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The records of the Council Tool Company document the history and operation of the North Carolina-based company from its founding by John Pickett Council in 1886 to the end of the twentieth century. The collection contains the company’s correspondence, financial records, and materials relating to personnel, plant operations, and merchandise. This collection also contains papers of the Council family spanning several generations, beginning in the early 1800s and with a few items from the 18th century. Correspondence, invoices, order letters, bills of lading, and related materials relate to the company’s operations including manufacturing, sales, transportation, information requests, and clientele. Financial records include accounting records, tax records, correspondence with accountants, records from the fire of October 20, 1970, and records relating to stocks. Accounting records include account books (ledgers), day books, trial balances, annual reviews of the company, and payroll ledgers. Office Files contain various information about the Council Tool Company and its operations, including correspondence, personnel files, catalogs and product information, machinery and equipment, inventories, notes and memoranda, and information about labor unions, insurance, and board meetings. Also included with the business records are files on the pulpwood industry, test hacks with accompanying reports, and maps and drawings. The family papers contain correspondence, financial records, and legal documents belonging to family members, including K. K. Council, John Pickett Council, K. Clyde Council, Edward L. Council, and Louise Council and a poem by Kinchin B. Council. Deeds and land grants, as well as correspondence about estates and property, constitute a substantial portion of the family papers. Council Tool Company is a family owned and operated business based in Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1886 by John Pickett Council, a turpentine producer and farmer in Bladen County, North Carolina. The company’s earliest product line featured tools used in the naval stores industry. When the naval stores industry began to wane, the company reacted by diversifying its product line. The company grew during the early decades of the twentieth century, surviving the Great Depression, two World Wars, and a devastating fire that destroyed much of the manufacturing plant. As of 2015, the company's full line of professional products included axes, picks, mauls, mattocks, striking tools, shrubbing tools, digging tools, wood-splitting tools, forged bars, C-clamps and a variety of specialty tools. The company has always been headed by a Council, and as of 2015, the president is John M. Council III. Less