USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 2
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.Joseph G. Brown obtained his early education in private schools, in Lovejoy Academy, and com- pleted half of his sophomore year in Trinity Col- lege, which he left in 1872. Beginning as a clerk in the Citizens National Bank, in a little more than twenty years he had been promoted through the various grades of responsibility and since 1894 has been president of the Citizens National Bank and is also president of the Raleigh Savings Bank & Trust Company, whose combined resources now total more than $4,000,000.
He was for years president of the Raleigh Clear- ing House Association, was president of the Jeffer- son Standard Life Insurance Company, is vice president of the Atlantic Fire Insurance Company, a director in the Carolina Division of the Southern Railway and president of the Carolina & Tennessee Southern Railway.
Much of his experience and study of finance and business have been made available for others through his active associations with various public bodies. He was president of the North Carolina State Bankers Association in 1899-1900 and was a member of the executive committee of the Ameri- can Bankers Association for nine years and vice president for North Carolina of that association. Many times he has been called upon to make ad- dresses before the conventions of the American
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Bankers Association and his words are always heard as authoritative utterances on such questions as the economic and financial life of the South. He delivered one notable address before this asso- ciation at New Orleans in 1902 and was again a speaker in 1904. He was chairman of the com- mittee in charge of the National Emergency Cur- rency and is now chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee in charge of the campaign for the sale of Liberty Bonds in North Carolina.
Mr. Brown has that breadth of mind and in- terest which his position as a leader in southern life would indicate. He is one of the most promi- nent Methodist laymen in the southern branch of the church. He was a member of the General Con- ference in 1898, 1902, 1906, 1910 and 1914, and was elected for the general conference of 1918 to convene in May of that year. For several years he was a member of the Epworth Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was a delegate to the Missionary Ecumenical Conference at New York in 1900, and was appointed by the College of Bishops as delegate to the World's Ecumenical Conference at London in 1902. For several years he has been a steward at his home church in Raleigh, superintendent of the Sunday school, and is a trustee and treasurer of the Methodist Orphan- age. He is also a trustee of the Olivia Raney Library, and was president of the Raleigh Asso- ciated Charities.
For twenty-five years he served as treasurer of the City of Raleigh, has been a member of the Board of Aldermen, is president of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College, and president of the Board of Trustees of the State Hospitals for In- sane. He is a member of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and is one of the prominent Odd Fel- lows of the state, having served as grand master of the Grand Lodge and as representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the World.
November 10, 1881, Mr. Brown married Miss Alice Burkhead, of Raleigh, daughter of Rev. L. S. Burkhead, D. D., a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church South. They have four living chil- dren: Josephine Lane, now Mrs. J. K. Doughton, of Richmond, Virginia, Robert Anderson, Bessie and Frank Burkhead Brown.
EDWIN MICHAEL HOLT. Repeated references have been made in these pages to Edwin M. Holt as the founder of the old Alamance Mill at Bur- lington, where the first colored cotton fabric in the South was woven, and which was, in effect, the beginning of the great cotton mill industry of North Carolina, an industry which in the eighty years following the founding of the Alamance Mill has not merely grown but multiplied, and its mul- tiplication has been carried forward and stimulated by no one family so much as that of Edwin M. Holt, his son, grandsons and all the connections comprehended in the Holt family. Apart from the general. interest that would demand something like an adequate review of the history of this man, his part in industrial North Carolina makes his personal record an indispensable chapter. The story as told here of his life and achievements is largely as it has been told before in the words of his kinsman Martin H. Holt, and as published some years ago.
Edwin Michael Holt was born January 14, 1807, in Orange, in what is now Alamance County, and died at his home at Locust Grove in Alamance County May 14, 1884, aged seventy-seven years
and four months. His grandfather was Capt. Michael Holt of Little Alamance, a man of promi- nence in the Revolutionary period. His parents were Michael and Rachael (Rainey) Holt. His father was a farmer, mechanic and merchant, his home being one mile south of Great Alamance Creek on the Salisbury and Hillsboro Road, where Edwin M. was born. Rachael Rainey has been de- scribed as a woman of queenly beauty coupled with strong common sense. Her parents were Benjamin and Nancy Rainey and her grand- parents, William and Mary Rainey. Benjamin Rainey was a minister of the Christian Church.
