USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 16
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the north of Ireland, and a stream of Scotch settlers poured in, taking possession of the upper waters of the Cape Fear; and this migration continued for thirty-five years, 350 Scotchmen having come in at one time as late as 1775.
During his administration also the Moravians settled at Salem, and there was a great influx of population into Edgecombe and other counties near the Virginia line, while from South Carolina immigrants pressed up into Bladen and Anson counties. But separate and distinct from these settlements was a stream of im- migrants from Pennsylvania, Scotch-Irish and Germans, that took possession of the western portion of the province. When Johnston came in, only the land near the great sounds and about the vicinity of Wilmington was occupied. At his death population had ex- tended almost to the foot of the mountains, although necessarily there were large tracts unoccupied ; and the number of people in the province were somewhere about 90,000.
But notwithstanding the great increase in population in the province and the rapid progress made in development during Johnston's administration, the hands of Government were very much weakened because of the divergences incident to the strug- gle between the northern and southern counties. The Act creating a rent roll and providing for the collection of quit rents passed in 1739, having been disallowed by the Crown, and no other passed, . no rents were collected and for fourteen years before the Gov- ernor's death he received no salary, which was payable out of the quit rents. Toward the end of his administration efforts were made by McCulloh and others to have him dismissed from his post, and various charges were made against him before the Board of Trade in London, but he successfully defended himself from the attacks of his enemies and continued in office until the day of his death, July 17, 1752, when Nathaniel Rice, the senior member of the Council, succeeded to the administration.
Governor Johnston was accompanied to North Carolina by his brother, who was the father of Governor Samuel Johnston of the Revolution. He married Penelope Golland, a daughter of the wife of Governor Eden by a former marriage. This lady had al-
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ready been married three times, Governor Johnston being her fourth husband. She received from Govenor Eden the Eden House and plantation in Bertie County; and although Governor Johnston had originally intended to reside in Bladen County, where a mansion was erected on the Cape Fear River for him, he took up his abode at the Eden House.
By this wife Governor Johnston had one daughter, who mar- ried John Dawson, Esq., and resided at Eden House. His first wife dying, he married again, and in his will he mentions his wife, Frances Johnston, and earnestly requests her to be a kind, tender mother to his dear little girl. He also mentions his brother, Sam- uel Johnston, and "my brother's two sons, Henry and Samuel Johnston."
His widow, Frances, later married John Rutherford, Esq., of New Hanover County.
S. A. Ashe.
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WILLIAM R. KING
ILLIAM R. KING, Vice-President of the United States, was a native of Sampson County, and attained eminence while a representative of the Cape Fear District in Congress. Mr. William S. Ashe, who represented the same district in Congress in 1853, at the time of Vice-President King's death, in the course of a eulogy delivered in the House of Representatives, said :
"Colonel King was born in Sampson County in April, 1786. His father, William King, was a gentleman of fortune and character. During the Revolutionary War he rendered important services to his country's cause, both by personal service and the generous use of his fortune. After the conclusion of the war he was a member of the Convention which was called to adopt the Federal Constitution, and he was repeatedly elected a delegate to the General Assembly from his county. His situation in life enabled him to bestow on his children all the advantages of education which our country at that time afforded.
"Colonel King was sent at an early age to the University of North Caro- lina, which institution he left in his seventeenth year, bearing with him the happy consolation of having commanded the respect of his professors, the love and esteem of his associates. He studied law with William Duffy, an eminent jurist, residing in the town of Fayetteville, where he formed friendships which he preserved with affection till the day of his death.
"On being admitted to the bar, he settled in his native county, from which he was returned the following year (1808) as a member of the Leg- islature. By this body he was, at the age of twenty-two, elected solicitor for
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the Wilmington District. In the year 1810, before he was twenty-five years of age, he was elected to the Congress of the United States. This was a most important crisis in our national affairs. France dominant in Europe, England mistress of the ocean, our neutrality was grossly disregarded by each of these supercilious powers. To our manacing protests France ultimately yielded respect. England continued her career of haughty in- solence. War or national degradation was inevitable.
