USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 36
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Of these, the two dealing with religious conditions in North Carolina touched upon controverted questions, and from the fact that they did not give entire satisfaction to any of the parties to such controversies it may be fairly inferred that he acted with independence in his study. At any rate, a student must accept these books as able, thoughtful and painstaking contributions to the subjects with which they deal, and as a distinct advance upon any previous work of like character.
In July, 1894, Doctor Weeks accepted a position with the United States Bureau of Education, nominally as confidential clerk of the commissioner. In reality he became associate editor of the commissioner's reports, passing upon everything that went into them and making such editorial changes and emendations as seemed well. He was also a contributor of monographs to these reports from year to year until 1899. It was a position that gave him opportunity for indulging his taste for historical investiga- tion. Indeed, much of his official employment was along that line, and he issued the following additional contributions :
"A Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North Carolina" (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1895) ; "Libraries and Literature in North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century" (Washington, 1896) ; "Address on the University of North Carolina in the Civil War" (Richmond, 1896) : "Southern Quakers and Slavery" ( Balti- more, 1896) ; "Preliminary List of American Learned and Edu-
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cational Societies" ( Washington, 1896) ; "On the Promotion of Historical Studies in the South" ( Washington, 1897) ; "Anti- Slavery Sentiment in the South" ( Washington, 1898) ; "Begin- nings of the Common School System in the South; or, Calvin Henderson Wiley and the Organization of Common Schools in North Carolina" ( Washington, 1898).
This last of his publications in book form is probably the most complete and exhaustive work yet undertaken by any one upon any phase of North Carolina history. Indeed one will hardly read any of his monographs without an impression of his wonderful diligence and capacity in gathering and using materials.
In April, 1896, during his connection with the Bureau of Edu- cation, he assisted in the organization of the Southern History Association, in co-operation with Doctor Colyer Meriwether, of South Carolina ; Doctor Thomas M. Owen, of Alabama; Doctor K. P. Battle, of the University of North Carolina ; Doctor J. L. M. Curry, General M. C. Butler, Thomas Nelson Page and a number of other distinguished Southerners. He has been since its or- ganization a member of its Administrative Council and of its Pub- lication Committee. The Publications of the association, of which some ten volumes have been issued, are of high historical value and importance. Doctor Weeks has been a frequent contributor to these papers, and has also written for the Magasine of American History, the Yale Review, the "Papers and Reports of the Ameri- can Historical Association," the "Studies in Historical and Politi- cal Science of the Johns Hopkins University," the American His- torical Reviewe, the "Bibliographical Contributions of Harvard University," and the "Papers of the Southern Historical Society."" He is an active member of the American Historical Association, honorary life member of the Southern History Association, cor- responding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Maryland Historical Society.
The Fall of 1899 witnessed another turn in the tide of Doctor Weeks's affairs. His health became so seriously affected that he was compelled to change his residence and employment. He obtained a transfer to the Indian service of the National Gov-
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ernment and was stationed at Santa Fé, New Mexico, as principal teacher in an Indian school. He was made assistant superintend- ent of the school in July, 1903, and the same month was transferred to Arizona, as superintendent of the San Carlos Agency School on the San Carlos Apache reservation, where he is surrounded by the Apaches, who a few years ago were going on the warpath and killing every man in reach. At Santa Fé he was brought in daily contact with Pueblos, Navajoes, West Shoshones, Utes, Pimas, Papagos, Ukiahs, Puyallups, Wascos, Osages and other Indians of the Southwest." He finds great interest in observing the work of civilization among them, and speaks hopefully of their progress.
This enforced severance from his chosen work and from asso- ciation with scholars of like tastes and interests has been extremely trying to Doctor Weeks. But it has meant life to him. His health has been restored. Friends continue to remember him in his far- away home and demand the services of his pen. Wake Forest Col- lege recognized his services by conferring upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1902, and he still has his books and his work. He yet follows the ruling passion and is engaged in the preparation of an Index to the North Carolina Census Records for 1790, an In- dex to the State and Colonial Records of North Carolina, a Bib- liography of North Carolina, a History of Education in the South- ern States during the Civil War, and a Life of Willie P. Mangum. These would be a fair life's work for many men, but no one can foresee what the active mind, the persistent curiosity and the rest- less energy of this frail student of our history may yet search out and spread before his fellows. He offers only one word to searchers after success, "work."
