Faison to hold Market Day
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on October 10, 2004 2:05 AM
The town of Faison built a shed by the railroad tracks and opened a produce market to keep up with increasing demands for fruits and vegetables.
In the late 1920s, more and more farmers were bringing in produce. Northern buyers were wanting more of it. The town board knew its Faison Auction market was going to have to be well organized to handle the volume of buyers and sellers that would be coming to the little shed between the bank and the depot.
The first year of the town-operated auction, it shipped 440 railroad car loads of cucumbers north in two months. Among the teenage girls packing the produce was Mildred Warren, who would later married Ralph Precythe, a founder of the private Faison Fruit and Produce, which came later.
Faison will celebrate the beginnings of the state's first produce auction with a Market Day on Oct. 23. Market Day will start at 10 a.m. with a parade and an opening ceremony at 11 a.m. in downtown Faison.