USA > North Carolina > Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present; > Part 9
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While commandant of the post at Ogdensburg, New York, on February 6, 1813, Major Forsyth gathered together a force of about two hundred regulars and volunteers, and with these pro- ceeded in sleighs up the river to Morristown. At three o'clock in the darkness of the following morning they crossed over the river to Elizabethtown, surprised the guard and took fifty-two prisoners. among whom were five officers. They also captured 120 muskets, twenty rifles and several boxes of ammunition ; and returned to Ogdensburg without the loss of a man. A few days later, on
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February 21st, the British gathered a force of more than twice the number under Forsyth, who was at Ogdensburg, and finally suc- ceeded in driving him out of that place, but suffered severely in so doing. On that occasion the British forces formed themselves in two columns of 600 men each, and in the battle killed and wounded about twenty Americans. Forsyth reported that, from the coolness with which his riflernen fired he was led to believe that the British had lost at least three times that number. The Americans retreated to Black Lake, about nine miles from Ogdensburg. Shortly thereafter Forsyth was present at the cap- ture of Fort George, in Canada, on May 27, 1813, and greatly added to his reputation as a soldier in the battle fought there.
For "distinguished services" Major Forsyth was first given the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was later ( April 15, 1814) commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 26th Infantry.
An anecdote of Colonel Forsyth appeared shortly after his death in the Pennsylvania Journal, and was copied in Niles's Reg- ister for January 11, 1817. This account says :
"Colonel Forsyth, so celebrated in the last war as the commander of a band of sharp-shooters which harassed the enemy so much, happened in a scouting party to capture a British officer. He brought him into his camp and treated him with every respect due to his rank. Happening to enter into conversation on the subject of sharpshooters, the British officer observed that Colonel Forsyth's men were a terror to the British camp --- that as far as they could see they could select the officer from the private, and the officer of course fell a sacrifice to their precise shooting. He wished very much to see a specimen of their shooting. Forsyth gave the wink to one of his officers, then at hand, who departed and instructed two of his best marksmen, belonging to the corps, to pass by the commanding officers' quarters at stated intervals. This being arranged, Colonel For- syth informed the British officer that he should be gratified, and observed that he would step in front of his tent and see whether any of his men were near at hand. According to arrangements made, one of the best marksmen appeared. The colonel ordered him to come forward, and in- quired whether his rifle was in good order. 'Yes, sir.' replied the man. He then stuck a table knife in a tree about fifty paces distant and ordered the man to split his ball. He fired and the ball was completely divided by the knife, perforating the tree on each side. This astonished the British officer. Presently another soldier appeared in sight. He was called, and
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ordered, at the same distance, to shoot the ace of clubs out of the card. This was actually done. The British officer was confounded and amazed- still more so when the colonel informed him that four weeks before those men were living at their homes in the capacity of husbandmen. So much for the American soldiery."
The death of Colonel Forsyth occurred near Odelltown, on the Canadian frontier, June 28, 1814, and was due to his refusal to retire even when ordered to do so. His commanding general had ordered a small party of Americans to attack a larger body of British, and then to beat a hasty retreat, leading the pursuing party into an ambush which had been formed. A portion of this ambuscade was commanded by Forsyth, who also had orders to retreat after a short brush with the British ; but he preferred to fight to a finish then and there. In a contemporaneous publi- cation in North Carolina (the Raleigh Register of July 15, 1814) we find this account :
"At a short distance from the road Colonel Forsyth lay with a party of riflemen in ambush. It is said that the Colonel had also been ordered to retreat if discovered by the enemy while advancing; and that, had the orders been obeyed, a strong detachment then moving in the skirt of the wood would have gained the enemy's rear and captured them. But un- fortunately for the service as well as for himself, Colonel Forsyth, as soon as the enemy came up, gave them battle. They suspected the ambuscade, returned two fires and retreated. At the first fire Colonel Forsyth fell. He received a shot through his breast, and shortly thereafter expired. Colonel Forsyth was a brave and intrepid soldier. On our part, except the Colonel, two only were wounded, and none killed. Of the killed and wounded of the enemy we are not informed."
