Humphrey Family, Holly Grove Dairy and Phillips Island

J.W. Humphrey

Humphrey Children

John William Humphrey (1884‒1942) was born in Craven County, NC to John W. Humphrey and Julia Eleanor Arnold. On December 22, 1910, John William Humphrey married Eva Lane Pittman (1886‒1973). They were parents of John "Jack" Pittman Humphrey (1913‒2002), Harriette "Hattie" Lee Humphrey (1914‒2004), Marjorie Faye Humphrey (1918‒2015), and Robert William Pittman Humphrey (1922‒1977), all born in Clarks, Craven County.
 
About 1925, John William and Eva Humphrey moved the family to Beaufort, where they owned and operated Holly Grove Dairy "in the outskirts of Beaufort near the Beaufort Atlantic Highway" (The Beaufort News 1939).

Holly Grove Dairy

In 1941, the Humphrey family purchased 217 Front Street. Members of the Humphrey family owned and lived here until 2007.
The home, the Thomas-Humphrey House circa 1909, was built by Thomas Thomas (1883‒1937), on the site of "the old Manney house," which Thomas purchased for $1950. ( Thomas Thomas, son of William Alonzo Thomas and Rosetta Howland Manney, was the grandson of Capt. Thomas Thomas and Martha Dudley Murray.)

On December 26, 1938, John William and Eva Humphrey’s daughter "Hattie" married Llewellyn Phillips (1903‒1998), born in Morehead City to Herbert Orlanda Phillips and Mattie H. Hancock. 

"Hattie" Lee Humphrey

Llewellyn Phillips

"Hattie" graduated from East Carolina Teachers College; the 1934 year book noted her as President of Student Government Association, among other superlatives. 

Llewellyn Phillips graduated from the University of North Carolina with a law degree. By 1930, he was recorded at 1006 Evans Street in Morehead City and noted as a lawyer in private practice. 

By 1940, Llewellyn and "Hattie" were living on Evans Street with his mother Mattie Phillips. Llewellyn and his brother H. Orlanda Phillips were recorded as partners in "fish scrap manufacturing."

In 1932, the Phillips brothers purchased Newport Fisheries menhaden plant, including the factory and gear for $2,701. 

The old fish plant burned in September 1953.
(Menhaden plant chimney, Phillips Island, courtesy Bland Simpson, July 2004)

Phillips Island