USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 39
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It was an institution greatly needed for the business of the town, and aided largely in its restoration to prosperity. Mr. Wilkes was its first president, 1865-69, resigning to devote himself to manufacturing interests, in which he has since been engaged.
As wheat culture had almost ceased in North and South Caro- lina, the flour mill was no longer profitable, so he entered into part- nership with General John A. Young and Miles Wriston, and re- moved their Rock Island Woolen Mills to Charlotte and operated them at the place of the flour mill. After some years the woolen
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mills met with failure, and General Young and Mr. Wilkes were financially ruined.
Then Mr. Wilkes turned his whole energy to the Mecklenburg Iron Works, and that speedily became a marked success. As the Seaboard Air Line needed the foundry property, Mr. Wilkes in 1874 sold it to the railroad, and purchased the Doctor Hayes lot on the west end of Trade Street along the Southern Railroad, erected buildings for the iron works, and in 1875 established his family in the old house built by W. A. Elins in 1853. Here the iron works has since been conducted with a wide reputation for ability, good work, and fair and generous dealing with its cus- tomers. Many of the workmen have grown gray or died in its service, and there has never been any dispute, unpleasantness or strike among them. They are all devoted to "the Old Man" and his sons. Now the personnel has perforce changed in the forty years since the works were begun, and younger men fill many places left vacant by age or death among the old hands.
In all that concerns the interests of Charlotte, Mr. Wilkes has · always been prominent. Several times elected Alderman, he has fully justified the confidence of his fellow-citizens. Repeatedly solicited to be a candidate for the mayoralty, he has felt obliged to decline, being fully occupied with the large business under his management.
To the church he has always given loyal service and steady sup- port. A vestryman of St. Peter's parish since 1856, its senior warden since 1860, for thirty years its lay reader, as its treasurer, as Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, as its representa- tive in church councils, he has always proved himself ready to spend and be spent in his Master's service. He has been chosen delegate to the Diocesan Convention annually since 1856, with the. exception of one or two years, and has represented the diocese of North Carolina in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church since 1886-seven consecutive conventions.
Since 1860, as lay reader, he has kept St. Peter's Church open during intervals of rectorship, and has upheld and aided succes- sive rectors in their work, and has strengthened the church by his
honion allaionani
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presence, example and money. Many of those now its supporters look back to his influence and training in Sunday-school and church, and are the better men and women, and the stronger churchmen because of his example.
His fellow-citizens respect and esteem him. His workmen love and trust him. And the State of his adoption has no more de- voted and useful citizen than John Wilkes.
Captain Wilkes has had nine children. Two giris died in in- fancy and one at ten years of age. One son died aged eighteen, and another aged twenty-eight. Two daughters and iwo sons are living, all married.
Mrs. Rosalie Wilkes Jones, with one daughter, lives with her parents. The sons, Jolin Frank and James Renwick Wilkes, are their father's assistants in the Mecklenburg Iron Works. Each has a son and a daughter.
Mrs. Agnes Wilkes Rankin lives in Hartford, Connecticut, where her husband, A. G. Rankin, has a large shoe business. They have three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, John Wilkes Rankin, entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis . in 1904, and worthily upholds the Wilkes's name and traditions.
J. P. Caldwell.
BENJAMIN BRODIE WINBORNE
T HE subject of this sketch is another of the pres- ent generation of North Carolina who has at- tained honorable distinction in his State. As is the case with so many others who have con- tributed much to the glory and prosperity of North Carolina, he is the son of a farmer, and passed his childhood and youth amid the congenial pursuits and elevating influences of his country home. He was born near Murfreesboro, on April 14, 1854, in that section of Hertford County known as Maney's Neck-a section deservedly noted for the intelligence, culture and high moral tone of its citizens.
