USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 33
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After leaving the school of Professor Hill Mr. Hartness studied law in Major Bingham's Law School at Statesville, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. For a number of years he was an active and successful member of the Statesville bar. In 1896 Mr. Hartness was the democratic nominee for member of the House in the State Legislature from Iredell County. He was one of the few democrats elected in that year of political upheaval. Prac- tically every contest for the Legislature was a triangular one, due to the eruption of the populist party into the state. Mr. Hartness made a very
creditable record during the following session of the Legislature.
For nearly twenty years he has served as clerk of the Superior Court of Iredell County. He was first elected to that office in 1898 and has been re- elected at every succeeding term. Mr. Hartness is acknowledged to be the most efficient and popular occupant this office has ever had in Iredell County. He was the author of the Civil Service Law in North Carolina.
Mr. Hartness is owner and was formerly editor of one of the Iredell County's most successful journals. In 1893 he became editor of the States- ville Mascot, a weekly paper. Its name was later changed to the Statesville Sentinel, which for years has been one of the fixtures among the newspapers of the state. Mr. Hartness finally retired from the editorial management of this paper but is still its owner.
Mr. Hartness is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and has always identified himself with every organi- zation and movement for the public good. He and his family are active members of the Presbyterian Church. The Hartness home is an exceedingly beautiful one, situated in a grove of fine oak trees in the extreme northern part of the city fronting on North Central Avenue.
On March 28, 1888, Mr. Hartness married Miss Jennie Henderson of Rowan County, member of the noted Henderson family of that section. One of its members is Dr. Archibald Henderson of the State University. Mr. and Mrs. Hartness have a family of eight children, Elva, William, Elizabeth, Linda, Charles, Luke, Rebecca and Lois.
ALONZO MARION DUMAY has played a spirited and very important part in the commercial life of North Carolina since he identified himself with the state twenty-five years ago, coming here as an experienced railroad man and banker.
He was born in the State of Missouri October 29, 1864, a son of John Henry and Elizabeth (Thompson) Dumay. His father was a merchant and the son grew up in an atmosphere of business. He was educated in public schools and as a boy learned the telegraph code and put in several years of active service as a telegraph operator with the Wabash and Santa Fe Railway companies. This service led him into Kansas, and as one of the pioneers at Harper in that state he engaged in banking as cashier of the National Bank. Later for a time he was cashier of the First National Bank of Brunswick, Missouri, but in 1892 re- signed and sought an entirely new field.
Coming to Washington, North Carolina, he has ever since been one of the livest and most forceful factors in the town. He organized the Beaufort County Bank, and was its cashier until it was merged with the First National Bank in 1895, and since then has been cashier of the latter in- stitution. That is only one of a large number of institutions and movements which have been benefited by his time and services. He organized the local Chamber of Commerce, was its president nine years and a number of years treasurer and member of the executive committee. He also organized the Washington Tobacco Warehouse Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer; is secretary and treasurer of the Beaufort County Storage Warehouse Company, and it was this
B.T. Miller
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concern which made arrangements with the First National Bank and financed the cotton crop in Beaufort County during 1914-15. He is a director and the largest individual stockholder in the Pamlico Cooperage Company, is director of the Washington-Beaufort Land Company, secretary and treasurer of the Timber Corporation, buying and selling timber lands, and is secretary and treasurer of the Improvement Company, operating tobacco warehouses and stemming plants. He is also a director and treasurer of the Washington Building and Loan Association. Mr. Dumay is a deacon of the Presbyterian Church, is a Knight Templar Mason, and is affiliated with the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks.
On September 6, 1887, he married Miss Marietta Emeline Merrill, of Rising Sun, Indiana. They have one daughter, Reba Helen, now wife of John D. Gorman, secretary and treasurer and manager of the Pamlico Cooperage Company of Washing- ton. Mr. and Mrs. Gorham have one son, Alonzo Dumay.
