Lenoir County, NC - Industrial Issue

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Martha Mewborn Marble <mmarble@erols.com>

NORTH STATE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

Financed by home capital and Managed by home Business Talent.  Will assist 
in the Development of North Carolina.  Strong Financial organization but high 
character choice asset.

The rapid development of the South during the last few years has been no less 
a surprise to the Southern people than to the other sections of our country.  
All over the South have sprung up, almost as if by magic, cotton factories, 
furniture factories, tobacco factories and other manufacturing enterprises.  
North Carolina to-day is not the North Carolina of ten years ago.  For more 
than a quarter of a century its people failed to recognize their ability, then 
lying dormant, to do and to accomplish great things in the business world.  
But now they have come to themselves.  The successful conduct of large 
manufacturing enterprises all through our borders managed by men born, raised 
and educated in the State has given confidence, and one no longer doubts the 
capacity of North Carolinians to successfully conduct an enterprise requiring 
the greatest skill and the highest attainments.  It has long been apparent that 
we suffered great disadvantages from the fact that we have placed our insurance 
in other sections of the country.  It is easily seen then why there has arisen 
a demand for Home Life Insurance Companies, which when wisely and safely managed 
will keep at home the large amount of money paid for insurance elsewhere, in 
addition to the security offered them as individuals, assisting in the 
development of our home resources.

These considerations have given birth to the organization of the North State 
Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the men who have joined hands in launching 
this company and in presenting its claims to the public for consideration and 
patronage are not without experience; on the contrary they know North Carolina, 
its people their resources and their necessities.  Under their direction and 
guidance they have seen banks, cotton mills, lumber mills, tobacco factories 
and other enterprises succeed and become strong and influential factors in their 
city.  Having carried other enterprises to success they have not doubted their 
ability to win for the North State Mutual Life Insurance Company a position 
among the strong financial institutions of the State, having an abiding confidence 
that a discriminating public will not with-hold patronage, if it shall show 
itself worthy and deserving.

The capital of the North State Mutual Life Insurance Company has all been paid in 
as required by law, and is sufficient to make it as safe as any company.  It will 
be operated strictly on the legal reserve, or old line, principle; its policy forms 
and rates are fixed by Miles M. Dawson, one of the best actuaries in the United 
States, and at this time one of the most prominent on account of his services in 
connection with the New York Insurance investigations.  Its policies will probably 
be registered and secured by the State of North Carolina, and if so the proper 
certificate will appear on each policy.

But the safest, strongest  and best asset a life Insurance Company can have is good 
character.  The character of any company is reflected by the men who control it.  
The North State Mutual takes pleasure and pride in presenting below the portraits 
of the men who control and manager it, and calling attention to their business 
characters.  Every department is in charge of an experienced man in his own line.

President J. W. Grainger is well known throughout this section and throughout the 
State as an enterprising, successful and conservative business man.  He is a 
director in the First National Bank of Newbern, of the Citizens Bank of Kinston, 
and of the Bank of Kinston, of which he is vice-president.  He is president of the 
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company, and carries on an extensive and 
varied private business, such as truck farming, dealing in fertilizers, and 
machinery.  It was largely through his efforts and foresight that a tobacco market 
was established here, which has grown and developed to such large proportions.

Mr. Grainger is also a political leader of prominence, being now chairman of the 
Democratic congressional executive committee of this district and of the county 
executive committee and is also a member of the State Democratic executive 
committee.  He is a man of great ability, and has the confidence of the people.  
With these two assets as leverage he has become a man of large means.

First Vice-President, J. A. McDaniel is one of Kinston's younger business men, 
full of enterprise and public spirit, and of a high grade of business ability which 
has enabled him to become one of the leading men of this section.  He is a director 
in the Kinston Cotton Mills, a member of the board of aldermen of the city, and has 
large real estate interests in this city and section.  He presented to the city the 
Charity Annex of the Robert Bruce McDaniel Memorial Hospital, which was opened on 
June 27th.  He is now a trustee of Rhodes Military Institute, and is interested in 
all that tends to the material or social betterment of the people.

