A HISTORY OF FOUNTAIN Fountain, once known as “Reba,” and named for Robert A. Fountain, the town’s first merchant, is located in Falkland Township, 20 miles from Greenville, Tarboro, Wilson, and Snow Hill. The beginning of Fountain goes back to the then-proposed East Carolina Railroad from Tarboro to Farmville in 1900. It was originally a lumber railroad running south from Tarboro, but its president, Henry Clark Bridgers, concluded to make a freight and passenger railroad and extended it. With the persuasion of R. A. Fountain, the route of the railroad was changed to cross the Carr farm owned by Mr. Fountain. On March 19, 1901, R. A. Fountain opened a small store with his cousin under the name R. A. Fountain and Co. The East Carolina Railroad was being built at the time and not finished until the spring of 1901. A station was built near Fountain’s store and was named Reba, supposedly named by H. C. Bridgers for his youngest sister. Not long after this, a saloon run by Gardner and Hamilton opened at Reba. On January 15, 1902, a post office was established at Reba, known as Fountain. R. A. Fountain was named as postmaster and the office was in his store. The next postmaster was Clarence M. Smith in April 1914, the office being then in the store of Smith and Yelverton. The next postmaster was Marcellus C. Owens. Fountain was incorporated as a town on Feb. 20, 1903 and its elected officers were Abner Eason, as mayor and R. A. Fountain, R. A. Parker and G. M. Smith, as commissioners. The constable was W. H. Mercer. It was 1903 that R. L., G. W., and J. W. Jefferson opened the second store in Fountain known as R. L. Jefferson and Brothers. Besides the interest in this store, G. W. Jefferson later operated a cotton gin with a capacity of 1,100 bales. In early 1917, C. L. Owens purchased stock in this firm and it became known as R. L. Jefferson Brothers and Company. The year 1905 was a banner year for the town of Fountain and it grew into a thriving community. The town officers in 1905 were Mordecai D. Yelverton, Mayor; G. W. Jefferson, Treasurer; Charles C. Baker, Policeman; R. A. Fountain, Postmaster and Railroad Agent; and R. A. Fountain, R. L. Jefferson, and W. H. Mercer, Commissioners. The stores in Fountain included R. A. Fountain and Co.; R. L. Jefferson and Brothers; Gardner, Baker and Co.; Moore, Eason and Co., and G. L. Lang. Gardner, Baker and Co. opened in 1905 and was the third store built in Fountain. Their store and the barber shop inside was destroyed on December 27, 1908, when an arsonist set a fire that destroyed an entire block on the south side of Wilson Street. Other losers in the fire were the stores of J. C. Dilda, D. F. Lang & Co., Nathan Moore, and George Dunn. The large stores of R. L. Jefferson & Bro. and Fountain & Co. on the opposite side of the street were slightly damaged by the heat of the fire. It was from this fire that a new town emerged with handsome brick structures to replace the old wooden ones. Gardner and Baker never reorganized their business after the fire. In the spring of 1909, R. A. Gardner opened another grocery store. In the fall of 1912, he connected himself with Messrs. Jonas Dilda and D. R. Mercer under the name of R. A. Gardner and Company. Charlie C. Baker, Gardner’s former partner, was a Wilson County native who came to Fountain about 1901 as a farmer. About 1910, he opened a small grocery store and meat market in Fountain. He also operated a blacksmith shop in the rear of his store. In 1907, R. J. Owens opened a sale and exchange stable and livery business in Fountain. In 1908, Dr. J. N. Moore became the first doctor in Fountain. The next town doctor was Dr. Hardy Johnson in 1910, and Dr. J. B. Gunter was there from 1911 to 1913 In 1909, Messrs. David F. Lang and M. D. Yelverton opened a store under the style of Lang and Yelverton. They continued business for several years and Mr. Lang then moved to Farmville. Yelverton continued the business with various partners until January 1, 1915, when the firm dissolved and Messrs. C. M. Smith and M. D. Yelverton opened business under the name of Smith and Yelverton. Besides their store, they were also buyers of cotton on a large scale and extensive dealers of fertilizers. By 1910, Fountain had become a bustling commercial center with a population of 126 people. A Free Will Baptist Church had been organized the year before and besides the merchants listed before, Fountain also had a hotel run by James H. Williams; a mechanic, James F. Killebrew; and a carpenter, George M. Smith. In 1910, the Bank of Fountain opened and by December 1916 showed deposits of $123,924.98. The officers of the bank in 1917 were Henry C. Bridgers, president; G. W. Jefferson, vice president; W. R. Graham, cashier; and W. L. Lane, assistant cashier. The bank directors were Henry C. Bridgers, R. A. Fountain, R. L. Jefferson, Jonas Dilda, G. W. Jefferson, Dr. E. B. Beasley, and W. R. Graham. Besides being cashier, W. R. Graham was also associated with B. O. Turnage in the insurance business, under the name of Turnage and Graham, representing Hartford Fire Insurance of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1911, the Fountain town officers were J. M. Tugwell, mayor, and C. C. Baker, chief of police. There were also two boarding houses in town run by J. H. Williams and Abner Eason. Fountain also had three manufacturing plants: The Fountain Medicine Co., The Fountain Tobacco Truck Co., and G. W. Jefferson and Brothers Sawmill. In 1912, a Presbyterian Church was organized in Fountain, and J. T. Eason began operating a cement drain tile factory (which closed in 1914). In the early morning of February 9, 1912, the two-story city hall burned down when a drunk locked in the jail cell on the second floor started the fire with matches. The bottom floor under the city hall was used for a market by C. C. Baker. In 1913, R. A. Fountain and Co. built a large brick store, but on the night of November 18, 1915, this brick building was completely destroyed by fire. The business found other quarters, and in 1916 R. J. Proctor, a contractor of Nashville, N.C., began building a new brick store for them. In 1914, Fountain had two new enterprises, being the Fountain Electric Light and Power Co. and the Fountain Development Company. This same year, Dr. Edward Bruce Beasley established himself in Fountain and became a leading citizen in town. On April 11, 1915, Beasley opened a drug store in Fountain with a cigar and tobacco stand and soda fountain included. About this time “Uncle Jim” Killebrew, a disabled old man, began operating a peanut and fruit stand in Fountain, and Ava Gardner (the famous actress), then a little girl, was a constant visitor to Fountain to see her relatives, the Gardner and Dilda families. In 1916, the new road leading from the Wilson County line through Fountain to Greenville was completed. By 1917 there were two garages and repair shops in town, one conducted by J. T. Eason and Co., and the other by J. C. Dilda. Fountain had a graded school in 1917 with 150 pupils enrolled. A new school was built in 1923 and it served as grammar and high school until the 1940s when the upper grades were sent to Farmville. In 1960 the old Fountain High School was abandoned due to consolidation. In November 1964 the school building began housing a branch of Pitt Technical Institute. The school was later home to the Fountain Apparel Company in 1969. The Fountain Fire Department was organized in 1937 and the Rescue Squad was chartered in 1966. The Fountain Library was started in 1940 with the generous help of the Woman’s Club. The East Carolina Railroad, which was sold to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1935, was closed in November 1965. By 1966 Fountain’s only industry was the Fountain Milling Company, operated by the then-mayor, Carter Smith. Fountain now is a beautiful and sleepy little town which hides an interesting past. —Roger Kammerer