USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 28
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Dr. Alfred A. Kent was born in Caldwell County, North Carolina, about four miles west of Lenoir, in 1858, his parents being Abraham S. and Mary (Miller) Kent. His father was born in Fluvanna County, Virginia, and when a child, about the year 1842, came with his father, Archie Kent, to Caldwell County. Archie Kent and his family settled on a farm about four miles west of Lenoir, on the Morganton road, where Alfred A. Kent was born. Abraham S. Kent was in the Home Guard for the Confederacy during the Civil war, and subsequently became a successful planter. The Kents of Fluvanna County, Vir- ginia, are a high type of people, all of whom have been of unblemished character and a number of whom have achieved prominence in some of the professions, notably in law and in education.
Alfred A. Kent was reared on the family planta- tion and was prepared for college at old Finley High School at Lenoir, under the tutelage of that famous educator, Capt. E. W. Fossett, a man who became so successful and distinguished as an educator of boys that, although it was in a small and isolated town, his school attracted sons of some of the best families not only all over the surrounding territory, but from all over the state and from some other southern and western states. He was a character builder as well as an educator. Following his course at the old Finley High School, Alfred A. Kent attended the University of North Carolina, where, on account of his time being limited, he worked hard and crowded into two years the work necessary for a Bachelor of Arts degree. He studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated with the class of 1885, and began his practice that year at Cranberry Iron Works in Avery County, where he was located two years,
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then establishing himself in practice at Lenoir, his home town, where he has been engaged ever since. Although in subsequent years Doctor Kent branched out in business and industrial enter- prises, he was enabled to do this only from the fruits of his labors as a physician, that profes- sion being his life work and the foundation of his success, and he has never ceased from his active practice thereof. It is a fine tribute to his ability as a physician and a somewhat remarkable example of what one may accomplish through wise and per- sistent effort that, although his outside business activities and the services he has rendered the people as a public official, have taken up a great deal of his time, he has still been honored by his profession by having bestowed upon him every position from the lowest to the highest in the North Carolina Medical Society. He served as president of the state organization in 1912 and has been district counselor for his district, presi- dent of the state board of counselors of the society, served six years on the state board of medical examiners, was president of that board for two years, and was a member of the state board of health for two years. So it will be seen that Doctor Kent is essentially and primarily a phy- sician.
Doctor Kent began life with habits of thrift and rigid economy, and, beginning with small investments in real estate, he made it his settled policy to invest only in property that had a future, and in commercial or industrial enterprises only that were of a sound and permanent character, avoiding always speculative schemes and enter- prises. He was practically the founder of the furniture manufacturing industry at Lenoir, for, although a small plant had been in operation before he went into this industry, it was not until he had established the Kent Furniture Company that the town got a good start along this line and encouragement was offered other concerns to locate at Lenoir and to make it a furniture manufactur- ing center. Doctor Kent's spirit of progress and enterprise furnished the means for bringing other furniture and woodworking plants to Lenoir, and the industry grew and expanded until now this community is second only to High Point as the furniture manufacturing center of North Carolina. This industry, in fact, has been the making of Lenoir, changing it from a small and unimportant county seat town to a live and growing municipal- ity where a great deal of money is paid to mechanics and other working people, and to a city of many beautiful and expensive homes and substantial business blocks. Doctor Kent subse- quently sold the plant of the Kent Furniture Company and organized the Kent-Coffey Manu- facturing Company, of which he is still a mem- ber, and which is an extensive manufacturing plant for a general line of furniture.
Doctor Kent is president of the First National Bank of Lenoir, and is the owner of Kent's Drug Store, he being a registered pharmacist as well as physician. He has built three of the best brick store buildings in Lenoir, of which he is the owner, and also erected a number of residence structures, including his own home, "Kentwod," a beautiful place situated on a commanding elevation near Davenport College. A part of this fine estate is a farm of 100 acres, extending toward the Lower Creek Valley-a property of very great value. He also has substantial and profitable investments in Oklahoma, particularly at Oklahoma City, Tulsa,
and in valuable coal lands east of McAlester along the Rock Island Railroad.