Another contemporaneous account of the death of Forsyth we find in Niles's Register for July 16, 1814, under the head of "Events of the War." This account says :
"Lieutenant-Colonel Forsyth, of the Rifle Corps, was killed on the 28th ult., in a skirmish near Odelltown. It appears that a plan had been formed for ambuscading a detachment of the enemy, near that place, by Briga- dier-General Smith, and that Forsyth had orders to attack, retreat and draw them into the snare. The affray commenced ; but, instead of falling back, his personal courage tempted him to make a stand, and he remained in the road within sixteen rods of the enemy, where he received a ball
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near the collar-bone, which brought him to the ground. He immediately expressed a conviction that he must die, and exclaimed, 'Boys, rush on!' He was the only person killed-two others were slightly wounded. It is understood that the enemy had seventeen killed. Forsyth was buried next day at Champlain with the honors of war. He was a terror of the enemy, and among the best partisan officers that ever lived."
The Legislature of North Carolina, wishing that the family of Colonel Forsyth might be comfortably provided for, appointed a committee several years later to investigate its condition. On the 22d of December, 1817, this committee reported to the House of Commons that the Forsyth family then consisted of the colonel's widow, four daughters and a son -- the latter then about eight years of age; that the condition of Mrs. Forsyth was not of a de- scription to require aid from the State, though her circumstances were not affluent. The committee at the same time recommended that the State should bear the expenses of educating young For- syth ; that the Governor should be ex officio his guardian ; and that a sword should be presented to this youth by the General As- sembly "as an expression of the grateful sense they entertain of the gallantry and good conduct of the aforesaid Colonel Benjamin Forsyth."
The above-mentioned son of Colonel Forsyth was James N. Forsyth. He entered as a student at the University of North Carolina; and, with the consent of his er-officio guardian, Gov- ernor Hutchins G. Burton, left that institution to enter the United States Navy, wherein he was commissioned a midshipman on November 1, 1826. The Legislature of 1825 repealed the above provision for young Forsyth's education, and in lieu thereof di- rected the Governor to invest $750 as a fund whose interest would be paid him until he was twenty-one, and then the principal should be turned over to him. Though the interest was paid Midshipman Forsyth as late as the year of his death, he never lived to draw the principal. He perished at sea in the wreck of the Hornet in the month of September, 1829.
Marshall De Lancey Haywood.
JOSHUA WALKER GORE
J JOSHUA WALKER GORE, engineer, physi- cist, inventor, and Professor of Physics in the University of North Carolina, born in Fred- erick County, Virginia, on the 10th of Janu- ary, 1852, was the son of Mahlon Gore and Sydney Sophia (Cather) Gore. His earliest ancestor in America was his paternal great-grandfather, John Gore, who came from England as one of a colony of Friends who settled-in Loudon County, Virginia, about 1778. His grandfather was Thomas Gore and his grandmother Sarah Walker. His ma- ternal great-grandfather came from northern Ireland shortly after the Revolutionary War and settled in Frederick County, Virginia. The family had originally gone from Scotland, and were of the Covenanters. His maternal grandfather, James Cather, was born in Glasgow ; and his maternal grandmother, Nancy Howard, was a native of Belfast, Ireland. James Cather enlisted in the War of 1812; he represented his county in the State Legislature in the early forties, and was a member of the Secession Convention of 1861, voting against that measure. Upon the first rumor of in- vasion by Federal soldiers, however, he raised a company of home guards. Such is the family history of the breed, a stock that has given to the country some of its strongest men.
Mr. Gore's father, who was a farmer and merchant, died in 1860, when Mr. Gore was but eight years old, and he was de-
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prived of a father's guidance; but the devoted mother was both father and mother to the boy.
His early education was received at the Loudon Valley Acad- emy, from which, in 1871, he entered Richmond College. While there he made certificates in mathematics and physics and did work in ancient and modern languages. In 1873 he went from Richmond College to the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1875 with the degree of Civil Engineer. After leaving the University he spent two years ( 1876-78) at Johns Hopkins as Fellow in Mathematics, paying special attention also to physics. At the Hopkins he was directly under the instruc- tion of the great Sylvester in mathematics and of Rowland in physics.
