Hines, Lovit

23 Jan. 1852–1 Sept. 1921

Lovit Hines, merchant, the son of James Madison and Nancy Thompson Hines, was born in Wayne County but the next year the family moved to Lenoir Institute, Lenoir County. During the 1870–71 session, he attended Wake Forest College where he studied Latin, English, and mathematics. Returning to Lenoir County, Hines worked as a farmer and in his father's sawmill. After operating his own lumber business for several years, he formed a partnership with his brother, Wait T., at Dover in 1889. In 1893 the Hines brothers purchased the Greenville Land and Development Company, and, with P. H. Pelletier and S. C. Hamilton, created the Greenville Lumber Company. The firm burned in 1896.

The following year Lovit and Wait Hines went back to Lenoir County and organized the Hines Brothers Lumber Company at Kinston. Their $6,000 investment, consisting of lumber and machinery from the Dover mill, was matched by Henry C. Riley of Charles S. Riley and Company, Philadelphia. This manufactory produced railroad crossties, bridge timber, tobacco sticks, moldings, bed slats, and fence posts, as well as lumber for tobacco hogsheads and boxes. The company owned 24 miles of narrow-gauge railway from Kinston into the surrounding forest, and operated a train on standard gauge track from Kinston to Snow Hill in Greene County. The firm also operated heavy equipment in connection with its logging activities. By 1919, Hines Brothers Lumber Company employed 300 men and produced 65,000 feet of lumber a day.

Hines married Mollie Jane Murphy on 23 Dec. 1879; they had eleven children, seven of whom survived. Mollie Hines died on 31 Dec. 1907. He then married Polly Jones on 1 Sept. 1908; this union produced five children. Hines was buried at the Maplewood Cemetery, Kinston.