At the last Democratic County Convention of Lenoir county, Mr. McDaniel was the 
unanimous choice of the body, and will occupy a seat in the next House of 
Representatives of the North Carolina State Legislature.

Second Vice-President Dr. H. D. Harper, Sr. is one of the leading dentists of the 
State, and is ex-president of the State Dental Association. He is a director in the 
Chesterfield Manufacturing Company, of Petersburg, Va., and also of the Orion 
Knitting Mills of Kinston.  He is interested in every enterprise that looks toward 
the building up of his home community and section, and his endorsement of a plan 
carries with it the weight of authority.

Third Vice-President J. F. Taylor is easily one of the leading mill men of the State.  
He is president and treasurer of the Chesterfield Manufacturing Co., a director of 
the Citizens Bank, president of the Lenoir Oil and Ice Co., secretary and treasurer 
of the Orion Knitting Mills, treasurer of the Kinston Cotton Mills, of which he is 
general manger.  It was largely through Mr. Taylor's efforts that the cotton 
manufacturing industry of Kinston was initiated and developed to its present large 
proportions.

Mr. Taylor represents the highest type of business men, the men who have during 
the last decade wrought so much for the State.

General Manager and General Counsel N. J. Rouse is well known in business and 
financial circles as a resourceful leader and a successful worker in whatever field 
he puts forth his energies.  He is one of the best equipped lawyers in the State 
and has a large number of important business connections.  He is president of the 
Citizens Bank, of the Kinston Cotton Mills, and of the Rouse Banking Co., of 
LaGrange.  He is also a director of the Chesterfield Manufacturing Co., of 
Petersburg, Va., and Underwriters Insurance Company of Greensboro.

He has an extensive law practice, his clientage embracing many of the weighty and 
important legal and business transactions of the East, and is the senior member of 
the law firm of Rouse & Land.

He is now serving his second term as mayor of the city, and during his administration 
has successfully handled for the city some large business interests in the way of the 
installation of its public improvements, which are owned by the city.  He is a man of 
high character, and his name will add strength and carry assurance of success to the 
enterprise just launched.

Superintendent of Agencies Joseph J. Rogers is one of the best known and best 
informed practical insurance men in the State.  For twenty years he has made a study 
of this subject in all its details.  He has for the past four years been State agent 
of the Pacific Mutual, with headquarters at Kinston, and during this time he has 
placed over a million dollars for that company. This long and successful career in 
the insurance field has made him well qualified to fill the position to which he has 
been elected.  Besides having personally placed more than two millions [sic] of 
business in North Carolina for leading foreign companies, he has had extensive 
experience in managing agents.  He knows how to sympathize with the Man behind the 
rate book, in his trials as well as how to appreciate his every effort.  He will 
bring to the company an agency force of the very highest order.

Secretary W. B. Brown is also an insurance man in which business he has been engaged 
for twelve years.  For a number of years he was with the firm of L. Harvey & Son, in 
this city, and more recently connected himself with the State headquarters of the 
Pacific Mutual.  He is a young man of much ability and good address, and will make 
an efficient secretary for the new company.

Mr. J. E. Hood is a well known druggist, having built up a large business in this 
city where he is recognized as a leader in the business world.  He is a director in 
both of our city banks, of the Kinston Cotton Mills, of the Chesterfield 
Manufacturing Co., and of the Lenoir Oil and Ice Company.

Dr. James M. Parrott, the Medical Director of the company, is a well known physician 
of Kinston.  He was educated at Wake Forest College.  Dr. Parrott was a student of 
the Medical Department University of Maryland, and is a graduate of Tulane 
University; also studied medicine in London, 1897-98.  He has taken a high stand in 
the medical profession, and is now a member of the Board of Medical Examiners of the 
State of North Carolina. He is a member of the North Carolina State Medical Society, 
and of the American Medical Association, and has served as fourth and third vice-
presidents of the State Medical Society.  He served as surgeon of the United States 
army in Cuba, during the Spanish-American war.  Dr. Parrott is a trustee of Wake 
Forest College.  He is a man of large means, being one of the largest land owners in 
Eastern North Carolina, and ranks foremost among Kinston's business and professional 
men.

