USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 32
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He was married on January 18, 1853, to Miss Mary Jane Hayden, only daughter of William Hayden, and his wife, Mary Welch. By this mar- riage he had ten children. Three sons died in childhood, John Hayden, Marshall and Eugene, and one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, in graceful Chris- tian womanhood. Those surviving are: Louis Henry Clement, attorney, Salisbury, North Caro- lina; Mrs. H. H. Trundle, Leesburg, Virginia; Mrs. E. L. Gaither, Mrs. Julia C. Heitman, Her- bert and Walter R. Clement, of Mocksville, North Carolina.
Much of the success of his business and pro -- fessional life he attributed to his noble Chris- tion wife, his love for her being the crown of his life. Combining in an unusual degree mental en- dowinents with a liberal education and great ex- ecutive ability, during frequent long absences, at- tendant on his far-reaching practice, she never allowed any part of his home affairs, including a large number of slaves and several plantations, to feel the lack of the "master's hand." He con- sidered her price "far above rubies," and always referred to her as his "court of highest appeal." Their home was open to the kindest hospitality, and many good and distinguished men and women met around their board.
In his early life he served one term in the Leg- islature of North Carolina. The rest of his life he devoted to his profession, in which he was wonderfully successful. His practice was wide and varied, embracing a large number of capital cases, but in the latter part of his life he refused to appear for the prosecution where life was at stake. His devotion to his clients was proverbial, and it was said of him the more desperate the case the harder he labored. By his close appli- cation he had so mastered the law that its most
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intricate problems he could reason out as if by intuition. He was a brilliant speaker, a close rea- soner, an accurate pleader, and a profound lawyer. Before the courts where he practiced, both State and Federal, noue stood higher than John Marshall Clement. Illustrating his legal acumen and pro- found knowledge of the principles of equity, at June term, 1861, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, he argued for the plaintiff the case of Sains vs. Dulin (59 N. C. Rept. 195). His views of the doctrine of equity involved were not adopted by the Supreme Court at that time; but in 1900, after his death, the case of Luton vs. Badham (127 N. C. Rept., 96) was decided, which overruled Sain vs. Dulin, supra, and sus- tained Mr. Clement's view of the case. Judge D. M. Furches, a native of Davie Couuty, and who practiced law for many years in the same town with Mr. Clement, and who admired him greatly, on the day the court filed this opinion, he deliv- ering the opinion, wrote a letter to a member of Mr. Clement's family, saying it gave him pleas- ure to let them know that the doctrine contended for by him nearly forty years before had been adopted. In the same letter he also communicated the pleasing information, which was given him by Charles Price, of Salisbury, North Carolina, that Mr. Clement during the war had kindly furnished books to a Federal prisoner in Salisbury, who afterward became a distinguished judge of the Federal Court of Appeals.
In 1878 Mr. Clement's name was presented by his friends to the democratic judicial convention for judge, but despite the strenuous efforts of these friends he failed to receive the nomination, though all conceded his splendid ability and fit- ness. It is no secret that he would have been elevated to the Supreme Court bench but for the condition of his health, which was delicate for many years before his death. He was considered by all eminently qualified, both in learning and character, to adorn the highest judicial tribunal of our state.
In his home life he was at his best. So gentle, loving and kind, yet firm, wise and just, always unyielding in any point he considered best for his children's highest good, he was an ideal parent, for while he loved his own, he was quick to see their faults and to correct the same, and as ever ready to commend and reward worth. Cheerful in his disposition, entertaining in conversation, genial and gentle in manner, he was a most nota- ble and attractive man. His religious life was deep and quiet, but was founded on the Rock, Christ Jesus, as he was taught in his childhood at his mother's knee, and at the all-day Sabbath School of Joppa Presbyterian Church. Although his professional duties called him to various por- tions of this and other states, his home was within a half mile of where he was born, and he now sleeps in the old Clement graveyard on the hill, just be- yond, overlooking the meadow and playground of his boyhood-a fit, peaceful resting place, so near to home, so close to heaven. Mr. Clement died June 4, 1886.
