History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV, Part 20

Author: Connor, R. D. W. (Robert Digges Wimberly), 1878-1950; Boyd, William Kenneth, 1879-1938. dn; Hamilton, Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac, 1878-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago : New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 750

USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 20

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John Franklin Griffith was born on a farm in Farmington Township of Forsyth County May 23, 1852. With the farm as his early environment he had the instruction afforded by the rural schools and he also attended the school at Winston taught by Col. A. B. Gorrell.

On leaving school he found an opening in the commercial life of Winston as clerk with the old firm of Hodgin & Sullivan. He remained with that organization seven years. Having mastered the details of merchandising and having acquired a modest capital through his thrift, he then engaged in a partnership with Frank Moore, under the firm name Griffith & Moore. They conducted a general store in the building formerly occupied by the veteran merchant S. A. Ogburn, at the northwest corner of West Fourth and Trade streets. After four years there the firm closed out and Mr. Griffith then bought the stock and good will of the Alliance Store, also on Trade Street. In that location he has continued in business ever since and his store and his individual name stand as a guaranty of reliability and efficient service.

Mr. Griffith served several years as president of the Piedmont Savings Bank until that institution was merged with the People's Bank. He has been mayor of Winston, for twenty years has been a member of the County Board of Education and chairman of the board, was county treasurer six years, and is now chairman of the Board of Man- agers of the Reformatory. He and his wife have long been identified with the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Griffith has been one of the stewards of the church for nearly thirty years and has been superintendent of its Sunday School equally as long. Fraternally he is affiliated with Salem Lodge No. 36, Independent Order of Odd

HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA

Fellows, of which he is past grand master, and with Salem Encampment No. 20.

At the age of twenty-two he married Mary. Virginia Miller. Mrs. Griffith was born in David- son County, North Carolina, daughter of John and Eliza Miller. Mr. Griffith takes proper pride in his household of children, seven having grown up under his roof and having benefited by the ample provision he has made for them. Their names are Oscar, Pearl, Sally, William Wallace, Myrtle, John Wesley and Mary. Oscar married Mabel Johnson, their three children being Robert, Frank and Geraldine. Pearl is the wife of J. M. Leutz and has a daughter, Gwendolen. Sally married John F. Ogburn, and has a son John F., Jr. The son, William Wallace, is also married and has a daugh- ter, Mary Virginia. Myrtle is the wife of W. Ray Johnson, their two children being W. Ray, Jr., and John Griffith. Mary is the wire of David S. Reid, Jr.

GROVER CLEVELAND LOVILL. Since colonial times the family of Lovill with their connections, the Franklins and the Taliaferros, have been iden- tified with Surry County and particularly with that section known as Stuarts Creek Township. Grover Cleveland Lovill, a successful young busi- ness man of Mount Airy, represents the present generations of these well known names.

His Lovill ancestry goes back to County Kent, England, which was the native place of Edward Lovill. Edward and three brothers came to Amer- ica in colonial times. Two of them settled in New York, one in Virginia, while Edward was the pioneer of Surry County, North Carolina. He was here before the Revolution and when that war came on commanded a company of colonists in the struggle for independence. He married a Miss Carmichael.

Their son, James Lovill, was born on a farm that bordered the Yadkin iu Surry County and subsequently bought land on Grassy Creek in Shoals Township and was busy with its cultiva- tion and management until upwards of eighty years of age when he joined a son living near Centerview, Missouri, and there spent his last days. The maiden name of his wife was Sally Poindexter, who was of the early French Huguenot stock in this part of North Carolina. She spent her last days on a farm in Grassy Creek Town- ship. They reared four children named Thomas, Edward, William and James Alexander.

James Alexander Lovill, grandfather of Grover C., was born on a farm in Surry County, bought land in Grassy Creek, Shoals Township, and culti- vated it with the aid of his slaves. When the war came on he entered the Confederate army as a member of Captain Gilmer's Company of the Twenty-first Regiment North Carolina Troops. He went to the front and got up from a sick bed, where he lay ill with the measles, to partici- pate in the battle of Manassas. After that fight he suffered a relapse, and a few days later died at the age of thirty-six.

Francis Jones, maternal grandfather of Grover Lovill, served four years in the Confederate army, being in a Virginia regiment. After the war he settled in Stuarts Creek Township and died at the age of seventy-six.