Thomas M. Pittman.
MARCELLUS WHITEHEAD
ARCELLU'S WHITEHEAD was born January 27, 1821, in Nelson County, Virginia, M near Lexington, the county seat, and was the third child of John Whitehead and Anna Ma- honey Whitehead, his wife. His father was of a colonial family of English people, who first settled near Jamestown, Virginia, in the early days of the colony, afterward moving into York and New Kent counties, Virginia, whence Jolin Whitehead, great-grandfather of Marcellus, moved into Amherst County, Virginia, about 1760, taking up a large tract of land near the mountains. This John Whitehead was a sol- dier of the Revolution in a militia battalion raised by Colonel Wil- liam Cabell, Jr., which joined Lafayette's command, and was pres- ent at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Boucher White- head, grandfather of Marcellus, married the daughter of William Camden, from whom descended many notable people ; one of his daughters married a Dent, and from this stock in Ken- tucky descended Julia Dent, wife of General U. S. Grant.
John Whitehead, father of Marcellus, was a man of strong native ability and eminent piety, being a leading member of the Methodist Church, and his house was always the preacher's home : while his mother, Annie Mahoney, was a gentle woman of many virtues, devoted to her husband, her home and her children, and it is largely due to her influence that her sons have attained dis-
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tinction in many walks of life. One of them, Thomas Whitehead, was honored by his constituents with a seat in the House of Rep- resentatives, in the 43d Congress of the United States, and was afterward commissioner of agriculture of the State of Virginia ; another, Edgar Whitehead, was a leading man of affairs, and, like Thomas, was a captain in the Confederate army; another, Robert, was one of the leading lawyers of Nelson County, while still another, Reverend Paul Whitehead, D.D., has achieved em- inence in the ministry and councils of the Methodist Church, and at this writing is presiding elder of the Norfolk (Virginia) dis- trict. Marcellus, the subject of this sketch, another son, achieved eminence in his chosen profession of medicine. This is truly a remarkable family, and in patriotic service, in statesmanship, in law, in divinity, and in medicine, its sons have done honor to their Christian rearing. Marcellus Whitehead received his academic training in the excellent academies and high schools of his native section, and after being graduated with honor, from the Rich- mond Medical College of Richmond, Virginia, came to Salisbury in 1845, and among strangers, began the practice of medicine. Young, handsome, neat and faultless in dress, and of engaging manners, he quickly made friends and acquired a practice, which determined his location for life. Having firmly established him- self, he returned to Virginia for the bride of his choice, and was married February, 1846, in Caroline County, Virginia, to Miss Virginia G. Coleman, daughter of Thomas Burdage Cole- man, a wealthy and influential citizen of that county. Mrs. White- head was a woman of fine intelligence, a devoted wife and mother, and a consecrated member of the Baptist Church. She survived her husband by several years, and to her memory a large and beautiful stained-glass window has been dedicated in the hand- some new Baptist Church in Salisbury. To this union were born a number of children, of whom only Doctor John Whitehead of Salisbury, North Carolina, and Doctor Richard H. Whitehead of the University of Virginia survive.
Doctor Marcellus Whitehead would have worthily adorned any profession which he might have chosen, and in his chosen pro-
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fession of medicine he was facile princeps. Of splendid physique, of magnetic presence, with features cast in a noble mold, and with an irresistible charm of manner, he was the very spirit of light and comfort and hope, in sick room and hospital ward. His almost in- tuitive quickness of perception made him a very master of diag- nosis and prognosis. During the greater part of his forty years of professional life, there was little of the present specialization in the profession, and it was his lot, in a large practice, to be at once physician, surgeon, obstetrician, gynæcologist, aurist and oculist.
