USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 102
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106
The environment in which Virgil L. Blackburn spent his early life was sufficient to stimulate his ambition and give him character and the moral fiber necessary for meeting the various problems of the world. He attended the home school, and at the age of eighteen was clerk in a general store at Clemmons. He also worked in a store at Ar- cadia and with this experience he went on the road as a traveling salesman. He traveled over most of the South, selling goods in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. In 1899 Mr. Blackburn left the road and locating at Winston became a mem- ber of the firm of Rominger & Crim, furniture dealers. He was in business with that firm until 1910, when he sold his interests and opened a department store at Clemmons. He has developed a large and flourishing trade. His success is due to the fact that he has made a close study of the varied wants of his community and has endeavored to keep a stock of goods that would satisfy all reasonable demands. His stock includes everything to eat and wear, also household furnishings and equipment, sewing machines, pianos and organs and other merchandise.
Mr. Blackburn was married in 1894 to Miss Maggie Sheets. She was born in Clemmons Town- ship, daughter of John W. and Charlotte (Harper) Sheets. To their marriage was born one son, Milton Virgil Blackburn. Mr. Blackburn is a member of Clemmons Aerie No. 733, of the Fra- ternal Order of Eagles, Salem Lodge No. 26, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, Elm Camp of the Woodmen of the World, and is a former member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and the Knights of Pythias.
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER SHEPARD. One of the con- spicuous successes in business affairs at Wilming- ton has been won by Joseph Christopher Shepard. For a number of years he was a retail druggist and pharmacist, and finally utilized his experi- ence and business ability to organize the Shepard Chemical Company, and as the head of that busi- ness he has built it up until it is now one of the largest concerns of its kind in the South. It is incorporated with a capital stock of $600,000 and the company keeps from ten to fifteen traveling representatives on the road.
Mr. Shepard was born at Scotts Hill in New Hanover County, North Carolina, July 11, 1867, a son of Dr. Joseph C. and Henrietta (Foy) Shepard. His father was a physician and for some time the son had inclinations to follow the same profession. As a boy he attended public and private schools and at the age of nineteen finished the course of the A. C. Davis College.'
Jos & Shepardo
381
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
He was also a student of medicine for two years but eventually turned to the drug business and in 1887 came to Wilmington. For twelve years Mr. Shepard was in the wholesale and retail drug busi- ness and then having originated and prepared a number of proprietary remedies he took steps to provide for their manufacture and sale. That was the origin of the Shepard Chemical Company, which was established in 1913, with Mr. Shepard as president.
On November 25, 1896, he married Miss Wini- fred Davis Bowden, of Kenansville, North Caro- lina. Their two children are Winifred Bowden and Mary Louise. Mr. Shepard is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the United Commercial Travelers, and is a former trustee of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church of Wilmington.
JOHN DAVID Cox, clerk of the Superior Court of Pitt County, has played an active role in many lines of business and public life, and is one of the best known and most admired citizens of Greenville.
He was born in Pitt County February 5, 1859, a son of Josiah and Sallie Ann (Tyson) Cox. His father was a farmer and the son grew up in the atmosphere of rural pursuits and his early training was accomplished under the direction of John G. Elliott, a native educator of the time, while he finished his education in the University of North Carolina during 1883-84. Returning home, he took up farming and also surveying. For about twenty years Mr. Cox gave most of his time to his work as a surveyor and timber esti- mator. Along with private duties he carried pub- lic responsibilities. He served eighteen years as justice of the peace, was for four years a mem- ber of the Board of Education, represented Pitt County in the State Legislature in 1891 with a dignity and efficiency that are even yet remem- bered gratefully, and for six years filled the office of county surveyor. He was elected to his pres- ent position as clerk of the Superior Court in 1914, for the term of four years. Mr. Cox among other interests is a director of the Pitt County Cotton Oil Company and he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Ou Decem- ber 23, 1885, he married Miss Adelaide Smith, of Pitt County. While they have no children of their own they have reared a fine family consist- ing of five adopted children. The names of these children are Laura V., James S., Addie A., George H. and Loren G.
ALFRED ROSS LAZENBY. Prominently and ac- tively associated with the industrial and manu- facturing interests of Rowan County, Alfred Ross Lazenby, of Salisbury, occupies a noteworthy position among the foremost contractors and builders of this section of the state, and through the exercise of his native ability and good judg- ment has built un a large and profitable business. A native of Iredell County, he was born in Olin Township, and was there bred and educated.
