Duplin County.

Mr. Isler was graduated from the University of North Carolina in the class of ’58 and ’59 receiving the degree of bachelor of arts. Later he took master of arts from the same institution. In 1860 he entered the law department of Harvard University, from which he was graduated as a bachelor of law.

In 1862, Mr. Isler entered the Confederate service, and made a record for valiant and efficient service during that struggle, filling the position of assistant adjutant general of Deering’s Calvalry.

After the war he taught school for two years, and then began the practice of law, for which he had been fitted by education. From 1866 to 1868 he was solicitor of Greene county, from which position he was deposed by the reconstruction acts. He then returned to Goldsboro, where he built up a lucrative practice, and where he now owns considerable property. In 1901 Mr. Isler came to Kinston and established an office, becoming a member of the city bar. He is now located in the Miller building, No 115 ½ South Queen Street.

Mr. Isler has built a handsome brick residence on Adkin hill, just beyond the city limits, but within easy reach of his office. There he lives with his nephew, S. H. Isler, Jr., each being unmarried.

1906 Industrial Issue

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