T. S. Southgate & Company
T. S. SOUTHGATE fc? COMPANY
THE export, import and shipping business of T. S. Southgate & Company was established in October, 1892, by Mr. Thomas S. Southgate, who has ever since conducted it under its present name as sole proprietor. He has developed it from a very small enterprise, practically without capital, to one of the most important business establishments of Norfolk, doing a business of $5,000,000 annually.
The house is regarded as of the highest type and one of the most progressive in the South, and maintains, besides its general offices in Norfolk, Va., branch offices at Wilmington, N. C., Charleston, S. C., Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla.
At its inception the business was simply a brokerage enterprise, afterward merging into an agency and distribution business, and later added a shipping business, with a considerable amount of export and import operations. The goods handled are principally food products, for the procurement of which the firm maintains the most direct relations with producers and manufacturers.
T. S. Southgate & Company own and operate the Southgate Terminal Corporation, which is equipped with modern fireproof warehouse construction to the extent of 500,000 square feet, also having an ocean pier, 700 feet long, with 30 feet of water. Mr. South- gate is also president and general manager of the Norfolk & West Indian Steamship Company, now completing large deep-water terminals.
Thomas Somerville Southgate was born in Richmond, Va., in 1869, the son of Thomas M.
And Mary E. Portlock) Southgate. He was educated in the public schools of Norfolk, Va., and engaged as an employe in the various forms of merchandising in Norfolk until he established his own business.
Mr. Southgate has long been a leading and progressive factor in the Board of Directors in the Chamber of Commerce of Norfolk, and for several years served on its Marine and Traffic Commissions. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Bank of Commerce and of the Trust Company of Norfolk, and is a director of the Industrial Finance Corporation of New York. He has served as president of the City Council of Norfolk for four years, and president of the Finance Department of Norfolk for two years; is a member of the Charter Revision Commission, and is first- vice-president of the Southern Commercial Congress. Mr. South- gate was vice-president of the American Commission sent abroad under the auspices of the U. S. Government in 1913 for the study of rural banking in twelve or fourteen countries of Europe. The result of the work of this Commission finally eventuated in the present "Farm Loan Bank System," now operating all over the United States. He is a Democrat in politics, and by religious affiliations a Methodist, and is pr^ dent of the Southern Laymen's Association, member of the Executive Committee of the :rgin:a Young Men's Christian Association, and of mom- clubs and out-of-town societies in this country and Europe.