So proficient was he in every branch of his profession that his patients came from many surrounding towns, and he was sought in consultation by his professional brothers of a wide territory. During the Civil War he was chief surgeon of the large and im- portant Wayside Hospital at Salisbury, to which he not only gave his best work, but his entire salary, and most of his income besides.
In 1872 Doctor Whitehead was elected President of the State Medical Society of North Carolina, of which he had long been a prominent member, and at the next meeting at Statesville, North Carolina, in 1873, delivered a notable and eloquent address, of which the report in the Statesville American of that day says :
"Doctor Whitehead, on retiring from the chair, delivered one of the most beautiful addresses, not only of the session, but that we ever listened to. The subject was the Advancement of Medical Societies, and the duty of the Profession Therein. He deprecated the idea of members of the profession dabbling in politics, as it lowered the standard of the pro- fession."
On March 20, 1875, the General Assembly of North Carolina passed an act to establish the State Hospital for the Insane of Western North Carolina, and on April 20th of that same year Doctor Whitehead was elected a member of the commission to select sites and to do whatever was necessary to build the institu- tion. He was instrumental in selecting the beautiful site at Mor- ganton, and in planning for the building and government of such an institution as meant a breaking away from the old North Caro- lina ways of indifference to public buildings, which has not only
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proved a boon to the unfortunate and a credit to the State, but has been largely followed as a model by other States since that time. Doctor P. L. Murphy, the accomplished and successful superintendent, in a letter to the writer says :
"Personally, I am very grateful to Doctor Whitehead for the interest he took in me, and indeed it was by his influence that I was elected superintendent. I have always felt very grateful to him for his extreme kindness and courtesy to me when I came here, an untried man. I re- member how much I was cheered by him in my arduous undertaking. He took a prominent part in the organization of the institution, and was of great service to the local officers by his advice. By reason of failing health he resigned in 1883."
Doctor Whitehead was a public-spirited citizen, and interested himself in everything that made for the good of his fellow-men. While never connecting himself with any church, he was a de- vout believer in the great verities of religion, and the Baptist preachers who, in passing, made his house their home were al- ways hospitably and reverently entertained. 'Eschewing active participation in politics, he was yet an unswerving Democrat after the war, as he had been a Whig in antebellum times.
By failing health, he was gradually withdrawn from active work after 1883. Stricken with that fatal malady, Bright's disease, whose inevitable end he knew only too well, he never murmured nor repined, but with unbroken spirit and much of his old-time cheerfulness calmly awaited the coming of the Destroyer. Sur- rounded by his loving family, he calmly "fell on sleep" on the second day of January, 1885, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, lamented by every citizen of Salisbury. Every business house in the place was closed during the hours of the funeral, and an im- mense concourse attended as he was laid away under the Winter's snows.
"The earth which holds him dead.
Bears not alive a knightlier gentleman."
Theo. F. Klutts.
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JOHN WHITEHEAD
J OHN WHITEHEAD was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on December 18, 1855. His father, Doctor Marcellus Whitehead (a bio- graphical sketch of whom appears in this vol- ume), was not only Salisbury's most beloved physician, but stood deservedly in the front rank of his profession in the State. His mother, Virginia G. Coleman, of Caroline County, Virginia, was descended from one of the old- est and most honored families of the Old Dominion. John White- head received his preparatory education in the Presbyterian High School of Salisbury, then one of the best in the State. In 1871, when fifteen years of age, he entered Davidson College, and after a full four years' course was graduated at the age of nineteen, with high honor in the class of 1875, delivering the salutatory address. After leaving college he studied medicine for one and a half years, under the direction of his father, in Salisbury, and in 1877 entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, whence he was graduated in 1880, with second honor in a class of one hun- dred and fifteen graduates, winning the prize for his thesis on the "Anatomy and Physiology of the Marrow of the Bones." For equal excellence this prize was shared by his warm personal friend and room-mate, Doctor George, Rose, of Norfolk, Virginia.
