USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 25
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father Nathan Hunt also a minister was connected with the early life and affairs of Guilford County and was largely instrumental in founding Guilford College. Samuel Hunt, father of Abigail Hunt, was born near High Point in Guilford County, was a planter, and buying a tract of land adjoining the old Hunt homestead was engaged in general farming most of his life. Solomon I. Blair and wife had seven children.
William A. Blair spent his boyhood on his father's farm at the edge of High Point. He grew up in a rural atmosphere and imbibed many inter- ests which have remained with him to this day. He began his education at home, prepared for col- lege at Guilford, and graduated A. B. from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and in 1882 with a similar degree from Harvard University. At Harvard he was prominent in student activities, won prizes in speaking contests, was interested in athletics, and helped to pay his university expenses by work as newspaper correspondent. After his university career he spent some time studying and observing the work of the schools of New England and Canada, and on returning home to High Point was elected principal of the high school. He gave up his school work in 1885 to enter Johns. Hopkins University at Baltimore, where he pur- sued post-graduate courses leading up to the degree Doctor of Philosophy.
The following year he returned to Winston- Salem and at once became a powerful influence in the school life of Western North Carolina. He taught and managed grade schools, did work in the State Normal School, and was elected superin- tendent of the State Normal at Winston-Salem. He afterwards served as superintendent of the. city schools and while active in the work he was editor of a popular educational magazine. Sun- day School work has always had a strong hold, upon his interests. He has served as teacher, superintendent and state superintendent of the Sabbath School of the Friends Church. He was the first president of the Winston Young Men's Christian Association and has been president of the State Young Men's Christian Association Con- vention. Some of the best honors of educational affairs have come to Mr. Blair. He was offered chairs in different colleges and at one time was elected president of a college, but has always pre- ferred to concentrate his work in his home state.
Teaching and lecturing were his most congenial vocations but the possession of unusual business ability soon brought him into actual contact with business affairs. In 1890 he was elected president of a National Bank and has been prominent in North Carolina banking for many years. He has served as president of the State Bankers' Associa- tion and has published a number of interesting articles on finance. In 1894 he was admitted to the bar. He took up the study of law not so much for the purpose of practicing it as a profession, but because of his sincere interest in the great subject. Perhaps he was influenced also by the example of his two uncles in the profession, one of whom became an eminent judge.
Politically Colonel Blair is a democrat. He has served as secretary and treasurer of the Winston- Salem Chamber of Commerce, was for fourteen years a member of the State Board of Public Charities, was State Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention in London and to the National Association of Charities and Corrections. At the- inauguration of President Roosevelt he was .
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appointed special aide with the rank of colonel. Colonel Blair is affiliated with the Masonic Order, is a member of the Audubon Society, the Twin City Club, the Forsyth County Club, the Southern Historical Society, the Art Collectors Club and the Reform Club of New York. Colonel Blair was married in 1895 to Miss Mary E. Fries, daughter of Hon. John W. Fries of Salem.
FLEMIEL OSCAR CARVER began the practice of law at Roxboro in September, 1899, and has steadily continued to grow in stature and dignity as a man of the law and with ripening wisdom and maturity of reputation has come into a position as one of the first citizens of Person County.
Mr. Carver was born at Roxboro, North Caro- lina, April 17, 1877, a son of James Abraham and Ella (Brooks) Carver. His father long held a place of prominence in this county, was sheriff and treas- urer of the county, was postmaster of Roxboro, and was extensively engaged in the tobacco business and farming. Flemiel Oscar Carver was educated in private schools, and attended both the academic and law departments of the University of North Carolina. During nearly seventeen years of law practice he has filled some important public offices. For four years he was city attorney of Roxboro. He is attorney for the Central Highway Commis- sion of Person County and in 1909 served as repre- sentative of this county in the State Legislature. He is a former commissioner of the Town of Rox- boro, a trustee of the graded schools, and in re- ligion is a Methodist and a member of the board of trustees of the Edgar Long Memorial Church. He is a member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Carver has some farming interests which he looks after in addition to handling his law prac- tice.
