USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 26
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Verytruly yours, Thomas M. Pittman
THOMAS MERRITT PITTMAN
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number of that faith having settled at that time in Virginia. This Puritan colony was expelled from Virginia about 1648, the members going to Maryland, among them being Richard Bennett and his brother. When Parliament sent a fleet to reduce the Old Dominion to submission, Bennett returned as one of the commis- sioners, and, a free government being instituted and the restric- tions of Nonconformists removed, in 1652 he was elected Gov- ernor of that province by the House of Burgesses. With the third generation, the male line of Richard Bennett became extinct, but the family has given a number of distinguished men to the coun- try, including, it is said, General R. E. Lee, the Blands and Ran- dolphs of Virginia, Thomas Atkinson, Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, R. B. Hubbard, Governor of Texas, Dr. I. T. Tichenor and others.
About 1750 Richard Bennett and two of his brothers, descend- ants of the brother of Governor Bennett of Virginia, but who had not returned to Virginia with the other Nonconformists, left Maryland and came to Carolina, Richard locating in Halifax County, another brother going to Anson County, from whom the family of Judge R. T. Bennett is descended; and the third settling in Bennettsville, South Carolina, from whom that place takes its name. One of the sons of Richard Bennett of Halifax, and great- grandfather of Mr. Pittman, was Reverend Philemon Bennett. For seventeen years, preceding the division of the Baptist churches, which resulted in the organization of the Primitive and the Mis- sionary Baptists, he was moderator of the old Kehukee Baptist Association, and was for many years pastor of churches in Warren and Halifax counties. He, as well as most of the other Bennetts, was a thrifty farmer of good judgment and strong char- acter. The simple, vigorous lives of these men were conducive to longevity, for Philemon lived to a good old age, and six of his sons attained three score and ten.
The Reverend William Lancaster, the uncle of Willie Lancaster, the grandfather of Mr. Pittman's father, was a member of the State Convention of July, 1788, at Hillsboro, which rejected the Federal Constitution as first prepared and presented to the States.
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Mr. Pittman's childhood was passed in the country, he alter- nately attending the brief sessions of the rural public school and doing a young boy's work on a farm. For a time he was under William J. King, a teacher of recognized ability at Belford Acad- emy, Franklin County. He had the ordinary happy childhood of a country boy, healthy in body and with a pure mind, when on the death of his father, just after entering his teens, he found himself dependent upon his own endeavors for a livelihood. At the age of fourteen he went to Charlotte and entered the machine shops of the Mecklenburg Iron Works as an apprentice. The incentive of his early training gave him a firm resolve to strive for a high goal in life, and the apprentice boy, who by day wielded the riveting hammer in the noisy shop, studied at night that he might ultimately prepare himself to work in a broader field. . It is at this age and under these conditions, when deprived of the protecting influence of a home life, that a youth is liable to be led into the bad habits with which the city boy is always menaced. Young Pittman's ambition spurred his mental vigor and inculcated study and application during hours that boys usually devote to amuse- ment. The early religious training of his mother led him to avoid many evils, and strengthened and rounded his religious and moral nature in that formative period which creates or destroys a man's character. The pleasant address and sociability of the young ap- prentice gained him many friends, who came to admire him for his sturdy and independent character, and with true kindness and un- selfishness delighted in offering him assistance. These kindly offices, often simple, but from the heart, pure and unaffected, which were performed for him, Mr. Pittman now recalls with the keen- est pleasure, and feels that if in any way he has really missed life's goal, the friends he made with each successive step were more than worth the struggle. He followed under the guidance of these friends courses of reading and study, which developed his mental faculties, as his manual work gave him physical strength and en- durance, a clear eye, a confident hand, accuracy and self-reliance. In 1876, before he was eighteen years of age, the apprenticeship was finished, and after serving for a short time as foreman in the
