USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 28
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ity. All of Mr. Reinhardt's ancestors lived in Lincoln County and were noted for their energy, integrity and thrift, for the high re- spectability of their character and their public spirit. The earlier ones, like all their German neighbors residing in that region, were devoted adherents of the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
Mr. R. S. Reinhardt was born at Rehobeth Furnace, Lincoln County, on the first day of January, 1858. In 1867, when but nine years of age, he had the misfortune to lose his father, and while his admirable mother exerted herself to secure for him all possible advantages, and herself trained him in the paths of a high and virtuous manhood, yet because of the ravages of the war and the loss of her husband, she could do no more than send him to the public schools of the neighborhood, until attaining his fourteenth year, he was placed for one year at the North Carolina College. However, under her fine influence he had made the best of his opportunities, and his understanding and character were de- veloped and he was so well advanced in education that when only fifteen years of age he was justified in trying to begin work as a man on his own account.
He started life as a merchant in 1873, establishing a general merchandising business at Iron Station.
Inheriting from his sturdy ancestors a conservative disposition and strict integrity, and trained in habits of economy, he applied himself with energy and zeal to his business and soon became master of the trade of his section. Courteous and kindly in his intercourse, and possessing the entire confidence of his neighbors, who esteemed him for his fair dealing, he entered on a prosperous career, which was enlarged when he united to merchandising the business of dealing in cotton. He continued his mercantile opera- tions at Iron Station for fifteen years, when, becoming connected with the Elm Grove cotton mill, he removed to Lincolnton. Dur- ing the year 1889 he was elected treasurer and manager of the Elm Grove cotton mill, which had been erected on the Catawba about one mile from Lincolnton some three years before. The mill had at that time only about three thousand spindles and was
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not prosperous. Mr. Reinhardt and his brother, Mr. J. E. Rein- hardt, together with some other friends, bought the control of the property, and under the new management, with an increased capacity and controlled by the fine business sagacity of the Rein- hardts, it soon entered on a career of great prosperity. In con- nection with this subject it is interesting to observe that the first cotton mill ever erected in the South was built by Michael Schenck in 1815 within three miles of the site of Elm Grove, the spindles and machinery being made in the local country shops, although afterward, in 1818, other machinery was brought from Providence, Rhode Island, and the mill continued in operation until 1863, when it was destroyed by fire. It is somewhat remarkable that the new industrial life of the South now finds one of its most important fields in the near vicinity of that first attempt at South- ern enterprise.
Since his connection with this mill began Mr. Reinhardt's efforts have been principally devoted to conducting the business of Elm Grove; but he is also president of the Piedmont cotton mill of Lincolnton, and is connected with three other mills. Having great faith in the outcome of the milling interests, with judicious fore- thought Mr. Reinhardt purchased and has improved much prop- erty in Lincolnton, which has now largely appreciated in value. Since moving to that town, his best thoughts and tireless energy have been devoted to the cotton mill industry, and he combines a thoroughly practical experience in cotton manufacturing with a high order of business ability. He is progressive and quick to adopt improved processes, and his efforts have been crowned with success and have brought him merited fame as one of the progres- sive men pressing forward the industrial development of the southern section. He is one of the four organizers of the South- ern Cotton Spinners' Association, which was recently merged into the American Cotton Manufacturing Association. He has been on the board of governors ever since its organization, and a member of the committee of arrangements for every meeting, hav- ing served as chairman at the last four annual meetings ; and at the meeting in 1904 he was elected president of the National Asso-
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ciation, being now one of the best known and most highly esteemed of the mill men of the South.
Mr. Reinhardt has always taken an active interest in matters that concern the welfare of his people, and while he has never sought political preferment he has manifested his interest in politics by liberal contributions and by having served several years as chairman of the Democratic executive committee of his county.
He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church and is liberal in donations to all good works; he is Past Master of Lincoln Lodge, No. 137, A. F. & A. M .; a Knight Templar and a Thirty-second Degree Mason ; Shriner, Past Chancellor of Lincoln Lodge, No. 48, Knights of Pythias, and member of the D. O. K. K., and is interested in the works of all these various organizations. A man so busy and so interested in the matters that claim his at- tention finds little time to indulge in amusements, and Mr. Rein- hardt's principal relaxation and exercise have been riding and driving good horses, for which he has a fondness ; a good animal always exciting his admiration.
