"These guys are top notch, all the way!" exclaimed Dave Coomer, General Superintendent with Bovis Lend Lease, the general contractor for the restoration of the American Tobacco Historic District.

"I first worked with them nineteen years ago on a project. They have been with me since the beginning of this project. They are just good men," he added.

James, Kelsie and Kelly Richardson are three brothers who have worked together as carpenters for thirty years. Their roots are in the clay soils of Warren County which they have never left, except for long daily drives to construction sites all over central North Carolina.

Kelsie, the youngest at 50, remembers working many times in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, Garner, and just prior to the American Tobacco project, in Pittsboro erecting a 3-M facility there. They have always driven from Warren County to wherever the job took them.

Asked if they grew up in the town of Warrenton, James, the eldest at 56, cried out, "Oh no! We're farm boys."

Kelly, 54, like his siblings, is known for reliable hard work. But he is so shy of a camera, it took, not an act of Congress, but an act of Superintendent Dave Coomer to get him to pose for a brotherly portrait.

The Richardson brothers are members of the Native American tribe, Haliwa-Saponi. They have spent their entire adult careers building for the future of their native North Carolina.

The real story here is that I could not really interview these fine men for a story. Kelly was too busy giving instructions to other workers to keep things moving. Kelsie was sanding the finishing touches on wood for James to nail in place as window facing in the Reed Building. To get them to stop long enough for an a more extensive interview was just about impossible.

I learned from Superintendent Coomer that this was their standard work ethic.

Asst. Superintendent Steven Ludlum informed me that the job site had many other sets of brothers and cousins at the work site, but these three stand out - because they refuse to stand out from their work for just an interview while they are in the middle of specific tasks.

That kind of work ethic has dominated the mind set of many creating the new American Tobacco Historic District, from the visionaries to the skilled carpenters like the Richardson brothers.

What a blessing and inspiration these three Richardsons are to this mammoth endeavor!