James Alexander Lovill married Betty Frank- lin, and with her the other two families mentioned above come into this record. She was born in Stuart's Creek Township of Surry County, a daugh- ter of Wiley and Mary (Taliaferro) Franklin.

Mary Taliaferro was a daughter of Charles Talia- ferro who married a Burrough. Charles Taliaferro's father, Dr. John Taliaferro, was probably a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, and as a surgeon he administered to the wounded at the battle of Guilford Court House in the Revolution. A short time before the Revolution he had come to Surry County and bought a farm in Stuart's Creek Town- ship where he spent the rest of his days. Wiley Franklin was a son of Shadrach and Judith (Taliaferro) Franklin. Shadrach Franklin was a son of Bernard and Mary (Cleveland) Franklin, and a brother of Governor Jesse Franklin. Mary Cleveland was a sister of Col. Benjamin Cleveland who led a regiment at King's Mountain. Ber- nard Franklin's father was John Franklin, a native of Virginia. Jesse Franklin served as captain in the Revolution and it is said that at the battle of King's Mountain his colonel became ex- hausted and he led the regiment in its last charge. He was later governor of North Carolina and was also United States senator for sixteen years, dur- ing a part of which time he was president pro tem of the Senate. One of the Franklin family owned and occupied the land where Grover C. Lovill was born. Betty (Franklin) Lovill died about 1868.

Walter Wiley Lovill, father of Grover C., was the only child of his parents to grow up. He was born at the foot of Pilot Mountain in Surry County September 19, 1853. He made his home with his grandfather, Wiley Franklin, until the age of twenty and then spent four years in Ten- nessee. Returning to North Carolina he bought the interests of the other heirs in his grandfather 's estate and has been successfully engaged in gen- eral farming there until the present time. At the age of twenty-four he married Martha Eliza- beth Jones, who was born in Carroll County, Vir- ginia, daughter of Francis and Mary (Copeland) Jones. Walter W. Lovill and wife have reared eight children : Wiley Franklin, James Walter, William Shadrach, Joseph Poindexter, Grover Cleveland, Robert Jones, Mary Elizabeth and Sally Matilda. Of these Joseph P. is now deceased. Their mother is an active member of the Mis- sionary Baptist church.

Grover Cleveland Lovill was born on the old Franklin farm in Stuart's Creek Township Decem- ber 2, 1884. He acquired his early education in rural schools and subsequently attended Woodlawn Academy in Virginia. At the age of sixteen he began his business career as clerk in a general store at Mount Airy. Then in 1905, having at- tained his majority, he took up the brokerage business which was continued until 1910, when he enlarged the scope of his enterprise and became a wholesale grocery, feed and produce dealer. That business he has built up to large and suc- cessful proportions.

Mr. Lovill also takes an active part in social and civic affairs at Mount Airy. He is a member of Granite City Lodge, No. 322, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Mount Airy Chapter, No. 68, Royal Arch Masons; Piedmont Commandery, No. 6, Knight Templars, and Oasis Temple of the Mys- tic Shrine at Charlotte. As a voter he is a demo- crat and is now serving as a member of the Board of Town Commissioners and mayor pro tem.

JOHN JOSEPH BRUNER attained the highest rank in the profession of journalism and letters. The editors acknowledge their indebtedness to Beulah

GC Lovice

HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA

Stewart Moore for the following sketch of his career.

John Joseph Bruner was born in Rowan County on the Yadkin River about seven miles from Salis- bury. He was the only son of Henry Bruner, a gunsmith by trade, and the third generation of the name-the first Henrich having immigrated to America in 1731 with John Jacob Bruner, pre- sumably his father, as he was then a mere lad of less than sixteen years of age. Whether or not the trade of gunsmith was handed down from father to son is not positively known, but a few of the Bruner flint lock rifles are still in existence and are evidently the work of Henry, the father of the Henry named above. From wills dated 1769 and 1803 respectively, it is known however, that they were landowners and men of substance.