Edwin M. Holt worked on the farm in the summer and attended district schools during the winter. From the routine of farm work and out- door life he developed robust health and the ability to work steadily at tasks, no matter how difficult, until they were finished. From the neighboring schools he obtained a fair English education, the ability to write a good hand and to keep books by the simple processes of that time. In addition to his farm work he spent much time in his father's shops attached to the farm, developing his natu- rally fine mechanical talent, which had been char- acteristic of the Holts for several generations.
Much of his success in life was due to the gentle, patient, energetic and cultured woman who became his wife, and for that reason it is necessary to mention his marriage almost at the beginning. Her maiden name was Emily Farish, descended from the Farish and Banks families of Virginia and daughter of a prosperous farmer of Chatham County, North Carolina. They were married Sep- tember 30, 1828. After his marriage Mr. Holt began handling a small farm and store near his father's home, and that was his modest station in life until 1836.
He was endowed by nature as well as by train- ing in the qualities of a fine mind to become a pioneer in a new and broad industry. His biog- rapher states that while at the work of his store and farm he did not allow the happenings and movements of the outer world to pass unnoticed. He was a deep thinker, a logical reasoner, and had the ability to analyze and understand what he saw in the political and economic life of the country and nation. The fact that impressed him most was that the cotton mill owner of England and of New England, the merchant of London and of New York had grown rich through trade in a staple which was raised in abundance at his own door. This economic inconsistency of the pro- ducer not realizing to the full the advantages of his relation with the product has appealed to thousands of men both before and since the time of Edwin M. Holt, but the important fact with him is that his analysis and his power of action and resources enabled him to take steps to overcome this inconsistency and give to North Carolina cot- ton mills of its own that would rank not second to those of Fall River and Manchester. The story of this important industrial beginning is told in the words of one of his sons, Governor Thomas M. Holt :
" About the year 1836 there was in Greensboro, North Carolina, a Mr. Henry Humphries who was engaged in running a small cotton mill at that place by steam. Following the natural inclination of his mind for mechanical pursuits, my father made it convenient to visit Greensboro often, and as often as he went there he always made it his business and pleasure to call on Mr. Humphries.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
The two soon became good friends. The more my father saw of the workings of Mr. Humphries mill, the more convinced he became that his own ideas were correct. Some time about the year 1836 he mentioned the matter to his father, Michael Holt, hoping that the latter would approve of his plans, as at that time he owned a grist mill on Great Alamance Creek about one mile from his home, the water power of the creek being sufficient to run both the grist mill and a small cotton factory. He reasoned that if his father would join him in the enterprise and erect the factory on his own site on the Alamance, success would be assured. But his father, a very cautious and con- servative man, bitterly opposed the scheme and did all that he could to dissuade his sou from embarking in the enterprise. Not discouraged by this disappointment, he next proposed to his brother-in-law, William A. Carrigan, to join him. The latter considered the matter a long time, not being able to make up his mind as to what he would do. Finally, without waiting for his brother-in-law's answer, he went to Paterson, New Jersey, and gave the order for the machinery, not then knowing where he would locate his mill. On his return from Paterson he stopped at Phila- delphia, where he met the late Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin. Judge Ruffin at that time owned a waterpower and grist mill on Haw River, the place now being known as Swepsonville, and he asked my father where he expected to locate his mill. ' My father replied that he wanted to put it at his father's mill site on Alamance Creek, but that the old gentleman was so much opposed to it that he might not allow it. Thereupon Judge Ruffin said that he did not wish to interfere in any way with any arrangements between him and his father, but if the latter held out his opposition he would be glad to have him locate his mill at his site on Haw River, that he would be glad to form a partnership with him if he