"True Republicans avoided not the issue, but met it boldly. Colonel King acted with them with his whole soul; and though one of the young- est members of the Congress, he was distinguished for the firm and fervid earnestness with which he supported the illustrious Madison in his patri- otic efforts to sustain the honor of our country. He continued a member, of Congress until after the conclusion of the war, when, in 1816, he ac- cepted a diplomatic position abroad, associated with that scholar and statesman, William Pinckney, the Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia."
This brief resume of Colonel King's career up to his thirtieth year indicates at once his high patriotism and his intellectual ca- pacity. He came from stock which during the Revolutionary War had been baptized in patriotism, his ancestors having fought with Colonel Kenan and made strenuous endeavors to secure the in- dependence of their country. Animated by the spirit of his Rev- olutionary sires, Colonel King in Congress during the War of 1812 cast lustre upon his North Carolina constituents and won for him- self the respect and esteem of those conversant with his career.
At the time of his return from abroad the territory of Alabama was being organized, and he determined to cast his fortunes in that attractive country Hardly had he arrived in his new home when he was elected a delegate to the convention which was to form a State Government. To the performance of the delicate and re- sponsible duties now cast upon him, he brought the matured ex- perience he had gathered in the councils of the Union, and the wisdom of the illustrious statesmen of North Carolina, and he was one of the most active and efficient of those who laid the founda- tions of Alabama's fundamental law. At that time North Caro- lina's sons were spreading themselves throughout the West, every- where being received with cordiality and good will, for North Carolina spirit and honorable conduct were proverbial, and the
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stainless career of her public men gained for them the highest consideration. But in addition Colonel King had an individuality that at once commended him to the esteem and confidence of the people of Alabama. As soon as the Constitution was adopted, he was chosen a Senator from that State in the Congress of the United States, and for thirty years, except a brief period of two years, when abroad, he represented Alabama in the Senate. In 1844, at a critical period, he accepted the mission as Minister to France, and by his address rendered extraordinary service to his country in securing the acquiescence of France and of England in the annexation of Texas to the United States. Both of those countries were disposed to object to this extension of the United States, and ominous clouds, betokening war, were gathering, when by his decision and characteristic resolution, he dispelled them.
In the Senate, on all occasions when a great issue was before . the country, calling for the exercise of firmness, courage and patriotism, Colonel King was abreast of those who stood foremost for the safety and glory of the Republic.
It has been said of him "that he graced the chair of the Senate longer than any other man that ever occupied it-not continuously, or by virtue merely of repeated elections as temporary President, but often also at the request of the presiding officer." He was thus engaged in the performance of the duties of President of the Senate during the greater part of the terms of five vice-presi- dents ; and that at a time "when party spirit raged in torrents of fire," and the master spirits of that era were among the members of the Senate, Clay, Calhoun, Webster and their associates, who made that period of our history illustrious.
Colonel King was from principle and conviction a State's Rights man, but he loved the Union and believed that harmony between the Federal and State powers were the essence of the Union. In the memorable session of 1849 and 1850, he voted for nearly all of the Compromise measures then proposed by Clay, because of his devotion to the Union.
In 1852 Colonel King, while still in the Senate, was nominated for the Vice-Presidency by the Democratic Party on the ticket
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with Franklin Pierce, and was elected to that high position ; but a mortal malady had already seized him. He spent that Winter in Cuba seeking renewed vitality ; but losing hope, he hurried home to die in the midst of his friends. On March 4, 1853, he took the oath of office of Vice-President in Cuba, the oath being adminis- tered by the American Consul. He reached his home at Cahawba, Alabama, on April 17th following, and died the next day.
A North Carolinian by birth, educated and trained among her people, he attained prominence as one of North Carolina's Repre- sentatives in Congress, and voiced her sentiments at a critical period in the history of our country ; and although transplanted to a new home, it was still his North Carolina characteristics that made his career honorable and brought him such high distinction among the public men of the Union.