On September 29, 1814, Henry Bruner married Edith, youngest daughter of Col. West Harris of Montgomery County and his wife, Edith Ledbet- ter of Anson. Colonel Harris was a native of Virginia, coming to North Carolina with his fa- ther, West Harris, Sr., who was first a citizen of Granville County-"serving there as a vestry-man of St. John's Parish in 1746 and in 1756 he is one who long refused to qualify as a justice of the peace." Subsequently he settled with, his family in that section now known as Montgomery. The history of this family is of interest, as it covers a period of more than 200 years, going back to the first settlement of the country. The ancestor of the North Carolina branch was one Thomas Harris, the date of whose will, as record- ed in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, is October ye 9th, 1688, and that of his son Edward, dated March 25, 1734. Both father and son leave land granted them by patent to their posterity. West Harris, Sr., was the son of Edward and father of Col. West Harris, who "on the breaking out of hostilities with the mother country, enlisted in the North Carolina Line of the Continental Army -Ninth Regiment-as Lieutenant, and notwith- standing his youth, by patriotism, zeal and intre- pidity, was advanced before the end of the war, to the rank of Colonel. After the peace he repre- sented his fellow citizens for a number of years in the General Assembly of the State. And such was the confidence of the people in his probity and in- telligence, that any office in their gift was at his command. In the private walks of life he was equally esteemed : he was benevolent to the poor, and honorable in all his dealings with the world." (Western Carolinian, August 7, 1826.) He died July 19, 1826, aged sixty-nine years and was laid to rest in the private burial grounds on his estate near the mouth of Beaverdam Creek.

Here for more than a century had rested the bodies of members of the Harris families, but ow- ing to the fact that when the big dam on the Yad- kin near Badin, then under construction-1916- was finished and the waters turned on, practically submerging ten thousand acres of land, this among others, would become the bed of a vast body of water. In consequence thereof, steps were at once taken by descendants to exhume the remains.

During his life Mr. Bruner had seen personally to the care of this sacred spot and had made pro- visions for its upkeep after his demise, hence it was deemed but fitting that the ashes of his beloved dead should lie with his in the old English Ceme- tery, there to await the Resurrection Morn.

The exhuming of these remains, of which seven in number were brought to Salisbury, goes back

into the history of the family in North Carolina nearly two hundred years, the eldest being West Harris, Sr., born August 13, 1715, died May 14, 1795.

To Henry Bruner and Edith, his wife, two chil- dred were born, Salina Williamson, first and only daughter, August 4, 1815, and John Joseph, March 12, 1817. When the latter was a little over two years old, his father died and his mother with her two children returned to her father's residence in Montgomery.

In 1825 John Joseph came to Salisbury, under the care of the Hon. Charles Fisher, father of Col. Charles F. Fisher who fell at the Battle of Bull Run. His first year in Salisbury was spent in at- tending the school taught by Henry Allemand and was about all the schooling of a regular style he ever received, the remainder of his education being of a practical kind, gleaned at the case and press of a printing office.

When nine years of age, he entered the printing office of the Western Carolina, then under the editorial control of the Hon. Philo White, late of Whitestown, New York. In 1830, the Carolinian passed into the hands of the Hon. Burton Craige, and then into the. hands of Maj. John Beard, late of Florida, Mr. Bruner continuing in the office until 1836. In 1839, M. C. Pendleton of Salisbury and Mr. Bruner purchased the Watchman, a whig and anti-nullification paper, established in July, 1832, by Hamilton C. Jones, Esq., to support Gen. Andrew Jackson aud combat the nullifica- tiou movement of that time, started in South Carolina under the inspiration of John C. Cal- houn and others of the distinguished states- men of the Commonwealth. Under the above firm name the paper was continued for three years, at the end of which time the junior partner with- drew for the purpose of collecting a considerable amount due the firm and paying off accummulated debts. This was accomplished in the course of eighteen months, during which time the paper was continued under the management of Mr. Pendle- ton as editor and proprietor.

In 1843 Mr. Bruner was married to Miss Mary Ann Kincaid, a daughter of Thomas Kincaid, Esq. The mother of Mrs. Bruner was Clarissa Harlowe Brandon, daughter of Col. James Brandon of Revo- lutionary fame, close kinsman of Matthew Bran- don and the Lockes. Colonel Brandon was the son of William Brandon who settled in Thyatira as early as 1752, and whose wife was a Miss Cathey of that region. For nearly a century the name of Brandon was noted all through the Yad- kin and Catawba valleys. It has been conspic- uous in the fights of Ramsom's Mill, Charlotte, King's Mountain, Cowpens and Cowan's Ford. It is said that in some emergency during the Revo- lution Col. Francis Locke raised a strong com- pany of minute men, composed mainly of Bran- dons and Lockes. They came originally from Eng- land, settled in Pennsylvania, are found early in Virginia and are among the first immigrants to this section, one date going back to 1730.