HON. BACHMAN BROWN MILLER. A well-known and prosperous attorney of Salisbury, Hon. Bach- man B. Miller is not only successfully engaged in his legal affairs, but is one of the leading agricul- turists of Rowan County, and an authority on stock breeding and growing, and on the raising of feed for cattle, branches of agriculture in which he has experimented to a considerable ex- tent. A native of Rowan County, he was born March 22, 1874, on a farm in Mount Ulla Town- ship, while his father, Jesse Wendle Miller, and his grandfather, Henry A. Miller, were born in Providence Township, Rowan County.
His great-grandfather, Wendle Miller, who was of German ancestry, came from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in pioneer days, locating in the vicinity of Organ Church, of which, according to Rumple's History of Rowan County, he was one of the founders. The same authority says that the organ placed in the church was built by one of its members, and having been the first instru- ment of the kind to be installed in any church edifice in the county it gave the church its pres- ent name. Wendle Miller received a grant for a tract of land from Richard Caswell, the first gov- ernor of North Carolina, which he improved and lie continued as an agriculturist until his death.
His son, Henry Miller, succeeded to the ances- tral occupation, and accumulated considerable wealth, becoming owner of several farms, and also of milling interests. His will, recorded in the Salisbury Courthouse, bears date of June 17, 1857. To him and his wife eight children were born and reared, as follows: Elizabeth Trexler, Charles, Henry A., Rosamond Barringer, Sophia Brown, Catherine Efird, Jesse W., and Christina Graham.
Jesse Wendle Miller was born on the parental homestead, in Providence Township, Rowan County, in 1828. He received good educational advantages, but not being inclined by either taste or temperament for a professional career, he turned his attention to agriculture, and having inherited the parental homestead began life for himself as a farmer. On July 4, 1862, he en- listed in Company E, Fifty-seventh Regiment, North Carolina Troops, in which he was com- missioned lieutenant, and later promoted to the rank of captain, receiving his commission there- for on March 6, 1863. He was with his regi- ment in all of its marches, campaigns and battles,
including the battle of Gettysburg, and is said to have been one of the men who went over the wall, later being captured and taken to Johnson Island, in Lake Erie, and was there held until the close of the war. Returning then to Rowan County, he located in Mount Ulla Township, and was there prosperously engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1897. He was twice married. He married first a Miss Barringer, who died in early womanhood, leaving three children, Ira B., Daniel J., and Robert L. He married for his second wife Mrs. Laura Brown Barrier, who was born in Mount Ulla Township, a daughter of Alexander and Mary (Kistler) Brown, grand. daughter of Jacob Brown and great-granddaugh- ter of Abraham Brown, who came to North Carolina from Pennsylvania. She died in 1889. By her first marriage she had one child, Mary Ida Barrier. By her marriage with Jesse W. Miller, she had four children, Bachman Brown, Herbert E., Mattie E., and Laura Olena. Both Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Miller were Lutherans, and reared their children in that faith. The father was al- ways greatly interested in educational matters, and for many years served as one of the trustees of North Carolina College at Mount Pleasant. He served as magistrate several terms, and was also one of three county judges.
Bachman B. Miller received his rudimentary education in the Lutheran Parochial School, later advancing his studies at North Carolina College. Then, after teaching for a year, he entered the law department of the University of North Caro- lina, from which he was graduated with the class of 1900. Being licensed to practice the same year, he located in Salisbury, where he has met with good success, having built up a large and lucrative clientage.
Mr. Miller has never lost his interest in the free and independent occupation to which he was reared, and soon after succeeding to the ownership of the home farm, in 1905, he com- menced the breeding and raising of pure-bred Hereford cattle, and at the present time has a val- uable herd of sixty-five handsome Herefords. Mr. Miller has successfully experimented with the raising of blue grass, red top and alfalfa, and has proved that both soil and climate are well adapted to these grasses, which are recognized as the best grown. Alert to the imperative needs of his country he concentrated his time, energy and the resources of his farm to increased food pro- duction during the war with Germany, waiving de- ferred classification, however, in order to give priority to military service. His call to report to the local board, November 12, 1918, was annulled by order of provost marshal.