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machine shops of the Carolina Agricultural Works of Charlotte, he entered the law offices of Guion and Flemming of the same city. This firm was composed of the late Colonel Haywood W. Guion and Major W. W. Flemming ( the latter of whom young Pittman already numbered among his friends). and it was in accord with the advice and suggestion of Major Flemming, seconded by his own inclination, that he undertook the study of law. Major Flem- ming personally directed his professional course and imposed a severe curriculum, including such great old authors as Coke upon Littleton, Saunders on Uses and Trusts, Fearne on Remainders and Chitty on Pleadings, while not neglecting to drill the ambitious student in modern law and the existing practice. In 1878, when yet under age, Mr. Pittman secured his license, and in June of the same year he opened an office in Charlotte for the practice of his profession, and the next year he was appointed Examiner in Equity of the United States Circuit Court for the Western Dis- trict of North Carolina. In 1885 he removed to Henderson, Vance County, North Carolina. He became attorney for the bank of Henderson and for Vance County, and in 1901 for the town of Henderson, which last position he still holds. While Mr. Pittman has not sought business as a criminal lawyer, he has appeared in about thirty capital cases, and so well has he worked for his clients that not one of them has ever yet been hanged. In his legal prac- tice, he has had the following partnerships : with Captain Robert D. Graham, as Graham and Pittman ; with W. B. Shaw, Esquire, as Pittman and Shaw; with J. H. Kerr, Jr., of Warrenton, as Pittman and Kerr. This last partnership is for local court busi- ness only, and yet exists. Besides having extensive corporation practice, Mr. Pittman has served as attorney in many special cases for various counties and municipalities, and enjoys an extensive and lucrative practice. In spite of the demands of his profession Mr. Pittman finds time in some measure to put in practice his con- ceptions of the ideal citizen, and while not a politician and never a candidate for a political office, he has when called on made cam- paign speeches, believing that every man owes society such public service as lies within his power. A leading member of the Mission-
IITTIANKU
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ary Baptist Church, he has been prominently identified with many of its organizations-vice-president of the Baptist State Conven- tion of North Carolina; clerk of the Charlotte Baptist Church ; clerk and deacon of the Henderson Baptist Church ; superintendent of Sunday-schools in Charlotte and Henderson ; for a number of years vice-president of the American Baptist Historical Society ; member of the Publication Committee of the North Carolina Baptist Historical Society ; honorary member of Wake Forest Alumni Association, and of the Philomathesian and Astrotekton Literary societies of Wake Forest College, and of the Baptist Female University, respectively.
Mr. Pittman has published some important historical and bio- graphical monographs and papers, and delivered some notable addresses dealing with historical subjects, most of which have been printed.
- The most important of these are: Nathaniel Macon, an oration delivered July 4, 1902, at Guilford battlegrounds, and subsequently published ; John Porter and the Carey Rebellion, an address before the Summer school at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, August, 1903, published; North Carolina from 1832-42 (the Julian S. Carr Prize Essay), recently ordered printed by the North Carolina Historical Commission ; the Revo- lutionary Congresses of North Carolina, a North Carolina book- let, October, 1902; the preparation for Baptist Work in North Carolina, an address before the North Carolina Baptist Conven- tion, memorial service, at Greenville, North Carolina, December 11, 1898, subsequently published in January, 1900, in the Baptist His- torical papers ; the Great Sanhedrin of the Jews and its Criminal Procedure, an address delivered at Wake Forest College and other places (this is a study from a legal point of view of this Council when it resolved itself into a judicial court for criminal trials) ; Reverend J. D. Huffham, D.D., a sketch of his life, published; the Trent Affair, published : Lemuel Burkitt, published in Wake Forest Student; John Penn, published in North Carolina Booklet ; sketches of Governor. W. W. Holden and others in "Biographical History of North Carolina."
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Besides chese he has delivered many lectures and addresses, and published numerous newspaper articles. In 1902 he drafted the resolutions of the Vance County Democratic Convention, which the Biblical Recorder mentions as a "notable utterance," and the Raleigh Post declared "sufficient for the State platform."
Mr. Pittman constantly has some new work in view, being al- ways a busy man and looking to the future, and just now he is making a study of municipal organization and government, with a view to submitting to the towns of North Carolina plans look- ing to greater symmetry and uniformity in our municipal system. His deep and unflagging interest in the history of this State is well known. A collector of documents which bear on the different phases of the State's settlement, rise and development, he has gathered with the zeal of a virtuoso a large number of rare and valuable papers, pamphlets and manuscripts affecting the State's past, and much of the time that he can spare from his professional duties is devoted to the patriotic service of studying and elucidat- ing the State's history in its various aspects. To more thoroughly foster his interest in his historical work he is affiliated with a num- ber of historical societies, among them the North Carolina Baptist Historical Society, the American Baptist Historical Society and the Alabama Historical Society.