In 1910 Doctor Kent was elected a member of the North Carolina Legislature, serving in the session of 1911, and was reelected in 1914, serving in the session of 1915. He took a prominent part in the activities of the lawmaking body, and of especial local interest was his having enacted a measure which permitted the organization and financing of a drainage district for the lands in Lower Creek Valley in Caldwell County, lying to the east, south and southwest of Lenoir. This legislation was the means of reclaiming hundreds of acres of rich land that had been impracticable of cultivation and transforming it into splendid farms, making this valley now one of the richest sections of Caldwell County.
The most notable of Doctor Kent's activities in the Legislature, and those which were of the most state-wide importance, were found in his leadership in having established, under state aus- pices, the Caswell Training School at Kinston, an institution for the feeble-minded and one that was very badly needed-a fact that had been particularly impressed upon Doctor Kent during his many years of practice as a physician. It is conceded that the founding of this most beneficent institution was due to Doctor Kent's tireless activ- ities in its behalf, the tact and diplomacy he had to use in overcoming prejudice, ignorance and objection, and the sledge-hammer efforts and methods he had to put forth in order to get the necessary financial appropriation, the speeches he. made both before the house and the committees and all the varied details he personally attended to. It seems quite certain that had it not been for his able leadership the project would have failed. And after the institution was built he did not re- linquish his effort in it, but continued his activi- ties in its behalf until he was satisfied that the institution was placed under eminently proper and competent management and superintendence.
Doctor Kent married Miss Annie Wright, daughter of Squire John W. Wright, of Coharie, Sampson County, and to this union there have been born five children, namely: J. Archie, Olivia, Alfred A., Jr., William Walter and Benjamin H.
JOHN RAINES WOLTZ, M. D. For upwards of forty years one of the leading physicians of Dobson, Dr. John Raines Woltz during his years of active service in Surry County built up a large and lucrative practice and established for him- self a fine reputation for professional skill and ability. A son of Dr. Lewis Fernando Woltz, he was born September 21, 1841, in Newbern, Pu- laski County, Virginia, of German ancestry.
The doctor's paternal grandfather, William , Woltz, a native of Germany, was the only member of his father's family, so far as is known, to come to America. Locating first in Maryland, he followed his trade of a cabinet maker in Hagers- town for awhile, subsequently continuing his work at Newbern, Pulaski County, Virginia. During the War of 1812 he enlisted as a soldier, and was unfortunate enough while in the army to be de- prived of his hearing, the roar of the cannon causing permanent deafness. Late in life he moved to Blue Spring, Tennessee, and there died, at the venerable age of ninety-one years, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Feagles. He reared three children, as follows: Samuel; Lewis Fer- nando; and Mary Jane, wife of John L. Feagles.
John & Wolly
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Dr. Lewis Fernando Woltz was born and reared in Hagerstown, Maryland, and there acquired his elementary and academic education. He subse- quently entered the New York Medical College, in New York City, and after his graduation from that institution began his professional career at Floyd Courthouse, Virginia. Moving from there to Midway, Greene County, Tennessee, he con- tinued in practice in that vicinity until the break- ing out of the Civil war when he refugeed back to Carroll County, Virginia, where he continued in active practice until his death, at Hillsville, at the age of four score and four years.
The maiden name of the wife of Dr. Lewis F. Woltz was Mary Jane Early. She was born in Pulaski County, Virginia, a daughter of Jerre Early, who came from Ireland, his native country, to America, and with his brothers John, William, Samuel and James, and his sisters Elizabeth and Rhoda, settled in Pulaski County. His brother, William, was the father of Jubal A. Early, a general in the Confederate Army. Jerre Early was a farmer and a cabinet maker, and after his mar- riage, in Giles County, Virginia, to Jane Cecil, migrated to Pulaski County, Virginia, following a narrow bridle path the entire distance. The bride rode on horseback and carried a feather bed and cooking utensils, while the groom walked beside her armed with a gun. They began house- keeping in a log cabin with a puncheon floor, and as it was located on a road leading from north to the south there were many passersby, and although the happy couple entertained many travelers they never charged a cent, nor asked a person 's name or business. It is said that Aaron Burr was once a guest in their cabin home, and as both were ardent Methodists in religion they were glad to have as frequent guests both Elder Cartwright and Lorenzo Dow. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jerre Early lived to more than ninety years of age. Their daughter, Nancy Jane, wife of Dr. L. F. Woltz, died when but forty-nine years old, leaving eight children, namely: William J., John R., Georgianna Etta, Charles L., Claude L., India B., Sidney J., and Cora.
