Abstract:
Accounting for the majority of farm income within Pitt County, tobacco farming has sustained the community since 1725. Selling more flue-cured tobacco than any other county in the United States, Pitt County merchants established a market in 1891 from which to sell their goods. Initially, a one warehouse operation, membership in the Greenville Market grew to 31 different auctioneers, who, as of 1956, sold 97,367,576 pounds of tobacco, 57,161,694 pounds of which was grown locally.