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In the 50s and 60s, supplying heating oil to
homes became a big part of the business as new
constructions incorporated oil furnaces. With
their small delivery trucks, McNeill also made
deliveries two or three times a week to the small,
country gasoline stations. In the late 60s early
70s, convenient stores began replacing the fullservice
stations where attendants would pump
gas, wash windshields, check the oil and water,
and sometimes even vacuum your car. As the
service stations declined, the convenient stores
increased as did the McNeill legacy.
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McNeill Oil, ready to serve Moore & Hoke.
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SANDHILLS
CINEMA 10
FRANKTHEATRES.COM
695-1100
104 Brucewood Rd, S. Pines
Currently owning and operating four local
convenient stores, McNeill Oil continues to
serve our community with the changing times.
Named after W. H., the Mac’s Food Stores
are located at US #1 in Aberdeen, Olmsted
Village, Pinecrest Plaza on Morganton Road,
and another on Roseland Road. Appreciating
the dedicated staff in each store, locals enjoy
the friendships while they fill up. Employing
twenty with McNeill Oil and twenty on staff at
Mac’s Food Stores, McNeill values its long-term
employees. Frank tells, “One of our transport
drivers recently retired after 43 years on the
job.” Davis adds, “Anna Edwards who managed
our accounting for 38 years just retired. Even in
our convenient stores, we have managers who
have served well over 20 years; that’s unheard of
in this industry. We seek to create relationships
and treat people like family.”
Along with their dedicated staff, family
keeps things running at McNeill Oil. W. H. who
worked for around 40 years retired in the late
60s and passed in ’74. His son Frank, Sr. started
with McNeill Oil when he was 14 years old. At
age 15, he made a lot of deliveries because
many of the men were serving in WWII. After
earning a business degree from UNC, Frank, Sr.
was drafted into the Army. Returning from the
Army around 1952, he continued working for 50
years before retiring. Frank Jr. shares, “Born and
raised in our grandfather’s house, my dad built
his house next door. In his 89 years, except for
when he was in the Army and at UNC, Dad has
lived within a 100 yards of where he was born.”
Davis smiles, “He’s retired, but he still hasn’t quit
at age 89.”
Frank, Jr, who started with McNeill in ’78
celebrates 40 years in the business. Together
he and Davis manage operations. Serving since
1991, Davis explains the family connection, “My
mother Ella Ruth McNeill Clark, who passed in
2015, was sister to Frank, Sr.” Davis grew up in
Asheboro, but every weekend his family would
come visit family in Aberdeen. Davis shares,
“We would come to our aunt’s house called the
establishment; I thought everybody did this! I
would say, Frank and I are probably as close as
anybody I know.”
Frank agrees,“We’ve always been a very
close family always doing things together. Our
grandfather bought a house in Aberdeen, and
once he moved in, he never moved out.”
Childhood days hold fond memories of
happy times shared. “Aberdeen was a great
place to grow up!” Frank begins. “When I was
a young boy, Aberdeen Lake was the center of
activity as everybody would hang out at the
Lake! Times were much simpler then; we didn’t
have cell phones, computers. We had black
and white TV with a few snowy channels. We
played outside and got to know our neighbors;
everybody knew everybody. Football was huge
in our small town! Whenever our team traveled
to games, we had as many fans in the stands as
the home team. In 1964, Aberdeen High won the
state championship and placed second in ’63.”
Helping out at McNeill was also a highlight as
Frank enjoyed working with the men.
School days were attended at Aberdeen
Elementary School; Frank was a freshman the
second year that Pinecrest opened becoming
the fifth class to graduate from Pinecrest.
Upon graduation, Frank studied business at
Appalachian State and soon joined the family
business. He and his wife Susan, who grew up in
Frank McNeill Jr., three generations.
Southern Pines, have three daughters and three
grandsons.
“Outside of my time in Asheboro,” Davis
remembers, “Visiting family and playing outside
with the cousins was tops. Whenever the office
was open, I loved riding the motor oil carts and
going out to work on oil furnaces. I also mowed
a lot of grass.”
McNeill Oil supplies heating oil and propane
to homes; gasoline and diesel fuel to farm and
commercial accounts such as golf courses,
for their operational equipment. Currently
servicing around six tobacco barns, in the
good old days, they probably supplied three
or four hundred. With new homes purchasing
heat pumps, heating oil is on decline; however
gasoline continues to grow as the area grows.
Propane services are growing as locals enjoy gas
logs and tankless water heaters which are less
expensive than electric hot water heaters.
Continuing to service Moore and Hoke
counties with fuel, Frank fills me in on the
different fuels offered. “Kerosene and fuel oil are
heating oils used to generate heat. Kerosene is
a highly–refined heating oil that burns cleanly
in space heaters. Normally homes would have
a kerosene heater located in the central room,
and the heat would radiate from there. Your
bedrooms were pretty cold, but the sitting
room would be really hot. Fuel oil has to go
into a furnace. Fuel oil needs to have the proper
mixture of oil and air in order to burn cleanly;
it’s more of a blast furnace type thing. Of course,
gasoline is used in cars for combustion engines.
Gasoline is much more volatile with vapors that
can explode whereas heating oil and kerosene
are very stable; they do not explode. Propane is
a clear, odorless gas that comes out of the well
in liquid form, and as long as it’s kept under
pressure, it stays liquefied. Propane is delivered
in trucks to tanks in your yard; since they’re
under pressure, the propane stays liquefied.
When the pressure drops, the propane changes
from a liquid to a gas, actually a vapor, used for
gas logs or a gas stove. By the time it gets into
your home, the propane has changed from a
liquid to a vapor. Once propane gets into the
air, it loses pressure and becomes a gas with no
odor. Since you cannot smell it, they incorporate
a smelly additive so if it’s leaking, then you can
smell it.”
As for the smell of gasoline? That’s the natural
smell, no additives are needed.
Frank continues, “Natural gas and propane
have odorants added. Natural gas is an entirely
different product as it naturally comes out in
a gaseous state and is piped through pipelines
into homes. Natural gas comes from one gas
company owning the pipelines.”
p.10 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. No. 129
/FRANKTHEATRES.COM