Hackney Wagon Company
Wilson, Wilson County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Hackney Wagon Company. Manufacturer of farm & delivery wagons; est. 1903. Peak production was 15,000 per year. Factory was 1/4 mi. NE.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
When Wilson still moved on wooden wheels, the Hackney Wagon Company kept the region rolling. Founded in 1903, its nearby factory turned out farm and delivery wagons by the tens of thousands, reaching a peak of some 15,000 a year. It was part of the industrial boom that carried the tobacco-belt South into the twentieth century, just before the automobile remade American roads.
Why it matters
The company captures a pivotal moment when local manufacturing powered an agricultural economy, on the eve of the shift from horse-drawn wagons to motor vehicles.
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