wished a partner, and that if he did not wish a partner, but wanted to borrow money he would lend him as much as he wanted. When my father returned home and told his father of the conversation with Judge Ruffin, a man in whom both had unbounded confidence, and he saw that my father was determined to build a cotton factory, he proposed to let him have his water power on Alamance Creek and to become his partner in the enterprise. The latter part of the proposition was declined on account of his having previously told his father that he would not involve him for a cent. The conversa- tion with Judge Ruffin was then repeated to his brother-in-law, William A. Carrigan, who con- sented to enter into the partnership and join in the undertaking. They bought the water power on Great Alamance Creek from my grandfather at a nominal price, put up the necessary buildings and started the factory during the panic of 1837. The name of the firm was Holt & Carrigan, and they continued to do business successfully from the start under this name until 1851. About this time Mr. Carrigan's wife died, leaving five sons. Two of them had just graduated from the Uni- versity of North Carolina, and concluding to go to the State of Arkansas, their father decided to go with them; so he sold his interest in the busi- ness to my father. In the year 1853 there came to the mill a Frenchman who was a dyer. He pro- posed to teach father how to color cotton yarn for the sum of a hundred dollars and his board. Father accepted his proposition and immediately
set to work with such appliances as they could serape up. There was an eighty-gallon copper boiler which my grandfather had used to boil pota- toes and turnips for his hogs, and a large cast- iron wash pot which happened to be in the store on sale at that time. With these implements was done the first dyeing south of the Potomac River for power looms. As speedily as possible a dye house was built and the necessary utensils for dyeing acquired. He then put in some four-box looms and commenced the manufacture of the class of goods then and now known as 'Alamance Plaids.' Up to that time there had never been a yard of plaid or colored cotton goods woven on a power loom south of the Potomac River. When Holt & Carrigan started their factory they began with 528 spindles. A few years later sixteen looms were added. In 1861 such had been the growth of the business that there were in operation 1200 spindles and 96 looms, and to run these and the grist mill and saw mill exhausted all the power of the Great Alamance Creek on which they were located. My father trained all of his sons in the manufacturing business, and as we grew up we branched out for ourselves and built other mills. But the plaid business of the Holt family and, I might add, of the South, had its beginning at this little mill on the banks of the Alamance with its little copper kettle and an ordinary wash pot. I am glad to be able to state that my grandfather, Michael Holt, who was so bitterly opposed to the inauguration of the enterprise and from whom my father never would borrow a cent or permit the endorsement of paper, lived to see and rejoice in the success of the enterprise. The mill ran twelve hours a day. I was only six years old when the mill started, and well do I remember sitting up with my mother waiting for my father to come home at night. In the winter time the mill would stop at seven o'clock P. M. and thereafter my father would remain in the building for half an hour to see that all of the lamps were out and that the stoves were in such a condition that there would be no danger of fire, and then he would ride one mile and a quarter to his home. In the morn- ing he would eat his breakfast by candle light and be at the mill at six-thirty o'clock to start the machinery going. He kept this habit up for many years.
"I attribute the success which has crowned the efforts of his sons in the manufacturing of cotton goods to the early training and business methods imparted to them in boyhood by their father, Edwin M. Holt."
Edwin M. Holt not only founded a business of much promise and importance, but his sagacity and genius guided it through the critical period, and he trained and encouraged his sons and left to them the responsibility of continuing the up- building and the maintenance of industries which are now second to none in importance in the state, and which have grown from several hundred spindles and a few looms in the little old Alamance Mill to hundreds of thousands of spindles and thousands of looms in the plants operated and con- ducted by the Holts alone. Much of the char- acter and the extent of the Holt interests in the cotton mill industry of North Carolina must be reserved for telling in various other articles de- voted to Edwin Holt's sons and grandsons.
