New Businesses in the Carolinas, 1901

From the Fisherman and Farmer, Elizabeth City, Thursday, Sept. 12, 1901. New Bern was sometimes spelled New Berne and Newbern in various newspapers at the turn of the century.

New Enterprises That Are Enriching our Favored Section

And now comes the fact that China can no longer claim to be the only country that produces the rush from which the famous “Chinese matting” is manufactured. This great monopoly can no longer belong exclusively to the Flowery Kingdom. Along the banks of the Trent and Neuse rivers and their tributaries and marshes, beginning about 15 miles above Newbern, there grows a beautiful rush from three to seven feet high, samples of which were lately submitted to a Boston expert and declared by him to be the identical species of the Chinese variety and from which the Chinese mattings is made. The supply of this rush in this State is positively inexhaustible. It is a perennial, exceedingly hardy and a vigorous, rapid grower. In its original green state the stalks are from the size of a knitting needle to that of a lead pencil. It is conservatively estimated that about 300,000,000 yards of Chinese matting are shipped into the United States alone annually from China. It will therefore be seen what the discovery of this North Carolina rush really means to the commercial world, and its importance to the men who will engage in its manufacture. Truly the great and diversified wealth of the Old North State is a constant and continual surprise. “The half has never been told.”

                                --Raleigh News and Observer

The Bonnie Cotton Mills of Kings Mountain

The Bonnie Cotton Mills of Kings Mountain, N.C., which completed its plant some months ago, started operations with 4,300 spindles on twist ply yarns from 8s to 40s. It has now decided to add 1,000 spindles this fall and more spindles later on to fill the building. The whole cost will be about $100,000. Seventy-five hands are employed, which will be increased to 175 in a few months. All the tenement houses are nearly completed. J.S. Mauney is president.

Independent Bleachery in South Carolina

One of the most important announcements ever made in connection with the Southern textile industry has appeared during the current week. It is the announcement of the completion of the $300,000 bleachery at Clearwater, S.C., the first of its character in this section to cater to the genera mill trade. There are two other bleacheries in the south, but they are operated in conjunction with cotton factories. The plant just completed will print, bleach and dye sheetings, drills, ducks and sateens and its weekly capacity is 100 tons of goods. The operators have been chosen from the leading plants in New England, and the company owning the bleachery expects its plant to be but the initial step that will ultimately result in the South printing, bleaching and dyeing all of its manufactured cloth. The establishment of the bleachery is due to the efforts of Mrs. Thomas Barrett Jr. of Augusta, Ga., the company’s president, who has for years been identified with the cotton manufacturing interest of the South.

Exports from Newport News

Shipments  of live-stock from Newport News continues to be extensive. Four vessels recently cleared form this port in one day, three of which carried 1,000 head of cattle in addition to other cargo. Shipments of coal to Greece are now being made from Newport News. A cargo was recently sent to Piraeus, the port of Athens, consisting of 5,718 tons of New River coal.