In his literary writings he is concise and perspicuous, and has elegance of diction and clearness of expression that make a choice historical style. He attributes its derivation to a close study of the Bible for many years, and of the Spectator with its dainty refine- ment of speech, which was the one book that when a boy he was fond of reading again and again.
As he has derived his literary tastes and drawn his style from both of these books, so he has molded his life on the former, and has been influenced by the moral philosophy of the latter. He feels that life's goal, no matter how lofty, is not worth the struggle un- less the means are as worthy and honorable as the prize; and that a worthy life and true manhood itself mark success.
S. A. Ashe.
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THOMAS POLK
T HOMAS POLK, of Mecklenburg, one of the most prominent figures of the State during the Revolutionary period, was a distinguished member of a distinguished family. He was the fourth son of William and Priscilla ( Rob- erts) Polk, and was born in Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania, to which place his father had moved shortly after his mar- riage. William Polk was the only son of John and Joanna (Knox) Polk and the grandson of Robert Polk (or Pollock), the founder of the family in America. Robert Pollock (or Polk) was a member of the parliamentary army against Charles First and an active participant in the campaigns of Cromwell. He mar- ried Magdalen, widow of Colonel Porter, his companion in arms, and daughter of Colonel Tasker, his regimental commander, who was at that time Chancellor of Ireland, of Bloomfield Castle on the river Dale. By this marriage he acquired the estate of "Mon- ing" or "Moneen Hill" in the barony of Ross, County of Donegal, Ireland. Robert Pollock took ship at Londonderry in 1659 and settled on the eastern shore of Maryland. After his arrival in America he changed the spelling of his surname to Polk. His estate, "Polk's Folly," lies south of Fauquier Sound, opposite the mouths of the Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers, and is still in the possession of the family. Robert Pollock was the son of John Pollock, a gentleman of some estate in Lanarkshire, not
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far from the cathedral city of Glasgow, during the reign of James Sixth, of Scotland, and First of England. John Pollock was an uncompromising Presbyterian, who left his native land to join the new Colony of Protestants which had been formed in the North of Ireland. The Pollock coat of arms bears the device of a wild boar pierced with an arrow, and the motto "Audaciter et strenue."
In 1753 Thomas Polk set out to seek his fortune with his brothers Ezekiel (grandfather of President James K. Polk) and Charles. He finally reached the county of Mecklenburg and set- tled upon Sugar Creek, a branch of the Catawba River, in a neigh- borhood made up of Scotch-Irish stock to which he also belonged. There in 1755 he married Susan Spratt, who had removed with her father two years before, and whose bright eyes, tradition says, were largely instrumental in attracting young Polk from his old home. By industry and enterprise he soon acquired a large tract of land and a sufficient fortune to enable him to rear and educate the nine children born of this marriage.
During the year 1767 the town of Charlotte was chartered by Chapter II of the Private Laws enacted by the Colonial Assem- bly. Thomas Polk is named as one of the commissioners and town treasurer. The original tract of land upon which the city now stands contained 360 acres and the conveyance of it was made on the 15th of January, 1767, to Thomas Polk and others, trustees and directors-the consideration being "90 pounds lawful money." In 1769 he was chosen a member of the Provincial As- sembly. One of his acts was to secure the charter of Queen's College (or Museum) (Chapter 3, Laws of 1770). This insti- tution was established in Charlotte and afforded the young men of that section better educational advantages than were possessed by most of the early settlers of other sections. Polk was made a trustee of this institution when it was chartered as Queen's Col- lege, and when it was re-chartered in 1777 (Chapter 20, Private Laws, April session) as Liberty Hall Academy.
In 1771, as captain of a company under command of Colonel Moses Alexander, he marched troops from Charlotte to Salisbury,
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to act against the Regulators. During this year he was also engaged as surveyor in establishing the dividing line between North and South Carolina by appointment of the Governor.