He was happily married on the 13th of February, 1879, to Miss Laura Pegram, a lady of refinement and culture. Mrs. Reinhardt is active in church work, and, indeed, zealous in all works of benevolence, and is a favorite in the social circle of which her charming home is the center. Their home life is happy and beauti- ful. They have two sons and two daughters, while they have lost three children.
Contemplating the life and character of Mr. Reinhardt, one sees what prizes are open here at the South to the meritorious. Early bereft of a father's control and guidance, at a tender age assuming the responsibility of a business career, he has, unaided by fortune's favors, but solely by the strength of his own consistent adherence to manly principle, achieved a name for himself that places him deservedly in the front rank of the industrial army of Southern men.
S. A. Ashe.
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JOHN REX
I IN the old city cemetery at Raleigh, where the "rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," is a slab marking the grave of a highly respected citizen of the community who in life was not considered a great man-indeed, one who may not now be called great-yet whose memory will outlive that of many of his more pretentious contempo- raries. This was John Rex, founder of Rex Hospital in his adopted city of Raleigh. The inscription on this slab states that he was a native of Pennsylvania, and one of the earliest settlers in Raleigh, who departed this life on the 29th day of January, A.D. 1839, aged seventy-four years; that he sustained through life the character of an honest and industrious man ; and, at his death, devoted the fruits of his industry and economy to pur- poses of benevolence and charity. When this is read the simple story of his life is before us; yet a few more particulars may be gathered, and these we shall now give.
John Rex was a tanner by trade. His establishment was at a place called Rex's Spring, well within the present city limits and on a square bounded by Lane, Jones, Salisbury and McDowell streets. In his Tucker Hall address on "Early Times in Raleigh," on August 24, 1867, Governor Swain said :
"John Rex was one of the earliest citizens of Raleigh. My acquaintance with him was slight. In appearance he was said to bear striking re-
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semblance to that of John Quincy Adams. He was a grave, sedate, quiet. retiring, modest man. not unlike in character his worthy contemporary, William Peck. By long years of industry, economy and thrift in the man- agement of the first tannery established in Raleigh at Rex's Spring. near the railway station, he accumulated a handsome estate; and, like Mr. Peace, atoned for his failure to build up a family, by a liberal provision for the children of misfortune and want. He manumitted all his slaves at the close of life, and bequeathed the remainder of his estate to the endow- ment of a hospital, the construction of which is said to be in early pros- pect. The Rex Hospital and Peace Institute, the latter far advanced to- ward completion, will constitute the appropriate and enduring monuments of these public benefactors."
Mr. Rex was never married, and at the time of his death had few near relations. To a kinsman and namesake, John Rex, he be- queathed fifty acres of land called the Broad Axe Tavern tract, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Not only were Mr. Rex's slaves freed by his will, but it was also provided that they should be sent to Africa and there settled in some free state under the aus- pices of the American Colonization Society-expenses of transpor- tation and settlement to be borne by the Rex estate. It was also pro- vided that any negro who so desired might be sold in America in- stead of being freed and transported to Africa.
The American Colonization Society was a Southern institution of Virginia origin, having been created by the Legislature of that State in December, 1816. It was organized in Washington City by a number of Southern gentlemen, the first president being Bush- rod Washington, the favorite nephew and principal legatee of Gen- eral Washington, who remained at its head for many years, and it was ardently supported by Henry Clay and other Southern states- men, who hoped through its instrumentality to prepare a way for the removal of many negroes to Africa and gradually to arrange for the complete emancipation of the negro slaves of the South.
Mr. Rex died in 1829, and it was many years before his benevo- lent purpose to provide a hospital for Raleigh was carried into effect. The trustees of the bequest decided to wait until the fund had grown to sufficient dimensions before using it. They managed it skillfully, and by 1861 it amounted to nearly $40,000.