S. A. Ashe.
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RUFUS YANCEY MCADEN
UFUS YANCEY MCADEN was born in Cas- well County, North Carolina, March 4, 1833. R He was the son of Doctor Henry McAden, and the grandson of Doctor John McAden, both of whom were distinguished physicians of Cas- well County. His great-grandfather was the Reverend Hugh McAden, a Presbyterian minister and mission- ary, who came to this State from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a few years before the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and preached the gospel throughout the entire State, and was the founder of many churches, several of which are now in existence, notably Sugar Creek in Mecklenburg County, Haw Fields in Alamance, and Red House in Caswell. This grand old pioneer preacher was a decided Whig, and he took such a prominent part on the American side of that great struggle for liberty, that the British burned his home, together with all his out houses, and destroyed or carried away all his stock.
Doctor John McAden married Miss Betsy Murphey, a sister of Archibald D. Murphey, one of North Carolina's most distinguished citizens and prominent educators, and for whom the Murphey school building in the city of Raleigh is named. Doctor Henry McAden, the father of Honorable R. Y. McAden, married Miss Frances Yancey, the daughter of Honorable Bartlet Yancey, so that the name of R. Y. McAden represents two of the oldest and
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most distinguished families of North Carolina. The name of Yancey is prominent not only in North Carolina, but also in Ala- bama, Mississippi and Virginia.
R. Y. McAden was left an orphan when quite young, and his grandmother, Mrs. Bartlet Yancey, took him to her home and adopted him into her family, and he was reared and educated chiefly by this queenly woman. His boyhood was spent in the country amid the scenes and with the environments which tend to make great men. There is no place on earth better suited to the raising and training of boys and girls than a good country home, where the people believe in God and the angels, and where the great heart of nature beats strong amid her hills. Young McAden lived like other country boys, and spent his time in breaking colts, fishing in the streams, working in the fields, attending the country schools, until he was prepared for college. He entered Wake Forest College and graduated therefrom in his twentieth year, and subsequently read law with Judges Nash and Bailey in the old his- toric town of Hillsboro, and began the practice of his chosen profession in his native county of Caswell. When he was twenty- five years old he married the beautiful and accomplished Mary F. Terry, daughter of Doctor B. F. Terry, of Prince Edward County, Virginia, and moved the next year from Caswell to Alamance and settled in Graham. His popularity and his ability were soon rec- ognized in his adopted home, and friends prevailed upon him to become a candidate on the Whig ticket for the Legislature in 1860. He was defeated, but succeeded in reducing the Democratic majority from 300 to 13. In 1861 he was almost unanimously elected to the State Convention, on the Whig or Union Ticket, but the Convention was not called. In 1862 he was elected to the Leg- islature, and re-elected each year until 1867. In 1866 he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives over Colonel R. H. Cowan, of Wilmington. He made a model Speaker. Dur- ing the exciting times of that period, and the bitter party opposi- tion, he was so absolutely fair and just in his rulings that no ap- peal was ever taken from them. He knew men and he knew how to manage men.
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The First National Bank of Charlotte in 1867 was looking around to find a suitable man for its President. R. Y. McAden was the man selected, and no better man could have been secured, as the subsequent history of that bank clearly showed. He con- tinued in the Presidency of the bank until his death. Mr. Mc- Aden soon tired of politics and law, consequently in 1867 he began a career of business prosperity almost without a parallel in the history of North Carolina. In the following year he became as- sociated with that great railroad builder, Colonel A. S. Buford, in the construction of the Atlantic and Charlotte Airline Railroad, . and was elected Vice-President of that corporation. He also or- ganized and constructed the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad, , for without his untiring efforts and indomitable perseverance the road never would have been built. Both of the roads are now a part of the great Southern Railway, which has done so much in the development of the Piedmont Section of North and South Carolina. Both States owe him a debt of lasting gratitude for his devoted work in carrying on this great work. In the year 1881 Mr. McAden went into the cotton milling business, his wondrous foresight causing him to be a pioneer in the marvelous develop- ment of cotton manufacturing in the old North State. He built a large cotton mill at McAdensville, in Gaston County, around which has sprung up a beautiful and picturesque town on the banks of the south fork of the Catawba River. That mill is still in successful operation, and the whirr of its spindles and the thunder of its looms still bear witness to the wisdom and foresight of its founder.
