АЬоус,
Ihc Court-
houtc, Elixobothtown.
Left, Clorkfon is
о
tobacco market.
Bladen’s Towns
ЛИ
combine industry, commerce, and
agricultural trading to achieve bal¬
anced economy.
For 200 years (1960 is the anni¬
versary). Clarklon has been ihe capi¬
tal of a thriving agricultural region,
and still carries on a brisk trade with
planters. It has three large farm sup¬
ply houses, buys tobacco and peanuts,
sells fertilizer in enormous quantities,
makes garments, gins cotton, makes
veneer, and provides a fairly complete
little retail center for its neighbors.
It has a bank (a branch of the Wac-
camaw Bank and Trust Co.), a cotton
gin, livestock market, six tobacco ware¬
houses, a large sawmill, and while some
small rural towns have declined in
trade. Clarkton's has grown in spite of
the handicap of acreage reduction. Its
industries include a veneer plant and
a blue jeans factory. With a 1950
population of 589. the nearby suburbs
have grown rapidly. Some residents
commute to jobs at Acme-Riegel.
A vigorous town pride is evident,
loo. and Clarkton believes in self-help.
It easily raised $60.000 to build a
plant for a small industry, and it loyally
pilches in on civic jobs, such as ob¬
taining an ASC office recently. A com¬
mittee currently is at work to estab¬
lish a park, and the town boasts a
fine Volunteer Fire Department. 1950
population was 589.
The community was settled long be¬
fore the revolution when Scotch Pres¬
byterians established Brown Marsh
Church about 1750. However, when
the railway arrived in 1858, only a
few families were there. The post of¬
fice at first was called Dalton.
Growth began when John H. Clark
and John D. Currie moved in and
formed Clark & Currie, merchants. Be¬
fore a public school system was in¬
augurated. this firm operated and paid
for the school.
Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown (formerly spelled two
words) is not only Bladen's county
scat, but also is its largest town ( 1950.
1.611 pop.). Located on a bluff 125
feet above the Cape Fear on land of
Isaac Jones, it was designated as a
county seat by the assembly in 1773.
The act called the site "a healthy,
pleasant situation, well-watered and
commodious for commerce, and sundry
Bladen's 60 bed hospital ot
Elizabethtown.
Right, moin stiect in Blodcnboro.
THE STATE. June 25. 1960
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