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The investment was largely in bank stocks and other securities, which had not only been remunerative, but in times of peace were secure, for the North Carolina banks were admirably managed and the legislation of the State in regard to them was so wise that the State banks were among the most substantial in the Union. During the war, however, the banks received Confederate money and State money in the course of their business, and as a result of the fall of the Confederacy and the enforced repudiation of State obligations, the whole banking system of North Carolina went down in disaster. In 1866 scarcely $5000 worth of property remained to the fund. Again the trustees addressed themselves to the duty of increasing it by accumulation, and so admirably did they manage it that by 1893 it had grown to about $27,000. It was then decided to carry Mr. Rex's purposes into effect.
At that time another hospital was in operation in the city of Raleigh. It had been established by St. John's Guild, an organiza- tion created by Rev. Mr. Rich, the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd, who by the aid of his congregation and with many of the members of Christ Church, with one or two other benevolent citizens, formed the corporation for the purpose of maintaining a city hospital. Dr. P. E. Hines was the chief surgeon, being as- sisted by some of the other physicians of the city. Established in 1884, for a decade St. John's Hospital was supported by voluntary subscriptions, and was a most beneficient charity. When, in 1893, the trustees of the Rex Hospital fund determined to open a hos- pital in comformity with Mr. Rex's bequest, it was thought that the community could not well sustain both institutions, and the St. John's Guild considered it best to discontinue their hospital, and it conveyed its building and property to the Rex Hospital, receiv- ing as the price comparatively a small amount, just sufficient to pay all the indebtedness of St. John's Guild.
In the Fall of 1893 Rex Hospital was opened, the city of Raleigh then appropriating $2000 annually for its maintenance, and this appropriation has been continued to the present time. The insti- tution has been of inestimable advantage to the community.
M. DeL. Haywood.
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ROBERT HENRY RICKS
A MONG the many prominent citizens of the State who have risen to a high plane of useful- ness by their own exertions is Robert Henry Ricks of Rocky Mount. He is an admirable il- lustration of the feasibility of attaining wealth and influential position in North Carolina by steadfast application directed by capacity and native intelli- gence.
The family of which he is a member has long been settled in the tide-water region of Virginia and North Carolina, one of his progenitors, Isaac Ricks, having been a resident of Nansemond County, Virginia, as far back as 1669, and from there the family later crossed the line and located in Eastern North Carolina. They were always farmers, men of respectable character, standing well in their community, leading pure and easy lives, contented with their fortunate lot and enjoying reasonable prosperity.
Mr. David Ricks, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer living in Nash County, and he married Miss Martha Vick of that vicinity. He was a man of strong character, with great will power and remarkable for his tenacity of purpose ; and their son, who was born on the 4th of April, 1839, inherited much of these traits from his father.
Fond of an active life, raised in a county where the young men were much addicted to hunting and out-of-door sport, he entered
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with zest into such amusement, and being gifted with a robust constitution and fine health, he excelled in all sports in which he engaged. The school facilities of his vicinity were limited, and his education was obtained at the local public and private schools of the neighborhood, which kept only ten weeks a year ; and, in- deed, after he reached the age of sixteen he ceased going to school at all, and was employed on his father's farm until 1859 when, being twenty years of age, he engaged as a farm hand with Mr. Joel Wells of the same county.
Two years later the war broke out and Mr. Ricks enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, serving in Manly's Battery and in other batteries of light artillery. This army service at this time of life was of great benefit to him, as it proved to be also to thousands of others. It tended to develop the sterling qualities of manhood; fostered courageous action ; inured one to danger and hardship; begat a spirit of self-reliance, cultivated the powers of observation, and practiced one in habits of application and a methodical discharge of duties.
Emerging from the war, the trained soldier with fine resolution settled down to the routine of farm life, determined to achieve success. By 1874 he had so far improved his condition that he felt able to marry, and on the first day of December of that year he married Miss Tempie E. Thorne, and from that time onward his business has yearly increased. As circumstances permitted he has branched out in business, and has successfully engaged in manufacturing and in banking, thus aiding in the industrial de- velopment of his vicinity. He is a successful and large farmer, and was the pioneer of bright tobacco culture in Eastern North Caro- lina.