Mr. Gore was soon elected Professor of Physics and Chemistry in the Southwestern Baptist University at Jackson, Tennessee, where he remained until 1881, when he was selected by his hon- ored teacher, Colonel C. S. Venable, as his assistant. in mathe- matics in the University of Virginia. In 1882 he was called to the professorship of physics in the University of North Carolina, which position he is still filling efficiently and acceptably.
At the University of North Carolina he has been wholly re- sponsible for the electric light plant, and in large measure for the heating and water plants. He was one of the prime movers for the investment of endowment funds in these and other im- provements, which are sources of revenue to the University. He was also greatly interested in and aided in establishing the Uni- versity Press, and has had charge of the erection of the Y. M. C. A. building. He has developed a strong course of electricity at the University, and as Dean of the Department of Applied Science he is aiding in the upbuilding of an institution to meet the growing needs of the South.
Professor Gore is the inventor of improvements in telephony and in wireless telegraphy, and takes an active interest in many matters connected with the subject of engineering. He is a mem- ber of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of other learned societies. During the greater part of his life
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in Chapel Hill he has been Dean of the University. He was Act- ing-President during President Alderman's absence in Europe, and upon the resignation of Doctor Alderman as President of the University the visiting committee recommended to the board of trustees that Professor Gore be made Acting-President for a year pending the selection of a president.
He was urged by his friends for the presidency of the Uni- versity of North Carolina, and also for the same position in con- nection with the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Raleigh, though he never consented to the presentation of his name for either position. His remarkable executive ability and excellent business sense have brought him flattering offers from beyond the bounds of the State, but he has preferred to remain with the University of North Carolina, and much of the marked success of the institution has been due to Mr. Gore's good common sense, sound judgment and business ability.
On November 9, 1883, Professor Gore married Miss Margaret Corinthia Williams, daughter of Reverend J. W. M. Williams, D.D., noted minister of the Gospel, born in Portsmouth, Virginia, who for over forty years was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs. Gore's mother was Miss Corinthia Read, of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, a lineal descendant of Colonel Edward Scarborough, Surveyor-General of Virginia under King George III.
Mr. Gore is a Democrat and a Baptist, and an active worker in both Church and State. He is a man of affairs, an alderman of the town of Chapel Hill, and a director of the bank of Chapel Hill. In reviewing Professor Gore's career one hardly knows whether to attribute his success to his own individual initiative, to the marked influence of a most remarkable mother, or to his singularly happy home life; but perhaps it were better to say that these combined have made him the man he is.
Collier Cobb.
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JULIUS ALEXANDER GRAY
ULIUS ALEXANDER GRAY was of Scotch- Irish descent, and thus identified with a people J that has played a part of the greatest im- portance in the material, social, intellectual, and moral development of the middle section of North Carolina. His grandfather was Robert Gray; his father, Alexander Gray. Both lived to the exceptional age of ninety-six years. The family lived first in New Castle, New Jersey, removing thence to Orange County, Virginia. Here Alexander Gray was born in 1768, and thence he removed to Ran- dolph County, North Carolina. He is said to have been a man of unusually good education for the day in which he lived, and of noteworthy intellectual and literary tastes, a charming story-teller, and a leader in the social life with which he came in contact. He was in the North Carolina State Senate in 1799, 1804-1807, 1812, 1823. and 1826-1828. He owned a plantation in Randolph County and more than one hundred slaves-an unusually large number for his day in the section of country in which he lived. In 1812 he was appointed a general in the North Carolina militia to serve, if necessary, in the war then waging against Great Britain. Just before the close of the war he was put in command of the State troops in the field at Wadesboro; but, on account of the early conclusion of peace, he was not called into active ser- vice. He is said, also, to have been appointed a commissioner
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on the part of the State to treat with the Indians of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, while Tennessee was yet a part of North Carolina.
Alexander Gray married Sarah, a daughter of Jeduthan Harper, a citizen of Randolph County, a colonel during the War for In- dependence, and a representative of his county in the Legisla- ture-a man of vigorous character and a kinsman of Robert Good- loe Harper, the celebrated Maryland lawyer and statesman.