LOUIS HENRY CLEMENT. Only to the few and the best in any profession can such rare distinc- tions come as have been bestowed upon Louis Henry Clement during his long and active career as a lawyer. These distinctions are measured less by conspicuous public place than by straight- forward and valuable service, much of it quite
unknown and appreciated by the general pub- lic, in the walks of his profession.
How he is regarded by the profession in gen- eral throughout the state is well indicated by his election unanimously and without solicitation on his part in 1908 as President of the North Carolina Bar Association. For ten years or more he was also President of the local bar association of Rowan County.
As told in the language of an old friend and neighbor some of the prominent points of his career were noted as follows: "As a lawyer Mr. Clement has always enjoyed the confidence and respect, not only of his brethren of the bar, but of the community at large, and of a large and intelligent clientele. He has proved himself not only an able and effective advocate, but a wise and prudeut counsellor. As a citizen he was al- ways been generous, hospitable and public spir- ited. Of engaging address, cordial manners, neat- ness and tastefulness in dress, with a friendly word and genial smile for all, Mr. Clement is de- servedly popular with all classes of citizens, and with a wide circle of friends throughout the state. Of liberal education, of extensive reading and wide information, added to a sparkling wit and cheery humor, he is the most delightful of companions."
And what he received by inheritance has fitted in splendidly with his individual attainments, and he has honored as well as has been houored by the character of his ancestry. His paternal grand- parents were John and Nancy (Bailey ) Clement, the latter a member of an old and prominent Davie County family. Hon. John Clement for many years represented Davie and Rowan coun- ties in the General Assembly of North Carolina and died at his desk while serving as clerk of the Superior Court of the former county. The ma- ternal grandparents of Louis H. Clement were William and Mary (Welch) Hayden, prominent citizens of Davie County.
Louis Henry Clement was born at Mocksville, Davie County, January 19, 1854, a son of John Marshall and Mary Jane (Hayden) Clement. His mother is remembered as a woman of fine intelli- gence and strong Christian character, while to his father Mr. Clement is indebted for those rugged powers of intellect which characterized John Mar- shall Clement as one of the greatest lawyers of the state and one of the most loved and respected men of his generation. He was in politics only briefly, during which he served a term in the General Assembly. But as a lawyer he rose to the very heights of professional success and reputa- tion.
With all the advantages that such a family in- sured in the way of social manners, high ideals and incentive to achievements, Louis Henry Cle- ment spent his early life at the Village of Mocks- ville, attended preparatory schools and then en- tered Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, Penn- sylvania, where he was graduated with honor in the class of 1876. Just thirty years before, in 1846, his father had been valedictorian at the same college. At college he distinguished himself as a student and was very active in debating and literary societies.
On returning home he took up the study of law under one of the eminent jurists of North Caro- lina, Richmond M. Pearson, Chief Justice of North Carolina at Richmond Hill. He was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court in June, 1877, and
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since then forty years have been devoted by him to the law with only brief and occasional interrup- tions through public office. He practiced in Davie County and for two years was Solicitor of the Inferior Court, but in 1880 removed to Salisbury, where for a number of years he was an associate of one of the prominent lawyers of North Carolina, Hon. Kerr Craige. This partnership was dissolved when Mr. Craige was made Third Assistant Post- master General during Cleveland 's administration. After that Mr. Clement practiced alone for a number of years, but in 1909 took into partnership his son, Hayden Clement. Today the firm Clement & Clement is one of the best known and most successful in the entire state.
In 1885 Mr. Clement was appointed Solicitor ad-interim of the Ninth Judicial District of North Carolina, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. Joseph ' Dobson. He has never been an active candidate for any political office. And con- sidering the valuable work he has done in his profession and the fine dignity and prestige at- taching to his name, none could be found who would doubt that he had chosen wisely in pre- ferring the strict lines of professional work to the turbulence of a political career. Mr. Clement is a loyal democrat, is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, has for many years been a communicant of St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church at Salisbury, and is chairman of the Board of Managers of the Wachovia Bank & Trust Com- pany, the Salisbury branch. In 1910 Pennsyl- vania College, his alma mater, conferred upon him the honorary degree LL. D., others similarly honored at the same time being Hon. Martin G. Brumbaugh, then Governor of Pennsylvania, and Judge Harter of Canton, Ohio.