During the period immediately preceding the Revolution com- mittees of safety were organized in the counties, and these met frequently to discuss the issues of the day. Charlotte became the central point in Mecklenburg for these assemblages. Polk was the presiding officer and upon his call the committees met. The meeting on May 19, 1775, has become famous. Upon this date the interest in the meeting was so great that, in addition to two men from each captain's district called by Polk to meet, there were vast crowds from every section of the county. After due deliberation resolutions were adopted expressing the attitude of the patriots of that section. This instrument is known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. It was read from the court house steps on May 20th, by Thomas Polk, who was recog- nized as a master spirit in the movement.
On May 31, 1775, an independent government was formally established, and the resolutions adopted that day were published on the 16th of June, in Charleston, and the same day at New-Bern. Colonel Cogdell, the chairman at New-Bern, sent them on to Cas- well, then at Philadelphia, and the paper was preserved by his colleague, Joseph Hewes. In transmitting them Cogdell said : "You will observe the Mecklenburg Resolves exceed all other committees or the Congress itself. I send you the paper wherein they are inserted."
Johnston in referring to them in a letter to Joseph Hewes said :
"Tom Polk, too, is raising a very pretty spirit in the back country (see the newspapers). He has gone a little farther than I would choose to have gone, but perhaps no further than necessary."
Thus it appears that Johnston, who was at the head of the revolution, ascribed the action at Mecklenburg to Colonel Polk, and doubtless Colonel Polk was the leading spirit there. What- ever he considered necessary to do, he had done.
It being thought that two lawyers, Dunn and Boote, of Salis-
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bury were in communication with Governor Martin, in a confer- ence by Colonel Martin, Sam Spencer, Colonel Polk and others, it was planned to seize them and send them to South Carolina. This was the first of August, 1775. When the prisoners were brought to Charlotte, Colonel Polk received them, and at the head of 60 horsemen conveyed them to Camden, where they were kept in prison more than a year.
During 1775 the Provincial Congress assembled at Hillsboro; at its session on September 9th Thomas Polk was appointed colonel of the second battalion of militia raised in the district of Salisbury. Shortly afterwards in command of 900 men he marched to South Carolina to assist in suppressing the Tories.
On April 22, 1776, the Provincial Congress which met at Hali- fax appointed Thomas Polk colonel of the fourth additional regi- ment of Continentals. Under command of General Francis Nash he marched to the North to join the army of Washington. Here he served for two years, and he participated in the battle of Bran- dywine and the hardships of Valley Forge. He was not a par- ticipant in the battle of Germantown, as he was in charge of the escort detailed to guard and convey the heavy baggage to a place of safety at Bethlehem. Among the impedimenta was the famous "Liberty Bell." On June 26, 1778, he tendered his resignation to Washington.
On September 15, 1780, a month after the battle of Camden, he was appointed by the Board of War convened at Hillsboro, "Superintendent Commissary of the District of Salisbury." In securing supplies he pledged his own credit. He was com- mended by the board for his zeal and ability in the performance of those duties. While engaged in this work Cornwallis entered Charlotte (September 26, 1780), and selected for his headquar- ters the residence of Colonel Polk, which was called the "White House" -- it being the only painted edifice in the town. Corn- wallis seized and confiscated all the property of his involuntary host that he could find. Hearing of the battle of King's Moun- tain, Polk wrote, "In a few days we will be in Charlotte, and I will take possession of my house and his lordship take the woods."
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After the fall of General Davidson at Cowan's Ford, February I, 1781, the field officers on March 5th petitioned General Greene to appoint Polk to take command of the forces of the district, and he was accordingly commissioned a brigadier-general. But the Assembly would not confirm the appointment with this rank, but instead commissioned Polk as "colonel commandant." Polk declined this commission, but patriotically performed the duties pending the appointment of a successor. Colonel Matthew Locke was appointed on May 15, 1781, and Polk retired from further military service. After the evacuation by the British and the con- clusion of hostilities, he returned to his residence in Charlotte, where he lived to an honored old age, surrounded by his sons, whom he reared to an honorable and self-reliant manhood. The census of 1790 shows that he owned 47 slaves-the largest pos- session of any one in Mecklenburg or the western section of the State at that time. He died in 1793, and was buried in the grave- yard of the First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte.