Humphrey Bennett Lazenby, his father, was born in Olin Township, Iredell County, November 2, 1818, and as a young man served an apprentice- ship at the carriage maker's trade and as a mill- wright. During the Civil war, he entered the Con- federate service, and was assigned to the quarter- master's department. After the war he operated a flour mill for nearly a score of years. His last days were passed in Statesville, his death occurring
there July 24, 1887. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Tomlinson, was born in Iredell County, June 21, 1827, and died October 4, 1889. They were the parents of eight children, Adclia, William, Robina, Sallie, Ellen, Thomas, Alfred Ross and Humphrey Lee.
At the age of eighteen years, making use of his ยท native mechanical talents, Alfred Ross Lazenby began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, and at the end of two years had mastered its de- tails. He then accepted a position as clerk in a mercantile establishment at Statesville, but soon gave that up and worked at his trade as a journey- man carpenter for a time. Mr. Lazenby subse- quently, in partnership with his brother William, embarked in business in Statesville as a contractor, continuing until 1898. In that year Mr. Lazenby located in Salisbury, where he has since been kept busily employed, as a contractor and builder his services being in constant demand. He has erected many of the finest residences, business blocks and public buildings in this section of the county, and has now in process of erection the First Methodist Episcopal Church Building of Salisbury, and the Central Methodist Church at Spencer. His work is . specially noted for its thoroughness, artistic beauty and durability, and is a credit to his industry and ability and an ornament to the neighborhood in which it is located.
Mr. Lazenby married, in 1899, Minnie Estelle Rickert, a native of Iredell County. Her father, Silas Rickert, was born in the same county, August 17, 1827, and his father, Michael Rickert, was born in Germany. Mrs. Lazenby's great-grandfather on the paternal side came with his wife and three sons, Michael. Jacob and Andrew, to North Caro- lina from Germany, settling in Mecklenburg County, where he was for many years employed as a school teacher. Michael Rickert grew to man- hood in Mecklenburg County, and there married Margaret Swann. Silas Rickert was reared in Tredell County, and there spent his life, dying January 19, 1884. He married Victoria Feimster, a daughter of James King and Flora Adaline (Campbell) Feimster. She was born April 8, 1840, and died July 9, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Lazenby have one child, Alfred Rickert. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lazenby are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has served for many years as a member of the official board. Frater- nally Mr. Lazenby belongs to Salisbury Lodge No. 24, Knights of Pythias, and to Salisbury Council No. 26, Order
Junior United American Mechanics.
JOHN MATTHIAS BERNHARDT. About the middle of the eighteenth century there were many colonists in North Carolina of German extraction. They were mainly an agricultural people but a number became prominent in public life. Four of these families became especially notable, the Bernhardt, Ramsauer. Behringer or Barringer, and Warlick, and to all these can John Matthias Bernhardt, one of the substantial citizens of Lenior, North Carolina, trace an ancestral line.
John Matthias Bernhardt was born near Lenoir, in Caldwell County, in 1860. His parents were Matthias and Barbara ( (Ramsauer) Bernhardt. On the maternal side the historic family name is nernetuated in history by the Battle of Ramsauer's Mill. one of the decisive battles of the War of the Revolution, in North Carolina. This battle was fought on the plantation of the Ramsauer family, two miles north of Lincolnton. The Ramsauers
382
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
were whigs and Daniel Ramsauer fought in this battle on the whig side against his brother-in-law, Nicholas Warlick, and other near relatives. The mother of Mr. Bernhardt was born near here, on the South Fork River, where her parents owned ancestral lands. Her father was Solomon Ram- sauer. Her mother was a Warlick and was a descendant of Nicholas Warlick, a tory captain . who was killed at the Battle of Ramsauer's Mill. The mother was also a descendant of the well known Shuford family of North Carolina.
On the paternal side the great-great-grandfather of John M. Bernhardt, was John Christian Bern- hardt, of German parentage. He came to Amer- ica from Switzerland, in 1748, returned to Switzer- land and came back to the United States in 1750. He settled at Philadelphia and married Ann Eliza- beth Behringer, or Barringer, a sister of Gen. John Paul Barringer, of Revolutionary fame. Ou coming to North Carolina, about 1760, he settled on Little Coldwater Creek, in what is now Cabar- rus but was then a part of Mecklenberg County. He organized the first German Reformed Church in North Carolina and was otherwise prominent in his day and generation.