In November, 1878, Mr. Clement married Miss Mamie C. Buehler of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her father, Edward B. Buehler, was one of the distinguished lawyers of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Clement had an ideal marriage companion- ship lasting nearly thirty-five years, terminated by her death on April 20, 1913. She was a devout Christian, a leader in social life, and was both loved and venerated in her home circle. She was the mother of four sons who have already done much to honor their parents. These sons are: Hayden Clement, mentioned on other pages; Dr. Edward Buehler Clement, a physician at Atlan- tic City, New Jersey; Donald, an assistant quar- termaster with the rank of first lieutenant in the National army; Louis H., Jr., battalion adjutant of the Three Hundred and Twenty-first Infantry, United States Regulars, with the rank of first lieutenant. All the sons completed their educa- tion in the University of North Carolina.
HAYDEN CLEMENT, junior member of the law firm of Clement & Clement at Salisbury, his sen- ior being his father, Louis H. Clement, who for over thirty years has ranked as one of the lead- ers of the state bar, has gained a wealth of dis- tinction through his own comparatively brief career, and it is doubtful if any lawyer under forty years of age in North Carolina has borne with greater credit more of the higher respon- sibilities of public life than Hayden Clement.
He represents the fourth generation of a prom- inent family in which the oldest son on the pa- ternal side has been a lawyer, and his own career is to some extent a reflection of the great virtues and abilites of such eminent legal lights as John
Marshall Clement and Edward B. Buehler, his grandfathers, and Louis H. Clement, his father.
Hayden Clement was born at Mocksville, North Carolina, the town where many of his ancestors had lived, on September 25, 1879. The next year his parents moved to Salisbury, where he at- tended public schools, and did his preparatory work in Horner's Military Academy. In Septem- ber, 1899, he entered the University of North Carolina, and had a brilliant record as a student and leader in student activities at the university. However, he did not remain to graduate, leaving during his senior year to take up the study of law. In 1903 he was admitted to the bar and at once began practice at Salisbury.
In January, 1907, when he was not yet thirty years of age, Mr. Clement was appointed Assist- ant Attorney General of North Carolina. This office had been created by the legislature owing to the protracted illness of the Attorney General, and Mr. Clement was therefore the first incum- bent of that special office and for two years he had entire charge of the Attorney General's de- partment. His work as Assistant Attorney Gen- eral deserves all the high praise that has been given it. He was the first to recommend and through his efforts had passed the law abol- ishing public executions in North Carolina. He also recommended the creation of four additional Superior Court judges from the division of the state into two circuits. Through his efforts the number of challenges in criminal cases was changed. The Assistant Attorney General also had much to do with the railroad rate and freight liti- gation of the past ten years. One of his opinions was on the constitutionality of the prohibition act voted by the state in May, 1908.
Such was his record in this special office that every reason existed why he should be chosen to fill the office of Attorney General. At the primaries of 1908 he received a distinctive plurality of all votes, but not quite enough to insure his nomina- tion. In the Charlotte convention his candidacy was lost, to the regret of all right-thinking citizens of North Carolina, as a result of the factional fight by three prominent candidates for the office of Governor that year.
Then in 1909, after leaving the office of Assist- ant Attorney General, Mr. Clement returned to Salisbury and formed the partnership of Clement & Clement with his father, which is one of the leading law firms of the state. Since then he has had much to do with politics and public affairs. He served as chairman of the Congressional Com- mittee of the Eighth District, and organized the district so thoroughly that it elected Hon. R. L. Doughton for Congress. This was a surprising result, involving a change of over 2,000 votes, and making a democratic district out of a district that had been normally republican for a number of years. In 1912 Mr. Clement again managed the Doughton campaign and in that year he was chosen to represent the Eighth District as a dele- gate to the Baltimore Convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson for president.