Joseph Seawell Jones says that Thomas Polk was the first to maintain the necessity of dissolving the political ties which bound the Colonies to Great Britain. His feelings and opinions were de- cided; his expression of them was frank and courageous. Out of these feelings grew the Mecklenburg Declaration, in the fram- ing of which Thomas Polk was a leading spirit. While others were striving to devise expedients to avert a war into which they were blindly drifting, Thomas Polk was preparing the stern and not easily governed people of his neighborhood for the clash of arms which he saw to be inevitable. His posterity have borne with distinction the honored name transmitted to them.
W. A. Withers.
ДОЯЛО НТНОИ
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W. S. Poteat.
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WILLIAM LOUIS POTEAT
ILLIAM LOUIS POTEAT, President of Wake Forest College, was born in Caswell W County, North Carolina, October 20, 1856. His father, Captain James Poteat, was a son of John Miles Poteat, a planter of Caswell County, of Huguenot descent. Captain Poteat, himself also a planter, was a man of abounding energy and common-sense, rigidly honest, and most affable in his disposition. His countymen honored him by making him a captain of militia, and his denomina- tion by making him a trustee of Wake Forest College. He kept open house in his large country home in Caswell. The mother of Professor Poteat, Julia A. (McNeill) Poteat, is a descendant of Annie Talbot, who was brought from Scotland to this country by gypsies and became the mother of Mrs. Poteat's grandfather, John McNeill. The influence of Mrs. Poteat upon the intellectual, as well as the moral and spiritual, life of her son it would be im- possible to estimate.
The atmosphere of the home in which he first saw the light and in which he passed his boyhood was generated from elements identical with those named in his definition of happiness by the father of Robert E. Lee in the last letter he ever wrote :
"What is happiness? Hoc opus, hic labor est? Peace of mind based on piety to Almighty God, unconscious innocence of conduct, with good- will to man; health of body, health of mind, with prosperity in our voca-
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tion; a sweet, affectionate wife; men's sena in corpore sano; children devoted to truth, honor, right, and utility, with love and respect to their parents ; and faithful and warm-hearted friends, in a country politically and religiously free."
Reared in such a home, though not required to perform manual labor tasks, as his father was a large slave-holder, he grew up strong and healthy, his special tastes and interests being those of the country boy in exceptionally good circumstances.
During his first school years he was under the instruction of a governess. Afterward he attended the village academy at Yan- ceyville, taught by Miss Lowndes.
In 1872 he entered Wake Forest College, and graduated in 1877 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Later he completed the course for the Master's degree, which was conferred upon him in 1889. In June, 1905, while on a visit to that institution to deliver, by invitation, the annual commencement address, he received from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, the honorary degree of LL.D.
While at college no marked preference for one branch of studies over another was indicated, a uniformly high grade of scholar- ship being maintained by him in all the departments. His pro- ficiency in Latin and Greek was not excelled by that achieved in other studies, and the habit of accuracy, which his careful and sympathetic study of classic literature helped to develop, must have had much to do with the formation of that style that so graces the productions of his pen. As a writer and speaker abilities were displayed that pointed to literature as the province in which he would probably find his vocation. However, in these early essays of the pen and platform there was potential a temper of mind friendly to the spirit of science, and needing only favoring conditions to stimulate and unfold it into a vital force.
It may be said of him at this period, as was said of another : "He was a most exemplary student in every respect. He was never behindtime at his studies ; never failed in a single recitation ; was perfectly observant of the rules and regulations of the institu- tion ; was gentlemanly, unobtrusive and respectful in all his de-
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portment to teachers and fellow-students. His specialty was finish- ing up. He imparted a finish and a neatness as he proceeded to everything he undertook."
He had begun to read law, when, a year after his graduation, the trustees of Wake Forest College elected him a tutor. His ac- ceptance of this position determined his life work. In 1880 he became Assistant Professor of Natural Science; and in 1883 was placed in full charge of the Chair of Natural History, now known as the Chair of Biology.
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