Julius Gray was born in his father's home September 6, 1833. He grew up in the conventional way of boys in his station in life and of his opportunities. Strong in body and of vigorous health, he lived an active and wholesome life, but was not subjected to any systematic labor. He was prepared for college at the "High School" in Greensboro-probably the Caldwell Institute-and under the Reverend Jesse Rankin at Lexington, North Carolina. Entering the Sophomore class at Davidson College in 1850, he was graduated from that institution in 1853. Two years later, when he was twenty-two years old, he became teller and book- keeper in the Cape Fear Bank of Greensboro, of which Jesse H. Lindsay was president. He was fortunate in thus beginning his business career. . Jesse H. Lindsay was one of the best and best- known bankers in his section of the State. Of methodical habits, unalloyed integrity, the strictest moral conduct, and a conspicu- ously consistent Christian character, he was in every way fitted to influence for the best the young men whom he trained in his bank. Not only did Mr. Gray come in contact with such a per- sonal influence in the beginning of his business life, but in com- ing to Greensboro he came to the most important business locality in that part of the State, and to a locality whose social life was unpretending, select, sincere, elevated, and elevating.
After living three years amid these surroundings Mr. Gray was elected, in 1858, cashier of a bank in Danville, Virginia, and went to that town to live. In October of the same year he mar- ried Emma Victoria, a daughter of Governor John M. Morehead, and a niece of Jesse Lindsay, his former chief in the Greensboro bank. He remained in Danville but little more than two years,
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ill-health compelling him to resign his place in the Fall of 1860 and spend the Winter in Florida. He returned to North Caro- lina the following Spring, and took charge of his father-in-law's cotton mills at Leaksville. During the same year he was appointed to a position in the treasury department of the Confederate States Government, a position which he held until the fall of that gov- ernment.
The Civil War, although adding to the burdens of Mr. Gray's life, did not so completely lessen its continuity as it did most men in his station. The family slaves, it is true, were lost, the value of the family property much decreased and made uncertain, and the social and political life of the section of country in which he lived radically changed. But he had remained in civil life and had kept his grip on business. He could, therefore, go on after the war with less of readjustment than the most of his friends and neighbors had to make. His duties, however, were onerous enough. During the war his father, his only brother, and his two brothers-in-law had died, his brother Robert, the lieutenant- colonel of the 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Troops, dying in camp near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in March, 1863. To settle the estates of these men, and to provide for their families, upon the conclusion of peace, was Mr. Gray's particular duty; and to that he devoted the first few years immediately following the close of the war.
In 1869, when the Bank of Greensboro was chartered by the State, with Jesse H. Lindsay as president, Julius A. Gray was made cashier ; and, in 1876, when the bank was converted into the National Bank of Greensboro, he was continued in the same office.
On the 3d of April, 1879, Mr. Gray was by an almost unani- mous vote elected president of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, in which he owned forty-three and a half shares of stock. The task thus laid upon him was one which he might have hesi- tated a long time before accepting. The Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway had been chartered originally as the "Western Railroad Company," to build a railway between Fayetteville "and the coal region in the counties of Moore and Chatham." But the
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company was only to an indifferent degree successful in its pro- jects. In 1861 it had become heavily involved in debt, the larger part of which was due the State, and had in operation only about forty miles of road poorly equipped. During the Civil War there could, of course, be no satisfactory management of the property -- financial or constructional. In 1866 the company had little ready money at its command, it owed the State $600,000, and its prop- erty was so covered by mortgages that further borrowing was im- practicable.
In December, 1866, the State Treasurer was authorized to ac- cept the company's stock for the debt due the State; thereby can- celling this debt and putting the State in possession of the most of the stock. Charges of fraud in the management under State direction between 1869 and 1871 were freely made. To what extent or in what particulars they were true it is no part of this paper to discuss. It is sufficient to say that during the dozen years just preceding Mr. Gray's election to the presidency the road had slender assets, was heavily in debt, and was involved in what seemed to be a hopeless tangle of litigation. For keeping the prop- erty together during these critical years, and fighting to a suc- cessful finish nearly if not quite all of the legal battles, full credit is due the administration of L. C. Jones, Mr. Gray's immediate predecessor. But for his work, that of Mr. Gray, arduous though it was, would have been far more difficult.