John Matthias Bernhardt, the great-grandfather of John M. Bernhardt of Lenoir, married Anna Margaret Bernhardt, and their son, John Christian Bernhardt, was the grandfather. He lived and died at Bethel Church, near Meisenheimer Springs, in what is now Stanly but formerly Cabarrus County. He was a member of the North Carolina State Senate for a number of terms, was a prom- inent layman in the German Reformed Church and was interested in gold mining in the period in which that industry flourished in North Carolina, and, with his brother, Col. George Bernhardt, was one of the originators of the Gold Hill mining district.
Matthias Alexander Bernhardt, son of John Christian and father of John Matthias Bernhardt, was born on his father's farm on Bear Creek, in Stanly County. He was for many years a merchant at Concord, North Carolina. In 1857 he removed to Caldwell County, locating on a farm three miles east of Lenoir, the county seat. He was a farmer and also a statesman, representing Caldwell County in the Legislature in 1864 and 1874. His death occurred in 1876.
John Matthias Bernhardt bears his great-grand- father's name and reverences his memory. He attended the local schools and Davidson College, after which he engaged in the mercantile business at Lenoir, in partnership with Maj. G. W. F. Harper and the firm was the leading enterprise of its kind in the place. Mr. Bernhardt became active in politics and his party services received recognition during the first administration of President Cleveland, who appointed him a special agent for the Interior Department, in Oregon, in which capacity Mr. Bernhardt served two years with the greatest efficiency. Upon his return to Lenoir he organized a furniture factory here, under the title of the Bernhardt Manufacturing Company. It has been developed into a great industry, em- ploying many hands, its products being both high grade and medium priced furniture, especially bedroom suites. This, however, is rather a side line for Mr. Bernhardt, as he is one of the leading lumber men of the state and his principal interests are in timber and general lumber manufacturing. He is a prominent Mason and a member of several other orders.
Mr. Bernhardt married Miss Ellen Douglas
Harper, who is a daughter of Maj. G. W. F. Harper, extended mention of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Bernhardt have four children: George Harper, James D., Ella and John Christian. Mr. Bernhardt and family are members of the Presbyterian Church. He is one of Lenoir's most useful citizens, public spirited and dependable, a hearty supporter of many worthy enterprises that have grown pros- perous through his encouragement, and a liberal contributor to both small and great charities.
EDGAR J. GODWIN. One of the thriving com- mercial centers of Cumberland County is Godwin, and while this village was named for another member of the Godwin family, its business enter- prise is now chiefly in the hands of Mr. Edgar J. Godwin, who has done much to sustain and in- crease the reputation of this notable family for worthy achievement in business, farming and pub- lic spirited citizenship in this part of North Caro- lina.
Mr. Godwin is still a young man in years, but has crowded his life full of worthy activities as a merchant, farmer and public official. He was born in 1878 at the Godwin plantation, five miles northeast of the present Town of Godwin in Cum- berland County. His early associations were with the farm and his main occupation has always been farming. In the last few years his business in- terests have grown until his store at Godwin is one of the largest and best equipped country stores in this section of North Carolina. He first sold goods as a merchant at his home five miles northeast of Godwin, where he established a store in 1905. In the latter part of 1915 he opened his present stock of goods at Godwin, and though he still continues to live at his farm his business keeps him in almost continuous services at Godwin.
This town, which is on the main line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway, sixteen miles from Fayetteville and seven miles from Dunn, was named for one of his uncles, the late Hon. I. W. Godwin, the original settler in that vicinity, and who at one time represented Cumberland County in the State Legislature. Besides his extensive mercantile business Mr. Edgar J. Godwin carried on general farming at his home place and is an extensive cotton planter. He is a man of solid resources and enjoys the highest financial rating in the business world. His mercantile business is carried on under the name of E. J. Godwin & Son. His partner is his son Oliver W. Godwin, who, though only seventeen years old, has shown com- mendable aptitude and ability for business admin- istration. Mr. Edgar J. Godwin married Miss Alma Godwin, of Wayne County. Besides the son Oliver they have three daughters, Mabel, Marie and Garnette.
