Mr. Joshua Percy Flowers is second only to Ava Gardner in notoriety
anywhere near Johnston County, North Carolina. The Saturday Evening Post
declared Flowers “King of the Moonshiners” in 1958, when it is
estimated he was earning one million dollars annually in untaxed revenue
from the sale of white liquor up and down the East Coast. He was also
one “helluva fox hunter.” This film attempts to cover the ground between
the two pursuits and reveal a picture of the man apart from the legends
He was the best Liquor maker and Cock Fighter around. He was the hero in Johnston County. There are more tales about the man than you can shake a stick.
ReplyDeleteAll the Land on both sides of 42 headed to Clayton belonged to him. There is a Percy Flowers store on 42.
John
I heard it rumored that Percy's money started First Citizens Bank. CH
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteI should have said built instead of started because I think the bank was actually started in the late 1800's but it was a Smithfield NC bank and Percy fortunes rose in the same time frame that the bank grew and expanded. Percy being from that area is most likely the reason that story is told but I have no idea if it is true. CH
ReplyDeleteThanks and maybe my Cousin John might know.
DeleteCousin John replied:
DeleteBrock,
I do not know exactly when First Citizens was started but the Holden Family had the chief stock in the bank since the turn of the Century:
This is the background on Franks Dad: http://www.americanbanker.com/people/frank-holding-sr-retiring-from-first-citizens-in-north-carolina-1065783-1.html
Percy I think died in 1982 and was in his eighties. I do not know if he had any holdings in First Citizens but will check with one of their Board members that I know well.
John
If you go down 42 Hwy from Stancils Chapel to Clayton, you will see several Churches that Percy had built but the largest is Thanksgiving Church