"Our Heritage"
Mount Olive Tribune
By Claude Moore
Friday, October 16, 1992
Volume 89 - Number 57

This week I ran across, in my own mound of papers, a copy of the Mount Olive Advertiser dated November 30, 1899. I checked the records and found that this weekly paper was published in Mount Olive from 1890 to possibly 1904 when it was sold to Fred R. Mintz and renamed the Mount Olive Tribune.

The advertiser was founded by Arthur Whiteley who came to Mount Olive as a music teacher in 1899. David John Aaron of Warsaw, a son of Lipman Aaron, a pioneer merchant in Warsaw, moved to Mount Olive in 1881. In 1883 he started publishing the Mount Olive Telegram which continued for several years. I would like to have copies of these early papers and maybe some of my readers will search their old trunks and attics and see what they can find.

The Mount Olive Tribune was sold by Mintz in 1916 to Homer Brock who along with his sons published the paper until 1979 when it was sold to the News and Observer.

In 1899 the Advertiser carried an advertisement by Blount and Keel of Mount Olive with men's suits selling for $3.50 to $10 and Dr. Max Harris, optician and graduated of Philadelphia Optical College, announcing that he was located in the Southerland Building.

Other advertisers were:
H. Weil and Bros., home of honest merchandise, Goldsboro;
Carolina Rice Mills, Goldsboro;
M. E. Caster and Co, Goldsboro;
The Ladies Store;
L. D. Giddens, Fine Engraver, Goldsboro;
New Meat Market, B. W. Southerland, Mount Olive;
Insurance, M.C.S. Cherry, Mount Olive;
N. Jacobi Hardware Co., Wilmington;
Fruit Growers Express, Chicago;
Dry Goods, R. J. Southerland, Mount Olive;
Cook Stoves and Crockery, W. P. Kornegay and Co;
J. M. Faison, Drugs, Medicine, Fasion;
Aaron's Pharmacy, Mount Olive;
W. P. Moore, Sewing Machines;
H. J. Purse, Commission Merchants, Detroit, Mich;
I. S. Clyments, Commission Merchant, Cleveland, Ohio, representative, W. E. Aaron, Mount Olive;
Ernest M. Merrick, Commission Merchant, Washington, D.C., representative, Henry Williamson, Mount Olive;
A. S. Grady, Attorney at Law, Mount Olive;
George E. Hood, Attorney at Law, Golsboro.

In the local affairs section the approaching marriage of Miss Annie Southerland of Mount Olive to Samuel Wooten of LaGrange: "Services at the Baptist Church were unusually interesting on Sunday. The Rev. Luther Rice Carroll of Warsaw, the pastor, was assisted by the Rev. J. L. Stewart of Clinton. The rite of baptism was administered in the afternoon." Carroll was a brave Confederate soldier and lived until 1904. Stewart was a minister and a lawyer.

Under new items: "We take pleasure in calling the attention of Messrs. W. P. Kornegay and Company regarding their stock of stoves, crockery, etc. No doubt their stoves are hot stuff and prices just right for the lean purse.

Other items: "The Odd Fellows will have an oyster supper tonight." "Northern Commission merchants are soliciting orders for mistletoe and holly for Christmas decorations." "The crop of rice is as large in this section as it was last year."

"Mr. Willis Hood of Goldsboro was calling on the fair sex here Sunday." "The showcases at Aaron's Pharmacy are things of beauty and attest to the artistic skill of Mr. O. E. Franklin, the general attendant."