For the past four years Mr. Clement has gained further fame and reputation in the public life of his native state through the energetic and capable administration he has given to the office of Solici- tor of the Fifteenth Judicial District. He was first appointed to this office by Governor Craig in March, 1914, and in the democratic primaries of that year was unanimously nominated for the of-
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fice. He was also unanimously elected in the fall of 1914 and since then has given a vigorous administration, and yet has been called one of the most humane solicitors the district has ever had. As Solicitor Mr. Clement was active in the prosecution of a case that attracted national at- tention during the fall of 1917. This was the prosecution of Gaston Means for the murder of the widow King of Chicago. Mr. Clement is ves- tryman in St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Salfs- bury, is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the Masons and the Sigma Nu college fraternity. June 25, 1913, he married Miss Clay Wornall Croxton, daughter of Col. and Mrs. J. H. Croxton of Winchester, Kentucky. Her father served with the rank of colonel under Gen- eral Morgan during the war between the states. Mr. and Mrs. Clement have one son, Hayden Crox- ton Clement.
Mr. Clement has well justified the assertion made of him recently that "no young man in the state has risen as rapidly or made good more com- pletely than has Hayden Clement." And none will question the essential truth and appropriate- ness of the following sentiments which have been expressed : "As a courageous champion of clean politics and the welfare of the average man, his services have been invaluable; as an efficient pub- lic official, one who knows no favoritism, the peo- ple delight to honor him; as a patriot and gentle- man he has no superior in North Carolina. In- deed it may truthfully be said of Hayden Clement he is one of the state's best and ablest young men, and that broader fields of usefulness are just before him."
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PAYTON B. ABBOTT was one of Winston-Salem's best known men. He practiced law in Virginia before coming to North Carolina, and also had extensive experience as a newspaper man and was a regularly ordained minister of the Christian Church. He died in January, 1917, after six years of residence in Winston-Salem.
Mr. Abbott was born on a farm in Craig Coun- ty, Virginia, February 25, 1860. There is a town named Abbott in that section of Virginia, and the family has been identified with that community for generations. However, his lineage goes back to an earlier generation that had its first home in Western North Carolina. He is lineally descended from one of five brothers who came out of England to America in the early Colonial period and set- tled in Massachusetts. Their descendants are now scattered over every state of the Union. Some of them came south and located in what is now Stokes County, North Carolina. It was in that county that Thomas Abbott, great-grandfather of the Winston-Salem lawyer, was born. He moved to Botetourt County, Virginia, and settled in that section of the county now known as Craig County. There he spent his last years. Grandfather James Abbott was a native of Botetourt County, now Craig County, Virginia, and became a successful farmer. He acquired some very extensive land holdings and was a resident of the county until his death at the age of eighty-nine. The name of his first wife, grandmother of Payton B. Abbott, was Elizabeth Carper.
Sinclair C. Abbott, father of Payton, was born in Craig County, Virginia, and though of a sub- stantial family he had limited opportunities to acquire an education. He made the best of his advantages, however, and became a skillful sur-
veyor. For many years he devoted his time to that profession and did much work in Craig and ad- joining counties and also in West Virginia. His home was five miles south of Newcastle, Virginia. He died there at the age of sixty-five. Sinclair Abbott married Lucinda Williams, who was born in Craig County, daughter of Rev. Philip B. and Mrs. (McPherson) Williams. The latter was of Scotch ancestry, while Philip B. Williams was of Welsh stock and a minister of the Christian Church. Mrs. Sinclair Abbott died at the age of forty-five, having reared nine children: Payton B., Frank L., Gurdine A., Robert E. Lee, Luther M., Wade H., Edna, Elizabeth and Minnie.
