Semaphore - December 1953

[image: DIRECTORS AND OFFICIALS ON THE TOUR PAUSED FOR THIS PICTURE AT GREENWOOD]

[image: three men climbing off a train]

[image: five men standing beside a train]

Left, President Rankin, Duke Power President Cocke and Greenwood Mills President Self are shown upon arrival in Greenwood. Below, GFA Williams, Directors Pearce, Dowd, foreground; Montgomery, and Ligon watch a car of coal being unloaded at the Lee plant of the Duke Power Co.

DECEMBER, 1953 11

[image: FARMERS EXCHANGE IN DURHAM HAS 100,000 SQ. FT. BUILDINGS ON FIVE ACRES]

Farmers Exchange . . . it serves 13,000 patrons

DURHAM is many things to many people. To some it is cigarettes and the smell of tobacco, to others it is Duke University, to others it is a medical center, and to still others a shopping town.

But to farmers Durham has yet another facet. It is a marketing and buying center for some 13,000 men of the soil in five counties of central North Carolina. it is not so much that Durham itself is the market place but rather that Durham is the home of the Central Carolina Farmers Exchange, Inc., a marketing and buying organization which in 23 years has mushroomed from three employees and an investment of $2400 into a multi-million dollar business.

Back in 1930, just as the nation was coming to grips with its worst economic depression, farmers were strugglign for their very existence. County agents and farming experts were urging them to diversity their farming -- to raise poultry and beef and get into dairying. But without any guarantee of a place to market their products after they raised them, farmers took a dim view of this idea.

It was to fill this marketing void that the Farmers Exchange was organized under the leadership of George Watts Hill and other far-sighted business men. On March 13, 1930, some 400 farmers met in Durham and organized the Exchange. Its purpose was to develop markets for diversified farm products and to buy such items as feed, fertilizers, and seed in bulk quantities and pass the savings on to the individual farmers.

The first manager

C. W. Tilson, a young county agent in Jackson County in Western North Carolina who had already achieved a reputation for developing markets, was offered the job of manager. He accepted, moved to Durham, and has been the manager

12 SEMAPHORE

of Farmers Exchange throughout its amazing development. He, more than any one person, is responsible for what the organization is today.

Today the Farmers Exchange has more than $2 million invested in land, buildings, and equipment used in performing the marketing and purchasing services it provides for its members. In 1952 the Exchange sold over $5.5 million worth of farm products and purchased $6.5 million worth of feed, seed, fertilizer and other farm supplies. The main plant and offices embrace over 100,000 square feet of floor area on above five acres of land along Gilbert Street in Durham. In addition there are branches in the towns of Pittsboro, Siler City, Carrboro, Creedmoor, Oxford, Roxboro and Hillsboro.

Extensive facilities

Facilities of the Durham plant include grain storage elevators with a capacity of 100,000 bushels, a feed mill with a yearly output of 45,000 tons of livestock and poultry feeds; a chick hatchery which supplies farmers with 3 million chicks a year; a seed cleaning plant; a big marketing and purchasing warehouse; an egg marketing department; a poultry processing plant; and a cold storage and freezer locker plant. These are all facilities which small farmers could not operate individually but when operated collectively can reduce overhead costs and operate efficiently.

The branch warehouses, operated in connection with the central plant in Durham, all provide marketing and purchasing services of a similiar nature. Their strategic locations in the five-county area make the services more accessible to Exchange members.

The organization, under the management of Mr. Tilson, began operations in its present quarters with its manaer, a cashier and bookkeeper, and a warehouseman. After a year and a half it was a g oing business with constantly increas-

[image: man working at desk]

[image: grain storage elevators]

MANAGER TILSON joined the organization when it was founded and is largely responsible for its success. Below are several of the big grain storage elevators at the extensive Durham plant.

DECEMBER, 1953 13

ing services, membership, and, of course, assets. It now has 225 employees in its central plant and 75 more in its branches.

Once a year the membership gets together to have a good time and to hear first-hand reports on the operation of its business. Last year over 6,000 members attended the annual meetings which had to be held in five sections.

Through the facilities of Farmers Exchange, Durham has suddenly become the center of a rich five-country agricultural area which in two decades has proved that diversified farming can pay big dividends.

TOM WOMBLE RETIRES; RAY SMITH TAKES OVER

LAST month T. F. Womble, joint D & S-Seaboard agent at Apex, N. C., retired after 52 years of service with these railroads. He was succeeded by another Seaboard veteran, Ray Smith, was was transferred to Apex from Moncure, N. C.

Agent Womble joined the Seaboard when he was a lad of 15 and since that

[image: Mr. Womble]

day he has been one of the railroad's steadiest and most loyal employees. He came to Apex as agent 40 years ago and during his long period of service there he has endeared himself to hundreds of friends and well-wishers.

Tom Womble has a reputation for reliability that would be hard to match. Over a period of 30 years of attending Sunday School he has missed only three or four Sundays. A short time ago he was awarded a pin for perfect attendance during the past four years. He was superintendent of school for many years.

But even through Mr. Womble has retired from railroad service, he has no intention of loafing. A side-line pulpwood business which he started some time ago will now get his full attention.

Mr. Smith, the new joint agent, is a veteran of 31 years with the Seaboard and has worked at many stations on the railroad. He is a native of Laurinburg, N. C., and received his education at Hoffman near Hamlet, a Seaboard operating center. He is married and is the father of five children -- three sons and two daughters. Two of his sons are now serving in the Air Force.

[image: Mr. Smith]

14 SEMAPHORE

[image: 22 TEACHERS and one minister visited the Piedmont & Northern on B-E-M Day. Margaret Watt, daughter of Agent and Mrs. M. C. Watt of Anderson, is third from left, front row.]

Teachers' Day On The Railroad

LAST month the P & N's welcome mat was out for a group of Charlotte teachers and ministers who ate a good lunch, listened to several hours of railroad talk, and then toured the general offices and the Thrift Road industrial development.

The occasion was Charlotte's annual Business-Education-Ministers Day, an event sponsored by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce as a means of acquainting teachers and ministers with their inner workings of the city's business concerns. Twenty-two teachers and one minister were guests of the P & N throughout the day.

The visit began wiht a luncheon at the Barringer Hotel at which time the group was welcomed by Treasurer and General Auditor C. L. Taylor. They were then conducted to the conference room of the general offices where they heard talks by various representatives of the railroad and were given an opportunity to ask questions. Following this session they inspected the general offices and were then taken on a tour of the Thrift Road industrial area developed by the railroad.

Their own reactions tell the story of their day with the railroad. Here are some of the comments made in letters received by the P & N after the visit:

"Please let me thank you for the most interesting tour of the P & N in connection with B-E-M Day. It was a delightful occasion in every way."--Rev. C. C. Herbert, Jr., Myers Park Methodist Church.

"The entire day showed a lot of careful planning and hard work . . . and it certainly proved beneficial. I think that more people should be made aware of the great part the Piedmont & Northern has had in helping Charlotte to be the city that it is today."--Miss Evelyn Malone, Piedmont Junior High School.

"The visit you made possible for so many of us last week was indeed a great

DECEMBER, 1953 15