Eastern North Carolina Encyclopedia
have been paid for tobacco grown in this county, the growers realizing in many instances from $500 to as high as $1400 per acre for the tobacco grown. This is perhaps the most valuable crop of the county, its total reaching more than 20,000,000 pounds in recent years. There are large areas in the county devoted to the growth of cotton, the second most valuable crop grown, the total bales grown being from 10,000 to 15,000 per annum. It is also a productive corn region, as may well be understood from the character of its best lands reclaimed from swamps.
In recent years the county has given much attention to the improvement of its roads and improvement of its school system. A network of sand-clay roads connects every section with Snow Hill, the county seat, which is connected with Kinston and the Central Highway by an asphalt road, while other roads of the same kind connecting the county on the north, west and south are already planned, and will in the near future be built. Two railroads traverse the county, the Norfolk-Southern across the northern end, Walstonburg being the principal station on this road, and The Kinston-Carolina Railroad, a subsidiary of the Norfolk-Southern, enters the county from the east, giving access to the markets of the East to the county.
Snow Hill, the county seat (so named from the abundance of beautiful white sand to be seen in this vicinity), is a town of near 1,000 population, wide-awake and progressive as may be seen by its improved streets and sidewalks. The streets are of the well known concrete asphalt type, while the sidewalks are of concrete. The town has installed a modern water and sewer system, its water being pronounced by competent chemists as of the very best, same being obtained from wells 200 feet deep. It possess two banks, a large number of business houses, a newspaper, four white churches and one of the best schools in the East.
The county contains 242 square miles and contains at present a population a little in excess of 16,000, almost equally divided between the two races. Its property valuation for taxation purposes has grown from $2,000,000 in 1900 to over $20,000,000 in 1924, and the tax total from less than $15,000 in 1900 to over $500,000 in 1924.
The educational growth in Greene County for the last few years has been shown by the community spirit prevalent, by the number of special tax districts, and by the interest manifested in the improvement and growth of the schools. The schools have been making progress in proportion to the schools in other counties of Eastern North Carolina. As a whole the people have a generous spirit toward education and are waking up as never before for better consolidated schools. In 1921 Greene County constructed its first modern school building at