About the year 1889 he became a director of the Rocky Mount cotton mills, and so evident was his sagacious management of the affairs of that great corporation that in 1899 he was elected its president, a position that he still retains. In the meantime, in 1894, he became director and vice-president of the Bank of Rocky Mount and of the Mayo cotton mills, and in 1902 vice-president of the large Washington cotton mills of Virginia. Indeed, step by
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step he has advanced so surely and with such good results that he is now recognized as one of the most prosperous, most ener- getic and most useful citizens of that portion of the State.
Always a Democrat, Mr. Ricks has been constant in his efforts to advance the interests of that party, and has been zealous to establish on a secure basis the supremacy of the white man in Eastern Carolina. Being intent on his business affairs, he has not, however, sought political preferment. Still he has served his community as county commissioner, and under the administration of his friend and neighbor, Governor Carr, he served as a member of the board of directors of the Penitentiary, but declined later to accept the same employment when elected by the Legislature. He was a member of the House of Representatives from Nash County in the Assembly of 1903, and was recognized as one of the most influential members of that body.
Mr. Ricks is not a member of any church, but is affiliated with the Primitive Baptists, and he attributes his first impulse to strive for the prizes of life to the influence exerted on him by his mother, a woman of strong mentality, who, while training him morally, also was potent in giving direction to his life. Indeed, he ascribes his success, first, to the influence of his mother and his home, and then to contact with men in the army, developing self-reliance and resourcefulness, and to the ambition engendered by association with worthy citizens. He is a member of the A. F. and A. Masons, and has always been a constant reader of good books, preferring, however, histories to other literature. In business he has been fortunate, since his application, industry and sagacity have so uniformly brought him success; and he suggests to young men that no true success can be attained without constant energy and integrity. S. A. Ashe.
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S. S. Roypter
FRANK SHEPPARD ROYSTER
A S Job had his comforters in the hour of his be- reavement-Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite-so had the South in the time of its desolation-certain well-meaning philanthropists from the North. They came every man from his own place, but no man of them lifted up his voice and wept, none rent his mantle, none put on sackcloth, none sat down with us in the dust and ashes of our hopes. Instead, from the superior altitude of their pharisaic complacency, they advised, lectured and scolded us. Naturally this advice was not taken, so they wrote letters to their home papers telling of the indolence and practical inefficiency of the denizens of the benighted region that they were visiting, urged their adventurous confrères to come down, oust these incompetents from their inheritance and take possession of the land. Some came-to their sorrow. Too late they realized the extreme difficulty of reconciling antagonistic points of view, and either adopted that of their new neighbors or returned home poorer but wiser men.
It is true that here and there among the middle-aged, or older, men of the South were to be found those who could not, or would not, adapt themselves to changed conditions. Among the younger men there were few, however, who did not welcome labor of any kind and who did not do it efficiently. Even the schoolboys of the
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period were straining at the leash in their eagerness to go out into the world and conquer for themselves a name or a fortune. The goal of their ambition was not college honors, but remunerative work. Boys such as these did not spring from the loins of incompe- tents, and well have they proven this since. The great industrial progress of the South for the past thirty years has been very largely their handiwork, and with them still guiding, directing and leading it, this once impoverished section is to become erelong one of the industrial centers of the world. Thus they have testified to the moral and intellectual stamina of the race from which they sprang.
Among the leaders in the industrial rehabilitation of the South is Frank Sheppard Royster, the subject of this sketch. He came of the sturdy stock of gentlemen farmers, who, before the Civil War, made Granville County so attractive with its free life and abounding hospitality. His father, Captain Marcus D. Royster, was a successful merchant and farmer in that county. He was a man of strong mind, took an active interest in public affairs and exerted considerable influence over them. He was, too, one of the presiding justices of the county court for a number of years. His mother, Frances Webb, daughter of John Webb, who lived and died on Tar River, near Oxford, was a woman of exemplary Christian character, a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. Though she died when he was thirteen years of age, Mr. Royster is indebted to her training and example for the success that has attended him throughout his life. She was of that Webb family from which, during the past hundred years, have sprung so many first-class merchants, physicians, lawyers and public men. These even to this day may be found here and there throughout six or more Southern States, maintaining the traditions of their family activity, intelligence and enterprise.
