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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