USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 29
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It was about 1907, after the railroad came, the Virginia & Carolina Southern building their line from Lumberton through to Hope Mills in Cum- berland County, that Mr. McEachern, as one of the big, successful business men of this section, became interested with others and the first cotton mill was built at St. Pauls, and this was the foundation of the town's development and con- tinues its main industry. This mill is conducted under the name of the St. Pauls Cotton Mill Company, of which Mr. McEachern is secretary and treasurer, J. M. Butler being president. The company has a capital stock of $200,000, and the mill, which is a modern, complete and expertly managed plant, manufactures hosiery, yarns, and
the company owns a second plant at St. Pauls which manufactures yarns and knits the product into tubing for gloves. Mr. McEachern is presi- dent of the Ernaldson Manufacturing Company and is president of the Cape Fear Cotton Mill at Fayetteville, of which Mr. Butler is secretary and treasurer. That mill manufactures carpet yarns. In addition to the latter plant, Mr. McEachern, Mr. Butler and E. H. Williamson have equipped and now have in operation the new Advance Mill, at Fayetteville, which is a specialty mill and is manufacturing olive drab cloth for the Govern- ment. Mr. MeEachern as a capitalist is addition- ally interested in successful and industrial enter- prises, is vice president of the Bank of St. Pauls, a director of the National Bank of Fayetteville; vice president of the Holt-Williamson Manufactur- ing Company of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is foremost in everything pertaining to the sub- stautial growth of the place. For a number of years he has been prominent in public affairs in Robeson County and served ten years on the board of county commissioners, and it was during this time that the board built the beautiful and creditable new courthouse at Lumberton. He is a member of the board of trustees of Flora Macdon- ald College at Red Springs.
Mr. McEachern was married to Miss Belle Shaw, a member also of an old Scotch family of this section. Her parents were Daniel and Elizabeth (McLean) Shaw, the former of whom was born in St. Pauls Township in 1811 and died in 1891. Mrs. McEachern is a sister of the late Lauchlin Shaw, who died in 1915. Mr. Shaw was the owner of much property here, a large part of that on which the modern town has been built and took an active part in financially backing the early business and industrial enterprises. Mr. and Mrs. McEachern have three sons, two of whom are wearing the uniform of the National Army, loyal and patriotic young men of high business and social standing. The eldest, D. S. McEachern, is in the United States Navy. The second, Neill, is in the Coast Artillery. Duncan remains with his parents. Mr. McEachern is an elder in the St. Pauls Presby- terian Church.
J. NEAL DAVIS is one of the leading merchants of Winston-Salem. He began his business career there as a clerk and profiting by experience and the opportunities of the locality, he established a business of his own and is now one of the substan- tial men of the community.
Mr. Davis is a native of North Carolina. He was born on a plantation near Forbush Baptist Church in Yadkin County. His grandfather, Tom Davis, was a native of Virginia, and on com- ing to North Carolina settled in what is now Yad- kin County, buying a tract of land. two miles southeast of East Bend. He became a farmer, and lived in that locality until his death. He and two of his sons were Confederate soldiers and in the course of his service he received a severe wound. Grandfather Davis married Miss Speas, and they reared six sons and six daughters. The sons were named Alvis, Levi, both of whom were Confederate soldiers, Eli Tom, Dalt, John and San- ford. All the twelve children married and reared families, and their children at one time made a total number of seventy-three.
Eli Tom Davis, father of J. Neal Davis, was born in 1846, on a plantation two miles south of East Bend. He grew up on a farm and after
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his marriage bought land near the old home and became a very successful planter. He married Nannie Marion, who was born near the foot of Pilot Mountain in Surry County, North Carolina, in 1848. Her grandfather Marion was one of the pioneer settlers of Surry County. Her father, Richard T. Marion, was born on a plantation bor- dering the Ararat River in Surry County and be- sides carrying on a large farm he operated a blacksmith shop and a wood working shop, and owned a number of slaves. All the wagons used by him were manufactured in his own wagon shop. As a general farmer he raised stock, grain and tobacco. His tobacco was all manufactured on his own place and was sent to southern markets in his own wagons and teams. Richard T. Marion lived to be ninety-two years of age and died Octo- ber 31, 1916, being mentally vigorous to the very last. He married Peggy Hauser.