December 25, 1907, he married Eula Reams Carver of Person County. Their four children are James Elihu, Flemiel Oscar, Jr., Jane and William Gordon.
LAUCHLIN MCINNIS. One of the men of large affairs in Robeson County is Lauchlin McInnis, president of the Bank of St. Pauls and identified with many of the leading interests of this section. Like many other of the most substantial men of this part of North Carolina Mr. McInnis is of Scotch ancestry and goes no farther back than his grandfathers to find the original settlers. From the Isle of Skye, the second largest of the Scotch islands and the most northern of the Inner Hebrides, the refuge of Prince Charles in 1746 and the home of Flora Macdonald, a name revered by every true Scotchman, came Angus McInnis to the United States. He was of sturdy build, as are all the men of rugged Skye, and of equally sturdy religious principles, and hence he not only sought a more genial climate and better agricultural con- ditions, but also a home for himself and his de- scendants where the Presbyterian faith could be maintained as his conscience demanded. All these conditions he found in Cumberland County, North Carolina, and he located permanently, in the early part of the nineteenth century, in Seventy-first Township, near old Galatia Church.
Lauchlin Mclinnis was born near old Galatia Church in the western part of Cumberland County, North Carolina, in 1873. His parents were Daniel and Ann (McFayden) McInnis, the mother dying in Cumberland County, North Carolina, and the father dying in 1886, at the age of fifty-two years. The McFaydens are numerous and promi-
nent in the northwest section of Cumberland County, in the neighborhood of Longstrect Church, which was founded in 1758.
Lauchlin McInnis remained on the old farm in Seventy-first Township, Cumberland County, until 1907, when he came to St. Pauls, Robeson County, in which year the Virginia & Carolina Southern Railway was extended through St. Pauls, the ad- vent of which was the beginning of the remarkable growth of the present modern business and indus- trial town, developed from a village in a pine thicket. Mr. McInnis was made the first agent for the railroad here and had charge of the com- pany's business in this section for three or four years. He built the first store building here, on the site where now stands the Butler Supply Com- pany 's building.
In 1914 Mr. McInnis went into the Bank of St. Pauls as cashier and discharged the duties of that office capably and popularly until 1916, when he became active vice president. In 1917 he retired from active inside management of the bank but was made president, his honorable name being a very valuable asset. He is at the head of a large mercantile establishment here and is greatly interested in the development of his fine farm, but just at present his most absorbing activity is the management as executor of the extensive estate, consisting of large farms, of the late Lauchlin Shaw, for many years a leading capitalist here. In this relation, as in every other, Mr. McInnis is considered equal to every re- sponsibility.
Mr. McInnis was married to Miss May Gillis, who was born and reared in Seventy-first Town- ship, Cumberland County. They have six children, namely: John D., David Fairley, Katherine, Jessie May and Margaret and Jennie, twins. Mr. McInnis and family are members of the St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder. He has long been identified with the Masonic frater- nity. Mr. McInnis is considered one of the most active, progressive and public spirited citizens of St. Pauls.
HERBERT EDMUND NORRIS. Among the promi- nent men of Raleigh, using the term in its broad- est sense to indicate legal acumen, sterling char- acter, public beneficence, valuable civic and state service and upright citizenship, is Herbert Edmund Norris, a leading member of the Raleigh bar, an ex-representative and ex-senator, and a citizen who in various ways has contributed to the welfare and advancement of his city, county and state. Mr. Norris was born November 7, 1859, on his father's farm in Wake County, North Carolina, twenty miles southwest of Raleigh, and is a son of Jesse Allen and Amie Ann ( Adams) Norris.