Among the families of this community, that of young Winborne was prominent, and the associations and environment of those early days were well calculated to develop the traits which have since become so prominent in his character. Mr. Winborne comes from a sturdy stock, and while none of his ancestors, so far as known, appear to have been conspicuous in public life, they have ever been respected and esteemed for their high character, sterling worth and the faithful discharge of all the duties of good citizen- ship. His first paternal ancestor of whom we have any record was Henry Winborne, his great-great-grandfather, who served as one of Hertford County's first representatives in the Colonial As- sembly of North Carolina in 1762-63 with William Murfree, and afterward as chairman of the Colonial Court of Pleas and Quarter
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Sessions of his county. When the Revolutionary war came on, he enlisted as a private in the company commanded by Captain Joseph Walker, belonging to the Seventh Regiment of the Conti- nental Line of North Carolina, and for three years was a soldier in the War for Independence.
After the war he was commissioned major by the State, and he was appointed a Justice of the Peace of the county. In this capacity he served as one of the Special Court of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, and as one of those who adminis- · tered the public affairs of the county. His son, Thomas Winborne, was later also appointed a member of this court, and served at the same time with his father. Thomas Winborne married Sarah Copeland, a Quakeress of Hertford County; and of this union Elisha Winborne, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born on November 6, 1792. He, like his father and grandfather, was a member of the County Court, and was held in such high esteem that although he died in 1829, at the age of thirty-seven, he was acting as chairman of the court at that time. At the age of twenty-seven Elisha Winborne, on April 1, 1819, married Martha Warren of Southampton County, Virginia (whose ancestors were from Surrey County in that State), and on March 7, 1821, their son, Samuel Darden Winborne, was born.
Samuel Darden Winborne, the father of Benjamin Brodie, was a man of marked individuality and force. In early life he aspired to a military career and sought and received from Honorable Kenneth Rayner an appointment as a cadet at West Point, where he was ad- mitted on July 1, 1840. After remaining there about one and a half years, bad health forced him to resign and return to his home in Hertford County. Here he devoted himself with great energy and success to farming and to the management of the affairs of his widowed mother, and he soon became a well-to-do planter. He was appointed major in the militia in 1847, and was noted for the loyalty of his devotion to his State and county, and he was esteemed by all who knew him as an exemplary citizen. He never sought official station, but took a deep interest in all public questions. He served for several years as one of the
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"Special Court" in his county just before the abolition of the court in 1868. Before the Civil War he was a staunch Whig, but he afterward became an ardent Democrat. For a number of years following the Reconstruction period, and when a majority of the board were Republicans, he served his county as one of its county commissioners, and it may be justly said that it was due in a large measure to his watchfulness, good judgment and unflinching courage that the deplorable conditions which existed at that time in so many other eastern counties of the State never pre- vailed in Hertford. The mother of Mr. Winborne was Mary Prettow of Southampton County, Virginia, a member of the old and cultured family of that name that were among the early settlers of the county. She was a lady of many personal charms, and of the most beautiful Christian character. She was trained in the best schools of her day, and finished her education at a high-grade institution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, controlled by the relig- ious sect (Quakers) to which she then belonged. She was twice married-her first husband being James Massenburg of her na- tive county, who lived less than one year. After marriage she formed other religious associations, but retained through life all of the gentle modesty and consecration to duty so characteristic of her Quaker progenitors.
With such ancestors Mr. Winborne acquired by inheritance the virtue of directness, and a corresponding dislike of all shams and hypocrisy. The active and useful lives of his parents and their neighbors taught him, at an early age, the lessons of independence and self-reliance, and these, perhaps, are the most prominent characteristics of his maturer years. In youth he attended Buck- horn Academy, a flourishing classical school about two miles from his home, of which Captain J. H. Picot, a graduate of Co- lumbia College of New York, and a gentleman of great learning and literary attainments, was principal. As was usual in such academies at that time, much attention was paid to training young men in public declamation and debate : and here doubtless the sub- ject of this sketch first acquired and developed the tastes which in- clined him to the law. Indeed, a number of men now prominent in
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public and private life in the State and in other States received their early training at this old academy, the glory of which is now but a memory. And may we not remark here without being considered an enemy of education that these old country acade- mies have in the past trained many notable men for the State; and is it not worth while to consider if the public school is cal- culated to develop the same high character and culture? In 1871 Mr. Winborne entered Wake Forest College, where he re- mained for one year, and thereafter continued his studies in Columbian University in Washington, D. C .- receiving from the latter the degree of B.L. in June, 1874. He then studied for one year in the office of Judge W. N. H. Smith and Hon. George V. Strong in Raleigh, North Carolina, and began the practice of law in June, 1875, in Winton, North Carolina-the county seat of his native county-having received his license from the Supreme Court of the State in February preceding, and before he had at- tained his majority. When he commenced to practice a number of able lawyers were members of the Winton bar, and his early experiences, not unlike those of the average young lawyer, had their discouragements and disappointments. But he applied him- self with great diligence to his books-carefully reviewing all of his text books, both academic and law, and studying such others as he had added to his library. His patient industry and indom- itable will to succeed soon brought their reward, and in a few years he won his place among the foremost members of the bar. This position he has since maintained, and for a number of years he has been one of the leading and most successful lawyers in the eastern part of the State. During this period his practice in the Supreme Court of the State has been extensive, and as appears from the reports of that court, he has been counsel in much im- portant litigation as well as in many leading cases involving the most intricate and controverted legal principles.