The public record of Mr. Edgar J. Godwin com- prises nine years of service as justice of the peace for Cumberland County. For six years ending in 1914 he was a member of the Board of County Commissioners of that county.
Edgar J. Godwin is a son of D. J. and Caro- line (Thornton) Godwin, the former deceased and the latter still living at the age of eighty-four. The Godwins are of English ancestry. About a hundred twenty-five years ago the first of the name settled in Cumberland County, North Caro- lina, and they have lived continuously through several generations in the vicinity of the place where Edgar J. Godwin was born. The latter's
E J. Godwin
383
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
grandfather, Edgar J. Godwin, for whom he was named, was also born and reared there. The old Godwin home is five miles northeast of the present Town of Godwin, and in the extreme northeast part of Cumberland County. It is about five miles from Dunn, which is in Harnett County, that county having been a part of Cumberland until its creation in 1853. The Godwin homestead is close to the Black River.
Among other prominent members of the family one of national reputation at the present time is Hon. Hannibal L. Godwin, of Dunn, who was born in Harnett County, November 3, 1873, son of Archibald B. Godwin. He was educated in Trinity College and the University of North Caro- lina law department, was admitted to the bar in 1896, has served as mayor of Dunn, as a member of the North Carolina State Senate, was on the State Central Committee from 1903 to 1905, presi- dential elector in 1904, and since his election in 1906 has been continuously representative of the Sixth North Carolina District in Congress, serving from the session of 1907 to the present date, and bearing a conspicuous and influential part in the notable program of democratic legislation carried out within the past ten years. Congressman Godwin's brother, Mr. R. L. Godwin, is also a resident of Dunn and is one of the widely known lawyers of North Carolina.
The Godwins are notable as a family both for their intellectual strength and for physical stature and power. They are in every sense of the word a race of big men. Equally notable as a char- acteristic is their love for beautiful homes. Con- gressman Godwin and his brother have magnifi- cent mansions at Dunn. Mr. Edgar J. Godwin shares the family characteristic in this respect and has a home which would bear favorable com- parison with any in the state and among country homes is truly preeminent. Although most of his farm lies in Cumberland County his residence is situated just over the line in Harnett County. The finest of city homes do not surpass it in its comfort and conveniences of electric lights and other facilities, while in its harmonious setting and in the treatment of its architecture with re- lationship to the beautiful grounds that surround it the charm of the home is unsurpassed. The costly and beautiful structure stands upon an elevation in the midst of a beautiful grove, and is a country home which once seen is never for- gotten and remains one of the most pleasing memories of North Carolina landscape carried away by any traveler or visitor.
WILLIAM WILLS GREEN, M. D., is the third successive member of the family to bear the name and the Greens are a widely known and promi- nent family of North Carolina. Doctor Green enjoys a successful and secure position as a phy- sician and surgeon, with many influential asso- ciations and connections. His home is at Tar- boro.
He was born in Franklin County, North Carolina, July 29, 1885. a son of William Wills and Mary Elizabeth (Blacknall) Green. His father was a farmer and planter, and agriculture has been the chief vocation of the family through many generations. Doctor Green was educated in pub- lic schools, in the noted Bingham School at Me- bane. took his literary course in the University of North Carolina, and later attended the medical department, where he was graduated M. D. in
1908. In 1913 he pursued post-graduate studies in Cornell University Medical Department.
Doctor Green began practice at Tarboro, and though handling a general practice he is coming to the front rapidly as a capable surgeon. He is on the surgical staff of the Edgecombe General Hospital, is local surgeon of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway, is physician for Edgecombe County, is county coroner, and belongs to the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Association of Surgeons and the Edgecombe County, the District and North Carolina Medical societies and the American Med- ical Association.
Doctor Green is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with the Beta Theta Pi and the Phi Thi college fraternities and the Tar Heel Club. November 19, 1913, he married Miss Sue Foxhill Baker, daughter of the distinguished Tarboro surgeon, Dr. Julius Meredith Baker, They have one daughter, Elizabeth Baker.
Doctor Green is now in France, a captain in the Medical Reserve Corps with Evacuation Hospital No. 4.
