By the 1890s, the population of Newport had grown to 900. While Alexander Arthur's logging venture failed, industry continued to find its way to the town. In 1895, the A.C. Lawrence Leather Company established what eventually become one of the world's largest tanneries in Newport. Three years later, brothers James and John Stokely founded the Stokely Brothers Company (now Stokely-Van Camp's) to can vegetables they grew throughout the French Broad valley. Newport native Ben Hooper served as governor of Tennessee from 1911 to 1915.