On December 23, 1879, he married Miss Nellie H. Vaughan, a beautiful and accomplished woman, the daughter of Colonel Uriah Vaughan of Murfreesboro, North Carolina, and in January, 1880, he removed to that town, where he has since resided. In 1877 he
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was elected Solicitor of the Inferior Court of Hertford Court-a court of limited criminal jurisdiction-and served in that capacity for a number of years. In 1891 this court was abolished and a criminal court of general jurisdiction was established in its stead. In response to the almost unanimous demand of the people of his county he agreed to accept the judgeship of the latter court, and was accordingly commissioned by the Governor, and served for a term of six years, except for a brief interval when he resigned to serve in the Legislature of 1895-being reappointed after its adjournment. As judge he added to his reputation as an ac- curate and learned lawyer, and displayed the firmness, high sense of justice and other qualities of head and heart which eminently qualify him for judicial station. In 1905 he wrote and had pub- lished a most interesting history of the Winborne family; and he is now writing a history of Hertford County and its people.
Mr. Winborne has been unswerving in his allegiance to De- mocracy, and since 1875 has taken an active part in the politics of his county and State. He first attracted attention by a series of articles on the progress of political science, published in the Albemarle Times-at that time a weekly newspaper of wide circu- lation in eastern Carolina, edited and published in Windsor, North Carolina, by the late P. H. Winston, Jr. These sketches have been recently published in book form.
From 1878 to 1902 he served as chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of Hertford County, and it was under his able and aggressive management that the county was first re- deemed from Republican rule in the Fall of 1884, when his brother, R. W. Winborne, now of Roanoke, Virginia, was elected to the House of Representatives. For some years Mr. Winborne served as a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of the State, and in 1896 he was one of the North Carolina delegates to the Chicago Convention. In the campaign of 1894 he was the Democratic candidate of his county for the House of Representa- tives, and was one of the stalwart thirty-three in the entire State who came out triumphant from the political upheaval of that year. In the Legislature of 1895, though in the minority and at a time
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when political feeling in the State was bitter, his influence was felt. By his ability and courage he won the respect, and by his courtesy the esteem, of his political opponents in that body; and thus he was enabled to secure the enactment of important meas- ures, as well as the defeat of much bad legislation. Thereafter he continued to devote himself assiduously to his large practice until 1904, when he was again a candidate for the House of Representatives, and while there were other good men seeking the nomination, he was nominated at a party primary by an over- whelming majority, and was subsequently elected.
In the Legislature of 1905 he was at once recognized as a lead- ing member, being appointed chairman of the Democratic caucus, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a member of a number of the other most important committees of the House. He was the author of much important legislation, took a leading part in the debates of the session, and as a member of the Committee on the Revision of the Statutes, his familiarity with the law made him of the greatest usefulness to his associates and the State.
In addition to being a strong lawyer, Mr. Winborne is a public- spirited man, and always a leader in the progressive enterprises of his section. He still retains his devotion to the farm, and not- withstanding the strenuous exactions of his professional life, is a successful farmer, largely interested in planting and stock raising.