In addition to being a farmer, Mr. Norris' fa- ther was a manufacturer of naval stores, and as the youth grew up he was called to assist in the cultivation of the homstead, which manual labor, to use the words of a contemporary biographer, "gave him a sound mind in a sound body, im- pressed him with the dignity and honor of labor, and established in him habits of industry, decision of character, tenacity of purpose, self reliance, honor and loyalty and a deep sympathy for his fel- low man, which, together with a worthy ambition and high ideals, constituted a foundation upon which he has builded an honorable and successful life." Mr. Norris secured his early education in the subscription schools of Wake County, following which he attended Lillington and Apex academies,
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and Trinity College in Randolph County, where he was under the instruction of Dr. B. Craven. He was graduated from the last-named institution with honors in 1879, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and after reading law under the preceptor- ship of the late George V. Strong, of Raleigh, was granted his license and admitted to the bar in 1881.
Mr. Norris began the practice of liis profes- sion at Apex, where he divided his time between farming and the law, but his practice grew so rapidly, extending into Harnett, Chatham and Moore counties, that he later associated his broth- er with him in farming and stock raising. In 1900 he came to Raleigh, and this city has continued to be his home to the present time, his practice having grown to large proportions. While living at Apex, with the assistance of the late John C. Angier, B. N. Duke and his associates, were induced by Mr. Norris to furnish the capital to build the railroad extending from Durham to Dunn, via Apex, Holly Springs and Varina. This road gave Apex competitive freight rates, resulting in the village becoming one of the most progressive small towns in the state, with a fine tobacco mar- ket, formed the incentive for the building of Va- rina and Fuquay Springs, each with a fine tobacco market, and caused a great increase in the value of real estate in that direction. This is known as the Durham & Southern Railway Company, and Mr. Norris has been its attorney since its building. Mr. Norris has been for many years a director of the Raleigh Banking and Trust Company. He was one of a committee of five selected by the First State Farmers' Convention who drafted : caused to be passed by the General Assembly the act creating the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege of Raleigh. In 1885 Mr. Norris represented Wake County in the North Carolina Legislature, and in 1892 was unanimously nominated by his party for the same position, but was defeated by the fusion ticket, which swept the state. During two administrations he was a member of the Board of Internal Improvements. He was nominated and elected a member of the North Carolina State Senate in 1903, without opposition. In 1904 he was a leader in the reform movement which re- sulted in a complete change in the management of county affairs along financial lines, and began also the agitation for the building of a county courthouse, which has since been done. Likewise, he started the movement for the founding of the Home for the Aged and Infirm and has ever since been one of that institution's best friends. In 1910 he was nominated and elected solicitor of the Sixth Judicial District, without opposition, and in 1914 was renominated and elected solicitor of the Seventh Judicial District, also without op- position, a position which he now holds. His term of office will expire December 31, 1918. Mr. Norris has been mentioned as the probable suc- cessor of E. W. Pou in Congress, and his friends suggest him as a successor of C. M. Cooke, judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Mr. Norris be- longs to the Capital Club and to the Elks, and is a member of the First Baptist Church of Raleigh. His home on Louisburg Road, north of the city limits, is one of the most attractive of Raleigh, surrounded by a large picturesque lawn and land- scape, and there he and his family enjoy the advantages of country and city combined.
On December 10, 1890, while living at Apex, Mr. Norris was married to Miss Mary Emina Burns, daughter of Robert M. and Martha S.
Burns, of Pittsboro, North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Norris have one son, Herbert Burns. He was born November 24, 1891, was educated at the Raleigh High School and the Raleigh Agri- cultural and Mechanical College, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and is now an automobile salesman. On November 24, 1910, he married Miss Minnie Huntt Ransom, of Raleigh, and they have one daughter: Emma Burns.
WILLIAM PENN WOOD. A long and exemplary career has been that of William Penn Wood, who in his early manhood served faithfully for nearly three years in the Confederate army, then returned to the pursuits of peace in his native North Caro- lina county, and was in an active career as a mer- chant at Ashboro until he was called to the dignity of a state office, and for the past six years has been auditor of the State of North Carolina.