Actively and intelligently interested in every- thing pertaining to the public welfare, Mr. Miller was the first judge of the county court as at pres- ent constituted, serving in that capacity for four years, and in 1915 he had the distinction of being elected to the State Senate. He is a member of the American Hereford Cattle Breeders' Associ- ation, and of the North Carolina Beef Cattle Breeders' Association and the first president of the North Carolina Hereford Breeders Association. Religionsly Mr. Miller belongs to Saint Luke's Lutheran Church. He is a member of the execu- tive committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, and of the board of home mis- sions of the United Synod of the Evangelical Luth- eran Church in the South, and he represented his Synod at the Lutheran merger and the organization
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of The United Lutheran Church of America in New York City November 15, 1918.
ALBERT ANDERSON, M. D. Perhaps no position 1 in the state government offers greater opportuni- ties for service than the superintendency of the State Hospital at Raleigh. And it is the testi- mony of those competent to judge that no mem- ber of the profession in the state had stronger qualifications and could have brought about a more efficient organization and administration of that post than Dr. Albert Anderson, who has been superintendent since 1913.
Doctor Anderson has had an active experience in general medical and surgical practice cover- ing more than a quarter of a century, and is an authority on mental and nervous diseases. Soon after taking the management of the State Hospi- tal he introduced vocational occupations for men- tal treatment, and that innovation alone has served to bring the standard of institutional management up to a plane where it is recognized as foremost among similar institutions in the entire country.
A happy expression of professional opinion on Dr. Albert Anderson's standing among North Carolina medical men is found in a brief sketch that appeared in the Charlotte Medical Journal in October, 1915, the sketch being edited by two well known physicians. The article reads substan- tially as follows :
"Dr. Albert Anderson was born October 18, 1859, at Eagle Rock, Wake County, North Car- olina. He is the son of Jesse and Mary Ander- son. His father was a farmer and he began life on the farm. He entered nature's school early and gleaned her inmost secrets. He knew and cared for her lesser children and they were his brothers. All the gentle influences thrown about him in the first stage of his growth moulded and fashioned his soul and mind after a manner that is ripe and fostered within him a profound love for his kind-a love which sought expression in service. The profession he has chosen and prac- ticed so many years has been the medium of that service.
"At a tender age he entered the public schools of his community, later the Raleigh Academy, and in 1883 he graduated from Trinity College, when that school was located in Randolph County. For four years he was principal of the Middleburg Male Academy at Middleburg, North Carolina, and while there took up the study of medicine under private instruction. He later entered the University of Virginia and the year of 1888 marks the date of his graduation from there. Throughout his years of study threads an earnest- ness and intensity of purpose which was bound to glorify his profession. During the first year of his student life at Raleigh he united with the Methodist Church and has been foremost in such work ever since.
"He began practicing at Wilson, North Caro- lina, in 1888, shortly after passing the state board and for twenty-five years he steadily grew in his profession, when came promotion-the su- perintendency of the State Hospital at Raleigh, where he is now.
"During the years of his practice Doctor An- derson has from time to time taken post-graduate courses in the North, general medicine and sur- gery being his subjects. He has not buried his light under a bushel, but has voiced it through medical journals and before different medical societies. The medical societies have long since
seen his sterling mettle and have not left him unused. He has served as president of the Sea- board Medical Society (in 1902), the Tri-State Medical Society, Wilson and Wake County Medi- cal societies, and member of the State Medical Examining Board.
"In 1892 he was appointed by the State Board of Health to attend a special course offered by the United States Government. In 1898 he was elected for a term of four years as a member of the State Medical Examining Board, and in 1903 was elected a member of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association. He was chief sup- porter of the plan for revising the constitution of the State Medical Society so as to make the County Medical Society a basal unit of organiza- tion and requiring prospective members of the State Society to first enroll in their home county society.
"In 1898 Doctor Anderson, while in Wilson, associated with Dr. E. C. Moore, built one of the finest private hospitals in North Carolina. He remained at the head of that institution until he moved to Raleigh. This hospital enterprise is considered one of the greatest professional achieve- ments in his life.