Completing the course of study in the public schools of Floyd County, Virginia, and at Tuscu- lum College, in Greene County, Tennessee, John R. Woltz began the study of medicine under his father's tutelage, in 1857. At the breaking out of the Civil war he was attending lectures at the Nashville Medical College in Nashville, Tennes- see. Giving up his studies in May, 1861, he en- listed in Company I, Twenty-ninth Regiment, Ten- nessee Volunteers, and took an active part with his command in all of its battles up to and in- cluding the engagement at Shiloh, where he was severely wounded. After spending three months in the hospital, he joined his regiment, and un- der command of General Bragg went to Kentucky and there took part in the battle of Perrysville. Soon after, not having recovered from the effects of his former wounds, Mr. Woltz was discharged from the service on account of disability, and re- turned to Virginia, where he subsequently became a member of the Dublin Home Guard, and issu- ing commissary under General Jones. Giving up that position in May, 1863, he joined the Four- teenth Virginia Regiment, known as Lowey 's Bat- tery, with which he remained until the close of the conflict.
Returning home, Mr. Woltz resumed the study of medicine at the Virginia Medical College, in Rich-
mond, where he was graduated with the class of 1868. Beginning the practice of his profession in his native state, Doctor Woltz spent a year in Lambsburg, afterward being located at Hillsville until 1871. Coming from there to Surry County, the doctor settled in Dobson where he continued in active practice for a period of forty-five years, winning in the meantime the well deserved repu- tation of being one of the most skilful and faith- ful physicians of this part of the county. His records as a physician are interesting, and show an attendance at 1,684 births.
On December 27, 1870, Doctor Woltz was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Kingsbury, who was born in Stokes County, North Carolina, a daugh- ter of John B. and Eliza Kingsbury. She died April 28, 1892. Five children have been born of the union of Doctor and Mrs. Woltz, namely : John L., of Mt. Airy, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Albert E .; Fannie M .; Mattie Irene; and Claude Benard. Albert E. Woltz, now engaged in the practice of law at Gastonia, North Carolina, was graduated from the University of North Carolina, and while a student in the institution served as its bursar. He married Daisy Mackey, and they are the parents of four children. Fannie M., wife of George W. Key, a farmer at Stewarts Creek, Surry County, has five children. Mattie Irene married William S. Comer, a contractor and builder of Dobson, and they have nine children. Claude was gradu- ated with honor from the University of North Carolina, and is now a teacher in the Maxim High School. Doctor Woltz married for his second wife September 21, 1899, Angie J. Isaacs, a native of Surry. There are no children by this marriage. Doctor Woltz was for thirty years health officer for Surry County, his long record of service in that position being proof of his efficiency in that capacity. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
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JAMES G. FLYNT is president and founder of the J. G. Flynt Tobacco Company at Winston- Salem. As a young man he learned the tobacco business in all its details, and his business ini- tiative prompted him to set up in business for him- self. During the past ten years Mr. Flynt has developed one of the more successful of the to- bacco factories in this famous Piedmont tobacco growing district, and is one of the citizens to whom Winston-Salem looks for leadership and for part of its prosperity.
Mr. Flynt was born in Batavia, Solano County California, during the temporary residence of his parents in that state. The name has been identi- fied with Western North Carolina since pioneer times. The name was formerly spelled Flint. In the enumeration of heads of families as found in the records of the United States census of 1790 those of the name mentioned as living in Stokes, which then included Forsyth, were John, Leonard, Richard, Roderick and Thomas Flynt. One of these was undoubtedly the ancestor of James G. Flynt, probably the great-grandfather.
