Newhanover-Onslow-Duplin County NcArchives News.....A SOLID HOUSE. April 21, 1888
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Bill Gibson bgibson@uncfsu.edu August 12, 2006, 9:39 am

The Wilmington Messenger - Saturday, April 21, 1888 April 21, 1888
A SOLID HOUSE.
---
What a Messenger Reporter Picked Up On Water Street Yesterday.

  One of the most conservative, substantial and progressive business houses of 
Wilmington is the firm of Hall & Pearsall, wholesale grocers and commission 
merchants, 11 and 13 South Water street.

  The members of the firm are Messrs. B. F. Hall and Oscar Pearsall, both of 
whom are natives of Duplin county.  Mr. Hall, the senior member of the firm, 
is a well preserved man in the forties perhaps, and has been doing business in 
Wilmington since 1869.  He has been identified first and last with the 
progress of the city.  He has been connected with the Chamber of Commerce and 
Produce Exchange as one of its officers, and is at present a director of the 
First National Bank of Wilmington, and is also a member of the board of 
directors of the Wilmington Seacoast Railroad.  He is also identified with 
other enterprises in one way or another, and is a liberal patron of the 
deserving institutions of the city.

  Mr. Oscar Pearsall, the junior member of the firm, is a middle aged man, and 
is one of the city's sound business men and influential citizens.  Besides his 
general connection with various enterprises in the city, he is a member of the 
Board of Aldermen and chairman of the Committee on Streets and Wharves, and of 
the Sanitary Committee.  As chairman of the former committee, he has done 
great service for the city in the way of improving our streets and prompltly 
attending to their repair.  Mr. Pearsall has been connected since 1869 with 
his present partner, first as a salesman and buyer in the house of Edwards & 
Hall and since 1876 as a partner of the present firm to which he was admitted 
just previous to the death of Mr. Edwards the former partner.

   THE STOCK CARRIED.
by Messrs. Hall & Pearsall is large and full at all seasons, consisting of 
meat, molasses, flour, sugar, coffees, salt, all kinds of groceries, 
fertilizers, etc., etc.

  The firm does an exclusive wholesale business, and has its patrons far and 
near.

  The building which they occupy at Nos. 11 and 13 South Water street, is a 
two-story brick structure, and both stories are packed from bottom to top with 
merchandise.  The store-room proper is forty feet in width and eighty in 
depth, and on the second story is a room the same size.  On the first floor 
the general stock is carried, and here also are the business offices and the 
receiving and shipping departments.  The second story is used for storing 
peanuts, bagging, etc.  Notwithstanding the large storerooms mentioned, the 
house is so cramped for room that two warerooms across the alley are used for 
meat and heavy groceries.

  In addition to these storerooms there are two large warehouses on the 
waterfront which are used for storing salt, molasses and other heavy groceries 
and fertilizers.  One of these warehouses is probably the largest merchandise 
warehouse in the city, being one hundred feet in width by one hundred and 
fifty feet in length, and having a wharf front of two hundred feet. 

 The other warehouse is situated on the wharf in front of the store and is 
thirty by seventy feet, having a wharf front of 140 feet.  Both of these 
warehouses are crowded with goods, and still there is not room enough to carry 
the large stock which this house has to carry to accomodate a large and 
growing trade.

   THE COMMISSION BUSINESS
of the house is done in cotton, naval stores, peanuts and other country 
produce, and for the transaction of this business the firm has the most 
complete facilities besides having a wharf front of nearly 300 feet at their 
warehouses, their yard for handling naval stores is situated at Point Peter, 
where they have a frontage of about 1,000 feet on the Cape Fear and Northeast 
rivers.  The yard for naval stores also comprises about six acres on which 
there are capacious sheds and other facilities for handling consignments of 
naval stores on the largest scale.

   THE GROWTH OF THE BUSINESS
  The growth of the business of Messrs. Hall & Pearsall has been steady and 
uniform since the establishment of their copartnership.  Their trade extends 
over a wide territory in North and South Carolina, and is growing in both 
States.

  They also run a line of schooners for the coasting trade, dealing 
principally with Onslow county.  The schooners make regular trips, bringing in 
country produce and taking out merchandise for the large trade the house has 
in the territory there is opened up.

   AND FINALLY
  The firm has two drummers, Messrs. J. W. MacRae, formerly of Maxton, and Mr. 
J. C. Cox, formerly of Kenansville, who look after the out of town trade.  Mr. 
W. J. Toomer is the manager of the commision business, Mr. T. M. Dobson is 
shipping clerk,  Mr. B. F. King is the cashier, Mr. R. W. Price is the 
bookkeeper and Mr. Andrew J. Howell is the stenographer of the house. 

 Next to owning the building at Nos. 11 and 13 South Water street and the 
valuable warehouses and water fronts mentioned, the firm is fortunate in 
having such a corps of capable and business like assistants.

  With their facilities, superior business methods and ample capital, the firm 
of Hall & Pearsall takes a leading place in the commercial ranks of our city 
and is one of the business houses of which Wilmington has cause to be proud.

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