By Michael K. Brantley
On February 18, 1911, Nash County Representative J.L. Cornwell introduced a bill in the North Carolina General Assembly as “An Act to establish and provide for the organization of the County of Jarvis from the territory of Nash, Wilson, Johnston, Wake and Franklin Counties.”
The bill was labeled H.B. 1229 and referred to the Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns. The new county was to be named Jarvis County, in honor of former Governor Thomas J. Jarvis of Greenville, who served as Zeb Vance’s lieutenant governor. When Vance became a U.S. Senator in 1879, Jarvis finished his term was elected to his own in 1880.
Middlesex, a town of a little over 800 people today, was a boom town back in 1911. The town sprang up when the Norfolk and Southern Railroad cut through the area around the turn of the 20th Century.
A boost came when the Dennis Simmons Lumber Co. moved to Middlesex from Elm City and rail lines were spread in Nash and Johnston counties to haul logs. The mill was considered extremely modern, with the logs dumped into an artificial lake and conveyed upstairs into the saw room to be converted into lumber by a high speed band saw.
Middlesex became an important lumber shipping point, and a Georgian named Bud Deans opned a turpentine distillery nearby.
Names that will sound familiar to southern Nash County folks — Exum T. Lewis and J.R.J. Finch, who had land and business interests in the area, came up with the idea that Middlesex should be a county seat with a courthouse and jail.
There is a legend that when the bill came up for a hearing in Raleigh, the Norfolk and Southern took many supporters to the capital to support it.
However, the bill was doomed for a reason that makes you realize politics haven’t changed much in a century. The addition of Hoke and Avery, North Carolina’s last two counties, had made for an even number of 100 for the state. Lawmakers did not want to mess with such a nice, even number.
Source: By Faith and Heritage Are We Joined: Nash County Historical Notes, 1976 (Article by L.S. Inscoe)
That one decision could have forever altered Southern Nash County and that region. Funny how history can turn on a single decision.
There was a map drawn up of the proposed Jarvis County but is missing. I understand that if Jarvis County would exist then Middlesex would be the county seat.
I remember my grandmother Martha High telling me about this. She and my grandfather moved their family here in 1908 and opened a general mercantile store which evolved into Manning Brothers which is still operating today. I looked in the NC State Archives for information about “Jarvis” County, but the file was missing.