Gurley Expands Selma Plant

The owners and operators of Gurley's, Inc. pose in front of the company's modern seed-processing facility in Selma. Left to right, they are Bob Gurley, Jr., assistant secretary-treasurer and plant manager; R.G. Gurley, president; Carl R. Gurley, secretary-treasurer; and Raymond Gurley II, vice president and office manager. Photo by Reuben Johnson. 

Hulth, Peter. Gurley Expands Selma Plant, The Smithfield Herald, July 30, 1976.

Gurley's Inc. - which maintains grain processing facilities in Selma and Princeton - has greatly expanded and modernized its Selma operation.

The firm has completed a three-year automation project which enables the facility to process 100 tons of soybeans per day into meal and oil. Approximately 80 percent of the production is in soybean meal, the other 20 percent in soybean oil.

The meal is utilized principally by feed mills in the production of food for poultry, hogs and other livestock. The oil goes to refineries for the manufacture of margarine and other food products. Some of the oil goes to such far-away markets as Japan, China, Singapore, Brazil, and the Netherlands.

Gurley's Inc. buys soybeans and other seeds from farmers and dealers. The firm also handles corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, sorghum grain ,and grass and garden seeds.

The company grows, buys and processes registered and certified seed in its program of seed production.


Normally, the company employs 80 persons; but employment peaks at 100 or more during harvest seasons.

The firm has an annual payroll of approximately $900,000.

Geared to the seed industry, Gurley's Inc. had a seed-production capacity in 1953 of 200 bushels perr hour - good at that time. Now, with modern innovations employing a system of electronic devises, the company can produce 10,000 bushels of seed per hour.

From a storage capacity of 30,000 bushels in 1953, the facilities have been enlarged to hold a million bushels.

And, compared to the 1,000 bushels of seeds per day the company handled back in 1953, the company can unload 150,000 bushels per day at the present rate.

Utilizing push-button convenience and three truck dumps at the Selma facility, the company can unload 50,000 bushels per day at each dump station. A dump facility can raise a tractor-trailer in just a moment and dump from 200 bushels to 1,000 bushels at a time into a pit. From the pits, elevator belts and conveyors carry the grain to one of 100 storage bins.

The plant modifications are a composite of ideas conceived over the past 20 years by R. G. Gurley, the firm's president, and his brother, Carl R. Gurley, who serves as secretary-treasurer of the family corporation. Their ideas were developed on the drawing board by H.F. Holt, plant engineer, who has been with the company for 37 years. The recent three-year period of modernization was supervised by William T. Dennis, a building contractor of Albemarle.

The business was established as Gurley Brothers, a general merchandising firm, in 1936 in Princeton. The brothers had bought the old J.R. Ledbetter store building from Dr. A.G. Woodard of Goldsboro.

Later that same year, a corn sheller was installed, and corn was bought in the shuck from farmers. The partners also bought other farm produce - such as meat and soybeans - for resale.

This was the Gurley Brothers building which housed the general merchandising firm 

when R.G. and Carl R. Gurley formed a business partnership in 1936 in Princeton. 

The brothers now head a gigantic feed mill and seed processing business with 

facilities in Princeton and Selma. 

In 1937 the brothers built a milling company in Princeton. It was operated under the name of Gurley Milling Company. Under  its own label, the company began the manufacture of cornmeal, feeds, and other products. That plant operated for two years but was forced to close in 1939. It would open each fall, however, to buy fall grains. In the meantime, the general merchandising business was operating profitably.

The brothers entered the funeral business in 1939, operating as Gurley Funeral Home and Princeton Mutual Burial Association.  The business was sold in 1943 to Yelverton Funeral Home in Fremont.

The company established facilities in Selma in 1949, and there has been an almost constant expansion program there. A fire in April 1952 destroyed the mill, and a new facility - including a seed plant and mill office - was constructed.

In 1958 the company built a soybean processing plant at Selma, with R.G. Gurley in charge. Towering elevators were built in three stages - some in 1958 and 1959 and more in the expansion project just completed.

The company formerly had mills in Washington, N.C. and Florence, S.C. but liquidated those holdings.

In 1964 the company built a modern feed mill on Highway 70 at Princeton, with Carl Gurley in charge. The Princeton and Selma operations then merged under the firm name, Gurley's Inc., with the principal offices in Selma. The Princeton mill produces pet foods and feeds for poultry, hogs, and other livestock - mostly distributed under the firm's own labels.

In July 1971 the brothers accepted into the corporation as full-fledged officers their sons, who have worked over the years in various capacities in the Selma and Princeton plants. R.G.'s son, Raymond Gurley II, is vice president and office manager. Carl's son, Carl R. (Bob) Gurley, Jr., is assistant secretary-treasurer and plant manager.

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My friend, Ann, sent me a photocopy of the above article she came across while doing research in Smithfield.  

Gen. 1
Daniel Gurley b. 1814 md. Chelly

Gen. 2
1. Nestus / Oister? b. 1841
2. Georgiana b. 1846
3. Calvin L. Gurley b. 1850, md. Ellen Capps
4. Mary b. 1852

Gen. 3
3a. Charles Luther Gurley b. 1871, d. 1938 md. Hattie Massey b. 1874, d. 1954
3b. Minnie b. 1874
3c. Mary b. 1876
3d. Edith b. 1878

Gen. 4
3a1. Hattie Mozelle b. 1893, d. 1908 age 15
3a2. Florence H. b. 1895
3a3. Charles H. b. 1898
3a4. W. Calvin b. 1901
3a5. Thomas H. b. 1904
3a6. 
3a7. 
3a8. 
3a9. John L. b. 1910, d. 1966 
3a10. 
3a11. Eleanor b. 1914
3a12. Raymond Gardner b. 1916, d. 
3a13. Carl Roberts b. 1918, d. 2002 md. Martitia Holt, children Peggy, Imogene, Connie, Bob