In high school, in college and in the University, an assidu- ous student, he was thoroughly equipped for his chosen profes-
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sion, when he returned to Salisbury in 1880; and, entering into partnership with his distinguished father, began a practice which was at once successful and remunerative, and which has so con- tinued to this day. Always a student, fond of original investiga- tion, keeping well abreast of the literature of his profession, and of all the advancements therein, Doctor Whitehead has achieved a deserved success as a practitioner, such as is vouchsafed to few. His practice is limited only by his physical ability to answer the incessant and widespread calls which are made for his services, and, unlike too many of his professional brethren, it has been remunerative and profitable as well.
Absolutely correct in his habits. neat in his dress, courteous and gentle in his ministrations in sick-room and hospital, as well as in his intercourse with his fellows, it is no wonder that he is loved and honored as few men have been.
A surgeon of rare skill himself, he early appreciated the crying need of his community for a hospital, and after unsuccessfully trying the experiment of a charity hospital, he founded what is now the Whitehead-Stokes Sanitarium, whose capacity is constantly taxed by patients from many surrounding communities, who come to receive surgical relief at the hands of Doctor Whitehead and his accomplished associate, Doctor J. Ernest Stokes. This institu- tion has proven what Doctor Whitehead designed it should be, a blessing to suffering humanity.
Following in the footsteps of his sainted mother, Doctor White- head is a devoted and consistent member of the Baptist Church, and is rarely absent from its services or its communion. He was largely instrumental by personal effort and financial contribution in the erection and the furnishing of the present modern and handsome new church edifice of that denomination which was recently dedicated in Salisbury.
Doctor Whitehead is a member of the county and State medical societies, and has served his fellow-citizens as city alderman, and as a member of the water commission, in which position he has been largely instrumental in securing and maintaining pure water and efficient sewerage for the city. His ability as a surgeon has
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been recognized by his appointment as local surgeon for the Southern Railway Company at Salisbury, one of the most im- portant points in the State, which position he has acceptably filled for twenty years.
Of rare business sagacity, Doctor Whitehead was among the first to appreciate the possibilities of the new railroad town of Spencer, which lies just out of Salisbury, and while the engineers were staking it off, he purchased adjoining property, which he im- proved, and which as the town grew apace, netted him handsome returns. In commemoration of this, one of the most beautiful parts of the now thriving little city is called Whitehead town.
In every movement for the moral and material improvement of his community, Doctor Whitehead has always been among the foremost, and his charities have been liberal and unostentatious. Never actively engaging in politics, he has yet always taken an intelligent interest in public affairs, and has always supported the Democratic Party.
On October 24, 1889, Doctor Whitehead was happily married to his cousin, Miss Rose Irwin Morris, of Fairfax C. H., Vir- ginia, who was a daughter of Edward Morris, a son of Richard Morris, who was known as the silver-tongued orator of Virginia in the days long gone. Mrs. Whitehead is connected with many of the best and oldest families of Virginia. To this union three children have been born, two of whom, Edward Morris and Susie Morris, survive, little Marcellus having died at an early age. In his hospitable and beautiful home, surrounded by his happy family, secure in the love and confidence of his people, Doctor Whitehead is the model physician and gentleman.
Theodore F. Klutts.
АДИТЯОЙ
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RICHARD HENRY WHITEHEAD
R ICHARD HENRY WHITEHEAD was born in the town of Salisbury, North Carolina, July 27, 1865. His father was Doctor Marcellus White- head, one of the most prominent physicians of the State, and his older brother is Doctor John Whitehead, an able and well-known physician of Salisbury. Thus, on his father's side, the leaning toward the medical profession was a strong one. His earliest known ancestor in America was Thomas Whitehead, who lived in York County, Virginia, and died in 1660. The family is well known in that State and has furnished a number of strong and useful men. His mother, Virginia Coleman, also came of a prominent Virginia family, some of whom attained distinction as teachers. These two characteristics, that of the physician and teacher, were finely united and strongly developed in their son Richard.