Eli Tom Davis and wife reared eight children named: Lillian, Richard, J. Neal, Hattie, Egbert L., Maud, Paul and Eula.
Mr. J. Neal Davis spent his early life on his father's farm, attended rural school in Yadkin County, and prepared for college in the Boone- ville High School. He finished his education in Wake Forest College and on leaving school he came to Winston-Salem and for a few months clerked in a local store. He then bought a ladies furnishing store and has made it one of the largest and best stocked establishments of its kind in Western North Carolina. In 1916 his business was incorporated under the name of J. N. Davis Company, with himself as president and treasurer. Mr. Davis now owns and occupies one of the fine suburban homes around Winston-Salem. In 1916 he bought a tract of farm land near Reynolds, and has since improved it as a model country place. His house is built in modern style with all the latest improvements, and he has a private electric plant and water system.
Mr. Davis married Miss Elva Martha Wall. She was born in Davidson County, North Caro- lina, daughter of George W. Haseltine (Charles) Wall. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have four children, Elva Martha, Catherine, Margaret Lucile and Rosa Logue. The family are members of the Brown Memorial Church at Winston-Salem.
BARTHOLOMEW MOORE GATLING. One of the foremost representatives of the legal profession at Raleigh is Bartholomew Moore Gatling, who re- cently took additional duties and responsibilities when he accepted the appointment from President Wilson as postmaster. He is a member of an old North Carolina family, and his father before him was a successful attorney.
Born at Raleigh April 12, 1871, Bartholomew Moore Gatling is a son of John and Sarah (Moore) Gatling. His father was a native of Gates County and his mother of Halifax County in North Caro- lina.
Prepared for college at Raleigh Academy, Mr. Gatling then entered the University of North Caro- lina, where he was graduated A. B. in 1892. For his professional preparation he entered the Har- vard Law School, where he took his LL. B. degree in 1895. Since that year he has been in active practice in Raleigh, and has accumulated a splen- did clientage, representing many individuals and business firms. For ten years he was counsel for the Board of County Commissioners. His appoint-
ment as postmaster of Raleigh was dated February 13, 1915.
Mr. Gatling is a member of the Capital Club of Raleigh. On September 14, 1893, he married Miss Lenora Cradup of Meridian, Mississippi. They are the parents of seven children: Sallie Moore, Lawrence Van Valkenburg, John, Bart. Moore, William Crudup, Louise Crudup and James Moore.
CAPT. EDMUND JONES. There are some names indissolubly connected with the early settlement and permanent development of the Upper Yadkin Valley in Western North Carolina, that mention of them immediately brings to mind historic events that contributed to the establishment of stable government here, and to noble individual achieve- ments that alone would serve to perpetuate their memories. Most conspicuous among these are the names of Gen. William Lenoir, Gen. Edmund Jones, Gen. Samuel F. Patterson, and Col. William Daven- port, all of whom became kindred through inter- marriages, and to all of them Capt. Edmund Jones, a leading member of the bar at Lenoir, traces a clear ancestral line.
Capt. Edmund Jones was born in 1848, on his father's plantation, Clover Hill, situated about six miles north of Lenoir, in Caldwell County, North Carolina. His parents were Edmund Walter and Sophia C. (Davenport) Jones, and his grandpar- ents were Gen. Edmund Jones and Col. William Davenport.
Gen. Edmund Jones was born in Orange County, Virginia, and came in childhood to North Carolina, with his parents, George and Lucy (Foster) Jones. The family first lived in the Yadkin Valley, near Wilkesboro. For a number of years he was a prom- inent figure in the public and political life of North Carolina, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and served several terms as a member of both houses of the General Assembly. Upon the formation of Caldwell County he was one of the magistrates appointed for that purpose and served as chairman of their court. In early manhood he was married to Anna Lenoir, a daughter of Gen. William Lenoir, who came from Brunswick County, Virginia, to North Carolina, in 1759, served in the Revolution- ary war and was twice wounded at the Battle of King's Mountain. He had previously served with distinction against the Cherokee Indians. Old Fort Defiance, built to resist Indian attacks, after- ward became the site for his permanent home and on that estate he passed the closing years of a memorable life.