In personal intercourse, Mr. Winborne has pleasing manners, and enjoys the unbounded confidence of those who know him best. He is a popular man, but it is the popularity of a positive and ag- gressive character. His fidelity and loyalty to his friends and clients are proverbial, and while the zeal with which he espouses another's cause sometimes excites antagonisms, he is so honor- able and open as an adversary as to command the respect of his opponents. Warm hearted and generous, he is easily moved by suffering or misfortune, and gives with a free hand. His con- victions of duty are strong, and whatever he undertakes he per- forms conscientiously and thoroughly, whatever the cost or sacri- fice to himself; and in this, doubtless, is to be found the secret
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of his success. He is intensely devoted to North Carolina, and glories in her traditions and her history, and his profession he loves as a jealous mistress. In the discharge of his public duties he has won the esteem and admiration of his associates. Per- haps no more accurate characterization has been given of any of our public men than is to be found in an editorial of the Raleigh Morning Post, March 8, 1905, concerning the subject of this sketch :
"Judge B. B. Winborne, member of the House from Hertford, goes home with a legislative record that marks him pre-eminently one of the safest, as well as abiest, leaders in the State. He it was who led the fight in the House for the principal provision in the Divorce Law as the Senate passed it, and in which the House finally concurred. His argument on that question in the House, on the night the Divorce Bills were discussed, will long be remembered as one of the really great speeches that have been made in that hall. Then his stand for the granting of new trials in criminal cases for newly discovered evidence was a notable effort, one that of itself, if he had done nothing else, would have singled him out as a strong and just man."
Robert W. Winborne.
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JOHN WITHERSPOON
J OHN WITHERSPOON, an eminent divine, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and founder of the first church of any denomination ever established in Hillsboro, was born at "Pembroke," near New- Bern, in 1791. He died on September 25, 1853, at Hillsboro. He comes of a family of divines, scholars and patriots. He was the son of David Witherspoon, a prominent member of the bar of New-Bern. The Federal census of 1790 shows that David Witherspoon was the largest slave-owner in Craven County at that time, having one hundred and thirteen slaves. The paternal grandfather was Reverend John Witherspoon, D.D., LL.D., member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey, signer of the Declaration of Independence, president of the College of New Jersey ( Princeton) for many years, and teacher of many of the patriots of the Revolution. An uncle, Major James Witherspoon, was aide to General Francis Nash, and was killed at Germantown by a part of the shell which killed his illustrious commander. An aunt, Frances Witherspoon, was the wife of the historian, David Ramsay of South Carolina. Another aunt, Anna Witherspoon, was the wife of Samuel Stanhope Smith ( who succeeded her father as president of Princeton) and the grand- mother of John C. Breckenridge, member of Congress, Senator and Vice-President of the United States, major-general and secre-
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tary of war of the Confederate States. The signer was the son of Reverend James Witherspoon, parish minister of Yester, Hod- dingtonshire, Scotland, and Anne Walker, his wife, who was her- self the daughter of Reverend David Walker of Temple Parish and Margaret Peterson, his wife. The family name was originally spelled Wodderspoon, and the coat of arms bears the motto "Deo Juvante." The mother of the subject of this sketch was Mary Jones, widow of Governor Abner Nash, and a great-grand- daughter of Frederick Jones, who was chief justice of the colony of North Carolina from 1717 to 1721. Through her mother, Mary Jones was descended from William Bradford of the Mayflower, the second and many times governor of Plymouth.