During these years the charter of the road had been from time to time amended to allow an extension from Fayetteville to the South Carolina line, there to connect with any road in South Carolina, and from the "coal region" to the Tennessee line by way of Wilkesboro, and to the Virginia line by way of Mount Airy. But upon the consolidation, early in 1879, of the Western Rail- road with a company organized to build a road from Greensboro to Mount Airy, the Tennessee route was abandoned, and a route from Fayetteville to Mount Airy by way of Greensboro de- termined upon as the main line, the whole system to be known as the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad.
Mr. Gray prosecuted vigorously the work of finishing the road ;
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but he found an insurmountable difficulty in the State's owner- ship of 5500 shares out of a total of 7170. He consequently, in 1883, organized a company which purchased the State's stock, making possible the securing of the money needed to construct and equip the road. Thenceforward the president and directors could command with little difficulty the money they needed.
At the time of this change of name and administration trains were running regularly between Fayetteville and "the Gulf," a distance of forty-four miles, and the roadbed was graded four miles beyond "the Gulf" towards Greensboro. It had earned the preceding year $30,512.49; and its operating expenses had been $26,837.40. When the State's interest was bought the grading had been completed to Greensboro, and almost completed beyond to Walnut Cove, from Fayetteville to the South Carolina line to- wards Bennettsville. The earnings the previous year had been $45.946.06; the expenses $37,177.13.
Mr. Gray put all of his energies, now unhampered by any political contingencies, into the finishing and equipping of the road. The route by Wilkesboro to the Tennessee line was aban- doned to make Mount Airy the northwestern terminus, with the idea of ultimately connecting with the Norfolk and Western Rail- way. Progress was rapid. April 16, 1884, regular trains went through from Fayetteville to Greensboro; and December 5th of that year from Fayetteville to Bennettsville, South Carolina. June II, 1888, the extension from Greensboro to Mount Airy was opened for business ; and, February 17, 1890, from Fayetteville to Wilmington; and by the middle of June, 1890, the Ramseur and Madison branches had been completed. In all there were in opera- tion about 338 miles, as against something over forty in 1879.
Mr. Gray and his company planned largely for their road and its part in the material development of North Carolina. How suc- cessful they would have been is a matter for conjecture only. The company had borrowed money largely to do what had already been done; so when the road, in consequence of the business "panic" of 1893, failed, on account of decreased earnings, to pay the interest on its debt, Mr. Gray having died in 1891, it went
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into the hands of a receiver. But Mr. Gray's credit for what he did should not be, for this reason, the less. Under his manage- ment the road won the esteem and good-will of all who had any dealings with it. The employes were treated with kindness and consideration ; shippers found an accommodating service and just rates ; and passengers met with courtesy and found every pro- vision for their comfort and safety.
Although the railway received Mr. Gray's closest attention and his best efforts during the last dozen years of his life, it by no means absorbed his energies. The demands of his social life were met in his home by a gracious and cordial hospitality, and else- where by a geniality of manner and unselfishness of spirit that made him a welcome guest wherever he went. In his mingling with men, whether his social and business equals or his sub- ordinates, his intercourse was uniformly marked by a dignified respect for himself and a considerate thoughtfulness of others. He was actively identified with all the phases of life in the com- munity in which he lived, supporting its business, educational, and religious enterprises with equal earnestness. He was the Vice- President and General Manager of the North State Improvement Company, the construction company which built the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway. In 1887 he was elected President of the National Bank of Greensboro, to succeed Jesse H. Lindsay, who had just died. He had been cashier of this bank since 1869, though only nominally so since his election to the presidency of the railway. He was the Vice-President and one of the original directors of the Guilford Battle Ground Company -- an association organized to purchase and improve for the public the site of the battle of Guilford Court House. When the Greensboro Female College was sold for debt, he was one of the men who organized a stock company to purchase the property and equipment and to continue the same as a girls' school. Besides these, he was identi- fied in one way or another with numerous minor organizations, one of the most important being the Greensboro Chamber of Com- merce, of which he was President.
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