Following their marriage, Gen. Edmund Jones and his wife settled in what was named Happy Valley, on the Yadkin River in what is now the northern part of Caldwell but was then a part of Wilkes County. There he built "Palmyra," which became one of the famous plantations of North Carolina, possessing much historic and ro- mantic interest, and there he lived until 1844. Continuing the history of this famous estate it may be further related that it descended to his son, Edmund Walter Jones, who, in the '40s, because of his great affection for his sister, who was the wife of Gen. Samuel Finley Patterson, transferred the place to her. Upon the death of his son. Hon. Samuel L. Patterson, Palmyra was left by his will to the Episcopal Church for an industrial school for boys. It was converted into what is known as the Patterson School, an industrial institution for boys, and is now carried on as such under the
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auspices of the church. Gen. Samuel Finley Pat- terson lived and died in Caldwell County. He was noted as a financier and in 1836 was elected treas- urer of North Carolina, and was also president of the old Raleigh & Gaston Railroad. His two sons, Rufus L. and Samuel Legerwood Patterson both became prominent in public life, the latter being commissioner of agriculture for North Carolina for a number of years.
Edmund Walter Jones was born at Palmyra and spent his entire life in Happy Valley. In the '40s he built Clover Hill for his own residence, on the opposite side of the river, when he transferred Palmyra to his sister, Mrs. Patterson. During his entire active life he was an extensive planter. His death occurred in 1876, at the age of sixty-four years. He married Miss Sophia C. Davenport, and of their three sons, all became conspicuous military men, but one of these heroes surviving, Capt. Ed- mund Jones, of Lenoir, Walter L. being killed at Gettysburg, and John T. falling in the Battle of the Wilderness.
The mother of Captain Jones was a daughter of Col. William Davenport and a granddaughter of Gen. William Lenoir. Col. William Davenport was a son of Martin Davenport, who was the right-hand man of Gen. Ben Cleveland in the campaigns of the patriots in the Revolution in North Carolina. The Davenports had settled in the region of the Yadkin River before the Revolution, and like the Jones they were of Welsh ancestry. They were all royalists and against the Cromwell movement, and when they came to the American colonies, in 1688, they first settled in Culpeper County, Vir- ginia.
Born into a home of luxury and refinement, Ed- mund Jones' early environment afforded him many advantages, these including the best of scholastic training. The outbreak of the war between the states, however, changed the student into a soldier one of the youngest in the Confederate army. He left the university and enlisted in Company F, Forty-first North Carolina Infantry, before he was sixteen and was at Appomattox, after taking part in the siege of Petersburg, before he was seventeen years of age. He was educated at the Bingham Military School, the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia, and after the war spent some time in the State University but did not complete his interrupted course because of different conditions incident to the times, having arisen. It was then he entered the law depart- ment of the University of Virginia, where he qualified for the profession of law under those great teachers, Southgate and John B. Minor.
Captain Jones then returned to his home, Clover Hill, and there carried on the plantation until 1881, in which year he took the necessary examination and was licensed to practice law and opened an office at Lenoir. He came rapidly to the front in his profession and has long been reputed as one of the ablest lawyers in Western North Carolina. He early entered the political field and in 1870, when but twenty-two years old, was elected a mem- ber of the State Legislature and served four terms, eight years, in that august body, with remarkable statesmanship. He was a member of the session that impeached Governor Holden. When the Span- ish-American war was precipitated, once more Cap- tain Jones became a military man, becoming cap- tain of Company C, Second North Carolina In- fantry, demonstrating the same qualities of per-
sonal bravery that had marked him in adventur- ous youth.
Captain Jones has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Eugenia Lewis, who, at death, left four children: Augustus, Edmund, Eugene Patter- son and Sarah D. Miss Sarah D. Jones is a lady of many accomplishments and of great business capacity, and at present is private secretary to the commissioner and auditor of the department of agriculture, at Raleigh. Captain Jones married for his second wife Miss Martha Snell Scott, who was born in Caldwell County. The whole Jones connection far back has belonged to the Episco- pal Church.