"Doctor Anderson moved to Raleigh in 1907 to become medical director of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, and filled that position five years, afterwards devoting himself to private practice until he was made superintendent of the State Hospital."
Fraternally Doctor Anderson is affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechan- ics. December 12, 1888, he married Miss Pattie R. Woodard, a sister of Mrs. C. B. Aycock. The concluding paragraph of the sketch above noted is as follows. "Socially Doctor Anderson is a charming gentleman. His personality is very attractive. He is a fine conversationalist, never failing to please and entertain everyone who comes into contact with him. In debate Doctor Anderson is logical and convincing. His stage manners are beautiful and he is considered one of the most popular speakers in the medical pro- fession of North Carolina or in this entire sec- tion of the South. On one occasion he delivered an address at the graduating exercises of the North Carolina Medical College in Charlotte and it was declared one of the finest speeches ever delivered in that city."
JAMES W. WILSON, deputy collector of internal revenue at Statesville, enjoys a position of special honor in his native state both for his own character and ability and because he is son of the late Maj. James W. Wilson, one of the greatest railway engi- neers and constructive business men produced by North Carolina.
The late Maj. James W. Wilson was the engineer- ing genius who built the old Western North Caro- lina Railroad, now part of the Southern System, from Salisbury to Asheville. This of itself is a lasting monument to his memory and an achieve- ment that places him in the ranks of America's greatest railroad builders. The work he did as an engineer was only one phase of a distinguished character. He possessed seemingly superlative powers in carrying on big operations that required brains, executive ability, a forceful character, initi- ative and unflagging energy and the gift of look- ing into the future.
Major Wilson was born in Granville County, North Carolina, in 1832, a son of Rev. Alexander
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Wilson. Rev. Mr. Wilson moved with his family to Haw Fields in Alamance County, where Major Wilson grew up. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1852. Adopting civil engi- neering as a profession, in 1856 he located at Morganton in Burke County and at that time be- gan work as an engineer ou construction of the Western North Carolina Railroad. This was a state enterprise, the plans contemplating a road from Salisbury to Asheville over the Blue Ridge Moun- tains. The work was of course interrupted by the war.
At that time Major Wilson was living at States- ville in Iredell County and at once returned to Haw Fields to join the Confederate forces being organized there. He became captain of the noted organization known as "Haw Fields Boys, " which was in the Sixth North Carolina, Fisher's Regi- ment. He afterward served as staff major and assistant quartermaster on the staff of General Ramseur.
Near the close of the war Major Wilson became chief engineer and superintendent of the Western North Carolina Railroad. In the latter part of 1865 he was officially appointed to these positions by Governor Worth on recommendation of the directors of the road. Major Wilson had been a member of the construction firm which was build- ing and financing the road, and on account of the difficulty in raising funds it had become heavily in debt to him, an indebtedness which later was ar- ranged for. The road was at various times heavily involved with its creditors, and the serious financial obstacles overcome in its construction were hardly less noteworthy than those of a physical nature. The road was completed to Azalia Station, 130 miles west of Salisbury, in 1879, thereby surmount- ing the Blue Ridge, and was completed to Ashe- ville in 1880.
On the division west of Asheville the road was built through Balsam Gap, 3,100 feet above sea level, the highest pass east of the Rockies. The main feature and the most difficult to accomplishi in the engineering and construction of the road was the section from Old Fort to and including Swannanoa tunnel. It is this that gives Major Wilson his most lasting fame as one of the greatest engineers of his day. On this section the road sur- mounts Round Knob. In passing Round Knob there are successive layers of track plainly visible six times as it winds around the mountain. This road makes accessible some of the most magnificent scenery of North Carolina. The route presented many intricate and surpassing problems of railroad engineering. Even modern railroad engineers, who have had at their command vastly improved facil- ities and resources, have admired the way in which Major Wilson overcame the problems which con- fronted him.