Mr. Flynt's grandfather was Stephen Flynt, and was probably also born in Stokes County. He bought a farm in Kernersville Township of For- syth County, but about 1850 he went to Mississippi and never returned. He married Nancy Hilton, who spent her last days in Kernersville Town- ship. She reared three children: Aulena, John William and Laura.
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John William Flynt was born in Stokes County, North Carolina, July 13, 1844. He grew up on a farm, and when a young man of twenty years, in 1864, enlisted in the Confederate Army and fought for the Confederacy until the close of the struggle.
After the war he resumed farming in Kerners- ville Township, but in 1872 removed to California, spending about a year at Batavia, where James G. Flynt was born. The family then returned East and the father bought a farm in Kernersville Township, on which he remained engaged in the quiet vocation of agriculture until his death at the age of seventy. He married Mary Fulton. She was born in Stokes County, daughter of Joel and Frances (Abbott) Fulton. She lived to be sixty-two years of age and reared six children: James G., Nannie, Mollie, now deceased, John W., Eva and Maine.
Mr. James G. Flynt grew up in the country dis- tricts of Forsyth County. He attended rural schools first and afterward was a student in the Kernersville High School. His pursuits and inter- ests were identified with farming until 1898, when he removed to Winston and entered the service of Mr. R. J. Reynolds in the tobacco factory. While he remained with that factory he was attentive not only to his duties as a means of livelihood but made a close and thorough study of all details of tobacco manufacture. He left the Reynolds plant in 1906 to organize the firm of J. G. Flynt & Company. He began the manufacture of plug tobacco, and the business has had a successful increase from the start. A few years ago the company was incorporated, with Mr. Flynt as pres- ident and general manager. In 1916 the plant was removed from Trade Street to a commodious brick structure on Oak Street.
In 1901 Mr. Flynt married Celesta Hazlip. Mrs. Flynt was born in Forsyth County, daughter of Hardin and Crissie (Dalton) Hazlip. Mr. and Mrs. Flynt have six children: James, Hal, Eliza- beth, Clarence, Eleanor and Celesta. Mr. Flynt and wife are members of the Christian Church.
OSBORNE BROWN. One of the prominent and rep- resentative men of Catawba County, foremost in business enterprises and trustworthy in public affairs, is Osborne Brown, who is secretary, treas- urer and active manager of the Long Island Cotton Mill Company, and president of the Osborne Brown Mercantile Company.
Osborne Brown was born in 1870, near Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, His father, the late James Brown, was a merchant in New Jersey for a num- ber of years, residing just across from Philadelphia in New Jersey. In 1888, accompanied by his fam- ily, he came to North Carolina, and shortly after- ward his father, James Brown, became associated in the cotton manufacturing business with George H. Brown, a resident of Statesville, Iredell County, P. P. Key and J. S. Ramsey and organized the Long Island Cotton Mills, one of the old historic mills of the state that had been built by Powell & Shuford, in the early '50s and had been op- erated by them for a number of years.
When the new owners of the Long Island mill took charge, they found a plain, weather-beaten wooden building, 40 by 60 feet in dimensions, situ- ated on the Catawba River, at Long Island. With energy and enterprise and abundant capital, a great change came about, and in 1890 the Long Island Cotton Mills replaced the old mill by the present mill building, a substantial two-story brick structure, 60 by 120 feet in dimensions, and since
that time additional brick buildings and ware- houses have been erected. The business is a cor- poration, capitalized at $76,000, and is carried on under the name of the Long Island Cotton Mills. George H. Brown, of Statesville, is presi- dent, and Osborne Brown of Long Island is secre- tary, treasurer and general manager. The mill manufactures skein yarns and is equipped with 6,072 spindles.
Osborne Brown was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, and when old enough re- ceived a business training. He accompanied the family to North Carolina with the idea of going into business here, and was associated with his father and George H. Brown, from the beginning of their enterprise. His father died in 1894 and but for a short time prior to that event, Osborne Brown has been on duty at the Long Island mill, and much of the success of the business may be attributed to his energy, good judgment and busi- ness capacity, he being secretary and treasurer and general manager of the mill business. Additionally Mr. Brown is president of the Osborne Brown Company, Incorporated, large dealers in general merchandise of merit.
