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Subject: Cities

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Lance Incorporated

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What started in 1913 as 500 pounds of unwanted Virginia peanuts has evolved into Lance Inc., with revenues steadily approaching one billion dollars. Phillip L. Lance, a Charlotte-based food distributor, ordered 500 pounds of peanuts directly from a planter with the intent to resale them to one of his customers. When Lance’s customer reneged on the peanut deal, Lance roasted the peanuts at his home and sold them on the streets of Charlotte for a nickel a bag instead of returning them to the planter. The home roasted peanuts quickly became popular among Charlotte residents, and Lance soon started producing peanut butter.

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Goody's Headache Powder

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Like many pharmacists in 1932, Martin “Goody” Goodman compounded his own headache relief powder called “Goody’s” to sell in his local pharmacy.

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Headache Powders

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During the early twentieth century, many Tar Heels moved to towns and urban areas to find work in mills and on railroads, while local pharmacists also began creating patent medicines. One such medicine, headache relief powders, became popular among mill and railroad workers who referred to them as “production powders.”  Pharmacists often compounded their own headache relief medicine in an easier-made powder form rather than in the more complex pill form.

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Fletcher

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Alfred Johnson Fletcher, the seventh of fourteen children, was born in 1887 in the mountains of North Carolina.  After studying law at Wake Forest College, he opened a practice in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. His greatest achievement was the Capitol Broadcasting Company, which he created when he applied for a 250 watt AM station in 1937.  When he went on the air in 1939, he was only the second radio station in Raleigh.

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Reynolds, Richard Joshua

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As the sixth of 16 children, Richard Joshua Reynolds left his small Virginia town at an early age to establish his own company.  At the age of 25, Reynolds opened a chewing tobacco manufacturing company in Winston, North Carolina and quickly became a pioneer in the industry.  He anticipated the growth in the smoking tobacco market and developed a line of pipe tobaccos.  In 1913, he introduced Camel, the first American blend cigarette.  His innovative branding and marketing strategy set the industry standard.

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Krispy Kreme

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Vernon Rudolph and his Krispy Kreme doughnuts are excellent examples of the entrepreneurial spirit that flourished in North Carolina despite the Great Depression.

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Polio in North Carolina

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Reaching its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, poliomyelitis (polio), also known as infantile paralysis, infected and crippled hundreds of children across North Carolina.  The disease terrorized the general public, and, in response, North Carolinians successfully mobilized their money and time to assist polio victims statewide.  North Carolina’s mandate on polio vaccines, coupled with its citizens’ philanthropic efforts, played a significant role in eradicating the disease from the state’s population.

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Stamp Tax Protests (Wilmington)

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After the English Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, many North Carolinians refused to pay the tax—even after Governor William Tryon promised special privileges to fifty leading North Carolinian merchants and planters.

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Lillington, John Alexander (c. 1725-1786)

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Namesake of the town of Lillington (the county seat of Harnett County), John Alexander Lillington served as a colonel during the American Revolution and earned fame as a military hero.  Many credit him for the Patriot victory at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge.