Harris Teeter is a grocery store chain founded in Charlotte, North Carolina. As of 2012, Harris Teeter operated 208 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Delaware, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
James Spencer Love was the founder of Burlington Industries, the biggest textile manufacturing company in the world by the mid-1950s. His entrepreneurship helped to expand the textile industry and provide funding for education.
B. Everett Jordan, born in 1896, served in the United States Senate from 1958 until 1973. Before his work in politics, Jordan managed his family’s textile business, Sellers Manufacturing Company Jordan was appointed to fill Senator Kerr Scott’s seat after his death in 1958, serving in several different committee until he lost reelection in 1973. He passed away from cancer in 1974.
One of North Carolina’s most famous inventors, “Carbine” Williams was a native of Cumberland County. While in his early twenties Williams made moonshine. During a raid on his still, Williams shot and killed a deputy sheriff, so he was sentenced to prison for the murder. A trusted inmate, Williams spent his extra time working on gun inventions in the prison’s blacksmith shop. After his release from prison, Williams developed the prototype for the M-1 Carbine rifle, the military’s weapon of choice during World War II.
Recognized as one of the best flatpickers for the guitar, Arthel “Doc” Watson was born in 1923 in Watauga County, North Carolina. Watson’s early life greatly influenced his musical style and techniques. Although blind, Doc Watson won eight Grammy awards and the National Medal of the Arts.
The first successful machine gun, known as the Gatling gun was invented by North Carolina native Richard J. Gatling in 1862. The gun saw limited use in the Civil War because the original model proved ineffective but once Gatling perfected his machine gun, the United States Army purchased 100 guns in 1866. Although the patent was eventually purchased by Colt’s Armory, the more developed guns built by Nordenfeldt and Maxim gun manufacturers outlasted the Gatling machine gun.
One of the most influential newspapers in North Carolina and the Southeast, the Raleigh News and Observer dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. The paper’s ascendancy to state and regional importance began in 1894, when Josephus Daniels bought the news souurce. In 1995, the McClatchy Newspapers Corporation purchased the News and Observer Publishing Company. The paper continues its daily operation in the Triangle area.
Wilbur Hardee opened the first Hardee’s restaurant in Greenville, North Carolina, in 1960. Offering a concise but premium menu, low prices, and fast service, Hardee’s succeeded in Greenville and a second Hardee’s was soon opened in Rocky Mount. By 1963, the Hardee’s chain had gone public and it soon opened outside the United States. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Hardee’s became a subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, and the chain went through a revolution by offering new and better products, Monster Thickburgers, and witty advertising.
Like the Wachovia Corporation and several other American banks, Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T) started as a simple, private bank. As mergers and takeovers occurred throughout the years, BB&T made strides in the banking realm of North Carolina and eventually the American South. With over 1,800 branches and 30,000 employees in 12 states and Washington, D.C., the BB&T Corporation, stationed in Winston-Salem, N.C., ranks as the eleventh largest banking corporation in the United States as of March 31, 2011.
Waste Industries USA, Inc. is based out of Raleigh, North Carolina and is one of the fastest growing waste and recycling service companies in the Southeast. Lonnie C. Poole Jr., a graduate from NC State University, founded the company in 1970.