Edwin M. Holt was not favorable to the seces- sion of North Carolina, and yet when the war be- came a fact he furnished three sons to the Con-
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
federate army. In 1866 he retired from the active management of the Alamance Mill and turned it over to his sons James H., William E., L. Banks, his son-in-law James N. Williamson, and reserved a fifth interest for his younger son, Lawrence S., until his majority. He was always content to perform his service to the world as to his family through his mills and his industry. The only political office he ever accepted was that of asso- ciate judge of the County Court. He was an en- thusiastic advocate of internal improvements. After the war, when the state treasury was ex- . hausted, he contributed generously for the main- tenance of the North Carolina Railroad. At one time he loaned the road $70,000 without security in order to pay the mechanics in the shops. He was a director and large stockholder in the road. He was associated with his sons in establishing the Commercial National Bank of Charlotte: Edwin M. Holt was a type of the old fashioned com- mercial integrity. He was never a speculator, and his generous fortune grew from honest and legiti- mate effort and the practice of commercial virtues which are as valid today as they have been in all the centuries past. Like all successful men, he had some business principles which he expressed through maxims. One was "You will have your good years and your bad years; stick to business." Another was: "Put your profits into your busi- ness. ''
While building up the cotton mill industry of North Carolina and engaged in a tremendous task and one worthy of his best interests and power, it is said that his chief inspiration for all his success was his love and devotion to his wife and children. He and his wife had ten children, their names being in order of birth: Alfred Augustus, Thomas Michael, James Henry, Alexander, Frances Ann, who married John L. Williamson, William Edwin, Lynn Banks, Mary Elizabeth, who married James N. Williamson, Emily Virginia, who mar- ried J. W. White, and Lawrence Shackleford.
For some of his ideals and for a summing up of his character the following direct quotations are made:
"His ideas were patriarchal. He thought fami- lies should hold together, build up mutual in- terests and be true to one another. Nor was this a Utopian dream of Edwin M. Holt. It was a con- viction born of his experience and observation of human life. It was also an inheritance. It had been the idea of his father, Michael Holt, it was the idea of his grandfather, Captain Michael Holt. It was the idea of his maternal ancestry, the Raineys. If he had not been strengthened by his own experience and observation, he would still have probably listened to the teaching of his fathers. He had seen members of families going out in divergent directions from the old home- stead, the title to estates disappear and the ties of affection weaken, family pride lost and mutual aid and influence impossible. He believed "in union there is strength,' hence it was his idea that his children should settle around him, and that they should do so in honor and in charge of successful business enterprises.
"Great as Edwin M. Holt's life was as a pioneer in a branch of our state's material de- velopment which is playing so important a part in its growth and prosperity today, he was greater as a man. Back of the power to plan and project successful enterprises, to build up his own fortunes and to make his name a household word in homes
where fathers recount the great deeds of great men in civic life, was Edwin M. Holt, the man. He was modest, unassuming, silent, ofttimes to a remarkable degree, seeking success not for its own sake, but for his children's and for humanity's, turning a deaf ear to appeals from admiring friends and neighbors to allow his name to go before the people for public office. But there slumbered the irresistible power of resolute, moral manhood behind his quiet face; and he would have been at ease, aye, and welcome, in the society not only of the world's greatest men in busi- ness, but also in politics and religion. He was a life-long friend of Governor John M. Morehead, Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, Frank and Henry Fries, the Camerons, and others of the state's greatest men in the various callings of life, and was easily the peer of any of them.
"Edwin M. Holt was a truly unselfish man. A beautiful loyalty and love for his older brother, William Rainey Holt, marked his entire life. Ac- cording to English customs, the family pride set- tled in the eldest son. William was sent to Chapel Hill, where he graduated with honor, then to Philadelphia, where he took his medical degree in the greatest school on the continent at that time. On his return to the state and upon his marriage, he was given some of the most choice and valuable property belonging to the estate. All this time Edwin was working on the farm faithfully, contentedy, and feeling an exaltation of spirit in his brother William's success. This self- abnegation of spirit and loyalty to his brother lasted throughout his whole life, altered neither by distances nor circumstance. They often saw things differently; William was a great and bril- liant talker; Edwin was a great listener. William was an ardent democrat and secessionist; Edwin was equally as strong a whig and a Union man. But they never quarreled. Edwin only listened and smiled or his face grew grave, and the hand clasp that followed was that of loving brothers.