Having married, Mr. Bruner prepared for his life work by repurchasing the Watchman in part- nership with Samuel W. James in 1844. After six successful years this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Bruner, becoming sole owner and editor, continued to publish it until the spring of 1865, when Stoneman's raiders took possession while hero on the 12th and 13th of April, and after printing an army sheet, turned the office upside

HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA

down, wrecked the principal press and destroyed all they could. Upon the arrival of the Federal army after the surrender, the commander took possession of it, detailed printers from the army to gather up type enough to print a daily news slip and held possession until about the 4th of July, when they turned over the shattered establishment to the owner.

Three years later, Lewis Hanes, Esq., of Lex- ington, purchased an interest in the paper and it was called the Watchman and Old North State. Ill health caused Mr. Bruner to retire from busi- ness for a couple of years, but his mission was to conduct a paper, so in 1871 he repurchased it, and thereafter it made its regular appearance weekly until his death. At this date the Watchman was the oldest newspaper and Mr. Bruner the oldest editor in North Carolina. He was one of the few remaining links binding the ante-bellum journalist with those of the present day. The history of Mr. Bruner's editorial life is a history of the prog- ress of the state. He was contemporary with Ed- ward J. Hale, ex-Governor Holden, Wm. J. Yates and others of the older editors. When he began the publication of the Watchman, there was not a daily newspaper or a railroad in the state. In 1840 the Watchman advertised the Great Western Stage Line which left Salisbury at 5 o'clock A. M. one day and arrived at Asheville at 8 P. M. on the following day. The advertisement under the cut of an old-fashioned stage coach read, "For speed could not be surpassed." At the time of his death no one living in Salisbury and few elsewhere in the state had such an extensive personal ac- quaintance and knowledge of men and events in the early years of the last century. He sat under the preaching of every pastor of the Presbyterian Church since its organization-Doctor Freeman, Mr. Rankin, Mr. Espy, Doctor Sparrow, Mr. Frontis (by whom he was married), Mr. Baker, and Rev. Dr. Rumple, who was his pastor and friend for more than thirty years. He was a scholar in the Sunday school under its first super- intendent and was afterwards a teacher and super- intendent himself. The Hon. Philo White, his early guardian, was a high-toned gentleman of the Presbyterian faith and so impressed himself upon his youthful ward that he chose him as his model, emulated his example and held his memory in cherished veneration to the end of his life. At seventeen years of age, Mr. Bruner joined the Presbyterian Church of Salisbury, and in 1846 he was ordained a ruling elder and continued to serve in that capacity through the remainder of his life. Ever active and useful in its ecclesiastical courts his opinions were often sought and always received with deference and respect. The family altar was established in his household and he reared his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. His marriage was abundantly blessed by a faithful, diligent and affectionate wife, who bore him twelve children, seven of whom preceded him to rest.

Mr. Bruner died after a lingering illness, March 23, 1890. His end was peace. As he gently passed away-so gently that it was difficult to tell when life ended and immortality began-a brother elder by his bedside repeated the lines,

"How blest the righteous when he dies! When sinks a weary soul to rest;

How mildly beam the closing eye,

How gently leaves the expiring breath!"

His memory must ever shine out as one of the purest, sweetest, best elements of the past. His character was singularly beautiful and upright, and his life an unwritten sermon.

He was emphatically a self-made man. His learning he acquired by his own unaided efforts, his property he earned by the sweat of his brow and his reputation he achieved by prudence, wis- dom and faithfulness in all the duties of life. By his paper he helped thousands of men to honorable and lucrative office, but he never helped himself.

After the war he adhered with unwavering fidel- ity to the democratic party which he believed was the only hope and refuge of the true friends of liberty anywhere in America; and he never fal- tered in his allegiance to those principles which he believed every true southern man should ad- here to. Up to the very last he was unflinching and unwavering in his love for the South and in his adherence to the best ideals and traditions of the land of his nativity. At no time during his life did he ever "crook the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift might follow fawning." In the very best sense of the word, he was a southern gentleman of the old school. The old South and the new was all one to him-the same old land, the same old people, the same old traditions-the land of Washington, of Jefferson, of Calhoun and Jackson, of Pettigrew and Fisher, of Graham and Craige, of Stonewall Jackson, of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

He was honest and economical, always living within his means. He was not only honorable in financial matters, but the soul of candor and hon- esty in the expression of his opinions. He did not needlessly parade his convictions of men and things, but when he did express a judgment, it was an honest one. It is probable that he never con- sciously flattered a man in his life. A man of great moral courage, he did not fear to face and oppose able and distinguished men if he thought they were wrong. Though never a neutral in poli- tics, morals or religion, but having strong party affinities, he would still upon occasion throw off the trammels of party and speak forth his independent convictions. He did not obtrude himself upon public notice and was willing to take the lowest seat unless there was a call for his appearance. He cared more to satisfy his own conscience and please God, than to have honor among men.