Mr. Brown has shown business ability also in public affairs. In 1914 he was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners of Catawba County, and through re-election is serving in his second term, during all this time being chairman of the board. Since the great floods in the sum- mer of 1916 this board has had particularly ardu- ous and important duties, involving the expenditure of large sums of money in replacing bridges and repairing roads. In association with adjoining counties, the board has contracted for the building of five main bridges across the Catawba River and other streams entirely within the county. To the consideration of these matters, Mr. Brown has given close and careful attention.
Mr. Brown was married to Miss Minnie A. Brown, who is a daughter of George H. Brown, of Statesville, North Carolina, and they have two daughters, Helen and Olivia. Mr. Brown . and family are members of the Baptist Church, and in this religious body he occupies a position of great honor and responsibility, having been elected mod- erator of the South Fork Baptist Association, com- prising fifty-three churches. Politically he is a republican and his influence undoubtedly assisted in the late elections, to lead Catawba County into the republican column.
ALEXANDER R. MCEACHERN. Travelers who have, in times past, enjoyed the privilege of so- journing for any length of time in the Old North State, and with friendly interest have lingered many seasons through in little, quiet, home-like villages because of the delightful hospitality often found therein, will probably ere long seek such somnolent tarrying places in vain in Robeson County, for the spirit of progress has swept through here and the door to modern opportunity and advantage has been thrown wide open. The kind, hospitable, generous people have not changed except as wider opportunity has developed them, but they have grown more numerous, more am- bitious, more contented and happier and more use- ful. Not every place has undergone, within the past decade, the same metamorphosis that has changed the little Village of St. Pauls into a thriv- ing, prosperous little industrial city, with civic utilities and improvements, with modern business
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blocks and handsome, spacious and costly resi- dences, but all have not been fortunate enough to be the home of so able and enterprising a man as Alexander R. McEachern, to whom and his as- sociates in business much of this development may be directly attributed.
Alexander R. McEachern was born in the old family homestead which has belonged to the Me- Eacherns for one hundred and twenty-five years, in St. Pauls Township, Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1860. His parents were Neill and Ella (Powers) McEachern, both now deceased. One of the oldest Scotch families in the county and in this part of the Cape Fear section, the McEacherns came from Scotland and the founder in Robeson County was Neill McEachern, the great-grandfather of Alexander R. McEachern of St. Pauls. In 1793 he located on a tract of land in St. Pauls Township, about two and one half miles west of the present City of St. Pauls, and there his descendants have lived ever since and still possess the ancestral acres. The first deed that was granted to said Neill McEachern, bears date of 1794, conveying to him title to 200 acres of land in consideration of "one hundred and fifty pounds." The present head of the family owns this interesting document, as he also does another, which was issued at Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1798, giving American citizenship to his great-grandfather. Neill McEachern was one of the founders of St. Pauls Presbyterian Church, which was established in 1798, and is one of the oldest and of most historic interest of any of the old religious edifices in this part of the state, and his descendants, including the present genera- tion, have been members of this church.
Neill McEachern, father of Alexander R., was born in the old homestead in St. Pauls Township, as was his father, Hugh McEachern. The family vocation was farming. When the war between the states came on Neill McEachern with two of his brothers went into the Confederate army and died in December, 1864, while in the army.
Alexander R. McEachern was reared on the McEachern plantation and after attending the local schools was a pupil of Professor Quackenbush in his academy at Laurinburg in Scotland County. From youth he has been identified with farming interests and now owns the old homestead besides a number of other very fine farms in this exceed- ingly rich and productive agricultural region and for many years has been a large cotton producer. For several years, in association with James M. Butler, he was engaged in a large mercantile busi- ness at St. Pauls, but since he has become so extensively interested in the cotton mill industry he, with his associates, had been more or less retiring from merchandising.
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