Born at Ashboro, North Carolina, May 2, 1843, he is a son of Penuel and Calista (Birkhead) Wood. His youth was spent in Randolph County, where he attended the public schools from 1850 until 1861. Then as a boy of eighteen he found work as clerk in a general store, but in February, 1862, stepped from behind the counter and enlisted in Company I of the Twenty-second North Caro- lina Infantry. He went in as a private, and was found faithfully discharging his duties and fol- lowing his leader in all the many battles in which he was engaged. He was frequently commended for coolness under fire, and was promoted to sergeant. In the second battle of Manassas he was wounded and was left to lie in the woods for a long time before assistance came. It was two weeks before he was taken to the hospital, and it was six months before he was able to rejoin his regiment. He still carries in his body the bullet that wounded him on that day more than half a century ago. He was with the Army of Northern Virginia at the battle of Chancelorsville, and was not far from General Stonewall Jackson when that great Southern leader was shot down by his own troops. At the battle of North Ann River he was captured and spent the last months of the war in a Federal prison at Point Lookout, not being released until ten days before the surrender. Mr. Wood has served as major on the general staff of the Confederate Veterans' Association and is vice president of the North Carolina Soldiers' Home of Raleigh.
With the close of the war he returned to his old home at Ashboro, took up work as clerk in a general store, but in 1873 established a general merchandise business of his own. He has been a merchant there steadily for more than forty years and still owns the business. He is also a director in one of North Carolina's railway lines, and until a few years ago actively operated a farm near his home town.
For several years he served as city treasurer and alderman of Ashboro, being treasurer of the town from 1880 to 1888, and treasurer of Randolph County from 1890 to 1894. He represented his home county and Moore County in the State Senate of 1901, and was a member of the Legisla- tures of 1905 and 1907 from Randolph County. He is a member of the Randolph County Business . Men's Club. In October, 1910, the Democratie State Executive Committee nominated him to fill a vacancy on the ticket as state auditor, and at the general election of the following November he was elected and has filled the office consecutively
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down to the present time. He was re-elected in 1912, and again in 1916, his present term expiring in 1920. It is said that during his official tenure of the office more than $20,000,000 have passed through his hands, and not a single penny has been unaccounted for.
Outside of his business and public duties Mr. Wood has been distinguished for his long and conscientious devotion to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a steward in his home church continuously from 1866 until 1910. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He also belongs to the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian Association and the Capi- tal Club.
On September 4, 1872, he married Miss Etta Gunter, who died about twenty years ago. His three children are: Blanche Penn, wife of John O. Redding, a manufacturer at Ashboro; John Kerr, a merchant at Ashboro, and Mabel Emma, wife of William A. Underwood, a druggist of Ash- boro.
WILLIAM DANIEL MERRITT. Among the neces- sary qualifications set forth in old English law in reference to securing eminence in that profession, was the primary necessity of being "a scholar and a gentleman." According to American standards of the present day, this is also a requisite in many other lines, but it undoubtedly continues especially applicable to the law and examples are not hard to find among those who have become really notable at the bar. We may be permitted to mention in this connection, William Daniel Merritt, county attorney of Person County, and for many years a leading member of the Roxboro bar.
William Daniel Merritt was born in Person County, North Carolina, January 31, 1872. His parents were Dr. William and Mary Catherine (Hamlett) Merritt. Doctor Merritt was one of the distinguished men of North Carolina. He was grad- uated in 1851 from the University of Virginia and subsequently from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. In 1853 he established himself in the practice of his profession at Roxboro, North Carolina, and this city remained his home until his death in 1904. He was particularly successful as a physician and loved his work, ever maintaining its dignity and ethics. While ready to respond to every call for help and particularly self-sacrificing as was evidenced during the serious smallpox epidemic at one time, when he went among the sufferers and waited upon them with his own hands, no one can ever recall that he sent a bill for his professional services during his entire career. As one of the strong men of the state he was called into public life in 1868, as a member of the Constitutional Convention, and subsequently was elected to the State Senate from the Seventeenth Senatorial Dis- triet.
William D. Merritt had both social and educa- tional advantages. After completing his course at Bethel Hill Institute, a well known educational in- stitution of Person County. he entered the Uni- versity of North Carolina and was graduated in the class of 1895 and completed his course in the law department of the university in 1896. In the same year he entered into general practice at Roxboro and this city has remained the principal field of his activities ever since.