"As he grew older benevolence and patience and tenderness for children and love of humanity de- veloped more and more in his heart and life and was reflected from his quiet face. Fortune had smiled on the struggles of his hand and head in his youth and manhood, and when age approached he accepted its infirmities with calm resignation."
JAMES HENRY HOLT. Of that historic family of Holts that supplied much of the original genius, determination, power and enthusiasm to the up- building and maintenance of the cotton industries of North Carolina, one whose career was most fruitful in its individual achievements and also in carrying out the work begun by his honored father, Edwin M. Holt, founder of the historic Alamance Mills at Burlington, was James Henry Holt, third son of Edwin M. and Emily (Farish) Holt.
He was born at the old Holt homestead in Alamance County April 4, 1833, and died at his home in Burlington February 13, 1897. Besides the advantages of the local schools he spent a year or so beginning in 1848 as a student in Dr. Alexander Wilson's famous preparatory school. In 1850, though only seventeen years of age, he entered business as a copartner with his oldest brother, Alfred Holt, and this firm of merchants built and occupied a house which is still standing on the northwest corner of the Court Honse Square at Graham.
In 1852, though still under age, James H. Holt was made cashier of the Bank of Alamance at
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Graham. This position supplied him his chief duties until 1862, when he became cashier of a bank at Thomasville.
In the spring of 1864 Mr. Holt resigned his position in civil life to volunteer in the Confederate army. He was assigned to the Tenth North Carolina Artillery and stationed at Fort Fisher in the eastern part of the state. He was there until late in the year 1864, when Governor Vance commissioned him captain and ordered him to report at Fayetteville, to become commandant of the Military Academy there. It was the service of this commission which occupied him to the end of the war. While in the army he did his whole duty, regardless of his own personal preference in the matter. On being ordered to Fayetteville his colonel spoke of the fact that he was being taken from what promised soon to be scenes of excitement. To this Mr. Holt replied: "Colonel, I regret to leave, but you know I have always obeyed orders." And to this the colonel replied:,. "That is true, Holt, you have been one of the most dutiful and competent soldiers in my command."
With the close of the war James H. Holt, having returned to Alamance County, joined with his brothers and under the guidance of his honored father, Edwin M. Holt, became active in the management of the old Alamance Cotton Mills. James H. Holt was one whose initiative and energy did so much to expand and develop the interests of the Holt family as cotton manufacturers. It was largely his judgment and his influence with other members of the family that caused the Holts to purchase the site known as the Carolina Cotton Mills, where in 1867 the construction of a new plant was begun. At that time the science of mill construction as measured by modern attainments was almost unknown, and while Major J. W. Wilson made the survey for the water power, it was James H. Holt who gave his entire time and attention to supervising the construction and equipment of the plant. Later this became one of the most successful mills in the South and was one of the foundation stones of the Holt family pros- perity. Mr. Holt managed these mills until his death under the name J. H. and W. E. Holt & Company. The mill was operated without any architectural change whatever until 1904, showing that he not only "builded wisely but well."'
Just above the Carolina Mills in 1879 Mr. Holt and his brother W. E. Holt bought the mill site and built the Glencoe Mills, and he continued active in their management for many years. It is said that he never forgot his early training and fondness for the banking business, and until the late years of his life he remained a director and chairman of the examining board of the Com- mercial National Bank of Charlotte, his life and services contributing much to the splendid success of the institution.
Even in such a brief outline it is possible to indicate the great material results that came from his genius as an industrial builder and manager, but there should be some effort to recall some of the dominant traits of his personal character, since it was character with him, as with all men, that stands behind and above material achievement. One who knew him and had studied his career many years has said: "Mr. Holt not only adopted honesty as a policy, but to him it was a very basic principle, never to be swerved from even by so much as a hair's breadth. His life and its success in the business world is, as it should be, a sermon and an inspiration not only to his sons, but to all
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