EDGAR FRANKLIN MCCULLOCH, JR. Elizabeth- town, the county seat of Bladen County, is situated in one of the most beautiful sections of North Carolina, and its citizenship is made up of repre- sentatives of numerous old Southern families that have helped to make history in the Old North State. Many of these are of Scotch extraction, as is the case with the McCullochs, who have belonged to North Carolina for generations. . To find the pioneer of his family in the state Edgar Franklin McCulloch, Jr., postmaster at Elizabeth- town and county attorney, must go back to his great-grandfather, John McCulloch, who was born in Scotland and came in early manhood to Mary- land and from there to Guilford County, North Carolina, where he became a man of local im- portance.
Edgar Franklin McCulloch, Jr., was born in 1888, at White Oak in Bladen County, North Carolina. His parents are Edgar F. and Viola (Sykes). McCulloch, the former of whom was born in the Pleasant Garden community, Guilford County, and is a son of Calvin McCulloch. In 1880 the family moved from Guilford to Bladen County. E. F. McCulloch passes much of his time at Raleigh, as he fills the office of clerk of the State Prison Board.
Mr. McCulloch's earlier years were spent at White Oak and he attended White Oak Academy rrior to entering the University of North Caro- lina, from which he was graduated in the class of 1911, with his Bachelor of Arts degree, and in 1913, after two years in the law school of the university, entered into practice at Elizabethtown. Because of thorough education and unusual legal talent he has made rapid strides in his profession and has successfully handled a number of very important cases, giving to his clients honorable and faithful service. The confidence and high regard in which he is held may be indicated by his election to the important office of county attorney of Bladen County.
Mr. McCulloch was married to Miss Jessie Lee Sugg, who was born at Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, and they have one sou, who per- petuates the family name as Edgar Franklin McCulloch, Third. Mrs. McCulloch is a lady of many accomplishments and thorough education, and prior to her marriage was principal of the Elizabethtown Academy. Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch are leaders in the pleasant social life of the town and maintain one of its most hospitable homes,
In April, 1917, Mr. McCulloch was appointed postmaster at Elizabethtown by President Wood- row Wilson, an appointment that gave general satisfaction because of Mr. McCulloch's high personal character and general popularity. Edu-
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cation, religion and charity all have their claims acknowledged by Mr. McCulloch in his scheme ot life, and he has given hearty encouragement to many worthy business enterprises here that prom- ise to be of substantial benefit to the entire com- munity, thereby showing a liberal mind and a public conscience that are the essentials of good citizenship.
JOHN ALLEN ADAMS. Surry County has no more popular and esteemed citizen than John A. Adams, familiarly known throughout the length and breadth of that county as "Jack"' Adams. Mr. Adams is a former sheriff of the county, a veteran of the war between the states, and has long been identified with agriculture and other diversified industries.
Though a resident of Surry County most of his life he was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, January 19, 1847. His grandfather, James Adams, was a native of the same county and owned a large plantation on Bannister River. He belonged to the aristocratic and slave holding element of Virginia, and lived in comfort and plenty and dispensed a generous hospitality. His wife was Paulina Wammock, also a lifelong resident of Pittsylvania County.
John A. Adams, father of John A., was born in Pittsylvania County in 1807, and in 1856 removed to Surry County, North Carolina, and bought 10,000 acres of land in and adjacent to Dobson. This princely estate he worked with the aid of numerous slaves. He was a man of great power and influence in that community but the war with its attendant evils brought financial ruin. He died in Dobson leaving his widow with seven chil- dren, most of them still young. Her maiden name was Sarah Adams, and she was also born in Pitt- sylvania County, a daughter of Johnson and Sarah (Williams) Adams. After her husband's death she returned with her children to Pittsylvania County and she spent her last years there.
John A. Adams was about nine years of age when the family removed to Surry County. He made the best of limited opportunities to gain an education, and when quite young he became self supporting by his labor. When he was seven- teen years of age in 1864 he enlisted in Company A, Thirty-fourth Regiment Virginia Cavalry com- manded by Colonel Witcher. With this regiment he went to the front and served faithfully until the close of the war. When Lee surrendered he was at Christianburg, Virginia, and being allowed to retain his horse he rode home. Before entering the army he had been employed as a teamster. He hauled produce to Fayetteville, and on the re- turn trip brought merchandise. Later this haul was shortened when the railroad was completed to High Point.
