Volume III
Number 23
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
November 2
1935
Entorrd *• te<ond-fl*M mtttfr, June 1, 1933. •! ih* Po*toflc« ■( Ritelch, North Carotin», nndtr tho Art of March *. 1870
ABOUT 150 years ago (hey threw T. J.
Haekney out of one of the eliiirelies
up in Pennsylvania.
Пе
didn't like it.
so he eame to North Carolina and found¬
ed one of this state's most useful and
highly respeeted families.
OVER «no bit ml roil ami fifty
years ago. Thomas Jennings
Hackney had some kind of a
row with his fellow-members of n
Quaker church up in Pennsylvania.
Maybe ho objected to the flat-topped
hats which the Quaker* wore in those
days, or perhaps he didn't say “thee"
and “thou" when lie should have. At
any rate, he was fired from the church.
That made him mad. So ho packed
his personal belongings and came down
to North Carolina, settling in Chatham
County. And that's how the Hack¬
neys — one branch of the family, any¬
way — happened to come to this sec¬
tion.
A Debt of Gratitude
North Carolina owes a heavy debt
of gratitude to those Quakers for let¬
ting Thomas Jennings Hackney get
mad with them. If it hadn’t been for
that little episode wo probably wouldn't
have had the Hackneys among our
business leaders in this state for al¬
most an entire century.
The senior member of this interest¬
ing family at the present time is
George Hackney of Wilson, who. at.
«4
years of age. goes down to his office
every day although lie’s frank in say¬
ing that he doesn’t do much work. As
affable, courteous, genial and fine a
gentleman as you will find anywhere.
I’roud of his business and proud of bis
family.
Ever since 1854, the Hackneys have
been in the buggy, wagon and bus-
hody-liiildiug b u s i-
ness. W. X. Hack
пе у
— father of
George. Sr. - moved to
Wilson in 1854 from
X a s b County and
started a’ small wheel¬
wright shop there. It
wasn’t long before he
started making bug¬
gies. George worked
with him for about
five years— until he
was 23 — a u d then
went up to Roekv
Mount and joined bis
brother, T. J. Hack¬
ney. who had started a buggy plant up
there. George remained in Rocky
Mount for eight years. His father
suffered a stroke of paralysis and was
tm longer able to attend to business
affairs, so George went hack to Wilson
and. with his brother. W. I>. Hackney,
took over the management of the
“Hackney Brothers, Manufacturers of
Carriages." That was in 1885.
'I-ong about thirty or forty years
ago. folk* took a lot of pride iu the
appearance of their carriages. There
were as many different models as there
arc in tin- automobile world today — a
dozen varieties of buggies, ninny types
of surreys and all kinds of phaetons,
traps, buck boards, stanhopes and
other styles. The height of worldli-
ness in those days was for some young
buck to drive down the main street of
town in a new, shiny buggy, with one
George Hackney, Sr., is dean of the family at the
present time. He is 81 years old, but goes down to
his office in Wilson every day.
leg dangling from the side of the ve¬
hicle. It was enough to break any
susceptible girl’s heart.
Hackney brothers devoted most of
their time to making buggies and sur¬
reys. They sold other kinds of car¬
riages too. but usually purchased them
from manufacturers elsewhere in the
country and then resold them.
Changes in Business
In 1900 George and Doug Hackney
organized the Hackney Wagon Com¬
pany and bognn the manufacture of
farm-wagons and carts. This partner¬
ship lasted until 1020. at which time
it was dissolved. Mr. George started
making bodies for uutomobiles —
trucks, busses, etc. — while Mr. Doug
continued to make wagons and carts.
The body-building business lias con¬
tinued to grow and a large portion of
The Quakers Got
Mad With Him