Mr. McAden was a gifted man intellectually, and his great en- dowments were directed to achievement. The most distinguished characteristic of his mind, and that which elevated him above his contemporaries, was the brilliancy of his intellect, the quickness and rapidity of his thoughts and his almost instantaneous conclusion upon any proposition submitted to his consideration. The slow process of reason and deduction employed by others in reaching conclusions were by him leaped over, at a single bound, as mere impediments for delay ; yet the accuracy of his conclusions, so ob-
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tained, seldom failed to reach the goal, while others were working their slow way by the old and well-trod methods of logic.
Not only was his mental activity such in reaching conclusions, but as a man of action, as well, he was no less alert and rapid in the execution of them. To decide upon an enterprise and to be- gin its execution were wordis almost of equivalent meaning, so quickly one followed the other. In the prosecution of his work no obstacles such as would stagger men of ordinary nerve could halt, deter or depress him. Such was his abounding faith and fertility of resource, that not only was his confidence unshaken where others despaired, but his buoyancy and cheerfulness never deserted him. A single instance of this unconquerable will-power - occurred in the construction of the Spartanburg and Asheville Railroad. Such were the obstacles, the lack of funds, repudia- . tion of contracts, complicated litigations and other hindrances, that but for his unwavering faith, courage, energy, resources of mind and unconquerable perseverance, that road, now so popular and useful, would not have been constructed. Such were the char- acteristics of Mr. McAden in all his enterprises and such were the secrets of his success.
Another trait of his mind and moral nature was his fidelity to his friends. When he chose friends, he gave them his unbounded confidence and trust and never forsook or doubted them. No favor that they could ask or that appeared to him to be agreeable to them was ever denied them or withheld by him. This fidelity and loyalty to his friends was almost romantic in its simplicity and beauty.
Another, but not the least, amiable trait in this man's character was his cherished domestic felicity. His inner domestic home life around the family altar is too sacred for intrusion in this sketch ; but that happiness, unity and love between father, mother and children were supreme in the household, could not be concealed. Nor did he ever fail to respond to any call for public or private charity, or to lend his aid to any enterprise for the honor and pros- perity of the public and his native State.
In person Mr. McAden was of medium height, a compact and
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well-knit body, a fine head, firmly set upon his shoulders, brilliant blue eyes, inquisitive and searching. His walk was quick, firm and decisive, indicative of business. His manners were easy, cordial and cheerful, devoid of stiffness or ceremony and one of the most approachable of men.
After a life full of the largest service to his native State, R. Y. McAden died January 29, 1889, at his beautiful home in the city of Charlotte, Icaving a devoted wife and five children. At the time of his death he was President of the First National Bank of Charlotte, President of the Spartanburg, Union and Columbia Railroad, the Asheville and Spartanburg Railway, the Falls of Neuse Manufacturing Company, and the McAden Cotton Mills. He was still in the prime of a vigorous manhood, with his mind clear and his natural force unabated. In a letter which the writer received from Mr. Henry M. McAden, a son of R. Y. McAden, and President of the Piedmont Fire Insurance Company, of Char- lotte, North Carolina, he says: "In writing the sketch of my father I shall highly appreciate your treating the subject with per- fect fairness and candor." This I have tried to do. Colonel A. B. - Andrews, First Vice-President of the Southern Railway, says : "Mr. McAden was one of the finest business men I ever knew, and in everything that tended to the internal improvement of North Carolina he was a brave and fearless leader." This is high praise when it comes from a man who knows so well how to weigh his words. McAden was a brave and strong man in every phase of his character. . From his Scotch ancestry he inherited char- acteristics of promptness, truth, and industry, which doubtless had much to do in shaping his great business career, and crowning his life work with success. His motto was "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well," hence he did everything thor- oughly, and finished the matter entirely before leaving it. Thus he was able to do an immense amount of work with less worry than it would give other men. When he died Charlotte lost her greatest financier, and the State lost a true and loyal son.