The following from the pen of the late John S. Henderson is characteristic: "Now that he is gone, he will be appreciated at his true worth, as one of this world's true noblemen. I knew Mr. Bruner all my life and I always admired and revered him. Sometimes I disagreed with him in opinion, but in doing so I always felt that pos- sibly I might be wrong, knowing as I did that while he was slow in coming to a conclusion, when once his opinion was formed, he adhered to it with an undeviating and inflexible fixedness of purpose. He was a just man in all his dealings and conscientious and truthful always. In politics, he was always true to his convictions and to his party principles-but he was anything but a time- server. He had a perfect horror of duplicity. As an instance of this, I remember once, when I was in the Legislature, a petition had been forwarded to the Governor requesting the appointment of a certain man to an important public position. Mr. Bruner was importuned to sign the petition, and did so reluctantly, but being convinced that he had made a mistake and that the man was un-

Sequer

HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA

worthy, he would not be satisfied until he had cleared his skirts of all responsibility in the mat- ter. He notified the friends of the candidate that he wished to withdraw his signature from the petition. The reply was that it was too late, the petition had been sent to the Governor. He then wrote to me to call upon the Governor and ask him to erase his name from the list of petitioners. I complied with the request, and I now remember that the Governor was very courteous and made the erasure instantly with his own hand."'

For more than half a century Mr. Bruner was at the head of the Watchman. A bold and fear- less advocate of the rights of the people, he wrote with great force and fidelity of expression, and always with conservatism and great good sense. The highmindedness, the inflexible and universally recognized integrity of the man, added to his pru- dence and fine judgment, gave weight to his coun- sels and rendered him always an individual and an editor of influence. A person of pronounced views and great decision of character, he was yet the most amiable, genial and kindly of men, at all times characterized by a degree of liberality and conservatism that won him respect and friend- ship even from those who might differ with him in matters of church or state. With but one hope or purpose-to serve his people and state faithfully and honestly-he steered his journal from year to year, from decade to decade, from the morning of one century almost to the morning of another, until he made himself and his paper honored land- marks not only of his own town, but throughout North Carolina. The editor of the Manufacturers' Record has said: "No other North Carolina journalist of earlier days had the prescience to see and the ability to set forth what the future of that State might be made because of its im- mense and varied natural resources. Living in the center of a natural district surrounded by vast forests and by fertile lands, Mr. Bruner saw that the State had within itself every needed natural material for the creation and continuance of di- versified industries, and while a young editor he began to study these intelligently, and to give such publicity to them as his circulation permitted. Scrupulously honest, he never permitted any state- ment to be made that he did not believe to be true, and so, in the course of years, the 'Carolina Watch- man' came to be widely recognized as a safe and accurate authority on all such subjects." *

* * "Among all the Southern newspaper men whose acquaintance it has been my good fortune to make, none has seemed to me so near perfection in all that constitutes a true journalist and a true man as John Joseph Bruner." He recorded truthfully and without envy or prejudice the birth and down- fall of political parties. He-inspired by a united effort to Americanize and weld together every sec- tion of this great union-grew eloquent in praise of wise and sagacious leaders, and he blotted with a tear the paper on which he wrote of sectional strife and discord. He chronicled with sober earnestness the birth of a new republic, and like other loyal sons of the South, raised his arm and pen in its defense. He watched with unfeigned interest its short and stormy career, and then wrote dispassionately of the furling of its blood stained banner. He was ever found fighting for what he believed to be the best interests of his people, and advocating such men and measures as seemed to him just and right. An old time whig before the war, he aspired not to political preferment or posi-

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History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV, Part 20

Author: Connor, R. D. W. (Robert Digges Wimberly), 1878-1950; Boyd, William Kenneth, 1879-1938. dn; Hamilton, Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac, 1878- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Chicago : New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 750

Author: Connor, R. D. W. (Robert Digges Wimberly), 1878-1950; Boyd, William Kenneth, 1879-1938. dn; Hamilton, Joseph Gregoire de Roulhac, 1878-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago : New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 750