After the war he took up the business of sell- ing tobacco and started with a load of tobacco on wagon and team into South Carolina and Georgia and peddled it out as he went. This was his regu- lar occupation for twelve years and brought a modest capital which he invested in the 300 acre farm he now owns and occupies. This farm is partly in and partly adjoining the City of Dobson. Here for many years he has followed general farm- ing, and has made himself an influential factor in the agricultural district surrounding him. Mr. Adams organized the Farmers Alliance in Surry County. Politically he is a democrat and was elected on that ticket to the office of sheriff.
He married Eliza Ellen MeGuffin, September 12, 1865. She was born February 22, 1847, a daugh- ter of Robert F. and Sarah (Ingram) McGuffin of Franklin County, Virginia. Mrs. Adams died May 14, 1917, leaving one daughter Mary Emma, who now presides over her father's home. Mr. Adams is affiliated with Dobson Lodge of Masons and with Dobson Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
JOHN THAMES, M. D. Many of the men in the medical profession today are devoting themselves in a large measure to the prevention of disease as well as its cure. They are exerting all the force of their authority in persuading people to use bet- ter methods and spending their time and money in the endeavor to find more satisfactory methods of handling disease, and to make the general pub- lic realize that in their own hands lies the prevention of a great deal of disease and ill health. In the public health movement the physi- cian has always been a leader, and among the Southern states not one has done more advanced and efficient work in this line than North Caro- lina.
One of the ablest men now in the public health service of the state is Dr. John Thames, city health officer of Winston-Salem. Dr. Thames was born on a plantation on the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville in Cumberland County, North Caro- lina, August 26, 1871. In the paternal line he is of Welsh ancestry. His father, James Thames, was born on the same plantation in 1828. The grandfather, Rev. David Thames, was a native of Wales. David's brother Joseph came to America and settled in Bladen County, North Carolina. Rev. David Thames on coming to this country when a young man located in Cumberland County, se- curing a tract of land on the Cape Fear River. Along with farming and the management of his plantation he served for many years as a minister of the Missionary Baptist Church. He and his wife and three children died during a fever epi- demic in 1835-36.
James Thames had one sister, one brother, and several half-sisters and brothers. At the death of his parents he removed to Bladen County to live with a half-sister, Mrs. Lucy Davis, grew up there, and remained in his sister's household until the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1845. He en- listed in the volunteer army and took an active part in that struggle with the Southern Republic. Following the war he returned to North Carolina and bought the interests of the other heirs in the old homestead plantation in Cumberland County. There he set up as a general farmer and enjoyed much prosperity. He lived on the old plantation until his death in 1908. During the war between the states he was captain of a com- pany of Home Guards under Col. Thomas De- Vaughan. For a number of years before his death he received a pension from the Federal gov- ernment for his services in the Mexican war. This old soldier married Mary Elizabeth Plummer. She was a native of Cumberland County, the only daughter of James and Mrs. (Bramble) Plummer aud was of Scotch ancestry. She died in Novem- ber, 1905. There were five sons and six daugh- ters.
One of his large family of children, Dr. John Thames, spent his youth and boyhood on the plan- tation in Cumberland County. What the district schools gave him in the way of an education he
John A Adam
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supplemented by preparatory work in a nearby high school, and then entered the University of North Carolina. On definitely deciding upon a career in medicine, he entered the Louisville Medi- cal College at Louisville, Kentucky, where he was graduated M. D. in 1894. Dr. Thames has had a wide and diversified experience in active practice for more than twenty years. He has also taken post-graduate courses in the Polyclinic at Philadel- phia and in the Johns Hopkins University at Bal- timore.
He began practice at Lexington, in Davidson County, North Carolina, and while there began his public health work, serving as health officer for the county. In 1899 he removed to Greensboro, had a general practice for several years, and in 1910 went to Wilmington to become assistant to Doctor Nesbitt, health officer of that city. While at Wilmington he became a recognized force among the health officers of the state, and it was his repu- tation for efficient work in this branch of the profession that called him to Winston-Salem, where since October 1, 1916, he has been city health officer. His work has already gained him many compliments and a high recognition, and it was made the subject of a special reference by Bishop Rendthaler in the Home Church Memorabilia for 1916.
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