Payton B. Abbott attended Milligan College in Johnson County, Tennessee, and after the com- pletion of his course there took up the study of law, at first in the office of Judges Holmes and Lee at Newcastle, Virginia, and later with Major Ballard of Salem. His last instructor was Col. G. W. Housborough of -Salem. He then took the examinations of the University of Virginia Law Department and was admitted to practice in 1885. Mr. Abbott began his professional career at New- castle, Virginia. For four years he served as commonwealth attorney of Craig County. From Newcastle he removed to Bluefield, Virginia, and was in active practice there until 1910, in which year he removed to Winston-Salem. Instead of taking up the practice of law he became a mem- ber of the staff of the Winston-Salem Sentinel, and was active in newspaper work two years. In 1900 Mr. Abbott was licensed to preach in the Christian Church, and after coming to North Carolina he took charge as pastor of the churches at Pfafftown, Muddy Creek and Galacia in the Winston-Salem district. In 1915, having taken the examination before the Court of Appeals, Mr. Abbott was admitted to practice in North Carolina, and from September of that year gave his time and energies to the law.
In 1889 he married Miss Marietta Chaffin, who, with ten children, survives. Mrs. Abbott was born at Mount Airy in Surrey County, North Carolina, daughter of John and Araminta (Smith) Chaffin.
JAMES ALEXANDER HARTNESS of Statesville en- joys many distinctions in his home community, but over the state at large his most significant con- tribution to progress and welfare of North Caro- lina was undoubtedly his splendid and determined leadership in the cause of prohibition, at first in his home county and later in the state wide move- ment. While a host of good men and women con- tributed to the final victory, it is doubtful if any one more persistently and courageously and for a longer period of years waged the good fight than James A. Hartness.
Some time ago when he was asked concerning his inveterate hostility to the liquor traffic, Mr. Hartness said he recalled that when a boy he formed a very decided aversion to this destructive custom and traffic, and then and there resolved that he would never be satisfied until he saw it abolished. Seldom does a purpose formed in youth harden and gain such effectiveness as this resolve did in the case of Mr. Hartness. It is an interesting fact also that he realized that prohibition like charity begins at home, and he started in to exert his influence in his home town of Statesville. Many will recall how Statesville in the older days was a center of the whiskey business with almost a nationwide
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reputation. Whiskey in large quantities was shipped in and out by wholesale houses and other large dealers and the traffic was an enormous one. In fact Statesville was one of the biggest strong- holds of the liquor traffic in the entire South. Thus Mr. Hartness had to assail a giant when he began his campaign for local option. He encountered the most violent opposition from the powerful local liquor interests who had unlimited money and political influence behind them. The community itself had been drugged by the presence of these interests, and was not easily aroused to join in the fight under the leadership of Mr. Hartness. As the local option movement grew in strength, Mr. Hartness actually took his political future in his own hands, but refused to be daunted in his deter- mination and against every vindictive resource, threats of violence, and personal danger he pro- ceeded straight to the goal until the whiskey busi- ness in Statesville was completely stamped out.
His success in this local campaign naturally rallied around him as a leader the forces in the movement for statewide prohibition, and in 1908 he was elected superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of North Carolina. In that larger campaign he continued one of the efficient leaders until its ends and objects were accomplished. The history of the prohibition movement in North Carolina is now practically a closed record, and in its pages hardly any name deserves to figure more largely than that of James Alexander Hartness.
Mr. Hartness is a native of Iredell County, hav- ing been born six miles north of Statesville in 1863. His parents, Hiram and Martha E. (Gib- son) Hartness, are both now deceased, and were members of very old families in this part of the state. Several generations of the Hartnesses have been born here, grandfather Alexander having been born in the county at the edge of Alexander County. Hiram Hartness was also a native of Alexander County. Martha E. Gibson, a native of Iredell County, was a daughter of Levi Gibson, and a great-granddaughter of William Gibson, who came from County Tyrone, Ireland, to North Caro- lina about the time of the Revolutionary war. He made settlement in Bethany Township north of Statesville in what is now Iredell but was then Rowan County. The Gibson family home in Bethany Township was near the famous "Academy of Sciences,"' a noted school conducted by Dr. James Hall. This school attracted students from all over the South and gave the community a special character as an educational center.
James Alexander Hartness was educated under the stern but thorough instruction of Prof. J. H. Hill of Statesville. Professor Hill, who is still living at Statesville, did a great work as an edu- cator not only of the intellect but of the char- acter. He left an indelible impression on the minds and natures of many men who have since be- come prominent figures in this and other states.
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