F. S. Royster was born December 24, 1849. His first school- days were spent at the Oak Hill Academy, near his father's home. This was taught by Jesse P. Bagby. At the age of twelve he was sent to the Bethel. Academy, Person County, under the care of Reverend T. J. Horner, who afterward removed to Tally Ho, Gran-
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ville county. He remained at the Horner school until the close of the Civil War, when he returned home to take a position in his father's store at Oak Hill. There he remained until October, 1870, when he commenced his business career as a clerk for O. C. Farrar in Tarboro, North Carolina. Mr. Farrar was a man of a strong, rugged nature, indomitable energy and great natural ability. Perceiving the business aptitude and sterling honesty of young Royster, he soon made him his confidential clerk, and later partner in the concern. The firm of O. C. Farrar and Co., thus constituted, did an enormous business, remembering that it was located in a town of 1500 inhabitants. The larger part of this was in furnishing supplies to farmers, taking as security liens and mortgages. Under the strain and stress and arduous labor of such a business, Mr. Royster's health failed, and in 1876 he re- tired from the firm. In that year he associated himself with Mr. C. C. Lanier of Tarboro in a general brokerage and com- mission business, under the style of Lanier and Royster. Mr. Lanier was a careful, painstaking, accurate business man, and the enterprise flourished from its inception. In 1882 these gentle- men, desiring a larger field for operations, took Mr. Edmund Strudwick, then of Hillsboro, North Carolina, now of Richmond, Virginia, into partnership and established a cotton commission house at Norfolk, Virginia, under the firm name of Royster and Co. Mr. Lanier remained in charge of the office in Tarboro, while Mr. Royster removed to Norfolk. In April. 1883, however, the firm was dissolved by the death of Mr. Lanier. It was then reorganized under the name of Royster and Strudwick, Mr. Royster returning to Tarboro, while Mr. Strudwick remained in Norfolk. Mr. Strudwick was one of the ablest and most promising of the young business men of the period, and his subsequent career has amply fulfilled that promise. A sketch of his life appears elsewhere in these volumes. This firm prospered also. In 1891, Mr. Royster having become interested in other enterprises, sold his interest therein to Mr. Strudwick.
Few persons of the general public appreciate the important part that commercial fertilizers have played in the agricultural develop-
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ment of the South in the past thirty years. Without their use large areas of productive lands would long since have become barren wastes. Von Leibig, the father of agricultural chemistry in 1840, showed the world that the growth of crops was a taking from the soil chemical elements which were its life. These must be restored from time to time, else the land would become practically worth- less. The process of fertilizing is then nothing less than supplying the land with necessary food, without which it would die-a slow death, it is true, but one that is absolutely inevitable where the soil is exhaustible. The commercial fertilizer is simply a food in a digestible form for these hungry, starving, worn-out lands, and thus preventing the wholesale destruction of capital, has proved itself a boon to the country at large as well as to the farmers.
In 1885 Mr. Royster, realizing the great future of the manufac- ture of fertilizers, erected a small plant in Tarboro. The total output of this plant the first year was 250 tons. The enterprise proved successful. He could not supply the demand for his prod- uct, and in 1891 he determined to devote his whole time to that business. In 1897 so extensive had it become he transferred his headquarters to Norfolk. The F. S. Royster Guano Company was incorporated, F. S. Royster, President, and Charles F. Bur- roughs, vice-president, and a large and complete fertilizer fac- tory with a yearly capacity of 75,000 tons was erected on the Southern branch of the Elizabeth River. Since, there has been a constant increase in the business of the company. It now covers the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, distributing the product of six plants, one at each of the following places : Norfolk, Tarboro, North Carolina; Co- lumbia and Spartanburg, South Carolina : Macon and Columbus, Georgia, the whole valued at over three millions of dollars, with a capacity of 200,000 tons and sales verging close upon the capacity.
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