Having accomplished the building of the road, Major Wilson then essayed perhaps an equally great task as its president and general manager under state authority. For the first few years and during its construction he was chief engineer and superintendent, and during the last years of its construction and the first few years of its operation was president as well as chief engineer. He had complete charge of the maintenance and operation of the road. In fact he was the guiding spirit all along, and besides building and operating the line it devolved upon him to raise the money for the enterprise, float bonds, and on many occasions he used his own funds in paying for labor, materials and other supplies. The work as a whole stands as a monument to the years of ceaseless energy and
activity on the part of Major Wilson. Everyone now recognizes that the state owes him a great debt of gratitude, and this road, now a part of the main system of the Southern Railway, is perhaps to a degree that no other piece of railroad construction in America is a monument to the man who built and financed and looked after its welfare. Major Wil- son also built another line of railway to Middle- boro, Kentucky. His home was for many years at Morganton in Burke County, but he died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. R. L. Gibbon, at Char- lotte in 1910.
In 1876, at the time of the overthrow of "car- pet-bag" government in North Carolina, Major Wilson was one of the democrats elected to the State Legislature and represented Burke County. During his later years he was chosen a member of the Corporation Commission of North Carolina and for eight years was its chairman.
Major Wilson married Louisa Erwin, who is also deceased. She was a member of the noted Erwin and Avery families of Burke County. Her father was Adolphus L. Erwin. The old Erwin home was Belvidere, sixteen miles east of Morganton.
James W. Wilson was born at Round Knob, McDowell County, North Carolina, in 1869. His birth occurred in his father's railroad camp while the Western North Carolina was being constructed around that difficult point. His father's camp headquarters was called the "White House" on account of the building being whitewashed, and it was in that humble structure that Mr. Wilson first saw the light of day.
He was liberally educated, attending school under Professor Gilmore at Morganton, for two years was in Davidson College, and two years in the University of North Carolina. At first his home was in Morganton, where he early entered railroad service and for seven years was the Southern Rail- way agent at Morganton. Mr. Wilson has been a resident of Statesville since 1913. As a Federal employe he is deputy collector of internal revenue for the Fifth Collection District of the state.
Mr. Wilson married Miss Ivy Hayes. Her father, the late Gen. Jack Hayes, was a dashing and brilliant Union officer in the Civil war and attained the rank of general in the Union Army. He was born in Ohio, but during his army service saw much of North Carolina, became fascinated with the country, took up his residence here and was long a devoted citizen of both the state and of the South.
HUGH PARKS BROWN. Active, enterprising and trustworthy, Hugh Parks Brown, of Salisbury, is a practical representative of the manufacturing interests of this section of Rowan County, and as a man and a citizen is eminently deserving of the esteem and respect in which he is held by his neighbors, friends and business associates. A son of Dr. William Lafayette Brown, he was born in Winston, North Carolina, of honored ancestry.
Rev. Thomas Brown, Mr. Brown's grandfather, was a clergyman, and for many years served as rastor of the Presbyterian Church in Mocksville. He also owned a farm near that place, and took great interest in advancing the agricultural pros- perity of that locality.
Dr. William L. Brown was born in Mocksville, Davie County, in 1832. After receiving the de- grec of M. D. he was for several years ship surgeon on an ocean liner plying between New York and foreign ports. At the end of ten years on board ship, he settled in Mocksville, North Carolina, where he subsequently embarked in the manufacture
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of tobacco. Removing in 1877 to Winston, which was then but a small place, regarded as a suburb of Salem, he there continued as a manufacturer of tobacco until his death in 1898. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Chin, was born at Farm- ington, Davie County, a daughter of John and Margaret Chin. Surviving her husband, she passed to the life beyond December 12, 1917. She reared ten children, as follows: William Thomas, Mar- garet, Elizabeth, Mabel, Florence, Gertrude, Hugh Parks, Letitia, Amanda aud Delphina.
Completing his early studies at the Salem Boys' School, Hugh Parks Brown entered Davidson College, but on account of the death of his father was forced to leave before graduation to enter the office of his father's factory. After the business was sold to the American Tobacco Factory Company, Mr. Brown embarked in the fertilizing business, and upon the organization of the H. P. Brown Guano Company was elected president, and has since given his entire time and attention towards promoting the interests of the firm.
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