EDWARD E. ELLER, who is president of the North Wilkesboro Commercial Organization, has done a good deal in recent years to promote co-operative marketing in his agricultural district. When he located at North Wilkesboro in 1909 the farmers were just waking up to the necessity of building up a home market for the distribution and dispo- sition of their poultry and other produce. Mr. Eller, who had had previous experience in the pro- duce business in different localities, established connections with the source of production and the larger markets of Philadelphia, New York City and Baltimore, and has been the medium of the shipment of hundreds of carloads of general prod- uce and poultry from this section. His business enterprise has stimulated and raised the standard of the local industry and has proved a factor in the world-wide movement for a closer connection between the producer and consumer.
While Mr. Eller was born near Ottumwa, Iowa, February 12, 1870, his present home is in the vicin- ity of where his ancestors lived for several genera- tions. He is a son of Jesse Eller, who was born in Lewis Fork Township of Wilkes County in Decem- ber, 1835, and a grandson of Peter Eller. Jesse Eller acquired a very good education during his youth and taught school. He afterwards took up farming, and continued his residence in Wilkes County until 1869, when he removed to Iowa and settled near Ottumwa. In 1871 he went still fur- ther west, to the Nebraska frontier, and was one of the pioneers in Clay County of that state. He took up a government claim and proceeded to develop it by breaking the virgin prairie and living in a sod house, which was typical of the homes in that district then and for many years afterward. Around him was a practically unchartered and undeveloped wilderness. The prairies were still covered with buffalo, elk and antelope and the period of Indian hostilities was not yet passed. The lot of the pioneers in Nebraska was not an altogether happy one. There were persistent hot winds, grasshoppers, crop failures, low prices and other obstacles to prosperity too numerous to men- tion. Finally, in 1880, Jesse Eller gave up the struggle, sold his farm and returned East. He bought a farm near Atkins in Smyth County, Vir- ginia, and there continued his work as a general farmer until his death at the age of sixty-seven.
384
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
He married Mary Laxton, who was born near Boomer in Wilkes County. She died at the age of sixty-eight. Her twelve children were named Oscar, Virginia, James A., Quincy A., Edward E., Ella, Toy, Lulu, Mollie, Mattie, Emma and Ben H.
Edward E. Eller has many recollections of life in a sod house in a western prairie community. Much of his education was acquired after the fam- ily returned to Virginia. He attended in that state the Marion High School. When quite young he was a factor on the home farm and he con- tinued farming until the age of twenty-five. He then spent two years as a teacher in Ashe County, North Carolina, and also took up the mercantile business at Obids in that county. In 1897 Mr. Eller removed to Norfolk, Virginia, and was en- gaged in the produce business in that city until 1899, when he came to North Wilkesboro and began the development of his present enterprise.
In 1897 he married Elizabeth McNeill, a daugh- ter of Peter and Mary (Phillips) McNeill. They have three children: Mary, Ernest and Franklin. Mr. and Mrs. Eller are members of the Baptist Church, he being a member of the Board of Deacons and secretary of the Berean Sunday School Class. He has been a member of the Board of Aldermen of North Wilkesboro, and is affiliated with Wilkes- boro Lodge of the Independent Order of Oddfel- lows, the North Wilkesboro Council of the Junior Order of American Mechanics and with the Knights of Pythias.
JOSEPH DUCKWORTH ELLIOTT. It would be dif- ficult to name any of the important enterprises contributing to the remarkable prosperity of Hickory, Catawba County, without naming Joseph Duckworth Elliott, for he has been the main mov- ing force in the development of this place from an unimportant country town to one of the foremost industrial centers in North Carolina. Builder, banker and manufacturer, Mr. Elliott has led in every enterprise commercially and industrially, and additionally has been a dominating factor in public matters leading to civic improvement.
Joseph Duckworth Elliott was born in South Carolina during the temporary residence of the family there, and is a son of Hiram C. and Altha (Duckworth) Elliott. Hiram C. Elliott was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, where his father, of Scotch-Irish parentage, had settled when he came to America, and that county con- tinued to be the family home for many years. Hiram C. Elliott became a contractor and builder and because of his skill and honorable business methods, was called to many sections of both Carolinas to engage in important construction work. Joseph Duckworth was reared on his father's farm located in the western part of Ire- dell County and attended school at Statesville. Inheriting a measure of mechanical skill, perhaps, and having a natural inclination toward working in wood, he laid the groundwork of his building knowledge by first learning the carpenter trade in a well known establishment at Knoxville, Tenn- essee, where his training was thorough in every detail of the building art.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.