His early days were passed in Salisbury, then a small town, and his preliminary schooling was secured there. Later he went to Horner's School in Oxford. Having completed his preparatory training, he entered Wake Forest College and was graduated from that institution with the degree of A.B. in 1886. Having decided to enter the profession of medicine, he entered the University of Virginia in 1887 and received the degree of M.D. The stand taken in his studies was. unusually high and on account of his marked ability he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy.
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He took post-graduate courses in the University of Pennsylvania and in the New York Post Graduate School.
When, in 1890, the University of North Carolina was looking over the field to secure a professor of anatomy and dean for its newly established medical department, Doctor Richard H. White- head was strongly recommended by the faculty of the University of Virginia. His election was unanimous, and he entered upon his duties in the Fall of 1890. Doctor Whitehead began with energy the building up of the new department. He showed the qualities of the born teacher, and by his forceful presentation of his sub- ject, lucid explanation of difficulties and careful individual work with his students, he sent them out so thoroughly prepared that the reputation of the department was established on a high plane and it has been maintained ever since.
His style of lecturing is clear, simple, with a convincing, logi- cal sequence and a contagious enthusiasm. Beginning with about half a dozen in the first year, he has built the department up until it numbers a hundred students.
Very justly Doctor Whitehead attributes his success in part to his private study. This he has kept up with his accustomed energy and consistency. Perfecting himself in one modern language after another, he has opened for himself all of the important literatures of the scientific world. Each year a part of his vacation has been spent in working in some well-equipped Northern laboratory, pur- suing some favorite investigation or perfecting his methods of teaching, thus keeping fully abreast of the times.
He has contributed a number of articles to various medical jour- nals and has written a book on the "Anatomy of the Brain," which has been highly commended and is used as a text-book. He has also taken an active part as a member of the North Carolina Medi- cal Society, the American Medical Association and the Association of American Anatomists.
His devotion to his work as a teacher has led him to withdraw gradually from active practice as a physician, eventually restrict- ing himself to practice among the students of the University and the families of a few friends.
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Doctor Whitehead was married to his cousin, Virgilia White- head, June 4, 1891. They have no children.
He finds his chief recreation in hunting and fishing and has the family fondness for fine horses. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and of the Democratic Party, and while at college joined the Kappa Alpha Fraternity.
Doctor Whitehead ranks as one of the best teachers of anatomy in the country. He has on several occasions been approached with tempting offers to go to other educational institutions. On July 21, 1905. Doctor Whitehead was elected Professor of Anatomy and Dean of the Medical Department of the University of Virginia, which to the regret of his North Carolina friends he accepted. In this distinguished position he is more than meeting the expec- tations of his friends, and adding to the luster of an already bril- liant reputation. Quiet, modest and somewhat reserved, yet with a fund of genial humor he has many devoted friends and has won the respect and esteem of all.
Francis P. Venable.
WILLIAM HENRY WHITEHEAD
ILLIAM HENRY WHITEHEAD, the subject of this sketch, was born in the country in Edge- W combe County, this State, on September 29, 1850. His father was Augustus J. M. White- head (now living), a highly successful and prac- tical farmer of that county ; and his mother ( but lately dead ), Miss Caroline C. Petway, a cultured, refined and ele- gant woman, whose gracious hospitality and cheerful household was a delight to the young people of that section. Both of his par- ents belonged to the oldest and best families of that community. Gentle breeding was his by inheritance, and he was taught early that he must live up to the high standard of morals and rectitude set by a long and respected line of ancestors. Doctor Whitehead's boy- hood days, he thinks luckily for him, were spent in the country. Blessed with a strong and robust physique, ample opportunity was afforded him to bring it to the most perfect development. The woods were filled with game of all kinds, and the streams abounded with fish. As soon as it was safe for him to be entrusted with a gun (and probably sooner) much of his time out of school hours were spent in the woods and fields. In early life he thus became a keen and successful sportsman, and the love of field sports has followed him through life. Whatever leisure that has ever come to him from a busy and most active professional life has been spent in this way. An intense lover of nature, he has been able to study,
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