On the Ist of July, 1813, the subject of this sketch married Susan Davis Kolleck of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who was the daughter of Captain Shepard Kollock, a Revolutionary soldier, member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and a prominent editor ; and sister of Shepard Kosciusko Kollock, who was Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in the University of North Carolina, 1819 to 1825. At the age of eight or nine John lost his mother. His father removed to Princeton and died shortly afterward. By the will of his father, John was placed under the guardianship of Doctor Samuel Stanhope Smith of Princeton, and Doctor John C. Osborne, a well-known physician of New-Bern. John received his earliest school training at Baskenridge, New Jersey, in an academy of which the Reverend Doctor Findlay was principal, "a man justly · celebrated as a teacher and a divine." After a time he was taken from this school by Doctor Smith and placed under the care of his other guardian, Doctor Osborne, who resigned his charge. His half-brother, Chief Justice Frederick Nash, then assumed the guardianship. Upon his return to New-Bern he entered the academy, which was under the charge of Doctor Irving. "a man of science and full of learning and an excellent instructor, who trusted more to the rod than to moral suasion." Doctor Irving later turned his attention to the ministry, was duly admitted to Orders in the Episcopal Church, and installed as a priest at New-Bern. Several of his pupils in after life achieved eminence, among them
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Judge William Gaston. John then entered the preparatory de- partment of the University of North Carolina, which was then in charge of Reverend Abner Clopton. He entered the University in 1808, and was graduated in 1810 as a Bachelor of Arts. Among his classmates was James Fauntleroy Taylor, with whom he tied on the senior examinations, and who subsequently became attorney-general of the State. The Latin salutatory was as- signed to Witherspoon, and the valedictory to Taylor, the latter being the better speaker. Witherspoon and Taylor entered the law office of Chief Justice Nash, and were in due time admitted to the bar.
While on a visit to Philadelphia, Mr. Witherspoon heard a ser- mon by Reverend Doctor Thomas Skinner, a native of this State, and from it he dated his first serious impression upon the subject of religion. Later, under the preaching of that eminent man of God, Doctor Robert Chapman, then president of our University, he made profession of faith, and was admitted to membership in the Presbyterian Church at Chapel Hill. He then decided to throw aside his law books and to devote himself to the Gospel ministry. He thus verified the prediction made for him by his first teacher, Doctor Findlay, who said: "No doubt John will yet become a preacher of the Gospel; that there never had been a time since the death of John Knox in which there was not a minister of the Gospel in direct line from him." To prepare himself for the ministry he removed with his family to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and com- pleted his theological studies under his brother-in-law, the Reverend Doctor John McDowall, then pastor of the Presbyterian Church of that place, and who, in 1820, was Moderator of the Gen- eral Assembly. In the Spring of 1816 he was ordained a minister of the Presbytery of New Jersey. He returned the same year to his native State and located at Hillsboro. "At that time Hillsboro was destitute of the forms of religion ; no house dedicated to the ser- vice of Almighty God existed within its precincts; nor was there any organized church of any faith; nor was there any regular worship. Its Sabbaths were silent Sabbaths, undisturbed by the 'church-going bell,' and for many a year previous thereto a
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moral or a religious darkness had spread over the community. But a great reformation had recently begun under the preaching of Doctor Chapman. In 1816 (September 25th) the first Presby- terian Church that ever had been formed in Hillsboro was organ- ized by Mr. Witherspoon, who was ordained its pastor ; and there continued to labor as such until 1832." "While pastor of the church in Hillsboro, seeing the destitution of the place in a literary point of view, there being no academy there, he instituted one there, and associated with himself a gentleman of the name of Rogers." Mr. Rogers had been educated for a Roman Catholic priest, but had abandoned that purpose, and had become a midshipman in the navy. Happening to reach Wilmington, he resigned and was employed there as a private tutor, and then he taught at Hills- boro, where he married a daughter of Colonel William Shepperd. He was a fine teacher. "Under their joint labors the academy rose rapidly into public favor. Many of the young men of our State in public life received under these gentlemen the rudiments of their education." "In 1832 he removed to Camden, in South Caro- lina, upon a call from the Presbyterian Church of that State. He continued to labor there until he received and accepted a call from the church in Columbia of the same State." After laboring several years in the church of Columbia, Mr. Witherspoon's health having given way, he returned to his native State to die. "His life was mercifully spared for several years after his return, and though a life of suffering and sorrow, he bore all his trials with meekness, submission and resignation. Nor did he relax his ministerial labors, visiting the poor, the sick and the afflicted, and ministering to their spiritual wants with tenderness and unbroken zeal." "Being young when he lost his mother, and the only sur- viving child of a father broken in health, he never was subject in his earliest days to that restraint so necessary in forming the character of the future man. His mother's death occurred too early in his infancy for him to have derived any benefit from her judicious care and management. At the time, then, when he was placed under the care of Doctor Findlay, he was a wild and reck- less boy, spurning at an authority which was new to him." But
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