Many professional honors and successes have come to Mr. Merritt through his legal ability, and
many others through his active publie spirit and. his interest in forwarding public and industrial enterprises that have been of great benefit to this section. Serving now as attorney for Person County, he previously served as city attorney and also as a solicitor of the Fifth Judicial District, and in 1896 was elected a presidential elector from the Fifth Congressional District, an unusual honor and acknowledgment of high personal merit in so young a man. Later he was elected a member of the board of town commissioners and still later of the county board of education, and was made chairman of the latter. For two years Mr. Merritt served in the important office of superintendent of public instruction of Person County, in all these public positions being particularly useful and ef- ficient because of his thorough knowledge of the law as well as his general scholarship. Mr. Merritt has built up a substantial private practice through which his name is favorably known all over the county. He is a director of the Roxboro Cotton Mills, a director of the Laura Cotton Mills in. Durham County, and director and also attorney of the Peoples Bank of Roxboro.
Mr. Merritt was married October 28, 1908, to Miss Mary Josephine Cole, of Danville, Virginia .. They have two sons, William Daniel and John Wesley. Mr. Merritt and family belong to the Edgar Long Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is a member of the board of stewards.
GEN. FRANK A. BOND is a widely known citizen both in North Carolina and in Maryland. He was formerly adjutant general of Maryland, and from that state, his own native place and the home of his ancestry for generations, he made his distinguished record as a Confederate soldier- and officer.
General Bond has for years been an enthusiastic hunter and all around sportsman, keenly alive to all the attractions and pursuits of the outdoors and the forest. As a hunter he has made numer- ous expeditions throughout the game preserves of North Carolina, and in 1902 he sold his property in Maryland and coming to Robeson County, North Carolina, bought a tract of land upon which he established "Hunter's Lodge," which has since- become widely famous as a rendezvous for hunters and sportsmen from all parts of both the North and South. Hunter's Lodge is situated on the Seaboard Air Line Railway in Raft Swamp Town- ship, about half way between Lumberton and Pembroke, five miles each way. It is supplied with mail from Lumberton postoffice.
General Bond on coming here built a residence. for himself and family and around nearby a num- ber of typical hunters' cabins and other buildings for the accommodation of sportsmen and their retinue. General Bond maintains all the facili- ties for the perfect pursuit of the hunting pastime, including numerous foxhounds and bird dogs, horses, mules and vehicles, and expert guides who know every foot of the surrounding swamps and thick forests. This environment presents as nearly an ideal hunting preserve as can be found in America. Some of the most noted sportsmen and successful hunters in this and other countries come to Hunter's Lodge cvery winter for their sport. General Bond and his wife have become greatly beloved characters with their guests and have furnished ideal hospitality and most con- genial accommodations. The home and its sur- roundings, set in the depths of the forest, with
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the guides, the yelping and ever anxious dogs, the guns and paraphernalia, present an atmosphere of the hunt and the chase that are irresistible to the true sportsman. The interior of the home, especially the great dining room, with its large wood fireplace, the long table brilliant with glass and china and silver, is a picture of comfort and cheer that would be attractive under any condi- tions, but is doubly inviting to the man who has spent all day out of doors. Besides keeping up this charming sportsman's headquarters General Bond operates a farm, and has some extensive fields of cotton and corn.
General Bond was born at Bel Air in Harford County, Maryland, in 1838, son of William Brown Bond. In the paternal line he is of pure English stock. His ancestors in England were soldiers under Cromwell. At the restoration of King Charles II they found it advisable to come to America, and made settlement in the Colony of Maryland. William Brown Bond was born at Bel Air in Harford County, son of Samuel Bond, who served as high sheriff of that county in 1798. From Harford County the Bond family removed to Jessups in Howard County in 1857. William Brown Bond was a planter, also a very able law- yer, and for several years was state's attorney of Harford County.
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