Dr. Henry Tull, the consulting medical examiner, is a physician who has attained 
eminence in the practice of medicine, and is enjoying a large and lucrative practice.  
After graduating with distinction at the Bingham High School, he entered Harvard 
Medical School, and continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, from 
which institution he graduated in 1876.  He has during his entire practice been a 
member of the State Medical Society, and stands abreast with the leaders of his 
profession in the State.  Besides his professional attainments, Dr. Tull has shown 
great public enterprise and large capabilities in business affairs.  He stands at 
the front of all matters affecting the material welfare of the city and county. He 
is the owner of Hotel Tull, and was prominent in the organization of the Orion 
Knitting Mills, of which institution he is president.  He is at present chairman of 
the Board of Commissioners of the county of Lenoir, which position he has filled for 
several terms, having at the recent County Democratic Convention been unanimously 
renominated to succeed himself, to which position he will be re-elected in November.  
Dr. Tull has also served the public as county physician and as city alderman, and 
enjoys to an unusual degree the confidence of the public, both as a physician and 
safe business man.

Mr. E. J. Becton, a member of the Board of Directors and Finance Committee, is a 
practical insurance man of considerable experience, being a member of the firm of 
Fields & Becton, dealers in cotton, insurance, and fertilizers, in this city.  He is 
one of Kinston's most public spirited citizens, and he is generally recognized as 
among the strongest of the younger business men who have done so much in recent 
years to establish for Kinston the reputation of being one of the most prominent 
business centers of the State.  He is a man of fine business judgement and of great 
energy, and any business enterprise is fortunate to have the benefit of his counsel 
and judgment.

Mr. H. E. Moseley, a member of the Board of Directors and Finance Committee, is 
manager of the Moseley Hardware Co., in this city, and is recognized as a man of 
sound and conservative business views.  He has grown up with the town and is one of 
our substantial citizens.  He is a director of the Kinston Cotton Mills, the 
Citizens Bank, and the Chesterfield Manufacturing company.  He is now serving his 
second term as a member of the Board of Aldermen, having been treasurer of the city 
during both terms.

Mr. F. C. Dunn, a member of the Board of Directors and Finance Committee, is a young 
man who has come rapidly to the front in the financial and business affairs of this 
community.  His name is closely identified with everything that makes for the 
industrial and commercial advancement of this city and section.  He is secretary and 
a director of the Kinston Cotton Mills, and Chesterfield Manufacturing Co., of 
Petersburg, Va., secretary and treasurer of the Lenoir Oil and Ice Co., and a 
director of the Orion Knitting Mills.

Mr. R. C. Strong, chairman of the Finance Committee, is a man of high order of 
financial ability.  He has for many years been engaged in the banking business, and 
is now cashier of the Bank of Kinston.  The high standing of this bank in the 
financial world is in no small measure due to the ability and energy of Mr. Strong.  
He has also had considerable experience in insurance, having for a number of years 
represented insurance interests.  Mr. Strong is also president of the Kinston 
Building and Loan Association.

Mr. David Oettinger is a member of the well-known and successful firm of Oettinger 
Bros., wholesale and retail dry good merchants of Kinston.  He is a director of 
Citizens Bank, Kinston Cotton Mills, and of the Chesterfield Manufacturing Co., of 
Petersburg, Va.  Mr. Oettinger is recognized as one of Kinston's most enterprising 
and safe business men, and to him is due much credit for the city's rapid 
development along industrial lines.

The North State Mutual Life Insurance Co., is now organizing its agency force, and 
it is the hope and expectation of the management to offer its policies to those 
desiring insurance, not later than August 1st.

Take a policy in the North State Mutual Life Insurance Co., your money will be safely 
invested and the premiums paid will be invested in North Carolina to aid in 
developing home enterprises.

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