B. F. Dixon.
JOHN NEWLAND MAFFITT
T ¿ HE most picturesque character in the annals of. North Carolina, perhaps, was John Newland Maffitt, a captain in the Confederate Navy, who during his eventful career was particularly dis- tinguished for his charming personality, his ac- complishments, skill and heroism.
His father, who bore the same name as the son, was born in Ireland on December 25, 1795. He was a clergyman, lecturer, author and poet, a man unusually endowed by nature and thor- oughly educated. He was the author of "Tears of Contrition," "Pulpit Sketches," and also a volume of poems. For two years he was chaplain of the United States Congress. As an evangelist, he made extended tours throughout the United States, and was regarded as one of the most powerful pulpit orators of his day. Although so many years have passed since he visited Raleigh, tra- dition still exists in that community of his wonderful preaching. He married in Ireland Ann Carnick, and the subject of this sketch, their third child, was born February 22, 1819, at sea, dur- ing their voyage to America. Eventually Mr. Maffitt located at Mobile, Alabama, where he died May 28, 1850.
It was convenient because of his father's career for the son to live with his uncle, Doctor William Maffitt, who resided near Fayetteville, North Carolina, on a plantation which he called "Elleslie"; and at the age of five years the subject of this sketch passed from his father's care and became a member of his uncle's
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household. His education was begun at schools in Fayetteville. His friend and playmate in those days, the brilliant Duncan K. McRae, even late in life well remembered that among the adven- turous boys of his age young Maffitt was always a leader-"a born leader."
When only nine years old his uncle placed him at school at White Plains, New York, under the care of Professor Swinburn; and it is worthy of remark that the little boy, in that era of stage coaches, made the trip from Fayetteville unattended. At school he diligently applied himself, was well taught, was strong and capable, so that on reaching his thirteenth year he was appointed . a Midshipman in the United States Navy; and the following Sep- tember he joined his ship in the West Indies. Thus at that early period of his life he entered on a career destined to be remarkable, in the very theater where he was to win applause.
In 1835 he joined the Constitution, the old Ironsides, the flag- ship of the Mediterranean squadron, being then sixteen years of age; and in his entertaining book, "The Nautilus," he has pre- served some account of the exciting incidents of his three years' experience while on that station, visiting and becoming familiar - with historic countries and places of renown.
Promoted to Past-Midshipman, in 1838 he was again in the Gulf of Mexico; and there, at Pensacola, he met Miss Murrell, of Mobile, a lady remarkable for her beauty and loveliness of char- acter, to whom he was united in marriage in 1840, when just twenty-one years of age.
Mr. Maffitt's reputation as a competent and skillful officer had - now become well known, and in the Spring of 1842 he was de- tached from ordinary service and ordered on Coast Survey duty. In this new field of work he won the highest praise from the Super- intendent, Professor A. D. Bache, LL.D., who reported to the department that Lieutenant Maffitt "as a surveying officer has not been excelled by any one with whom I have come in contact, and has been equaled by few. The quantity and quality of his work is remarkable indeed. I cannot speak too highly of the capacity, efficiency and zeal of Lieutenant Maffitt."
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When the Mexican War broke out. Lieutenant Maffitt, anxious for an opportunity to participate in its perils and honors, earnestly applied for orders to the seat of war, but Professor Bache inter- fered, and he was retained on the Coast Survey work. His operations extended from Maine to Florida; at the North during the Summer, at the South during the Winter, incessantly at work, and so competent and efficient that at length he was appointed as- sistant to the Superintendent. His charts of the coast proved of great value, and his Southern work was of particular use during the war between the States.
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